All posts by Brent

Kirby Dick Kicks Up Some Outrage, Controversy

Interviews

Filmmaker Kirby Dick caused quite a stir a few years back with This Film Is Not Yet Rated, his incendiary documentary about the secret inner workings, and often glaring double standards, of the Motion Picture Association of America’s ratings classification system. Now he’s back with Outrage, a name-dropping indictment of the hypocrisy of closeted homosexual politicians with appalling gay rights voting records, and the media’s complicity in blanching at reporting on the matter. I recently had the chance to chat with Dick by phone; the conversation is excerpted below:

Brent Simon: To your mind, why is the mainstream media squeamish about exploring potential disconnects between public and private personae?

Kirby Dick (below): Actually, I think they’re afraid to write about
issues that deal with gay sexuality. I think they’re concerned with
their readership — which [is presumably] mostly straight, with maybe
some fundamentalists — finding it offensive, or just uncomfortable. Now,
that’s kind of homophobia in my mind. I don’t think the individual
reporters are homophobic, but the policy breeds homophobia because as
Barney Frank has said, they’ll write everything about his personal
life, but they won’t write the fact that he’s gay. What is the message
that gets out? That there’s something wrong with being gay. That
message gets disseminated, and instills homophobia. And I think there’s
another reason. In terms of reporting on the
hypocrisy of specific politicians, these news outlets are reluctant to
do so because they’re often owned by major corporations that have a lot of
business, if you will, running through Congress. So these members of
Congress might be voting on legislation that has to do with things that
might very much effect these corporations’ bottom lines. And so they
just see no upside in telling the truth or doing this sort of
reporting, because they’re just going to anger these politicians.

BS: Is it perhaps also an issue that hypocrisy is just a relatively nuanced “sell” in a soundbite-driven media age?

KD: I think hypocrisy is often too tough of a sell, but that’s
no reason not to do it. I think you’re right; people would like to
gloss over the more complex issues, of which this is certainly one. In
some ways it’s uncomfortable to write about these things, but that’s
the job of the press.

BS: What was the genesis of the idea for this film — was it the 2004 election?

KD: Well, it was actually from August, 2006. I was in Washington, D.C. promoting This Film Is Not Yet Rated, which was a story I knew about primarily because I was in the film business. So in D.C. I said, OK, there’s probably a number of stories that people inside the Beltway know would make great subjects for a documentary, and I started talking with folks and very quickly learned about these closeted politicians, many of whom were voting anti-gay. And again, when I realized that this wasn’t being covered in the mainstream media, I thought it was the perfect opportunity.

BS: What were your feelings, then, about the 2004 presidential election, and specifically all these marriage-protection constitutional ballot measures, which didn’t seem to have a lot of feeling behind them, but instead seemed designed almost solely for political gain?

KD: In some ways it makes it worse. The fact is, here’s George W. Bush, who has gay friends and gay staff, who by all accounts of people we’ve talked to who’ve interacted with him personally is not homophobic, and yet he decides to pass an amendment that restricts the rights of millions of American citizens solely to maintain power and be elected again. That is one of the most cynical and crass uses of the legislative process ever.

BS: I expected its tough-minded investigative nature, which is considerable, but I was surprised a bit by the strength of Outage‘s emotional component, and in particular the powerfully articulated reflections of former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey. How tough of an interview get was he, and did you know or suspect going in that he was going to have some of the heartrending insights that he did?

KD: You’re right, he was incredibly eloquent. It took some time to get him, but we were able to. This is what happens when someone comes out of the closet; they have a story to tell about the anguish of being in the closet, they have a story to tell about how great it is to be out of the closet, and I think they want that story shared not only with the public, but with politicians and young people going into politics. It’s kind of a cautionary tale — don’t make the same mistake I did, I’m much happier now, I wish I was out from the very beginning. So for both (former Arizona Congressman) Jim Kolbe and Jim McGreevey, it is a very personal and emotional story, even still, and you can tell in the way that they talk about it.

BS: There’s a lot of talk, given the beatdowns that they have suffered in the last two election cycles, about more inclusive language and even issue stances within the Republican party, but so far there doesn’t seem to be a gene for shamed silence, let alone much honest introspection. Do you think there will be an intra-party come-to-Jesus, for lack of a better phrase, with regards to the issue of gay marriage?

KD: I would hope so, and I think you’re seeing that debate. I don’t think it’s by any means definite. Reactionary elements in the political arena will always use this technique of demonizing the minority, particularly if there’s some sort of morality or health issue that they can pull into it. This will come up again, so I don’t think we should be surprised to see if in 20 or 30 years down the road there isn’t another attack on the rights of gays and lesbians. Right now things are trending positively, but let’s see what happens with the Supreme Court decision on the case in California. I’d heard that before Iowa legalized same-sex marriage, they were almost certainly going to vote to uphold Proposition 8, but now I think they’re looking at the situation and realizing how the trend is going, and realizing maybe that if they vote in support of Proposition 8, they may be the last major court in this country to support this kind of bigotry. Hopefully they’ll realize that it’s the right thing to do, and the wrong thing in terms of their legacy. But it’s a very important decision, and I really hope they make the right one.

