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Summit Entertainment is insisting on a no-review embargo on Catherine Hardwicke's Twilight for another 36 hours or so (12:01 am on Friday, 11.21), although the Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips has said his review will be up tomorrow (i.e., presumably sometime late tonight online). It can be deduced that Summit is expecting a torrent of press negativity. Well, they're wrong. At least as far as this horse is concerned.
Before last night's all-media screening at Manhattan's AMC 25 a publicist got a mid-sized laugh when she told everyone to "keep your reactions to yourself until Friday." You could hear the murmuring responses..."right!," "in a pig's eye!," etc. You have to give Summit's top publicist Vivian Mayer props for laying down the law with such whip-cracking vigor, but not long after Twilight started I began saying to myself, "What are Mayer and her Summit bosses thinking? We all know that Titanic-level business among teenage girls this weekend is a foregone conclusion, but do Summit execs really understand what they have here?"
Due apologies to those middle--aged male journalists making smart-ass cracks outside the theatre after it ended, but they're wrong. They're living in their own world -- blinded, blocking, reactionary. Because within its own emotional teenage-girl, imagining-and-longing-for-the-ideal-boyfriend realm, Twilight... should I say this? I don't want to anger Vivian Mayer. But what publicist would be upset if a guy like myself, an unregenerate adult-movie, classic-movie, indie-movie, Pasolini-admiring, Kubrick-worshipping fan who hates sitting next to giggling groups of women in cocktail bars -- what if a guy like me said that this sucker works?
Because it does. On its own attitudinal terms and given what it's addressing and saying. And you can take that to the bank and put it in your IRA account. I've been in this racket for nearly 30 years and I know when a film is working so don't tell me.
Does saying "it works" constitute a review? I don't think so. It's a two-word declaration. Don't reviews have to be at least two or three paragraphs long?
I can at least describe the vibe in the room as it played. The crowd , which admittedly was at least half-packed with under-25 women, was with it -- engaged, attuned, emotional pores open. Some of them screamed when Robert Pattinson came on screen. Okay, the crowd chuckled here and there at this or that line of on-the-nose dialogue. Big deal. Forgive and forget. The movie had the crowd in the palm of its hand.
And I can at least describe a conversation I had with a sharp Manhattan female columnist in the outer foyer. "Whadja think?" I asked. "I liked it!," she said, nodding and wearing a serene little smile that spoke of resolution. Then she quickly added, perhaps thinking I was a hater and not wanting to argue, "I'm a girl." And I said, "And I'm a guy and I don't think it was half bad! In its own realm it works. And Pattinson is great! And Kristin Stewart is such a good actress that she knows how to finagle her dialogue and it all goes down pretty smoothly."
That's what I said to a colleague, okay? Street reportage, not a review. I think it's fair to say, eminently fair, that Twilight is a lot better than you might have been led to believe. Within the swoony romantic teen-girl ethos it's an absolute bulls-eye. I suspect it'll be the biggest power-hitting, repeat-viewing grand-slammer since Titanic. Possibly $200 million, I'm thinking. Young women were palpitating with pleasure as they spoke to a BBC video crew getting reactions outside the theatre.
Here are some talking points from the Tribune's Phillips:
Site of last night's Manhattan screening.
1. Twilight "is low-keyed supernaturalism. Director Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown) doesn't go in for heavy blockbuster or franchise machinery. Likewise, Tuesday's preview audience at the AMC River East 21 seemed relatively subdued on the way out."
2. Kristen Stewart's Bella Swan "is far less the Victorian teen simp than she is in Stephenie Meyer's novel."
3. "The leads look pretty together.Stewart, who played the desert wild child in "Into the Wild," enters Deep Smolder Mode (Celibate Division) earnestly and well with Robert Pattinson, who's best known -- prior to Twilight -- as Cedric Diggory in two of the Harry Potter pictures and here plays Edward Cullen of the mysterious traveling Cullen clan."
4. "The musical score by Carter Burwell, a frequent Coen brothers colleague, is effective, subtly creepy. No bombast or big orchestral wows."
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on November 19, 2008 at 8:14 AM
comment #1
katcalls
says ...
Well I'll be damned. Jeffrey, you can still amaze me.
Posted by katcalls
at November 19, 2008 9:59 AM
comment #2
Movie Watcher
says ...
It will be big this weekend and maybe next weekend. I haven't read the books, so I am not aware of the whole story. The kids around here, my daughter's friends, are excited about it. I might see it later on, once the excitement wears off and I can walk up to the box office and buy a ticket. I wonder how many of these kids have read the books, or are they just going with the crowd because it's the thing to do right now. Jeff have you read any of the books?
