birth.movies.death august 2014 issue14

BIRTH.MOVIES.DEATH. / APRIL 2014


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140384_SHI-14074_Alamo 1 5/30/14 7:33 PM

LETTER FROM THE TEAM LEADER

CONTENTSTHE MOVIES

A Comics History Of THE GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

A Comics History Of TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES

Popeye Vs Dracula: THE DRAGON LIVES AGAINs Insane Cross-Cultural Teamup

The Brilliant Elasticity of The Marx Brothers

They Did The Mash: A Brief History Of Monster Rally Pictures

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

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 WritersRobert Saucedo, Andrew Todd, Devin Faraci, Evan Saathoff, Phil Nobile Jr, Bill Norris, Brian Collins, Meredith Borders Public Relations InquiriesBrandy Fons | [email protected] Public Relations InquiriesBrandy Fons | [email protected]

Punch! The Ultimate Team Cocktail

THE EXPENDABLES Is Every 11-Year-Old Boys Fantasy Fulfilled

Growing Up: Richard Linklater On His 12 Year Journey Through BOYHOOD

High Times. Hard Bodies. Soft Rock: The Perfect Ensemble Of WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER

GUARDIAN OF THE GALAXY: James Gunn On Making Marvels Weirdest Movie Yet

Zoe Saldana: Bringing The Streets To Outer Space In GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

Written & Directed by Richard Linklater

PATRICIAARQUETTE

ELLARCOLTRANE

LORELEILINKLATER

ETHANAND HAWKE

COMING SOON TO AN ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE NEAR YOU

12 YEARS

IN THE

MAKING

ONE OF THE MOST

EXTRAORDINARY MOVIES OF THE 21ST CENTURY.

A.O. SCOTT

ONE OF THE MOST

A MASTERPIECE OF AMERICAN MOVIEMAKING.A MOVING and MEMORABLE 12-YEAR EPIC of family life that isnt quite like anything else in the history of cinema.

ANDREW OHEHIR

THE BEST FILM OF THE YEAR. UNIQUE AND UNFORGETTABLE.

PETER TRAVERS

A UNIQUE CINEMATIC LANDMARK. IT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND.

BEN DICKINSON

A UNIQUE CINEMATIC LANDMARK

For the full cinema schedule go to drafthouse.com or ifc.com

ASSEMBLING THE TEAM

SUNDAY NIGHTS

Dont Get Picked Last

And On TV

August At


09

There wouldnt be any movies without teamwork. Almost every single movie ever made has a team behind it -- actors, writers, directors, set builders, editors, production assistants, costume designers, hair and make-up people, script supervisors, drivers, producers I could go on, but you get the point. It takes a whole lot of teamwork to get a movie from someones brain onto your local screen.

This month were celebrating teamwork, that magical moment when a bunch of people get together and do something they couldnt accomplish on their own. WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER might be funny if it was just the members of THE STATE, but it was when they also got all their friends involved that it became a classic. We all love Frankensteins Monster and The Wolfman and Dracula on their own, but how awesome was it when they would crossover in everything from Universal classics to THE MONSTER SQUAD? Any one of those Marx Boys could have been a comedy great, but put them together as Brothers and you have all-timers like DUCK SOUP and A NIGHT AT THE OPERA. And sure, any single juice is nice, but when you put them together in a punch (and add some booze) youre getting serious (yes, we have a great article about punch this issue!).

All of this is inspired by GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, the latest movie from blockbuster behemoth Marvel Studios. We talked to director James Gunn and star Zoe Saldana about bringing one of the lesser known comic teams to big screen life.

This is a pretty good time for me to thank the amazing team who helps bring this magazine to life every month, especially managing editor Meredith Borders, who is the only thing standing between absolute chaos and the production of any given issue, our art director Joseph Ziemba, the amazing (and patient) graphic designers Zach Short and Stephen Sosa, and the eagle-eyed George Bragdon, who catches so many errors he makes me question my own ability to read. 6

LETTER FROM THE TEAM LEADERDEvIN FARACIBadass Digest Editor in Chief

@devincf

Read more at badassdigest.com

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This August, the Alamo Drafthouse is offering a lineup of films that put the T in TEAM. In honor of James Gunn's GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, we're showing a month of programming that features some of the best and wildest team-ups in cinematic history! For tickets, showtimes, formats, and a full list of titles, visit drafthouse.com.

Screening In August at the Alamo Drafthouse

WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMERDir: David Wain, 2001, R, 97 min

You taste like a burger. I don't like you anymore.

Its the last day of the summer season at Camp Firewood, and all the campers and counselors are trying to make sure they create memories that will last a lifetime. For some, that means finally experiencing the Ultimate (not just dick-in-vagina, but SEX, you dummy!); for others it just means chewing some gum and then frenching a lot. Oh, and then theres that satellite thats threatening to fall from the sky and crush the camp -- during the big final talent show of the season!

So of course theres plenty of quoting to do with this show, and the Action Pack will be highlighting so many great lines and bringing in special summer camp games before the movie. Plus participating Alamo Drafthouse locations with full bars available will have special Smores martini cocktails available so you can taste the last days of summer and make your breath all chocolatey before you make out with that special someone on the pier instead of saving kids from drowning!

If you wanna smear mud on your ass, smear mud on your ass -- just be honest about it. -- Can of Vegetables (Henri Mazza)

THE WARRIORSDir: Walter Hill, 1979, R, 92 min

Warriors...come out to play-ee-ay.

These are the Armies of The Night. They are 60,000 strong. They outnumber the cops three to one. They could run New York City. Tonight they're all out to get the Warriors.

Preposterously themed street gangs, electrifying synths, raging fisticuffs and a lean, mean, macho man story. Cyrus is the toughest, baddest all-round coolest gang leader around and he's assembled all of the gangs in New York City to unify them. But when Cyrus ends up dead, The Warriors take the wrap and every face-painted, spiked bat-carrying, homicidal maniac in the

city is out to kill them as our true-hearted, iron-willed Coney Island rumblers punch, bite and bleed their way home through the labyrinth of Manhattan.

Once you see THE WARRIORS all you will ever want to see is THE WARRIORS again. Walter Hill can film a city and make it sweat with toughness as he captures the filthiness of urban decayed vacant subways, crooked alleys and abandoned buildings to turn them into a spectacularly violent playground of insanity. "Now, look what we have here before us. We got the Saracens sitting next to the Jones Street Boys. We've got the Moonrunners right by the Van Cortlandt Rangers. Nobody is wasting nobody. That... is a miracle. And miracles is the way things ought to be. CAN YOU DIG IT?" (Greg MacLennan)

THE MONSTER SQUADDir: Fred Dekker, 1987, PG-13, 82 min

The End of the World Starts at Midnight.

Only one '80s masterpiece can claim the title of The Killingest, Swearingest, Monster-est Kids Movie of All Time. You know who to call when you got ghosts, but where do you turn when you have MONSTERS!?

Dracula is alive and primed for world domination as he assembles all of the legendary monsters of the world. Bullets can't kill him, grenades cannot slow him and it seems like no one can stop him except for...THE MONSTER SQUAD. A group of horror-obsessed adolescents are all that stand in the way of Dracula and his nefarious plan. They just love comics and movies, but when the world requires their expertise their childhood innocence will be forever lost in a blinding storm of silver bullets, sharpened stakes and enormous explosions.

This child-sized chunk of anti-monster justice was unleashed on cinemas with such savage fury that few recognized its true greatness, but it has since been rediscovered as the classic it truly is! So grab your

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tickets before the full moon and be here for this show or well kick you right in the...genitals. (Zack Carlson & Greg MacLennan)

STEEL MAGNOLIASDir: Herbert Ross, 1989, PG, 117 min

To find the greatest team of women ever assembled, head to the home of big hair and even bigger gossip: Truvy's Beauty Salon.

In this charming little parlor, you don't just get your hair and nails did -- you get life lessons from some of the best and sassiest actresses to ever grace the screen. Without STEEL MAGNOLIAS, how would you know that there are so many different shades of pink (including Blush and Bashful), or that all gay men have track lighting? Without Ouiser Boudreaux (Shirley MacLaine, in all of her cantankerously awesome glory), how would you discover that it's possible to be in a bad mood for 40 years? And without Clairee Belcher (Olympia Dukakis), how would you learn that the only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to accessorize? Don't even get me started on Truvy Jones (Dolly Parton), whose folksy wisdom and bedazzled ensembles basically make life worth living.

