Would You Invite This Man To Your Dinner Party?

By Dan Tester

If you are a fan of the movies, over the course of your lifetime you see many films with great actors, great directors, great screenplays, great editing, great cinematography, and great music. And when you get done watching them, you say to your inner Ebert…”That was a great movie.” And then your instincts are reinforced when that same movie is showered with all sorts of bullshit industry awards. And then you feel like you are in tune to popular culture. But then, well, sadly sometimes those movies kind of fade away in your mind. You remember they were “great”, but Goddamn it, you just can’t remember why. And then sometime in the future, when these same films are referenced at a dinner party, you kind of want to be a part of the crowd, so you say “Yeah, that WAS a great movie!” even though you don’t really remember a thing about it. It is just status quo. It is just being a dumb human being. We can all relate.

But the REALLY great movies are the ones that stick with you through your life, pop into your mind at the most random of times, and make you feel happy when you are feeling low. Everyone knows CASABLANCA was a great movie. And GOODFELLAS. And THE GODFATHER. If you don’t want to be shunned at a dinner party, you pretty damn well better admit that those are great movies. And they are. But what about CADDYSHACK? I know, I know, the first three films that I just listed get their fair share of references in mixed company…but I would bet you could match up all three together, over the course of a year of dinner party conversations, and even that trifecta couldn’t match the amount of times CADDYSHACK is referenced. CADDYSHACK is a perfect movie. CADDYSHACK will never appear on any critic’s list of Best Films Of All Time, but I bet it will appear on 90% of those same critics’ NetFlix rental lists. CADDYSHACK is as great a comedy as CASABLANCA was a wartime romance, or GOODFELLAS was a gangster epic, or THE GODFATHER was…well, a gangster epic.

You see, some movies…I dunno…some movies just hit you on some kind of unregisterable aesthetic level. They just move you. Movies can move you in many ways. They can move you to tears, move you to laughter, move you to greater insight…but they move you. They haunt you. They vitalize you. They revitalize you. They make you happy to be alive long enough to watch them again. A lot of times these are movies that don’t get a lot of “critical attention.” Sometimes these are movies that DO get a lot of “critical attention” at the time of their release, but then are rarely discussed in later years. But they are still movies that, over time, just stick with you. And you are as happy to see them again as you are an old buddy that you haven’t seen for years. And while they are not necessarily movies that your friends regularly discuss at dinner parties, they are movies you love to recommend to your friends. Because, in their own way, they are perfect.

And now, following that long-winded introduction, these are 10 movies like that for me (alphabetically, to ease in your Netflix queueing, or whatever that crap’s called):

1) BROADCAST NEWS (1987; Dir. James L. Brooks) - I think BROADCAST NEWS just might be the most perfectly written screenplay ever. Funny, sad, and, most importantly, real. Albert got robbed of the Best Supporting Actor award that year. Albert was amazing as the neurotic second-banana, but Sean Connery won that year…because…he…was old.

2) JIMINY GLICK IN LA-LA WOOD (2004; Dir. Vadim Jean) - An offbeat pick for sure, but a film that, for all of its own intents and purposes, is perfect in my opinion. Martin Short in a fat suit as Jiminy Glick, small town American film critic at the Toronto Film Festival, caught up in a David Lynchian murder mystery. Not for all tastes for sure, but it is worth a viewing just for Jan Hooks as Jiminy’s bizarre wife, Dixie. The scene in which she, in mixed company, begins describing the difficulties of enjoyable sex in the wake of birthing 3 obese boys, and Jiminy’s subsequent lecture about the importance of “creating a mystique” just kills me every time.

3) L.A. STORY (1991; Dir. Mick Jackson) - Steve Martin’s ode to true old-fashioned romance amid the eccentricities and bullshit of Los Angeles life was a real eye-opener for me. Every whimsical chance it takes works, and every biting satirical jab hits its mark. Quite a difficult combo to pull off…but it does.

4) LOCAL HERO (1983; Dir. Bill Forsyth) - Now that I think about it, LOCAL HERO would probably be a great double-feature with the aforementioned L.A. STORY. It is another film that takes great chances with cynical whimsy, and as a result, it is a movie I pop into the DVD player whenever I am feeling low, and two hours later, feel much, much better. Movies as Prozac?

