Out of Focus

MAYBE TOO MANY MOVIES CAN MAKE YOU SICK

Ugh ... something happened to me last night, and I think I now have a cold. Hopefully, it will be a short one, but it is likely causing me to miss a show at Bowery Ballroom tonight that I was really looking forward to. Meanwhile, I have a ridiculous number of New York Film Festival coverage to write, and the aching in my head has made me unable to concentrate long enough to put more than one interesting sentence together at a time.

So I'm going to catch-up, and that means lots of new content this weekend. For real. No, I'm not kidding. Stop it. I can hear you laughing from here.

Please stand by while we cure these technical/medical difficulties ...

(For a little bit of bashing of one of my favorite major critic targets, feel free to follow the jump.)

NO TIME TO SLEEP, WHO HAS TIME TO WRITE? (A MINI-NYFF PREVIEW)

Exhaustion has set-in, and I haven't even started the actual job yet. The past week-and-a-half have been filled with New York Film Festival press screenings. Four on Monday, four on Tuesday and two today, plus another screening this evening. Thankfully, things start to ease up tomorrow, and I'm planning to start the waterfall/diarrhea (take your pick) of words and opinions.

I would like to note that it seems as if many of the films are already sold out, but a few that you should not miss and seem to still be available would certainly include Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo's wonderful Woman on the Beach, the Iranian Offside and the latest from Thai writer-director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Syndromes and a Century. Additionally, there are two films which I suppose would best be described old-but-new, both of which should not be missed: Lino Bracka's 1976 Filipino drama Mafiaso. The latter film screens one time only at Noon this Saturday (although you can expect a release at Film Forum early next year). It's from the late Italian director Alberto Lattuada, and as much as I am loving several of this year's selections (the ones listed previously as well as Marie Antoinette and The Queen), the 40-plus-year-old Mafioso just might be my favorite.

Lack of mention here does not mean I haven't liked some highly-anticipated films. I still have roughly half of the program to see. However, along with the endorsements listed above, I will just easily suggest skipping two incomprehensible and thoroughly dull titles: August Days and The Go Master; and although it has its heart and message in the right places and does a few things very well, African filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako's Bakamo is simply too straightforward in its peachiness while lacking enough drama to remain interesting.

Much more to come in the days ahead ...

I'LL BE BACK WHEN MY JAW SHUTS AND I STOP SEEING RED

Yesterday's birthday was a nice, mellow one. And then it ended in disaster. Knowing full well that I likely wasn't going to enjoy it, a friend and I went to see The Black Dahlia last night.

Let's put it this way ... I don't know where to start, so I'm not going to yet. I'll make this simple statement, though for now: Brian De Palma needs to stop making movies!

I can't write much of anything today. I'm actually angry about Dahlia because as low as I had made the expectations for this film, it managed to crash through the floor, not only trashing everything good about the novel but simply being a bad film even if you know nothing about it. Then this morning, I was at Lincoln Center for the press screening of Little Children, which I liked but didn't love, and it still finds itself swimming positively and negatively around my brain.

Meanwhile, I haven't had a chance to say anything about the films opening this week that I want to talk about. I did mention Old Joy, which opened at Film Forum on Wednesday -- a highly recommended choice; and I can't yet comment on The Science of Sleep, but being the Michel Gondry fan I am, I can't wait to get to it. However there are four movies opening today I do plan to discuss, and one of which you should all go see.

The two thumbs down go to Flyboys and Renaissance, two films I really wanted to like based on the concepts and subject matters, but both are just big flat bores. Then there's the documentary American Hardcore, which carries the subtitle "The History of American Punk Rock 1980-1986." That's precisely the problem with the film, at least the version I saw back in January -- it's too much. It literally tries to touch on the entire history of American Punk Rock and discuss the scenes going on in so many different places that the film really has no center, nor does it spend enough time on any one subject to make anything seem important or truly interesting. It's like a survey course textbook -- lots of info, very little analysis, no depth.

