PAUL NEWMAN (1925-2008)
It’s easy to talk about the films and I do that below, but it should also be mentioned that Newman used his star power to help people in a way that few celebrities do. I saw him interviewed on 60 Minutes a few years ago. They were at his HOLE IN THE WALL GANG camp for children with cancer. He proved to be a guy who really made a positive difference in this world. Many of his other causes weren’t mine, but when it counted his money went to something that really mattered. I hope to enjoy his salad dressing and spaghetti sauce for years to come.
SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME (1956) – Newman’s breakout role as boxer Rocky Graziano was originally supposed to star James Dean, I once read. He was already 30 years when he made this, but he looks so young in comparison to the roles you remember that he seems much younger. Newman became quite a good actor over the years, but that Actor’s Studio style is evident and annoying here.
THE LEFTHANDED GUN (1958) – Newman is Billy the Kid. The film has a decent enough reputation helped by the direction of Arthur Penn, but it was not particularly memorable for me. I saw it the same week I saw Arthur Penn’s PENN AND TELLER GET KILLED, showing that the auteur theory is still somewhat debatable.
LONG HOT SUMMER (1958) The first film he made with Joanne Woodward also stars Orson Welles. While neither Welles nor Newman seem believable as a southerners to me, Woodward is believable in most anything. Newman is the hardheaded young man in conflict with Welles during most of the story although Welles comes to respect him more than his own weakling son. But can Welles match Newman with his daughter, Woodward? You guess.
CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF (1958) – Newman teams with Elizabeth Taylor in the Tennessee Williams play. Like most of Williams stuff “the love that dare not speak its name” is hovering around the periphery. The play begins with Newman’s unseen friend having killed himself and Newman feeling guilty because the friend had a crush on him. The central conflict of the play is that Newman has cut off the advances of wife, Elizabeth Taylor. But his dying father “Big Daddy” needs him to produce an heir so his tub-of-goo brother doesn’t inherit the plantation. Newman’s star power is evident and Taylor’s natural acting style is a pleasure to see. Burl Ives reprised his Broadway role as Big Daddy. I saw Ashley Judd, Jason Patric, and Ned Beatty do this on Broadway and critics weren’t kind. They weren’t as good as the movie cast, but it was still better than watching most of the Broadway musicals that I’ve seen. So much of good acting is good material and this was Newman’s best film up to this time, I think.
THE YOUNG PHILADELPHIANS (1959) Back when getting a Philadelphia lawyer was tantamount to getting the best, Newman is a young ambitious lawyer who will do anything to get ahead, stepping on those that love him along the way. The movie is melodramatic in that late 50s sort of way so it should be no surprise that Newman gets some redemption at the end. Brian Keith has a nice turn early in the film. I can’t think of a bad Brian Keith performance.
THE HUSTLER (1961) – The first out-and-out classic Newman movie and the first one I remember where he seemed relaxed enough to be the character instead of trying to play the character. Most everyone knows that Newman is pool hustler Fast Eddie Felson, a talented but egotistical young man who rises and falls. It’s great material helped along by Newman’s gritty determination. Had Newman died shortly after this film, I think we’d see HUSTLER posters in much the same way we see REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE now.
HUD (1963) – Newman gets to play the heel and a cowboy one at that. This is the most famous Newman film I have never seen, and the only one on this list haven't seen. I just didn’t think I could skip over it for all its importance.
COOL HAND LUKE (1967) – Another one of the all-time classics. My old hippie boss got me onto it and he loved to talk about the Christ symbolism. I found it interesting that he was a free spirit who wanted to be left alone and he inadvertently created a following that he wasn’t comfortable with. The fight with George Kennedy, and then the egg eating contest, and the rush to build the road all seem so fresh in my mind. I found it slow the first time I saw it. I was expecting another Butch Cassidy, I guess. But the second time I saw it much differently and I have admired and enjoyed it every time since.
BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969) – The first Newman movie I ever saw. It was on television when I was twelve years old and I watched it all by myself and then quoted it in English class when the teacher asked about hero characters on the wrong side of the law. It was the most powerful ending I had seen up to that time and still one of the all-time great resolutions. I particularly like the train robberies early in the film and how nice Butch is robbing people. I have since recommended it to other friends with mixed results. One friend said that he couldn’t stand the music montages especially with the pop tune. That song does seem dated, but I think the montages in South America still work although he had no use for those either. Historically it's probably the first buddy film to be successful enough to create that subgenre.
SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION (1971) – This is not considered a great movie, but there are a couple of reasons that it appealed to me. First, Henry Fonda as the father of Paul Newman has great possibilities. Second, it’s one of three movies where the main characters are named STAMPER. Can you name the other two? This film is based on the book by Ken “Cukoo’s Nest” Kesey about a family of loggers who are in the midst of a union fight. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but I remember thinking it had a conservative bent which seems impossible with this cast and author. I guess I wasn’t supposed to like the Stampers and what they do. That would explain it. The other thing I remember is a real poignant scene where Newman’s brother Richard Jaeckel is trapped under a log. Looking it up on ALLMOVIE, I realized I had totally forgotten about the other plot involving Lee Remick (Not easy to forget) and Michael Sarrazin.
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JUDGE ROY BEAN (1972) My least favorite movie on the list. I saw it during the period I was watching all of the John Huston movies I could find. Newman is not sympathetic although the movie is funny at times. It just has too many weird characters for me. I suppose it could be someone’s cult favorite, but not mine.
THE STING (1973) – This is the Newman/Redford movie that won best picture although I prefer the other one. Still, this movie is a lot of fun and can be enjoyed multiple times. Robert Shaw always made a good heavy and there are plenty of other good supporting parts as well. Charles Durning and Harold Gould come to mind. The granddaddy of all confidence man films, I suppose.
THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974) – One of the weaker Best Picture winners with a great cast. Famous for the opening credit where McQueen’s name was first, but Newman’s was higher. The 70s loved disaster movies with high priced talent and this was just one of many.
THE DROWNING POOL (1975) – A sequel to the 1966 film HARPER where Newman plays PI Lew Harper once again based on the Ross McDonald’s Lew Archer series. The drowning pool is exactly how it sounds and a clever device to kill Newman in the movie. But maybe he escapes! Woodward shows up as does a young Melanie Griffith.
ABSENCE OF MALICE (1981) – Ironically, this movie is the counter-balance to the Redford film, ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN, where crusading reporters are admonished for printing stories based on hearsay information from anonymous sources. Both and Sally Field are quite good and the investigation into the truth works pretty well too.
THE VERDICT (1982) – If there was ever a time where you could say that Newman was not only a great movie star, but a great actor, the Verdict would be the example time I would pick. Everything about the performance says that it needs an actor and not a personality and the way Newman becomes this alcoholic lawyer is really impressive. It’s a shame that he didn’t take more character parts. He would have been a joy in those Robert Duvall type roles.
HARRY AND SON (1984) – Newman is Harry and Robbie Benson is the son and they have less than a harmonious relationship. It’s not a very good movie and it’s not all that memorable, except that Newman had lost his own son a few years earlier and that he chose to direct this picture says something about its meaning to him.
THE COLOR OF MONEY (1986) – Newman returns as Fast Eddie in this Hustler sequel directed by Scorsese and co-starring the up and coming Tom Cruise. There is a lot to like about the movie and I enjoyed it again last year sometime. The shame is that the Academy chose to finally reward Newman for his body of work and it should have been for something a little more interesting.
BLAZE (1989) Ron Shelton’s follow-up to Bull Durham is only nice for Newman’s performance as the corrupt Louisiana Governor and even that wears a bit thin at times.
FAT MAN AND LITTLE BOY (1989) – A dull telling of the atomic bomb creation with Newman wasted in a role anyone could have portrayed.
