Following the big Dem wins on Tuesday, The Dixie Chicks are getting a little vindication one way or another, especially when so many people in flyover states rejected the GOP for not representing them. The Chicks' current tour has apparently provided them with an outlet for feelings many more Americans share with them now than when they got blacklisted. The question I'd like answered is whether this election win is going to translate into more screens for Shut Up and Sing, or if it's just going to get its DVD date pushed up.
Read MoreElectric Shadow
Poledouris
Emmy-winning composer Basil Poledouris has passed away. His most memorable scores include Robocop, The Hunt for Red October, and Lonesome Dove (which he won the Emmy for). One should also note that the pair of Conan scores he did that helped pave the way for fantasy films to have real, polished-sounding orchestral scoring.
Read MoreBorat banned
Kazakhstan, home of the misspelled currency, dislikes Borat the film and person, and guess who agrees? Russia! AFP reports this morning that Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan has been banned in Putinland "over fear it would offend audiences". The government agency that refused to license Borat hasn't done this to a non-pornographic film since the downfall of the Soviet Union.
Read MoreArthouse Cowboy Redux
Arthouse Cowboy Redux
Welcome to the new look and flow of Arthouse Cowboy. Comments don't work yet, and I've got to work out my archive system, but these are the new digs. Expect outages and funky garbled layouts, and you'll be pleasantly surprised over the next few days, as I don't expect either to happen. Fresh posts will show up below this one...from the year 3000...The Rourke
I can't believe I'm using IMdB as a source, but here it is: Mickey Rourke and Quentin Tarantino totally broke up, and it was, like, totally weird for like...both of them? Now, Mickey is all "psshh, let the bitch talk if she wants to talk, I mean she's a dirty nasty bitch who needs a good ass-whuppin', I'm just sayin'..." and Quentin is all, "like, whatev."
The long and short of it is thus: Rourke was set, locked, and loaded to play Stuntman Mike in Tarantino's Death Proof half of Grindhouse, and then, just prior to start time, Kurt "Snake Plissken" Russell took on the role. Shortly after that, True West Magazine broke that The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes ghost-directed Tombstone as Jeff reported here.
Oh the drama! All that lumped with Robbie Rod's divorce hitting during principal photography of Planet Terror and this gritty, grimy double feature is turning into a hotbed of art life imitating past art life: the exploitative, dirty process that making these cheap thrill pics was.
Was there a post-Sin City fallout between The Rourke and the Troublemaker/Band Apart camp? Who knows, and from someone who sees drama drenched in drama covered in nuclear-melted drama working in the theatre, I don't really care. That I-need-to-know-the-dirt impulse has become much less prevalent since TMZ and Defamer leave little to the imagination. Celebrity Glamour is dead, so long live Celebrity Grime? It's more often I find myself wishing I didn't know "how the sausage is made" in Hollywood so I can ignore what's being ingested. Wow, that was disgusting...then again, so are non-kosher franks.
Unfortunate as many parts of all the controversy may be, great art usually comes out of fiery conflict. In this case, of course, we're talking about trashy, dirty, guilty pleasure art, but art nonetheless. One thing I do know is that a Sin City sequel minus Rourke is a lot less interesting than one with, but I'm just hoping a second one gets made at this point.
Read MoreThe Kazakh Fiev end Dyme
Thanks to the intellectually stimulating Grammar Girl at QDNow, it's come to my attention that someone at the Kazakhstan Central Bank forgot something in the process of printing a run of their new currency: how to spell the word "bank". Reuters and the BBC have respective stories..but I gotta throw this out there: is added publicity from an obvious sham documentary really the biggest problem The Nation With No Spell Checkers has?
Read MoreElection Junkie
Election junkie that I am, I was up last night watching Macaca take a Macaca on himself, scores of Republican cries in anguish...hell, I even turned on CBN (the Christian Broadcast Network of Our Lord and Saviour, Pat Robertson) and got some chuckles.
I had wandered over to the Comedy Central Indecision bloglate last night, and figured it had spread by this morning, surely.
Then, mere minutes before the official announcement, was talking to a coworker about how I'd read late last night that Rummy was on his way out.
"No, man, you can't be serious...holy CNN Breaking News, dude, you were right!"
Comedy Central beat The Drudge Report. Journalicious...
Robert Gates' profile at Wikipedia.
