Parents' Night In #45: The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

It's Halloween season, and that means it's time for Justin & Kelly to watch one of the greatest thrillers of all time, The Silence of the Lambs!  We'll discuss the iconic performances by Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster, as well as the film's unsung hero Ted Levine as the terrifying Buffalo Bill.  We'll also get into the other films in the series, Red Dragon (great adaptation) and Hannibal (over-the-top freak show), the unconventional choice of Jonathan Demme as Lambs' director, the film's off-putting visual style and music, and more!  Crack open a beverage and hang out for a scary movie episode of Parents' Night In!

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Snippet of the film's score composed by Howard Shore.

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Disclaimer- Some contents are used for educational purpose under fair use. Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.   

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WWE Clash of Champions 2020 Preview & Predictions

Ugh, there's another WWE PPV this weekend?  I didn't even do picks for the last one because I didn't even realize it existed.  Who in the fuck schedules a PPV a week after SummerSlam?  What is this, 1991?  Instead of Payback they should've called it This Sunday In Suckville.

Anyway, Clash of Champions is this Sunday and we have another pretty half-assed lineup from the 'E.  A few big picture notes first though.  Roman Reigns is back, he's the Universal Champion (way to bury The Fiend again by having his second reign last one week), and the good part, he's a heel aligned with Paul Heyman.  That there is alright by me.  Of course it's four years too late; they should've turned him in 2016 when Seth Rollins came back from his knee injury.  But at least they finally came to their senses about Roman.  As a heel his character is actually compelling. 

In other news Retribution, despite repeatedly attacking WWE employees over several months, are now WWE employees.  Sure, that makes a lotta sense.  Also the male members are named Mace (that's alright), T-Bar (uhhh), and Slapjack.  S-slap...jack?  Isn't that a children's card game?  When a jack is turned over you have to be the first to slap it?  That's what I think of when I hear that word.  Jesus H. Christ this creative team is devoid of ideas.

But back to the PPV lineup, once again not much of interest on this show.  I guess it's made my decision to cut the WWE cord that much easier, I have not once regretted missing a main roster PPV since.  And considering how messy NXT's booking has been during the Wednesday Night War I honestly haven't been that upset about missing TakeOvers.  Let's pick some winners....

Pre-Show RAW Women's Championship: Asuka vs. Zelina Vega

1. Why is Asuka on the pre-show?  2. Why is Vega getting a title shot?  3. Why is Vega even being used as a wrestler?  She's a great manager/valet.  She's not so good in the ring.  This is pointless.  Squash City.

Pick: Asuka retains

US Championship: Bobby Lashley vs. Apollo Crews

Jeezus, Crews has been feuding with The Hurt Business since roughly 1927.  How many iterations of this feud are we being subjected to?  I'm inclined to stick with Lashley retaining but they could have Crews finally win back his title to end the feud. 

Pick: I'll go with Lashley retaining

RIP Road Warrior Animal (1960-2020)

Well, 2020 has punched us in the gut yet again.  Joe Laurinitis, better known as Road Warrior Animal, has passed away at age 60, joining his long-departed comrade Mike Hegstrand (Hawk).  No word yet on the cause of death, but it's unfathomably cruel, this wrestling business that has taken so many so young.  

I first became aware of The Road Warriors in 1985, when one of my friends procured a Best of the AWA tape which spotlighted AWA Championship matches (the centerpiece was Rick Martel winning the title from Jumbo Tsuruta).  After the main content was over, the tape featured trailers for other tapes in the collection, one of which spotlighted The Road Warriors.  Already a huge fan of the 1981 film The Road Warrior, I immediately took notice, marveling at these two larger than life, facepainted monsters obliterating everything in their path.  Animal in particular stuck out to me thanks to his mohawk, which recalled the charismatic villain Wez from the film (shoutout to Vernon Wells).  Every time I visited my friend's house I'd insist on rewatching that tape, and the clips of Animal and Hawk were the highlight for me. 

