Movies I Would Like to See in the Criterion Collection

Greed (1924) (Erich Von Stroheim)

The Unknown (1927) (Tod Browning)

The Crowd (1928) (King Vidor)
1. The American Ego
2. A Man On the Brink
3. Optimism Turned Bleak and Back Again

Man With A Movie Camera (1929) (Dziga Vertov)

Freaks (1932) (Tod Browning)
1. Pre Code
2.
3. One of Us

A Matter of Life and Death (1946) (Powell and Pressburger)
1. Absence of Love
2. Wartime Fantasy
3. Power of Love

Out of the Past (1947) (Jacques Tourneur)
1. The dialogue
2. Mitchum
3. Nicholas Musaraca's Photography

The Asphalt Jungle (1950) (John Huston)
1. All Star Cast
2. Small Town Crooks
3. The Heist

Los Olvidados (1950) (Luis Bunuel)

Hour of the Wolf (1968) (Ingmar Bergman)
1. Nightmares of the Past
2. Madness of the Mind
3.  Von Sydow and Ullman

Petulia (1968) (Richard Lester)

Midnight Cowboy (1969) (John Schlesinger)
1. New York Life
2. Joe Buck and Ratso
3. The bonds of friendship

The Devils (1971) (Ken Russell)

Images (1972) (Robert Altman)
1. Altman does psychological terror
2. The sound design
3. Mind Games

The Day of the Jackal (1973) (Fred Zinneman)

Barry Lyndon (1975) (Stanley Kubrick)

Dersu Urzula (1975) (Akira Kurosawa)

After Hours (1985) (Martin Scorsese)

Raising Arizona (1987) (Joel Coen)
1.
2. The chase scene
3. Dreams of the future

The Decalogue (1988) (Krzyzstof Kieslowski)

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989) (Peter Greenaway)
1. The Colors
2. The Lust
3. The Gluttony

Wild At Heart (1990) (David Lynch)
1. Cage and His Snakeskin Jacket
2. Lovers On the Lam
3. Lynch's dark comedy

Barton Fink (1991) (Joel Coen)
1. The Frustration of Writer's Block
2. Turturro
3. The Life of the Mind

The Age of Innocence (1993) (Martin Scorsese)

Paradise Lost Trilogy (1996- 2011) (Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky)

Cure (1997) (Kiyoshi Kurosawa) (on Hulu)

Fireworks (1997) (Takashi Kitano)

After Life (1998) (Hirokazu Koreeda)

The Insider (1999) (Michael Mann)

The Limey (1999) (Steven Soderbergh)

Memories of Murder (2003) (Bong Jon-Ho)

Spring, Summer, Winter...and Spring (2004) (Kim Ki-duk)

Birth (2004) (Jonathan Glazer)
1. Desplat's Score
2. Love Reincarnated
3. Kidman

Primer (2004) (Shane Carruth)

There Will Be Blood (2007) (Paul Thomas Anderson)
1. Ambition
2. Family Ties
3. Daniel Plainview

Synecdoche, New York (2008) (Charlie Kaufmann)
1. The Existentialism
2. The Psychology
3. Philip Seymour Hoffman


Shame (2011) (Steve McQueen)
1. Fassbender
2. Addiction
3. McQueen

Boyhood (2014) (Richard Linklater)

COMPILATIONS/BOX SETS
The Cinema of Peter Watkins
The Short Films of Frederick Wiseman
The Short Films of Jan Svnkmajer
The Before Trilogy by Richard Linklater

BLU RAY UPGRADES
The Exterminating Angel
The Human Condition
Mishima: A Life In Chapters
Peeping Tom
Straw Dogs
Le Trou (OOP)
Ugetsu
Three Films By Hiroshi Teshihagara
A Film Trilogy By Ingmar Bergman
Four Masterworks By Ingmar Bergman
*note only Virgin Spring needs the upgrade from blu to complete the original box set

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Museum of the Grotesque

Some of the more interesting aspects of Texas Chainsaw Massacre have nothing to do with Leatherface and everything to do with the environment, the family, etc. You get the feeling that the universe is collapsing in on its travelers.

