Archive Review: Band Of Outsiders Thoughts

(Written years ago... not the best writing by any means, but worth something at least)

A few nights back I finally watched Band of Outsiders the whole way through. I'll talk about it in a bit, but first off... There's this pattern I follow with just about almost every single Godard movie I've watched, and it's almost funny how clockwork it is, with exception to maybe one or two. I get excited beyond belief. I finally watch it. I can't sit through it. I hate it. I end up loving it.

This started 4 years ago when I started hearing more and more about Breathless. Everyone talked it up, and up, and up, to the point that I felt like I had to see it. I read every review I could find, I went through frame captures, and just got geared up for what I expected to be a fun, adventurous romp. Then I watched it, and could barely keep the disappointment from taking over. I still thought to myself that I had to have liked it, I just didn't realize it. Based on that, I got my brother to watch it, and this time, while I followed it and knew more of what to expect, the disappointment definitely took over. About a year later, I rewatched it, and it was alright, but nothing special. Again a year after that, and I actually like it. It is fun. The music's catchy as hell. The techniques are done so well and to such a good effect, that I can ignore a lot of problems with it, to realize that it's a ridiculously archetypal movie, done in a sort of off-putting but funny way.

Five years back, I started hearing about this apparently amazing Masculin-Feminin. Someone I knew told me about it, I pretended to know it, then looked it up. The film looked political, fun, stylish; The whole shebang. I got the Criterion edition for christmas, and spent the day staring at the record label dvd, and reading the frameset and essays going along with it. I was so ready to adore it.

I spent the next week trying to finish it. Without having finished it, I mentioned to someone that it was the most French movie I'd ever seen (which in many ways I wish were true), and so finished it by watching it the whole way through with that friend. And I hated it. I couldn't believe I'd wasted my time on such a cold, pretentious movie. I watched it months later as a demonstration of what kind of terrible movie could be made by the director, and watching it then, a part of me watching it started to really dig it. I didn't think much of it, other than the style's great, until early this fall when I watched it again with someone who expected to like it. She hated it. I just loved it the whole way through, and at this point, it's easy to see why: Jean-Pierre Leaud's cute yet abrasive attempts at fitting in, Chantel Goya's pop songs, the model interview, the Brigitte Bardot interview, the obsession with the waste and drama people create around them during youth, the gun shots that fire off each segment. It's absurd, it's difficult, and it's definitely my favorite movie Godard's ever made, bridging his politics and his fun, his Brecht and his Fuller, with some Stoppard thrown in.
(more after the jump)

David and Matt Talk About T.V.

6:19 PM 

David: matty

6:21 PM Matt: dizzy d

6:22 PM If I have to watch one more ad on the internet I'm going to shoot myself

6:23 PM David: yeah i tried watching hulu earlier

  it sucks

 Matt: Not in the head or anything

  fatal

 David: friends with benefits is a terrible tv show

  but i like the cast

  so i sat through episode 1

 Matt: how was it?

 David: it was pretty bad

6:24 PM Matt: that sucks

 David: very typical sitcom

 Matt: Louie is on tonight

 David: nice!

 Matt: that is not a typical sitcom

 David: that's a great show

  that's one of my faves right now

6:25 PM Matt: It makes me really happy

  just that it exists, and it being awesome is an added bonus

  how would you explain it?

  I am having a really hard time explaining it to people

6:26 PM David: give a brilliant bitter comedian a tv show where he has total creative control -- writes, directs, acts, edits, composes for

  and with no oversight

  so sometimes its not even funny, it's just him trying things

6:27 PM Matt: yeah! the subway episode

  the whole episode was a set up for him blowing an opportunity to get laid

6:28 PM and just the subway bit was awesome

  and funny

  What do you think of Wilfred?

6:31 PM oh and here is that Kid Sister song I've been into:

  

6:33 PM 

Matt and David Talk about "Community."

