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Monday, January 14, 2013

BEST MOVIES & TV: 2012

The Great, The Good, and The Interesting!

P R O M E T H E U S

Shortcut links:
• BEST MOVIES: 2012
• BEST DOCUMENTARIES: 2012
• BEST TV: 2012

Note: This will often spotlight directors for special merit.
But Auteur Theory is a shoebox; films are a collaborative effort with everyone involved.

"And... Action!"

B E S T
M O V I E S :
2 0 1 2

E R O S

✭✭✭✭✭
• PARIAH ⇧
One of the best movies of the year.
Rings true and deep in every moment.

• HYSTERIA
The origin of the Vibrator: a love story.
Spread the good vibes!

• SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED
A special gem.

• Q (a.k.a., 'Desire'; France)
Lust is all you knead.

• CLOUD ATLAS
Love is all you need.

T H I N K

✭✭✭✭✭
• BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD ⇧
One of the best movies of the year.
A surreal allegory of poor survival in the Louisiana swamps, with a touch of magic realism. Startling, fearless, intimate, epic.

• WAR WITCH (Canada)
One of the best movies of the year.
An African girl who was forced into being a child soldier struggles to be free. Viscerally intense both visually and emotionally.

• RED TAILS
Good, with some clumsy moments but many more great ones.
There can never be enough movies about the Tuskegee Airmen.

• THE KID WITH A BIKE (Belgium)
A quiet mystery that takes hold of your heart.

• ON THE ROAD
Pretty darn good translation of the book.
A bop prosody for film.

• ARGO
A true C.I.A. rescue mission using a fake Sci-Fi movie storyboarded by Jack Kirby.
Well, what are you waiting for?

• ARBITRAGE
Do The Rich always get away with murder?

• LINCOLN
A fine companion to A Color Purple and Amistad.
Now if only someone would make "Douglass" and "Tubman".

• ZERO DARK THIRTY
Mixed feelings, honestly, but the climax is undeniably riveting.
The true star is Kathryn Bigelow's direction.

• WHERE DO WE GO NOW?
The women in a Lebanese village use every scheme to stop the dumb-ass men from killing each other over religion.
A bittersweet parable from writer/director/star Nadine Labaki.

The Dark Side of Genius, Dept.
Alfred Hitchcock

(l) Anthony Hopkins; (r) Toby Jones and friend.

See Hitchcock and The Girl, in that order, for a letter-perfect double feature.

• HITCHCOCK ⇧
First see this deviously wry take on the making of Psycho (1960) and its trying toll on Hitch's wife, Alma (Helen Mirren)...

• THE GIRL ⇧
...and then this more tensely dark take on the making of The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1965), and Hitch's unfair toll on Tippi Hedren (Sienna Miller).

S M I L E

• SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED ⇧
Low-key greatness for the ages.
Sharp, tender, tricky.

✭✭✭✭✭
• INTOUCHABLES (France)
Excellent, cocky, touching.
I laughed more at this film than most of the comedies below combined.

• EXTRATERRESTRIAL (a.k.a., 'Extraterrestre'; Spain)
Maybe aliens have invaded, but there's always time for an affair.

• TO ROME WITH LOVE
A good cast, but Woody steals the screen every time.

• 2 DAYS IN NEW YORK
A fine sequel to the great 2 DAYS IN PARIS (2007): hilarious!
Julie Delpy writes, directs, stars in, scores for, and edits it all.

• YOUR SISTER'S SISTER
That ubiquitous Mark Duplass flails in an unlikely triangle with Emily Blunt and her sister.

• THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL
Uneven, but fun and charming. Judi Dench.

• THE GIANT MECHANICAL MAN
The dialogue's a little flat, but it's generally good.

• SEARCHING FOR A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD
Low-key, left-field, softly poignant.

• ROBOT AND FRANK
A smart and genuine comedy, with Frank Langella's best performance.

D R E A M

• SKYFALL ⇧ >>
The darkest, deepest, and most daring Bond ever.

• HAYWIRE
A lo-fi homage to early '70s action films, by Soderbergh.

• UPSIDE DOWN
Once past the syrupy narration intro, there's sweet love and eye candy.

• JOHN CARTER
Truth: This is a fine homage to the novels that spawned all modern Sci-Fi and superheroes; smart folks like Neal Adams, Walt Simonson, and Howard Chaykin loved it; and it made its money back globally.
False: Any comment from snarks ignorant of the seminal novels which created every modern thing they love.> Go get a tardy pass, kid.

