MIFF Blogathon: Day 6 (Tomboys and Film-Noir in Oregon)

This blogathon is an initiative of MIFF for their 60th anniversary year. I am one of six bloggers given the mission of seeing 60 films in 17 days and writing, reporting, reviewing and wrangling my way through the tiredness and hunger to bring the festival experience to your computer.

If you've missed other days just click the "MIFF" tag at the bottom of the entry. I also wrote a dispatch for Trespass Mag on the first four days of the fest.

The Third Man
Dir. Carol Reed
Running Time: 104mins

Carol Reed's masterpiece The Third Man was released two years after his exceptional Odd Man Out, and together the two make a rather stunning double. The chance to see The Third Man, the story of Harry Lime and his mysterious death in a road accident outside his Vienna apartment, on the big screen was far too good to pass up. Even more so when I knew it meant not necessarily having to watch the film with my critical brain on. Having already seen it and thought of it as one of the greatest films ever made, I was able to simply soak in the beautiful Italian locations (yes, even the sewers are beautiful!), the perfect Oscar-winning cinematography by Robert Krasker, the crackling chemistry between all four lead characters, the dazzling looks of Valli and revel in the excitement and thrills of the final 40 minutes, one of the greatest chase sequences ever put to celluloid.

Unlike Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy on day one of the festival, there is no need for me to request my dear readers hail The Third Man as a newly minted masterpiece as it has been hailed as one since the day it won the Palme d'Or in Cannes (or, as it was known in 1949, the "Grand Prize of the Festival"). I can only suggest you watch it (or watch it again) and agree with the masses. A

I Wish I Knew
Dir. Jia Zhangke
Running Time: 138mins

This peculiar film comes from the director of Still Life, which reminds to this one of the two or three greatest films I've ever seen at the Melbourne International Film Festival. Perhaps that's why I keep going to his films - perhaps? it is - but neither of the subsequent Zhang films have been, well, good. While this long, meandering testimonial documentary is certainly better than Useless, I Wish I Knew failed to grab me and resulted in a long series of walkouts. I was never offended or truly annoyed by the film to walk out sooner, but I did have to leave several minutes before the end due to another session. To be honest, I don't think I missed much.

The film follows an unnamed woman as she trudges about the city of Shanghai. As she does nothing of note, we are greeted to lovely footage of citizens of Shanghai going about their daily routine: mahjong, a young child running around looking for a fight to show off his "muscles", shopping for produce at a market. Throughout the movie are dozens or interviews with subjects ranging from the recognisable (Hsiao-hsien Hou for instance) to the not (I'm not sure if they were all supposed to be famous. were they?) as they recall memories about the city of Shanghai. Occasionally these interviews produced some wonderful stories, but others (like one man who talks about moving a sofa lounge? I admit to probably dozing off during that one!) are unfocused and uninteresting.


My favourite interview was Wang Tung/Wang Toon who directed the 1997 film Red Persimmon. The film is interlaced with film clips and locations sequences of Shanghai are gloriously lensed by Ke-Jia's frequent cinematographer Nelson Yu Lik-wai in his trademark colour palate of sea green and smoggy whites. The heavily synthesised score by Giong Lim is a highlight, but eventually becomes repetitious. Like I said, it's hardly offensive enough to my sensibilities, but there lacks any serious bite to really engage. C-

How to Die in Oregon
Dir. Peter Richardson
Running Time: 107mins

To be perfectly honest with you, I'm not sure I am quite ready, willing and able to discuss this documentary about dying with dignity. Peter Richardson's deeply moving How to Die in Oregan follows a few cases of people wanting to die with dignity after contracting debilitating terminal illness, as well the Washington state's proposition to legalise it like it is in Oregon. Richardson mainly follows one case, however, and that's the beautiful Cody Curtis, a mother and wife with liver cancer. After the movie I tweeted this, and it's entirely true:



It knocked me out.

