USA

Frankenweenie is a short film directed by Tim Burton, and co-written by Burton with Leonard Ripps. It is a parody of, and homage to, the 1931 film Frankenstein based on Mary Shelley’s book of the same name.

Originally considered a failure and being put to the side by Disney, it was given a home video release after Burton’s breakthrough success with films like Beetlejuice, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, and Batman.

Plot:
Victor Frankenstein is a young boy who creates movies starring his dog, Sparky. After Sparky is hit by a car, Victor learns at school about electrical impulses in muscles, and gets the idea to bring his pet back to life. He creates elaborate machines which bring down a bolt of lightning that revives the dog. While Victor is pleased, his neighbors are terrified by the animal, and when the Frankensteins decide to introduce the revitalized Sparky to them, they become angry and afraid. This leads to a frantic chase that cannot end well…or can it?Read More »

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A documentary on the history of garlic. Blank interviews chefs, garlic lovers, and historians about the their love of the ‘stinking rose.’

From lesblank.com:
Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers (1980)

A zesty paean of praise to the greater glories of garlic. This lip-smacking foray into the history, consumption, cultivation and culinary/curative powers of the stinking rose features chef Alice Waters of Chez Panisse, and a flavorful musical soundtrack.

The SF Chronicle called this paean to garlic “a joyous, nose-tweaking, ear-tingling, mouth-watering tribute to a Life Force.” Nothing less than a hymn to the stinking rose of the kitchen, this lovingly photographed documentary is an odyssey of garlic feasts alternated with uniquely individual interviews of garlic afficionados. Not only does the film promote garlic as our first line of defense against all forms of blandness; it also titillates the taste buds with shots of garlic dishes sizzling in their pans. Les Blank shows again that he knows how to have a good time and share it on film – especially if it involves food!Read More »

Very funny documentary by Dayton filmmaker Jim Van Bebber about two hard-core weed addicts who operate heavy machinery and actually believe they do a better job if they’re totally stoned by the time they get to work, get stoned again at lunch time, and spend every night drinking beer and doing more dope. At the factory where they work, Van Bebber interviews little old ladies who go on and on about what “good kids” they are and how great their work is. The two stars are Bill, a guy who got kicked out of the Marines for doing dope steadily for six years (I’m not gonna do it forever–or maybe I will, who knows?) and Barry, a forklift-driving doper who wins the Employee of the Month plaque while stoned (Live for yourself– live today and then worry about tomorrow when it gets here– that’s the way I go). – Joe Bob BriggsRead More »

amazon.com:
The one book, Nov 11 2002Reviewer: “anticinema” (Hollywood, CA
Hollywood, CA United States)

It is a new century, a new reality… Hail the new art form! one that will only 100 years of life awaits to be fully and beautifully exploited by new kinds of filmmakers, artists, philosophers, dreamers and siners!

This is the one book you need to read to fully understand the capabilities of Cinema as a true art form, not an obscene business.

Thank you Mr. Geuens, blessings to your creatively anarchic mind.Read More »

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Smoke and Blue in the Face director Wayne Wang has made his name by making features (Slam Dance excepted) looking at ordinary Americans and revealing their slightly less than ordinary lives. In Dim Sum, he studies the cultural differences between assorted generations of Chinese Americans, a theme picked up again in Eat A Bowl of Tea and The Joy Luck Club. Here, in his home environment, Wang feels comfortable with his subjects and some charming observations about their lives are revealed in an understated but nevertheless engrossing little picture.

Focusing primarily on the subject of family traditions amongst San Franciscan Chinese and the responsibilities of children in caring for their ageing parents, Dim Sum follows the relationship between a very traditional Chinese woman in her 60s and her thirty-something daughter, the mother trying to marry the daughter off. The difference in attitudes between the two provide much of the humour, but there is a greater depth to the emotions as Wang seeks to reconcile his slight tale to the greater picture of the wane of oldfashioned Chinese beliefs.Read More »

THE SCREEN
In the William Fox screen version of Austin Strong’s play, “Seventh Heaven,” which was presented last night at the Sam H. Harris Theatre, you can once again meet those lovable characters—Chico, Diane, Papa Boule and Pere Chevillon—in that little patch of Paris within sight of the Eiffel Tower. This picture grips your interest from the very beginning and even though the ending is melodramatic you are glad that the sympathetic but self-satisfied Chico is brought back to his heart-broken Diane.Read More »

User at Imdb: This movie gives a eyeopening glimpse of the 1930’s and a hidden agenda of a very moralistic time. It is a charming story of the maid’s attempt to walk the line between her own natural inclinations and the societies expectations for her. Laura Dern offers a very realistic and convincing performance that marks her as a great character actress. The interaction with her own mother, in the supporting cast, shows a natural adaptation to a role that is rare in such a young actress. Duvall is wonderful in a role that demands a vast understanding of human emotion and character study of his part. The set and old automobiles lend a real authenticity to this period in history. It takes you back to a simpler time, but underscores all of the attitudes of the time. This is a movie to be enjoyed again and again at each opportunity. I highly recommend itRead More »

[Amazon.com]:
Moving Places is the brilliant account of a life steeped in and shaped by the movies–part autobiography, part film analysis, part social history. Jonathan Rosenbaum, one of America’s most gifted film critics, began his moviegoing in the 1950s in small-town Alabama, where his family owned and managed a chain of theaters.Read More »

Currently film critic at the Chicago Reader, Jonathan Rosenbaum has written for a variety of film journals for more than 20 years. Collected in Movies as Politics are more than three dozen essays focusing on political statements of modern film. Covered are such topics as racial stereotyping in the movies, the emergence of films and filmmakers from the Third World, and the cinematic treatment of historical events, such as the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, and the Holocaust. It’s not all heavy going, either. Rosenbaum’s essays on Forest Gump, Ace Ventura, and the influence of Miramax are both informative and entertaining, if at times scathing.Read More »