birth. movies. death. january 2015 issue 19

BIRTH.MOVIES.DEATH. / JANUARY 2015


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PUFF PUFF PASS FROM THE EDITORS

CONTENTS

Your Guide To Stocking A Home Bar: 12 Essential Liquors

The Beautiful Dysfunction Of Paul Thomas Andersons Characters

PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE And The Sorrow of Disliking Adam Sandler

Whats Up Doc: Getting High With INHERENT VICE

Video Vortex: Cuddling Up With WINTERBEAST

drafthouse.com badassdigest.com birthmoviesdeath.com drafthousefilms.com fantasticfest.com mondotees.com

Blood, Bone and Neon: The Broken-Nosed Machismo of a Manns World

Before JACKASS There Was Matsumoto

Editor-in-ChiefDevin Faraci Managing EditorMeredith Borders Associate PublisherHenri Mazza Art DirectorJoseph A. Ziemba Graphic DesignersZach Short, Stephen Sosa, Kelsey Spencer Copy EditorGeorge Bragdon Contributing WritersBill Norris, Scott Wampler, Evan Saathoff, Devin Faraci, Joseph A. Ziemba, Jacob Q. Knight, Tim League Public Relations InquiriesBrandy Fons | [email protected] All content 2014 Alamo Drafthouse | drafthouse.com | badassdigest.com

Promotional images and artwork are reproduced in this magazine in the spirit of publicity and as historical illustrations to the text. Grateful acknowledgement is made to the respective filmmakers, actors, and studios.

Drafthouse Recommends: FOXCATCHER


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DEVIN FARACIBadass Digest Editor-in-Chief

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In Paul Thomas Anderson we trust.

This issue of BIRTH.MOVIES.DEATH celebrates the release of INHERENT VICE, the latest film from Paul Thomas Anderson, one of the great filmmakers of our time. I truly believe that one day in the future our grandkids will be impressed that we got to go see a new PTA film in theaters on release, that we were there for every one of his films.

But hes not the only great filmmaker were celebrating this month. Sure, we have pieces about the stoner qualities of INHERENT VICE and about the dysfunction of PTAs characters and about how PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE made us truly believe in Adam Sandler for one exciting minute, but this issue we also throw some attention to the great Michael Mann, whose new film BLACKHAT is hitting theaters. And Tim League wrestles with FOXCATCHER, the latest from Bennett Miller, another filmmaker whose every movie is an event for real film fans.

Of course we dont want to get too stuffy in this issue. This is still the Alamo Drafthouse, so were also talking about the psychotronic madness of WINTERBEAST. And we share some liquors that need to be stocked in every decent home bar. Which one you drink before WINTERBEAST is up to you.

This is a great time to be a movie lover, when you can go to the theater and see a Paul Thomas Anderson or Michael Mann movie youve never seen before. Lets hope the rest of 2015 lives up to this wonderfully high bar. 6

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Your Guide To Stocking A Home Bar: 12 Essential Liquors

It is the time of year where it has become traditional for font stained wretches to take stock; in these days surrounding the New Year, lists abound. There are

ten bests for new bars and for old drinks. There are rankings of albums and films and trends in everything from electronics to pets. It is an impulse that is understandable, and to resist is futile.So without further ado -- the twelve most essential liquors for any home bar.

London Dry GinNo home bar is complete without a bottle of good London Dry. The brand is almost entirely up to your personal choice, but the classic labels -- Beefeater, Tanqueray, Bombay (not the Sapphire) -- are classic for a reason. They have a strong juniper backbone, and the other botanicals support the structure. You also wont go wrong with the brand new Fords Gin, which almost straddles the line between a London Dry and a Plymouth, is incredibly reasonably priced, comes in a beautiful package and makes outstanding drinks.

Do not skimp on London Dry. Buy a well made product, made with real botanicals, and your gin drinks will sing. Buy something cheap and poorly made, and your gin drinks will taste like chemical Christmas Trees.

Rye WhiskeyThere are many excellent Ryes on the market, some of them from smaller producers and not widely available, and others available in quantities that are limited, making them harder to track down. The widely available Old Overholt is cheap, but too easy going at 80 proof to truly understand the potential of rye. If you only have room for one bottle of Rye, consider the Rittenhouse Bottled in Bond at 100 proof. The new Knob Creek Rye should be excellent in cocktails, and smaller labels, especially Redemption Rye, Templeton Rye and High West Rendezvous Rye will all get the job done and then some.

Sweet and Dry VermouthIm going to cheat a little bit here and combine the vermouths into one slot on this list because I think half bottles (375ml) are best for home use, as you can easily use them before they start to turn. Generally speaking, Sweet Vermouth should be Italian in origin, while the Dry should be French. That said, while there are Italian Vermouths that I adore and suggest whole heartedly (especially Cocchi Vermouth di Torino, Punt E Mes and Carpano Antica), if I could only have one bottle of Sweet Vermouth, I would go with Dolin Vermouth de Chambery Rouge, from a French producer. It is less intense than the Italian versions above, available in half bottles, versatile and delicious.

For the Dry, there are two equally great choices: Dolin Dry Vermouth de Chambery or Noily Pratt. Both are available in half bottles and both are excellent, historically accurate products that produce great cocktails. You wont go wrong with either one.

