1980s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol. 3)

[matrixschmatrix]

I haven't seen this since the 80s, but I liked it a lot at the time, and it always seemed to me that the stock criticism of it - that Byrne is condescending to the kind of 'regular folk' he's depicting - is absurdly off-base, since the film is such a sweet, indulgent lovefest. The other thing about the film that a lot of critics missed, even though it's there in the title, the promotional images, and even a specific scene within the film, is that the whole idea of the film is Byrne imagining a place in which the sort of ridiculous stories that feature in the Weekly World News actually happen, and then imagining that they're happening to real people that you might plausibly care about.

And regarding the film soundtrack, I agree that it's much better than the not-bad band album that accompanied it (and also the alleged OST): John Goodman does a better 'People Like Us' than Talking Heads; Pops Staples does a much better 'Papa Legba' than Talking Heads; and the full-on gospel-with-crusty-old-white-dude-lead 'Puzzlin' Evidence' leaves Talking Heads' version out in the desert, hitching a ride. You also have to love Byrne for engineering a (presumably) decent paycheck for Terry Allen.

The version of Dream Operator in the movie is oddly touching, particularly for something that's contextualized as a song being played over a really strange and somewhat tacky fashion show- but yeah, I'm not sure there's a song in the movie that's not better than the Talking Heads album version, in part because they weren't really written for Byrne's voice (as is most clear on Papa Legba.)

There is a funny habit on critics' part of being overly defensive about portraits of "Middle America" or small towns or whatever, whether that be against the Coens or Payne or here, and I'm not actually sure I've ever seen a version of that critique that seemed particularly germane.

[jindianajonz]

I know I've seen it addressed somewhere on the forum before, but can't remember where, but how do we count Histoires du Cinema for voting purposes?

[swo17]

A single film for the '90s project.

[zedz]

Mauvais Sang, however, deserves all the votes.

At this stage, I think I'll be giving all my Carax votes to Boy Meets Girl. Such a lovely, weird film. But I won't begrudge anybody squandering their love on the very lovable Mauvais Sang.

[Yojimbo]

There is a funny habit on critics' part of being overly defensive about portraits of "Middle America" or small towns or whatever, whether that be against the Coens or Payne or here, and I'm not actually sure I've ever seen a version of that critique that seemed particularly germane.

I'm not sure have I seen the film; I may have seen reviews that suggested he was patronising which - given his 'arty' inclinations - was a charge that was always likely to be levelled against the film.

Having said that, I can admit to being a Talking Heads fan from the get-go - especially 'More Songs', although 'Remain in Light' probably surpassed it.
Having said that, I think his Eno collaboration, 'My Life in the Bush of Ghosts' is probably my favourite Byrne work.

[The Narrator Returns]

New York Stories (Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen 1989): I had heard from everybody and their mothers that the Coppola segment was the weak link of the bunch, and I expected that going in, but I was not expecting something this worthless. We get to watch a filthy rich 12-year-old girl walk around New York City, wear expensive clothes, go to elaborate birthday parties, and occasionally engage in the faintest wisp of a plot, which takes up roughly five minutes of the short before it's over. It doesn't help that the girl can't deliver dialogue for shit, and her adventures aren't so much charming as deeply, deeply grating. The only redeeming factor is Vittorio Storaro's photography, which is fantastic as always, but it can't help but feel like the equivalent of having Rembrandt paint an outhouse.

Thank Christ the other two shorts are good enough to make you forget about the monstrosity smack dab in the middle. Scorsese's segment is a scathing look at a self-destructive artist (a fantastic Nick Nolte) trying and failing to win the affections of his assistant (Patricia Arquette), with typically stylish direction and an amusing cameo by Steve Buscemi as Arquette's hacky performance artist ex-boyfriend. And Allen's segment is like one of his particularly funny short stories, with Allen playing a lawyer who can literally not escape his overbearing mother and her pictures of him as a child.

The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese 1983): Watched this in preparation for the Movie of the Week discussion on The Dissolve. The typical line on the film is that it's Taxi Driver as a comedy, but if anything, I find it more disturbing than Taxi Driver (although it is indeed funnier). The reason for this is that Travis Bickle can be taken as a boogeyman, someone who would be terrifying if he existed, but he can be kept at an arm's length. There's no escaping Rupert Pupkin, however, because everyone is him. We all share his hopelessly deluded dreams of stardom, and his pathetic attempts to execute said dreams.

[life_boy]

I went ahead and got a jump on my 80's viewing these last few days as well.

Absence of Malice (Sydney Pollack, 1981)
A middling melodrama about how you can't take back what you print gets a nice pick-me-up from Wilford Brimley who dominates his one scene towards the end of the film, partially because he pronounces them "subpoenees." Everything else is pretty much what Domino said (I had coincidentally just watched this too). I doubt there’s any interest in this movie but Brimley’s scene nearly makes the whole thing worth it. At least piecemeal the great moments from that scene if you’re curious (or watch the whole movie for context if you're a true Brimley aficionado ).

