The Parking Lot Movie

The Parking Lot Movie
"Over the course of three years, filmmaker Meghan Eckman tracked the comings and goings of a solitary parking lot in Charlottesville, Va., chronicling the lives of the attendants who were working there. This inspiring documentary is the result. Hanging tough as they navigate the range of human emotion -- from hope to frustration, from a sense of limitless possibilities to stagnation -- the film's subjects embody the pursuit of the American Dream."


4 Stars

The Parking Lot Movie follows the grueling, nay, harrowing plight of a group of rag-tag societal misfits who utilize their unique positions as guardians of the Corner Parking Lot as an opportunity to sternly, but justly, maintain cosmic order in a world teetering on the edge of oblivion.

But seriously though, this movie is fucking brilliant, an all too rare tribute to the everyman.  It starts out as a quirky documentary about the different personalizes and societal perceptions held by a group of guys who are all bound together one thing, their job as booth workers at a pay parking lot in Charlottesville, Virginia.  But it eventually develops into a more substantial social commentary on our class system and the odd personas people can take on when they’re behind the wheel of a car.  We get to see firsthand how some of us can get almost lost in a sense of entitlement just because we’re driving a vehicle with four wheels.  And sometimes, unfortunately, that entitlement manifests itself into a way of treating other people that’s dismissive and, to some extent, cruel.

Now, don’t get me wrong, this movie isn’t sad on any level.  Well, I take that back, maybe on some level.  But the dry wit and sarcastic remarks that the attendants make about (and sometimes directly to the face of) their vehicle driving brethren are what makes the movie worth watching.  They are more than forthcoming with their personal opinions about the drivers they do battle with on a daily basis.  Through listening to the attendants express their own existential crises, neuroses, and even a little bit of psychoses, you quickly become a staunch admirer of the mental and moral fortitude it takes to really endure this job. 

You can’t help it, some people are just worthless bags of douche and the guys that are able to put up with them are much better men than I.  Go ahead, play that sad, pathetic ASPCA TV commercial with Sarah McLaughlin and the unwanted puppies as many times as you want in an effort to get me to be a better person.  It probably won’t do much.  But you make me watch this flick and you can be damn sure I’m gonna make the effort to be nicer to my parking lot attendant.

This Film is Not Yet Rated

This Film is Not Yet Rated

"Documents a history of the MPAA ratings board. Talks to numerous directors and actors about the censorship of their movies before they could be released. Includes directors, Kevin Smith, Matt Stone, John Waters, Darren Aronosfsky, Maria Bello, Atom Egoyan. Director, Kirby Dick hires a lesbian family of private investigators to find out the names of the MPAA ratings board and see if the raters are actually parents of children 5-17 like the MPAA tells American parents they are."

DISCLAIMER: My 3 Star rating of this film is soley based on the artistic nature. It is my firm belief that everyone should see this film.

3.5 Stars

I don’t think this film is really going to SHOCK anyone. In this day and age, we have come to realize and (unfortunately) accept that many aspects of our day to day lives are controlled by large corporations, and the film industry is no different. But even though it may not shock you, the things revealed in this documentary will present you with some very sobering facts.

Filmmaker Kirby Dick tries to expose the hypocrisy and secrecy of the MPAA ratings board who assign the ratings to all movies released in the United States and he does a pretty good job. One major drawback for me was the private investigator he hires to try and gain access to (and later gather more information about) the MPAA. She is, in one word, amateur. Just from watching television and movies, I could have done a better job than this woman. And there is even a random, seemingly pointless conversation in the movie where she talks about how she thinks she may be a lesbian . . . huh? How does that relate to anything?

Regardless, she more or less gets the job done and is able to find the information that the filmmaker is looking for, most importantly the true identities of the MPAA raters. The MPAA goes to such lengths to keep their identities secret because, they claim, it prevents the people from being harassed or influenced (a fact that is contested later in the film). This was my only major disagreement with the filmmaker. I got over the fact that Kirby is a bit of a prick and that the film seemed to be a little more “dramaticized” than a documentary needs to be, but he hurts the wrong people with the information. The raters themselves are just parents making a whopping $30,000 per year. While I am not so glib to assume that the raters don’t know what’s going on or that they may not be getting other forms of compensation under the table, I really don’t think he needed to expose them. Screwing the people at the bottom of the totem pole doesn’t result in hurting the big guys, it just results in NEW people at the bottom of the totem pole.

