Category Archives: Musings

Getting Out the Vote for Bobby

Ephemera, Musings

an interesting piece in today’s Los Angeles Times focusing on Harvey Weinstein’s go-for-broke strategy with regards to garnering Academy Awards attention for  Emilio Estevez’s Bobby. The gist of the piece is about how Weinstein is flogging a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Best Ensemble Cast — the new Crash model for darkhorse success — and hoping that, along with TV and print ads touting positive rank-and-file audience reaction, yields some Oscar noms.

Though we’ll doubtlessly be subjected to the trotting out of both Charlie and Martin Sheen, in an effort to score some sort of familial goodwill, there won’t be any Bobby surprise upset at the Golden Globes — the competition in the dramatic film category is too strong. Still, don’t discount Weinstein’s shrewd (and devoted) strategy, or place the film on ice just yet. I’ve said before that Bobby is basically a movie that’s as good as one allows it to be, meaning that as things get worse in Iraq and abroad, people are more receptive to the plaintive chords of hope that Bobby strikes. Any Oscar nominations would be reflective of this.

Still, I have a friend who can’t fathom any continued awards talk, and rants that Bobby is, and I quote, “TV-level filmmaking… like Cold Case: The Movie. It’s all two-person set-ups, lacking cinematic scope and nuance.” And for the record, he voted for Bush once, but not a second time…

On Idiocracy and Children of Men

Ephemera, Musings

Dana Stevens has an interesting piece up today on Slate about Mike Judge’s Idiocracy, just out recently on DVD, in comparison to Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men. The gist of the piece is that it’s slightly unnerving that two of the year’s more underappreciated and snuffed films — certainly from a marketing perspective — also happen to be the two that probably ask
us to peer most deeply into the mirror and contemplate our shared future and its correlation to the way we interact with one another and comport ourselves culturally and socially.

It’s an interesting thesis, and there’s probably something there. While I think Universal’s marketing of Children of Men falls more into the category of simply not knowing what they had, I previously speculated about the reasoning of Fox’s bizarre dumping of Idiocracy here. The maintenance of the well-groomed hedges of other financially beneficial relationships, I believe, won out.

Ohhh, a Serial Killer Alligator…

Amusements, Ephemera, Musings

So Primeval‘s about an alligator, huh? How did I not somehow pick up on that during any of the first 400 times I saw its television ads this past week and a half? Kudos for the obfuscation, Touchstone marketers. Well played…

Good to see Orlando Jones getting paid, though. Love that guy, especially in the Evolution sequel I sometimes screen in my mind when sitting through something directed by Shawn Levy. Also, hurrah for the presence of Brooke Langton, who was just slammin’ in that cheerleader outfit in The Replacements, opposite Keanu Reeves. Just sayin’…

Hopefully this thing turns a quick, quiet profit, if only for their sake.

Top Ten Films of 2006

Ephemera, Film Reviews, Musings

film brings us some small measure of harmony. It gives
us commonality. Whether hooting at Snakes on a Plane, checking our watches during Miami Vice, questioning M. Night Shyamalan’s none-too-subtle messianic impulses in Lady in the Water or laughing at (not with) a ridiculous horror movie like Pulse,
movies are one of our most cherished national avocations. Even if our
own opinions about films vary wildly (and they often do), there’s the
singular experience of a common cultural story, a value seemingly
ingrained in our DNA. In shared darkness, we can achieve a collective
absorption.

The fact is that the simple act of watching with other
people as the larger-than-life unfolds before us reinforces our
collective dreams and makes them seem attainable, if only for a
fleeting afternoon or evening. After settling the latest preposterous
squabble, driving the babysitter home or picking up take-out for one,
we may reenter the slipstream of our seemingly pedestrian lives, but we
carry with us trace elements of the belief that things can be
different. Last year was not a watershed year for populist filmmaking,
but there were still plenty of films to get excited about. For the full list and posting, from FilmStew, click here.

L.A. Weekly Film Critics Poll 2006

Ephemera, Interviews, Musings

The first annual L.A. Weekly film critics poll — in which I was asked to participate — has announced its results, based on your typical inverted-point scoring system, and the findings of course offer a fascinating look back at the year of 2006, and plenty of grist for the mill depending on whatever one wishes to argue.

First off, hearty props go out to the erudite Scott Foundas for the marshalling of effort and resources involved. It’s hard to believe it’s the first such undertaking on the part of the 800-pound gorilla that is the L.A. Weekly, but as a former writing, forever hard-charging editor-in-chief myself, I can sympathize with the extra amount of work and time it involves at a time of year that offers precious little breathing room.

