booze in the movies

booze in the movies on Elsewhere by Graham Reid - browse 21 items of content tagged as 'booze in the movies'.

THE HALLOWEEN HORROR SERIES ON DVD: You can't keep a bad man down

Let's get these killers and their thrillers matched up right: the murderous baddy in Nightmare on Elm Street was Freddy; in Friday 13th it was Jason; the guy with the buzzing blades in Texas Chainsaw Massacre was Leatherface, and in Halloween it was ... Yes, when it comes to evil-doers the name "Michael Myers" hardly creates a...

film/2461/the-halloween-horror-series-on-dvd-you-cant-keep-a-bad-man-down/

CORNER GAS (Madman DVD): A whole lot of nothing

It is a peculiar thing that Corner Gas -- a wry, understated and very droll Canadian comedy series -- isn't screened on New Zealand television. It has many similarities in its humour to that of Flight of the Conchords, not the least in its gentle wit, the slightly confused and often naive characters, and the similarity between what Canadians...

film/2610/corner-gas-madman-dvd-a-whole-lot-of-nothing/

Flight of the Conchords: I Told You I Was Freaky (SubPop/Rhythmethod)

In retrospect, one of the funniest incidents in the Flight of the Conchords' second television series was when the nice but naive New Zealand prime minister Brian turned up and seemed out of his depth, and desperate to be liked. Who knew that the actual PM John Key would later turn up on Letterman looking alarmingly like Brian? But the...

music/2634/flight-of-the-conchords-i-told-you-i-was-freaky-subpop-rhythmethod/

THE HAUNTING PAST OF CINEMA: Classics illustrated

For those of us who are pay-per-view civilians, television is a kaleidoscope portal from the present (the Oscars, downtown Baghdad on a bad day) to the past (the History Channel), and sometimes into an imagined future (although heaven forbid it should be as po-faced as Stargate SG-1). The time-shift possibilities can be fun, but they are a...

film/2715/the-haunting-past-of-cinema-classics-illustrated/

THE WILD WOMEN OF WONGO a film by JAMES L. WALCOTT (1958) (Triton DVD)

Everyone is allowed their guilty secrets when it comes to bad movies: I have an unnatural affection for Zardoz (Sean Connery in the future somewhere) and The Long Ships (in which Sidney Poitier seems to swim from somewhere Moorish to the land of the Vikings). These are stupid but fun and allow you plenty of couchtime to add up the continuity...

film/2749/the-wild-women-of-wongo-a-film-by-james-l-walcott-1958-triton-dvd/

MARIJUANA: My life in a happy place; no apologies

As the 21st century dawned there was considerable argument in New Zealand about whether marijuana should be decriminalist, a debate prompted by a Green MP Nandor Tanczos attempting to bring a bill before Parliamant along those lines. People took positions on the far ends of the spectrum. As this happened I went to the editor of the New...

culturalelsewhere/2789/marijuana-my-life-in-a-happy-place-no-apologies/

Victoria Spivey and Lonnie Johnson: Dope Head Blues (1927)

When Lou Reed took a bit of flak for writing about street life (drugs, hookers, transvestites) he just picked the wrong idiom. These topics were common enough in literature and pulp fiction, but new to rock music. Dope songs were certainly common in jazz and the blues -- in fact there has been a long tradition of singing about marijuana, cocaine...

fromthevaults/2792/victoria-spivey-and-lonnie-johnson-dope-head-blues-1927/

GOODBYE AGAIN, a film by ANATOLE LITVAK 1961 (MGM/Shock DVD)

Based on Francoise Sagan's sorrow-filled 1959 novel of failed and tragic love Aimez-vous Brahms?, this adaptation with Ingrid Bergman, Yves Montand and Anthony Perkins won the latter a best actor award at Cannes for his portrayal of the young, spoiled and emotionally needy Philip Van der Besh. Quite why Perkins should have been singled out...

film/2836/goodbye-again-a-film-by-anatole-litvak-1961-mgm-shock-dvd/

IMMODESTY BLAIZE presents BURLESQUE UNDRESSED (EMI DVD)

Well, if you can have an Olympic event on the parallel bars, why not on a vertical bar -- especially when many thousands of people across the world are dedicated to it. So why not pole dancing as demonstation sport at the next Olympics leading to official recognition as sport thereafter? Well, here is why not. Pole dancing is, like, just...

film/2947/immodesty-blaize-presents-burlesque-undressed-emi-dvd/

UNDER THE VOLCANO, a film by JOHN HUSTON, 1984 (Shock DVD)

There are two anecdotes -- both possibly apocryphal -- which I remember about the life of Malcolm Lowry, the British author of the terrifying novel Under the Volcano. The first is that when he was child his father took him to a medical museum and showed him the disgusting and disfigured body parts of those who had died of various venereal...

film/2995/under-the-volcano-a-film-by-john-huston-1984-shock-dvd/

IN THE ELECTRIC MIST, a film by BERTRAND TAVERNIER, 2009 (Madman DVD)

