May 1st , 2012
We got in the Blu-ray version of Chinatown this week and I'm actually excited to watch it. In the first place, I think I need to revisit this movie since I've only seen it once and that was about 15 years ago before I knew that Roman Polanski was my 4th favorite director.
The disc also contains a commentary track by screen writer Robert Towne and David Fincher who, by all accounts, is some sort of Chinatown expert. Fincher, unlike my second favorite director Francis Ford Coppola, gives good commentary it seems, so that is reason enough to view this famous movie once again because the commentary will make it something brand new in my eyes.

There are a few movies coming down the pike (theatre-wise, not DVD-wise, sadly) that I am also feeling some serious anticipation about.
Cosmopolos, from Canadian director, David Cronenberg has been compared to his brilliant and transgressive 1996 hit, Crash. That is recommendation enough for me. All you haters can bitch about Robert Pattinson being cast in this harrowing story about a 28 year old billionaire who's life unravels as his limo drives him across Manhattan to a hairstyling appointment. I'm hoping (and I believe he will) give a career-changing performance to silent those jealous naysayers.

If you are a regular reader of this blog (and I know at least 6 of you are) you'll know that I am often ranting about what I see as the destruction of modern civilization via technology and it's vapid, prurient off-shoots.
There is a new movie coming out from director Bobcat Goldthwait. Maybe you read that name and thought, "Huh!!?"
Yes, it's that Bobcat Goldthwait, he of the shrill squeak of a voice who made a name for himself in the 80s with an abrasive comedy style. You probably didn't know that within the last 6 years he has made 2 of the most daring, yet sincere and heartfelt, films I've seen. 2006's Sleeping Dogs Lie and 2010's World's Greatest Dad.
I can't get into specifics about either movie due to the fact that the subject matter in both is very dark and very adult. That being said they are also both extremely funny and full of a sweet longing humanity. I can't say enough good things about them and you should see them simply because they are nothing like the movies that seem to be churned out in cookie-cutter fashion nowadays.
The movie on the horizon from Mr. Goldthwait is called God Bless America. And it's a bout an average Joe who is falling into a malaise while pondering the state of modern North American culture. He is diagnosed with a terminal illness and thus decides that, if he's going to die, he's going to take out a few dumb mother-fers with him.
He picks up a young girl who aids him in his cleansing of America and from everything I've read this sounds like it could be the bastard love-child of Taxi Driver and Falling Down. (one my absolute FAVORITE films of the 1990s.)

The last one is Paul Thomas Anderson's first film since the huge success of There Will Be Blood.
His latest is called The Master. Even though Anderson vehemently denies it, the film very obviously seems to be an expose of the formation of the Church Of Scientology. There was a period when the movie was on hold and speculation was that the Church was angry about it and was doing all it could to halt the production. Miramax just picked it up though and now it looks like it will be out in time for Oscar consideration.
Anderson has a very personal interest in the subject matter. If you've seen his wonderful film Punch Drunk Love you will remember the mesmerizing coloured light installations that served as both mood signifiers and transitions in the film's story. Those installations were purchased by Anderson from artist Jeremy Blake. Blake and his wife, Theresa Duncan were golden celebrities in the New York art scene. Their charmed lives took a bizarre turn when the couple became convinced that they were being harassed by the Church Of Scientology. The paranoia reached such a level that they both committed suicide due to the stress. (There is an incredible article here from Vanity Fair about the incident).
Gaspar Noe (my 8th favourite director) is rumoured to be involved in a film adaptation about the so-called "Golden Suicides", but movement on that front is, typically of Noe, slooooww.

Three new movies plus a possible film from Gaspar Noe. That's enough to keep me going for several months.

Thanks for reading,
Rob