ISSUE #14
BEAM FROM THE BOOTH | GRAND RAPIDS FILM SOCIETY
[EDITED BY: GRIFFIN SHERIDAN]
Welcome to an all-new installment of BEAM FROM THE BOOTH, brought to you by GRAND RAPIDS FILM SOCIETY!
Last night, we hosted our second FILM SOCIETY ROUNDTABLE social event. The evening was full of fantastic discussion between three specified groups: filmmaking, screenwriting, and cinephilia. A huge thanks to all 50 of you who joined us last night and brought all your wonderful thoughts and perspectives to those chats. We can’t wait to host you all again. Stay tuned to this space to be the first to know when we’ll be hosting our next social!
We want to bring a couple of upcoming events to your attention at the top this issue. In just a couple weeks, on May 24th, we’ll be hosting yet another OPEN PROJECTOR NIGHT to showcase another selection of stellar short films from MI filmmakers! And early next month, we are so excited to be screening HOW TO BLOW UP A PIPELINE, which will also feature a Grand Rapids Film Society exclusive recorded Q&A with some of the filmmakers. Mark your calendars for June 8th to be sure you don’t miss the special one-night-only screening of this thrilling film.
But before either of those, we have a screening coming up next week! We highly encourage you all to join us THIS MONDAY (5/15) at 8:00pm for a delicious, appetizing, and sexy food-on-film classic: the 1985 “ramen western” TAMPOPO.
David is going to tell you more about the film to kick us off this week…
A TAMPOPO FOREWORD
[BY: DAVID BLAKESLEE]
For the second consecutive week, GRFS is celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage month with another Japanese film. Tampopo was released in 1985, a dozen years after last week’s feature Lady Snowblood (1973). Though the films were released in fairly close proximity from today’s vantage point, they each epitomize very different aspects of that nation’s cinematic traditions. While they do share a significant link in common (cinematographer Masaki Tamura was behind the camera in both films), they stake claims to different territories in their nation’s cultural landscape.
Whereas Lady Snowblood looks back with grim intensity to a transitional period of Japanese history that occurred a century before the film was released, Tampopo is a warm, jovial, and imminently lovable portrayal of Japanese society in the moment it was made. To be fair, both films are capable of evoking laughter from the audience, but in the case of Lady Snowblood, the laughs are relatively rare, and almost always of the nervous “WTF did I just see?” variety as the title character relentlessly pursues her blood-soaked mission of vengeance. By contrast, Tampopo wins over its audience via a steady stream of life-affirming chuckles as we emotionally bond with the charming characters that director/screenwriter Juzo Itami parades before us in this free-wheeling amble through the lives of working-class people just looking for a satisfying bowl of ramen noodle soup in between the mundane struggles they deal with in their everyday lives.
Styled and promoted as a “ramen western” (a play on the concept of the “spaghetti westerns” made in 1960s Italy that vaulted the careers of Clint Eastwood, Sergio Leone, and many others to global prominence), Tampopo features a delightful adaptation of common tropes familiar to that genre: barroom brawls, salt-of-the-earth heroic protagonists vs. malevolently hellbent bad guys, and ever-mounting tension that is finally relieved in a climactic showdown that settles all the scores. Even the musical soundtrack has cues that signal moments of rousing adventure, diligent preparation for the final duel, the ominous entry of villains, quotes from symphonic classics, and cheerful interludes of comic relief. Also: slurping. Indeed, the sounds of slurping are given several minutes of dedicated screen time for us to consider them in a variety of textures and contexts — to the point that it becomes a tactile auditory sensation for the viewer.
My purpose here is not to provide a full review of the film, but mainly to entice readers to join us at Wealthy Theatre on Monday night, May 15th, to be a part of what I expect will be a joyous communal experience. I’ve seen Tampopo a few times at home on Blu-ray, and it’s never been less than a delightful two hours of engaged amusement. But this feels like a movie that is best consumed in the company of an appreciative audience. If you’ve seen the film before, just imagine how wonderful it will be to see these scenes play out on the big screen, from the opening fourth-wall busting intro to the tender, primordial beauty of the final shot. If you have yet to personally make Tampopo’s acquaintance, trust me, you will swiftly come to love it...and there won’t be a better chance to get to know the film here in Grand Rapids in the foreseeable future!
