Notes from Underdog.

Frost/Nixon

Frost/Nixon

***1/2

Terrific acting and a naturally compelling story, adapted quite faithfully from Peter Morgan's play (which was nominated for multiple theater awards), translate well for the screen. If there are times it glosses over a bit or when director Ron Howard overuses the faux-naturalistic, floating camera technique to give it contrived immediacy --though he thankfully cuts back on that as the story takes off -- Frost/Nixon is a winner.

Howard and Morgan use mock interviews with the actors as character looking back soon after the events are all over is a forgivable contrivance as it does fill in some of the gaps quickly enough; this was a suitable solution to replacing the play's technique of having James Reston and Jack Brennan (from Frost's side and Nixon's side, respectively) narrate the story for perspective. Here Sam Rockwell's Reston and Kevin Bacon's Brennan, both excellent, fill that space just fine.

The film expands the visual scope; my mom, who had seen the play in NY with the same actors, told me afterwards that she found the film worked even better. Just as it was on stage, this is really Langella and Sheen's show and they are both remarkable. And here you get to see these actors capturing both men's anguish in close-up. While Langella doesn't physically resemble Nixon literally, he becomes the man, capturing the jowly sulkiness and sweaty shiftiness. The script and film do the seemingly impossible, as well: make Nixon almost sympathetic. As Langella gets under his skin so do we.  Rockwell's Reston worries in the film at one point about how Frost's  interview style could make people sympathize too much with a man who some considered a war criminal -- and the film's central struggle is about that very worry -- but Frost/Nixon does not make us approve of Nixon's actions. Only understand what lead him to act as he did, understand his own psychological demons.  Just as MILK makes one understand, but still abhor, Dan White's ultimate tragic decision in that film, Frost/Nixon shows us a man, not a monster, who did monstrous things.

It's not a home run of a film, but it's both engaging and illuminating -- and the cast is outstanding. Besides, Langella and Sheen, Rockwell, Bacon, Oliver Platt, Matthew Macfadyen as producer John Birt, and Toby Jones, expertly moving from Truman Capote-ishness to Swifty Lazar-ishness, are all superb.

Wendy and Lucy

Wendy and Lucy

Rating (out of five):  ****

 

Wendy and Lucy, Kelly Reichardt's follow up to her small but moving Old Joy uses a similar minimalist stye to tell a subtle story that has even more emotional impact than her predecessor.  

Michelle Williams, who Reichardt initially worried was too pretty for the role of Wendy (some actresses are told to slim down; she had to slum down)  plays the young pixie-ish vagabond en route to Alaska to find high-paying work at a fishery, hoping to start a new life her dog, Lucy.   

Williams' Wendy has clearly been through hard times long before we meet her here, and is headstrong moving forward almost robotically. The golden lab (played by Reichardt's own pooch) is all she has keeping her connected to her emotions and ironically, to her humanity.  Which is why the ending is so terribly sad (I won't spoil it for you except to say, don't worry, this isn't Old Yeller either) and yet also so right.

I found myself frustrated with her character at times; she is a flawed person but I have certainly known those like her. At least one instance, a major plot point, had me verbally expressing said frustration with her actions. But as other critics have noted, there's some kinship here with melancholy Italian neo-realist films, such as Umberto D, which also centered around a dog (or, as Owen Glieberman more flippantly called Wendy and Lucy, "like Lassie Come Home as directed by Antonioni"). But it is also very much a product of now. Of our sad, neglectful, even unfeeling economic structure, and of the need to connect but the protectiveness we put up around ourselves to survive.  

Hoboes, drifters, the poor, working class crossing paths with the indifferent of the upper class. The film is for the most part very subtle about it but it remains one of the few American films, independent or otherwise, of the past few years to really use class differences as framework. (Another that comes to mind is the underappreciated First Last and Deposit, which was set in Santa Barbara rather than Portland.) 

It's not only a sparse film, it's sparsely populated with other people, too, but what cast there is, besides Williams and the dog, also include a small role for the underrated Will Patton as a  mechanic, and a quite wonderful Wally Dalton, longtime character actor, as an empathetic security guard. Dalton can express a lot with little, in his friendly eyes (and Muppet-like eye brows). But it is Williams who carries it, managing to play the role with both appropriate stoicism yet fragile throughout, right under that protective surface. 