I don't really want to use my blog here to get into a big theological discussion about whether dying with dignity is a basic human right or not (I think it is, ahem), but I honestly don't know how anyone could watch this documentary and not be moved. There's a sequence in the film that shows religious protesters who believe when we die is the matter of God and God alone, but it's probably quite easy for them to say that when they're not the one dealing with crippling disease and pain. Hmmm. A-

Tomboy
Dir. Céline Sciamma
Running Time: 82mins

"Sweet" is the word that I - and I presume many others, too - keep coming back to when deciding what to write about this French childhood comedy, the first film by Céline Sciamma since Water Lilles in 2007. Tomboy follows a young girl, Laure, whose family has recently moved to a new area. She has a younger sister and her mother is pregnant. Laure, as played by the wonderful and touching Zoé Héran, does "the boy thing" - cuts her hair short, wears boys clothes, and actually passes for a boy in the presence of others.

The performances by Héran, Malonn Lévana as sister Jeanne and Sophie Cattani as their mother are uniformly excellent. Héran especially gives a beautiful performance and one that goes deeper than the rather shallow waters of the screenplay. It's one of the finest child actor performances of recent years. Unlike many other viewers though, I suspect sweetness is Tomboy's major thematic virtue. Does Sciamma's screenplay have much else to say on the matter of androgyny and even, though never explicitly discussed but certainly raised, homosexuality in young children? I'm not too sure. In fact, I happen to think that Tomboy works best as a look at sisterly bond than anything relating to a girl dressing up as a boy. B

MIFF TALES
Today was the first day of the festival where I didn't feel like I really wanted to just stay in bed and take flu-fighting drugs. I actually felt like perky today. Perhaps I've got the initial wind that most people had on the first day of the festival? That or I'll wake up tomorrow feeling like crap again and I'll wanna punch myself in the face for jinxing myself.

It's gotten to the stage of the festival where I truly, honestly, don't know what day it is or even what time it is. It's also gotten to the stage where I start to see and hear things. During yesterday's films I couldn't help but watch boring paedophile drama Michael and see Buster Bluth! Today, as I was watching The Third Man I routinely got the theme tune to Curb Your Enthusiasm in my brain! That zither music does weird things to the brain, I swear!

"Zaftig? Isn't that German for 'Big Fat Pig'?" - The Margaret Cho-Dependance

Some days there really isn't much to get out of bed for, it's true. And then there are days like today where I discovered an old, but new to me, video of Margaret Cho stand-up and I think to myself "sometimes like is good!"

Thanks to Mark at Critical Condition for alerting me to the fact that Cho's 1994 HBO half-hour special has popped up on YouTube! I had never seen it, although several jokes used within it were used as much later as her astonishing 1999 documentary I'm the One that I Want - a film that, to this day and multiple viewings later, remains a laugh out loud riot and one of my all time favourite movies - and Notorious C.H.O. in 2002. The videos below (it's split into two 15 minute sections) remain as hilarious today as I'm sure they were nearly 20 (TWENTY!) years ago.

Don't get me wrong here, Cho still sends me into fits of uproarious laughter - in fact, in a strange twist of fate, I turned on the TV this afternoon and Cho was a guest on The View! - and her musical album, Cho Dependent that was released last year, is a wonderfully comedic yet serious musically in tune recording, but after Notorious C.H.O. I felt like she started to focus so much on the gay/sex angle of her act that she neglected other parts that she so vividly and poignantly made the focus of in her early work.

The variety and spread of topics and the speed with which she powers through the jokes is phenomenal in the 1994 special. It's amazing how great and funny the jokes still are and how about that costume? Looking like a less-tailored Irma Vep, she is! But, oh my, those jokes! Gags about Rosie Perez, Prince, her TV series All-American Girl (almost titled Wok on the Wild Side), the word "zaftig", weight, trapdoor sex, "Moran", her born again Christian brother, racists, chinos... "and then there's the ho!"

Watch the special below and then underneath that I've included a clip from I'm the One that I Want, which I can't recommend enough, and a couple of tracks from her album Cho Dependent. Enjoy.






"Intervention" (feat. Tegan & Sara) | "Eat Shit and Die" (feat. Grant Lee Phillips)

Sex and the Downton Abbey

Have you been watching Downton Abbey? I have not, but it's apparently just like Upstairs Downstairs, but with a different name and enough slight differences so people don't just assume it's the same ol' shit. Oh, and Maggie Smith. Everybody likes Maggie Smith. The show has been doing bonza in the ratings both at home and here in Australia so what better time than any to share with you this British sketch called "Uptown Downstairs Abbey". I know it's old, but it exploded all over the internet today for some reason and, hey, why not share?