• LOOPER
This is a fun B-movie, clever and a little moving.
Reviews trumpeting it over "John Carter" and "Prometheus" are ill-considered.

• CLOUD ATLAS
Irregular parts but I enjoy the sum.

• LIFE OF PI
What's the narrative of your spirit?

• THE HOBBIT: An Unexpected Journey
It's all there and done lovingly fine.

N I G H T M A R E

✭✭✭✭✭
• PROMETHEUS ⇧
There have been enough remakes of Alien.
Instead, Ridley Scott bravely gave us something more visionary with a new direction.

• CABIN IN THE WOODS
A metatext, not just on horror movies,
but -more deeply- audiences.

• THE WOMAN IN THE FIFTH (French/Polish)
Understated, deft, mysterious. Between Hitchcock and Roeg.

• THE POSSESSION
Nothing will ever approach The Exorcist.
But this is pretty solid, with a good cast and a fresh Hebraic angle.

• SOUND OF MY VOICE
Co-writer/producer/star Brit Marling (Another Earth) wins again.

THE COMEBACK KID?, Dept:
Jennifer Lynch

In the early '90s, David Lynch was riding high on the initial success of TWIN PEAKS, while his daughter Jennifer also wrote the excellent tie-in bestseller, "The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer".

When PEAKS was cancelled, David was unofficially blackballed for these last two decades. This kneejerk backlash also derailed Jennifer after her directorial debut, BOXING HELENA (1993).

Jennifer finally came back via Canada with SURVEILLANCE (2008), an intense and underrated thriller with Julia Ormond and Bill Pullman that no one saw.

With no support, she was finally forced to make an exploitation horror film in Bollywood. It was a nightmare that may ultimately turn out for the best.

• HISSS (a.k.a., Nagin The Snake Woman, 2010)
The final edit was taken from her.> (Even the name says 'His'.) And yet it's still pretty good.
A goddess star, inspired eroticism, elegant cinematography, and a sense of humor shine through. Herrrs, baby.

Jennifer then returned to Canada to make a low-key thriller.

• CHAINED (2012)
Dark, claustrophobic, anguished.
As good or better than any other thriller director out there not being routinely blacklisted.

But now a beam may have come through the clouds...

• DESPITE THE GODS (2012)
A documentary about Lynch's horrible trials trying to make "Hisss" in India.
Critically lauded, the film earned uniform sympathy for Lynch and her travails.
> despitethegods.com

Jennifer has a new thriller film with Tim Roth called "A Fall From Grace" in development.

In the meantime, her universally-loved "The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer" has returned to print in a new edition, with intros by PEAKS creators Mark Frost and David Lynch.

".elyts ni kcab emoc ot gniog si
ekil uoy mug tahT"

G R A P H I C
I M A G E S

• THE DARK KNIGHT RISES ⇧
> Four Color Films review
The Harvard of hero films, the highest standard, comes to a majestic close.

• THE AVENGERS
> Four Color Films review
Writer/director Joss Whedon perfectly balances about 74 hot potatoes in this film without breaking a sweat. Miraculous.

• THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
> Four Color Films review
The reboot we all dreaded came out great.
Think of it as the 'Ultimate Spider-Man' equivalent for films.

• CHRONICLE
From smarts and pure verve, this stunning indie gets everything right.

• ALTER EGOS
No-budget indie comedy with some savvy moves.

A R T F L I X

• BRAVE ⇧
This should have been a great film about a warrior princess' journey.
It's still a pretty good one about family.

• THE LORAX
Some inspired invention, a crucial moral.
Strongest when satire, softest when saccharine.

• WRECK-IT RALPH
I like that it made all video games into a mythos, and turned them inside out with respect.
Sarah Silverman, Jane Lynch.

• PARANORMAN
Irreverent, edgier, adolescent. Not perfect, but different.

• HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA
Pinballs between Pixar inspiration and Dreamworks clatter, but still worth the ride.
By Genddy Tartakovsky ("Samurai Jack").

• ZARAFA (France)
A hand-animated film where an African boy travels far in his promise to protect a baby giraffe.
Progressive, satiric, heartfelt, a slyly transgressive marvel.