The Color of Money (Martin Scorsese, 1986)
Not sure what the official line is on this one but it didn’t do much for me. Bland is not usually a description I give to Scorsese films but that’s what I found this to be. It is slow, sad and slightly interesting at first with the young hotshot Cruise, but I never got all that invested in the character drama and the plot just seemed like window dressing for the characters. At first it seems like Eddie is in control and very knowledgeable, then as the story progresses you get this sad sense that he’s fooling himself more than anyone else. Maybe that was the point but I just didn’t find it all that compelling. Mastrantonio gives the film some life in one her best roles and Newman obviously is vying for an award, but I feel like he already did all this before (and better) in The Verdict (and obviously, The Hustler, which I haven’t seen in ages so I’m not sure how they compare in terms of storylines and Eddie’s character arc). Of all his films, this is definitely the American Hustle of Scorsese’s oeuvre (and no, that’s not a compliment).

Ishtar (Elaine May, 1987)
This one is fascinating. It’s reputation obviously proceeds it but thankfully the new Blu-ray gave me a chance to see it in very favorable conditions and it is neither the train wreck its reputation suggested nor as good as its defenders claim. What it is, though, is a smart, ballsy comedy with several wonderful scenes and some great character comedy that can’t meet its ambitions (but hey, at least it went for it). Sort of the musical equivalent of "going full retard," Hoffman and Beatty are both completely charming as two uninspired songwriters trying to carve out a career as musical artists. Of course, their agent immediately gets them out of sight by sending them to another country where they find themselves embroiled in a political revolution that's working against the American imperialist influence of the CIA and their puppet dictatorship. I found the film to be top heavy, with the character humor of the first half working far better than the more clumsy plot humor of the second. Still, Hoffman and Beatty's against-type performances kept it interesting in the desert and the last 10 minutes keep the thing from completely de-railing. I'm sure

Miami Connection (Y.K. Kim & Richard W. Park, 1987)
Though it is likely one of the most photographed places in the US, I would guess Orlando (the city itself) has never been photographed with this much atmospheric detail and love. An empty downtown, wet streets, the University grounds, back alley marshes, train yards, working class houses: the perpetual tourist traps are outside of the focus here, but the effects of the transitory populace are not. A city sort of forgotten; thank goodness Dragon Sound are the guardians of University of Central Florida and the Park Ave Club and not the local law enforcement, who make a brief cameo before fretting about the existence of gangs while bailing on the pursuit altogether. Orlando has to be the most logical place for this insanity to take place. This is exactly what Florida feels like to me. Goofy, fun, bizarre, beautiful, heartfelt. A day later and "Friends" is still stuck in my head.

My Brother's Wedding (Charles Burnett, 1983)
[2007 Director's Cut, 83 min.]
I put in the "Director's Cut" thinking I was going to see the film in its best form. I hope not. This was truncated and awkward, there are some nice insights overall and some decent naturalism, but it felt so hurried and it's enjoyment is definitely hindered by the deadweight performances of the brother, his fiancé and her family. I was convinced Burnett was better than this because of the quiet, observational beauty of Killer of Sheep, so I immediately watched the original 118 minute version just to check my suspicion....
[1983 Original Version, 118 min.]
Now this is how the movie should be seen! The spiritual heart is present, starting from the opening hums of the song and proceeding through an abstracted church service. Themes of death and rebirth are presented: the rebirth Pierce can't seem to find (spiritually or emotionally), the death that is an ever-present reality of his time and place. Burnett paints such tender portraits of people, finding nuances of life and putting them on-screen. I think Burnett just trimmed existing scenes more than he cut out whole chunks, still, this version just breathes better. It makes sense, at least, which is way more than I could say about the "Director's cut" where I constantly found myself confused and a little behind. Although the film is still brought to a screeching halt by the clunky acting in the tense family scenes, this version works much better as cinema. I wouldn't call it an overlooked masterpiece, but it is much closer to a great film at 118 minutes than it was at 83.

Swing Shift (Jonathan Demme, 1984)
I know I’m supposed to say how this is a flawed film that the studio unfairly snatched from Demme’s hands and cut in such a way as to severely diminish what he purposed to do (and then loudly bemoan the fact that I will never get to see the Director’s Cut) – and maybe all that is true to an extent – but the film I saw is still pretty great. What I saw was a melodrama in an updated Sirkian mold that dealt with the emotional war on the home front being fought in the workplaces and bedrooms while “the boys” are off stopping Hitler. This is told in a bright, stylized way reminiscent of the great Hollywood post-war films (All That Heaven Allows and Best Years of Our Lives are obvious reference points and impossible bars to jump over) but still filled with some of Demme’s odd quirks. He has such an offhanded, unassuming way of introducing his characters and themes, I was hooked within the first minutes of Harris and Hawn spending that lazy Saturday together. Kay’s dependence on her husband is immediately tested when Pearl Harbor is bombed and Jack (Ed Harris) signs up for the Navy. Demme isn’t afraid to jump several months at a time and we eventually find Kay (Goldie Hawn) watching a newsreel about women helping the wartime effort in the factories. She gets a job at an airplane factory where the tensions between the newly hired women and the too-old-for-service males are revealed in a few key scenes.