It's indeed very funny as it pokes fun at all these British-class-in-period-setting dramas that inevitably become in vogue every 10 years or so. The team of Merchant Ivory had The Remains of the Day in 1993 and then there was Gosford Park in 2001 and, of course, Downton Abbey in 2011. However, the real kicker is the appearances of Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley of Absolutely Fabulous fame. All they needed was Dawn French and it would be reason for a national holiday. Then there is Kim Cattrall bringing out that "natural" British accent of hers. Remember it from The Ghost Writer? You'll wish you didn't.

The first part is the better of the two, although the second video features a gag about a staircase that had me in fits of hysteria for longer than I thought possible for such a simple joke. Then there's the jokes about the maids, the giant jug, the daughters and so much more! It curiously even has it's own page on IMDb. Watch and enjoy!




These clips did remind me of the old "Dumb Street" sketch from Fast Forward. There's even a similar joke about characters looking around confused as music plays over the soundtrack! And yes, there's some crossover with the clips below, but it's so funny you won't mind watch some of it twice.

Review: Bridesmaids

Bridesmaids
Dir. Paul Fieg
Year: 2011
Aus Rating: MA15+
Running Time: 125mins

“The female Hangover!” is what people are calling Bridesmaids, a description that’s both apt and thankfully not all true. They’re similar in that Paul Feig’s “raunchy” comedy involves a group of women getting into “comical adventures”, but where it differs are that its finest moments are those that are handled with a poignancy and sweetness that leave the unlikeable man-children of The Hangover in the dust.

Read the rest at Trespass Magazine
Let it be known that I enjoyed the first Hangover a lot, but those characters were indeed vile. The sequel, however, was a shithouse and the characters less unlikeable than just pure boring. Oh well.

I was writing this review while drinking a glass of red wine and i really did occur to me that I fully anticipate being as pathetically depressed as Kristen Wiig's character is in Bridesmaids in no time at all. That moment where she looks at her pay slip and I pretty much went "yeah, that's me." Still, Annie can join a long line of amazingly awesome pathetic mildly alcoholic characters played by fantastic comediennes: Jules (Courteney Cox) in Cougar Town, Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) in 30 Rock, Old Christine (Julia Louis Dreyfus) in The New Adventures of Old Christine... may this newfound comedic cliche be the gift that keeps on giving!

Secret TV Business

With ABC1's miniseries Paper Giants making the big splash that it did - I didn't get a chance to see it as it aired, but from what I've heard y'all better get used to seeing Asher Keddie win awards - I found it somewhat humourous that Quickflix chose to send me two made-for-TV movies this past week. One is much more famous than the other, but I suspect if more people knew about the lesser-known Australian one that they'd be inclined to check it out due to its cast.


Simon Baker, Jeremy Callaghan, Marcus Graham and Ben Mendelsohn
Secret Men's Business was made in 1999 and stars Ben Mendelsohn, Simon Baker, Marcus Graham, Jeremy Sims and Jeremy Callaghan as five school friends who come together after the death of a beloved teacher. A teacher who, by the way, basically ruined his career by taking the fall for a mistake that was the boys' fault. It's got some trite dialogue and the scope feels sadly stage-bound, but there's something in the way these men interact that is interesting. The idea that straight men are always competing with one another to prove who is the most macho, the most sexually superior and so on has been looked at better in other places, but the overt sexuality to Ken Cameron's direction gives Secret Men's Business a leg up. It doesn't shy away from presenting men as either sexually deviant (the stereotype) and sexually content; they're routinely seen undressed, touching each other and parading about showing off their bodies. We see more of Mendelsohn's skin than any of the women that swan in and out of the proceedings.


Simon Baker was beginning to break out at the time of this, having spent the majority of the 1990s on local soaps E Street, Home & Away and Heartbreak High before a small role in LA Confidential in 1997 lead him to greener pastures. In 2000 he received an AFI Award nomination for his role and was soon cast in The Guardian. Ben Mendelsohn, still looking baby-faced here at odds with his character, on the other hand has always been there in the Aussie film industry and remains to this day, but with his award winning role in Animal Kingdom being seen by a larger number of international viewers it will be interesting to see if people bother to investigate his amazing career. They both do fine work, better than Graham and Jeremy Sims who are working within much smaller character stereotypes, but it's the largely unheralded Jeremy Callaghan who impressed me the most as the meek "Ian Mooney". It's impressive in some aspects, but doesn't quite do enough with its subject (like, say, Men's Group). C+

For the record, Secret Men's Business is all on YouTube if you're unable to find it on DVD.