No matter the label on your Vermouth choices, store both the sweet and dry in the fridge after opening to keep them fresh for several months.

Green ChartreusePart of the struggle with this list (and the real reason for the above vermouth fudge) is the wide variety of excellent liqueurs and other modifying spirits on the market. Given the above ingredients, we can make Manhattans, Old Fashioneds, Martinis and the like, and we would be well satisfied (indeed, they are the drinks I make most often at home), but life would get awfully boring if we could not create drinks that sparkle with other flavors brought about by the magical alchemy that liqueurs provide us when mixed with strong spirits, ice and sometimes citrus.Green Chartreuse is my first choice in the category, partly because I love its bold, herbal character and partly because it crops up so frequently in the historical and modern canon. If I had more room, I would also stock its mellower, yellow little brother,

BILL NORRISAlamo Drafthouse Beverage Director

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but in a limited bar, the more assertive, higher proof Green is the choice. It is one of the more expensive bottles here, but you generally use it sparingly, and it is well worth the investment. Neat, in a small glass, it is also excellent after a heavy meal.

Maraschino LiqueurMaraschino is another classic ingredient that consistently crops up in old and new recipes. Its musty sweetness provides sharp contrasts, particularly in Rye based drinks, and the gold standard will be from Luxardo.

Orange LiqueurThere are many options here, and a lot of them are good. You wont go wrong with Cointreau, Combier Liqueur D' Orange Triple Sec or Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaao. They all work slightly differently, based on base spirit, aging, sugar levels, but all are excellent products that will serve almost anywhere orange liqueur is called for.

CampariCampari was one of the tougher decisions to include, but in the end, you need a bitter aperativo in your arsenal, and a world without Negronis and Americanos is a poor place indeed. The similar, but less widely available Gran Classico is also an excellent choice here and should be considered.

BrandyMany of the early cocktails now made with whiskey were originally Cognac based drinks, and no bar is complete without a mixing brandy. The problem is that most Cognac is aimed at the rarified sipping market and, while excellent and elegant, lacks the robust character that makes for a good mixer, while cheaper domestic and other foreign brandy is often too rustic to really shine. The base VSOP from Remy Martin or the VS from Courvoisier will do, but the Pierre Ferrand 1840 was designed specifically for cocktail use and is excellent and reasonably priced. The Germain-Robin Craft Method Brandy is also outstanding in mixed drinks, though a touch more expensive.

ApplejackThere is only one, nationally available choice for real, traditional applejack: Laird's Straight Apple Brandy, bottled at 100 proof. Do not confuse this with the slightly cheaper Lairds Applejack, which is only 30 percent apple spirit, with the rest of the bottle made with neutral grain spirit.

Light RumThere are a number of excellent light rums on the market, many that offer great value and flavor. Consider the Flor de Caa Extra Dry 4 Yr White Rum, Don Q Cristal, Caliche and Banks 5 Island Rum. All are outstanding, offered at a good price and

will provide excellent rum flavors for mixing. The Bacardi 1909, which saw a limited release, is also great if you can track it down.

Dark RumDarker rums offer contrast in a number of classic rum drinks and provide great sipping when a cocktail isnt on the agenda. There are a number of excellent choices out there. Cana Brava, an exciting new product from Panama that was designed by Don Pancho Fernandez, the creator of Havana Club 7 (also excellent if you can lay hands on it) is a great choice, but with limited availability. Rhum St. James Royal Ambre gives a nice Agricole twist in the category; Bacardi 8 Year Old is probably the best product in the Bacardi range. Ron Zacapa Rum 23 is excellent, if a little pricey. Smith and Cross Navy Strength Rum is outstanding in the high test range, and Appleton Estate 12 Year Old is a workhorse.

AbsintheAbsinthe is going to be another spendy bottle, but one that you use only in dashes and spoonfuls for most cocktail use. A bottle will last forever and let you make a number of classic and modern cocktails that call for the stuff. The choice is pretty wide open here, depending on how much you want to spend and if youll also be drinking the stuff on its own. Three favorites are Kubler, a Swiss Blanche absinthe that is excellent and a great value, Tenneyson Absinthe Royal, another great Blanche and Vieux Carre Absinthe Suprieure, an excellent Verte absinthe.

You could also just go with Herbsaint if budgeting is an issue, but, if you want to go that route, consider the slightly more expensive, slightly less sweet and slightly higher proof, Legendre Herbsaint Original Liqueur.

Those twelve bottles will get you started and place a rich tapestry of recipes at your disposal, but Im going to give one more fudge here. Because the United States Government doesnt classify most bitters as spirits, but rather as a food item, they dont count towards your bar total. So, keep Angostura, Peychauds and a good quality orange bitters on hand and they should cover most of your bitters needs, with the caveat that there are excellent smaller producer bitters on the market that the truly obsessed will wind up collecting and using.

Happy New Year. Enjoy. 6


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SCOTT WAMPLERBadass Digest Contributor


Dysfunctions everywhere you look in the films of Paul Thomas Anderson. Its in the relationships between fathers and sons, between surrogate mothers and daughters; it sours things between mentors and students, its deeply ingrained in otherwise-flavorless day jobs. Its often revealed to be the diseased fuel that powers entire industries. And -- as is usually the case -- much of this dysfunction is ugly and repellant, there to remind us just how broken most of PT Andersons characters (and the world) really are. But from time to time, Anderson proves that dysfunction can also be beautiful, compelling, even charming. Such is the case with Andersons most iconic characters.