Posted by Movie Watcher
at November 19, 2008 10:00 AM
comment #3
bdboudreaux
says ...
Wuh Huh??? Didn't see that coming. Can somebody get Angelina Jolie here to yell "I want my movie columnist back! Damn You!" Because that's the only reasonable explanation I can think of for Jeff's non-review review.
Posted by bdboudreaux
at November 19, 2008 10:02 AM
comment #4
gruver1
says ...
Wells to Movie Watcher: I haven't read any of the four books.
Posted by gruver1
at November 19, 2008 10:03 AM
comment #5
EDouglas
says ...
Okay, who had Jeffrey Wells would crack first in the pool? Everyone? Okay... guess we have to split the pot 24 ways.
I think what Sheri said before the screening was pretty clear "Keep your opinions to yourself" means POST NOTHING.
Posted by EDouglas
at November 19, 2008 10:04 AM
comment #6
Rich S.
says ...
I second katcalls. I've been reading you for going on 8 years, Jeffrey, and you continue to surprise me. Hopefully you won't be a lone voice in the critical wilderness like the critics who liked Speed Racer. Sounds like your coming from the same place, i.e.: it works on its terms but the establishment isn't going to understand that.
Posted by Rich S.
at November 19, 2008 10:16 AM
comment #7
gruver1
says ...
Wells to Douglas: The Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips cracked first.
Posted by gruver1
at November 19, 2008 10:21 AM
comment #8
EDouglas
says ...
Yeah, but he wasn't at that screening last night... believe me, I'm not happy about New York critics/journalists being given strict embargoes and standards (not just on the invite but before the screening) while the regional ones basically can do whatever the hell they please. Maybe we all can write "reader reviews" for each other's sites as that should bypass the embargo. :)
Posted by EDouglas
at November 19, 2008 10:29 AM
comment #9
actionman
says ...
The trailers for this film are horrendous.
Wells -- I am shocked by your reaction to this film.
Posted by actionman
at November 19, 2008 10:31 AM
comment #10
DeafBrownTrashPunk
says ...
whaaaa....? you liked Twilight?
okay... maybe I guess I will go see it, but I agree with actionman. the trailers are AWFUL.
Posted by DeafBrownTrashPunk
at November 19, 2008 10:35 AM
comment #11
theultimatebiu
says ...
Well, I was not expecting this.....at all. I was hoping this would be a 'I HATE TWILIGHT' zone ;)
Posted by theultimatebiu
at November 19, 2008 10:38 AM
comment #12
Chase Kahn
says ...
You can see where this movie is headed when the guy who liked it at the screening says it "wasn't half bad".
I can see Jeff outside the theater right behind a group of these "wise-cracking" male journalists and rolling his eyes with an 'Edward' T-shirt on...
Posted by Chase Kahn
at November 19, 2008 10:44 AM
comment #13
theultimatebiu
says ...
Maybe its a way to get a easy lay. Many desperate single ladies looking for their 'Edward'
Posted by theultimatebiu
at November 19, 2008 10:50 AM
comment #14
MikeSchaeferSF
says ...
Apparently South Park is doing a parody tonight. Parker & Stone do *so* love to skewer their fellow Mormons.
Posted by MikeSchaeferSF
at November 19, 2008 10:56 AM
comment #15
Sonic Boom
says ...
This will probably be the biggest box office phenom to go over my head since GREEK WEDDING.
Posted by Sonic Boom
at November 19, 2008 10:58 AM
comment #16
jbf81
says ...
actually Chase Kahn, is the guy who expected to hate from his guts at the screening says it "wasnt half bad"
Thanks Jeff, I was expecting really bad reviews so I am quite surprised and very much happy with this news.
Posted by jbf81
at November 19, 2008 11:01 AM
comment #17
K. Bowen
says ...
So, Jeff, why do you like Twilight, but you disliked Pride and Prejudice?
Posted by K. Bowen
at November 19, 2008 11:03 AM
comment #18
Howlingman
says ...
"Apparently South Park is doing a parody tonight. Parker & Stone do *so* love to skewer their fellow Mormons."
I KNEW it! I said on this very site last week we could all look forward to a South Park parody of Twilight, and it happens.
Let me now predict that everyone who frequents Jeff's site, Jeff included, is going to receive a million dollars for Christmas. You can all thank me then.
Posted by Howlingman
at November 19, 2008 11:03 AM
comment #19
Chase Kahn
says ...
Yes, on southparkstudios.com on Monday is said in the synopsis, something about vampires...I'm very excited.