Beautifully photographed by Sam Levy, Wendy and Lucy may be a simple story but it affected me on a most profound level. 

As an aside: It was odd but interesting to watch this film around the same time I watched the Criterion DVD for White Dog. Makes for an intriguing Woman and Dog double feature. 

The Class: screenplay

If you're not in NY or LA (and weren't privileged enough to see it at a film festival or abroad) you'll, alas, have to wait a few more weeks for this one to open. But after clicking around the official site for The Class, I saw they'd put up the actual screenplay for download! 

Merci bon coup, Sony Classics!

Remakes: The disease that ate Hollywood.

Seriously now, why am I even bothering to try to write original screenplays?  It's all about existing franchises, sequels and remakes now.  Does anyone even bother with original scripts anymore? 

But if I want to change tactics and write a remake of something, I may be shit outta luck anyway, because apparently everything's being remade. I mean EVERYTHING.

Here's a list from Den of Geek of 55 movie remakes in the works. Most of these are legit, just a few merely rumors. It's enough to make me want to poke my eye out with a sharp stick. I'll admit a few of them sound like they could be halfway decent, or worth remaking.  Others -- well, the Poltergeist remake might boast cool effects but I guarantee you it won't improve on the original's ability to both thrill and chill. Rosemary's Baby? Ditto. I've already ranted about the Oldboy remake here. I could go on and on.

Link >>

Flight of the Conchords kicks off soon; premiere on Funny or Die even sooner.

If you're wondering how you're going to make it to January for the season 2 premiere of Flight of the Conchords, fret not!

From Variety:

HBO will kick off the second season of "Flight of the Conchords" on FunnyorDie.com

Full-length sneak peek of the comedy series' second-season premiere episode will be available for viewing on the site from Wednesday [Dec 17] through Sunday. Select highlight clips from "Conchords' " first season also will be available.

The series will make its official season bow on HBO Jan. 18.

And here it is: Season Premiere on Funny or Die. (For only 6 days.)

Star Wars Holiday Special, riffing included.

It wouldn't be Christmastime without the... Star Wars Holiday Special! (?)  Yes, that infamous, Lucas-buried television special from the late 70s that pushed the Star Wars phenomenon just.. one step too far. It's impossible to find in any legal way these days, but thanks to the boys at Rifftrax, you can watch it online, complete with their mocking commentary.

Tony Award Winner and Oscar nominated Diahann Carroll as a singing holographic prostitute who services Grandpa Itchy. And Bea Arthur stretches her talent by playing a woman. Not only that, there are commercials from 1978 that will come close to convincing you that "1978" is fairly synonymous with "Hell".

"But, Rifftrax," you say, "Rifftrax, please - The Star Wars Holiday Special is not commercially available. How am I supposed to watch this?!" Well, we assume you taped it off the TV back in 1978 using your 130 pound top loading Panasonic NV-9300 U-Matic VCR, just like we did. If not, what were you thinking? Stop right now and GO Out and Get Looking for onE.

Because we taped ours off of the television set, and our NV-9300 doesn't have an "edit" function printed on one of its dozens of plastic piano key-style switches, we just left the commercials in there.

Star Wars Holiday Special on Rifftrax >>

Seriously, if that isn't worth four bucks, what it is?

Rookie screenwriter on Gran Torino: Hope for us all

Nice story on Patrick Goldstein's Big Picture blog (LA Times) about Nick Schenk, screenwriter behind Clint Eastwood's new film, Gran Torino. Haven't seen the film, merely finding this story inspirational for any scriptwriter trying to find some glimmer of hope to keep them going.

