Since the
Aviator cat's out of the bag with last Wednesday's rave review by
Variety's Todd McCarthy, it's okay to respond to his praising of the film's CG-bolstered aerial photography sequences. They're not "eminently satisfying," as he described them, because over and over they reach out from the screen, grab you by both lapels and shout, "Hard drive!" McCarthy says "it's not that you can't tell when a flight is being digitally rendered, but it's all done amazingly well -- the degree of artifice surrounding the entire picture allows the computer work to fit in gracefully rather than to stick out." This is...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 1:57 PM on Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Thanks to L.A. Times columnist Patrick Goldstein for the front-page plug in today's (Tuesday. 11.30) "Big Picture" column, in which he quotes my Million Dollar Baby blurb from last week ("Trust me, it's a multi-Oscar nominee -- Best Picture, Best Director," etc.). It would've been a mite cooler if he'd mentioned Hollywood Elsewhere as my residence and not just referred to me as being linked on Oscarrace.com. After all, he spells out Movie City News in his discussion of David Poland's Oscar predictions. I'll have some reactions to Patrick's Oscar contender assessments in Wednesday's (12.1) main column.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 1:50 PM on Tuesday, November 30, 2004
The mystery of James L. Brooks' Spanglish (Columbia, 12.17) will begin to unravel early next week. Is it Oscar material or just a (presumably) good relationship comedy? Will Tea Leoni's performance hit the right notes or...? I keep thinking back to a report I heard several weeks ago, which is that Cloris Leachman, playing Leoni's wine-drinking, acid-tongued mom, has all the zingers...
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 5:24 AM on Friday, November 26, 2004
Alexander star Colin Farrell has been reading the reviews of Oliver Stone's historical epic since its Wednesday debut and admits, "It's been f***ing hammered!" He's told Toronto journalist Bruce Kirkland that "I don't usually read [reviews], but I read them this time because I love the film so much and I have so much invested in it emotionally -- and I'm worried more for Oliver than for me because he's highly sensitive, as tough as he is."
Alexander, he emphasized, "is an important thing in my life...a lot of my life has gone into it. My son was born during it, and a...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 5:13 AM on Friday, November 26, 2004
I am sooo outta here, sooo not working over the next four days. Happy Thanksgiving to anyone paying a visit. I don't see myself doing any more than six, seven work sessions (adding items, editing stories) between now and Sunday. Chill-out time, man.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 3:04 PM on Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Uhmmm...I got it wrong about Mike Leigh's Vera Drake in a WIRED item I wrote two or three days ago. It played at last September's Venice Film Festival and not, apparently, at the Toronto Film Festival.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 2:26 PM on Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Sticks and Stones
There's a scene in
Lawrence of Arabia that comes just after General Allenby (Jack Hawkins) tells his artillery officers to bomb the hell out of the Turks. "Pound them, Charlie...
pound them," he says.
Cut to Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) and Ali (Omar Sharif) riding their camels at the head of the Arab army at night, looking at the flashes of artillery fire on the horizon and listening to the distant thunder. "God help them," says Ali. "They're Turks," says an unconcerned Lawrence. "God help them," Ali repeats.
It's 11:55 pm on Tuesday night, Oliver Stone's Alexander opens...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 10:39 AM on Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Clint Eastwood has just thrown a heavyweight punch in the Oscar race, and the after-effects will be felt all the way until Feb. 27. His boxing movie
Million Dollar Baby (Warner Bros., 12.17, limited) had its first-anywhere showing at a very-limited-attendance screening last Friday night on the Warner Bros. lot, and then at a press-infiltrated Academy screening last night (Monday, 11.22) at the Director's Guild. I've spoken to people who attended both, and they're all seriously impressed or floored. (I was at the DGA screening also, and I fully concur.)
