Take a trip back to the past with these pulp paperback covers, all of which were done by illustrator Carl Bobertz.
Daily Archives: January 22, 2018
Sundance Film Review: Blue Caprice (dir by Alexandre Moors)
(The Sundance Film Festival is currently taking place in Utah. This week, I am reviewing films that premiered at and/or received a prize at Sundance. Tonight, I take a look at the 2013 film, Blue Caprice.)
When we first meet Lee (Tequan Richmond), he is fifteen years old and living in poverty in Antigua. One morning, he watches as his mother gets in a car with a strange man. Before she goes, she tells Lee that she has no choice but to leave and that she will return. Lee says nothing as his mother is driven away.
Lee’s mother doesn’t return. Lee spends his time sitting in an empty house. He wanders through the nearby woods. Sometimes, he goes to a nearby town and walks around aimlessly. It’s in that town where he first sees John (Isaiah Washington). John is an American who is living on the island with his three children. John spots Lee watching him and soon, Lee is eating dinner at John’s house. John’s children ask if Lee is going to be living with them. John says that he doesn’t know. They ask if they can see their mother. John explains that, if they see their mother, they’ll no longer be able to spend time with him.
Months later, John and Lee are in Tacoma, Washington. The children are back with their mother. John tells Lee that America is full of lies. He says that all women lie. He says that the army lied to him. John says that he just wants to get his children back. John tells everyone that they meet that Lee is his son. John says that he loves Lee but, when John visits an old girlfriend, he has no hesitation about telling Lee to go walk around for a while. Lee ends up staring at the speaker at a fast food drive-through in amazement. “Do you have cheap burgers?” he asks.
John and Lee keep moving and eventually end up living with an old army friend of John’s. Ray (Tim Blake Nelson) is a good-natured redneck. He enjoys playing video games, smoking weed, and shooting guns. When Lee shoots one of Ray’s guns, Ray declares Lee to be a natural. John stares at the gun in Lee’s hand.
When he’s not trying to track down his ex-wife and children, John trains Lee. He ties Lee up and abandons him in the woods, forcing Lee to figure out how to escape. (“DAD!” Lee shouts as John walks away from him.) He gives Lee a sniper manual to study. He explains to Lee that the first step to destroying society is to make people panic. He says that it’s important to kill random people. After killing a man, they’ll kill a woman. After killing a woman, they’ll kill a child. No one will feel safe. When Lee shows reluctance about John’s plans, John demands to know if Lee loves him…
Blue Caprice is based on a true story. In 2002, John Muhammad and Lee Malvo shot 27 people in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., killing 17 of them. The title of the film comes from the car that Muhammad and Malvo lived in during their shooting spree. Significantly, throughout the film, John and Lee are referred to only by their first names. Though the film may have been inspired by their actual crimes, Blue Caprice never claims to be an exact recreation of what happened. Instead, the film speculates about how John was able to turn a directionless teenager into a killer.
It makes for a chilling film. Isaiah Washington plays John as being a chameleon, a man who is so empty on the inside that he’s become very good at fooling people into believing that he’s whatever they want him to be. John is the type who can spend the morning plotting to overthrow the government, the afternoon trying to fool a school principal into telling him where his children are now living, and the evening grilling burgers and laughing with the neighbors. The film leaves no doubt to John’s evil but it’s attitude towards Lee is more ambiguous. Tequan Richmond captures the transformation of Lee from being a withdrawn teenager to a cold-blooded killer. Was Lee capable of being a killer before he met John or was he transformed by the older man? That’s the question that both the film and the audience struggles with.
Blue Caprice got good reviews when it played at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, thought it was ultimately overshadowed by Fruitvale Station. It’s a disturbing film and not an optimistic one, which is perhaps why, post-Sundance, it never received quite as much attention as it deserved. It may not be a pleasant film to watch but it is one that definitely leaves an impression.
Previous Sundance Film Reviews:
What If Lisa Picked The Oscar Nominees: 2017 Edition
With the Oscar nominations due to be announced tomorrow, now is the time that the Shattered Lens indulges in a little something called, “What if Lisa had all the power.” Listed below are my personal Oscar nominations. Please note that these are not the films that I necessarily think will be nominated. The fact of the matter is that the many of them will not. Instead, these are the films that would be nominated if I was solely responsible for deciding the nominees this year. Winners are starred and listed in bold.
(You’ll also note that I’ve added four categories, all of which I believe the Academy should adopt — Best Voice-Over Performance, Best Casting, Best Stunt Work, and Best Overall Use Of Music In A Film.)
(Click on the links to see my nominations for 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010!)
