The Screengrab : death wish

Video of the Day: Charles Bronson's MANDOM!

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:45:00 GMT

A while back, our own Scott Von Doviak hipped you to the concept of 'Japandering', the process by which big stars go to Japan and make millions of dollars for starring in goofy ads which they wouldn't dream of endorsing in the United States. What Scott didn't tell you is: (a) Japandering has been going on for a long, long time; and (b) it's even goofier than you can possibly imagine. Behold...MANDOM!

Yes, that's a pre-Death Wish Charles Bronson, appearing in an ad for MANDOM! What is MANDOM? Uh...we're not sure, exactly. It might be a soap, or a cologne, or a body wash, or a deodorant, or something. But clearly, you are supposed to waltz into your apartment, smear it all over your naked torso, and fantasize about shooting people while wearing a set of buckskins. All the world loves MANDOM!

Video of the Day: Everybody's All-American

Summerfest '08: "Wet Hot American Summer"

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:30:00 GMT

Well, folks, it's the end of the line. This weekend marks the Labor Day holiday, traditionally the last big weekend of the summer. School's back in session, long vacations are a thing of the past, and sunshine and beach barbeques give way to gray skies and long commutes. It's no different in the movie business: giant blockbuster blow-'em-ups give way to small, quiet pictures whose goal is to make your girlfriend cry. And just as the summer blockbuster season must end, so too must Summerfest 2008, the Screengrab's hot-weather feature where we analyze one movie a week with "summer" in the title, with the goal of giving you something to do for two hours while your silently dreading having to go back to the office. But we're not going to just leave you hanging with some cheap piece of junk we happened to notice while scrolling through the IMDB listings; oh, no. We're going to see Summerfest '08 out with a blast by bringing you a movie we've been excited about since we began this project, a true throwback to the summer flicks of yore where you could sit in a theater with a rapidly melting Slurpee and have a few laughs without feeling guilty about it. Summer may be over -- and it may be a long four months until we bring you "The Screengrab's Twelve Days of Christmas Movies" -- but we're going to wave goodbye to it with one of the funniest, most good-natured satires in recent years. Whether or not you came of age in the 1980s, this is a movie that will make you feel what it was like, and crack your shit up while doing so.

It's been great spending summer with you kids, but the time has come to pack up your duffel bags and head home to your parents. But before you do, put on your tightest pair of gym shorts, and join us for 2001's Wet Hot American Summer!

THE ACTION: Late August, Camp Firewood. It's the last day of camp, just like it's the last day of the Screengrab, and kids and counselors alike are stricken with a hormone-crazed mix of excitement and regret: camp is just about to end, but there's still so much to do! Will the head counselor find love with the unassuming astronomer who lives across the way? Will our slightly nerdish hero finally draw the attention of his dream girl away from her thoughtless, philandering boyfriend? Will the lithe, athletic, tennis-playing chap ever get laid? Will the camp's baseball team ever defeat that snooty bunch from the rich kid's camp the next lake over? Will the cook overcome his Viet Nam-era post-traumatic stress disorder with the aid of a talking can of mixed vegetables? And will the fat kid who runs the camp radio station ever take a bath, already? These questions and more will be answered, sort of, in what turns out to be not only a vivacious comedy in its own right, but an absolutely pitch-perfect evocation of the party-as-a-verb days of the early 1980s and the innumerable shameless sex comedies they brought us. Ultimately more a collection of moments than an actual movie, Wet Hot American Summer is so riotous and well-meaning, you can't hold its shambolic nature against it.

THE PLAYERS: Janeane Garofalo shines in her role as the stern head counselor who has everything but the love of a good man, as if to remind skeptical viewers of the fact that she was once very funny. David Hyde Pierce seems a tad out of place among the legions of improvisers and sketch comedy pros in the cast, but he still has a few fine moments as the world's least convincing heterosexual male lead. But the real standouts here are the comic actors who fill out the cast in minor, but often spectacularly funny, parts: co-writer Michael Showalter is only adequate as the longing male lead, but he's absolutely killer in a late-reel appearance as a hacky Catskills comic. Christopher Meloni is appropriately unhinged as the brain-damaged vet who's lousy at keeping his perverse secrets. Amy Poehler is outstanding, alongside Bradley Cooper, as the high-strung type-A director of the camp's talent show. And Paul Rudd, especially, is hysterically funny as a bratty, self-involved lothario who can barely be troubled to listen to his girlfriend when she's talking; he has a scene with Garofalo about midway through the film that may stand out as the funniest temper tantrum ever filmed. Director David Wain (who wrote the script alongside a pre-The Baxter Showalter) shows a steady hand as well as a brilliant touch for period detail.