That VHS cassette and the Saturday morning cartoon Hulk Hogan's Rock n' Wrestling were my dual gateways to becoming a fan of this bizarre form of entertainment where musclebound guys (and gals) pretend to beat the shit out of each other.  A year later I began watching the WWF religiously, but not long after that I discovered the NWA, whose roster to my surprise and delight now included Hawk and Animal.  It didn't take long for the duo to become my favorite tag team, their presence and mystique so compelling as to defy the concept of "workrate." 

Not that Animal and Hawk couldn't work a match; quite the contrary, their athleticism between the ropes stood in stark contrast to their enormous stature.  Here were two of the most powerful men in the sport, each able to military press an opponent over their heads, while also capable of dropkicks and flying clotheslines and shoulderblocks.  On top of that, The Road Warriors (along with rivals like The Midnight Express) took tandem wrestling moves to a new level, inventing several devastating-looking combinations, the most famous of which of course is the Doomsday Device, for me the greatest tandem move in wrestling history.  Animal would lift an opponent onto his massive shoulders and Hawk would level him with a flying clothesline off the top rope.  The first time I saw this move I just about soiled my trousers.  It became the yardstick for tag team finishers and it's been copied and tweaked numerous times by others. 

Top Ten Things: Directors' Second Films

And we're back with Ten more Things at the Top.  

Since I just posted a list of the all-time best directorial debuts, I thought I'd follow it up with a list of the best "second" films, i.e. sophomore directorial efforts.  Some filmmakers knock it out of the park on their first try.  A few of those repeat that accomplishment on their second attempt, solidifying their reputations as truly gifted filmmakers.  But sometimes a first-time director is limited by budget or time constraints, or lack of proper distribution, and doesn't get to fully realize their vision or garner the appropriate level of appreciation until their second film.  This list is a mix of those two categories.  But first, some honorable mentions.....


Honorable Mentions

Juno (Jason Reitman, 2007)

The Town (Ben Affleck, 2010)

Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, 2003)

The Green Mile (Frank Darabont, 1999)

Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2001)

Braveheart (Mel Gibson, 1995)

Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)

10. Reqiuem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky, 2000)

 

Visually inventive and uncompromisingly weird, Darron Aronofsky announced himself as an exciting new director with 1998's Pi, a psychological thriller about a mathematician with delusions of persecution.  He followed it up two years later with this deeply upsetting ensemble piece about four people with debilitating drug addictions that, despite its severely disturbing nature, really should be required viewing for all teenagers.  Sporting strong performances by Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly and Marlon Wayans, and an incredible, Oscar-worthy turn from Ellen Burstyn, Requiem for a Dream pulls zero punches in depicting the self-destructive toll the characters' addictions take on their lives.  In adapting Hubert Selby's unflinchingly bleak novel, Aronofsky found a unique visual and editing style to make the movie feel unlike any other.  It's the most unconventional cautionary tale ever put to film.

9. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)

As a music school alum (a jazz-dominated school at that), Whiplash's subject matter immediately caught my attention.  But then it defied my expectations of being a Mr. Holland's Opus-esque movie where the student and the hard-ass teacher grow to respect each other and a father-son bond is forged.  Nope, Whiplash wasn't like that at all.  The teacher Terence Fletcher (JK Simmons) is vulgar, brutally tough on his students, unapologetic, and grandiose.  And the student (Miles Teller) is stubborn, ambitious to a fault, and singlemindedly obsessed with being the world's greatest drummer.  By the end of the film his goal is not to gain Fletcher's respect, but his awe.  This film is centered around this power struggle, and it's absolutely riveting.  Simmons delivers a career performance (not to mention some of the most creative swearing I've heard in years), and Teller announces his arrival as a top-notch young actor.  Whiplash was apparently loosely based on writer/director Damien Chazelle's own music school experiences, and he brings a very personal touch as well as a captivating visual flair.  Whiplash is one of the best music-related movies I've ever seen, and a tour-de-force from a young filmmaker with only one previous feature under his belt.

