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"Hollywood Knights", from
Tuna
One of my favorite
movies. The premise: Tubby's Drive-In is closing
on Halloween night, 1965, the same night that a
bunch of pledges are trying to get into a cool
club, The Hollywood Knights. The Knights drop
their pledges off stark naked outside of town,
and the newbies must wheel some auto tires back
to Tubby's by closing (via Watts!), and must get
a local DJ to dedicate his last number of the
night to Tubby's and the Knights.
This movie is so much
fun, and features a cast of youngsters who went
on to some pretty good careers. Look for Fran
Drescher, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tony Danza and
others as high school students. Many critics
rhapsodized Dazed and Confused as the ultimate
"we're seniors, what's next?" movie,
but I think this one beats it all to hell. Of
course, my choice has something to do with the
fact that I was a high school junior in October,
1965! The DJ dedication device, coupled with the
many scenes at Tubby's, allows the filmmaker to
play the hits of the era non-stop throughout the
movie, so it is a perfect recreation of the Top
40 from that October night.
As for the recreation of
the actual dialogue and characters of the era,
there are only two movies that ring true to me:
Hollywood Knights and Animal House, where I
recognize all my own contemporaries. (Or maybe
this tells you more about me than about movies).
I like both of those films better than the much
more highly regarded American Graffiti, which
seems contrived to me.
You can't miss Robert
Wuhl's rendition of "Volare", or the
often-imitated "words to Lawrence of
Arabia" gag.
There's a fair amount of
rowdy nudity, but Drescher and Pfeiffer kept
their clothes on.
thumbnails Dawn Clark (1,
2,
3)
Michele Drake (1,
2,
3,
4)
Kim Hopkins Michelle Pfeiffer non-nudes (1,
2)
"Possession",
from Johnny Web
This is one screwy movie
from Andrej Zulawski (he's married to Sophie
Marceau). I'm not even going to try to describe
it. Go here for an in-depth review.
That guy wrote a great
and knowledgeable review and summary. Let me
dispute or supplement it with a few comments,
because I represent the typical outsider
viewpoint much more than he does. He's obviously
really into this movie. By awarding Isabelle
Adjani's acting in this movie, the French academy
and the Cannes board proved themselves every bit
as insane as the Oscar group. Her performance in
this film is over-the-top, with no hint of
nuance. It is truly one of the most extreme
performances ever recorded in a mainstream film
by a respected actor or actress, rivaling even
Richard Burton in "Exorcist 2". Any of
us, or any kids from a high school drama club,
could have delivered the exact same performance.
The entire schtick consists of opening her eyes
extra wide and trying to look spooky, plus
spinning around and throwing herself against the
walls in a frenzy. I guess we can understand why
the judges were befuddled, since the movie is in
English, and they probably had no clue what was
going on. I couldn't even figure out what was
going on, and I do sorta speak English. But you'd
think they would be able to spot the bloated
caricature even in a foreign language. On the
other hand, she seemed subtle compared to the
truly odd performance from Heinz Bennent as her
lover. Since Adjani is one of the most respected
actresses in the history of the cinema, I think
we can chalk up the craziness to the director on
the blame-o-meter. The DVD is the restored 123
minute version (an 81 minute version previously
circulated in America, with the most offensive
scenes removed, and with the remaining scenes
re-ordered). I guess the 81 minute version was a
complete abortion. This version does have its
merits, as an unrelenting portrayal of what
appears to be mass madness. Zulawski is into this
anti-stasis thing, like a hyperkinetic child who
can't stand silence and relaxation. Every scene
is shot with crazy fast camera cuts, or camera
revolutions around the action, maximizing the
sense of hysteria. His favorite cliche is to have
the actor spin in one direction, while the camera
circles around him or her in the opposite
direction. He used this one several times. I
guess it didn't concern him that people don't
stand in one place and do frenzied spins in real
life, even in Europe, but I personally thought
any actor would look really silly doing this,
possibly excepting Barishnikov. He also insists
on having the actors constantly engaged in
unnatural hand gestures: frenetic waving, kung-fu
poses, guys holding hands with each other and
touching each other constantly. Those people who
defend this movie say that the supernatural
horror story is merely marvelous symbolism about
the deterioration of the marriage, reflecting the
psychological states of the partners. Maybe.
I did find it kind of
amusing when Adjani's husband and lover, jealous
of one another, discover that she is cheating on
both of them with some kind of giant squid which
may also be her own offspring. This is one silly
monster - check it out on the top of collage 2,
in the scene where Sam Neill catches the squid
monster screwing the socks off Adjani. Any
director who knows his stuff knows that you can't
film a monster too clearly in lingering
close-ups. Any special effects monster, even the
one in "Alien", looks silly if you give
the viewer time to study it closely, but this one
was especially cheesy, resembling the humorous
seaweed monster in Corman's "Creature from
the Haunted Sea". Well, whatever. Strange
movie. Some scenes are very powerful and
terrifying, while others will make you laugh out
loud at either the cheap special effects or the
sheer pretentiousness of the concepts. I like
some of Zulawski's later movies much better than
this one. If you're a film buff you have to see
it, because of all the controversy that resulted
in cutting a full third of the movie for its U.S.
distribution. Now you can see the original uncut
director's version. And, of course, you have to
see Adjani fucking a squid. Note: I didn't screw
with the colors. She has green eyes in some
scenes because she was playing a dual role.
Adjani (1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6)
"New
Blood", from Johnny Web
1999 movie about some
fledgling criminals who get their first
opportunity at a promotionm to the inner circle,
and find that the key players are totally
psychotic. This results in various and assorted
bloody gun battles and killing sprees.
If you can stand the
graphic violence, it's a pretty good movie with
some good cast members like Carrie Anne Moss,
Joey Pantoliano, and John Hurt. The thing whch
makes it interesting is that the entire movie is
told in flashbacks within flashbacks, with the
characters sometimes telling the truth and
sometimes lying. And sometimes they admit to
lies, when in fact they were telling the truth.
It's another one of those Lock Stock and 2
Smoking Barrels movies where several rival
criminal factions are all trying to screw each
other.
Roberta Angelica (1,
2)
Carrie Anne Moss (portrait only). She looked really great.
"Lovin'
Molly", from GR
I haven't seen this in
years, but in my vague memory, it is a pretty
good Sydney Lumet movie about two guys who love
the same woman for years, and they all just work
it out. Based on a Larry McMurtry story called
"Leavin' Cheyenne". Ms Danner is
Gwyneth Paltrow's mom, and she didn't do that
many nude scenes in her career (only this and
"To Kill a Clown", that I can
remember), so this is a treasure for the
archives. The only negative I can recall is Tony
Perkins, ol' Norman Bates, sadly miscast as one
of Molly's two lovers. Blythe Danner
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