The script was so well crafted and understated (and the credits went by so fast) that after seeing the picture, I immediately called Bill Gerber, one of the film's producers, to find out which one of the many A-list screenwriters who must always be knocking down Eastwood's door had penned the story. "Are you sitting down?" Gerber asked. He had quite a surprise. The writer, Nick Schenk, who lives in Minnesota, had never sold a feature script in his life. In fact, the only writing work Schenk had done was for "BoDog Fight," a mixed martial arts TV show, a game show called "Let's Bowl" and some comedy sketches collected in a DVD called "Factory Accident Sex." ("That title doesn't exactly help my career, does it?" Schenk jokes.)

Schenk says he wrote the script, using a pen and a pad of paper, sitting at night in a bar called Grumpy's in northeast Minneapolis. It was a good release for Schenk, who was holding down a series of day jobs, driving a fruit truck and doing construction work. "I just scribbled away every night," he told me. "The bartender there is a friend, so sometimes I'd ask him questions about where I was going with the story as I was writing. When it came, the words just came. One night, I knocked off 25 pages right there in the bar."

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Quick Notes on MILK

Gus Van Sant's Milk manages to rise above the usual trappings, limitations of the biopic form -- for the most part. There are moments when Dustin Black's script offers up some telegraphing dialogue, lines where characters tell us what to expect even though we already expect it. And I did find the narrative device of having Milk (a sublime, magical Sean Penn) dictating his story into a tape recorder got a bit tired as it continued, especially since the energy level required of Penn for that scene is appropriately subdued, but so downbeat that they threaten to take away momentum. At times it's useful, at others the script might have found a way to show us rather than tell us. All that aside, however, it's a beautifully done film, ultimately as moving as it should be.  The entire cast is outstanding -- Emile Hirsch really IS Cleve Jones, James Franco is super, too as Milk's longtime -- and occasionally exasperated and tired -- boyfriend Scott Smith,and Josh Brolin is eerie as the bottled up rival supervisor Dan White.    

Again, there are the moments that you see in all biopics -- this happened, and then this happened, as if ticking them off a checklist -- but Van Sant lets the actors carry it and the incredible story hold sway.  And the Milk vs White thread really is a startling, chilling tale, almost hard to believe it hadn't actually occurred. Interesting, too, that the film depicts not just Mayor George Moscone (of course, as he was also a central figure in this tragedy) but also Art Agnos -- played, incredibly, by pop artist Jeff Koons(!) -- future San Francisco mayor and Milk's more experienced opponent in the State assembly race, but not Diane Feinstein (also future SF mayor and CA Senator) except in the background of a board of supervisors meeting and in real life footage of her delivering the awful news to the city and the world.  At any rate, the depiction of the period is for the most part spot on, the zeitgeist of the times certainly well captured.  A few who are more intimate with Milk's story have quibbled with the facts as presented, that Milk's character is possibly too lovable as seen here. I'm not as familiar with it, other than having seen the superb documentary on him, The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, but I do know that the film doesn't at all show him as flawless either. I think that would be a misreading of it. 

See it for the fascinating story and for the performances, even if the script itself stumbles about at times. It overcomes that, ultimately, and anyone not moved by the ending is made of sterner stuff than I. 

Bit of Fry and Laurie (and a depiction of repressive thought).

Even though this wonderful Fry & Laurie sketch is on in years now and, of course, English, I can't help but think while rewatching it that it rather accurately depicts the sort of repressive, religious, anti-sex ed thought process practiced by a too-large number of American parents even in this day and age. Watch it and see if you don't agree. Or at least, see if you don't laugh.

Charlie Kaufman interviewed by David Cronenberg(!)

In Interview magazine:

Charlie Kaufman interviewed by David Cronenberg

DAVID CRONENBERG: It's kind of a classic thing: You're a writer-frustrated at times with how some of your screenplays have been handled by -directors-and now you finally get to direct your own movie. How was that experience for you?

CHARLIE KAUFMAN: I think I've had pretty good experiences for the most part with the people who have directed my screenplays. It's more that I wanted to see what it would be like if I didn't have to collaborate with anybody-you know, to have a sense of purity of the thing from beginning to end. I liked doing it. It's really different from writing. Directing is a more pragmatic experience, where you have to deal with the restrictions of time and money that force you to make certain decisions you don't have to make when you're writing.

(Spike Lee briefly interviews Scorsese in that same issue.)