The 27th General Hall of Fame

i just don't get where you see being able to joke about something makes you immune from hating it? every guy i know makes these jokes, there isn't a problem with that but (and this is just my personal experience of course) most of them will also say some pretty gross sh*t if you talk about LGBT issues or even mention something like drag, y'know anything that's like actually gay. I'm not vilifying anyone here or in general but i do think most straight/cis people are casually homophobic/transphobic and it has nothing to do with them being bad people its just kind of ingrained in the culture.

Well it's the way the character jokes about it, about himself sleeping with a man. I think there's a big difference between hateful joking and playful joking. I'm sure a homophobic person would say something disgusting, I just don't think they would joke about themselves sleeping with a man. Say something about someone else? Sure. "If I had to" is in reference to personal taste in my eyes, whereas a homophobic guy wouldn't even go there. I think a lot of homophobic guys are closet gays anyway. I haven't heard of anything homophobic in decades but of course I live in Massachusetts so maybe that helps.

Magical Girl (2014) -

While the direction of this film was too cold and distant to resonate with me as much as it could've, I still enjoyed enough about it to give it a recommendation. For one, I enjoyed Barbara as the emotional core. Most films would have her start off in good health and have her mental health decline more and more throughout the film. In this film though, she was already unstable and Luis's behavior made her go from bad to worse. For instance, after she intentionally cuts her head on a mirror, Javier comments on it being another scar and later in the film when she's asked to disrobe, we see that her body is full of scars. Given those scenes, it's clear she had been suffering long before she encountered Luis. While Luis's control over Barbara is quite apparent though, Javier, her husband, is guilty of this as well. His monitoring of whether she takes her pills starts out as seemingly innocuous. The more he escalates though, the more paranoid he seems (a scene where he feels inside her mouth to make sure she swallowed a pill is super uncomfortable to watch). Another interesting thing about the film is the struggle which several characters face at finding closure or satisfaction. To list examples of this theme would involve spoiling major parts of the film, but that extensions of it pop up in smaller moments, like Luis missing an important radio broadcast from his daughter, or some unexplainable moments, like the final scene, is quite impressive. As mentioned at the start, the coldness of this film kept me from loving it, but while I'm not sure I'll revisit it again, I did enjoy my time with it.

Next Up: Midnight Cowboy

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Right.

I think that the character (and maybe Tarantino by extension?) wants edgy points for talking about sleeping with a man, but has to be really careful to couch it as "if I HAD TO sleep with a dude," because of course he'd only do it if he was forced. (The way that he delivers this monologue reveals that this is a go-to conversation starter for him). And he later tells Alabama that she seemed to good to be true so he was worried she was transgender.

It does feel real, I guess. Like how the teenage boys in front of me at the basketball game talk about a male athlete having a good build and then immediately having the nervously throw in a "no homo!". But it's the kind of casually bigoted insecurity that I find off-putting in a character.

I was looking at an early draft of the script and in it Alabama is also casually racist? She refers to Sonny Chiba as "the oriental" and then later says her only turn-off is "Persians."

Again, it's not that this isn't a real way that someone would think or talk, but it makes them characters I don't really want to root for or spend much time with.

There has been times that I've been relieved that my wife cooked with beef rather than turkey meat. It doesn't mean I have something against turkey meat, it just means I don't like it for me.

I think there is a lot of fairly casual homophobia in what men say amongst eachother. Like, a lot. Teasing each other for being 'gay' or 'feminine' for one. While I don't think this necessarily translates as being any kind of proof about dislike of hatred of the gay community if any particular individual participates in it, the root from where it comes from is very much that, and I think it at the very least tips a hat towards an unease towards queer culture. A need to distance oneself from it. Which says something when we are always needing to push something away before we are willing to talk about it.



But, that said, I don't know if I would place the "If I HAD to comment" in that category. Not that it is a totally great way to phrase it, but I think it is understandable to couch it that way if one does not have any interest in men that way, but are intrigued or open enough to talk about what they'd go for if they did (a lot of men, straight up, would not even consider such a hypothetical). Personally, as a male who came to wonder in my early twenties if I had boxed myself into the 'strictly heterosexual' category, and experimented outside of those straight parameters, only to find that it simply wasn't for me, this might be how I'd broach this subject as well. Being that I now have come to realize through personal experience that I don't have any particular interested in men sexually, I doubt I would have sex with a man unless I 'had to' either. Because it's not something I'm remotely interested in at this point (well, maybe The Strokes are the exception, but in that case I'd HAVE to build a time machine to get me back to 2002, and now not only am I putting a moral distance between me and such a possibility, but am placing the entire space/time continuum paradox between us, so that might be some serious metaphysical homophobia I'm exhibiting here).


But, then again, I haven't seen True Romance in years and so can't comment on the specific scene in particular. And QT hardly seems like someone who wouldn't at least occassionally deal in some casual homophobia. Because he's kinda an *******.

Great post. I just don't like quick judgment and labeling based on such little information. To me it's very similar to what you are accusing someone else of. Most people deserve some level of understanding, tolerance, and compassion.