Baby is a major art film... easily in the same realm as Clint's...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 11:32 AM on Tuesday, November 23, 2004
I missed the
Variety item last Thursday (11.18), but Bob Berney's Newmarket Films has picked up Oliver Hirschbiegel's
Downfall, that German-produced, end-of-the-Third-Reich, down-in-the-bunker movie that I saw a few weeks ago and quite liked. Obviously angling for a Best Foreign Film Oscar nom,
Downfall is "an exceptional historical piece [that's] all about detail, detail and more detail," I wrote on 11.3. "Not so much a Hitler character study as a Guernica-sized, pointillist portrait of the last remnants of Nazi culture collapsing into itself." Pic was written and produced by Constantin Film's Berndt Eichinger, and costars Bruno Ganz as Adolf Hitler, Alexandra Maria Lara...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 10:47 AM on Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Time's Richard Corliss has declared that
Closer (Columbia, 12.3) "runs counter to the numbing predictability of most current films: the inevitable plot points of revenge and uplift, the reduction of human beings to heroes and villains, the avoidance of complexity in sexual matters." And director Mike Nicohols observes in the same piece, "I thought we were way past being able to shock anybody ...but people are shocked [by this film]. It's not necessarily because of the language but because things that usually go unexplored are explored in public. Some people are armed against it. They say, 'I just don't know those people.' Well,...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 10:10 AM on Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Imelda Staunton's highly-touted performance in Mike Leigh's
Vera Drake (New Line) is falling off the screen as a Best Actress hopeful. One observer opined last night that Staunton and
Drake peaked at the Venice Film Festival and just after, and have been fading ever since. One problem is that after Staunton's Drake character gets popped for performing abortions, she goes into what amounts to a one- note emotional state of shock...eyes glazed over, look of horror on her face...and nothing more. Another problem is that no one has seen it. New Line is "having a hard time keeping it in theatres," says one...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:48 AM on Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Herald Tribune film critic Joan Dupont has written of Audrey Tatou, the radiant lead in Jean Piere Jeunet's A Very Long Engagement: "From her films, it looks as if she is the only French actress to play the waif. She has stretched from cute AmÈlie to resolute Mathilde, a girl who wears the slightly morbid Japrisot stripe with panache." Dupont refers to Sebastian Japrisot, the author of the original '91 Engagement novel, as well the famed The Sleeping Car Murders.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:35 AM on Sunday, November 21, 2004
Another Hollywood entity has been lacerated by the dreaded "remains to be seen" in a
New York Times Arts and Leisure article. In Dennis McDougal's 11.21 piece about Kevin Spacey's battle to make his Bobby Darin biopic
Beyond the Sea (Lions Gate, 12.17), he notes that Spacey "essentially becomes Darin in the film," but adds, "Whether that will help revive his career, which has flagged in recent years as he spent his talent on routine fare like
Pay It Forward,
K-PAX and
The Life of David Gale, remains to be seen." That settles it...Spacey (and his movie, in all likelihood) are all but...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 11:21 PM on Saturday, November 20, 2004
I was in West L.A.'s Laser Blazer last night (Friday, 11.19) and I heard one of the clerks mention Natalie Portman. What about her? I asked. "My friend's in love with her," the guy answered. "Tell him to see Closer then," I said. "So they didn't cut her nude scene?" he asked. "No, they did cut it but it doesn't matter," I replied, "because what they left in is fine, trust me. She's got a beautiful ass." The guy and three behind-the-counter colleagues who were listening crowed in unison, "Whoaaa-hoohhh!" The guy said to me, "I think you just sold four tickets!"
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 6:01 PM on Saturday, November 20, 2004
Alexander (Warner Bros., 11.24) is tracking well and should open decently, but if it tanks the following week the studio marketing guys can always lay the blame on the pseudo-gay content, just like '04 campaign handicappers (accurately) blamed John Kerry's loss on gay-marriage initiatives. Right?
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 2:48 PM on Saturday, November 20, 2004
If you're looking for insight into adolescent male sexuality and the influence of movies upon same, the Christian film-critic view is never less than four-square. Consider the suspicions of Bob Waliszewski, a film critic with Focus on the Family and
www.pluggedinonline.com, as quoted by the
New York Times' Sharon Waxman in her 11.20 story about Oliver Stone's portrayal of a bisexual world conqueror in
Alexander, to wit: "There will be people who see Alexander the Great's bisexuality as applauding that lifestyle, and unfortunately it will lead some young boys, young men down a path that I think they'll regret someday."
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:39 AM on Saturday, November 20, 2004
Apologies for screwing up sound clips # 3 and #4 in today's Prick Up Your Ears. I fixed it and it's now working....
