Weekend Cinema Listomania (Special The Past is A Foreign Country Edition)

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posted August 21, 2009 4:31 AM

last days of disco.jpgVideo Event of the Week: Is it Sony's new DVD's of the original Japanese versions of the classic monsterfests Mothra and The H-Man? Could the four disc box set The Simpsons: The 12th Season from Fox possibly make the cut? Or against everything we hold sacred and holy, could Disney's Hannah Montana: The Movie, the sci-fi epic in which Kal-El, last survivor of the planet Krypton, gives a perky teenage girl (Miley Cyrus) a blonde wig that makes everybody think she's somebody else, conceivably be The One?

All worthy, to be sure, but for my money, it's got to be the cool new Criterion Collection DVD of non-Jewish indie auteur Whit Stillman's 1998 The Last Days of Disco, featuring the toothsome Kate Beckinsale and Chloë Sevigny.

Stillman's an odd case, a whitebread version of Woody Allen except without the work ethic (the fact that he hasn't made a movie since Disco is a bit of a head scratcher, although supposedly he's toiling on an adaptation of Christopher Buckley's Little Green Men at the moment). In any case, I wasn't nuts about his two other -- apparently equally autobiographical -- chronicles of the frustrations of haute WASP twenty and thirty somethings adrift in the Reagan years (Metropolitan and Barcelona) but Disco, for whatever reason, strikes me as surprisingly ingratiating. It's an end of an era story, obviously (set against the backdrop of a Studio 54-ish club as its historical moment winds down in the early 80s) and while I probably have less affection for that era and its music than Stillman seems to have, there's more going on here than the description might suggest. Novelist David Schickler, who contributes a perceptive essay to Criterion's package, makes the point that Disco actually owes a debt to The Importance of Being Earnest, which strikes me as on the money; it's a Wilde-ean comedy of manners updated for MTV. Along those lines, my favorite bit comes when young assistant D.A. Josh (Matt Keeslar) tries to warn Des, the caddish womanizing club manager (Chris Eigeman), that the Feds are upset about certain controlled substances being consumed in the backrooms. "I consider you a person of some integrity," Josh says (there's no other word but earnestly). "Except, of course, in your dealings with women." And it's a real testament to Stillman's skill as writer/director that you actually believe that anybody in New York City ever talked like that.

Here's the trailer to give you an idea of the film's rather brittle period charm.

Criterion's widescreen transfer is characteristically first-rate, with the charmingly garish club interiors coming across as particularly eye-popping. Fairly copious extras include a making-of featurette, a running audio commentary with Stillman, Sevigny and Eigeman (Sevigny lets it drop that she was hungover during her audition for the part), the above trailer (in a crisper version), some negligible deleted scenes, and Stillman reading a chapter from his book of the same name.

I should also add that Burr Steers, who plays one of the minor Yupster characters, is the very same guy who directed the recent Zac Efron body-switch comedy 17 Again but don't hold that against him.

In any case, you can -- and on balance probably should -- pre-order Disco here.

last days of disco still III.jpg

Okay, with that out of the way, and given that things will be quiet around here for a little while, here's a fun and obviously relevant little project for us all:

Most Memorable Big Screen Period Piece Depicting a Recent (Second Half of the 20th Century) Period!!!

And by period piece, we mean, of course, a film that recreates the milieu of an earlier (but not too distant) era or moment in time, often (but not always) to make some point about our own.

Totally arbitrary rule: No war movies.

And my top of my head Top Five is:

5. American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973)

"Where Were You in '62?" Speaking as somebody for whom this movie was practically a documentary, I can attest that Lucas got every single period detail right. Actually, it's a great movie on all levels, I think; how it was made by the same guy who created Jar-Jar Binks is a mystery that may never be solved.

4. That Thing You Do! (Tom Hanks, 1996)

The mid-60s this time, and everything about it feels authentic. Actually, if my crappy high school rock band had made a hit record, this would be the story of my life, although admittedly that's like saying I'd be cute if I had a different face.

3. My Favorite Year (Richard Benjamin, 1982)

New York City in the early 50s and the Golden Age of Television, hilariously recreated. The only false note? Otherwise estimable star Mark Linn Baker as a New York Jew. Benjamin, bubelah -- what were you thinking?

