Daily Archives: June 28, 2008

The Spiderwick Chronicles

Blu-ray/DVD Reviews

From the beloved, best-selling series of children’s books written by Holly Black and illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi comes the fantasy adventure The Spiderwick Chronicles, a rangy, free-spirited and mostly enjoyable family film that brings to life in wondrous, state-of-the-art fashion a fantastical, unseen world that exists all around us. For those who devoured dime-store fantasy tales in their younger years, and dreamed up all sorts of outlandish reasons behind the strange hump of grass in your neighbor’s yard or the oddly shaped tree at the end of the block… well, this will spark memories of nostalgia, and likely win a place in the hearts of your own children, or nieces and nephews.

From the moment the Grace family, headed by exasperated single-mother-to-be Helen (Mary Louise Parker), moves into a secluded old country house, peculiar things start to happen. Unable to explain a series of accidents and strange disappearances of personal items, the three Grace children — Mallory (Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker‘s Sarah Bolger) and twin brothers Jared and Simon (both played by Freddie Highmore) — start to investigate. When one of them uncovers a manuscript hidden in the wall, the unbelievable truth of their sprawling new home and the amazing creatures that live in and around it is revealed, leading to much adventure. It turns out that 80 years ago, naturalist Arthur Spiderwick (David Strathairn) began compiling all sorts of information about fairies, sprites, hobgoblins and other fantastical creatures, and this hidden tome is the culmination of his life’s work — a text with which the evil ogre Mulgarath (Nick Nolte) could do much damage, if only he could lay hands on it.

As directed by Mark Waters (Mean Girls), The Spiderwick Chronicles doesn’t bowl one over with breathlessly ambitious scope and dazzling, dizzying, overly slick execution, so perhaps the best way to appreciate its solid charms is in the comfort of one’s own home, where it properly feels like just a nice, imaginative bedtime story come to life. Seth Rogen and Martin Short contribute voice work, and Highmore — who between this, Finding Neverland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, is racking up quite the fanciful filmography — delivers two nice performances, as both the bookish, introverted Simon and the more rascally, forward-leaning Jared, most upset over his parents’ impending divorce. Overall, the movie is an engaging enough, direct-line-to-the-fanciful piece of entertainment, in the vein of Bridge to Terabithia.

The two-disc, “field guide,” special collector’s edition DVD of The Spiderwick Chronicles comes housed in a regular, plastic Amray case that is then in turn stored in a nice cardboard slipcover with a small, red, horizontal, mock-wax seal that preserves the “unbroken” integrity of the fantastical secrets that await inside. Presented
in widescreen enhanced for 16×9 TVs, the movie comes with Dolby digital
5.1 surround sound audio mixes in English, Spanish and French, and
optional subtitles for all of those languages as well. It also boasts an impressive array of behind-the-scenes featurettes, starting with the seven-minute, Waters-hosted segment “It’s All True!,” which finds the director gently pitching the movie’s back story as real, and catching audiences up on the wide variety of characters and which household items offer safety (that would be salt, though tomato sauce is also a good defense against goblins).

An introductory look at the cast and characters further delves into the genealogy and intertwined relationships of all the Spiderwick creatures (hobgoblins, above left, are part pig, part bat, part monkey, don’t you know, and you shouldn’t take their fondness for spitting in your face personally), while a nine-minute explication of the series’ back story features sit-down interviews with humble-seeming authors Black and DiTerlizzi, as well as producer Mark Canton. “Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide,” meanwhile, spotlights reprinted pages from the books, with 10 links to in-movie scenes featuring the specific, mentioned creatures, though it should be noted that this function deactivates the DVD’s subtitles options. A separate little making-of featurette spotlights the movie’s production design and cinematography, and four deleted scenes are also included. Rounding things out are Nickelodeon TV spots and preview trailers for Barnyard, Bee Movie, the new Indiana Jones DVD Collection and a couple other titles. To purchase the two-disc DVD via Amazon, click here. B- (Movie) A- (Disc)

Aero Fetes Blake Edwards in July

Screenings

In a career that has spanned over 50 years as a writer, producer and director, Blake Edwards has delivered classics in nearly every genre. To that end, his varied body of work will be celebrated at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica during the month of July, with screenings of his wild comedies as well as thrillers and musicals.

Though known primarily for comedies such as The Party and The Pink Panther, Edwards exhibited mastery of the domestic melodrama (the beautiful and tragic Days of Wine and Roses), the thriller (Experiment in Terror) and the musical (Darling Lili). In the best tradition of studio-era auteurs like Howard Hawks, Edwards managed to inject distinctly personal ideas and styles into popular forms. Regardless of genre, almost all of his films share a profound interest in the complexities and difficulties of close relationships (whether between friends, lovers or colleagues) and the wide range of the human experience. In fact, Edwards’ best films often veer from humiliation and anxiety to giddy romance and celebration, all within the space of a couple of hours. I reviewed some of these movies when they hit DVD for the first time a couple years ago, as part of a collection of Edwards’ work, so I may try to slap up a couple of those reviews later next month.

Regardless, the Aero’s special retrospective kicks off on July 10 with an evening screening of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, followed the next night by a double feature of 1964’s The Pink Panther and 1975’s Return of the Pink Panther, starring Peter Sellers. The series concludes with a celebratory screening of The Great Race on Edwards’ 86th birthday, July 26. The Aero Theatre
is located at 1328 Montana Avenue in Santa Monica. Tickets for all the movies, as well as other special events, are available through Fandango, but for 24-hour recorded
information on directions and the Aero’s upcoming schedule,
phone (323) 466-FILM.

Jenna Fischer Will Now Piss on You

Amusements, Musings

I’m sorry, but this story about Jenna Fischer, and her years-ago encounter with creep-o writer-director Shem Bitterman, needs to be put further out there. Apparently recounted during an interview with Playboy (how’d I miss that?), Fischer talked about her most memorable encounter with a sleazy industry-type.

An excerpt: “I had been living in Los Angeles for about a year and was a member of
a theater company. One night, after a play, I went to a party and ran
into the playwright. He said, ‘What’s your story?’ I said, ‘I’m from St. Louis. I just got here. I want to be an actress.’ He said, ‘I’m writing a film, and I think you’d be great for it. But I
have a question for you — would you ever do a raunchy sex scene in a
movie? Like really raunchy, with nudity?’ I kind of laughed and said,
‘Well, I wouldn’t do anything I wouldn’t be proud to show my parents.’
And he said, ‘A real actress would say yes. A real actress would piss
herself on stage if that’s what it took. Sylvester Stallone did porn, Shelley Winters pissed herself on stage. Every play, every movie I
write has nudity in it. You know why? Because that’s how I know if I’m
working with real actors. You’re not a real actress. You should just go
home. You don’t have what it takes.'” Fischer then went on to say that she would now gladly urinate on Bitterman, which would be a good thing to see.

Tool-bags like Bitterman are sadly about a dollar a half-dozen in Hollywood, and I’m depressed to say that I’ve personally overheard a conversation very similar to the one above at a party. It’s a sad fact — fringe-dwelling guys and self-touting producers pull crap like this as a way to try smoke out the most impressionable and psychologically persuadable aspirant starlets out there, fresh off the bus from the Midwest. It helps them save on buying drinks, I guess.

Happy Birthday, John Cusack

Birthdays

Perpetual man-in-black John Cusack turns 41 today, so it’s a bushel of benevolent birthday wishes for him. I could point out how he attempts to singlehandedly keep the whole Reservoir Dogs look alive, but what’d be the utility or purpose in that?