Sunday, September 26, 2010

NYFF Review 1: THE SOCIAL NETWORK

Like most memorable movies, David Fincher's The Social Network hooks us with its first scene, which begins, unusually, while the studio logo is still on screen. Mark Zuckerberg (a beautifully intense Jesse Eisenberg) and his date, Erica Albright (the magnificent Rooney Mara) are ramping up to rage through Aaron Sorkin's juggernaut dialogue. Though Erica is trying to be friendly, Zuckerberg is so busy with his nervous sanctimoniousness that he fails to notice he's both ignoring his girlfriend and slashing her to shreds. And she's had enough of trying to keep up. "Dating you is like dating a Stairmaster," she says, right before revealing that they're NOT dating anymore; Zuckerberg never gets his chance to backtrack. She's one of the few characters in the movie who will no longer give this guy her energy, because she knows who Mark really is.


This dexterous, though disingenuous opening (surely Erica knew what kind of guy Mark was before this date) echoes all the way to the final moments of The Social Network (I think this is why the movie is getting compared to Citizen Kane; at least, that's the only similarity I can now see between the two films). Rather being about the advent of friend-finding website Facebook (a subject which is really a red herring), Fincher's movie is actually about one boy's inability to connect to anyone. The irony is obvious, but it never feels overplayed. (Though, again, how DID he land such a beautiful babe like Erica?)

So, over the credits, Zuckerberg stomps home to his dorm room at Harvard's Kirkwood Hall, while all around him life is happening happily. With the nattering, melancholy title theme by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross interplaying with the film's immaculate sound design, we share in Zuckerberg's low-self-esteem frustration. And so it's inevitable: his sadness and regret erupts into a night of drinking and angry blogging, while scads of other 19-year-olds are partying down with little regard to their futures. In Zuckerberg's mind (this bitching party may or may not be actually happening), his Harvard peers already revel in the good life. Revenge is, however small, then placed on the menu, and this night of wired-in coding becomes historical as Zuckerberg hacks into sorority databases to crate Facesmash, a Hot-or-Not comparison of Harvard girls that reduces college girls, as Mark unwisely blogs, to "farm animals." This one-night effort is over before it begins, and once the morning sun arrives, Facesmash has become so popular on campus that it crashes the Harvard mainframe.


Thus the phenomenon that is Facebook is birthed. The ubiquitous site is a tool that you (probably) and I use every day to keep up with what loved ones around the world are up to. But Zuckerberg, as portrayed in The Social Network, strangely has no loved ones (he's not a "hugger," as we soon find out). The very concept of closeness is Alpha Centari to him--that is, barring his relationship to Eduardo Severin (a big-black-eyed innocent played impeccably by Andrew Garfield). Eduardo sees something worth being friends with in Mark, and he sticks by him no matter how strange he begins to seem, and no matter how little Mark returns the devotion. Eduardo, ultimately, loves too much and dreams too small. And this is okay, until business comes into the picture. (By the way, I could have done with more demonstration as to what, exactly, Eduardo sees in Mark; this is my one complaint with the movie.)


The Social Network is being called a decade-defining movie. But I think that's too limiting. It's a Movie of the Now, yes, but it's also a Movie for the Ages. To that end, it has a few heavy, ancestral themes: fraternity, loneliness, loyalty, truth, and the pressures of being at the top of the class. (I'm now remembering that great exchange in James L. Brooks' Broadcast News: "Paul Moore (Peter Hackes): It must be nice to always believe you know better, to always think you're the smartest person in the room. Jane Craig (Holly Hunter): No. It's awful.") Throw technology and "progress" into the mix and you come close to describing this picture in full.

David Fincher's movie is also being called a departure for the director, but how is this so? In his best movies--Se7en, Fight Club, and Zodiac--male characters negotiate thorny friendship boundaries while bigger issues nip at their heels. This film fits into that framework perfectly. I will say, though, in the "departure" defense, that Fincher has never had better words to work with than those Aaron Sorkin has provided. Sorkin's screenplay is so incredibly dense with one-liners, ironies, and information that it would take two or three viewings to excavate them all. Of course, this is what makes for a monumental movie; we all love a picture that can withstand numerous viewings before it's been fully mined.


