Art School Confidential

2006 black comedy

Rating: 15/20

Plot: Jerome enrolls in an inner-city art college after high school graduation. He finds that art's a competitive game. He falls for a girl featured in the college brochure, a girl who, luckily for Jerome, does a little nude modeling for the drawing students in John Malkovich's Intro to Drawing class. An arch rivalry forms with another first-year student, Jonah, who seems to be standing in his way romantically and artistically. Meanwhile, a serial killer is on the loose. Oh, snap!

You have to look closely, but there is a brief Charlie Chaplin spotting in this movie.

This is 1/2 of a satirically fun comedy and 1/2 of a really dark satirical downer. Despite some foreshadowing, some dropped hints that things might turn uglier, it was still a little jarring. It forces you to switch the brain on though. So much of this centers on the main character, a straight man in a movie crowded with some more eccentric personalities. I liked the kid who played him, Max Minghella, a guy you almost recognize, then think you're just confusing him with Justin Long or somebody, and then later find out that he was in The Social Network. John Malkovich has a subtly comedic role as a drawing teacher/triangle artist. I enjoy Malkovich in comedies; of course, I think Malkovich actually might think all of his movies are supposed to be comedies. My favorite periphery lunatic is straight from the lunatic fringe, a failed Bukowski-esque artist played by Englishman Jim Broadbent. He's great and gets the best lines--"What are you laughing about, laughing boy?" and "I have to get back to my masturbation," a line followed immediately by The Facts of Life theme song. Despite this being a bit uneven and pretty thematically heavy, I enjoyed this enough to wonder if I really actually liked Zwigoff's Ghost World more than I think I did.

The Gold Rush (again)

1925 movie

Rating: 19/20

Plot: Same as it was the last time I wrote about this movie.

Here's the deal. Friday was a wasteful party day at my school, and my team decided to show the students a movie. It was decided that the team would watch Old Dogs, the classic film featuring the comedic stylings of Robin Williams and John Travolta. I protested mightily, not because I didn't think my students would enjoy Old Dogs, but because I don't really care what my students like and didn't have any interest in watching Old Dogs. My teammates wouldn't listen to me, but I decided to bring in my own movie to show the students in my classroom. "But they'll like Old Dogs. You can't show a silent movie to them." "Yeah, they would like to eat chocolate frosting straight out the can for lunch every day--doesn't mean it's good for them." I gave the good news to my students. They groaned and whined. I told them that I was only doing it because I loved them. They reached for their weapons. I quickly started the movie. I had my students write down their ratings (figured I'd get more honest ones that way), and here's what they had to say. They'd probably better articulate their feelings about The Gold Rush if they had a better writing teacher.

Elizabeth: 17/20. It was good. Funny, interesting.
Harley: 13/20. It had a lot of comedy, but there was just too much. It had romance and little action.
Candice: 10/20. It was OK I guess. It had interesting parts.
Sean: 16/20. Narrated, would've been better if own voices
Kayla: 20/20. Unique
Jasmine: 10/20. It was okay the action wasn't that bad but we could tell it was fake.
Robin: 9/20. It was boring. Well at least to me it was. There were some funny parts here and there.
Morgan: 1/20. A waste of my time, boring. (Morgan later admitted that she rated and wrote that during the opening credits.)
Kris: 5/20. This was moderately humorous movie back in the "20's" but as times change, the hearts (?) of funny does too. It is also has no audio which means there is more showing the audience what happens rather than telling us. Overall it was an OK movie. It was better than it seemed.
James: 15/20. It was funny, and the narrator said different things than they were. (Note: Funny-looking kid.)
T. T. : 15/20. Boring, funny, good but depressing. (I can't even figure out who "T.T." is.)
DeArion: nr. DaArion snuck out of my classroom and didn't watch the movie. He apparently watched Old Dogs somewhere else.
Makaela: 5/20. It is at least a motion picture. It wasn't very interesting to me. (Note: I couldn't figure out what she meant with "It is at least a motion picture." I finally figured out that she was talking about how it was silent but at least the characters were moving.)
Brad: -20/20. (Note: This kid's a doofus. He whined loudest of all before the movie started, put his head down for a lot of the first fourth, and watched the last three-fourths with interest. I even caught him laughing.) Terrible.
Mireya: 18/20. Because you had to imagine what they were saying. It was funny because of the man. I like when the house was going to fall.
Jared: -20/20. It's retarded. It's black and white. (This kid's grade just plummeted.)
Kore: 15/20. It was funny and good. But it was boring.
Bria: 11/20. Boring.
Courtlyn: 2/20. To be honest, I hate black and white movies, and I would of liked the other movie.

I was disappointed. They watched with interest and laughed at the appropriate times. I really thought they were liking this more than they said they did. Oh, well. What should I show them next time? (Must be G or PG.)

Confessions of a Superhero

2007 documentary

Rating: 15/20

Plot: The ups and downs of the lives of four people who dress up as superheroes and walk Hollywood Boulevard to pose for pictures with tourists and collect tips.

Nice objective look at four interesting and, for the most part, likable individuals. There's thankfully no narration, but there is some questionable editing. You get to meet Superman (see poster), a guy who kind of looks like Christopher Reeve, has noticeable sweat stains in the armpit of his suit, makes dioramas in his spare time, and has an obsession with Crystal Gayle. His story takes him (the year hero Reeve dies) to a Superman Festival in Metropolis, a town with lots of crime according to one resident because lots of black people have moved in. He enters a Superhero look-a-like contest and has a nice surprise up his sleeve. His appraisal of his Superman memorabilia collection? Over a million dollars! You get to meet the Hulk, a black wanna-be actor who finally gets his big break in a kung-fu spoof of Game of Death called Finishing the Game, a guy who worries that his bad teeth could keep him from reaching his acting aspirations and who feels like a loser. He wears a mask with a mouth in a perpetual scream that made me laugh. You get to meet the girl-next-door former high school cheerleader and prom queen with some self-esteem issues who made her way to Hollywood to become an actress but wound up as Wonder Woman instead. She's got an agent, she has some auditions, and we see enough of her to think that she might actually have a shot. And then there's Batman, a guy with some serious issues that need to be addressed before he kills a bunch of people. Again, according to him. He's a delusional Batman with a checkered past, a guy who seems to lie quite a bit. At least that's what the Hulk thinks. Batman also says several times that he looks like George Clooney, something that gives him hope that he'll eventually make it. I guess he might from certain angles to a person with severe vision problems. They're essentially panhandlers, but they're lovable panhandlers. Happy in what most sensible people would call their delusions, these underdogs are really easy to like and root for. I can't believe how much I cared about Superman's look-a-like contest, but I really really wanted him to win that thousand bucks. I love a scene where Superman is dumping wads of cash out of his underpants following the arrest of Elmo. (That sentence doesn't seem like it makes complete sense.) There's also footage of a music video that he appears in with a little person. There's lots of great, funny footage, but they're almost moments you feel bad for thinking are funny because you really do feel for these people. Well, maybe not Batman. He just needs some help. Lots to learn in this one though. Superman tells us that Ghostrider doesn't smoke, and we know he's right even when Ghostrider tells him, "I'm made of fire!" Marilyn Monroe informs us that "Orientals" are cheap. We learn that Mr. Incredible and Elmo are a bit too aggressive with tourists. Good stuff.