Four movies you should have seen last year and didn't

There was a tragedy last year.

Four actually.

Okay, if you want to be totally, completely precise, there were probably like a trillion billion tragedies and a lot of them involved guns and hostages, national disasters, economic catastrophes, deaths of loved ones and other matters that rank higher than the ones I'm going to talk about in my blog today. This isn't glibness, rather clarification.

But there were four little, tiny tragedies that happened last year. Four hilarious, wonderful, beautiful films that never quite caught on. And as you well know, when a movie doesn't do fantastically in theaters, it once in a blue moon gets a second chance in rentals. Case in point-- "Donnie Darko." The television equivalent of this phenomenon of course is "Family Guy." I have to note that I totally rolled my eyes while typing those last two examples, as they became soooo successful in rentals that they actually got to the point where they were so popular they became annoying, (And then "Grey's Anatomy" and "The Kite Runner" were like "Yay! Friends!") 

But I digress. I would never want these films I'm about to list/praise to the high heavens to become irritatingly popular. And I really doubt they ever will be- they just don't have enough popular endorsement because-- right, not enough people saw them. But I do hope that maybe someone reading this blog is like-- "Hmmm--- "The Wire" is taking forever to get on Netflix, maybe I should put one of the movies Kit Steinkellner recommended on my queue." Or a reader is at Blockbuster with a cranky significant other who's not in the mood for "Superbad" OR "Batman Begins" Disaster! What is said reader going to do? Kit Steinkellner's pick to the rescue!

So here was my criterion for picking.

1.)The movie had to have been awesome (reason- obvious)

2.)The movie had to have not done that well in theaters (reason-obvious)

3.) It can't have been a cult darling (reason- I'm selfish and egomaniacal and want to be solely responsible for bringing this movie to your attention)

4.)It can't have come out during the holidays (reason- because everyone saw everything during the holidays, even small movies, and even if you didn't see them, they got big buzz from Entertainment Weekly or whatever)

5.) I had to have seen it with my boyfriend Brian (reason- there actually isn't a reason for this one, this is just what ended up happening because I drag him to all the little movies I want to see at the Landmark)

So without much further ado-- Movies You Missed Last Year That You Have To Rent/Netflix Now Because It Will Make You A Smarter, Better Person

[Note. I have a sneaking suspicion that I shouldn't have capitalized every word in this title, but am not quite sure on the grammar rules, and am too lazy to go find my copy of Strunk and White. Or even Google it. Plus, even if it's incorrect, I think it looks funny. So basically- whatever]

[Another Note. I use the word whatever too much, but it amuses me and at the same time makes me feel nonchalant and vaguely cool. So whatever.]

[Last Note. I said without much further ado, but that was a lot of ado. All right.  I'm serious this time. Let's roll.]

1.) The TV Set 

[Note. After I wrote this post, I remembered that this film came  out in 2006. But if fits the criterion for this list beautifully. So we're going to let it slide]

As a current denizen of Los Angeles, I'm a big apologist for the city. I'm always like "No you guys, it's got a lot of culture, you just don't see it," and "It's too geographically and demographically disparate  to just be up and dismissed as this one shallow, mind-numbing, soul-deadening hellpit of forgotten morals, misplaced ethics, delusions of grandeur and broken dreams." But the thing is, I'm like that girlfriend who has bruises from "falling down the stairs" and a black eye from "getting something high up off the shelf". I am wrong. Los Angeles is exactly all those things. And "The TV Set" is a smart, nimble satire that gets to the heart of the matter. In particular, this film deals with the TV Industry [Note. I like how I capitalize "Industry" the way most people capitalize "God"] , and the long hard haul to make a TV pilot of substantive quality that can actually get on the air. 

David Duchovny plays Mike Klein, the creator of a television pilot based on his own personal experiences coming to terms with his mother's death in his small hometown. The network, headed by Lenny (Sigourney Weaver, who portrays a television executive with frightening accuracy) proceeds to destroy Klein's vision, casting the lead role with an actor who mugs for the camera and can't do the same take twice,  hiring a director who does long tracking shots of scenery instead of shooting.. you know, the actors acting, rewriting all the heart and humor out of the story, and so on and so forth. Klein is stuck between a rock and a hard place-- he is furious about having to compromise his deeply personal story, but his wife is pregnant and he really needs this show to get on the air to provide a steady income for his expanding family. 

This is a sly, sly movie. I think it's funny and thought-provoking even if you're not remotely connected to the television/entertainment industry, but if you are connected, you'll really be able to appreciate the delicious and uncomfortable accuracies of the film. And the way the film questions the integrity of the industry is just so applaudable, (" If I don't worry about the content of my show, then I'm part of the problem. I'm making the world more mediocre!" -Duchovny at finest). "The TV Set" is just a really sharp, really fun little satire. I saw it twice in theaters and I don't even do that. I didn't even do that with Titantic, to give you perspective. So rent it.