So my last word on this (unless someone wants further clarity) is that I didn't say that the character was homophobic, I said that the things he said made him sound like someone who is homophobic, and I hope we can appreciate some nuance there.

But also:
To push back on this point a little: it's so easy to say "If I were gay" instead of "If I had to." The latter phrasing, which evokes force/coercion/lack of choice/etc, associates the idea of gayness as something being pushed on a straight person. The fear of gay people--and of gay sex being forced on straight men--has literally been used as a legal defense for men who killed gay men, the "gay panic" defense.

Again, I totally understand the demands of masculine performance and "Oh but I would never really . . . " qualifiers. I think it's realistic. I think it's true to the way that a lot of men would speak. But I (as a person and a viewer of this story) find such behavior by men to be off-putting weaksauce and it makes me like the character less as a person. Honestly, it's the fact that it's a rehearsed bit that is the most irritating thing about it.

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You know, one sentence reviews might be an interesting concept for some other format haha.

Also, QTF.

This is a tough one to grab and get a hold of - thinking about Thunder Road and what to say about it, I feel like an ant falling off a piece of paper and getting put back on. At one stage I went and watched the short film which preceded the feature version of Whiplash and started to fill up with a voluminous amount of imaginary dialogue - only to have to switch myself back onto the track of Thunder Road. I think it's because this film exists so close to the very precipice of an idea. I don't find a lot to compare this film with - although I'm sure there will be a lot in the future. Jim Arnaud, who tellingly shares the same first name as creator Jim Cummings is wholly a man of today. He is, of course, more sensitive, distracted, delicate and empathetic than most, and probably his creator - but he's most of us and what most of us will be - screwed by the 21st Century and angry about it. Part of an unworkable system that dehumanizes, he goes through what most people and families do and must go through in a very modern way. Obviously his unique character means and says a lot - but so does the world that Cummings has surrounded his character with.

I judged this book (movie) by it's cover at first, and my expectations of being presented with some kind of wacky comedy full of absurdity were ill-founded. Rather, I found that this narrative included so much pain and tragedy that I was completely unsure if Jim Cummings intended or wanted me to laugh. That's despite comedy being firmly present in the opening scene - a funeral, which of course can always be slanted towards comedy - but less so when our main character is obviously going through so much torment and pain. This juggling act, between pathos and an invitation to laugh at ridiculous behaviour didn't make me uneasy - but it did make me unsure. I felt like I was being invited to laugh and feel sad at the same time and as such I was finding it hard to do or feel either. The second time around I resolutely decided to treat Thunder Road as a serious drama that just happened to have surreal moments that in other contexts could be seen as comedy. It's that complicated for me. The movie as a whole does more to support this way of looking at it than not. By it's end things have become as serious as you could possibly get - but we still get these little moments, mainly by way of Jim Arnaud and his mannerisms.

Arnaud is a police officer whose mother has just died, and who is experiencing grief in his own way. Complicating this further, is the fact that he's been separated from his wife for a few years, who wants a divorce and custody of their young daughter. His emotions affect his behaviour, and before you know it this costs him in court which has a flow on effect to him losing his job and really reaching the brink before matters elsewhere bring about an unexpected resolution. This isn't as much a story though, as it is a character study - Cummings' Arnaud is one of the rare people in the world these days that you're instantly sure you like, even at his worst moments. He genuinely thinks of others, but at the same time he's very human and goes through the same frustrations we all do, which renders just enough imperfection to him to make him relatable. His friendly talkative manner puts him high on our list of people we could stand to be around, but it's his somewhat distractible mind that takes him on tangents and leads him into saying things which are sometimes out of place or absurd. If he's ever pushed over the brink and lashes out, he apologizes so immediately that he leaves you wondering if he was ever angry to begin with.

It's fairly well-known that Jim Cummings adapted Thunder Road from a short film of the same name which he directed, wrote and starred in two years before in 2016. This short film basically formed the opening of the feature - which is the funeral scene for Jim's mother at which he gives a rather eccentric eulogy and then completely tops all of that by performing a dance routine to Bruce Springsteen's Thunder Road (in police uniform.) It's a funeral that's sublimely ridiculous in short form - which is much further from anything we have to compare with reality than the world of a feature. It's interesting to note that in the short, he actually manages to start the track and dance to actual music - which makes it (slightly) more believable. In our feature, the CD player doesn't work, but having obviously rehearsed and planned, he decides to go ahead with the dance routine anyway. Obviously almost all of us will have realised by this time that going ahead with the dance is a bad idea (it was a bad idea to start with) - and would instead back down. Jim Arnaud somewhat lacks a sense of what's socially acceptable, or even agreeable. His endearing trait of being easily moved to tears also complicates proceedings - but to be fair this is true for many in such emotionally trying circumstances.

