AN UNFORTUNATE AND AGONIZING INTERVIEW

20070716interviewmillerEvery now and then, while I’m watching a film, I’ll become unintentionally physically demonstrative. What I mean is that I’m not trying to draw attention to myself; I don’t want to have people around me hear me audibly sigh; I’m not looking for the person next to me to notice my head drop into my hands or my much broader than it needs to be shift in my seat. And yet, if you were my friend who had the displeasure of attending Steve Buscemi’s new film Interview with me a week ago at a special screening (which proved to be in large part for the film’s friends, cast and crew) at BAM, you would have seen my somewhat uncontrollable agitation in all its … uhm … glory. At one point, she turned to me and asked, “How are you doing?” I answered, “I’m in pain,” and she responded, “Yeah, and we’re only an hour in.” Thankfully, Interview is only 80-odd minutes long. Unfortunately, after a somewhat promising and intriguing beginning, it steadily devolves into the annoying experience it is.

Before I continue describing why I consider Interview to be much more than a misfire, let me mention a few things:

  • First, let me mention something positive: Sienna Miller is as brilliant as she can be in this role. I was truly impressed with her. While I in no way mean to insinuate that Miller is identical to her character Katya, I’m sure her own experience being on the unfortunate side of celebrity news informed her performance. She’s captivating throughout, even when her Katya’s actual actions and behavior are contributing to the film’s demise.

  • Second, I have not seen the original version by the late (and tragically murdered) Dutch director Theo van Gogh. I’m quite curious to do so, however, and not because I think that European cinema is automatically better than American. However, at the post-screening Q&A, it was quite fascinating to hear screenwriter David Schechter describe all elements they felt they needed to change to make the film for an American audience, aside from the simple move to New York. For instance, they needed to “open it up.” The Dutch version apparently all takes place in the actress’ loft, and they felt the audience wouldn’t buy a journalist being invited to a popular actress’ home like this. Second, Americans need more plot, and van Gogh’s film cared more about emotion than story, so they had to add plot elements here and there. Without delving too deeply into either of these explanations or belaboring the point with other apparent changes, all I can do is report my reaction: each of the things they changed seemed to be the focal points of this film’s major problems. I’d love to see the Dutch film, but it’s not yet available on DVD, at least not in the US.

Continue reading “AN UNFORTUNATE AND AGONIZING INTERVIEW“

IT’S LIKE A MORE STRAIGHTFORWARD MST3K

I’m not sure how long ago Slate V launched. If you subscribe to any Slate emails like me, I’m sure you’ve been receiving the online magazine’s new daily emails about this video only site as well, so this may or may not be new to you, but what they posted today looks like the beginning of what will be a new favorite of mine: “Your Guide to the Worst Cinematic Crap That’s Ever Been Made.”

This first entry is called “Bad Movies: Kiddie Flicks Pt. 1,” and it focuses on a 1965 Mexican film — hastily dubbed into English — called Little Red Riding Hood and the Monsters. It’s hysterical — or hysterically bad, and, as the video’s host Mark Jordan Legan states, quite disturbing for the little tykes who would likely go see it at their local theater’s Saturday matinée. I’ll let the video speak for itself, but my favorite part is definitely when the skunk attacks!

http://services.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/271557392

OH YEAH, I HAVE A BLOG: RANDOM THOUGHTS TRYING TO GET BACK INTO FOCUS … OR OUT OF IT

Every now and then, I would click the bookmark for Out of Focus and wonder why there was no new content. What was this guy doing? Just letting his little corner of the internet sit there, all empty and lonely. And then I remembered … this guy was me.

The last seven months have been hectic, and simply put, keeping up with this site fell all the way off the priority ladder, and yet, topics consistently come up that make me say to myself, “Oooh, I need to vent about that. Yes I do.” So, I’m back.

I think. I guess we’ll see. No promises made … none broken. Instead, just some random short thoughts to start things off that may (or may not) be expanded upon later. But since the first step is always the hardest, and since I have been planning on writing this very post for the last two weeks but then choose to simply go to bed first instead … I’m just going to dive right in.

  • Hairspray is the best movie musical to be made this Century. That may not be saying much, but as one of them (Chicago … duh) won an Oscar, I’ll stand by that statement strongly. I will elaborate on this next week, but simply put, the movie shocked the hell out of me, and should be the surprise hit of the summer.

