Ironic genre-wallowing, devolution, paychecks all around, everybody’s happy except guys like me. Okay, some of the original 20110 Machete wasn’t half-bad. It was ironically “awful” but funny at the same time, and so it kinda worked. I half-snickered at some of it. I just don’t get concept of paying any more than my monthly Netflix fee to see films like this.
Noblesse Oblige
If I was a stranger in Manhattan and asked somebody if free wifi is offered in Central Park, the response would be howls of laughter. Of course Manhattan doesn’t offer free wifi in public outdoor places! It can’t even offer surfable air on its subways and you can surf on your smart phone on every Paris metro line in town. New York isn’t such a a wonderful town compared to this one. I love NYC for its many delights and intrigues, but Paris is 17 times more livable, not to mention aesthetically pleasing. And the food in less expensive restaurants here tastes much better and is more enticingly prepared for the most part than the food in similar eateries in Manhattan/Brooklyn. The only problem is price. It’s brutally expensive here.
Goodfella
Thanks to the kindness of Hollywood Reporter contributor and screenwriter Jordan Mintzer, I’m In Like Flynn< regarding all Paris press screenings and all the names and emails of all the publicists...the whole magilla. But the only major film I'll be seeing prior to my return to NYC on 6.20 is World War Z (which screens next Tuesday). White House Down opens on 6.28 in France, but there are no screenings listed on the sheet. The Internship opens in the States today, but I won’t see it here until 6.19. Many thanks to Jordan & perhaps I can someday return the favor.
The Gambler
Brad Furman‘s Runner Runner (20th Century Fox, 9.27) is basically Oliver Stone‘s Wall Street (’87) meets Ben Younger‘s Boiler Room (00) + Robert Luketic‘s 21 (’08). It’s Justin Timberlake as Charlie Sheen/Bud Fox and Ben Affleck as Michael Douglas/Gordon Gekko, more or less. Furman’s The Lincoln Lawyer (’11) was sturdy and satisfying, but we’ve definitely seen Runner Runner before.
Don’t Play The Part — Be It
If (and I say “if”) Carey Mulligan is firmly cast as Hillary Clinton in James Ponsoldt‘s Rodham (the script for which I reviewed a few days ago) Mulligan might want to (a) put on a few pounds or (b) wear prosthetics that give her a very slight chubby-cheek look. Clinton was never “heavy” but she had a roundish chipmunk face, and Mulligan is a tiny bit taller and has thinner, more delicate bones. If she wants to go all Robert De Niro and get it really right, she’ll start wolfing down the cheesburgers a month before filming begins or she’ll round herself off a la January Jones in Mad Men.
(l.) Hillary Rodham upon graduating from Yale University, age 21 or so; (r.) Carey Mulligan.
“No Engulfment, No Tearing Asunder”
Now that Robert Redford is hot again with All Is Lost, it’s worth recalling his first stirring and commendable filmed performance. He played a kind and gentle-mannered Mr. Death in “Nothing In The Dark,” a 1962 Twilight Zone episode that was written by George Clayton Johnson and directed by Lamont Johnson. Redford’s big payoff (“Am I really so bad?”) begins around 7:45 and continues to the end. NITD is not some historic, rip-roaring teleplay, but it’s probably the most compassionate drama about death ever aired on American mainstream television. And R.G. Armstrong‘s performance as a kindly demolition man isn’t chopped liver either.
Three Hot Contenders
I’m partially agreeing with Rope of Silicon‘s Brad Brevet about the likeliest Best Actor contenders right now. Except, that is, for Nebraska‘s Bruce Dern, who won the Best Actor prize at last month’s Cannes Film Festival. I worship Dern and he’s quite good as Will Forte‘s snarly, partly deluded dad but it’s a Best Supporting Actor performance — the movie isn’t really about his journey as much as Forte’s. And BD’s performance is more about color and conviction than profound emotional spillage.
I also strongly suspect that other Best Actor nominees will arise out of David O. Russell‘s American Hustle (Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper or Jeremy Renner) and that Chiwetel (a.k.a. “Chewy”) Ejiofor will score with his lead performance in Steve McQueen‘s 12 Years A Slave.
Buyers Are Hedging
Cannes buyers were shown footage (or maybe just this sizzle teaser) from Anton Corbijn‘s A Most Wanted Man and they didn’t bite. That’s because they sat and watched and said to each other in the blunt manner of F. Murray Abraham in Inside Llewyn Davis, “We don’t see a lot of money in this.” They see an austere, sombre, enticingly adult espionage drama in the vein of another Tinker Tailor Solder Spy — the kind of movie that guys like myself will probably love and which your average 20something, Man of Steel-anticipating, popcorn-munching sophisticate might rent on Netflix…maybe. Pic will undoubtedly play Toronto. Cheers to “Philly” Hoffman for delivering an excellent Armin Mueller-Stahl imitation.
Bathroom As Womb
I’d like to amend or expand upon my three-year-old “Losers and Long Showers” observation. It hit me earlier today that I was being too specific when I wrote that taking long showers “is a sign of weak character” and that “anyone who does this is a soft sister — a person looking to hide inside the warm amniotic fluid of his mother’s womb.” What I really meant is that hiders and losers don’t just waste time taking long showers — they spend lots of time in bathrooms.
So the new rule (and I’m not trying to be provocative for the sake of page views — I really feel this is true) is that the more bathroom time you put in on a daily basis the more afraid you are of the occasional sting and chill of life.
Cheap Date
Sitting by canal at corner of Quai de Jemmapes and rue de Lancy — Wednesday, 6.5, 9:55 pm.
Same old Musee D’Orsay shot I’ve been taking since the late ’80s.
Quai de Jemmapes and rue de Lancy — Wednesday, 6.5, 9:05 pm.
Thought Themselves Accursed
Update: “The Peter Berg film tested through the roof at both Archlight and before a blue-collar audience.” — Filmmaker friend who knows and hears stuff.
Earlier: I’m feeling a natural sense of caution and concern about Peter Berg‘s Lone Survivor, which Universal has decided to open on 12.27 in order to exploit possible award-season huzzahs. Pic is basically about a Zero Dark Thirty-type mission gone wrong — about a real-life Seal Team assassination attempt on 6.28.05 that didn’t pan out and in fact resulted in everyone on the squad getting wasted except one. Pic stars Mark Wahlberg with Taylor Kitsch, Eric Bana, Emile Hirsch and Ben Foster costarring. Problem #1, for me, is that Berg directed Battleship — one of the all-time worst spectacle-monster films ever made. Problem #2 is Kitsch, who has proved that he’s not that adept at conveying intelligent thought + he’s suffered through the triple-whammy of John Carter, Battleship and Savages. I hope he gets through this. I don’t hate the guy or anything. We all go through bad patches.