Read MoreTending
Arthouse Cowboy will be unavailable sporadically throughout the week as we perform some background maintenance on the site and move this column to H-E 2.0. Check back if you want, but consider this a minor hiatus.
Read MoreThe Old & New Nightmare
The Old & New Nightmare
The most unique possible hijacking of the night before a wedding happened the other night when my girl and I came up with an ingenious plan. To soothe some tensions between members of the wedding party, we kidnapped everyone and went to see the first 3D movie most of the 20-somethings in the group had seen theatrically. Tim Burton's stop-motion classic really does stand the test of time, contimuing to delight and captivate. Even though everyone was a little tuckered out from a night of Indian food, booze, and uncomfortable encounters with relatives, it was an Event. There was a cool reason to go to the movies that went beyond "we've nothing to do so let's go waste $20". Increasingly, the only thing the late teen/20s-ish audience has to see at the movies is "Concept A/B/C/D starring Comedian/Singer/Star/TitsonLegs A/B/C/D who slept with Person X". If you want to go see it, you better hope you live near a major city. The following states have no screens showing the 3D feature: Alaska Dakota (North or South) Maine Montana Nebraska New Hampshire New Mexico Oklahoma Vermont West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming The full list of cinemas currently showing the movie in 3D can be found here compiled by the good folks at From Script to DVD. Burton's Corpse Bride was quite good, but boy oh boy was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory hit and miss (though kids love it to pieces, I'm told) and the less said about Planet of the Apes the better. I really enjoyed both Big Fish and Sleepy Hollow very, very much. The dark fairy tale that's the subject of this post is really the reason I hold out hope for Burton's adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd. Helena Bonham-Carter is an infinitely capable actress, but I would have thought of her more for the mysterious beggarwoman than the role that begins and ends with Angela Lansbury or Patti LuPone, depending on who you are. Johnny Depp's singing chops will remain a mystery until we hear him sing the part, months from now, and the pending casting of Sasha Baron Cohen as the insanely over-the-top Pirelli can do nothing but make one smile. Batman '89, lauded as it may be by many, was a very non-canonical take on adapted material, as was Charlie. To an extent, Burton's artistic license on the Legend of Sleepy Hollow worked better than going with the standard Ichabod Crane the Frightened Schoolteacher. The reason I will always hold out hope for an upcoming Burton project is one of my very favorite films, Ed Wood: satire, history, horror, and the obscure all rolled into one. More impressions and reactions to The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D to come tomorrow (or later tonight if I can't sleep).On the Trail
Franken, Pirates, The Wizard
Hollywood Elsewhere on the March
I've been working in the background on a variety of site additions and improvements for the grand scheme, so updates have been minimal. Another contributing factor has been helping organize the local theatre awards this year, which is just as time-sucking a job as working full-time. Among the stuff to expect in the coming weeks...
The Return of the Hollywood Elsewhere Podcast
Some cosmetic cleanups
The Definition of Success
Clerks II did over three times better than the entire run of the original film. If you want to compare opening weekend grosses, it did about 30 times the business of the original. In what world does it make sense to compare apples to watermelons?
Pirates, Lady, Monster House, Little Man, and Dupree are all much bigger general audience draws. Smith's movie did beat out the decidedly more PG-13 Super Ex-Girlfriend, and the often-overlooked per-screen average shows Clerks II outdid Little Man and You, Me, and Dupree. Looking at the just under a grand per screen difference between Smith and Shyamalan, the donkey show movie did about as well as the narf/scrunt/gobbledeguk tentpole movie.
How do you classify this as a disappointing opening?
Not only compared to its source film, but in relative terms, the Clerks II opening was definitely above average for a--let's face it---arthouse movie opening on 2000 screens against the mid-July mouth-breather fare. I don't play the box office grosses like a pony race the way lots of folks do. It's all relative, folks.
In the interest of fair play, I've been a big fan of Smith's movies for a while now, ever since a dear friend and cinema mentor insisted I watch Clerks. through Chasing Amy in a single sitting. You can armchair direct all you want, or Marvel Comics Presents "What If?" your versions of his movies to death, but give the ultra-criticism a rest. He makes movies some people like and others don't. The fact everyone has an opinion of how he should run his life, filmmaking career, or merch line indicates there's a thick layer of jealousy underneath that veneer of "he could do better".