8. Shame (Steve McQueen, 2011)

Three years after his brutally frank take on the IRA hunger strikes of the early 80s, Steve McQueen returned with an intimate character study about Brandon (Michael Fassbender), a New York yuppie with a crippling sex addiction, whose life is thrown into disarray when his estranged sister Sissy (played with quiet despondency by Carey Mulligan) comes to live with him.  Brandon's daily routine involves an endless string of joyless sexual encounters and self-gratification, and Sissy's presence forces him to examine his own dysfunctional existence in growing distress.  Fassbender is an Oscar-worthy revelation in this film, creating a potpourri of emotional turmoil and powerfully conveying how imprisoned Brandon is by his compulsions.  This film could just as easily be about a heroin addict or an alcoholic and it would play out almost the same way.  Despite only being Steve McQueen's second feature film, Shame already demonstrated his virtuosic skill as a director.  As with McQueen's other two films, Shame is nearly impossible to put out of your mind.

Top Ten Things: Directorial Film Debuts

Welcome to yet another edition of Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com.  Things, ten of them, at the top.

Today I'm talkin' about directorial debuts.  I forget how this popped into my brain, but one day I just started thinkin' about which first-time directors ended up defying the odds and making lasting pieces of cinematic art.  With most talented directors their first films show at least some promise, even if they either haven't found their voice or simply didn't have adequate funding to realize their vision.  Then you get situations with a James Cameron directing tripe like Piranha II: The Spawning, just a gifted aspiring filmmaker looking to get his feet wet.

But sometimes a newbie auteur gets it just right on his or her first try and delivers a great film right out of the gate, taking an established narrative form and giving it a new spin, or inventing a new genre altogether.  Below are ten such examples (but first some honorable mentions).  Note: This list only includes debut feature-length films, not shorts.


Honorable Mentions

American Beauty (Sam Mendes, 1999)

The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Judd Apatow, 2005)

Anchorman (Adam McKay, 2004)

Hedwig and the Angry Inch (John Cameron Mitchell, 2001)

Blood Simple (The Coen Brothers, 1984)

Hunger (Steve McQueen, 2008)

Hereditary (Ari Aster, 2018)

10. Clerks (Kevin Smith, 1994)

The movie that launched Kevin Smith's View Askew-niverse, Clerks is a quintessential indie slacker comedy, about two best friends stuck in a go-nowhere convenience store job trying to figure out what they want to do when they grow up (amid discussions about Star Wars, Gatorade and relationship troubles).  Shot in grainy 16mm black & white, the entire film takes place over the course of one day, chronicling our hero Dante's misadventures, from closing the store to play hockey on the roof, discovering a dead customer in the bathroom, and ruining his relationship with his current girlfriend to rekindle one with his ex.  The film showcases Smith's gift for writing quirky, articulate, often vulgar dialogue and inventing memorable characters, the most lasting of which are View Askew anti-heroes Jay & Silent Bob, two drug dealing miscreants who spend all day loitering in front of the store.  Smith's inexperience as a first-time director shows in Clerks, but the script and atmosphere are so strong they make up for the film's lack of polish.  I still consider Clerks to be his best movie.

9. Monster (Patty Jenkins, 2003)

The future director of the smash-hit Wonder Woman movie began her career behind the camera with this haunting bio of serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a Florida prostitute-turned-murderer who was executed by lethal injection in 2002.  Without excusing Wuornos's seven murders, Monster presents her as a severely damaged woman who was dealt a terrible hand from childhood and felt she had no other recourse but to rob and kill.  Boasting a scorchingly exquisite lead performance from Charlize Theron (for which she won a well-deserved Oscar), Monster focuses on the person behind the heinous acts, showing us how and why she arrived at them.  This film is pretty note-perfect and it's quite shocking that Jenkins didn't direct another feature film until Wonder Woman.

8. Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992)

Quentin Tarantino's directorial debut based on his third screenplay (His first two, True Romance and Natural Born Killers, would later be directed by Tony Scott and Oliver Stone, respectively), Reservoir Dogs took the heist film and turned it upside down, presenting the events in question almost as a parlor drama.  Instead of a long buildup to the heist followed by an action centerpiece, Dogs briefly introduces the characters and then spends the majority of the film on the aftermath of a job gone horribly wrong, without ever showing the heist itself.  Structurally I had never seen anything like this before, and it illustrated Tarantino's ability to play with time and sequencing while indirectly revealing information about the characters; we see the heist's aftermath sprinkled with flashbacks focused on key players, so the plot information is doled out sporadically (One of the robbers is suspected of being an undercover cop, and we don't get the reveal until an hour in).  With uniquely musical dialogue, grisly, stylized violence, and strong performances by veteran actors like Harvey Keitel (whose enthusiasm for the project essentially got the film made), Tim Roth and Michael Madsen, Reservoir Dogs announced Quentin Tarantino as a maverick new filmmaker.

