Tentpole

Sundance Film Festival

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:29:02 -0800

So we got invited on a road trip to the Sundance Film Festival. But we’re not just going, we’re traveling with two very attractive female filmmakers to Salt Lake City where they will drop us off so we can pick up our RV - OUR Recreational, 36 feet of nonsense, party, Vehicle.

If only you were as excited as we are…

Needless to say will be live blogging the entire two weeks of the event from a perpetual hangover so stay tuned while we review films, interview filmmakers, and maybe even launch a fundraising campaign or two.

Updates to come.

So I saw War Horse recently, and well you’d have a much...

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:46:05 -0800

So I saw War Horse recently, and well you’d have a much better time watching Saving Private Ryan and Seabiscuit, and then imagining them as a single film rather than watching War Horse. Let me explain:

When you step into a Spielberg film you expect something, well, great. This movie just didn’t have that effect. In fact, the film felt almost cheesy - like Spielberg phoned it in. Simply put: had the film been made 15-20 years ago it would have been an instant classic. The thing is, filmmaking has progressed as well as the types and modes of stories and the format in which they are told. This film had an interesting mode of storytelling but really didn’t have anything else backing that up.

I was disappointed and I expect you will be as well. I don’t plan on wasting your time here, War Horse already wasted enough time of my own.

Chungking Express Director: Won Kar Wai Year: 1994 Netflix:...

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:44:05 -0800

Chungking Express

Director: Won Kar Wai

Year: 1994

Netflix: DVD

Rotten Tomatoes: 96%

Chungking Express is a remarkably intricate film dealing with the themes of love, loss, and the intricacies of everyday life. As my first Wong Kar Wai film, I was impressed with Wai’s ability to combine thought and spontaneity into the composition of the entire film. The film’s format intertwined two storylines, something I found to be off-putting at first until I understood its purpose within the film.

The film opens with a narration from Cop 223, explaining how people pay little attention to the nuances of life: the people you pass on the street, etc. This narration and subsequent intercutting between two different stories begins the director’s commentary on how complex our lives actually are and how important it is to pay attention to the details. Fundamentally complicated, the story and its purpose were made more clear through the director’s camera work and other formalistic choices.

The film was shot in a handheld style, allowing for extremely interesting shot compositions and making the film itself take on a much more realistic feel – definitely one of the more noteworthy formal choices within the film. With many modern films meticulously composed, it was refreshing to see a director take such a risk to advance the film’s themes. The characters took on an authentic tone in respect to the camera work, and it definitely helped to instill the confusion inherent in the themes of love and loss.

If this is the first time you’re watching the film, don’t be afraid of a second viewing. In fact, I would almost recommend it. The characters and story are especially intricate here, and it is definitely a difficult watch if you’re not completely focused. Still, it’s a film that I expect each viewer to enjoy for a different reason, and that becomes the beauty of the film itself as well as the reason to watch it a few times.

Movies for the Everyone...

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:07:29 -0800

A couple of movies that I saw over the holidays that I would like to recommend:

Wag the Dog
Manhattan
The Art of Flight
Man on a Wire
Jesus Camp

Check back soon for more movie recommendations from your helpful Tentpole staff

A Better Tomorrow It is one of those films you might have missed...

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:42:00 -0800

A Better Tomorrow

It is one of those films you might have missed but definitely need to see. A Better Tomorrow is essentially a highbrow gagster genre film. Let me explain: contains cheesy gangster film plot conventions and 80’s film motifs, but is fundamentally made with sound filmmaking techniques. Pretty unusual to find these qualities in one film, but these qualities make it an easy and enjoyable film to watch for any viewer.

Director: John Woo

Year: 1986

Netflix: DVD and Streaming

Rotten Tomatoes: 93%

John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow is a Hong Kong gangster genre film following the relationship between two morally dissimilar brothers and their struggle to reconcile their differences amid a gang war. Embracing many of the conventions of the gangster genre, the film was entertaining while remaining typical to the genre at the same time. The film follows two brothers, Ho and Kit, who take opposite roles in life - Kit serving the law and Ho defying it. Their different lifestyles serve as the main conflict in the film, helping to develop the film’s dominant themes of loyalty and love. Although this conflict seems almost stereotypical to the modern viewer, John Woo rejected many conventions of 80’s genre films to make an enjoyable film to even the most eclectic viewer by both relying on the conventions of the gangster genre and maintaining a high quality of filmmaking at the same time.

A highbrow genre film, in the 80’s, come on people this is gold.