The film you should rush out to see, however, is the documentary Jesus Camp which premiered earlier this year at the Tribeca Film Festival and received a "Special Jury Award." Jesus Camp is, in its own way, the scariest film I've seen in years. What's truly marvelous about the filmmaking, however, is how distant the filmmakers Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady manage to stay from the subject while portraying the participants quite intimately. It seems, at least, to be a very non-judgmental film, so depending on one's viewpoint going in, one might get very different ideas about it coming out. To their credit, Jesus Camp is not a polemic, and because of such, it's a film that everybody should see regardless of the depth of their religious convictions.

More TK ....

BITS OF FOCUS: IT'S MY BIRTHDAY AND I'LL CRY IF I WANT TO

Ooops, I did it again. Three days without a post. My bad. I'm sorry. No excuses other than a) I still haven't been to see The Black Dahlia (although I may do that today) and b) I've had a remarkably busy week, but only half-expectedly.

Anyway, today is September 21. On Sept. 21 2004 and 2005, I mentioned some of those with whom I share this day of birth. Aside from my birthDATE-mate -- currently embarrassing himself on Fox's Celebrity Duets -- I'm not even going to allude to any of the others this time. Twice in a row is plenty, no?

But, I do have a couple blog-related and, I suppose, non-blog-related notes, so here goes ...

• First, it is now easier to get to this little corner of the internet if you don't happen to actually bookmark or bloglines me. I still can't get outoffocus.com (and the person who has it registered refuses to respond to my emails), but you can now get here via outoffocus.org. (And outoffocus.us and outoffocus.info!) One of these days, hopefully I'll be able to grab .com and maybe .net (also unavail) but hey, I don't make a profit (or even a penny) from this site anyway, so .org maybe makes sense.

• The New York Film Festival started its press screenings this week, and I'm planning to go to all of them. That's right ... every last one. Now, key word is "planning." Really, I suppose this should just be considered another "unattainable goal," although in the grand scheme of things, it is relatively attainable. But it's hard. Thankfully, my schedule is such that in this case hard is not impossible. So we'll see. So far, I've been to Marie Antoinette which I really liked -- much more than I expected to. It surprised me greatly, and I'll be one of the few (I'm sure) to say that I think its Sofia Coppola's best film. Yes, better than Lost in Translation. It didn't get a great reception in Cannes, and reading the few reviews I have (as well as talking to a couple people after Tuesday morning's screening), I know I'm going to be in the minority, but I think the film is much deeper than many people will give it credit for. Many seem to simply find it opulent eye candy, but I think there's a good deal more there. I'll write about it in detail before the festival screening.

• Speaking of must-see movies, I specifically intended to post a review of Old Joy yesterday since it was opening at Film Forum. That review will be up today or tomorrow, but in the mean time ... just go see the damn movie. It's truly wonderful, and it has stuck with me since I saw it over a week ago. I wouldn't say that I appreciated it while watching the film, but Old Joy is one of those pictures that coalesces in both your brain and your heart as the end credits start to role. If you're a late-20s or 30-something like me, I expect this movie should especially touch you.

• Speaking of my age again brings me back to my birthday, and yesterday I got the one and only present I was truly hoping for. No more unemployment whining from Aaron. The year-round, full-time, permanent position I had been hoping would become finalized sometime during the summer finally was. People have been asking if I'm "excited" or "happy" or "thrilled." Ultimately, I'm relieved more than anything else. However, I don't plan to allow my renewed non-freelance employment affect this blog again. In fact, I plan to continue writing in the mode I have been the past few weeks and keep pushing my little freelance writing side-career. Anyway, the phone call today was like a couple tablets of Alka-Seltzer! Oh what a relief it is.