The sly editing (by Kurt Baxter and Angus Wall) will give Inception a run for its money come Oscar time. Instead of loading all the trial stuff at the end of the film, Fincher's editors have peppered the Harvard-to-Palo-Alto tale with scenes from a variety of mercenary depositions that clarify the characters of both Severin and Zuckerberg. One such memorable scene has Zuckerberg losing interest in the well-lawyered proceedings. He turns his back on his opponents and stares out the high-rise windows to a gray day that's turned watery. "It's raining," he says, and the prosecuting lawyer calls him out. "Mr. Zuckerberg, are you listening to me?" he asks. Mark turns around and the question wisely becomes "Mr. Zuckerberg, do you think I'm worth listening to?" And then Mark lets loose with a volley that makes it clear: no, I don't, because I already know the outcome; I've already done the math in my head. And the whole room goes silent, because they know he's correct. Still, there's that moment, in the boardroom, where Mark refers to his best friend, Eduardo, and Fincher cuts to a shot of an empty chair. So how smart is this dude, really?

There's the intrusion of three very great characters into the melee. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (both played with much energy by Armie Hammer) are towering examples of the status to which Mark aspires. Twins, both 6 foot 5, blonde-haired, and well-toned from their positions on Harvard's rowing team, Tyler and Cameron are the guys who surreptitiously lead Zuckerberg to the idea for Facebook (Eduardo, meanwhile, provides the start-up money and the valuable algorithm that's scrawled on a dormroom window). The Winklevosses (or Winklevii, as they come to be called), do everything they can to keep from looking like villains. This includes, in the film's most entertaining scene, searching for justice regarding the Facebook filching by appealing to Harvard president Larry Summers (played, in a hilarious, revelatory one-scene performance by show-biz manager Douglas Urbanski). But this leads them nowhere except to the depositions. (There, Mark puts them squarely in their place: "If you guys were the inventors of Facebook, you'd have invented Facebook.")


And then there's Sean Parker, the smacked-down inventor of music-file-sharing site Napster (ironically played by musician/Napster victim Justin Timberlake, who's terrific). Parker runs into the site by accident, after a drunken night of sex with a girl who's name he doesn't know. He see's she's logged into something called Thefacebook, and he immediately sees dollar signs. Thus, with a scheduled bacchanal of rich food and appletinis, and girly company (the film is very much about stunted sexual desire), he seduces Zuckerberg away from his best friend Eduardo--who has Parker's number immediately. Parker seals the deal with the flippant addition of key advice that leaves Mark without breath. Later in the film, in a brilliant club scene that perfectly demonstrates the sound of talking while ear-splitting music is being played (not since Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me have I experienced anything like this scene), Parker tells Zuckerberg how he came up with Napster after being dumped by a girlfriend. After the story drops, Zuckerberg asks him "Do you ever think about that girl?" Parker laughs the question off with a drunken "No."


There is one more way, I now realize, in which The Social Network resembles Citizen Kane. It, of course, is nowhere near the art transformer that Welles' movie was (Jeff Cronenweth's excellent camerawork is no match for Gregg Toland's, and said camera isn't pointed at the Mercury Theater). But, like Kane, Fincher's film does obsesses over a successful man who, in order to achieve his goal, ignores everything that would make success meaningful (even if, as with the Zuckerberg, that goal is the emotional equivalent of completing an algebra assignment). That said, in many ways, The Social Network, however true or untrue to the real-world story, is often more outright fun, while being just as forlorn, as Welle's monumental 1941 movie. Does that make it a decade-defining film? Well, no more than Kane defines its decade. As prodigious as The Social Network is, it ultimately leads us to one scorched earth conclusion: some things never change.

The Social Network is the Opening Night film for the 48th New York Film Festival, and is playing at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. September 24th, at the Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, 1941 Broadway (at 65th Street), New York, NY 10023.

For more ticket information regarding this or any of the festival's many other great offerings, go online here, or call (212) 875-5050


David Fincher's The Social Network opens nationwide on Friday, October 1st.