These ladies are guaranteed to inspire you just as sure as they'll make you bawl your eyes out and then crack you up. Because we all know laughter through tears is the best emotion. So tease up your hair, grab your bestie and join us for a cinematic celebration of friendship, perms and Southern living. It'll be even better than a slice of armadillo cake. (Sarah Pitre)

STAND BY ME Dir: Rob Reiner, 1986, R, 89 min

Rob Reiners film about the sadness that comes with the end of childhood innocence still maintains an emotional resonance decades later. Starring the very talented young quartet of River Phoenix, Wil Wheaton, Jerry OConnell and Corey Feldman, STAND BY ME encompasses all the joy and pain of adolescence with an honest and deft touch, something that is rarely seen in the genre these days.

The story centers on Gordie (Wheaton) and his three friends as they trek out into the woods outside their Oregon hometown to find the rumored dead body of a young boy who went missing. What starts out as a fun adventure (well, as fun as finding a dead body can be) soon turns into a subtle, but undeniably life-changing event for the four boys. Entertaining, moving, beautifully shot and naturally acted, STAND BY ME is one of the most unpretentious looks at that too-often

used buzz term of "coming of age." (RJ LaForce)

RESERvOIR DOGSDir: Quentin Tarantino, 1992, R, 99 min

Every dog has his day.

That's right! You're about to get stuck in the middle with the Quentin Tarantino classic, RESERVOIR DOGS. Diamond heists, double crosses and undercover cops are the name of the game in this fast-talking, macho crime caper.

Put on a super snazzy all-black suit, stop referring to yourself by your real name and prepare to super-slo-mo-cool-as-fuck walk yourself with at least four of your friends to the Alamo Drafthouse, because we're setting you up with one of the slickest, coolest movies to blast out of the '90s.

Stop pointing that gun at my dad and come learn the relative importance of tipping, who starred in Get Christie Love!, and what to do when you enter a men's room full of cops carrying a briefcase full of marijuana. Don't give yourself any excuses to miss this on the big screen; the words "too fuckin' busy" should not be in your vocabulary. (Greg MacLennan)

DUCK SOUPDir: Leo McCarey, 1933, Passed, 68 min

Over their storied careers the Marx Brothers have created so many classic moments you can't come close to counting them on all of your fingers and toes. Because of this, it's so hard to name their definitive masterpiece. But we're going to tell you a little secret in case you ever find yourself in a life-or-death situation and need to choose: The answer is DUCK SOUP.

Over the course of a frantic, hysterical 68 minutes the Brothers Marx showcase their collective comedic and performance genius from one brilliant set piece to another. Directed by Hollywood vet Leo McCarey, this is the most polished of the Marx's films, which is no easy task. McCarey's collaboration is the main reason Groucho believes this to be their best film.

They spread anarchy over every frame and make a brilliant political satire that's not interested in saying anything political. It's madcap. It's insane. It's positively, absolutely the zaniest creation from the masters of being zany. It also marked the end of their stint with MGM and boy, what a way to go out! (RJ LaForce) 6

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A Comics History Of THE GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

Who are the Guardians of the Galaxy? It depends on who you ask.

For comic book fans of the 70s, the Guardians of the Galaxy are a team of 31st century superheroes -- the last survivors of their race, bound by desire to protect the universe from the villainous Badoon. Led by Major Vance Astro, a 20th century earthman who was put in suspended animation, the Guardians were a motley crew of strange heroes including Charlie-27, a bruiser from Jupiter; Yondu, a blue-skinned mohawked proto-Navi armed with a bow and arrow; and Starhawk, an omnipotent demigod stuck in an endless cycle of rebirth. During the 90s, the Guardians were given a slightly grimmer, slightly grittier rebirth and saw its membership swell to include future versions of Ghost Rider and Wonder Man, among others.

In 2006, while most of the Marvel Universe was caught up in the Civil War -- a mini-series that saw Marvels heroes turn against each other -- Marvel dusted off an assemblage of some of their most popular cosmic heroes to combat an invasion from the Negative Zone. Heroes such as Nova, Starlord and Gamora would unite for the first time and fans ate it up. Over the next few years, Marvel continued slowly nurturing this strange, exciting corner of their universe. Forgotten heroes such as Rocket Raccoon (a genetically modified animal with a love of firearms) and Warlock (a cocoon-bred space god) were resurrected and partnered up with even stranger

heroes -- including Cosmo (a telepathic Russian dog who had been shot off into orbit during the space race) and Bug (a member of the Micronauts that Marvel managed to retain thanks to a legal loophole).

Most recently, Marvel has once again revamped the Guardians of the Galaxy in preparation for this summers big movie. The team is very similar to the one audiences will see on the big screen: Starlord, a half-Earthling who is running from his royal alien lineage, leads a team of heroes that includes Groot, a sentient tree with a soft side, and Drax, a family-man who was killed by the space tyrant Thanos only to be resurrected by Thanos dad as an avatar of revenge. Marvel has even included several of its popular Earth heroes on the team. Iron Man, Captain Marvel and Venom (yes, the Spider-Man villain -- its a long story) have all joined the team in recent years. Perhaps the most notable addition is Angela, a character who was recently revealed to be Thors long-lost sister but in reality is essentially a big middle finger to SPAWN creator Todd McFarlane, who lost the character in a legal battle with co-creator Neil Gaiman, who then proceeded to sell her to Marvel Comics.

If youre interested in reading more about the Guardians of the Galaxy, visit a local comic book store and ask for GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY BY ABNET & LANNING: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION VOLUME 1 or GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOLUME 1: COSMIC AVENGERS. 6

ROBERT SAUCEDOHouston Alamo Drafthouse Programming Director


@robsaucedo2500

A Comics History Of TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a joke.

I mean that literally. TMNT began in 1983 with two friends, Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman, fooling around with sketches. They drew a turtle on its hind legs and laughed. They added a mask and weapons and laughed some more. They wrote Ninja Turtle above the drawing and then added Teenage Mutant above that, because it made them laugh. And then they drew some more turtles, with other weapons, and they decided they wanted to make a comic book about these weird creatures.

In that book, intended as a black and white one-shot, they were riffing on some of the popular comics of the time, like DAREDEVIL, X-MEN and Frank Millers RONIN. The Turtles origin is actually tied directly into that of Daredevil -- the same toxic waste accident that blinded Matt Murdock and gave him super senses mutated the four turtles into teenaged ninjas. Where Daredevil battled ninja clan The Hand, the Turtles faced off against The Foot. Daredevils sensei was Stick, while Splinter was the rat mutated along with the Turtles in that accident.

They spent all their money printing 3000 copies of that comic and it sold out in weeks. Future printings sold out faster. The entire comic book industry convulsed, and indie black and white satire comics

like RADIOACTIVE ADOLESCENT BLACKBELT HAMSTERS and PRE-TEEN DIRTY GENE KUNG-FU KANGAROOS tried to get in on the action.

Eastman and Laird decided to make the book a regular series, but rather than stick with the silly satire they took the Turtles and followed their adventures fairly seriously, even as they visited alternate dimensions, crossed over with Cerebus the Aardvark and battled Triceratons. Continuity was never a big deal to them -- they preferred following new ideas to being stuck matching up with previous issues. While they eventually sold the concept off to cartoons and toys, their black and white comics were aimed at an older teen audience, not the kids who discovered pizza-munching heroes on the half-shell (the Turtles had no particular affinity for pizza in the original comics). Over the last three decades the original Turtles experienced love, loss, murder, betrayal, PTSD and even ended up in their 30s in the latest series, simply titled TMNT (Thirtysomething Mutant Ninja Turtles?).

Its strange that what began as a joke turned into both a fairly serious and mature adventure series and an eternally childish cartoon and movie series. These two versions of the TMNT couldnt be any more different, and its great that both versions somehow exist side-by-side. 6

DEvIN FARACIBadass Digest Editor in Chief


@devincf

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ANDREW TODDBadass Digest Gaming Editor


@mistertodd

Popeye vs Dracula: THE DRAGON LIvES AGAINs Insane Cross-Cultural Teamup

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The craziest teamup movie of all time was 100% unlicensed, unauthorized and uncontrollable.