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 5:29 PM on Friday, November 19, 2004
Remember that scene in
Jerry Maguire after Bob Sugar (Jay Mohr) fires Jerry (Tom Cruise) at lunch, and then they both run back to the office to beef up their client list -- Sugar calling to dissuade his clients from signing with Maguire, and Maguire trying to persuade his clients to come with him, etc.? This is pretty much what's been happening since PMK/HBH's Pat Kingsley fired 23 year veteran Leslee Dart on Wednesday. The reason Kingsley acted so decisively and at such an inopportune time (i.e., right in the middle of Oscar season), I'm told, was because Dart had been talking to...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 3:07 PM on Friday, November 19, 2004
Thighs and Whispers
Forget the implications in Lou Lumenick's 11.18
New York Post story about the allegedly pronounced gay content in Oliver Stone's
Alexander (Warner Bros., 11.24).
The opening line reads, "Is Oliver Stone's $150 million epic Alexander too gay for mainstream audiences?"
In other words, will hetero stalwarts stay away out of some kind of vaguely anticipated discomfort factor? Alarmed, perhaps, by a line of Alexander narration spoken by Anthony Hopkins' Ptolemy character: "It was said that Alexander was never defeated except by Hephastion's thighs"?
First, the movie's scenes of same-sex intimacy and affection aren't that pronounced. If...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 1:11 PM on Friday, November 19, 2004
Those who haven't seen Kevin McDonald's Touching the Void, hands-down one of the year's finest films, should know it's showing on PBS stations on Sunday evening, 11.21, at 9 pm. (L.A.'s KCET is showing it at this time, anyway -- go to http://www.pbs.org/previews/touchingthevoid to see what your local airing time is.) Watch it closely, consider the dramatic devices it uses, and tell me if you think it meets the criteria for a documentary. I think it should be Oscar-nominated for Best Picture and not Best Feature Documentary.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 10:36 AM on Friday, November 19, 2004
There's quite a contrast between Claudia Eller's reporting in today's
L.A. Times about the firing of PMK/HBH honcho Leslee Dart by Pat Kingsley, and Stuart Elliot's version of the story in the
New York Times. The apparent fact is that Eller got the story and Elliot didn't. Eller simply states that the 50 year-old Dart "lost an internal power struggle to take control of the agency from the 72 year-old Kingsley." Elliot pussyfoots around and interprets what happened mainly through quotes from Kingsley and Dart. Kingsley tells Elliot there was "a difference of opinion about the direction of the company and what we...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:15 AM on Friday, November 19, 2004
Letter from a smart movie-marketing guy in New York City: "You really should add
The Incredibles to the Oscar Balloon for Best Picture, Best Director (Brad Bird) and Best Original Screenplay (ditto). It's a lock for Best Animated Feature, of course, but I think something else is starting to happen. It reminds me of last year when Keisha Castle-Hughes got nominated for Best Actress against all predictions...because everyone who saw
Whale Ridervoted for her, even if they thought nobody else would. This year, when I ask Academy members what they like most, only
Sideways comes up as often as
The Incredibles. Sure, a...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 5:13 PM on Thursday, November 18, 2004
Michael Moore's coming to Los Angeles at the end of the month (i.e., just after Thanksgiving) to make the rounds, beat the bushes and work the town. With one presumed big-studio Oscar contender after another getting shot up or going down in flames, those who are paying attention are facing the likelihood that the five Best Picture finalists are going to be (
Phantom of the Opera aside) four un-grandiose movies from the middle-ranks, which means
Fahrenheit 9/11 has a shot, especially if Academy members are just into the idea of giving G.W. Bush a symbolic f--- you by nominating it, but paying...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 5:08 PM on Thursday, November 18, 2004
Speaking of places in history, what about the Academy giving a Best Picture nomination to Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ for the $300 million it earned? I don't see it happening. People are too angry about Bush's re-election to nominate a film that became a mega-hit largely by appealing to red-state moviegoers. Plus a good percentage of the New York-L.A. crowd thinks it's a fairly deranged film anyway with all the blood and beatings and whippings..
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 5:03 PM on Thursday, November 18, 2004
Bad Calls
I'm appalled (and I'm not alone) that two of the absolute finest, no-argument-tolerated docs of the year -- Xan Cassevettes'
Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession and Jonathan Caouette's
Tarnation -- have been excluded from the list of 12 semi-finalists for the Best Feature Documentary Oscar.
