5-25-77

It’s tough to explain movie fandom to a generation raised on the internet.  Prior to the exchange of instantaneous opinions and cliques of like-minded twitter feeds, a personal obsession with horror, sci-fi or comic books guaranteed you a seat at the nerdy lunch table.  I know, because I was one of the official seatwarmers.  And so was director Patrick Read Johnson, whose autobiographical film 5-25-77 (the date Star Wars premiered nationwide) was just as much a behind-the-scenes struggle to complete as high school.

Struck with the movie bug after a screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Patrick (John Francis Daley) spends most of his youth staging elaborate Super 8 sequels to popular films of the day…like turning the backyard swimming pool red to get a shot for Jaws 2 or creating his own monkey masks for Requiem for the Planet of the Apes.  But life gets complicated when girls, friends and financial responsibilities force him to choose between pursuing dreams of Hollywood stardom or settling down to a life of pedestrian creature comforts.

 

If that sounds a bit like The Fablemans, Almost Famous and Licorice Pizza, mark yourself down for movie bingo.  But Johnson’s film has been a work in progress for nearly the past decade, popping up in a few festivals but never garnering enough attention to a final polish…until now. A personal project that never succumbs to simple vanity, Johnson’s story is relatable to every fan who ever dreamed of following their passion.  And his status as the “first fan” of George Lucas’ space opera (a trip to ILM scored him a private workprint screening) is the stuff dreams are made of.

 

In fact, that Hollywood trip, shepherded by American Cinematographer editor Herb Lightman, is the highlight of Johnson’s film.  Poking around stage, Patrick runs across Steven Spielberg (played by damn good lookalike, Kevin J. Stephens) at work on Close Encounters, bonds with the model makers and finds himself speechless when finally face-to-face with his hero Douglas Trumbull.  It’s a truly magical sequence.  The rest of 5-25-77also has its heart in the right place, even if it struggles at time to be as polished as the films it so obviously admires (the use of copious CGI in a few dream sequences seems particularly out of place).  At its best moments, Johnson’s film captures that unique moment in history when cinema was re-inventing itself…and fandom along with it.

 

MVD deserves a pat on the back for helping 5-25-77 across the finish line in such fine fashion.  The Blu-ray looks terrific despite between pulled from so many sources and includes a commentary, Q & A, trailer and photo galleries.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tormented

Image
The west coast always struggled to create a creepy atmosphere on screen.  All that southern California sunshine just doesn’t lend itself to ghostly apparitions or gothic castles.  But  Tormented  (1960) gives it a good try, staging its opening scene in an abandoned lighthouse where blackmail turns into murder - and one cover up leads to another.  Director Bert I. Gordon, better known for his giant-sized - but low-budget - monster movies, works well at this level, turning in a film that delivers small scares but perhaps his most  professional finished product. Tom Stewart (played by genre regular Richard Carlson) is a fairly successful jazz pianist whose impending marriage to Meg Hubbard (Susan Gordon) will put him in an entirely new tax bracket.  Trouble is his old flame, Vi (Juli Reding), isn’t taking this lying down.  After  allowing  her to fall to her death in the opening scene, Tom is haunted by disembo...
Read more

All Ladies Do It / Frivolous Lola

Image
Every semi-professional review of erotica probably starts off with the same question:  what’s the difference between porn and art?  The internet age has essentially done away with foreplay; sex is merely the act of completion itself, minus the threat of any malware or suspicious browser activity.  But the work of Italian director Tinto Brass, for all its leering upskirt shots of derrieres and pubic hair, still communicates something that websites like Pornhub never will:  the art of seduction.  All Ladies Do It  (1992), a breezy sexual adventure, follows Diana (Claudia Koll) whose marriage is threatened by her fantasies of dalliances with other men, stories her husband believes are nothing more than exciting role play.  But her loose definition of adultery inspires plenty of promiscuous hook-ups, taking advantage of any (ahem)  loophole  that provides a quick thrill.   Flirting with some hardcore sequences (there...
Read more

The Cat and the Canary

Image
My favorite directors have always been showoffs:  Hitchcock, DePalma, Spielberg (when he’s feeling frisky) and gonzo auteurs like Sam Raimi.  There’s just something about their cinematic ambition, constantly reminding the audience that, yes, there actually  is  someone behind the camera calling the shots.  And that directorial discontent shines through even in the early days of the medium, such as Paul Leni’s 1927 adaptation of  The Cat and the Canary .  While the rest of the industry was still learning the basics of visual language, Leni fills his frame with tracking shots, POVs and dramatic lighting that set the standard for every spook show to come!  Gathered for the reading of the last will and testament of eccentric recluse Cyrus West,  the potential heirs meet up in his decrepit mansion to discover who will inherit the estate and family jewels.  Predictably there is some petty jealousy when young Annab...
Read more