The Life and Times of a Midwestern Movie Addict

That's not a quote from the movie I am critiquing today, rather it is a line from the Salt n Pepa song called "(I Am) The Body Beautiful"...but I thought it was appropriate as the film I am talking about is called Body Double and it does deal with that question...as well as the question of which body is it?  But first, I must say a few warning words.  This film is considered sleazy, violent, and misogynistic...or at least it was when it was first released in 1984 (the year of my birth).  De Palma, fresh off his critical success yet box-office failure of Blow-Out and his box-office success and critical failing of Dressed to Kill , needed a little time to vent.  People were calling him a misogynist and a sleaze monger after Dressed , even though in hindsight the nudity and violence was more tasteful than exploitative (certainly compared to the Friday the 13th films that were just beginning at the same time), and he was rather upset with being mis-analyzed.  Som...

Today has just been a fabulous day for the start of the quarter.  Schedule wise, it couldn't have been better because we had a two-hour delay which meant shorter periods, and I had a great first day with Speech, but everything else has seemed to go wrong.  When I got here, I fell down on the sidewalk and blew out the knee in my pants (my favorite pair) so I had to go home and change into un-ripped bottoms during second period (my knee only suffered a light scrape).  I arrived back at school with only minutes to spare before 3rd period.  I also had a blow out with my seventh period today when they continually would not pay attention.  I finally just screamed at them and gave them an angry speech (which unfortunately contained the word 'fuck' I'm ashamed to say) and gave up on them.  Hopefully, tomorrow things will be better...but the idea of blow outs in my pants (no dirty jokes thank you) and in my classroom kinda works as a theme to write towards when disc...

Ok, the title isn't fully accurate...but "The Reason I Hate Elevators" sounds much better than "The Reason I'd Prefer to Not Ride Elevators Alone, But I Can Still Do It If I Need To"....titles need to roll off the tongue you see.  So how would De Palma make me dislike elevators?  Well, anyone who's seen Dressed to Kill would clearly know why...but don't let me give the money shot away too early.  There are equal amounts of people on both side of the fence on this film...but it doesn't divide quite as easily as later De Palma work like Raising Cain or Body Double , either because it isn't as sleazy as he's been known to get or its not quite as much of a rip off than other films have been known to be.  Of course, those who do attack it do tend to cry 'rip off' quite a bit, as the plot borrows rather liberally from Psycho (perhaps even moreso than Sisters , but then one wonders where we draw the line on 'ripoff forgiveness'...

Wait, what's that you're saying?  Brian De Palma never remade Vertigo !  That was and always will be Hitchcock's masterpiece!  Well, yes...you're right.  De Palma never remade Vertigo , but he came very close in his followup to his Sisters and The Phantom of the Paradise .  The film was called Obsession , and it closely resembled Hitch's film in both tone and style.  It is a high romance (anyone who tells you that Vertigo isn't a love story is crazy) and also a tale of one man's unhealthy obsession with a love he lost to death (oh, and Bernard Herrmann is back as the composer).  Unlike the former, however, Obsession begins its major thrilling plot much quicker...whereas Vertigo was happy to slowly set up the relationship of Scotty and Madeline before killing her off (and then having her lookalike show up).  In Obsession , Cliff Robertson loses his wife and daughter to kidnappers in the first 10 minutes of the film and then a horrible accident take...

Brian De Palma...I'm not sure there has been a contemporary filmmaker more appreciated and unappreciated by so wide an audience (except for maybe Joel Schumacker).  It may be because De Palma is a well known Hitchcock fan and often homages (steals?) from the master's palate often, or perhaps its is because he is very often cruel to the women in his films (who could forget the elevator murder from Dressed to Kill or the drill murder from Body Double ) and thus labeled a misogynist.  Sure, it doesn't help his case much when he justifies it by saying that women in peril are more interesting than men in peril in thrillers...but is he that wrong (don't call me a pig...I'm just playing devil's advocate for a minute).  However, the man does have a large body of critically acclaimed work behind him and still manages to draw a decent crowd when he opens a new movie...which is never too often.  I consider myself a big fan of De Palma, he filled my Hitchcock void when I ra...

Anyone who thinks that Semester Exam day is easier on the kids than the teachers is....well....partially right.  All I've done today is pass out a test each period, sit at my desk, and grade, grade, grade.  I'm all caught up now on everything the kids were supposed to hand in, and I'm even all set to start planning the quizzes and handouts for next week when we start reading "Night"...however, keeping them quiet and focused is tricky in these longer class periods...and writing the exams themselves is...indescribable.  I don't think I've had a more unpleasant and time consuming task than having to remember EVERYTHING we've gone over and then make a test long enough to last an entire 85 minutes.  The beast ended up being 157 multiple choice questions and 3 short responses...27 pages long...and enough to freak out several students when they felt the weight of the thing.  Oh, and did I mention that I had to re-number the whole thing....twice?  Yeah, that...