There's the corpse at the beginning.

The armadillo on road, here reproduced by Jason Edmiston for his gorgeous take on a TCM poster: 

The hitchhiker: 

Leatherface may have the chainsaw which makes up for 1/4th of the title of the film, but if there ever was a villain for TCM, it would have to be the hitch hiker. Bubba/Leatherface is one of those guys that does the bidding of his brother and the rest of the family.

Franklin: 

I've heard more than a few people complain about this character. Yet he acts as a key component to an interesting theory: What if this whole trip was Franklin's revenge fantasy? Think about it. Nobody wants him on the trip. Nobody helps him. They treat him like dirt. 

And as far as his ultimate fate is concerned, the answer is simple: self martyrdom. What would cause Sally more grief than for her to watch her own brother get chainsawed into pieces right in front of her? 

The nest of Daddy long legs: 

The sound design and the almost otherwordly sprawl of this nest is chilling. 

Beyond just the thwack of the sledgehammer, notice how four of the five protagonists are  not aware of the gruesome fate that awaits them or their friends. There is nothing explained or rationalized between them about what is going on. Much different from Psycho which came before or Halloween which came after. There is no psychiatrist to explain Norman Bates or a Dr. Loomis. We learn nothing about Leatherface, the Hithhiker or Grandpa. Not only that, there are no authority figures such as cops here. We are truly on our own. 

Feathers n' bones:

This is where the inspiration for Texas Chainsaw shines through the most. At the age of four, Tobe Hooper first heard about the news reports about the gruesome discoveries at Ed Gein's house. Here we see bones stretched across couches. Feathers and bone fragments piled together and strewn about the floor. A chicken flocking away inside of a cage. All of these artifacts are totems of chaos. They are showing the order of the world overturned by disarray. 

The rotting corpse in the attic: 

Grandpa Sawyer

He is implied to be a mass murderer yet we only see him on his last days here. Where is his prequel film? 

Three films preceeded this one and were able to stand on their own in unique ways (more on that for another time). For now, I'm just happy that a film like TCM exists. It stands as one of the more terrifying experiences I had watching a movie for all of the above reasons, 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

31 Days of Horror: Days 1 & 2

It's the most wonderful time of the year. It's October. And as per tradition, I watch horror movies all month long leading up to the ghastly holiday.



DAY ONE

This is classic grindhouse folks. And what more appropriate video company to release I Drink Your Blood than Grindhouse Releasing. 

The plot: a kid decides to infect a town by injecting rabies into cookies. There is copious amounts of gore and nudity here as one would expect from these types of flicks. It's one of the few films at the time to reach Herschell Gordon Lewis levels of goriness. 

Is it quality? Far from it. But then again, you don't go into a McDonald's expecting expensive cuisine. Look out for the PT Anderson version of this film I Drink Your Milkshake. 

DAY TWO

Italian cinema has two sides to it. The light side- Fellini, Rossellini, De Sica, Antonioni, Risi. And a twisted, grotesque dark side- Argento, Fulci, Soavi, Martino, Deodato. Today we're gonna discuss Fulci. 

Before his much grislier later work that earned him the moniker "the godfather of gore", Lucio Fulci was known for being a premier genre director that tackles everything from westerns to giallo and he was doing it since the late 50's. Duckling happens to fall into the latter category. 

Giallos are murder mysteries that were mastered by Fulci and Argento. What Duckling does so well is how it lures the viewer in using its multiple protagonists and suspects. Italian horror movies always have great soundtracks and Riz Ortolani's work here backs this up. 

10 Great Films Set In the Jungle

There's something that just draws me into films set in the jungle. It was the setting for my first short story written around fifth grade.

The tribalism, the raw unpredictable forces of nature. In the cases of Apocalypse Now, Sorcerer, and Fitzcarraldo, you can feel the authentic danger of the set. Some of the wildest behind the scenes stories were born from these movies.


10. The Serpent and the Rainbow

Not a big Wes Craven fan by any stretch. He's made a few films that I genuinely enjoy and out of those film, my favorite is Serpent and the Rainbow. Craven taps into something diabolical here: Haitian voodoo. It offers a refreshing take on the zombie and the hallucination sequences are Craven at his peak.