David: i want to do a back to back community and spaced thing sometime
yeah
well
i wouldn't know
i haven't watched community in forever either
last i saw chevy chase had taken some strange turns
which didn't make sense
but whatever
it's community
Matt: yeah, it's not high art
Matt: I guess for a sitcom it should at least be considered such.
David: wellll...
Matt: yes?
David: i've told you my issue with community before, right?
wherein most of it feels like things happen because they have to happen to make it conform to a plot, not because it makes any sense
too much time thinking about how "tv shows work" and not enough paying attention to what's actually going on
ya know?
Matt: yeah I do but it is still fun.
Sent at 11:24 AM on Wednesday
David: absolutely
i like it a lot
but i wish the writers spent less time forcing characters through situations, and more time letting the characters guide it
Sent at 11:27 AM on Wednesday
Matt: On the other side of that we have Seinfeld, a decent enough show, but still not as good, in my opinion, as community
each show is an event
Sent at 11:28 AM on Wednesday
Matt: rather than people just doing things. It's a hyper reality.
like all art
but not exactly in the same way
David: sure
but it strains between the situations and the people
and i think the strain is too much at times
we analyzed it enough?
Matt: yep time to post it

Lola-Out Mashup Review

Originally I tried to write a review of both Jacques Demy's Lola (1961), and Kevin Smith's Cop-Out as if they were the same movie. The results of this were... uninspiring to say the least. However I'm not willing to give up on the idea that there is some sort of link between the two movies (seen on back-to-back nights).So let's give this a shot instead. Sure, Cop-out was just a flat out cop-out of a movie, and Lola was at least pretty, but they do share certain elements.


Two attempts at that later... Let's just say there are similarities. Both are by directors outside of their comfort zone. Both are homages (or as Tracy Morgan has you believe, "hahmm-ijs") to the films that made them fall in love with movies. There's an obvious difference between an homage to Ophuls and an homage to Beverly Hills Cop, but then again that's the difference between Demy and Smith, or between filmmakers and, well, whatever it is that Kevin Smith is.

We've also got an odd synchronicity with how much each spends on language translation. Much of Lola is spent with French characters not understanding English, but in love with America as a cultural signpost of everything good in the world. Cop-out spends most of its time (actually an insane amount of time really) on how the central characters don't speak any Spanish, and on Mexican culture as a place of fear. Why do both movies spend so much time on this? What is added to the film, in both case?

While we're at it, the ways in which they use kids (inappropriately) share some surprising resonance.

You know what, I don't know where I'm going with this. Cop-Out was awful. Total waste of time. Tracy Morgan was funny, but too funny for this. Lola had some lovely bits, though was still pretty slight. Is there a way to deepen the appreciation of these two by comparing? God I hope so, though perhaps the whole operation is a bit of a dead-end.

Snakes. Planes. And Other Forgotten Bits of Cultural Flotsam

Years later, I was recently reminded of a particular gem of a film from 2006. It may not have been beloved by the critics or the audiences. In fact, it may have only been known for its title, but let me say it right now, "Snakes on a Plane" might have been the most underrated movie of 2006. So let me remind readers of my original review from some long forgotten publication.
(more after the jump)

Awkward Haiku (tv) - Between Seasons Interlude

This is officially the weirdest episode of AHtv yet. There are traces of Brakhage, Will.i.am, and Tarr here. But only traces.

An homage to Stan Brakhage using a cover of the Black Eyed Peas. Set in East Lansing, in a sort of neo-realist manner. But um. Only sort of.

Seriously, this is bizarre. I apologize, Awkward Haiku nation. Next week the second season begins.

Lets Finally Put Together an Awkwardly Sized Best of List

So, here we are. The Oscars are in 2 weeks (which will be live-blogged and podcasted, naturally...), so it's probably time for us to get our act together and compile our best of the year (screw those sites that post these in December--no one cares in December). Apologies though for how slanted this list is. I blame it on too much time in areas without huge film cultures. Lansing needs a repertory theater... (hint to wealthy investors right here...)

Today, we're just doing our "Awkwardly Sized Best of 2009"

David's picks:

2009 was... not a great year. Not a terrible year maybe, but really nothing to write home about (except of course in this instance. Hi mom!). A lot of the smug, sure things turned out to be painful mistakes. A lot of the movies that stuck with me were slight failures, or at least contained elements I hated. If last year was characterized by a preoccupation with delicate films about the beginnings of puberty and coursing with youth...then this year. Well. This year was all about looking back at life, and finding something wanting, occasionally filtered through conflict between generations. From the seemingly dozens of films set in the 60s (A Serious Man, A Single Man, And Education, etc.), plus of course overall period pieces (all the above, plus Tetro, Inglorious Basterds, White Ribbon, Bright Star, Young Victoria, etc. etc) to generational conflict (Summer Hours, Up, Transformer 2[side note, this may be the first time those three films were said in the same breath]), to trying to renounce humanity (Avatar, and to some extent Inglorious Basterds).

