Monday, October 28, 2013

The Disconnect Between Gambling Films & Modern Gambling

Guest PostImage result for rounders movie

      In the parlance of strange and passionate people and their strange and passionate affairs, gambling films always seem to gather "cult followings" - which generally means their success in the box office is mediocre, but they're still seen as popular films with niche audiences. Indeed, the basic themes presented in these films - risk, reward, getting into and sometimes out of trouble, and hedonistic atmospheres - are certainly appealing windows into a more gratifying form of entertainment. The attraction, an instinctual desire to test the limits of your personal success, is not too hard to understand after all. 

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Random Rumination

Looking at Art From The Outsider's POVImage result for movie the outsider nicholas jarecki

     I watched an interesting documentary the other day called The Outsider (available on Netflix Instant watch). Driven by my curiosity to understand everything there is to know about making movies, I started watching it expecting to be educated on a couple of things, a proposition increasingly difficult to satisfy as the more inscrutable, utilitarian aspects of filmmaking can only be learned through the practice of actually making movies. But knowledge is power and I'm not averse to expanding my intellectual capital in the event that I do enter the discipline full-throttle. The downside is a hellacious misuse of my free time, but the upside is incalculable in ways that keep my capacity to dream big alive.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Movie Review: Swingers

Show Me The You're So Money, Baby


      Imagine the year is 1996. Los Del Rio's Macarena and Blackstreet's No Diggity are dominating the music charts. The Spice Girls are infuriating every teenage boy who is just beginning to experiment with the opposite sex. Independence Day annihilates the Summer Box Office and convinces me that being dropped off six hours before it screens is an ingenious way to spend six hours. Everyone is "being showed the money!" in inappropriate outbursts to flex their obnoxious Jerry Maguire muscle. The Summer Olympics are being held in Atlanta. Ebay has just launched. Sadly, Ask Jeeves follows suit. No one knows who the hell Justin Bieber is.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Movie Review: Rust and Bone

Bone Hugs-N-Disharmony


      RUST [rust] v. 
      1. To deteriorate or degenerate through inactivity or neglect. 
      2. To impair or spoil, as by misuse or inactivity. 

The Free Dictionary: By Farlex

      Jacques Audiard dangerously conforms to a sociological latticework that breeds dysfunction and chaos. He is not interested in exploring the complications of life through rose-colored glasses. Materialistic goons spawned from the next incarnation of The Queen of Versailles are not his concernDisharmony is his unifying force. People who operate desperately on the fringes of society are his focus.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Blogfest: Top Ten Favorite Movies of All-Time

It's Not The Final Countdown


      Formulating a list that by its very proclamation boasts of "My Ten Favorite Films" requires a mindset I've never been truly ready to embrace. To exclude so many films that I love is to commit an almost homicidal act upon works that to me are endowed with such everlasting appeal, my affinity for them incontrovertible. What follows, therefore, is merely an attempt. 

Friday, March 15, 2013

Movie Review: The Trial

Sentenced to Write


Editor's Note: Realizing that this is a site dedicated to film and is meant to foster discussion therein, I shamefully admit that I have been derelict in my aficionado duties. Which is the business of reviewing films. So, starting now, I will be fulfilling my ardent obligation and writing a review. I hope this will be a reemergence back into regular blogging and reviewing, and that I will not fall victim to malaise. FilmMattic reviews shall persist in perpetuity as far as I'm concerned...

      Perhaps the hypnotic gestures of fate energized my inner-critic because here I reflect on a movie spawned from the prodigious creative might of Orson Welles. That movie is The Trial. And as I reflect and yield to the calm solace of introspection, I am alarmed to discover that I have not written a satisfactory review in an eternity and a day. This blog has not, as its inception dictates, appropriately performed its primary function. Reviewing films is the fuel of FilmMattic and somehow, through sheer happenstance I suppose, I've been lead astray from that purpose. In this period of infrequent content and in this internal trial of conscience, I am compelled to impose a sentence. The regularity of my film blogging has been disgustingly insubstantial. This is a crime that cannot be condoned. I'm thinking that in my judiciary capacity 1-2 posts (or reviews) per week is a manageable goal (or in keeping with this asinine legal theme, punishment). Now shall we discuss an actual trial? Well, the veracity of even that statement is dubious, so let's just get to my review of The Trial. 

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Oscars 2013: Live Blogging the Show!