NOBODY”S FOOL (1994) – Newman really deserved to win an Oscar for this forgotten movie about a lovable loser who reconnects with his family. It’s a little quirky at times like the Richard Russo novel it’s based on, but if you can forgive that this movie is a gem and the last classic he made. Bruce Willis is great in a small role as Newman’s boss/friend./rival and Melanie Griffith is Willis’ wife and an object of Newman’s fancy. Jessica Tandy plays Newman’s land lady in her last screen role. I first saw it at the theatre with brother John and have seen it again several times over the years and it never gets old.
HUDSUCKER PROXY (1994) – One of the Coen Brothr’s lesser efforts and still not without its moments. Newman plays the CEO of a big company and Tim Robbins the lowly office boy who makes good. Jennifer Jason Leigh channels Katherine Hepburn’s screwball comedy accent.
TWILIGHT (1998) Newman re-teams with Russo and director Robert Benson as a Private Detective shot by Reese Witherspoon. A few years later he is living in the garage apartment of Reese’s parents (Gene Hackman and Susan Sarandon) and trying to solve as mystery. It’s a fine effort for all involved and worth the time if you see it on cable.
ROAD TO PERDITION (2002) Sam Mendes follow up to American Beauty starring Tom Hanks is a adaptation of a graphic novel filled with stars but also a kind of emptiness. Newman won a supporting Oscar nomination for his small but impactful role as a crime boss.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
REVIEWS OF MOVIES FROM 2007
SHOOT ‘EM UP (2007) –The reliable Clive “no smile” Owen is just a schlub waiting for a bus when he notices a gunman trying to shoot down a pregnant lady. Although unarmed he tries to save her life and winds up with a baby for his efforts. From then on, a gang led by Paul Giamatti chases Owen and the bambino all over creation. It’s a funny movie that makes the villain a gun manufacturer and then entertains us with bullets flying everywhere and mostly into the guts of evil henchmen. The death toll is enormous and the stunts are inventive with early ones seeming a bit of a stretch and later ones downright impossible. It’s so over the top that you have to enjoy it on its own terms, and it helps if you aren’t sickened by the sight of blood.
AWAY FROM HER (2007) – Julie Christie seems to materialize once a decade for an Oscar nomination and here she is this time with Alzheimer’s. And it’s a fine performance all and all. It’s directed by Sarah Polley, the girl who played the cashier in GO and has been seen most recently as the daughter of JOHN ADAMS in the HBO miniseries. She does a fine job with good performances by Gordon Pinsent as her husband and Michael Murphy and Olympia Dukakis as another couple who figures big in the plot.
THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY (2007) Last year I saw Julian Schnabel’s film about the artist Basqaut who died of aids in the 1980s before people even knew what aids was. To find a more depressing subject, Schnabel chooses a guy completely paralyzed by a stroke who has to write a book with eye blinks. What’s funny is that Schnabel seems like a pretty up beat guy in real life. I saw him interviewed once about some paintings he was exhibiting and he was smiling and was not the least bit pretentious. I can understand Schnabel’s nomination for director, because this book is not easy material to turn into a film and he does a wonderful job of bringing the paralyzed world to life. Still, the main character is a narcissistic bore and recounting his life doesn’t redeem him.
DAN IN REAL LIFE (2007) – Steve Carell is the affable widower who meets cute with Juliette Binoche in a bookstore. It turns out that the French babe is dating his brother although she and Carell might turn out to be soul mates. Dane Cook is the brother, Diane Wiest as mother, and John Mahoney plays dad. If that sounds appealing you’re in for no further surprises.
INTO THE WILD (2007) – Sir Saunders summed this up a in a post a while back and I agree that it’s a fine movie that showed all of the adventure of such a pursuit and the danger at the same time. Sean Penn is a very thoughtful director, which is baffling after seeing him on Larry King back in 2003 where he couldn’t speak a coherent sentence in an hour of trying. Steve and I recently spoke about the adventure and how the environment has really been romanticized in the last 10-15 years. It’s like the Garden of Eden myth is back in the consciousness. Talk about coming full circle. But the movie shows how the environment will kill you without remorse. Civilization is little overrated until you’re out of rice and on the wrong side of the river. I think that’s why conservatives make the best outdoorsman. They have the most respect for the wild and they don’t mind turning hooves into steaks. Progressives are hoping that Puck and friends will sweep into the camp and with manna. Emile Hirsch is solid as Chris McCandless and Penn casts the supporting players ably too. Catherine Keener stands out as the aging hippy who takes on Chris as the son she lost. Nominated Hal Holbrook didn’t appear until the last 30 minutes, but he was a joy to watch. I liked the film enough that I might read the book.
