The Irishman
Unionfellas
Official Site | Trailers & Mo
R | 210 min

There is MUCH to praise about Marty’s latest grand spicy meatball (unbelievable sets and costumes!  DeNiro is best when he is quiet!  Pacino is even bester when he’s loud!  And dancing with women!!  Tommy The Tit IS the tits!!  Lums!!!  that’s what happened to Jimmy Hoffa??  Do I still need to see the Jack Nicholson Hoffa now??  The ‘I know you’re up to no good‘ stare of the young daughter that eventually grows up to become the ‘I know you’re up to no good‘ stare of Anna Paquin!).  And there is little to dismiss.  Sure, it doesn’t pack the intense dramatic swings and badda-blams that Goodfellas or Casino did, and yeah, the runtime isn’t fully justified – the last half hour needed to be condensed into about 3 minutes, but I’m not here for any of this.  I’m here to mention one thing…

Joe Pesci unforgettably played eerily-eye-browed conspirator David Ferrie in Oliver Stone’s JFK

and in The Irishman, Joe Pesci does not play David Ferrie (a guy named Louis Vanaria does), but he namechecks Ferrie as someone DeNiro needs to meet up with – ‘a fairy named Ferrie‘

and this full circledness is my (movie world) everything

Verdictgo: Jeepers Worth A Peepers

Irishman gets lucky on your Netflixing machines 

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

Jodie Foster (right) - I was thinking what a dumb thing it was to put my sister in an outfit to be my double in Taxi Driver. The child-welfare bureau had decided that a 12-year-old playing a part with such sexuality was a problem and insisted on a double for any shots that were physically suggestive. So my mom said: ‘I’ve got a great idea. Why don’t we bring your sister?‘ But honestly, what did that accomplish? Did they think that I was too young to understand the script; that I couldn’t delineate between being a prostitute and a regular person? But it was a really good excuse to have my sister hanging out with me in New York

Connie Foster (left) – I do remember thinking, Wow, my baby sister looks all grown up. She looks like me, even though there’s a seven-year age difference. I was not self-conscious in any way, shape or form. It was really what a young prostitute on the streets was wearing at that time. If anything, it was Halloween, and we were dressed up

photos by Steve Schapiro | interviews by Kathy Ryan

The Wolf of Wall Street
The Mighty Jordan Belfortification 
Official Website | Trailers & Mo
R | 179 min

Marty Scorsese made Goodfellas, arguably one of the greatest films ever made (I say even better than The Godfathers!), then directed a bunch of other stuff that wasn’t as grrrrrrrrrreat, then dropped Casino on us, which was not AS grrrrrrrrrreat great as Goodfellas was is, but what movie really is????, but it was so fcuking RAWesome and so close to being as grrrrrrrrrreat, but then he did a bunch of other movies that were good, but nothing like either of those two grrrrrrrrrreat and almost AS grrrrrrrrrreat masterpieces.  Well, the 18 year wait has paid off with The Wolf of Wall Street, which is not AS grrrrrrrrrreat as Casino, but oh so fcuking close to being so, and oh so fcuking RAWesome in its own right.  Bless you Marty.  BLESS YOU!!!!!!!!!

If you don’t know by now, Wolf is the VERY true story of Jordan Belfort, a small time scheming stockbroker who hit it big, at the expense of his clients.  Then lost it big, at the expense of those who helped him get there.  Jordan lived a life of BEYOND excess, and the film, adapted by Terence Winter from Belfort’s two books, displays this excess, and is excessive itself – clocking in at 1 minute under 3 hours!!!  And yet, not a single one of those manic, lude-filled minutes is wasted, even if Belfort, in the form of Leonardo DiCaprio, is wasted for about 96% of the movie  

Earlier this year, we saw DiCaprio live the extravagant life of another Long Island schemer, from another Wall Street friendly era, as the title Jay guy in Baz Luhrmann’s equally spastic The Great Gatsby. He was mainly reserved, with the energy and anger welled up, and his performance was udderly fantastic.  In Wolf, he’s the same guy, cept there’s nothing being reserved.  It’s all out on the table, being snorted, and then some (candle in the butt!!!) – marking DiCaprio’s single greatest performance (and dancing, see gif below) to date, which is some feat considering the list of unforgettable performances he’s handed in (Arnie from What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Howard Hughes in Marty’s The Aviator, and Mr Hoover in Eastwood’s underpraised/loved J Edgar)