BS: What do you make of, in the wake of [Supreme Court Justice David] Souter’s recently announced exit, the Republicans’ attack on the word empathetic… that it’s coded language that Obama is using to prick the ears of liberal foot soldiers and activists? What of the notion, as I believe Laura Ingraham opined, that empathy is a singularly ridiculous, loopy and disqualifying quality to aspire to have in a judge?

KD: Yeah, that’s absurd. I think Republicans are struggling, and still operating in the arena of counter-attack, in that I think they’ve been so trained, certainly since Newt Gingrich in 1994, their modus operandi is to just hit, and it’s hard for them to get out of that. I think they’re continuously looking for anything that they can mount a charge on, and somehow damage the president. They were very successful with the whole impeachment, and this is what the whole far right-wing of the Republican party has grown up with, this strategy of [destruction], and so I think that’s what you’re seeing, a knee-jerk reaction to strike even if there’s no logic to it.

BS: The film touches on something I found interesting — the so-called “nine families,” and The Heritage Foundation, which I was familiar with in name, but not inception. I hold no illusions that a lot of what is talked about in politics is insincere; you’re trying to vote-wrangle, looking for a wedge issue that you can push and exploit, so we pass through entire administrations where nothing happens on truly pressing matters like Social Security, fuel efficiency, energy or global warming. But was there more that you learned about the genesis of gay marriage as a political issue?

KD: Well, I think there was and are two strands of the Republican party over the last several decades, and one is a more fundamentalist and religious, and one is more economically-oriented. So these nine families were looking for a way to platform capitalism, particularly after the counter-culture movement of the 1960s. And for a long time, they didn’t see any benefit in aligning themselves with the fundamentalist movement, which they didn’t seem to share many interests with. But I think a calculation was made in the late 1980s and particularly early ’90s that the issue of gay marriage could be used to get Republicans elected who [would] then support this pro-capitalist agenda. That’s related to George Bush’s decision in many ways. The constituency and the power behind him really didn’t care about gay marriage. In fact there’s a lot of revelation that they viewed fundamentalists as kooks. But they saw that they could use them. Again, it’s incredibly cynical, because it’s one thing to make a political calculation, it’s another thing to demonize American citizens in order to do so.

BS: Given t
he many subjects, from Larry Craig (above) to Charlie Crist, what was the process of winnowing down Outrage like, and was Mike Rogers, the blogger at the heart of the movie, someone you latched onto at the beginning of production?

KD: Certainly, he was one of the major forces in the second or third wave of outing. What was happening in 2004, with this incredible build-up of anti-gay hysteria leading to the Federal Marriage Amendment, was that a lot of people, paricularly gays and lesbians, both Republicans and Democrats, were working to derail it behind the scenes. But because D.C. is such a closed town, people weren’t coming out and operating in the public arena, and that’s when Mike Rogers stepped out and said, “Look, there’s a lot of closeted gays and lesbians who are supporting this, and I’m going to expose this hypocrisy publicly.” And he tapped into a great deal of anger across the country, got these tips, particularly around Ed Shrock and Larry Craig. So certainly that was extremely important for us to show.

BS: I think I was most struck by some of the thoughts of Rich Tafel, the executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, when he talked about friends and colleagues who embraced “the strength and stamina” required to stay in the closet. Was that something you encountered in your interviews — this willful pride at leading secret lives?

KD: In particular with closeted staffers; we just couldn’t get people to speak. We were actually very surprised, but we couldn’t. That statement by Rich Tafel is one of the most fascinating things in the film. When I first heard it it seemed absurd, but the more I thought about it, it made sense. These people have made the decision to put their political ambition ahead of anything in their personal life, and you what? It probably works.

BS: Kirby, thanks for your time. Wrapping up, is there anything else definitively on tap?

KD: No, I’m working on another closet, so to speak, but I can’t really talk about it yet because I don’t want them to know that I’m coming their direction.

Sony Home Entertainment, Maxim Tout Bullet-Riddled DVDs

Irritations

Targeting one of the most important sectors among consumer groups, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has partnered with Maxim to offer a free one-year subscription to the magazine with the purchase of any one of Sony’s newly re-branded “Action Unleashed!” DVDs. “We wanted to create a campaign to leverage some of our existing male-focused catalog,” explained Marc Rashba, Vice President of Worldwide Marketing for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, in a press release. “The Action Unleashed! campaign is designed to create awareness, and through our partnership with Maxim we hope to connect to this very important audience.”

So what does this all mean? Errr… just re-packaged DVDs in new slipcovers with faux bullet holes, it seems. Which makes some sense for both Bad Boys flicks, say, but not so much for Rocky Balboa. The discs — including the aforementioned titles, xXx: State of the Union, Black Hawk Down and Ghost Rider, among other movies — hit major retail outlets, as well as drug and grocery stores, on May 12.

Carousel Gives Martin Scorsese and Alfonso Cuaron Erections

Ephemera, Trailer Watch

Technically, Adam Berg’s short film Carousel is “just” an ad for Philips’ flat-screen Cinema 21:9 TV. But in terms of technical achievement, it’s an eye-opener — a 139-second tracking shot of a sprawling heist shoot-out between cops and bad guys dressed as clowns, in which the characters never move, but the camera does. Somewhere, Martin Scorsese and Alfonso Cuaron jizz in their pants.