MARGOT AT THE WEDDING (2007) – I consider Noah Baumbach’s 1995 debut KICKING AND SCREAMING to be a minor classic. 5 movies later I just can’t imagine he’s the same guy after watching the tiresome MARGOT. Is there anything really left to say about dysfunctional families? Some people just don’t love one another as they should and some have baggage. If the point of movies is to make you uncomfortable then they rang the bell, otherwise this is a yawn.
LA VIE EN ROSE (2007) – Another singer biopic and this time in French. Marion Cotillard’s Oscar for Best Actress is right out of the Charlize Theron book of “let’s ugly it up for the sake of art.” You can see her beautiful in awful film, A GOOD YEAR. I don’t see her winning that statue without the imagination of the voters thinking of her beauty. And isn’t it time we ban Oscar nominations for biopics about singers anyway? Edith Piaf was another interesting person that just didn’t have it easy. These scripts almost write themselves anymore. I can’t wait to see all the terrible things that happened to Pat Boone before he became famous.
WE OWN THE NIGHT (2007) – Duvall is a cop and the father of Marky Mark (cop) and Jaquin Phoenix (nightclub manager). Well the nightclub is mobbed up and Mary Mark takes a bullet and Phoenix quits his pals for family. Everything else about the plot is cat and mouse which is alright if you are in the mood, but not exceptional.
DARJEELING LIMITED (2007) – Wes Anderson has the style down pat and he loves unusual characters, but I’m convinced that he isn’t interested in story. I find that the majority of his movies aren’t really about anything. And although they are funny at times, they are mostly slow. I don’t think I have liked any of them since The Royal Tennenbaums, and that movie might not have worked at all without the brilliant Gene Hackman. Here three brothers Owen Wilson, Adrian Brody, and Jason Swartzmann are on a search in Asia to find their wandering mother Angelica Huston. Not as dysfunctional as MARGOT, but playing the same general idea for laughs.
KING OF KONG (2007) - Documentary on the guys who hold the all-time scores on classic video games, with a focus on two guys battling to be the best Donkey Kong player in the universe. Player one, Billy Mitchell, has been the Donkey Kong champion since he was a teenager in the 1980s. So famous was he during that time they included the guy in a Life Magazine spread about the best gamers. He’s now around 40 and the owner of a sports bar and wing sauce business in Hollywood, FL. He still enjoys in the glory of his teenage self, having never cut his long long hair. The challenger, Steve Weibe from Washington State is a normal looking guy with a nice family and an obsession to be the best Donkey Kong player anywhere. We watch him play the game for hours in his garage as his kids and wife yell for his help with various household things. The wife is both annoyed at the time this takes and proud when he achieves his goal. It’s not too unlike my own experiences with poker. The film maker builds up good drama between the two rivals especially the way the champion shows no respect for the budding challenger. It’s one of those stories where you really root for people.
2 DAYS IN PARIS (2007) –Writer, Director, Star, Julie Delpy doesn’t have the French characters look down at Americans, but she does have the American, Adam Goldberg do so. He is the typically holier than thou American who is better than where he came from, even going so far as to give American tourists the wrong directions. I’m supposed to love him for it because one of the ladies is wearing a Bush/Cheney T-shirt, an unlikely possibility. That’s not the problem with the movie, but the problem with what Delpy finds funny. The real trouble here is that she tries to channel Linklater with a talky boyfriend/girlfriend piece and it has none of the charm of the BEFORE movies and with time it gets annoying. By the end it’s not even realistic. But it never really was realistic, because I don’t see Julie Delpy anywhere near the geekish Adam Goldberg even on a bad day.
