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Über-Film Studies Case #1: Zardoz

June 2, 2015

jmunney Academic Papers, Cinema Friedrich Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Nihilism, Philosophy, Ubermensch, Zarathustra, Zardoz 2 Comments

This essay was originally written as my final paper for my Advanced Topics Media Theory class, taught by Eugene Thacker, in Spring 2015 at The New School.

“The world now laughs, rent are the drapes of fright,
The wedding is at hand of dark and light—”
-Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good & Evil, “From High Mountains: Aftersong”

“We’ve all been used!” “And re-used!” “And abused!” “And amused!”
-Friend (John Alderton)/Arthur Frayn (Niall Buggy), Zardoz

If I discover an interpretation of a complicated work and then realize that this interpretation is a perfect explanation of this work, is this just a self-fulfilling prophecy? Perhaps the interpretation is well-founded, but my new reading will inevitably be colored by my knowledge of this theory. But maybe its rightness or wrongness is beside the point, at least in absolute terms. I do not have to agree exactly for my eyes to see anew. It could be the ramblings of a madman, but it may still be a message that is worthwhile. Discovering that Zardoz, a film I have cherished many years for its singular qualities, had been declared the epitome of a Nietzschean movie, I was irrevocably changed. “The Lord is risen!” “God is dead!” Zed is the Übermensch! So speak to me, Muse of Surprisingly Useful Amazon User Reviews, and keep me on a steady path in this endeavor.

My first contact with Mr. Nietzsche was diffuse. He is one of those towering figures of philosophy that permeates academia and bleeds into the culture at large. He never came up in any comparative philosophy class I took, and without a philosophy background, any influence he had on me came secondhand. I was vaguely aware of his influence on any entertainment that established itself as nihilist, and the Übermensch concept was familiar enough to stand as a Big Idea of modern thought. From what I could gather, the Übermensch was some sort of German version of Superman. I sensed that this was not quite right, but I chalked whatever I was missing up to the nuances of translation and the subtlety of the actual literature.

This Is a (Quickie) Movie Review: Ex Machina

April 25, 2015

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews Ex Machina, Oscar Isaac dancing Leave a comment

Ex Machina posits that A.I. is most convincing when you can see that it is a machine and yet it still registers as human consciousness. This is also the formula of a certain strain of great magic: the magician explains the trick to the audience, but the illusion still stands. Accordingly, Ex Machina is interested in magic, what with the main characters thoroughly expositing their ruses. But who will prove to be the master of misdirection: A.I. impresario Nathan, his employee/mark Caleb, or shiny new robot Ava? The twists are predictable, but the exploration upon getting to them is deeply fascinating.

Oscar Isaac has given the best performance of the year so far, and not just because of this:

This Is a (Quickie) Movie Review: Unfriended

April 17, 2015

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews Nasty Movies, Screenlife, Unfriended 3 Comments

Unfriended, at heart, is a typical one-by-one mystery killer story. Ergo, it is not particularly scary. So when a horror movie is not very scary, it needs to be interesting. And boy, is it interesting. Essentially the entire running time takes place on an Apple laptop. With all the Chrome tabs, Skype windows, Spotify’s, Messenger’s, Recycle Bins, and desktop icons, I at first thought it was going to be exhausting, but then I soon remembered that I am used to all that.

It succeeds at relentlessly exploiting its killer premise and withholding information until the most effective moments. While I very much enjoyed it, it is not something I would jump at watching again, as all the characters are just terrible friends to each other. The best word to describe this movie is “nasty.” It’s a cautionary tale, a nasty movie for nasty people.

Film Editing Appreciation/Analysis: The Room’s Surprise Birthday Party

March 2, 2015

jmunney Academic Papers, Cinema Film Editing, I fed up with this world, Oh Hi Mark, The Room, Tommy Wiseau, You are tearing me apart lisa Leave a comment

The Movie: The Room
The Scene: Birthday Party
The Editor: Eric Chase

This essay was originally written as by final paper for my Aesthetics of Editing class, taught by Rafael Parra, in Fall 2014 at The New School.

