Don't Always Disagree

 There’s something broken deep inside ‘Descendant’ that I’m still not entirely sure I’ve identified.   It has such a fundamental lack of understanding of the mechanics of storytelling that I’ve become far more invested in working it out than it’s worth.   I know what kind of movie this is trying to be, I know the purpose of it in a commercial sense.   The people who made it were very much aware of the exact market niche they were trying to fill but I’ve yet to work out exactly how what’s on the screen was mistaken for a functional movie. Let’s back up a step and identify the principals involved.   ‘Descendant’ is a direct-to-video movie released in 2003 during that hazy overlap period of time when DVDs were clearly set to be the future but the VHS rental market still dominated.   Netflix was founded in 1997 but by 2003 had only 1.4 million subscribers.   They wouldn’t start offering streaming until 2007.   At the time of release Blockbuster had ...

 Originally airing on December 17, 1973, “The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas” was co-produced by DePatie-Freleng enterprises, mostly known for their work on the Dr. Suess animated specials and the Pink Panther shorts, and Sed-Bar Productions, who never made anything else.   It was directed by Gerry Chiniquy and Hawley Pratt, both veterans of television animation.   It was based on a story by John Barrett, writer and producer of “Tom Smothers' Organic Prime Time Space Ride,” which would explain why the bear of the title is voiced by Tom Smothers.   The name to focus on, I feel, is the credited writer Larry Spiegel, for though the special retains a lot of the whimsical counterculture feel of the The Smothers Brothers there’s a kernel of madness here that I need to examine. An entire decade defined by pallette choices. Larry Spiegel’s first credit on IMDB is a writing credit for the 1972 movie ‘Hail.’   The IMDB description reads “ A presidential advisor discov...

      In certain circles Roger Corman is held in very high esteem.   Working almost entirely in the b-movie genre for decades he’s directed some well-regarded movies such as ‘The Pit and the Pendulum’ and ‘X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes.’   He’s produced many more like 1960’s ‘The Little Shop of Horrors’ and ‘The Valentine Day Massacre.’   He’s given a leg up to such figures as Francis Ford Coppola (‘Dementia 13’), Peter Bogdanovich (‘Targets’), Martin Scorsese (‘Boxcar Bertha’), and numerous others.   He’s seen as almost the ultimate producer, having reportedly only ever lost money on one film, 1962’s ‘The Intruder,’ a socially-conscious movie about racial integration featuring William Shatner in his first starring role.   He has been involved, at some level of directing or producing, on over three-hundred and eighty movies.   For the past sixty years below a certain level of budget he’s been omnipresent.      Which is a ve...