Favorite "Underrated" Movie - The House of Yes

"Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to baste the Turkey and hide the kitchen knives." - Mrs. Pascal

One of my favorite movies has to be House of Yes, starring Parker Posey in what I think is one of her breakout performances in the late 90's that never caught on. I was working in a Record/Video store when House of Yes first came out. I was becoming a fan of Posey's and so I decided to give it a try even though the synopsis on the VHS cover didn't speak to me as a movie I'd like. Not being of the generation, I didn't have an interest in the JFK assignation no matter the relevance or cultural significance. Nowhere on the cover told that the movie was based on a play that was written and performed seven years earlier than the movie was made. Looking back now, that makes sense that there are only five characters in a single location.

Having been a play adaptation, the films Writer/Director Mark Waters co-wrote the script with the original playwright Wendy MacLeod. Filmed with a modest budget of $1.5 Million dollars, it starred Posey, Josh Hamilton, Freddie Prinze Jr., Tori Spelling, and Genevieve Bujold as the matriarch of the Pascal home. . A relatively new actress played old video footage of a young Jackie-O, Rachael Leigh Cook. Released by Miramax Films with the copyright being held by Spelling Films Inc., it's no wonder Tori Spelling was in the movie. It was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January of 1997 and wasn't a wide release until October of the same year, released opposite Boogie Nights and Most Wanted. It ran for six weeks in the theater just ending before the Thanksgiving week. The Movie came out on VHS first in 1998 and took three years to make it to DVD. This was at the beginning stages of the DVD transfer.

One reason I feel this movie deserves another look is the brilliant acting by the very small cast. There is a large challenge to bring plays to the big screen, no matter what the subject is. Looking for reviews of this movie, I came to the master of all movie reviewers, Roger Ebert to find that he didn't overly enjoy the movie, but was, "not bored." There were a few mis-quoted areas in his review suggesting that he only watched it once and was done with the movie. I have watched it with different audiences at different times in my life. This movie clearly didn't get the chance it deserves to be a really funny look at the characters and how they react to their own issues.

In Theater Viewing - Suck

After a long day of classes, I took my mountain bike up Geary in SF to the 4 Star Theater to watch a movie I'd only seen a trailer for on Facebook. It was a Vampire movie about a band that didn't play very well until their band started to become Vampires. One by one they turned. It was a funny movie, so there were lots of heckles from the audience. When I had first gotten to the theater it looked like it was going to be an intimate evening with only 6 of us in the auditorium. That's what happens when you get to the theater over an hour early. When it got closer to show time, however, the red tiled ceiling dimmed down to about 30+ vampire fans eager to see how this mix of actors and musicians turned movie "stars" would work. It was a very tame movie with little blood splatter and no skin. For a vampire movie, even a comedy, it was pretty tame. The story was cool, some of the actors has some good one liners, and the stop motion "driving scenes" were pretty cool. Rob Stefaniuk wrote/directed & acted in his film that was released last year.

Extra Credit - Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

Hot Tub Time Machine was written by Josh Heald, John Morris, and Sean Sanders and directed by Steve Pink. This story takes three friends back in time to when their lives changed forever. The movie started in the present with the three friends going in very separate directions with their lives. But a sudden change of plans is in order when one friend tries to commit suicide, very unsuccessfully. Since his family doesn’t even like him, his friends are charged by the hospital to take care of him for the next few days. Off these friends go to a cabin in the woods where they used to frequent back when they were young and had their lives completely ahead of themselves.

This simple trip turns out to be just what they all needed. Not only does their trip take them to a place that is familiar to them, but also the time is back 30 years in the 80’s when the three friends lives changed for the worst. John Cusack’s character was brought back to the 80’s to correct mistakes with his girlfriend, (as he does in most of his movies). Craig Robinson was sent back to become the musical legend he wanted to be. As for Rob Courddry’s character, Lou, he was a complete looser ever since the 80’s and his life hadn’t been much to speak of. The whole reason they even went up to the cabin was to keep an eye on him for a suicide watch. Because they all realized what they could do while back in time, the three friends banded together to change their futures to help go down a better path for themselves. There were plenty of references to other movies including The Shining and some of Cusack’s earlier films.

Homework Movie - The Godfather (1972)

One of the most watched gangster movies of all time, The Godfather was first a novel by Mario Puzo who also wrote the screenplay with Francis Ford Coppola in the early 70's. This wasn't the first movie that Al Pachino was in, but it certainly put him on the map as a talented actor. The cinematographer was Gordon Willis, who os know for his work on the Godfather series with Coppola. Willis also worked along side some other great directors including Woody Allen and Alan J. Pakula.

The movie is lit in a warm tone with a lot of the lights being used are from practical lights in the rooms. The characters are generally backlit with the light hitting one side of their faces creating a shadow on the opposite side, especially when they are talking about "family business." The movies brightest moments are the outside scenes between Don Vito Corleone and Michael, played by Marlon Brando and Al Pachino respectively. Once Michael completely takes over the business, the lighting looks more of a cool blue indoors showing a new regime is in place.

Homework Movies - Sophie's Choice

Strange twists of fate bring these three under the same roof in Sophie's Choice. Meryl Streep plays Sophie, a Polish survivor of Nazi Prison Camp . Her youthful, innocent friendship with Stingo, an aspiring writer, played by Peter MacNicol is challenges Kevin Kline's character, Nathan's affection for Sophie. Nathan's overbearing control of Sophie is balanced out by Stingo's openness to listening. With Stingo, Sophie gets the opportunity to bear her sole and story of how she came to America.