My review of the movie is about two sentences long:
My lady and I agreed it was the best Summer (multi-thousand screen release) movie we'd seen this year. This isn't a movie about Going Home Again, it's about Finding Out Where Home Is.
As for the "about"....
Fuck David Poland.
Send hate to the email. I'll be happy to delete.
Read MoreOn Reactions
On one of my frequent trips to the IMdB today, I took a quick glance at the Opening This Week column, only to find Kevin Smith's Clerks II not listed. Take a look for yourself. I sure don't give as much of a damn about My Super Ex-Girlfriend or that Water movie.
After the widely-reported Smith-Siegel fight today, I think it's hilarious that IMdB's Studio Briefing reports on the day's events, whereas the Earth's Biggest Movie Database screwed up a major theatrical release listing.
On the topic of the above-mentioned fight, here's my take: dislike something all you want, but don't fuck with everyone else experience, or you deserve what you get back.
The one time I've been in a physical fight in a movie theatre was when some guy stood up and said "fuck this, I didn't know it was in Spanish" loud as he could at a screening of The Motorcycle Diaries, obviously thinking he had paid for a ticket to Easy Rider 2: Argentinian Nights. I was sitting a couple rows behind him and cursed under my breath in Spanish as he walked by on his way out.
"What, you want something, wetback?"
I was stunned into absolute silence. A rare thing indeed, which those who know me can attest to gladly.
I stood up after he got back walking, followed him and grabbed him by the shirt just as we got to the door. I pushed the door open with his body and let him trip over himself to the ground. The resistance he offered wasn't much, considering he was a half foot shorter than I was.
I pressed him against the wall outside the theatre and told him, "if you want a fight, you're fucking with the wrong spic".
I was shaking, I was so angry. It was the first time someone explicitly tossed a slur in my face. Let's all take a moment to thank Carlos Mencia for teaching a whole new generation of ignoramuses how to denigrate different cultures with a variety of slurs they had probably not heard in normal conversation. Unlike blacks, latinos don't go around calling each other "beaner", or "wetback", or "spic" on a regular basis.
Thing is, if you looked at me in the light of day, you probably wouldn't immediately pick out my hispanic heritage, since I'm half-white, and of the other half, only a quarter is Cuban (the other 1/4 is Chinese). Compared to this little dude, I'm a beast. Half of the fear in his eyes was probably due to actually being called on his bluff, but the other was my own.
I'd never really been Big Scary "Ethnic" (a term I hate with the fire of Krypton's sun) Dude, and it freaked me out how angry I got. I don't think I'd ever been that angry, or have been since.
I got a mumbled "shit dude, I'm sorry" and he scampered off.
Shalit---er, Siegel didn't call Smith a "mick" or anything, but the level of disrespect shown is worse. That was the third time I'd seen my movie. I can't imagine how pissed off those critics were on their first trip to Mooby's. Kevin's shown more restraint just calling Joel on the carpet for being a hypocrite and lazy reporter than many would.
Jeff ran a piece the other day about the cinema as a temple, and it really, really is. Don't go shouting in my place of worship, asshole, or fear the Lord's wrath. I guess the Lord's wrath got dished out from his online department today, and rightfully so.
Read MoreTransformers: The Geeks Shall Inherit
Today's edition of Penny Arcade ( webcomic juggernaut) touches on a chord that has crept up time and time again: don't fuck with our franchise.
Michael Bay's live-action feature film adaptation of 80's wallet-buster Transformers is set for release next 4th of July, and AICN talkbacks and advance photos have once again sent geekdom into a Superman looks too fruity kind of uproar, and I think some people are bitching just to get some attention.
The two robots people have seen photos of are Bumblebee and Optimus Prime. The extent of criticism has been "Bumblebee was a VW Beetle in the cartoon" and "Optimus Prime has flames painted on his Truck Form chassis". Jesus F(ucking) Christ.
I was a fan of the show and the animated movie as a kid, the latter notable for Orson Welles' posthumous appearance as the voice of Unicron the world devouring menace and the hilarious use "You've Got the Touch" in an early scene, and...well, that's it really. These robots and the huge chunk they took out of my parents' pocketbook hold an indellible place in my childhood. Giant robots and young people with big dreams. That's America, right there, according to the TV conditioning my generation got. Let's hear it for the Freedom Eagle, ya'll.