One of the docs that made the cut is Stacy Peralta's Riding Giants , an honest, open-hearted film about surfing that is nonetheless a bit too fan-maggish in toasting the champions of the sport. Sorry to sound harsh, but there's no way this is a stronger, more accomplished work than Z Channel or Tarnation. Giants doesn't...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 3:09 PM on Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Bad Calls
I'm appalled (and I'm not alone) that two of the absolute finest, no-argument-tolerated docs of the year -- Xan Cassevettes'
Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession and Jonathan Caouette's
Tarnation -- have been excluded from the list of 12 semi-finalists for the Best Feature Documentary Oscar.
One of the docs that made the cut is Stacy Peralta's Riding Giants, an honest, open-hearted film about surfing that is nonetheless a bit too fan-maggish in toasting the champions of the sport. Sorry to sound harsh, but there's no way this is a stronger, more accomplished work than Z Channel or Tarnation. Giants doesn't begin...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 3:09 PM on Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Bad Calls
I'm appalled (and I'm not alone) that two of the absolute finest, no-argument-tolerated docs of the year -- Xan Cassevettes'
Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession and Jonathan Caouette's
Tarnation -- have been excluded from the list of 12 semi-finalists for the Best Feature Documentary Oscar.
One of the docs that made the cut is Stacy Peralta's Riding Giants , san honest, open-hearted film about surfing that is nonetheless a bit too fan-maggish in toasting the champions of the sport. Sorry to sound harsh, but there's no way this is a stronger, more accomplished work than Z Channel or Tarnation. Giants...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 3:09 PM on Wednesday, November 17, 2004
In America director Jim Sheridan doing
Locked and Loaded, a street-crime biopic about 50 Cent? The more I think about it, the cooler it sounds. I see Jim bringing his trademark soulfulness and a veneer of class to the story, being co-written by Sheridan and
Sopranos script writer Terrence Winter, about a Queens drug dealer leaving the crime world to pursue his a career as a rapper. And it always seems to work out nicely when English/Irish directors do a take on some uniquely American story-subject, like John Boorman doing
Point Blank or Michael Apted doing
Coal Miner's Daughter. The Paramount-MTV venture will...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 10:15 AM on Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Longtime journalist and book author to yours truly last night (on my cell phone as I wandered down the aisles of Pavillions on Santa Monica Blvd.): "Jeff, all the big presumptive Best Picture nominees are flaming out!" And I answered, "People are resisting it, they want that ride over the waterfall, but with one exception the most deserving contenders are all in the intimate, thoughtful, mid-sized range."
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:35 AM on Wednesday, November 17, 2004
I was apparently wrong in presuming that Martin Scorsese's The Aviator has been shot in 1.85 (standard Academy ratio) rather than 2.35 (widescreen) simply because the new Aviator trailer is in 1.85....although I won't absolutely know until I see it a little bit later this week.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:46 AM on Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Save for James L. Brooks' Brooks'
Spanglish (which was test-screened in near-final form last week in Orange, California) and Clint Eastwood's
Million Dollar Baby, all the presumed end-of-the-year contenders are now being seen and sized-up in little post-screening huddles outside screening rooms, and there are no emphatic "wow, this is really
it" views being pushed by anyone...except, as noted below, in certain quarters, for
The Phantom of the Opera. The latest entry to receive mixed grades is Martin Scorsese's
The Aviator, allegedly due to problems that manifest during its second half. Mention the superb-ness of
Sideways and everyone agrees and nods respectfully, but...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:12 AM on Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Although I loved Alan Parker's
Evita, I'm not the world's biggest fan of big splashy operatic musicals. Hence, I had begun to relish the notion of being a counter-advocate of the view held in some quarters that Joel Schumacher's
The Phantom of the Opera (Warner Bros., 12.22) is a certain contender for -- and perhaps even a likely winner of -- the 2004 Best Picture Oscar. Not because it's necessarily the "best" film, but because it satisfies the intensely middle-class emotional criteria that Academy members tend to look for and/or respond to in bestowing this award. Having now seen it, and without going...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:11 AM on Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Over the last few days I've spoken to four cinephile types at different times who've seen
Alexander, and they've all agreed that one undisputed highlight is the appearance of Rosario Dawson's world-class breasts, as captured by Rodrigo Prieto's widescreen camera during an acrobatic lovemaking scene with star Colin Farrell. Dawson should get some kind of special award, one suggested. "She should have topless scenes in every film she's in for the next ten years," said another. In fact, of all the conversations I've recently had about possible Best Picture candidates, no element in any end-of-the-year film has generated quite this much enthusiasm....among guys....