9. Predator

This film has so many quotable lines from just about every member of the cast. Each cast member is memorable and that stands as a testament to John McTiernan's direction. A boot camp movie just like Platoon a year after, you get a real sense of the jungle as the marines go deeper into it. You also get to see it get torn apart by a minigun and grenade launchers, so there's that. 

8. The Thin Red Line

The most poetic movie on the list. Polynesian chants and Jim Caviezel swimming with natives are the first things that come to my mind when I think about this movie. It explores nature in a lyrical, graceful way and shows how it nestles beside brutal conflict in times of war. Malick is able to capture the geography of the area with ease so you know exactly where you are. There's an expansiveness to the movie that is not just in part to the ensemble of actors, but of  John Toll's framing.

7. Platoon

"You volunteered for this shit man?" 

Oliver Stone's own personal experiences in the Vietnam War fueled his passion to depict it on the big screen. It begins with a memorable opening. The ants and mosquitos. Falling asleep while on a shift. Stone gets the exhaustion and environment down to a science.  

6. Cannibal Holocaust

1 minute in- Wow this looks pretty peaceful. A relaxing score and beautiful panoramas. I don't know what they were talking about. 30 minutes in- What the fuck! Is that? Oh god!

Between all the abhorrent scenes of torture, the impaling of a woman and degradation perpetuated onto villagers by the four main documentarians, it is easy to see why the movie has such a reputation. The difference between this and other movies like A Serbian Film is the way it was shot. CH is ugly, crude, rough. It grips you by the hair and drags you through the jungle. Even among other cannibal movies of that time- Umberto Lenzi would release Cannibal Ferox a year later- it stands above. There is a savagery to the movie that is unmatched.

5. Aguirre: Wrath of God

From the opening scene, Herzog shows how nature dwarfs man. Man and nature has been a reoccuring theme in his works and he really is the guy that first comes to mind when you think about eccentric, will stop at nothing to get that shot kind of directors. Truly fearless. The best thing about watching a Herzog film is not knowing what part of the world he will take you to. 

4. Southern Comfort

Walter Hill never really got the appreciation he deserved. He was on a streak with The Driver, The Warriors, but he reached his peak with Southern Comfort. It can be viewed as a metaphor for Vietnam, though Hill denies this. It's got a stand of DNA it shares with Cannibal Holocaust in that the National Guardsmen are as tribal as the backwoodsmen they are fighting. A hidden gem. 

3. Fitzcarraldo/Burden of Dreams

There's always two go to documentaries if I ever wanted to show people the insanity of making a film: Hearts of Darkness and Burden of Dreams.

How do you convince a tribe to pull a three story, 320-ton steamship over a steep jungle portage? You contact Werner. Fucking. Herzog. That's how you do it. I can't imagine any other director going these lengths. The cinematography by Thomas Mauch, who photographed another Herzog movie in the list, (Agguirre) beautifully captures the jungle and human spirit's quest to make a place in it.

2. Sorcerer

I remember showing my girlfriend this film. 20 minutes in she commented on it being nihilistic, exhausting and utterly dark. This was before the meat of the plot was introduced. It's reactions like that to films like these that signal one thing: the filmmaker succeeded. You feel the sweat, dirt, and grit as these four guys travel through the jungle with nitro glycerin in the back of their trucks. It's as tense a film Friedkin ever made, And he made The Exorcist.This film is top 10 worthy.

1. Apocalypse Now

What more can I say about this movie? A massive influence on my writing and a film that I always learn new things from each time I watch it.

