Artists swirling downward

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I think I can honestly say without qualification that I am officially past the point where I can watch another biopic about a charismatic but self-destructive artist (Talk To Me, La Vie en Rose, El Cantante, Walk The Line, Ray, Who is Harry Nilsson and Why Is Everyone Talking About Him?, Great Balls of Fire, Bird, The Doors, A Face in the Crowd) with any kind of receptive, open-pore attitude.

Marc Athony as salsa legend Hector Lavoe in Leon Ichaso's El Cantante

To judge by these and other biopics (the latest of which is the critically savaged El Cantante) the vast majority of all major pop artists seem to have lived the exact same lives and grappled with the exact same substance-abuse problems, and I'm just sick to death of this same damn story being told over and over.

That doesn't mean I'm suddenly now open to Disney-produced, G-rated biopics about artists with sunny attitudes with families and friends that love them without exception. I know what artists are like for the most part, and that the better ones are always grappling with doubts and demons of one sort or another. As an HE reader wrote last year in response to my review of the John Scheinfeld's Harry Nilsson doc, "The third act of any artist's life always sucks." It's just that I've seen too many of these downward-swirl stories, and I can't watch any more without making cracks at the screen.

Andrew Sarris had a similiar end-of-the-line experience with the films of Jean- Luc Godard, he once told me. It was sometime in the early '70s, as I recall, when he explained to New York Film Festival director Richard Roud that he was off the Godard boat. We all reach these points, I think. Wait...this is a thread. What genres, stories and filmmakers have you had it up to here with and can no longer tolerate?

hectorlavoe

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on August 3, 2007 at 8:37 AM

comment #1

Rich S. says ...

The most overworked plot device for me is the romantic comedy with the guy pretending to be something he's not, falling in love with a woman who believes the lie and then spending the whole third act trying to recover after she finds out the truth at the end of act two (Hitch, Wedding Crashers, 40 Year Old Virgin, etc.). It's one of Ebert's classic "idiot plots." I.E., the movie only works if everyone in it is not an idiot.

Posted by Rich S. at August 3, 2007 9:26 AM

comment #2

Rich S. says ...

Sorry, I mean IS an idiot.

Posted by Rich S. at August 3, 2007 9:26 AM

comment #3

George Prager says ...

I'm over movies that take place in the 70s and everyone has bad fake sideburns (which overlaps with Jeff's beef).

Posted by George Prager at August 3, 2007 9:40 AM

comment #4

Griff says ...

Movies about the 60s, where the wisdom comes from the free-spirits who help the uptight squares find freedom and love.

Posted by Griff at August 3, 2007 9:46 AM

comment #5

erikwithak says ...

If I ever have to suffer through another Ed Zwick film, I may scratch my eyes out.

Posted by erikwithak at August 3, 2007 9:46 AM

comment #6

thevisceral says ...

I'm sick of movies about soup.

Posted by thevisceral at August 3, 2007 9:47 AM

comment #7

jsnpritchett says ...

FACE IN THE CROWD isn't exactly a "biopic," is it?

Posted by jsnpritchett at August 3, 2007 9:47 AM

comment #8

adorian says ...

I love the self-destructive artist films, especially the ones about the great ladies....

Lady Sings the Blues
Isadora (Vanessa Redgrave is unbelievably ferocious)
La vie en rose
The Rose

I could easily handle two or three of them per year.

Posted by adorian at August 3, 2007 9:50 AM

comment #9

sutter kane says ...

Coming of age dramas, underdog sports dramas, the type of romantic comedy Rich S. described, and, yeah, the biopics Jeff's talking about.

Posted by sutter kane at August 3, 2007 9:52 AM

comment #10

Mike Ock says ...

I'm not surprised El Cantante sucks. El Mayimbe from Latino Review couldn't stop raving about the script a couple of years ago, and that's usually the kiss of death for any movie.

http://latinoreview.com/scriptreview.php?id=16

Posted by Mike Ock at August 3, 2007 9:56 AM

comment #11

Balthazar says ...