  • One of the most amazing films to have been “out of print” on any form of video for the longest time comes out on DVD (from Criterion, no less) on Tuesday: Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole. If you ever read this site before, you know that I consider Network to be one of my all-time favorite films as well as probably the most important (and prescient) examination of the media ever. Well, in many ways, Network is very much a direct descendant of Ace in the Hole, which in 1951 presented a literal depiction of a media “circus” — the movie has also been known as The Big Carnival. It’s a tremendous film with a brilliant performance by Kirk Douglas at its center. Rent it; buy it; see it.

But wait … there’s more. Don’t leave yet! Jump on the jump ….

Continue reading “OH YEAH, I HAVE A BLOG: RANDOM THOUGHTS TRYING TO GET BACK INTO FOCUS … OR OUT OF IT”

THE 2007 TOP 10 BEGINS WITH THE HOST

Yes, previously I wrote wrapping up “2007” when I meant 2006, but this subject header is what I actually mean. Today Magnolia Films opens the movie that would have been my number 2 on my 2006 list had it been released last year. Yup, ahead of The Departed.

At last year’s New York Film Festival, I saw The Host (my review is here), and I was instant fan. All these months later, I can’t wait to see it again. Few movies have stuck with me as long as this one which remains utterly relevant in every way. The Host is an example of genre filmmaking at its absolute best, and in my book, that actually simply means all filmmaking at its best. Bong Joon-ho is a creative force to be reckoned with, and I can’t wait to see what he does next. But for that matter, I also can’t wait to see The Host again!

Don’t miss it!

HEIDI & RACHEL PRESENT A MORE ENTERTAINING BLOG THAN THIS

2007_0301jesuscamp
To know Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, the directors of Jesus Camp, is to love them, and if you visit the Tribeca Film Festival site, you can get to know them — not quite intimately, but somewhat personally. These two awesome ladies kept a little diary for us spanning the weeks from learning about their Oscar nomination to their eventual Oscar night loss to that movie Al Gore didn’t direct. Nonetheless, Heidi and Rachel experienced (and reported on) the whole thing with energy, wit and aplomb that you’d expect if you’ve ever spoken to or met them. And in case you’re wondering: hell yeah … they’re both eminently crush-worth, can’t you tell?

When they sent me the photos for the web site, I instantly crowned this one to the right one of my all-time favorites of any photo ever. Somehow, the camera managed to capture the perfect moment, with Heidi projecting a sad, bewildered, little-girl-lost, oops-what-did-I-do-wrong look. In the email that had this photo attached, she wrote, “I went to the Oscars and all I got was a headless, edible Oscar.”

Check out their Oscar Diary for lots of great stories and photos.

MORE TOMORROW (ER TODAY!) BUT FOR NOW, AT LEAST I CAN SLEEP NOT ANGRY

Thank god. Or Thank Oscar! Or whatever. But congratulations Martin Scorsese. It was great to see you not just finally win what you have so long deserved, but to receive your award from your compatriots. Congratulations The Departed. Congratulations Pan’s Labyrinth for at least some of the recognition you deserved.

Congratulations Babel for still being the most overrated film of the year, but not as overrated as I thought you were going to be.

And a wag of the finger to Laura Ziskin: lots of good ideas but still crappy editing. This show should not have been three hours and forty-five minutes long. But more on that tomorrow (I hope).

OH, WOW … THERE GOES FEBRUARY: PREPPING FOR OSCAR

So much to say; so little time. Ellen hops on that stage in under an hour, and what have I missed? I still didn’t finish wrapping up 2007 2006 (thanks Cinetrix for being copyeditor to my mushy brain); I never put up my Spirit Awards or Razzies ballots; I haven’t even stopped by to mention what’s been going on at “the job” that has involved a bit of writing. And oh yes … everything recently is about “the job.”

This year, in addition to my old position (and miscellaneous other hats), I’ve been included as an official member of the Tribeca programming team: Associate Programmer has been added to my title. Suffice it to say, my DiVo is constantly taunting me, screaming, “Look at all you’ve recorded, and now watch it disappear because you don’t have the room. You’re not watching. You’re spending too much time with all those sketchy DVDs of movies you may forget half-an-hour after you’ve finished them.”

Actually, this year’s Tribeca program looks like it’s going to be great. (It will be announced in mid-March.) We’re at the point now where the hard decisions come as movies we love won’t get a spot because there simply aren’t enough. Last night, I was up until 4:30 AM screening films; today we were in the office all day starting the slotting process — assigning screening times. (We’ve also set-up a camera recording one frame every 30 seconds. When the program is announced, we’re planning on putting the time-lapse video up on the Tribeca website so everyone can see the “magic” of lots of index cards and velcro.)