20 Favorite Bands

11-20 (ALPHABETICAL)

BLACK SABBATH

(1968- 2006)

(2011- Present)

Top Five Albums
1. Master of Reality
2. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
3. Vol. 4
4. Paranoid
5. Heaven and Hell

Favorite Ozzy solo album: Diary of A Madman

DREAM THEATER

(1985- Present)

Top Five Albums
1. Awake
2. Scenes From A Memory
3. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
4. Images and Words
5. Train of Thought

LED ZEPPELIN

(1968- 1980)

(reunions: 1985, 1988, 2007)

Top Five Albums
1. Physical Graffiti
2. Houses of the Holy
3. Led Zeppelin III
4. Led Zeppelin IV/ZOSO
5. Led Zeppelin II

METALLICA

(1981- Present)

Top Five Albums
1. Master of Puppets
2. Ride the Lightning
3. And Justice For All
4. Kill 'Em All
5. The Black Album

PORCUPINE TREE/STEVE WILSON

(1987- 2010 (hiatus))

Top Five Albums
1. In Absentia
2. Stupid Dream
3. Fear of A Blank Planet
4. Signify
5. Deadwing

Favorite Wilson solo album: The Raven Refused to Sing

QUEEN

(1970- Present)

Top Five Albums
1. A Night At the Opera
2. Queen II
3. Sheer Heart Attack
4. Innuendo
5. A Day At the Races

ULVER

(1993- Present)

Top Five Albums

1. Perdition City

2. Shadows of the Sun

3. Bergtatt

4. Blood Inside

5. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR/PETER HAMMILL

(1967- 1972)

(1975- 1978)

(2005- Present)

Top Five Albums
1. Still Life
2. Godbluff
3. Pawn Hearts
4. World Record
5. The Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other

Favorite Hammill Solo album: Over

TOM WAITS

(1972- Present)

Top Five Albums
1. Rain Dogs
2. Bone Machine
3. Mule Variations
4. Small Change
5. Closing Time

YES

(1968- 1981)

(1982- 2004)

(2008- Present)

Top Five Albums
1. Close to the Edge
2. Relayer
3. Fragile
4. Tales From Topographic Oceans
5. Going For the One

TOP TEN (in no particular order except for top five)

OPETH

(1990- Present)

Top Five Albums:
1. Blackwater Park
2. Damnation
3. Morningrise
4. Ghost Reveries
5. Deliverance

IRON MAIDEN

(1975- Present)

Top Five Albums:
1. Powerslave
2. Piece of Mind
3. Seventh Son of A Seventh Son
4. Killers
5. The Number of the Beast

MARILLION

(1979- Present)

Top Five Albums
1. Brave
2. Clutching At Straws
3. Marbles
4. Afraid of Sunlight
5. Misplaced Childhood

DEATH

(1983- 2001)

Top Five Albums
1. Symbolic
2. The Sound of Perseverance
3. Human
4. Individual Thought Patterns
5. Leprosy

FRANK ZAPPA

(1955- 1993)

Top Five Albums (Studio)
1. Joe's Garage
2. Freak Out!
3. One Size Fits All
4. Sheik Yerbouti
5. Apostrophe

Live
1. Roxy and Elsewhere
2. Live In New York
3. You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 1/Vol. 2

RUSH 

(1968- Present)

Top Five Albums
1. Permanent Waves
2. Grace Under Pressure
3. Hemispheres
4. Signals
5. Presto

GENESIS

(1967- 1998)

(2006- Present)

Top Five Albums
1. The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
2. Selling England By the Pound
3. Wind and Wuthering
4. Foxtrot
5. A Trick of the Tail

Favorite Gabriel solo album: Passion
Favorite Hackett solo album: Voyage of the Acolyte

PINK FLOYD

(1965- 1994)

(2012- 2014)

Top Five Albums:
1. Dark Side of the Moon
2. Wish You Were Here
3. Animals
4. The Piper At the Gates of Dawn
5. The Wall

Favorite Roger Waters solo: Amused to Death

KING CRIMSON

(1968- 1974)

(1981- 1984)

(1994-2004)

(2007- 2008)

(2013- Present)

Studio:
1. Red
2. Discipline
3. In the Court of the Crimson King
4. Larks Tongues In Aspic
5. The Power to Believe

Live:
1. The Great Deceiver
2. Absent Lovers
3. Vroom Vroom
4. The Night Watch
5. The ProjeKcts

Favorite Fripp solo album: A Blessing of Tears

THE BEATLES

(1960- 1970)

Top Five Albums:
1. Abbey Road (all time favorite album)
2. Revolver
3. The White Album
4. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
5. Rubber Soul

