Get, Don't Get

Oscar time is approaching. We'll be playing catch-up on some of the 2006 releases for the next few months, and I'll try to get some recommendations out here in the process.

Here's a couple STRONG recommendations, 1 good...1 bad. Let's start with the BAD. DON'T GET:

The Black Dahlia:
More like The Black Suckia. BRUTAL!!! I know this one got bad reviews, but being a long time Brian DePalma guy, I just had to go see for myself. Please don't make the same mistake. It's a complete waste of 2+ hours.
And it really pains me to rip DePalma. I love so much of his early stuff: "Dressed to Kill", "The Fury", "Body Double", "Carrie", "Obsession", "Sisters." 1984's "Blowout" with a young John Travolta is one of my all-time favs. Shit...I even liked "Carlito's Way", which appears to be his last good effort (way back in '93).

But with "Dahlia", DePalma really hits the bottom of the barrel. We already knew that Josh Hartnett was a useless face as an actor. He's basically a better looking Keanu Reeves. But the disappointing thing about "The Black Dahlia" is the performances of otherwise brilliant (more often than not) actors like Aaron Eckhart, Scarlett Johansson, and Hilary Swank...who I all respect. They sucked, too. The writing is terrible, it's incredibly boring, it's too long. It's just a big pile of junk that you need to stay away from.

"Dahlia" is supposed to be about one of the most brutal murders in history, which leaves you thinking halfway thru, "this HAS to get better." It never does. Trust me on this one. I took the bullet for you, and wasted 2 hours of my life. Don't make the same mistake.

"The Black Dahlia" gets: The Finger

For the very GOOD, GET:

The Devil and Daniel Johnston:
At the risk of losing what little indie street cred I had, I'll admit I knew very little about songwriter/artist Daniel Johnston. I knew he was a respected songwriter from Austin (which isn't actually true, finding out he was actually born in West Virginia), and I knew he wrote the song "Speeding Motorcycle," which Yo La Tengo covered on their 1991 album Facebook.

But as far as Daniel's mental problems, I knew nothing. "The Devil and Daniel Johnston" takes you on the amazing, yet sometimes heart-wrenching, journey of Johnston, from his early childhood to current day.

Not sure if the filmmakers knew about the insane amounts of actual footage that Daniel had of his life, but they must've wet their pants when they found out exactly how much raw stuff they had to work with. It's all incorporated into the film very nicely, along with countless interviews of Johnston's friends and family.

This will easily get the nod as my Favorite Doc of 2006, and in a year that's struggled for good movies (imho), "Johnston" will most likely be in the Top 5 of my Favorite Films of '06 as well.

Trust me on this one, here's the trailer:

The Devil and Daniel Johnston

And here's that YLT cover of "Speeding Motorcycle," an oldie but goodie:

(left to click to play; right click to download)
Yo La Tengo - Speeding Motorcycle