Soldiers Pay

Although John Kerry has thrown around the number 200 Billion dollars when discussing the price of the Iraq war during the presidential debates, the real cost - as with all war- comes from the impossible to measure human cost. The refusal to allow footage of deceased soldiers returning home from the war, and the fight from the media right to stop Nightline from listing the individual Americans who had died fighting the war, showed that there was a concentrated effort on behalf of some to keep the evidence of the human price of war away from the public. In a year loaded with advocacy documentaries from the left, David O. Russel's brilliantly titled Soldiers Pay may be the most necessary. The thirty-minute film had a tumultuous history which is fairly well detailed here. I had the opportunity to see the film today and found it to be a sobering reminder of what war costs. The film consists primarily of interview footage. Much of it with a soldier who details a robbery he was a part of, a situation which draws obvious parallels to Russel's Three Kings. His loss of innocence after being lied to by his superiors is gut-wrenching, but not nearly as frightening as listening to a soldier suffering from kidney stones because of dehydration discussing how his water was rationed while private contractors had access to anything they wanted. There are better films about how the Iraq invasion happened, there are better films about the war on terrorism, but Soldiers Pay may be the best film to remind everyone what war really costs.

The film will air on IFC Monday November 1.

Why you shouldn't count Ebert out

Say what you will about Roger Ebert getting stranger and stranger in his likes and dislikes, the man still has a fabulous way with words when he is motivated.

No word on who will play Dr. Moreau now that Brando has passed

The director of the Got Milk commercial about the guy whose love of peanut butter prevents him from pronouncing the name "Aaron Burr," Michael Bay, whose style of editing proved he was the illegitimate son of William Friedkin long before it became public knowledge, will be shooting a film called The Island in one of Detroit's largest office buildings (150 W. Jefferson). The film will star Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson. You know, I love those two actors, but Ewan has done nothing but complain about working for George Lucas - can Bay be that much of an improvement? What's more fulfilling for an actor, to act in long scenes surrounded by things draped in green or to only be allowed to act for two seconds at a time with Scarlett Johansson. I know where I would stand on that question, but leave a comment on your opinion.

Thanks to Violent J for the scoop.

The Adventures of Stan Volume I

My dear friend Stan (a fake name, but everything else I tell you about him will be 100% true) works on film crews in Hollywood and has been credited on a variety of productions including 8 Mile and 21 Grams. He called me last night from his current gig which is the Showtime television series about the life of Richard Pryor. Eddie Griffin, Undercover Brother himself, is playing the comic, but Stan's story was about the people who came to visit the set during the shooting of the pilot episode. The former Gimme a Break co-star Jonathan Silverman is apparently still alive. Bob Sagat is as vulgar in real life as he is in his stand-up act. Stan says that Richard Pryor is not doing well, which I wish was more of a surprise. If you would like to help check this out. But easily the most exciting story was about Stan meeting the one and only Quentin Tarantino. Stan informed me that Quentin never shuts up. Ever. Not even while the camera is rolling. Pity the first assistant director whose job it was to yell at Tarantino to shut up on almost every take.

Saturday Night Live - even when the performers aren't

I have been an avid SNL follower since I was about eight years old and my Dad starting letting me stay up late to watch. I follow the cast changes like other people chart the day-to-day batting line-ups of favorite baseball teams. Right now I think the show is at a high point. The cast has been together a few years, they have fantastic role players in Seth Myers (a former Celebrity Poker Showdown champ) and Mya Rudolph who both seem capable of anything, and outlandish stars in Amy Pohler and Rachel Dratch. The writing staff seems to be on the mark more often than night and this past weekend's show with Jude Law will probably go down as one of the best of the year. The political content was strong and on-point. The opening monologue was a fantastic opportunity for Jude Law to mock himself, it brought to mind possibly the greatest opening monologue in history - Mel Gibson's. And then Ashlee Simpson's Milli Vanilli moment for her second performance put it over the top. I have great hope for the upcoming Kate Winslet/Eminem show.