In BOOGIE NIGHTS, Anderson introduces us to Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg), a dim-witted high school dropout whose aimless existence has turned his home life

into a full-on nightmare. All but rejected by his parents and wringing a tiny paycheck out of a job his go-nowhere job, Eddie is at his wits end when he encounters Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds), a porn producer whos built himself quite the empire over the years. Jack welcomes Eddie into that empire with open arms, where Eddie -- who rechristens himself Dirk Diggler -- quickly takes on Jack as a surrogate father. He even finds a mother of sorts, an older porn actress by the name of Amber Waves (Julianne Moore), and a sister, Rollergirl (Heather Graham). Like any family, this motley crew endures some serious ups and downs over the years, but theres an undeniable sweetness to their interactions, a tenderness to the way they care for one another, and in the end we see that Jacks pseudo-family has provided long-term shelter for these critically flawed characters.

The Beautiful Dysfunction Of Paul Thomas Andersons Characters

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Andersons BOOGIE NIGHTS follow-up, MAGNOLIA, is (thematically-speaking) a film about abuse, which means that dysfunction exists in virtually every character and encounter Anderson puts onscreen. Unlike his previous film, where the dysfunction became the glue that held Andersons broken characters together, the dysfunction between the characters in MAGNOLIA is the chaotic wild-card that sends them pinballing into, around and away from one another. A horrifically dysfunctional relationship between Earl Partridge (Jason Robards, in his final role) and Frank TJ Mackey (a never-better Tom Cruise) keeps them apart for years, before both find some semblance of closure when forces conspire to deliver Frank to Earls bedside just before he passes away; a lonely drug addict named Claudia (Melora Walters, turning in what may be the films best performance) is nearly undone by her demons, until a put-upon cop named Jim (John C. Reilly, typically awesome) shows up on her doorstep and decides to accept her in spite of those demons. A full-blown family never quite coalesces between MAGNOLIAs sprawling cast of characters as it did in BOOGIE NIGHTS, but in the redemption found by Early, Frank, Claudia and Jim, Anderson suggest that its never too late: there is hope for even the most dysfunctional among us.

This theme carried over into Andersons subsequent film, PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE, where were introduced to one of Andersons most bizarro characters ever: Barry Egan (Adam Sandler, somewhat playing against type). From

the moment Barry appears onscreen, its apparent that something is deeply wrong with him; hes a collection of nervous tics and barely-suppressed rage. We eventually learn that Barrys perpetual awkwardness has likely been caused by being raised amongst seven overbearing, bullying sisters: they needle him constantly (Remember when we used to call you gay boy?), and we can easily imagine how a lifetime of this might result in a grown man whos seemingly terrified of women, confrontation and adulthood itself. Barry tries his best to insinuate himself into an adult existence, but he never quite overcomes his dysfunctional past: he wears a suit to work, but its a childish, electric-blue number (and, apparently, the only suit he owns; he wears it throughout the entire film); he runs a business, but his customers show him zero respect and one gathers that most of his operation is being held together by the efforts of his right-hand man, Lance (Luis Guzman, MVP of the PT Anderson universe). Ironically enough, its through the efforts of one of his sisters that Barry encounters Lena (a luminous Emily Watson), who has the patience and kindness to help him overcome the things that have been eating away at him his entire life. PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE is Andersons weirdest movie, but for my money its also the sweetest and the most hopeful.

Andersons next two films, THERE WILL BE BLOOD and THE MASTER, have similarly dysfunctional -- and similarly iconic -- relationships at their core. In both films, a ferociously charismatic alpha-male (Daniel Day-Lewis in


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the former, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman in the latter) attempts to bend the will of an unhinged beta-male (Paul Dano and Joaquin Phoenix, respectively) to his will. In both films, the charismatic alpha-male ultimately fails in that regard, even while finding the personal success they sought all along: Daniel Day-Lewis Daniel Plainview (a performance for the ages if there ever was one) is fabulously wealthy by the end of his life, but is presumably undone (Im finished) when he kills Paul Danos weasely little preacher, Eli Sunday, in a fit of rage; Philip Seymour Hoffmans Lancaster Dodd eventually spreads The Cause (a Scientology-esque self-help cult) across the world, but he never gets the satisfaction of taming Joaquin Phoenixs Freddie Quell. Dysfunction afflicts each of these iconic characters, but -- unlike Andersons previous films -- their various dysfunctions keep them from ever finding peace.

As of this writing, Ive not yet seen PT Andersons forthcoming Thomas Pynchon adaptation, INHERENT VICE, but I gather that Anderson will be adding another charismatically damaged and iconic character to his filmography in the form of Joaquin Phoenixs Doc Sportello. Cast from a similar mold as Jeff Bridges Jeff The Dude Lebowski, Doc is a perma-stoned private eye desperately trying to sort out a convoluted mystery in 1970s Los Angeles. Theres no telling what manner of dysfunction, intrigue and shenanigans Doc will encounter in Andersons latest opus, but history has taught us to expect the very best: Andersons one of our most vital, brilliant filmmakers, and I cant wait to see what sort of beautiful dysfunction he tosses up onscreen with INHERENT VICE. 6

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PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE And The Sorrow of Disliking Adam Sandler


EVAN SAATHOFFBadass Digest News Editor

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Once upon a time, Adam Sandler provided America with one of its surest bets when it came to absurdist humor on the mainstream stage. That may sound ridiculous now, but its true. During an era when SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE was already filled with superstars (Mike Myers, Phil Hartman, Chris Farley, etc.), Sandler made a name for himself not by filling any standard role, but by swinging strong and proud toward the weird.

