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Shared Darkness

A Communal Life in Film, Examined

Daily Archives: February 9, 2007

Norbit

Norbit, which finds Eddie Murphy grotesquely humping the same two piano keys
for its entire running time, less on its own dubious merits and more as
a piece of agitable propaganda against his Academy Award odds.

That Norbit isn’t built on subtlety should be obvious from its
har-har posters and advertising campaign, but broad needn’t necessarily equate
with shrill and desperate, which it certainly does here. If the awards
community wind in Hollywood picks up that scent, it may well help blow
Murphy’s Oscar chances right away. For the full review, from FilmStew, click here.

300 Thoughts

Warner Bros.’ 300, opening March 9, and it looks to be a solid earner. Apart from producer Mark Canton’s amusingly blunt introduction of the movie as “fucking awesome,” and the generally enthusiastic reception of the young, hoodie-sporting masses which rounded out the audience (apparently having redeemed some Mountain Dew bottlecap points or something for admittance), what was most notable about the movie was its mesmeric visual scheme. It’s a storybook come to life — the type of thing that exists in adolescent daydreams.

Comic book fans will go ga-ga over its faithfulness to Frank Miller’s source material, but the film is a straight-ahead butt-kicker through and through, and will likely ring up the sort of audience that 20th Century Fox wished it had pulled in with Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven, an international hit to the tune of $164 million but a Stateside sputterer at $47 million. 300 skews young, in other words, but its rootedness in air-quote history — it’s based on the infamous story of Sparta’s 480 B.C. defense against an overwhelming Persian invasion — gives it inroads with hipper urban audiences for whom the History Channel represents consistently worthy edu-tainment. Between V for Vendetta and this, Warner Bros. is proving a most welcome and efficient home for artistically-toned graphic novel adaptations.

Also, a happy birthday shout-out to Amber Valletta, who turns 33 today. Amber, even as an ex-model, you were entirely credible as the object of Kevin James’ affection in Hitch, so much so that one is actually borderline-intrigued with regards to your participation in Saw helmer James Wan’s next picture, Dead Silence.

Factotum

Factotum is a rambling, episodic, mock-biography of barfly and author Charles Bukowski, anchored by a fine,
square-jawed lead performance from Matt Dillon, who between this and
Crash has located a better use of his talent in playing louts and
fringe-dwellers. Watching the film — which is actually quite funny at times, despite its darkness
— you get a palpable sense of how Dillon’s character’s acting out (and thus Bukowski’s as well) stems from his racing, perpetually dissatisfied inner monologue, and how his
general disagreeableness is hardwired
to an irreconcilable urgency to locate in both life and his art the same sort of
forward-leaning insistence he feels in his soul. A 28-minute look at the making of the movie and filmmaker Bent Hamer’s other works anchors the supplemental slate. For the full DVD review, from IGN, click here.

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