A 9.20 N.Y. Times story by Neil Lewis reports that former Senator John Edwards, facing a federal grand jury probe about possible illegal use of campaign donations funnelled to Reille Hunter in order to keep his affair with her secret, is “moving toward an abrupt reversal [by] declaring that he’s the father of Hunter’s 19-month-old daughter, something that he once flatly asserted in a television interview was not possible.”
What a detestable scumbug, at long last suffering his just desserts. Lewis’s story is highly pleasurable in its assessment of Edwards’ downfall. The best part of the story focuses on “the account of Andrew Young, once a close aide to Mr. Edwards, who had signed an affidavit asserting that he was the father of Ms. Hunter’s child.
“Mr. Young, who has since renounced that statement, has told publishers in a book proposal that Mr. Edwards knew all along that he was the child’s father. He said Mr. Edwards pleaded with him to accept responsibility falsely, saying that would reduce the story to one of a political aide’s infidelity.
“In the proposal, which The New York Times examined, Mr. Young asserts that he assisted the affair by setting up private meetings between Mr. Edwards and Ms. Hunter. He wrote that Mr. Edwards once calmed an anxious Ms. Hunter by promising her that after his wife died, he would marry her in a rooftop ceremony in New York with an appearance by the Dave Matthews Band.
“Once the favorite son of much of North Carolina with many supporters beyond, John Edwards is now largely disdained. To many, it was not only his liaison with Ms. Hunter, but also what seemed his elaborate effort to cover up his behavior to preserve his political ambitions.
“Friends and other associates of Mr. Edwards and his wife of 32 years, Elizabeth, say she has resisted the idea of her husband’s claiming paternity. Mrs. Edwards, who is battling cancer, ‘has yet to be brought around,’ said one family friend, who like others spoke about the situation on the condition of anonymity, pointing to the complicated and delicate nature of the issue.
“The situation may become more fraught, as people who know Ms. Hunter said she was planning to move with her daughter, Frances, from New Jersey to North Carolina in coming months.
“For her grand jury appearance on 8.6, Ms. Hunter took her daughter to the federal courthouse in downtown Raleigh. As she walked in, she seemed to turn the girl’s face toward the local television cameras.
“Ms. Hunter testified to the grand jury in detail about her relationship with Mr. Edwards, lawyers involved in the case said, as well as the benefits she was provided by his supporters after she became pregnant. Michael Crichtley, her lawyer, declined to comment.”
No need to interpret the expression on Rep. Joe Wilson (Republican, South Carolina) as he shouted “you lie!” during President Obama ‘s health care speech last night. But look at those two reptilian guys sitting next to him. Talk about an utter absence of God’s light. Why don’t Hollywood casting agents ever find guys with faces like this?
I heard this morning from Erica no-last-name, a 21 year-old student from Charlotte, North Carolina. Being an intelligent and committed Avatard, she took issue with my 8.17 report (“Room at the Inn”) about how the Avatar tickets were snapped up faster in big cities than in outlying areas, and especially what that implied about awareness levels.
“Don’t assume everyone outside of NY and LA is oblivious to Hollywood doings,” she wrote. “I know how these places look from the outside (middle-class, popcorn-eating audiences flocking to stupid blockbusters) but Charlotte does have a little art society inside it, even though we might be in the minority. I have two reserved tickets to an Avatar screening here in Charlotte, and I know more people who are going also. Not only that, but I’m trying to sell the shit out of this thing because I truly believe in the epic-ness of it.”
To which I replied: “Yeah, you’re from an upscale-urban small-college town…naturally! Any semi-educated, reasonably well-travelled American realizes, of course, that the American hinterland is sprinkled with small and mid-sized towns and college communities of a blue-green liberal bent. Oasis-like havens with nice people, cool cafes, bookstores, nice walking-around areas, non-Blockbuster DVD stores, second-hand clothing stores and pretty women with nice pedicures.
“Tupelo, Mississippi, to name one example, is generally regarded as a rural Southern city with all the attendant shortcomings, but it’s got a nice, old-town vibe here and there, and everyone you meet is polite and kindly. Not my kind of town architecturally but a decent place to hang for a day or two. So yeah, I know the score and thank God that the spirit of rural America isn’t entirely ruled by Walmarts and junk-food outlets and red-state Glenn Beck attitudes.
