Slacker # 78 of 101 Great Films

Slacker             

Richard Linklater

               

Slacker is a true Independent film. And one of the first on the 90's indie movement.

Shot on 16mm, then blown up to 35mm for wider release, this gem was the mastermind of a College drop out who just loved movies, just like the great  Jean-Pierre  Melville  & the sometime great Quentin Tarantino.

Linklater  a resident of Austin, Texas, which  he still calls home and  helps run the Film society that he helped create, made this strange, superb, groovy

plotless film.  That's right totally with out plot and it is amazing!

Slacker is basically 24 hours in the life of the city of Austin.

What it does not have in plot it makes up for with a  hysterical script, with  brisk dialog that flies off the screen. Watching the film you would think it was almost all off the cuff but its not,

its all Linklater and it was all worked out in rehearsals, for a film some have called aimless, it has a tight structured form that Linklater never varied from.

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The movie moves thru the streets and characters seamlessly, with close to 90 wired, weird beings moving in and out of focus.                                                            

Linklater, like me, is a  post baby boomer,

We get lumped into boomers-  but we ain’t

We are the vanguard of the Gen X,  a group that somewhat unfairly gets called slackers one reason for this tag, maybe  the several movies that were made with similar themes during the 90s; Clerks, Bottle rocket, Office space and the Coen Brother's The Big Lebowski   

But but the thing I love about this movie it may be about slackers, but it took a group of my brothers and sisters  who were anything but slackers to make this thing!

They had to work their ass off most of the time for nothing but the love of the idea and it paid off

And I’m as proud of this film as if I was a part of it,

and if you like real close I just might be!

Video exhibit for Slacker

Delicatessen # 79 of 101 Great Films

                                                      
                                                                         Delicatessen                                                                      

                                                                             

A Film is at its basic, images and movement; it reaches the senses with sight and sound.

 The Director is the author of a film, their composter of the music, and the conductor of its performance; he must pull the artist and craft folks together with them working as one for a result, that flickers to life on  screen.

 Marc Caro & Jean-Pierre Jeunet  are the composter and conductor of this  wonderful film. A film  full of colors, images, and sounds that are mixed together to create a mesmerizing journey.  

 

Delicatessen  is a one of a kind flim that mixes genres as well as it mixes the senses.

Domininque Pinon as the handyman, has a the perfect face for this film, where his past life as a clown certainly helps here! The rest of the cast is near perfect with the great Jean Claude Dreyfus as the butcher at the top of his game.

Inserting a pet peeve here:

Most reviewers of this film and films  like Delicatessen  call this a post-apocalyptic society-  

Apocalyptic- "pertaining to the imminent end of the world"

so if it’s the imminent end of the world there cannot be a post imminent end of the world!

Anyway,  Delicatessen is set in a strange future world where food is hard to come by, written by Comic book genius Gillies Adrein, he has created  a strange wonderful world that is beautliful  and gross, that is all fun that really will be a feast for your eyes and ears, but maybe not for your stomach!

Broadcast News # 80 of 101 Great Films

Barbara and I watched the 2010 movie “Morning Glory”, last week.

 In a pivotal screen Rachel  McAdams who plays a young producer of a network  morning show, is arguing with Harrison Ford, who plays  the crusty veteran reporter, the two are fighting over  fluff  versus the news, at the end of the scene,  

and this is the key point to Morning Glory

McAdams’ character turns to Ford and says “we’ve had this argument for 20 years and your side lost”

She’s right the “the brainless fluff  won and we all lost.

James L. Brooks

 James L. Brook  one of the producers’ of the great social commentary tv show  The Simpsons produced, wrote and directed  Broadcast news, a wonderful film about the direction Tv news was heading, and his theme was its heading straight towards Morning Glory's of the world.

 The 1985 film has a stellar cast including Holly Hunter, Albert Brooks, and William Hurt.

The whole cast does an amazing job and Brooks handles them with solid direction, letting them all shine without anyone of them outshining the other.

 Brooks, who doesn’t make enough films, has a keen eye when it comes to creating real characrtors, with a touch of  being touched, but not the over doneness of Woody Allen, just enough that makes the charactors interesting and fun.

Sometimes  Brooks slides into a TV slapstick gimmick,  

and that’s ok, maybe Brooks could be tougher on the world of network news,

 god knows they certainly deserve it,

but I’m not sure its in his nature, Brooks cut his teeth on nice,

Mary Tyler Moore, Room 222, Taxi, Rhoda  and the  Andy Griffith show,        

BUT his main story line hits hard with a satirical punch, and sometimes he serves that up spread on top with a little nice-

In one scene, the nincompoop network manager is telling a veteran reporter that he is being laid off,  the old reporter tells the nincompoop in a smooth calm voice, after the manager ask him if there is anything he can do  for him,

“Well, I certainly hope you’ll die soon.”

I’m afraid they didn’t die soon, and they did win. And that’s the way it is

Broadcast news # 80 of 101 Great films