PARENTS BLU-RAY review

Meet the Laemle's. At first glance they're your typical 50s American family... Dad goes to work every day whilst Mom stays at home doing housework and preparing dinner for her 10 year old son, Michael. Except Michael isn't your average child, and he's starting to question why they have leftovers for dinner every night, and what were they before they were leftovers?

Pitched somewhere between Tim Burton's Pee Wee's Big Adventure and David Lynch's Blue Velvet, Parents is a very weird film about a very weird family. Main character Michael (Bryan Madorsky) is not a chip off the old block, generally scared and concerned about who his parents really are behind the sheen of suburban harmony. Dad (Randy Quaid) may be all comfortable sweaters and horn-rimmed glasses on the surface, but his job at Toxico doing experiments on cadavers hides something sinister about the man inside the sweater; and Mom (Mary Beth Hurt) may look like she's straight off the cover of a family cookbook, but there's definitely some strange ingredients in her recipes.

Directed by character actor Bob Balaban, probably best known for his appearance in Close Encounters of the Third Kind or his more recent work with Wes Anderson (or maybe just as Phoebe's dad in Friends), it's always interesting to see what material drives actors to make their first film behind the camera. Although this was Balaban's first theatrical directorial effort back in 1989, he had previously (and has primarily since) worked in television, perhaps most pertinent to this film on the pilot episode of the television series Tales from the Darkside.

Featuring orchestral music by David Lynch regular Angelo Badalamenti, Parents has a dark and sombre tone not unlike Twin Peaks, but as a dark suburban fantasy it nails the weirdness whilst never quite managing to be scary or gripping enough to match the world created by Lynch and Frost, which to be fair, is probably asking too much of this film. Kind of like a junior school version of Society, it works best when the smiles of this perfect nuclear family start to crack and Mom and Dad start to reveal their dark secrets, although Michael is such a weird little boy it's up for debate as to how real what he thinks he sees is.

The sole acting credit for Bryan Madorsky, he's great at playing the kind of kid you'd be worried about your own offspring hanging out with, like a young Norman Bates in waiting. He never does anything more irrational than worry about his own safety, but still... you just sort of know he's a weird kid. But Madorsky is more than capable of holding his own against the likes of Randy Quaid - a man not afraid of putting in a big performance when asked to do so-, and he has some great scenes with Mary Beth Hurt's Mom, like a deadpan Wednesday Addams interacting with Laura Linney's super chipper housewife from The Truman Show.

Make no bones about it, Parents is an extremely odd, sometimes sinister and occasionally disgusting vision of the perfect 1950s suburban life, and although you many never find yourself corpsing with laughter, it's an eccentric and curious oddity that raises a few smiles in its downright weirdness.

Verdict
3/5

Special Features-
- Commentary from director Bob Balaban and producer Bonnie Palef
- Isolated score and interview with composer Jonathan Elias
- 'Mother's Day' - a new interview with Mary Beth Hurt
- 'Inside Out' - an interview with director of photography Robin Vidgeon
- 'Vintage Tastes' - with decorative consultant Yolanda Cuomo
- Theatrical trailer
- Radio spots
- Stills gallery

Moonrise Kingdom Trailer

My goodness, it seems like an age since Wes Anderson last had a movie out, but this new trailer for Moonrise Kingdom rewards our patience with what looks to be his most fun film in years.

[the films of] Wes Anderson

Following on from YouTube user keesvdijkhuizen's awesome Sofia Coppola compilation from a couple of months back (and the annoyingly un-embeddable David Fincher follow up), we now have one celebrating the work of one of my favourite directors, Wes Anderson.


For me, the thing that's highlighted most from this video is the re-appearances of those actors who make up Anderson's de-facto repertory company. Surprisingly not just based around Bill Murray, it was the faces of Jason Schwartzman and Luke Wilson and their ever changing facial hair that I noticed the most. Added to that all of the Anderson staples are present (the slo-mo, the excellent soundtrack, the frankly amazing costuming), and are being quite rightly celebrated. 


The only thing missing? I think Kees has missed a trick by not putting the text into Anderson's favourite font Futura Bold, but maybe that was a little bit too nail-on-the-head obvious for him. The thing that Kees has managed to achieve in these videos is making you want to stop what you're doing so you can go and watch all of the respective directors filmography immediately. If you're not a fan of Wes Anderson's films (what's wrong with you?), this video has the potential to make you give them a second chance, and it's in that respect that these videos are so much more than your average, hastily cut YouTube fan compilation.


Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off for a Wes Anderson marathon.

Being Bill Murray

Someone had the bright idea to do an exhibition of art based on the films of Wes Anderson, called Bad Dads. It's over in San Francisco so of course I can't go, but there's stuff from a whole bunch of artists that's pretty cool. One guy, Casey Weldon, has imagined what it would be like if Bill Murray played all the major Wes Anderson roles for some bizarre 'Malkovich Malkovich' reason. These are some peculiar portraits that show his talent as an artist, but perhaps also his need for a touch of therapy. Just kidding.

I find these at best disturbing, but I'm pretty sure I'm still going to make one of them my new Facebook profile picture. Maybe the Margot one.


via Slashfilm.

Adverts-a-gogo

If there was ever any doubt that Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola were two cool motor-scooters, this new advert the pair have directed for Stella Artois pretty much answers my question.
It almost makes me want to start drinking.


On the rounds to find that video, I also found this recently released ad by Coppola featuring his cousin Jason Schwartzman. It's for the New Yorker app for the iPad, so on many levels is selling me a lifestyle I know nothing of...but it's still effortlessly cool. Man, I wish I was friends with these guys.

TOP 5 - Saturday Night Live Stars

Will Ferrell's new movie The Other Guys is out in cinemas this weekend, and it got me thinking about the careers of other former Saturday Night Live stars. Keep reading to find out my TOP 5 former SNL stars who've managed to launch a successful film career.


More after the jump...