“What I was saying in the piece — or asking, really — is whether outlying areas are as attuned as big cities to ‘viral happenings’ like the Avatar free-seat giveaway.
“As I looked over the Avatar site at the end of the first day (i.e., two days ago) that had reports about which theatres in which cities were sold out (or more precisely requested-out), the general pattern was that the big-city IMAX theatres filled up right away but that scores of theatres in the rural and suburban areas still had seats open.
“The obvious conclusion is that rural/suburbans (a) have fewer hardcore fans of CG scifi/alternate-reality event movies and (b) aren’t as wired into what’s happening as big-city types. That’s all I was really saying.”
You’d think with all the fanboys out there and all the Avatar hype that the free tickets to Friday evening’s “Avatar Day” preview would be totally gone coast-to-coast after this afternoon’s online giveaway. Actually not so far (i.e., as of 10 pm eastern). I thought this would be like the sale of Bruce Springsteen concert tickets, but nope. Avatar looks seriously hot in the big cities but elsewhere….well, not quite a stampede.
All the big-city theatres are online-requested out and some of the IMAX theatres have filled up in various territories, but there are scores of regular and IMAX theatres in the hinterlands that still have tickets left. Florida is wide open except for Orlando and Tampa. Kansas City and Las Vegas still have seats. Philadelphia-area New Jersey theatres have room. Columbus, Ohio, is sold out but theatres in Charlotte and Concord, North Carolina still have seats. All the New York theatres outside of Manhattan are still open for business. Four Houston IMAX theatres still have seats but two San Antonio IMAX theatres are all filled up. Twelve theatres in Washington state (Seattle and outlying areas) have seats open.
Does this mean that (a) people in outlying realms are always slow to pick up on viral happenings?, or (b) that some people are figuring what’s the hubba-hubba about a 16-minute reel?, or (c) that Avatar has a ways to go with the middle-American geek-Eloi? Maybe a bit of all three. But if I was a Fox marketing guy I’d be wondering why tickets to a free peek at the year’s biggest event pic weren’t Gone in Sixty Minutes.
I’ve just come out of a 4 pm public screening of Amy Rice and Alicia Sams‘ By The People: The Election of Barack Obama at Manhattan’s Sunshine Cinemas, and I’m sorry to say it’s a fairly bloodless portrait of one of the most fascinating, breathtaking, sometimes ugly, occasionally transcendent, up-and-down racial-tinderbox elections in our nation’s history. It’s up-close and somewhat intimate and sorta kinda dull at times. Not novacaine dull but glide-along, yeah-yeah dull.
You’d never really know what a heart-pumping ride Obama’s two-year campaign for the White House was by watching this nicely assembled but excessively mild-mannered doc.
Rice and Sams were given extraordinary close-up access to candidate Obama and his innermost circle (David Plouffe, David Axelrod, Robert Gibbs, etc.) as well as Michelle, Sasha and Malia. The co-directors caught some good stuff along the way (Obama tear-streaking when speaking about his recently-deceased grandmother, a ten year-old campaign worker patiently dealing with a contentious voter over the phone, etc.) but it almost seems as if Rice and Sams agreed to let Axelrod and Gibbs co-edit the film with an aim to de-balling and up-spinning the final version as much as possible.
This seems especially apparent given the overly-diplomatic and toothless portrait of Hillary Clinton‘s campaign. Her current position as President Obama’s Secretary of State obviously means it would have been very politically awkward for a documentary to bring up her frequently ugly, race-baiting campaign tactics and so — I don’t mean to sound over-cynical and pat-minded but how else am I to process this? — Rice and Sams have given her a near-total pass.