Interesting to look at, are Jim Cummings' short films of the year after (2017) and what they deal with. His trio of shorts under the banner of Still Life all look at key modern issues in society (and more specifically America) today - and they also all exist as performances captured in one shot, like Thunder Road. It’s All Right, It’s OK deals with race and justice in what I feel is a society that dysfunctions in it's rigidity - but some might see the whole episode as pandering to social justice. Hydrangea looks at the modern family dynamic and a wish to escape it into a modern media landscape where everything truly is fake, and The Mountains of Mourne features Cummings playing a more serious role in an assisted suicide which goes to show that a funeral isn't the only place to confound an audience with what they should be thinking and feeling. That same year, as part of the Minutes series at Sundance he exhibited The Robbery - his most comedic short, but still darkly involved with today's problems with a young lady smoking meth and robbing a liquor store while still indulging her addiction to her phone, which distracts and somewhat removes her from what's happening. The fact that The Robbery has all been captured in one take is exceptional, and something I very much enjoy for it's degree of difficulty and stage-like drama and performance from Rae Gray. Racism, family dysfunction, assisted suicide and meth-fueled violence fit neatly into a class that give me similar feelings to that funeral at the start of Thunder Road - I'm apt to look at it seriously even if any of it works comedically. I can't relax enough to laugh.

Thunder Road is a solid film, and Cummings has written a wonderful character who feels real, and who I wish were real. This has the feel of an independent feature, with Cummings himself imbuing the score with his ukulele playing and Lowell A. Meyer - behind the camera bringing to life the Minutes series at Sundance, including The Robbery - a young hand at his profession at around the same stage Cummings is. From it's inception to the editing room, this is essentially a one-man show and at a level that's less polished but performed with exceptional dedication and belief. There are no side-characters in it that take the spotlight for a moment and blow my mind - but young Kendal Farr should be pleased with herself for having something of a responsibility on her shoulders as an important part of the dynamic as Arnaud's daughter - someone he's desperate to connect with, and who remains disconnected to a degree - while still managing to tune in enough to be frustrated, embarrassed, bored and disappointed with him. Apart from Cummings, I'll remember her.

Overall, this was a small (if, reasonably good) package that gave me so much pause that I sometimes hesitated to even grin during it's funnier moments. A movie that's so very hard to classify - I like to think of it as a drama which veers towards comedy, but I do believe that it's meant to be a comedy that veers towards melodrama. A modern character study of a decent man torn asunder by an awry world - one with it's fair share of fun parceled out amongst the pain it somewhat uncomfortably shares a date with. It's decidedly fresh, and definitely not something rehashed or unoriginal, but feels like just one step in a direction Jim Cummings has taken towards his full potential. He really has fully fleshed-out his character from the Thunder Road short, so much so that the tears feel real, and moments spent with his friend drinking in the back yard or at the table with his daughter have real authenticity to them. A strange little film that I may have even taken the wrong way - but I feel too much for Arnaud to laugh at him a lot of the time, even at his most absurd moments. Cummings succeeded in giving him a real dimension, almost to the extent of diminishing his comic appeal.

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Magical Girl (Carlos Vermut, 2014)
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Rewatch: No.

If I had been watching this movie for my own purposes, I never would've finished it. That first hour or so was an absolute chore. It was so cold and so off-putting that I watched it in tiny fragments over the course of several days. I hated it. But somehow the film pulled off a miracle in the second half and I was drawn in and fully engaged by the way all the characters' stories collided together, even if I didn't really understand Damian's motivations.

That huge disparity in my enjoyment of the two halves of the film leaves me feeling pretty neutral to the film as a whole and I will probably never watch it again.

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Dailymotion a good way to watch Mad Love?

I think ueno said Dailymotion was a crappy looking link? I got a good link for it, I'll send it to you.

The Dailymotion link is divided up into two parts and comes with several ad breaks, so I don't recommend that version.

I did a free trial subscription of Mubi through Amazon Prime, watched Mad Love, then cancelled the subscription immediately after.

Here in Finland, it was on Netflix.

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Thunder Road -

This is an affecting little movie that I can neither describe as a drama nor a comedy since during so many scenes, I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. The opening scene defines this odd sensation: should I weep over Jim's attempt to honor his mother's love of dance or laugh at him for making of a fool of himself? This is hardly a drawback, however. This dichotomy defines Jim's internal struggle and the fallout of each of its setbacks and victories never rings false.

As for highlights of Jim's battle, it's hard to top his post-firing breakdown in the parking lot for setbacks, and as for wins, merely thinking about him mastering his daughter's hand-slapping game makes me smile. I also approve of how the movie shows that when Jim emerges from his personal hell, his life won't be a breeze. How he idealizes his much more stable pal Nate's life - who admits during their argument about the funeral footage that it's not as stable as Jim thinks it is - is my favorite example of this. With all of that said, the scene I replay the most in my mind is the parent-teacher conference. Besides escalating in a way that resembles how the entire movie does, it's an acting masterclass thanks to of course Cummings and Blue Ruin's Macon Blair, who has sort of made a career of making brief yet memorable appearances in movies like this one.

The movie's theme of not wanting to pass your least enviable qualities to the next generation resonates. All the same, it's our hero's primary journey - not to survive his divorce and custody battle, but to ponder the question, "what is a man?" - that is its main strength. Thankfully, it's a journey that despite its bumps on the road, Jim survives, and to the movie's benefit, his destination is more like a rest stop than a final one. Oh, and at a time when even the typical Marvel and James Bond movie is nearly three hours long, that it's a 90-minute journey is icing on the cake.