The Drop Box

Quick Notes

Toshi Yano — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 18:38:13 +0000

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957) – with Tony Curtis as an advertising hack and Jayne Mansfield as, I guess, herself – was fun, if fluffy, stuff: light satire of Madison Avenue and celebrity culture, with some really good comic moments and quaint (in the best way) double entendres (polishing one’s Oscar, anyone?)

Auntie Mame (1958), with Rosalind Russell in the title role – the story of a vivacious, free-thinking socialite and her orphaned nephew, told over a period of nine years during the Depression, in vignettes – has its share of great comedy, too; the beginning and end shine particularly brightly.

Kenneth Anger Short With Mystery Psych Soundtrack

Toshi Yano — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 08:49:12 +0000

Puce Moment, from WFMU’s Beware Of The Blog.

Mad Men – Season 2, ctd. or, Mad Men is a great show

Toshi Yano — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 08:41:49 +0000

The first season of Mad Men was well-written, entertaining, engaging; the second was the same, no doubt, but with a more explicitly intellectual bent: the question of identity, alluded to in the first season, became in the second season not just a narrative device (who is Don Draper?), but the central concern – who are we all? how do we create our identities? or, alternatively, how are our identities created for us?

If the first season established the characters and their milieu, the second season – especially its second half – undid them; by the last episode, almost nothing remained of what we thought we knew – identities, seemingly stable, had been altered radically, including Sterling-Cooper’s itself. If this seems like a strange way to advance a story, I can only imagine things becoming more uncanny; we’ve only reached 1962 after all…

A potential for greatness existed from the outset – there’s almost no better place to confront the question of who we are than a Madison Avenue advertising firm at the beginning of the 60s (watch the documentary, The Century of the Self, for a potent critique of PR, advertising, the creation of desire and mass control – scary stuff) – but for the most part while watching the show I thought I was being entertained, not interrogated; which makes this is some of the cleverest TV I’ve ever watched – I actually found myself surprised at the depths the show achieved, wondering how we had arrived and where the show could possibly go next.

I realize I’m not talking about the characters, the plot – anything materially relevant to the show itself – but I’m still getting over my initial shock at its depth. I love almost all the characters, particularly those drawn with more detail, and I hope I can write contemporaneous posts as the third season airs, and do justice to their stories.

Mad Men – Season 2, ctd.

Toshi Yano — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:34:34 +0000

Finished the second season today. My earlier misgivings were eased somewhat – what I took for a devolution toward soap opera may instead have been a long set up for the show’s theme – that becoming what you desire requires willful forgetting. This is most obvious where it concerns Don’s and Peggy’s storylines, but it also sheds light on Pete, Roger, Joan and Salvatore. Also, the second half of the season is just more fun – our attention is brought back to the office and its subtle politics, the arena in which most of the first season took place. It’s what I’d been missing from the first half of the season.

Another Soap Opera?

Toshi Yano — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 05:00:40 +0000

I’m halfway through Season 2 of Mad Men and I feels like it’s falling prey to Soap Opera Syndrome – Six Feet Under’s second season felt this way, too, and I never picked it up again. I’m still going to finish it – I’ve invested the time, and there are interesting ideas – but the turn toward melodrama is unexpected. Maybe it’s a shift in perspective from the men on the show to the women? I’ll think about this more – I’ve got the 3rd disc waiting…

Roland Topor (1938-1997)

jaysongreen — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 12:03:02 +0000

Here’s some stuff that Roland Topor has done that you haven’t.

1. He was a key member of the “Panic Movement” in 1962, a theatre group that critiqued Surrealism for being too bourgeois while still embracing its basic guidelines. The other founding members of the group were crazy psychedelic filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky and crazy psychedelic playwright Fernando Arrabal.

2. He wrote the novella “The Tenant” which was adapted by pederast extraordinaire, Roman Polanski into one of the best horror films ever made.

3. He was the main animator on Fantastic Planet (La Planète Sauvage, 1973) and wrote a ton of stuff for TV and film, including “Marquis” which features an dog faced Marquis de Sade arguing with his human-faced erection. A-may-zing.

5. Acted in a ton of crap. He was Renfield in Werner Herzog’s “Nosferatu” (1979). I know, that’s pretty fucking sweet.

So this is a dude to check out. Big time.

Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971)

jaysongreen — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:03:44 +0000

So this isn’t a review of the film, but more a reason to show our faithful readers (blogateers, ho!) a trailer that would/could make you download in your pants. This is a 1971 Mario Bava masterpiece more popularly known as “Bay of Blood” but released initially in the US with the title “Twitch of the Death Nerve” (which wins the award for best movie title of all time (next to “Fast and Furious : Tokyo Drift” of course)). This is the film that laid the groundwork for all of those 80s giant body count slashers we’ve come to know and… well… sometimes love, but mostly watch out of obligation. In fact a number of kills in “Friday the 13th” were taken directly from “Death Nerve.” Suck on that. But don’t blame Bava too hard for creating a genre that kills fun teens (aka ones who like beer and doing it) and rewards nerds (aka the ones that don’t) – he didn’t know how weird America would be in the 80s. Anyfart, here’s the trailer and I’d have to say it might be my fav based on aesthetics alone. Oh yeah, the Italian title is “Reazione a Catena.”