2.) Paprika

This was actually the first movie I saw at the new Landmark on Westwood and Pico (the theater I see 95% of my movies at now). I literally went because of the poster, a colorful phantasmagoria of cartoon marching band frogs, little china dolls, those white Japanese cats that are supposed to be good luck, Japanese temple Gods, and a teetering Statue of Liberty all ominously marching towards some mysterious, sinister goal. So of course I had to see it. 

The story itself is set in a not-too-distant future, where psychiatrists have invented a machine called a DC Mini that allows them to view and enter patients' dreams. When an assistant, Himuro, disappears with one of the devices and starts sinisterly appearing in other people's dreams, the line between dreams and reality begins to blur, and it is up to the socially reserved Dr. Atsuko Chiba and her dream-alter-ego, pretty, perky, adventurous Paprika, to restore order and balance to the world. The film,  a modern epic hero story with a Freudian sci-fi spin is simultaneously exuberantly delightful and unsettlingly creepy. And the animation is just gorgeous. Gor-geous. I kind of want to live in this movie because it's so fun. But it's also scary, so I also don't.

 In America, it is Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away) that usually gets most of the buzz, buzz that is of course deserved, but it's time to make room for Sayatoshi Kon, the visionary behind Paprika. Too often a movie is just a movie, something you go to because you need to pass time, it's summer and your apartment doesn't have air-conditioning, it's an easy way to ask someone on a date, whatever. And sadly, too often movies are made to accommodate this, shall we say, "whateverness". Not Paprika. This is a film that you dive into and swim around joyfully in for 90 minutes, a film that you breath in through your lungs and absorb through your pores that stays with you long after you've gone (it's been half a year and I still remember it vividly.) Also the Japanese/English cognates are hilarious (salient examples include-- "It's the  greatest show time!" " It's a Mystery" and "Date Spot.")

 Also it's rated R. Sometimes that's incentive for people. Go rent it.

3.) Rocket Science

Okay, you know what irks me a little? No actually this irks me a lot. When a hip, quirky, youth-centered and marketed independent film comes out and everyone makes a huge, big deal out of it, and it cleans up at the box office and it's really not the greatest thing in the world. This actually doesn't bother me in and of itself. What bothers me is when a FANTASTIC hip, quirky etcetera movie comes out and just does no business to speak of. No buzz. "But it's fantastic," I cry! But the response I get is crickets chirping. And chirping. And chirping.

"Rocket Science"", you guys. The story of Hal Hefner (amazing perf by Reece Thompson), an awkward stuttering high schooler who is approached by snappy, beautiful debate team star Ginny Ryerson (also amazing perf by Anna Kendrick who is repped by APA, just like me!) and offered the last spot on the debate team. What follows isn't your expected tale of triumph over adversity, of the underdog that beats the odds and defies everyone that doubted him by rising to the top. This is a different kind of film, and that difference is what makes it special. This is about dreams that don't get fully realized. About disappointment and heartbreak. And above all else, it's about the little tiny steps a person takes, the progressions that give you just enough hope to get up in the morning. Also, the film is really funny. That last bit made it not seem funny, so I just wanted to clarify that it was. This is a movie that crawls inside your heart and burrows in there. So why is it not a cult hit? Maybe it would have helped if writer/director Jeffrey Blitz had been the star of a goofy medical intern half-hour sitcom? Or if he had been Mormon? Or a former stripper? I just don't know. But rent this. It's good. Really good.

4.) The King of Kong

I really like when documentaries are searing, impactful, and forever change the way you look at the world.

 But you know what else I like?

When they're all those things and also really, really, really fun.

"The King of Kong", you all, a documentary about the still-alive-and-kicking world of competitive arcade gaming. We first meet our villain, gaming champ and hot sauce mogul Billy Mitchell. Since the early '80's, Mitchell has had the World Record for points on both Centipede and Donkey Kong. All the obseqious gaming nerds grovel before Billy like he's the fricking Golden Calf of Exodus, no one thinks Billy is going to be beaten, ever. Ever, ever.

Until our hero Steve Wiebe comes along. After losing his job, Wiebe finds solace in Donkey Kong. He finds Billy Mitchell's 1,000,0000 point world record online and sets out to beat it. 

And he does.

What follows is an epic battle between Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell over Wiebe's score being accepted by the Gaming Comission (sinisterly controlled by Mitchell). If Wiebe successfully and legimately earned his score, it would make him the new King of Kong. Mitchell is not going to let this happen. The politics and manipulation that goes on are incredible people. This battle is up there with Sauron and Frodo, Voldemort and Harry Potter, Darth and Luke. It's really epic, and even though it's silly because it's just arcade games, it's still really, really epic. And hilarious-- I have a hard time liking a movie if it's not hilarious. "King of Kong" is also insanely short--79 minutes, you guys! This is one of the three movies I have seen in my entire life that I wished was longer. I loved it. Rent it.

Next up- "Russia's 'Romeo and Juliet' "or "The Best Trilogy You've Never Read."

Yay! "Blogging" sounds so stupid, but is really fun in practice. Yay for not judging an activity by the stupidity of its' name!

Affectionately,

Kit