It is the right and responsibility of those who filled the Hasbro coffers to demand nostalgic justice, but at a certain point, you can't just take one form of media and transplant it to another.
When Kevin Smith made Clerks into a cartoon, he not only had to find a way around the langauage censors, but make a black and white $28k movie into a primetime, full color cartoon. There had to be some flexibility in the translation, or it wouldn't have worked creatively.
It didn't work out overall thanks to stupid programming execs, but that's the story of many underappreciated gems, for which another day will be set aside.
Thanks to the internet, it seems there has to be some big hairy deal every time someone sitting in their mom's attic decides they'd do it better than the pros. That probably makes me sound like the quintessential fanboy traitor, but my concern comes from a genuine place.
Bay is certainly not one of my favorite directors, but if there's anyone on the planet who can do giant robots and explosions right, it's him, through and through. ComiCon this week will turn out to be an indicator of what the relationship is going to be like from here on out, and I can only hope Bay is going to give the fan masses a drop of reassurance to get them to chill the hell out.
Read MoreAnother Op'nin', Another Snore
Another Op'nin', Another Snore
Looking at the list of releases this weekend, the only exciting thing to note is that A Scanner Darkly is opening on two screens at the local arthouse, Miracle 5. In the five years I've lived in Tallahassee, the "Miracle" is usually when a non-IndieBuster opens and lasts more than a week or two. An IndieBuster is what I call arthouse movies that the broader audience not only boasts having seen to boost their Indie Cred or the impression that they are like totally deep and shit. Movies like Lost in Translation or mainstream foreign releases like Amelie are good examples of this. Man 1: "Oh my god, Preston, I saw the most totally weird movie." Man 2 (Prestron): "Oh, what was it like, bro?" Man 1: "I mean, it was, like, weird...but awesome. Not awesome, but like weird awesome. You know?" Preston: "Dude, I know what you mean. Have you seen the new M. Night--whatever his name is movie? It's totally weird and indie as shit. I heard they made for like seven bucks. J/k, j/k." Man 1: "It reminds me of that one movie by that guy..." Preston: "Yeah dude, it was just like that, I totally swear, bro...it was like, quality." Arthouse movies are getting co-opted more and more by mainstream folks who want the status conferral from being able to say "I saw it". Check me out, I'm hot shit, I watch cool movies. I don't like or understand them, but I'll be damned if I don't watch them. A Scanner Darkly won't pick up business in towns like Tallahassee until it's had a couple weeks to roll around through word of mouth. Bigger non-metropolis cities like Austin have big huge benefit pre-screenings of movies like this one sponsired by their local film societies. The Tallahassee Film Society does their best to facilitate a better moviegoing experience in Florida's Capitol City, but there's only so much you can do with AMC and Regal as the sole exhibitors in this burg. Most people reading this have had access to An Inconvenient Truth since shortly after its release, but we got it weeks later, and as broadly as its been publicized, people don't hit up docs and other less First Weekend Dependents the first two weeks and then don't go, they find them throughout their run. The Regal booking mentality that rules the day with theatres like the Miracle is that if it's dead for two weeks, it's pointless to keep it there. If someone would just set up an Angelika or Alamo Drafthouse styled venue, we'd be a viable arthouse movie town. Why hasn't someone stepped up to the plate? It's there for the taking...an art-hungry town that just wants the content delivered. The answer, I've come to find, is that no one wants to put up their money and take any risk. What a surprise... Everybody wants to steer the ship but not fund the expedition. Movie-going has become less of an outing than a herding, and it shows in the drop in attendance. It isn't just the movies, it's the sucktastic experience that people want nothing to do with too. If you make it more difficult to see the good movies in a good venue, you are more a gate-closer than a gate-keeper. Not only are ad-sellers running exhibition now, but the three big companies (AMC Loews, Regal, and Cinemark) jointly own the preshow junk advertising company that everyone complains about, National CineMedia. When you sit through 20-25 minutes of preshow garbage in addition to a movie that might be just O.K., you start to resent the fact that you're paying for it in the first place. This has been said before, but it's getting worse, and we can never stop complaining about it. Needless to say, I'm going to start dissecting about each one of these CineMercials whenever I see them, which of course, is gonna be every time I go see a movie theatrically. Son of a bitch!Culture On Demand: The Beginning
Culture On Demand: Part One