The Oscar Guy 



      The best film has to offer us is mere moments away. I should rephrase that as the best film has to offer its members. Awards shows bestow neither social nor artistic benefits. They do not make me feel more culturally enlightened. Viewing them does not constitute a deduction on my tax burden. The luster of the show is simply an acknowledgement of hierarchy. The opportunity for us non-entertaining folk, at least those of us not recognized for being entertaining, to be immersed in the expensive pageantry of stars celebrating other stars. Ultimately  the Oscars are more a promotional tool than some kind of finite declaration of enduring appeal. 
      To maintain this spirit of affectation, I have decided to live blog the event. The splendid witticisms of Melissa Bradley of Melissa's Imaginarium have been enlisted. Providing exciting commentary is her expertise. 
      Without further ado, a continuous onslaught of Oscars' shenanigans await. Feel free to join the party and break a few things! 

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

My 100 Favorite Directors - UPDATED!

White Men Can't Jump, But Women Can Make Movies


      Tangential thoughts should never be the subject of a blogpost's title, garnering a spotlight that for such cognitive foibles is unbecoming. How dare they project their dubious presence in a textual world greater than that supplied by 12 font, max. But inspiration strikes us in abnormal ways. Our minds tend to process that abnormality through some sort of systematic deconstruction. What materializes is an idea, an insight, some measure of understanding that our discordant and chaotic synapses illuminate. Yes. I realize the caption, which I suspect has fueled your impetus to continue reading, suggests a relationship between two extreme phenomena; phenomena that is purely meant to be jarring because of its bizarre juxtaposition. But hyperbole is a valuable tool of provocation. Strange observations trigger strange curiosities, and, according to the logic immortalized in Tarantino's Django Unchained, if your curiosity is piqued, your attention will surely follow.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Random Rumination

Choosing My Cinematic Religion

Don't get me started on Batman!

      I always suspected the Force could drive me towards the unknown. Obi-Wan Kenobi communicating some inscrutable power with such conviction. It's intoxicating. Omniscience inhabiting that purest of manhood is impossible to deny. The possibilities of extraordinary reflex, manipulation, healing all within my arsenal is just too amazing a possibility to compute coherently. And knowing all along that Alec Guinnes is Ben Kenobi, well, please indoctrinate me into the cult of believing right now. Like Tom Cruise and Scientology, pull the rug of common sense from under me and I'll still follow. I'm a ride-or-die disciple. Paul Thomas Anderson, you are my Master. Accept me as your stowaway and allow Phillip Seymour Hoffman to teach me the process.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

My Top 13 Most Anticipated Films of 2013

Lucky Number 13


      Forget the Super Bowl. When your team's not represented, it's a tawdry affair. A massive marketing bonanza. Lest we forget that all the so-called "great" commercials can be viewed online on our time, at our convenience. Forget football. Let's talk movies. 
      2013's movie schedule is truly astonishing to behold. How foolish I must have been to think 2012 was the anomaly, an indicator of how conditioned our myopic thought-processes have become. How we're taught to believe that bearing witness to such excellence month after month is an elusive desire. But the outlier I thought I discovered may in fact have been the primal markings of an exciting new trend in which first-rate craftsmanship is the standard currency. 2013 promises a cornucopia of original stories, science fiction forays, major superhero films, unexpected sequels, classic adaptations, exciting prequels, and so, so much more. I'm positively ecstatic. 

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

My 100 Favorite Directors - UPDATED AGAIN!

43 Reasons Movies Are Vital

hugh-jackman-movie-43

      Commercial aggrandizement is the creed of Hollywood. So entrenched is the impetus for profit that vehicles like Movie 43, indicative of a certain creative malignancy, enjoy the buoyancy of a wide release. Well, power resides in the populace. The public recognized the near fraud perpetrated on their senses and allowed Movie 43 to harshly experience the reality of an inferior product. It sunk.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Top 10 Movies of 2012

Looks Like I've Made It

'Best Movies of 2012'

      It is important to maintain a semblance of tradition despite the jarring reality that my blog has exhibited reclusive tendencies more severe than Henry David Thoreau during his Walden Pond stint. While receding quietly into the distance, a compulsion to maintain some blogging consistency, even if remote, propels me forward. And what represents forward at the present moment is my annual edition of the "Best Films of the Past Year;" substitute 2012 for past year.