Notes on the 2010 NYFF: THE SOCIAL NETWORK press conference

The New York Film Festival has been kind enough to provide, for those of us without cameras, full coverage of the post-screening press conference for The Social Network, with writer Aaron Sorkin, star Jesse Eisenberg, director David Fincher, and stars Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake in the hot seats. I was there in the third row, middle seat, but I couldn't get my question in (I really wanted to ask about Erica Albright, the character played by Rooney Mara in the very first scene, and whether she was a real person and, if so, if she could somehow be considered the "inspiration" for Facebook). At any rate, I thought I'd provide the full press conference here on filmicability. By the way, I found David Fincher to be a very funny guy (there's a tiny bit that's cut out of the video below: at the beginning of the second part, a question is lobbed about Fincher's technical prowness, and the reporter mentions that Never Let Me Go director Mark Romanek said Fincher can recite the back page of any manual, and Fincher playfully said under his breath "What a dick!"). Anyway, here we go:


Friday, September 24, 2010

Notes on the 2010 New York Film Festival: 1

A couple months ago, I'd have slapped you and called you a loon if you'd have told me that, today, I'd be in the third row of the Walter Reade Theater, seeing the first public NYC screening of the Movie of the Now, David Fincher's The Social Network, with its writer (Aaron Sorkin), director, and three leads (Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake) in attendance. But, indeed, this is the case. Crazy things do happen.

First off, let me say, The Social Network very much deserves to be the Opening Night offering for this country's most svelte, no-nonsense festival. It is, as of this writing, the film of the year. And when I first saw the now-legendary trailer (which is not echoed in the movie per se but is very much so represented emotionally), that goddang bell went off in my head. DING DING DING! This is the one! You should know, I get that bell going off every once in a while, when I see a sign of the movie of the year. Rarely is the DING DING DING wrong. And still I stop short of calling it a decade-defining movie, because its themes are too wide-reaching for such limited praise. The Social Network is simply too moving and smart, rich and suspenseful, to be pidgeonholed as movie of this time only. But I'll save my review for later, and I'll tell you why, at the personal risk of burying the "lead." But, THIS IS the lead, in my opinion:


About five months ago, I started listening to an absolutely, astoundingly great movie-related podcast on Blog Talk Radio.com called Movie Geeks United. Hosted out of Tampa, Florida by the inimitable Jamey Duvall and co-hosted, from Washington DC, by the super-knowledgeable and friendly Jerry Dennis, Movie Geeks United was nearly everything I had hoped to enjoy one day: a audio-only, free-form discussion of not only movies of the day, but also movies of the past. Instantly, upon hearing my first episode (about three years after these guys had started the project), I knew I'd met kindred spirits. But after catching my first installment of MGU, I was aghast that this uncommonly lively show--which invited us EVERYDAY listeners to call in--had almost no other voices out there chiming in on things cinematic. Confident of my ability to talk extemporaneously about any facet of the movie business (given my past experience), I began calling in on a weekly, sometimes bi-weekly, schedule.

I think Jamey and Jerry really dug talking to a caller who could converse intelligently with them about movies, even if said caller was sometimes too vociferous (I've learned to control myself and listen a lot more since my first shows). And so, at any rate, from my lowly flat in Midwood, deep in Brooklyn NY, I was soon contributing regularly, as a character of sorts, to Movie Geeks United in an unofficial capacity. I even started getting fans, and was namechecked by Jerry as the person that knows more about movies than anyone he could recall. And I killed on the on-air trivia contests. Plus, I was occasionally funny, and always well-reasoned, if not always armed with the popular opinions. And this leads to where we are now.


A little over 45 days ago, seeing that the 2010 New York Film Festival was coming up, I got the bright idea to offer Movie Geeks United my services as a representative reporter for the NYFF goings-on. I posed the idea to Jamey, and at first, he wasn't for it, mainly because he thought it would be a fruitless effort. I assured him that the festival's staff was very wise about the direction of online film criticism, and that they were quite accepting of people like us. It didn't take too much persuasion, because Jamey said, in effect, what the hell, as long as you, Dean, handle it. If we got in, good, and if not, no harm done.

