Hey, Joss Whedon fans: This is your weekend at the Loft Cinema!
First, there’s the screening of Serenity, the movie that wrapped up at least a few of the plot lines left dangling when Whedon’s cowboys-in-outer-space series Firefly was canceled by the no-good dingbats at Fox about halfway through the first season. The movie is not only a chance for Browncoats to gather; it’s also a benefit for Equality Now, a cause that’s near and dear to Joss’ gal-empowering heart.
The Loft is promising “an out-of-this-world raffle for fabulous prizes, a ‘Whedonverse’ Costume Contest (dress up as your fave characters from Serenity/Firefly or Buffy/Angel), a taped introduction by Joss Whedon himself, games, fun surprises and more!”
The Loft is following up with another screening of the Buffy the Vampire Singer Sing-a-Long, which features the musical episode “Once More With Feeling.” If you’re a Buffy fan, you so need to see this all big-screeney.
The Serenity extravaganza starts Saturday at 7 p.m.; Buffy shows at 10 p.m.
Tickets to Can’t Stop the Serenity are $10 in advance, $12 the day of the show. Tickets to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Sing-a-Long are $5. Tickets are sold separately, and both are now available at The Loft box-office.
This article appears in Jun 21-27, 2007.
I think I saw “Serenity.” It has, like, the most convoluted first 5 minutes I’ve ever seen in a film.
Convoluted? C’mon. Just because the first five minutes covered the colonization of a new solar system, an interplanetary civil war, the rescue of a super-powerful psychic from a government facility and the start of a bank heist by our favorite team of space pirates? I thought it was pretty shiny, myself.
The first scene was a brilliant way to, as they say in screenwriting, lay pipe and explain the whole backstory for those moviegoers who hadn’t seen the series during the five minutes it was on TV. And then that great tracking shot from outside the ship through the interior, following the cap’n as he wanders around coincidentally introducing us to almost every major character in the movie in preparation for a probable disaster (“Oh god oh god we’re going to die” is offered as a potential announcement to the crew)–best example of camera virtuosity since Hitchcock and his butt monkey De Palma. (OK, maybe “butt monkey” doesn’t quite apply to this situation, but I like the term.) Now, regarding the Buffy “sing-a-long,” I realize that the “Once More with Feeling” episode went eight minutes over schedule and was therefore long, but the Loft people should properly bill this as a “sing-along.” Just spare us the karaoke scenes from “Angel.”
Speaking as a sometime Brian DePalma fan, I wouldn’t call him a “butt monkey.” He’s more of an “ass clown.” But while sometimes he stumbles over his big floppy clown feet, other times his bicycle-horn honks are surprisingly resonant…even when they originate in his keister.
“Casualties of War” is a masterpiece. It’s based on a Vietnam story that originally appeared in the New Yorker. The casting of intense method-actor Sean Penn opposite the all-American (albeit Canadian) feel-good actor Michael J. Fox is inspired.
“Carlito’s Way” is also a masterpiece, in spite of its many genre cliches. Al Pacino is in top turgid form, and DePalma somehow squeezed an effective performance out of Penelope Ann Miller and her pale bosom.
Finally, “The Untouchables” is untouchable as gangster-genre entertainment. David Mamet’s scalpel-sharp script is delivered by acting so ripe it turns even Kevin Costner’s green acting juicy. DePalma slam-dunks one action/suspense set-piece after another, from the bravura Odessa-steps baby-carriage sequence to the visually and morally satisfying rooftop-chase conclusion. (Bonus points if you can spot a court-cop cameo by former UA professor Stuart Bergsma.)
DePalma has faltered many times, but even some of his failures have fantastic sequences. The flawed “Femme Fatale” has the best lesbian diamond-heist sequence ever set to Ravel’s “Bolero.” The laughable “Mission to Mars” frequently interrupts the “Kubrick is rolling in his grave”-based laughter with gasp-inducing space sequences. While the wannabe-Hitchcock “Body Double” and “Obsession” are groaners, “Dressed to Kill” and “Blow Up” are enjoyably surreal, witty, perverse takes on the Master’s form.
So there.