Now, some fleeting, on-the-fly analysis: the Top 10 films are an interesting collection, and further proof, in case you needed it, that we film critcs are a wonkish bunch. As far as forward-looking awards prognostication, you can throw out half of the bunch — Jean-Pierre Melville’s Army of Shadows, as well as Three Times, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, L’Enfant and David Lynch’s Inland Empire, which garnered more than five times as many mentions as Babel. You can unfortunately probably do the same for Paul Greengrass’ brilliant United 93; there’s simply too much old guard resistance to it amongst Academy Award voters, especially those residing in New York City.

Borat was an inspired inclusion at #9, and it was heartening — in its own special way — to see Dreamgirls place… drumroll, please… #66, with only two critical mentions. This reinforces the notion that the movie, its crowd-pleasing elements notwithstanding, is chiefly a collection of performances (Jennifer Hudson’s strident belting, Eddie Murphy’s “James Brown in a hot-tub,” etc.) in search of some believable hurt or love, particularly in its third act.

Best Actor was a tie between Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson) and Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat). Best Actress was Helen Mirren in a runaway, though Laura Dern polled surprisingly strong for Inland Empire, with twice as many tallied points as the next runner-up, Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandal). Best Supporting Actor went to Jackie Earle Haley for Little Children and, in another tie, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu‘s Luminita Gheorghiu and Half Nelson‘s Shareeka Epps placed even in points for Best Supporting Actress, though the former had one more ballot mention. In another great year for non-fiction films, in a vote I could scarcely agree with less, Darwin’s Nightmare took the nod for Best Documentary.

For a list of winners in the category of Best Film, click here, and then toggle around to the listings for the other categories; for my ballot of the moment, click here.

Alec Baldwin’s Balls

Musings

Mike Judge took a sideways dig at this is in his unfortunately buried latest release, the futuristic and well-worth-a-look Idiocracy; in a dumbed-down civilization several centuries forward, the most popular show on television is called Ow, My Balls!, and consists of repeated blows to the crotch. (Within the movie, the most recent Academy Award for Best Picture also went to a film called Ass, incidentally.)

For some reason, though, the only mainstream film that sticks out in my memory as having something approaching a throughline or follow-through regarding its groin pounding is the sweaty 1996 movie Heaven’s Prisoners, starring Alec Baldwin. (It’s also semi-notable for Teri Hatcher’s full-body nude scene and Eric Roberts’ hilarious cornrows, which help tip off the re-shoots.)

I remember being struck when I first read James Lee Burke’s novel by a scene in which Alec Baldwin’s character, ex-detective Dave Robicheaux, takes a below-the-belt beating, and then suffers its aftereffects when his wife Annie (Kelly Lynch) tries to help ice down his sac and give him fellatio. The movie adaptation by screenwriter Harley Peyton and director Phil Joanou doesn’t shy away from it too much. Old Robicheaux loses out twice on that one…

Ahh, Harold & Kumar…

Ephemera, Musings

Borat and Jackass Number Two have been (rightly, if amusingly) getting from critics’ groups in their year-end handouts — the latter at least in the voting if not the actual final awards — made me glancingly reflect back on the charms of 2004’s Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle.

From Kal Penn (above, left) and John Cho’s perfectly pitched performances and Neil Patrick Harris’ brilliant cameo as himself to some of the wickedly zonked dialogue (“Shotgun anus!”) and that inspired fantasy sequence involving a giant bag of weed, Harold & Kumar ranks as one of the best willfully “dumb,” smoke-’em-if-you-got-’em comedies of the past decade. Sure it hits all the requisite beats, but it also puts a fresh, frequently anarchic twist on things, which more movies could stand to learn from. Here’s hoping that long-gestating sequel eventually gets off the ground.

Val Kilmer, Funny Again?

Ephemera, Musings

Adam Goldberg called it. I bumped into the character actor recently, and in the context of chatting a bit about his experience on Deja Vu, asked about the ball of contradictions that is Val Kilmer. Goldberg insisted Kilmer was a pleasure on set, and related that the notoriously short-tempered star — whose antics have over the years cost him both some jobs and some friends — had said, “I’ve been on good behavior for my last five movies.” (I don’t know where, exactly, that places the last freakout, but somewhere before Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.)

Goldberg said Kilmer was in good spirits and quite funny, and now comes bubbling rumor that Kilmer may in fact be looking to reprise his role from 1985’s Real Genius as wonked-out science prodigy Chris Knight. That’d be something, huh? The overriding personal memory of that movie for me is of a buddy who rented it from Blockbuster and ran up like an $80 late fee tab, leading to much clucking disapproval from said store’s manager. Nothing official has yet been announced, but Kilmer allegedly wants, a la Robert De Niro, to trade in (and off of) his hardassed persona for a few overtly commercial, wide release comedies. If true, can a Top Secret! sequel be far behind? After all, The Good German gives the Zuckers plenty of new (old) material with which to work.