SUMMER FUN: Wet Hot American Summer doesn't mess around: it gives us the ne plus ultra of summer fun, all crammed into an hour and a half. It takes place on the last day of camp, and, perfectly echoing the film cliche, it features everyone in sight squeezing as much fun out of the summer as they possibly can: hooking up with anyone in sight, driving to town (in a memorable and grimly hilarious scene) to score drugs, breaking out into inexplicable guitar solos, helping their friends get laid, playing Dungeons & Dragons, practicing for the big talent show, and in one of the most subversive twists of any movie parody, prepping for the big Snobs vs. Slobs showdown. Every activity is either turned on its head for sweet subversion or taken completely over the top for maximum laughs.

HAWAIIAN SHIRTS: From the ringer tees to the polyester shorts to the brace guards to the ample cock-rock on the soundtrack, one thing that Wet Hot American Summer gets spectacularly right is the period detail. And one of the most important details when you're making a movie that hails back to the golden age of 1980s teen sex comedies is the Hawaiian shirt. Only one person wears one in the course of the movie, but he's a big fat party animal, and as Homer Simpson took the time to explain once long ago, big fat party animals are one of the two groups who do their best work in Hawaiian shirts. The big fat party animal in question is Zak Orth as J.J., whose gregarious stoner demeanor here suggests that there's someone ready to step into Seth Rogen's shoes if he every gets tired of being really funny.

BIKINI PARTY TIME: While Janeane Garofalo's still too self-conscious to step into one, bikinis are plentiful in Wet Hot American Summer. A good thing, too, as they're occasionally filled out by the likes of Marguerite Moreau and Elizabeth Banks; in fact, the latter in a bikini inspires a great scene where Paul Rudd gets so distracted from his lifeguard duties that he lets one of his charges drown -- then begins a Death Wish-style crusade to wipe out anyone who saw him do it. Beyond that, there's also knit tops, frosted lipstick, short shorts, knee socks, bra-less t-shirts, and the like for your enjoyment. It's all part of the neon-green cocktail that makes up the movie, which, in the end, plays like the funniest 1980s movie made since 1989. If summer has to end, this is the way to see it out.

Yesterday's Hits: Billy Jack (1971, "T.C. Frank")

Paul Clark — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:00:00 GMT

The late 1960s and early 1970s were a time of great turmoil in the U.S. The younger generation’s opposition to the Vietnam War stirred up a number of social and political movements, some nonviolent, some violent, and the establishment responded to these movements with force. Liberals hoped to affect change in the country, while conservatives despaired that the government wasn’t doing enough to get the situation under control. This unrest, and the fear it bred, was reflected in the rise of vigilante films in the early seventies. Most of these films had a right-wing bent, with the heroes of movies like Death Wish, Dirty Harry and Joe standing up to the criminals and “the freaks.” But who would stand up to the government and protect the peace-loving people from the powers that be?

What made Billy Jack a hit?: Tom Laughlin, a veteran of numerous B-movies and television shows, originated the character of Billy Jack in the 1967 biker movie Born Losers, in which he defended a small town against a dangerous biker gang. But while Born Losers was a straightforward biker flick, Laughlin had other plans for the Billy Jack. 1971’s Billy Jack saw the character transformed into a kind of folk hero, a half-breed outsider who defends the experimental “Freedom School” against the racist, corrupt townspeople who threaten its existence.

Billy Jack is a textbook case of a film that seems to have a political bent but appeals to many different ideologies. In addition to his efforts to protect the Freedom School, Billy Jack also believes in the sanctity of Native American culture and the importance of protecting animals and the environment. Likewise, the former Green Beret opposes the Vietnam War. Billy Jack is full of political speeches and songs to appeal to this audience. However, it also contains its fair share of ass-kicking for those who are so inclined. Billy Jack doesn’t share the peaceful inclinations of Jean (Delores Taylor, Laughlin’s real-life wife), dean of the Freedom School, and her students. He’s not above administering a beat-down to those who get on his bad side.

But what gives the story universal appeal is that Billy Jack is all about standing up for those who can’t defend themselves. Laughlin, who directs the film under the pseudonym “T.C. Frank” paints the Freedom School students as innocents and the townspeople as irredeemably evil, racist thugs, so it’s hard to imagine anyone on either end of the political spectrum identifying with the villains here. In painting both his supporting characters in such broad strokes, he makes the film a simple good vs. evil story, with the bonus of tapping into the quintessentially American tradition of rooting for the underdog. Billy Jack became the surprise hit of the early 1970s.

What happened?: Like its hero, the film was also a kind of outsider, shot on the cheap and dumped by several distributors before its eventual release. But after the success of Billy Jack, Laughlin was faced with the prospect of following up its surprise box-office returns. The film’s 1974 sequel The Trial of Billy Jack was also a hit, but it soon became clear that Laughlin was a one-trick pony as a director and star. 1977’s Billy Jack Goes to Washington was barely released, and Laughlin soon became a pop-culture footnote.