I wonder if we'll eventually get a biopic on the sad suicides this summer of artists Jeremy Blake (Punch-Drunk Love) and Theresa Duncan. ... Just awful stuff. ... She killed herself, and then he just walked right out into the ocean, like that guy in "The Long Goodbye"

Posted by Balthazar at August 3, 2007 10:02 AM

comment #12

arch451 says ...

I'm tired of the technique of filling every scene with music. I think filmakers rely too much on the soundtrack to create emotion.

I'm also tired of movies that depict gratuitious violence against men yet shy away from violence against animals such as dogs. I'm basically tired of movies that conform to the unwritten moral code of Hollywood. Movies are too self-aware. They should be more real.

Posted by arch451 at August 3, 2007 10:03 AM

comment #13

p.Vice says ...

What needs to go?

Remakes.
TV show / toy adaptations.
Non-contemporary war movies.
Comic book / superhero movies.
Sports movies.
Classroom / teacher movies.
Talking animal movies, animated or otherwise.
Any movie in which the fate of the earth hangs in the balance.
Any movie that climaxes with triumphant courtroom speech.

Posted by p.Vice at August 3, 2007 10:07 AM

comment #14

corey3rd says ...

Face in the Crowd is great SciFi. it showed us the future of communication and how television would revolutionize politics. it also warned candidates that it was not wise to go on a debate without makeup. Years later, Nixon would make that wrong choice as his natural face under the lights cost him dearly. It predicted the rise of Rush and O'Reilly and Hannity. This film is Metropolis without jet packs.

The one thing is the film was too optomistic with the thought that an open microphone can destroy your career.

Posted by corey3rd at August 3, 2007 10:10 AM

comment #15

Me says ...

Anything about the Holocaust.

It was awful, I know, but I don't need any more miserable 3 hour movies telling me how awful it was.

Posted by Me at August 3, 2007 10:14 AM

comment #16

Rob says ...

Sounds like Walk Hard is coming out just in time.

Posted by Rob at August 3, 2007 10:16 AM

comment #17

starfunker says ...

they need to do a biopic on Fred Flintstone. The guy lived life in the stone age, for chrissakes! Talk about a challenge. They had to use their feet to start their cars! Way more interesting than drug abuse, you ask me.

Posted by starfunker at August 3, 2007 10:17 AM

comment #18

pchu says ...

I actually like El Cantante. Yes, the plot is pretty familiar, but that's how Hector Lavoie lived his life. Besides, the music is great in this movie, if you like Latin music, this is for you.

Posted by pchu at August 3, 2007 10:19 AM

comment #19

giantman says ...

In general, the type of person it takes to achieve fame is not the same type of person qualified to live with it once achieved. The same story told over and over, only the names change, killed those biopic artist shows on VH1 for me. Plus, I always have to laugh when the pressure of being a millionaire, successful, women throwing themselves at their feet lifestyle, becomes too much for them. Good grief. Give me that for awhile and I'll show 'em how to live.

If I never see another ugly guy gets drop-dead gorgeous woman romantic comedy movie ever again, it'll be too soon.

Posted by giantman at August 3, 2007 10:20 AM

comment #20

MAGGA says ...

Movies about "good" and "evil". They have already destroyed the world.

Posted by MAGGA at August 3, 2007 10:25 AM

comment #21

Michael says ...

re: El Cantante

I have a question no one has been able to answer for me...at what point in the movie are we supposed to believe Marc Anthony contracted AIDS? This is like asking when a cirlcle begins, right?

Posted by Michael at August 3, 2007 10:35 AM

comment #22

The Winchester says ...

Indie movies where a group of strangers convene at a random point (usually in the desert) and come to terms with things in their lives.

Any teacher/teen sports coach movie.

Movies with pregnant characters where they show the delivery. (I loved Knocked Up, but that scene was horrible. Although, kudos for showing the crowning. Didn't see that coming).

Movies based on fantasy books nobody has ever heard of.

The indie "dark comedy" that features every character dying in the end, after a lurid series of double crosses.

