Great Name for a Book---Bad Name for a Film

"What Just Happened" is one of those irritatingly wonderful films about the film business. While some would argue that movies about making movies don't hold general appeal, I beg to differ. In an age where box office grosses make news on par with weather and local crime, and celebrity shenanigans are part of our morning coffee, there is no doubt a fascination with what goes on behind the scenes.

"What Just Happened" takes the producer's point of view. A nicely controlled performance by his excellency, Robert DeNiro, leads the way. Even Katherine Keener is blisteringly perfect in the fierce role of the big, money-holding backer. DeNiro's "Ben" is struggling to finish a violent film directed by an obnoxious 'hot' director. Sean Penn is seen in the final bits of the film within the film, as the co-star, along with his beautiful white Pit Bull. Do they shoot the dog or not? Without spoiling the film, I can tell you that the way this film examines the audience reactions to violence, and the intricate spinning of those invested in the film, is just brilliant.

At times hilarious (one at first wonders why this big time film producer is living in a very modest apartment---we soon discover he's got a couple of houses in his past), at times touching (the symbolism of the easy chair between Ben and his ex-wife (the lovely Robin Wright-Penn), at times confirming our worst suspicions about actors (a brilliant subplot with Bruce Willis and his scruffy, deal-breaking beard), we see a slice of this very wacky, near-revolting Hollywood life. For those who read the book, by the way, they will recognize the Willis character as the twist on the true story of Alec Baldwin showing up for a film overweight and bearded.

This is a worthwhile film for those curious about "the industry" that I feel would have done better with a different title. I'm not sure if it had a theatrical run or went straight to video, but, in my lil' ol' opinion, a hip, thought-provoking and cerebral title works splendidly on book covers, but risks losing an audience who likes to know, at least to some degree, what they're in for. Case in point: "The Player." Need I say more?

To have and to hold: Coupling probs and my Woodman diss

Since February gave us that cursed Valentines Day, it is timely that three recent DVD releases deal with finding and keeping love. (Eat baguette now, smoke and adjust beret) Since my last post was a diatribe against the loud, kitchen sink approach in todays’ films, I’m happy to report that some seemed to have agreed with my screams to create, understate and find emotional reality.

In “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, RP McMurphy told the mental hospital administrator that his problem was he that he liked to “fight and fuck too much”. There was the very definition of the modern man raging against the machine of conformist society. Author Chuck Palahniuk has given us stories on these two modes of expression, with the film versions of both books now released. In the big budget “Fight Club” Brad Pitt gave us one of his best performances as the idealized alpha male to Edward Nortons’ beleaguered everyman. It also had Meat Loaf with tits. Great flick with a lot to say.

The film version of the second 'f' is “Choke” and it is a smaller film with a first time director but just as absurd. Sam Rockwell bounces back from the overacted angst of “Snow Angels” (on my worst of 08 list) to play a more playful but equally confused main character. Working in a recreated colonial village ala Williamsburg, he moonlights as a low level con man. By fake choking on food in restaurants and allowing rich diners to ‘save’ him, he somehow hits them up for cash down the road. He’s also a sex addict who gave up medical school to put his mentally disturbed mother in a home where she doesn’t even recognize him. Now here’s a guy who would have trouble finding real love! A catalyst in the form of a new female doctor appears and forces him to question his very confusing life, despite having her own issues. A sacred foreskin, flashbacks of his insane youth, chapel sex, a hilarious staged rape and foul mouthed old ladies all come into play. This could have been a god awful film but I did love the absurdity and creativity of it all. The first time director Clark Gregg clearly botches up the staging several times but he gains points for bravery. The supporting cast: beautiful Kelly Macdonald as the bizarre doctor, the excellent Anjelica Houston as the crazy mother and Brad William Henke as the obligatory best friend, who outgrows our main character, all give great quirky performances. Sam Rockwell is also sympathetic in a very difficult role. This reminded me a bit of the superior “The World according to Garp” which also taught us that we all need love despite lifes’ insanity and our own non-traditional upbringings. This could have been a great film but it passes as a pleasant distraction, much like the meaningless sex it portrays.