One of the most interesting points in the movie, though, is the argument made about the way sex and violence are dealt with in the ratings. While we have all heard the arguments over and over about how American society is downright Puritanical when it comes to sex, it never really hit me how much disparity there is in dealing with sex versus violence. Case in point, the movie Saw can show dismemberment, castration, and many other acts of graphic violence and receive and R while a movie whose only offense is to show a woman’s vagina receives an NC-17. I could go off on a tangent here about what’s a bigger social problem today in America violence or nudity . . . but I won’t. The disparity in ratings of love scenes between homosexuals and heterosexuals is also glaringly obvious, but that’s almost worth an entirely different film.

As you would expect, the filmmaker eventually submits his documentary to the MPAA for a rating and (surprise, surprise) it comes back with an NC-17 rating. So, he goes through the appeals process to try and get an R rating. One of the most ironic moments in the film comes at the end where we find out the identities of this “appeals board”. While I shouldn’t have been surprised by who the people ended up being, I still had to shake my head in disbelief.

Now, you might ask what’s the big deal about an NC-17 rating? It’s just a guideline for parents and if the film is still good people will hear about it. Well, unfortunately that’s not the case. If you get the NC-17 no major studio is going to produce the movie or advertise for it or even really promote it. On top of that, Blockbuster, Movie Gallery, and all the other chain video stores won’t carry it. So, while you may not realize the importance of the MPAA ratings, after this film you will come to realize that they have the American filmmaker by the balls.

Slackers

No, not Slackers the movie. But us, your friendly movie reviewers. Todd at least has kind of an excuse - he recently moved and doesn't have his internet hooked up yet. But me? I guess I've just been lazy.

To make up for it, here are some rapid-fire reviews:

Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging

'The story of a 14-year-old girl who keeps a diary about the ups and downs of being a teenager, including the things she learns about kissing.'

1 star

Just because a movie is targeted towards 14-year-old girls doesn't mean it will suck (see Mean Girls). This is not one of those exceptions. The characters are one note, and the main actress makes the same face for every emotion: the patented Joey Tribbiani 'Who farted?' face (crinkled lip and raised eyebrow). I finished the movie, but I fast-forwarded more than once.


American Teen

'A documentary on seniors at a high school in a small Indiana town and their various cliques.'

3 stars

A lot has been said about this movie, about how the storylines were contrived and edited to make certain outcomes happen. I didn't mind, since the stories were entertaining. I got surprisingly invested in the 'characters'. Worth watching if you like documentaries and/or movies about teenagers.  




(500) Days of Summer

'An offbeat romantic comedy about a woman who doesn't believe true love exists, and the young man who falls for her.'

2 stars

This movie tries too hard. The bones of the story are interesting, and the two leads are good, but the movies drowns in cutesy indie gimmicks. These include but are not limited to: an omniscient narrator who speaks directly to the audience; a timeline shown out of order (jumping from Day 8 to Day 371 to Day 94); a group musical number to a popular 80s tune; a split-screen alternate reality bit; and a black-and-white foreign film fantasy. Puh-lease.



Extract

 'Joel, the owner of an Extract plant, tries to contend with myriad personal and professional problems, such as his potentially unfaithful wife and employees who want to take advantage of him.'

3 stars

This is the 'follow up' to Mike Judge's cult hit Office Space, and it's got similar dry and juvenile humor. I loved Jason Bateman and Kristen Wiig, but Ben Affleck as Bateman's best friend seemed like stunt-casting, and I couldn't get past his weird hair and beard. If you clear your mind of expectations, the movie is fine and enjoyable.


Boogie Nights

'The story of a young man's adventures in the Californian pornography industry of the 1970s and 1980s.'

1 star

How this movie got to have cult status when it is one of the most depressing things I have ever seen, I have no idea. Just fast-forward to the end if you want to see Mark Wahlberg's (fake) penis.

One Day in September

One Day in September

"The 1972 Munich Olympics were interrupted by Palestinian terrorists taking Israeli athletes hostage. Besides footage taken at the time, we see interviews with the surviving terrorist, Jamal Al Gashey, and various officials detailing exactly how the police, lacking an anti-terrorist squad and turning down help from the Israelis, botched the operation."

