Junta Juleil's Top 100: #65-61

65. MR. JEALOUSY (1997, Noah Baumbach)

"What would you do if I bit your face now... suddenly?" Gotta love MR. JEALOUSY. It offers astute, biting commentary on romantic relationships, daring to go to places of jealousy, resentment, and self-hatred where even dramatic films (much less comedies!) fear to tread. It offers bold 1930's-style screwball, mistaken identities, a ludicrous bit part by Peter Bogdanovich as Dr. Poke, the finest ever use of Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle," and tackles OCD, substitute teaching, Gustav Flaubert, and the eternal question of "Do people really spit in the communal coffee creamer?" It's well-populated by genius performances from the likes of Baumbach standbys like Eric Stoltz, Chris Eigeman, Annabella Sciorra, Carlos Jacott, and John Lehr, (and a great one from Baumbach newcomer Marianne Jean-Baptiste, fresh off of Mike Leigh's SECRETS AND LIES). Noah Baumbach himself even gets to prove that he was born to do voice-over narrations. And, of course, the excess budget brought us little-known gem that is HIGHBALL. In all, one of the best-written movies of the 90's, and a film so good that naturally Armond White's response was to call for Baumbach's retroactive abortion. If that doesn't prove you've made a great film, I don't know what does.

64. KNIGHTRIDERS (1982, George A. Romero)

"I'M FIGHTING THE DRAGON!" Yes, you certainly are, Ed Harris. You are, too, Mr. Romero. You have to fight the dragon, gentlemen, for you feel the moral imperative to do so. You live in a world of insanity, your options limited to being crushed beneath it's bootheel, lashing out madly, or retreating into oneself. In a way, this is the definitive counter-culture film. It unfolds with an ensemble-based subtlety that recalls the best Renoir and Altman. It reveals an ensemble of fully-developed, REAL characters trying to deal with existential confusion and a world gone mad, NOT, as the cover art might suggest, a group of medieval-themed bikers pillaging the countryside. Romero has taken timeless messages on brotherhood and sisterhood from the tales of King Arthur and languidly, thoughtfully, applied them to the modern era. George Romero is not merely a horror filmmaker, nor is he, in fact, merely a filmmaker. He is a philosopher, a poet, a sociologist and a true citizen of the world. I salute you, Mr. Romero, a man who unfailingly depicts the true heights and depths of humanity, whether it be in the midst of a zombie holocaust or while good friends bond over a quiet campfire. May you continue to grace us with such compassionate, thoughtful works. Also: Stephen King's cameo as a local yokel and Tom Savini's amazing "80's sell-out" costume receive my highest commendations.

63. THE CHANGELING (1980, Peter Medak)

I wrote previously that:
For the uninitiated, it must be said that the less you know about THE CHANGELING, the better, so I'll avoid revealing anything about the plot. Somehow the median point between Nicolas Roeg's DON'T LOOK NOW and the turn-of-the-century ghost stories of M.R. James, THE CHANGELING is a sheer force of atmospheric dread. Director Peter Medak is a master of effectively using space, foreboding architecture, and ornate interior design– as well as the roaming camera which captures them. In THE RULING CLASS (1972), he nearly turned the expansive Gurney estate into a character- an object of desire for some, and a turgid reminder of a centuries-old oligarchy to others. While it was not a 'horror' film in the purest sense, I feel as if Medak learned much back then, and merely had to subtly tweak his techniques in order to create a seriously sinister mood. The score, by Rick Wilkins, is hauntingly evocative, consisting of ever-flowing, swirling piano, surging and eddying like sudden rushes of air or a gentle, ghostly breaths. The cast is phenomenal: George C. Scott's stoic melancholy, Melvyn Douglas' tortured countenance, and Trish Van Devere's harried energy go a long way toward establishing the atmosphere. THE CHANGELING belongs to the genre which I call 'melancholy horror,' consisting of films like CASTLE FREAK or DEAD & BURIED. It's almost as if a shroud lies draped upon the film- a defeated sigh, a pensive look, a sense of loss. But make no mistake, this film is SCARY. Medak portrays the supernatural in a manner that, for me, is unmatched: to feel the otherworldly as an ominous presence that lingers just outside the frame- Kubrick does it in THE SHINING, Alan Parker does it in ANGEL HEART, Lynch does it in TWIN PEAKS, and Medak does it here. He doesn't have to rely on cheap 'sudden loud noise' scares, he builds a genuine sense of foreboding from the ground up, and takes the material very seriously. Without this film, there would be no RINGU (or, consequently, THE RING), THE OTHERS, or even THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE. It's one of the great ghost stories, unsullied by time, and as long as we fear the unknown, this film will continue to resonate.