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 1:11 AM on Tuesday, November 16, 2004
A new trailer for Martin Scorsese's
The Aviator (Miramax, 12.17 is up and running
online. The main impression is that Leonardo DiCapro's (and Scorsese's and John Logan's) Howard Hughes character isn't exactly a charmer. Brave and fearless, okay, but a nutter -- driven, obsessive, intense. When he asks Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsdale) to marry him, she says, "You're too crazy for me." The second thing you notice is that DiCaprio isn't using his natural voice -- he sounds reedy, higher-pitched, a bit hick-y.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 11:00 AM on Saturday, November 13, 2004
At the start of the
Aviator trailer, it says that "the film advertised has been rated PG-13." It says "PARENTS [ARE] STRONGLY CAUTIONED" over "thematic elements, sexual content, nudity, language and a crash sequence." Thematic elements? In this story of an eccentric, go-for-broke, control-freak aviation pioneer, what thematic element could possibly be considered threatening or upsetting to the jaded mind of a typical 10 year-old? And what kid these days is going to blink an eye at a mere depiction of a plane crashing ito a residential neighborhod in Beverly Hills (which Howard Hughes actually did in 1946) when they spend 80% of...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 10:40 AM on Saturday, November 13, 2004
Obsessions
It's said to be a problem when gifted filmmakers (and only the gifted fall prey to this) get caught up in the jib-jab of their brushstrokes and lose sight of the painting.
You know what I mean...movies that always seem to be emphasizing how hip and clever the director is, or how vast and ambitious his/her efforts were. There are more of these films in mainstream theatres toward the end of the year, naturally.
I love brushstrokes for their own sake. I can be half-sold on an entire film if there's an exceptional contribution or two (photography, music,...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 4:28 PM on Friday, November 12, 2004
After pulling in a piddly $2.6 million two days ago (Wednesday, 11.10), which was 40% less than what The Incredibles earned on its fifth day, The Polar Express is looking at an $18 to $20 million haul for the five-day weekend. The standard major-release paradigm is to end up with triple your opening weekend gross, which means (and I take no joy in declaring this) that this $165 million gamble is a titanic wipe-out. But catch that IMAX 3-D version!
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:01 AM on Friday, November 12, 2004
A few days ago Renee Zellwegger was quoted as saying that Hugh Grant, her
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason costar, was flabby and needed to work out. Now the 44 year-old Grant has told London's
Evening Standard that he's fast losing interest in acting and is now "sort of semi-retired," and that screen acting is "a miserable experience" and "so long and boring and so difficult to get right." Grant also said. "I keep thinking I'm going to write a brilliant script." The poor guy is going through a standard burn-out/meltdown phase. I'm sure he knows that when people say they're "thinking"...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 6:22 AM on Friday, November 12, 2004
However you may find The Polar Express (everyone knows it's gotten some lousy reviews...that Manohla Dargis pan was blistering), I'm told that the IMAX 3-D version is heads and shoulders above the regular mass-market "flat" version. The guy who told me this used the words "brilliant" and "genius." I tried to get myself passed in to see it this weekend and was told no, so I guess I'll be forking over my hard-earned pay because it sounds like an essential.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 11:53 PM on Thursday, November 11, 2004
Vega Obliqua
There's always a faint air of suppression when a successful European actress turns up in a Hollywood film.
If the actress is known on her native soil for being soulful, carnal, cerebral or feisty, she always seems a bit congealed and worked over after submitting to the big American studio machine. Not misunderstood or mishandled, exactly...but slightly under-utilized and at the same time made over in a kind of broadly accessible way, like she's been told to adopt an attitude and a vibe that would fit right into a chit-chat session on "The View."
