SNL: The 70s / Day 28

Saturday Night Live: The Seventies

"Not now, Koch."

Tonight is not a Saturday night, but it feels a lot like one. The beginning of a long weekend, an extended holiday. A night to get together, and throw something light and humorous on in the background (preferably with a few musical moments tossed in).

It’s heartening to think of a time - a few short years, really - when, as I imagine, on Saturday nights you and your friends would plan things around a great show that you knew everyone else was watching. Nowaday, with more and more entertainment on demand, there are few programs broadcast (outside of sporting events, and who even watches those anymore?) that draw a significant audience at the same time.

For that reason, and a bunch of others, SNL was something special in the Seventies (but also pretty great in the 80s, 90s, and some of the 21st century).

Slacker / Day 14

Slacker

Austin. 1990. 'nuff said.

The Birdcage / Day 4

The Birdcage

"Dios mio!"


Miami. The Nineties. The sun is shining, the colors vibrant, and everyone is fabulous. Will they let a visit from Ohio's Republican senator rain on their parade?


The Birdcage offers social commentary while not taking itself too seriously. It also offers some hardcore hilarity. Great screenplay + amazing cast = laughing your tuchus off. Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, and Hank Azaria (doing his Hispanic gay man accent that Simpsons fans will recognize) really let it loose, with Gene Hackman playing the straight man (big pun intended).  


Mike Nichols directed the film. His life's work makes a solid case for the importance of good direction in making comedies, an element that's sometimes overlooked.

Chinatown / Day 3

Last night my friend spent a lot of time telling me how important water is. I’m still not totally convinced, but today's film goes a long way in showing the crazy things people do for it.


Chinatown





























 Los Angeles. 1937. Bodies are showing up in the reservoirs, dead people are buying land in the San Fernando Valley, and fathers are having daughters with their daughters. LA is a twisted place, for sure: just ask Roman Polanksi, who directed Chinatown. Apparently he's had some wild nights there.


Chinatown is a ‘film noir,’ like my last pick, The Third Man. For a long time I wasn’t sure what made a movie a ‘film noir,' but now I think I understand. These are movies where guys go in way over their heads, get roughed up a bunch, and by the end start seriously questioning their decision-making abilities. By this definition, Eyes Wide Shut and Dumb and Dumber are also film noirs.


The movie is also sort of based on an episode of LA history, in which a few very well connected men made a killing off the city’s expansion. So that's pretty cool.

The Third Man / Day 2

The Third Man

Vienna. 1945. The war's just ended, and Vienna is occupied. Holly Martins shows up and starts asking everybody why his best friend is dead. They tell him that he needs to cool his sh*t, but since he writes westerns and mysteries, he's not about to stop. "So this is like Bored to Death, right?" Yeah, except, more Orson Welles and Czecho-slovakian broads.

Rockers / Day 1

You people might've heard a lotta smack talk lately about Netflix, but I still love it. They gave me 30 days of free streaming. 30! Thats 720 hours. free. Before this turns into a Netflix ad, though -- I have 15 days left on this free month of streaming. Every day I'll post a movie that you can watch on Netflix. Todays film is...

Rockers

Jamaica. 1977. Rockers is like the reggae version of 'Blues Brothers.' A man on a Mission from Jah to get what's his. To bring culture to the people.

Rockers is also about starting your own business. Horsemouth, a freelance drummer with a ton of street cred and clout but not much money, needs to up his cashflow. What better way to do it than start hustlin records on the street? But, "the big boy control the record business." Horsemouth is determined to bring down The Industry while delivering the choicest records to the people, like a one-man Internet. He raises the start-up capital, buys a motorcycle so he can distribute the music, and brings the heat. But when Babylon takes back, Horsemouth and his zaney friends set out to get theirs.

Needless to say, the soundtrack rules.