62. KOYAANISQATSI (1983, Godfrey Reggio)

The hypnotically transcendent imagery of Godfrey Reggio (and DP Ron Fricke) and the transcendentally hypnotic music of Philip Glass are perhaps the perfect fusion of sound and image in film. Eschewing mere 'words' in favor of a view of the world from perhaps the omniscient vantage point of the "angel of history," Reggio brilliantly illustrates the process by which we are subverting– no, perverting the concept of a genuine, harmonious existence through almost every aspect of our modern society. It's a humbling film, one that places one's own insignificance into an even wider context; it makes our personal time and our personal space seem so very, very painfully small. When the bulldozers first appear after a series of idyllic landscapes, you want to cry "INTRUDER!," you want to destroy them and their faceless mechanical obscenity! It says more by saying less than FERNGULLY, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, AVATAR, CAPTAIN PLANET, and every other well-meaning environmental film combined, because it's intent is not to "recycle more" or "save the whales" or "prevent oil spills," its intent is to show us, quite graphically, how, for most of us, our entire lifestyles, from when we wake in the morning till when we go to sleep at night, from cradle to the grave, are (to use some of Hemingway's favorite terminology) inauthentic. It's not a problem that'll be solved through sorting the glass bottles from the plastic ones, nor from turning the A/C unit from high to low; it's a call to reinvent ourselves, to recreate what it means to be a human being in a society that has only been in existence for as long as a blink of the cosmic eye. It's a powerful film, and one of only a chosen few that dares show how irrevocably fucked and how painfully trivial we really are.

61. THE RED SHOES (1948, Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)

Astonishing spectacle and tempestuous melodrama in a ferocious blaze of wondrous Technicolor. I've sung the praises of Powell & Pressburger earlier in this countdown, but words cannot do this film justice. It's a true pleasure to the point of pain, and if you haven't seen it– goddammit, just see it. Here's a taste for the uninitiated.

Coming up next: Gutter poetry, drug addiction, and James Woods... And no– not all three at the same time!

Previously on the countdown:
#70-66
#75-71
#80-76
#85-81
#90-86
#95-91
#100-96
Runners-up Part 1
Runners-up Part 2

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Film Review: HIGHBALL (1997, Noah Baumbach)

Stars: 5 of 5.
Running Time: 74 minutes.
Notable Cast or Crew: Chris Reed (RUDY, MR. JEALOUSY), Lauren Katz (RUDY, MR. JEALOUSY), Noah Baumbach, John Lehr (MR. JEALOUSY, host of I'M A CELEBRITY, GET ME OUT OF HERE), Chris Eigeman (KICKING AND SCREAMING, METROPOLITAN), Peter Bogdanovich (director of THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, WHAT'S UP DOC?), Eric Stoltz (MASK, THE FLY II), Ally Sheedy (THE BREAKFAST CLUB, SHORT CIRCUIT), Rae Dawn Chong (COMMANDO, CHAINDANCE), Annabella Sciorra (MR. JEALOUSY, THE FUNERAL), Carlos Jacott (KICKING AND SCREAMING, BIG LOVE), Justine Bateman (FAMILY TIES, SATISFACTION), Dean Cameron (MEN AT WORK, ROCKULA). Written by Baumbach, Jacott, and Chris Reed. Produced by Joel Castleberg (KICKING AND SCREAMING, SLEEP WITH ME, MR. JEALOUSY).
Tag-line: "One year. Three parties. Twelve fools."
Best one-liner: "Di-annne! This kid vomited! And he reeks of liquor!"

Written and directed beneath the disguise of pseudonyms ("Ernie Fusco" and "Jesse Carter") and shot across six days on leftover money and film stock from MR. JEALOUSY, Noah Baumbach's HIGHBALL is, I dare say, a low-budge comic masterpiece which was marketed as a straight-to-video SWINGERS clone. You can hardly blame them, though- it's not like the 'overeducated, disaffected, metropolitan youth' subgenre had been packing 'em in since the heyday of late 70's Woody Allen. And while many have drawn parallels between these films and Allen's, I almost see 90's Noah Baumbach (KICKING AND SCREAMING, MR. JEALOUSY, HIGHBALL) and Whit Stillman (METROPOLITAN, BARCELONA, LAST DAYS OF DISCO) as a mini-genre unto themselves, especially separate from what came after: say, the stylistically bold, storybook forays of Wes Anderson; the meaner, more acerbic, post-2004 Baumbach; and the either too-hollow or too-mawkish latter-day fumblings of the so-called Mumblecore.

