movies filter: Revival House

Movies Of My Life: 'The Funhouse'

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 05:08:35 GMT

"The Funhouse" (1981) This movie holds a special place in my heart because 1. It's about Carnies, and movies about Carnies and freaks tend to be great (Freaks, Nightmare Alley, Carny and The Elephant Man) and 2. At ages 12 and 13 I was trapped on not one, not two but three rides (the Octopus, the Squirrel Cages and that Rocket thing that holds you upside down, seemingly forever) by speed addled Carny workers with screwy ideas concerning the courting of young ladies. Nevertheless, those memories only make films about the subject seem scarier and more mysterious. So I ask: Why aren't more movies set in carnival fun houses?

Tobe Hooper well understood the magically seedy setting with The Funhouse, a movie that, outside of horror fan circles, has remained relatively unnoticed. It's baffling since the picture is a tight little horror film imbued with some tremendously scary (and funny) sequences. Dig this idea -- a group of teenage friends decide it'd be a kick to stay the night in a fun house after closing time. Yeah, such a kick -- especially when a deranged, hideously deformed albino fond of wearing a Frankenstein monster mask begins terrorizing you. Something of an under-looked classic, The Funhouse makes me long for those creepy Carnies of my past. Do they roll into small towns and terrorize teenage girls anymore? It's such a shame if they don't.

Read the rest of my current obsessions here.

--posted by Kim

MTV Movie Award Noms

Tue, 01 May 2007 17:21:37 GMT

This isn't going to sound very...(what's the word?) populist, young, fun of me but do the MTV Movie Awards matter at all? Aren't they just another reason to have two stars pick up an award for "Best Screen Kiss" and make all kinds of lame awkward banter?

Nevertheless, the award's nominated movies gets loads of coverage, even in this space since (apparently) someone cares about these things.

According to The Hollywood Reporter:

"The feature film '300' leads the pack of nominees for the 2007 MTV Movie Awards with a total of five mentions, followed by 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest' with four noms. Both films will vie for best movie honors with 'Blades of Glory,' 'Borat' and 'Little Miss Sunshine.'

"In addition, '300' received noms for stars Gerard Butler (best performance), Lena Headey (breakthrough performance) and Rodrigo Santoro (best villain) and also was cited for best fight (Butler vs. 'the Uber Immortal'). 'Pirates' other mentions came in the categories for best performance for Johnny Depp and Keira Knightley and best villain for Bill Nighy. Also competing for the best performance 'golden popcorn' award are Jennifer Hudson and Beyonce Knowles for 'Dreamgirls' and Will Smith for 'The Pursuit of Happyness.'"

You can read what these awards mean at MTV. I'm still trying to figure ou The Golden Popcorn Award.

--posted by Kim

What's Up Doc?

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 04:51:16 GMT

One of the greatest, smartest film sites in the blog-o-sphere, Dennis Cozzalio's Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule, offers a terrific round-up of interesting documentaries opening this weekend.

Covering Marco Turro's "Excellent Cadavers," "Jonestown: The Life and Death of the People's Temple," the controversial Golden Gate suicide doc, "The Bridge" and Barbara Kopple's "Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing," Cozzalio uses these documentaries as a way to underscore much of what writer's miss when discussing the so-called important pictures released near the end of the year. In particular, he cites Los Angeles Times' Patrick Goldsten's piece on all the "good movies in town." As Cozzalio replied to this:

"To be fair to Goldstein, however, I opened up the Sunday 'Calendar' section just two days before, and I said aloud pretty much the same thing: “Wow! There sure are a lot of good movies opening in town next weekend!” The difference is, I wasn’t thinking exclusively, or at all, actually, of the heavily marketed studio titles one might expect to hear about in a low-cal think piece about Oscar campaigns and the myth of the adult movie season. Instead, I was fairly astounded to note that, in addition to at least two documentaries of unusually high interest that were already playing-- 'Jesus Camp' and 'Deliver Us from Evil'-- four brand-new docs, each one with its own unique and compelling area of inquiry, would be bowing on Los Angeles screens on October 27, not to mention one faux documentary that has many potential viewers up in arms before they’ve even seen it. It was enough to make me think that the upcoming holiday wasn't that familiar pagan ritual of candy consumption and corny horror imagery, but instead one devoted to the complex joys of, of all things, the modern documentary."

Read the rest of his fascinating piece here. --posted by Kim

Early Edison

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 20:32:10 GMT

Cabinet magazine points the way toward the Library of Congress’ online database of more than 300 films shot by Thomas Edison in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Take a break from pondering “Pirates of the Caribbean’s” box office take and counting down the minutes till “Snakes on a Plane” and watch a few.--posted by Kevin

The World's Oldest Living 'Graduate' Tells All

Fri, 02 Jun 2006 18:15:45 GMT

The author of the "The Graduate" will reportedly publish a follow-up to the novel that was the basis for the great 1967 film of the same title.

Charles Webb, whose book came out in 1963, has reportedly had some financial trouble lately, so here's to him cashing in on the American publishing industry's thirst for titles with a built-in audience. But 43 years later?--posted by Kevin

May Day

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 09:50:35 GMT

In my world, Elaine May is a goddess. A forgotten auteur and an even rarer bird than simply being a female filmmaker, she's a great female filmmaker. So I was especially excited to see this J. Hoberman piece considering her career in honor of an Elaine May retrospective running February 25-28 in New York City.

The once comic duo with director Mike Nichols, May directed two devastatingly funny and dark depictions of love gone wrong, the brilliant "A New Leaf" starring May herself and Walter Matthau and the Charles Grodin bit of desperate viciousness, "The Heartbreak Kid" which Hoberman calls a "masterpiece of social pathology." Following those two successes were "Mikey and Nicky" a terrific, gritty John Cassavetes, Peter Falk crime picture and then..."Ishtar."

One of the most underrated and unfairly maligned comedies ever made (the first half hour is comedic gold-seriously) Hoberman defends the Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman supposed "turkey" as "the most adroit political satire to emerge from Hollywood during the Iran-Contra stupefaction of Ronald Reagan's second term."

Yes. More "Ishtar" appreciation is needed for too many knee-jerk, believe-the-bad-press movie patrons (and critics). And of course, more appreciation for Elaine May. I only wish this retrospective was playing here in Los Angeles. Warren? Dustin? Can't you pull some strings? --posted by Kim