Best of 2013: #5. Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine)

#5. Spring Breakers. d. Harmony Korine. USA.

Unmoved and unamused by director Harmony Korine’s previous efforts, I found myself taken by massive surprise with Spring Breakers. More than any other film in recent memory, Spring Breakers astounded me at every turn. At no point over the course of ninety minutes did I have the slightest clue where the film was headed (an extremely rare treat), and all of my preconceived ideas of Korine’s artistic motives proved to be false. It also contains a career-best performance from one of the busiest actors/filmmakers of 2013, James Franco, a cinematic figure—like Korine—one shouldn’t underestimate. Like one of the more under-appreciated films of the 90s, John McNaughton’s Wild Things, Spring Breakers is a thrillingly sleazy, bizarre, and amoral love letter to the penis of America, Florida.

Spring Breakers is currently available on Blu-ray and DVD from Lionsgate in the U.S., and from Universal in the U.K., and from TF1 Vidéo in France.

With: James Franco, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine, Heather Morris, Justin Wheelon, Emma Holzer, Ashley Lendzion, Dave Kramer, Gucci Mane, Russell Curry, Jeff Jarrett

Blow Out the Candles; Plus More from Toronto

R.I.P. John Hughes, who died of a heart attack today at the age of 59 today. His contributions to cinema were a mixed bag at best (Curly Sue, Dennis the Menace and fuckin' Baby's Day Out), but he certainly captured something special in his better offerings (Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off). Making overnight stars out of the likes of his teen stars, most notably (for me) Molly Ringwald, it's hard to say whether he really chronicled a generation; I guess it depends on who you ask, as I've heard the same unqualified claim about Bret Easton Ellis. Whether it's cheap nostalgia or not, his (good) films certainly have stood the test of time. In other news, Toronto announced another eleven titles, including new films from Mika Kaurismäki (L.A. Without a Map, Tigrero: A Film That Was Never Made), Ana Kokkinos (Head On, The Book of Revelation), Jan Hrebejk (Beauty in Trouble, Divided We Fall) and Harmony Korine, as well as an omnibus Paris je t'aime-esque portrait of Bangkok from Pen-ek Ratanaruang (Last Life in the Universe, Ploy), Wisit Sasanatieng (Tears of the Black Tiger), Aditya Assarat (Wonderful Town) and Kongdej Jaturanrasamee (Midnight My Love, Spasm).

Contemporary World Cinema

- Beyond the Circle - d. Golam Rabbany Biplob (On the Wings of Dreams)
- Blessed - d. Ana Kokkinos - w. Miranda Otto, Frances O'Connor
- Giulia Doesn't Date at Night [Giulia non esce la sera] - d. Giuseppe Piccioni (Light of My Eyes) - w. Valeria Golino
- Heiran - d. Shalizeh Arefpour
- The House of Branching Love [Haarautuvan rakkauden talo] - d. Mika Kaurismäki
- Por vida [For Life] - d. Alan Jacobs (American Gun, Nina Takes a Lover) - w. Danny Glover, Snoop Dogg, Elizabeth Peña, Emily Rios
- Rabia - d. Sebastián Cordero (Crónicas) - w. Gustavo Sánchez Parra, Àlex Brendemühl
- Sawasdee Bangkok - d. Wisit Sasanatieng, Aditya Assarat, Kongdej Jaturanrasamee, Pen-ek Ratanaruang
- Shameless [Nestyda] - d. Jan Hrebejk
- Slovenian Girl [Slovenka] - d. Damjan Kozole (Spare Parts)
- Tanner Hall - d. Francesca Gregorini, Tatiana von Furstenberg - w. Amy Sedaris, Chris Kattan, Anne Ramsay, Tom Everett Scott

Visions

- Between Two Worlds - d. Vimukthi Jayasundara (The Forsaken Land)
- Gaia - d. Jason Lehel
- Hiroshima - d. Pablo Stoll (Whisky)
- I Am Love [Io sono l'amore] - d. Luca Guadagnino - w. Tilda Swinton
- Lebanon - d. Samuel Maoz
- To the Sea - d. Pedro González-Rubio
- Trash Humpers - d. Harmony Korine

Staying Alive?

Tony Manero - dir. Pablo Larraín - 2008 - Chile/Brazil - Lorber HT Digital

Written for Gone Cinema Poaching.

Like Taxi Driver and Man Bites Dog, Pablo Larraín's Tony Manero offers a new addition to the league of cinema's most fascinatingly maladaptive sociopaths with Raúl Peralta (Alfredo Castro). Set in Chile during Pinochet's oppressive reign over the country, Larraín takes an unflinching look at his nation's history through Raúl, who'd rather be referred to as Tony Manero after John Travolta's character in Saturday Night Fever. While bearing some resemblance to Harmony Korine's Mister Lonely, the two films part ways quickly as Raúl's celebrity projection turns rapidly grim when we discover that he also brutally murders innocent people without a glimpse of reservation.