For those who share my fascination with the show I recommend Jay Mohr's Gasping for Airtime. This is the best look back at the show I've read by someone who actually worked on it.

Dancing means different things to different peoples

The American remake of the Japanese film Shall We Dance should provide all sorts of material for those who enjoy semiotic film theory. The major problem with the film is that, even though it is faithful to the original in that it hits just about every single one of the same story beats, the actions don't have the same meanings in American culture. In Japan, part of the internal struggle of the middle-age businessman learning to ballroom dance was the cultural resistance to individuality. That does not translate to American screens at all. What ballroom dance signifies to most Americans is a lack of masculinity, and the film's one really interesting twist (in comparison with the original) recognizes this difference. While there are more than a few gay jokes thrown in to play to the homophobia in the audience, there is one great scene near the end where Stanley Tucci's character silences a group of mocking co-workers with a few masculine dance moves.

So without the cultural resistance to dance, the film is forced to find a personal reason why Richard Gere's businessman would feel shame about taking up dance. Here the film tries, but falls short. The explanation he gives near the end, a variation on yuppie regret, does not quite ring true considering the overreaction of his wife, played by Susan Sarandon. The filmmakers know this scene doesn't quite jibe because they stage it in a parking structure where Gere and Sarandon have blocked traffic. They have their first big confrontation while people surround them yelling at them to move and honking their car horns. This is a false tension that has nothing to do with the film and simply allows the filmmakers to buy more time and draw out the end of the film.

Finally, what shows the filmmakers have little faith in the audience, are the constant reaction shots letting the audience know how good a dancer Gere has become. He is a fine dancer, that is plainly obvious. Everytime the director cuts to one of the other characters grinning and nodding with approval they have to cut away from the dancing. Doing it once or twice might be fine, but the filmmakers can't let this convention go and it ends up undoing the big payoff scene for the entire movie. As Gere and Sarandon dance in a mall, two shopgirls look on in tears of romantic jealousy/bliss/happiness. These characters haven't been in the film before. They exist only to cue the audience as to how they should react. If you aren't already crying and need someone to tell you to, the film has failed.

Hopefully the release of the film will get someone to issue the beautiful Japanese original on DVD.

Setting the table

This movie weekend looked better a few weeks ago when Alfie was on the release schedule, but with the decision to move that up against The Incredibles (which seems like a good idea but I'm not sure you can counterprogram against that film) that leaves this weekend with a film that has been sitting on the shelf for almost a year (Surviving Christmas) and the American remake of a Japanese horror film starring someone who has never been in a good movie. Anybody who saw James Toback's Harvard Man had the misfortune of seeing the once and future Buffy give one of the worst performances in the history of film. Something tells me Shark Tale might just top the box office again.

Alas I might just spend the weekend listening to American Idiot non-stop. I hereby challenge anybody to come up with a lyric from this politically charged year with more social significance than, "Maybe I am the faggot America/ I'm not part of a redneck agenda."

Please leave a comment if you have a worthy rival. See that gauntlet laying there? I just threw it down.

Everybody have a safe and happy weekend.

What happens when Alpha Males can't play nice

This is easily the best insider Hollywood story of the year. And it gets uglier every day.