Written for the screen and directed by Alan J. Pakula in 1982, this heart-wrenching drama shows how Sophie gets out of one controlling situation to another. Pakula started his career as a producer in the late 50's, branching out to directing in 1969's The Sterile Cuckoo. It wasn't until 1982 that Pakula would work with Nestor Almendros on Sophie's Choice. Nestor has worked with some world class directors including François Truffaut, Robert Benton, and Mike Nichols. In Sophie's Choice, these two artists painted a very colorful pallet when in the present, highlighting the actors with a soft glow, except for Kline's Nathan. At times he would be lit from behind only showing his hair and covering his face in shadows because he was being terrifying towards Sophie. And when Sophie began telling her story, she had a glow around her hair seeming as a halo around her.

Film Review - Repo Men

Repo Men is a stylized futuristic tale of how credit is ruining society. It's gotten so bad in THIS future, that organs are being bought from a corporation that charges up the nose for a heart not even expecting most to be able to pay the monthly planned payments. When the "patient" doesn't, the corporation sends in the Repo Men. Guys that are not doctors that take the company's "products" out of the body with or without consent. The Company's two best Repos are played by Jude Law and Forest Whitaker. The problem arises when Jude's character Remy does a bad job and ends up in the hospital with an implant of his own.

The movie was a darkly lit film mostly because the Repos come in when the "patient" least expects them to. And the majority of the movie is done during the night or in dark places. There is excellent shadow work on both the main characters. There's a change of lighting on Jude once he's outfitted with his piece. This shows that he's had (forgive the pun) a change of heart for the people he's hurt in the past and wants to redeem himself in the future for. Forest's character comes into shadows still throughout the film up to the very end, without giving it away, he's a company man thru and thru.

The movie was directed by a newcomer director, Miguel Sapochnik, having only two other movies made. His director of Photography, Enrique Chediak has been working for fifteen years with a wide range of films to his credit. Most of Chediak's films have dark themes, with only a handful outside this norm.

Homework Movies - Frances (1982)

This willful defiance of power is directed by Graeme Clifford and the director of Photography was László Kovács. Jessica Lange portrays a young woman from the country destined for the big troubles of Hollywood and how quickly her life was turned upside down when she rose to the top only to fall fast.

The lighting set up was really well done. Most of the time, she was on a set where they could use the "stage" lights as practical lighting. One of the night set-ups that I thought was incredible was when she was driving away from a party drunk. The lighting was shadowing her left side in a weird way. There was a line on the side of her face and it stayed there for a while even though she was moving in the car. I also noticed that when her mother was in the scene the light was a yellow tone more so than when it was Frances and her gentleman friend Harry York, played by Sam Shepard.

Homework movies - Cop Out (2010)

Directed and edited by Kevin Smith, Cop Out pays tribute to all things cop movie. Including the gritty look of the film. Cinematography done by long time Smith collaborator, David A. Klein, this looks like it was taken out of the footage from the Lethal Weapon series, or any other buddy cop film in the last three decades. The story was written by Robb & Mark Cullen, who have written mostly for Television's Las Vegas until 2007.

The story puts Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan together as the "Riggs and Murtaugh" with the roles reversed. Willis plays it straight while Morgan gets to be the outlandish character portraying any and every cop cliche out on his witnesses, co-workers, and ultimately the sports obsessed gangster that sends these two on a mission to retrieve a stolen car. It's a very funny movie with plenty of Smith trademarks thrown in. Other notable actors in this cop comedy are Kevin Pollak, Adam Brody, and Sean William Scott playing a parkour moving thief that gets caught up in the mix.

Homework movies - Breakfast Club (1985)

The Breakfast Club is a dramatic look into the lives of several different classes of students written, directed, and produced by John Hughes (1950-2009) in the mid 80's. Cinematographer on this film was Thomas Del Ruth, who has worked on both television and movies since the mid 60's. His Cinematographer credits began in the late 70's with the TV series Mrs. Columbo and the movie Motel Hell. Thomas' most notable movies besides Breakfast Club are Stand By Me, Kuffs and he's currently working with Rob Reiner on a movie called Flipped.

For the movie The Breakfast Club, I noticed that the lighting was mostly natural lighting inside the hallowed halls of Sherman High School. The feel of the lighting looked very institutional, giving the feeling of being trapped. Which are the feelings the students had because it was supposed to be punishment. It was a very cool glow from the halogen lights normally used in a high school with little adjustments.

Homework movies - Goonies (1985)

Goonies is an action adventure written by Steven Spielberg and Chris Columbus in 1985 and directed by Richard Donner for Amblin Entertainment. Cinematographer on this film was Nick McLean, who has worked as various titles in the industry since the early 70's.

I would watch this movie before I started my day of my third grade summer. The great cast, which includes the very young Josh Brolin, Sean Austin, and Corey Feldman in a Haim-free roll of the 80's.

The film was mostly shot with an orange glow creating a warm mood. But when the bad guys, the Fratelis, were on screen there was a crisp blue tone. The warm tones were in a soft focus suggesting an ethereal feeling of hope and dreams. The Goonies were on a mission to save their parents homes due to foreclosure. Hope was all these kids had, and that was enough for them to go to such depths, to follow a legend and a map.