There was an LA screening last night of Oliver Stone‘s Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps (20th Century Fox, 4.23). A friend of a friend attended. The first blast (i.e., from the guy who talked to the guy) read as follows: “I’ve heard it’s a strong return to form for both Stone and Douglas. It also proves Shia can play with the big boys. A surprisingly satirical movie. It’s the first time I’ve heard a Stone movie described as ‘fun.'”
Michael Douglas, Shia Lebouf in Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps.
Satirical? Really? I asked for a bit more, and the following came in an hour ago: “It’s an entertaining movie with Shia a better match for Douglas than Sheen, who was a stiff. It’s a sardonic, slightly satirical film with Josh Brolin and particularly Frank Langella scoring well.
“Stone handles the show without either his heavy left hand or his neutered right one that made W not what we’d hoped it. Douglas is the big-ticket item, of course, and revisiting this character is clearly a joy for him as he navigates his way through a world where he’s a player holding a very different hand. Gekko is dealing with stocks while taking his own, and seems like a cobra who’s conflicted about whether to bite…or just charm.
“People will show up for this one, so Fox was right to get it out there quick.”
I then wrote Wall Street 2 producer Ed Pressman, who got back with the following: “Oliver’s first cut is brilliant, witty, complex and emotionally powerful. I couldn’t be happier.”
I was still kind of wondering about the slightly satirical element, so I called someone familiar with Stephen Schiff‘s original script.
“I don’t know whether you ever read Schiff’s script,” he said, “but there are definitely satirical elements in it (the chatter of the hedge-fund guys, the huge Robin Hood Foundation-like charity gala, the Dubai material, the Russian oligarch, the Asian commodities specialist with his Maybach, etc.). Of course, Oliver has always been a fairly earnest filmmaker, but I don’t think satire is particularly rare in his work.
“Natural Born Killers, whether you enjoyed it or not, is certainly satiric in intent from start to finish, and so is W. There is a lot of satiric content as well in Wall Street and Talk Radio and U Turn, and I would argue that there’s some as well in Salvador, Nixon and The Doors.
“Keep in mind, too, that a lot of satire is in the playing. A line or a scene may or may not look satirical on the page, but can be turned in that direction in the performance and even in the cutting.”
Two significant reactions have been posted in response to my 2.15 “Rally Round” piece in which I predicted deferential responses to Martin Scorsese‘s Shutter Island because of a “give Marty a pass as long as the film isn’t too bad” impulse that many older critics seem to hold dear. One is an Auteurs piece by Glenn Kenny called “Carrying Marty’s Water“; the other is a piece by Marshall Fine called “In The Tank for Scorsese?.”
Ben Kingsley, Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese and Mark Ruffalo during filming of Shutter Island.
Significant Kenny quote: “If I say that I actively try to find things to like in Scorsese’s films, does that make me a strong Scorsese man, or his patsy, or his water-carrier? I responded very strongly to Shutter Island — but a lot of that had to do with my state of being when I saw the film twenty-two days ago. Is my reaction illegitimate?
“I attended the New York press junket for Shutter Island a couple of weeks ago (the fruits of my labors in this respect are here). Breakfasting with the cream of the television and online video critic crop, I have to say — in all honesty! — that I did detect a note of obligation in their words as I overheard many of them discuss the film. As if they didn’t particularly like it, or ‘get’ it beyond its plot machinations…but that they were going to give it a pass not just because Scorsese’s a revered American filmmaker but because Leo’s a movie star.
“I don’t, however, detect much of the same thing going on in the print reviews.”
I wrote the following to Fine after I read his piece: “I’m not questioning your integrity, Marshall. I’m saying that rooting for an admired director and perhaps bending over backwards to be nice or at least understanding is very human. We all do it. I’ve certainly done this with the Coens (except in the cases of The Ladykillers and The Man Who Wasn’t There). Everyone is prejudiced in one way or another. Nobody is impartial. The best you can hope to be is fair-minded in your dispensations.”
To which he replied: “Thanks, Jeff. I guess what I’m saying is that, while recognizing that no one is impartial, it’s still possible to be honest. Of course, I hope that each Scorsese film (or Coens or Cameron) is great; but I’m also not going to avoid expressing disappointment if it isn’t.
“I don’t take this stuff personally; I don’t take the movies personally either. But I think you do and that’s what makes your work what it is. Indeed, what I find most entertaining and occasionally infuriating about your writing, Jeff, is your absolute sense of being right.
“I have strong opinions and am not afraid to air them, but I guess I stopped worrying/caring about always being right. There is too much evidence in the world at large — and the movies in particular — that suggests that no one cares (and nothing is going to chance because of) what I think. It doesn’t mean I’m going to stop sharing what I think or believing in it, just that I no longer feel that outrage that I used to over what is an immutable fact of life. So who’s the cynic and who’s the idealist?”
A guy I spoke to this morning — someone who gets around, knows the industry, talks to people — disputes the whole Inglourious Basterds-is-surging meme. Here’s how he put it in a phone conversation this morning:
“The reason is that while people like Inglourious Basterds, I don’t think anyone is taking it seriously,” he contends. “Even people I know who are voting for it don’t take it very seriously. It’s one thing to say they ‘like’ a film and another to vote for it as Best Picture. It’s a jokey Nazi exploitation movie. It’s fluff. You don’t vote for something just because you ‘like’ it.
“Quentin this morning in Variety called it The Dirty Dozen redux…which is fine, but this is not the stuff that Oscar movies are made of.
“The other thing is that Harvey’s whole Jewish-revenge shpiel — taking a movie that’s kind of cartoonishly selling Nazis and then turn it around as something Jews should support because it’s a great hit-back-at-the-Nazis revenge movie may be a bit of a backfire among people who take it more seriously, or who’ve actually made holocaust movies.
“Steven Spielberg will not see it, I’m told, because he takes this stuff seriously. It’s no animosity towards Harvey or Quentin, mind, but it does rub people the wrong way. Some Jews like it but there’s a slice of the demographic that can’t get past that poster with the big swatzstika on it…and they just can’t get past Quentin Tarantino doing a japey reflection of the Holocaust movie. I’m talking about Paul Mazursky, Spielberg….that serious-filmmaker crowd.
“When Basterds came out last August nobody thought of it as a serous movie. It was just a popcorn money-maker. And nobody’s raising their fist against it now becaus no one’s taking it seriously. These journalists are just making columns.
“On top of which Harvey says this every year. Everything he ever does is going to win Best Picture. The Road, Nine, The Reader…Nine was going to crush it at the Golden Globes, and Quentin was going to win at the Golden Globes also. But they didn’t even win for Best Screenplay at the Globes. I just think it’s a much-ado about nothing.
“If Inglourious Basterds is so admired by actors, ask yourself this: The Hurt Locker got a Best Actor nomination with Jeremy Renner‘s performance, which is usually indicative of a front-and-center alliance with the film itself, and Inglorious Basterds got a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Christoph Waltz. Why didn’t they give Brad Pitt a Best Actor nomination? There’s a reason for that, I think, apart from the quality of his performance.
Hollywood is simply “overwhelmingly liberal and overwhelmingly likes The Hurt Locker,” he exclaimed. “Sean Penn, Robert Duvall, Charlize Theron, Warren beatty, Helen Mirren, Harrison Ford…Lou Gossett, Jr. They get what it’s about and are with it. Even Jon Voight likes it.”