Whereas Secret Men's Business uses a very tight ensemble to tell it's story, Roger Spottiswoode went in the opposite direction with his Emmy Award-winning TV movie And the Band Played On. With a cast list and unfolding storyline that reads as the definition of "sprawling", this film is set mostly in the 1980s and tells the story of the discovery, and subsequent behind-the-scenes political wrangling, of AIDS. First amongst the gay community, then the Haitian community and then become a full-blown epidemic that knew no sexuality, gender or race.

It's fascinating to learn all the things that went wrong in the fight to control the disease as it swept primarily through America's gay culture. And not just wrong on the side of President Reagan, his government and organisations like the Red Cross (who chose not to spend money testing blood for AIDS "just because" some of the nation's supply had been tainted!), but also on the side of the gay people who refused to open their eyes to the catastrophe that was coming their way.


It stars Matthew Modine - you know, that one from Full Metal Jacket that isn't R Lee Ermey for Vincent D'Onofrio - and Saul Rubinek as scientists, but features all sorts of other actors. There are the respected thespians of Alan Alda, Lily Tomlin, Ian McKellen Steve Martin, Anjelica Huston and Richard Gere. And then there are the character actors that give so much energy to the peripherals of the film, Swoosie Kurtz (stealing best in film honours from Lily Tomlin), Charles Martin Smith, Glenne Headly, BD Wong, Richard Jenkins, Bud Cort, David Marshall Grant and, yes, even Phil Collins.

Curiously, And the Band Played On - I assume it's title is a riff on iconic gay pre-AIDS play/film The Boys in the Band - was released in the same year as Jonathan Demme's Philadelphia and while it's certainly a more brazen film than that one ever was, this was still 1993 and while characters may be more outward in their homosexuality, the film is still muted on expressing affection visually. For a film that tries so hard to expel the myths of how AIDS is passed between people, not one AIDS patient is seen kissing someone on the lips.


I'm lead to believe that Randy Shilts' book was a very big undertaking to adapt and that the screenplay by Arnold Schulman does a good job of condensing the saga down into a easily understandable 140 minutes. What casual everyday audiences made of the film at the time would be fascinating to find out, although I did find that Spottiswoode was... I don't want to say pandering, but definitely put a large focus on the non-gay aspects of the crisis. The scene with Swoosie Kurtz, for instance, feels like a moment to help those straight viewers feel included even if they didn't know what "the gay thing" was all. The best part of the film was the five minute epilogue set to Elton John's "The Last Song" over a montage of people, famous and otherwise, who died from or contracted the illness. It's direct and stirring in a way that hours of medical jargon - a subplot with Alan Alda is necessary part of the history of AIDS, but feels clunky in a film that's already heavy in exposition - simply can't do. Even though it was made in 1993, and much has happened in the near 20 years since then, And the Band Plays On remains a pertinent movie and one of the bravest TV movies I can recall. B

RIP Elizabeth Taylor

Many of people from "my generation" who haven't taken the time to investigate the career of the one and only Elizabeth Taylor (she hated to be called "Liz") would probably only know her as an actress that they're meant to like, but who's more famous for marrying a lot of men, releasing perfume, being kooky with Michael Jackson, funny award show mix-ups, AIDS fundraisers and The Flintstones.

I keep meaning to watch more of Dame Elizabeth's films, but get sidetracked. I have, however, seen the performances that are routinely hailed as her best - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Giant, Suddenly Last Summer, A Place in the Sun and Little Women. She is even responsible for the one of the greatest and most poignant moments of The Simpsons' 22 years. Who can forget Elizabeth in that slinky white dress, cooing at Paul Newman as "Maggie the Cat" in Hot Tin Roof? Or, most vital of all, starring as "Martha", sparring with Richard Burton's ""George in Virginia Woolf? Anybody who thinks of her as just a celebrity with a couple of good roles needs to seriously revisit.




Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
General Hospital (bloopers) | The Simpsons
As I've already alluded to, my first on screen experience with Elizabeth Taylor was in the 1994 film adaptation of The Flintstones as "Pearl Slaghoople". A misnomer of a beginning for sure. If anybody from my age group hasn't explored Taylor's amazing filmography - and given the sort of readers that I get here, I'm sure that's the case for nobody, but you never know - then run, don't walk, to the, er, online DVD rental service you use and get to it. RIP Elizabeth Taylor.