I framed my letter of application as primarily one as representative of the internet's #1 movie podcast, which Movie Geeks United is certainly entitled to bill itself. In my writing, I pride myself on honesty and full disclosure, so I'll let you in on my sales pitch. Here, in part, is what I wrote to the New York Film Festival's press office:

MOVIE GEEKS UNITED is the leading movie-related podcast on the net. With over a million subscribers, host Jamey Duvall and co-host Jerry Dennis have created a unique and fun way for film fans to think and converse about films. Their show has been so successful, they've attracted an impressive line-up of past guests. Here's only a very partial list: James Cameron (on Aug. 25, 2010), Robert Duvall, Francis Ford Coppola, John Sayles, Paul Schrader, Brian DePalma, Joe Dante, Elizabeth Shue, Patricia Clarkson, Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Renner, Chazz Palmentieri, Jon Voight, Jeff Goldblum, Alan Rickman, James Toback, Ellen Burstyn, and Leslie Caron. Add to this mix an impressive number of character actors, newcomers, composers, editors, cinematographers, and film experts--you can see the list of guests on the website, and listen to any show you like. I, myself, have been appearing on the program for the past four months, on a regular basis, and both Jamey and Jerry are impressed enough with my knowledge of film to charge me with this assignment (I will be providing further coverage of the festival on my blog at http://filmicability.blogspot.com).

I'd love to say the the inclusion of the last bit--the URL to this lovely site--was the deciding factor in the NYFF's decision to let me attend. But I only rate about 9000 hits a month (and, by the way, you and your friends could change this). Meanwhile, Movie Geeks United, as far as I'm concerned, is an online titan, and I'm glad to do whatever I can for them free of charge, just because I love the show, and the people involved. Of course, I wanted to go to the festival, but it wouldn't mean nearly as much to me, somehow, if I were doing it only for myself and filmicability.

I knew we'd get in. I knew it. And when we did, I was not surprised, but still ecstatic. And so, as the magnificent Jamey Duvall requested of me (what a voice, and passion for film Jamey has), I'll be revealing my initial thoughts about The Social Network on the September 26th episode of Movie Geeks United, and immediately afterward, I'll be posting my full written review on filmicability, right in time for Monday morning surftime. So if you want a preview of what I'll be saying in "ink," (and that's a Social Network reference) and a host of other films playing at the 2010 New York Film Festival, dial up and tune in.

Specific to that September 26th show (which will also feature an interview with Little Children and Barry Munday lead Patrick Wilson), you should know, I'll also be reporting on what was said at the riveting press conference by the five major players involved in The Social Network. As well, I'll be offering my thumbnail impressions of the festival's offerings thus far. EXAMPLES: Oliver Assayas 5 1/2 hour quasi-gangster picture Carlos, Martin Scorsese's love note to Kazan A Letter To Elia (co-directed by Film Comment regular Kent Jones), the music doc LennonNYC, Russia's lovely Silent Souls, and Cannes champs Uncle Boonmee Recalls His Past Lives (Apiachapong Weerasethakul, Thailand) and Certified Copy (by Iran's Abbas Kierostami, starring Best Actress winner Juliette Binoche, who's a true stunner in the film).


And over the next 15 days or so, on filmicability, I'll be posting FULL daily reviews of each film that I've seen (to date, I've caught 14 out of some 35 features). That way, I'll be covering much more than even the estimable Movie Geeks United wants to handle. And, now, onto the next set of notes.

Now that I've gotten this intro out of the way, I can truly begin...


The Social Network is the Opening Night film for the 48th New York Film Festival, and is playing at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. September 24th, at the Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, 1941 Broadway (at 65th Street), New York, NY 10023.

For more ticket information regarding this or any of the festival's many other great offerings, go online here, or call (212) 875-5050


David Fincher's The Social Network opens nationwide on Friday, October 1st.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

My Movie Poster Collection: F

Remember that you can always click on the images themselves to see them (hopefully) larger:

FANNY AND ALEXANDER (Ingmar Bergman, 83). Folded, G
An august one-sheet for Ingmar Bergman's finest work. Its simplicity and subtle coloring wisely doesn't match but also goes perfectly with much of the film. It's a stunning poster with elegant lettering, too. Meanwhile, the movie itself is staggeringly beyond criticism.


FANTASTIC ANIMATION FESTIVAL (Dean A. Berko, Christopher Padilla, Lauren Bowie, Randy Cartwright, Ian Eames, Eric Ladd, Steven Lisberger, Marv Newland, Kathy Rose, Will Vinton, et al., 77). Folded, P
So wild that I have this, a VERY 70s poster for the first collection of animated shorts ever released to theaters (as far as I know). I'd love to see this collection released on DVD. This is a collector's item, largely because of the inclusion of Pink Floyd's name on the poster.

