I saw Ami Canaan Mann‘s Texas Killng Fields sometime in late August, and now it’s opening this Friday (10.14) via Anchor Bay. I’ve noted before that the costars are Sam Worthington, Jeffrey Dean Morgan (who gives the best performance), Jessica Chastain, Chloe Moretz, Stephen Graham and Jason Clarke.
I don’t what to say or where to start, but I can say one thing in summation. It wasn’t that good or satisfying, but at the same time I didn’t feel badly burned.
“I think it’s basically a very intriguing, misshapen mess,” I told a colleague some time ago. “Not enough of a story, some odd coverage, and not long or complex enough to be a Zodiac-styled cold case movie, which I would have been down for. The tone lacks a commanding vision, a consistent aesthetic. It feels raggedy, and yet an intriguing kind of raggedy. It was obviously made by talented people looking do something extra…and not quite getting there.
“All the performances have something or other. All the leads are watchable and interesting. It’s atmospheric and creepy but…HELLO? It doesn’t go anywhere. And it leave you hanging besides, especially regarding a character who seems to be the most malevolent bad guy (Clarke, last in Public Enemies). He just shoots [a character I won’t name] and then disappears….what?
As it happened I met and spoke with Clarke at a party last weekend, and he said that the TKFshoot ran out of time and/or money, at least to the extent that certain pages weren’t shot. Clarke is now working on Baz Luhrman‘s 3D The Great Gatsby. He’s playing George Wilson, the working-class character who plugs Jay Gatsby in the back at the very end. Scott Wilson played him in the 1974 version.
There’s a moment in Moneyball when Brad Pitt asks Jonah Hill, “Would you rather get shot in the head, or take five shots to the chest and bleed to death?” Pitt was talking about the best way to fire a baseball player, but the metaphor also applies to the killing of a movie. Particularly in the matter of Paddy Considine‘s heavily praised Tyrannosaur, and the fact that Strand Releasing has done a brilliant job of nickle-and-diming it to death before the 11.18 opening. Especially in the case of Olivia Colman‘s stunningly fine performance as an abused housewife.
I don’t believe, of course, that Strand’s Marcus Hu wants to kill Tyrannosaur or diminish awards talk about Colman (who could qualify as either a Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress contender, as she doesn’t strictly have a lead role in the film), and I know how tough it is these days for indie-market distributors. As one publicist puts it, “Marcus has managed to survive the last 25 years when a lot of people have gone out of business.”
But I heard this morning from a Strand press rep about current plans to launch Tyrannosaur, and they boil down to doing it all on the cheapy-cheap-cheap. No U.S. face-time interviews for Colman (she’ll be staying in England to do phoners while her husband is going to try and social network on her behalf), and zero screenings set for LA critics as we speak (although one or two will probably be set up fairly soon). Strand will send out screeners to AMPAS members in the acting and directing branches, as well as to NY, LA, SF and National and HFPA members. (But not BFCA, or at least not yet.)
“Sadly in this economy and landscape, releasing films like Tyrannosaur is really hard and a risk,” Hu explains. “Tyrannosaur is a great movie, but neither the Weinsteins nor any other distributors lined up to make an offer, nor was there a bidding war. Apparently, they did not see the commercial potential.
“While we are doing the most we can afford to do for an Academy push, the kinds of money that the Weinstein/Focus/Sony Classics can throw around, is not the business model we’re in. One misstep financially could put us out of business, and frankly, many independent distributors have gone out of business with misspending.
“Films like Tyrannosaur often slip through the cracks, so we appreciate your energy and and we are thrilled to be releasing it, as modest as our release may be.”
This doesn’t change the fact that Colman’s performance is Tyrannosaur‘s strongest hand, and by keeping her in England Strand is basically throwing in the towel. They’re essentially taking out a trade ad that says, “We love Tyrannosaur and we know Olivia Colman gives a genius performance in it, but we can’t afford to promote her. We know she understands, and we hope that you do too.”