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeois Proletarian I've become fascinated of late with how the broader adoption of entertainment technology has affected the average moviegoer. I must here make the distinction that this is a "disasterous train derailment" flavor of fascination, rather than a "childlike" variation. DVD has spread so many forms of knowledge and entitlement, it's almost like a mutant gene has been unleashed. You no longer have to be a true cineaste to know about behind the scenes hijinks and hiccups from your favorite movies. You just have to sit on your couch and devour hour upon hour of stationary Autopiloted Research. This phenomena has spread to the emergence of the Trivial Cinemaniac: a being who regurgitates the most tremendously uninteresting details about their favorite $20 spent at Wal-Mart. Ironically, it's the multi-dip-happy studios that may have redivided the classes in movie fandom. Recent top sellers like Munich, Walk the Line, and King Kong have been released in separate single disc and multidisc Collector Editions simultaneously. Kong and the Rings movies have added Extended Editions to the mix. Unlike the flurry of Uncensored Director's [INSERT CATCHY LINE FROM FILM] Editions we've seen since DVD hit the mainstream, these conscientious divisions of product features make you pay for The Good Edition rather than pack everything in a One Edition Fits All Edition. This class division is based on entry cost, just as the division between Laserdisc enthusiasts and VHS buyers was based on a perceptively major price difference. With DVDs, the rough $20ish price point has made it the replacement for VHS as standard video format, but the $10-15 for the Sexy Looking Boxed Edition is almost another Unit of Fun in itself. Americans are nothing if not consumerist packrats by nature. We invite our friends over, and like Warlords of Commerce and with a sweep of our arm, we say, "Check this out!" and really mean, "Behold! My stuff is great! Do you not wish you also had this unique piece of unecessary kitsch? Indeed I have Things that are replete in Coolness!" This is the first part of a recurring feature that was inspired by various acquaintances (no one person in particular) commenting on how their twenty or thirty $5 DVDs from Wal-Mart constitute a Film Library and ratify their status as a Movie Lover, which of course, is like calling rape "misunderstood affection".SXSW Days 2 & 3
SXSW Days 2 & 3
This year's SXSW has been universally strong, from the features I've seen, and I'm keeping so busy that I'm running way behind. I'm hitting some really solid niche market products first and run a couple other major highlights, Before the Music Dies and Shadow Company as soon as I can. Some topics aren't for everyone, but with "niche indies" (as Peter Bart called them) becoming a big deal in the mainstream, there's more room than ever for strong niche product. Al Franken: God Spoke If you hate Al Franken, you likely won't see this film, so it won't have the chance to change your mind. Franken's book tour confrontation with Bill O'Reilly is the kickoff to this Pennebaker-produced doc that follows the progression of Al from humorist to commentator to statesman. We watch the birth and early-life complications of Air America, conflicts with Republicans targeting the one liberal talk figure in a sea of conservatives, and the galling insult and injury that drives Al to explore running for the Senate. The impending sense of doom as the film approaches Election Day 2004 is palpable, but the bittersweet button on the film will really be satisfying for those who love Franken's work, and will only really change some minds if you can get a right-winger to watch it. If this is preaching to the choir, I say preach on. It's wonderful to see this brilliant man's life paralleling other great political men. On a trip to Tallahassee a couple years ago, George Butler told me that John Kerry will have lived the lives of three men by the end of his lifetime. This film starts with the SNL funnyman and concludes with the humble, brow-furrowed man of the people that Franken is becoming, much to his surprise. Tales of the Rat Fink Ron Mann's subject specialization is incomparable here. Ed "Big Daddy" Roth is a major cultural icon, but you wouldn't know these days. This doc does its best to correct that problem. Roth was a major force in the Hot Rod era, making major trends like graphic t-shirts, pinstriping, and custom fiberglass designs not only the hot style of the moment, but carrying over for years to come. Animated segments featuring Roth's signature Rat Fink character are exceptionally well-done, but they can run longer and show up more frequently than some may have patience for, generally speaking. Regardless of that minor quibble, the movie is a lot of fun for anyone who was ever accused of being a "weirdo" growing up, whether for how they look or how they act. Celebrity voice cameos pop in via the method Roth's story is told, through voiceover. John Goodman plays the man himself, with various others including recognizable actors, wrestlers, musicians, and authors piping in as the voices of