The Room is a masterwork of surrealism in film. This may not have been intentional; director Tommy Wiseau, is known for his inscrutability and has given confounding explanations for what he was trying to accomplish with this movie. But the purest form of surrealism is accidental, which is why it works as well as it does in this case. The Room’s strange editing strategies underscore this sense. In this vein, the birthday party scene features a particularly fascinating mix of continuity and discontinuity elements. The film is made competently, both narratively and technically, but there are certain odd aspects that call attention to themselves and create a surreal ethos.

The 2014 Jeff Malone Academy Awards

February 22, 2015

jmunney Best in Film 2014, Best of 2014, Cinema, Oscars Leave a comment

If I were in charge of unilaterally selecting the Oscars, here is who would be recognized. Winners are at the top, and nominees are listed most deserving first.

Best Picture
1. Whiplash
2. The Lego Movie
3. Gone Girl
4. Nightcrawler
5. Snowpiercer

Lead Actress
1. Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
2. Scarlett Johansson, Under the Skin
3. Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
4. Jennifer Lawrence, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1
5. Emily Blunt, Into the Woods

Lead Actor
1. Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler
2. Michael Keaton, Birdman
3. Ralph Fiennes, The Grand Budapest Hotel
4. David Oyelowo, Selma
5. Andy Serkis, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Best Movie Scenes of 2014

February 21, 2015

jmunney Best in Film 2014, Best of 2014, Cinema Leave a comment

1. X-Men: Days of Future Past – “Time in a Bottle”: Mid-film applause was in order.

Best Film Performances of 2014

February 20, 2015

jmunney Best in Film 2014, Best of 2014, Cinema Leave a comment

In a lot of my best-of lists in the past, I have made it a point to mention potential greats that I haven’t been able to see. I have backed off from doing that recently, because it is just something that comes with the territory. But having seen fewer movies in 2014 than I did in 2013, I feel compelled to mention some of the performances I kept hearing about, like Julianne Moore in Still Alice, Marion Cotillard in Two Days, One Night and The Immigrant, or Timothy Spall in Mr. Turner. But I still managed to see an abundance of great acting. Here is a rundown of the excellence, starting with the 2 best and then the rest in alphabetical order:

Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler
Uma Thurman, Nymphomaniac

Riz Ahmed, Nightcrawler
Emily Blunt, Into the Woods
Josh Brolin, Inherent Vice
Bradley Cooper, Guardians of the Galaxy
Lilla Crawford, Into the Woods
Tom Cruise, Edge of Tomorrow
Ralph Fiennes, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Jake Gyllenhaal, Enemy
Ed Harris, Snowpiercer
Scarlett Johansson, Lucy and Under the Skin
Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
Michael Keaton, Birdman
Jennifer Lawrence, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1
David Oyelowo, Selma
Randall Park, The Interview
Alison Pill, Snowpiercer
Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything
Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher
Andy Serkis, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
Emma Stone, Birdman
Tilda Swinton, Snowpiercer

Best Films of 2014 (Re-dux)

February 19, 2015

jmunney Best in Film 2014, Best of 2014, Cinema Leave a comment

I made a top 10 films of 2014 list back in December, but since then, I have seen some more movies originally released last year. So here is an updated and expanded list:

1. Whiplash
2. The Lego Movie
3. Gone Girl
4. Nightcrawler
5. Snowpiercer

Film Editing Appreciation/Analysis: Hot Rod’s “Quiet Place”

February 12, 2015

jmunney Academic Papers, Cinema Film Editing, Hot Rod, Malcolm Campbell 1 Comment

The Movie: Hot Rod
The Scene: “Quiet Place”
The Editor: Malcolm Campbell

About 15 minutes into Hot Rod, young daredevil Rod Kimble (Andy Samberg) discovers that his hard-ass stepfather (Ian McShane), whom he has vowed to beat in a fight, has a failing heart. This prompts Rod to declare, “I need to go to my quiet place!” The setting then cuts to a forest, where he is dancing out his troubles while smoking a cigarette and slopping drinking some liquor. His moves are set to the strains of “Never” by Moving Pictures, making it clear that this is an homage to the angry dancing scene in the warehouse in Footloose. Much of Samberg’s acrobatic routine takes its cues from Kevin Bacon, and the editing by Malcolm Campbell follows suit.