Posted by Chase Kahn
at November 19, 2008 11:06 AM
comment #20
theultimatebiu
says ...
GREEK WEDDING. Can someone please tell me why that made so much money??
Posted by theultimatebiu
at November 19, 2008 11:08 AM
comment #21
Howlingman
says ...
TWILIGHT is just HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL with fangs; something I have no interest in. Let the kids enjoy their movie and I'll enjoy mine.
Posted by Howlingman
at November 19, 2008 11:10 AM
comment #22
shawn
says ...
Also saw it, liked it, posted about it and don't care if the studio blows a gasket.
Good on you, Jeff.
Posted by shawn
at November 19, 2008 11:25 AM
comment #23
scooterzz
says ...
variety review just came out...not very good...
re: south park and mormons:
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/123416.html
Posted by scooterzz
at November 19, 2008 11:27 AM
comment #24
Josh Massey
says ...
"GREEK WEDDING. Can someone please tell me why that made so much money??"
Unexplainable. It's the greatest mystery of our time. Except the Oscars wins for Benigni and Crash, of course.
Posted by Josh Massey
at November 19, 2008 11:30 AM
comment #25
dobbsy
says ...
variety review with teeth:
http://www.variety.com/VE1117939072.html
Posted by dobbsy
at November 19, 2008 11:49 AM
comment #26
jenyamato
says ...
Jeff, it's nice to hear you're unafraid to be the lone early (adult male) voice in the pro-Twilight camp. (Though to Ed's point, I was also told explicitly at an LA press screening that I could "brag but not blog" about Twilight til Friday. But I'll go ahead and leave a comment here.)
Twilight does work on its own terms, and the objections of fussy critics/fanboys alike who are prepared to judge it harshly frankly don't matter. I liked it a lot, with reservations. It's not perfect, but it's faithful. And really, as long as the romance works, little else matters. I'm looking forward to seeing a higher-than-expected Tomatometer rating.
Posted by jenyamato
at November 19, 2008 11:59 AM
comment #27
Rich S.
says ...
Roger Moore of the Orlando Sentinel has posted a full-fledged review, and he liked it as well (3 out of 5 stars).
Posted by Rich S.
at November 19, 2008 12:01 PM
comment #28
jbf81
says ...
haha, Roger Ebert liked it and sayed that the actors wee pretty good
Posted by jbf81
at November 19, 2008 12:07 PM
comment #29
theultimatebiu
says ...
So it seems quite a few are liking this too. And yes GREEK WEDDINGS success will always be a mystery
Posted by theultimatebiu
at November 19, 2008 12:12 PM
comment #30
jbf81
says ...
LOL, sorry said*
Posted by jbf81
at November 19, 2008 12:14 PM
comment #31
huntermdaniels
says ...
this is exactly what I heard from another mid-30s male geek.
Posted by huntermdaniels
at November 19, 2008 12:36 PM
comment #32
actionman
says ...
"This will probably be the biggest box office phenom to go over my head since GREEK WEDDING."
Couldn't have said it any better, Sonic.
Posted by actionman
at November 19, 2008 12:42 PM
comment #33
storymark
says ...
15 years ago, I would have been going wild to see this.
Today, I can barely muster a shit to give.
Posted by storymark
at November 19, 2008 12:49 PM
comment #34
alan
says ...
So, J.K. Rowling writes a book about child/teenage wizards with plenty of romance and becomes a billionaire. Then Stephanie Meyer writes a book about teenage vampires with plenty of romance and she's on the way there too. This is the kind of thing that makes me kick myself for not thinking of it first. Oh well...I'm off to start writing my novel about teenage...uh...mummies. There will be plenty of romance.
Posted by alan
at November 19, 2008 1:18 PM
comment #35
katcalls
says ...
I'm a 32 year old woman with - I think - a fairly sophisticated movie palate. I am considering plunking down the cash for this movie purely for the moody setting it appears to achieve It looks to be the type of movie that if you're going to see, you should see it on the big screen to get the full effect.
Posted by katcalls
at November 19, 2008 1:21 PM
comment #36
scooterzz
says ...
believe me, you could watch this on your ipod and still get the 'full effect'.....
Posted by scooterzz
at November 19, 2008 1:35 PM
comment #37
MoisesChiu
says ...
Look, there are cracks all over the net. Cinematical posted "anonymous Twitter chatter" and as has been described above, there's plenty of full-on reviews from Mainstream Embargo Crushers like Roger Moore.
Posted by MoisesChiu
at November 19, 2008 1:40 PM
comment #38
theultimatebiu
says ...
