NEVERENDING FILM FESTIVAL
#356
January 6, 2025
My pledge to you:
Only the basics of a movie’s premise, with no spoilers.
Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train (2004)
Howard Zinn was the historian who taught that history isn’t entirely about the rich, powerful, and famous. He wrote A People’s History of the United States, flipping it downside-up to tell our country’s past from the perspectives of real people, with all the atrocities and indecencies that never made it into Funk & Wagnalls.
This documentary is sort of a people’s history of Howard Zinn. He grew up in the Depression, became a blue-collar dock worker, and a bombardier in World War II. He went to college on the GI Bill, earned his PhD in history, then taught at all-black Spelman College, before making his way to Boston University.
Made while he was still alive, Zinn is on screen a lot, and comes across as garrulous and rascally and frickin’ smart — and surprisingly, not all that radical, unless it’s radical to be fair about the facts. Which, of course, it is.
Matt Damon’s voice as the occasional and unneeded narrator is a distraction, and as always in modern documentaries, there’s too much, too distracting music. Still, this ought to be seen by anyone who cares about where America’s been and where we’re headed.
Verdict: YES.
♦ ♦ ♦
Howard Zinn’s Emma (2016)
a/k/a Emma
This is a biography of anarchist rabblerouser Emma Goldman, a play written by Howard Zinn and filmed on stage. It’s pretty good, with fierce philosophy and politics, stirring drama, a few funny bits, and big league performances from a cast devoid of stars. It’s at its best when Emma’s giving her speeches (verbatim), and loving/hating Alexander Berkman.
But wow, it’s held back by wandering camerawork, lousy lighting, and especially by sound recording that renders the dialogue tinny, sometimes difficult to decipher. Trying to hear the play gave me a headache.
It’s a good play, and would make a terrific movie, I think.
Verdict: YES, with obvious caveats.
♦ ♦ ♦
Howl (2010)
Howl is based on the poem and life of Allen Ginsberg, and bounces between three settings — Ginsberg’s first reading of Howl, an interview with the author in his apartment, and the trial of poet/publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who was charged with obscenity for publishing the book.
The interview and trial sequences are excellent, exploring Ginsberg’s youth and the establishment’s outrage over the poem. The poetry segments, though, present a challenge for moviemaking — a guy standing and reading a poem isn’t, you know, cinematic.
Instead, and audaciously, the movie switches to animation of Ginsberg’s verse while it’s recited. It’s a big gamble, and poetry purists might object, but for me it works. The imagery lines up well with the words, perhaps too literally at times, but it certainly swept me along. The poetry ain’t bad either.
Almost any actor would’ve been my choice over James Franco, as Ginsberg. Open auditions, please. Not a fan. He’s surprisingly competent, though, and occasionally lifts the movie onto his shoulders, with no stumbles.
The events shown here were before my time — I’m old, but not that old — and jeez, what a frightening time it must’ve been. Publishing words like ‘cunt’ and ‘fuck’, bluntly and imaginatively describing reality could land you in a prison cell.
I enjoy writing, and all my life I’ve never needed to hesitate. These words are shot straight from my brain to the fuckin’ keyboard, and that lack of hesitation is largely thanks to Ginsberg and Ferlinghetti.
Verdict: BIG YES.
♦ ♦ ♦
The Howling (1981)
This is supposed to be a scary movie, and scary movies almost always have a woman or women in peril. I’m OK with it to a point, but this one blows past that point within ten minutes.
Some shadowy bad guy has cornered TV reporter Dee Wallace in a dark space, where he’s holding her against her will, saying dark and disgusting things, and making her watch filmed footage of some other woman being raped.
That ain’t what I call entertainment. Flipped it off, flipped off director Joe Dante, and returned to our ordinary, rotten world.
Verdict: BIG NO.
♦ ♦ ♦
… and out of alphabetical order …
The Vast of Night (2019)
This is a stylish tribute to 1950s sci-fi, a genre I love. A great deal of effort went into the movie’s city-size sets and showy camera work, with seamless swooping shots all across town. And yet, there’s not much happening.
I hit ‘pause’ after forty minutes to try figuring out what wasn’t going on, and I’ll give you the story to that point, which barely amounts to a spoiler.
A high school girl is worried by a strange sound, and an irritating guy is also fascinated by the sound. The sound isn’t very strange, though. It’s something mechanical and repetitive and so what? Seems kind of silly that everyone’s in a panic over a mechanical and repetitive sound. Even in the 1950s, we’d heard such sounds before. Turn on your dryer. Idle your car.
A friend had recommended The Vast of Night, so I came back a few hours later and watched some more, as the story progressed from boring to annoying. We’re supposed to feel mounting tension, but… nah.
I’ll mention the swooping camera work again, since there’s nothing much else to mention. Oh, and there’s a nicely-accomplished one-take scene of a woman taking calls at an old-style switchboard.
If you’re going to work this hard creating the visuals, and build sprawling sets that seem to stretch a mile, could we please have a little more effort on the script?
Eleven minutes remain in the movie, but I dislike both central characters and don’t care how it ends. Feels like it’s barely begun, and I’m done.
Verdict: NO.
1/6/2025
Coming attractions:
Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)
Hudson Hawk (1991)
Hukkle (2002)
The Human Comedy (1943)
… plus schlock, shorts, and
movies out of alphabetical order…
Illustration by Jeff Meyer. No talking once the lights dim, and only real butter on the popcorn, not that fake yellow stuff.
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