Beginning with their participation in a counterfeiting scheme, the two main gangsters, Ho and Mark, have a fraternal friendship that contrasts with the despondent relationship between Ho and his brother Kit. Throughout the film the two gangsters treat each other with mutual loyalty and respect, while Ho and Kit have an apparent moral distance that affects their ability to cooperate as brothers. Typical to a genre film, the characters all take on a typical character arc, culminating in a final shootout that tests the brother’s loyalty – pretty, pretty stereotypical. What sets this film apart is the way Woo is able to characterize the brother’s relationship through his formalistic choices rather than through dialogue. One example is the way Woo crosscuts between Ho’s dealings as a gangster and Kit’s path through the police academy, creating an inherent moral conflict. His visual choices were not difficult to follow and made the film appear to be more on the commercial side, but this also made the film extremely accessible to the viewer and created a more passive viewing experience.

Never ending machine gun clips and gallons of fake blood aside, the film is defined by its relatable characters and gangster genre film stereotypes amongst sound filmmaking technique. A great film to watch if you are new to Asian Cinema or love the gangster genre.

I bet you’d never see us review this one, but we had to. Mostly...

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:33:36 -0800

I bet you’d never see us review this one, but we had to. Mostly because this is a great film.

Brokeback Mountain

Director: Ang Lee

Year: 2005

Netflix: DVD and Streaming

Rotten Tomatoes: 87%

It is hard to believe that even in 2005 the American people were not prepared for the premiere of “Brokeback Mountain”. Led by two unbelievably talented men, Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger, the film premiered to polarizing critical acclaim and public outcry. Brokeback Mountain benefitted the LGBT community, for sure, but even more, served as a pivotal point in entertainment for American culture. Some of you might say – sound’s dramatic, even more of you- where’s the review, all of you – need to understand these anecdotes to understand the motivations of the filmmaker and why it is culturally irresponsible not to watch this film.

Gay and lesbian themed movies are not the most prevalent genre, and when one is well done, and captivates the public, these films become something of a pop culture fad creating the opportunity for people to protest the implications of the film. It’s a sad truth. In 1996, a movie called “Bound” premiered with a similar response. Bound is a film that focuses on the relationship of two lesbian lovers who steal money from the mob and run away together. The film is surprisingly aggressive in its portrayal of the couple’s sexual relationship, it was raw, unfiltered, and presented an opportunity for justified public outcry. It’s when writers like Larry David write inane articles about a movie like “Brokeback Mountain” without actually seeing the movie that perpetuates the problem the gay and lesbian community have with other people. Both “Brokeback Mountain” and “Bound” are revolutionary films that went against the grain to highlight a lifestyle that is under constant scrutiny.

Brokeback Mountain deals with the difficult theme of repressed homosexual love in a very palpable way. According to Dan Savage in his article, “Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Ex-Gay Cowboys,” some evangelical Christians found the homosexual theme more than just difficult to deal with and strongly protested the film. This group has invested millions of dollars into turning gay men straight, making it less a comment on the film itself, but rather, an opportunity for the group to spread their prejudice ideals - in other words, pure ignorance. Another group of Christians did just the opposite, acknowledged by John Leland, in his article “New Cultural Approach for Conservative Christians: Reviews, Not Protests,” and accepted and reviewed the film as just that, a film. I’m glad Ang Lee had the gumption to offend people, because if you’re not offending someone, you’re pleasing everyone, and I live under the assumption that no progress can be made at that point. The buzz groups like these created around the film, made it controversial to the mainstream and consequently generated a blockbuster.

The film itself is extremely scenic with beautiful wide shots that embrace the wilderness and provide scope to the character’s setting. Frank Rich highlights the film’s success in his article, “Two Gay Cowboys Hit a Home Run,” where he cites a movie theater in conservative Texas that sold more advance tickets to Brokeback Mountain than they did to the studio giant King Kong. This fact alone says something about the impact that the movie had on the general public. Eventually hundreds of people began spoofing the film on YouTube and it even made the cut for a skit on Saturday Night Live. Still, there were some adverse effects from the explosion of gay culture that occurred around the film. Mireya Navarro wrote an article, “If You Must Know, I’m Straight,” which is about how stars began to be accused more and more of being gay, most notably one of the stars, Jake Gyllenhaal. It’s something that plagues every well dressed celebrity guy and single celebrity girl. Julie Bosman mentions another instance of protests when Wal-Mart began selling the film, according to “Media Talk; Wal-Mart Resists Pressure In ‘Brokeback’ DVD Sales”. Even with the entire backlash, the film remains a masterpiece that will be remembered for both the chaos it created and the barriers it crossed.

