Smile Politely. Speak Directly. A Champaign-Urbana Culture Blog

The Dark Knight descended on the box office this past weekend breaking records by amassing more than $155 million and doing more than its fair share to reinvigorate a decidedly mediocre offering of summer movies. Director Christopher Nolan created a more than worthy sequel to Batman Begins, continuing the saga of Batman, the reluctant tragic hero. Evil never looked so glamorous in large part due to a hauntingly beautiful Chicago, luminescent and eerie, ably appropriating the crime besieged Gotham City.

Watching Wanted a few weeks ago, I was amused and surprised to see a bar I have passed every day on the train during my summer in Chicago featured prominently. I chuckled aloud in the theater, only to see heads turn my way, the faces expressing their disdain for someone so easily excited by familiar sights on the big screen. I realized that people from Chicago must see stuff they recognize all the time in films and that it was totally not cool of me to think anything of it.

I can't help it, though: I'm from Champaign-Urbana, which somehow ranks below Peoria and Decatur on the "Illinois towns people recognize" rankings. On the rare occasion we get mentioned in a film, we throw parties, like the birthday party for the HAL 9000 that kicked off Ebertfest ten years ago. So here I present a list, albeit a short one, of films that make me go, "Hey! I'm from there!"

The history of female comedic duos is a mighty short list: Ethel and Lucy, Laverne and Shirley, and now, one for the 21st century, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Reared in the school of belly laughs — Chicago’s famed Second City — the Saturday Night Live players (Fey as alum), put forth their first offering on the big screen as a team.

The film, Baby Mama, unspools under the stars tonight on the Quad as part of the Summer Quad Cinema Series hosted by the Illini Union Board.

If you didn’t read Where the Wild Things Are as a kid, then you are probably either a.) too cool to read, or b.) illiterate. Next you’ll tell me that you missed out on Dr. Seuss, as well.

However, those who are not yet acquainted with the story of Max and his band of mythical beasts need not fear; Maurice Sendak’s childhood classic is making the jump to the big screen in 2009. I, for one, don’t know whether I should jump for joy or sneer in disgust. It’s definitely a well imagined story, but is Where the Wild Things Are destined to join the leagues of other books that never should have been made into movies?

Friday brings us the release of Pixar’s Wall-E, and what better way to celebrate than a top five countdown? In the short history of computer-generated imagery, there have been some great feature length films, and it’s only fitting that we pay homage to the best of the best.

So here you have it, ladies and gents: my top five CGI films of all time.

5.) Kung Fu Panda (Dreamworks, 2008)

In what may be a terribly premature inclusion, I’m tipping my hat to Jack Black and the creators of Kung Fu Panda. When posters and previews for this movie first started springing up, I was ready to christen it this year’s Napoleon Dynamite. However, after giving in to the buzz and heading to theaters to see the flick myself, I won’t hesitate to spread the word: Kung Fu Panda is the real deal.

What amazes me about M. Night Shyamalan is he seems to have friends. How else would he get such talented actors like John Leguizamo, Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel in one film? They certainly can’t be signing on because of the integrity of the project. And I don’t believe Shyamalan has enough money to coerce them into ruining their careers in one foul swoop. Maybe outside of his whiney press releases, where the writer/director/producer complains how Disney dumped him and explains away the bad reviews for his films as a failure to realize the “scope of his visions,” he redeems his name by throwing good parties. He probably spends hours telling his guests hilariously improbably stories, leaving his guests rolling, and in turn, mistakenly giving him the idea that these ridiculous premises could make good movies. If that’s the case, please, someone, direct Mr. Shyamalan into making comedies.

Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t seen Sex and the City or do not want to know what happens, stop reading now.

As a devoted fan of Sex and the City, I eagerly awaited the release of a feature length film. I have seen every episode more than once and my friends and I felt a certain affinity to Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte. And even though we are middle class thirty-somethings and are more Payless than Prada, there is still a common bond between us.

What though, could we possibly have in common with a group of moneyed Manhattanites?

Therein lies the secret of Sex and the City.

By now most of us have seen the film Juno at least once. It’s now out on DVD — and you can even find a pretty decent online version of the movie. So many people loved this movie, and if they didn’t love it most people thought it was at least quirky and witty. Seriously, in my humble opinion, Juno sucked. It’s really difficult for me to organize my gripes about this movie with much coherency, but it’s worth a try.

I don’t want to say that Sex and the City: The Movie is only for faithful viewers of the HBO series, but I will say the uninitiated probably won’t “get” the film.

The movie thoughtfully begins with the clueless viewer in mind with a short montage of names, faces and their relationship status. This is a nice moment for those of us who have seen all the episodes to reminisce on why we loved these girls so much. There’s the centerpiece, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) who’s a sex columnist and author of three books; Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) manages an art gallery and lives with her adopted baby girl and her husband; Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) is a lawyer with a hubby and kid in Brooklyn; and Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall) is a publicist for her boyfriend model/actor in L.A. Thankfully, the entire original cast remains, as does the snappy dialogue, the twisting dramas and the form of the characters.

Lucky for Lee Marvin fans and thanks to films such as No Country for Old Men, along with movies such as The Proposition, and television shows such as Deadwood, the Western is currently undergoing something of a mini-renaissance.

Like any genre, the Western remains malleable and ubiquitous enough to reflect contemporary themes and concerns, while the elements remain the same; unshaven men baking in the desert sun, looking to kill one another for various motivations of revenge and/or justice.

However bad circumstances become in the poverty-stricken, war torn landscapes of developing countries, it's important to remember that conditions are often much worse for the girls and women of these societies. The oppression and impoverishment of half the world’s population is rarely addressed in the media, but it’s real and all the more insidious for its ubiquity.