Andrew Sullivan on Rape as Torture, Republicans’ Hate Impulse

Politics

Lapsed Republican Andrew Sullivan takes a swing at the Coulter-O’Reilly-Limbaugh-Hannity flu-strain of conservatism, and ticks off why the GOP is poison to him. Namely, it’s “their abandonment of limited government, their absurd spending under Bush, their contempt for civil liberties, their rigid mindset, their hostility to others, their worship of the executive branch, their contempt for judicial checks, their cluelessness with racial minorities and immigrants, their endorsement of torture as an American value, their homophobia, their know-nothing Christianism, and the sheer vileness of their leaders.” Sullivan also wonders when someone will “Sister Souljah them,” but then (correctly) arrives at the truth: whom Republicans hate is their core motivation right now.

Oh, and Sullivan also raises the provocative notion that subjugation through rape bears striking similarities to the stated goals of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” as it would be particularly effective in destroying male Muslim self-worth and psychological integrity. So, he asks, does that re-frame the torture argument? Good, concise, gut-punch reads, both.

A Power Trip

Amusements, Musings, Politics

I recently put a bullet in a long-lingering copy of Sidney Lumet’s Power, from 1986. It’s a not-at-all-bad political-power-broker drama, starring a mustachioed Richard Gere as Pete St. John, a hired-gun, high-billing, ultra-successful political image consultant who’s wrapping up a populist national campaign in South America while also overseeing simultaneous gubernatorial races in New Mexico and Washington, plus a special Ohio senate election to fill the seat of one of his first clients, and perhaps closest friend.

The film’s plot turns mostly on the latter strand, and a potential blackmail/political reorganization scheme that may be afoot in an effort to squash — get this — a comprehensive renewable energies program. Yes, in 1986. Some other forward-reaching, ahead-of-the-curve and/or timeless bits — including eerily appropriate invocations of “straight talk” and not being “able to afford on-the-job-training” — help make the movie look hip, politically knowing and with it, if the fashions certainly don’t. It’s desperately out of step, however, with regards to the mercenary ethic with which it imbues St. John. Money may have ruled in the mid-1980s, but partisans on both sides have since hardened; while party switcheroos are not unusual, either early or late in political life (see James A. Baker, and most recently Arlen Specter), top-shelf campaign gunners could now certainly not move so freely along the ideological spectrum as Gere’s character. They wouldn’t be trusted — kind of like a guy who neither drinks nor knows a single thing about any sport. Information would be withheld, jaws clenched, etcetera; destruction would commence from the inside out, on one brittle campaign or another.

Mostly, though, I was struck by an amusing depiction of technology in Power. There’s a 103-second computer search sequence (think about that) where a number-crunching ally of St. John tries to unearth the business connections, off-shore and otherwise, of a shadowy lobbyist (played by Denzel Washington) who’s hired St. John to oversee the campaign of a well-financed Ohio Democrat. It’s a looong scene, sure, so it’s funny in that regard. But it’s also notable because the character even leaves the room, assuming, I guess, that it will take his supercomputer all night to complete the task. Watching this, you can’t convince me that Google and other search engines, for all their advantages, aren’t going to (even further) massively effect the gratification impulses of today’s kids. This partially relates, I believe, to the Bush administration’s (political) success in playing so fast and loose with facts about the Iraq War, torture, et al. Why? Because information seemingly means less when, over and over, it’s gained without consistent, focused mental effort.

Does Uncloseted Homosexuality Threaten Voiceover Work?

Irritations

Both interesting and a shame that David Ogden Stiers, who came out as gay in a March interview, says that he was repeatedly cautioned to stay in the closet if he wanted to continue getting work as a voice actor for [Disney] family films. “A lot of my income has been derived from voicing Disney and family programming,” says Stiers. “What they might allow in a more known actor, they prefer not having to deal with in minor players.” This is the legacy of intolerance that groups like Focus on the Family bring us.

Last Chance Harvey

Blu-ray/DVD Reviews

On the verge of losing his job, rundown New Yorker jingle writer Harvey
Shine (Dustin Hoffman) flies to London for a weekend to attend his
daughter’s wedding, but promises to be back on Monday morning to make
an important meeting. He arrives to learn his daughter has chosen her
stepfather to walk her down the aisle instead of him. Devastated,
Harvey leaves the wedding before the reception, misses his plane and
ends up drowning his sorrows at the airport bar, where he
strikes up a conversation with Kate Walker (Emma Thompson), a slightly
prickly, 40-something singleton whose life is limited to work, the
occasional humiliating blind date and endless phone calls from her
smothering, quasi-delusional mother, Maggie (Eileen Atkins). The growing
connection between the pair energizes and inspires both of them, even
as they grapple with difficulties of adult-onset romance.

Not yet 40, British-born writer-director Joel Hopkins (Jump Tomorrow) perhaps doesn’t have the necessary life experience to pull off the
injection of a credible depth of feeling into this sort of autumnal tale, and so the presence of a pair of two-time Academy Award winners is more or less fumbled away, in shrugging fashion. The resultant
harmless inconsequentiality is a lumpy, sentimental mass that clumsily strikes many of the familiar surface keys of melancholic regret.
But there’s a crinkle-eyed mischievousness that pokes through in
Hoffman’s performance, and that robs the character — and thus the movie as a
whole — of a chance at developing into something darker, and more arresting. (As
Harvey’s grown but still wounded and emotionally distant daughter
Susan, it’s Liane Balaban who makes a lasting impression.)