Speaking of Marisa Tomei...: Some Words About the Oscars

At one point of yesterday's 83rd Academy Awards Marisa Tomei strolled out on stage to present that part of the ceremony where they discuss the "sciences" part of "The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences". A segment that usually ranks just behind the bit where the Academy president and the TV executive spiel suppurlatives at each other for the benefit of nobody but themselves. Anyway, Tomei walked out and my viewing guest goes "Speaking of Marisa Tomei," to which I replied "You don't hear that very often!"

The story proceeded into one about In the Bedroom, which is neither here nor there, but it says a lot that, for me, one of the most memorable retorts of the night came not from the ceremony itself, but from the banter between friends. "Banter between friends", that sure is a line that Oscar producers could learn from for as much fun as the opening skit with hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway walking through various Best Picture nominees - curiously, however, several were left off - the rest of the show simply looked as if Franco and Hathaway had barely spent an hour or two getting to know each and other and learn each others styles and performing rhythms. Maybe James was too busy napping with cats or installing a light show in an Upper West Side apartment for the benefit of nobody but himself, but it was like he only just got the script as the ceremony began. This was a first take performance and it's telling that their best moment was the filmed introduction where they got to act.


Src
It must be said - and almost everybody and their dog has done so already, or will do so soon - that Franco was a nonentity on the night and that Hathaway, clearly noticing that neither Franco nor the crowd were particularly into it, over-compensated. But, it wasn't just Franco's strange blank expression punctuating the awards - that was, however, during the few times that he managed waltz out on stage between spliffs - that felt decidedly uncharismatic. The crowd itself was just not present last night. Perhaps it's exhaustion after the seemingly neverending awards season, or perhaps they were as bored with the winners as the rest of us, but when the only true standing ovation they gave was for Billy Crystal? Aaron Sorkin's win for Best Adapted Screenplay was met with peculiar silence. Wins for Natalie Portman and Christian Bale - acting honours that most were truly excited about despite their inevitability - didn't seem to register much excitement in the crowd.

Add to all of that a bland set that had neither the intimacy of the 2009 Hugh Jackman ceremony (still the best one of the last chunk of years) or the grandness of other years gone by. The newfangled "classic cinema" backdrops began nicely, if awkwardly staged, with Gone with the Wind, but Justin Timberlake's Shrek-ifying of the set a brief time later was just plain odd. It seemed to be a concept that the producers ditched after not too long, which made sense given the schizophrenic nature of the show. Before the awards night it had been said that the ceremony would ditch the montages that are a constant source of frustration with viewers (a "salute to animation" featuring more Space Chimps than is acceptable), but we still got a needless Billy Crystal standup routine as an intro to a needless Bob Hope clip package, which was all just a big roundabout way of introducing Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law to present Best Visual Effects. At least Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin looked amazing in their matching white tuxedos with white bowties. Shame that they edited out their dance and lip lock!

Or how about having Hilary Swank walk out to introduce Kathryn Bigelow? Isn't that what Franco and Hathaway were there for? And, as an aside, I found it quite irritating that they trotted Bigelow out and yet still made no mention of the fact that two female directors had films up for Best Picture (Debra Granik and Lisa Cholodenko). Similarly, Halle Berry's emotional eulogy to Leena Horne felt more token than anything else. Are Halle Berry and Hilary Swank really the best Hollywood stars the producers could mustre? Where were Denzel Washington, Liam Neeson, Will Smith, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Quentin Tarantino, Clint Eastwood, Julianne Moore, Meryl Streep, Marion Cotillard, Keira Knightley, Angelina Jolie and so on? Tom Hanks, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman were as "Hollywood's Biggest Stars!" as it got. Hell, it's been a couple of years now where Jack Nicholson hasn't been in the front row and it's actually quite disappointing!