SUBMIT TO GRAND RAPIDS FILM FESTIVAL!
We know there are a number of filmmakers subscribed to this newsletter, so we would be remiss to not bring this to your attention— submissions for the 2023 Grand Rapids Film Festival are now OPEN!
The Grand Rapids Film Festival is looking for quality feature films, short films, music videos, and commercials that are bold, creative, and inclusive. Our vision is to implement regular events that combine content creation from multiple mediums for maximum impact.
The early bird deadline for submissions is in just a couple weeks on May 31st, and the standard deadline is July 7th. The festival is set to take place this fall from September 22nd to the 24th.
For further information or to submit your film, visit GRFF’s Film Freeway page.
GUILTY PLEASURE CINEMA: PART I
Ah, “guilty pleasure” films. Everyone has one, some of us even have many of them! The films that we quietly enjoy when we need a pick-me-up or put on for a group of friends to try and convince them of its finer qualities; films that the cultural consciousness has deemed ‘objectively bad’ but we love nonetheless. In this special MULTI-PART column, members of the GRFS board will share some of their own guilty pleasure films, starting with...
CALEB JENKINS:
Babes in Toyland (Donner, 1986)
Perhaps finding out people's guilty pleasure films is how we learn who they really are. I could watch (and quote) Pee-Wee's Big Adventure anytime, but that has a way deeper meaning to me for how much I love character actors like Paul Reubens, Jim Varney and Rowan Atkinson...something I'll write more about another time.
I'm going to go with: Babes in Toyland (1986). This is a remake of the 1960s Disney version. I remember watching this movie on winter nights at my grandparent's house. It's a made-for-TV musical about a young Drew Barrymore who, during a winter snowstorm, falls out the back of her brother's Jeep (played by Keanu Reeves). He plays her brother, not the Jeep...but that's not a bad idea. ANYWAY, she's thrust into a Christmas toyland complete with cookie factory, ripoff nursery-rhyme characters, and an army of life-size wooden toy soldiers. Oh, and the entire town is at the mercy of the evil Barnaby Barnacle (Richard Mulligan) who lives in a giant bowling ball filled with nasty trolls and vulture-like monsters. Yep. Anytime the cookie crumbles, I can watch this movie and feel better.
BREANA MALLOY:
ROMANTIC COMEDIES (ALL OF THEM)
I was a bit of a late bloomer when it came to watching arthouse and critically-acclaimed films. Before I went into the film program at Grand Valley, I had probably only seen a handful of those films. Now, I know what fits into these parameters is somewhat subjective, but I think we can all agree that there are films — even genres — that are viewed as lesser quality, and you shouldn’t say you like them. Although my palette has evolved over the years, I still enjoy the classic ‘guilty pleasure’ film.
My guilty pleasure is a genre: I LOVE romantic comedies...more specifically ones made during the early 2000s (the cheesier the better). People seem to hate many of these films due to poorly-aged lines or because of the tropes they reinforce. I do not pretend that those aspects don’t exist, but I choose to enjoy the films despite those things. I have a few favorites that I have watched so many times I can’t keep count anymore.
I watched movies such as A Cinderella Story, Legally Blonde, Sleepover, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and She’s the Man on repeat. I watch them much less now, but they still hold a special place in my heart. At the end of it all, I don’t think loving these less acclaimed films make my opinions any more or less valid or important. I just separate my film viewing into two separate fields. My love of early 2000s rom-coms is just for pleasure. I don’t watch them for the camera movements or life-changing plots/character arc, and I wouldn’t say any of them are one of the best movies ever made. I just watch them because I enjoy it, and they remind me of childhood.