With over forty films under his belt, writer-director Woody Allen in his prime has given us some great stories on the difficulties of love; “Annie Hall”, “Manhattan” and “Hannah and her Sisters” being his best. However I have to admit that he seems to have really become mediocre and repetitious to me. Pretentious and top-heavy with literary and academic references, his films always feature the well-monied, elites that Allen seems to worship despite the fact that he feigns disapproval of their homogenized WASP values. His characters tend to ramble about the meaning of life while behaving selfishly but never seem to need to work for a living. His obsession with these Upper East Side neurotics became downright claustrophobic, so Allen began to drop in more old school, broad comedies and has gone on a European filming jag in recent years. To fanatical devotees these seem to be a new direction, but to me they seem to be the same characters with new accents.

“Vicky Cristina Barcelona” is a good case in point. The title itself (taken from two of the characters names plus its’ setting) seems to demonstrate its’ generic, formulaic approach. Lazy writing then puts in unnecessary narration as Allen tells a tale of two good friends on a summer in Barcelona and their dealing with an attractive bohemian painter. Javier Bardem loses the soup bowl haircut and limp from “No Country for Old Men” and proves he can be a romantic lead. Vicky the sensible, engaged one (charismatic Rebecca Hall) and Cristina the free spirit (Scarlett Johansson looking sexy but bored) go through their paces like happy lap horses. Vicky’s businessman fiancé Doug (Chris Messina) is so stereotypically superficial that you wonder why anyone would find this safe relationship appealing, but I guess that’s the point. Allen flies his freak flag a little higher giving us a ménage à trios scenario, and (gasp) a lesbian scene. Infidelity and madness seem intertwined, again demonstrating to us that love seems to be at odds with our animalistic impulses in his view. Barcelona helped fund this film which is why the settings look more tourism less realism. Would Vicky be the bird in her yuppie husbands’ gilded cage? Allen shows us her husband literally wanting a bird in a cage to bang us over the head here. The older host couple of the women also act as a too convenient foil for Vicky’s dilemma. Penelope Cruz shows up after an hour as the clichéd, hot blooded Spanish ex-wife, but gives a strong (and now Oscar winning) performance. This is a welcome relief to the self-absorbed, over-analytical conundrums of our cast despite their equally strong acting. To Allens’ credit he doesn’t try to wrap all the loose ends up nicely. Yet just because a film leaves off a happy ending doesn’t make it less forgettable. These are the same well-off, New York City characters he’s given us for decades, the fact that they are eating tapas and touring landmarks doesn’t make their sexual peccadilloes more interesting. For a Twilight Zone version of Spanish love woes, I prefer the creativity of “Abre los ojos’ and no worries, both this and the American remake feature the beauty of Penelope Cruz.

So we’ve seen the elusiveness of finding love, but how does one keep it? “Eden” shows us an Irish couple struggling with just that. With two children and approaching their 10th wedding anniversary, their relationship has grown stale. The husband, a telephone worker; would rather spend his nights at the pub then with his family. This film, like last years’ “Once” (which had the same producers) again shows us a small slice of life but manages to say a lot in that framework. Eileen Walsh is excellent as the under-appreciated wife who tries to woo her husbands’ affections back through understanding, dieting and new hairstyles. Aidan Kelly as the disturbed lonely husband recalls his heroism of the past while obsessing on a minor flirtation. There is more truth in five minutes of this film than of the two previous films combined and it recalls the suburban loneliness of John Cheever. Life is tough, love is hard but we have to keep trying.

Rehash, Amp Up and Act Cool: A fresh batch of overkill

I’m down with popcorn flicks people! I don’t like to sound like an old man yelling at kids to get off his lawn. I just want mainstream flicks to stop being so damn pretentious for their own good. This whole “pulling out the stops” mode: trying to impress a desensitized audience by overloading their senses is just overkill and it’s getting old. Case in point was the latest “Mummy” flick (“The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor”). I watch everything – I am a film whore- but this flick was so loud, cartoony and downright stupid that I just had to shut it off, even though I had enjoyed the previous two. It was more interested in being a Universal studio action ride than a film. I was already burned out by Brendan Frasers’ exasperated mugging in “Journey to the Center of the Earth”. Brendan- bubby, - more “Crash” less “George of the Jungle” you’re getting too old for this shit. (Poor Maria Bello filling in for the smart script reader Rachel Weisz)

Then there was “Eagle Eye”, more enjoyable but equally excessive. Again we see older, better films plundered for their plot points (“2001”, “Parallax View”, “War Games”, “The Game”) to make an all-inclusive, big budget, super-paranoid thriller involving an omniscient computer in a political conspiracy. Shia Labeouf has a good agent, but he is less an actor and more of a reactor. Obediently diving the green screen demons isn’t compelling but it pays well. I wanted to have more fun but the car chases were so over-cut- that I literally had no idea what was going on. The excessive junkyard cranes of course would have crushed our beloved heroes and why was it necessary to have the computer being (Julianne Moore who keeps her name off the credits) snap high tension wires when that is so ridiculous? Had this movie just gotten off its steroids, stayed a little grounded and thrown in more originality it may have been great. That potential is why I get so irritated. Less is always more, especially in thrillers.

