Month: October 2014

I missed Andrew Rossi and Kate Novack‘s Ivory Tower, an allegedly striking examination of the appalling student-loan situation, at last January’s Sundance Film Festival. Having been urged by Jett (struggling himself with a massive Syracuse University Bachelor’s degree debt) to see it, I’m finally renting it on Vudu and catching it tonight. Elizabeth Warren recently told Bill Maher that the U.S. government realizes an annual $60 billion profit on student loans? It’s a big corrupt racket and for what? So some college buddy will will tell you about a job or recommend you to someone? Edward Snowden never even graduated from high school. I’m self-educated (I barely attended college) and look at me….”made it, ma! Top of the world!”

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This morning’s question from Gold Derby‘s Tom O’Neil: “Can Big Hero 6 take down Lego Movie for Best Animated Feature? Please sign in and update your predix.”

HE answer: I respect the animated realm as far as it goes (including, if you must, anime) but I hate watching it for the most part, and that definitely includes anime. Anything drawn or dreamt or hard-drivey. If I never see anything swirly or magical or shimmering or visionary-for-vision’s-sake again, it’ll be too soon. Aside from the usual welcome exceptions from the world-class visionaries (Hayao Miyazaki, Fantastic Mr. Fox‘s Wes Anderson, the Lego Movie guys, Brad Bird, the Disney/Katzenberg run of the late ’80s to mid ’90s, etc.) and the usual high levels of craft, animated films are mostly about the Big Shill — selling tickets and merchandise to families. Take your corporate family neckrubby pitty-pat hucksterism and shove it. It’s an open coin toss as to which I hate more — animated or just about anything Asian (excepting the rare exceptions).

One thing I gathered after telling friends how knocked out I was by Laura Poitras‘s Citizenfour (Radius/TWC, 10.24) was that some of them (including, to my slight surprise, my older son Jett) have reserved if not skeptical attitudes about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Honestly? I was a bit on the fence myself about the former NSA contractor before catching the doc, but now I feel differently. I’m now persuaded that Snowden is a highly moral, exceptionally intelligent guy with cast-iron cojones. His life right now is anything but simple and is obviously fraught with uncertainty, but he seems rock-steady in his belief that he did the right thing. If nothing else the doc will probably convince you, the future viewer, of Snowden’s integrity also. Not to mention the fact that Citizenfour, as noted in my 10.11 review, is a great piece of spooky cinema — a real-life, real-time noir about how Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald broke the story. Here’s a chat I had with Poitras late Sunday afternoon.

Citizenfour director Laura Poitras

Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald during their initial discussions in Hong Kong.

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My apologies to Kino Lorber and publicist Sasha Berman for not posting my recent chat with Vanessa Lapa, director of The Decent One, until today. Lapa has assembled a fascinating and commendable film, and deserves respect for having devoted six years to making it happen. I posted a short riff about the Heinrich Himmler doc after catching it at Manhattan’s Film Forum. Evil always carries a certain fascination, but Lapa’s film dilutes this effect somewhat by constantly quoting Himmler’s views of himself, which of course were positive. As noted earlier, “We all understand that evil always figures out a way to justify or at least live with itself…so Himmler’s letters and journals merely underline the human capacity for self-delusion.” In short, all monsters see themselves as decent guys who did what needed to be done. Again, the mp3.

The Decent One director Vanesa Lapa during last Thursday’s chat at the Farmer’s Market (i.e., right outside Dupar’s).

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Update: The guy who did a little digging about Box-Office Mojo‘s mysterious Ray Subers has “just heard from someone who has heard from Ray, and and he is still at Box-Office Mojo as Editor,” he says. “I’m not quite sure why Subers didn’t just say what the deal was instead of being all enigmatic and not just making a clear statement.”

Previously posted: A friend who’s done a little digging has offered a working theory about the recent vanishing of Box-Office Mojo and Ray Subers‘ mysterious refusal to explain what happened. With no explanations from Suber, IMDB or Amazon it’s all guesswork but here’s the leadoff: “Look at these screenshots I got from last Wednesday, 10.8 [i.e., the second image] and compare it to the site now [i.e., the top image]. What’s missing in the most recent capture? The entire ‘Top Stories’ section written by…Ray Subers.

“The next day [i.e, Thursday, 10.9] Ray tweeted a bunch of things about Dracula Untold and then this very enigmatic tweet:

Ray Subers @raysubers · Oct 9
“Raymond and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”

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With The Gambler (Paramount, 12.19) set to world premiere on Monday, 11.10 during AFI Fest, it’s time for a trailer. Or at least a teaser…something. Everyone’s expecting a little Mark Wahlberg Best Actor action, right? That’s the presumption. Absolute worst thought of the day (from In Contention‘s Kris Tapley): “I wouldn’t be surprised if part of the thinking on campaigning The Gambler is to keep Wahlberg happy and on board for another rock ’em sock ’em robots charge.” Jesus…yecch!

The remake of Karel Reisz and James Toback‘s 1974 original was directed by Rupert Wyatt, written by William Monahan and produced by Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson, David Winkler, Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff. Costarring John Goodman, Brie Larson, Michael Kenneth Williams and Jessica Lange.

