Documentaries About Two Very Different Women

I saw two documentaries recently. The topics of the films were two women born about the same time, lived in Los Angeles at the same time and were charged with very serious crimes. Both films played at the 2011 San Francisco International Film Festival.

Crime After Crime; directed by Yoav Potash; documentary; (2011) - Official Website
Tabloid; directed by Errol Morris; documentary; (2010) - Official Website

I saw Crime After Crime at the Roxie and Tabloid at the Landmark Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley.

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Crime After Crime was directed by Yoav Potash who I last saw in Food Stamped (2010) at the 2011 San Francisco Independent Film Festival. Potash directed and starred in the documentary with his wife as they attempted to live one week on the equivalent food budget of people on food stamps. The seriousness of the subject was lightened by Shira Potash's breezy manner and Yoav's begrudging tolerance for his wife's project.

In Crime After Crime, Potash directs a completely different kind of documentary. Crime After Crime recounts the story of Deborah Peagler who was incarcerated for Murder One or Murder in the First Degree. Peagler's plight is infuriating and disheartening. Peagler was the victim of domestic abuse from her husband Oliver. Not content with beating his wife, he forced her into prostitution and molested their daughter. All these mitigating factors were not allowed to be presented at trial as a matter of California statutes.

After the police released Oliver despite his possessing assault weapons and threatening to kill Peagler and her family, Peagler's mother contacted some neighborhood Crips gang members. Peagler was African American and lived in South Central Los Angeles. The elder Peagler convinced gang members that Oliver was bad news for everyone and a wife beater/child molester to boot. She convinced Deborah Peagler to lure Oliver to a park at night where two Crips would beat the crap out of him. Instead, they strangled him to death. Peagler received a modest life insurance policy as a result of Oliver's death. The prosecution would use this as proof that the crime was a murder for profit scheme. Peagler accepted 25 years to life in exchange for the DA not seeking the death penalty.

In 2002, at which point Peagler had been imprisoned for 19 years, California passed a law allowing for evidence of battered spouse syndrome to be retroactively presented to the courts. The courts are compelled to take the evidence into consideration of sentencing and proper punishment. Peagler was assigned pro bono attorneys who figured if spousal abuse evidence was presented at trial, Peagler was at most guilty of manslaughter and subject to a maximum term of 6 years.

Joshua Safran and Nadia Costa were land use and permitting attorneys who had no idea what they signed up for when they took Peagler's case. They uncovered prosecutorial misconduct, an apathetic court system, an ambitious District Attorney and penal system designed to keep convicted murderers in prison. I can't say this was a complete surprise to me but the unwillingness of the parole board, courts and LA County DA office was infuriating indeed. I won't give away all the details but the film takes the viewer on a long & wild ride as Safran & Costa try to free Deborah Peagler.

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Joyce McKinney grew up in South Carolina but was crowned Miss Wyoming in the 1970s. She moved to Salt Lake City where she met Kirk Anderson. This is where Errol Morris' Tabloid begins. The photogenic McKinney instantly fell for Anderson despite his size (one commentator in the film estimated he weighed 300 pounds). Anderson refused to participate in the film and photos of him are scarce throughout the documentary.

McKinney says that Anderson disappeared one day and she did what any red blooded, American girl would do. She set out to find him. Really? Why didn't she call the cops? A lot of obvious questions are never asked or answered in Tabloid. The blonde haired, light skinned McKinney moved to Los Angeles (around the time Peagler was meeting her husband in a different part of the city). Using monies of an undisclosed origin, she hired a pilot and bodyguard to fly to England with her and her friend Keith May. McKinney had discovered Anderson was performing his Mormon mission in England.

The pilot, who was quite readily recalled his attraction for McKinney even 40 years later, and the bodyguard dropped out of the scheme quickly. McKinney & May followed through. I'll summarize the events from McKinney and Anderson's testimony.

McKinney says she freed Anderson from a cult, drove to a cottage outside of London where she attempted to deprogram Anderson. Her main form of therapy was sexual as she attempted to become intimate with Anderson but his impotence was a barrier. Fortunately, McKinney had read that in cases where men had their sexuality repressed, it helped to bind the men so that would feel helpless and thus not feel as though they are reciprocating the sexual activity. McKinney bound Anderson and they had blissful sex for several days.

Anderson says that McKinney and May kidnapped him at gunpoint and drove to the cottage. He was bound in the spreadeagle position and subsequently raped by McKinney for several days.