I Heart Huckabees

David O. Russell’s second film, the woefully underrated comedy Flirting with Disaster, was a comedy about a man searching for his identity which he defined by his family. Russell’s I Heart Huckabees actually has the same basic conflict at its center, but instead of defining oneself through family the film follows characters who are trying to define themselves in terms of the universe. Although these topics have obsessed philosophers and others since the beginning of thought, Russell pares these weighty issues down to one central question: Is everything in the world connected, or is everything in the world separate. Dustin Hoffman, in a character based on the influential Robert Thurman, personifies the “everything is connected” school of thought. His performance as the rumpled existential detective has a childlike wonder mixed with the confidence that comes with wisdom. It is an engaging performance that deserves a better character. The same is true of all the actors. The performers are working hard, and are watchable, but they all seem to playing characters that are concepts rather than three-dimensional people. While the actual plot points in the film feel configured by the writer to prove a point rather than to illuminate character, the actual dialogue sparkles with intelligence, wit, and silliness. Flirting with Disaster and Three Kings both had strong social and political themes, but never sacrificed character in order to make those points. The individual scenes in I Heart Huckabees all work well, getting laughs and distilling complicated theories into easy to understand nuggets, but for the first time in his impressive career Russell has overwritten a script. For a film that seeks to teach life lessons, Huckabees needs a bit more real life.


Later today: Thoughts on the upcoming movie weekend and more gushing over American Idiot.

Someone paid attention during School of Rock

What did Jack Black teach/remind all of us in School of Rock? That the point of Rock and Roll is to stick it to the man. I just finished listening to Green Day's American Idiot and I'm convinced Billy Joe Armstrong is at the head of the class. While he has always written first-rate rock songs, Armstrong outdoes himself on this set. This album is a full frontal assault on the hypocrisy of this moment in time, yet is savvy enough lyrically that it should not sound dated in ten, twenty, or even fifty years. If there is such a thing as unified alienation, this is what it sounds like. This is the work of a grown artist comforting the troubled teenager he used to be.

Coming tomorrow: My review of I Heart Huckabees.

Joining the bandwagon

The great advantage television has over films is the ability to spend more time with characters. The best shows of the last few years are able to shape great story arcs over many episodes or even seasons. Steven Bochco should be thanked for popularizing this storytelling technique with Hill Street Blues. Right now Arrested Development has possibly perfected this style. I came late to the show having heard it was brilliant but reluctant in the age of DVD to begin watching the show midseason. Having watched almost all the first season now thanks to the DVD release there is little doubt in my mind that this is easily the best half-hour comedy on television. The hand-held camera style is the perfect choice to underscore the casual cruelty and sarcasm. The show has the confidence not to "punch" the funny moments. Jason Bateman has grown into an excellent straight man over the course of the first season. His deadpan delivery allows for a moral center in the middle of such selfish, greedy, and occasionally cruel behavior. But unlike most sitcoms the cruelty in Arrested Development comes from the characters and not from the writers. It isn't the insults themselves that get the laughs, it is the fact that these characters are all fully drawn and the audience understands where the animosities between the various characters started. Most appealing is the fact that, even though these characters are often horrible to each other, they are a believable family that occasionally glimpses real moments of love and trust. Imagine the glory years of Susan Harris' Soap with three dimensional characters and you can begin to understand the remarkable achievement that is Arrested Development.

See the first season on DVD and then start watching the new one on FOX after the Red Sox lose to Roger Clemens in Game 7 of the World Series.

Interesting DVD commentary fact

The director of the Dawn of the Dead remake thanks Scott Frank (Out of Sight, Get Shorty, Dead Again) and Michael Tolkien (The Player, The New Age), a pair of gifted writers who have both shown they can create great characters and put them in interesting plots, for their uncredited work on the screenplay. No wonder that film was so much better than anybody expected.

The best of the year so far

As October winds to a close I have to say there are five films that stand out as the best so far. In the order I saw them and the reactions I had to them at the time:

I loved The Dreamers. It was as if Bertolucci had looked into my soul and understood why I love moviesasm much I do, and understood how people filter their world view through the movies that affect them.

Kill Bill. Tarantino proved that regardless of his substantial skills as a filmmaker, he is first and foremost a writer. For more click here.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Charlie Kaufman managed to create a post-modern Annie Hall which is rather impressive considering Annie Hall was itself post-modern.

Before Sunset. Richard Linklater has come up with the best American film since Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia. For a full review written by yours truly click here.

Metallica: Some Kind of Monster masterfully presents the complicated relationships between the members of the band and offers a textbook example of how to edit a documentary.