That being said, there were an awful number of terribly boring and painful films out this year. Many with uncomfortable politics, some with great effects, nearly all without a sense of style (excepting of course Michael Bay, who may have too much style). This also marks the year that, for good and for ill, the thriller genre hit a major stumbling block. The International, Duplicity, and State of Play each stumbled badly over said block, plausibly ending the steady stream of middle-brow cat and mouse games. Let's hope this isn't the case.

This was also the year that the economics of distribution dominated the conversation. Avatar was only meaningful apparently because of its box office (dammit! I just joined the 100% of those who only talked about it to discuss the amount of money involved). There were dramatically fewer independent films out this year, and boy do we know it since that's all that has been discussed. Doom and gloom come with the territory, but it struck me especially this year how little the movies themselves seemed to matter. So perhaps the last 3 quarters of 2010 can be characterized by leaving the talk of money to the business pages? Maybe?

Best of:

•  Summer Hours - Stunningly beautiful, intelligent, and moving look at a family letting go. Far and away the best movie of the year, Assayas made something breathtaking. Watch it.
• Hurt Locker -  Well-crafted. This shouldn't make it stand out, but well, here we are. Another film about someone who can't handle the world as it is. 
• (The first 20 minutes of) Up - Really gorgeous 20 minutes. Everything after starts to collapse, but  for those 20 minutes... Oh boy. Pixar: please learn to write 2nd and 3rd acts. Trust your audience at least a little...
• Tetro - A bit of a failure--the movie doesn't hold together. But man--well shot, adventurous, and full of the most luminous technicolor this side of Powell/Pressburger
• Adventureland - My roommate at the time despised this. I spent my time amazed at how Mottola used sitcom characters to go after something beautiful. Did it work? Was it a great movie? Well... But did it entertainingly go after some big ideas? You betcha. 
• A Serious Man - Coens. The story of Job. Seriously, what more do you need? I wouldn't be surprised if watching it again this rockets to the top of the list.

Most fun:
Inglorious Basterds ties with Observe and Report. Notice that both are evil.


Best soundtrack:
An Education

Most Anger-Inducing Use of Things We Like:
(500) Days of Summer

Michael Bay Award for... well... you know:
A tie (the first ever!) between Transformers 2 and GI Joe


Most Ambitious Failure (the Babel prize):
Watchmen

Best of the kids movies adapted by indie darlings in 2009:
...Fantastic Mr. Fox

Over the next few days, Matt, Ben, and Colin will post their own top "awkwardly-sized" lists. Disagree? Think we're full of ourselves? Able to make a case for Public Enemies or Mock up on Mu? Comment away.

Awkward Haiku (tv) Ep. 24 - The Hands

Youtube link

Two things stand out to me about this week's episode of Awkward Haiku (tv):

1. It's very short. Less than 40 seconds short.
2. It's been posted within a week of last week's. How goofy is that?

So now it's time to watch this epic tale of a battle to the end. To what end? How was it all shot in one take? Who are the combatants? Will you look at that animation? Hey, was that music all legal? Wow! Good job Awkward Haiku (tv)!

Next week (and you got it, it's next week): Ep. 25 - "Gibberish." Which is also the last episode of the season. Next season: everything changes.

Awkward Haiku (tv) Ep. 23 - Parallaxion Promo

Darwin meets Facebook in http://parallaxion.com 's first podcast.

Dr. Todd Disotell, an expert in evolutionary biology, guides us as we look at Facebook through the Darwinian lens. How does the peacock compare to someone's friending habits? Does this lens even totally work for Facebook? Some of this can be found in this short promo piece. The full half hour podcast is available here, or at this vimeo page.

Parallaxion.com is a play of paradigms whose goal is to build an integrative community of monthly experiments in interpretive juxtaposition. By synthesizing through collective exploration one subjective lens and one object of focus, we strive to provoke imagination, integration, insight and empowerment.

Yes, it's a plug for a different site. But the AHtv people edited this, so it seems rather appropriate. Plus it carries the Awkward Haiku stamp--high and low culture blended together to see the world in a fascinated way.

