Awbvious Flix Pix

Trees Lounge

Alright.  What's with Steve Buscemi?  That's the question.  Well...  He's an intelligent actor who brings depth to his characters--some call it creepiness, I call it depth.  Proof is in Trees Lounge.  Buscemi wrote and directed it.  And it's damn good.  Not in that, wow, I remember that spectacular scene good.  I can't even say it was all that exciting through out; it lags a bit--but it feels right for the tone of the movie.

But if there's one thing I remember...  It's the characters.  And this makes sense.  We see this from Cassavettes. He was an actor, turned writer/director, who knew how to work with actors.  In his movies, his characters have depth, intricacy, they capture your attention, they at times have intensely human momments that seem completely genuine.  The characters in Trees Lounge are the same.  I feel like I have learned more about the resident drunk in Trees Lounge than I have of Norm in all the 20-odd seasons of Cheers.

Yeah, its slow.  Yeah, you might start to fall asleep.  You might feel the drowsy-drunk-at-4-PM listlessness, the heavy weight of stale smoke in the bar, the grime on all the things and people in the movie...  But that's what's so good about it.

Guys & Dolls

"Your eyes, are the eyes... of a woman in love..."  Anyone who knows me, knows that I love this movie.  All the really good songs are in the second half, but the acting is strong in the first.  All the songs kick ass.  Come on.  Marlon Brando?  I've watched the "Luck be a Lady" sequence over and over, trying to follow all the facial expressions and hand gestures.  He's got a different, appropriate gesture/expression for every phrase of dialogue.  He moves gracefully, is the best way to put it.  Like half-way through the film, he pulls Jean Simmons into his arms and kisses her in one, deft bold movement, that leaves her no time to protest, and eventually she gives in to his embrase--it can't help but make even the most secure of us envious of that confidence.  Which is exactly what Sky Masterston epitomizes.

Sky is a great character to analyze, the story the play (and thereby the movie) was based on, was written by David Runyen--who's no slob, let me tell you.  Sky is a satyr, but clever, and still moral--in many ways.  He says "I have many sins, but lying is not one of them" (or something to that effect).  And at no time does he actually tell her a lie, he withheld truth, but never to the point of where it hurt anyone.  Indeed, he gets her drunk in havanna, and rather than "play with loaded dice"--oh...  The double entendres in this movie!  "Oh, sister Sarah, but I only know about the out-skirts--tell me what's it like on the in-skirts?"  Fucking great stuff.

Oh, so, another interesting thing about this movie.  If you notice, all the action, including the last scene, seems to occur in the span of a couple of days, maybe 2 weeks at the most.  Considering what the last scene depicts, that fact is quite mind-boggling.  But that's besides the point.  The songs are great.  Sinatra is, of course, great.  Brando even sings pretty good.  I love this movie.

Scarface (1932)

Yes, yes, we all know Scarface.  Tony Montana.  Oliver Stone.  Cockaroaches, etc. etc.  And yes, that's a great movie.  Second favorite Oliver Stone movie (first being Platoon).  But I'm talking about the original Scarface, 1932.  I'm talking Howard, motherfucking, Hawks.  Neither Platoon nor the '83 Scarface will make this list, though they are both damn good.  But another Howard Hawks film, To Have or Have Not is on this list.  Oh, and His Girl Friday rocks, directed by Hawks, written by Ben Hecht, he's a good playwright, but it didn't make the cut--nonetheless, also worth watching.

Hecht wrote the screenplay for the original Scarface, and did some work on bringing Guys and Dolls to the screen.  But the best part of '32 Scarface is the direction, Hawks did more in black and white than Stone did with the entire chromatic pallette before him.   The original Scarface is nothing like the '83 Scarface.  But they both have spectacular shoot-outs and they both have excellent death scenes.  And the parties are just as memmorably lavish as they are in the '83 version...  Crime is just as intriguing, gritty, and real in the urban centers of the depression era as it is in any ghetto neighbor nowadays--the setting of contemporary gangster movies.  Basically, if you say you know gangster movies... you have to watch this and The Public Enemy (1931), then you'll maybe know something about gangster movies.  Trust me, both damn good.