Team-up movies are all too frequently careful, calculated products. Marvel has THE AVENGERS, DC and Warner Brothers have their upcoming JUSTICE LEAGUE and Lionsgate has THE EXPENDABLES. Even back in the day, Universal threw Abbott and Costello in with their familiar versions of Frankenstein, the Wolf Man and Dracula. Its a strategy predicated on the notion that if audiences love those characters separately, theyll love them even more together, and it often pays off.

But for gleeful, ridiculous alternatives, we turn to the wonderful world of exploitation.

Third World movies have a long, proud tradition of low-budget, unauthorized knockoffs of popular, copyrighted characters. STAR WARS, THE EXORCIST, E.T., JAWS, RAMBO, the JAMES BOND series and even SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER have generated batshit insane facsimiles from well outside Hollywoods legal reach: largely Turkey, Africa, India and Southeast Asia. Its a tradition that continues to this day.

If youre disregarding copyright anyway, the next logical step is to mash those appropriated icons together. Turkish actioner 3 DEV ADAM teamed Captain America with luchador legend Santo to fight the villainous Spider-Man, and THE EXPENDABLES was predated by 28 years in KILL SQUADs all-American action substitutes. But cinema has never assembled a list of pop culture titans as comprehensive as the one in 1977 Hong Kong martial arts comedy THE DRAGON LIVES AGAIN.

Part of the bountiful Brucesploitation subgenre birthed the moment Bruce Lee drew his final breath, THE DRAGON LIVES AGAIN isnt content to simply imitate extant Lee titles. It takes the unusual step of starting at the moment of Lees death, following both his descent into the Underworld and his fight to escape it.

Bruce Leung Siu-lung isnt the most convincing Bruce Lee-alike in the business. Visually, hes the halfway point of Bruce Lee Animorphing into his ENTER THE DRAGON opponent Bolo Yeung (who appeared in several Brucesploitation films himself ), though he doesnt quite have the martial arts prowess of either. But the creators of THE DRAGON LIVES AGAIN went for a quantity over quality approach, matching up fake Bruce Lee against fake Everybody Else.

From its opening titles sequence, featuring fake Bruce Lee fighting fake James Bond, its clear THE DRAGON LIVES AGAIN cares not for intellectual property law -- only the law of badassery. Soon Zatoichi enters the fray, followed by Dracula and Clint Eastwood. By the time the film reaches its triumphant The End credit, we also meet fake Caine, fake The Godfather, fake The Exorcist, fake Popeye, and fake Emmanuelle (!). Everyone refers to each other by their full name or title, so we dont forget whos who. The Exorcist is just The Exorcist, and so on.

The imitation even extends to music. Fake Ennio Morricone, fake Lalo Schifrin, fake Sammy Lerner and fake Monty Norman all appear on the soundtrack, often chopping harshly between themes depending on which character is onscreen.

THE DRAGON LIVES AGAINs story is actually somewhat clever, a comfortable bedfellow to the most out-there comic book teamups. After death, these iconic characters are dismayed their influence in pop culture purgatory is less than that on Earth, so they stage a coup against the King of the Underworld. Its up to fake Bruce Lee to stop them and maybe earn his freedom in the process. Whos a hero and whos a villain in this scenario is somewhat arbitrary, given that most of the characters started out as good guys. The villains score the bulk of the A-listers, though, with only best friends Popeye and Caine coming to Bruce Lees aid. The film delights in its mismatched characters -- its best sequences have them just chilling and shooting the breeze.

Its also a crazy martial arts comedy with side orders of sex and the supernatural. A skeleton walks out of a doctors office thanking him for the help. Kung-fu mummies play ring-around-the-rosie in combat. At one point European sex symbol Emmanuelle has boisterous sex with the aging King, attempting to induce a heart attack. Youre never stuck for entertainment with THE DRAGON LIVES AGAIN.

Like other titles of its ilk, this film could only have been made in an isolated industry far from Hollywood, a Wild East of entertainment and insanity. THE DRAGON LIVES AGAIN occupies a curious nexus between ripoff, homage and fan film. Legally speaking its pretty indefensible, but like the best exploitation films, theres a charming naivet to it. It feels innocent, like a kid playing with action figures. To not have James Bond and Dracula join forces would be a waste of a good toy. No toy goes to waste in THE DRAGON LIVES AGAIN. 6

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It is difficult to imagine a comedy team more talented, impressive, flexible and just downright hilarious than the Marx Brothers. Comedy certainly hasn't produced their equal at this point in time. The Judd Apatow crew, the Christopher Guest crew, the Not Ready for Prime Time Players, Monty Python, a million wonderful and timeless comedy duos -- all great, but none quite on that Marx Brother level.

That sounds hyperbolic, but the statement's size seems appropriate given the comedians we are dealing with. In all honesty, can you imagine anyone matching wits with Groucho Marx? Or a mute performer who can meet the effortless mixture of sweetness and malice displayed by Harpo? How about an actor who is the equal to Chico's unique combination of comic ignorance and charming chicanery? We've seen a lot of

The Brilliant Elasticity of The Marx BrothersEvAN SAATHOFFBadass Digest News Editor


@sam_strange

Marx imitators -- Alan Alda and Bugs Bunny definitely have a Groucho thing going on, and I've always seen a lot of Harpo in Martin Short's CLIFFORD performance (yes, I just referenced Martin Short's CLIFFORD performance) -- but those are just attempts at a type these guys invented and fully embodied.

But perhaps the biggest strength offered by the Marx Brothers is the wide range of comedy styles they were able to mine from their three (sorry Zeppo fans!) very distinct comic personalities. By himself, Groucho is the acerbic wit and the brother most capable of carrying screentime without the rest of his team, as he did for years hosting television's YOU BET YOUR LIFE. Harpo's the destructive clown, amazing to watch for any amount of time so long as there's someone or something for him to mess with or destroy. Chico, however, is much harder to define because he, far more than his brothers, requires directed conversation (even if it's against the mute Harpo) to be effective and reflects a little differently depending on each scene's partner.

But that's also part of Chico's brilliance and key to the Marx Brothers' elasticity as a whole. To varying degrees, they each have unmistakable comic personas. But their characters also have the ability to take on different dimensions when combined in different ways.

When you see Chico and Harpo together, for instance, you get the sense that you are watching two pals with a long shared history. You don't really believe any of the details each film offers to explain their partnership, but the fact that they are always together seems evident. Chico displays a kind of weird but sweet responsibility for Harpo. This is largely because it often falls to him to explain Harpo to others or translate for him. They are both miscreants, so it certainly doesn't mean he keeps Harpo out of trouble, and he shows little interest in protecting the world from Harpo's destructive insanity. Nevertheless, between the two of them, he comes closest to providing direction and focus, poor and misguided as it may be.

As Chico and Harpo enjoy their shared adventures -- stealing works of art, bullying lemonade vendors and kidnapping football players -- we usually find Groucho in a much different situation, subverting the upper class from within, a job for which is he is magnificently suited thanks to his utter disdain for every stuck up affectation he sees. What's fascinating about Groucho, however, and the Marx Brothers as a whole, is the way he often becomes a de facto member of that class in the face of Harpo and Chico's shenanigans.

This is mostly true with Chico, who can speak and therefore offer Groucho more fertile opportunities for comic back and forth. Many of their one-on-one scenes revolve around Groucho's need for Chico's help

or something he possesses. The comic mode is pretty simple: Chico's tenuous grasp on the English language and lack of knowledge in general lead to a ton of hilarious verbal misunderstandings.

Groucho battles these with a parade of witty asides, but make no mistake -- Chico's comic voice transforms Groucho, a notable warrior against convention, into the world's wittiest and most unlikely straight man. Speaking personally, these are my absolute favorite Marx Brothers scenes (save for any scenes involving Chico playing the piano -- but sometimes they overlap!). I can barely breathe while watching stuff like the "Why a Duck" bit from THE COCOANUTS, the "Swordfish" scene from HORSEFEATHERS or the "Sanity Clause" scene from A NIGHT AT THE OPERA.