5) THE LONG GOODBYE (1973; Dir. Robert Altman) - Altman’s criminally overlooked updating of 1940’s detective noir to a 1970’s state of mind is amazing. Elliott Gould has never been better as the burned-out dick, shuffling his way through a mystery. Even diehard Altman fans I talk to have never seen it. Please do.

6) PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES (1989; Dir. John Hughes) - How did John Candy not get an Academy Award nomination for this film? Oh yeah…he is a comedian. Steve Martin is great here as well. Just like MIDNIGHT RUN a few years before, PLANES takes a rather hackneyed concept and makes the cliché completely unrecognizable with originality, layered performances, humor and most importantly…heart. And that ending is one of my favorites of all time.

7) POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE (1990; Dir. Mike Nichols) - Great movie, great performances, and a particularly entertaining bit of directing from Mike Nichols, as he juxtaposes real life with the artificial backgrounds of a Hollywood soundstage. And how was Shirley Maclaine not nominated for this one? Gene Hackman is great too.

PSYCHO II (1983; Dir. Richard Franklin) - I love this movie for one particular reason - it is a sequel with an actual purpose. While drawing on its Hitchcockian roots, the screenplay creates its own mysteries, leaving the viewer unsure of what is actually going on until the very end. And what an ending it is! It is really so much better than it probably should have been. And Anthony Perkins is just so cool.

9) THE STRAIGHT STORY (1999; Dir. David Lynch) - A jaw-dropping G-rated piece of subtle brilliance from the over the top director of BLUE VELVET. It is a simple story really - an old man wants to visit his dying brother in the next state, but is no longer allowed to drive an automobile, so he jumps on his rider lawnmower and begins the slow journey. But what a journey it is. Richard Farnsworth is remarkable in this film.

10) TIN MEN (1987; Dir. Barry Levinson) - It is 1963. There is a traffic accident. The two drivers dispute guilt. And thus, the methodical games of revenge begin. Sounds like a suspense film, I suppose, but TIN MEN is a hilarious and touching piece of nostalgia. Richard Dreyfuss and Danny De Vito shine here as competing aluminum siding salesmen trying to one-up each other, and Barbara Hershey is as luscious as ever as the ultimate prize - but is she first prize, or just a consolation? And what puts this film over the top is the subplot of the Congressional investigations into the Aluminum Siding industry’s “Tin Man” scams that can send both men to the clink. And, of course, there are the hilarious table talk discussions between the various groups of Tin Men in the diner (a sort of Levinson trademark), most notably crusty old Jackie Gayle’s theorizing that the T.V. show “Bonanza” is not based in realism, because Hoss never talks about getting laid. This is Barry Levinson’s best film.

So Simple, So Different - the Magic of Ten Canoes

by Memo Salazar

I hate trailers. Like the stuff on the back cover of a novel, they’re usually little more than poorly-crafted commercials that give away way too much, doing a disservice to all the crafting done by the writer. Why people love clicking their way to that apple quicktime movie trailer page, just so they can have story after story ruined before them is beyond me. What’s the point of watching a mystery thriller, for example, when most of the “twists” were revealed to you in 2 minutes? And these trailers- oy! Like today’s movie posters, they are about as generic as possible, all featuring the same voice, narrative structure and music running underneath (Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, in case you were wondering.) I try to avoid these little gremlins as much as possible, purposely arriving late to movies (not easy to do in New York) or by hitting fast-forward on the dvd player a hundred times, but sometimes, there’s no way around it- you just have to buckle down and watch. As far as I can remember, there’s only been 3 trailers that have caught my fancy: The Minus Man, who’s incredibly clever trailer was worthy of an incredibly clever film; Buffalo ‘66, which I still haven’t seen but gave us a trailer teetering between pretentious and ballsy by mixing a bunch of frozen movie images to Yes’ Heart of the Sunrise… and the trailer for Ten Canoes, which was so, so different from anything I’ve seen in its approach and subject matter that I just HAD to watch the movie.