I've been getting...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:04 PM on Wednesday, November 10, 2004
My Sundance Film Festival '05 lodging situation is still in flux and there are only nine weeks to go. If anyone has a condo-share situation they'd like to discuss, get in touch. The dates are 1.20 to 1.30, although I usually bail by the second Friday.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:57 AM on Wednesday, November 10, 2004
The culturally and spiritually comatose James Bond franchise, briefly revived by Martin Campbell's Goldeneye in '95 but thereafter straight-jacketed and poisoned to death by caretaker producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson, is about to sign Campbell to direct the 21st Bond flick, which will come out sometime in '06. Of course, no actor of any standing, self-respect or intelligence wants to play 007 in the wake of Pierce Brosnan's departure. Which movie role has had the higher turn-down rate -- this or the brand-new Superman role prior to Bryan Singer taking the reins and hiring Brandon Routh?
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:29 AM on Wednesday, November 10, 2004
A small matter, but here's a sequential recap regarding the re-appearance of Thomas Jefferson's "reign of witches" quote, which is being interpreted here and there as an allusion to Bush's re-election: (1) Journalist Lewis Beale sent me the quote by e-mail on 11.3 or 11.4, and I ran it at the bottom of Hollywood Elsewhere on Friday, 11.5;(2) Barbra Streisand posted the Jefferson quote on her
website three days later, on 11.8; and then (3) the New York Post's
Page Six ran a mention of Streisand's posting on Wednesday (i.e., today), 11.10.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:05 AM on Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Forget any concerns about director Mike Nichols having shot some nudie footage of Natalie Portman in Closer (Columbia, 12.3) only to cut some of it out. It's all stupid hormonal stuff and not worth talking about. What's been kept in -- a sequence between Portman, playing a stripper and wearing a kinky tassled bikini outfit, and Clive Owen in a private strip-club room -- is very hot stuff, and I can't imagine any complaints from anyone about anything. Enough said.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 1:53 PM on Tuesday, November 9, 2004
That was a very interesting decision by the Hollywood Foreign Press to classify Mel Gibson's
The Passion of the Christ as a foreign-language film because it's acted entirely in ancient Aramaic and ancient Latin. In so doing, the org has determined that Gibson's film is not eligible for a Best Drama Golden Globe award. Except the word "foreign" doesn't really apply because neither language is spoken anywhere in the world -- they've been extinct tongues for many centuries. The Oxford Dictionary defines "foreign" as "being from another country," but the countries or cultures these languages were spoken in centuries ago don't exist. There...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 11:43 AM on Tuesday, November 9, 2004
I don't care about Roger Friedman's motive in floating the idea of Harvey and Bob Weinstein taking over Sherry Lansing's job and running Paramount Pictures. It may be an actual possibility or just hot air, but....hello?...it's an excellent idea! An
amazing idea. And I don't care if David Poland or anyone else thinks it's unlikely. A couple of shrewed, scrappy New York Jews steering the Paramount Pictures ship is an exciting and radiantly beautiful thing to contemplate. And I like the idea of Scott Rudin running Miramax also. It's all a perfect Hollywood quilt. This industry would instantly become 33% healthier if these...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 10:40 AM on Tuesday, November 9, 2004
I can't make the link work, but this is an actual posting on Craig's List that went up on Wednesday, 11.3, written by some guy in Philadelphia: "Straight male seeks Bush supporter for fair, physical fight. I would like to fight a Bush supporter to vent my anger. If you are one, have a fiery streak, please contact me so we can meet and physically fight. I would like to beat the shit out of you."
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:43 PM on Monday, November 8, 2004
So the smoothly assured, tonally agreeable, well proportioned Alfie is dead, which amounts to a mark against the concept of Jude Law being a movie star. No question that a $2935 average on 2215 screens for a $6.5 million total sucks. I don't get it, I really don't...this movie is far from a burn...but it's dead now and it's off to video. (It performed pretty well in England -- go figure.) Paramount distrib chief Wayne Llewellyn suggested that one possible reason it flopped is that red-state moviegoers "didn't want to see a guy that slept around." Yeah, those red-staters are a pretty anti-libidinal...