This is somewhat true of Groucho's interactions with Harpo as well. Despite their shared stance as agents of comic chaos, Groucho finds himself no safer from Harpo's assault on physical comfort zones and personal belongings than any of Margaret Dumont's characters. But while Groucho's interactions with Chico carry with them a crescendo of exasperation, his often quits the fight with Harpo early and just rolls with it. The famous "Mirror Scene" from DUCK SOUP offers a great example of Groucho deciding he'd rather play and have fun than actually investigate Harpo's mischief as a figure of authority.

Of course, all bets are off when the three brothers finally get to come together as a team. This happens a lot but perhaps not as frequently as those unfamiliar with the films might expect. With the three Marx Brothers going all at once, Groucho might still play straight man to Chico or they might end up totally in cahoots. Harpo's objects of abuse can shift from any of the brothers to anyone else in the room and even to the physical room itself. There are precious few rules when it comes to the Marx Brothers, which makes this goofy exploration a sort of fool's errand filled with easily disproved generalizations. But that's just another reason why, almost a hundred years since the release of THE COCOANUTS, no one has yet to match their comic insanity. 6

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PHIL NOBILE JR.Badass Digest Contributor


@philnobilejr

They Did The Mash: A Brief History Of Monster Rally" Pictures

Something peculiar happens -- or more accurately, doesnt happen -- in 1944s HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, the first monster rally from Universal Studios: at no point in the film do the monsters meet up with one another! Filmed under the working title THE DEVILS BROOD, the movies promotional materials promised the first-ever onscreen team-up of Frankensteins Monster, the Wolf Man and Dracula. But HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN not only skimps on delivering the monstrous goods, it fails to give its monsters a single scene together.

Dracula is played here for the first time by John Carradine; theories vary as to why Bela Lugosi didnt reprise the role, but his disastrous turn in FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN, where he was largely replaced by a stuntman, couldnt have helped his relationship with the studio. On top of that, records indicate Lugosi was performing in a touring stage production of ARSENIC AND OLD LACE in Newark when HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN began filming, a rotten bit of timing for the unlucky actor. Bruised ego aside, the role would have hardly been worth the plane trip for Lugosi; the Count is introduced and dispatched before the 30 minute mark, completely segregating him from the Wolf Man (Lon Chaney Jr.) and Frankensteins Monster (Glenn Strange), neither of whom see any real action until the films final 15 minutes. Indeed, the big draws pop in and out of an episodic programmer plot that focuses on a pair of escaped criminals (Boris Karloff and J. Carrol Naish) in search of Dr. Frankensteins research materials for their own nefarious means. At a brisk 70 minutes and with its weird no monster overlap policy in place, its a pretty thin outing, though Universals team of journeymen

creatives ensure that, aesthetically at least, the film is never a chore to experience.

1945s HOUSE OF DRACULA repeats the formula as well as the failings, featuring parallel plots in which Dracula and Larry Talbot (Carradine and Chaney once again) seek cures to their respective curses from a well-meaning scientist. Once again, the monsters are kept out of each others hair, with Frankensteins Monster (Strange) relegated to another cameo at the end, resurrected just long enough for a burning lab to collapse onto him. On the plus side, we get to see a man turn into a vampire onscreen for the first time in a Universal film, sort of the bloodsucker equivalent of the Wolf Mans famous transformation scenes. The Wolf Man gets a memorable moment as well, transforming inside a jail cell in front of astonished onlookers. But it was clear the monsters were losing their power by now. There was no trace of the hypnotic dream world of Tod Brownings DRACULA; none of the expressionist shadows of James Whales FRANKENSTEIN remained. Crowding them all onto one bill and trotting them out with all the nuance of a carnival sideshow only seemed to dilute the monsters further.

In 1948, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello cracked the formula for a successful monster rally: the monsters could share the screen, interact even, as long as the parade came with a built-in excuse to giggle. Embracing the inherent absurdity, ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN turned the horror icons into straight men for the comedic duo, and it worked like gangbusters. In a series of classic scenes, the Universal Monsters (Chaney, Strange and a returning Lugosi) were allowed to keep their dignity, while Abbott and Costello delivered the panicked pratfalls and petrified punchlines. The film, Universals

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second-lowest budget release of 1948, was a huge hit, and it had the odd side effect of sending the two comedians into a tailspin of monster interactions (ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE MUMMY, ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN, ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE).

Bud and Lous onscreen social schedule wasnt the only casualty: the iconic Universal Monsters were now officially kid stuff, to be either lampooned or avoided going forward. In fact, an argument could be made that just about every iteration of the classic monsters from this point on were, in a way, spun out from Abbott and Costellos use and abuse of the horror legends.

Hammer Studios ran screaming from the wreckage. Its lusty and busty offerings drastically reinvented the familiar characters one by one, self-consciously zigging where Universal had zagged. The results were enormously successful, but Hammer always kept its monsters out of each others respective sandboxes, and not just because Christopher Lee was playing most of them. While the British studio swam against the tide of parody, the rest of pop culture got on board with the silly. THE MUNSTERS reimagined the familiar characters as a sitcom family. MAD MONSTER PARTY was a Jack Davis MAD MAGAZINE strip brought to stop-motion life. By the 1970s, the monsters had become both literal and metaphorical comfort food, as kids spent their Saturday mornings eating Count Chocula and Frankenberry cereal while watching either THE GROOVIE GHOULIES, a cartoon which turned Drac, Wolfie and Frank into a Monkees-esque pop band; or THE MONSTER SQUAD, a live-action confection which featured the triumvirate as unlikely crime fighters.

In many ways, 1986s THE MONSTER SQUAD (no relation to the aforementioned TV show) feels like the final word on the subject. Full of affection for its beleaguered monsters and packed with charm to spare, the film is very much the spiritual successor to ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN, upgrading that films protagonists to a group of foul-mouthed, monster-crazy kids who find themselves reluctant heroes when Dracula and his very Universal-influenced crew of creatures descend upon their small town to kick off nothing less than the Apocalypse. Scares and laughs are had, PG-13 rating limits are pushed, and nards are kicked. Bud and Lou would have likely been pleased.

But is the film truly the final word on monster rallies, or just the apex? From THE EVIL DEAD to GHOSTBUSTERS to THE MONSTER SQUAD, the 1980s seems to be the last decade in which the scary and silly were really encouraged to co-exist. (Possible exception: Charles Bands all-dwarf monster rally from 1997, THE CREEPS.) Hollywood keeps trying to reinvent the formula in a climate where genre fans will tolerate no such silliness. But from VAN HELSING to TWILIGHT to BEING HUMAN, the industry keeps proving that delivering a serious monster team-up is no guarantee it will be taken seriously. (That hasnt deterred MONSTER SQUAD producer Rob Cohen from trying -- unsuccessfully, as of this writing -- to get a remake off the ground.) Making these monster mashes fly is a tricky balancing act, and the number of times its legitimately worked onscreen can be counted on one hand. Those few instances are special films indeed. 6


Come landlord fill a flowing bowl until it does run over,Tonight we will all merry be -- tomorrow well get sober.

John Fletcher, Rollo Duke of Normandy, Act II. Sc. 2., circa 1612

The problem has bedeviled hosts since time immemorial: how to best keep the whistles of your guests wet whilst enjoying your own shindig? After a certain age, the college solution of laying out a keg and a handle of this or that along with what mixers you might afford begins to feel a touch inadequate. But wed yourself to mixing cocktails for your guests and you end in the unenviable position of spending the bulk of your night behind the stick, shaking and stirring up the fancies of your friends with little time to mingle and indulge your own thirst (or, worse, continuous nips from your bottles take you too far into intoxication, too fast).

Fortunately, the solution is at least 400 years old, versatile and, with just a little forethought and preparation, simple and delicious. It is found in the flowing bowl, the delights of which spring from the murky history of colonization, take firm root in the savageries of empire and come into their own in the wilds of early America.

It can be safely assumed that as distillation was discovered, someone set to doctoring the resulting spirit with alacrity; it is fairly easy to make liquor (boil some beer or wine and somehow catch the steam and re-condense it), but it is quite difficult to make palatable liquor. There are records of distillation occurring in Europe and parts of Asia and what we now call the Middle East as far back as the 15th Century, and archeological digs at the headwaters of the Indus River in what is now Pakistan revealed stills that date back to the time of Christ. Given that Alexander the Great found sugarcane growing in the same region, and that limes and many spices are native to the area, it is not unlikely that a proto-rum punch was being consumed

somewhere on the Indian subcontinent a couple of thousand years ago.