Next week's episode (and yes it will be next week): "The Hands"

Old Fashioned Drinking - Alfonso II

The Alfonso the Second

• 2 ice cubes
• 2 parts vermouth
• 2 parts vodka (preferably Scandinavian)
• 1 part Grand Marnier
• Dash of bitters
• Orange

Chill a sour glass. Crush the ice; pour vermouth over ice, mix in vodka, splash in the Grand Marnier and let in the bitters. Mix. Pour into the now chilled glass. Garnish with an orange peel (Alternately don't crush the ice, and mix out the ice before serving. Really whatever floats your boat).

This is an invention straight out of the Awkward Haiku labs. Last night we may have found ourselves down to just mixers and one airplane-sized vodka container. Maybe. But anyway, we discovered that we had a few of the ingredients for an Alfonso Special, and enough creative energy to make something new.

Plus, Alfonso the Second of Portugal was the man.*

Is this drink profound like a martini? Is it decadent like a French 75, classy like an Old-Fashioned, tasty like a G/T, masculine like a rye with a splash of soda, soused like a whiskey and soda, or deliciously degenerate like a Gin Gimlet? To say nothing of whiskey, scotch, good wine, etc.

No, of course not.

But surprisingly drinkable. Tasty, different. Sure to impress your guests. And more importantly it's a way to get rid of vermouth (which if you make martinis like we do lasts forever and ever). 

Pictures forthcoming. It ought to be the color of the inside of a tangerine.

*Despite the excommunication that is. 

Awkward Haiku (tv) Ep. 22 - Let's Talk About Michelangelo

A 16mm in origin, experimental video diary piece. Featuring Erik Satie and T.S. Eliot

Awkward Haiku (tv) Ep. 20 - Dog Walk

Youtube link

Dog Walk--the story of one man, one dog, and two pieces of music. Why does he walk the dog? Does he dream of Brazil? What's the connection here between this film and De Sica's "Umberto D."? Both feature a man and his dog, both feature the world pressing down, and both are done in style, with the least amount of money possible.

This was shot and edited 6 years ago, by the Awkward Haiku (tv) team. One night we shot it (with no real plan), the next day was a snow day so we edited it (also with no real plan). We transferred it from cheap camera to Final Cut Express, back to tape, then to a Video CD, where it languished in the vault until just now.

Now, enjoy it in its original format. No changes have been made--this is as close to the experience as you'll get to watching the film 6 years ago.

Awkward Haiku (tv) Ep. 19 - Hopper Painting

(Youtube link for legacy browsers)

No actual painting going on, but an experiential short about a projectionist at a movie theater. Everything except the movie (sort of like Goodbye Dragon Inn, but much more watchable).

Enjoy!

I'm Phil Dick and So Can You!

(Part 2 in the PKD series. Tomorrow there'll be a more intensive piece by yours truly, then another one from Ben)



Let's start today's (very short) piece on Philip K Dick with a top 7 list (in a very shaky order). Partially subjective, partially 100% fact, it's a damn good list:

1. Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
2. Valis
3. Radio Free Albemuth
4. Man in High Castle
5. Flow My Tears the Policeman Said
6. Penultimate Truth
7. Now Wait for Last Year

Three Stigmata, while later partially disowned by Phil Dick as being dangerously nihilistic contains it all. It is the way to start reading the guy.  No connection to the above film by Nacho Vigalonda. But maybe the film (in 3 parts) is good, if only for the series of doublecrossing doublecrosses, the pathos, and the mean but goofy humor.

Anyway, a real post tomorrow

Winter of Our Awkward and Midsummer Night's Haiku

We here at Awkward Haiku, do solemnly pledge to read 5 Shakespeare plays over the course of this upcoming winter, and write about them.

Why? Well. We believe in Canons here (they're real. they're like cannons but with one fewer n). We haven't read any Shakespeare since High School, and think it's important to reacquaint ourselves with the central literature of the English speaking world.

So every 2 weeks we'll read a new play. During the two weeks one of us will write about it, shoot videos about it, and record radio shows about it.

We're starting with Richard III. Read along with us! It'll be fun. A prize will be given for pictures of readers holding copies of the plays of the week.


And of course, please suggest away. This is a community effort. Want to read A Comedy of Errors next? (I do!) Let us know, we'll do it. Troilus and Cressida? (I hope not) Let us know. It's the canon. There are entertaining and good things to be found in any of them. Except for Timon of Athens. Who cares.

Our first post on the subject will come next Tuesday (the 17th).