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 1:07 PM on Monday, November 8, 2004
In Nancy Hass's
New York Times profile of producer Scott Rudin (Sunday, 11.7), it's reported that Rudin "has told a few insiders that he has been offered the top job at Miramax." Whoa...where did
that come from? Is this for real, or is Rudin making a point? "I know that movies are basically meant to be entertainment, but I'm not that interested in entertainment," Rudin (
Closer,
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou) also tells Hass. She also writes, "[Rudin] claims to be driven by what he calls a 'hugely romantic view of talent' and the need, at least sometimes,...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:34 PM on Sunday, November 7, 2004
And yet Hass's piece also includes a coded journalistic reference to Rudin's next two adult-themed films, Closer and the Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. "Whether Closer, with its searing look at relationships and adultery, or the zany Aquatic, directed by Wes Anderson and starring Bill Murray, will combine emotional depth with box-office magic remains to be seen." The meaning of the phrase "remains to be seen" is New York Times-ese for "they don't quite hit the mark." I'm not saying this is the case (and I hope it's not), but I know all about namby-pamby Times tippy-toeing.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:09 PM on Sunday, November 7, 2004
Four early observations on Oliver Stone's
Alexander (Warner Bros., 11.24), which screened for junket press on Saturday, 11.6: (1) Val Kilmer steals the movie in the role of Phillip of Macedon, Alexander's warrior father, which is good for Kilmer -- this will counter-balance his playing the prophet Moses on stage in that bizarre
Ten Commandments musical; (2) There's a pronounced gay love element in the film -- Colin Farrell's Alexander and Jared Leto's Hephaestion characters, both "very pretty" and said to be "madly in love with each other," according to one viewer (one should quickly add that sexual closeness between male warriors in...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 1:00 PM on Sunday, November 7, 2004
Posting Later Today...
Wednesday's column will be up sometime around 3 or 4 pm this afternoon (okay, maybe not until 5 pm). I will overcome this late-posting problem somehow. I want to, I mean. I'm thinking of buying this high-energy powdered stuff called Superfood. A friend has told me about it. Has anyone tried it?
Knockout
Life is suddenly full of sparkle and possibility when a movie surprises and delights you. I live for moments when it all comes together in the dark and you're suddenly part of an off-the-page experience, when the spark plugs are firing and everything has kicked in...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:29 PM on Friday, November 5, 2004
There is an acute disconnect between what the Reds are saying about Tuesday's election and how the Blues and their philosophical cousins in Europe, South America and Mexico have reacted to it (i.e., adversely, with horror). Deal with it, Bubbas -- the folks outside our borders and across the seas genuinely feel you've unleashed some very dark forces upon the world. Of course, people have always heard what they wanted to hear and have disregarded the rest, etc. But one could truly argue that the Reds -- at least in terms of world opinion -- are, in a very real sense, living in...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 10:10 AM on Thursday, November 4, 2004
Late Again
Apologies to all in confessing that Friday's column won't be up until 3 or 4 pm Pacific. Hooray for
The Incredibles, a possible new potency acquired by
Fahrenheit 9/11, first peeks at
Alexander this weekend, new dialogue audio clips, etc.
After the Fall
I was goaded early this morning by a conservative woman friend. (Yes, there are righties in Beverly Hills -- they just don't announce themselves). I had initially provoked her in an e-mail yesterday, telling her to grim up for a Kerry win. Now she was calling back to gloat over the Bush win, which she said was driven...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 1:34 PM on Wednesday, November 3, 2004
A heartfelt tribute to the 18 to 29 year-olds who stayed home yesterday and didn't vote, as written by Cake's John McCrea (and pointed out to me on Tuesday evening by literary agent Victoria Wisdom): "How do you afford your rock'n'roll lifestyle? How do you afford your rock'n'roll lifestyle? How do you afford your rock'n'roll lifestyle? Excess ain't rebellion. You're drinking what they're selling. Your self-destruction doesn't hurt them. Your chaos won't convert them. They're so happy to rebuild it. You'll never really kill it. Yeah, excess ain't rebellion. You're drinking what they're selling. Excess ain't rebellion. You're drinking, You're drinking, You're drinking...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 10:33 PM on Tuesday, November 2, 2004
Oh, sorry....it's not over. Provisional votes in Ohio are going to be fought over for the next few days, apparently. The bad guys haven't won...yet. They probably will when it's all said and done. I still feel as if I understand what the more strident types were feeling just before the beginning of the Civil War. It wouldn't be very smart, but it would sure feel terrific to split this country in two and let the Red's have their country and let the Blue's have theirs. There would be a kind of satisfaction in that.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:14 PM on Tuesday, November 2, 2004