• A LETTER TO MOMO (Japan)
This hand-animated wonder, about a young girl overcoming loss with the help of mythic goblins, is as hilarious as it is frequently moving. A fine film in every way.

B E S T
D O C U M E N T A R I E S :
2 0 1 2

• WE ARE LEGION ⇧
The rise of Anonymous and hacker activism.
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."

• THIS IS NOT A FILM
A Iranian man in a room with a camera, incarnating the entire war of the creative soul versus the tyrannic state.
This is for real.

• 5 BROKEN CAMERAS
Every time a Palestinian farmer films the abuses against his people by Israeli forces, he is assualted and his cameras destroyed.

• PAYBACK
Does the concept of debt and payback really work toward justice around the world?, asks author Margaret Atwood.

• THE INVISIBLE WAR
The ongoing cover-up of rape in the U.S. military.

• A LIAR'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY
The life of Graham. Chapman, that is, from 'Monty Python's Flying Circus'!

• THE DUST BOWL
Ken Burns' 4-episode overview of the '30s Depression natural disaster.

• SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN
Sometimes quality finally gets its due.

• A BAND CALLED DEATH
Death invented AfroPunk in the mid-'70s, and no one knew it. Now they return.

• COMIC-CON Episode IV: A Fan's Hope
"Turn and face the strange." A doc on the Mothership of genre conventions, by Morgan Spurlock ("Supersize Me").
Creatives are the real culture rebels.
➤ How STAR WARS Is Changing Everything!

B E S T
T V :
2 0 1 2

(The season number follows each title.)

D R A M A

• GAME OF THRONES 2 ⇧
✭✭✭✭✭
The finest, deepest drama on television.

• THE KILLING 2
a) The original Danish first season was 20 episodes, a bit wobbly toward the end before a grand save.
b) The American version wisely split the story across two seasons,
expanded the character depth, ironed out the wobble, and closed with a different fine ending.

• MAD MEN 5
Jessica Paré and 1967 refreshed it.

W O N D E R

• FRINGE 5 ⇧
The show that fought the good fight bows out.

• AWAKE 1
Gone too soon, but good while it lasted.

U K

✭✭✭✭✭
• SHERLOCK 2 ⇧
The best got better.
The opener, "A Scandal in Belgravia", is greatness that increases with each viewing.

• THE BLETCHLEY CIRCLE 1
A quartet of female WWII codebreakers reunites to stop a serial killer. Excellent!

• DOCTOR WHO 7
More focused, less frantic than 6. And a promising new Companion.

• MISFITS 4
There's a new cast. Can it stay fresh and go forward?
I'm feeling Yes and No the whole way.

• THE HOUR 2

• COPPER 1

• RIPPER STREET 1
COPPER is always good, RIPPER is always great.

C O M E D Y

• ELEMENTARY ⇧
I was the loudest grouch about 'America ripping off SHERLOCK'.
And it turned out just fine on its own merits.

© Tym Stevens

Thursday, September 13, 2012

ROCK Sex: JIM STERANKO, Agent of S.T.Y.L.E.! - His Inspirations and His Influence

JIM STERANKO is a powerhouse of graphics innovation whose legacy is continually reflected today.

One of his most iconic works is the cover to Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D #4 (September, 1968).

This has become a classic work of Pop Art. It came from varied inspirations, and continually inspires many tributes.

Today, we look at what had inspired him and what he has inspired.

Chapter quick links:
• INFLUENCES:
Pop Art, James Bond, Movie Posters, Bob Peak
• The AGENT OF SHIELD Cover,
and its disciples
• STERANKO At Marvel
• HIS INFLUENCE
• CAPTAIN AMERICA 2: THE WINTER SOLDIER

- - - - - - - I N F L U E N C E S - - - - - - -

Steranko looked for inspiration in all other media to expand the comics palette.

He was responding to the latest advances made in the arts, film, magazines, and graphics.

_________________________

- - - POP ART - - -

From the fine arts scene he admired Pop Art, Op Art, and collage.

Robert Rauschenberg, "Retroactive I" (1964).

Eduardo Paolozzi.

Bridget Riley, "Britannia" (1961)

Op artist Bridget Riley>.

_________________________

- - - JAMES BOND - - -

One certain influence on his Nick Fury work -and the entire era- is the James Bond films, with their stylish Mod opening titles (Maurice Binder), gargantuan layered sets (Ken Adam), and male power fantasies.