And finally, also age-related ... today I turn 35. I'm not happy about that, although, of course, I'm happy about making it to another birthday. Still, I was thinking that not only am I cresting towards the downward slope to 40, but I'm actually somewhere close to, if not at, mid-life right now. That's kind of scary. Especially since I feel like I'm still 27 ... or really ... about 15. My early 30s haven't been so wonderful; they also haven't really been tragic. They just sort of happened, and suddenly they were gone. Now, there's no fooling mid-30s ... here they are. What does that mean? I don't know. Probably nothing actually. But I'm trying to be less of a birthday-cynic and not treat the day as a horrible occasion. That's good, right? That's growth, right?

Good. Just checking.

D-DAY: THERE'S TROUBLE THAT STARTS WITH T, WHICH RHYMES WITH D AND THAT STANDS FOR DAHLIA

This is not a review of The Black Dahlia. It can't be. I haven't seen it yet. But as my faithful reader or two know, I've been almost as obsessed with this movie to the same degree as Bucky Bleichert and Lee Blanchard become consumed with learning about the poor, late Betty Short. The reason is simple, as I've stated ad nauseam already: the James Ellroy novel upon which this Brian De Palma film is based has long been one of my all-time favorite reads. Having not read it for many years, I'm revisiting it right now, but with a busy week under my belt, I'm not finished yet. So I will withhold my own determination of whether De Palma has returned from filmmaking hack status to his own former creative genius self for the first time this century probably on Monday.

Still, I can't help but notice that as the major reviews roll out today, the film described by the likes of Manohla Dargis, I first started considering De Palma at the helm of the film and, even more upsetting, his obscene casting choices.

I place absolutely no faith whatsoever in metacritic scores, and reading the reviews that contribute to this film's current 54 only enhances that feeling. I also, as I have mentioned often, don't put any value in the opinion of EW's Owen Gleiberman, but the 67 and green/positive attributed to him by metacritic doesn't sound much like the actual tepid reaction he seemed to have to the picture, B- EW grade or otherwise. The thing all these critics seem to note in common is that De Palma has once again substituted style for substance, creating some beautiful visual moments, but overall leaving an overstylized shell with a nearly incomprehensible story underneath. Dargis and Edelstein, like Variety's Todd McCarthy a couple weeks ago, also pay particular attention to the heavily flawed performances, particularly that of emotional siphon Josh Hartnett. Oh well ... again, I still haven't seen it myself, but "I told you so" is seeming like it might be a good headline.

A college buddy of mine who wrote for the UCLA Daily Bruin with me back in the early '90s and currently still sits in my old cubicle with my old extension at E!, was as big (if not an even bigger) Ellroy and Black Dahlia fan than I. I turned him on to the novel when the final novel in Ellroy's "L.A. Quartet" -- "White Jazz" was first released. He became, briefly at least, almost as obsessed with the Dahlia case as Ellroy, spending lots of time researching the real case via books and newspaper articles. He even started corresponding with Ellroy, chatting with him once or twice.

The other day, my friend, who we'll call Greg because -- well, that's his real name! -- IMed me the following: "An absolutely horrific disaster." I actually had no idea what he was talking about, but then he told me he had just seen The Black Dahlia the day before. Meanwhile, you should also know that Greg has long been a De Palma apologist, a huge fan of the filmmakers -- again, even bigger than I used to be -- who thought this was the movie that would really bring him back. But with Black Dahlia, "Three great set-pieces and then nothing else there."

Oh well ... maybe all this negative reaction will lower my expectations even further, and suddenly after the weekend, you'll return to this space and find a glowing review of how much better the film is than I expected and how Hartnett really is the next Russell Crowe.

Then again ... probably not.

SUNDAY MORNING SHOOTOUT: WELL, AT LEAST THERE'S A NEW SET

Sunday mornings have always been the purview of news-oriented chat fests. Lots of pundits pontificating about the news and, even more often, politics of the day. "Pontificate" carries a negative connotation, but that's not really my intent. I watch a few of these chat fests religiously. I don't care how many cable news networks there are; it's a rare Sunday that I haven't DiVo'd to later watch The Chris Matthews Show, This Week With George Stephanopolous and, most importantly, Meet the Press. (Hey, it all starts at 10. I can't always count on waking that early, nor do I want to.)