Obviously, gender politics is a major player here, and we get several scenes of Kay slowly overcoming her insecurities and rising to become one of the leadmen on the line. Lucky (Kurt Russell) keeps trying to woo her but she keeps resisting, but slowly, her defenses are let down as her values start to shift. She wants to remain loyal to her husband but is also starting to fall for the man who is present and obviously interested. Hawn does well in her role but it is Christine Lahti that jumps out with the complex Hazel. Hazel is such a lived-in character, with her confident sensuality, emotional frankness and weariness, that Hawn's Kay can't help but latch onto her for guidance and friendship. I found myself really liking these characters. The movie eases along so effortlessly there were moments I forgot that narrative roots had been established and were slowly bearing fruit: Hazel's slow-budding relationship with Biscuits (Fred Ward), Kay's growing lack of dependence, first on her husband and then Lucky. The final irony is that "traditional American values" are subverted by patriotic duty, as it is the war that sped up some of these cultural shifts and upheavals. Even though everything looks like a happy ending on the surface, there are going to be some rocky years ahead for these people as they try and sort out what it all meant.

I've read the Sight and Sound piece describing the differences between Demme's illusive Director's Cut and the official studio release and though it is very alluring to read the comparison and bemoan what got cut, I think that piece (and similar ones for other films) is far too dismissive about what the official version is. It may not have all the texture and it may lose its more blatant political edge, but I think so much of that is still present in the subtext of the film. There are still amazing moments of humanity, like when Holly Hunter's character gets news her husband has been killed in combat and the uniformed kid telling her begins to feel overwhelmed by how terrible his task is and how ill-prepared he is for it. There are characters like Biscuits who only pop up here and there and yet his arc is clearly being tracked and we are noticing the subtle changes. Also, I like where the movie ends up; I find the ending to be both natural within the story and real for the era. I guess this turned into a defense of a film that is probably a longshot to make my top 50, but I think it is a very good film that deserves to be watched and enjoyed for what it is instead of begrudgingly accepted for what it could have been. It's an oddity for sure but one I can imagine myself growing to love even more as the years go by.

[matrixschmatrix]

As someone who grew up in South Florida and went to the University of Central Florida, I can absolutely confirm that Miami Connection- goofy though it is- looks like Florida looked to me more than any movie I've ever seen. It's one of those movies that's so exuberantly itself that the whole 'good bad movie' idea seems irrelevant- it's a movie where I can't think of anything about it that I would change, and by my lights that makes it a good movie. (If also a perfect 50th slot vote.)

[domino harvey]

I doubt there’s any interest in this movie but Brimley’s scene nearly makes the whole thing worth it. At least piecemeal the great moments from that scene if you’re curious (or watch the whole movie for context if you're a true Brimley aficionado ).

Though I'm not sure how good he is out of context or without wading through nearly two hours of mediocrity to get to him, I'm still surprised Brimley didn't get an Oscar nomination-- his role is small, but a textbook example of a supporting role that breathes fresh air into an otherwise stale film, and the Academy did like the film more than we did. This is really exactly the kind of thing that should be awarded more often by the Academy.

And Miami Connection is indeed a lot of fun. Probably in no danger of making my list, but it's a great way to spend an hour and a half

[Yojimbo]

Ishtar (Elaine May, 1987)
This one is fascinating. It’s reputation obviously proceeds it but thankfully the new Blu-ray gave me a chance to see it in very favorable conditions and it is neither the train wreck its reputation suggested nor as good as its defenders claim. What it is, though, is a smart, ballsy comedy with several wonderful scenes and some great character comedy that can’t meet its ambitions (but hey, at least it went for it). Sort of the musical equivalent of "going full retard," Hoffman and Beatty are both completely charming as two uninspired songwriters trying to carve out a career as musical artists. Of course, their agent immediately gets them out of sight by sending them to another country where they find themselves embroiled in a political revolution that's working against the American imperialist influence of the CIA and their puppet dictatorship. I found the film to be top heavy, with the character humor of the first half working far better than the more clumsy plot humor of the second. Still, Hoffman and Beatty's against-type performances kept it interesting in the desert and the last 10 minutes keep the thing from completely de-railing. I'm sure

Pretty much agree. It really does all fall apart in the second half, as if Elaine May suddenly realised that she'd another 97.50% of the budget still unspent, and threw everything - including a whole bunch of kitchen-sinks - at the plot.
Their nightclub act - especially those 'impromptu' songs - never fail to give me a whole bunch of belly-laughs, though.
Plus their 'role-reversals'.