Harvey

Ah, Harvey...  Why do I like this movie?  Why else?  Jimmy Stewart's performance.  It's like...  Why watch Night of the Hunter?  Why else?  To watch Robert Mitchum freak the shit out of you.  Its weird...  Since they died at the same time, the two have become inexorable entwixed in my mind.  Anyway, watch Night of the Hunter, as well, but Harvey is ...  Fun and light-hearted.  How many movies can you say about that?  Especially movies about lovable psychotic-delusionals?  I mean the guy (Jimmy Stewart) saw a man in a big rabbit's suit, or rather, a big rabbit... rabbit-man, something.

And the references to Harvey in popular movies today are everywhere, Donnie Darko, uh...  Billy Madison...  Maybe...  You know, penguin, rabbit, both warm-blooded...  Okay, maybe not.  And maybe Donnie Darko wasn't popular...  Oh, by the way, I do recommend Billy Madison.  Not on my list, but its definitely the best Adam Sandler, or Happy Gilmore...  They're both good and worth watching.  But not list worthy.  Donnie Darko was editted like the Nixon tapes.  It makes no sense at first, and once it does make sense (and it will only make sense if you watch the deleted scenes on the DVD), you are just frustrated with the movie's inability to convey any of that sense.  I personally don't even think its really worth watching.

Harvey is much simpler, but deceptively so.  No.  Deceptive has a bad connotation.  It rather has intricacies, themes, motifs, that can be explored, and actually hold up under scrutiny.  But these extras never overshadows the simple joy that Stewart brings to the screen.  You feel warm, and fuzzy, even.  Capra, who didn't direct this, but rather that saccharine christmas treat "Its A Wonderful Life," doesn't bring out this Stewart. Capra is too much like Spielburg, everything is so wholesome it loses humanity.  Like almost all the movies in this list, this is based on a stellar play, and I think its actually the play, the complexity of the character, a complexity distateful to the Capras and Spielburgs of the world, that brings out this very memmorable performance in Stewart.

Days of Wine and Roses

Now this movie...  This movie effects me, deeply, and I think it would anyone who's lived around anyone with a drinking problem.  And the truths in that movie do not apply only to alcholism.  There is a lot of wisdom in all of Jack Klugman's lines, but especially the ones about the two worlds, the intoxicated world and the sober world.  How the two worlds are very different, one's not always clearly better than the other.  And in a relationship, you can't have one person be in one and the other in another.

The plot's not predictable, more... inevitable.  I mean, I don't want to give it away.    Its actually hard to watch.  Some of the best movies are.  This is a movie to watch to learn more about oneself.  One in four people have addictive tendencies, so at least a quarter of all people can relate to this movie.  It's most interesting to see the effect a relationship has on a person's behavior and eventually the person's character, how the habits of one always effects both.  The movie is about two worlds, the sober and the intoxicated, and two people from two different worlds who both try crossing over, and miss each other in the process.

network

history of the world

O.G. Winnie the Pooh

American Wereworlf in London

Clerks

Alice in Wonderland

Conan (DVD)

spinal tap

naked lunch

top secret

half baked

the living end

Pollock

Dead Presidents

Die Hard

Mean Streets

bringing out the dead

an extremely goofy movie

To have or have not

The Eel

La Jette

house of yes

ashes and diamonds

visitors in French

jumanji in Spansh

last starfighter

kind hearts and coronets

pootie tang

happiness

welcome to the dollhouse

dreamlife of angles

high and low

sound of music

west side story

Rowan Atkinson Live

singing in the rain

magnificent seven

good bad etc. (all 3)

i'm gonna git you sucka

flashback

friday

con air

the rock

girl, interrupted

graduate

Trouble Makers (German)

Dr. Akagi

Bob Dylan - Don't Look Back

the Conversation

Sponge bob

memento

dude were's my car

south park movie

shanghai noon

walking and talking

Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe

night and the fog