By the 1600s, accounts of punch drinking turn up regularly in the chronicles of Englishmen out working the colonial beat. Many of them claim that the drink was consumed by the natives (though there are no records written by the colonized that mention any punch drinking prior to the arrival of the English), and there are several accounts that claim that the word Punch itself comes from the Hindi, , pronounced paanch and meaning five. This has some plausibility, as there are frequently (though not always) five ingredients in classic early punches: strong spirits, citrus, sugar, spices and water.

To greatly simplify: somewhere in the process of building an Empire, English sailors took a liking to mixing those five things together, brought it home where it became fashionable and spread it to wherever they carted canon and dropped anchor. By the time of the American colonies, there was already sugarcane and citrus helpfully planted by the Spanish in the Caribbean and a healthy local traffic in rum (and slaves) that made Punch the drink commonly found in the American tavern. Indeed at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, the delegates rather impressive bar tab included seven bowls of alcoholic punch so large that ducks could swim in them. This is not an accident. Many of our early statesmen were vintners, brewers and distillers, but they were also frequently soldiers, and there was a great tradition, lasting until even the Civil War, of American regiments coming up with their own (frequently sneakily deadly, and often secret) punch recipes.

By the middle of the 1800s, the short and snappy cocktail nearly killed off punch. It only survived as a holiday indulgence or as a sickly sweet non-alcoholic drink made with sherbet and 7-up. And, that, really, is a shame. Because taking the time to assemble the

Punch! The Ultimate Team CocktailBILL NORRISAlamo Drafthouse Beverage Director


@wnorris3

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ingredients for a punch and setting out a bowl of the stuff for your friends can well lubricate a gathering, but without the massive alcoholic intake that would occur if you were slamming back Old Fashioneds or Martinis. It is somehow more convivial and, depending on the spirits used, the citrus at hand and the spices employed, various and delicious in flavor. Punch can be made with gin or rum, whiskey or tequila, Mezcal or Cognac. It could be made -- though why bother? -- with Vodka. It can be a simple affair or it can be fancified with cordials, liqueurs, fancy fruits and bubbly wine.

The first step in preparing your punch is to create what practioners of the punchy arts refer to as the oleo saccharum, by removing the peels from your citrus (avoiding the pith) and mixing them in with the quantity of sugar you will be using. Best done a day in advance, the sugar will leach out the aromatic and flavorful oils from the citrus peels, creating a fragrant sugar mixture that forms the base of your punch. Then it is a matter of mixing in the remainder of your ingredients, pouring it all into a bowl along with, when available, a large hunk of ice, and providing cups and a ladle. If preparing a punch from what you have at hand, the Barbadian rhyme, "One of Sour, Two of Sweet, Three of Strong, Four of Weak, is a great starting place. The sour is your citrus, the sweet your sugar, the strong your spirit, and the weak water (or, better, tea). These proportions will rarely steer you wrong.

But, in honor of THE GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, we offer you something more stout. Here is Chatham Artillery Punch, which according to THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE, is so strong that As a vanquisher of men its equal never has been found.

Chatham Artillery Punch12 Lemons2 Cups Light Raw SugarWater750 ml bottle VSOP Cognac (Pierre Ferrand 1840 would be an excellent choice)750 ml bottle bourbon (make it something nice, but save the Pappy Van Winkle for sipping)750 ml bottle Jamaican Style Rum (Hamilton Jamaican Pot Still Black Rum or something aged from Appleton will work here)3 bottles chilled brut champagne (Gruet Blanc de Blanc from New Mexico would be a budget-friendly choice here. Real champagne is always best.)

A day in advance, prepare your oleo saccharum by mixing the peels of your lemons and the sugar. Reserve your peeled lemons for juicing. When ready to serve, juice your lemons until you have one pint of juice. Add that juice to your sugar mixture and stir until all the juice is dissolved. Strain the sweetened juice mixture into an empty 750 ml bottle and top up with water until the bottle is full. Seal and refrigerate until cold.

Fill a 2 gallon punch bowl with finely cracked or crushed ice, pour in your cold, sweetened lemon juice mixture and add the rum, bourbon and Cognac. Top off with three bottles of champagne and stir gently to combine. Serves a multitude.

Enjoy. 6

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THE EXPENDABLES Is Every 11-Year-Old Boys Fantasy Fulfilled

I still remember being around 11 or 12 and hearing a friend express his desire to see Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone in a movie together, to which I replied "It'll never happen!" I may not have known much, but I knew those guys would never join forces for a single film while they were still competing to be the world's biggest action star. But I couldn't deny it would be amazing to see a few of those guys in one movie, either fighting against each other or teaming up against a bigger enemy (this being the early 90s, that enemy would probably be some Eurotrash terrorists). For a long time, it seemed UNIVERSAL SOLDIER would be the best we'd ever get, as it had Jean Claude Van Damme (nearing the peak of his big screen popularity) pitted against Dolph Lundgren (sadly in the twilight of his); a sort of B-movie variant on seeing Arnold take on Sly.

Over the years, similar playground daydreams would be realized -- debates over whether Freddy could take on Jason were settled by Ronny Yu in 2003, and the following year gave us a big-screen ALIEN VS. PREDATOR. Neither film was as good as what we pictured in our heads, but they made for a fine opening night celebration with a theater full of rowdy fans, letting nostalgia trump the more intelligent part of our brains for 90 minutes. However, those were just appetizers for 2010's THE EXPENDABLES, where Stallone (working as director, co-writer and star) did the unthinkable and assembled a dream team of the past 20 years' action heroes, offering a poster that looked like an AFM pipe dream instead of a real movie. Stallone! Statham! Li! Lundgren! Willis! Uh... Rourke! Roberts?

BRIAN COLLINSBadass Digest Contributor


@brianwcollins

OK, so some of the casting selections were a little odd -- in addition to a few out-of-nowhere choices (Randy Couture?), basically anyone who ever worked with Stallone was fair game (Rourke being his GET CARTER co-star; Roberts was a sub-villain in THE SPECIALIST), even if they weren't exactly action icons. Further watering down the experience was the fact that the plot was seemingly half-dictated by availability (Rourke was only on set for two days; more than one character was dropped from the script because Sly couldn't get anyone worthy to fill the role), but, ultimately, who cares? The fact that the movie even exists is enough of a win; just as AVENGERS and FAST FIVE would later prove, there's just something about seeing a group of beloved characters or actors come together for the first time that can stir nerd emotions like no other film can. The narrative suited the inner ten-year-old in all of us: a bunch of badasses (led by Sly, of course) go off to an island to take out a dictator, allowing for both massive shootouts and individual one-on-one fights aplenty, with little more plot complication than we'd bother with if conjuring up the movie with assorted action figures in our backyard (though we'd probably skip Rourke's monologue). Classy cinema it is not, but neither is the average movie starring these guys in their prime -- is EXPENDABLES really that much sillier than COBRA or RUNNING MAN?

And regardless, all sins are forgiven roughly 20 minutes into the film, when it comes time for the real draw. Despite its brevity, any self-respecting crowd would thunderously applaud for a scene that proved 11-year-old BC wrong: during a meeting with Bruce Willis' character Church, none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger (also unbilled, and still the governor of California at the time) strolled in for a cameo, allowing these three titans of action cinema (and

chain restaurants) to share the screen for the first time. The scene doesnt amount to much more than the three of them trading a few jabs, and the surprise was sadly spoiled by the trailer, but even though it lacked explosions or gunfire, it was hard to deny how goddamn exciting it was for everyone who grew up watching their movies on VHS. It's a sad irony that my generation worshipped these guys but were too young to see many of their classics on the big screen -- that is, unless their parents were cool (mine were; DIE HARD 2 was in fact the first R-rated film I got to see on the big screen, though they vetoed TOTAL RECALL).

