Ghostdeini interview

Much respect god.  This is some Based shit.

01.26

The Cameraman (Buster Keaton and Edward Sedgwick, 1928)

Excerpted from a conversation on my film board:

When I read sadistic, I was thinking this was gonna be a barrage of physical torment a la Sherlock Jr., but yeah, it's pretty fucking cruel in its casual attitude toward this guy getting constantly shit on. Keaton is awesome. I actually think the shot with the monkey on the beach would've been a perfect ending, despite generally liking happy endings a lot more than the average person, but I think the ending as it is does a good job of wrapping things up optimistically while being true to the kind of pathetic nature of the character. I also didn't think at all about how much I was liking it until close to the end, which almost never happens and probably testifies to how involved I was.  Why do silent films scores insist on being so fucking insufferable though?  If I was a serial killer I think I'd go after whoever makes those.

01.25

Manual of Arms (Hollis Frampton, 1966)

Kind of reminds me of those early Vertov newsreels where his subjects don't really understand the difference between a still camera and a movie camera.  Awesome lighting too.

01.24

Out of Sight (Steven Soderbergh, 1998)

Soderbergh's films are so consistently inconsequential in the same unique way it's like nothing else.  This one's a bit dull, but I came around by the end.  Elmore Leonard's dialogue rubs me somewhat the wrong way; watching this or Be Cool I can see why some people are so aggravated by Tarantino as a writer.

01.22

L'eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962)

When the music shifted dramatically from lighthearted pop to brooding instrumental during the titles I was afraid I was fully over Antonioni (I loved the first three I saw from him but was less enthusiastic about the subsequent two), but I did actually get pretty into it after awhile.  For some reason I thought this was those two wandering around through modernist architecture for two hours, but there's actually not much (physical) wandering or modernist architecture, though it's not devoid of either.  It's actually a lot more like La notte than L'avventura.  There are three scenes that stand out as particularly good: the scene where they play Africans (one of the areas Antonioni shines most is when he's in full-out nutty mode, which is probably why I prefer Zabriskie Point and Blowout to his Italian work), the scene at the air club (the other area Antonioni shines most is when he's capturing whatever emotion he captures here, which I'm not sure I know a word for but it's one I associate with traveling by car), and of course the ending (I especially like the shot that tracks the blonde and you think it's back to Vitti until she turns and it's just a random person).  This is probably the most mature of Antonioni's trilogy in a lot of ways (or boldest as Scorsese says), but I'll take L'avventura any day.

01.21

Tical (Method Man, 1994)

Dig it, but like most Wu projects, it'll probably improve if I listen to it another few times.  There were fewer times the lyrics struck me as truly inspired compared to the next few solo albums, but the beats are obviously there.  Release Yo Delf is such a fucking banger.  I was also surprised how much of the album was performed outside his usual flow, he seemed to adopt that Ol Dirty style a lot.  Boy Meth kills Chef on their dueling track, I expected better from Raekwon.

Choice cuts: What the Blood Clot, Sub Crazy, Release Yo Delf

01.19

Black Coffee (Deke Monopoly, 2014)

Fucking dope.  Deke/Rene has improved as a rapper by leaps and bounds, and the production is consistently strong.  Plush Crew and Galaxykat have some great features, with Tone Katsu and Young Cookie probably as the highlights.  Rene also continues to make pretty stellar use of instrumental tracks.

Choice cuts: Alcoholic Dad, Drone Whisperer, Black Coffee

01.17

Day for Night (François Truffaut, 1973) - theatrical

Seems like it's mostly about love and filmmaking.  I didn't find anything novel or strikingly insightful about the love stuff, and the filmmaking...ehhh, it's just not a very interesting topic generally.  Of course I'm always down to watch something about Herzog's behind-the-scenes adventures or where a director talks about her process directly but the mundane stuff doesn't do it for me.  I tend to enjoy ensemble movies though so I think that added to the experience.  Truffaut's dreams are the best part.  Also I probably haven't seen enough to say but what happened to him?  His first three movies are some of the most vibrant of the French new wave but this is totally bland, as is Fahrenheit 451.

Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas, 1996) - theatrical

Now this is nothing if not vibrant.  It's definitely a directional film, but it's put together as if it were much more aimless.  It almost got me excited about film again but not to the extent that Huillet/Straub did a year or so ago.  Maggie Cheung seems like the coolest person ever.

01.17

The Tiger of Eschnapur / The Indian Tomb (Fritz Lang, 1959)

Yo, there is nothing else like a Fritz Lang epic.  What's funny is it seems like he didn't progress at all during his twenty-plus-year career making small-scale noirs and stuff in Hollywood -- when he returns to this kind of material there seems to be no difference in his approach between the late 50s and the early 20s except the addition of color and the absence of intertitles.  Which is fine by me and lends the whole thing a weird anachronistic vibe.  It's actually a pretty small film compared to Die Nibelungen or Metropolis but it's no less lavish, and I gotta especially big-up the costume designer, that aspect was consistently out of this world.  It took me awhile to get in synch with the bizarre tone but once I did I was definitely lost in the magic.

01.16

Blood on the Moon (Robert Wise, 1948)

Pretty bland in most respects despite the awesome title, but Musuraca kills it on the photography front.  I also really dig some of the costuming and set dressing.  And yeeah, more Mitchum!