Regardless of which version you believe, McKinney & May were arrested for kidnapping in what became known in the British tabloids as the "Mormon Sex in Chains Case." For a period in the late 1970s, McKinney was a the biggest tabloid figure in England.

Again, I won't give away more details because there are a lot of twists and turns in the case. McKinney gives an extended interview throughout the film and I thought she came across as decidedly loony and self-deluded.

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Both films were extremely entertaining and highly recommended by me.

2011 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

I saw three programs at the 2011 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. I had tickets to four programs but missed Bobby Fischer Against the World because I was invited to a San Francisco Giants game.

Eichmann's End: Love, Betrayal, Death; documentary with reenactments; German, Spanish and Hebrew with subtitles; (2010)
The Juggler starring Kirk Douglas & Milly Vitale; directed by Edward Dmytryk; (1953)
Jews in Toons; one episode each from The Simpsons, Family Guy and South Park

I saw all films at the Castro Theater.

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Eichmann's End was absolutely horrible. You would think the capture of Adolph Eichmann is a story you couldn't mess up. I was unaware that Eichmann's son was dating a concentration camp survivor's daughter in Argentina and that the teenage girl helped to positively identify Eichmann who was living under an alias. I was unaware that certain agents of the West German government conspired with Israeli operatives to capture (kidnap?) Eichmann and try him Israel for fear that former Nazis in the German Dept of Justice would conspire to lightly punish Eichmann. This is the story Eichmann's End is trying to document. However, quick edits, clumsy reenactments and clumsy talking head interviews made following the story an effort which I ultimately gave up on. Eichmann's End is a poorly made documentary which could (and should) have benefited from a better direction and editing.

The Juggler stars Kirk Douglas as a German Jew Holocaust survivor recently expatriated (along with thousands of others) to Israel in the early 1950s. Suffering severe psychological problems from his time in a Nazi concentration camp, Hans Müller (Douglas) escapes from the refugee camp he has been placed in (which looks suspiciously like a POW camp from some WWII movie). Outside the camp, Müller attacks a police officer and flees to the Israeli countryside. He falls in with Josh (Joey Walsh), a teenage boy. Frankly, their relationship is kind of creepy. First, Müller is using the boy as cover and as a guide to help him elude the police. Second, it just seems strange that a 40something year old man would roam the countryside with a 13 year old boy he just met.

Eventually, Müller & Josh wind up in a minefield. Josh is injured and receives medical treatment in a kibbutz where they encounter Milly Vitale who certainly knew how to fill out a pair of hiking shorts. Apparently not yet liking girls, Josh continues to be fascinated by Müller and the art of juggling. Müller wants Ya'El (Vitale) to lead him out of the kibbutz which leads them dangerously close to the Jordanian (or was it Syrian?) border. Drawn largely by Ya'El (who is sending obvious signs of attraction), but somewhat by Josh, Müller changes his mind and returns to the kittutz.

All throughout the film, the tough but fair-minded Israeli police inspector is closing in on Müller who has taken a liking to life on the kibbutz. After folk dancing and "bonding" with Ya'El, Müller agrees to perform for the kids in the kibbutz hospital despite his better judgment to flee. Bad choice as the police arrive while Müller, dressed as a clown, is performing. He barricades himself but Ya'El talks him into surrendering where undoubtedly he will receive compassionate psychological treatment from the Israeli penal system and eventually be released so he can reunite with the carbine packing Jewish mama.

The Juggler is a bit silly by today's standards but the film is more interesting as the collaboration between director Edward Dmytryk who "named names" during the HUAC hearings and Douglas who, seven years late, insisted blacklisted Dalton Trumbo receive screenwriting credits for Spartacus. Dmytryk's testimony helped to put Trumbo on the blakclist.

Beyond that interesting intersection of 1950s cinema and politics, The Juggler was part of a general pro-Israeli attitude coming out of Hollywood in the 1950s which was best captured in Exodus (screenplay by Trumbo).

I can't say The Juggler is a great or even good film. I can think of a dozen other Kirk Douglas films I'd recommend before The Juggler. I can't recall Douglas playing a Jew in another film. Festival Director Peter Stein (or whoever introduced the film) said Douglas stated this film kicked of a religious reawakening in him. Douglas didn't so much begin practicing his faith again (eventually he would) but he was more at ease with his Jewish background and youth than before.