If you care about any kind of justice prevailing in the awards-giving world, this is a significant tragedy. Ask anyone who’s seen this film. Ask In Contention‘s Guy Lodge, who posted his review yesterday.
I’ve been praising this film for months until blue in the face, but I’m no match for Strand‘s anemic attitude. Here’s how I put it to Strand’s press rep this morning:
“So in other words, Olivia Colman isn’t going to fly over and do interviews in NY or LA or make any real attempt to ‘work the room’? She’s staying in London for phoners, and her husband — I can’t believe you actually mentioned this — is going to try and tweet her into the conversation? Because the decision to do this means she’s out of the game. She’s not even going to try. And that’s a crying shame, given how amazing she is in Tyrannosaur.
“If you’re in the process of arranging phoners for Olivia, why have you not offered me, ‘one of Tyrannosaur‘s biggest champions,’ the opportunity to speak with her?
“The film is opening on 11.18, and so far there are two screenings set for NYC and no screenings set for LA….yet. The movie is opening five weeks from now, and outside of those who attended Sundance ’11 or at the LAFF or the Chicago Film Festival no one has seen it. I’ve been browbeating people about this film for months, and the big L.A. guns still haven’t seen it. Not Anne Thompson, not Sasha Stone, not Kris Tapley, not Pete Hammond, etc. This is a joke!
“If I was Olivia Colman, I would take out a bank loan for $50,000 and really go to town and come over here and make the rounds. Life is short and if you’ve done great work you have to take your shot. But then to do that you’d need a distributor who really believes in you and who has a bit of the old Harvey Weinstein thunder, and that distributor is obviously not Marcus Hu, who is too cheap to have scheduled any press screenings in LA thus far. What a tightwad!
“Between (a) the zero LA screenings thus far despite the opening five weeks off and (b) no Olivia Colman visit to the States and (c) no invite to speak with her on the phone, I’m just about ready to give up. The prospect of Colman landing a Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress nomination in a totally lost cause, and for two very simple reasons. One, the movie is probably too downbeatish — too much of a bath in British miserablism — for most Academy members to handle. And two, whatever chance Colman might have is being torpedoed by the meek and mousy instincts of Strand and the general lack of gambling spirit.”
What kind of low-rent blonde has it off twice with a famous Hollywood actor and then gives an interview to Us Magazine about it? I’ll tell you what kind. The bumblefuck declasse kind from Texas who calls herself a Lutheran. The kind that mentions Rick Perry in a discussion about presidential candidates and says she doesn’t know if she’ll vote for him.
Whatever happened to the idea that it’s a low-rent thing to kiss and tell? The under-30s have no shame. Let it be known far and wide that Sara Leal and anyone resembling her is profoundly lacking in class and especially character. What a nightmare it must be to be so hungry if not desperate for the slightest glint of blink-and-it’s-over fame that you’d advertise yourself nationwide as a shallow opportunistic mouse who’s probably never read a book or had much of an education and probably doesn’t know who Glenn Kenny is.
From a rough draft of the release: “Universal Pictures today announced that in response to theatere-owners turning purple-faced with fury and completely freaking out and spitting saliva and throwing tantrums and slamming their fists through the plaster walls and threatening to go to the mattresses Luca Brasi and Clemenza-style a request from theatre owners it has decided to delay its planned premium home video on demand (PVOD) experiment.
“Universal continues to believe that the theater experience and a PVOD window are business models that can coincide and thrive and we look forward to working with our partners in exhibition to find a way to experiment in this area in the future.
In response a rough draft from the National Association Of Theater Owners and its CEO John Fithian allegedly says the following: “NATO would like to thank Universal for responding to various theater owners’ concerns and cancelling the PVOD test it was contemplating. They have been engaged with individual exhibitors on this test blah blah, and while it was something that many theater owners could not ultimately support blah blah, the open and collaborative nature of the dialogue is appreciated blah blah screw these bastards. NATO recognizes that those miserable prick studio fucks need to find new models and opportunities in the home market, and looks forward to distributors and exhibitors working together for their mutual benefit.”