Films I think we need more of?

Movies like Cannon Films used to make in the 80s.

Posted by The Winchester at August 3, 2007 10:35 AM

comment #23

bagelfilm says ...

Who needs new movies at all?
Why don't we enjoy what he have had so far, do some motion picture archeology and call cinema extinct? Do we really need to care about what is coming out of Hollywood?
For those of us, who are 40+, there is hardly any reason to go to the movies anyway.
I am from Europe, and my scepticism applies to here as well. But maybe it is not the movies that suck, maybe it is audiences. Or they get only what they deserve.

Posted by bagelfilm at August 3, 2007 10:41 AM

comment #24

Mark says ...

Dinner scenes where differing ideologies come to wrestle. (Break-up, Wedding Crashers, Family Stone, Little Miss Sunshine, etc, etc.) Unless no comedy is involved, i.e., Godfather II and Alien.

Posted by Mark at August 3, 2007 10:44 AM

comment #25

source188 says ...

It's not the biopics that are clichÃƒÂ©, it's the self-destructive artists that are clichÃƒÂ©.

Posted by source188 at August 3, 2007 11:05 AM

comment #26

Mr B says ...

Romantic comedies and dramedies with the single parent and the spunky wise sage of a kid that helps sort everyone's life out.

Posted by Mr B at August 3, 2007 11:10 AM

comment #27

MAGGA says ...

"For those of us, who are 40+, there is hardly any reason to go to the movies anyway."

Sorry if my assumptions are wrong, but do you also feel that way about new music, new TV shows and new ideas? Just saying that many people who reach 40+ have a tendency to care more about the past than the present, and this has been true through the ages. It will probably happen to me, too.

Posted by MAGGA at August 3, 2007 11:11 AM

comment #28

T. S. Idiot says ...

Movies in which characters become better people after performing badly in public: About a Boy, Little Miss Sunshine, etc.

Posted by T. S. Idiot at August 3, 2007 11:19 AM

comment #29

Dzayson says ...

Y'know, having seen Walk Hard, I gotta say I'm sick as fuck of spoofs. Especially all the Scary Movies (and for that matter, Date Movie and Epic Movie). It's a task just to sit through the trailer of one of these things. I was really hoping that Walk Hard would be different, but unfortunately it throws every obvious joke at the audience to see what sticks and it's dreadfully unfunny.

Posted by Dzayson at August 3, 2007 11:21 AM

comment #30

giantman says ...

I have to second the stupid spoof thing. Argh. Enough already.

Posted by giantman at August 3, 2007 11:38 AM

comment #31

bmcintire says ...

T.S. Idiot - I wouldn't say it's so much that the characters become better people (they were both already near-angelic in the movies you mention) but the cynics/curmudgeons who humiliate themsleves to save these innocents from embarassment are the more tired set of characters. Ah, redemption! What a surprise!

Posted by bmcintire at August 3, 2007 11:49 AM

comment #32

bagelfilm says ...

@MAGA: yeah, I feel that the gap between what the majority of new music and film releases represent and myself is getting wider, and I find myself appreciating and re-evaluating previous movie and music experiences. But here is hope: my 5 year old son loves Chaplin.

Posted by bagelfilm at August 3, 2007 11:57 AM

comment #33

DavidF says ...

The spoof thing peaked with Airplane!
No one will ever do it better.
There are varying degrees of brilliance in almost everything that followed (Top Secret!, Airplane II, even Hot Shots) but most were scattershot and things were at the level of Totally 100% Unfunny by the second Scary Movie or so.

Becausee of the people involved I have some confidence in Walk Hard, however.

Posted by DavidF at August 3, 2007 12:01 PM

comment #34

bmcintire says ...

"I'm also tired of movies that depict gratuitious violence against men yet shy away from violence against animals such as dogs."

Maybe we could have a little more violence against children and the disabled as well? Yeesh.

I'd be just as happy to see the gratuitous everything go away. The violence and gore seem to have reached their nadir, and as for sex and nudity - well. . . no one is going to argue that a flash of skin will get butts into the seats. But the extended simulated/dry-hump scenes? That's what pornography is there for.