Eddie Murphy Eyes Return to Beverly Hills

Casting About, Musings

So Eddie Murphy is going to parlay his Dreamgirls capital into… Beverly Hills Cop IV? That’s what various outlets are reporting. While that’s surely good news for Judge Reinhold and possibly even John Ashton, is the public really clamoring for a return to a character that last fizzled in 1994, in a bloated vehicle under the direction of John Landis?

Well, maybe, maybe not. Having already seen Sylvester Stallone’s quite solid Rocky Balboa, I have to go on record as saying that there is the potential for redemption in autumnal years sequels, and sometimes plugging back into a role that helped make their career can recharge an actor’s batteries batteries and reconnect them with what they love(d) about acting, and us about their performance. But the Beverly Hills Cop movies were never as roundly about audience identification as something like the Rocky flicks; they were amusement park rides, and if there’s not some iota or glimpse of growth for Murphy’s Axel Foley, it could be a tired and quite bad idea.

That said, Paramount is hoping that bringing in veteran producer Lorenzo de Bonaventura will breathe some life into the franchise. A fall 2007 shoot looks likely, with a release the following summer being most likely — 24 years after the original.

Olivia’s Wilde Brow

Ephemera, Musings

Turistas, let’s take a moment to appreciate the particular charms of Olivia Wilde (above). I’m usually not too big a fan of the overly manufactured/tweezed eyebrow, but here it works. I know the devilish temptress stuff only worked so long for Rose McGowan, but this is totally the niche Wilde should be exploiting, no? She’s younger, and once her teen marriage to flamenco player/documentary filmmaker Tao Ruspoli invariably unravels, she’ll be even hotter. Save Angelina Jolie, is there a better feminine arched brow working in movies today?

On Deja Vu, Denzel Washington and Harrison Ford

Film Reviews, Musings

Long a very respected actor, 52-year-old
Denzel Washington has seen an interesting thing happen to his career as he’s gotten
older — he’s become more popular and commercially bankable, both at home and
abroad, all without denting his critical notices. What’s at the root of Washington’s burgeoning appeal? Well, for one thing, he’s
very obviously making the sorts of movies that Harrison Ford should be making —
cat-and-mouse-type thrillers and puzzle box mysteries in which Washington serves
as our unflappable guide. For a fuller explication of this theory — and how Washington’s latest, Deja Vu, fits into it — click here for a piece from FilmStew.

Smokin’ Aces Trailer: WTF?

Musings, Trailer Watch

Watching the trailer for Joe Carnahan’s Smokin’ Aces, opening January 26 from Universal, the thought crossed my mind — what exactly are those aces laced with? Carnahan did beautiful things with 2002’s gritty Narc, starring Ray Liotta and Jason Patric, and then burned about a year of his professional life working up the third installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise, only to eventually have his involvement run aground on the shoals of “creative differences” after star-producer Tom Cruise watched a bunch of Alias DVDs one weekend.

Smokin’ Aces, though, looks like the living, breathing antithesis of grittiness. The Las Vegas-set story of a bunch of colorful hitmen who compete to try to knock off a Mob snitch, it’s got the big ensemble cast — Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Peter Berg, rapper Common, Andy Garcia, Alicia Keys, Jeremy Piven, Ryan Reynolds, Liotta again — that tells those old enough to remember that it desperately wants to be this generation’s True Romance. But its frantic anxiety to please (and more than that, to try to matter) seeps through, and it makes one uncomfortable, even in only three minutes. Gaudy, violently overstylized and almost incomprehensible, it looks like a fever-dream mash-up of Domino and The Big Hit, as overseen by the former personal assistants/camera operators of Demian Lichtenstein and McG. To view the trailer on Apple.com, click here.

Teenage Jesus, Where You At?

Amusements, Musings

I caught The Nativity Story Monday evening, and one of Joseph’s lines (“I wonder if there’s even anything I’ll be able to teach him”) got me thinking about the parts of Jesus’ life that we always read and hear about, and see on screen — and those we don’t. What about Jesus’ awkward pubescence, for instance? Is there a great comedy (or, OK, more likely mediocre comedy born of a great concept) that I don’t know about? Hell, you know, I’d even I’d even settle for a Gospel-style Muppet Babies, with Jesus and his little cousin John the Baptist navigating the “terrible twos.” Who’s with me?

Where Art Thou, Chad Schmidt?

Musings

So he penned the script for Will Smith’s holiday release The Pursuit of Happyness [sic], whose spelling still irks me, and he has in the hopper Quebec, with Seann William Scott and John C. Reilly, which sounds destined to play on a double bill with Employee of the Month someday. But what the hell has happened to Steve Conrad’s Brad Pitt/Chad Schmidt project, which I think was announced before The Weather Man. Does this not jibe with Pitt’s rekindled sense of socially conscious pictures, or what gives?