The Outfit (1973)

Toshi Yano — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 06:40:55 +0000

Earl Macklin (Robert Duvall) is barely out of prison when his girl, Bett (Karen Black), tells him his brother’s been killed. Worse, she’s partially responsible. Worse yet, he’s next. When his would-be killer comes through the door, Macklin jumps him, ties him up and puts the proverbial screws to him. Turns out he and his brother robbed the wrong bank, and the organization whose money went missing wants payback. So begins Earl’s epic excursion against the Outfit, a crime syndicate that controls half of the country.

Before the real dirty work begins, Earl hooks up with his old partner-in-crime, Cody (Joe Don Baker); then, with Bett along for the ride (he’s forgiven her), they start to rob the Outfit one money-laundering operation at a time, sending word that, come a $250,000 payoff, they’ll stop. At first, they’re a minor annoyance, something for the hired guns to handle; but when they get within spitting distance of the boss, Mailer (Robert Ryan), it’s war. After agreeing to the payoff, Mailer double-crosses Earl and Cody, setting up an ambush at what was supposed to be the drop point. Big mistake: the payoff would have gotten Mailer off cheap; instead, Earl and Cody escape and redouble their efforts, risking everything in their attempt to tumble the Outfit.

This is a really good gangster movie, with a wonderful only-in-the-Seventies cast. In addition to the stars, it’s got some great character actors, including Elisha Cook and Marie Windsor (both from Kubrick’s The Killing). It’s taken from a novel by Donald Westlake (aka Richard Stark), who also provided source material for Point Blank, The Grifters and The Stepfather (as well as Godard’s Made In U.S.A., which I haven’t seen). Its aesthetic minimalism (due to funding issues, apparently) only adds to the feeling of authenticity – ratty motel rooms, dive bars, chop shops… you can almost smell the cigarettes and cheap cologne. The underdog, guerilla quality of Earl and Cody, two relatively small-time hoods engaged in a battle of principle against an extremely well-funded, well-armed organization, makes them immensely appealing, and gives The Outfit a buddy film aspect you might not expect. Unfortunately, The Outfit is only available on VHS, an issue that MGM should really rectify in the near future.

Tracy Morgan Love, Part II

Toshi Yano — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 05:19:35 +0000

Rambo: To Hell And Back (2008)

Toshi Yano — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:45:16 +0000

Following is a take on the new Rambo by my buddy, Jayson Green, hopefully a frequent contributor:

Rambo, Or, Why I Have an Uncomfortable Ramboner

A Play In One Act

A glassy-eyed ME sits, staring into the middle-distance. YOU enter.

You: How was Rambo?

Me: I don’t think I can answer that question. I guess I can say it’s amazing, but I don’t necessarily mean that as a compliment.

You: Was it violent?

Me: They throw a newborn baby into a burning building. And what I mean when I say that is, you see someone THROW A TINY BABY INTO A FIRE!

You: …

Me: I know – and it somehow manages to get more insane from there. This film is like a less politically responsible version of Cannibal Holocaust, even down to utilizing actual news footage without any real context, making the “actual” images of death squads and piles of dead bodies just another element of the movie while we hoot and cheer for the deaths of the “unreal” characters who we’re to believe are responsible in some way for the actual murder of real people which of course devalues the “actual” deaths while not lending any gravitas to the “unreal” deaths except to couch them in some sort of pseudo-moralistic or political terms. Phew!

You: That’s confusing.

Me: You’re telling me, sister. Plus his arms look like two giant, gross, vein-y penises which are always holding something that’s spraying something that kills everyone. Oh yeah, there’s lots of raping too.

You: Who is Rambo fighting?

Me: Uhhh, well he’s in Burma, so… There are these soldiers who are totally killing these other non-soldiers… uhmmm. They actually never really say who he’s fighting, but trust me they are not nice.

You: Oh. Is there a message?

Me: Yeah, definitely. Rambo tells a bunch of Christians, who want to help the oppressed peoples of Burma, that they won’t make a difference. BUT if they still want to try, even though it’s pointless, they need to have guns. The Christians refuse to use weapons and go anyway and of course are kidnapped/killed/tortured. So Rambo and a bunch of dudes go in with guns and try to save them with varying degrees of success. So in the end nothing changes except a lot of people die.

You: So the moral is don’t do anything?

Me: Pretty much, yeah.

You: Woah. Do you think it’s just a really cynical take on what’s happening in Iraq?

Me: Oh shit I didn’t think of that, but probably not. Oh did I say that I loved the movie? Because I did. I really loved it.

CURTAIN

Jay also wanted to show everyone Turkish Rambo. In addition to the awesome karate that opens this scene, keep an eye out for the rocket launcher that enters at about 45 seconds. Where does Turkish Rambo keep getting rockets for that thing? Oh, wait, I see: they pop out of his feet whenever he looks down. Cool.