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Jews in Toons consisted of the three television episode (without commercials) and followed by remarks from Mike Reiss, a longtime writer from The Simpsons. The program drew a healthy crowd at the Castro - younger and more numerous than Eichmann and The Juggler. Let me digress by saying, the SFJFF draws the most mature crowd of the festivals I have attended the past several years. There are a lot of middle aged and older Jewish ladies in the audience.

Reiss' remarks quickly segued into a stand-up routine with periodic clips from episodes of The Simpsons. I left while he was still talking as I wanted to get home early that evening.

The Simpsons' entry in Jews in Toons was titled "Like Father, Like Clown. Twenty years ago, I read that the Krusty the Clown character was loosely based on David Letterman. I recalled that tidbit when Letterman admitted he had sex with several female members of his staff. As I have watched The Simpsons for the past 20+ years, I look for Letterman in Krusty. To be honest, I'm not sure.

However, I have noticed that Krusty is Jewish. Krusty (real name Herschel Krustofski) will occasionally mutter Yiddish when under stress. I also had the benefit of seeing "Like Father, Like Clown several times on television. In that episode Krusty reunites with his father, the Rabbi Hyman Krustofski (voiced by Jackie Mason). Parodying The Jazz Singer, the Rabbi wanted his son to follow in his footsteps but young Herschel had clowning in his blood from an early age. When he discovers Herschel clowning against his direct orders, the Rabbi disowns his son.

Twenty five years later, Krusty is depressed and feels ennui. Bart and Lisa try to convince Rabbi Krustofski to reconcile with his son and hi-jinks ensue. This episode won an Emmy or maybe Jackie Mason won the Emmy. Regardless, this episode was the least anti-Semitic of the three in Jews in Toons. In the hyperbolized world of animated television comedies, the more anti-Semitic, the more hilarious. "Like Father, Like Clown was also made in 1991 which is so long ago and perhaps television boundaries had not been pushed so far as to allow the more outrageous antics which followed.

When You Wish Upon A Weinstein is a 2003 episode of Family Guy. Made in 2000 during the show's original run on Fox, the episode was not aired until 2003 when the show was on the Cartoon Network. The broadcast history tells a the story. Nine years after "Like Father, Like Clown, Fox (which also airs The Simpsons) was concerned that the show's anti-Semitic humor was offensive. It took another three years and a different network to run the episode.

Was the episode anti-Semitic? I didn't think so and non-practicing goys with blogs are the best arbiters of what is and what is not anti-Semitic. Max Weinstein's car breaks down and he asks to use the Griffin's phone. Back in 2000, everyone didn't have cell phones? Anyway, the Griffins are having some financial problems due to Peter's stupidity. Peter's benighted prejudice leads him to latch on to Weinstein as his financial advisor because Jews are good with money. It didn't really required a high-powered Jew lawyer to get Peter's money back but in grand Family Guy tradition, Peter is convinced that the salvation to all his financial problems is to have a Jewish financial advisor. When Weinstein departs, Peter decides his son Chris will convert to Judaism and the Griffin family fortunes will be guaranteed.

However, the Rabbi (was that Ben Stein's voice?) refuses Chris' conversion because he hasn't performed the requisite tasks. So Peter takes Chris to Vegas for a quickie Bar Mitzvah. WASPy Lois (isn't her mother Jewish?) frantically drives to Vegas to interrupt the ceremony in a parody of The Graduate.

Most of the anti-Semitism in this episode comes from Peter's ignorance which is the source of much of the humor and offensiveness of Family Guy. I had not seen this episode before so it was extra treat.

The final part of Jews in Toons was a notorious episode of South Park called The Passion Of The Jew. In this 2004 episode, Cartman is giving Kyle a hard time about being a Jew which is nothing unusual for the series. However, Cartman's usual anti-Semiticism is amped up with knowledge gained from repeated viewings of The Passion of the Christ.

Cartman dares Kyle to see the film so he can learn the truth. Surprisingly, Kyle empathizes with the Christian viewpoint and begins to urge his synagogue's congregants to apologize for the Crucifixion. Meanwhile, Stan and Kenny also see the film. Their reaction is equally intense; they hated it and decide to go to Malibu to get a ticket refund personally from Mel Gibson. The Mel Gibson they encounter is a raving lunatic with masochistic tendencies. I wonder why Mel Gibson didn't sue. Of course, Tom Cruise didn't sue over another episode which openly questioned his sexuality.

