Welcome to The Penny-Pinching Cinephile, a weekly spotlight of the best free flicks on the web. ‘Cuz sometimes you gotta eat.
Since its release in 2009, For the Love of Movies (subtitled The Story of American Film Criticism) has been unavailable to view for all but a few film festival-goers. Cinephiles rejoice! Gerald Peary’s documentary may not be on DVD yet, but it’s free to view on Hulu. Peary, himself a former film critic for the Boston Phoenix, chronicles the history of the profession from its beginnings in the early 1910s through the early 2000s. Featuring many of the most prominent American voices of film criticism (including Andrew Sarris, above), Peary’s doc should serve as a welcome education for younger, aspiring film writers whose main exposure to the position was Roger Ebert. For the Love of Movies barely touches on the explosion of online film criticism and even less on the cinephilia of the very young, for which social media and blogs seem to have been cater-made. With the slow death of print media, as well as the literal passing of many vanguard critics (Stanley Kauffmann, Sarris and Ebert all within a year), I would welcome a follow-up doc that deals with film criticism in the age of Twitter and WordPress. Nevertheless, For the Love of Movies is an engaging and informative 90 minutes for any fan of film and the people who write about it.
As bizarre and eccentric as any film made in Classical Hollywood, The Lady from Shanghai is a fascinating mess of a movie, a wholly unique expression of ego and obsession from Orson Welles, a man who was no stranger to either. It’s the imperfections of this film that make it so fascinating; you can literally see the moments in which the studio took control of the picture from Welles and made it their own (always to the film’s detriment). Welles plays O’Hara, an Irish sailor who agrees to take a position aboard a private yacht owned by a powerful lawyer Bannister (Everett Sloane) because he is infatuated by Bannister’s wife Elsa (Rita Hayworth). The actual plot of Lady from Shanghai is much too intricate (and frankly, nonsensical) to outline here; just know it involves a “fake” murder plot, several actual murders, a lengthy trial sequence and one of the worst Irish accents in film history. The real highlight is the final shootout in a Shanghai funhouse, which features the famous Hall of Mirrors sequence. Welles is at the top of his game here, photographing a surreal, nightmarish confrontation in which all of O’Hara’s fears and desires are multiplied beyond his control. The film was a disaster upon release, mostly due to extensive studio interference and re-shoots, but it has since justly gained a reputation as a wonderfully weird and borderline genius work.
3) Dear Zachary
Full disclosure: Kurt Kuenne’s documentary Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father is the saddest movie I’ve ever seen. I don’t know anyone who has seen this movie and not a) bawled their eyes out, b) wanted to crawl under a blanket for a few days, and c) loved it. Kuenne conceived the film as a scrapbook of sorts in memory of his childhood friend Andrew Bagby, who was murdered by his girlfriend after he ended their relationship. The title of the film comes from Bagby’s son, Zachary, who was born while his mother was on trial for the murder of his father. (I told you this was a feel-good film, right?) Kuenne mostly focuses on Bagby’s parents’ attempts to gain custody of Zachary and the perceived incompetence of the justice system in trying Bagby’s girlfriend. The twists and turns, revelations and heartbreaks in this documentary are almost too incredible to believe, and Kuenne edits together his footage with the precision and dramatic effect of a first-rate thriller. A gripping true crime doc and a profile of courageous activism, Dear Zachary at its heart is a sincere and deeply-felt cinematic exorcism that works like therapy for the people involved, as well as for the audience.
4) Ghostbusters
After Dear Zachary, I thought we could all use some cheering up–and what better film to do it than Ghostbusters? Truth be told, there is no wrong time to watch Ghostbusters, which is undoubtedly one of the most perfect comedies ever made. If you’ve never seen it (WHO ARE YOU?), here’s the gist: Unemployed parapsychologists Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) and Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) establish a paranormal extermination business (the “Ghostbusters”) after they discover numerous hauntings around New York City. All of this involves a powerful demon named Zuul, who possesses a beautiful cellist with whom Venkman is infatuated (Sigourney Weaver). Later, Ernie Hudson, the EPA and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man all show up; also Rick Moranis. It’s freakin’ Ghostbusters, what’d ya want me to say?! Watch it for the first time, or the hundredth time, but you’ve got to hurry because it expires from streaming on February 1.
Girl Walk // All Day represents the reality of modern-day alternative film production. Funded entirely by Kickstarter and released in 12 parts over two months in late 2011, this film is a full-length dance/music video set to an album of mash-ups by remix artist Girl Talk. Nothing about this film is conventional. That’s probably why it’s such a joyous, exuberant, original and celebratory experience–rarely, if ever, is anything this good produced via convention. The dance musical is perhaps the ultimate antidote for cinematic sadness, and this one is one of the best. The film follows the adventures of The Girl, a ballet dancer (Anne Marsen), The Gentlemen, a tap dancer (Dai Omiya) and The Creep, a welder (John Doyle), as they dance their way across New York City, from the Staten Island ferry to Chinatown to Central Park. Director Jacob Krupnick films his dancers amid regular New Yorkers, blending verite style with improvisational choreography in a unique and often humorous blend of fantastic realism. Girl Walk // All Day is the movie for everyone who’s ever put their MP3 on shuffle and taken to the streets to star in their own imagined music video. It’s an absolute joy.
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