A few years ago, AMC launched a couple movie-oriented chat-fests of their own. I've been hard on AMC in the past because ... well ... back in the day when they were American Movie Classics, showing great movies with no commercials, and now ... they're not. They do, however, strive to find some sort of identity -- one that I suppose might be called mainstream mass-interest movies and all about them. To that end arrived Sunday Morning Shootout in 2003 and The Movie Club With John Ridley in 2004. The former is still chugging along; the latter, I believe, has mercifully gone away. The only thing good about The Movie Club was, in fact, John Ridley, a fairly personable go but, more importantly, a really intelligent Hollywood writer. The show was Ridley and a few other rotating entertainment industry reporters or "insiders" reviewing new film releases. But these other commentators (on the two or three episodes I saw) were all relatively painful to watch (no one more so than Zorianna Kit, who was the "Entertainment Reporter" for KTLA in Los Angeles; a/k/a a celebrity "journalist" who has the same tone, demeanor, and "hey-guess-what-gossip-I-know" presentation of everybody who has ever worked for Entertainment Tonight, Extra, E! Entertainment Television ... you get the point.)

Sunday Morning Shootout always proved to be almost as difficult for me to watch, but I really always kind of wanted to watch it. Here is a 30 minute talk show about movies and the movie industry from two people who, personalities aside, couldn't be more qualified from a knowledge perspective to host such a show: Peter Bart (the editor of Daily Variety and a former producer and production executive at both Paramount and MGM) and Peter Guber (longtime studio executive who has run Columbia Pictures (sort of twice, later as Co-CEO of Sony) and Polygram Filmed Entertainment and producer of films like Batman and The Witches of Eastwick). Unfortunately, when it comes to hosting a talk show, personalities do come into play, and Sunday Morning Shootout has always proven why the two Peters were never meant to be successful in front of the camera.

MORE THIS FILM: SIGN THE PETITION

In my enthusiasm yesterday writing about This Film Is Not Yet Rated, I completely forgot to mention the petition. It's on the film's website, and it's a petition for the MPAA not to do away with its rating system or eevn remove itself from the process, but simply to make some fundamental and important chances that would guarantee more fairness and transparency. (You can read all the specific issues and their suggested solutions on the site.)

Again, I encourage everyone to see the movie, and not just because it's important but rather simply because it's so enjoyable. Still, afterwards -- or right now -- go "sign" the petition. It only takes a minute.

(Thanks to Rachel who reminded me about it.)

THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED: EXCEPT BY ME -- I GIVE IT AN A++

There are plenty of reasons I expected to enjoy Kirby Dick's latest documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated: an "inside baseball" look at the film industry; an investigation of one of the industry's most controversial and secretive organizations; a look at why the Motion Picture Association of America ratings always seem so inconsistent ... if I actually thought about it carefully, I'm sure I could go on. But none of those reasons -- as important and successfully satisfied as they were -- would actually top my list of why I walked out of the IFC Center this weekend pretty sure that the film would make my year end top 10 list. What makes Dick's movie so great isn't just the important issues it brings up regarding the motion picture industry and, more importantly, our society and media culture as a whole, but rather that This Film Is Not Yet Rated is so damn fun and entertaining.

Much more than your average talking head mixed with archival footage doc, Dick has given us a perfectly constructed, intelligent, straight-forward and serious investigation of the MPAA that any moviegoer, even those who don't know what the MPAA is or that they're the organization that bestows ratings upon movies, could follow and enjoy. He details the history of the organization and the ratings system while also taking time to investigate more specific issues. But the genius of the film is the whodunnit that he constructs, creating a narrative that runs throughout the film which we can return to after each individual topic is covered. This narrative merges with the more issue-oriented topics when Dick submits his own film., i.e., this very one we're watching, to the MPAA for ratings, receives an NC-17 and goes through the appeals process.