Speaking of less- I had less love for “RocknRolla” a movie by Guy Ritchie who gave us the great “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and the weaker “Snatch” (insert joke here). Madonna could always smell a sinking ship and I have never in my life seen a film so desperately trying to be cool. The Julia Roberts smug part, a leggy femme fatale ‘mastermind’ who says things like “I’m the best there is” is just one of the one hundred stock characters that are paraded through this backlit piece of shite. All of them speak quickly and strive to be clever; none are developed or believable in the least. Poor Tom Wilkinson almost saves himself but he plays the mafia boss and his silk suits and shades overshadow the clichés he is forced to try to spout believably. See “Get Carter” with Michael Caine.

So if you see someone trying to be cool- they’re not, right? Michael Cera is a good comic actor- kind of like a young Bob Newhart. But he is far better as the lovable loser than as a confused emo rocker trying to shake off a bad break-up. “Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist” brings on reductive geography to make NYC seem like a one horse town. (You mean the Port Authority isn’t in the village?) Teenagers ride through it on a single crazy night ala “American Graffiti” but once again you want so much to believe and hang loose while the filmmakers continue to kill it. Nick and Nora, like their “Thin Man” ancestors, have a witty, quick-fire banter and Kat Dennings as Nora is great. These two main characters just deserved a better script. Nick plays in a band whose other members are gay (which means they travel with woman’s’ bras in their van) but that’s literally all we know of them. Oh wait one is gay and Asian. The point being that the film wants to be gay friendly because its’ cool not because its’ a reality. The gay bar they visit seems like a homogenized side show but so does everything else in this make-believe club land where there is always parking in front. Nora’s friend gets drunk – but seems more like she is tripping (or someone just acting drunk). Would any drunk consider reaching into a bus terminal toilet that they’ve just vomited in to get their gum? No but again the overkill monster needs to shock us. (The gum joke is then milked endlessly since they liked it so much) This flick gives us cool actors in cameos and indie bands on its wall-to-wall soundtrack but it has no real street cred. Michael, out of those skinny jeans and sign back on as George Michael for the “Arrested Development” film already. You’re lost in this high school poseur fantasy. We know these two people are destined to be with each other. So why was “Sixteen Candles” a cooler film decades ago even when it’s set in a bland suburb? Films like this don’t poke fun at over-ironic hipster pretensions anymore- they ape them. Tragically hip is jaded. Optimism is the new adrenalin. I’d like my pop films to rehab off the kitchen sink approach already. Oh and see “After Hours” for old timey “one night trapped in downtown NYC” fun, before the hipsters took over of course! (And get off my damn lawn!) :)

January Release Doldrums: Reaching back again to 2007

With the weather so bad it’s the perfect time to catch a flick at home, but the releases this month just bite. As the Golden Globes and Oscars happily cherry-pick quality theatrical releases from the past year, the new DVDs are lame. Bad Horror flicks, grade-D college humor and the low-budget sci-fi make you wonder if all is lost in this great new year. I will try to help because public service is what I’m all about. Here are 30 more four shaker suggestions from the past year - one for each gray day since New Year's day. So pop that corn and salt it baby! Oh yeah!

1. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
2. Bill Maher: The Decider
3. Cloverfield
4. The Counterfeiters
5. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
6. The Edge of Heaven
7. Encounters at the End of the World
8. Grace Is Gone
9. Hot Fuzz
10. I Am Legend
11. In Bruges (2008)
12. Iron Man (2008)
13. I Think I Love My Wife
14. In the Shadow of the Moon
15. John Adams (Series) (2008)
16. Knocked Up
17. Letters from Iwo Jima
18. Liberty Kid
19. The Lookout
20. Michael Clayton
21. Mr. Untouchable
22. The Orphanage
23. Paranoid Park
24. Sicko
25. Superbad
26. Taxi to the Dark Side
27. There Will Be Blood
28. The Wackness (2008)
29. The Wave (2008)
30. Young @ Heart

SAG Awards Picks: More Best of '08

Ah....so I'm not going to run out and rent "Towelheads" after Tim's blistering review. But here's my gift to Tim, and everyone else reading this:

More of the BEST of '08
As the deadline approaches for completing the actual SAG Awards ballot, here are my top picks. I think you'll probably like them as much as I did, so check 'em out:

Best Male Actor in the Lead
Why must I pick between Richard Jenkins, Sean Penn, and Mickey Rourke? Why?? Let's take a look, shall we?