DAIVD BLAKESLEE:
Eegah (Hall Sr, 1962)
My understanding of the whole "guilty pleasure" concept is that it describes our enthusiastic enjoyment of entertainment that's lacking in quality or otherwise seen as unworthy of respect or appreciation, especially by anyone who aspires to be counted among the intelligentsia. It's an alibi of sorts for that rare breed of artistic connoisseur (like myself) who recognizes greatness upon first encounter and refuses to compromise their aesthetic sophistication by embracing popular tastes, but for very personal, highly defensible reasons is still willing to express approval of a cultural artifact that many of their peers would dismiss as contemptible trash.
So with that apology now in the public record, let me proclaim my enduring love for Eegah. Unless you're a student of that obscure sub-generic canon of ‘worst movies ever made,’ it's likely that you haven't heard much about this low-budget teensploitation romp from 1962. While it does feature an early performance in the title role by Richard Kiel (who stood 7' 2" and whose acting claim to fame was two appearances as the assassin nicknamed "Jaws" in a pair of late-70s James Bond movies), everyone else associated with the film now rests in well-deserved cinematic obscurity. The story concerns Eegah, the last survivor of a tribe of cave dwellers who lives in the mountains outside Palm Springs. For reasons that are never plausibly explained, Eegah comes down from his craggy dwelling one night, shocks a young woman heading out for a midnight swim, and then swiftly retreats to safety. His unexpected appearance stokes the curiosity of the locals, leading to an expedition to apprehend the wild savage which of course ends up with a litany of B-movie horror and drive-in schlock cliches: corny attempts at humor, ridiculous jump scares, blustery absurd fight/action sequences, and a heavy-handed effort to impart a ‘moral of the story’ by quoting a biblical passage from Genesis asserting that "there were giants on the earth in those days.”
So yeah, there is plenty to scoff and giggle at in Eegah, and of course the movie was thoroughly roasted by the MST3K crew back in the day. But my affection for the film goes well beyond a haughty sense of superiority over the moronic content or the ineptitude of the actors and filmmakers. What really seals Eegah to my heart as a genuine guilty pleasure is just how misguided the entire production is in its attempt to somehow launch the career of Arch Hall, Jr. as some kind of teen idol heartthrob. He was the son of the film's director and producer Arch Hall, Sr., who also had a prominent onscreen role as the voice of elder wisdom, even though he disguised his infamy by adopting a pseudonym in the credits. Apparently, the dad had a rather condescending view of what the kids of 1962 were looking for in their next favorite pop star — or maybe it was just a case of the son being chronically incapable of realizing the vision that his father had in mind. We get more than our fill of Arch Hall Jr. singing forlorn love ballads, whistling through his teeth between schmaltzy rhymes, and engaging in the occasional bout of fisticuffs when he's not shredding the desert sands in his hopped-up dune buggy. It's quite an audacious performance simply for the scale of sheer awfulness he shamelessly allowed to be captured on film.
Eegah is an objectively, factually, indisputably terrible movie, but one that I will turn to time and again when I simply need to unwind and lose myself in the vacuous cultural wasteland of mid-20th century USA and the delusional ambitions of those who sought to cash in on their warped vision of the American Dream.
*****
Check back next week for Part II!
UPCOMING EVENTS
TAMPOPO (Jûzô Itami, 1985)
WHAT: A band of ramen ronin who guide the widow of a noodle shop owner on her quest for the perfect recipe. An all-new 4K restoration of this classic example of food on film!
WHEN: Monday, May 15th, 8:00pm
WHERE: The Wealthy Theatre
OPEN PROJECTOR NIGHT
WHAT: A program of selected short films from MI filmmakers!
WHEN: Wednesday, May 24th, 7:00 pm.
WHERE: The Wealthy Theatre
HOW TO BLOW UP A PIPELINE (Goldhaber, 2023) + Q&A
WHAT: A screening of the incendiary new film, plus a GRFS exclusive recored Q&A with the filmmakers!
WHEN: Thursday, June 8th, 8:00 pm.
WHERE: The Wealthy Theatre
And so we’ve arrived at the end of another BEAM FROM THE BOOTH! We appreciate you taking the time to read it and truly hope you’ll continue to do so. Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to get each issue in your inbox every FRIDAY and stay up-to-date on all things GRFS!
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Look for ISSUE #15 in your inbox NEXT FRIDAY, 5/19!
Until then, friends...