Cartman begins a Passion fan club which quickly takes on the trappings and accouterments of the Third Reich. Cartman begins to speak in German and talks of "the cleansing." It's all over the top and silly, depending on one's taste or distaste. The audience at the Castro ate it up.

There was one moment that I found fascinating. Kyle's congregation marches down to the movie theater to protest The Passion. While there, they encounter Cartman's mob. There is exchange that goes like this:

Rabbi - "This film is anti-Semitic. It's made one of our young Jewish boys want to apologize for the Crucifixion."
Adult in Cartman's Mob - "Well maybe you should."

This was followed by a pause on screen and a moment of dead silence in the Castro theater. The pause was pure genius. It appeared to be there for comic effect but instead it brought an awkward moment that made me wonder if the suggestion wasn't valid.

Of the three shows, I watch South Park the least so I wasn't some of the humor wasn't lost due to my relative lack of familiarity . I noticed Kenny didn't die for example. The humor in South Park has never quite been to my liking but I'm glad I finally saw The Passion Of The Jew.

Jews in Toons was my favorite program of the three I saw the 2011 SFJFF.

Monte Hellman at the Roxie

The Roxie screened cult director Monte Hellman's latest film in July. They programmed a retrospective along with it. The Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael played the same films (with the exception of Cockfighter) that week. Hellman was in town to Q&A after some of the screening although I didn't go to any where Hellman was also in attendance.

The adjective "cult director" is frequently associated with Hellman. His most famous film, Two-Lane Blacktop was a flop at the box office but cited by Quentin Tarantino as one of his favorites. For a period in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Hellman was at the vanguard of film directors whose style and aestheticism came to symoblize the best of American cinema of the period. That is to say, Hellman is firmly linked to his era if for not other reason his output has been meager in the subsequent decades.

I saw five Hellman films at the Roxie.

Ride in the Whirlwind starring Jack Nicholson & Millie Perkins; with Harry Dean Stanton; (1965)
The Shooting starring Jack Nicholson, Warren Oates & Millie Perkins; (1968)
Two-Lane Blacktop starring Warren Oates, James Taylor, Laurie Bird & Dennis Wilson; (1971)
Cockfighter starring Warren Oates, Richard B. Shull & Harry Dean Stanton; with Ed Begley Jr., Laurie Bird & Troy Donahue; (1974)
Road to Nowhere starring Shannyn Sossamon & Tygh Runyan; (2010) - Official Website

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I wasn't too impressed with Hellman's latest venture. The premise of Road to Nowhere is that a director is making a film about a political scandal where the central character disappeared. The non-actress cast as the missing woman may or may not indeed be the missing person. The director begins a relationship with her and his technical advisor becomes obsessed with the possibility of her actually being the missing woman. There was some interesting film-within-a-film moments and the director had a penchant for watching classic films including The Lady Eve with Henry Fonda & Barbara Stanwyck and Bergman's The Seventh Seal. However, the plot was confusing and muddled and the climax was underwhelming. Perhaps the same can be said of the other films in this series but for some reason, I allow more leeway with films from the 1970s.

My favorite film of the series was Cockfighter where Warren Oates plays Frank Mansfield, a "cockfighting trainer" or in other words, he fights and gambles on gamecocks or roosters. To guard against his own hubris, Mansfield has self-imposed a vow of silence until he wins a cockfighting championship. I can't even recall if there is voice over narration with Oates.

It doesn't matter because Cockfighter immerses the audience in the world of cockfighting including the actual matches (there are some graphic scenes which leads me to believe the cockfights were real), the cockfighting circuit, the trainers and gamblers and the rivalries. At the center is Mansfield is completely obsessed with the support to the point he won't marry his long-time, on-again/off-again lover who gives him an ultimatum - gamecocks or her. Given his singular pursuit, the film has a gritty and existential tone which suited me well - an elegy written in chicken blood.

Two-Lane Blacktop is Hellman's most well known film. It's similar to Cockfighter in that it introduces the audience to a lifestyle or subculture that they not likely familiar with. Also, the principal characters (Oates, James Taylor and Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys) are completely immersed in their underground and illicit pursuits. Two-Lane Blacktop focuses on street racing with Taylor as the unnamed driver, Wilson as his unnamed mechanic and Oates, billed as GTO after the car he drives throughout the film.

