January 1, 2006
Happy New Year to family, friends, and potential friends! For those of you that want your 2006 to more closely resemble my 2005, here is my annual self-indulgent list of memorable cultural products I encountered last year.
Thanks to those who introduced me to the items listed below. Everybody else: write back and tell me how I can be more like you!
Aaron Caplan
(206) 624-2184
Old Shanghai: the good people of Pig Sty Alley are hiding from the vicious but nattily-attired Axe Gang. The only ones who can save our villagers are kung fu masters whose superpowers are natural extensions of their personalities. It's all giddy and funny and stylish (and sad and sweet in the right places), with the best sets and the best sight gags you've seen in years. Who'd have thought comedy would translate so well? There are no small roles, and the ensemble is outstanding. The structure of the screenplay is exacting with its gavotte of showdowns that finally pare us down to the last two champions. I'm particularly fond of the knife-throwing scene. And the zither scene. And the casino scene. Oh, all right...I loved every single frame, watched it four times and won't be stopping any time soon. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Anybody who uses the term "comic book violence" had better define their terms carefully. Sin City is based on an actual comic book, but it's got none of the Bugs Bunny influence that animates Kung Fu Hustle. They do share a Master Narrative, though: once you absorb enough punishment to qualify as a martyr, everybody applauds when you start doling it back out. Self-defense justifies all. The movie stitches together three parables from Basin City, where the bad guys are sufficiently loathesome and corrupt, and the art direction sufficiently stylish that you almost (but not quite) forget how loathesome and constricted the protagonists are.
A History of Violence starts to question the Master Narrative. Does our hero enjoy his self-defense a little too much?
The line between offense and defense gets blurred even further in this gripping Palestinian movie shot from a suicide bomber's point of view. Who's the martyr, and who's the avenger?
Movie critic Thom Anderson selects a revealing assortment of film clips to demonstrate what Hollywood movies tell us about Los Angeles even when they aren't trying to. It will change the way you look at pretty much every movie you see afterwards--which is no small achievement.If it doesn't sound violent enough for you, it will at least inspire you to rent Chinatown (1974), The Music Box (1932), The Long Goodbye (1973), Kiss Me Deadly (1955), The Omega Man (1971), L.A. Confidential (1997), White Men Can't Jump (1992), or The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976). You could do worse.
The Aristocrats (2005)
Paranoid Thriller Double Feature (Globalization Version): The Constant Gardener (2005) and Syriana (2005)
Vanilla Sky (2001) and its inspiration, Abre Los Ojos (1997)
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
Happiness (1998)
There's that pesky Master Narrative again: Batman Begins (2005)
Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (2005)
Bernardo Bertolucci's The Conformist (1970)
Peter Jackson's The Passion of the Kong (2005)
Who wouldn't smile at a Farfisa organ? "The Laws Have Changed" and "Chump Change" made me especially happy.
"Afghan/Forklift" isn't a googlewhack, but it is still a mighty fine song title. And it could have been the theme to Syriana.
I was all ready to tell you that the sinister "Johnny Get Angry" (from Early Girls Volume 3) should have been the theme song to Sin City: the sinister arrangment, the spooky palate, the unwholesome gender relations. Then I remembered the kazoo solo. Oh well.
Temptations v. Rolling Stones: "Papa Was In The Rolling Stones" (Voicedude Remix)
Dinah Washington: "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby" (Rae and Christian Remix)
Finnish-American combo plays Latin jazz/folk. Try "Hominaje a mi Pueblo".
I had two pleasant surprises when at unexpected moments I was reintroduced to two long-forgotten gems whose names I probably never knew and never would have guessed. Turns out "I Don't Wanna Argue" is actually "Starry Eyes" (1979) by The Records, and "You Ain't Got No Lover" is actually "I'm On Fire" (1975) by Dwight Twilley. Don't ever hide from me like that again.
Before: The documentary John Lennon's Jukebox (2004) interviews the artists whose records found their way inside the portable jukebox John Lennon took on tour with him in 1965. Find out how their riffs influenced Beatles songs. Bonuses include Fontella Bass explaining why she started humming during "Rescue Me" and Delbert McClinton explaining how to teach yourself the harmonica. Available from your friends at The Video Beat, along with some superb promo films the Beatles taped for TV appearances, where John made it his mission to make Paul crack up on camera. (He succeeds.) Fab!After: Three volumes of Exotic Beatles (1993-1998) collect some of the less distinguished but more interesting cover versions of Beatles songs. Take, for example, these three indispensible versions of "Let It Be": The Squirrels play an all-American version, Shang Shang Typhoon prove that they are the Dread Zeppelin of Okinawa, and Powerillusi give air guitar a bad name.
Plan your next vacation.
Give him a little shake if he gets stuck.