PAGE ONE: INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Film Babble Blog Review

I saw this film last April at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham and really love it. I saw it again this weekend at the Colony Theater in Raleigh where it will play through next week. It is also playing in the Triangle at the Galaxy Cinema in Cary.

PAGE ONE: INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES (Dir. Andrew Rossi, 2011)

Andrew Rossi's new documentary poses the question: are we witnessing the death of print media due to the internet, or are we just in a transitional period in which institutions like the New York Times will figure out how to adapt to the changing technological landscape and ultimately survive?

This film convincingly argues the latter, but it's going to be quite a struggle in the face of online competition such as the bloggosphere and Wikileaks.

Rossi's unprecedented access to the media desk of the New York Times for a year (2009-2010) has us listening like a fly on the wall to key players including Executive Editor Bill Keller, blogger turned Times writer Brain Stelter, Media Marketing Editor Bruce Headlam, and Baghdad bureau chief Tim Arangoand media and culture columnist David Carr who steals the movie over and over with his dead on acerbic comments.

We learn about the "New Times Effect," in which what the Times prints one day will set the agenda for what every other news outlet prints the next.

We learn about how Judith Miller's false reporting of Weapons of Mass Destruction damaged the Times' credibility.

From old grainy footage we learn about the newspaper's history, especially in clips of Allistar Cooke visiting the Times from the program Omnibus in 1954 I'd sure like to see more of.

As I said before Carr steals this film, but he also symbolizes the fight that the Times has left in it. One particularly amusing scene has the former crack addict turned media columinst vaporizing (his word, not mine) a blogger opponent at a SXSW panel.

PAGE ONE is a masterful piece of infotainment that captures a turbulent time for the Times. Since we're still in that time it really shouldn't be missed by anybody who has even a passing interest in the state of modern print media. Or by those who love an extremely well made engrossing documentary.

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Chatting With The Creators Of Cinema Overdrive Part 2 of 4

As I reported in part one of this rambling but wonderful conversation, tomorrow night a new repertory series starts at the Colony Theater in North Raleigh. "Cinema Overdrive" which is billed as the best in high-octane cult/horror/exploitation/drive-in and forgotten films that are waiting to find an audience."

This is the second of a 4 part talk with a couple of the creators of the series - Denver Hill and Matt Pennachi. I hope to speak another co-creator, Adam Hulin, in the near future as what Pennachi calls "a social experiment" progresses into fall and beyond. The main topic was tomorrow's premiere feature DEATH RACE 2000 but we also chatted about future showings like VICE SQUAD and PIECES.

FBB: So DEATH RACE 2000 kicks off “Cinema Overdrive”. What made you decide on that for the first one?

DH: Well, we picked it the day before David Carradine died.

Matt: He died the next day!

DH: It was very bizarre.

MP: Why did we pick that? Because it’s something that we had in the collection that has the “Cinema Overdrive” flavor, but it’s also the type of film that enough people will have heard about it but never seen.

FBB: That’s just me! I heard about it, I worked in a video store and I remember the cover of the VHS box – it was one that nobody ever rented. People would pick it up and joke about it but put it back down.

MP: (laughs) It’s a lot of fun. This particular print has Swedish subtitles on the bottom because I got it from a collector in Sweden.

FBB: (laughs) Well, I think that might add something to it!

MP: It does actually. DEATH RACE 2000 has the right flavor to kick off the series because a film like VICE SQUAD is a great high energy movie but you can’t lead off with it – not enough people have heard of it.

DH: We want to pull people in, and then gradually get crazier, more obscure with films.

MP: We want to create a community.

DH: VICE SQUAD, though, is one film buffs go crazy over. It’s like total kick ass non-stop…

MP: Yeah, it’s pretty much as soon as the opening credits start they step on the gas and don’t let up ‘til the end credits; it’s very full throttle. It’s kind of mean in parts. Original MTV VJ Nina Blackwood gets beat up by her pimp in the movie!

FBB: Well, you sold me!

MP: (laughs) Exactly! Have you seen PIECES?

FBB: I’m ashamed to say that’s another I’ve never seen.

MP: PIECES is insane!

Dan: I don’t think I’ve even seen a second of it …oh wait, there was that trailer you put up on Facebook.

Matt: It was a TV spot. (click here to see it) They never made a trailer because that one was of the very last films that FVI (Film Venture International) released before their President, Edward L. Montoro, embezzled a million dollars from the company and was never seen again.