the custom cars Roth designed. Call this a primer for the Pixar movie coming out later this year. If schools employed Ron Mann to do their educational films, kids would learn a lot more on "video day" at school. I went into Rat Fink a relative newcomer, but I came out a proselytizer. If you've never seen Grass or Go Further, find an afternoon and get to know this filmmaker a bit better. The Life of Reilly Charles Nelson Reilly: three words that, provided you know who he is, cause an instant reaction. Isn't he that funny guy from "The Match Game"? Isn't he that guy from "The Ghost & Mrs. Muir"? "Isn't he that funny guy from TV"? All of the above are accurate, but they don't nearly crack the surface of this deeply complicated, fascinating figure of American cinema, stage, and art. To say he's a cultural icon is an understatement. People can poke fun or impersonate him all they want in an effort to trivialize him, but his resume and life story beg to differ. For some time starting in 1999, Reilly performed a one-man, three hour plus show about the story of his life. He toured the country, from performance halls to universities, telling stories with tragic and surprising content. Reilly took over the Uta Hagen acting program. He nearly died in a circus fire as a child. He was told by the President of NBC that "we don't put queers on TV" (boiy was he wrong). For years, and even still today, he's brushed off as a schtick comedian. In the film, he performs Hamlet at over 70 better than many men of any age I've seen deliver the same speech. This "concert doc" captures an edited-down, 90 minutes or so of absolutely riveting performance from one of the most under-appreciated actors of his or any generation of the 20th century.The Big Deals
The first is an expose on American credit debt system. The next is the big reveal on the Hollywood ratings system. The last examines the resurrection of the music industry out of the ashes of the record industry. All three are absolutely brilliant documentaries that must be seen. Maxed Out What would happen if someone did an expose documentary on the American debt industry? Well, now we know. Director James Scurlock has made more powerful people uneasy in their seats than even Kirby "This Film is Not Yet Rated" Dick. Maxed Out follows the trail of the debt business through the lives of a broad range of Americans. Dr. Elizabeth Warren from Harvard expounds upon the grave seriousness of new debt legislation and the fact that low income consumers who are almost completely incapable of repaying are just the debtors credit companies want. According to her, she was told by a high-ranking executive that bankruptcy filers are their best targets for two reasons: 1) they have a taste for credit, and 2) they can't file for bankruptcy again. The friendliness betweek the Bush II administration and the debt industry is profound, and explored fully in the debt legislation recently passed in addition to Bush's appointment of Larry Thompson, a former President of Providian Financial (the Enron of creditors), as the nation's debt czar. Shortly after his appointment, Thompson was under investigation by the Justice Department. Clips of Jerry Falwell guilt-tripping his parishioners into tithing and giving to the church, Suze Orman pushing the FICO score's importance (when she has a sponsorship deal with the company), and U.S. Representatives fruitlessly petitioning the Bankruptcy legislation before it passes by a wide margin all appear throughout. These clips and others anger you, sadden you, and call you to action all at once. This movie will inevitably get compared to Super Size Me, but whereas that film stays somewhat playful and arch throughout (don't get me wrong, I love the movie), this one starts that way briefly and digs deep into debt culture and doesn't pull punches. People could ignore the fact that McDonalds makes people fat, but they can't ignore the debt everyone in America shares and rarely thinks about actively. Maxed Out is going to be one of the biggest surprises of the festival, I'm sure. A friend made mention that it doesn't stand a chance of getting acquired due to its target: influential people with money; however, I respectfully disagree. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised this is not, and people from "both sides of the aisle" will be all over it once they see it. Mark my words: you have to find this film and see it. After the screening, the director and some of the participants, one of whom lost a son to the crushing emotional weight of his debt. The crowd was alive and supportive, and if popular reaction is any indicator, this will continue to be one of the most talked-about films of the festival. This Film is Not Yet Rated Not only did Kirby Dick's exceptional documentary get rated NC-17 by the ratings board it slaps in the face, but he recut it after he resubmitted it, including the names of the people on the Appeals Board. Someone give Kirby Dick the "Biggest Balls in Hollywood" award. The shock value inherent in revealing the kind of secrets Dick does in his film is more startling than the "moral aberrance" present in many