Hopkins
doesn’t necessarily want to play on that field, with real adult pain and regret, but he should, honestly, since
his film doesn’t have the wit to compete with Something’s Gotta Give,
the movie that it most clearly wants to emulate. Ergo, when the goofy
musical montage of Kate trying on dresses inevitably arrives, you don’t forgive
it and just go with the flow of the movie, you don’t give it another chance. No, instead, you turn on Last Chance Harvey, and
actually start to hold a grudge.

Housed in a regular Amaray case with an accompanying cardboard slipcover, Last Chance Harvey comes presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, with a lively English language Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound audio track, and complementary English and Spanish subtitles. Supplemental features are anchored by a winning audio commentary track with Hopkins and his two respected stars; Hoffman’s thoughts are separately recorded, but generally well integrated, and overall the feature-length chat oscillates nicely between anecdotal remembrances, thematic analysis and other observations. A 17-minute making-of featurette mixes film clips, on-set footage and sit-down interview chats with the film’s actors; rounding out matters is the movie’s theatrical trailer. To purchase the DVD via Amazon, click here. C- (Movie) B (Disc)

Movieline Sets Sights on “Crazy White Bitches”

Amusements

In celebration of the huge cheddar that Obsessed banked this past weekend, and in the spirit of some of its past great examinations of cultural-quirk sub-genres, the recently relaunched Movieline takes a look at nine “crazy white bitch” movies, and correctly notes the necessary emotionally satisfying inclusion of “one decent wife-on-murderous-slut catfight in its third act.” The included clips are nice, but the piece needs a bit more snark. And what about The Temp? And Disclosure? Big omissions, really…

Harry Knowles Whines About Wolverine, I Just Shrug…

Amusements, Musings

Large fan boy Harry Knowles has seemingly walked back his “official recommendation” of skipping Wolverine, saying he’ll check it out in theaters today, opening day. His initial shrugging protest seemed mainly inspired by the fact that “Fox refused to invite one [sic] the AICN editors to an advance screening,” which was probably inspired by posts like this one, which called 20th Century Fox out on the fact that they were lying about differences between the leaked, air-quote work print online and the final version of the film opening in theaters today. Huge multi-national corporations tend not to like being called out on their shit.

So… Knowles’ reaction: Petty? Sure. But it’s actually more or less in line with my own feelings, in some ways. He just plays the slightly douchey slight-me-and-I’ll-slight-you-back card. I was a huge fan of the first two X-Men films, understandably a bit baffled by the third flick, but still a big fan of Hugh Jackman. So I should care about Wolverine. At least a little bit. But now? After being waylaid in efforts to line up a screening earlier in the week, (which, hey, they at least actually took the proactive step of inviting critics to), I just don’t care. There’s no anger or pique, though, really, except when I have a pressing assignment; this just more or less dovetails with the swell in a shrugging, above-the-fray attitude with which I’ve been infected over the hassle of so many studio screenings. I won’t say that I’ve grown cynical about films themselves; I haven’t. But the number of movies which elicit true anticipation seem to shrink every year. There’s plenty of stuff in which I have legitimate interest, but if all the variables don’t align, or I only get a same-day invite or some such bullshit, nevermind… I’m on to the next thing. Money attaches itself to other opportunities, and there are always other things to see and write about. I don’t feel the slightest bit empty inside missing a lot of these Hollywood movies.

Aero Hosts Easy Virtue Director for Advance Screening

Screenings

In advance of its Stateside theatrical bow, the Aero Theatre will host a special advance screening of Easy Virtue, a romantic comedy starring Jessica Biel and Ben Barnes — on Saturday, May 9 at 7:30 p.m., as part of a double feature of director Stephan Elliott’s work. An adaptation of Noel Coward’s play, Easy Virtue centers around John Whittaker, a young Englishman who falls madly in love with Larita, a sexy and glamorous American woman. They marry impetuously, but when the couple returns to the stuffy Whittaker family home, John’s mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) has an instant allergic reaction to her new daughter-in-law. Sparks fly, and a battle of wits ensues. Australian Elliott (Eye of the Beholder) will appear in person for a discussion between Easy Virtue and a 9:30 screening of his 1994 film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

The Aero Theatre
is located at 1328 Montana Avenue in Santa Monica. Tickets for this movie, 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. For more information on Easy Virtues, which opens May 22 from Sony Pictures Classics, visit its British web site by clicking here.

Filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino Talks Il Divo, Italian Politics

Interviews

Just as Matteo Garrone‘s lauded Gomorrah provided an aerial snapshot of Italian power, crime and political corruption, so too does Paolo Sorrentino’s Il Divo , the winner of the Jury Prize at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. The difference is a matter of focus. Whereas Garrone’s sprawling mob drama ensemble took a somewhat impressionistic approach, Il Divo stars Toni Servillo (also a bit player in Gomorrah, incidentally) as seven-time Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, a man whose almost otherworldly ability to hold onto power despite all sorts of nasty rumors and criminal charges (including a murder rap) made him one of the most fascinating political figures, Italian or otherwise, of the last half century.