FARGO (Joel and Ethan Coen, 96). Rolled, VG
One of the best posters of the 1990s. Bar none. Funny, weird, and beautiful.



FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF (John Hughes, 86). Rolled, VG. NOTE: SIGNED by Matthew Broderick. 

A FEVER IN THE BLOOD (Vincent Sherman, 61). Folded, VG
Never heard of the film, never seen it. But I really love the title and the colorful layout here.

FIRST MONDAY IN OCTOBER (Ronald Neame, 81). Folded, VG
An underrated comedy with really great one-liners, and the poster has Al Hirchfeld art, too!

FIVE EASY PIECES (Bob Rafelson, 71). Folded, G
I can recall standing at the North 85 Drive-In Theater in Atlanta, GA back in the 1970s and seeing this poster hanging up, on a regular basis, inside its beautiful, 70s-futuristic snack bar. I played pinball next to this poster countless times. God, I love this one-sheet. It's as haunting as is Rafelson's movie.

THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX (Robert Aldrich, 65). Folded, F
Seems like a better one-sheet could have been ordered up here. The art is gloppy, the tag line is lazy, and it's hard to discern here any of the great actors that hit the screen here (and that includes James Stewart, Richard Attenbourough, Peter Finch, George Kennedy, Ian Bannen, Hardy Kruger, Dan Duryea, and Ernest Borgnine). This is a disappointing poster, but I thrill every time I'm watching the movie, so it's okay. My copy of this poster, by the way, was turned on its backside and used as a quickie, magik marker poster for some other movie. It makes my copy more valuable, in my opinion.

THE FLIM FLAM MAN (Irvin Kershner, 67). Folded, VG
Never seen it. But I love yellow, so here it is.

FLIRTING (John Duigan, 91). Folded, F
Thandie Newton and Nicole Kidman dancing in their underwear. What's not to like?

THE FOOD OF THE GODS (Bert I. Gordon, 76). Folded, G
Early Drew Stuzan art for this absolutely terrible big animal movie (just wait til you see the big chicken!).

48 HRS. (Walter Hill, 82). Folded, G
I kinda like this poster, and kinda hate it, too. I like all the words, and the title treatment. I dislike the photos of our stars. They're lackadaisically cut out with childrens' scissors. And what is Eddie doig with a cigar? I don't remember him having a cigar in the movie. Is he doing his Bill Cosby impression?

FOUL PLAY (Colin Higgins, 78). Folded, VG
A memorable ad campaign, mainly for the bright logo and that firing gun. Hard to believe this was the first post-SNL movie for Chevy Chase! Personally, I liked Chase and Hawn together with Charles Grodin in Seems Like Old Times a lot more.

THE FOUNTAIN (Darren Aronofsky, 2006). Rolled, NM
None of the special effects in The Fountain look as bad as this poster does. When I first saw this, I worried because I thought it looked like total cheese. This goes to show you that great poster doesn't equal great film. This was the best offering cinema gave us in 2006. Now, when I look at the poster, I do so with admiration. But I still don't understand why they made the image look so odd and fakey.

THE FOUR SEASONS (Alan Alda, 81). Folded, VG
This was a cable favorite for me back in the 1980s. I watched it recently and thought it felt like a embarrassing look at our parent's getting drunk and whining a lot. I don't have very much love for this Woody-wannabe movie anymore--only Jack Weston still makes me laugh as hard as he once did.

FREAKY FRIDAY (Gary Nelson, 76). Folded, VG
Ugh. Terrible. Only bought it because it was cheap. The remake is vastly better (a rarity!). Is that the most INACCURATE artistic rep of Jodie Foster ever?? It's hilarious how odious this is.

THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN (Karel Reisz, 81). Folded, G
Boring movie. I have little feeling for anything connected to it, save for the unusually freckled Ms. Streep, whom I adore beyond all words.

THE FRENCH CONNECTION (William Friedkin, 71). Folded, G
This! Now this is great! There's nothing like this poster or movie in cinema's history. And this is a case where I cherish the use of rough photo graphics and stark lettering. This gives us, instantly, the feel of this asphalted film. This would be a hard poster to sell.

