tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post2294514272621755353..comments2024-01-21T11:18:54.087-05:00Comments on Lost in the Movies: GreetingsJoel Bockohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11238338958380683893noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-75883328140347123652009-03-30T15:14:00.000-04:002009-03-30T15:14:00.000-04:00Haven't seen Hi Mom! but I definitely will. Sounds...Haven't seen Hi Mom! but I definitely will. Sounds pretty fascinating.<BR/><BR/>Quality over quantity is the best way to go, although its a constant battle since you have to have SOME quantity. Alas, we'll all be fine. :)James Hansenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09650436008918093617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-26938278029796913062009-03-27T23:37:00.000-04:002009-03-27T23:37:00.000-04:00James, what did you think of Hi, Mom! (if you saw ...James, what did you think of Hi, Mom! (if you saw it)? My above comments will probably be the extent of my ruminations on the subject, but it's a very compelling movie - often more formally satisfying than Greetings, and with one especially bravura sequence - Be Black, Baby!, which is among the best pseudo-documentaries I've ever seen.<BR/><BR/>As for lax blogging, I feel ya. I remember a college professor once telling my class that students tended to have a weird drop-off over Christmas vacation, and that when they returned for the spring semester things moved sluggishly for a while. He was right, and I've certainly been feeling that effect around here lately. Actually, some change-ups are due, which I will be putting forward at the end of the month. Suffice it to say I will be focusing on quality over quantity in the future and will be streamlining my approach to this blog. More on that later.Joel Bockohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11238338958380683893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-24245245029561567742009-03-27T23:22:00.000-04:002009-03-27T23:22:00.000-04:00I'm with Fox. Great post on a film that anyone rar...I'm with Fox. Great post on a film that anyone rarely hears anything about. Its not the one people think of when they hear De Palma, but essential in its own way. I'm a huge De Palma buff (although I thought REDACTED was a little...umm...weak) especially the 70s/80s horror/thrillers. And I've actually never seen SCARFACE. Maybe one day...<BR/><BR/>Sorry for not being on here for a while! I've been out of town and quite pre-occupied. Doing my best to get back in the swing of things!James Hansenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09650436008918093617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-56736277246200049882009-03-27T09:19:00.000-04:002009-03-27T09:19:00.000-04:00Fox, just saw Hi, Mom and liked it a lot. In fact,...Fox, just saw Hi, Mom and liked it a lot. In fact, I don't think you can even make the same arguments as with Greetings - that it's a totally different De Palma, for the most part, from the one who later made slick horror films. While Greetings has very subtle uses of technique mixed in with the slapdash approach, Hi Mom! is often quite sophisticated - the Rear Window pastiche, the mulitiplicity of forms and approaches (long takes with dialogue, montages, black-and-white handheld TV docs) and especially the virtuoso "documentary" Be Black, Baby! segment - the most amazing set piece in the movie. Actually, I think I read it a little differently than you did - from your write-up I got the sense that the exhibition was pretty much a total pastiche of chic 60s radicalism, whereas in the movie it seemed a little more ambiguous - as if De Palma was somewhat repelled, but even more fascinated, by the exercise and a little bit in sympathy with the aggressive tactics of the black radicals. Perhaps a little bit because of politics, but even more so because of the aggressiveness of their "technique."<BR/><BR/>I was also somewhat elated to see that modern apartment complex in the Village with the Picasso statue in the middle - I shot a short film there once! It's one of the most cinematic (and underused) locations in New York, I think. Those pillars were just made to run between and hide behind.Joel Bockohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11238338958380683893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-66202931942250494692009-03-26T02:31:00.000-04:002009-03-26T02:31:00.000-04:00Wow. Great thoughts here on a film that doesn't g...Wow. Great thoughts here on a film that doesn't get near enough attention. <BR/><BR/>MovieMan, as you point out, I think too many people (understandanly so) only know DePalma only from <I>Carrie</I> on. If you chart his work from the beginnings of <I>Murder a la Mod</I> on, you can really track a fascinating progression of De Palma's technique.