Il Divo has already rung up around $11 million abroad, including an impressive $8.5 million in its native Italy, and if its Stateside commercial prospects, where it opens in limited release this week via Music Box Films, seem relatively low-burning, the movie is at least interesting for the manner in which it seemingly indicates a burgeoning desire on the part of foreign filmmakers to further explore the defining, controversial sociopolitical players of their day and age.

“Andreotti is very
mysterious man, which is why I wanted to make the film,” says Sorrentino, who was not yet 10 years old when the politician was elected to the first of his seven terms as Prime Minister. “He’s always
been very popular, because in addition to being a politician, he’s also
been a very popular writer, and he’s been on television a lot. Also, I’m very drawn to characters that are alone or affected by solitude, and even though Andreotti is constantly surrounded by other people, there’s a very deep sense of solitude in his character, which leads to this interesting sense of melancholy.”

Melancholic, yes, but also devisive, and somewhat unknowable. In fact, the story goes, ask any 10 people about Andreotti, and you’re llikely to have a neatly split opinion on the man, complete with all sorts of fractured, at-odds anecdotes. To capture that sense of swirling mystery — some paint Andreotti as the ultimate quiet, back-room broker, a sort of forerunner to Dick Cheney, others view him as a corruptible pawn in larger power games — Sorrentino (above, setting a low-angle shot) settled upon a lively style seemingly out of step with the staid subject matter of political ascension and shell games.

“Of course we [knew it was] going to be a devisive
film, because Andreotti is a figure that is either loved or hated,” says Sorrentino with the aide of a translator. “Andreotti is a man that’s full of irony; this is something that
comes forward often in many of his jokes. But it had to be expressed in
a way that went beyond just the spoken word, and that’s what led to the
decisions with certain song selections, and the way the film was
framed. I choose the music as I write the script, because I need the
music in order to be able to write the script.”

Then there was the director’s choice for Andreotti — longtime friend and collaborator Servino, a multi-hyphenate threat in his own right who perfectly captures Andreotti’s hounddog dourness and slouch, the one part of the public record with respect to Andreotti that brings no argument or dissension. “I
told Servino to become a machine, or a robot, which was a very quick
way of giving him direction for the part,” recalls Sorrentino. “He’s one of the most
extraordinary actors of his generation, so it
was absolutely unthinkable that he wouldn’t play the part.”

Given the rebuke of overt religious political grandstanding that American voters delivered unto the Republican party in the last two election cycles, an interesting undercurrent of Il Divo is found in the masonic secrecy of Andreotti’s supporters in the Italian Christian Democrat party, and the manner in which they pull levers of power. How does this intersect with Andreotti’s own faith? Is his worldview shaped by it, or is it a cynical alliance of convenience? Even Sorrentino, after all sorts of meticulous research, isn’t sure. “The question of the sincerity of his faith is something that no one will ever know, it’s a completely private issue,” he says. “However, the way he carries and conducts himself is in fact very much tied to the culture of the church, which is a much different thing than the issue of faith. This is a very complicated issue, and one that’s changed a lot recently. Now, the great majority of the population doesn’t really feel that there’s an honest and sincere role of the church in the execution of politics.”

For more on Il Divo, click here.

Why Matthew McConaughey Is Like Baby Powder

Amusements, Musings

So I had a realization about Matthew McConaughey recently, and it didn’t come from staring at a picture of the sun glistening off his shirtless body. No, instead, it struck me as I was wandering through Target, and came across some Johnson’s Baby Powder, which actually has the enigmatic phrase “Clinically proven mildness” stamped across the front of its packaging: McConaughey is the Johnson’s Baby Powder of the under-40 set, masculine enough for the ladies, but so totally bro-riffic as to induce absolutely no feelings of hostility or jealousy in any guy. This isn’t to say that he’s at all feminine, just that there’s no edge, darkness or menace to him, no capacity for ill will, violence or even complication lurking behind those eyes. Paul Walker has undeniably more of an edge to him than McConaughey; hell, I think DJ Qualls might, too.

In and of itself this wouldn’t necessarily be a problem, but for the way it’s coloring McConaughey’s work, and choices. I mean, just look at the sigh-inducing poster for Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, his new pairing with Jennifer Garner (Kate Hudson was apparently unavailable), and try to convince me that there exists a more de-fanged-looking actor working consistently in studio fare these days. Even the rare, occasional curveball (We Are Marshall, Two for the Money) can’t escape the drag of McConaughey’s Southwestern stoner-folksy persona, which descends like a thick mist upon almost all in which he appears. Notice I said almost. A late sub for Owen Wilson, McConaughey slayed in Tropic Thunder, reminding viewers how fun he can be when unhooked from rom-com piffle. Unfortunately, apart from that emergency role-snatch, McConaughey seems unconcerned with any sort of on-screen exercise to match his off-screen workout regimen, and so his movies have become near caricatures of themselves.