The rumor is that he either fled to South America or is in the trunk of a car somewhere so they never got around to making the trailer. I like to give a little back story, like on THE DEVIL’S RAIN years ago, I didn’t even plan this but I was up onstage and I said: “When this movie starts you’re going to see the logo for Bryanston Entertainment – is anybody familiar with what Bryanston Entertainment is?” 

They were like “uh no” I went on: “They released THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and they released Andy Warhol’s FRANKENSTEIN. They were owned by the mafia. The mafia created this company because they made so much money off of DEEP THROAT, they needed a legitimate company to fence it through. Here’s Bryanston Entertainment.

DH: I don’t want to put Matt on the spot but that’s another draw of “Cinema Overdrive” - he’s like a walking encyclopedia of cult film knowledge.

MP: I mean, I like art but I love trash! (laughs) I love art too.

I mean, my favorite cinematic experience of all time is still 2001. I just find it very moving, but that being said, there are other shared social experiences that are really…fun and energetic.

This summer, going to the movies, like with a lot of first run movies…how often is it fun? Maybe one or two times out of ten?

That’s why I get excited about a film like UP or ANVIL that actually hits on all cylinders and they really did a good job with it. So many things are so half-assed productions. With “Cinema Overdrive” though, granted I’m not foolish - I know what people think about these films in the grand scheme of things. That being said I don’t feel irreverently about them. I enjoy them for what they are. 

A lot of times regardless of where they fall in the scheme of art, these films work awfully hard to entertain you. Awfully hard. There’s something to be said for that… because the great rule of exploitation film making is shoot whatever you want, just don’t be boring!

If you are anywhere near the Triangle area tomorrow night - try and make it out for DEATH RACE 2000 at the Colony Theater @ 8:00 PM. Matt promises a slew of jaw dropping vintage trailers to accompany it and for $5.00 it's a deal you can't pass up.

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KILL BILL VOL. 2: The Film Babble Blog Review

Opening today at a multiplex near you:

KILL BILL VOL. 2 (Dir. Quentin Tarantino, 2004)

 First off, let me start by saying that I wasn’t big on KILL BILL VOL 1. I thought it lacked true suspense, and at best it was just superficial entertainment pretending to be a big movie event.

Also it bothered me that it pretentiously introduced itself as “The 4th Film By Quentin Tarantino” in the credits. I mean who the Hell else does that? Can you imagine: “The 17th Film By Martin Scorsese” in the opening credits of GOODFELLAS? I didn’t think so.

But if Spike Lee can get away with calling his films “joints” in his credits I guess I can let it slide. What I couldn't let slide in KBV1 was the dry humorless tone and the fact that many characters were such general pop culture stereotypes of the sort that have already appeared multiple times in Tarantino’s work.

Take for example the redneck hospital orderly that whores out the Bride's comatose body to redneck scum for $75 a pop. Didn't we already go there in PULP FICTION? The orderly even has a tacky vehicle in the form of a souped-up pickup called “The Pussy Wagon” that would not look out of place in the same garage as the chopper (Zed's Motorbike) “Grace” in “The 2ndFilm By Quentin Tarantino.”

Also the out-of-sequence chronology that characterizes Tarantino’s work, once so innovative yet now feels like a transparent device that disguises the lack of a stronger story arc.

Michael Parks as a seedy but wise Texas sheriff when surveying the massacre that begins the entire rampage remarks: “if you was a moron you could almost admire it.”

That pretty much summed how I felt about the flick when I saw it last year. But lo and behold, I like KILL BILL VOL. 2 quite a bit, and it even made me re-evaluate the first one to such a degree that I have to say that it appears to me to be much more solid as a first parter.

KBV1 resonates with a passion and power that I cynically ignored first time around. The 4th film credit I previously bitched about now informs us that this is one big movie that is told in 2 parts.

KBV2 doesn't label itself as “The 5th film...” and its ending credits include actors that were only in the first film.

It truly is the cinematic equivalent of those two part TV episodes with the “to be concluded” caption that were done to death in the ‘70s and ‘80s. There is plenty of the stylized violence of the first half here but what makes this work is the back-story and genuine emotion fueling the character’s motives.

We learn why the Bride’s fiancée and entire wedding party were slaughtered, how Daryl Hannah’s eye-patch came to be, what connection the Bride and Bill (David Carradine) had, and most importantly who the Bride really is - name revealed and all.

Don't worry,  I won't reveal any of those spoilers here I'll just say that the dialogue while tense and filled with proverbs is smoothly recited and intensely felt by the actors especially Carradine.