JUNO (2007) – The script is full of quirky dialogue that sometimes surprises you into laughter. Ellen Page seems a perfect fit for the role as a cute yet somewhat harsh teenager trying to find parents for her accidental baby. The couple she lands on, Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman, seem perfect at first like most couples, but underneath lies a struggle between the two. JK Simmons plays Juno’s father and is becoming quite a reliable character actor filling that unashamedly masculine authority figure device. My only real knock on the movie is that I don’t find Jennifer Garner all that sympathetic, she’s a bit of a pain really and seemingly phony at times, and yet she comes out better at the end than the story would have led me to believe.
EVAN ALMIGHTY (2007) – Steve Carell is winning enough, but this is the one-joke premise with few surprises. I didn’t see the Jim Carey version a few years ago and I don’t know why I thought this wouldn’t be mediocre. The God comedies are a little awkward, always having to stick with the Old Testament version and sidestepping the Jesus question. Remember how George Burns deflected the question as posed by John Denver. Here we get the humor of the prophet beard growing faster than he can shave, as if the beard were holy in itself.
THE BRAVE ONE (2007) – It’s more or less a remake of DEATH WISH with Jodie Foster in the Charles Bronson role. Like Death Wish, Foster loses a loved one to a violent attack and she fights back wild west style. Plenty of action, although the New York depicted here is really pre-Guiliani with a mugging on every corner. You’ll be surprised how many crimes Foster is the potential victim of and how quickly the perps become dog meat. It’s directed by Neil Jordan of all people. The original Death Wish has a few scenes that really test suspension of disbelief, and the Brave One is no different. Christopher Guest will never speak to Jodie Foster again.
GONE BABY GONE (2007) – I liked Mystic River for the most part. An hour into the film it had all the making of a classic, but I found the last ten minutes disappointing and the ending disjointed. I can see now that my problem was with the book author, Christopher Lehane, who also wrote GONE BABY GONE. This plot is just too busy with too much grey area for the character to reside in. Casey Affleck is quite good. I knew Amy Ryan from HBO’s THE WIRE, and she continues to be a solid actress, although her screen time didn’t really warrant a nomination. I think using heavyweights like Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman in smaller roles gives too much away and the resolution is quite contrived.
ACORSS THE UNIVERSE (2007) – This could have been an interesting 90 minute movie, but at 133 minutes its way too much for way too long. If you like Beatles music and know a little of their backstory then you can enjoy the first 30 minutes or so, but the movie drops off a cliff soon after that. The story of a bunch of kids exploring the possibilities of life with the Fab Four in the background is nothing but the millionth baby boomer romantic fantasy. Will that generation ever grow up? Julie Taymor is overrated, her one hit being the Lion King stage show that already had a built-in fan base. Did you see her last film, Frida? I did and I don’t remember anything but Geoffrey Rush showing up as Trotsky.
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (2007) – This was interesting material for the Coen Brothers. It really fits their crazy dark genre and yet fits into the realism universe at the same time. Javier bardem got all the ink and the Oscar, but it’s one of those performances that’s rewarded for the writing blended with the actor’s obscurity. I think Benicio Del Toro could have played the character just as menacing but we would have expected that. Tommy Lee Jones is so weather beaten that the guy has been playing an old man for ten years and he’s still not 65. I can’t complain about his performance though. They’re all good really. Even Woody Harrelson’s quirky personality seems to fit here. You could argue that it’s the Coen’s best film. I still prefer Miller’s Crossing. It may not have been the best film made last year, but it was better than the other films that were nominated for Best Picture.
CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR (2007) – No script can turn Tom Hanks into a whiskey- soaked womanizer. The first scene of the movie has him in a hot tub with naked strippers and you don’t believe it for a minute. WILSON does have a typically good performance by Phillip Seymour Hoffman and another icy performance by Julia Roberts. Is she no longer allowed to play fetching? Hoffman makes all of his scenes worth it and the scenes without him drag. The movie built a lot of good will with me by acknowledging the real bad guys. Enough time has passed that the Russians can be enemies even to Aaron Sorkin. But I guess it was all worth it to Sorkin so that he could have his little epilogue with Hoffman explaining to Hanks that without U.S. funding for Afghan schools, the whole place will fall apart, and he only needs $1 million. I don’t know what’s funnier about that comment, that a typical liberal solution of more education solves everything or that the whole country can be educated for $1 million. Orange County Florida can’t build a single high school for less than that. Good will or not, this is not a very memorable movie. I finished watching it 25 minutes ago and I’m having trouble remembering plot points.
SHOOT ‘EM UP (2007) –The reliable Clive “no smile” Owen is just a schlub waiting for a bus when he notices a gunman trying to shoot down a pregnant lady. Although unarmed he tries to save her life and winds up with a baby for his efforts. From then on, a gang led by Paul Giamatti chases Owen and the bambino all over creation. It’s a funny movie that makes the villain a gun manufacturer and then entertains us with bullets flying everywhere and mostly into the guts of evil henchmen. The death toll is enormous and the stunts are inventive with early ones seeming a bit of a stretch and later ones downright impossible. It’s so over the top that you have to enjoy it on its own terms, and it helps if you aren’t sickened by the sight of blood.
AWAY FROM HER (2007) – Julie Christie seems to materialize once a decade for an Oscar nomination and here she is this time with Alzheimer’s. And it’s a fine performance all and all. It’s directed by Sarah Polley, the girl who played the cashier in GO and has been seen most recently as the daughter of JOHN ADAMS in the HBO miniseries. She does a fine job with good performances by Gordon Pinsent as her husband and Michael Murphy and Olympia Dukakis as another couple who figures big in the plot.
THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY (2007) Last year I saw Julian Schnabel’s film about the artist Basqaut who died of aids in the 1980s before people even knew what aids was. To find a more depressing subject, Schnabel chooses a guy completely paralyzed by a stroke who has to write a book with eye blinks. What’s funny is that Schnabel seems like a pretty up beat guy in real life. I saw him interviewed once about some paintings he was exhibiting and he was smiling and was not the least bit pretentious. I can understand Schnabel’s nomination for director, because this book is not easy material to turn into a film and he does a wonderful job of bringing the paralyzed world to life. Still, the main character is a narcissistic bore and recounting his life doesn’t redeem him.
DAN IN REAL LIFE (2007) – Steve Carell is the affable widower who meets cute with Juliette Binoche in a bookstore. It turns out that the French babe is dating his brother although she and Carell might turn out to be soul mates. Dane Cook is the brother, Diane Wiest as mother, and John Mahoney plays dad. If that sounds appealing you’re in for no further surprises.
INTO THE WILD (2007) – Sir Saunders summed this up a in a post a while back and I agree that it’s a fine movie that showed all of the adventure of such a pursuit and the danger at the same time. Sean Penn is a very thoughtful director, which is baffling after seeing him on Larry King back in 2003 where he couldn’t speak a coherent sentence in an hour of trying. Steve and I recently spoke about the adventure and how the environment has really been romanticized in the last 10-15 years. It’s like the Garden of Eden myth is back in the consciousness. Talk about coming full circle. But the movie shows how the environment will kill you without remorse. Civilization is little overrated until you’re out of rice and on the wrong side of the river. I think that’s why conservatives make the best outdoorsman. They have the most respect for the wild and they don’t mind turning hooves into steaks. Progressives are hoping that Puck and friends will sweep into the camp and with manna. Emile Hirsch is solid as Chris McCandless and Penn casts the supporting players ably too. Catherine Keener stands out as the aging hippy who takes on Chris as the son she lost. Nominated Hal Holbrook didn’t appear until the last 30 minutes, but he was a joy to watch. I liked the film enough that I might read the book.