NJPW G1 Climax 30 Preview & Predictions

2020 has been an all-out shit show, but at least there's one constant still intact, and that's NJPW's G1 Climax tournament.  Pushed back to September due to the Olympic Games being booked in Japan, this year's G1 probably couldn't have happened properly if slated for its usual July-August timeframe.  So serendipity prevailed in the end.  This lineup is appropriately stacked as all G1 tournaments should be.  Let's take a look at the block lineups, shall we?

I was worried that due to COVID travel restrictions we'd get a watered-down G1, but fortunately we have a full roster again this year (minus Jon Moxley), and thus loads of potential for four weeks of great wrestling.  This year the G1 cards will only consist of the five tournament matches each night, which will make things a little easier to keep up with.  As always this tournament will have Tokyo Dome ramifications; no word on whether WrestleKingdom 15 will be a two-night event like 14 was.  But enough setup, let's dive in....

A Block

Kazuchika Okada

The company Ace has been without the IWGP Championship since January and always has to be a block favorite, especially when he isn't the champ going into the tournament.  Betting on Okada to win the whole thing is never a bad move.


Kota Ibushi

That said, Ibushi has so much to prove this year, having won last year's G1 but come up short both nights of WrestleKingdom 14.  He and Okada had the 2020 Match of the Year (I don't see anyone topping that bout in 2020), but he failed to unseat the champion, and then on Night 2 he took a screwjob loss at the hands of Jay White.  So Ibushi also has to be a favorite to win and redeem himself at the Dome.

Parents' Night In #44: Leon The Professional (1994)

Kelly and Justin are back (in our new house!) for a movie review of another film we bonded over before we were dating, Luc Besson's action-drama masterpiece Leon!  Starring Jean Reno as Leon, a scenery-chewing Gary Oldman as DEA cop Norman Stansfield, and an 11-year-old Natalie Portman as Mathilda; Portman proved even at her young age to be a prodigious onscreen talent.  Leon (or The Professional) as it was called in the US, is the story of a socially stunted Italian hitman who develops a close relationship with an orphaned girl, taking her under his wing as she vows revenge on a crooked DEA officer (Oldman, our favorite of all his performances) who killed her family.  Leon is full of intense, violent set pieces but also contains touching, delicate moments between its two protagonists.  An underrated gem of a film. 

Intro song contains a snippet of Sting's "Shape of My Heart," backing music from Chris Jackson Music - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVdRr...

Parody lyrics:

You know that your hosts are named Justin and Kelly
You know that the jokes are fueled by the booze
You know this podcast belongs in the bin
And that it's called Parents' Night In


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Disclaimer- Some contents are used for educational purpose under fair use. Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.   We also have official merch available here: http://www.enuffa.com/p/enuffacom-off...


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Top Ten Things: Unnecessary Movie Remakes

Welcome to another edition of Top Ten Things!  I am your host, Justin, and I'll be bitching about something most would consider trivial.  But ya know, that's my thing.  So stick it.

Today I'll be talking about an issue that's plagued Hollywood for many years - particularly this century - the unnecessary remake.  Remakes are nothing new; the early decades of cinema saw countless movies done over, to take advantage of ever-improving technology and greater budget availability (just like now).  Plus it was a way for the studios to make easy money with a known title and not have to come up with original ideas (just like now).  Sadly these remakes often failed to live up to the artistry and craftsmanship of the original versions (just like now) and many of them fell by the wayside.  In the last fifteen years or so it seems just about every film churned out is either a remake, a sequel, a reboot, a prequel, a requel, a threequel, a squeakuel (okay that one just applies to the Chipmunks), and any new ideas get squeezed out of the mix except at Oscar season.  Some of the remakes in recent years have been downright baffling, in many cases at the expense of original films that absolutely got it right the first time.  So let's take a look at some of those....