Agreed about 'Color of Money', also.

[jindianajonz]

It seems that I've started this project without even intending to- looking back at the last five films I've watched, surprisingly enough all of them are from the 80s!

Blue Velvet
One thing I am looking forward to the most in this project is digging into David Lynch's filmography, which I'm not nearly as familiar with as I'd like to be (I can count all of the stuff I've seen by him on 2.75 fingers- Straight Story, Mulholland Drive, and most but not all of Twin Peaks). This is my first time seeing this film, and I think there was too much to take in through a single viewing. The connections to Twin Peaks are fairly obvious- they both take place in blue-collar small towns that somehow became unstuck in time somewhere around the 50's- and they are both filled with scenes that would be called corny and amateurish if they didn't so effectively punctuate the horror that often crops to the surface. I also love the way he emphasizes the weirdness of life- people in the background hanging around like mannequins watching the main characters, a police officer treating the discovery of a severed ear as calmly and casually as if he were Andy Griffith responding to a lost wallet, and a teenager reacting to the sudden appearance of a beaten naked woman by mockingly asking his rival "Is that your mom?" without any hint that this event is too far outside the realm of normality. Lynch has taken the surreality of Bunuel and translated into a form that is more palatable to the typical American filmgoer (or at least the typical 80's American film goer- I don't think his weirdness would find as much of an audience today). I'm going to have to watch this again before I can think about ranking it on a list, though.

Missing
I watched this alongside Z for the film club (and I hope to comment on that thread before the week is out) but I found this to be the much better film of the two. While Z felt much more blatantly propagandistic, the characters of this film were much more grounded in reality, with the protagonists showing flaws and humanity while the antoganists have motivation beyond "I'm evil because I am powerful." Jack Lemmon gives a damn near perfect performance as a well-intentioned conservative slowly having the rug pulled out from him (which made him a much more believable "third party" than the declared-neutral-but-always-siding-with-the-left-on-matters-of-importance magistrate in Z), and Sissy Spacek was just obnoxious enough (with a Lisa Simpson "know-it-all" vibe) to keep from being the same flawless protagonists that made Z seem fake to me. I also loved the sense of fear and oppression in a city under lockdown during the opening half hour, and how it slowly encroached on the Americans as they watched the chaos from rooftops or behind the windows of their upscale cafes.

El Norte
Unfortunately, my enjoyment of watching this film unfold was somewhat ruined by my girlfriend walking in and spoiling the ending for me.

SpoilerShow

"Is it common for immigrants to go through pipes? I watched a movie in Jr High where a brother and sister climbed through a pipe to the US, but she got attacked by rats and later died from the infection," she said, about 30 seconds before the squealing of rats could be heard.

Regardless, this film was great- the opening act in Guatamala didn't grab me as much as I like, but once the protagonists hit the road I was engrossed. The running joke about Mexicans and the word "Chingata" had me cracking up every time i heard it, even when the subtitles didn't pick up on it, and the film did a great job of getting the audience to empathize with the characters as they discovered how America was both better and worse than they expected. Looking back, it's easy to see how this film could have turned into a preachy, sappy morality piece, but while I was watching I never felt it approaching saccharine.

Nympho Diver: G String Festival
Being a big fan of Seijin Suzuki's films in the Criterion collection, I wanted to check out some of the pink eiga films that he pioneered the way for. Having enjoyed Female Prisoner Scorpion and Watcher in the Attic, I ended up blind buying this film and one other alongside the Nikkatsu Roman Porno trailer disc (admittedly because this film had the hottest girl on a cover that didn't feature the word "rape" on the cover) Ultimately, this film was a big letdown- I was looking forward to the creativity afforded to directors whose only mandate was to show a certain amount of flesh on screen, but this film (ostensibly a comedy) never went beyond shoehorning it's characters into contrived situations with inexplicably horny girls that inevitably climaxed in overlong, unfunny, and rather awkward sex scenes. The plot involves a small fishing town discovering an ancient scroll that details the local tradition of a G-string festival. Wanting to revive the tradition but discovering that the women in their town aren't attractive enough, they send the suavest guy they know to Tokyo where he brings back an airline stewardess, a prostitute, a college student, and two other women with jobs that are never mentioned again. The women spend roughly an hour having sex with various townsfolk, including the elderly mayor, the lecherous monk, and the lotion delivery man, before participating in the festival which seems to consist of carrying giant sculptures of genitalia around while wearing nothing but thongs. There's also a love triangle between the stewardess, the sauve guy, and the suave guy's girlfriend, but it fizzles out in an extremely awkward scene where they catch him practicing infantilism with a prostitute- a scene that runs for a good 5 or 6 minutes in this short 90 minute film. The closest this film came to being clever is when a diver brings up a particularly yonic clam shell, but aside from that single visual pun I didn't find anything worthwhile in this film. Female Prisoner Scorpion and Watcher in the Attic both surprised me, so I'm sure there's more good pink eiga out there, but I'll have to be a bit more selective in what I watch in the future.