HA HA!! Not if I get there first alan. I will write a book about teenage ghosts who are ninjas
Posted by theultimatebiu
at November 19, 2008 2:00 PM
comment #39
Ray
says ...
WOW ... this review is now the most surprising thing about this movie.
UNBELIEVABLE. Jeff, you are mellowing nicely.
Posted by Ray
at November 19, 2008 3:11 PM
comment #40
LexG
says ...
KRISTEN STEWART = The female Brando. The female James Dean. The female DiCaprio.
This has been readily apparent for a couple years now, but this chick (who OWNS ALL) is about to become *huge*.
55 mil Friday. BANK ON IT.
Posted by LexG
at November 19, 2008 3:29 PM
comment #41
silver
says ...
Michael Phillips. Wasn't he the critic who gave 10,000 BC it's highest rated review in the nation? And who never backed away from it
So why does anyone pay any attention to him since?
Posted by silver
at November 19, 2008 4:19 PM
comment #42
Craig Kennedy
says ...
Jeez, step away from HE for a month or two and Jeff goes all unpredictable on me.
Did something happen while I was gone?
Posted by Craig Kennedy
at November 19, 2008 4:22 PM
comment #43
huntermdaniels
says ...
btw, Wells, Ebert already posted his review.
Posted by huntermdaniels
at November 19, 2008 4:22 PM
comment #44
corey3rd
says ...
The put a pod under Jeff's bed!
Posted by corey3rd
at November 19, 2008 4:53 PM
comment #45
T. S. Idiot
says ...
THIRTEEN shows that Hardwicke has some talent. Haven't seen her other films, but you can't blame a serious filmmaker from doing genre work because that's where the work is.
Some of the comments above smack of sexually insecure snot-nosed fanboyism: Why won't these girls go away and let real men make movies about big guns, fast cars, and explosions? (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)
Posted by T. S. Idiot
at November 19, 2008 5:47 PM
comment #46
atticusrex
says ...
[b[JEFF:[/b] Your thoughts on this picture toward how others in your rank-n-file have felt towards this movie is akin to how I feel about most of the critics on Quantum of Solace. Either they didn't watch the same movie I did or they wanted something from the first 20 and not what #21 and now #22 are delivering.
I would go more into it but this isn't the talkback for Solace.
Posted by atticusrex
at November 19, 2008 6:15 PM
comment #47
Aladdin Sane
says ...
cj, Obama won, hence Jeff is more relaxed.
Posted by Aladdin Sane
at November 19, 2008 6:29 PM
comment #48
BurmaShave
says ...
Silver, you'd have more respect for him if he'd given it a positive review and then recanted? 10,000 B.C. was a putrid piece of shit, but it was so retarded I can see someone enjoying it as goofy fun. For instance, if they started drinking at 3 pm and saw it at 7...
Posted by BurmaShave
at November 19, 2008 6:34 PM
comment #49
huntermdaniels
says ...
Btw, they filmed 13 at my middle school the year I was 13. Half of my friends were extras in that film and they filmed in all sorts of areas where I used to hang out.
That film may have been fictionalized, but it's pretty spot on with the verisimilitude of that time and place. Hell, I dated girls who were practically identical to the one's in this film. If anything, this film undersold the realities of it all. I got into much worse stuff.
Posted by huntermdaniels
at November 19, 2008 6:59 PM
comment #50
Griff
says ...
This is why I love Jeff. The man just lays it out there. He gives you his gut reaction...and if his gut rebels a few days later (ala "King Kong"), he cops to it.
Posted by Griff
at November 19, 2008 7:03 PM
comment #51
LexG
says ...
THIRTEEN *owns.*
Posted by LexG
at November 19, 2008 7:24 PM
comment #52
hatchetface
says ...
Call me a grouch but having to sit repeatedly through the awful trailer for this film makes me wish that a frenzied Peter Cushing would leap out of those 'moody' shadows and pound a flaming stake through some of these fancy-pants vampire sternums. On a mostly unrelated note, I saw LET THE RIGHT ONE IN Monday night and it was absolutely wonderful. Be sure to give it a look if it's in your area.
Posted by hatchetface
at November 19, 2008 7:59 PM
comment #53
D.Z.
says ...
Saw a bunch of Twilight fan-girls jamming the shopping center near the Chinese last night, while I was being underwhelmed by my free screening of Resident Evil: Degeneration. I think I only caught a few guys in the entire bunch.
I don't doubt Jeff's opinion, since I have a feeling if your expectations are low enough, anything can be passable. [Unless you're watching something from Andrzej Bartkowiak...]