Still, if they were so desperate for these to be the "young, hip Oscars" where were the likes of Mia Wasikowksa? The young ator who starred in a Best Picture nominee (The Kids are All Right) and a billion dollar-earning Tim Burton hit. What about Josh Hutcherson, Amanda Seyfried, Jamie Bell or Rooney Mara, all of whom have big hits behind them and bigger hits ahead of them? Are they keeping the Harry Potter stars locked up over there in England or are they just waiting to parade them out next year when the eighth and final instalment makes a last ditch effort for Oscar gold? Thank heavens for small mercies at the lack of Miley Cyrus, Robert Pattinson - although James Franco, at times, looked a little Edward Cullen - and Justin Bieber, or whatever other "teen sensations" this years' producer thought the kids would want to see.

As for the awards themselves? Well, we all knew The King's Speech was destined for Best Picture glory, but I still don't think I quite understand Tom Hooper's win for Best Director. The film didn't sweep the technical categories like I had predicted, instead only taking home four trophies. Thankfully The Social Network won three excellent awards (Adapted Screenplay, Original Score and Editing), but Inception showed Academy voters still can't get a handle on what "sound mixing" and "sound editing" actually mean with its haul of four statues. Wins for The Lost Thing (Animated Short), Toy Story 3 (Animated Feature), Inside Job (Documentary Feature) and In a Better World (Foreign Language Film) were all richly deserved, which is more that can be said for Alice in Wonderland's baffling two wins for Costume and Art Direction. huh?


As sad as I was for Jacki Weaver missing out, at least Melissa Leo's speech - f-bombs, continued campaigning and insane yelling included - sure was... memorable, yeah? I did okay with my predictions, but I continue to find myself going against my better judgement when it comes to people like Weaver and David Fincher. I got 15 correct from the predictions I listed here at the blog, however I did submit predictions a week or two earlier for an Oscar viewing party I was attending and on those I correctly predicted Inside Job's win, so we'll say I got 16 and be done with it, yeah?

All in all, I can't say I was too impressed with yesterday's show. I don't think it was as shoddily produced as last year's diabolical "WTF?"-worthy ceremony, but it was so dull and flat. On one hand I blame the people involved - the producers, the writers, James Franco - but, on the other hand I blame all the other award shows that are so desperate to be Oscar harbingers that as the end of February rolls around it's all a bit been there done that with the winners. The Oscars can easily be fixed, it will just take the right people to do it.

Let's end this with a gif from the amazing Clem Bastow's rundown of the evening. The only thing better than this moment was that incredible reaction shot of the Coen brothers looking disinterested by Oprah's Best Documentary introduction. I also loved that Michelle Williams brought along Busy Phillips as her guest. Dawson's Creek and Cougar Town represent!

Review: I Am Number Four

I Am Number Four
Dir. DJ Caruso
Year: 2011
Aus Rating: M
Running Time: 109mins

People say that we are currently in a golden age for television and that is probably true, but for a teenager the golden age was 2000. It was great being a teenager back then – well, sure, it’s never truly “great” to be a teenager in any given year, but to have such rich and insightful television like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Roswell and – mock if you will – Dawson’s Creek reaching the height of their craft in that year was something that the 15-year-old version of me relished.

I mention this because DJ Caruso’s new science fiction action movie I Am Number Four feels like a mash-up of all three, but without the valuable series-long format that would allow it to expand upon its themes in any deep way and it falls short of the mark that all three of those series reached in their prime. What it does succeed at, however, is some fun action and some impressive technical aspects that lift it up above the been there done that nature of its story.

I Am Number Four is, essentially, Roswell meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a definite detour through Nicholas Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause. With added glowing teal cinematography. Alex Pettyfer (or is that “Prettyfer” because, my gawd, is this boy awfully attractive in a bland sort of way that recalls the likes of Jason Behr in Roswell – are his nipples ever not erect?) stars as “John”, a refugee alien living on Earth with his minder, played by Timothy Olyphant in the Anthony Stewart Head role. He falls in love with the pretty-but-vacant girl Sarah (Dianna Agron from Glee, Katie Holmes would have been cast ten years ago) and becomes friends with a small, unpopular kid at school named Sam, played by an Australian kid named Callan McAuliffe. Needless to say, interplanetary monsters are after him and to explain much more would make the word count of this review would go through the stratosphere.


If this were a television series – and from my understanding of the book and its proposed sequels, I think it probably would have – then Sam’s domestic violence subplot would be expanded and not feel like a dramatically neutered afterthought (Roswell’s similar plot line proved to be one of that series’ bigger triumphs) and the central plot wouldn’t feel so rushed. And speaking of television, isn’t it curious that for a show that celebrates “outcasts”, it’s the plain jane blond Dianna Agron that has gotten the first lead role out Glee?