Two-Lane Blacktop is more palatable than Cockfighter because of its content and because Oates is allowed to speak at length. Interestingly, Taylor and Wilson have few lines throughout the film. Oates, on the other hand, is continually talking about himself although the specifics continually change. By the end of the film, he has put himself in the role of the Driver & Mechanic who have been his rivals throughout the film. Part road film and part love triangle or even quadrangle, Two-Lane Blacktop has a more elegant tone but equally elegiac quality as Cockfighter. Hellman goes so far to end the film with the image one the screen looking as though it is a 35mm print being burned in the projector.

By the way, Ride in the Whirlwind, The Shooting, Two-Lane Blacktop and Cockfighter were Hellman's complete feature film output for a nine year period beginning in 1965.

Ride in the Whirlwind and The Shooting were shot back-to-back in Utah. Jack Nicholson appeared in both and has screenwriting credits in The Shooting which I preferred of the two. Both film are referred to as "acid Westerns" and were evocative of Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man. In Ride in the Whirlwind, the main character are fleeing a lynch mob. In The Shooting, the characters are chasing an unseen prey. The interactions amongst the characters were more interesting in The Shooting but ultimately both film employed minimalist techniques and adhered to the bleak existentialism which Hellman perfected in Two-Lane Blacktop and Cockfighter.

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Largely satisfied with the four films Hellman released between 1965 and 1974, I wondered why Road to Nowhere fell flat for me. Did Hellman's skills or discerning eye as a director waste away in the 37 years since Cockfighter? I doubt it. Apart from the times and mood changing since the Nixon administration, I think Hellman's milieu has to be more down market. Scruffy looking characters from the Old West, drag racers and cockfighters are how Hellman made his name.

Trapped not only by his reputation but by the quality of those four films, Hellman appears out of place in the hills of modern day Los Angeles, on location during a film shoot or filming an attractive couple cuddling while watching classic films on a flat screen TV. Monte Hellman doesn't make "inside baseball" films, does he? Maybe without the Hellman imprimatur, Road to Nowhere could have been judged more objectively and even enjoyed. From what I've seen, I like my Hellman films with more grit and less glamour.

TV Noir

From July 18 to 20, the Roxie presented TV Noir. The films were introduced by Johnny Legend. Legend is a compatriot of Elliot Lavine and mentioned the three day series was a preview of a longer series he and Lavine were planning for September. Legend has quite a pedigree that probably merits a documentary about him. Legend has been an rockabilly singer, actor, pro wrestling promoter, porn producer and now television archivist.

Each night, they screened a double feature which were generically named Program 1 and 2. I was able to catch both programs on July 18 and 19. I skipped July 20 to see The Last Waltz at the Red Vic which I have recounted. Each program consisted of television shows from the 1950s and early 1960s. Many of them screened with the original commercials.

I can't recall all the programs but a few highlights were:

Johnny screened the premiere episode of Medic, a show which ran from 1954 to 1956 and starred Richard Boone as a doctor. In this episode, Boone's patient was a pregnant woman (Beverly Garland) who is diagnosed with late stage cancer (leukemia I believe). Boone must keep the woman alive long enough for her to deliver her child. Dispensing with the melodrama, the episode tells the story with cold and sober delivery. Boone's voiceover narration recites the facts - "patient admitted on March 20 in her 28th week of pregnancy; white blood cell count is 35,000." Boone's character keeps a detached professionalism when dealing with the woman and her husband (Lee Marvin). Any doubt about the doctor's passion is put to rest during the 5 to 10 minute finale. Set in the operating room, the doctor struggles to save the woman. When she dies, he delivers the baby who appears stillborn. Boone won't give up as he tries every method to save the child before ultimately being successful. If that episode was any indication, Medic was a very intense 30 minutes drama.

In a 1960 episode of The Dupont Show, Harpo Marx appears as Benson, a deaf mute who witnesses a murder. Spotted by the killers but unable to communicate what he has witnessed (he's also illiterate), Benson has to hide as the killers come looking for him. At age 72, this was billed as Marx's final performance although I can find later credits for him on IMDB.

Treasury Men in Action ran from 1950 to 1955 on ABC. The title says it all and the 1955 episode with Charles Bronson was just as subtle. Bronson plays a wife beating, gun toting, heroin smuggling, jail breaking, clipped syllable speaking tough guy. Similar to Medic, I liked the way the show stripped away everything but the facts to give a detached view of the story; although according to the prologue, the T-Man story was taken from actual case files.

