Tuesday, March 28, 2006

I'm Swede on the Swedes

Michael Haneke is such a master! Thanks to Dani for recommending Code Unknown. I still think Cache takes this theme a step farther but I really enjoyed Code Unknown. I'm sure this isn't the first time it's garnered this comparison (in fact someone said this on the imdb board), but it really does put Oscar stealer Crash to shame. It's a much more subtle exploration of race and class. And then I looked up Haneke and saw that he also directed the Piano Teacher, one of the gnarliest and most thought-provoking movies I have seen in years. I was so intrigued by the Piano Teacher that I later read the book, and it sucked. I have even more admiration for someone who can take a crappy book and turn it into a good movie. And Haneke adapted it from the novel! Genius!

I also watched Together recently (thanks to a loan from J. Greenburg, who doesn't want me to be so down on Moodysson). While ultimately heart-warming and enjoyable, I'm surprised this filmarker has gotten so much praise, especially from the likes of Bergman. It's crazy to compare this to grimness of Liliya 4-ever or the violent pornography of A Hole In My Heart, but this movie does have a strong misanthropic streak running beneath its cute exterior. But I did like it. I love the Swedes, what can I say?

David Cronenburg was recently on Fresh Air and the interview reminded me of why I like him so much. I netflixed the Fly to watch again soon. And I'll go ahead and take a controversial position that his Crash was better than the Oscar winner! I looked it up on imdb as I was writing this and it sure is an unloved film!! And this from a database where fucking Forrest Gump gets like 29 stars from people. Even the viewer review is bad.

21 comments:

DB said...

I'll go on record giving a thumbs-up to "Crash"...Cronenberg's version, not that other bullshit.

Anonymous said...

Nice to see other people hated winner Crash...never saw loser Crash, but now I will.

-- Patrone

Anonymous said...

Why did they re-do a movie that was just done in 1996? I don't get that. Like when they re-did "Shall We Dance". The Japanese version was great and they destroyed that movie with J-Lo and Richard Gere. Is it because people are afraid to read sub-titles?

Stephen Glass said...

I'd worry about IMDB ratings not just in the instance of "Gump" but the fact that on there "The Shawshank Redemption" settles in, when the numbers are crunched, as the second best film of ALL TIME -- yes, it's a well-made and deeply satisying movie, but take a friggin' deep breath, folks.
I should say, rather than ballot box-stuffing on the usual nerd ur-classics, the top 250 list is pretty classy.
But No. 3 is a better movie than No. 1.

Stephen Glass said...

And no, in my opinion, you're not going out on a limb by saying "Crash" was better than "Crash." And I have a feeling I'm not going too far out on a similar limb thinking "Kicking and Screaming" was also better than "Kicking and Screaming."

beckler said...

Kicking and Screaming was waayyyy better than Kicking and Screaming. oops on second thought, I'm thinking of
Flirting with Disaster, which I eternally mix up with Kicking and Screaming for some reason. I saw Kicking and Screaming, but not Kicking and Screaming. And speaking of Noah Baumbach did anyone know that the masturbating kid from the squid and the whale is pheobe cates and kevin klein's kid? does anyone care?

beckler said...

hey, steven glass, email me at heckasac@yahoo.com maybe i can jumpstart my interviews by interviewing one of my more mysterious commenters, as long as you're willing to shed your prevaricating psuedonym

ACK said...

Ok, I am confused. I thought the new Crash was a re-make of the 1996 Crash, but Wingnutamy just corrected me.

beckler said...

The new Crash is sorely (heh heh) lacking in scar fucking. And no, I did not mean to type star.

Anonymous said...

> Why did they re-do a movie that was
> just done in 1996? I don't get that.

Ummmm...they didn't. The real "Crash" (1996) is adapted from JG Ballard's novel exploring autoeroticism. "Autoeroticism" as in car crash fetish. Who here can say they've never gotten a boner while passing up the sight of a mangled driver trapped in their even more mangled AMC Pacer? C'mon, admit it...

President,
Sacramento Appreciation Society of Sacramento

Stephen Glass said...

Yes, I did actually know that the mastubating kid (eyw) from "The Squid and the Whale" was Kline and Cates' kid, but only thanks to listening Noah Bambauch him on "Fresh Air." That Terry Gross is a deep well of information, when not getting snapped at by Bill O'Reilly or Gene Simmons. Bambauch also played one of the guys in the famous "Lucyfucker/cowfucker scene" in "Kicking and Screaming" (not "Kicking and Screaming," mind you. Y'know, the version of what the "Squid" characters would be like 10 years later when they went to Vassar.

Alice said...

i haven't seen kicking and screaming but now i want to. a couple friends of mine went to vassar and they had some really nutz stories about their fellow undergrads. i've met several of them and they are all really intense people. one of 'em, however, took a photo class at my school over summer and i got to help her with her "work." her final project was pictures of her ass in tight jeans, unmounted and nailed to a piece of plywood. i have no idea what she was "trying to say" with that piece but i do know she had a coke habit. oh, and all the dudez at vassar supposedly wanted to get down her pants

Stephen Glass said...

Man, sounds like I was missing out when i rejected Vassar's plea for me to enroll there and instead went to Humboldt State.

beckler said...

I know I was all like uh-uh I'm going to sac state due to my love of hornets. Little did I know that the classes weren't taught by monstrous hornet/man combo creatures but that the hornet is merely the mascot. By then it was too late. I had been stung. By a love of learning. Did you know some people call hornets meat bees?

Stephen Glass said...

Yeah, I did three semesters at 6000 J Street way, way back and was definitely disappointed by the lack of stinging insects. Defintely no buzz, as they say. So I got out before I was "stung." Meat bees?

Anonymous said...

I went to high school near Vassar and went to quite a few shows there. Dead Milkmen, Fishbone and so on. Lots of good-looking, intimidating womyn for an insecure highschooler to try to impress.
Ed

Alice said...

it was a good place for boys as far as i knew cuz the girl/guy ratio was totally skewed. so, girls would just date whatever guy they could get since there was such a dirth of 'em. that, or they'd hook up with one another. my friend alexa's roommate hooked up with her professor's wife i guess.

Anonymous said...

> so, girls would just date whatever guy
> they could get since there was such a
> dirth of 'em. that, or they'd hook up
> with one another.

ah, kinda like chino or san quentin. is it the same at catholic boys' schools i wonder?

--bishop mahoney

DB said...

The only real hornet at Sac State is Horny the Hornet, and apparently he's just a guy in a hornet costume. For the record, I've seen "Kicking and Screaming" and "Kicking and Screaming", and I greatly prefer "Kicking and Screaming".

Now the real burning question: Which film film is the best? -- "Bad Company" (1925), "Bad Company" (1931), "Bad Company" (1946), "Bad Company" (1972), "Bad Company" (1980), "Bad Company" (1986), "Bad Company" (1992), "Bad Company" (1995), or "Bad Company" (2002)? Please note that this film leaves out the 1992 TV movie "Bad Company", as well as the 2002 live DVD "Bad Company: In Concert - Merchants of Cool".

Stephen Glass said...

Oh, "Bad Company" is clearly the winner of that bunch.

DB said...

I don't know, Glass, I'm actually partial to "Bad Company". I guess it's just a matter of taste.