Based on the James Lee Burke novel In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead, this serial killer mystery (with surreal time slips into a world populated by the ghosts of the Civil War) is set in the Cajun bayou swamps of Louisiana which, of themselves, add an air of uneasy stillness and mystery. As detective Dave Robicheaux, Tommy Lee Jones...

film/2997/in-the-electric-mist-a-film-by-bertrand-tavernier-2009-madman-dvd/

THE WIGAN CASINO, a doco by TONY PALMER (Voiceprint/Southbound DVD)

In the advance publicity for his feature film Cemetery Junction (set in the Seventies and written/directed with Stephen Merchant), Ricky Gervais was quick to point out that in the mid Seventies not everyone dressed like glam-rock David Bowie and Marc Bolan, and that for most people in Britain life just went on at the same grim pace: work in the...

film/3166/the-wigan-casino-a-doco-by-tony-palmer-voiceprint-southbound-dvd/

SCENES FROM A REVOLUTION by MARK HARRIS: He not busy being born is busy dying.

That film is a collaborative art is accepted, but it can also be a war of attrition where inflated egos collide at the interface of culture and commerce. And in Hollywood where the stakes -- money, careers, egos -- are bigger, and can disproportionately rise or fall dramatically with any project, then the stories from behind the scenes can be...

writingelsewhere/3279/scenes-from-a-revolution-by-mark-harris-he-not-busy-being-born-is-busy-dying/

PRIVILEGE, a film by PETER WATKINS, 1967 (Universal DVD)

Set in a dystopian future where the British government and state authorities (as well as organised religion) exercise complete and often subtle social control over citizens, this remarkable film by Peter Watkins came just as Beatlemania was ending but seems to use an extension of it as its starting point. Nominally it could be called a...

film/3407/privilege-a-film-by-peter-watkins-1967-universal-dvd/

CORNER GAS; SEASON THREE (Madman DVD)

Does Canada make the most consistently interesting but largely unseen television programmes? Possibly: any country which can give the world The Beachcombers (filmed in quaint Gibsons and sold to 50 countries in the Seventies) and also the very droll Corner Gas (sold to considerably fewer) gets my vote as a nation which has found its points...

film/3455/corner-gas-season-three-madman-dvd/

Roy Budd: Get Carter soundtrack (Silva Screen/Southbound)

The classic Brit-film Get Carter of '71 -- Michael Caine in a career-defining role as a London gangster out for revenge in grim Newcastle -- could have come with a period soundtrack, but Bowie and T.Rex would have sounded pretty silly in this bleak context. But, as with the first adaptation of In Cold Blood, it sounded so much better with...

jazz/3523/roy-budd-get-carter-soundtrack-silva-screen-southbound/

Various Artists: The Insatiable Moon (Ode)

Soundtrack albums of songs -- as opposed to a commissioned score -- should be perhaps reviewed in the absence of having seen the movie. That way you find if they hang together as a stand alone item. Not having seen this much acclaimed film about marginalised people in an urban society (the mad, unfortunate, deluded and different) means these...

music/3729/various-artists-the-insatiable-moon-ode/

I WANT SOMEONE TO EAT CHEESE WITH, a film by JEFF GARLIN (Ovation/Southbound DVD)

If Seinfeld introduced the idea of a television show about nothing in particular, then the series Curb Your Enthusiasm -- written by and starring Seinfeld producer/writer Larry David -- elevated it to an art form. Although some of Curb Your Enthusiasm had a long arc of storylines, much of each episode was taken up with what seemed like not much...

film/3795/i-want-someone-to-eat-cheese-with-a-film-by-jeff-garlin-ovation-southbound-dvd/

Various Artists: Screen Freak (Chrome Dreams/Triton)

Elsewhere has previously posted the Late Night Tales album of movie themes At the Movies, but the segues between the pieces was jarring and the album -- mostly of snippets from movie themes -- didn't make much sense. Purist therefore will prefer this one, 39 distinctive themes or signature pieces from classic horror and thriller films (and...

music/3926/various-artists-screen-freak-chrome-dreams-triton/

WHEN YOU'RE STRANGE; A FILM ABOUT THE DOORS, a doco by TOM DICILLO (Madman DVD)

Two things strike you immediately about this much vaunted and Grammy award-winning doco: That Jim Morrison was a man of brooding good looks except when he smiled and then he looked just plain goofy (and there is a lot of him smiling and laughing in the early footage here); and that the script which Johnny Depp reads in a tired monotone seems to...

film/4211/when-youre-strange-a-film-about-the-doors-a-doco-by-tom-dicillo-madman-dvd/

Ennio Morricone: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966)

The relationship between some movie directors and composers is so close that it is hard to imagine certain films without their soundtracks: Hitchcock had Bernard Herrmann's gripping scores for Psycho and North by Northwest and others; Werner Herzog with the German avant-rock band Popul Vuh providing the eerie music to Aguirre, Wrath of God and...

essentialelsewhere/830/ennio-morricone-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-1966/

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