But what does any of this have to do with Oscar? Not much. Nor do I have time or am I much in the mood to write a quick prediction post that nobody will see until after the awards anyway. But here are some things I did want to shout out about:

  • In case you didn’t read it before, I did an interview on the Tribeca site with Jesus Camp directors (and all around awesome gals) Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. You can read our Q&A here. But even more fun has been the fact that Heidi and Rachel have kept a little diary (with pics!) about their road to the Oscars on the Tribeca site, and if you haven’t checked it out, you should. You can find it here, and we’re expecting some great post-ceremony material this next week. Meanwhile, I’m definitely rooting for Jesus Camp tonight, although I’m expecting that the Powerpoint Presentation Al Gore did not direct will actually win.

  • I also did an interview for the Tribeca site with Mark Fergus. Mark directed, and with his writing partner Hawk Ostby co-wrote, the film First Snow, which world premiered at Tribeca last year and is getting a theatrical release next month. Right now, Fergus and Ostby are writing the script for next summer’s big comic book adaptation of Iron Man. That film is about to go into production with Jon Favreau directing Robert Downey Jr (in the title role) and Gwyneth Paltrow. But I spoke to Mark because he and Hawk also were writers on Children of Men, and that credit earned them a Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award nomination. I’m actually rooting for them, not for any Tribeca reasons but simply because as much as I appreciate William Moynahan’s work on The Departed, I think the former’s adaptation was actually more difficult and accomplished from a writing perspective. (Although in an ideal world, we’ll see Sacha Baron Cohen up there for Borat.)

  • I’m prepping myself for a great amount of outrage tonight. I can’t tell whether Little Miss Sunshine‘s win at yesterday’s Spirit Awards is a good omen meaning that it’s not going to pull an upset tonight or if it’s a scary forewarning of giving this fun but flawed — and nowhere near top 5 of the year — movie accomplish something that only Platoon has done: won Best Picture at both the Spirits and the Oscars. The race for Most Overrated Film of 2006 will be decided tonight. Babel is still the clear favorite. Little Miss Sunshine can grab this title if it wins Best Picture, but otherwise Babel owns it. Even if the right film does win — i.e., The Departed — Babel still gets this web site’s most inauspicious honor thanks to its Golden Globe win.

  • The only award that truly counts this year is Best Director, unless the DGA was incorrect for only the seventh time and Martin Scorsese doesn’t win. Considering that the next two rightful honorees — Alfonso Cuaron and Guillermo del Torres — aren’t even nominated, it really would be criminal if anyone else takes home the statue. And anyone calling this a lifetime honor would be doing Scorsese a great disservice. Had he won for Gangs of New York or even The Aviator, that would be a somewhat fair argument. But The Departed is more than a genre picture and a great filmmaking achievement.

  • Next to Scorsese winning, the next thing that would make me happy would be seeing Pan’s Labyrinth win in all six of its categories. I know it won’t happen, but it deserves it.

If I can get away from slotting, I hope to wrap up 2007 for myself (and you) along with reactions to this weekend’s awards — as much as I’d like to say The Black Dahlia was the worst film of the year, can I 100% argue with the Razzie for Basic Instinct 2, which I have yet to see?

Anyway, Happy Oscar everyone.

JESUS CAMP AND TRIBECA SHARE AN OSCAR FIRST

About a month ago I think I mentioned that I’ve been helping out a bit on the Tribeca web site. If you didn’t know, the Tribeca site has continuously changing content, highlighted by a now-weekly email newsletter. For the past couple months, I’ve been writing said newsletter and the associated website copy, a job I won’t be handling too much longer — except on a consulting basis — because with my other duties, I simply don’t have the time.

I call attention to this fact now only because the latest edition of the newsletter was sent on Friday, and personally, I think it’s one of the best ones we’ve done yet. The highlight happens to be a conversation I had with Jesus Camp directors Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing on Wednesday to talk about their Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature. Jesus Camp made my “Next Best” list, and although I only wrote a very brief comment in that post, I could talk about it for hours. It’s a tremendous documentary about a very important subject, and I was personally excited to see it receive a nomination.

