You the Living (2007)

 

YOU THE LIVING  (2007)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Roy Andersson

    Elisabet Helander, Jörgen Norhall, Björn Englund,

    Jessika Lundberg, Eric Bäckman, Pär Fredriksson

Fifty-odd little deadpan vignettes, some vaguely connected and some not so much. Some are amusing. Some are surreal. A lot of them feature a tuba, for some reason. It's like where Wes Anderson, Jacques Tati, Jim Jarmusch and Aki Kaurismaki all meet up. Favorite bit: An old man pushing a walker along the sidewalk and dragging a distinctly unhappy dog on a leash behind him. I'm not sure why that struck me as funny, but it did. Made in Sweden.

Tusk (2014)

 

TUSK  (2014)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Kevin Smith

    Justin Long, Michael Parks, Genesis Rodriguez,

    Haley Joel Osment, Guy Lapointe, Harley Morgenstern,

    Ralph Garman, Harley Quinn Smith, Lily Rose Depp

Kevin Smith goes for maximum weirdness with this crazed horror movie about a reclusive nutcase who turns an obnoxious podcaster into a walrus. How he does that has drawn comparisons to "The Human Centipede", so you get the idea. The clerks from "Yoga Hosers" make a cameo appearance, and if the guy chewing the scenery as Guy Lapointe seems familiar, he's Johnny Depp.

Quote File / Take 26

 

Some lines from the movies of Gene Hackman:

"I don't deserve this . . . to die like this. I was 

  bulding a house."

  Hackman in "Unforgiven"

"Hit first if you can. And when you do hit, hit 

  to kill."

  Hackman in "Wyatt Earp"

"I hate Baptists almost as much as I hate 

  Democrats."

  Hackman in "Runaway Jury"

"I don't care what they're talking about. All I want 

  is a nice, fat recording."

  Hackman in "The Conversation"

"Wait! Where are you going? I was going to make

  espresso!"

  Hackman in "Young Frankenstein"

(1930-2025)

That Championship Season (1982)

THAT CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON  (1982)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Jason Miller 

    Bruce Dern, Stacy Keach, Robert Mitchum, 

    Martin Sheen, Paul Sorvino, Arthur Franz

Four of the five starters and the coach from the team that won the 1958 Pennsylvania state high-school basketball title get together years later to relive old times and open up new wounds. Jason Miller's film adaptation of his award-winning play is like "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" for aging jocks. The resolution feels a little too easy to fit with what's preceded it, but the movie's a real good workout for its ensemble cast. Also, there's an elephant. Miller's probably best known on screen for playing the troubled young priest in "The Exorcist".

Richard Burton: In From the Cold? (1988)

 

RICHARD BURTON: IN FROM THE COLD?

    D: Tony Palmer                                (1988)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

A documentary on the acting career and tabloid life of Richard Burton, from a coal-mining town in Wales to Hollywood, "Cleopatra", seven Oscar nominations and marriage to what's-'er-name. The witnesses are mostly relatives and admirers (plus a refreshingly candid Lauren Bacall), and if the movie doesn't quite capture what drove Burton, it does get at some of his contradictions. Clips from his films help tell the story, but titles letting you know what movies you're looking at would've helped.

The Untold Story (1993)

 

THE UNTOLD STORY  (1993)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Danny Lee, Herman Yau

    Anthony Chau-Sang Wong, Danny Lee, Emily Kwan,

    Julie Lee, Erik Kei, King-Kong Lam, Parkman Wong

Extreme exploitation from Hong Kong about a serial killer whose victims end up as a key ingredient in the pork dumplings he then serves to (among others) the cops investigating the case. It's mostly played for laughs, but any time this guy reaches for a meat cleaver, brace yourself. The blood-and-guts quotient is sick.

The Play House (1921)

 

THE PLAY HOUSE  (1921)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton

    Buster Keaton, Virginia Fox, Joe Roberts

In a sort of prelude to "Sherlock Jr.", Buster Keaton plays a stagehand who dreams about a concert in which all the musicians and members of the audience are played by Buster Keaton. The gag was reprised in "An American In Paris" (1951), with all the parts played by Oscar Levant.