There’s no mention of Hilary’s incessantly playing rhetorical race cards, talking about how working white people support her, etc. There’s no footage or even a mention of Bill Clinton, and therefore no mention of his post-South Carolina primary remark that Obama’s victory in that state was somehow comparable to Jesse Jackson ‘s win there in the mid ’80s. There’s no mention of Hillary’s cynical campaign speech about how Obama “will bring us together and the heavens will part” speech, which she delivered, as I recall, during the Ohio-and-Texas primary campaign. There’s no mention of Hillary’s made-up Bosnia story about dodging bullets when she visited that country in the mid ’90s. There’s no mention of Samantha Power‘s “Hillary is a monster” comment. There’s no mention of Hillary’s bizarre refusal to concede when she should have (i.e., after Obama had his electoral-vote triumph sewn up) and how she had to be stern-talked into doing so by Congressional and Senatorial colleagues.
It’s even more bizarre that the racial resistance factor among white voters — surely the central hurdle of Obama’s campaign — is only faintly acknowledged. We’re shown a clip of a couple of younger Bubbas stating that Obama’s ancestry is a problem, but that’s just about it in terms of Rice and Sams catching the backwater attitudes that were brought up by reporters and the political talk-show crowd nearly every damn day during the primaries and the general election,
The Reverend Wright issue is raised (how could it not be?) along with Obama’s historic Philadelphia speech about racial relations. But there’s no mention of Michelle taking heat for saying that the positive response to her husband’s campaign was cause for her feeling proud of the U.S for the first time in a long time. There’s no mention of that idiotic terrorist fist bump flap. No YouTube clip of that West Virginia cracker lady on the back of that motorcycle expressing cultural shock at the sound of Obama’s name. There’s no mention whatsover of the fear of the Bradley Effect, a now-discounted concern that white voters might change their minds about voting for a black candidate in the privacy of the voting booth due to latent racism. And Obama’s decision to finally cut all ties with Reverend Wright is completely ignored also.
And there’s very little mention of the general campaign against John McCain and Sarah Palin. It accounts for maybe ten minutes out of the film, which runs somewhere close to two hours. (I should have timed it but didn’t.) No right-wing stirring of the racial pot, no mention of McCain’s “The One” ad (and no clip of David Gergen explaining that the racial coding of that ad was clear to anyone who grew up in the South), no expressions of bone-dumb ignorance (“He’s…I think he’s an Arab”) and/or racial hatred at McCain and Palin rallies (“Kill him!”),
There’s some good B-roll footage of Obama playing basketball with friends, but the best photo-op basketball moment of the entire campaign — i.e., the moment when Obama made a near-perfect shot from outside the penalty circle in front of an audience of troops in Iraq — is missing. It leads you to suspect/presume that Rice and Sams didn’t cover last summer’s Middle East/European tour, and to ask why.
In sum, For The People comes pretty close to being a political chick flick. Which is to say it emphasizes emotionality and intimacy at the expense of the fierce melodrama and primal intensity that were fundamental aspects of the story. I could be mean and call it a puff piece and….you know something? It’s not being mean to say that because it more or less is that.
Because of these factors By The People is not likely to be seen as a contender for the Best Feature Documentary Oscar. Gentleness and a lack of edge don’t tend to stir people. You can’t be in bed with your subject when you’re portraying him/her in some journalistic form. I’m not saying that Rice and Sams were in fact emotionally entwined with the Obama campaign, but the doc makes it seem as if they were. And that’s a no-no. You have to step back and disengage and be merciless, if necessary.
There are several little things in the film that are pleasing or revealing in this or that minor way. But the fact is that most of the film is not focused on Obama himself as much as his campaign staff, and much of this footage feels like B roll. The narrative emphasis in the doc is somewhat akin to the kind of backstory you might pass along to your grandmother as you show her your family photo album and explain this and that. It’s too kindly and considerate and smoothed over..
It’s been pointed out by a friend of Rice and Sams that “the filmmakers made the film they wanted to make…it’s called By The People. And they captured the emotion of the campaign.” On this last point I respectfully disagree.
This is a ludicrous idea. What has happened in Carol Channing‘s life that makes it biopic-worthy? She had a career, sang and danced, became world-famous, did Hello Dolly on-stage….what? Gay guys love Channing for being a kind of living caricature of a larger-than-life superstar — the raspy/reedy voice, large popping eyes, platinum blonde hair and wall-to-wall smile. Except that’s not a movie. Certainly not a theatrical one.