Maurice Binder, GOLDFINGER main titles, 1964.

Maurice Binder, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE main titles, 1967.

_________________________

- - - MOVIE POSTERS - - -

He favored the bold modernist graphics of film posters.

Saul Bass, VERTIGO (1958).
VERTIGO Main Titles, by Saul Bass (1957)

if... (1968)

BARBARELLA (1968)

_________________________

- - - BOB PEAK - - -

All of these influences were also reflected in the magazine and poster art of the celebrated illustrator Bob Peak.

Bob Peak, Modesty Blaise illustration.

Bob Peak, MODESTY BLAISE poster (1966)

Bob Peak, "Save the Mark".

The AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D. Cover
And Its Continuous Influence

Distill this Molotov cocktail, shaken not stirred, and you get a unique Pop Art masterpiece.

See bigger here

_________________________

- - - S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents - - -

Steranko's cover has been homaged many times by artists since.

1 - Dave Johnson (2000) / John Cassaday (2000)
2 - Danny Miki (2005) / Greg Horn (2007)
3 - Adi Granov (2007) / Obama support (2008)
4 - Tomm Coker (2009) / Mariano Laclaustra (2017)

STERANKO at Marvel

The prime visual force that defined Marvel Comics in the 1960s was Jack Kirby. (And Steve Ditko, to less degree, with Spider-Man and Dr. Strange).

But the prime force who redefined Marvel Comics was Jim Steranko. He was Stan Lee and Jack Kirby combined and amplified.

Because his stylistic innovations are too numerous for anything outside of a coffee table book, here are some varied highlights.

More than any other comics artist in the '60s, Steranko thought like a cinematographer and a graphic designer at the same time.

With the smash success of the campy Batman TV series (1966), the media described the show as a visual expression of Pop Art. Both Marvel and DC Comics tried to cash in on this cache, but no one came close to combining the potential of graphic comics with fine arts like Steranko did.

In the '40s, Jack Kirby had created the first double-page spreads with his Captain America comics. Steranko pushed that to new extremes with a modernist design sense.

See bigger here

His ambition was so boundless that he actually had a double-double page spread, opening to a vista of four pages!

See bigger here

_________________________

When Steranko stepped in for two issues of The X-Men, he redesigned their logo while he was at it, creating this iconic masthead.

His cover for a Hulk annual has also been homaged many times by later artists.

_________________________

Steranko is most known for his runs on Nick Fury and then Captain America. Because of him, these characters have become intertwined since the '60s.

During his issues, he created Madame Hydra.

There was a rule at Marvel Comics: "Bucky has died, and he can't come back." Steranko was the first to play with the idea of what if the 1940s sidekick did, in this celebrated hallucinatory sequence with Dali influence (1969). This planted the seed for The Winter Soldier three decades later.

Although he only worked in comics for a couple years, Steranko opened up wide possibilities that every creator has been exploring ever since.

- - - MASTER - - -
The television Westerns of the '50s and '60s were deconstructed in the early '70s by the final Western, an Eastern called Kung Fu (1972-1975), which challenged manifest destiny and colonialist hegemony with the heterogenous outlooks of those marginalized by it, using the hybrid perspective of Kwai Chang Caine. The Nick Fury, Agent Of S.H.I.E.L.D. comic, a product of the '60s spy boom, was likewise radically inverted and reconstructed by its direct heir, Master Of Kung Fu (1974).

The celebrated run of artists -Jim Starlin, Paul Gulacy, Mike Zeck, and Gene Day- used Steranko's techniques of cineramic scope and intense graphic design, while Doug Moench's scripts replaced the gung-ho patriot (or imperialism avatar, depending) with the introspective and spiritually conflicted hero Shang Chi, who called into question the ties of violence, honor, tradition, loyalty, and dogma that bound his soul. At their best, Fury was an honorable soldier while Shang was an ethical philosopher.✱

Paul Gulacy's art synthesized Bob Peak, Hitchcock, and Steranko.

Paul Gulacy (#38, 1976)

Paul Gulacy (#48, 1977)
See bigger here.

Gene Day's art blended Will Eisner and Steranko.

His double-paged spreads were more ambitious and hyper-detailed than anyone, and he had a direct influence on Moore, Bissette, and Totleben's revolutionary revisal of Swamp Thing directly after. (The first Alan Moore issue of ST was illustrated by his similar brother, Dan Day.)