During his SNL run, Sandler excelled both at creating characters so ridiculous they were their own joke and by pushing non-jokes so far that they became hilarious. His physical range as a comedy actor was limited to a couple of strange faces and a handful of goofy voices. But where that would handicap other comedians,

Adam Sandler found a self-effacing humor in the stupidity of his own hack tricks. That sort of thing is rare. And while it deals in stupidity, it is far from accidental or moronic. There is a world of difference between Adam Sandler and, say, Jimmy Fallons impression of Adam Sandler, which really is just dumb faces and voices.

When the time came for Sandler to translate his weird talents onto the big screen, he created not one but two of the 1990s' top absurdist comedies. Both BILLY MADISON and HAPPY GILMORE take simple, easy to describe concepts and fill them to the brim with strange, unexpected details that elevate the films well above what we might expect from knowingly stupid entertainment. With BILLY MADISON this comes in

the form of imaginary penguins, a spectacular clown death and an out-of-the-blue dance number. HAPPY GILMORE raises the bar significantly by adding Sandlers childlike anger to the equation and getting tons of mileage from a perfectly cast Carl Weathers.

This was a wonderful time to be an Adam Sandler fan. We had every reason to believe Sandler would deliver these bizarre comedies for years to come. But then THE WEDDING SINGER happened.

There are charms to be found within THE WEDDING SINGER, but something had changed. Instead of willingly existing within a crazy world of his own invention, Sandler began to shift toward a figure of normalcy laughing at these oddities. In THE WEDDING SINGER most of these jokes revolve around Alexis Arquettes gender-bending character, George, but theres also one part where Sandler openly makes fun of a lady just because she has sideburns. Instead of being funny, it just feels mean, as though Sandler is now too good for these weirdos because he wants to be the straight man in a typical romantic comedy.

And for the most part, this point-and-laugh gimmick has been all the absurdity Sandler seems willing to dole

out ever since. Theres a big difference between Steve Buscemi as a crazy killer in BILLY MADISON and Steve Buscemi as a crazy-eyed loser in MR. DEEDS. The former is on par with the wacky antics of the movie surrounding him. The latter is just a colorful distraction in a movie that otherwise lacks character. This type of thing has long been the only semblance of classic Adam Sandler we get anymore (typically it comes in Steve Buscemi form), and its just not the same.

Many comics who start strong end up acquiescing to mainstream sensibilities, leaving behind what made them special in the first place. As fans, we mourn what was lost, but were also accustomed to the trend and can move on to the next exciting voice. With Adam Sandler, however, its not so simple. As he continues his march down this path toward blandness, he also displays an apt awareness of who hes become as an artist and even a confusing hint of anger that it has come to this.

There are several dramatic Adam Sandler roles one could point out to illustrate this trend, but none are quite as brazen and bold as Adam Sandlers thinly veiled version of himself in Judd Apatows

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indulgent but fascinating FUNNY PEOPLE, a film which directly criticizes the stars penchant for films like CLICK, BEDTIME STORIES and I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK & LARRY and finds a sad and lonely guy underneath all that mainstream success. As Adam Sandler fans, FUNNY PEOPLE pulls us in two different directions. We can feel sympathetic toward an actor who seems to know he lost his way, but knowing that he knows only heightens our frustration when he keeps going in that direction.

This is especially true when you take into account PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE, Sandlers one true cinematic masterpiece. Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson specifically for Adam Sandler, PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE takes everything funny and weird about Sandler and transforms it into a character that touches on the romantic, the tragic, even the heroic -- three sides to Sandler no one had any right to anticipate. And yet its all there. This isnt a stunt role; its the flipside of everything Sandler represents as a comedian. By making Sandlers character, Barry Egan, a stunted man-child with severe emotional issues, Anderson offers viewers an alternative perspective on

who Adam Sandler is and how his persona functions, making even the worst of Sandlers films a bit more interesting as a result. The funny violence is no longer a joke. The childlike affectations are no longer silly. The almost painful shyness is no longer cute. Just as Nicolas Winding Refns DRIVE exposed the possible ugliness that comes with taking silent action heroes literally, so does Anderson reveal the pathos inherent to a personality like Sandlers, and its amazing.

But its also problematic. We know Adam Sandler can be funny. And we have proof that he can dig deep and use his talents to create unique and interesting dramatic characters. This knowledge makes abandoning Sandler incredibly difficult. Hes far smarter and more interesting than comedy peers like Rob Schneider or even David Spade. All that talent is still there, waiting to be properly mined. Every new film is a chance for him to reach such heights, yet he so rarely even tries.