Tonight, the Krannert Art Museum, will host a private screening of A Powerful Noise, a documentary following the lives of three women from disparate countries dealing positively with issues of oppression and poverty in their cultures.

It’s the return of the world’s best buttered popcorn! That’s right — grab your car keys, it’s drive-in season once again in Gibson City, and that means the scent of summer is on the wind. About a forty minute drive away from Champaign and well worth the trip, the Harvest Moon is a twin drive-in movie theater on the outskirts of Gibson City on Route 47 South. In a time when over 80 percent of the nation’s movie-going public have only faceless multiplexes to house their films, the drive-in is not only a dwindling rarity in America, but a necessary novelty. Those who have never experienced a drive-in movie are cheating themselves from a wealth of memories.

According to Dwight from TV’s The Office, rules are what separate humans from animals. In 1925, a new book of rules was enforced upon professional football, and the sport was changed forever. The gridiron was tamed, groomed, and all the fun was lost in the complicated intricacies of right and wrong. Leatherheads, George Clooney’s new film about the sport’s wakeup to the cold bath of regimentation, proves that rules are for idiots like Dwight.

I’m going to be honest. Going in to see this film, I was blissfully unaware of what the title Stop-Loss meant. I thought perhaps it was a strangely-worded political statement on the filmmaker’s position on the Iraq war. “Stop the loss” of our soldiers. “Stop the loss” of life. Looking back on it, the title can take on that connotation if you take away its proper definition. The term “stop-loss” is actually a military term that means a soldier has been called back into active duty after he or she has been scheduled to end their term in the service. This issue is the basis of the film, directed by Kimberly Peirce, and brings the injustice of this policy to light. It's enough to make the film worthwhile and it may just also serve as an anti-recruiting measure for our army.

Long before the Coen brothers garnered Oscars for their own pseudo-western masterpiece, screenwriter/director John Huston crafted the definitive tale of greed giving birth to violence amidst the barren landscapes of the southwest. That No Country for Old Men took place in Texas, and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is famous for it’s brilliant evocation of Mexico, makes little difference.

Each movie posits the wide-open austerity of all that sand, all that sun, and all those cacti as a sort of stand-in for Dante’s multi-tiered hell.

If you missed the release of Cloverfield at the local cineplex, you have another chance tonight and Thursday at the Virginia Theater. And wouldn't you know it, the lead actor, Michael Stahl-David, and I both went to Lincoln Park High School and graduated the same year. Even better, we were in the drama program together. But you don't see me landing a major motion picture role, do you?

Yes, Michael made it as an actor in New York, and this past weekend, I ran into my old friend at SxSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas. Even though everyone wants a piece of him, he ever-so-lovingly answered some questions for me and my not-so-glamorous job here at Smile Politely. I didn't even have to go through his publicist.

In a past life, you were...: a chimney sweep.

Most ridiculous job you had to take on in order to pay the bills: I was a bike taxi driver in Times Square.

The execution of a vision is the thing that breaks or makes a film. The more vast and imaginative the vision, the harder it is to see realized. But in the case of director Todd Haynes’s latest film, I’m Not There, a courageous vision was well worth the effort thanks to an amazing cast, a well-plotted set of vignettes, and a figure worthy of such an ambitious picture.

Sink into the seats at Virginia Theatre to take in what is arguably the greatest movie of all time. This Saturday, the historical downtown theater unspools the film Citizen Kane, the American Film Institute’s number one on the big screen.

Snow, freezing rain, mud, soggy boots, bitter temperatures and gray skies: Welcome to winter in Champaign–Urbana.

It’s true that this year we’ve enjoyed some uncharacteristic meteorological reprieves. (And with the mercury expected to hit the mid-40s on Christmas day, we probably have a few more in store.) But when the wind chill sweeps off the prairie at 15 degrees it’s officially time to consider protective measures. Short of hibernating, lying on the couch under a blanket with a large stack of DVDs is your best bet. If you have some good entertainment options (and a lackey to bring you your flicks), you may not have to leave the house until spring.

Read on for some DVD winter winners, guaranteed to keep your mind away from the ice age brewing outside your windows.

The pleasure of movie-watching as a sport is uncovering undiscovered treasures far away from the new releases section of your local video store. This task usually isn't too difficult with foreign films as many gems from other cultures don't even show up on our radar screens in the United States (which is really too bad because it's our loss). This is particularly true for popular Indian cinema, affectionately referred to as "Bollywood" movies (as in, Bombay+Hollywood). Even if you have Indian friends, Bollywood movie recommendations are hard to come by as some people seem surprisingly embarrassed by their love for this genre. High-brow conversations about Indian cinema usually center around Mira Nair's latest project or the classic films of Satyajit Ray. When That's Rentertainment's "employee picks" rack offered up a 1995 Bollywood film I'd never heard of, I eagerly rented it out of curiosity. The movie was called Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, loosely translated as "The Braveheart Will Take the Bride", and I was rewarded with one of the most unapologetically satisfying movie-watching experiences of my life.

When I first saw Gary Hustwit's new documentary Helvetica at American Institute of Graphic Arts' Intent/Content Conference in Nashville, I was skeptical. As a graphic designer, I had an opinion about the subject. I wondered how an 80-minute documentary about a typeface that I've been trying to avoid since the 1980s could at all be interesting. Was I surprised. Hustwit is such a good filmmaker that he can make watching water boil fascinating. But in this film, he didn't have to do too much because the people he chose to interview were so passionate about the topic that they poured their heart out for his camera. What Hustwit ended up with was more than a film about a font. Helvetica is the best film about the graphic design profession ever made (not that there have been that many, or even one).

Helvetica is a Swiss typeface that was developed in 1957 and became, arguably, the most used typeface in the world.