"The Visitor"
For anyone who thinks Bill Murray has cornered the market on the underplayed, tormented middle aged man, take a gander at Richard Jenkins' suppressed college professor in "The Visitor." Where Murray sometimes becomes a style, Jenkins is nothing but real here. This heart-breaking story follows Jenkins as he reluctantly heads to a conference in New York City. When he arrives at his urban pied a terre, he discovers a young foreign couple already living there. What they share is tender and thought-provoking. Loved this. Want more films like this. Please?

"Milk"
At this point, do we really ever expect anything less than Oscar-worthy performances from Sean Penn? But even this performance was a stunning surprise. Yes, he's really that good. The love scenes were G-rated but steamy and real with Penn's committed passion and James Franco's beauty. A wrenching reminder of prejudice, human rights and that vile orange juice woman.

"The Wrestler"
It's driving me nuts that every film reviewer just can't help mention the correlation between Rourke's return and his character's return. Screw that, thank you very much. Forget about his past---this performance stands on it's own. Longing to reach through the digital ether and give him a hug, Mickey Rourke's "still hangin' in there" professional wrestler is layered with longing, regrets, determination and ultimately, honor. A hero and a gentleman. A loser and winner. More films needed like this one, too.

In an ideal world....this is a three-way tie. Since this isn't an ideal world, I'm going to have to pick one.

Best Female Actor in a Lead
Once again, I'm torn. This is a two way tie between Meryl Streep in "Doubt" and Melissa Leo in "Frozen River." Since I've previously reviewed both films, I'll just say that once again, I'll be torn between two stellar performances that leave their competition in the dust.

Best Supporting Male
Oh for the love of all that is good...there is not one nominee here who doesn't deserve this award.
Josh Brolin in "Milk": this guy is so good, I can't even recognize him from one role to the next. A twistedly vile politician here. Come to think of it....I loved him in W, too. Where he was a simplistically twisted and vile politician.
Robert Downey, Jr. in "Tropic Thunder": it takes a lot to stir the powers that be enough to recognize comedy in awards shows. And Downey's got more than enough. See this film, please.
Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Doubt": yes, yes, yes. If you've read my posts before, you know that Hoffman is in that Sean Penn category of "actors who are incapable of anything less than greatness" in my opinion. Here, no exception. Did he? Didn't he? Why did this movie have to end?
Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight": I'm one of the few that detested this film. However, Heath Ledger did deliver a mind-blowing, creepy joker and we are all the better for the brief time we had to savor his talent.
Dev Patel in "Slumdog Millionaire": This is a role of a lifetime for any actor, with a sweeping story from a brutal youth to utter degradation as an adult. Dev Patel soared in this role. Bravo, bravo.

Best Supporting Female
Look, you don't get to this level without being phenomenal (and, let's face it, lucky, but that's another story). So here, we have a strong cast of contenders (Amy Adams for "Doubt," Penelope Cruz for "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," Viola Davis for "Doubt," Taraji P. Henson for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," and Kate Winslet for "The Reader").

But my vote will go to:
Kate Winslet in "The Reader": I knew nothing about this film prior to seeing it, and I hope you can approach it the same way. The less I say, the better. But Winslet reveals...oh, nevermind. This is a disturbing, intense and brilliant film very much worth seeing.

Outstanding Cast
Another tough category to pick a winner. But my top picks are:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Like an old-fashioned, epic sweeping saga, this tale takes you through time and space, places and situations that delve deep. A big story, well-told, beautifully done.
Doubt
In graphic design, the epitome of great design is the ability to boil an idea down to the fewest visual marks you can make that will tell the story. Here, we have the epitome of film. A small cast, no excess, nothing exists without it's absolute necessity. Brilliant on every level.
Slumdog Millionaire
Another epic saga that can only achieve this level of greatness by every single piece being in its perfect place. And it was. And they were. And it is.

How can this not be a three-way tie?

For teeth-gnashing, told-you-so, popcorn chewing fun, check out the SAG Awards on Sunday, January 25th on TNT and TBS at 8 pm ET/PT, 7 CT and 6 MT.