Shot inside someone's apartment with cheap, stark lighting and tinny sound, many will be put off by the low production value, but you A/V snobs will be ignoring one of the wittiest and best-acted comedy films in the last twenty years. I've watched HIGHBALL probably a dozen times (or more), and I'm left giddy with each viewing, always discovering a new background gag or some genius bit of throwaway dialogue. It's a cult film, and although the cult may be practically microscopic, my household is frequently home to "Everrrybody Fee-lix...it's Felix's birth-day," "Say hello to the other loooooosers," "I hope you like your beer tastin' good," "Little King Joachim," and other such obscure references that would surely baffle the non-HIGHBALL-initiated.

Though the cover art would have you believe that this film is about a Vegas lounge owned by the laid-back Eric Stoltz and run by his flashy cocktail waitress Annabella Sciorra, no element of the DVD cover has anything whatsoever to do with the film, not even Stoltz's and Sciorra's costumes or hairdos. (They do appear in the film, but as supporting characters.) Instead, we have Travis (Chris Reed) and Diane (Lauren Katz), a married Brooklyn couple whose (respective) desires to find an audience for closet-brewed beer and to recreate the French salons of the 18th Century provide the impetus for the film's triptych of parties: Birthday, Halloween, and New Year's.


Because attempting to describe the film's best gags and one-liners would merely be an exercise in watering them down, I'll instead give a rundown of the cast, many of whom will be easily recognizable to fans of semi-sophisticated 90's independent cinema.

Carlos Jacott, also a co-writer, nearly steals the movie as Felix, a character described as a man without a personality, and "if he did have one, deep down, it'd probably be some kind of an asshole." He expresses near-constant disdain, feeds six-year-olds booze, and presides over a host of spectacularly uncomfortable moments.

Jacott (left) exchanges words with Noah Baumbach.

Then we got Chris Eigeman, who's a personal hero of mine.

Sure, he usually just plays 'himself,' but when your self is as effortlessly deadpan and likably droll as Eigeman, you should be allowed to do whatever the hell you want.

There's John Lehr as the obnoxious, long-haired record store employee, er, I mean, record company employee.

Lehr, center, introduces his date (Justine Bateman) to his host (Chris Reed).

Playing an over-the-top goofus is a difficult feat to pull off without drawing the audience's ire, but Lehr is more than up to the task. Why he doesn't get more work (when mainstream comedy is teeming with untalented people playing goofuses) is beyond me.

Then we got Rae Dawn Chong and Ally Sheedy as themselves.


"Ally- was it...SHEEDY?"

And they're just famous enough for the gag to work perfectly. I.e., "Are you gonna go out there and tell Ally Sheedy to put out her cigarette?"

There's Peter Bogdanovich, who probably worked for free under the guarantee that he could pack in as many celebrity impersonations as was humanly possible for the duration.

And he does.

Eric Stoltz is the sensitive "star person" who "happens to know a lot of well-known people" delivers an excellent low-key performance in a film full of flashy ones (as he did in KICKING AND SCREAMING),

Baumbach himself plays a nebbish of sorts and reveals an acting talent that certainly deserves more exposure outside the occasional walk-on,

"How could you not know you look like Hitler?"

Dean Cameron shows up in a bit part as a recovering alcoholic magician whose final show does not disappoint,

'THE MAGIC MAN'

Noah's real-life dad Jonathan shows up as a creepy old man, Justine Bateman appears as a sad-sack hippie space cadet turned pleather-dress-wearing bon vivant, and Annabella Sciorra pops up as an elitist bitch and sometime wingwoman of Jacott's character. There's Stephen Foster references, dueling lizard costumes, and the choice between home brew and Malibu. There's amusingly unexpected character transformations, misuse of candy corn, and the marvelous collision of goofiness and sophistication. I'll say that this is the ultimate party movie for people who generally dislike 'party movies.' Not bad for six days.

Five stars.

-Sean Gill

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