January 25, 2010

Repo Men – Rip-off, or inevitable idea?

Jude Law and Forest Whitaker star in a film called “Repo Men,” which opens April 2, and has been causing a lot of people to wonder where they’re heard this all before.

The first general assumption is that it’s a remake of the 1984 Alex Cox film “Repo Man,” a new wave/punk classic featuring Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton as repo men living lives of druggy abandon while the music of Iggy Pop, Circle Jerks and Fear plays in the background. If you’ve never seen it, put it on your Netflix now – it’s a film with addictive energy that makes Emilio’s descent into Mighty Ducks territory all the sadder.

Turns out, though, that “Repo Men” has nothing to do with that film, but is actually a dystopian-future film about a society where artificial human organs are for sale – and, if you don’t pay your bill, for automatic repossession. So while fans of the first film breathed easy, the plot sounds very similar to that of “Repo: The Genetic Opera,” a garish emo-punk opera released last year that achieved semi-cult-hit status, and which I can’t describe in full because I spent nearly three hours after watching it scratching at my eyes and ears with the tenacity of a mountain lion clawing at a dead gazelle trying to remove its sights and sounds from my mind. It was fucking ghastly, like someone took every silly, messed-up idea they had since they were six and threw it up on a movie screen. Consider this: It co-stars Paul Sorvino; Sarah Brightman, the best-selling soprano of all time; and Paris Hilton. Is there any way the three of them make sense together in one project?

After seeing it, the answer is clearly: no.

But while fans of that movie are gearing up the “irate” meter, for me, “Repo Men” is a clear throwback to a classic Monty Python sketch from their film “The Meaning of Life,” a movie the Pythons have described as their least favorite for the subdued creative inspiration that went into making it, but which I find equal to their earlier outlings. There’s a scene in the film called “Live Organ Transplants,” which features John Cleese and Michael Palin ringing a man’s doorbell to inquire, “Can we have your liver?” They then establish that the man has a liver donor’s card – and do their nasty repo business. It’s a classic scene – and remarkably similar (minus its comedy) to the plot of “Repo Men.”

So was “Repo Men” ripped off? Or with organ black markets a reality in certain countries and economic upheaval a societal constant, is it simply one of those creative notions that has a certain inevitability?

Either way, it’s interesting to see who the film will piss off most. Stay tuned – it’s currently scheduled to hit theaters April 2.

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December 7, 2009

Ten Mesmerizing Images from “Gimme Shelter,” the legendary documentary about the tragic Rolling Stones show at the Altamont Speedway

Yesterday was the fortieth anniversary of the Altamont Speedway Free Festival, the free concert headlined by the Rolling Stones on December 6, 1969 that ended with the fatal stabbing of an 18-year-old black man named Meredith Hunter by a member of the Hells Angels.

I interviewed Ethan Russell, the official Stones photographer for that tour and author of a book about it called “Let It Bleed,” and Albert Maysles, co-director of the infamous documentary about the show, “Gimme Shelter,” (which was just released on Blu-Ray DVD) for an article for yesterday’s New York Post.

Mick Jagger at Altamont, from the film "GIMME SHELTER." Courtesy of the Criterion Collection.

Mick Jagger at Altamont, from the film “GIMME SHELTER.” Courtesy of the Criterion Collection.

The article deals with both the events of the show itself and its eventual impact, as many regard it, having come less than four months after the successful peace and love fest Woodstock, as the end of the sixties — a status I feel, having recently read the riveting book “Helter Skelter,” that it shares at least equally with the Manson murders.

In viewing “Gimme Shelter” for the first time in years, I was struck by how portentous many of the film’s images were. The more you learn about that day, the more the tragedy seemed inevitable, and the more you actually see of the day, the more the myth of the sixties is exposed as an idealism that simply could never have stood the test of time.

Here’s my list of ten remarkable images from the film, along with the times they appear, that reveal more than meets the eye. I’ve left out some of the obvious ones, like the stabbing of Meredith Hunter or the numerous pool cue beating scenes. In fact, the violence during the sets by the Stones and the Jefferson Airplane contained too many incredible images, I felt, to single out. The images included here are less obvious, but no less powerful. They don’t bash you over the head with meaning – they’re more subtle – but within that subtlety they say something profound about the event, the participants, and the nature of the times.

1. Mick Jagger’s self-revelation – 15:50-16:20
In a press conference about the upcoming concert, a female reporter riffs on the Stones’ hit “Satisfaction” by asking Mick if he’s any more satisfied in his life, and Jagger responds “do you mean sexually, or philosophically?” He then says, to the amusement of the assembled media, that he’s “sexually satisfied, and philosophically trying.” The edit then quickly cuts to Jagger, post-Altamont – now older, wiser, and, presumably, philisophically scarred – who solemnly blurts out, “rubbish.” The moment is fleeting, but from someone as iconic (even then) as Mick Jagger, it’s a fairly startling bit of sincerity — a true rock legend, the ultimate celebrity, calling himself out on his own bullshit.

Gimme Shelter_image2

Mick Jagger at Altamont, from the film “GIMME SHELTER.” Courtesy of the Criterion Collection.

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November 20, 2009

CHARLES BUKOWSKI – KEEPIN’ IT A BIT TOO REAL

The Lost In A Supermarket web site turned me on to this awesome clip from a 1977 B-movie called Supervan. It’s a wet T-shirt that couldn’t look and sound more authentically seventies if Richard Dawson came out to give the girls a kiss while Ted Nugent played “Wang Dang Sweet Poontang” in the background. But the best part is the pervy old dude in the knarly half-shirt sweating all over one of the young lovelies at the end. Yup, it’s none other than the booze-soaked vagabond Charles Bulowski, getting his sleazy horndog on. Hey, if this is what it takes to be a legendary writer – where can I pick up my half-shirt?

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