“Towelhead”- Coming of age is horrifically gross - let's shoot that in close-up!

Isn’t the world horrible? Jesus what a way to start a new year! I see and usually rate the “look I’m provocative for the sake of provocation” school of films a banal average rating. (“Welcome to the Dollhouse”, “Happiness”, “Kids”, “Spanking the Monkey”, etc) They remind me of the ‘torture porn’ flicks that have to desperately go over the top in the name of attempted coolness. (Cough- Tarantino!) Excess only works in the context of an already strong film (“Thirteen”, ”Trainspotting”, “Eating Raoul”, “Boogie Nights”, “City of God” and in theaters “Slumdog Millionaire”).

Since Alan Ball wrote the fun “American Beauty” (and “Six Feet Under”) and was making his directorial debut with “Towelhead”, I thought this would be decent. Somewhere between the low angle shot of menstruated panties and the -well: the dead pet in the freezer, the casual sex between young children, the pedophilia, bigotry, abuse and other such horrors presented in a matter of fact fashion, my mind just switched off. Our shell shocked teen (who in fact acts appropriately like a zombie compared to thirteen year olds I’ve met) moves from one abuse to another while some critics cheer. Set in Texas against the backdrop of the first Gulf War our broken Middle Eastern family comments on – blah- blah-blah…not one of these characters seemed real to me but were more like caricatures in a morality play. The DVD has extras that include discussions on prejudice in a desperate attempt to cast this film as non-exploitive. It is in the “Funny Games” camp of filmmaking to manipulate the audience to teach it about itself. I get enough condescension in real life guys, get into documentaries and stop exploiting the same wrongs that you preach to be against. It’s ‘Theaters’ not “The Haters" , so please stop hating the audience. Like your main charactor we are shell shocked and in need of love or at the very least meaningful entertainment that touches us without that sledgehammer.

Single shaker of shame: The worst DVDs of 2008

“Why did I rent this?” These words echo across America every night. If you have to hit fast forward, it’s not a good sign. Here are 20 from this year that I wish I skipped.

1. Be Kind Rewind (2008) – Previously reviewed on this blog. Not so kind...

2. Daniel Tosh: Completely Serious - Comedians shouldn’t be assholes. Seriously.

3. The Game Plan- “The Rock” tries to emulate family-friendly Schwarzeneggers' career path, mugging embarrassingly with a child actor who should have hit him with a folding chair.

4. Get Smart (2008) - Previously reviewed on this blog. Back to your office Steve!

5. Grindhouse: Planet Terror – Rodiguez and Tarantino think that making deliberately bad, violent films is cool. It’s not and put out that doobie!

6. The Happening (2008)- M. Night Shyamalan has Marky Mark and friends trying to outrun the suicide-inducing wind. Say hi to your mother for me.

7. Heckler – Jamie Kennedy fakes us out; Instead of talking about heckling he quickly equates them with critics and then cries that they didn’t like his shitty films.

8. I'm Not There - Bob Dylan is played by a whole bunch of different actors in an attempt to capture his essence. My channels - they are a changing.

9. Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008) – Looky it's 3-D! Brendan Fraser is in danger of becoming the next Nicholas Cage making bad big budget junk for a paycheck.

10. Lust, Caution –The Asian cinema cliché that really slow-moving films are more meaningful. I needed more lust less caution.

11. Married Life – Supposedly a murder-mystery that has neither.

12. Momma's Man (2008) – Like the “Step Brothers” but trying to take itself seriously. Grow up!

13. Ocean's Thirteen- The last two of this franchise milk the originality of the first with lame-ass pretty boy smugness.

14. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End – Sequel-itis again hits as big money trumps the fun with a ridiculously confusing plot and over-the-top nonsense action.

15. Redacted – Brian DePalma goes ‘Clockwork Orange’ on us and it’s an experiment in bad. War is horrific and so is this film.

16. Slacker Uprising – Michael Moore shows us how his “Slacker Nation” failed to get Kerry elected in 04. Is this relevant?

17. Sleuth – A two-man show with Michael Caine and Jude Law trading wits while boring us senseless.

18. Snow Angels - David Green makes good actors do bad things. Depressing filmmaking is not serious filmmaking.

19. Vantage Point – The"aren't we clever?" point of view can't save this conceited thriller that twists and turns into mediocrity.

20. Zoo – Bestiality attempted to be explained artistically. Yuck!

Let's have a happy new year and hope for more multi-shaker films in 09!