Funny People Says It’s Just Kidding About Death

Trailer Watch

So I’ve watched the long-play trailer for Funny People, Judd Apatow’s new film, twice now, and while I understand that the segue into James Brooks territory is somewhat natural and expected for a young-ish father (kids often spark grappling with mortality, ironically), and doesn’t at all indicate a precipitous drop-off in relative quality (or attendant commercial success), I can’t help but feel like it gives away a bit too much of the movie’s twists and turns. Less fanciful, more grounded real-world comedies, those not powered by conceit, needn’t necessarily sell the stick that stirs the pot; movies like that are all about showcasing the tone, some good jokes, and a likeable/relatable cast… things Funny People has in abundance. Sure, it’s not quite a Ransom-esque reveal — a la that trailer’s casual foregrounding of the movie’s publicly announced bounty on the kidnapper of Mel Gibson’s son — but playing the death card and then pulling it back off the table in under 60 seconds seems a bit flippant, especially juxtaposed with Leslie Mann’s hilariously woeful Down Under accent. If I’m overthinking the film I’ve now already guessed part of its ending.

Breaking News Alert: Fox (Gasp!) Lies About Wolverine Print

Irritations, Musings

With regards to the latest news over the leaked online version of Wolverine, Patrick Goldstein, in his Big Picture blog, seems to take a curiously emotionally distant, wrongheaded and naive stance in his reportage on the matter, saying “until now (emphasis mine) 20th Century Fox has never adequately explained how co-chairman Tom Rothman could say 10 minutes of
footage were missing when the [107-minute] running times for the pirated version and
the theatrical version were the same.”

The only apparent reason for his qualifier from Goldstein? This explanation from Fox’s senior vice president of corporate communications, Chris
Petrikin: “There was no ‘fibbing’ involved — that would imply that we were so
on top of things that we anticipated having one of our biggest films of
the year stolen and had time to concoct a plan to purposefully ‘spin’
wrong information. Remember, Tom gave this
[Entertainment Weekly] interview a day after we learned of the theft. A
lot of information and misinformation was flying back and forth then,
and there was no way to sort it out quickly or definitively. In fact, I
think I told Tom that there might be 10  minutes missing from the
stolen version, based — obviously — on misinformation I was given or
misinterpreted. The real issue is the scale of this crime, and that the
film was not finished when it was stolen.”

Jesus Christ, this reminds one of Scooter Libby, Karl Rove and the whole Valerie Plame situation. Of course Fox would/did/will lie about compromised product in an effort to protect their investment, and goad fanboy audiences into shelling out money for something they’ve already downloaded illegally online. Is anyone remotely connected to the film industry really shocked by that? Or any thinking person in general? The motive is clear, and understandable. But to accept as somehow satisfactory the explanation for a massive factual error — from a vice president of corporate communications — that simply “a lot of information was flying back and forth” is simply retarded. Huge, multi-national corporations do not make uncalculated moves, or shoot from the hip, or send co-chairmen out to talk in crisis situations with scant outlines of a situation. The original lie needed a face/name to give it heft, hence Rothman’s aggressiveness; the walking back of the lie will begin (and possibly end?) at lower levels, so Petrikin, dutifully playing the Scott McClellan role, gets to get an early start on his career in creative fiction. Whatever, I get it. I’m just more irritated, actually, with the notion that anyone would accept this argument on face value. It’s ridiculous.

Steven Seagal’s Kill Switch Makes TV Debut

Screenings

For those wanting to add some throat punches to the conclusion of their weekend, Steven Seagal’s entertainingly terrible Kill Switch makes its television debut on Spike TV on Sunday, May 3 at 10 p.m., EDT. Check your local listings to at least TiVo the opening 15 minutes, which feature a hilariously over-edited sequence in which Seagal catches a serial killer, and then “tosses” him around, through break-away walls and mock-glass tables.

Oliver Stone Inks for Wall Street Sequel

Casting About

After a couple weeks of swirling rumors, Variety is reporting that Oliver Stone is set to return to the Wall Street sequel that may or may not still be called Money Never Sleeps. There were early attempts to pooh-pooh the certainty of Stone’s re-upping, but this is a no-brainer, of course, since Stone yearns for big-league relevance, as both World Trade Center and the play-nice, concessionary inclinations of his Dubya biopic indicate. Not doing this movie would go against the grain of what’s in his blood, especially given the current economic climate. So Stone is in, Michael Douglas is back, and Edward Pressman is again on board as producer. Naturally, perhaps because Chris Pine is somehow deemed too old (or maybe because the ridiculous wig he’s forced to sport in Bottle Shock is still secretly being held against him by Hollywood), none other than Shia LaBeouf is in talks to join Douglas, who talked on a comically large cell phone and won an Oscar as Gordon Gekko in the original 1987 film.

America Betrayed

Blu-ray/DVD Reviews

A minor chord social rage riff, Leslie Cardé’s America Betrayed takes a crack at exposing the dirty little secrets behind our nation’s crumbling infrastructure, in particular the complicity between the Army Corps of Engineers — designers of the levees that failed during Hurricane Katrina — and the United States Congress, which funds the group, nominally tasks it in a manner that includes plenty of inessential or less important public works projects, and then provides little to no oversight, allowing some jobs to run over schedule by decades.