Well, I just did, and I’m still not sure how to convey what an amazing film this is. On one level, it is a story within a story, the first story taking place many generations ago. A younger brother (Dayindi) covets one of his older brother (Minygululu)’s wives. Had this taken place in Biblical times, there’d probably be a lot of revenge and killing and violent jealousy, but that is not the way of the Yolngu people from the Arnhem Land we know as Northern Australia. Their way is much simpler- they teach each other lessons via stories, some of which might take a long, long time to tell before the meaning is revealed. And so Minygululu begins to tell Dayindi a story, one from a long, long time ago. It is a long story, but they’ve got a lot of time to kill while they build their ten canoes and go goose egg hunting, which is pretty much what life consists of for these men. In case you’re wondering, no, the plot doesn’t have much in common with Spider-Man 3. Instead of two ridiculous villains, we’re treated to two beautiful stories- the one told by Minygululu and the one of Minygululu and his people. To help us Westerners get into this meandering, unhurried approach, the film uses two simple, but perfectly-executed devices. First, it intercuts between black-and-white and color images, instantly letting us know which “story” we’re currently on. Second, it’s narrated by David Gulpilil, Hollywood’s favorite Aboriginal actor (from Walkabout to Crocodile Dundee, he’s our go-to guy!) Gulpilil casually narrates the film, thereby cutting down on the number of subtitles we have to read, explaining the Yolngu ways to us moderns, and periodically giving us a progress report on the narrative (”don’t worry- the story is almost finished now,” he reassures us.) His warm, soothing voice tears down all the A.D.D.-derived expectations lurking in our sophisticated minds, bringing us back to the essence of story and myth. It’s so brilliantly executed, I doubt few viewers will really appreciate what an amazing feat this film pulls: it manages to make a story about some guys going goose egg hunting accessible to Americans. Goose eggs, folks. Goose eggs, honey, and canoes.

But wait- there’s more! As great as this film is, the story behind the film is just as fascinating. Get this: director Rolf de Heer had worked with David Gulpilil on his previous film, The Tracker. At some point, Gulpilil invites the guy over for dinner with his family, showing off his ancestral surroundings. De Heer digs what he sees, and they begin chatting about a film based on Gulpilil’s people. A few years later, de Heer rekindles this idea, brainstorming on what, exactly, such a movie would be about. David Gulpilil comes to him one morning and says “yo, Rolf, we need ten canoes.” De Heer gives him a confused look, so Gulpilil whips out this amazing photograph of ten men in canoes on a swamp, taken some 70 years ago by an anthropologist named Donald Thompson. De Heer gets it right away. This is the movie.

Donald Thompson spent several months with the Yolngu during the 1930’s, studying and photographing every aspect of their life. This was a time when the modern world hadn’t shoved its fist up the ass of every culture that’s out there, which means the Yolngu were still living the same way they had been living for centuries. Thompson’s photographs are an amazingly cinematic portrait of a unique group of people who’s lifestyle no longer exists, but will forever be captured in these pictures… and now, as well, in this film. You see, the stars of Ten Canoes are the direct descendants of the people in the photographs (this is how the film was cast.) These days, they don’t build canoes- they drive off-road trucks, watch TV, and hunt with guns instead of spears, so to get this film done right, everyone had to dig deep and get in touch with a cultural past that only the eldest of the Yolngu could remember. Using the Thompson photos as a starting point, the men built the ten canoes in the movie just like their ancestors had, stripping the bark from trees and… well, you’ll see the whole process when you watch the movie. The women, in turn, built the huts and body decorations just as their ancestors had. The film process served as a catalyst for the revival of a culture that had almost vanished, a revival that continues on today. Thanks to Ten Canoes, there are now a bunch of educational and cultural projects revolving around the Yolngu and their ways- but, more importantly, the Yolngu themselves have been forever changed by a film that shows the world the beauty of their unique lives, traditions and culture. Ten Canoes is an acknowledgment of their contribution to the Human Story; concrete evidence of their identity that they can hold up to future generations as a reminder of a wonderful way of life that’s uniquely theirs. How often does a simple movie accomplish all that?

For the rest of us reading these words on a computer somewhere, Ten Canoes lets us disconnect from the matrix for a couple of hours and reconnect with a common truth that we all know, deep inside, still lurks. For all our ipods and novelty ring tones, we’re definitely not any happier (and way more neurotic) than the Yolngu ever were, a fact we should keep in mind as we deplete the world’s resources in search of more toys that keep us from getting bored. In this light, a little goose egg hunting starts to make a shitload of sense.