White Dog
I really enjoyed Sam Fuller's other work in the collection, so it's no surprise that I enjoyed this one. I was happy to find that this seemed to be most similar to my favorite of his films, Shock Corridor, in that he uses pulpy b-movie aesthetics to blatantly explore some a relevant social issue. The sequences with the unnamed dog were schlocky and intense at the same time, just as I'd expect from a Fuller film. There was something of a Southpark vibe to Keys' quest to quell the racism from the dog, though while Southpark would play up the ridiculousness of the situation for laughs, Fuller keeps it earnest. For me, the two standout scenes were the wonderfully choreographed bit where the dog sniffs through garbage as a young black child plays up the street, and the appearance of the dog's former owner- I don't know if I've ever felt as much instantaneous hate for a character the moment he appeared on screen; Fuller did an amazing job of making this man absolutely despicable.

[Black Hat]

Mauvais Sang, however, deserves all the votes.

At this stage, I think I'll be giving all my Carax votes to Boy Meets Girl. Such a lovely, weird film. But I won't begrudge anybody squandering their love on the very lovable Mauvais Sang.

I'm glad these two have already come up. After first learning about Carax with Holy Motors I've seen both twice in the past year. Mauvais Sang each time I thought was brilliant fun but Boy Meets Girl despite not being anywhere near as fully formed or fun effected me much deeper. What's unique about that for me is that for most of the film I was somewhat bored if not put off by it but everything from the moment he enters the party on is perfection. Really a tough call which one to put ahead of the other for if I'd put one on for friends to watch it would no doubt be Mauvais Sang but the one I want to watch again and again to delve deeper meaning into is Boy Meets Girl.

[domino harvey]

Blue City (Michelle Manning 1986) Walter Hill co-wrote and produced this noir by way of mid-80s Miami nonsense. Brat Packers Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy are on hand for numerous scenes of anonymous lowlifes getting shot in the chest with shotguns. This is a good example of what I thought 80s American cinema always looked like from the outside in. It's also the only way to talk about this film using the word "good."

Fandango (Kevin Reynolds 1985) Hmm, in a world where I already have Diner, I'm not sure I need this, especially when the characters are fairly nondescript and their adventures not particularly interesting (save the amusing if unlikely parachuting sequence). Kevin Costner is charming in the lead and the film doesn't overstay its welcome, but I don't get the heaps of praise coming from those rediscovering and bolstering it here and elsewhere.

Hoosiers (David Anspaugh 1986) Complete snooze about cipher-y sports players and their surrounding humans, all inspired by winning basketball games.

the New Kids (Sean S Cunningham 1985) Exploitation master Cunningham followed up Friday the 13th and Spring Break with yet another teen movie that doesn't seem to understand teens on any level. In a decade where Tom Atkins made a nice career out of exiting films early, he set a new record here as a military dad to Lori Loughlin and some loser kid with one of those faces you want to hit who dies in an untimely accident, sending his orphaned children off to live with an amusement park-running uncle. After transferring, these kids run into the least likely school gang in film history. Led by a bleach-blonde James Spader, the gaggle of disgusting backwater hicks attempt to rape Loughlin several times and when rebuffed do things like hock a loogie at her, pour both lighter fluid and gasoline on her, and smear fresh blood on her genital area in preparation for sicing an angry attack dog on her. Gee, what a fun movie this is! While I suspect this script was intended to be some kind of grindhouse throwback, the basic premise of the gang doesn't work if they're in high school (every single thing these creeps do would get them expelled immediately at even the most lax school in existence)-- though to be fair I'm not sure I'd want to see any version of this plot with any characters of any age.

Though she'll always been Aunt Becky to me, Lori Loughlin has the weird honor of starring in three of the most problematic teen pics of the decade. In addition to this mess, there's Secret Admirer, which posits the unacceptable premise that when trying to pick between your plain best friend and a hot girl, the girl you turn down is the one who looks like Kelly Preston and only wants to talk about fashion and films. Isn't that like literally the human ideal? And the Night Before is a movie with a premise so astonishingly misguided and in bad taste that I am going to spoiler tag my comments in case someone actually wants to experience the reality of this mind-blower for themselves unsullied (not recommended):

SpoilerShow

Instead of taking white suburban fears of urban life and gently making fun of the sheltered nature of the subjects, as in the superior Adventures in Babysitting, the Night Before posits a hellish world wherein the mostly ethnically diverse downtown life is a persistent threat to the well-being of white teens Keanu Reeves and Loughlin. In that film, the joke was on the kids. In this one, the kids are right to be nervous! The Night Before is told in flashback form after Reeves tries to piece together the events of the previous raucous evening and it is only about halfway through the film that he and we realize Reeves inadvertently sold his white girlfriend into sexual slavery. The remainder of the film then consists of Reeves' attempts to track down the pimp who has forced her into prostitution and if memory serves the last twenty minutes or so involve Loughlin handcuffed to a brass bed headboard, fending off several men who want to rape her. And this is all played for laffs!