The Tribeca side of me was even more excited though to see Jesus Camp create Tribeca Film Festival history: it became the first film to world premiere and find theatrical distribution at the festival before going on to an Oscar nomination. That’s a big deal, and I don’t think, on behalf of Tribeca, a better film could have earned that distinction and signify what kinds of movies the festival tries to show.

More importantly, though, I don’t know that this could have happened to cooler filmmakers. I met Heidi and Rachel briefly at the festival when I introduced their final public screening, which like the others was pretty damn packed if not completely sold out. These are two very smart and talented women who also happen to be fun and friendly. You can see so for yourself by reading the interview over at the Tribeca web site.

And as just another quick aside, I encourage you to sign-up for the Tribeca newsletter. We only send emails once a week (daily during the festival) without other solicitations or anything, and some really interesting and exciting things are on tap for the site in the not too distant future as we countdown with less than three months to go until opening night!

2006 IN REVIEW PART III: THE REAL WORST

(Ahhh … a lost classic … an unfinished post … but it contains my Bottom 10 of 2006, so for posterity’s sake …)

Unlike Oscar, this year I HAVEN’T seen most of the films that received the dubious dishonor of one (or several) Razzie Nominations. Even so, I’m a Razzie voter, and I know in my heart that had some of my worst films actually been listed (as opposed to needing a write-in vote) on the main ballot, they would be up there. But … that’s not what happened. Even so, I’m going to list my Bottom 10 movies of the year and also share with you my Razzies nominating ballot. While it is definitely hard to argue with many of the Razzie nominees, there still are a few films that I wish could be expunged from the collective memory of our society.

1. The Black Dahlia
2. The Nativity Story
3. Let’s Go to Prison
4. Crank
5. Poseidon
6. The Night Listener
7. How to Eat Fried Worms
8. Miami Vice
9. The Da Vinci Code

MORE OSCAR REACTIONS

(What happens when my brain just tosses out random thoughts and comments before I sit and compile them into some sort of first-person dialogue that I pretend to be average writing? Why, that would be the following, incomplete random nomination … whatevers.)

Pan’s Labyrinth: SIX nominations. That’s huge for a foreign film, and with that many (including screenplay), why not best picture? What makes Babel better, honestly.

The shock and awe experience by a lack of picture, director, screenplay nod for Dreamgirls.

Three nominations for Best Song? Was there just no other original songs this year? And why the hell are they writing three new songs for Dreamgirls anyway? Because the entire production was apparently built around repeating the oscar success of Chicago. End credits … I’m going to have to root for “I Need to Wake Up” now (even though my guess is that “Listen” will win — even if it is an utterly inappropriate and ridiculous song for the story, that point in the story, etc.)

There should be a rule that when a movie is as thoroughly horrible as “The Black Dahlia,” it should be utterly ineligible for any Oscar, regardless of how good the cinematography may be. There certainly were other films this year that deserve that nomination as much, if not more, such as: Letters From Iwo Jima; Apocalypto; Flags of Our Fathers; Marie Antoinette .. and I’m sure I’m forgetting, not including some.

The documentary category appears to be among the strongest of any this year: only seen JESUS CAMP and AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, but I’ve heard absolute raves about the other three.

This is the first year in recent memory that I had managed to have seen all the Best Picture, Director and Screenplay nominees before the nomination announcement. THe only films in the major categories (not include tech, shorts, docs or foreign) I havent seen this year are Blood Diamond, Venus, The Pursuit of Happyness, Monster House, The Prestige, Curse of the Golden Flower, and I’m certainly going to try to see all of them before the awards.

I haven’t seen “Monster House,” but I’m a little curious as to why it has received so much love (Golden Globe nom too) while Over the Hedge which was tons of fun and had several hysterical moments was completely neglected.

ABigail Breslin in Little Miss Sunshine: Another surprise

Usually, best pictuer nominees end up with lots of nominations because they also get notice in the three main design awards, and yet, this year, of 15 possible nominations in three cateogires, only one went to a BP nominee — The Queen for costume design. Apparently, Babel, Departed, Letters and Sunshine all managed to be one of the best pictures of the year without any of them having the best Art Direction, Cinematography or Costume Design. It’s hard to argue with the cinematography noms, other than Dahlia, but it’s also hard to figure out how Departed and Letters didn’t get one there.

When having a category like “Best Makeup” allows a movie like Click to receive an Oscar nomination, should we even have it anymore? Maybe it should move to the tech awards ceremony.