MSN’s Glenn Kenny and I played catch a couple of hours ago for Oscar Poker #97. Glenn had just returned from this morning’s NY Film Festival press screening of Robert Zemeckis‘ Flight so we naturally got into that. And then we uncorked the Wells-Kenny grievance issues. It was clear, as always, that the pointed thrusts and abrasive scorn that occasionally color the back and forth on HE don’t manifest when you’re having a chit-chat. There’s your caustic internet voice and there’s your amiable personality in conversation, and they’re two different birds. Here’s a stand-alone mp3 link.
I read with profound depression that 10.12 Deadline report about Millenium Films having hired Legally Blonde screenwriters Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith to write ExpendaBelles, an Expendables spinoff focusing “on the feminine side of the mercenary business.” But why would anyone want to hire a team of female mercenaries to accomplish any job requiring brute aggression?
As a kicker Mike Fleming named several female action stars, but there’s only one…okay, two I’d be reluctant to face in a fight. I’m speaking of Haywire‘s Gina Carano and maybe Kill Bill‘s Uma Thurman, largely because she’s tall and can probably kick like a mule. I am otherwise unimpressed.
Robert Zemeckis‘ Fliight, which screened this morning for NY Film Festival press, “may have elements of action filmmaking and courtroom drama, but it is, ultimately, a character study about the sickness of addiction,” writes In Contention‘s Kris Tapley. “It captures the embarrassment, the denial, the rage and, crucially, the chronic fallibility that comes with it.
And in Tapley’s view, Denzel Washington‘s performance as Whip Whitaker “fires on all cylinders [and runs] through a complex range — charismatic, embattled, defiant, broken and, ultimately, humbled. [It] marks his most accomplished performance in some time, one certainly rating higher than the two that brought him Oscars in the past.” Or it tops Denzel’s Training Day and Glory perfs.
John Gatins‘ screenplay “pulses with an authenticity that suggests personal experience, but [is] married to a narrative that all but asks whether impairment might have sparked [Denzel’s] inspiration to save a hundred lives in a bold way, it becomes something more complex.”
Not to beat a dead horse, but this is exactly what I getting at in my 9.23 piece called “A Wing and a Prayer.” “From what I’m hearing Denzel’s condition when he saves his plane from crashing is what saves the day. If he’d been 100% sober he might not have rolled the plane over and landed it upside down,” I wrote. This led to that thought about driving half-bombed when I was living in Connecticut in the ’70s, and the idea “that I drove better when half-bombed because I was less intimidated by the possibility of something going wrong. I drove without fear, without hesitation. I took those hairpin turns like a champ.” And I was bitchslapped by several commenters for saying this.
“The film gets going in a hurry,” Tapley explains. “Whitaker’s ear-to-ear grin, the bouncing song choices, a near-numbing crash sequence and the beginnings of the malfeasance drama. But once the plot-driven stuff moves aside it starts to settle in somewhere in the second act and, for some, the gear shift might not work. It just depends on if you’re invested in the character enough to follow that next path, and personally speaking, I was.
“Awards-wise, it’s a little tough to say at the moment. Washington faces a difficult Best Actor race but he’ll get the campaign of his life, surely: this is Paramount’s baby this year. The screenplay deserves some real consideration, but it could fall short of films with more overt gravitas and/or fare not perceived in such commercial territory. I really couldn’t say until more get a look and I can ask around, but I certainly think it’s a great counter-intuitive choice in a year packed with the usual bait and I hope it finds its audience.”
Here’s another approving review from The Hollywood Reporter‘s Todd McCarthy.
If I wasn’t living in such a self-absorbed, self-regarding bubble I would have grabbed my camera last night and taken several photos of the Endeavour as it crawled through those mildly unappealing areas of Los Angeles (near Inglewood City Hall and the L.A. Forum and down Crenshaw Blvd. and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.). I had all night to do it — the journey from LAX to the California Science Center still hadn’t arrived as of noon today — and I crapped out. Shameful, no excuse.