Another impactful film within the gay community was Bound, which predates Brokeback Mountain by almost ten years. It’s hard to imagine what the public would have thought of that movie when it premiered, given the response Brokeback Mountain received almost ten years later. In Ellis Hanson’s book, Out Takes, the introduction begins with an explanation of Bound as well as how it was received. On the topic of the highly sexual scenes Hanson writes, “Despite the legendary eroticism of film, the critical language for understanding the questions about sexuality it raises is still impoverished.” Outside the gay community, the film can be seen as challenging for the obvious reason that many people have never encountered, visually, a lesbian situation.

Bound and Brokeback Mountain are made important by the cultural barriers they both broke down. “Bound” did this by openly portraying the sexual relationship of the two main characters. “Brokeback Mountain” did the same but also touched upon deeper themes that provided powerful insight into the struggle of the gay community. For these reasons, they will not only be remembered as marvelous films but as landmark events within both the gay community and the film industry.

The best love scene ever..

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:42:05 -0800

I watched UP! the other night, and I had a realization: this film might contain one of the best love scenes in film history. A big statement there, but I mean it.

Take a look at UP!, by all regards one of the best animated films to date. Yet, it deals with the extremely troubling topic of “loss” - in a kids film no less. This is one of the more grown-up animated films to date while remaining at its core, a light and fun children’s movie, able to deal with a complex subject in a very real, barebones manner.

There is one segment in particular that I’d like to mention and that is the montage of the couple as they grow old together. Masterfully done, the sequence, much like the one in Citizen Kane, is able to characterize the couple’s relationship in a very brief but impactful sequence. Cutting to the bone on what it means to love and putting a visual definition to one of the deepest and most complex of human emotions. It is very rare to find any film that is able to dissect a complex theme so thoroughly, even more rare to find it in such an accessible format, and even more rare than that, a sequence that is able to retain its audience and build off that point to provide an arch of conclusion to the viewer. Up! was able to give its audience that and so much more in what I will always describe as one of the greatest studies of love and loss ever to grace the screen.

Hat’s off to Pixar for creating a film that challenges its audience universally. I love it.

Films for the Everyone...

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:04:47 -0800

Hello again,

Welcome to a series we call “Films for the Everyone,” where we try to add a little class to your film selection process. In reference to the word class, yes I did mean that just as offensively as it came out. PUT THE TWILIGHT DVD DOWN!

For the bro’s in the crowd: Reservoir Dogs

For the women: Gone with the Wind

For that stoney night: Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Getting weird: The Perfect Host

For the loving couple: UP!

If you’ve seen all of those: Old Boy

When you watch one of our recommendations, feel free to rate it, write about it, or generally thank us for making your nightly viewing that much better.

We love you

3D, my complaint

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:29:31 -0800

Scorsese - Mr. Taxi Driver himself - just made his first 3D film. People are blogging, the press can’t get enough, and I am left wondering if I am the only one saying, “how the fuck did this happen.” I am sure the film is great, bring on the Oscars, but I can’t help but offer my opinion on how this kind of behavior from veteran filmmakers should be frowned upon.

Just as a disclaimer: I know its a children’s film, and Scorsese’s brilliance should be accessible to children too, but Hugo is just an outward sign of a very real industry change that we need to talk about here, folks.

The entertainment industry is hungry. 3D, raised ticket prices, shittier and shittier films, are all signs that we are involved in one of the major down turns of the film industry. Content is getting progressively cheaper, almost free, and the industry responded appropriately: offer the audience an experience they can only fully enjoy in theaters. Right-on Hollywood, but you forgot one thing: to keep making good films. The 3D experience became a hook to raise ticket sales, a quick fix. Some would say, the industry put a band-aid on a gunshot wound. Eventually, people will get over the allure of 3D because, no shocker here, all of the movies being created around this trick fucking blow. There, I said it.

The entertainment industry needs change. No longer is it appropriate to throw 100 million dollars at a feature, include a couple of big names, and expect box office success. We’ve seen this fail dozens upon dozens of times in the last 10 years. Star power doesn’t mean shit and that 50 million dollar scene isn’t going to add enough marginal value to mean a god damn in ticket sales. Its fun to spend money on huge films - the Tentpoles of the entertainment world - but they aren’t seeing enough success anymore to justify the cost. In other words, Hollywood can’t buy its audience anymore.

3D films are the final trick Hollywood has to capture its audience without quality. Let me get to why they suck: because they’re limiting to everyone involved. The actors have a limited range (that 3D spider they are running from, well, it isn’t real), Directors aren’t dealing in real situations (tell that actor to fucking run, there’s a spider behind him? Come on…), Cinematographers are shooting open space (Just pointing the camera, really), editors are literally locked in rooms for hours making sense of the mess everyone else has created, and the viewer has to wear some shit goggles as they watch a god damn movie. Give. Me. A. Fucking. Break. This isn’t filmmaking. This is a childish attempt by Hollywood to fool its audience into thinking they are watching something of value. I’m tired of it.