<BR/><BR/>I remember seeing that DVD of 50 Worst Movies and seeing a small pic of <I>Greetings</I> on the cover. I was perplexed, but not enough to ever rent it. I will check it out on YouTube now that you've said that it's there. How bizarre.<BR/><BR/>Oh, and sorry about spilling some beans on <I>Hi,Mom!</I>, but I don't think it was enough to take anything away from the experience of watching it. It's great. I'll be anxious to see what you think.Foxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08067136509248849744noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-37967889551671872142009-03-24T18:53:00.000-04:002009-03-24T18:53:00.000-04:00Scarface embodies its trashiness so perfectly - an...Scarface embodies its trashiness so perfectly - and with such flamboyant skill - that it becomes, in my opinion, one of the great movies. Who ever thought of teaming up De Palma and Stone, two of the most over-the-top sensationalists in the business (not to mention Pacino on the cusp of his barking-over-brooding persona change) deserves a fucking gold medal.<BR/><BR/>Unfortunately thanks to Fox (thanks, Fox) I pretty much know the whole plot of Hi, Mom. But it sounded real interesting...Joel Bockohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11238338958380683893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-26035500376984827512009-03-23T21:32:00.000-04:002009-03-23T21:32:00.000-04:00For the record, I liked FEMME FATALE and did not l...For the record, I liked FEMME FATALE and did not like REDACTED (De Palma told the same story better in CASUALTIES OF WAR), but I consider both of them to be works of aesthetic integrity - for whatever that's worth.<BR/><BR/>SCARFACE is a big, commercial, ultra-violent work for hire - and I love it. What can I say? If I didn't enjoy a lot of commercial mainstream cinema, I wouldn't be writing about it.<BR/><BR/>Hope you enjoy HI MOM. The less you know about it in advance, the better.C. Jerry Kutnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10901663264449536920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-20563505680350008742009-03-23T21:07:00.000-04:002009-03-23T21:07:00.000-04:00For your own purposes consider the sentence to rea...For your own purposes consider the sentence to read "at least the early ones and the latest ones". I have not seen either of those films, have heard mixed reactions, and will withhold judgement on sights unseen.<BR/><BR/>At any rate, I don't really have a problem with "selling out" per se, as long as the work's good. I hope that the indie music mentality of ascetic purity (not to mention the indie music aesthetic of twee suckiness, but that's another matter) will not descend on the movie world, whereby hipsters shrug off a filmmaker who receives mainstream acceptance - "Eh, I preferred his early work. Now too many emo kids watch his stuff." (For what it's worth, Scarface is and will probably remain my favorite De Palma, though I have not seen any, that's right ANY of the horror classics yet - no, as I hang my head in shame, not even Carrie.)<BR/><BR/>What bothers me more is the implicit fear and anxiety over what happens if you don't sell out in any spiritual sense, cowering before Hollywood's near-arbitrary (if not downright backwards) sense of good taste - hence the last few sentences of the review. One should be free to take the money or not take the money, to make a work for hire or stick to an inexpensive, idiosyncratic vision without fearing some kind of conformist (or even ostensibly nonconformist) crackdown. Not that it's ever possible but it is a nice idea.<BR/><BR/>Fox at Tractor Facts had an interesting article on Hi, Mom recently & it sounds extremely intriguing. It's next in my random Netflix queue, but I'm not expecting to review it (then again, I wasn't expecting to review Greetings either...)Joel Bockohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11238338958380683893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-79105753037708278622009-03-23T15:00:00.000-04:002009-03-23T15:00:00.000-04:00GREETINGS is good. HI MOM, also starring De Niro,...GREETINGS is good. HI MOM, also starring De Niro, is even better - near great in some ways.<BR/><BR/>You wrote: "putting aside the fact that De Palma was not selling out in his more expensive movies (at least the early ones)..."<BR/><BR/>Sure he's made some big-budget commercial films, but his last two films, FEMME FATALE and REDACTED, are not sell-outs in any sense. Quite the contrary.C. Jerry Kutnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10901663264449536920noreply@blogger.com