10. The Karate Kid

Directed by John G. Avildsen of Rocky fame, The Karate Kid tells a similar story of an unlikely underdog's one chance at redemption.  Danny Larusso is the new kid in a California suburban school, who immediately runs afoul of some local bullies who also happen to be martial arts students.  After taking a few beatings from these kids, Danny enlists the help of the superintendent of his apartment building, an old Okinawan by the name of Mr. Miyagi.  The film follows Danny's unorthodox training and builds to the karate competition where Danny overcomes the odds and wins the whole thing.  This was a truly inspirational 80s film that has aged fairly well despite some cheesy moments and its similarity to Rocky.  But in 2010 Will Smith co-produced an "update" starring his son Jaden as the titular "Kid" and Jackie Chan as the Miyagi character.  While it got mostly positive reviews, it just struck me as cheap exploitation of a known brand (Lots of that going on in Hollywood), and I can't imagine anyone deeming it the definitive version, nor do I recall anyone clamoring to see it remade.  Makes one wonder when an ill-advised Rocky remake will see the light of day.

9. Psycho

Speaking of remakes no one asked for, in 1998 Gus Van Sant released his homage/shot-for-shot recreation of Alfred Hitchcock's iconic thriller.  This version would be in color, thus robbing the film of the original's distinctive look, and aside from a few shots now made possible by updated technology (the opening crane shot into the hotel room window for example), Van Sant offered literally nothing new.  He used the original shooting script and didn't make any changes to the story, nor did he try to make it his own.  This was nothing more than a vanity project, akin to a contemporary band covering a classic old song note-for-note, resulting in a banal sound-alike.  This doesn't even cover the senselessly inappropriate casting of Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates in a performance that can't hold a candle to Anthony Perkins' original.  If I ever said "Let's watch Psycho" and the person I was hangin' out with popped in the 1998 version I'd punch them square in the face.

Movie Review: Tenet - teneT :weiveR eivoM

Christopher Nolan's latest opus, Tenet, may just be his most confounding film yet.  Part spy thriller, part Nolan sci-fi-infused puzzle, Tenet works best if you go in cold.  To that end, I'll keep this review as spoiler-free as I can.  But be warned....

Tenet stars John David Washington as an unnamed CIA agent who, after proving himself in the field, is let in on a top-secret mission involving a conspiracy to "invert" objects, or send them backwards through time.  You see, somewhere in the future, someone came up with a plan to undo decades of environmental damage, and its unintended side effect was that a weapon of mass destruction has now been inverted in time, threatening to wreak havoc so widespread it would unmake the world.  Washington's character now has to find and destroy this weapon to save all life on Earth.

This is a pretty out-there concept, even for Nolan, but as usual he makes it work for the most part, employing state of the art special effects, taut screenwriting, novel sci-fi gimmickry, and strong performances (Washington makes an excellent, relatable protagonist, his sidekick Robert Pattinson a slyly charismatic partner, Kenneth Branagh a palpably menacing Russian oligarch, and standout Elizabeth Debicki a sympathetic, damaged woman as Branagh's kept wife) to create a smartly-devised summer blockbuster.

Where Tenet falls short for me is largely dialogue-related; even when you can understand what the characters are saying (which is rather inexcusably seldom - who the hell mixed this movie?), the film hurtles along so quickly it's often a strain to keep up with the rules being established and what they mean for the characters.  Nolan has never been one for audience hand-holding, and usually that faith in his viewers' intelligence is welcome, but here I felt like he assumed a little too much.  A key action sequence is outlined by a character at such a frenetic pace I finally had to throw my hands up and just let it unfold, and when it was over I asked myself, "Wait, why did they need to fight this battle in both temporal directions?"  After watching the film I looked up the synopsis on Wikipedia and was stunned to find out how many expository details I'd missed.  Nolan films almost always benefit from repeated viewings, but this was the first one where I was literally unclear on multiple story points after the first watch.

