The Trim Bin #43

- On the one hand, I'm not actually in The Departed. I sort of am - I'm technically in the frame, but I'm hidden behind an ambulance. On the other hand, the scene is more important than I thought it was the day of filming. There were actually two scenes being shot on the same day at the location - an alley near the Children's Museum - and I worked on a tracking shot of a crime scene that begins the film's denouement (if you've seen it, you know the one I mean). So I'm happy to have witnessed a semi-important scene, and I'm even more happy that the shot looked exactly as I thought it would - that is, I was able to look at the setup and the lens and envision the final result accurately. It's a small thing, but at least it means I'm learning something.

I left War of the Worlds off my top 10 last year because I figured Spielberg was well-represented with Munich and there were plenty of great films in 2005 anyway. But it would be absurd to leave The Departed off the list this year - I'm not sure if I'll see a better film this year. It's mordantly funny, boasts a brilliant script and all-around great performances (including Jack Nicholson's best performance since The Shining), and represents Scorsese at the top of his game, from the staccato cutting to the seductive camerawork to the perfect soundtrack (he may have used "Gimme Shelter" before, but he's never used it better). It's a film filled with unexpected pleasures ("A boot! He hit him with a boot!"), and it filled me with that electric sense of awe that comes from being taken on a journey by a master storyteller.

Fuckin' rats.

- Jack sent me this montage of scenes from Grind House (they appear to be from the RR-directed segments). That faux-trailer for Machete (starring Danny Trejo) taught me how to love again. I can't wait to get a glimpse of Tarantino's Death Proof (with Kurt Russell!).

- Another Halloween, and the question remains: will this ever be released on DVD?

- On October 2o and 21, Pothole Pictures is showing a double feature of Ed Wood and Plan 9 From Outer Space. Can your heart stand the shocking facts of grave robbers from outer space?

- David Lynch plans to self-distribute his newest film, Inland Empire, in North America. The film received wildly mixed responses after it played the Venice and New York Film Festivals. But good or bad, Lynch is incapable of being uninteresting, so I can't wait to see it. The short featured below, Rabbits, is the first in a nine-episode series from DavidLynch.com, and the titular characters appear in Inland Empire. I repeat - I can't wait to see this:




Films watched this week:

The Road to Guantanamo 6
The Departed 10
The Lost Boys 8
Body Double 8
Raising Cain 7
GoodFellas 10
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 7
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) 7
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning 4
Macbeth (1971) 10
Mutual Appreciation 6
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 6