Along the way we got to see some other terrific highlights: the hulking Lundgren engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the smaller (but deadly) Jet Li; Steve Austin and Stallone beating each other to a pulp (with Sly breaking his neck during the filming of the scene), DTV mainstay Gary Daniels in a movie that was playing on thousands of screens... You just couldn't deny the immediate thrill of watching all these guys throwing punches and one-liners in one big summer movie. The first sequel upped the ante, expanding Willis and Schwarzenegger's roles considerably and adding Van Damme, Scott Adkins and even Chuck Norris into the mix. The upcoming third film continues the trend; Willis has dropped out but they've added Harrison Ford and Mel Gibson to fill the void, not to mention Wesley Snipes and Antonio Banderas (Stallone's antagonists from DEMOLITION MAN and ASSASSINS, respectively). The marketing has suggested that this is the last entry of the series, but if it performs well I'm sure Sly can be convinced to rope everyone back for another go-round. After all, until he gets Jackie Chan and Steven Seagal signed on, there are still some adolescent dreams to fulfill. 6

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Growing Up: Richard Linklater On His 12 Year Journey Through BOYHOOD



@devincf

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Starting in 2002 Richard Linklater had an annual tradition. He gathered a film crew, he gathered young actor Ellar Coltrane, his own daughter Lorelei Linklater and actors Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette and for one week a year they shot a movie. They did that for twelve years, and the end result, BOYHOOD, sketches the arc of a life in America at the dawn of the 21st century. Its ambitious and yet very small, its universal and yet incredibly personal. Its a triumph of cinema, and its the Drafthouse Selects film of the month.

We sat down with Linklater to talk about his approach, what the film taught him about the culture and, in the end, what the film taught him about himself.

Q: Watching this movie with a younger crowd I was impressed by how many of their nostalgia buttons you hit. They reacted big to stuff like DRAGONBALL Z and the Game Boy. How much of that was something you were cognizant of in the moment and how much was stuff that you went back in different iterations of the editing to make sure was in the movie? The scene where they wonder whether there will ever be another STAR WARS was particularly funny in the new, current context.

L: The STAR WARS, we shot it at the time. Whatever it was, six years ago. I figured it was interesting either way, that whether or not a STAR WARS emerged, it was in the air. You just have to pick it at the time. I spent a lot of time thinking about stuff like that. The scene where theyre doing the boxing match on the Wii, there was a window when the Wii came out and people were throwing out their arms, getting hurt --

Q: Breaking stuff in their living rooms.

L: Yeah! I thought, this wont last forever. Having lived long enough you see trends, you see things come and go. It would have been interesting either way, if it had ended up being something people did for the rest of the time, it would be like, Oh, thats when it started. But if it was something short-lived, that would be interesting too. It was weird making this period film in the present tense, just kind of guessing. But at the end of the line here Im more amazed that the culture didnt change that much. All of our movement, visually and culturally, was in the realm of technology. Gaming, phones. Not much has changed in the culture. If you really look back at 2002 and squint your eyes, even the cars [have barely changed]. What does that say? Im old enough to have lived through the late 60s and the 70s; if you picked 69-81 [as a 12-year span for a movie] cars are different, music is different. Things change. Maybe Im older and a young person would see it differently, like on

the fashion nuances. I dont see big cultural shifts. I didnt see the emergence of a new artform. I didnt see punk rock or hip hop or a new thing happen. I saw little stuff.

Q: You started this in 2002, making it a document of the post-9/11 era. Was that something on your mind when you started it?

L: Not really. I was already committed when 9/11 happened. It was already in the works. And I didnt want to comment on 9/11 too much. There are a couple of mentions of the war and that, but it was the backdrop. We did start pre-invasion, though, so its post-9/11, pre-Iraq War. I wanted the movie to feel like a remembrance, so I wondered, Is this something a kid would remember? I thought the beginning of a war and horrific footage on TV -- I remember that from my childhood, with the Vietnam War. Thats a backdrop, and a parents politics can play into it, but I didnt want the movie to be political.

Q: When youre casting your lead for the movie you know sort of where you want the story to go, but youre also at the mercy of this kid as he grows up. If Eller had grown up to be a total jock would the movie have changed, or would you have tried to fit him into the artist that Mason becomes in the film?

L: That would have been cool. That would have been a choice. It could have been about a pretty cool jock and his friends. I made that movie, DAZED, and all those guys were kind of jocks. But I knew that the movie was going to go where Eller went to whatever degree. It would incrementally go in that direction. He was an arty kid and I could tell [when he was cast]. His parents were artists, and his tastes were beyond he had older friends, I think. He was seven when we started shooting but his friends were like eleven. We found this video of him from the first year interview and he talked about what bands he listened to and he said System of a Down, Tool and Rage Against the Machine were his favorites. And he dressed like a little rock star. He had cool pants with these holes in him. He looked like a cool 15-year-old [at age 7]. And he had a lot of charisma; kids followed him around. We would go into a scene and the extra kids would come up and put their arm around them and he was like, Hey man, back off, dont touch me. He was the rock star. We were sort of dorking him -- him and Lorelei -- making them more normal. We put a cap on them the first few years so it would feel like they grew into who they really were, starting from here. I didnt depict where they were really starting from, because it was a little outside what I thought was probably the norm.


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Q: How much is your perspective on the whole thing different in year twelve than it was in year one? Not just on the movie but on you, the changes youve gone through in the twelve years.

L: I know. God, its one of the mysteries of life. I feel like the exact same person but Ive got twelve more years under the belt. Ive got two more kids I didnt have then, I got a bunch more films. I got a bunch more life. This thing was such a life project, its been a real wonderful demarcation thing, all along the way. Every year you had to ask yourself these questions, you had to really study the world and see it in a new way. I think we should all take on these life projects that just make you -- whatever the final result is -- pay attention. Thats what I like about the arts, that they make you see the world in a way you might not be attuned to. Every film is so much work the subject matter better be something you find infinitely fascinating. If you can just explain it and be done with it, you shouldnt be making it. Every film Ive done Im really feeling my way through that subject -- what dont I know, what do I want to discover? And usually in the process of making the film I feel I do get to know what I was after. This, with a twelve year commitment, had to be about something inexhaustible. And that was about growing up, parenting, the culture around it, the world changing. I knew that well would never come close to going dry. And it didnt. It didnt. You had to stay so in touch with these people as they changed, and not just the kids but also the adults. You do that as a parent, you do that as a friend, but it was interesting to see that refracted through this one work of art, that youre trying to take Eller and Lorelei and Ethan and Patricia and youre taking whats going on in their lives and Im trying to take what went on in my life at that age and my own role as a parent -- it was an all-encompassing refraction of the world. It was an incredible collaboration not just amongst us but also between our own parents and the unknown future. But thats the life metaphor here -- were all collaborating constantly with a future we think were trying to control, but we only can to a certain degree.

Q: Is that why Mason is a photographer, to allow him to control those moments?.

L: I did like that he ends up an observational, behind the camera guy. Thats closer to who I was, but that came from Eller himself, who had an interest in photography. I would have bet he would have grown up and become a musician. When he was into photography I decided I wanted to see that manifest in Mason in high school.

Q: In the end theyre in the mountains and theyre tripping and he has that understanding that its always right now. Its one of those statements thats profound and simple at the same time. You have a college freshman saying it; you have this moment of understanding, but its coming from the one kind of guy at whom we might roll our eyes. Great, college freshman -- come back to me in twelve more years and well see what you think of life. But youre very much ending on that note specifically -- why that note?

L: I think he earned it. I think Eller himself deserved it. Thats all it is, really, and once you come to that realization I think Eller himself came to that, and people spend their whole lives kind of trying to be in the moment and to find that, whether its through religion or psychedelics, to be aware in the moment. If you can at least acknowledge that as the reality at a young age, youre doing pretty well. So much of your life as a young person has been conditioning you to look to the future, youre being conditioned to be the future productive citizen. The cookie cutter is stamping you out to be that citizen, but its really something else. Its really about your perception of your own moment. Its a funny line and a very real line, and it felt like the absolute last line.

To read the entire interview, visit BadassDigest.com! 6


MEREDITH BORDERSBadass Digest Managing Editor


@xymarla

High Times. Hard Bodies. Soft Rock: The Perfect Ensemble Of WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER

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When David Wain and Michael Showalters WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER was first released, it was critically panned and commercially ignored. The movie made a woeful $7000 its first weekend in theaters after an almost nonexistent marketing campaign by USA Films. But after the films DVD release -- and the advent of Netflix, and the relentlessly rising stars of nearly every lead in the movie, most of whom were unknowns in 2001 -- something special happened. WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER gained the eternally coveted and rarely achieved cult following.