2. Adventureland (Gregg Mottola, 2009)

Coming of age in the summer of 1987, and one of the very best films of this year -- smart, funny, surprisingly dark and realistic, and with out of the blue great performances by Ryan Reynolds(!) and Twilight ingenue Kristen Stewart(!!).

And the numero uno let's-get-into-the-wayback machine film quite obviously is --

1. Detroit Rock City (Adam Rifkin, 1999)

Four teens in a Kiss cover band hit the road to see their idols perform in 1978. Pretty funny stuff, with smashing period detail, including a cameo by world's schlubbiest porn star Ron Jeremy and an astonishing tongues-eye shot from the inside of Gene Simmons' mouth.

Alrighty, then -- what would your choices be?

24 Comments

Sid Sherman said:

Diane Lane and Viggo Mortensen in "A Walk on the Moon."

Adultery during the Woodstock Summer, and obviously relevant....

August 21, 2009 5:04 AM

chicago dyke said:

chloe has always really done it for me. i loved her in "if these walls could talk 2." seriously, she was just Perfect.

August 21, 2009 5:29 AM

Gummo said:

Boogie Nights is a fantastic period recreation.

There's a whole bunch out there I've never seen:

Dazed and Confused.
Sid and Nancy.
I Want to Hold Your Hand.
Hair.
The Right Stuff.

I'm not generally into movies that take place during my lifetime; I've already lived it, y'know?

Though I may have to make an exception for Ang Lee's "Taking Woodstock."

August 21, 2009 6:21 AM

Gummo said:

Actually, I just thought of 2 very good Beatles-related movies:

Backbeat.

And a TV movie called Birth of the Beatles that was actually a lot better than most of the tripe put out about the Fab Four.

August 21, 2009 6:25 AM

Billy B said:

Kal El? Seriously?

Gummo - The Right Stuff is one of my favorite movies. The flick stayed real close to the book, which is my favorite thing Wolfe has written.

Dazed and Confused is pretty good.

August 21, 2009 6:28 AM

ninotchka said:

does the early 50's count?
if so......
L.A. Confidential....
hush hush

August 21, 2009 6:33 AM

racymind said:

Gummo mentioned Dazed and Confused, and it gets a top pick from me as a period piece. I am one year younger than the main character, I knew people who were so much like those 70's high school Texas kids. I was nowhere near as cool as the movie teens, of course... Like American Graffiti, Dazed takes place over the course of one night and has kids partying and making their big growing up decisions. Like you and AG, I find Dazed very personal, I did so many of those stupid things they did. My biggest gripe would be they didn't get the title song for it, and maybe they played with the freshman/senior hazing thing too much.

I have only seen it about 6 times. Met Wylie Wiggins at a geekily cool second hand shop in Austin.

August 21, 2009 7:30 AM

Gwen De Marco said:

The out-now "Julie & Julia" has drop-dead-on-the-money period details. Not a misstep anywhere.

And, while "Dream Girls" was a crappy movie (who's the worse actress: Beyonce or Madonna? Discuss.), the 60s/70s clothes were incredible.

There are also plenty of biopics that get the look and feel right: "Walk The Line" and "Ray" come to mind.

August 21, 2009 7:36 AM

The Kenosha Kid said:

Starter for 10 (though maybe I just liked the music)
Catch Me If You Can

I know it's a tv show, but Life on Mars does a really good 70's NYC.

Can I award negative points for The Wedding Singer? "Hey everybody, how about that Ivan Boesky, huh? And Flock of Seagulls - they rule, amiright?"

August 21, 2009 9:30 AM

kurt b. said:

Hands down "Dazed & Confused." Apparently high school in Texas in the mid-70s was identical to high school on Long Island in the mid-70s. The music choices were spot on (though, thankfully, no Marshall Tucker Band songs appear in the movie). I particularly relate to the Tony character (I was kind of geeky, blonde hair, my best female friend had red curly hair) and the Randall character (I was a quarterback on the football team, quit after my junior year because my coach expected me to spend the summer in the weight room instead of hanging out with my friends at the beach). The clothes, the cars, the stoner friend...Linklater nailed it.