This scene is cut like a music video, which is appropriate, because it is focused not on moving the narrative forward but on capturing Rod’s emotional state. There is a mix of mostly wide and medium-wide shots composed of several trees and most or all of Rod. This is appropriate, as he is using his whole body to dance. The editing pace matches the rock music well, with a busy but steady pace in which the shots last about 2-5 seconds each.

The dancing portion goes into its conclusion when Rod jumps off a stump and performs a front flip in the air. Or, he performs at least ten front flips. Each shot of him flipping is cut in mid-air, so it is unclear if each subsequent flip is a new flip or the same flip from a different angle. His flipping style is slightly different each time, so there are likely multiple flips. The quicker editing at this point makes it seem like Rod is flipping several times in a row before landing, despite such a feat’s logical impossibility. This less-than-literal style is then brought back down to earth, as Rod trips against a stump and falls over a cliff, with the music suddenly cutting out.

Comedy has been called an editor’s medium, and it shows during Rod’s descent, which lasts nearly an entire minute. The cuts emphasize how unlikely and unexpected the duration of his fall is. Rod’s movement on any given shot generally moves from right to left on the frame, conveying a steady momentum. Until the end, the shot compositions do not give any indication of the end of the cliff, leaving the viewer on edge, uncertain about how long this will last. Thus, there is an atmosphere of surprise that is crucial to comedy. The coup de grâce is a switch to a series of three much wider shots, with Rod’s screams barely audible in the distance. In this sequence, Rod is off-screen for five seconds (as opposed to no more than a second before this point), building maximum tension right before he falls out of the sky and finally rolls into a flat patch of land, giving the audience a moment to breathe as they process this quick burst of surrealism.

2014: A Year at the Movies

January 1, 2015

jmunney A Year at the Movies, Cinema 1 Comment

Life had plenty of developments in 2014, so my moviegoing fell far short of any record-setting. I managed to get in a solid holiday rush at the end of the year, but even without that bump, I would have avoided the embarrassment of averaging fewer than one film per week.

(Included with the list of titles are grades, dates, showtimes, theatre locations, and folks I saw the movies with.)

1. Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom – B- (1/7, 12:10 PM, Regal United Artists Oxford Valley, Langhorne, PA; myself)
2. Frozen – A- (1/8, 12:50 PM, Oxford Valley; myself)
3. The Wolf of Wall Street – B+ (1/10, 7:10 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
4. Lone Survivor – B (1/10, 10:30 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
5. Her – B+ (1/14, 12:00 PM, Oxford Valley; myself)
6. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones – C (1/16, 12:10 PM, Oxford Valley; myself)
7. Devil’s Due – C+ (1/17, 8:10 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
8. Ride Along – B- (1/24, 8:00 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
9. August: Osage County – B- (2/6, 12:50 PM, Regal Union Square, New York, NY; myself)
10. The Monuments Men – B- (2/15, 9:40 PM, Oxford Valley; Dave Coyle and Walter Wojcik)
11. The Lego Movie – A (2/16, 1:40 PM, Oxford Valley; Bob Malone, Sue Malone, Dave Coyle, and Walter Wojcik; also in 3D, 2/27, 8:20 PM, Regal E-Walk, New York, NY; Rob Malone)
12. Dallas Buyers Club – B+ (2/19, 12:10 PM, AMC Loews 19th Street East, New York, NY; myself)
13. How to Be a Man (2/26, 9:30 PM, Nitehawk Cinema, Brooklyn, NY; multiple people)
14. Winter’s Tale – C (2/27, 5:30 PM, E-Walk; Rob Malone)
15. Non-Stop – A- (3/7, 7:40 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
16. Enemy – B+ (3/20, 1:15 PM, Angelika Film Center, New York, NY; myself)
17. Nymphomaniac: Volume 1 – B+ (3/23, 10:00 PM, City Cinemas 1-2-3, New York, NY; CJ Hanekamp, Laura Jespersen, and Lydia Lovell)
18. 300: Rise of an Empire – C- (3/25, 8:00 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
19. Divergent – B (3/25, 9:40 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
20. Sabotage – C- (3/27, 8:00 PM, Oxford Valley; Rob Malone)
21. Noah – B (3/27, 10:05 PM, Oxford Valley; Rob Malone, Dan Dickerson, Walter Wojcik, and Terri Wojcik)
22. The Grand Budapest Hotel – B+ (4/4, 8:20 PM, AMC Loews 34th Street, New York, NY; CJ Hanekamp and Laura Jespersen)
23. Under the Skin – B (4/9, 11:40 AM, Union Square; Rob Malone, Sean Dunn, Blake LaRue, Misha Spivack, and Hunter Steinman)
24. Captain America: The Winter Soldier – B (4/18, 7:40 PM, Oxford Valley; Bob Malone)
25. Oculus – B+ (5/2, 2:05 PM, E-Walk; myself)
26. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 – B- (5/10, 7:30 PM, Oxford Valley; Bob Malone, Sue Malone, and Kaity Malone)
27. X-Men: Days of Future Past – B+ (5/26, 2:10 PM, Oxford Valley; Bob Malone and Walter Wojcik)
28. Godzilla in 3D – C+ (5/26, 8:00 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
29. Neighbors – B (5/26, 10:10 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
30. The Fault in Our Stars – C (6/6, 7:40 PM, Oxford Valley; Kaity Malone)
31. Edge of Tomorrow – B+ (6/10, 7:30 PM, Oxford Valley; Rob Malone and Jeff Smith)
32. 22 Jump Street – B (6/13, 8:10 PM, Oxford Valley; Greg Smith, Jeff Smith, and Walter Wojcik)
33. How to Train Your Dragon 2 – B (6/21, 9:20 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
34. Deliver Us From Evil – C (7/2, 7:50 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
35. Jersey Boys – B (7/3, 3:30 PM, Oxford Valley; Claire Dansbury and Grace Stanford)
36. Rifftrax Live: Sharknado (7/15, 7:30 PM, AMC Neshaminy, Bensalem, PA; Walter Wojcik)
37. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – B+ (7/16, 7:00 PM, Oxford Valley; Bob Malone, Kaity Malone, Lindsay Ruhlin, and Walter Wojcik)
38. Snowpiercer – A- (7/23, 7:00 PM, Neshaminy; Bob Malone and Walter Wojcik)
39. Lucy – B+ (7/26, 7:50 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
40. The Purge: Anarchy – C+ (7/26, 9:55 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
41. Guardians of the Galaxy in 3D – B (8/6, 7:20 PM, Regal Manahawkin, Manahawkin, NJ; Bob Malone, Kaity Malone, Beth Woods, Rory Woods, Wesley Woods, Riley Woods, and Kevin Benner)
42. Rifftrax Live: Godzilla (1998) (8/14, 8:00 PM, Neshaminy; Walter Wojcik)
43. Boyhood – A- (8/19, 6:20 PM, Oxford Valley; Kaity Malone)
44. As Above, So Below – C+ (8/29, 8:00 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
45. Wetlands – B+ (9/6, 8:00 PM, Angelika; myself)
46. The Hundred-Foot Journey – B (9/13, 5:20 PM, Oxford Valley; Pat Dansbury)
47. The Skeleton Twins – B-/C+ (10/2, 2:30 PM, Neshaminy; myself)
48. Annabelle – B (10/3, 7:40 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
49. Gone Girl – A (10/3, 9:30 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
50. John Wick – B- (10/25, 7:30 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
51. Rifftrax Live: Anaconda (10/30, 8:00 PM, Neshaminy; Walter Wojcik)
52. Interstellar – A- (11/8, 7:40 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
53. Birdman – A- (11/14, 7:25 PM, Neshaminy; Walter Wojcik)
54. Nightcrawler – A- (11/20, 12:30 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
55. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 – B (11/29, 7:30 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
56. Rifftrax Live: Santa Claus (12/4, 8:00 PM, Neshaminy; Dave Coyle, Meredith Hanrahan, and Walter Wojcik)
57. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – B- (12/17, 7:30 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
58. Top Five – B+ (12/19, 7:40 PM, Neshaminy; Walter Wojcik)
59. Foxcatcher – B (12/23, 7:05 PM, Neshaminy; Walter Wojcik)
60. The Interview – B- (12/27, YouTube; Rob Malone)
61. The Imitation Game – B (12/30, 4:00 PM, Oxford Valley; Bob Malone, Sue Malone, Claire Dansbury, Pat Dansbury, and Walter Wojcik)
62. Into the Woods – B+ (12/30, 10:30 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)

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