Gene Day (#116, 1982)
See bigger here

Gene Day (#117, 1982)
See bigger here
✭ Gene Day's criminally-overlooked art (MOKF #101-120) was finally reissued and remastered after three decades of legal stasis within the Shang-Chi: Master Of Kung Fu Omnibus, VOlume #4 (2017).

Without this chain of iconoclasts, J.H. Williams III's legendary art for Batwoman would have been impossible.

J.H. Williams III (2009)
See bigger here

J.H. Williams III (2012)
See bigger here

✱

[Nick Fury was further deconstructed and critiqued as The Comedian in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' WATCHMEN (1986).]

- - - S.T.Y.L.E Agents - - -

Will Eisner created the CITIZEN KANE of comics with his series The Spirit (1940-1952). His use of noir lighting, skewed perspective, nuanced dramedy, and dramatic splash pages and much more set the standard for all mature innovations to follow.

In 1976, Steranko's hardboiled graphic novel CHANDLER: RED TIDE refined film noir into full-contrast black and white.

The combination of Eisner and Steranko's works is reflected in Frank Miller's SIN CITY series.

_________________________
- - - RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK - - -
George Lucas called in Steranko for design art for his homage to 1930s movie serials, who then added George's bomber jacket into the mix.

_________________________
- - - OUTLAND - - -
Steranko adapted the SciFi movie OUTLAND (1981), now a cult classic, for Heavy Metal magazine by distilling it into a cutting-edge series of double-page panoramas.

_________________________
- - - THE ESCAPIST - - -
In his early years, Steranko was an escape artist in the mode of Houdini. This inspired Jack Kirby to create this New God for DC Comics.

Jack Kirby (1972)

For his book "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier And Clay", author Michael Chabon combined Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, and Jim Steranko into the protagonist artist and his character, The Escapist. The acclaimed novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001.

- - - CAPTAIN AMERICA 2: THE WINTER SOLDIER - - -

When Captain America (literally) returned from deep freeze in the '60s, his acclimation to the modern world became irrevocably intertwined with Steranko's innovations and amplifications in the Nick Fury and Captain America books.

In the cinematic version of the same return, this is why Steranko is so strongly homaged by the iMax poster and the film's end credit design.

See Also:

▶ Four Color Films, THE Comic Movie Review Site!

• BEST COMICS: 2012

• JOHN BARRY: The Influence Of The JAMES BOND Sound On Pop Music, with 2 Music Players

• 20 Most Badass JAMES BOND Women!

• THE PRISONER: Its Influence On Music, TV, and Comics, with Music Player!

• THE CANON 1: 50 Books That Created Modern Culture, with Music Player
• THE CANON 2: 50 More Books That Created Modern Pop Culture, with Music Player
• THE CANON 3: 50 Recent Books That Created Modern Culture, with Music Player

• The Real History of Rock and Soul!: A Music Player Checklist

Monday, January 14, 2013

BEST MOVIES & TV: 2012

B E S T
M O V I E S :
2 0 1 2

E R O S

T H I N K

S M I L E

D R E A M

N I G H T M A R E

G R A P H I C
I M A G E S

A R T F L I X

B E S T
D O C U M E N T A R I E S :
2 0 1 2

B E S T
T V :
2 0 1 2

D R A M A

W O N D E R

U K

C O M E D Y

Thursday, September 13, 2012

ROCK Sex: JIM STERANKO, Agent of S.T.Y.L.E.! - His Inspirations and His Influence

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Monday, January 14, 2013

BEST MOVIES & TV: 2012

B E S T M O V I E S : 2 0 1 2

E R O S

T H I N K

S M I L E

D R E A M

N I G H T M A R E

G R A P H I C I M A G E S

A R T F L I X

B E S T D O C U M E N T A R I E S : 2 0 1 2

B E S T T V : 2 0 1 2

D R A M A

W O N D E R

U K

C O M E D Y

Thursday, September 13, 2012

ROCK Sex: JIM STERANKO, Agent of S.T.Y.L.E.! - His Inspirations and His Influence

What's all this?

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⚪ s p o t l i g h t

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m o v i e s / t v

⭕ p l a y l i s t s_𝟏

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⭕___h o l i d a y s

b e a t l e s

" - e s q u e"

c a n o n

c o m i c s

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