As a sociopolitical documentary, the film slots in decently alongside recent similar cage-rattling product like I.O.U.S.A. and The Ascent of Money — movies that cast long, deep shadows of doubt over governmental competence and fiscal responsibility, and the ability of even honest politicians, public servants and activists to affect change both quick and substantive. And with our bridges, dams, levees and highways collectively crumbling, toppling, being washed away and putting American citizens and cities at risk, the issue of infrastructure reinforcement and reinvestment is an undeniably important one. But America Betrayed isn’t the film to galvanize public opinion, or even clearly impart a message of how things stand.

Narrated by Richard Dreyfuss, America Betrayed bills itself as “a cautionary tale for Americans everywhere,” but it’s far too messy to connect on any sort of lasting emotional level. Featuring scores of interviews with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists,
noted scientists, politicians from both sides of the aisle (including
free-use clips from Barack Obama, John McCain and Hillary Clinton), and whistleblowers who risked their lives and careers to
speak out, the movie is literally aflood with information. (Yeah: pun.) It’s just that it’s poorly organized, structured and delineated.

America Betrayed begins with an exploration of the little-known causes behind the Katrina levee
failures, ostensibly using this as a springboard to expose the
rampant collusion, corruption and cronyism within the government
agencies whose very purpose it is to protect us. Between failing to provide proper historical framing for 1965’s Hurricane Betsy and not clearly establishing the expert credentials of many of her subjects, however, Cardé repeatedly shows herself to have no objective sense of aerial docu-storytelling. (At one point, she’s even heard out-of-frame, peppering an interviewee with the penetrating query, “Yeah, what was that about?”) What we have here are loose ends and passionate rants, taped and tied together in whimsical fashion. It’s more than an hour into things before the real underlying point of the film — a call for a fundamental reforming of the manner in which the United States funds water projects — is even directly addressed.

There’s no doubt that the rebuilding of New Orleans, and an overhaul of the Corps of Engineers, remains frustratingly low on the country’s to-do list, even 100 days into the new Obama administration. But Cardé doesn’t have the chops to sustain viewer outrage over this monumental moral failing, and then tie it into the grander issues at play. As a skipped-stone, scatterbrained portrait of how the top leadership of the
Army Corps of Engineers is more concerned with self-serving transitions
into corporate America, how we’ve wasted taxpayer dollars building
other nations’ infrastructures instead of our own, how
lobbyists and politicians funnel money to pet projects, and how
those sent to investigate financial misappropriation are bribed into
silence or simply don’t do their jobs, this documentary more or less works, in air-quote fashion. But any frothy rage or eagerness to make a change dissipates on contact, as soon as the credits roll. And that’s a shame, honestly, because truth be told, we should be pissed off.

Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case, America Betrayed is presented in an enhanced 16×9 aspect ratio, and includes a nine-minute interview with Cardé, seven-and-a-half minutes of bonus
interviews, a filmmaker biography, film resource guide and trailers for three other First Run titles, including the superb Constantine’s Sword. To purchase the DVD, click here. C- (Movie) B- (Disc)

Plus Zero Is the New Plus One…

Irritations

“Plus zero” is the new “plus one,” apparently. Oh, not in any original invite, of course. Just if you mention a guest in an email confirmation of attendance. Which makes you wonder what the fuck folks would do if you just showed up as a pair, and staged a good scene.

Fighting

Film Reviews

The emotional template of Midnight Cowboy provides the unlikely inspiration for the slightly smarter-than-average knuckle-duster Fighting, in which two different-minded New York City outcasts team up in mutual-use fashion to pull themselves up and out of their marginal existences. Committed performances and smart, unobtrusive direction help mitigate a story with some notable lapses in logic, and elevate it in relation to like-minded fare.



Alabama native Shawn MacArthur (Channing Tatum, above) has come to New York City with nothing. Selling phony Harry Potter books and other counterfeit goods on the street, he’s barely earning a living. Shawn’s luck changes when, in a scrum protecting his merchandise, scam artist and smooth-talking hustler Harvey Boarden (Terrence Howard) sees he has a natural talent for fighting. Harvey offers Shawn a chance at making bigger money in back-room, bare-knuckle brawls where the rich and curious gather to watch and bet on brawny strangers. The duo form an unfussy partnership, with Shawn crashing on Harvey’s couch. As Shawn experiences some success, he finds himself drawn to single mother Zulay Velez (Zulay Henao). He also crosses paths with an old college nemesis turned professional mixed martial arts fighter, Evan Haley (Brian White), setting the scene for a climactic rooftop clash with a $100,000 payday.

Fighting‘s third act unravels a bit; the reasons provided for the animosity between Shawn and Evan aren’t particularly plausible, or compelling. Still, director Dito Montiel (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints) works in a fairly restrained fashion outside of the cramped fight sequences, and the film’s dialogue is alternately good-naturedly carping and a bit roughhewn, with overlapping or halting exchanges nicely shading characters’ personalities. In all, there’s a lot of honest effort and investment here in character and emotion, which at least feels refreshing.