And so we keep waiting, bolstered by the memory of Sandlers comic gifts and the promise of a filmmaker who can properly utilize his talents as a dramatic actor. It may never happen, but thanks to PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE, we have to keep our fingers eternally crossed. 6

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What's Up Doc: Getting High With INHERENT VICE

Everybody must get stoned, sang Bob Dylan, and everybody who sees INHERENT VICE must feel stoned. Paul Thomas Andersons latest film truly has the rhythms -- the lulls, the giggles, the paranoia -- of a stoned evening.

Too many movies about getting high resort to cheap visual gags to communicate the experience to the viewer. Terry Gilliams FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS, with the shifting patterns in its casino carpets, is one of the few films to really get across what it feels like to be high. INHERENT VICE doesnt go for overt visual cues or hallucinations and instead gives the off-kilter wooziness of a blazed mind.

Anderson plays with the pacing of scenes, making them last a little too long. He stretches exposition across multiple scenes, he has his actors deliver their dialogue with strange pauses, he sometimes sets his camera slightly off -- all in an attempt to get you into the mind of his protagonist, Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix).

Just as he used editing to give us the rush of cocaine in BOOGIE NIGHTS, Anderson uses editing to manipulate time in INHERENT VICE, allowing us to get into fixation spirals, to ride the roller coaster of clarity and confusion, and to never quite be sure whats going -- but to always be right on the edge of laughing.

The experiences of a noir detective are an awful lot like the experiences of a stoner -- hes a guy wandering through a landscape that is clearer to everyone else around him. Your noir detective/stoner is always

piecing together things everybody else already understands, always the guy who knows the least in the room.

In THE BIG LEBOWSKI -- another LA stoner detective movie -- that cluelessness is played for laughs. But INHERENT VICE is adapted from a Thomas Pynchon novel, and that allows Anderson to get deeper into the dark paranoia that undercuts stoner culture, that infuses the noir genre and that informs late 20th century American history.

The traditional noir structure sees the detective following crumbs of clues -- often circumstantial -- to uncover a conspiracy larger than the original case he thought he was investigating. That circumstantial approach to clues is reflected in the haze of the pothead, whose slightly addled brain can find profundity in the most meaningless things and can draw connections between absolutely disparate events. Thats the key to paranoia, being able to see dark omens or sinister connections everywhere, even in the sunshine of Los Angeles.

Its his stoner paranoia intuition that makes Doc such a great detective, and that saves his hide more than once in the movie. Its something that Anderson carries over to the filmmaking itself, making connections and leaps that are not entirely logical or sensical, choices that can sometimes leave audiences a step behind the detective who is already a step behind. Anybody who has tried to explain the plot of THE MALTESE FALCON knows how this feels. 6

DEVIN FARACIBadass Digest Editor-in-Chief


@devincf


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Video Vortex: Cuddling Up With WINTERBEAST

@JosephAZiemba

JOSEPH A. ZIEMBAAlamo Drafthouse Art Director and Programmer

At last count, the Milky Way galaxy contained approximately one-hundred million black holes. The largest of these holes is known as WINTERBEAST.

Native American mythology has always been a source of pilfering for horror filmmakers. From DEATH CURSE OF TARTU to WENDIGO, from SCALPS to CEMENTERIO DEL TERROR, nothing good has ever come from people having sex on Native American burial grounds. Literally. That's because all of these movies share an unfortunate characteristic -- they're boring. But they're boring in the wrong way. Each movie feels like it originated on our planet. They never feel like the filmmakers were reaching up to the sky, ripping open a hole, and stepping into an undiscovered plane of existence. WINTERBEAST corrects these problems. It also feels like it was shot in an attic during a blizzard on Halloween night by no-budget superheroes the Polonia brothers after watching EQUINOX. If that description doesn't make sense, don't worry -- it doesn't have to.

There's a problem at the Wild Goose Lodge involving mutilated bodies. How do we know? Well, Sergeant

Whitman and Forest Ranger Stillman spend the first twelve minutes of the movie talking about it.

Let the investigation begin!

Stillman talks like a beatnik ("Dig those crazy threads!") and gets drunk while Whitman interviews guests of the Wild Goose. Whitman is usually in close proximity to people's faces while he talks. He's a close talker. At the same time, outrageously cheap stop-motion beasties dismember people that we've never seen before. One monster looks like an owl with an ill-fitting toupee. Another resembles Grace Jones dressed as a mummy. The investigations bring Whitman and Stillman to a flamboyant man in a plaid suit. His name is Sheldon and he's the proprietor of the Wild Goose Lodge. Sheldon spends a lot of time screaming at people. Two more rangers join the cause and we find out that someone has opened "the Indian gateway to hell!" Soon, the mighty Winterbeast appears. But it's not clear if he is the true Winterbeast. Because it's never explained who the other Winterbeasts were, or what happened to them. Regardless, none of that

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dilutes the power of one of the most bizarre show-stopping scenes in trash-horror history -- one that makes Dean Stockwell's lip-synching to "In Dreams" in David Lynch's BLUE VELVET seem like a Busby Berkley outtake.

Shot over six years on three different formats for $10,000 in Massachusetts, WINTERBEAST is a true no-fi miracle. And not just because it was completed and released. Straight-to-video regional horror movies with similar tones and budgets flooded video store shelves in the late 1980s. Most of them are worth seeing at some point in your life. You can watch stuff like THE DARK SIDE OF MIDNIGHT or CURSE OF THE BLUE LIGHTS and feel good about your decision. But unlike WINTERBEAST, the majority of these movies don't challenge our sense of mental balance. WINTERBEAST pushes further.