Thanks to whomever at Paramount for not inviting me to this morning’s screening of eight scenes from James Cameron‘s 3D Titanic. I really, really would have liked to attend given the likelihood that Cameron’s demanding standards will result in an exceptional conversion.
TheWrap‘s Mike Ryanwrote this afternoon that this steroscopic Titanic “looks absolutely stunning…after watching screening after screening of shitty 3D films, it was more than refreshing to see what can be done to a film — even a film not originally filmed in 3D — if the appropriate amount of time and effort are applied.”
The 3D scenes shown: (1) Rose and Cal regarding Titanic from the dock; (2) Jack waiting for Rose at the bottom of grand staircase before dinner; (3) Jack and Rose attending white-tie party; (4) Jack and Rose canoodling on the bow of Titanic; (5) The first sighting of the iceberg; (6) Rose chopping through Jack’s handcuffs with an axe; (7) montage of Titanic passengers facing the fact that they’re about to go down with the ship and drown or freeze to death; and (8) The last portion of Titanic sinking.
Frank Sinatra crooning by Nick Amado. Music, lyrics and video editing by Jon Kaplan and Al Kaplan (Conan the Barbarian: The Musical, Silence! The Musical).
Actual YouTube comment by “Psychicwhoosh”: “I saw Sinatra and Dean Martin perform this at the Desert Inn in 1960. It was magical. Dean was such a ham. He kept chasing Sinatra ’round? the stage with a needle trying to prick his hand for a blood sample.”
Here we go again with the same old horseshit, and people don’t care because they want to see this thing and you can’t stop them, etc. One look at this trailer and you’ve more or less seen the movie, on a certain level. I’m developing a notion that Samuel L. Jackson has read every line in every part in every film he’s ever been in the exact same way. Robert Downey, Jr. has his Tony Stark performance down to a science, but at the same time it feels as if he phoned it in.
I’m singling out this 10.10 Henry Rollins video clip because he supplies the best thematic line since “we are the 99%,” to wit: “Obama dropped the ball and the people picked it up. I’m a fan of the guy, but he’s got some splainin’ to do.”
Edited: My general impression is that last night’s work-in-progress screening of Martin Scorsese‘s Hugo didn’t go over all that well. Well, it did for some but for others it was an in-and-outer. And given this less-than-a home-run-or-perhaps-even-a-triple response, I would have felt badly if I’d spent $600-plus to remain in New York in order to see it. (Which of course I didn’t.)
Martin Scorsese before last night’s New York Film Festival showing of Hugo.
Here’s a mildly amusing account of the Alice Tully Hall experience by Movieline‘s Stu Van Airsdale.
Hugo “will be a worthy addition to the upcoming awards season,” wrotes Deadline‘s Mike Fleming. “Scorsese has provided the most intriguing use of 3D since James Cameron did in Avatar; instead of the gimmicky opportunity of using 3D to have objects jump out at audiences, Scorsese employs it to subtly immerse the audience into Hugo Cabret’s world that exists behind the walls of a Paris train station, and the inner workings of the clocks he winds and maintains, that are so integral to the film’s plot.
“Scorsese has infused the film with his love of cinema history and passion for film restoration. The big question for a pricey family film is how the half-pint set will greet an old fashioned love letter to the formation of cinema.”
A friend has confided that “you’ll ultimately be glad that you didn’t shell out $600 to stay for the screening. There’s going to be a lot of stuff you’re going to like but the kids are [negative comment] and probably 65% of the movie is just them by themselves. The stuff about Georges Melies (played by Ben Kingsley) is the best part and that doesn’t happen until over an hour into the movie.”