of the films the MPAA has given the dreaded NC-17. The X rating was a badge of honor until the blockbuster era began, when the renamed NC-17 would kill your film before it got out of the blocks. Recent films with notable directors and actors (from Boys Don't Cry to Where the Truth Lies) have seen the rating almost or definitively cost them audience and exposure. Bingham Ray, formerly of United Artists and currently of October Films, used the "F" word when talking about them: Fascism. People risked a great deal to say things, and some are still anxious about the impact of their participation. Echoes of the HUAC hearings of the 50's are heard when they mention that the second question most often asked (usually left out in documentary specials on the subject) was "are you a member of the Screen Writer's Guild?" and the amount of fear in the appeals rooms is just as palpable. Wouldn't you be afraid if your film's rating was presided over by two members of the clergy? This film gives us that peek behind Jack Valenti's Oz curtain we've always wanted.The Spirit of Radio
The Spirit of Radio
One of the first striking things about Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion is the really snazzy new Picturehouse animated logo. The presentation of the whole movie is exceptional overall. At the North American premiere last night at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, TX, John C. Reilly introduced the film to a packed-in house. He was greeted with thuderous applause and could not have been in better company. We open in Mickey's Dining Car, with voice-over narration by Kevin Kline's Guy Noir. As a longtime listener to the radio show, I was impressed how undistracting it was having another voice saying the lines usually spoken by Keillor himself. The film is conscious of the fact that radio variety programs have been out of style for decades, as the radio show always has, but that's not all of the point here. Altman's film is about the undying spirit of bygone eras, reminding us the passion and humor that is not so out-of-touch as some may lead you to believe. The narrative is part radio show, part real, and the structure is unconventional to say the least. All the aforementioned are good things though, rest assured. The overlapping, Mamet-esque rambling from various characters and the radio setting immediately brought to mind a Mamet play called The Water Engine. The play begins as a radio drama and shifts back and forth from the studio to a conventional stage play in much the same way characters like Guy Noir and the Dangerous Woman (Virginia Madsen, smoking-hot dame as ever) interweave into the lives of these "real" people performing in a fictionalized version of APHC. Highlights include the radiant singing voice of Meryl Streep, the sharp, acerbic one-liners, and the recalling of the golden age of radio throughout the script. One of the screenwriters was in attendance, and I wish I could have shook his hand or bought him a beer or six. Few films talk about mortality as much as Prairie Home does and end up reaffirming your desire to get up the next day and change the world somehow rather than consider giving up. John C. Reilly and Woody Harrelson bounce off one another so well it's remarkable no one has used them together previously. Their song about bad jokes absolutely killed. There were moments of suspension and then uproarious laughter related to Duct Tape, Descartes, and Texans who "talk funny and whose eyes don't focus". Back to Ms. Streep though, I have to say she lights up the whole room, she's so "on" and "in", and she continues to surprise me every time. There isn't a moment I remotely doubt any of her motivation or think she's over the top. Lily Tomlin and she are just as well-matched as Harrelson and Reilly. Their interplay and overlap will be the subject of many-a rewatching, since there's no way to catch it all through the laughter. Maya Rudolph plays the Stage Manager from Noises Off!-type part well, the sensible link in a chain of chaos, and Tommy Lee Jones provides a wonderfully contrasting role compared to that of his recent turn as Pete in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. Even Lindsay Lohan shows some decent chops as Streep's dismissive, withdrawn poet daughter, Lola. So much of the film is symbolic and semiotic in its delivery, and it hits the right notes the whole way through. Last year, a major surge in movies about or wherein music is transformative and positively empowering became apparent. This show crackles with electric bits of wit and passion throughout. I'll put together more fleshed-out coverage of this and other SXSW films after the fest is over. Below you will find linked a cobbled-together video file of Matt Dentler (Festival Producer Supreme) bringing in John C. Reilly to introduce to the film along with screenwriter Ken LaZebnik: SXSW Presents Robert Altman's A Prairie Home CompanionThe Winners, The Surprises, and The Strange
The Winners, The Surprises, and The Strange
