Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, continuing down the F list in Music – I have everything organized by artist, first name first – now playing, one of the great underrated soundtrack composers, Fred Karlin, who I was very happy to call a friend and collaborator – we made two wonderful movie theme albums together with world class musicians. One of the nicest guys ever. Currently playing is his very atmospheric score for The Stalking Moon. I discovered him with his first score – Robert Mulligan’s great film of Bel Kaufman’s almost unfilmable Up the Down Staircase, one of my favorite movies of the 1960s and what a debut score Karlin wrote – fitting the movie like a glove and doing everything a film score should do. I bought the soundtrack album the day it came out and played it to death and beyond. If for some reason you’ve never seen Up the Down Staircase, do something about it right now. Sandy Dennis is the best she’s ever been in this film, and the kids, none of whom were actors prior to the film, are great. The teachers are all played by veteran New York character actors, although the film’s best supporting performance goes to Patrick Bedford as a thoughtless English teacher. I’m surprised he didn’t get more work out of it, frankly. He was an Irish actor, Tony-nominated for Philadelphia, Here I Come. His only film appearance prior to Up the Down Staircase was a bit role in Orson Welles’ Chimes at Midnight. Then it was some TV movies – only one other film in 1976. But he did a lot of New York theater and starred as John Adams in the national tour of 1776, which played here and which I wish I’d seen. Anyway, we loved Mr. Karlin and his music and his person – died way too young at sixty-seven, just six years after we made our albums. I did manage to watch a motion picture last night – finally – entitled The Assignment (original title (re)Assignment, starring Michelle Rodriguez, Sigourney Weaver, Tony Shalhoub, and Anthony La Paglia, co-written and directed by Walter Hill. It’s very amusing to read the bad reviews this got by a bunch of critics who are probably sorry they wrote them. But that’s the way it is – knee-jerk reactions. Walter Hill said it best in an interview about this movie and his entire impetus to make it the B-movie it is: “You know, the kind of movie that doesn’t get much love when it comes out, but you love watching it on TV years later, much more than you do the ‘big’ movies of the day. And that was certainly my experience. I think all the bad reviews missed the entire point of the movie, which is sadly typical, just as the erred about Wonderstruck back then, and others like it.
When scenes fade to a graphic novel panel it should clue you in that that’s the style and point of the film. Once you understand that, everything in the movie, stylistically makes sense. I found it very entertaining as a pulpy, contrived film that knows exactly what it is. No, it’s no brilliant masterpiece, but it IS the stuff that cult movies are made of. It’s extremely well directed with panache, Ms. Rodriguez, not one of my favorite actors, does well in her role, and Sigourney Weaver is really good in hers. The plot is fairly outrageous (it’s a vengeance film, with two people specifically getting the vengeance. There’s no real character to root for, but I just went along for the ride and for its run time of ninety-three minutes I was never bored, I laughed a few times, and it always held my interest. It’s not for everyone, but for those who like this sort of pulpy, out-there movie, I can recommend it. Giorgio Morodor provided the “themes” – such as they are, while another composer I never heard of is credited with making those into a score. It really does play just like a graphic novel. Great photography, too.
Otherwise, I think I got around five hours of sleep (who remembers – I guess I could look at the post from when I got up but I’m too lazy to do so), once up I answered e-mails, had a small chocolate croissant left over from Panera and took pill one. Then I did some cleaning up, and then I read about a new burger Shake Shack has introduced, a French onion soup burger that sounded intriguing. So, even though it was early, I ordered it and their new onion rings. All arrived around noon, and I went right to the burger, which was, thankfully, still warm. The single patty version, which is what I got, is supposedly a quarter pounder, but I don’t think it was – it was pretty tiny. The first few bites were intriguing – very sweet – and then it just became tiresome once halfway through. No need to have it again. The onion rings, on the other hand, were really good. They’re both special items that won’t be around long, probably.
After that, I did more catching up. I couldn’t leave the house because the fellow in the back house had his moving people here and they were blocking the driveway, and I didn’t feel like going out anyway. So, around four-thirty I had a peanut butter and jam English muffin so I could take pill two and the other pills. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish and instantly fell asleep for around ninety minutes. It’s crazy. Then I began the movie and during a commercial break I ordered some orange chicken extra crispy from a Studio City jernt called City Wok. I’d gotten soup and egg rolls from there and gave them a five-star Yelp review, but I’d never thought to give the orange chicken a try. I was prepared to hate it, so got the small version with white rice. It arrived pretty quickly and guess what? It was really good and boy did they do extra crispy just the way I like it. I ate it all up, let me tell you that. I’ll be getting it again and doing an updated review. I may even try some other things there, too. Very fresh and just so nice after all the disappointments, including the formerly great Genghis Cohen.
Then I finished the movie and here we are.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll have me a ME day, I may go to the mail place should there be anything there, and I may do the Cheesecake Factory in the afternoon – they have three new small plate items, and I may have those three tiny things, then get a Caesar salad with chicken to take home. We shall see. Other than that, I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow will be more of the same and perhaps the large version of the orange chicken extra crispy or the small version and another small thing with it. Then next week, I’m hoping we wrap up act one’s tracks so we can routine act two’s songs and get those done. I’m also hoping to hear something about the missing drive, we’re going to do a test mix with one of the extracted vocals to see how I like it, and I have a few other things going on. We also have to figure out dates for casting as soon as October rolls around.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, have a ME day, maybe go to the mail place, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What movies that critics absolutely hated did you like? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had extra crispy the way extra crispy should be, just like today’s notes.