Flight is a gripping suspense film, a friend says, about whether or not a fellow we don’t exactly admire but whom we nonetheless want to see saved or redeemed will do right by himself…or not. It’s entirely driven by character. In Leaving Las Vegas Nic Cage was fairly decisive about what he intended to do (i.e., drink himself to death), but in Flight Denzel Washington, portraying a self-destructive commercial airline pilot, teeters this way and that.
The suspense is such that my friend, who saw Flight a week and a half ago, still has scratch marks on his left arm made by his wife — her way of responding to Denzel’s predicament. Take that with a grain or not.
The KidRockVideos copy reads as follows: “The goal of [this] film is to tear down the one-dimensional political stereotypes…it reminds that what really matters is that we’re all Americans, with diverse thoughts, opinions and stances on issues. We are millions of unique, individual parts, the sum of which comprise a whole that is the shining beacon of freedom throughout the world. The film reminds us to be proud of our differences, and to never forget that we’re all in this together as Americans.”
HE response: I don’t want to know, much salute or embrace, a little less than half of the people in this country. The US of A is admired for its movies and music and wide-open landscapes and its great cities, but it’s also widely mocked and in many cases despised by millions worldwide for the bass-ackward, climate-change-denying attitudes that are largely due to American yokelism (religious, rightwing, racist, gay-hating, NASCAR, country music, etc.) and all the Tea Party nutters and conservative corporate toadies they’ve voted into office, particularly the House of Representatives.
A significant portion of this country has devolved into over-the-cliff lunacy and fact denial over the last decade, particularly since Obama’s election four years ago. Put them into green reeducation camps or convince them to secede from the union — seriously. They’re little more but stoppers and foot-draggers with unhealthy eating habits. They’re nice people when you visit (I had a really great time in Shreveport when I visited in late 2010) but later with the shitkicker music and pickup trucks and muscle cars and conservative flag-waving and all that other stuff.
MSN critic and HE gadfly Glenn Kenny will be tomorrow’s Oscar Poker guest. We’ll be chatting around 1:30 pm Eastern, by which point he’ll have seen Robert Zemeckis‘s Flight so we’ll get into that along with the awards-season razmatazz. I’d also like to set aside at least part of our discussion for an airing of classic Wells-Kenny grievances. One of them will be the Central Park Five dispute (link #1 and link #2). Please submit any suggestions for other topics of debate.
Jeffrey Wells to Mark Olsen, Manohla Dargis, Marina Bailey: “You guys should understand that last night’s presentation of Holy Motors at Raleigh Chaplin was unsatisfactory in terms of light levels. It often appeared muddy and inky in the darker scenes (which constitute a good half if not two-thirds of the film), and this was definitely not the case when I saw it on the Salle Debussy screen in Cannes. I would say without exaggeration that Leos Carax‘s vision was suppressed, diminished and underserved by a good 25% to 33%.
“SMPTE standards call for 14 foot lamberts or thereabouts. I don’t carry a professional light meter around but it looked like we were getting 10 foot lamberts, or possibly even 8. Which is par for the course for many commercial theatres, of course, but screening rooms are supposed to deliver higher industry standards.
“I was sitting there trying to feel the same voltage and engagement that I felt in Cannes and it just wouldn’t happen. Part of this was because the surprise element was gone, of course, but also because of the murk. The death-bed scene was particularly appalling. The black dog lying on the bed was a blobby indistinct ink spot. Why use a dog in a scene if you can’t see aspects of his physicality — eyes, paws, fur texture?
“One problem is that Raleigh’s Chaplin room has a silver screen for 3D presentations, and I know that silver screens have been associated with diminished foot-lambert levels in reports I’ve read about unsatisfactory 2D projection. I’ve had occasional issues with Raleigh before, so this was part of a pattern.”