FRESH HORSES (David Anspaugh, 88). Folded, G
This seems to be the Brat Pack Holy Grail. Have many fans of said pack seen this movie, directed by the guy who gave us Hoosiers and Rudy, two well-loved but sports-centric dramas. The only sport here I see going on is...well, you know. By the way, I've kept this one-sheet since 88 ONLY because I loved its color, photography, and design so much. If I were to pick, from my collection, the Best Poster For A Film With The Most Obscurity, Fresh Horses would win handily. Seriously, I wanna see this movie! How can I see this movie? (Hellllooooo, is anybody out there?)



FRIDAY THE 13th PART 3 - IN 3D (Steve Miner, 82). Folded, 2 copies, VG.
Both copies of this poster came from the collection of my great friend Robert Schneider, an Atlanta movie theater legend and probably one of the first guy's in the country to handle a theater where the original Rocky Horror Picture Show was first attracting its fervency (and he ran the movie, off and on, from 1977 until 2002, and if you really wanna know what it means to be a theater manager, just deal with all this). Robert was the coolest guy I ever met. I could write a whole book on how unusual the man was, so I'll save a more detailed description for a another day. Let it be said, though, that he was the most dedicated 3D fan ever. He'd be so happy to see the advances in the technology, but I'm sure he'd be disappointed that current 3D takes away a third of the image's brightness. This is, at least, what bugs me about current 3D. But Schneider, Schneider would have dug getting stoned and going to see Avatar. How can I hate James Cameron's hellish movie so totally if I can say that with such unwavering conviction? Hell, Robert even made his OWN 3D movies, on black-and-white and, finally, color 16mm film (scenes I recall, because I was drunk: Schnieder firing rockets at the camera, having two red-headed gurls wrestle in the nude, and his Kegel exercises, in practice). Anyway, when Robert died, he left behind his collection of 3D movie posters. And somehow this left me with 2 of these posters. I think this is the best of the Friday the 13ths, too--there's nothing like that flying eyeball. I got a lifelong laugh from that.

FULL METAL JACKET (Stanley Kubrick, 87). Rolled, NM
Artwork by Philip Castle, the same person who did the famed Clockwork Orange artwork. In college, 1987, I knew a guy who was the college film rep for Warner Brothers in Atlanta. One day, I ran into him and he said "Hey, I just talked to Stanley Kubrick! He called me!" I was aghast. "Yeah, he knew I'd been putting up posters for Full Metal Jacket around the school, and he wanted to know if anyone had been stealing them." The oddly detailed character of this query was enough for me to know my friend wasn't shitting me. That was Stanley Kubrick on the phone, alright...

Monday, September 13, 2010

My Movie Poster Collection: G

Looking over them now, I really think my collection of G-titled film posters is the most exciting alphabetical grouping of the bunch...so far, at least, this is true. What follows is a tasty collection of popping movie film art and relevant movie photography. Lemme know what you think. As always, click on the poster for a closer look.

GALLIPOLI (Peter Weir, 81). Folded, VG]
Is there a poster out there that (SPOILER ALERT) gives away the end of the movie like this brave piece of art does? Clearly influenced by Robert Capa's "The Fallen Soldier," this stands as one of the most powerful and well-produced ad campaigns of the 1980s, courtesy entirely of Peter Weir, a director of certain note.

THE GANG THAT COULDN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT (James Goldstone, 71). Folded, VG
Mad Magazine's Mort Drucker did the distinctive artwork for this troubled NYC comedy with everyone on the East Coast connected to it (and that includes Jerry Orbach, Herve Villachaize, Lionel Stander, Leigh Taylor Young, Jo Van Fleet, Burt Young, Paul Benedict, the 70s-ubiquitous character actor Jack Kehoe, Dave Grusin, Waldo Salt, Jimmy Breslin, Owen Roizman, and EVEN a young Robert De Niro). I've always heard this was the movie that set the Guinness record for most days in the editing room. Anybody out there know if this is bull or not? GOT-DANG, I'd sure like to see this!

THE GAUNTLET (Clint Eastwood, 77). Folded, G
Always, from now on, Ron Lesser's incredible artwork for Clint Eastwood's spooky 1973 western High Plains Drifter will remain the greatest of all Clint one-sheets. But Frank Frazetta's muscly artwork for the star director's 1977 uber-bulletfest will forever remain in second place (followed either by the one-sheets for The Beguiled or Bronco Billy). Whatever. This poster kills.

