“In his endearingly ridiculous new film, Nacho Libre, [Jack Black] plays a crusader of sorts in mask and cape, working his daft magic well enough to suggest that he just might be the missing comic link between a smarmy-pants like Vince Vaughn and a ‘what-me-worry’ naif like Will Ferrell .” — from Manohla Dargis‘s N.Y. Times review.
Day: June 15, 2006
Forbes magazine puts Tom Cruise at the top of their “Celebrity 100” money-power-clout list…so effing what? What does that prove? Who cares?
Nikki Finke doesn’t get into why Orlando Bloom has decided not to follow former ICM agent Chris Andrews in his move to CAA, focusing instead on this and that backroom agency intrigue. Bloom didn’t stick with Andrews because ’05 was a tremdously crappy year for him, as this Sharon Waxman article that ran last January pointed out, and he had to try something different just to shake up the karma…right? What other explanation could there be?
I said last weekend that Steven Spielberg‘s “Sunday Morning Shootout” riff about wanting to direct a modest Capote -sized flick was the equivalent of creative crocodile tears, and here’s the proof in the pudding….or at least a noteworthy indication of same.
Where to start on David Poland‘s review of Superman Returns? Well, let’s see…it’s not “terribly cast”. Brandon Routh does the sad-and- lonely thing fine by me. Kate Bosworth…okay, her Lois Lane feels a tad insubstantial, but she’s far from “terrible”. Kevin Spacey doesn’t ace out Gene Hackman, but he’s moderately amusing as Luthor. Parker Posey isn’t given enough to say or do, but she brings a bit more feeling and gravitas to her girlfriend-of-Lex part than Valerine Perrine did to hers. Frank Langella shows more wit and finesse than Jackie Cooper did as Perry White…casting is not a problem, trust me. And it’s not poorly conceived — it has a theme, a heart and a soul. You can’t say these elements aren’t there, and I don’t know how anyone can say tjhe emotional import of the story is poorly conceived. Superman Returns is not one action beat after another, okay, but I wouldn’t call it extremely light on the stuff. The romance between Clark and Lois is all about “we want to go there but we can’t” — to me and a lot of others who know that relationships that can’t work are more dramatically touching than those that do, this makes it romantic as hell. The film definitely features a memorable ‘gosh, that was great’ repeat-to-your-friends action moment (and you can double or triple that if you catch it in 3D). SR may be hurt big-time by Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest , but like I said in my original review I can’t imagine that the Pirate pic will have anything like the emotional resonance that Superman Returns has. Okay, it may be completely played out by August 1st…that’s possible.
The differences between Las Vegas and Seattle (where I’ve been since about 1:45 pm) are immediately apparent. There’s a wonderful sense of moisture everywhere here, and the cab drivers are mellower. (Last weekend I tipped a Vegas cab driver a buck off a $5.60 fare, and the driver glared at me and snapped, “That‘s not a tip!”)
And I haven’t run into any Seattle women with oversized fake breasts , and it’s like, “Oh, right…women as they actually are without the Vegas gene.” It’s an enormous relief to be here. Until today I’d never been to Seattle (don’t have an excuse…just never got it in gear), but it feels like my kind of town and a wonderful Vegas antidote.
For what it’s worth, I caught a shorts program at 3 pm yesterday and the best of the bunch was Natasha Schull‘s Buffet: All You Can Eat Las Vegas. (No — I didn’t forget to include the word “in” — that’s how the title reads.) Schull’s doc is about the morphing process — i.e., human beings devolving into pigs — that happens whenever upstanding middle-class people are presented with a well-stocked buffet. Buffet starts out in a deceptively bland, matter-of-fact way, then gradually becomes one of the most withering critiques of the Land of Gluttony I’ve ever sat through. I felt ashamed of myself, and sorry for the pigs who show up towards the end of the film. (A farm outside of Vegas feeds them the buffet leftovers.) I will never load up my plate with too much food again. From here on in….small portions!
Buffet director Natasha Schull.
Catching a plane to Seattle and the Seattle Film Festival later this morning. Thanks to the Cinevegas staffers for their 24-7 helpfulness and graciousness. A temporary farewell to festival jurors F.X. Feeney and Mark Pellington (director of Arlington Road and the exceptional The Mothman Prophecies). A final thanks to honcho Trevor Groth, and a very special thanks to BWR’s Chris Libby, who saw to every last thing like a total pro.
Southern section of Vegas, taken from Cinevegas party on roof of Rio hotel — Wednesday, 6.14.06, 11:10 pm.