Update: Thanks to Toronto Star critic Peter Howell for reminding me that the Cannes press screening of Holy Motors played at the Salle Debussy and not the Grand Lumiere. Yes, it also played at the latter but for the black-tie crowd a few hours later.
Sincere, knee-drop praise from Variety‘s Peter Debruge suggests that Skyfall may indeed be as good as all that. When, by the way, is Jay Penske going to take down the Variety firewall? He told staffers a couple of days ago it would soon be gone.
Debruge #1: “Putting the ‘intelligence’ in MI6, Skyfall reps a smart, savvy and incredibly satisfying addition to the 007 oeuvre. In Sam Mendes‘ hands, the franchise comes full circle, revealing the three-film Daniel Craig cycle to be both prelude and coda to the entire series via a foxy chess move that puts these pics on par with Christopher Nolan‘s Dark Knight trilogy as best-case exemplars of what cinematic brands can achieve, resulting in a recipe for nothing short of world domination.”
Debruge #2: “Whatever parallels it shares with the Bourne series or Nolan’s astonishingly realized Batman saga, Skyfall radically breaks from the Bond formula while still remaining true to its essential beats, presenting a rare case in which audiences can no longer anticipate each twist in advance. Without sacrificing action or overall energy, Mendes puts the actors at the forefront, exploring their marvelously complex emotional states in ways the franchise has never before dared.”
Argo was clearly the film to see yesterday for those with any appreciation at all for sharp, shrewd, crafty, etc. Naturally, young American audiences being young American audiences, Argo came in third behind Summit’s not great but allegedly passable Sinister and the decidedly low-grade Taken 2. Because young American audiences are, for the most part, obstinate, under-educated, slow-to-catch-on infants who want their pacifier.
Deadline‘s Nikki Finke is reporting that at least one exhibitor told her that Argo is playing “very old.” It’s primarily being seen, in other words, by people who were teenagers or young adults 30 years ago.
But Boxoffice.com’s Phil Contrino says that Argo‘s projected $18 million haul is more than what was initially foreseen (they used last year’s Ides of March numbers as a comparison). Given the quality and the Oscar buzz Contrino sees Argo as “a 3.5 to 4 multiplier,” meaning he expects it to earn $70 million domestic. He also says it will probably do very well in foreign territories (like Munich, which performed better overseas than here).
The Argo “cons” in Boxoffice’s weekend projection story noted that (a) “the ‘insider’ Hollywood plot has historically proven to be a hard sell to widespread audiences” (idiots!) and (b) “Social media buzz has been moderate, but not outstanding…this looks like a long-term performer more than a big opener.”
Apologies for not posting this Harris Savides tribute reel yesterday. Excellent work by Press Play‘s Nelson Carvajal. “In reality people aren’t lit…there’s no one walking around your house putting the light in the right place for you. My approach to lighting now is to light these spaces, light the rooms and let these people inhabit them, as they would in real life.”
After getting shot and falling off a moving train, Daniel Craig‘s James Bond falls a good six seconds before hitting the river below. I don’t precisely know how fast a falling human body travels, but I’m figuring at least 50 or 60 feet per second. Six seconds x 60 = 360 feet. Tony Scott died after jumping 365 feet off the Vincent Thomas Bridge so how dumb is this scene?
A 4.11 abcnews.com story about a girl who survived a leap from San Francisco’s Golden Gate bridge reads as follows: “The Golden Gate Bridge has been a notorious place for suicides since it was built in 1937 and very few survive the 220 foot fall the middle of the span or the frigid, fast moving water below. A fall off the Golden is the equivalent of a four second 25-story fall and the human body is usually shattered when it strikes the water at 75 mph.”
If everyone thought like me the Bond producers would eventually say, “Wow, looks like the exaggerated bullshit cartoon CG action scenes that have been working their way into the Bond legend since the Roger Moore days aren’t playing anymore. I guess we’ll have to go back to lean and mean hardball realism. Wow, what a challenge in this day and age, eh? Let’s talk to the stunt guys and see what’s possible.”
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