Perhaps if all these pretty people weren’t so, well, pretty, I Am Number Four would feel more exciting – or, perhaps, if “number four” was the geeky Sam rather than the gym bunny John – but fans of this sort of material should come away with a minor appreciation for it. It’s just unlikely to inherit any of the slavish devotion that a television incarnation may have developed. C+

Scream to Scream, Scene by Scene: SCENE 9 of Scream 2 (0:28:51-0:34:41)

In this project I attempt to review the entire Scream trilogy scene by scene in chronological order. Heavy spoilers and gore throughout!



SCENE 9 of Scream 2
Length: 5mins 50secs
Primary Characters: Cici Cooper, Ghostface and Dawnie (Marisol Nichols)
Pop Culture References:

• Party of Five (Cici watches it on TV)
  
• Nosferatu (Cici watches it on TV)
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (By extension of Nosferatu as Sarah Michelle Gellar plays the titular "vampire slayer")
• Friday the 13th (Cici's friend jokes with the Ft13th theme music)
  

And so we come to the first post-opening death scene and the first major diversion from the original Scream. I actually love this sequence and it remains one of my absolute favourite scenes of the whole trilogy. There's something so simple and unabashed about it. It has plenty of film references and it plays with what we've learnt before (Cici runs up the stairs when she should be running out the front door), but it's just a good ol' fashioned taunt and chase slasher scene.

The fact that is features Buffy herself probably helps.


"I love those guys. Are they still together? I haven't seen it in, like, three weeks."
"No, they broke up again."
"Really?"
"Mmhmmm, Sarah found out that Bailey slept with Gwen. She dumped him, like, two episodes ago."
"I wish she'd get her shit together."
My memory of Party of Five isn't that strong - I wasn't much of a fan, but I watched it a bit because my brother was a fan. Tuesday nights on Network 10 if I remember correctly - but Bailey and Sarah are definitely characters, but IMDb is not showing me who Gwen was so maybe I've been wrong in assuming Cici is discussing that show.

However, the links to that show are both obvious (Neve Campbell) and less so (Jennifer Love Hewitt starred in the "rival" slasher film I Know What You Did Last Summer with Sarah Michelle Gellar). And, furthermore, Jamie Kennedy who plays Randy would go on to feature on TV series The Ghost Whisperer with Jennifer Love Hewitt. I think they were even engaged at some point, yeah? And while it's not a Party of Five reference, the voice on the phone is Selma Blair who would go on to co-star with Gellar - and earn and MTV Best Kiss award! - in Cruel Intentions.


"Who are you calling for?"
"What if I said you?"
"What id I said goodbye?"
"Why would you wanna do that?"
"Why do you always answer a question with a question?"
"I'm inquisitive."
Teehee. Doesn't this just kinda ring like Buffy the Vampire Slayer dialogue? I've always felt it does.


"Do you want to die tonight, Cici?"
Love this moment! What with the big, bombastic music in the background (is that Marco Beltrami's music or is it taken from Nosferatu, because either way it's great.) One thing I've noticed is that the voice is much more placid in Scream 2. The voice is generally used less here than in the original, but where there was obvious anger in the voice during the Casey death scene and Sidney attack scene, the voice is never angry in Scream 2. Maybe Mrs Loomis is zen? Perhaps that's why she becomes so bug-eyed crazy in the big showdown at film's end?


We don't get an explanation for the noises Cici hears, do we? Or are we meant to assume it's Dawnie who makes her way downstairs whilst Cici is outside talking to campus security on the phone?


Gosh, remember when landline phones would crackle when you walked outside? Although not even my old home phone was as bad as this one appears to be. Silly Omega Beta House, choosing a residence with really poor reception if just a recipe for disaster!


Several reasons to love this moment.

1. It continues the entire franchise's close attention to framing. As with scenes in Casey Becker's and Stu Macher's house, as well as the Randy scene coming up soon and the Woodsboro set sequences of Scream 3, Craven and his team have a real knack for pushing the edges of the frame with stuff that keeps our eyes darting around.