Bronson had a supporting role in a Dan Duryea episode of Suspicion, an anthology series produced by Alfred Hitchcock which ran from 1957 to 1959. How many times did Dan Duryea play the brains of an outfit that planned a heist? In this one, Duryea is planning a bank job. Duryea infuses his character with a lot of depth and the ambiguous nature of who fired the fatal shot at the end elevated this episode above the crowd of anthology series from the period.

In an 1950 episode of Suspense (1949-1954), a struggling actor (Leslie Nielsen with dark hair!) overhears a conversation to kill a bigshot Hollywood agent (George Reeves) and has to overcome numerous obstacles in his attempt to save the day. Shot live (with a few goofs visible), the episode had that early television look and spirit. As Johnny Legend mentioned, in the early days, Suspense wasn't called a television show but rather a teleplay. Shooting live probably gave the actors and crew an adrenaline rush but give the visible mistakes, its not surprising that television evolved to filmed or tape-delayed programming. Saturday Night Live, one of the few current series I watch on television, is a notable exception.

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I don't know how a one or two week series of TV Noir will work out. There were several segments that left me less than impressed & I dozed off a few times. I find myself dozing off more during films. If a film isn't keeping my attention, I tend to drift off to sleep. It's become my new litmus test as to whether a film met the base criteria of being worthwhile.

Even the best segments were 30 minutes or less so it was impossible to flesh out the plots and characters. Whereas a good film feels like having a nice meal, the best TV Noir segments felt lilke I just had a tasty appetizer and left me wanting more.

The Fate of Old Theaters and Young Magicians

I stopped by the Balboa last week to show my support. Two audience members were chatting before the show and I disagreed with their statements.

One said that the Balboa was closing at the end of the summer. He qualified the statement with a "probably" or a "most likely." I'm not sure I agree with that. I also overheard two of the staff talking with each other. One was asking the other how long she had worked at the Balboa. I couldn't hear her answer but his response was something like "you're an old-timer." The woman looked about 20 years old to me. He went on to say that his impression was that half the staff was new and half were "old-timers." The girl responded that was "only until recently." Presumably Gary Meyer's leaving or the lead up to his announcement precipitated some changes.

Anyway, getting back to the likelihood of the Balboa closing, I wonder how likely that is. It is certainly possible but given the closure of the Red Vic, I wonder if it is likely. I've noticed the Balboa Theater's newsletters have been publicizing films shown by "their good friends at the Vogue" for several months. I thought it odd that the Balboa would mention another theater in their newsletter as they were in dire need of business.

After Meyer announced is upcoming departure, I read that the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation (who operate and own the Vogue) were interested in the Balboa. Undoubtedly, they have been in discussions for months. Unlike the Red Vic, the Balboa is housed in this old and large building constructed for movie exhibition. I'm not sure how attractive it would be to other business. I'm not sure if the City would grant permits for other use. The building the Red Vic was in is owned by members of the Red Vic collective & the theater was behind on its rent so there is a certain sense that the owners of the Red Vic had exhausted all avenues as well as themselves.

Gary Meyer only subleases the space the Balboa is in. In some circles, if a theater is having a hard time economically, it must be because the lease is too damn high (to paraphrase Jimmy McMillan). Something tells me that if the Balboa tries to go out of business, there will be a "grassroots" uprising against the idea.

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The man who mentioned the upcoming closure of the Balboa was speaking to another man. The second man had read the article about the reasons Meyer is leaving and opined that "less than 10% of theaters can handle digital" so the deadline to convert would have to be postponed. I found this statement to be ludicrous. Every screen at the largest metroplexes nearest me have been converted to digital - the Century Daly City, the AMC 1000, the AMC Metreon, the Century San Francisco Center, etc. I later found supporting data to show more than 50% of the screens in the US have been converted as of earlier this year.

What does this all mean? I don't know. The Balboa won't be allowed to fail and without $200,000 for a new digital projection system, they will be "reduced" to showing 35 mm rep house prints? That would suit me fine but I doubt that will happen or if it does, it won't last for long.

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I did go to the Balboa to see a movie. The film was:

Make Believe; directed by J. Clay Tweel; documentary; (2010) - Official Website

Make Believe is a documentary which follows six teenagers as they compete for the title of Teen World Champion at the World Magic Seminar in Las
Vegas. The six teenagers include

Hiroki Hara, a quiet Japanese boy from a remote village in Japan

Bill Koch, a roly poly 19 year old from Chicago who is a skilled musician as well

Derek McKee, a 14 year old from Colorado who may take his preparations lightly

Krystyn Lambert, a blonde high school senior from Malibu whose pedigree and wholesome good looks make her odds on favorite

Siphiwe Fangase & Nkumbuzo Nkonyana, two South African boys with enthusiasm and pleasant demeanors

The film follows these six contestants as they prepare for competition and then provides backstage looks at them during the competition. Some of the contestants were more interesting than other. Siphiwe Fangase & Nkumbuzo Nkonyana lived in shanties Cry, the Beloved Country which made their upbeat dispositions even more surprising. However, the two most compelling contestants were Hara & Lambert.