I do doubt that it'll be this decade's Titanic-like flick, though, since that other Gothic movie pretty much conquered the ticket-buying market this year, and since Titanic was an excuse for a date movie, back when people could afford dates. [Twilight is more like a chaperone movie than a date movie.] Plus, if bigger properties like HSM 3 and Hannah Montana plummet that easily during their second weekends, there's nothing to guarantee Twilight attain mega-hit status. [Unless people are hoping that Twilight will somehow make HSM 3's international bank. And that fan-base might not be there as easily as it was for Harry Potter or even the Da Vinci Code, since it doesn't scream tent-pole.]
Posted by D.Z.
at November 19, 2008 8:42 PM
comment #54
MickTravis
says ...
Aw, lay off Phillips. He's a cool dude. He was the only thing making Ebert & Roeper tolerable in its dying days.
Thirteen owns what? Every afterschool special cliche since Helen Hunt jumped out the window high on angel dust?
Kristen Stewart is going to huge -- unfortunately I got turned on watching her in "In the Land of Women" and then had a panic attack when I realized she was the diabetic kid from Panic Room.
The kids can go see this over the weekend. I'm staying home and watching "True Blood," which is kind of crappy but has good sex and they know how to deploy their cliffhangers, lemme tellya.
Posted by MickTravis
at November 19, 2008 8:42 PM
comment #55
thatmovieguy
says ...
Right -- they can have 12:01 a.m. previews on Friday and insist reviews be held until afterward? In this day and age? Put your head back on the pillow. My review goes up at midnight and is in the print edition tomorrow morning. If I'm banned from all future Summit Entertainment screenings, I'll count my lucky stars that I don't have to see FLY ME TO THE MOON II. And by the way, I thought TWILIGHT improved on the book in several ways and was not bad at all as a Gothic CW soap opera. It's certainly easier to watch and more entertaining than most of the stuff aimed at that demographic and, while I personally wouldn't see it twice, I told my 13-year-old niece and my sister they'll probably love it. I'd certainly rather have kids going to that than wasting their money on SAW V or the latest atrocious remake of an Asian horror film or PG-13-rated retread of an '80s slasher flick.
Posted by thatmovieguy
at November 19, 2008 8:49 PM
comment #56
D.Z.
says ...
thatmovieguy: Man, the market for horror must suck pretty badly, if people are actually giving good reviews to Twilight. I remember Clive Barker saying something similar after the audience for a New Beverly Midnight Meat Train screening applauded at his comment about making the "best damn horror movie we can".
Posted by D.Z.
at November 19, 2008 11:05 PM
comment #57
D.Z.
says ...
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=videoBC&bcpid=1381642478&bclid=1870955475&bctid=2715449001
Posted by D.Z.
at November 20, 2008 4:00 AM
comment #58
jbf81
says ...
all I know is that the Twilight post has almost 60 replies and the one about Astralia bellow has hardly more then 10, some films just get the media and audience attention.
Posted by jbf81
at November 20, 2008 5:18 AM
comment #59
EDouglas
says ...
Twilight isn't horror... not by any possible definition of the word.
Posted by EDouglas
at November 20, 2008 5:55 AM
comment #60
Al-Aurens
says ...
Should we be worried that we haven't heard from Jeff since this post? Maybe the vampires took the embargo seriously...
Posted by Al-Aurens
at November 20, 2008 6:32 AM
comment #61
DeafBrownTrashPunk
says ...
god, make this Twilight mania bullshit stop already.
Sex and the City, High School Musical Crap and now this?
people don't have good taste in movies anymore.
Posted by DeafBrownTrashPunk
at November 20, 2008 9:01 AM
comment #62
TVMCCA
says ...
I was hoping for a Kenneth Turan review of TWILIGHT, but instead LAT will probably fly in the Phillips piece.
Posted by TVMCCA
at November 20, 2008 11:18 AM
comment #63
appleman
says ...
Hey Jeff - have no fear. I've personally heard Vivian express that you are "surprisingly influential" and "important to her." Really.
I saw Twilight in Westwood on Monday and thought it not only "worked" but would appeal to the only demo still in question, i.e., males 18-24 in a big way.
Have we all forgotten that where the girls are, the boys will not be far behind?
And to those who have formed an opinion of Twilight without seeing it. Please shut up!
Posted by appleman
at November 20, 2008 2:21 PM
comment #64
D.Z.
says ...
"Have we all forgotten that where the girls are, the boys will not be far behind?"
Only if said boys can get something out of it, too. Titanic offered destruction scenes, after all.
Posted by D.Z.
at November 20, 2008 8:05 PM
comment #65
free games
says ...
Jeff you amaze me!
Posted by free games
at October 27, 2009 1:39 AM
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