I'm kind of scared to check IMDB to see if she starred in any other teen pics this decade, because her track record so far is so fascinatingly unlucky that I don't know if I could resist curiosity's call for more!

New York Stories (Martin Scorsese / Francis Ford Coppola / Woody Allen 1989) Well, I thought I'd seen this and just forgotten it, but revisiting it turned out to be seeing it for the first time. Not that I'd call it conclusive proof, since I didn't end up liking any of the three segments enough to guarantee I'd remember them in any real detail in the future! I know Coppola's gets the hardest rep (still-- look a few posts up), but I could at least appreciate his attempt at making a Deanna Durbin-type girl's film unwisely plonked down in-between two mature pieces playing to older men! Scorsese's bore starring Nick Nolte, Rosanna Arquette, and "A Whiter Shade of Pale" like thirty fucking times seemed endless and had nothing of interest to contribute. Allen's piece had about ten minutes of jokes and ideas stretched out to four times that length. Considering that a good portmanteau film segment is a rare occurrence with even the brightest of talents involved, I can't say I was surprised, but I had held out hope I'd have liked at least some part of this. In retrospect, maybe these directors would prefer if more people forgot about this flick!

Private School (Noel Black 1983) One of countless early 80s teen sex comedies, this one at least had the good fortune to cast Phoebe Cates post-Fast Times and thus has a slightly higher profile than it merits. Ray Walston also puts in a day's work as an amorous chauffeur, a clever move by the producers to further form a linkage to a much better film. The plot for this film, though, is typical thinly-connected scenes of horndog loser males trying to see girls naked, and when the absurdly attractive Betsy Russell is around, this task is even less difficult than could be expected. Director Black made the wonderful Pretty Poison in the sixties, but between this and the truly loathsome Mischief, this wasn't his decade!

Red Dawn (John Millius 1984) Oh my God, this was every bit the conservative jerk-off circle it's always accused of being. Even in the 80s it's rare to see such unchecked propaganda being sold as mass entertainment. The film is so brazen in its absurd and intellectually offensive premise that I give it minor points for ballsiness. Any movie wherein an invasion of the United States starts thousands of miles inland and begins by bad guys parachuting down onto a high school and opening fire on its denizens is impossible to take seriously. One of the most astonishingly stupid, bull-headed, aggressive, violent, pointless, witless, and tedious films I've ever seen. Boy, finally getting around to all those films from this decade that are part of our American collective cultural consciousness is really paying off so far, huh?

When Time Ran Out (James Goldstone 1980) Hahahahahahahahahahahaha. This film cost $20 million dollars? Are we sure the currency is correct? Was this film an elaborate money laundering scheme for the mob? Because no way did this TV movie-looking piece of shit cost anything approaching millions. Producer Irwin Allen's last big bu--hahahaha, sorry--dget disaster flick concerns a volcano triggered into activity after an oil derrick drills into it. Somehow there is barely any lava, almost no action scenes, and-- I swear to God this happens-- the big moment late in the film when all the poor dumb people who refused to go with Paul Newman and instead stayed inside the fancy resort hotel finally die due to an errant fireball is represented on-screen by the guests seeing a matte-overlayed firey-thing moving across the screen and then cut to a small model of a hotel being destroyed by what appear to be three or four sparklers in about 2-3 seconds of footage. Or what about the dramatic moment where a helicopter with maybe five people aboard is "weighed down" and yet drives level straight ahead into a cliff, complete with exasperated cries of shock from lookers-on? Or people falling Vertigo-style into a green screen every couple minutes during the thrilling "finale" (A sequence so dull and interminable that, when it was over, I didn't realize it was the big finish until the end credits rolled). A welcome death knell for one of the previous decade's worst trends. Hahahahahahaaha $20 million?

[Yojimbo]

Blue City (Michelle Manning 1986) Walter Hill co-wrote and produced this noir by way of mid-80s Miami nonsense. Brat Packers Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy are on hand for numerous scenes of anonymous lowlifes getting shot in the chest with shotguns. This is a good example of what I thought 80s American cinema always looked like from the outside in. It's also the only way to talk about this film using the word "good."

One of the iconic images of the 1980s: Judd Nelson's flaring nostrils

'Billionaire Boys Club' was one of the first videotapes I ever bought; I think I subsequently taped over it, but I would like to see it again. It was arguably the best of the brat-pack true crime mini-series; appropriately enough, given that it starred the Dean of the Brat-Packers.