“Boston police began arresting scores of Occupy Boston protesters who refused to leave a large part of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway early this morning,” the Boston Globe‘s John M. Guilfoil and Derek J. Andersonreported at 2:55 am this morning.
“At 1:20 a.m., the first riot police officers lined up on Atlantic Avenue. Minutes later, dozens of sheriff vans and police wagons arrived and over 200 officers in uniforms and riot gear surrounded the Greenway.
“Police Superintendent William Evans and Commissioner Edward F. Davis watched from across the street. Evans gave the crowd two minutes to disperse from the park, warning that they would be locked up if they did not comply.
“The crowd of protesters, energized by the sudden appearance of the Boston and Transit police officers, chanted, ”The people united will never be defeated,’ ‘This is a peaceful protest,’ and ‘the whole world is watching.”
3:10 am tweet from Keith Olbermann: “Police conduct overnight raids on Occupy in Boston, Seattle. At risk: St. Louis, Seattle, Dallas. This is the Night Of The Long Batons.”
I’m sorry but this scene is amusing, perfectly acted and shrewdly written, like the film itself. And the cool, calm and collected Christoph Waltz rules here like he never ruled in Inglourious Basterds.
A failing aspect-ratio grade is hereby given to Sony Home Video’s new Bluray of The Caine Mutiny, and particularly to Sony’s restoration guy Grover Crisp for approving a 1.85 masking of a film that was absolutely intended to be seen in a 1.33 or 1.66 to 1 aspect ratio.
Same scene (although perhaps not same shot) with boxier cropping. What do we gain as viewers from not seeing a bit more sky, and a fuller view of the lecturn that Humphrey Bogart is standing behind?
Wider aperture plates were only just being introduced to theatres in 1953 and ’54 with The Robe, the very first CinemaScope film, debuting in ’53 and the need to simulate widescreen images relatively new. The Caine Mutiny was released on 6.24.54, and there’s no way in the world that Caine dp Franz Planer expected viewers to see this film within a 1.85 frame. Okay, maybe some stickler exhibitors in New York and Los Angeles might have projected it with 1.85 aperture plates, but Planer knew that most of the country would be looking at a boxier version. And Crisp knows that.
George Stevens‘ Shane was also shot in 1.33 and released only about 15 months before The Caine Mutiny, and you can bet no one at Paramount Home Video ever considered putting that classic on DVD with a 1.85 or 1.66 to 1 aspect ratio. Not a chance. You can bet that the people mastering the Gaumont Bluray of Jules Dassin‘s Rififi, which had its European debut in 1954, never dreamt of masking it off at 1.85.
Loyal Griggs‘ Shane cinematography won an Oscar, and I recall Pauline Kael writing that it was thought to be some kind of sick joke that the tops and bottoms of his images had been severed with a fake panoramic cropping of 1.66 to 1 when Shane played at the Radio City Music Hall.
The 1.85 Caine Mutiny Bluray is following the lead of the two or three DVD versions that came out between ’98 and ’07. The VHS and laser disc versions of The Caine Mutiny presented the film at a full 1.33 to 1 aspect ratio, which made it look very handsome indeed. But you know the old story. People want their 16 x 9 high-def screens to be completely filled when they watch their Blurays so the tops and bottoms were chopped off and to hell with what Planer and director Edward Dmytryk wanted people to see.
This is the worst mis-masking of a Bluray since Psycho, which also should have been released in 1.33. Or at least in two versions — 1.33 and 1.85.
I don’t believe for a second that Crisp would approve a 1.85 cropping of On The Waterfront, which was released on 7.28.54, or a month after The Caine Mutiny. And I don’t think Crisp would be crazy enough to approve a 1.85 masking of the long-delayed Bluray of From Here To Eternity, which opened in August of ’53. Can you imagine the outcry if a 1.85 cropping of Eternity on Bluray was released? But a 1.85 cropping of The Caine Mutiny draws nary a peep.