Posted last night as part of a thread about the seeming lack of grizzly Wild Bunch-type actors (William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, Jaime Sanchez): “I know this is a common refrain where we all say how all the Gen X and Y actors are bunch of 90s blonde pretty boys or 00s weirdos or (at the moment) asexual British dweebs like Eddie Redmayne or Domnhall Gleeson…

“But The Wild Bunch was played by a bunch of awesome, stinking, grizzled character actors in their 40s and 50s, no? People leap to this argument, but it’s not like today’s ERNEST BORGNINE is somehow DANE DE HAAN or the LQ JONES of 2014 is ANDREW GARFIELD. It’s kinda not fair to say “THE WILD BUNCH TODAY WOULD BE A BUNCH OF PANSIES!” because the Wild Bunch of 1969 weren’t [that era]’s 20-somethings. It would probably be more warhorses in the Jeff Bridges-Viggo Mortensen-Woody Harrelson character wheelhouse.

“Plus this whole ‘everyone today is a pussy!’ thing always vaguely smacks of the OLDER BROTHER FROM 1977 WHO PULLS HIS SISTER’S PIGTAILS by goofing on her Leif Garrett posters.

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If somebody were to remake The Wild Bunch or re-shoot the climatic gun battle scene in another context, the one thing they couldn’t repeat is that moment inside the salon or bedroom when the pretty Mexican girl shoots William Holden in the back, and he delivers an angry verbal response before returning fire with a shotgun. That couldn’t happen today. Peckinpah was never better or more inspired than when he made this 1969 classic, but he was one of the most worst woman-hating guys to ever work in Hollywood. He was really diseased in that respect.

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You can’t allow your site to not only vanish but re-direct readers to the IMDB, and then refuse to answer press queries, and then return a day and a half later and act like nothing’s happened. That’s chickenshit — not how a person of character would handle this kind of thing. If your site disappears for a couple of days you simply put out a statement and explain what happened…no biggie. The manly, responsible, considerate thing to do. It would appear that Ray Subers, webmaster of Box-Office Mojo, is not a man in this respect. All during the two-day disappearance of Box-Office Mojo he was hiding in the brush. Then all of a sudden BOM returns and Suber tweets (a) “I think it’s about time to resume normal programming here” and (b) “Actually, two things…(1) I am 100% OK….no health/family/personal issues whatsoever, and (2) I will not be answering any [questions] regarding the past 3 days.” Whatever you say, Betty Sue. A 10.12 L.A. Times story says that “neither IMDb nor Amazon responded to questions about [the disappearance of] Box Office Mojo.” Question: In what film was the headline spoken, and what actor said it?

Every time I think of a film I’d like to see I check with Vudu first because they have good high-def (i.e, HDX) versions. And with Hulu. And then as a last resort, Netflix. And every single time Netflix tells me they (a) don’t have the film I’m looking to see then and there (DVDs to mail but no streaming) or ((b) they don’t have it at all. Every damn time. Why am I paying for this service? To watch House of Cards, I suppose, and any new original programming they might have available down the road. It just seems that paying $8.99 every month to so can binge-watch House of Cards is a bit much. I’m honestly thinking of dumping it.

Hollywood Reporter award-season analyst Scott Feinberg and L.A. Times pulse-taker Glenn Whipp have voiced highly skeptical views about Gone Girl‘s Best Picture chances. The last time I checked Scott was saying ‘no way’ and ‘not going to happen’ about Gone Girl as a Best Picture nominee…is that still true, Scott? And Glenn, of course, poured a bucket of water all over the Gone Girl bandwagon a few days ago, particularly by making “Bob’s Burgers” a rallying cry for Gone Girl pushbackers.

Here’s the gist of an email I wrote to both of them today: “I know Gone Girl can’t win but you’re still saying no nommie? Have you really removed it as one of your Gold Derby Oscar possibles, Scott? Do you really believe it’s a non-starter, Glenn?

“I don’t know how to reach out to you guys but I think you’re ratifying and re-enforcing views of the stubborn softies and foot-draggers — the older people who want ‘their’ kind of movie to be nominated. You know the kind of people I’m talking about. You guys want to be accurate but in your mind that automatically means defaulting with the lowest common denominator types. It’s a vicious cycle. Trying to be ‘right’ in your tea-leaf readings means you always dive-bomb into the same question, i.e., “what are the half-brights and the harumphs saying?”

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It was clear after seeing Dan Gilroy‘s Nightcrawler (Open Road, 10.31) a few weeks ago that it’s a real American original — a thriller about sensation and speed and indifference to anything except for the rush and the pay and the next calamity…”if it bleeds, it leads.” It’s about Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), a fiendishly focused video-shooting nut who peddles footage to a KTLA-like TV station and in particular a certain news producer (Rene Russo) whom he has…uhm, designs upon. A drill-bit smart guy who knows how to suck up to those who can give him what he wants and not the slightest hesitation about cutting off his competitors at the knees, Lou is all glare, exactitude and cold calculus. A kind of monster, for sure, which is why Nightcrawler might be a perfect Halloween movie after all. It’s certainly unlike any other “Halloween movie” that will be debuting on the 10.31 to 11.2 weekend.

Following last night’s screening of Nightcrawler at Real D (l to r.): director-writer Dan Gilroy, star Jake Gyllenhaal, producer Tony Gilroy.

On top of which I realized during last night’s Real D screening in Beverly Hills that Nightcrawler played a bit cleaner, smarter and stronger than it did during the Toronto Film Festival. Partly because I was more rested last night (festivals deplete your energy after the fourth or fifth day — you start to look and think like a zombie) and partly because I’m always slow with any Gilroy brothers film. Dan directed and wrote but Tony Gilroy (director-cowriter with Dan of The Bourne Legacy, director-writer of Michael Clayton) produced, and John Gilroy edited.

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