New Yak, New Yak

Marc Mason is a pal, but even if he wasn't I'd want to direct you to his excellent interview with Paul (CONCRETE) Chadwick, over at Movie Poop Shoot. Like Marc, CONCRETE is one of my favorite comics series, and certainly an influence. I remember discovering the character through back issues of Dark Horse Presents in the late 80s, being amazed by the level of craft and humanity in these short tales. It was much later when I discovered more overtly autobiographical "artcomix", but CONCRETE was a great gateway to that, and I remembered realizing how it was fine that one's favorite book didn't come out every month, as long as it was this good, and intelligent, and personal. It's nice to find out in the interview that Chadwick is excited about more CONCRETE stories and that comics hasn't lost him to The Matrix Online.

Tonight, I intended just to watch a little of Martin Scorsese's NEW YORK, NEW YORK over dinner, but I found myself watching all of it. I wouldn't call it a great movie, and the casting of the talented but awkward and unattractive (to me) Liza Minelli really dampens the romantic angle of the film, but it's still got quite a bit to recommend it. De Niro is very good, thin and coiled and as potentially explosive as ever, yet he reigns it in for the most part, which creates a great, unrelieved tension. The jazz music is fine, with Scorsese keeping the performances pretty realistically staged, though he indulges the MGM musical influence in a late sequence supposed to be taken from one of Minelli's character's films. There was an interesting moment, also late, where Minelli drinks too much and takes off with some black jazzmen, and I thought it might be interesting if Scorsese pursued this more and gave her more of an edge to compete with De Niro, but no, she's pretty much an angel throughout, though admittedly a feisty one. The comedy banter between the two, especially early on, is well done and too brief. One final criticism, and one rarely applicable to Scorsese's films, is that this isn't all that interesting to look at, and I thought the superimposed titles at the end, as opposed to the more period-friendly opening titles, really stamped this film "1977" in an unfortunate way. Not a big deal, but it was the last thing the viewer sees, so it leaves a bit of an impression. Worth seeing, though, for some good performances, good music, and a creative stretch for Scorsese.

My Fantastic Four Omnibus just arrived today...YAY! One of the most expensive books I've ever bought, come to think of it, though I did get it from Amazon for just $62.99 rather than the $100 cover.