At roughly 7:55 pm Pacific, MSNBC's Brian Williams announced that exit polls had determined that the 18 to 29 year-olds, who had the power to tip the election for Kerry, haven't turned out in any stronger numbers than they did in 2000. MSNBC exit poll data says that this group delivered 17% of today's total vote, which is exactly what the same youth-vote percentage was in 2000. As MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said right after this, young voters "will always leave you at the altar." Two days ago I wrote that if the 29-and-unders follow previous election patterns and sit on their ass in...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:56 PM on Tuesday, November 2, 2004
And so begins November 2nd, almost certain to be one of the greatest television-watching days in the history of the medium, and certainly among the most dramatic in the history of the country.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 1:05 AM on Tuesday, November 2, 2004
A thought recurs whenever I watch a Mike Leigh film, as I did Monday night (11.1) when I sat through Leigh's latest, the touchingly performed and grimly dutiful
Vera Drake. It is a realization that watching a Leigh film is like sitting in a dentist's chair and having my teeth drilled. But there is some comfort in this, for as I sit and suffer I realize I am watching a thing of quality, and that there is considerable truth being rendered within. But I also thank God my life isn't as drab or dreary as the ones dramatized in Leigh's films, and that...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 11:27 PM on Monday, November 1, 2004
A very good performance in a so-so or mediocre film usually means there's not much hope of getting Oscar-nominated....right? But this will not be the situation, apparently, when it comes to Annette Bening's performance in Being Julia. The movie is unquestionably second-tier, but Bening is spirited, funny and occasionally touching as a 40ish grand dame of the British theatre in the late 1930s going through a mid-life crisis of the heart. And for whatever reason(s) she's likely to become the recipient of this year's best-liked-local-girl sentiment, and is therefore a near-lock for a Best Actress nomination.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 10:57 PM on Monday, November 1, 2004
Entertainment Weekly editors can shill for
Finding Neverland's Johnny Depp all they want, but he's not going to be among the five nominees for the '04 Best Actor Oscar....the resistance to his vaguely maddening performance is stronger than they realize. And Jim Carrey won't make the cut either for his above-average-but-still-peculiar performance in
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. And neither will Sean Penn for playing a pathetic wack-jobber in
The Assassination of Richard Nixon. Jim Caviezel was fairly riveting as a bloody-pulp Messiah in
The Passion of the Christ, but director Mel Gibson didn't give this talented actor enough to do. The...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 10:23 PM on Monday, November 1, 2004
Not too long ago Lions Gate was, I'm told, seriously thinking about releasing the R-rated horror flick
Saw, a decent-enough entry that is nonetheless regarded in most circles as not quite the equal of
The Ring, straight to video. But then former Revolution Studios marketing exec John Hegeman was hired as Lions Gate's president of worldwide marketing in mid-August, and one of his first moves was to organize some
Saw test screenings that encouraged him tremendously. He managed to convince his Lions Gate brethren that
Saw would perform strongly in theatres, and it was saved from the grip of video. Last weekend
Saw...
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posted by Jeffrey Wells at 5:47 PM on Monday, November 1, 2004
And by the way (and this is not a bracingly fresh observation), but does Hegeman's departure from Revolution Studios two and a half months ago on top of Revolution marketing head Terry Curtin's recent decision to leave Revolution early next year for a gig at Intralink Film Graphic Design...do these see-ya's "mean" anything? Couple this with the marginal interest in Revolution topper Joe Roth's latest stab at directing, Christmas with the Kranks (Columbia, 11.24), and I'm not the only one, trust me, to observe lately that the Revolution engine doesn't seem to be cranking at full throttle.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 5:01 PM on Monday, November 1, 2004
Last weekend's Zogby cell-phone poll of 18 to 29 year-old voters has Kerry way ahead of Bush. The degree to which the GenY-GenXers get out there and vote on Tuesday is what will finally win it for Kerry...or not. If they do this in sufficient numbers, the under-29's will always have something to be proud of. But if they follow previous election patterns and sit on their ass in front of the tube and don't show up in sufficient numbers, they will be known Wednesday morning as the Generation of Shame.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 1:09 PM on Monday, November 1, 2004