SHE ONLY LEARNED A LITTLE BIT FROM DAVID AND FARRAH

This makes sense. Yesterday was such a slow news day -- I mean, the New York primary elections weren't until today right? What else was going on? -- that it was possible for some major celebrity news to come down the pike. Specifically, Eva Longoria decided to reveal that while she's not leaving Desperate Housewives, she won't do another TV series once this one has ended. Whew! Thank goodness. This means that we shouldn't have to watch her mediocre acting except maybe on Lifetime movies. Oh sure, what she means is that she plans to embark on feature film stardom, but I'll put money down that other than the woman-in-distress, woman-out-for-vengeance, woman-in-a-loveless-marriage made-fors, Longoria will exist at best in second-tier roles in third-tier films that don't prove too demanding.

I don't mean to be so hard on her, but Longoria is just the latest example of an actor being in the exact right place at the exact right time and believing too much of his/her own hype. Longoria is a very attractive woman who has enough acting talent to get by, but beyond that she has never been able to stand-up next to any of her three Housewives costars. In fact, I think she further benefited from having her husband played by Ricardo Chavira, regularly giving one of the worst performances I've ever seen from a regular on series television. Chavira was, in my opinion, the shows one major flaw from the beginning.

In the mean time, Longoria is the youngest member of a group of established actresses. As much as I used to crush on Teri Hatcher around the same time I was able to interview her for Soapdish (and as great as she still looks when not appearing nearly anorexic), Longoria is the "young hot" one. The show became a pop culture phenomenon. Of course she's going to hit most of the magazine covers. But is she a draw? Absolutely not. Nor will she be.

Of course, the most famous recent case of an actor believing his TV hype is David Caruso leaving NYPD Blue after its first season. It only took eight years, but he came back to TV and luckily he did so in the kind of show that was virtually talent/personality proof in today's television landscape. Longoria may be much prettier, younger and sexier than Caruso was, but he's got slightly more acting chops (key word, slightly: he actually doesn't seem to have too much range after all) than her. Come to think of it, maybe she has more in common with Farrah Fawcett, who also felt destined for bigger things after a year of Charlie's Angels. Maybe by 2015, she'll either be the new Meredith Baxter/Judith Light/Sean Young, or we'll see her on CSI: The Next Generation. Either way, I hope her handlers don't let her head get that big, cause in 10 years, she could be the new Teri Hatcher, on another hit television show watching her late-20s costar get most of the hype. Although, even Farrah hasn't managed that feat.

I'M CATCHING UP, SLOWLY-BUT-SURELY

Really, I am. The key to catching-up, I find, is keeping up. So I'm trying to actually write about and review films when the damn things come out. That's why you've seen some more straight-forward posts (while maintaining my incredibly casual/unprofessional/whatever voice) as I talk about all these films that publicists have been kind enough to invite me to. Yet, I still find myself behind with my continuing lists of "posts-to-write-that-I-have-yet-to-write" as well as things that come-up day-by-day, many of which have fallen by the wayside.

And here we are with the new TV season fast approaching (or basically here, at least on Fox). Oh woe's me ... so much to watch, so much to do, not enough hours in the day, and my advancing age proving that I need to reserve more of them for sleep.

Regardless, I'm going to continue to keep you updated on my continuous quest to achieve the "unattainable goal" of viewing an average of a movie a day in 2006. Excitedly enough, this year, my "unattainable goal" is actually damn close to attainable, and after the rush of the fall and awards season, I think I will most definitely surpass it. August 31 was day 243 of 2006, and as of that day, I had watched 236 different movies. From here on, for those of you utterly insane enough to care even one iota or for the consistent need of good sleeping material, I'm going to give monthly updates. So even though I'm actually up to 245 as of today, we're we're going to stick with the 236 and 8/31/06 number. Everyone clear? Good. Awake? Didn't think so.

This post contains the first 205 titles. August saw me achieve this goal for this one month -- 31 movies in 31 days. After the jump is the list ...