More than Taxi Driver, to which it shares a political leaning, Tony Manero recalls some of Michael Haneke's notable works. Like a hybrid of Funny Games' Paul (Arno Frisch) and The Piano Teacher's Erika (Isabelle Huppert), Raúl incorporates Erika's appalling acts of sadism with Paul's absence of remorse. He's not inhuman as much as he's beyond it, a product of the devastating reality of his world and Hollywood's endless dream-pushing.

I resist calling Tony Manero a satire or even a dark comedy as, like The Piano Teacher, its moments of rabid cruelty only spark laughter as a relief from the unshakeable dread the film creates and the repugnance that it instills. In one of the film's most memorably ghastly scenes, the local theatre's change of attraction from Saturday Night Fever to another Travolta vehicle Grease propels Raúl to crush the elderly projectionist's skull inside the projection booth.

While the underlying idea in Tony Manero rings familiar on a couple of levels, those associations never infiltrate the hypnosis Larraín and Castro, who co-wrote the screenplay, place the audience under. Whether it's mortification or a seedy desire to where the film could possibly be headed, there's something thoroughly transfixing about Tony Manero, which sustains its foreboding uneasiness to its final, astonishing sequence.

...And John Waters' Best of 2008

Looks like John Waters has posted his annual best of the year list via Artforum, naming a tie for the top slot: Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona ("gives heterosexuality a good name!") and Christophe Honoré's Love Songs. I always feel like I'm just one-off with the Prince of Filth, this year being his inclusion of Harmony Korine's Mister Lonely, which I would have hated if it deserved that much energy. And I love that he described Julianne Moore in Savage Grace as "the best Isabelle Huppert performance of the year." The list is as follows, though I suggest you follow the link as his brief run-downs are highly amusing:

1. (tie) Vicky Cristina Bareclona - dir. Woody Allen; Love Songs [Les chansons d'amour] - Christophe Honoré
2. Mister Lonely - dir. Harmony Korine
3. Savage Grace - dir. Tom Kalin
4. Man on Wire - dir. James Marsh
5. The Last Mistress [Une vieille maîtresse] - dir. Catherine Breillat
6. My Winnipeg - dir. Guy Maddin
7. The Wrestler - dir. Darren Aronofsky
8. Taxi to the Dark Side - dir. Alex Gibney
9. Milk - dir. Gus Van Sant
10. Cassandra's Dream - dir. Woody Allen

The General and Others

Kino is releasing a fancy 2 disc set of Buster Keaton's The General with a new, cleaned-up transfer on 11 November. IFC will have Harmony Korine's Mister Lonely on 18 November. The Weinstein Company is releasing River Queen with Samantha Morton and Kiefer Sutherland on 11 November. Sony has Errol Morris' Standard Operating Procedure set for 14 October. And, finally, The Weinstein Company is releasing Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona on 25 November. That's all for now.

2008 Progress Report, Part 1: UPDATED

Well, fuck me, it’s already past the half-year mark, and 2008 has really surprised me. Thanks to studios like IFC, the early part of the year has been filled with 2007 leftovers from the various international festivals. From new films by Gus Van Sant, Jacques Rivette, Catherine Breillat and Olivier Assayas, to name a few, could you ask for a whole lot more? I’ve assessed all the films I’ve seen that were released in the United States this year and arranged them into three convenient categories. The first contains the real stand-outs of the early year, films likely to hit that impending best of the year list. The second is an A for effort, for films that tried but didn’t exactly succeed but are not altogether dismissible. And finally, the last list will contain 2008’s duds, of which I hear there are many outside of what I’ve seen (hello, The Happening, The Love Guru, Hancock!).Let's start things out with the worst. Thankfully, I avoided a number of the multiplex flicks, so the list is surprisingly small, even though it does contain some shit-fests.

UPDATE: So Harmony Korine's Mister Lonely is officially the most forgettable film of 2008. This is the second time I've tried to think up films released in 2008 that I've seen, and twice I've left this film out. Hopefully, I'll forget Drillbit Taylor as soon as I've forgotten this one.

The Bad!