GET TO KNOW YOUR RABBIT (Brian De Palma, 72). Folded, VG
The art is by someone very famous. I have to do some research to find out who. The movie? Hell, I certainly have no idea WHAT to think. Is this even available to be seen?

GINGER (Don Schain, 71). Folded, G
Don't...you...fuckin'...move...


GIZMO! (Howard Smith, 77). Folded, G
A weird find: a one-sheet for a movie I used to see on late-nite TV called Gizmo! It's a bizarre-30s-by-way-of-the-70s compilation of film footage focusing in on crazy early, failed inventions. And it's the Jackass of its era.

GOING IN STYLE (Martin Brest, 79)
Seriously, one of the greatest (a) comedies, (b) heist movies, (c) sleepers, (d) debut directorial efforts, and possibly THE greatest (e) collection of old guys performing at the very top of their game. See it, immediately. You will love it.


THE GOOD GUYS AND THE BAD GUYS (Burt Kennedy, 69) Folded, VG 
Got this mainly for Mitchum, Tina Louise, and the superb Warner/7 Arts graphics.

GOODBYE COLUMBUS (Larry Peerce, 69). Folded, G
An ugly movie, but, boy, is the poster alluring? Yes, indeed. Ali MacGraw, in top form (deceptive) innocence, photographed superbly, and with a well-placed zinger of a tag line: "Every father's daughter is a virgin." One of my favorites here.

GOODFELLAS (Martin Scorsese, 90). Rolled, F
The classic. My copy is a little beat up along the edges. I still remember salivating, looking at this poster on an autumn opening night at 59th and 3rd in Manhattan, and later finding myself with Diane Sawyer, Mike Nichols, and Bill Murray (a late arrival) in the audience. Wow. What a movie!

GRASS (Ron Mann, 99). Rolled, NM
Gilbert Shelton may have given us the perpetually stoned Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, but his cohort Paul Mavrides has done his fair share of the post-1978 artwork. As such, he fittingly provides the hilarious poster image for Ron Mann's fun documentary. And remember: in the words of Freewheelin' Franklin: "Dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope."

THE GREAT GATSBY (Jack Clayton, 74). Folded, VG
Even if this is the most boring poster of the G batch, this gauzey image of Mia Farrow and Robert Redford in Theoni V. Aldredge's Oscar-winning costumes became a cultural touchstone, even if the movie was a semi-bomb. Screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola! No pressure there, F.

THE GREAT NORTHFIELD MINNESOTA RAID (Philip Kaufman, 72). Folded, VG
More Jesse James magic, done with great style, like an old-time cowboy show poster. And the film is Philip Kaufman's directorial debut (and certainly what led him to co-write and almost direct Clint Eastwood's The Outlaw Josey Wales).

THE GREAT TEXAS DYNAMITE CHASE (Michael Pressman, 76). Folded, VG
Pure 70s: big heads, small bodies, high-cut girly shorts, Claudia Jennings, The Rifleman's Johnny Crawford, and Roger Corman's New World Pictures. Plus a sizable cult following, and well-deserved.

GREGORY'S GIRL (Bill Forsyth, 81). Folded, VG
My eye's bugged out of my head when I saw this one-sheet. I love it, and the movie, so much.

THE GREY FOX (Philip Borsos, 82). Rolled, VG
This was one of the first movie posters I ever bought not because I liked the film (which I do), but because the image stuck me as unforgettable. This is also the first film poster I ever saw that was printed on thick card stock, a feature that's always a sign of a very-intentionally well-made one-sheet. And so, here it is, almost 30 years later, and my copy of this impossibly blue-eyed image of Richard Farnsworth is still in near-mint condition. Absolutely one of my all-time favorite pieces.

THE GRIFTERS (Stephen Frears, 90). Folded, video poster, G
I hate video release ad slicks, but this one looked just like the original (except for the inclusion of one little video logo), so I snapped it up. I love that the poster's image is included, memorably, in Frears' film.

GRINDHOUSE (Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, Eli Roth, Rob Zombie, Edgar Wright, 2007). Pre-Release, rolled, NM
Yes, of course, I had to have this. Read here.