So flashback to 1997...that year saw the release of two big 20th Century Fox sequels, Speed 2: Cruise Control and Alien Resurrection , yet another hit for Will Smith, Men in Black , and the sequel to one of the hottest slasher films since the 80s, Scream 2.   And yet, for all the franchise starting and followup fanfare, a little romantic comedy called My Best Friend's Wedding managed to surprise critics and audiences alike with its wit, suspense, and role reversal for star Julia Roberts.  It also jump started the careers of supporting stars Rupert Everett and Cameron Diaz and featured a classic sing-a-long in a seafood restaurant that remains as one of the most memorable scenes from a contemporary comedy. There's a lot to like about My Best Friend's Wedding , starting with its lead player...Julia Roberts.  Roberts at this point in her career was very well known for playing bubbly, likeable leads who smiled big and managed a few good one-liners as they worked their way...

I know I know, I haven't written since Monday.  But I have a good excuse!  Its tech week/final rehearsal week for the high school variety show (of which I am in charge) and with rehearsals, teaching, and preparing for exam week I've just been swamped and haven't felt like writing when I got home (or in the case of last night, I didn't have time when I got home).  But while the blogging world has been whizzing past me at breakneck speed, Brooksfest 2010 has still been going on and thus it must be given its due. However, before we get into that I'd like to point out (even though none of you can come) that my variety show is tonight.  I'm very excited about it and the kids are too.  Its been a real joy working with them and last night, it finally looked like a real show.  I really think that everyone who comes to see it will be greatly impressed (except maybe those who didn't get in this year, I'm apparently still on several enemies lists for that one).  ...

Boy, today just kept on going.  Actually, that's not accurate.  The school day seemed to zoom by, and I got more work done on my semester exam (I'm nearly up to 150 questions) while giving the kids time to work on homework and scenes.  I also put up the posters for the Variety Show today, which opens on Thursday night.  I can't wait, as I think its really going to entertain those who come to see it.  Also, the posters look amazing thanks to Bond.  I hope he charges me more for them when I have him do the senior class play and the musical, because I really would love to pay him what he's worth....especially since I'd be paying him with school money since they're for a school function.  Oh, and rehearsal went well today too.  Finally got the emcees worked into the rhythm and got the curtain working.  Should be smooth sailing tomorrow and Wednesday. Tonight I bring you another Brooks film and again, it is lesser known.  This film was envi...

This weekend was great I tells ya, G-R-E-A-T. I had forgotten how much one is invigorated by a snow day when one is in public school. We got a nasty snow storm (but a baby compared to the one that hit WV when I was driving home) here in Ohio on Thursday that not only got us out of school early, but also gave us a snow day on Friday. It was awesome, and yes I do have to get 6th and 7th period caught up to 1st and 5th now, but it really rejuvenated me. I got some work done, watched a lot of movies on Netflix streaming, and did a lot of reading. You'd think I wouldn't need all that time off after having just come off of two weeks for Christmas, but Christmas break was oddly depressing where as this was just a nice lazy time. I can't explain why that is, but it just was. Anyway, part of this weekend was devoted to doing something I manage to do every year without thinking of it. It isn't until its almost over, that I realize that Brooksfest has come and gone again....

We got another two hour delay this morning...this time as I was fixing breakfast.  Once again, I was already ready to go and so once again...I'm here sitting watching tv waiting for work time to roll around.  I won't lie, its nice to have chill mornings before work...but I wish I could just go back to sleep.  Someone might say 'Of course you can! Just set an alarm!' but the thing about me is, I can't go back to sleep once I've been up a certain amount of time.  Its a weird thing of mine.  I remember when I was 17 and I could sleep anywhere at any time...but as I got older it was much more difficult.  Now its only when its nighttime...and occasionally during a long car ride where I'm not driving. Speaking of sleep, I had a really good one last night.  Very deep, very visual dreams.  And there was no pill involved. I spent a good deal of last week watching the new blu ray discs (or BDs) that I bought and its time to talk about one of my favorite...

We had our first delay/closing today at Chillicothe High School...a two hour delay that I missed the memo for.  I didn't actually check the voice messages I might have gotten in the shower this morning until I was warming up the car to leave for normal time.  I was already put together and very awake, so I couldn't go back to sleep.  So I just sat there, watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets until it was time to leave (the extended version at that, so there was no hope of completion before time to leave for late work...its almost 3 hours long!).  I think its interesting to go back and look at the "Potter" films again, especially since the first two are almost 10 years old and so much has progressed in film techniques and special effects since then.  Also, and this goes without saying, the stories have matured throughout just as they have in the books.  I won't hop on the 'later books = better books' bandwagon just yet though.  I've heard so...