Harry here with another report from our yak riding friend to the north, Mongo. This time though, I've seen one of the films he's discussing. I saw AMERIKAN PASSPORT here in Austin during SXSW film festival, and let me tell ya.... this is one not to miss. It's the sort of film you only get to see at a Film Fest, cause the people at large... Studio/Distributor types never really get these types of political documentaries. I found it vastly entertaining, as well as being a horrifying glance at the world this man traveled. Showing that... no matter where in the world you go... the world is touched by the horror of violence and inhumanity. A wonderful film, can't recommend it enough... But enough from me... On to Mongo...
Yo King Geek,
Mongo here again with a report on a couple of diverse flicks that are indeed worth catching. First let me tell you what it's like to hit close to 30 films in a month. IT'S GREAT!!!
I'm not gonna yank your chain about how tough it is to hang out in a theatre at all hours of the day and night simply walking in and out, going from one movie to another. I've had some wacked out jobs both in the film industry and out but this takes the cake. I'd have to be like *POOR* Julia "*SNIFF* "It's tough being RICH AND FAMOUS" Roberts if I said any different. Tough being rich, you blathering bulemic dunderhead, try being poor. Tough watching movies all day? Try humping a day job. Hitting so many films during one film fest, you get to expect some of the usual characters that seem to show up wherever you are. Joe Pesci is a guy that looks a bit like Brainiac with grey hair who walks with a slight limp. If his walk is slow, he makes up for it verbally. This guy will talk your leg off - and of course he sounds just like Joe Pesci. High nasally New Yawk accent. Rapid fire, never ending litany of the many films he's seen, all the things he *KNOWS* to be true, which films are the best, which he found "most distasteful" and who he wants to vote for as best of the series. This is okay for a couple of hours but good lord I had a full day of this when we both picked the same four movies to see. I kept trying to get close enough to slip a valium into his XL-Fizzy Caffeinated syrup slop but the man is quick! After the third show and about the seventh hour, I could hear his bleeting voice everywhere I went, bouncing off the walls like some incessant duck call gone bad. Why couldn't he have been some sultry, stacked babe with a velvety voice? Aah well.
Stevie Wonder is a character that proves to me that the medium of film is one of the most powerful known to man. He's blind and has been to the film fest as many years as I have. The first time I met him was three years ago at the SIFF annual poster auction. I was hungry for a European RESEVOIR DOGS one sheet and thought I'd try my hand at snagging it. At the outset of the auction, I noticed a guy with a cane wearing 'blind guy shades' that held a woman by the arm. She seemed to lead him to his chair and around the room. Not only did Stevie goto the auctions, but the guy outbid most people on the posters he really seems to want. Well, after that I saw the guy (Sylvester to his friends) everywhere. Once you notice him, he's hard to ignore. I've spoken with him a few times and he's a really nice guy who loves movies. I think he loves movies more than nearly anyone I know. Don't think I'd see 'em if I couldn't see 'em, ya know? The Grinch, well as you can imagine, the grinch loves to hate all the movies she's seen. Many of the filmgoers are older and this little white head is no exception. This twin to Pauline Kael seems to enjoy nothing more than huffing about the latest film that has disappointed her.
They all float in and out of my periphery as the movies open and close and I move from cinema house to cinema house. I ran into each of these characters during my latest gorge of flicks that incluced AMERICAN PASSPORT and AN IDEAL HUSBAND.
AN IDEAL HUSBAND is a period piece that stars three babes: Minnie Driver, Cate Blanchett, and Julianne Moore who show not a *HINT* OF SKIN. So if that's what you are going for, stop here. It's a play by the lively wit Oscar Wilde and I must confess, it is very well done. It's a morality play where all find their skeletons biting them in the ass.
The zingers and barbed remarks fly fast and furious keeping this heavy bird afloat.
In the official SIFF catalogue it's listed as a "delicious romantic comedy", erm yeah right, whatever...
The players are lying, deceitful, corrupt, disrespectful and wholly dishonest. At one point Everett's character goes for the gold, trying to get into the pants of his best friends WIFE & SISTER!!! Can't say I blame him. Overall it's fun but it's a damn far cry from 'delicious'. I'd have to see at least one starlet's nipple to call it that.
AMERICAN PASSPORT is a documentary by REED PAGET chronicalling his intrepid flights from one war torn zone of the world to the next. During the film it's easy to figure the direction he's headed in, showing the travesty of the US Defense Industry, but the further the film goes the more confused and unfocussed it gets until near the end PAGET states "I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE HELL SIDE TO BE ON." Other than the obvious "war is hell" I'm not too sure what he's shooting for. Paget chronicles the *bloody* Tienamen massacre, the Cambodian killing fields (noting that it's now 'The Land of One Legged Men'), Nicaragua, the Contras (who's slogan is stated to be 'we'll shoot you in the head'), the Panama invasion (noting that it's design was to create a more favorable treaty for the U.S. in terms of the canal), South AFrica, Germany - watching the wall come down, and Kuwait. Along the way he finds kindred spirits of sorts in... *PATTI DUPONT*! (don't ask me what that means for Paget) Yes, she's related, GO CRAZY WITH THAT ONE!
This is what I thought was the most interesting aspect of the film that gets glossed over... A Dupont running around chronicalling the goings on of the massacres of the defense/oil industries... Hrm...
Paget doesn't go much into it other than that they "eventually get intimate" whateverthe hell that means. She dumps the gig as soon as it gets overtly oil related - Read: Kuwait.
Rather than turning the camera inward he keeps it focussed further afield until the end when he gets kicked off the Statue of Libety for filming without a permit - go figure. It's a fun romp, not sure what the hell else to take from it.
mongo