So how did it happen? WET HOT is an enormously funny film, layered with absurdist humor and a surprising darkness that contradicts its few genuinely sweet moments -- mostly due to Showalters Coop, though the angelically lit, solemn love scene between Michael Ian Blacks McKinley and Bradley Coopers Ben also comes to mind. But what WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER delivers better than any other film is the pure equality of its ensemble cast. Each member is as hilarious and crucial and then utterly disregarded as the next. Its like the scene where one moment J.J. (Zak Orth) is giving a line and the next, he just walks off the pier into the water. His parts done, and now its time for him to get out of the scene and let someone else shine. Thats essentially the entire ethos behind WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER.

Janeane Garofalos frenzied phone panic, Paul Rudds petulant cleaning session, Chris Meloni tenderly humping the fridge, Showalters proclamation of love to Marguerite Moreau, that chase scene between Ken Marino and Joe Lo Truglio, Amy Poehlers scarcely contained rage, Molly Shannons trembling vulnerability: I have no hopes of choosing a favorite scene or performance among them. Each weird, wonderful vignette is as valuable to me as my own favorite memories from camp.

This is largely because the filming of WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER was camp. In an oral history the cast and Wain gave to DETAILS magazine for the films tenth anniversary, we learn that the stars spent 28 cold, rainy days bunking together at Honesdale, Pennsylvanias Camp Towanda. Rudd said, We would eat in the chow hall. We slept where the campers slept. Michael Ian Black added,

I don't know what they were fucking thinking, but they contracted the actual people who make food for the camp to make food for us. And, you know, pizza bagels every day when you're 11 years old is a dream. When you're 30, and it's pizza bagels every day, you wanna kill somebody.

The actors -- many of whom, along with Wain, were improv friends in college through a group that later became known as The State -- didnt just eat and sleep together. They partied together. From Poehler: We were being given the chance to take one more shot at summer camp, only we were wiser, better drinkers, and more sexually experienced.

They got in trouble with the actual camp director, Towanas Mitch Reiter, who wasnt prepared for set antics at his family camp. They drank, lots, day in and out, Jim Beam and Jack Daniels and beer from the local Walmart. Rudd said, Everyone stayed up late. Everybody partied. There were no sticks in the mud. Poehler added, There would just be a lot of guitar circles, and people singing outside and getting really wasted. You know, like camp.

And like camp, it all culminated in a big dance where everyone got a chance to make out a little. They hired a DJ, Mr. Blue, who played 80s music as they all enjoyed a rave on the campgrounds. Wain says of the party, As luck would have it, for that moment in time, it stopped raining. It was this magical night, and we all went out on the dock in the pitch black and hung outThere were totally random hookups. You know, like camp.

The camaraderie created by the impossibly rainy conditions, the close quarters and crummy food and random hookups resulted in the single greatest ensemble comedy of our generation. Each viewing reveals new gags, new line deliveries that stand out as genius, new dynamics between the now star-studded cast. And in June, we learned that Netflix -- the very thing thats partially responsible for WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMERs cult status -- is in talks to create a prequel with David Wain and the original cast. Yes, a prequel -- the actors who were already a decade too old to play their parts will now be two decades too old, a sight gag that will probably be twice as funny now. Its enough to make you want to write the good news in your gournal. 6

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GUARDIAN OF THEGALAXY: James Gunn On Making Marvel's Weirdest Movie Yet

With GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, James Gunn -- long a favorite filmmaker of the Drafthouse -- makes the jump from smaller, weirder movies to a bigger, still weird movie. Sure, its a Marvel Comics movie, but GUARDIANS isnt your standard superhero fare -- its about five intergalactic criminals who team up to stop a great evil from destroying the universe. Chris Pratt stars as the human leader of the team, Peter Quill aka Star-Lord, and his group includes Zoe Saldana as the green-skinned assassin Gamora, wrestler Dave Bautista as berserker Drax the Destroyer, Bradley Cooper doing the voice of the weapon-toting Rocket Raccoon and Vin Diesel as Groot, a sentient tree who is Rockets buddy and helper. Its weird, but what else do you expect from the guy behind the body horror of SLITHER and the twisted heroics of SUPER?

Q: What movies were your points of reference when you were developing GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY?

G: THE DIRTY DOZEN. Im just very attracted to guys of an amoral character who find something inside themselves that is good, and thats whats interesting about THE DIRTY DOZEN. I also find characters with shades of grey more interesting than characters who are just black and white, good and bad. I think we have that with the Guardians -- at the end of the day some of the characters are better than others, and some are still a little insane and some are amoral in different ways. They learn to like each other at least. Theres a visual thing with FANTASTIC VOYAGE and FORBIDDEN PLANET. I wanted to bring color back to space. That was the biggest thing -- even before I went in to pitch myself to Marvel I wrote this long document about what the visual look

of GUARDIANS would be, and I went through exactly this mix of old pulp space operas mixed with the grittiness of ALIEN. The workaday aesthetic of that. I wanted to create a movie that was uniquely mine but at the same time pulled in a bunch of the other traditions of space epics and put them together in one film.

Q: When we talk about space epics you can go two ways.

You can be more realistic and worried about how the space travel works or you can be like STAR WARS, where they just show up with a hyperdrive and theres sound in space. Which way do you go here?

G: Its one thousand percent space opera. I love hard science fiction and I think theres something different at the center of those stories. This is much more a fantasy film, and its much more with the characters themselves. In a lot of ways we have more in common with GAME OF THRONES as we do with 2001. Listen, we had a lot of things in there about how space flight works. We had that in there, we had it as part of the visuals, and then as time went on it didnt end up being the most interesting part of the movie. Theres an uphill battle with GUARDIANS to begin with because, unlike THE AVENGERS where you come in knowing the characters, we had to introduce all of our characters. We had to introduce all of the Guardians plus our villains plus [all of the supporting characters].

Q: The modern take with these movies is to make them more grounded. It seems like just about none of this movie takes place on Earth. How much did Marvel push you to keep it way out in deep space?



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G: Marvel didnt push me to do anything, ever. There was a script there when I was onboard and it didnt work for me so I rewrote the whole thing and this is where it ended up. [Marvel Studios President] Kevin Feige just admitted he was scared shitless the whole time I was rewriting, because who knew what I would bring back. But they were happy, and I guess relieved, when they saw we were all on the same basic page as to what this movie should be. There were tons of drafts and tons of work done on the script until the time we started filming, and I would bet we were the most finished script ever on a Marvel movie before we went into production. The five major characters, their story is basically the same from when I wrote that first draft of the script.

Q: You seem to have a growing team of people you like to work with. Your friend Michael Rooker is here as Yondu, and you have your brother Sean standing in for Rocket Racoon and he plays Kraglin, Rookers first mate. Did anyone join your team after making this movie?

G: I will work with Chris Pratt as many times as he lets me. Chris Pratt and I have become complete brothers through this process. Ive never directed a movie where Ive been on set for five months before, so it makes sense, but I dont think Ive ever worked as intimately with a performer as I did with Chris. We have a great relationship and I think we complement each other very well. I can go through six or seven of the biggest laughs in the movie and

I can explain to you how it was a combination of Chris and I coming up with those jokes. Hes the only guy Ive really allowed to improv on set because hes so good at it. And we have the same sense of humor, so I was able to complete his improvs in a way that I dont think is normal.

Q: Weve seen Zoe Saldana playing an assassin before, but Gamora seems much more of a hardcore character for her.

G: For Zoe I think it was about creating a character who was a strong female character -- and I mean actually physically strong, and able to kill. Shes an interesting character, morally. Of all the Guardians she is the most evil in one respect, in that she was raised by Thanos, and she was raised from childhood and has been trained to murder people. Thats what she does. She kills people. At the same time she becomes the moral guidance of the group because shes the first one who wants to get the fuck away from that.

Q: Weve seen Zoe Saldana playing an assassin before, but Gamora seems much more of a hardcore character for her.

G: For Zoe I think it was about creating a character who was a strong female character -- and I mean actually physically strong, and able to kill. Shes an interesting character, morally. Of all the Guardians she is the most evil in one respect, in that she was raised by Thanos, and she was raised from childhood and has been trained to murder people. Thats what she does.