Favorite Lennon album: Plastic Ono Band
Favorite McCartney album: Band On the Run
Favorite Harrison album: All Things Must Pass

A Master List of bands I've gotten into over the years

A
ABBA
Agalloch
Alice In Chains
Tori Amos
Anathema
Jon Anderson
Anekdoten
Anglagard
Animal Collective
The Animals
Anthrax
Antlers
Aphex Twin
Fiona Apple
Arcade Fire
Arcturus
Atheist
B
Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso
The Beach Boys
Beardfish
The Beastie Boys
The Beatles
Beck
Ben Folds
Ben Folds Five
Between the Buried and Me
Bjork
The Black Angels
Blackfield
Black Sabbath
Bloodbath
Blotted Science
Boards of Canada
David Bowie
Budgie
Kate Bush
C
Camel
Can
Jerry Cantrell
Johnny Cash
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Celtic Frost
Cocteau Twins
Coil
Coldplay
Col. Claypool's Fearless Frog Brigade
John Coltrane
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Cryptopsy
The Cure
Cynic
D
Dalek
Dead Can Dance
Deafheaven
Death
Death Angel
Deep Purple
Depeche Mode
Discipline
Dissection
Djam Karet
DJ Shadow
The Doors
Down
Nick Drake
Dream Theater
Dungen
Bob Dylan
E
Echolyn
Edge of Sanity
Electric Light Orchestra
Electric Wizard
Emerson, Lake and Palmer
Emperor
Endochine
Brian Eno
Brian Eno and David Byrne
Enslaved
Estradasphere
Exodus
Explosions In the Sky
F
Faith No More
Fantomas
Fates Warning
Fever Ray
Fish
The Flaming Lips
Fleetwood Mac
Floater
Florence and the Machine
Flying Colors
Foo Fighters
Robert Fripp
Fripp and Eno
G
Peter Gabriel
Galactic Cowboys
Genesis
Gentle Giant
Ghostface Killah
Ghost of A Saber Tooth Tiger
Kevin Gilbert
Philip Glass
Godflesh
Godspeed You Black Emperor
Gojira
Guapo
GZA
H
Steve Hackett
Haken
Peter Hammill
George Harrison
I
iamamiwhoami
Iron Maiden
Isahn
Isis
J
Jakszysk, Fripp and Collins
Jane's Addiction
Jellyfish
Jesu
Jethro Tull
Billy Joel
Elton John
Joy Division
Judas Priest
K
Keane
Killer Mike
King Crimson
King Diamond
King's X
The Kinks
The Knife
Kreator
KXM
Kyuss
L
Kendrick Lamar
Lamb of God
Led Zeppelin
John Lennon
Leviathan
Liquid Tension Experiment
Love
M
M83
Machine Head
Madvillain
Magma
Mahavishnu Orchestra
Aimee Mann
Marillion
The Mars Volta
Massive Attack
Mastodon
Mazzy Star
Paul McCartney
Megadeth
Mercyful Fate
Meshuggah
Metallica
Moby
Mogwai
Janelle Monae
The Moody Blues
Morbid Angel
Neal Morse
Mr. Bungle
Muse
My Bloody Valentine
N
Nas
The National
Neu!
Neurosis
Neutral Milk Hotel
Nile
Nine Inch Nails
NWA
O
Frank Ocean
Mike Oldfield
Ol' Dirty Bastard
Opeth
Le Orme
Ozzy Osbourne
OSI
Overkill
P
Pantera
Matthew Parmenter
Arvo Part
A Perfect Circle
Phideaux
Phish
Pink Floyd
Pixies
Poe
The Police
Porcupine Tree
Portishead
Primus
Procol Harum
Public Enemy
Q
Queen
Queens of the Stone Age
Queensryche
R
Radiohead
Raekwon
Rage Against the Machine
Rainbow
Otis Redding
Lou Reed
Steve Reich
Rush
S
Scissor Sisters
Secret Chiefs 3 (and the satellite bands)
  -Traditionalists (horror and western soundtrack oriented)
  -Ishriquayan (middle eastern compositions)
  -FORMS (organ/percussion driven compositions)
 -Holy Vehm (Death metal)
 -The Electromagnetic Azoth (electronic)
  -UR (Surf rock)
Secret Colours
Secret Machines
Sepultura
Shining
Dmitri Shostakovich
Sigh
Sigur Ros
Nina Simone
Siouxsie and the Banshees
Slayer
Sleep
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum
The Smashing Pumpkins
S.O.D.
Soft Machine
Sonic Youth
Spacemen 3
Spiritualized
Spock's Beard
Cat Stevens
Strapping Young Lad
Sunn O)))
Sunn O))) and Scott Walker
Super Furry Animals
Supertramp
T
Talking Heads
Talk Talk
Testament
13th Floor Elevators
Tomahawk
Tool
Devin Townsend
Toy Matinee
Transatlantic
A Tribe Called Quest
Triptykon
U
Ulver
Umphrey's McGee
Unexpect
U2
V
Van Der Graaf Generator
Vektor
Vital Remains
Voivod
W
Tom Waits
Scott Walker
Kanye West
White Zombie
The Who
Wilco
Brian Wilson
Steven Wilson
Chelsea Wolfe
Wu Tang Clan
y
Yes
Z
Frank Zappa
Warren Zevon
The Zombies