Avatar, as a film, sucked. As a visual experience, incredible, but thats not enough to make it a remarkable film. That’s the case for a lot of the 3D movies - I’m not even going to call them films. So, when Scorsese comes along and says he is doing a 3D film, I understand because he’s not writing the rules here, he’s just playing by them. But this should be a sign to everyone that Hollywood is seeing some bad times, and might need to rethink their strategy. But hey, I bet Hugo fucking rocks, because that’s what Scorsese does. Lets just hope there’s not a 3D remake of Goodfellas in the works or someone is getting whacked.

yeah, you liked that corny joke.

Until our next, semi-drunken rant, this has been your Tentpole team - signing off.

Movies for the Everyone...

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 12:58:42 -0800

Our recommendations, take’em or leave’em, we don’t have the shits to give…

For guys: City of God

For the girls: Pan’s Labyrinth

For a date: Annie Hall

For your little brother: Stand By Me

To Get Weird: Trainspotting

Smoking Drugs? Watch: Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Don’t let my categories drive you away from a title, no rules, just help.

Love,

- Your helpful Tentpole Staff

Everyone ever...

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 12:54:15 -0800

Everyone Ever: Hey, you like movies!
Mr. Tentpole: Yep, I like movies for a living...
Everyone Ever: What movie should I watch tonight?
Mr. Tentpole: Something that makes you happy...
Everyone Ever: OOOOOO!!! Who made THAT one

Kill me.

So we here at Tentpole are going to do a series of posts for the "Everyone Ever" crowd... lets call it "Films for the Everyone" If you don't like one of the suggestions, don't shit on it. Instead, feel free to suggest your own... we like collaboration here...

awesum blog! yoh seem like a really cool person! :)))

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 12:47:17 -0800

You seem really cool yourself.

This is the first in a series we call “Movies You’ve Probably...

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:31:25 -0800

This is the first in a series we call “Movies You’ve Probably Never Heard Of.” Yeah, they’re weird, and most of them are Asian, but they are great films for one reason or another. Enjoy, or don’t, we really don’t care.

- The Tentpole Staff

Chunhyangdyun

Director: Im Kwon Taek

Year: 2000

Netflix: DVD and Streaming

Rotten Tomatoes: 86%

Im Kwon Taek’s Chunhyangdyun follows your typical Romeo-Juliet, “star-crossed lovers” storyline, with the two principles serving as ill-fated lovers struggling to overcome their circumstance. You think you’ve seen this story a thousand times, and you probably have, but what makes this film especially interesting is the view the story gives into Korean culture and practice.

Chunhyangdyun adapts qualities of Korean Opera – the most obvious being that the story is told through song – giving the film a distinct fairytale style. This music can be, at times, overbearing, but try to suck it up because the way that the film is shot is the real value for the western eye. Following the opera style, the film is shot in a theatrical manner, with strictly composed scenes and lots of light. This style creates opportunities for Taek to employ static shots, making action much more important than dialogue.

Im Kwon Taek uses dialogue sparsely within the film, but rather, the narrator/stage performer and a series of metaphors that are used to fill in the blanks within the plot. The stock storyline creates an unintimidating environment to interpret the nuances of the film and makes the underlying motifs extremely accessible.

I found the most enjoyable moments of the film to be when the actors are given more freedom of expression, such as the scenes in which Mongryong chases Chunhyang. The two lovers are characterized as stoic people, weighed down by strict tradition, but these scenes provide an element of freedom and a welcome foil to the more rigid moments. Elvis Mitchell describes the function of these scenes in his New York Times review as a device, a tongue-in-cheek way for the director to let the viewer know the theatrical nature of the film. The juxtaposition between these two types of scenes creates a frame story element that ties the fairytale styling, opera influence, and filmic quality, together making this a remarkable achievement in filmmaking.

In the beginning...

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:29:44 -0800

First there were cats. Then there were photographs of cats. And then there were photo sharing websites where people could publish their own photographs of cats. Now we have the cat picture - web 2.0 - aggregate that combines random pictures of cats with other people’s pictures of cats. And cat people rejoiced.

There’s a place on the internet for everyone. Let TentpoleHQ become your destination for all things entertainment related. We’re not adorable, but we will sure as hell make your conversations more interesting than Sally Rotten Crotch’s Cat Blog.

Posts to include: Film reviews, commentary on the entertainment industry, how-to guides, and some dumb, drunken rants.

We already love you, and we’re sure you’ll love us too.

Creative Collaboration

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 23:53:48 -0800

Success in the entertainment industry relies on collaboration. Welcome to the Tentpole Blog, where we will teach you this and many other lessons.

Welcome to it.