Until then, enjoy Peter Sellers performing "A Hard Days Night" in the style of Olivier's Richard III.




*Note, we may get bored and not do this. It is after all just a way for me to reread Richard the Third and write about it. It may go no further. You have been warned.

The Pursued, the Pursuing, the Busy, and the Tired

(as of this moment, the last Mad Men post for a while, check out the first relating mad men to obama, the second, on what mad men means after the 90s, and third, an in-depth look at an episode)

I wanted to get out and walk eastward toward the park through the soft twilight, but each time I tried to go I became entangled in some wild, strident argument which pulled me back, as if with ropes, into my chair. Yet high over the city our line of yellow windows must have contributed their share of human secrecy to the casual watcher in the darkening streets, and I was him too, looking up and wondering. I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.
                                                 -The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

Matthew Weiner’s Mad Men has reached a level of critical mass that it requires no introduction. We get it. Television show with phenomenal production values, paced like none other on tv, about advertising executives in the early 60s. Every intelligently crafted episode unpacks historical themes through the intelligent drama of the individuals circling around the fictional ad agency.

            But with the third season winding to a close, and the two first on DVD for a while, it’s now possible to talk about some of what the show means in-depth (this means a fair number of spoilers. Don’t say we didn’t warn you). There are a two assumptions I’ll make coming into the show. First, it’s a unified work of art (though we don’t have an end yet), and second, every part of the show is there for a reason. From the extras screwing around in the background of a shot in the fourth episode, to a seemingly throwaway line late in the second, it’s all there intentionally, and has some importance.

            So with that in mind, what’s the appeal of Mad Men?

            Mad Men creates its power through a dance of personal drama, and gestures at greater meaning. Through a fetishistic love of details—yet a callous disregard for historical accuracy when in conflict with emotional truth (in some cases flagrant enough to suggest that perhaps its intentionally inaccurate to the history). From references both direct (Billy Wilder and Federico Fellini films for instance) to the filtered feel of a nonspecific reference. This is so carefully mannered, and so wholly a world, as to be almost unrecognizable to all other television.

            And to what aim?

            Jewish identity, equal rights politics, the dreams of Matthew Weiner, his Proustian recollections, his Fassbinderian melodrama, and his Bergmanesque fear of meaninglessness will have to wait. Today, let’s talk about identity, specifically, Don Draper.

Like Anna Karina's Sweater Returns

The best film blog, Like Anna Karina's Sweater, seems to have been revived!

This is good news for those looking for in-depth looks at festival favorites, South Korean delights, and the sacred cows of modern moviemaking. Intelligent, well-versed, always a joy. To celebrate its return, there's a downloadable mix to listen to for the New York Film Festival's lineup. Sure, you may say, our readership doesn't include enough New York, and sure, you may also say, what's the point since the festival passed? Call it living vicariously. Call it being heartland/florida/europe/west coast (our 4 main audiences) cheapness. This way we can get the mood without seeing it. Or something. Why am I justifying? Go check out the site, download the mix, and go through the archives. You won't regret it unless you have different taste than I do.

Obirony Updates

UrbanDictionary says...


Bam! Do a google search for "obirony". Come on, I dare you. Know what pops up as number 2?

That's right. Our post on the waning fortunes of obirony.

A victory for our Post-Ironic Studies division if I ever saw one.

Also, as an update, see how, just as we predicted, Obama's political fortunes are rising once more ("Obama's Strategy Pays Off", though with just enough disillusionment that times are still tough for the Obironist. Hold in there, poking fun at the Obama supporter will be cool again soon.

Mad Men, The 90s Revival, and Post-Irony

This week, we're doing a Mad Men series. Why? Well, it seems like since the early 60s popularity is hitting its zenith (/starting to decline), it's time to do what we can to celebrate it. Plus Mad Men's phenom.

So, first--Mad Men in 60 seconds


Second, a Post-Ironic look at the shape of 60s nostalgia: (more after the jump)

Awkward Haiku (tv) Ep. 17 - Prufrock

Youtube link

Years ago, an Awkward Haiku (tv) producer made a video based on the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. In his defense, he was very young. Consider it an exercise by which he learned how to use Final Cut Pro and digital video. And you can use it to embarrass this producer whenever you see him.


Think of this as a way to remember how much you preferred the poem to this. We know the producer is using this to think about how much better he would do now...