She kills people. At the same time she becomes the moral guidance of the group because shes the first one who wants to get the fuck away from that. Listen, Zoe has a lot of street in her, and so does Gamora. Thats what she brings to that character. Zoes got a lot of street! Shes a feisty character. When I first talked to her on the phone I couldnt believe how fast she talked and how feisty she was, and I knew I needed that energy for the role, but at the same time I was like Oh my god shes going to be such a pain in the ass! And she IS a pain in the ass! Zoe is the only one where I would get into a full-on argument on set about stuff. Zoe and I are both able to do that in a way where were not angry. Were both so incredibly passionate about what we do and because of that we get on the same page. That feistiness, that heat -- she has a thing where she can turn on a dime and get pissed off, and that is completely part of Gamoras character, who is completely uncomfortable with any emotions whatsoever. Any time she experiences any emotion other than anger she transforms it, through alchemy, into anger.

Q: Tell me about the tone of the film. The initial clips we saw leaned heavily on comedy, especially with the use of the AM radio one hit wonders, but the newer trailers have focused more on action. What is the tone of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY?

G: I think its just a space adventure, which has a lot of elements to it. Theres a hell of a lot of action in it -- theres a crazy amount of action. And theres a hell of a lot of comedy -- the characters are very, very comedic. And theres way more drama in the movie than people are expecting. Its a heartfelt movie on my part, and theres a lot of warmth to it. Its all those things. One of the cool things with a big movie like this is

that you get a bit more freedom to explore more aspects of what you like in cinema and create something entertaining. For me it was trying to do the inverse of what I did with SUPER, which was a movie that had a bunch of tonal differences that were purposefully juxtaposed against each other to give people -- for lack of a better term! -- a creepy feeling. To fuck with somebody, in an interesting way, in a way I get off on. But I knew it was for a very limited audience, and GUARDIANS is that turned inside-out. It has different tones, and it plays with all those tones, but it moves smoothly from one to the next to create the most fun and moving movie possible. Theres none of the weird cinematic stuff that was in SUPER.

Q: Your previous films have that sensibility that can be niche and edgy. When youre making a PG-13 blockbuster are you hyper-aware of where the boundaries are, or is it easy to fit your sensibility into it?

G: Youll tell me when you see the movie. Who the fuck knows? The movie is still edgy; theres still dark comedy. But when I tell a story I think about who Im telling that story to, and this is a story thats being told to many more people than SUPER is. To my mind SUPER really worked in the way I wanted it to work. SLITHER worked pretty well, and though I love SLITHER as a movie, it was the first time I directed a film. I think I was kind of learning what that language was, and who I was speaking to. I think GUARDIANS is a James Gunn film. People who know my work will see me in there. There was a real effort on my part to not push people away when making the movie. I love David Lynch films, but I didnt want this to be a David Lynch film. And there were times when you could make a turn just a little too far to the left and it becomes weird. I wanted to be as weird and wonderful and exciting as possible without knocking people off balance. I dont want it to be something people feel freaked out by or weirded out by. I want them to get off on the novelty of it and get off on whats cool about it without it being so odd or weird or out there that they cant relate to the characters. A lot of that comes from the characters themselves. And frankly the music is another big part of it. To have these pop songs in the movie is grounding, because were familiar with them but at the same time theyre strange because theyre not normally seen against the backdrop of a dead planet with an evil temple! 6

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Zoe Saldana: Bringing The Streets To Outer Space In GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXYDEvIN FARACIBadass Digest Editor in Chief


@devincf


Zoe Saldanas first credited role was a small part in a 1999 episode of LAW & ORDER. Fifteen years later she rules the world of geek blockbusters, being a part of the ongoing AVATAR saga (films two through four start shooting next year), the rebooted STAR TREK series and now, with GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If she can get a part in any of the upcoming STAR WARS movies her dominance will be complete.

In GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY she plays a character very, very unlike her previous roles. Gamora is a cold-blooded assassin, a green-skinned warrior who was raised from childhood simply to murder. When talking to director James Gunn for this issue (see the interview on page 38) he revealed the secret to why he cast Saldana: she seemed like a big pain in the ass. So I had to ask her about that.

Q: I was talking to James Gunn and he told me about the first time he talked to you on the phone and he thought, from that conversation, that you would be a big pain in the ass. He said that he wanted exactly that energy for Gamora. Can you talk about your working relationship with James?

S: My working relationship with James is actually really great. Hes tough, hes very determined, hes very passionate, he knows what he wants. That gives you, as an actor, a sense of security you sometimes dont find in other filmmakers. Sometimes its good to have a platform from which you can jump, and James provides that without making you feel limited, by giving you the room to add things. Its funny -- when I got off the phone with James, I didnt think he was going to be a pain in the ass but I certainly thought he was going to be someone who would fight for what he believes. Thats the way I like to work and the way I like to live my life. I like to be around people who are very passionate. People that wont fight but that will be very over-protective and outspoken about their opinion, their point of view, their ideas. Thats who James Gunn is and thats who I am too. Our debates were sometimes intense, but they were always with so much love because in the end of the day it was never personal. It was always for the sake of trying to do a better job for Gamora, for the movie, for the moment.

Q: He said there was a similarity you have with Gamora -- that you both have a lot of street in you. Can you talk about how you see this character?

S: If I ask you to play a badass for me youre going to bring whatever your backgrounds idea of a badass is. Im from Queens, New York, I partially grew up in

the Caribbean, theres a little urban in me! I kind of thought I wanted to make her fighting very stealth, I always thought she was a fencer because the sword was her weapon of choice. Shes very primal, she chooses to fight with her hands and with knives as opposed to rapid weapons that dont give you any physical contact. She has to have a level of street in her to make all these choices shes made in her life.

Q: We talk a lot these days about women in film and strong female characters. Do you consider Gamora to be a strong character beyond her physical strength?

S: I think her strength comes from wanting to protect herself, from keeping her guard up. She was very abused, she was taken from her planet, she was forced into a life of violence and treachery and at the end of the day that wouldnt have been the route she would have taken had she had the right to choose. Theres a vulnerability about Gamora that makes her strong, in my eyes. She has a sense of justice because shes seen so many wrong things being done to creatures all around the galaxy and on her own planet and she just wants it over. Shes willing to die to not have to fight anymore. I saw that as a vulnerability that made her very fragile to me.

Q: What is the role Gamora has on this team?

S: Shes sort of the one who has common sense. Rocket comes off to her like this mad scientist, like hes just out of his mind. Quill is a thief, so therefore he cannot be trusted -- hes a liar and a womanizer. Drax is a man with a lot of baggage! I think she questions his level of intelligence. Then she has Groot, and I think Groot is the only creature where she goes, Youre all right. You get it. Shes with these guys and theyre all stuck in their own minds and feeling sorry for themselves and being selfish and shes going, Dont think about yourselves, think about what youre doing to others. Shes the voice of reason.

Q: You occupy an interesting space in the nerd world, in that youre now involved in three major geek franchises. You have AVATAR, you have STAR TREK and now youre in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What is it about these scifi movies that attracts you?

S: A compilation of things. I get to work with amazing filmmakers who are visionaries. They give themselves the right to imagine the unimaginable. Im the kind of person that, even if I wasnt in this business, and I was at a BBQ and someone like James Cameron and Steven Spielberg and JJ Abrams was at that BBQ -- and they werent filmmakers -- wed still end up talking. Id be in that group. Id gravitate towards

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those people more -- theyre such interesting creatures to me! You find a way to work with people you have more in common with. I like being in space because there are better parts for women in space. I dont have to subject myself to just being the love interest or playing a character that doesnt feel relevant to the story or playing a woman that doesnt feel like an actual depiction of a real woman. When I read films in space and Im working with these kinds of filmmakers theres a neutral sense to the way they develop characters. It makes me feel very significant, very relevant and very excited.

Q: The franchise model requires you to sign on for multiple pictures, and youre on multiple series with multiple picture commitments. Is it hard for you to look at these commitments and realize at some point you may have to turn down an interesting smaller role because youre locked into AVATAR 3 years in advance?

S: I hope not. If there is a great role I hope theyll wait until I finish AVATAR 3! I like the opportunity being a part of these films has provided for my career in other genres. The notoriety that Ive gotten by being part of these films that are liked by so many people around the world allows me, on the off-time from these films, to do great characters or to be part of great projects that are small but just as special. Im able to also keep working with great filmmakers and actors and crew people. 6

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