Interesting musical selections also help give the film purpose, and punch. In addition to very effective use of Marvin Gaye’s “Trouble Man,” horn-inflected original compositions give Fighting an early sense of uplift. Various ethnically flavored fight sequences, meanwhile, incorporate bits of traditional instrumentation accordant with their respective settings or antagonists. For the full original review, from Screen International, click here. (Rogue, PG-13, 105 minutes)

Sean Penn Gives Acting Advice to Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich

Amusements, Politics

In a blog posting over on the Huffington Post, Sean Penn — no blind, knee-jerk supporter of Barack Obama — takes the piss out of those that would criticize Obama’s recent handshake with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, saying, “This is a pattern of bad acting advice from bad actors. All wimps think playing a tough guy is done in one-note coldness. With a friend or an enemy, our president will gain greater strategic position with a smile.”

Fight Night

Blu-ray/DVD Reviews

With James Toback’s Mike Tyson documentary hitting screens and Fighting in theaters this weekend, it seems something pugilistic is in the air, so it’s as good a time as any to assay Fight Night, a new straight-to-video release that’s part con man roadshow, part femme-centric, bloodied-lip Never Back Down-type programmer, and part unlikely bonding tale. All in all, though quite obviously cramped by limited production means, this movie connects as at least a solid indie jab, courtesy of some effectively engaging performances, smarter-than-average plotting and fun dialogue.

A lonely drifter on the run from a past best forgotten, con man Michael Dublin (Chad Ortis, smoking theatrically) works the underground fight club circuit, moving from one scam to another and leaving a trail of enemies in his wake. When he gets his ass saved one night by down-and-out Katherine Parker (Rebecca Neuenswander, above, a total ringer for The Biggest Loser‘s Jillian Michaels), a female fighter with the skills to take down a man twice her size, Dublin seizes upon his best scam scheme yet. Rigging fights in reverse, the two — uneasy partners through and through — hit the road, working fights in seedy basement bars, backwoods county fairs and rundown warehouses. Eventually, though, Dublin’s shady past catches up with them, raising the stakes higher than they’d imagined possible.

Fight Night is billed as an action flick, and understandably so — there’s a reason its title was changed from Rigged, its original moniker — but that’s not where most of its appeal lies. In truth, the fisticuffs are frequently muddled to the point of being ridiculous, boring, or both, with odd angles and botched edits betraying the logic of the action. In scenes of inaction, though, the film is actually quite nicely photographed, and powered by a snarky, Moonlighting-style rapport between its leads. On the surface, Ortis’ Dublin is too smirky by about a third, but one eventually warms to it, especially since Parker frequently gets to call him out on his behavior, generally denigrating him and cracking on “that cock-holster you call a mouth.”

If that brings a wince, yes, it’s true, Ian Shorr’s script loads up on finger-snapping dialogue (“Hey, I don’t care who you rock the casbah with, kitty cat,” says Dublin to Parker, “but we’re business partners now…”) that could — and, well, kind of does — undercut some of the heavier dramatic stuff that comes into play as the movie wears on. But Neuenswander and Ortis have a nice chemistry, and director-editor Jonathan Dillon stages the more character-centric scenes in a way that makes you lean forward a bit. The end result isn’t high art, perhaps, but it outclasses the baser solicitations of its cover box art, shows all-for-one spirit and effort on the part of its makers, and is certainly better than it has a right to be, given the budget and other means.

Presented in a 16×9 widescreen aspect ratio, along with English language Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound and 2.0 stereo audio tracks, Fight Night comes housed in a regular plastic Amaray case. English and Spanish subtitles are also included. Despite the touted press release inclusion of a production featurette, digital copy of the movie and an accompanying photo gallery, there aren’t such inclusions on the DVD. Special features instead include five-plus minutes of deleted scenes, the movie’s trailer and an audio commentary track with Dillon, cinematographer Hanuman Brown-Eagle and… gaffer/gopher Jason Cantu!

This sounds weird, I realize, but that combination works, even if Dillon misidentifies his movie right out of the gate, calling it Fight Nights, plural. Not having the two leads, and in particular Neuenswander, robs the track of any sort of serious discussion or insight about the characters, or acting on display, but this trio have a lot of anecdotes to share about the film’s November-December 2005 Kansas shoot, and the fratty but not overly self-aggrandizing warmth of their reminiscences makes even a few barbed oblique asides (“If you can afford it, get an art department that brings you some options,” Dillon says at one point) sound not really that assholish, especially since they suffered arrests and other run-ins with the police due to filming without permits. Other tidbits gleaned? An important location house was once owned by Howard Hughes, and the car used in the film was a graduation gift from Dillon’s grandfather, with its trunk doubling as the production’s wardrobe storage. To purchase the DVD via Amazon, click here. B- (Movie) B- (Disc)

McG Chats Terminator Salvation; Dollhouse Panel Recapped

Interviews

Over at Box Office, Amy Nicholson lets Terminator Salvation‘s McG defend his life and work, asks him about potential robot domination, and refreshingly doesn’t ask about Christian Bale’s epic screamdown of cinematographer Shane Hurlbut. It is amusing, though, when McG name-checks Children of Men, and says, “I don’t like cutting as a false sense of action. I think that that is a bluff, and I don’t like rewarding filmmakers who choose to go down that road.”

Meanwhile, over at The 213, Telly Davidson entertainingly recaps the recent Dollhouse panel in Los Angeles, part of the Paley Center for Media’s 26th annual festival salute to TV past and present, and gives us a reason to re-link something having to do with Eliza Dushku, which is never a bad thing.