In this movie, reality is devoured, digested, and recreated for our benefit. It's not clear how comedic elements -- like the random appearance of a dildo next to an occult charm -- should be interpreted by an

audience. That speaks to a bigger aesthetic decision, one that supplies non-stop confusion in the best of ways. Epic lo-fi synth-pop accompanies people while they do mundane things for twenty seconds, like drive a car. The size and shape of Whitman's mustache changes at random. People have conversations outdoors and then "outdoors" suddenly converts to a cramped set with a fake pine tree and no sunlight. Post-dubbed voices align with mouths. Then they don't. All of this, in combination with the alternating Super 8 and 16mm film stocks, builds an immersive, collage-like mood. Even when nothing's happening, something's happening. The impressive attention to detail in the context of such deficient resources is impossible to ignore. Especially when the movie feels like it takes place inside of a shoebox.

WINTERBEAST is obviously a barometer of things that are good in the world. That said, its no surprise that some of the creature puppets in this movie were leftover from the video shoot for Dokken's "Burning Like A Flame." 6

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Michael Mann deals in hard men.

Much how Martin Scorsese cinematically channels the goodfellas of his Little Italy childhood, Mann distills the pockmarked, blue-collar spirit of his Windy City stomping grounds into every frame he shoots. The various detectives, jewel thieves, bank robbers and murderers who take center stage in his trademark crime dramas are rough-handed riders who live by rigid codes, existing in self-made universes of blood and metal and fluorescent neon. Theirs is an existence of disconcertingly indifferent violence. Betrayal of their principles means an elevator to the already inevitable gallows. Bones are meant to be broken. Women are dutiful trophies. $150 slacks, $800 suits, D-flawless three-carat rings and respect: their only rewards.

The cities surrounding these hardboiled antiheroes arent so much structures as they are angular extensions of self. When navigating the concrete and glass terrain, conurbations often seem to shift around the alphas as they hunt for their prey. Theres fluidity to Manns frame; precision that never loses sight of the killers at its epicenter. When vehicles move, his camera emphasizes how the neon swirls on the hood. In the blue moons when the men decide to rest, its often by rhythmic bodies of water. These tableaus become poignant paintings, as the director seizes these sporadically placed Zen moments as opportunities to admire the scenery with his brutal brethren.

Authenticity is a key component to how Mann constructs each of his pictures. For THIEF, Mann consulted with paroled cat burglars (including Jerry Santucci, who also plays corrupt cop Urizzi in the film) so that precise details of the heist trade were documented on screen. The late, great Dennis Farina (CRIME STORY) was a Chicago cop before the director helped him transition into an acting career.

William Petersen worked with the Violent Crimes Unit of the FBI in preparation for his MANHUNTER role as Agent Will Graham, resulting in the still-definitive take on Hannibal Lecters arch nemesis (fifty million Hugh Dancy fans be damned for their blasphemy). The basis for L.A. TAKEDOWN (the stellar, under-seen small screen precursor to HEAT) was an actual 1963 case worked by ex-officer Chuck Adamson (who also consulted on the iconic MIAMI VICE television series). In multiple interviews, Mann has relayed an anecdote Adamson told him about hunting a notorious bank robber -- real name: Neil MacCauley -- saying that one day the cop simply bumped into him and didnt know what to do: arrest him, shoot him or have a cup of coffee with him.

This blunt accuracy isnt simply a need for gritty realism (though its certainly one half of the point). Mann admires these above the law nine-to-fivers with an intensity even their own mothers couldnt muster. Each sliver of oxy lance used to penetrate a safe is treated like a brush Dali or Van Gogh wouldve used to paint a canvas. Every gun that the cops and crooks fire carries a unique sonic fingerprint, showcasing the directors fetishistic desire to represent each weapons real world sound. Because Mann recognizes theres not only thrills to be mined from illicit employment, but art as well. Hes the Hemingway of crime cinema, delivering masterworks with the plainspoken grace of an L train bard.

Even when Mann adapts (THE KEEP, THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS) or chronicles real world warriors (ALI, THE INSIDER), hes an artist driven by male duality. In THE KEEP, Nazis are still a goose-stepping legion of doom, but can also be reduced to sniveling bootlickers once confronted with an unknowable ethereal evil. On the battlefields of THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, Magua (Wes Studi) will tear the

Blood, Bone and Neon: The Broken-Nosed Machismo of a Manns World

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JACOB Q. KNIGHTVulcan Video / Cinapse News


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heart from a colonial soldiers chest and eat it before his dimming eyes. But when confronted with his tribes existential crisis, he is no longer simply the central villain of James Fenimore Coopers tale, but a visionary whose pleas to his people would foretell the rise of American Indian gaming over a century before it came into prominence. Muhammad Ali may be the champ, blustery and full of braggadocio, but he is just as fueled by pure ego as he is by principle. Mike Wallace may have been one of the greatest on-camera journalists who ever lived, but he could also be an insufferable prima donna behind closed doors. To wit, each and every one of these men contains multitudes.

