Linklater's Bad News Bears

The first decade of the 21st century has been a fruitful time for director Richard Linklater. After regaining his artistic footing with the back-to-back releases of the animated philosophy class Waking Life and the claustrophobic drama Tape in the same year, he whipped up the biggest box-office hit of his career with the winning School of Rock. He followed that up with a film that displayed the full power of his aesthetic approach and deepened his already weighty themes, Before Sunset - the best work of his career and so far the best film of this decade. Bad News Bears allows him to ease up on the gas peddle. That is not to say the film is lazy or lacks his remarkable ability to observe characters without judgment. The film is well-directed, solidly written, and the performers (both professional and amateur) are engaging. Billy Bob Thornton delivers another first-rate comedic performance that manages to stay remarkably faithful to the indelible memory of Walter Matthau’s work in the original while being different enough that you never compare the two while watching this new version. However there is something off in the basic conception of the film. Both this film and the original are about skewering American sacred cows. Linklater finds ways to make pointed comments about the War in Iraq that would make Michael Ritchie smile. He obviously admires the original film, occasionally lifting from it entire sections of dialogue (the script is partly credited to the screenwriter of the original film) and even some shots. But a reverent ode to irreverence, however well-crafted, can’t help but seem inessential. As solid as Linklater’s film is, coming off of his most recent work and with the memory of the perfect original, inessential is how it feels.

The Genius of Owen Wilson

Field Maloney has an absolute first-rate piece in Slate suggesting that Owen Wilson may have been the Karl Rove to Wes Anderson's W. Personally I think he's more like the Ray Davies to Wes Anderson's Dave Davies, but that's just me.

Wedding Crashers Review

Having worked with both Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn in other movies (Clay Pigeons and Shanghai Knights), director David Dobkin clearly understood how to combine their comedic skills in The Wedding Crashers. Wilson’s laid-back openness meshes perfectly with Vaughn’s remarkable ability to be simultaneously totally selfish and incredibly loyal. The film opens with a rather long montage that shows how the pair act at the various expensive weddings they crash, and this sequence does nothing more than reveal behavior. There is no plot at this point for the audience to be taken in by. Dobkin feels such confidence in his performers and in his material that he takes his time while never sacrificing quality funny moments. The audience understands both of these guys so well by the time the plot kicks in that Dobkin can mix big set pieces (like a family dinner with outrageous behavior happening both above and below the table) with more intimate scenes between the characters. There are storylines that dead-end, most specifically and alarmingly the casual disappearance of Jane Seymour from the film after her big scene, but the sharp-editing, confident pace, solid story structure and winning performances by the leads (as well as Isla Fisher and Rachel McAdams) makes The Wedding Crashers one of the most enjoyable Hollywood comedies of the 2005 summer season.

One of the Best Gets It

In an earlier Memo I enthused about the seriousness of Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds. David Edelstein in Slate weighs in today with similar sentiments.

First Nominee for Best Movie Review of the Year

Dennis Lim on The Island

"Shots last for seconds at a time."

Paul Thomas Anderson directing Prairie Home Companion (sort-of)

And I hope it is true - not that I want Altman to be that ill, I'm just happy Paul Thomas Anderson is involved this much.

Thank you Matt - the mayer of the city of floating blogs.

Jack Black as King of the World

The entertaining gossip site Defamer has an excellent article on humiliating quesitons asked by fans.

Thanks for the link, Jen

According to the imdb....

Cooter Shoots Down 'Hazzard' Movie
Ben Jones, who played Cooter on The Dukes of Hazzard TV series, has urged fans of the show to stay away from the movie version when it is released in August. Jones, who went on to become a Georgia congressman, before he was defeated by Newt Gingrich in 1994, said that after reading the script of the movie, he had concluded that it was "a sleazy insult to all of us who have cared about The Dukes of Hazzard for so long." Jones's remarks were posted on his website, www.cootersplace.com. "Sure it bothers me that they wanted nothing to do with the cast of our show, but what bothers me much more is the profanity laced script with blatant sexual situations that mocks the good clean family values of our series. Now, anybody who knows me knows that I'm not a prude. But this kind of toilet humor has no place in Hazzard County. Rather than honoring our legendary show, they have chosen to degrade it," he wrote.