2. Dawnie!

3. Thinking about Ghostface. The general theory goes that Mrs Loomis is outside with the video camera (the footage is seen later in the media class room with Gale and Dewey) and the telephone as Mickey waits for a way to get inside. Since Ghostface entering has no phone there's your proof that there were two killers. I love the look on Cici's face, too, as the phone rings and she's terrified. If only she'd picked the phone up instead of Dawnie, who knows what would have happened to her?


"You wish it was Ted. 'Don't forget to set the alarm'!"
I love that line reading; so taunting and evil. Having just said that it's Mrs Loomis outside on the phone, that voice really doesn't sound like it. The reveal sequence of Scream showed that not even Billy or Stu truly sounded like "Ghostface" as we hear him in his telephone calls, and when Sidney speaks through the voice altering device as she hides in the closet she doesn't sound anything close to the actual voice of Roger Jackson, so... hmm... look, let's just acknowledge it as "movie magic" and move on. Although, note that we never see Laurie Metcalf talking into the device, only Mickey, and yet we know she does in fact make telephone calls like the one to Randy. Oh plot holes!


I love the way the Nosferatu music creeps back in again at just the right moment. Just like Scream did with Halloween so that that film's legendary score ended up becoming the score of Scream.

And, of course, the in joke of Cici watching Nosferatu being the slayer and all. I think Buffy could take down Ghostface, don't you? She took on Dracula and one, right?




You know, earlier on in this very scene dissection, I said that this sequence in Scream 2 is the first that really diverges from the original's blueprint of opening scene -> intro to Sidney -> campus scenes -> Ghostface impersonations -> Gale being a bitch -> etc, but now that I think about it the scene shares a lot of similarities with scene 18 of Scream in which Principle Himbry bites the dust. Both are tide over scenes, meant to add horror oomph to a film that features a lot more story than most. Both feature the death of a character that doesn't have a personal connection to Sidney, and which hasn't had a major part to play in the film. Also features Ghostface playing seemingly innocent taunting games before bringing out the big guns knife. Plus, both feature obvious nods to their primary actors' most famous role (Happy Days and Buffy the Vampire Slayer respectively). I guess, if anything, it's like Sidney's attack scene, but with a murder payoff. Actually, yes, let's go with that.

One thing I like - and that mirrors the Himbry death scene - is that wherein Principle Himbry checks in the closet instead of behind the door, where Ghostface is hiding, Cici checks behind the door instead of inside the closet (which you can see behind her in the top shot), which is where the killer is hiding. It's this sorta stuff that makes the Scream movies smarter than most.


"Hello?"
Oh, Cici! Behind you!






Well this was never gonna work out well for poor Cici there, was it? Running up the stairs when she should be going out the front door (it's insulting). And, per the film's nudgewink style, the way that door is framed in the background all but screams "the killer is going to jump out of here, we're gonna make you wait for it." And then tada!


Close.


Not so close.

Hmmm.


Where did she think she was going? If she'd really tried she could've made a go of jumping off the balcony. It's only three storeys off the ground after all.


Even more pop culture references! Characters watch this scene in Halloween: H20, which stars Michelle Williams who was one of the stars of the Kevin Williamson created Dawson's Creek. Also, Smidge was originally cast in a similar blonde-who-dies role in Urban Legend, released one year later, but pulled out due to scheduling conflicts. She was replaced by Tara Reid. Hmmm. Make of that what you will.


Why hello there Mr Oops I'm In Shot and Nobody Noticed. I love that this blooper is so noticeable. It's like the wheelie board under Drew Barrymore as she's being dragged along; i can't not notice it! It helps distract from the silliness that is Cici's ridiculously long fall. She's falling from the third floor, not the tenth!


Splat! Goodbye Cici Cooper. It was great knowing you.

Scream:
Intro, Scene 1 Scene 2, Scene 3, Scene 4, Scene 5, Scene 6, Scene 7, Scene 8, Scene 9, Scene 10, Scene 11, Scene 12, Scene 13, Scene 14, Scene 15, Scene 16, Scene 17, Scene 18, Scene 19, Scene 20, Scene 21, Scene 22, Scene 23, Scene 24, Scene 25, Scene 26, Scene 27, Scene 28, Scene 29, Scene 30, Scene 31 Scene 32, Scene 33, End Credits

Scream 2
Scene 1, Scene 2, Scene 3, Scene 4, Scene 5, Scene 6, Scene 7, Scene 8