While his characters often indulge in brute morality, Mann is a forward-thinking pioneer in terms of formal experimentation. Contradictory to many filmmakers from his era, Mann is anything but a slavish devotee to shooting on celluloid. Like David Fincher and Steven Soderbergh, hes determined to push the medium forward and break boundaries, while still retaining his signature style. The LA nights of COLLATERAL are suffocating until his use of high-res sorts through the inky blackness to discover a city. Meanwhile,

MIAMI VICE is the polar opposite; skies swelling with purple rain clouds and Go Fast boats cutting through crystal blue seas. If it werent for PUBLIC ENEMIES, hed have a hat trick with HD, as what began as an experiment on ALI ended up becoming a full-blown schism in his career, helping to usher in a new era in filmic aesthetics.

Beyond being an indisputable talent behind the camera, Mann has also proven himself to be a reliable scout for up-and-coming filmmakers. After seeing Abel Ferraras MS. 45, Mann became a mentor and friend to the New York punk. Art porn auteur FX Pope was scooped up from the LA peep show circuit and shown the ropes of legitimate filmmaking via TV production on CRIME STORY. More recently, Mann helped produce the first blockbuster forays of Peter Berg (FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS), helping re-route the course of the directors career. In short, Mann seems driven to improve the cinematic landscape around him. He wants to mold the medium in his image and have it live on way past his days on this planet.

Because the truth is clear. This is Michael Manns world. The rest of us are just living in it. 6


I remember precisely when my obsession with Hitoshi Matsumoto began. Back in the old days of the Alamo, one of my jobs was the curation of what we now call the preshow. I would assemble VHS tape montages of funny commercials, strange exercise videos, old trailers and dance instructional tapes I had gathered through seemingly ancient tape-trading circles. I would play these video oddities as short attention span theater in lieu of ads before movies.

Every now and again super-regular customers were inspired by the idea and would bring in tapes for me to play. Tony Salvaggio, a customer Ive become friends with over the years, would always come for any film from Hong Kong, Thailand or Japan. If there was a rubber-suit monster or martial arts action on screen, Tony was in the audience. Tony had a friend in Japan who would record crazy TV shows and commercials onto VHS tapes and send them by post every couple of months. Tony brought to the theater one night in 2003 a VHS tape of his favorite sketches from the granddaddy of all Japanese variety shows, DOWNTOWN NO GAKI NO TSUKAI YA ARAHENDE!! -- which translates to DOWNTOWN, I AM NOT AN ERRAND BOY!! or just DOWNTOWN as it is commonly known. DOWNTOWN has consistently been on the air since the early 80s and continues to this day.

I popped in Tony's tape to share with an unsuspecting audience, and my mind was shattered forever. In 30 minutes we were assaulted by a rapid-fire barrage of elaborate and gleeful torture challenges and pranks, seemingly LSD-inspired re-imaginings of Japanese monsters and costumed heroes, and sketch comedy that went from bone dry to berserk in the blink of an eye. I had never seen anything like it apart from JACKASS. Over the years since then I've been collecting every Matsumoto DVD I could find.

I have no authority to say this, but I firmly believe that Spike Jonze and the co-creators of JACKASS were initially inspired by Matsumoto and DOWNTOWN. The absurd costumes, the gleeful nature with which they endure their physical punishment and the off-kilter comedic tone are

spot on. There is no JACKASS without DOWNTOWN's masterminds Hitoshi Matsumoto and Masatoshi Hamada and their contemporary Beat Takeshi.

For all of its originality and inventiveness, DOWNTOWN falls into an ancient Japanese tradition of Manzai comedy which dates as far back as the Heian period (794 to 1185). Manzai is a comedy duo consisting of a boke or funny man/fool/masochist and a tsukkomi or straight-man/sadist. Much like the Jerry Lewis/Dean Martin dynamic, the humor of Manzai hinges on the personality differences, misunderstandings and both verbal and physical playfulness between the two opposites. In DOWNTOWN, Hitoshi Matsumoto plays the boke, and his long-time comedy partner Masatoshi Hamada plays the tsukkomi. Theyve been performing against each other in these roles on TV since 1982 and are still the dominant force of Japanese comedy.

Virtually nobody in the states knows Matsumoto and Hamada. A tiny sliver of obsessed internet explorers might have seen them in a fan-subtitled Japanese game-show clip on YouTube, but they remain very obscure here. There is no parallel for their celebrity status in Japan. Imagine an alternate reality where megastars on the level of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Brad Pitt performed together on network television primetime three days a week for thirty years. Thats Matsumoto and Hamada in Japan.

What made these guys so massive is their groundbreaking approach to what was, quite frankly, fairly lowbrow comedy. They changed the face of Japanese comedy forever. Manzai is traditionally quite broad and slapstick with exaggerated performances and reactions the likes of which you see at CIRQUE DU SOLEIL. DOWNTOWN took a completely different approach. They mumbled, they carried on very mundane conversations, they didnt ham up their performances at all. In fact they more or less ignored the audience. They were slow and deliberate and would patiently set up an elaborate and complex payoff joke. They were intelligent; they wove a love of contemporary pop culture and popular television and film into their skits. They were doing things that Japanese audiences had never seen. DOWNTOWN

Before JACKASS There Was Matsumoto

@timalamo

TIM LEAGUEAlamo Drafthouse/Drafthouse Films Founder/CEO


was completely off the rails and after some initial head-scratching, the entirety of Japan fell in love with their style.