FilmBuff, a video-on-demand channel for connoisseurs of high-quality, indie-level cinema as well as classics from all studios and realms, began to appear today on a couple of dozen cable systems, including Verizon’s FiOS and Charter. Cinetic Rights Management’s John Sloss and Matt Dentler, who told me about their new operation earlier today, said FilmBuff would be available on all the cable systems within two months time (i.e., by mid September).
Half of the films shown will be brand-new, unseen features or newish features that haven’t received the theatrical exposure their backers or fans felt was appropriate or deserved. The other half will be unseen gems from the not-too-distant past that have either been unreleased or hard to find on DVD. The films would be available for limited periods of three months or thereabouts.
“We’re excited about bringing more films to audiences around the country, both on broadband VOD and now cable VOD,” said Dentler, Cinetic’s head of programming “There’s a disconnect between movie audiences and quality films, both new and old. We’re trying to end that today.”
As one of the biggest sales-agent players in the indiewood scene, Cinetic is obviously in a good position to snag a wide array of films in both categories from various distributors and rights holders. Sloss and Dentler have relationships with everyone. And there isn’t a lot of competition right now in the VOD indie field except for IFilm and Magnolia, and they’re pushing their own product as opposed to Film Buff’s across-the-board offerings.
At present each download would cost the FilmBuff subscriber roughly $3.99 to $6.99, depending on the particulars of each title and deal. No flat monthly subscriber fees or discounted fees for subscribers are being contemplated for now.
My ears naturally perked up when I heard about FilmBuff making oldies-but-goldies available. This would mean possible deals to show all the older films I’d like to see but can’t due to various titles being unloved or unwanted by their rights holders.
John Sloss
Like Ken Russell‘s The Devils, for example, or James Bridges‘ Mike’s Murder. Or Mike Nichols‘ The Fortune, Jack Webb‘s -30-, David Jones‘ Betrayal, Frank Perry‘s Play It As It Lays, John Flynn‘s The Outfit, Paul Mazursky‘s Alex in Wonderland, Robert Aldrich‘s The Legend of Lylah Clare, Robert Altman‘s That Cold Day in the Park, Mark Rydell ‘s The Fox and Carol Reed‘s Outcast of the Islands. And that’s just for starters.
Current titles in the launch package are Richard Linklater‘s classic Slacker and Rob Epstein‘s The Times of Harvey Milk, as well as new films like Michael Almereyda‘s New Orleans Mon Amour (starring Christopher Eccleston and Elisabeth) and the Tribeca 2008 hit comedy The Auteur.
FilmBuff is part of Cinetic Rights Management (CRM), which is an arm of Cinetic Media. Whereas Cinetic Media is a sales agent for traditional media, CRM is a VOD distributor, and a separate company with different staffing.
I’ll have more information about FilmBuff as the days and weeks progress, but this seems like something I’d definitely want to have as a viewing option.
Ten years and 17 days ago I wrote a nice little piece for my Mr. Showbiz column about the nutritious upside of faintly boring movies. I’m asking if anyone thinks it applies in the present and if so, concerning which 2009 films? Here it is:
Anyone interested in higher-quality films these days knows the truth of it. Some of the better ones are unique, special, X-factor — Go, The Matrix, Election, Rushmore, There’s Something About Mary, Run Lola Run, Saving Private Ryan, etc. The rest of the quality movies flirt with being boring from time to time. A good kind of boring, I mean. Nutritional, Brussels-sprouts, good-for-your-soul boring.
It’s important to understand the degree of boring I’ve speaking of here. I don’t mean sinking-into-a-coma boring. Or regular boring. Or even mildly boring. But a little bit boring.
All John Sayles movies are pretty good — some have been excellent — but they’re all a wee bit boring. David Cronenberg‘s eXistenZ was a smart, mostly cool movie, but a bit boring at times. The Red Violin is a teensy bit boring. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is slightly boring. The scent of boredom can be detected, like the aroma of wet paint, in the margins of Cookie’s Fortune. Lovers of the Arctic Circle — liked it, thought about dozing off once or twice. Bernardo Bertolucci‘s Besieged was sensual, delectable, and a bit of a nod.
