God Bless America

A gentle man is tired of how rude and crude American has become. When Frank (Joel Murray) is told he has a tumor, he decides to take a last stand against those crude Americans, such as reality show stars, people who cell/text during movies, trash talk show hosts, etc. and goes on a cross country road trip with his gun. Along the way he finds he has a hanger-on, the teen Roxy (Tara Lynne Barr) who shares his attitude. At first they kill one person here and there who have personally offended Frank, but soon it becomes scapegoating rude people they see in the news.  Frank's moral "standards" become more lax and he finds it easier to kill others for offenses to society. It seems everyone's behavior can have some facet that Frank and especially Roxy finds objectionable. Although Frank still comes off as a nice guy and often admonishes Roxy on not going too far, the duo become seen in the media as Bonnie and Clyde types.

Past seven days

I saw two interesting documentaries this week. The first was David Wants to Fly. A David Lynch fan found out he was seriously into transcendental yoga and wanted to find out more about it--which he certainly did! Conan O'Brien Can't Stop certainly shows that--the comedy talk show host can't seem to shut off his need for attention, and the word "addiction" is actually brought up in one of the special features on this DVD. Otherwise, a broken DVD player has seriously cramped my style lately, driving me to my PC which is not a prime viewing space. I've also watched some older TV shows on DVD, continuing with the sketch comedy show The State, Veronica Mars, and some old TV I had recorded on VHS--Remember WENN (only bootleg copies available on DVD) and Whose Line is it Anyway?, the improv comedy show hosted by Drew Carey (which is the American version of a long-running British hit).

Conan O’Brien Can't Stop
David Wants to Fly
The Eagle
North & South (BBC miniseries)

Bernie

Bernie is a new film with a pretty good performance by Jack Black, who is probably equally famous now for being a comic musician as well as a comic actor.  Although this film has some ironically comic moments and black humor due to the content of its plot, Black's performance is played as straight drama.

Based on a real life story, Black plays Bernie, a Southern mortician with such a a gentle and generous friendly manner that he is beloved around town.  This is personified by several talking heads of real citizens who are interviewed in the film, speaking about the event the film is recounting--the murder by Bernie of a widow whom he befriended.

Marjorie, the widow, is known as the meanest woman in town.  She is played here by Shirley MacLaine, an actress who has played this type of woman pretty well.  Bernie, as he has done with many other grieving widows, helps soothe Marge after the death of her husband, following up several times afterwards even despite her curt attitude towards him.  She warms to Bernie, and their relationship is increasingly dependent upon each other--she values his opinions in her personal matters, he welcomes the lavishness of gifts she bestows on him.  But--as her gifts get more lavish, so do her demands, so much so that one day, out of the blue it seems, Bernie picks up a gun and shoots her four times, killing her.

This brings the district attorney onto the case (played a little greasily by Matthew McConnaughey).  He seems to be the only one able to see beyond the town's love of Bernie to the undeniable facts of the killing, which is also supported by Bernie's confession.  Everyone else either disbelieves the facts or repudiates the confession and sticks by Bernie.  Or is the district attorney trying to hammer through this case to increase his political power?  It is touch and go as he has to move the trial to another city, not to protect the defendant as is often the case, but to protect the state.

Meet: Barbara Vancheri

Meet Barbara Vancheri, film critic and reporter for the Pittsburgh Gazette.

I ran across Barbara's reporting and film blog, Mad About the Movies, in a news alert.  I like that her reporting covers a range of movies from blockbusters to smaller films or those that might fall in between, and especially that she always points out when a film has a Pittsburgh connection, whether it was filmed there or if the story takes place there or if an artist grew up in the area.  Recently she reported about the renovation of a local theater and a couple of new indie films.

Her columns also appear to be syndicated to other papers, so her work is not just shown to a local audience.

Here is her bio from the Pittsburgh Gazette website:

Pittsburgh native Barbara Vancheri learned to love the movies at the Bellevue and North Hills theaters, McKnight Cinemas and Wexford Drive-In, now all fodder for a "Things That Aren't There Anymore" documentary. A journalism graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, she worked at newspapers in Ashtabula and Columbus, Ohio, Beaver County and Rochester, N.Y., before joining the Post-Gazette in 1984 as a feature writer. She has chronicled a wide range of subjects, from the recovery of two brothers badly burned in a fire and Fred Rogers' puppet diplomacy to the end of "Seinfeld," the opening and closing of local movie houses and Pittsburghers with Hollywood connections. She previewed Universal Studios theme park in Florida before its 1990 opening and has reported on the Academy Awards from the fabled red carpet and the independent-minded Spirit Awards from a tent at Santa Monica Beach. Vancheri also attends the Toronto International Film Festival and keeps readers apprised about Pittsburgh's many homegrown film festivals.In 2005, Vancheri was named movie editor of the Post-Gazette.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

I'm excited that Wes Anderson has a new film coming out, Moonrise Kingdom. From what I've read and seen so far it has all the sensibilities of an Anderson flm and I don't think his fans will be disappointed. Much as summer blockbusters tend to be critic-proof, I think this film will be critic-proof for the Anderson fanbase.

I recall when screening Fantastic Mr. Fox a couple years ago, I noticed this film seemed to have hit the beloved 18-34 male audience squarely on the nose. I would say half the audience fell into this group. Although I don't think this film was in any way marketed to children, despite being animated with talking animals and based on a Roald Dahl book, there were a few kids present. Like many of Wes Anderson's films, themes of childhood are present but his films are for the most part not "for" children.  Anyway, this movie was fantastic wacky fun and included story, music and visuals in a perfect trifecta that Anderson is so good at. I'm not saying you have to be a Wes Anderson fan, but I think viewers do need a certain openmindedness to something out of the ordinary or quirky.