Does Billy Jack still work?: Nope. For Laughlin, Taylor, and the cast, Billy Jack is clearly a labor of love, but while the scruffiness of the film has a certain charm, this goodwill only carries it so far. For one thing, it’s hard to overlook the stiffness of most of the performances. Laughlin’s work is serviceable, although he doesn’t manage to make Billy Jack much more than a one-dimensional heroic type. Taylor fares worse- called on to be the emotional center of the film, she often seems uncomfortable in front of the camera, and as a result her big speeches don’t hit home. The townspeople are okay in cartoonish roles, but the students’ performances vary widely. For the most part, they’re natural in the scenes that feel improvised, and much less so in the more narrative-based moments.

The inconsistency of the students’ performances is reflective of the strange structure of the film, which alternates loose, almost Altmanesque scenes in the film with hamfisted stabs at drama. Unfortunately, Laughlin isn’t director enough to pull off either type of scene. The narrative scenes are too amateurish- in terms of acting, writing, and directing- to work. The improvised scenes come closer to working, but Laughlin could have used a more judicious editor in these scenes. As they stand, they drag on forever, thereby dulling most of their impact. Either way, there’s no reason for the film to be nearly two hours long, other than the fact that Laughlin was so clearly married to every frame of the film that he couldn’t sacrifice anything. But it could be worse- The Trial of Billy Jack runs almost three hours.

Yet for its multitude of flaws, Billy Jack has an innocence that’s sort of irresistible. What other movie would take several minutes out of the story to have its hero lecture a gang of toughs on the beauty of Native American culture before he administers an ass-beating? Billy Jack is disillusioned with the state of the modern world- at one point he asks, “In what remote corner of this country- no, entire goddamn planet- is there a place were men really care about one another and really love each other?” Yet the film and its director clearly believe in the ideals on which this country was founded, especially in its final scene, when Billy Jack turns himself in in the interest of bringing his concerns to light at the inevitable trial. Billy Jack isn’t a very good movie, but I’m glad it’s out there. It’s also comforting to know that, even today, Laughlin is still hoping to resurrect his trademark character in the interest of showing us all what he believes is a better way for America.

New York Magazine Picks the New Yorkiest Movies Since 1968

Phil Nugent — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:00:00 GMT

To celebrate its fortieth anniversary, New York magazine has set its writers to assemble a "canon" of cultural works (books, music, TV, movies) from the last forty years that "capture something emblematic about New York." This, as David Edelstein's list of movies makes clear, isn't necessarily about selecting the best, nor is it limited to movies made by New Yorkers in New York: El Topo is here, for its role in creating that urban institution, the midnight movie. (By a felicitous quirk of timing, the first title on the list is Planet of the Apes with Charlton Heston, for its indelible closing image of the Statue of the Liberty after a wild weekend.) Also cited: Mean Streets, The Godfather, Part II, Taxi Driver, Dog Day Afternoon, Death Wish, The French Connection, Shaft, Deep Throat, Annie Hall, Saturday Night Fever, Tootsie, Wild Style, My Dinner with Andre, Stranger Than Paradise, and Wall Street.

Edelstein sort of half-apologizes for having picked so many movies from the 1970s, but how could it be otherwise? It was in the seventies that Hollywood declared studio lots passe and invaded the city with film crews, which were often manned by smart-ass native New Yorkers like Sidney Lumet, Paul Mazursky, and Brian De Palma, whose sensibilities came through so strongly that thet sometimes seemed to be making a "New York movie" even when they weren't. The American movie renaissance of the seventies is inextricably tied up with the breakdown of "the ungovernable city" in the same period; at the same time that the country at large was so attuned to the virtues associated with New York that Woody Allen could emerge as a sex symbol, the city went bankrupt and all but imploded, and the movies were here to record that. Movies as great as Scorsese's early features and as klutzy as Shaft all double as time capsules that tap into the urban chaos and make it look exciting, which is why there are people now who are nostalgic for the "good, old" (pre-Disneyfied) Times Square of hookers, three-card monte, and garbage-strewn streets. Movies don't feel as if they have that kind of combined impact anymore, though one movie that tried hard was Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, which both Edelstein and Lee credit with helping to drive Ed Koch from office. In an accompanying Q & A, Lee appears to also take credit for hooking up Barack and Michelle Obama, since "Barack told me the first date he took Michelle to was Do the Right Thing. I said, 'Thank God I made it.'" Timing is everything. If they'd met a year earlier or a year later, and he'd taken her to School Daze or Mo' Better Blues, she might have gone right home and changed her phone number.

Morning Deal Report: Writers of the World Unite

Peter Smith — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:00:00 GMT

Well, the Writer's Guild is on strike. No more new Daily Shows for a while.

It's not clear where that leaves Sylvester Stallone's planned remake of Death Wish, to be penned by the brain trust behind Terminator 3.

Here's some news: David O. Russell will direct Nailed, a political satire/sex comedy, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Biel and written by Al Gore's daughter Kristin. That's some kind of lineup.

— Peter Smith