Lambert has the attractive looks of a stereotypical California girl, appeared to be an driven over-achiever (she was her high school class president; two years running I believe) and was the anointed one. She had been performing since a young age, appeared on television specials and the prestigious Magic Castle and was mentored (managed?) by Gay Blackstone, a pioneering female magician. Leading up to the competition, it felt more like a confirmation of Lambert's supremacy. However, Lambert seemed tightly wound and Blackstone was a piece of work, telling Lambert how she was dismissed by her peers for being a woman. As Blackstone recounts the story to Lambert, she was told she got a gig because she had tits. Blackstone bellows "Damn right I have tits!" Lambert is left with a queasy smile. Blackstone comes off like some Hollywood agent stereotype - cynical, crass, sexist and more than willing to compromise Lambert's integrity (if not for a buck then under the banner of life lessons). I was left wondering who the real Krystyn Lambert is and frankly, I didn't really like the Krystyn Lambert that was being cultivated by Blackstone who implied Lambert need to sexualize or objectify herself to raise her profile. I thought Lambert looked younger than her 17 or 18 years so at times, Lambert's dress and appearance left me uncomfortable.

In one telling scene, Blackstone rushes to congratulate Hara after his performance. Lambert exits from backstage to see the two chatting. She attempts to join the conversation but Blackstone seems to ignore her and Lambert is too shy or upset to interrupt them. Eventually, Lambert returns backstage without saying a word.

The polar opposite of Lambert was Hiroki Hara. Hara grew up in a small town that can't even receive a cell phone signal. He learned magic through slowing videotapes of magic acts and books. Hara dreams of going to the Magic Castle...where Lambert is a member, teaches and performs. It becomes clear to this casual observer that Hara had the most skills and that fact is confirmed by the commentary of many magicians interviewed during the film.

During the competition, Hara nails his acts while Lambert drops a ball and ruining her illusion & later has trouble with one of her props. It was very amateurish looking. Although I didn't feel schadenfreude, I definitely breathed a sigh of relief. I figured Lambert was a shoo-in and since the preliminary voting was performed by the judges, I thought Lambert wouldn't make the finals. Instead, the judges amazingly gave her a pass to the finals where the audience would choose the winner by vote. I was near apoplectic. Who is the Las Vegas audience going to choose - blonde, nubile, Causcasian woman or shy, quiet, skinny Asian guy?

Spoiler Alert!

The audience chose Hara for first place, Koch for second place and two Japanese brothers who weren't featured much in the film took third place. Fangase & Nkonyana won the spirit award or congeniality prize. I felt a tear well up in my eye when Hara won. I think the results couldn't have been better if they had been scripted.

Six months after the competition, Hara had gone on an international tour and was booked at the Magic Castle. He seemed as though he would make magic his career. Lambert was matriculating at UCLA, taught classes at the Magic Castle, seemed much more at ease with herself and appeared as though magic would be a hobby (not even life-long). Both Hara & Lambert seemed better off with the results. Bill Koch is a talented musician (he could play Scott Joplin's Ragtime from memory on the piano) who returned to university on a music scholarship. Derek McKee seemed like a strange boy in need of some more lessons in life. Upon seeing Hara performance, McKee quipped, "When I grow up, I want to be Asian." Beyond his hero worship of Hara, that sentence reveals a myriad of insights into the psyche of Master McKee. The South Africans, frankly, looked as though they would have a tough road ahead of them and that that week in Vegas would be the highlight of their lives.

The Final Film I Watched at the Red Vic

I miscounted the number of punches left on my Red Vic discount card. I thought I had one punch left but I had two. As I mentioned, I wanted to see The Last Waltz with my final punch but the screening was sold out. The Last Waltz was the penultimate film screened at the Red Vic. After it, the Red Vic closed on Thursday, July 21 and then screened Harold and Maude for three consecutive days before permanently shutting down. I've seen Harold and Maude a few times (never on the big screen) and I wouldn't have minded seeing it again but the Roxie was having Monte Hellman series at that time.