City of Men [Cidade dos Homens] – dir. Paulo Morelli – Brazil – Miramax – with Douglas Silva, Darlan Cunha

Cloverfield – dir. Matt Reeves – USA – Paramount – with Michael Stahl-David, Lizzy Caplan, Mike Vogel, Jessica Lucas

Diary of the Dead – dir. George A. Romero – USA – Dimension

Drillbit Taylor – dir. Steven Brill – USA – Paramount – with Owen Wilson, Leslie Mann, Alex Frost, Josh Peck

Frontier(s) [Frontière(s)] – dir. Xavier Gens – France – Lionsgate – with Karina Testa, Aurélien Wiik, Samuel Le Bihan

Funny Games – dir. Michael Haneke – France/UK/USA – Warner Independent – with Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt, Brady Corbet, Devon Gearhart

Grand, The – dir. Zak Penn – USA – Anchor Bay – with Woody Harrelson, Cheryl Hines, Dennis Farina, Werner Herzog, David Cross

Kiss the Bride – dir. C. Jay Cox – here! Films – USA – with Philipp Karner, James O’Shea, Tori Spelling, Joanna Cassidy

Mister Lonely - dir. Harmony Korine - IFC Films - France/USA/UK/Ireland - with Diego Luna, Samantha Morton, Denis Lavant, Anita Pallenberg, James Fox, Werner Herzog, Leos Carax

Other Boleyn Girl, The – dir. Justin Chadwick – USA/UK – Sony Pictures – with Eric Bana, Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Jim Sturgess, Mark Rylance, Kristin Scott Thomas, David Morrissey

When You're Fresh Out of Asia Argento Films to Watch...

Having a case of bronchitis isn't necessarily the worst thing in the world. Of course, it could turn into pneumonia, which would, naturally, be worse, but at least my bronchitis has kept me up-to-date on some overdue film viewing (and equally overdue sleep). Though my bank account is looking pretty measly as a result of not working, I can at least pride myself in this continuing self-education. I don't really have the mental or physical strength to write extensively about any of these films (in fact, some don't warrant more than a simple mention), but for those curious as to what I've seen, the list is as follows:

The Good:

You, the Living [Du levande] - dir. Roy Andersson - 2007 - Sweden/Germany/France/Denmark/Norway [And by good, I mean really fucking good]

The Edge of Heaven [Auf der anderen Seite] - dir. Fatih Akin - 2007 - Germany/Turkey/Italy - with Nurgül Yesilçay, Baki Davrak, Hanna Schygulla, Tuncel Kurtiz, Patrycia Ziolkowska, Nursel Köse

Frownland - dir. Ronald Bronstein - 2007 - USA - with Dore Mann, Paul Grimstad, David Sandholm, Mary Wall, Paul Grant

North by Northwest - dir. Alfred Hitchcock - 1959 - USA - with Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason [I'm embarrassed to admit that this was the first time I'd seen this]

Rolling Family [Familia rodante] - dir. Pablo Trapero - 2004 - Argentina/Brazil/France/Germany/Spain/UK - with Graciana Chironi

Irina Palm - dir. Sam Garbarski - 2007 - UK/Germany/France/Belgium/Luxembourg - with Marianne Faithfull, Miki Manojlovic, Kevin Bishop, Siobhan Hewlett, Jenny Agutter - Review here

The Bad:

Teeth - dir. Mitchell Lichtenstein - 2007 - USA - with Jess Weixler, John Hensley, Hale Appleman, Lenny von Dohlen - Review here

Funny Games - dir. Michael Haneke - 2007 - France/UK/Austria/USA/Germany/Italy - with Naomi Watts, Michael Pitt, Tim Roth, Brady Corbet

SoulMaid - dir. Jeffrey Maccubbin, Jeffrey Thomas McHale, Dan Mohr, Josef Steiff - 2007 - USA - with Joe Schenck, Tom Bailey, Becca Connolly

Be with Me - dir. Eric Khoo - 2005 - Singapore [I seem to be the only person I've found that disliked this film this strongly.]

Poor Boy's Game - dir. Clément Virgo - 2007 - Canada - with Rossif Sutherland, Danny Glover

Lost in Beijing - dir. Li Yu - 2007 - China

...And Somewhere in Between:

The Golden Compass - dir. Chris Weitz - 2007 - USA/UK - with Dakota Blue Richards, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Sam Elliott, Eva Green

The Banishment [Izgnanie] - dir. Andrei Zvyagintsev - 2007 - Russia - with Konstantin Lavronenko, Aleksandr Baluyev, Maria Bonnevie

The Guatemalan Handshake - dir. Todd Rohal - 2006 - USA - with Will Oldham, Katy Haywood, Ken Byrnes, Sheila Scullin, Rich Schreiber

My Brother Is an Only Child [Mio fratello è figlio unico] - dir. Daniele Luchetti - 2007 - Italy/France - with Elio Germano, Riccardo Scamarcio, Diane Fleri - Review below

Mister Lonely - dir. Harmony Korine - 2007 - USA/UK/France/Ireland - with Diego Luna, Samantha Morton, Denis Lavant, James Fox, Anita Pallenberg, Leos Carax