Best Picture
The Disaster Artist
Kedi
Lady Bird
The Meyerowitz Stories
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best Director
Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird
Patty Jenkins for Wonder Woman
*David Lowery for A Ghost Story*
Martin McDonagh for Three Billboard Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Andy Muschietti for It
Edgar Wright for Baby Driver
Best Actor
*Sam Elliott in The Hero*
James Franco in The Disaster Artist
Jake Gyllenhaal in Stronger
Daniel Kaluuya in Get Out
James McAvoy in Split
Robert Pattinson in Good Time
Best Actress
Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman
Sally Hawkins in Maudie
Frances McDormand in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Cynthia Nixon in A Quiet Passion
Aubrey Plaza in Ingrid Goes West
*Saoirse Ronan in Lady Bird*
Best Supporting Actor
Woody Harrelson in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Sam Rockwell in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Adam Sandler in The Meyerowitz Stories
Bill Skarsgard in It
*Patrick Stewart in Logan*
Jason Sudekis in Colossal
Best Supporting Actress
Holly Hunter in The Big Sick
Catherine Keener in Get Out
Sophia Lillis in It
*Laurie Metcalf in Lady Bird*
Carey Mulligan in Mudbound
Ella Rumpf in Raw
Best Voice-Over or Stop Motion Performance
Will Arnett in The LEGO Batman Movie
Gael Garcia Bernal in Coco
Bradley Cooper in Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 2
Doug Jones in The Shape of Water
*Andy Serkis in War for the Planet of the Apes*
Dan Stevens in Beauty and the Beast
Best Original Screenplay
Get Out
*Lady Bird*
The Meyerowitz Stories
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best Adapted Screenplay
Before I Fall
*The Disaster Artist*
Their Finest
Best Animated Film
Cars 3
Coco
Leap!
Best Documentary Feature
Karl Marx City
*Kedi*
Risk
Step
Strong Island
32 Pills: My Sister’s Suicide
Best Foreign Language Film
First They Killed My Father
Frantz
*Kedi*
Best Casting
Detroit
Dunkirk
Get Out
Lady Bird
*The Meyerowitz Stories*
Best Cinematography
Dunkirk
Lost City of Z
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best Costume Design
The Beguiled
Thor: Ragnarok
Best Editing
Before I Fall
Dunkirk
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
The Disaster Artist
Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2
Lady MacBeth
Logan Lucky
My Cousin Rachel
*Thor: Ragnarok*
Best Original Score
*Good Time*
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water
Wind River
Best Original Song
“Buddy’s Business” from Brawl In Cell Block 99
“Evermore” from Beauty and the Beast
“Friends are Family” from The Lego Batman Movie
“How Does A Moment Last Forever” from Beauty and the Beast
“Myron/Byron” from The Meyerowitz Stories
*”The Pure and the Damned” from Good Time*
Best Overall Use Of Music
Atomic Blonde
The Disaster Artist
Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2
Thor: Ragnarok
Best Production Design
The Beguiled
Thor: Ragnarok
Best Sound Editing
*Dunkirk*
War For The Planet of the Apes
Best Sound Mixing
*Dunkirk*
War For The Planet of the Apes
Best Stuntwork
Dunkirk
Thor: Ragnarok
Best Visual Effects
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Thor: Ragnarok
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
*War For The Planet of the Apes*
Films Listed By Number of Nominations
9 Nominations — Wonder Woman
7 Nominations — Baby Driver, Dunkirk, It, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri
6 Nominations — A Ghost Story, Lady Bird, Thor: Ragnarok
5 Nominations — Beauty and the Beast, The Disaster Artist, The Meyerowitz Stories
4 Nominations — The Big Sick, Blade Runner 2049, Get Out, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Logan, Spider-Man: Homecoming, War For The Planet Of The Apes
3 Nominations — Good Time, Kedi, The LEGO Batman Movie
2 Nominations — Before I Fall, The Beguiled, Coco, Kong: Skull Island, Raw, Shape of Water
1 Nominations — Atomic Blonde, Brawl in Cell Block 99, Cars 3, Colossal, Detroit, First They Killed My Father, Frantz, Free Fire, The Hero, Ingrid Goes West, It Comes At Night, Karl Marx City, Lady MacBeth, Leap!, Logan Lucky, Lost City of Z, Maudie, Mudbound, My Cousin Rachel, A Quiet Passion, Risk, Split, Step, Strong Island, Stronger, T2: Trainspotting, Their Finest, 32 Pills: My Sister’s Suicide, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Victoria & Abdul, Wind River
Films Listed By Number of Wins
3 Oscars — A Ghost Story, Lady Bird
2 Oscars — Baby Driver, Dunkirk, Good Time, Kedi, War For the Planet of the Apes, Wonder Woman
1 Oscar — Beauty and the Beast, The Disaster Artist, The Hero, The LEGO Batman Movie, Logan, The Meyerowitz Stories, Thor: Ragnarok
Will the Academy be smart enough to agree with me? Probably not. We’ll see what happens tomorrow!
Artwork of the Day: Line-Up Detective (Artist Unknown)
Music Video Of The Day: Invisible by Ashlee Simpson (2006, dir by Marc Webb)
This song, to be honest, is a bit of an inside joke between me and my BFF, the wonderful Evelyn. Way back in 2007, whenever we wanted to be annoying or cute or whatever, we would start singing this song.
Of course, our version was a bit more aggressive than the Ashlee Simpson version. Whereas Ashlee sang the song as an anthem of survival (this was after the whole Saturday Night Live lip syncing thing), Evelyn and I turned it into a declaration of war. Now you’re saying you knew me when I was invisible? That was your first and final mistake, pendeja…
Of course, just as Evelyn and I were doing out own cover of Ashlee Simpson, Ashlee Simpson was doing a cover herself. Invisible was originally written and performed by Kira Leyden and Jeff Andrea of the Ohio-based band, Jaded Era.
As for the video of Ashlee’s version, it is mostly notable for having been directed by Marc Webb. Webb, of course, would go on to direct (500) Days of Summer*, the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man movies, and Gifted. (I don’t care what anyone says. I like (500) Days of Summer.) The video was inspired by Million Dollar Baby and was shot on the same set as that film.
Enjoy!
Through the Shattered Lens 