Revisited: Falling Down

by Tony Nigro

I don’t have a solid memory of the first time I saw Falling Down, the 1993 Michael Douglas vehicle about American white male frustration.  I remember that the movie was still fairly new, that I watched it on a television (either via cable or videotape) and that it didn’t affect me much.   The time was the early 1990s.  Douglas was Hollywood’s Male Victim #1.  Bill Clinton was a new President, I was in high school, and not too soon before there were riots in Los Angeles.  My interest in the film probably didn’t go beyond the shoot-and-yell-at-people trend that came into vogue after Reservoir Dogs.

Fast forward to the present: I spend about half of the intervening years living in New York City.  A terrorist attack occurs.  The country’s tenor changes.  Back in a Los Angeles hell bent on urban development, and with renewed interest in the city’s elusive soul, I figure, Hey, why not watch Falling Down again?  It’s Los Angeles around the time of the riots.  That’s interesting.  Why the hell not?

Well, now I know.  Because it’s lame.

So That’s Why He Got Fat. . .

by Lewis Manalo

This is, like, real? As in, more real than The Bachelor?

Who knew these things about Steven Seagal.

1,002 Words: Down By Law

Rough day.

Week in Review 08.28.09

To us, the biggest story this week by a long shot was LACMA’s announcement that its long-standing weekend film program will live on. Big ups to the big donors and to the grassroots effort that helped fuel this victory.  Of course, now all you Angelenos have to attend the series or else you’re a bunch of damn hypocrites.

• $150,000 pledged to save LACMA film program [LA Times Culture Monster]
• LACMA and the Crisis of Repertory Cinema Advocacy [motion within motion]
• Thomas Edison by Jonathan Lethem [A New Literary History of America]
• Movie Critics Vs. The Audience [Forbes.com]
• Eclipse Series 17:Nikkatsu Noir [Criterion's The Current]

‘The Shock Labyrinth’ Gets Int’l Distribution, Trailer Features Long-Haired Japanese Wraith

The only things we understand about this trailer for Takashi Shimizu‘s The Shock Labyrinth are “3D” and “Japanese girl with scary long locks.”  But it looks cool…

As reported yesterday by Horror Squad, The Shock Labyrinth has garnered international distribution.  Hopefully that and some well used 3D will resuscitate J-Horror and end Shimizu’s U.S. status as “that Grudge guy.”  That said, if the movie is anything like Marebito, we’re going to be pissed.

1,002 Words: Ikiru

Check, please.

LACMA Gets a Pledge, Sees the Light

by Tony Nigro

The LA Times is reporting that the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. and Time Warner Cable in association with Ovation TV have ponied up a total of $150,000 to LACMA’s film program, resulting in a declaration that the museum’s once endangered weekend screening series has been saved.

For the record, $150,000 is 15% of museum director Michael Govan’s salary.  Apparently, that’s all it took.  The battle to save the screening series may be over, but there’s still a money management war to win.

Until then, I’ll save you a seat at the Bing.

Freak of the Week: Assault Girls

David Lynch may be on Twitter, but Mamoru Oshii is a genius.  If you’re going to copy Dune‘s sand worms, why not skip the Kyle MacLachlan part and just cast three hot Japanese chicks?

But wait there’s more: an eight minute, less polished looking clip from the movie appears to be on YouTube.

Branded to Noir

by Tony Nigro

Out on DVD today is Criterion’s Eclipse Series 17: Nikkatsu Noir, a set of five noir action flicks from the ’50s-’60s heyday of Nikkatsu, Japan’s baddest-ass studio.  Before going into a long period of roman porn productions, Nikkatsu movies claimed some of the beefier entries by directors like Toshio Masuda and Seijun Suzuki (including his magnum opus, Branded to Kill), and starred mugs the likes of Tetsuya Watari and cheeky Joe Shishido.  The results are punchy and raw yet stylish, crime stories with a bleak outlook that’s all noir and was enough to make “Nikkatsu” a descriptive adjective.

The titles in the new Eclipse set are jazzy, too: I Am Waiting, Rusty Knife, Cruel Gun Story, A Colt Is My Passport, and Take Aim at the Police Van — which alone qualifies as one of the best titles in the form of a command alongside Go to Hell Bastards!, Save the Green Planet!, and Hail the Conquering Hero.

That Ain’t No Bird, Yo!

by Lewis Manalo

We here at Split Edit like to take film seriously, and we don’t usually geek out. Geeking out doesn’t really further the study of cinema.

BUT IT’S A SUPERMAN LUNCHBOX, MUTHAFUKKAH!

It’s a freakin’ tin lunchbox that comes with a two-disc set of Max and Dave Fleischer Superman cartoons. How much awesomer can it get? I want that. I don’t even know where to get that. But I want that.