Even with a monologue that's so Tarantino you can practically hear the director himself performing it about how Clark Kent is Superman's critique on the whole human race Carradine absolutely kills.

A number of critics are saying that KBV2 works alone without seeing KBV1 but I disagree. I mean none of them have actually experienced that so it seems like a silly appraisal. I would say you should not see KBV2 without seeing KBV1 first and since they are out the same week albeit in different formats there’s no reason why you shouldn’t.

KILL BILL as one big movie is a dense collection of styles and tones that will make many treasure their own obscure pop culture interests and realize that if that former video store clerk can make epic cinema out of lowbrow pulp why can't we get off our ass and create something too? At least that's how I'm thinking.

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Listomania: Quentin Tarantino Edition

Since Quentin Tarantino's KILL BILL VOL. 1 was released on DVD this week (review here), and KILL BILL VOL. 2 is coming to theaters on Friday, this is a Special Tarantino Edition of Film Babble Blog, a career re-cap of sorts with lists, quotes, fun facts, and other whatnot leading up to my review of his newest that will be posted tomorrow.

First up:

BASIC FILMOGRAPHY AND INITIAL GUIDE TO THIS BLOG:

RD: RESERVOIR DOGS (1992)
PF: PULP FICTION (1994)
JB: JACKIE BROWN (1997)
KBV1: KILL BILL VOL. 1 (2003)
KBV2: KILL BILL VOL. 2 (2004)

THE QUENTIN TARENTINO REPERTORY ROLE CALL:

Lawrence Bender: RD, PF 
Steve Buscemi: RD, PF
David Carradine: KBV1, KBV2
Sonny Chiba: KBV1, KBV2
Vivica A. Fox: KBV1, KBV2
Daryl Hannah: KBV1, KBV2
Samuel L. Jackson: PF, JB
Harvey Keitel: RD, PF
Lucy Liu: KBV1, KBV2
Michael Madsen: RD, KBV1, KBV2
Tim Roth: RD, PF
Quentin Tarantino: RD, PF
Uma Thurman: PF, KBV1, KBV2

TARANTINO FUN FACT FORUM:

• Michael Madsen's character in RD (1992) is named Vic Vega. John Travolta in PF (1994) plays Vincent Vega. According to interviews with Tarentino they are brothers, and has spoken of making a Vega brothers movie, but at this rate don't hold your breath.

• The criticisms of a boy club mentality of Tarantino’s early work are especially valid in RD (1992) in which there just a precious few women among the cast. Only two woman appear - there is a waitress overheard and seen in the coffee shop opening, but her face is never seen and she’s not even credited on the IMDb. The other woman is killed right in front of us by the supposed ‘good guy,’ the undercover cop (Tim Roth) trying to bust the rest of the crew. So RD is definitely the polar opposite of a ‘chick flick.’

• Samuel L. Jackson said the line “this is some repugnant shit” both in PF (1994) and JB (1997).

• These names are used in more than one Tarantino movie: Bonnie, Jodie, Koons, Marsellus, Scagnetti, and the before mentioned Vega. I'm going to assume that they refer to the same people in the world his movies exist in.

FIVE GREAT TARANTINO LINES: 

1. "Well, let's not start sucking each other's dicks just yet." - The Wolf (Harvey Keitel) PF (1994) 

2. "I might break you in, Nice Guy, but I'd make you my dog's bitch." - Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) RD (1992)

3. "I can tell you with no ego that this is my finest blade. If, on your journey, you should encounter God... God will be cut." - Hattori Hanzo (Sonny Chiba) KBV1 (2003)

4. "AK-47. When you absolutely, positively got to kill every motherfucker in the room, accept no substitutes" - Ordell (Samuel L. Jackson) JB (1997)

5. "What ain't no country I ever heard of. They speak English in What?" - Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) PF (1994)

FIVE MOVIES THAT RIP-OFF TARANTINO: 

(Some more call them "homages" or use phrases like "in the tradition of" but let's call a spade a spade) 
1. TIE - LOCK STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELLS/SNATCH (Dir. Guy Ritchie, 1998 & 2000): Guy Ritchie's 2 smoking Tarantino borrows more like! 

2. TWO DAYS IN THE VALLEY (Dir. John Herzfeld, 1996)

3. GO (Dir. Doug Liman, 1999): When this was first was released I think I remember thinking "this week's PULP FICTION." Snap!

4. SUICIDE KINGS (Dir. Peter O'Fallon,1997)

5. THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOUR DEAD (Dir. Gary Fleder, 1995)

Stay tuned for the Film Babble Blog review of KILL BILL VOL. 2.

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