MARGOT AT THE WEDDING (2007) – I consider Noah Baumbach’s 1995 debut KICKING AND SCREAMING to be a minor classic. 5 movies later I just can’t imagine he’s the same guy after watching the tiresome MARGOT. Is there anything really left to say about dysfunctional families? Some people just don’t love one another as they should and some have baggage. If the point of movies is to make you uncomfortable then they rang the bell, otherwise this is a yawn.
LA VIE EN ROSE (2007) – Another singer biopic and this time in French. Marion Cotillard’s Oscar for Best Actress is right out of the Charlize Theron book of “let’s ugly it up for the sake of art.” You can see her beautiful in awful film, A GOOD YEAR. I don’t see her winning that statue without the imagination of the voters thinking of her beauty. And isn’t it time we ban Oscar nominations for biopics about singers anyway? Edith Piaf was another interesting person that just didn’t have it easy. These scripts almost write themselves anymore. I can’t wait to see all the terrible things that happened to Pat Boone before he became famous.
WE OWN THE NIGHT (2007) – Duvall is a cop and the father of Marky Mark (cop) and Jaquin Phoenix (nightclub manager). Well the nightclub is mobbed up and Mary Mark takes a bullet and Phoenix quits his pals for family. Everything else about the plot is cat and mouse which is alright if you are in the mood, but not exceptional.
DARJEELING LIMITED (2007) – Wes Anderson has the style down pat and he loves unusual characters, but I’m convinced that he isn’t interested in story. I find that the majority of his movies aren’t really about anything. And although they are funny at times, they are mostly slow. I don’t think I have liked any of them since The Royal Tennenbaums, and that movie might not have worked at all without the brilliant Gene Hackman. Here three brothers Owen Wilson, Adrian Brody, and Jason Swartzmann are on a search in Asia to find their wandering mother Angelica Huston. Not as dysfunctional as MARGOT, but playing the same general idea for laughs.
KING OF KONG (2007) - Documentary on the guys who hold the all-time scores on classic video games, with a focus on two guys battling to be the best Donkey Kong player in the universe. Player one, Billy Mitchell, has been the Donkey Kong champion since he was a teenager in the 1980s. So famous was he during that time they included the guy in a Life Magazine spread about the best gamers. He’s now around 40 and the owner of a sports bar and wing sauce business in Hollywood, FL. He still enjoys in the glory of his teenage self, having never cut his long long hair. The challenger, Steve Weibe from Washington State is a normal looking guy with a nice family and an obsession to be the best Donkey Kong player anywhere. We watch him play the game for hours in his garage as his kids and wife yell for his help with various household things. The wife is both annoyed at the time this takes and proud when he achieves his goal. It’s not too unlike my own experiences with poker. The film maker builds up good drama between the two rivals especially the way the champion shows no respect for the budding challenger. It’s one of those stories where you really root for people.
2 DAYS IN PARIS (2007) –Writer, Director, Star, Julie Delpy doesn’t have the French characters look down at Americans, but she does have the American, Adam Goldberg do so. He is the typically holier than thou American who is better than where he came from, even going so far as to give American tourists the wrong directions. I’m supposed to love him for it because one of the ladies is wearing a Bush/Cheney T-shirt, an unlikely possibility. That’s not the problem with the movie, but the problem with what Delpy finds funny. The real trouble here is that she tries to channel Linklater with a talky boyfriend/girlfriend piece and it has none of the charm of the BEFORE movies and with time it gets annoying. By the end it’s not even realistic. But it never really was realistic, because I don’t see Julie Delpy anywhere near the geekish Adam Goldberg even on a bad day.
JUNO (2007) – The script is full of quirky dialogue that sometimes surprises you into laughter. Ellen Page seems a perfect fit for the role as a cute yet somewhat harsh teenager trying to find parents for her accidental baby. The couple she lands on, Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman, seem perfect at first like most couples, but underneath lies a struggle between the two. JK Simmons plays Juno’s father and is becoming quite a reliable character actor filling that unashamedly masculine authority figure device. My only real knock on the movie is that I don’t find Jennifer Garner all that sympathetic, she’s a bit of a pain really and seemingly phony at times, and yet she comes out better at the end than the story would have led me to believe.