AEW All Out 2020: Their Weakest PPV So Far

AEW All Out 2020 is in the books.  It was a solid show with several good matches but I have to say I thought this was their weakest PPV effort thus far.  Whether it was the unbearable heat (95 degrees and humid - such is Florida in early September), or the fact that the only actual fans in the venue were far from the ring and thus mostly inaudible (I'm not sure why the wrestlers at ringside have toned down their "fan" reactions; they were working so well), overall this show didn't capture the AEW magic like the others have.  It was by no means a bad show but also not the great one it had the potential to be.

Things kicked off in less-than-stellar fashion with the goofy Tooth and Nail match; this was supposed to have been on the pre-show and probably should've stayed there.  Britt Baker and Big Swole brawled mostly throughout a dentist's office that was pretty obviously a set inside Daily's Place.  The action was pretty generic Attitude Era hardcore match-type stuff.  Baker at one point tied Swole in her dentist's chair and tried to use a power screwdriver on her (I'm not sure why they didn't make available an actual dentist's drill), followed by a syringe full of novocaine.  But this backfired and Swole injected the novocaine into Baker's leg, punched Reba through a framed diploma, and put a gas mask on Baker causing her to pass out.  Swole was declared the winner.  This was dumb and not at all a good choice for an opener.  *

The true opening bout was The Young Bucks vs. Jurassic Express.  This was wildly energetic, athletic showcase that was tailor-made for an opening slot.  The story here was the Bucks becoming more and more aggressive, playing the heels to Jungle Boy's underdog character.  Luchasaurus hit a couple of big dives, including one over the barricade onto several bystanders.  Unfortunately this kept him indisposed as Matt and Nick hit a pair of superkicks on Jungle Boy (one echoing the famous Shawn Michaels-Shelton Benjamin spot).  But Jungle Boy kicked out of both pin attempts before the Bucks hit the BTE Trigger on him for the win.  This was a fine contest and the best thing on the show for most of the show.  ***3/4

AEW All Out 2020 Preview & Predictions

Alright, back to predicting wrestling shows I actually care about.  Let's talk about AEW All Out!

This Saturday is the second annual All Out event (hard to believe it's been two years since the original All In, which was the first non-WWE event in 20 years to sell over 10,000 tickets and set this whole AEW thing in motion).  Once again AEW has assembled a very promising lineup with a good mix of established former WWE and NJPW stars and homegrown talent.  Correct me if I'm wrong but I think this is the first AEW PPV to feature a homegrown guy in the World Title match, and they picked a great talent with which to start that trend.  Anyway, let's look at the lineup...

Pre-show match: Britt Baker vs. Big Swole

Britt is finally returning to the ring after several months on the sidelines.  But she was hardly idle, beautifully developing her new heel persona along the way.  That's how you handle an injury, folks.  She and Swole have been itching to fight for months and it's actually strange this is on the pre-show for that reason.  The match is called a Tooth and Nail match.  No idea what that means, but I'm assuming some kind of no holds barred situation.  Since Baker is the one they've been building up this whole time she's gotta be the winner.

Pick: Britt

Casino Battle Royale

The winner as usual gets a future World Title match, which of course eliminates over half the participants.  And of course we have four mystery combatants, which means one of those folks is almost certainly winning the whole thing.  But for a moment let's leave the TBDs out and look at who we do know is in it.  Right off the bat we can disregard Ricky Starks, The Butcher, The Blade, Eddie Kingston, Shawn Spears, Billy and Austin Gunn, Santana, Ortiz, Chuck Taylor and Trent.  So that leaves six of the known names.  I'd say Pentagon and Fenix probably won't win either but they could be longshots.  So that leaves Darby Allin, Lance Archer, Jake Hager, and Brian Cage.  Allin and Cage both got title shots recently so they're out I think, which leaves Archer and Hager.  I could see either of them winning and getting a crack at Moxley; I think Archer would give him a better match, like the one they had at WrestleKingdom.  So if it's one of the 17 names we already know, I'll go with Archer.  But ultimately it's always a safe bet to go with a surprise entrant.

Pick: One of the TBDs, or Lance Archer