Anywho, DiCaprio aint alone in making this a Scorsese pic score and a must sese.  There’s his right-hand toothy man who does his in-office dirty work - Jonah Hill (this kid can’t fail), his other right-hand man who does his out-of-office dirty work - Jon Bernthal (perfect as a meathead muscle), bitchy trophy wife - Margot Robbie (being VERY NSFWlicious), dad Rob Reiner (Rob fcuking Reiner!!!), the wolf hunting FBI agent - Kyle Chandler (LOVE LOVE LOVE seeing his face on the big screen), sleazy mentor – Matthew McConaughey (remember when he wasted his and our time starring in endless crappy movies?), swifty Swiss banker - Jean Dujardin (The Artist CAN talk), and every single one of Belforts underlings (with names changed to protect godknows who), and in particular, the bespectacle and bestpect-o-cool PJ Byrne

Wolf is like a third-rate Goodfellas, which means it’s a first rate picture of this year, which means it’s one of the best of 2013.  TEEN WOLF THAT SHIZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Verdictgo: Breast In Show Wolf is howls at a theater near jews

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

Hugo
Méliès-y Shady of Winner
Official Website | Trailers & Mo
PG | 127 min

So, there’s this orphan kid (Asa Butterfield) who lives and works in the clocks of a Parisian train station.  When he’s not being chased by Sacha Baron Cohen with a mustache, he’s trying to re-build Bicentennial man.  When he’s not doing that, he’s stealing stuff from cranky ole toymaker Ben Kingsley.  When he’s not doing that, he’s hanging out with Kingsley’s ‘daughter’ Chloë Moretz, who is way too mature hot for being a 14 year old.  399393939 movie hours pass of them two kids running around, causing minor mischief and making endless lil ragamuffin faces, while also borrowing books from Christopher Lee, and listening to a bearded Michael Stuhlbarg talk about his boner for pioneer filmmaker Georges Méliès

Wait, what does Méliès have to do with all this?  Well ya see, Kingsley is not only a cranky ole toymaker, but HE’S ALSO GEORGES MÉLIÈS!!!!  But he doesn’t care about movies anymore, CAUSE OF WORLD WAR and MOVIES BEING TURNED INTO SHOES or something, but the kids care and so does his wife (Helen McCrory) and so does Martin Scorsese, who turns the last brilliant third of this movie into a love letter to early cinema AND a giant PSA for film preservation!!

moral of the story: it’s a kid’s movie where all the great stuff is about the adults.  the kids stuff should have been thrown out the window and this baby shoulda been all about Méliès, cause Kingsley hands in a f#$king crowning achievement performance as the cinemagician.  also, there should have been a naughty sex scene between SB Cohen and Emily Mortimer.  also, the 3-D is not as great as everyone’s making it to be.  also, they should have cut out 98% of the kids stuff and replaced it with 3-D clips of how hot Louise Brooks was, or maybe with some modern 3-D hotness like this!

Toying Around: art imitates life

Verdictgo: last third is beyond breast in show, but the first two-thirds keeps it a Jeepers Mos Def Worth A Peepers

Hugo is quasi-moto-awesome currently in a theater near jews

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

but before we go, imagine if Asa and Kodi Smit-McPhee switched Chloë movies!!!  LET THIS IN!!!

Chloë 9ever!!!

Picasso and Braque
Go to the Movies
Gleaming The Cubism
Official Website

Drawing direct comparisons and correlations between two art forms is always a tricky venture.  In college, we wrote a paper about how the architecture of Le Corbusier stacked up against the painters of his time.  It was virtually impossible to find a straight relationship between any of it, and our low grade was a solid confirmation of juss how difficult it is to do.  That did not stop Arne Glimcher from trying, as his hour long doc Picasso and Braque Go to the Movies attempts to find the link between early cinema (and aviation?) and the birth of Cubism.  Martin Scorsese, Chuck Close, Julian Schnabel and numerous others add to the conversation, but in the end, the only conclusions one can draw are that ye olde movies were magical and revolutionary, and the paintings of Pablo and Georges are still stuff to marvel at.  Isn’t this already common knowledge?  Yer better off watching a separate doc on Thomas Edison and The Lumière Bros’ contributions to their art form, and another that examines Picasso and Braque’s avant-garde art movement.  Art snooze-o!

What The Fudge?: crazy lady talks about Martin Scorsese and her painting of him

Verdictgo: Sum Merit But No Stinkin Badges

Picasso & Braque go broke in NY only today

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…