When they first came on the scene, the most popular Manzai comedian of the day, Shinsuke Shimada, saw one of their shows and almost immediately called a press conference to announce his retirement. Stunned and humbled, he saw what they would soon become and knew he could not keep pace.

Matsumoto and Hamada continue to perform regularly on television several times a week. But since 2007, Matsumoto has also embarked on a new facet of his solo career, directing some of the most breathtakingly

inventive feature comedy films the world has ever seen. BIG MAN JAPAN, SYMBOL, SAYA SAMURAI and now his fourth film R100 are all masterpieces and, yes, all extremely different in tone. Hitoshi Matsumoto is one of the greatest comic minds to ever grace our planet. Were there an International Society of Comedy that held an annual awards banquet (there isnt), I would be lobbying and writing petitions to give Hitoshi Matsumoto his well-deserved lifetime achievement award. I am excited to be presenting the complete cinematic works of Hitoshi Matsumoto in select cities and releasing his latest magnum opus R100 in theaters everywhere this winter. You are all about to bow in the presence of greatness. 6

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Drafthouse Recommends: FOXCATCHER

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TIM LEAGUEAlamo Drafthouse/Drafthouse Films Founder/CEO


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At its core, FOXCATCHER chronicles the desperate friendship that materializes between broken, lonely men: a rich, middle-aged aristocrat living alone in the long shadow of one of the greatest legacy families in American history and a young wrestler who has found that Olympic gold is a hollow victory that leads only to poverty and isolation. Channing Tatum plays Mark Schultz who, by traditional measures of success, is a titan. Hes an Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling, a national hero. But if you arent one of the handful of athletes who leave the games with a Nike or Wheaties endorsement, you find yourself like Mark: alone in a depressing, dingy studio apartment, eating fast food in your car and making ends meet by taking inspirational speaking gigs at local elementary schools for $20 bucks a pop. Mark is also standing in the shadows of his vastly more successful older brother David (Mark Ruffalo, who in my opinion steals the FOXCATCHER show). David is articulate, poised and has a successful coaching career, a wife, a family and a home. Steve Carrell plays John DuPont, an awkward, average man uncomfortable in his place in one of the great American family dynasties. Instead of following in the footsteps of his industrialist great-grandfather, John studied ornithology in college and spent his adult life dabbling in various hobbies. He married once in his mid-forties but the union was annulled within 90 days. His days are largely spent alone on his sprawling estate surrounded by the overwhelming weight of the mighty DuPont Corporation. He whiles away the hours by self-medicating with recreational drugs such as cocaine and scopolamine. In John Dupont, Mark finds hope. DuPont finds the same in Mark. Mark is to oversee the Foxcatcher Olympic training facility on the DuPont family estate. DuPont has taking a billionaire hobbyist interest in the sport of wrestling and wants to privately fund a national champion wrestling team in order to give hope to America." Foxcatcher is the name of his fathers thoroughbred racehorse dynasty and DuPont sees the team as a means to prove to himself and, more importantly, to his mother that he is worthy of the DuPont name. Theres no true spark of friendship between DuPont and Schultz. They are both so lonely and desperate, however, that they lie to themselves and their respective families and take a progressive series of small missteps that slowly guide them both to ruin. The casting of Steve Carrell is brilliant. Accounts of the real John Dupont paint him as socially awkward and a bit off, but generally benign and harmless. Carrell alloys his well-known signature characters Michael Scott (THE OFFICE) and Brick Tamland (ANCHORMAN) into his portrayal of John Dupont.

Strip away the wacky comedy and the real-life Michael Scott and Brick Tamland would be damaged goods; severely wounded, pathetic creatures who crave connection and friendship but are unable to truly find it with the normals of the world. Just like Michael Keaton in this years other Oscar contender BIRDMAN, Steve Carrell draws deeply from and comments upon his Hollywood legacy to create a singular performance. I now find it hard to imagine anyone else playing the role of John Dupont. In FOXCATCHER, youve got three of the best performances of the year and a fascinating look behind the curtain of one of the richest and most powerful American aristocracies. What truly fascinates me about this film, however, is the wrestling itself. Mark Ruffalo comes from a wrestling family. His father was a state champion wrestler, and Ruffalo wrestled not just in high school but in college for three years. He only left the sport after catching the acting bug in his junior year. Ruffalo and Tatum spent six months training and honing their skills on the mat. They would practice for two hours in the morning and then again for four hours every night, working closely with the USA Wrestling Olympic team. In a pivotal scene in which Mark Schultz must lose 12 and a half pounds in order to make weight at the US Olympic trials, Tatum actually does just that: wrapped in plastic he sweats it out over 3 hours on a stationary bike. Look for a fun cameo by the real Mark Schultz in that scene. Shultz mans the scale, weighing in the naked, exhausted and 12-and-a-half-pounds-lighter Channing Tatum. There are no camera tricks, no stunt doubles, no cutaways. Mark Ruffalo and Channing Tatum became accomplished wrestlers, and if for no other reason, that Herculean feat is worth checking out in FOXCATCHER. That the movie is wonderful is just gravy. 6


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