My final film at the Red Vic ended up being the 9:20 screening of What's Up Doc? on Wednesday, July 13.

What's Up Doc? starring Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal & Madeline Kahn; directed by Peter Bogdanovich; (1972)

Filmed in San Francisco, the screwball comedy involves four identical valises owned by four very different people who converge at a hotel for various reasons. One bag is owned by Barbra Streisand, a homeless waif doing a Bugs Bunny impersonation throughout the film. The second bag (which is full of rocks) is owned by Ryan O'Neal, a uptight musicologist up for a grant award for his research into ancient man's use of rocks as musical instruments. The third bag, containing jewels, is by a wealthy dowager. The fourth bag contains unspecified government secret.

You can imagine the zany misadventures everyone gets into. The hotel dick (played by a pre-Boss Hogg Sorrell Booke) is after the jewels. A mysterious counter-espionage type is after the secrets. Barbra Streisand is after Ryan O'Neal even though he has an irritating fiancée (Madeline Kahn).

There is little point in recounting the plot further; all that needs to be said is hilarious hijinks ensues. Sometimes that is short-hand for stupidity follows but Peter Bogdanovich pulls it off skillfully. I thoroughly enjoyed the film. O'Neal plays straight man throughout the film to great effect. Streisand acquits herself satisfactorily but is overshadowed by Kahn and others. Supporting actors Kenneth Mars plays a Slav with a smile-inducing, scene-stealing accent and Austin Pendleton's character must have been Michael Myer's inspiration for Austin Powers.

In 1972, Streisand was nearing the peak of popularity and was an honest-to-goodness sex symbol. I always found that a little strange given her vaguely androgynous looks. She wears a cap through parts of the film which gives her the appearance of a 12 year old boy. However when she is scampering around in a bath towel or singing As Time Goes By while laying on top of a piano, her sex appeal come through. Like most comediennes or at least how audiences view most comediennes, Streisand cannot simultaneously be sexy and funny.

Bogdanovich drops a number of references to Golden Age films and caps the film with an elaborate car chase through San Francisco. What's Up Doc? adds to Hollywood's rich tradition of outstanding car chases in San Francisco. Bullitt, Freebie and the Bean, 48 Hours, The Rock, Basic Instinct and Jade are a few that I remember.

I'm disappointed the Red Vic has closed but with What's Up Doc?, I ended on a high note. I wish the members of the collective the best of luck in the future and thank you for the good times I had there.

Super 8

I stopped by the Empire Cinema on West Portal for the first time quite awhile. The last film I can remember seeing there is Downfall, the 2004 German film about the last days in Hitler's bunker. The Empire is a Cinemark/CinéArts theater.

I wanted to see Super 8 on the last day it screened at the Empire.

Super 8 starring Joel Courtney & Elle Fanning; directed by J.J. Abrams; (2011) - Official Website

Super 8 is the fourth general release film I've seen this summer. The others were Bridesmaids, The Hangover Part 2 and Midnight in Paris.

I'm not going to recount the plot since that is easily found on the internet. I liked Super 8 quite a bit. A few highlights:

1) There is a tremendous train crash that must last two or three minutes.

2) The film was like a cross between Stand By Me and E.T.. I thought the film would have been better without the alien subplot. Just throw a MacGuffin in there as to why the US Air Force is imposing martial law. A cheesy, drive-in resolution to the Air Force presence would have been more in keeping with the 1970s setting and the super cheap, Super 8 film within a film. Even better, just ratchet it down. Why even have a space alien? Keep that insane train crash, create some rumor as to the cause and have the kids investigate with camera in tow. The alien and associated CGI threw Super 8 off kilter. Super 8 is basically a coming of age story with a space alien layered on.

3) The Knack's My Sharona!

4) The film within the film is shown in the closing credits. With the Super 8 cameras and the teenage cast, it reminded me of the teenage shot-for-shot remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark which I saw at the 2008 SF Indiefest.

5) Steven Spielberg has a producer credit on Super 8 and Super 8 looks and feels like Spielberg film from the 1980s.

6) Tipped off by multiple sources, I listened for the sound of a film projector during the quiet moments of the film. Not all the quiet moments but on several at the beginning, you can her the rattle of a film projector. That sound is part of the sound effects for the film as most screenings including the one I attended were projected digitally.

7) Elle Fanning is incredibly talented for an 11 or 12 year old actress which was her age during the filming.