celebrities

54 #Netflix365

Posted on by Sean Gatcomb

In the Seventies disco was king.  The premiere club in New York was Studio 54.  Steve Rubell was the owner.  His idea of a club was to be as exclusive as possible, but also to be able to have all walks of life have the opportunity to dance, drug, and sex; a plummer has the chance to dance with a prince (as long as they were beautiful).  Rubell had a dream to build a club that rivaled the ribaldry, raunchiness and debauchery of a Roman gala.  54, the movie is seen through the eyes of a young busboy, Ryan Phillippe.  The busboy had dreams of meeting a famous soap star, falling in love and living happily ever after.  Parts of his dream come true and others are tarnished with harsh reality.

54 has great characters but the story is kind of choppy.  If you like disco there are some great mixes and performances.  54 has a decent production value.  Mike Myers plays the dramatic lead of Steve Rubell.  Not typical of Myers (SNL, Austin Powers) he gives a decent performance.  Other notables include: Selma Hayek, Neve Campbell and Breckin Meyer.

What are you watching?

#SeanSpeak

God Bless America #Netflix365

Posted on by Sean Gatcomb

The description of the movie God Bless America is as advertised:  “Possibly terminal Frank, and a 16 year old accomplice  are on a mission to rid the society of its most repellent citizens”.  Depressed Frank finds out he has a brain tumor.  Hopeless from his medical news, his wife making him leave his home, and losing his job (for being creepy) Frank is sickened by reality television.  It starts off with fantasy, he imagines going to the home of a teenage couple that has been made famous for having their teenage pregnancy televised to the world and the fame that the teens feed off of.  Next step is tracking down a spoiled “sweet 16” who was up set because she got the wrong Mercedes.  His plan to lock her in her car and light it on fire fails, so he just shoots her.  Frank then meets “Roxy” who shares his opinion of society and the spoils of putting “regular” people on a pedestal.  A couple of the lines in the movie sum it up well: “Do you think I’m attractive?” “I am not a pedophile.” “So we’re platonic spree killers?” “Ya, that’s it.”

Directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, to say that this is a satire, in my opinion is not totally correct.  It is a statement of how Bobcat, and others, feel about the state of society.  In my opinion, your average satire, would subtly argue its point.  God Bless America is anything but subtle.  You know exactly why Frank and Roxy are doing what they are doing, including up to the climax of the movie when Frank gives a monologue manifesto.  I had not heard of this movie before finding it on Netflix instant streaming.  The acting by Joel Murray as Frank is excellent.  If you are not familiar with his name, look him up and you will recognize him, he has been in a number of sitcoms and movies.  The direction and production are also great.  This was a surprise gem of a film.

What are you watching?

#SeanSpeak

The Killer Inside Me #Netflix365

Posted on by Sean Gatcomb

The Killer Inside Me is set in the 1950’s.  Casey Affleck stars as a deputy sheriff.  The deputy is very mild-mannered and does not even carry a gun, which seems strange for anyone in Texas to not carry a gun, he does wear a cowboy hat though.  The deputy is sent to speak with a woman presumed to be a prostitute at her home (Jessica Alba).  For whatever reason the prostitute (Jessica Alba) did not like what the deputy had to say, so she slapped him.  The deputy appeared shocked and seemed torn on what to do as a gentleman and as a deputy.  It appeared that he was just going to leave, but then there is a sudden switch in the deputy’s demeanor, he then rushes toward the prostitute (Jessica Alba) throws her on the bed pulls down her panties and takes off his belt and gives her a whoopin.  So he is pissed and she is crying and another switch goes off, they both like it.

This begins the brutal relationship that the deputy and prostitute (Jessica Alba) had until a scam is hatched to rob and kill one of the richer people from town.  The deputy turns the scam onto both the rich dude and the prostitute (Jessica Alba) and kills them both.  You can see by the deputy’s actions that he has transformed into something different, the movie does provide flashbacks to help explain the deputy’s change in attitude.  As the deputy continues to transform, everyone around him notices, and even though they can not prove anything, they are suspicious, and the deputy, even though he tries very hard to cover his tracks, gets to a point where he does not care.  The movie has to be set in a time before forensic science, modern techniques could have solved this case before the first commercial (if it were actually on CSI), this does not detract from the movie.  The clothing and cars match the period well enough to not even think that there was indoor plumbing let alone DNA testing.

The movie had a good story, a great cast and a decent production value.  The movie is often brutal, in a blatantly violent way and a psycho-sexual way.  If you are in the mood for a dark mystery/drama and are into spanking, you should find this movie entertaining.

What are you watching?

#SeanSpeak

Tapeheads #Netflix365

Posted on by Sean Gatcomb

This week I heard John Cusack on the Howard Stern Show  (which was a great interview, surprised he has not been on prior to this week?) speaking about his new movie The Raven, a fictional Edgar Allen Poe adventure.  Cusack is one of my favorite actors (Say Anything, Grosse Pointe Blank, One Crazy Summer, Better Off Dead, and many many others).  Today I watched Tapeheads with Cusack and Tim Robbins (Shawshank Redemption).  The movie centers around the duo of wanna be film/video makers trying to get into a business that they feel that they could be great in but is hard to get into.  Their first and second and third chance they get is to create music videos on “spec” which means for free until they get a big break.  The film is dated but is fitting for an ’80’s type movie.  Overall this is an entertaining movie that has some very funny and imaginative scenes (Roscoe’s Chicken commercial)

If you have only heard of a pencil thin mustache in song and want to see a great example check out Tapeheads and Cusack with a mighty fine stache.  What are you watching?

#SeanSpeak

Young Adult #Netflix365

Posted on by Sean Gatcomb

“You can’t go back home to your family, back home to your childhood … back home to a young man’s dreams of glory and of fame … back home to places in the country, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time – back home to the escapes of Time and Memory.” Thomas Wolfe

Charlize Theron figured this out in the movie Young Adult that also contains a great performance by Patten Oswalt.  A 37 year old writer goes home, partly to regain her youth and partly as a cry for help.  Depression and alcohol contribute to the writers folly of returning her home town where some things changed and some things remained the same.  For a large part of the film you hate the writer because she was the type that never had to try and had everything handed to her because of her looks and popularity.  There is a point when this changes, she is in a book store trying to get one of the books that she has written.  The clerk states that they have their own special place, a clearance table, the writer begins to autograph the books and the clerk states that the books will be worthless to the store because now they could not be returned for a refund from the publisher.  So I guess that would have been rock bottom for most people.

Finally after a few days of not so great movies I was fortunate enough to watch Young Adult on DVD.

What are you watching?

#Sean Speak

Pi #Netflix365

Posted on by Sean Gatcomb

I hope it is not too obvious of a pick on March 14, the movie .  This is a movie about a mans obsession with numbers.  On face value there are a couple of factions trying to get knowledge that Max has inside his head.  One side wants to use Max’s numbers for greed the other believes that Max has what could be the “name of God” in a numerical sequence.  Underneath this could all be made up by Max because he is absolutely crazy.  The move created by Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan) is in a cinema verite style in black and white with crazy camera angles.  A huge bright spot for the movie was the score and soundtrack, very intense and appropriate.

Happy Pi Day

 

What are you watching?

 

#Sean Speak