The most amazing part of this story to me is the fact that www.cootersplace.com isn't a porn site.

The Best TomKat Piece Yet

I have tried to avoid commenting on the Tom Cruise Katie Holmes media event because it just does not interest me for the most part. It disturbs me and finally someone has written an excellent article explaining why this PR campaign is frightening. You will have to click on an advertisement in order to get a day pass to read the article, but it is free and you will not have to register.

I love every aspect of this

This all sounds too good to be true.

Dark Water

I don't care for J-Horror films to begin with, and I really don't care for American remakes of them. Add that to the fact that Jennifer Connelly is the worst actress alive and you would think there would be no way I could enjoy Dark Water. For the most part, that is true. However, watching John C. Reilly play an unctuous real estate guy produces some welcome amusement, and seeing Tim Roth play a regular guy was a powerful reminder of what a great screen presence he is. I miss Tim Roth, I wish he worked more often and in more high-profile gigs. His job here serves a purpose not unlike the psychiatrist at the end of Psycho, but even though he is little more than a device to finally explain what is going on he seems like a real person. And when he and Reilly finally get to play a scene together in the film's final act...well that's just kind of like acting crack for me. So no, I don't recommend the film but for all those who miss the remarkable skill of Tim Roth as much as I do you might just think of the film as time well spent.

Spielberg and Stone

James Wolcott has a superb piece about politically minded filmmakers and the anger they trigger in pundits.

If you don't have Wolcott bookmarked, you should.

The Warning Signs of Superstardom

A great piece in The London Times

The worst film of the summer...possibly of the year

Nora Ephron could have followed any number of fertile avenues thanks to her intriguing post-modern premise for Bewitched. Instead she goes down her well-trod path of mirthless romantic comedy. Failing as a Hollywood satire, an ode to the original source material, and as a romantic comedy, the inert Bewitched leaves an audience stranded with nothing to care about. The five leads, Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell, ShirleyMacLain, Michael Caine, and Kristin Chenoweth all work very hard to wring what few laughs there are to get, but they each seem to be acting in a different movie. The only performer who registers in a lasting way is Steve Carell who shows up in the movie’s third act as Uncle Arthur. His performance evokes Paul Lynde without mimicking him outright. AlthoughUncle Arthur’s appearance and his actions are as arbitrary as everything else in the film, Carell brings an energy and an idiosyncratic comic timing to the third act that is missing from all that came before. By the time the always dependable Amy Sedaris and Richard Kind show up in the final scene as the meta-Kravitzs, one wishes Ephron had simply served up a straight-up remake of the original television show with Carell, Sedaris, and Kind getting much of the best material. More likely, one might wish for that film as long as it is directed and written by anyone but her.

The Most Pleasant Surprise of the Summer

As handled by director Angela Robinson, Herbie: Fully Loaded offers a first-rate entertainment that respects the source material without copying it or settling for nostalgia. The film quickly establishes the relationships between the main characters and allows their motivations to carry the story. The special effects in the film are unobtrusive, and occasionally Robinson uses similar processes that were utilized during the original Herbie films to make that cute little car do the impossible. The rock solid editing allows the laughs to flow and builds suspense during the action sequences, without milking either. There is a bright, friendly look and feel to the film that puts audiences at ease, and assists the actors as they win over the audience. Even with a certain amount of tabloid baggage at this point in her career, Lindsay Lohan still manages to capture a smart girl-next-door vibe that few of her contemporaries can manage. She is genuinely appealing, and understands how to earn an audience's affection. Lohan gets first-rate support from Michael Keaton as a good father still in mourning over the loss of his wife, and outstanding comedic assistance from Justin Long who in his opening scene manages one of the most perfectly executed pratfalls captured on film in quite some time. The MPAAs G rating is often associated with kid-only films, but the sweet likeableable Herbie: Fully Loaded earns its G rating by reminding viewers of a time when that rating meant the film can be enjoyed by all audiences.