Apart from Stan Shaw and - of course - Ron Silver, I don't recognise any of Judd's co-stars, now

[domino harvey]

I've never heard of it but it sounds interesting (and is available on DVD)! I had an incomplete Brat Pack experience as a kid as I only saw most of its seminal works later in life, but my mom must've really liked Ally Sheedy because I know we had Maid to Order on constant rotation growing up (another 80s title I look forward to revisiting)

[Yojimbo]

I've never heard of it but it sounds interesting (and is available on DVD)! I had an incomplete Brat Pack experience as a kid as I only saw most of its seminal works later in life, but my mom must've really liked Ally Sheedy because I know we had Maid to Order on constant rotation growing up (another 80s title I look forward to revisiting)

I remember New York magazine had a big article about 'The Brat-Packers', around about the time of 'St Elmo's Fire' release.
It was my first time in The Big Apple, so that film - and its stars - always have a special place in my affections, due to that association.
Its just a so-so film but the ensemble are engaging, and I've always kept an eye out for them, subsequently.

Judd was their leader - in the film - and I think he might have been considered 'The Face of the Brat-packers', also; even if Rob Lowe was prettier

[domino harvey]

I like the idea of the Brat Pack a lot but outside of the Breakfast Club (which I love and will be charting on my list), I'm not entirely wild on much of their output as a loose collective of actors (though I like several of their individual films), and St Elmo's Fire is easily the worst offender to my eyes-- grating, selfish, nonsensical behavior, done up in "jazzy" style highlighting the worst sins of the era. I know it was immensely popular at the time and still has its vocal fans, but maybe I had to see it at the time to really appreciate it. I just picked up Billionaire Boys Club, though, so I'll be sure to weigh in on it once it arrives

[Tommaso]

All right, so the first film I (re-)watched for this round was

Diva (Jean-Jacques Beineix, 1981): Well, there's this thing about records you liked in your adolescence. You often can't stand them anymore when you're in your twenties and thirties, but once you listen to them another ten years later when you've definitely shed all your concepts about go's and no-go's that you still retained as some sort of heritage from your very early days, you'll be able to take them as what they are: often good records which of course don't justify the hype that you brought to them when you were very young, but well, still good in their own way. I actually thought something like this might apply to this film, too, but I'm afraid, for the most part it doesn't. The film looks terribly calculated to me, and the plot is illogical and all over the place, not to speak of those two horrendous actors who play the two thugs (who are simply ridiculously clichéd without being cartoonish in a good way). Sure, the whole thing does look cool in some way, and is even suspenseful, but you can always see that the director tried terribly hard to achieve this (whereas Godard when he rang in another 'new wave' 20 years earlier managed to come over completely effortless in "A bout de souffle"). And it takes itself far too seriously, which disqualifies it for 'postmodernism', in spite of its quoting from all sorts of films, even including a 'borrowing' of Monroe's famous skirt-uplifting when she walked over that air duct (I'm sure the main audience at the time didn't know the original and actually thought this was new and cool). The film even falls flat of its self-proclaimed stylisation in those moments at the police office where the film suddenly looks as if it were just some crime TV series from the time. Don't tell me that was an intended contrast to the main look of the film. What remains is some fairly good opera singing and some 'atmospheric' passages (complete with stylish 80s piano/synth music) that might have been good fodder for a Sylvian/Sakamoto video a few years later. Only that these two were better in every respect.

[colinr0380]

Tommaso, it sounds like you might like this sketch on 'pretentious French cinema which seems pretty heavily modelled on the 'cinema du look' and Diva in general!

I think Luc Besson's Subway actually gets closest to being a pure 'cinema du look' film. A cops and criminals film with much of the meaning removed and turned into a pure sensory experience, featuring a 'tragic' ending that is undercut by Christopher Lambert bursting into laughter in the final shot as if at the idea that anyone would be trying to take anything that happened in the film any more seriously than being just an amusing diversion and a bit of larking about!

[Yojimbo]

All right, so the first film I (re-)watched for this round was

Diva (Jean-Jacques Beineix, 1981): Well, there's this thing about records you liked in your adolescence. You often can't stand them anymore when you're in your twenties and thirties, but once you listen to them another ten years later when you've definitely shed all your concepts about go's and no-go's that you still retained as some sort of heritage from your very early days, you'll be able to take them as what they are: often good records which of course don't justify the hype that you brought to them when you were very young, but well, still good in their own way. I actually thought something like this might apply to this film, too, but I'm afraid, for the most part it doesn't. The film looks terribly calculated to me, and the plot is illogical and all over the place, not to speak of those two horrendous actors who play the two thugs (who are simply ridiculously clichéd without being cartoonish in a good way). Sure, the whole thing does look cool in some way, and is even suspenseful, but you can always see that the director tried terribly hard to achieve this (whereas Godard when he rang in another 'new wave' 20 years earlier managed to come over completely effortless in "A bout de souffle"). And it takes itself far too seriously, which disqualifies it for 'postmodernism', in spite of its quoting from all sorts of films, even including a 'borrowing' of Monroe's famous skirt-uplifting when she walked over that air duct (I'm sure the main audience at the time didn't know the original and actually thought this was new and cool). The film even falls flat of its self-proclaimed stylisation in those moments at the police office where the film suddenly looks as if it were just some crime TV series from the time. Don't tell me that was an intended contrast to the main look of the film. What remains is some fairly good opera singing and some 'atmospheric' passages (complete with stylish 80s piano/synth music) that might have been good fodder for a Sylvian/Sakamoto video a few years later. Only that these two were better in every respect.