This year's Oscars were without controversy for the most part, but there were some notable moments throughout the evening that deserve mentioning. The Oscar Show with Jon Stewart First-time host Jon Stewart started out the evening visibly nervous (wouldn't you be?), with a few jokes that may or may not have been off the cuff, but were regardless, less than successful. He hit his stride with "Good night, and good luck. That's how George Clooney ends his dates." And had a few more falters throughout the night. The closest to Dave Letterman Uma/Oprah-ing was his relentless referencing of the Three 6 Mafia, winners of Best Song. His opening sequence was hilarious, as were a few jokes throughout the evening. He wasn't the perfect host, but he warmed into the part over time, and any criticism will be greatly overshadowed by the Brokeback Upset. George Clooney: Sexiest Man Alive 1997, Fallen Batman, Academy Award Winner Sure enough, later in the show, he was referred to as Academy Award winner George Clooney, and he grinned self-consciously. Clooney's statement about being proudly out-of-touch was not only sincere, but revealing of his personality and motivation. He doesn't do it for the fame or the women (though it can be nice), but rather, because he feels it is how he can make a difference in world turning a blind eye to so many injustices. Martin Scorsese said it best when he referred to a film director as a smuggler of sorts, bringing hidden truths to a wider audience who finds them without even knowing they did. It's Time for a Montage! The classic film clip montages throughout the night celebrated the power of Film Noir and the Traditional American Western (Not Gay at All) among other things, and were very strong in their editing and execution. I never found myself thinking "when is this gonna be over?" Stephen Colbert: Shadow Host The mock campaign ads narrated by Stephen Colbert were almost too funny for comfort for Hollywood's elite on their night of glamour and self-consciousness. No matter how much the actors may have squirmed, these mock ads were some of the funniest Oscar material in years. More than anything, it makes you miss his This Week in God and other assorted assignments before he moved over to The Colbert Report. Memoirs of a Geisha: Prettiest Picture of the Year I can see the DVD ads now, trumpeting wins in Art Direction, Costumes, and Cinematography as reasons to see a rather vapid movie. Don't get me wrong, the movie is pretty, but not very good. In Memoriam in Review The loss of phenomenal talents each year is sad for various reasons, but this year it struck me more so than usual that we're losing our legends and not making up enough ground from year to year. We lose an Anne Bancroft and a Robert Wise and gain a Felicity Huffman and a Bennett Miller (Capote). We lose an under-appreciated legend, Brock Peters, and see the rise of a new A-list talent, Terrence Dashon Howard (rumored to be playing boxer Joe Louis in Spike Lee's next film). Aside from the marquee names, we lose more character actors than even the worthy elevation of David Strathairn can make up for. It's Not So Hard Out Here For a Pimp Jon Stewart said it best just after the Three 6 Mafia won their much-deserved statue for Hustle & Flow. Of the three nominated Best Songs, "Pimp" is so much more than even the performance could express. If there's any justice in the world, people will give H&F a shot and not just write it of as "another hip-hop movie" and let the music move them too. Best Actor/Best Son Phillip Seymour Hoffman's heartfelt thank you to his mother and mothers everywhere was one of the most affecting, sincere moments of the night. He'd been the presumed winner for a long time now, but he still had such a genuine feeling of humble gratitude when called up. You could see it in his voice and the way he shook with joy at the microphone. Few more-deserving men have graced the stage than 2006's Best Actor. Oscar Knew How to Quit Brokeback Over the last couple weeks, some anti-gay sentiment began seeping out in the gossip rags from some elder statesmen (Tony Curtis, a Hollywood legend/crossdresser) Academy members who disdained the presumed Best Picture frontrunner, Brokeback Mountain. Though Ang Lee won for Best Director (the first Asian winner of the award), the movie was held back by the alleged anti-gay backlash and the metric ton of giveaway DVDs Lionsgate Films sent out to Academy voters in the month leading up to the voting deadline. Best Picture Crash Gets Cut Off In the year the Academy stressed short acceptance speeches more than anything, of all awards to cut off, they did it to big-deal upset winner Crash! I'm not the world's biggest fan of the flick, but the way they cut off such a triumphant win could only be classified as rude. Crash took down the win, but not the respect of the Academy (or at least the producer).David Lean's Film of: Talking at the Movies
"Is that Obi-Wan Kenobi?"
-as Alec Guiness makes his first appearance
"There's no way that was three and a half hours long. It felt like half of Return of the King."
"That was good stuff."
-some guy to his dad
Me: "What'd you think?"
Girl with a Guy: "It was really good, I couldn't believe that I'd never heard of it before."
Her Date: "Well, now you have."