August 21, 2009 9:38 AM

peter spencer said:

First off, I love Whit Stillman, the early ones even more than LDD. Nobody knew what to make of Metropolitan, confusing and unorthodox like the first half of that Jarmusch flick with the Hungarian girl walking around to "I Put a Spell on You."

For that matter, if Spike Lee is celebrated for "chronicling lives under-represented in Hollywood," shouldn't Stillman be, as well?

And I hated "Dazed and Confused." Not that it was "accurate" - it's just a bad movie.

August 21, 2009 11:18 AM

ms. rosa said:

I was everybody's little sister in Dazed and Confused (having been born in Texas City, Texas in 1970). That movie NAILED that culture.

I may be closer in age to Crooklyn, speaking of Spike Lee, which may be why that movie resonated just a BIT more with me despite it's locale. Or maybe because I grew up in a black neighborhood. Regardless, I much prefer that soundtrack.

August 21, 2009 12:08 PM

Anonymous said:

I had a feeling DAZED AND CONFUSED was going to be a concensus choice.
:-)

And I would have included BOOGIE NIGHTS, except that it seemed (to me, anyway) to cover a little too much time. 70s, 80s and (if memory serves) the 90s (when Wahlberg's character has his big finale)

August 21, 2009 8:06 PM

ninotchka said:

more early 50's-
delicatessen-

August 22, 2009 6:12 AM

Brooklyn Girl said:

The first "Back to the Future", which really first went back to the past. So clever it was parodied in an episode of "Family Guy" (which is a true litmus test!).

August 22, 2009 7:54 AM

Brooklyn Girl said:

And, as a variation of "Back to the Future", there's "Peggy Sue Got Married" ... okay, Kathleen Turner was really too old for the part, but Nick Cage was charming, which I don't say too often.

August 22, 2009 7:56 AM

Cliff Hendroval said:

Gwen DeMarco says:

The out-now "Julie & Julia" has drop-dead-on-the-money period details. Not a misstep anywhere.

Actually, I spotted two anachronisms, one moderate and one minor, but both enough to make me think "That's not right".

August 22, 2009 7:57 AM

Steve Simels said:

BTW, the anonymous with Dazed and Confused was me.
Dunno how that happened.

I regret the error.

August 22, 2009 8:03 AM

Jeff said:

DAZED AND CONFUSED is up there, but I'll opt for SPIRIT OF '76. Like many who came of age in the '70s, I felt cheated for having been too young in the '60s. Jeff & Steven McDonald changed all that. Just one of my favorite moments: The look on the brothers' faces and Jeff's comment when the father pulls up in his new AMC Gremlin ("Gee, Dad, it's really... wide!").

August 22, 2009 11:14 AM

Gwen De Marco said:

Actually, I spotted two anachronisms, one moderate and one minor, but both enough to make me think "That's not right".


Well, okay, I admit, that scene where Julia was using an iPhone wasn't quite right ... :-)

August 22, 2009 12:08 PM

Cliff Hendroval said:

No, the car they brought over to France in 1948 was a 1950 or 1951 Buick, and when Julia got the copy of her published book, it was mailed in a bubble-wrap envelope, when in 1961 it would have been mailed either wrapped in brown paper or a box wrapped in brown paper.

Yeah, I know I'm weird, but both of those jumped out at me.

August 22, 2009 4:05 PM

Merciful_Lee said:

Pleasantville

August 23, 2009 12:18 AM

Who Am Us Anyway said:

I hate saying Dazed and Confused – I feel like you do when everyone at your table has already ordered a diet Coke for lunch, and unfortunately, when it’s your turn, you really do want a diet Coke & so you say to yourself, damn. Or like the New Yorker cartoon where the guy says to his dinner date, “I want a Chardonnay, but I like saying “Pinot Grigio.”

But, so: Dazed and Confused. Also, I dunno how accurate it really was, but man, No Country for Old Men sure felt accurate while I was watching it and but hey was it ever freaking memorable? Yes, yes, it was.

August 23, 2009 10:54 AM

Anonymous said:

mulholland falls

August 25, 2009 7:38 AM

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