4 stars

For those of you who don't know, this film is an Academy Award winning documentary of the horrifying events of the 1972 Summer Olympic Games. If you've seen Munich, these are the actual events that caused to the retaliatory Jewish team to hunt down the responsible Palestinians.

The story is just sad and tragic because so many things could have prevented the deaths of these athletes. The German government was actually intentionally lax on their security around the Olympic Village because they were still trying to shake the infamy of the Nazi regime that had misused the Berlin Olympics four decades earlier. In a cruel twist of fate, some American athletes actually helped the terrorists climb the wall to the village because they themselves were sneaking back in after a night out on the town. Even after the kidnapping began, the German government basically botched every possible decision they could even allowing the games to go on while the police were negotiating.

The event also marked an important turning point in broadcast journalism that really can't be fully understood by anyone who is younger than 45 years old. This was really the first time that a major international event had gone down live on 24 hour television. Today we take that for granted because there are a plethora of 24 hour cable networks, but this was something completely new to the world. The gathering of information, however, doesn't seem to have changed in 37 years because everyone seemed to stumble through the same kind of misinformation and false reports that cause so much confusion today. Even the broadcast itself stalled one rescue attempt by a German police squad because, yes, the terrorists were actually able to see the planned attack on the television they had in the hostages' apartment. The younger of us have still probably seen the chilling footage when the late Jim McKay, anchor for ABC news, looks into the camera and somberly says, "They're all gone."

The documentarian did a great job and some unbelievably exhaustive research. He was even able to get an interview with the sole remaining terrorist who had to give the interview with a blurred face and altered voice. The movie doesn't hold back either. It is very matter-of-fact with what happened minute by minute and is able to convey the simultaneous fear of the people who knew what was going on and the obliviousness of the surrounding athletes who still had no idea. He also makes some good selection with the music that keeps the pace moving pretty well. You need to be prepared though, because a few scenes contain some pretty graphic images. In the end, you are really just left scratching your head at how an event meant to be so peaceful and politically neutral could turn into such a scene of hate and violence.

Anvil! The Story of Anvil!

Anvil! The Story of Anvil
"Formed by two 14-year-olds in the 1970s, Canadian heavy metal band Anvil influenced the great acts that followed, such as Anthrax and Metallica. This documentary joins Anvil's now middle-aged founders as they recover from a disastrous tour of Europe. Hoping to end their youthful dreams and careers on a high note, Robb Reiner, Steve "Lips" Kudlow and the band set out to record their 13th album, "This Is Thirteen.""

3 stars

This film is pure love letter. It's a love letter to the band (the director's been a fan since 1982), and a love letter to rock and roll.

We open on concert footage from Japan in the 80s with voiceovers from heavy metal stars (Lars Ulrich, Slash, Scott Ian), all proclaiming Anvil as one of the greatest metal bands of all time. And therein lies the movie: who has ever heard of Anvil?

At first you aren't sure if this movie is for real or if it's Spinal Tap in the 21st century. The main focus is on Lips and Robb, the two founders of Anvil, now in their 50s. They've never given up on that rockstar dream. They've got fans (even superfans - watch for the scene where one pours beer up his nose) and are waiting for their big break. It's a common story in the music industry, but the fact that they haven't given up after 30+ years is either extreme dedication and faith, or insanity and arrested development. There's a lot of focus on the brotherly relationship between Lips & Robb, which is textbook rock-and-roll bandmate relationship. The main story follows Anvil as they try to go on tour in Europe, record their 13th album, and get a record label. It becomes clear that Anvil (and Lips especially) occupies two spheres: both band and fan. Lips strikes out with some so-called 'famous' musicians he shares a gig with, who clearly see him as some kind of fruitcake, but he gets love (and respect) in return from others.

With documentaries, you need a really good subject and a really good story and really good editing to be a really good movie. I think it got so many positive reviews out of guilt, in all honesty. The band certainly makes for an interesting subject, but in the end the movie is just good, not great. Poignant piano playing over images of Lips & Robb's return to Tokyo (they really are big in Japan) belittles the moment. I'm rooting for Anvil, but the film drags a little in the middle. We get it: the only ones taking this seriously is the band, and everyone else thinks they are a joke. And maybe they are. But they're following their dream, cliche as it is. And you've got to give the movie credit: there's a scene in the recording studio with the amp turned up to 11.