Harsh Times for Christian Bale?

Musings

Do the low grosses of crime drama Harsh Times, the directorial debut of Training Day scribe David Ayers, spell… well, harsh times for Batman Begins star Christian Bale, upon whose name the film is largely being sold? Well, in a word no. More likely, Harsh Times is just indicative of the new trend of
blockbuster summer entertainment, in which headlining doesn’t necessarily translate
into tabloid-selling, movie-opening cult of personality. Actors like
Bale, Tobey Maguire and others are beloved in their comic book flicks, and
frequently respected in other work, but not always a massive draw in and of
themselves. For the full piece exploring this notion, from FilmStew, click here.

Borat to be Co-opted by Unfunny People

Musings

So Borat expanded to more than 3,000 screens this past week, and in doing so pulled in another $29 million, up from a 837-theater/1,100-screen, $26.5 million bow last week, and good for the top spot at the box office. Thank goodness for the timing in one respect, releasing after Halloween. But it struck me last night upon exiting a restaurant that Borat will be — if not already — the new Austin Powers, by which I mean a funny character being co-opted by unfunny people for unfunny impressions. It already makes me kind of queasy, the mangled idioms, malapropisms and awkward Jew-baiting that middle-aged, WASPy bankers and insurance company middle-managers not savvy enough to get the original joke will be peddling. On the plus side, you know Steve Carrell’s Michael Scott on The Office will be perfecting an imitation… so we have that going for us, which is nice.

Ryan Murphy’s… Sigh… Dirty Tricks

Musings

It’s somewhat old news, I realize, but the cast keeps growing for Nip/Tuck creator and Running with Scissors director Ryan Murphy’s Dirty Tricks, an adaptation of John Jeter’s stageplay about the women of Watergate, which I realize sounds like a special Playboy spread. Brad Pitt and Sharon Stone have joined the cast, which already includes Meryl Streep as the whistle-blowing Martha Mitchell, Annette Bening as frumpy reporter Helen Thomas, Gwyneth Paltrow as Maureen Dean and (naturally) Murphy good-luck charm Jill Clayburgh as Pat Nixon. (Jim Broadbent is reportedly set to play Tricky Dick himself.)

Mitchell’s various revelations to journalists, of course, — including Bob Woodward, who
broke news of the Watergate story, as well as veteran White House
correspondent Thomas, still walking the beat — firmly implicated her husband in the
scandal, but also corroborated Nixon’s involvement. Great. So there’s a story there, maybe. But while I don’t know if it’s the hermetically sealed colorfulness of Running with Scissors or what, why can’t I shake the feeling that this is a bad idea? Or at least an interesting idea that will be done badly?

Faux Oscar Dark Horse

Musings

With pre-anointed contender after contender falling by the wayside and support registering as less than firm for some of the other ostensible heavy hitters, chances are looking better and better for Little Miss Sunshine to sneak up and grab a couple of top-shelf Oscar nominations. An Academy campaign veteran tells me to expect a “late and classy” but overwhelming push on the film’s behalf from distributor Fox Searchlight.

The company previously and most famously pulled an Oscar rabbit out of its hat with The Full Monty, and they have a deft touch with putting little movies in a place to succeed, both critically and financially. They’ll be a bit busy pushing Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland, but that’s a one-horse show. Little Miss Sunshine will get the nostalgic underdog selling, touting its little-indie-that-could box office ($58 million and counting) and reminding those folks in theory how much better it was than the rest of the summer’s fare.

Of course, on one level it’s hard to really classify this as a dark horse positioning when it’s been in the works for so long. But in a down year like this, there is a pre-seasonal Best Picture slot open, and Little Miss Sunshine will be gunning for it.

Borat Cleaning Up in Limited Release

Box Office, Musings, Politics

20th Century Fox is cleaning up with Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen’s mash-up of and improvisational heckling, social satire, Peter Sellars-style physical comedy and uncomfortable situational laughs born of the collision of various cultural tropes. The film opened on less than 1,100 screens, but stands poised atop the weekend box office with a debut haul of just under $26.5 million, the highest ever per-screen average for a movie bow of its scale. This really can’t be good news for the Republicans in Tuesday’s forthcoming midterm elections.

For all the chatter about why the Weinstein Company didn’t release Bobby a bit closer to the election, the fact is that a nation’s collective psyche leaks out more easily through nervous laughter, and the film’s trailer and television advertising — in which Borat loudly proclaims to a rodeo crowd, “We support your war of terror!” — appears to have struck a chord with anxious audiences, 47 percent of which were over 25.