Every month, A Place for Film will bring you a selection of films from our group of regular bloggers. Even though these films aren’t currently being screened at the IU Cinema, this series will reflect the varied programming that can be found at the Cinema, as well as demonstrate the eclectic tastes of the bloggers. Each contributor has picked one film that they saw this month that they couldn’t wait to share with others. Keep reading to find out what discoveries these cinephiles have made, as well as some of the old friends they’ve revisited.
Jesse Pasternack, contributor | Paddington (2014)
People love to watch light movies as a way to resist the darkness of winter. So why not watch one of the lightest and most charming movies in years? Paddington follows the titular young Peruvian bear as he emigrates to London and slowly gets adopted by an eccentric family. It has an abundance of puns and slapstick, but also deals with serious themes related to immigration and grief. I’m convinced that the novelist Vladimir Nabokov would’ve loved its visual gags (he loved silent film comedians) and serious treatment of how imagination and community can soften the pain of exile. In addition, December is the perfect time to watch Paddington because it will get you ready for Paddington 2, which comes out in America on January 12, 2018.
Michaela Owens, editor | Fitzwilly (1967)
Two years ago, I decided to shake up my usual Christmas movie line-up by watching a little-known gem called Fitzwilly. The film’s biggest draw was, and still is, its leading man: Dick Van Dyke, the rubber-faced clown who stole my heart with Mary Poppins and The Dick Van Dyke Show. Appearing alongside him is another TV legend, Barbara Feldon, also known as the inspiring Agent 99 on Get Smart. Feldon left such a strong impression on me when I first saw this film, with her low purr of a voice, her incredible fashion, and her obvious intelligence. Fitzwilly is actually what pushed me to buy the first season of Get Smart, a brilliant spy spoof that has become one of my favorite TV series.
It isn’t just the Get Smart connection that makes me love this movie, though. It’s a sweet comedy that has a few tricks up its sleeve. Van Dyke plays the title character, a devoted butler who secretly leads his fellow servants in larceny in order to support the philanthropy of their elderly employer, Miss Vicki (Edith Evans). When Feldon shows up as Miss Vicki’s new secretary, she begins to suspect that something isn’t quite right… Can Van Dyke distract her from what’s really going on? Will the servants be able to pull off their last big heist? Will Miss Vicki find out the truth about her wealth? You’ll have to watch the film to get the answers, but I can tell you you’ll have a lot of fun figuring it out!
Laura Ivins, contributor | The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
One could say that an animation studio is a bit like Santa’s workshop. The director is Santa, and all the animation and production crew are the elves. Christmas is getting to see all these wonderful characters, that you’ve constructed one frame at a time, finally brought to life onscreen.
The Nightmare Before Christmas (Henry Selick, 1993) is one of my favorite animated films, almost as much for the craft as for the triumph of Christmas over its delightfully perverse appropriation by Halloweentown. The production and design crew took great care in crafting the world of Nightmare Before Christmas, and while it definitely feels like a Burton film, it retains enough distinctness from Beetlejuice (Tim Burton, 1988) and Edward Scissorhands (Burton, 1990) to not feel like a cliché.
My favorite factoid from the production is the sheer number of heads required to construct the performances of the lead characters. Director Henry Selick remarks in the making-of documentary “We might use as many as 400 distinctly different Jack heads,” all animated together seamlessly in the final production.
Katherine Johnson, contributor | Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) and Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town (1970)
This month I revisited some holiday favorites from my past. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town, as well as 1969’s Frosty the Snowman (which I always liked the least), remind me of that exciting period right before the holidays, that point in time when I was just out of school for break, but the holidays themselves had not yet arrived. For me these films are memory-laden, and have a reminiscent feeling of anticipation attached to them—as I’m sure they are and have for many others. As I’ve grown older and my love of film history has also grown I’ve learned to appreciate these stop-motion animated films (originally television specials) for much more than the holiday memories.
David Carter, contributor | The American Astronaut (2001)
I came into this round-up ready to sing the praises of a 2017 film I was finally about to catch up on, considering that’s what I use December for anyways. While there were some legit slappers and showstoppers (do yourself a favor and go check out I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, All These Sleepless Nights, Columbus, and Nocturama, all streaming on Netflix or Hulu), it cannot be denied that there was only one movie in particular this month that left me more shook and vibrating with energy long after I got to gaze upon its beautifully crusty visage. The best way to describe The American Astronaut is “what if Jim Jarmusch and Morphine decided to remake Buckaroo Banzai on whip-its?”
The set-up is honestly too big and weird to lay out here but to keep it simple: It’s a space-western-musical about a smuggler (played by writer and director Cory McAbee) taking a boy (who’s regarded as a demigod on his planet for simply having seen a female breast) to a planet populated by nothing but women where he will be king, all while a creepy psychopath chases down the smuggler simply because it’s his birthday. It switches and mashes up genres quicker than Billy the Kid could draw a pistol and is pulsating with a creative life force I hadn’t seen since I saw Scott Pilgrim vs. the World at a midnight screening in 2010. It walks the line of being super satirical and wildly problematic when it comes to matters of sex and gender but never crossing that line into full-on grossness.
I can only thank Jon Vickers and the IU Cinema for screening this truly unique movie. While a physical copy is hard to track down, you can rent and buy it on Amazon digitally. Grab some friends and some drinks and give this one a whirl.