EVAN ALMIGHTY (2007) – Steve Carell is winning enough, but this is the one-joke premise with few surprises. I didn’t see the Jim Carey version a few years ago and I don’t know why I thought this wouldn’t be mediocre. The God comedies are a little awkward, always having to stick with the Old Testament version and sidestepping the Jesus question. Remember how George Burns deflected the question as posed by John Denver. Here we get the humor of the prophet beard growing faster than he can shave, as if the beard were holy in itself.
THE BRAVE ONE (2007) – It’s more or less a remake of DEATH WISH with Jodie Foster in the Charles Bronson role. Like Death Wish, Foster loses a loved one to a violent attack and she fights back wild west style. Plenty of action, although the New York depicted here is really pre-Guiliani with a mugging on every corner. You’ll be surprised how many crimes Foster is the potential victim of and how quickly the perps become dog meat. It’s directed by Neil Jordan of all people. The original Death Wish has a few scenes that really test suspension of disbelief, and the Brave One is no different. Christopher Guest will never speak to Jodie Foster again.
GONE BABY GONE (2007) – I liked Mystic River for the most part. An hour into the film it had all the making of a classic, but I found the last ten minutes disappointing and the ending disjointed. I can see now that my problem was with the book author, Christopher Lehane, who also wrote GONE BABY GONE. This plot is just too busy with too much grey area for the character to reside in. Casey Affleck is quite good. I knew Amy Ryan from HBO’s THE WIRE, and she continues to be a solid actress, although her screen time didn’t really warrant a nomination. I think using heavyweights like Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman in smaller roles gives too much away and the resolution is quite contrived.
ACORSS THE UNIVERSE (2007) – This could have been an interesting 90 minute movie, but at 133 minutes its way too much for way too long. If you like Beatles music and know a little of their backstory then you can enjoy the first 30 minutes or so, but the movie drops off a cliff soon after that. The story of a bunch of kids exploring the possibilities of life with the Fab Four in the background is nothing but the millionth baby boomer romantic fantasy. Will that generation ever grow up? Julie Taymor is overrated, her one hit being the Lion King stage show that already had a built-in fan base. Did you see her last film, Frida? I did and I don’t remember anything but Geoffrey Rush showing up as Trotsky.
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (2007) – This was interesting material for the Coen Brothers. It really fits their crazy dark genre and yet fits into the realism universe at the same time. Javier bardem got all the ink and the Oscar, but it’s one of those performances that’s rewarded for the writing blended with the actor’s obscurity. I think Benicio Del Toro could have played the character just as menacing but we would have expected that. Tommy Lee Jones is so weather beaten that the guy has been playing an old man for ten years and he’s still not 65. I can’t complain about his performance though. They’re all good really. Even Woody Harrelson’s quirky personality seems to fit here. You could argue that it’s the Coen’s best film. I still prefer Miller’s Crossing. It may not have been the best film made last year, but it was better than the other films that were nominated for Best Picture.
CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR (2007) – No script can turn Tom Hanks into a whiskey- soaked womanizer. The first scene of the movie has him in a hot tub with naked strippers and you don’t believe it for a minute. WILSON does have a typically good performance by Phillip Seymour Hoffman and another icy performance by Julia Roberts. Is she no longer allowed to play fetching? Hoffman makes all of his scenes worth it and the scenes without him drag. The movie built a lot of good will with me by acknowledging the real bad guys. Enough time has passed that the Russians can be enemies even to Aaron Sorkin. But I guess it was all worth it to Sorkin so that he could have his little epilogue with Hoffman explaining to Hanks that without U.S. funding for Afghan schools, the whole place will fall apart, and he only needs $1 million. I don’t know what’s funnier about that comment, that a typical liberal solution of more education solves everything or that the whole country can be educated for $1 million. Orange County Florida can’t build a single high school for less than that. Good will or not, this is not a very memorable movie. I finished watching it 25 minutes ago and I’m having trouble remembering plot points.
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