As for dog-related chestnuts, I'm tired of being introduced to the doomed family pet (generally a big amiable dog like a Golden Retriever or Yellow Labrador - or even better, a puppy!) in Act 1 of any modern thriller. It become obvious that it will be brutally killed (offscreen - sorry Arch451) in the third act, or there will be a saccharine last-minute reunion ("Shep! You made it out alive!") at the end. It's as manipulative (though unsuccessful at this point) as the child-in-peril that Ebert hates so much.

Posted by bmcintire at August 3, 2007 12:07 PM

comment #35

George Prager says ...

How come Chris Tucker has only been in Rush Hour movies since 1997? Since 1997, he has only appeared in Rush Hour, Rush Hour 2 and Rush Hour 3. WTF?
Is he in a religious cult or something? What the fuck is up with this guy?

Posted by George Prager at August 3, 2007 12:26 PM

comment #36

corey3rd says ...

Tucker pulls in so much cash off Rush Hour that he just takes it easy. Plus every time word gets out that he's developing a project, Chris Rock Corman's him.

Posted by corey3rd at August 3, 2007 12:30 PM

comment #37

MilkMan says ...

I will not see anymore movies with Hitmen as the main characters. And I'm just tired in general of the Bad-Ass white guy with the gun. Skinny young white guys with great hair are about as scary as a pair of pink panties. Let's see someone make a movie about a 19 year old hitman who lives in South Central LA, be he Black or Hispanic. Now that would be edgy, not this Stetson model in a black leather trenchcoat BS they've been peddling since the early 90's.

And the reason Chris Tucker won't do anything other than Rush Hour is because he's a one-note illiterate crackhead.

Posted by MilkMan at August 3, 2007 12:46 PM

comment #38

Movie fan09 says ...

Movies about the 60s, where the wisdom comes from the free-spirits who help the uptight squares find freedom and love.

god yes.

the new "beatles movie" looks horrible.

Posted by Movie fan09 at August 3, 2007 4:45 PM

comment #39

D.Z. says ...

I'm tired of wise-cracking gangster movies...

DavidF: Airplane's overrated. Naked Gun was funnier.

Posted by D.Z. at August 3, 2007 9:21 PM

comment #40

Spacelamb says ...

I'm sick of movies and TV shows where the father is a fat, oafish moron who is barely tolerated by everyone else, because they're all so much smarter. I only find it funny in the Simpsons now.

Posted by Spacelamb at August 3, 2007 10:01 PM

comment #41

transmogrifier says ...

I'm sick of all bio-pics - every single one. They are all pretty much a waste of time.

You think someone's life is interesting? Write an original screenplay riffing on it, and actually make something meaningful and artful. You know, BOOGIE NIGHTS rather than WONDERLAND.

Posted by transmogrifier at August 4, 2007 5:17 AM

comment #42

johnc says ...

Movies featuring pirates and angels.

Posted by johnc at August 4, 2007 9:04 AM

comment #43

thatmovieguy says ...

The most bizarre thing about EL CANTANTE is that it pushes Hector off to the side almost immediately so that it can put Jennifer Lopez's character Puchi squarely in the spotlight. And why? Because Puchi was more tormented or more talented than her husband? No, because Lopez got top-billing in the film. So instead of learning much about Lavoe or his brand of music, we get scene after scene of Puchi storming around, chain-smoking and scolding her husband. If the film is any indication, that's about all she ever did, aside from the times when she joined him at the cocaine mirror. It is, however, hilarious to watch the two of them ingest so many drugs over three decades and yet still emerge with their complexions miraculously untouched; Puchi is supposed to be in her 60s during the interview segments that frame the story, but she scarcely has a single wrinkle or worry line. (In contrast, I watched some of my friends in the 1980s age about five years for every year they spent hooked on cocaine.) Talk about a vanity project.

Posted by thatmovieguy at August 4, 2007 9:55 AM

comment #44