Favorite Albums of the Decade so Far

The five people that actually read this blog may notice my absence in the past couple months. That is because I have gotten knee deep in music. Music has always stood 2nd fiddle to my love of movies. There has been times where it occasionally takes over for my film obsession. This is such a time. So instead of leaving a blog languishing in a cobwebbed corner of cyberspace, I thought I would mention my favorite albums of the decade so far.

2010

1. Kanye West- My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
2. Janelle Monae- The ArchAndroid
3. Shining- Blackjazz
4. Agalloch- Marrow of the Spirit
5. Karnivool- Sound Awake
6. Enslaved- Axioma Ethica Odini
7. Triptykon- Eparistera Daimones
8. Beach House- Teen Dream
9. The National- High Violet
10. Arcade Fire- The Suburbs

2011

1. Anthrax- Worship Music
2. Foo Fighters- Wasting Light
3. Steven Wilson- Grace For Drowning
4. Mastodon- The Hunter
5. Tom Waits- Bad As Me
6. Haken- Visions
7. Opeth- Heritage
8. Machine Head- Unto the Locust
8. Vektor- Outer Isolation
10. Discipline- To Shatter All Accord

2012

1. Swans- The Seer
2. Kendrick Lamar- Good Kid, m.A.D.d City
3. Fiona Apple- The Idler Wheel
4. Gojira- L'Enfant Sauvages
5. Between the Buried and Me- Parallax II: Future Sequence
6. Kreator- Phantom Antichrist
7. Flying Colors- Flying Colors
8. Killer Mike- RAP Music
9. Godspeed You Black Emperor- Allelujah! Don't Bend Ascend
10. Frank Ocean- Channel Orange
Honorable Mention:  Anglagard- Viljans Oga

2013

1. Steven Wilson- The Raven That Refused to Sing
2. Haken- The Mountain
3. Queens of the Stone Age- Like Clockwork
4. Janelle Monae- The Electric Lady
5. Run the Jewels- Run the Jewels
6. Deafheaven- Sunbather
7. Gorguts- Colored Sands
8. Arcade Fire- Reflektor
9. Black Sabbath- 13
10. Flying Colors- Second Nature


Honorable Mentions: The Knife- Shaking the Habitual, Shining- One One One, Death Angel- The Dream Calls For Blood

2014

1. Swans- To Be Kind
2. Beck- Morning Phase
3. Run the Jewels- Run the Jewels 2
4. Behemoth- The Satanist
5. Machine Head- Bloodstone and Diamonds
6. iamamiwhoami- Blue
7. Foo Fighters- Sonic Highways
8. Flying Lotus- You're Dead!
9. Opeth- Pale Communion
10. Mastodon- Once More Round the Sun


Honorable Mention: Ghost of A Saber Tooth Tiger- Midnight Sun, Agalloch- The Serpent and the Sphere, KXM- KXM