I remember searching for 'La Wally' and Wilhelmina Wiggins Fernandez CDs, after my first viewing.
Never did get either, though.

It was a lotta fun while it lasted, though. And I'm sure I have the poster up in the attic somewhere.

Try and track down his 'Moon in the Gutter', though, Tommo. I'm going to give it a second look in advance of the 80s poll, and I know I didn't judge it a complete success on my only viewing, but it might just prove to be the most enduring of his films
Among cultists, anyhow.

And I must also read the David Goodis source novel

[bamwc2]

I've mulled over a few different ideas for my spotlights. I finally settled on a pair of titles from 1989.

Interrogation (Ryszard Bugajski, 1989): After a night of heavy partying, Tonia, an apolitical young nightclub singer in communist Poland, awakens to find herself imprisoned. Not knowing why she is there, Tonia faces the nightmare of forced interrogation, trumped up charges, torture, and abusive fellow prisoners. The film constantly skirts the line between cheap melodrama and incisive critique of totalitarianism. The remarkable lead performance by Krystyna Janda is perhaps the main reason why it is able to successfully navigate these waters. Filmed in 1982, the film received an official ban from the state until its eventual release seven years later. Though there is no region 1 release, it was released by Second Run a few years back.

Chameleon Street (Wendell B. Harris, Jr., 1989): Though hardly the unheralded masterpiece it once was (it's been rediscovered of late, including a Film Comment write up a few months back), it's stature is nowhere near what it deserves. Writer/director/star Wendell B. Harris, Jr. willed this film into existence through self-financing outside of the Hollywood circuit at a time when mainstream America hadn't heard of "independent films". The film chronicles the true life story of William Douglas Street, Jr., a bored high school dropout who drifts from one identity to another (and in and out of trouble with the law) as he successfully passes for a OBGYN surgeon, a lawyer, graduate student, and other positions. This wry comic masterpiece was a high water mark for both 80s independent and African American cinema, and deserves a much wider audience than it has today.

[swo17]

I've mulled over a few different ideas for my spotlights.

This isn't necessarily directed at you personally, but probably the #1 criterion for picking a spotlight title should be that you plan to list it prominently on your own list. In the last round, I saw a few people only vote for their own spotlight titles toward the bottom of their lists. This might be the only time someone goes out on a limb and takes one of your recommendations--make it count!

[Yojimbo]

I know I saw 'Interrogation' - probably about 20 years ago, or maybe more - on a network tv screening. I recall a powerful performance by Krystyna Janda - at a time when she seemed to be in 'everything' that came out of Poland; or at least that we saw on tv/in the arthouses.
I don't recall it as being particularly special, otherwise, though; even if unrelentingly bleak and grim may have suited the story.

[knives]

I've mulled over a few different ideas for my spotlights.

This isn't necessarily directed at you personally, but probably the #1 criterion for picking a spotlight title should be that you plan to list it prominently on your own list. In the last round, I saw a few people only vote for their own spotlight titles toward the bottom of their lists. This might be the only time someone goes out on a limb and takes one of your recommendations--make it count!

Though in that case a lot of times you don't realize how many great films are going to jump over the spotlights from your watched pile. I know as a rule I only take top tens and yet they somehow always manage to get knocked down.

[dustybooks]

Watched Das Boot for the second time, having been left cold by it some years ago. This time I discovered that my library had the complete five-hour version (apparently screened as a TV miniseries), and spent the big snow day yesterday delving into it. I found it more absorbing than previously, but I still feel that its first third is a slog -- and this brings up the point of how much of a criticism that really is. Obviously the point of Petersen's film is that it's meant to convey the dreadfully hot, cramped, frantic, boring experience of war as experienced aboard a U-boat... yet it feels repetitive in ways that are a little too obvious and familiar: for instance, there are long stretches of it that consist of a constant pattern of establishing shot of the boat followed by a low-key dialogue scene followed by another establishing shot, etc.

Where the film works best -- and where I undersold it before -- was in the two lengthy action sequences that occupy most of the second and third parts. Far from being just Hollywood-like bravura setpieces, these are tense and detailed, and who knows how well they'd work without all the extra character context -- there are certainly moments that land specifically because of how much time we've already spent in claustrophobic quarters with these people. The climactic sinking and raising of the boat takes up nearly an hour of screen time, and could almost be a feature in itself. It brilliantly -- in a River Kwai-like fashion -- sells the sense of futility when

SpoilerShow

the film ends so violently and abruptly just afterward.

I am curious now as to whether my criticisms of the film would be dulled a bit by the theatrical version, which I was unable to find.