My point is, it’s often a mark of quality if something is a little bit boring. But I do mean a little bit. Too much of it and you’ll go to sleep. There are dozens of films released every year that are wonderful sleeping aids. I’m not talking about those. I’m talking about films that are laced with boredom. Like a couple pinches of salt in a bowl of egg salad. Just the right amount of it is usually an indication that a film is doing something right.
Atom Egoyan‘s The Sweet Hereafter did a lot of things right — it was mesmerizing, quietly powerful — but it was ever so slightly boring. The English Patient was a bit boring. So were The Wings of the Dove, Seven Years in Tibet, Kundun, Washington Square. All of those fine Merchant-Ivory films, all those Jane Austen adaptations. I mean no disrespect to Carol Reed‘s The Third Man (1949) when I say, good as it is, that it’s a teensy bit boring. Same for some of the great silent classics like Way Down East, Greed, and Sunrise, etc., which I respect and admire.
But I’m always glad after seeing a high-quality, slightly boring film, because I can then say to myself or someone I happen to meet that I’ve just seen one, and because of this my soul is richer and my horizons have been broadened. I never feel this way after seeing a big-studio, high-velocity idiot movie. Does anyone?
Face it — most of us are peons when it comes to upscale, slightly boring movies. We don’t want to know from complex or sophisticated. We just want to sit there and get stroked.
This is probably our fault, to some extent. Maybe movies just seem a bit boring at times because we’ve lost the ability (or the willingness) to stay with movies that require a little patience or concentration. The cliché about today’s kids not having the attention span of a flea is reaching out to the older age brackets. Even the over-40s seem to be losing interest in movies with even a minute meditative edge. It’s not just the kids who play video games — it’s all of us.
So clearly, in the backwash of all this cultural deprivation, “a little bit boring” is a serious compliment these days. You just have to mean it (or hear it) the right way.
Would you spring for a Bluray of a 1951 British black-and-white film that was professionally produced but never intended to be a Gregg Toland-level visual masterpiece? I’m planning to in this instance. Brian Desmond Hurst‘s A Christmas Carol, the only version worth owning or watching, has never looked all that radiant, although the most recent standard DVD was fairly decent. A “new state-of-the-art high-def film transfer from the original 35mm negatives” is promised with “digitally restored picture and sound.”
The thrust of this Kim Masters/Daily Beasthit piece (“The Knives Are Out for Michael Mann“) is that if and when Public Enemiestanks with Mr. and Mrs. Joe Schmoe and their kids over the July 4th holiday then it’s curtains for Mann in terms of getting any kind of heavy funding for his next film.
Haven’t I already figured this out? Mr. and Mrs. Joe Schmoe and their kids will not be all that happy with Public Enemies — let’s face it. It’s not a mojo burger, pickles and potato chip type of film and it never will be.
I heard today from an older North Carolina couple. Not very sixpacky in their taste and attitudes (the husand is former Manhattan-based entertainment reporter Lewis Beale), but they went to the film today and here’s what they thought. “The Beales saw it today, and loved it,” Lewis wrote. “We agree that it’s an art film, which is why it’s really problematic at the b.o. But languid, elegaic and beautifully shot. Depp and Cotillard are great. Stirring social-political subtext (lone entrepreneur up against big business and big government). A major work.”
Masters also reports that Johnny Depp decided not to talk to Mann at some time during filming — big deal.
The N.Y. Daily News is reporting that a right-wing South Carolina activist named Rusty DePass was busted last Friday for writing a charming remark about Michelle Obama on his Facebook page.
And a few proud U.S. citizens are planning to stage a “Fire David Letterman rally” Tuesday afternoon (i.e. tomorrow) at 4:30 pm in front of the Ed Sullivan theatre (i.e. where Letterman tapes the show). “Press contacts” for the event, listed on an apparently official site, include New York State Assemblyman Brian Kolb, attorney Gwendolyn Lindsay-Jackson, and rightwing radio talk-show host John Ziegler.
The Disney team has invited journos to watch footage of Robert Zemeckis’ and Jim Carrey’s A Christmas Carol at noon today. I wasn’t invited but wouldn’t be attending anyway due to the Lars von Trier/Antichrist press conference, which is where I’m filing from (standing in front of the dais) and which is just about to start.
Kinatay director Brilliante Mendoza and his cast at press conference a day or two ago.