01.10

The Realness (Cormega, 2001)

Ooh, this is the worst album I've heard in a long time.  There are one and a half riffs on I Used to Love HER, already one of the more obnoxious songs out there, but it doesn't add anything to it, it just says the same thing using different words.  The minute of Stillmatic Nas devotes to Mega crushes the one plus tracks on here shooting back.  But I mean that's not the important part, the main thing is it's just such stale and generic crime rap, where much of the time you can pin down exactly what's being ripped off.  Fallen Soldier is the only cut that seems remotely personal, and I don't want to sound like a dick, but we've all heard that shit before, and it's not like it's particularly touching or anything in this iteration.  When Tupac or Nas does it you actually feel their losses.  Cormega's a competent rapper but an incredibly uncreative writer.

Choice cuts: Thun & Kicko, Unforgiven, Rap's A Hustle

01.09

Down by Law (MC Shan, 1987)

Shan's far from one of hip-hop's MVPs and I think he knows that as well as anyone, but this makes for a better album than many of those by much more talented MCs because it's coming from an unusual place of one man versus the world in the aftermath of the BDP beef.  Even through the braggadocio tracks there are undertones of self-loathing, which rise to the surface now and then when Shan deals with the whole thing directly.  And 80s rap is generally more exciting than the more convoluted stuff that developed subsequently.

Choice cuts: Jane Stop This Crazy Thing, Down by Law, Another One to Get Jealous Of

01.07

Moment of Truth (Gang Starr, 1998)

I was definitely hearing the formulas, but I'm not so sure about the updates.  One of the fun things about their previous three albums was watching their creative incline, but that seems to have plateaud here.  Except for The Mall, I would never in a million years put my money on Gang Starr making a song about shopping and it's fucking awesome.  I also dig the trilogy of songs about Guru's gun arrest or whatever.  The features are fantastic and add a lot to the album, especially MOP, Freddie Foxxx, G-Dep, and of course Deck.  Overall it was a pleasant return to hip hop for me.  Gang Starr is comforting in the same way studio oaters are: there's a lot of filler, but you always know what you're getting into and there are some brilliant moments.

Choice cuts: Above the Clouds, The Rep Grows Bigga, The Mall

The Locket (John Brahm, 1946)

This is a very clever little movie, nicely directed, with a great structure of nested flashbacks.  I love that it doesn't ever leave the flashbacks until they're over too, that feels much purer to me in some way than going back and forth.  It even made me forget for awhile that it was Code-era and had to have a stupid ending.  This is also the first Bob Mitchum movie I've seen in I think more than a year, and it reminded me what a mistake that was.  I can see why this too has the following it does, but I don't think it's quite up my alley, mostly because the story doesn't particularly appeal to me.

01.06

Office Space (Mike Judge, 1998)

Kind of like Fight Club, but whereas Fight Club feels huge this feels like one of the smallest movies I've seen.  It's solid in a one-good-joke-every-five-minutes kind of way.  I can see why it has the following but I'm not quite so enamored.

01.03-05

The Lord of the Rings (Peter Jackson, 2001-2003) - rewatch

I resolved to watch more interesting movies this year after realizing I hadn't strayed much from my comfort zone in 2013.  Rewatching these middle school favorites seems like a pretty poor way to kick things off, but I had a strong urge after seeing The Hobbit 2.  Anyhow, these mostly hold up, especially that sense of wonder, at least in the first two.  The third one has a lot of padding that kind of detracts from that (I'm sure it didn't help that I was watching the extended additions).  As much as I enjoyed watching these again I can't help but feel that we shouldn't have to wait years between projects on such a scale and with such engrossing mythology.  It doesn't seem terribly hard to write, and I'd love to like sit down every week and watch another chapter of this sort of thing.  Game of Thrones and to a lesser extent Adventure Time have the right idea, but those are just nine hours a year and eleven minutes a week respectively.  I know money's a big part of the problem, but I'd be down for animation too.  It's just crazy to me that the market's flooded with so much crap and something like this only comes around once a generation.

01.02

Inside Llewyn Davis (Ethan and Joel Coen, 2013) - theatrical

The Coen's most grounded film, from what I've seen, and also the one that feels most tailor-made to my sensibilities.  It also hits pretty close to home for me as someone who just left school with no foreseeable direction in his life.  The road trip part is my favorite, especially that scene with the cop.  Probably the best movie I've seen from 2013 so far.

01.01

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra, 1939)

This is probably the most famous classic I hadn't seen.  It's heart's in the right place, but it's one of those ones I knew enough about that actually seeing it didn't really add to my impression.  I do like how it starts and ends in the thick of the action.  I was also surprised how little actually happens given its runtime.  The best part is when he runs around punching people.

12.30

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Peter Jackson, 2013) - theatrical

This is a barrel of fun, no pun intended.  I don't think the filmmakers extended the book into a trilogy for even slightly noble reasons, but I think they did a great job of it.  The whole sequence in Erebor is pretty great, and while I liked Bard's portrayal in the book, which suggested that such insignificant characters can alter the course of history, it's cool to see him more fleshed out here.  And of course the barrel scene.