Blu ray/DVD Review: HELL OR HIGH WATER

Now available on Blu ray and DVD:

HELL OR HIGH WATER

(Dir. David Mackenzie, 2016)

I saw this movie during its theatrical run earlier this year, but never got around to blogging about it. I figured that it’s is a good time to catch up with it now because (1) it was recently released on Blu ray and DVD (2) it’s the #1 top grossing independent film of 2016 (3) it’s an excellent film that’s one of the year’s best.

With the theme of robbing-the-banks-because-they’re-robbing-us, Director David Mackenzie’s film posits Chris Pine and Ben Foster as Texas brothers who carry off a crime spree that involves them hitting a bunch of branches of the fictitious Texas Midlands Bank that’s set to foreclose on their recently deceased mother’s property by the end of the week.

The plan is the brainchild of Pine’s Toby Howard, a divorced father who can’t stand the idea that will soon own his family’s long-held land due to a reverse mortgage. Toby’s brother Tanner (Foster) was just released from prison, and is more than happy to go along with Toby’ Robin Hood-esque scheme simply because he’s a born outlaw.

On the boys’ trail is a Jeff Bridges as Texas Ranger Marcus Hamilton, who is, of course, on the verge of retirement with this being most likely his last case. Bridges’ gruff yet extremely laid back Hamilton is what you may call jokingly racist, as he constantly makes cracks about his partner, Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham), being of Mexican Indian descent, but you can tell he’s just playfully riffing on stereotypes when he says “I’m lucky, I got a half-breed by my side to avenge me – if you can stay sober long enough, knowing how you injuns like the bottle.”

Hamilton deduces that the armed, masked men who are robbing Texas Midlands are trying to raise money for something, and he and his partner stake out a branch in a small town that seems likely to be hit next.

Except for a sequence involving Tanner and Toby taking their stolen loot to be laundered at an Indian casino in Oklahoma, we spend nearly equal time with the cops and the robbers.

We learn that Tanner had gone to jail for killing their abusive father, and that Toby has an angry ex-wife (Marin Ireland) and two sons that he’s determine to provide for. On the law enforcement side, Hamilton is a widower who’s not looking forward to his retirement, while Parker is a family man who dreams about moving to Galveston for a life spent fishing.

There are traces of the Coen brothers’ seminal modern western masterpiece NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN in this movie’s blood, but it’s a quieter, more restrained narrative without the Coens’ trademark dark humor edge.

Although there is a element of the Coens’ cynicism in such scenes as when the brothers’ helpful lawyer (Kevin Rankin) says “To see you boys pay those bastards back with their own money? If that’s not Texan I don’t know what is.”

Cinematographer Giles Nuttgens, who’s collaborated with Mackenzie on several projects, paints a wide West Texas landscape sparsely decorated with billboards advertising debt relief, diners populated with complaining patrons, and sassy waitresses; and yellow fields stretching to the horizon.

As clichéd as these characters and their environs might sound, SICARIO screenwriter Taylor Sheridan unpretentiously fleshes out these people’s scenerios, giving every speaking part believability. Despite the tension in the robbery scenes, and the shoot-out in the hills climax, there’s a low-key tone that’s reflected in the convincingly lived-in performances.

The effectively eerie piano and violin score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, along with a well chosen collection of country songs by such artists as Townes van Zandt, Gillian Welch, Waylon Jennings, and Billy Joe Shaver scattered throughout the soundtrack, fit the film perfectly. Ray Wylie Hubbard’s over 20-year old dirge “Dust of the Chase” in particular sounds like it was written for the film with its line: “lost in the dust of the chase that my life brings.”

All of these delightful details come together to make a truly poetic film about poetic justice.

The on-point, socially conscious piece of modern western work that is HELL OR HIGH WATER definitely deserves some award season action – I’d love to see Bridges score another Oscar or at least a nomination – and its place on many critics’ year end “best of” lists (it’ll be on mine).

In a fairly lackluster year for film, Mackenzie’s exceptionally well made movie really stands out. Here’s hoping it gains traction as more folks see it and find it as satisfying as I did.

Special Features: The featurettes “Enemies Forever: The Characters of HELL OR HIGH WATER,” “Visualizing the Heart of America,” and “Damaged Heroes: The Performance of HELL OR HIGH WATER,”; a brief segment of the Red Carpet Premiere in Austin, Texas, and a 30-minute Filmmaker Q & A filmed at a Los Angeles screening hosted by Time Magazine’s Sam Lansky featuring Mackenzie, Bridges, Pine and Birmingham.

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Musings On The Music In The Coen Brothers' Movies: Part II

 
As the Coen brothers’ latest, INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS, is opening in my area tomorrow, I thought I’d re-post a two part piece I had written wrote for moviezeal.com a while back that chronologically covered the scores and songs of their filmography up until 2007. In addition, I'll be posting a Part 3 which will cover their films’ music from 2008 onward.

Part I covered from BLOOD SIMPLE to FARGO, so now let’s take a look at THE BIG LEBOWSKI through NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN.

PART II: From a Movie Mix-tape Made By The Dude to a Muted De-Countrified Terrain With Some Soggy Mountain Boys Songs on the Side (1998-2007)

In late 1997, not long it felt after the buzz of the awards and accolades for FARGO died down, a trailer appeared that announced the Coen brother’s next film was going to be a loud colorful comedy about an aging hippie bowler caught in, yep, another kidnapping caper! I know I was not alone when watching the preview in thinking “bring it on!”

 
THE BIG LEBOWSKI blew me away when I first saw it on the big screen with the music being no small part of the experience. Especially since the movie is wall to wall music – from the first frame to the end credits over 30 songs are heard in either fragments or filling entire scenes.

The issued soundtrack is the first of the Coens’ recordings to consist of songs - not composed tracks - with only one Carter Burwell original - “Technopop (Wie Glauben)” - That’s because there is almost no Burwell in the film – a bit of suspenseful strains to heighten the tension in the ransom drop-off sequence is the only bit I can find.

With A-list producer T. Bone Burnett brought in as “musical archivist” it’s apparent that the songs are where it’s at in the world of The Dude. In an interview in Entertainment Weekly at the time of the film’s release Ethan Coen said: “We were trying to find signature songs for each of the characters so the only thing [the songs] share is that nothing is particularly contemporary sounding. They’re all from previous eras, consistent with the characters, who had attitudes shaped by the ’60s, ’70s, or earlier.”

The movie begins with Bob Nolan’s immortal “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” underneath the rambling narration of Sam Elliot as “The Stranger” – simple enough, huh? The soft scratchy strings of “Tumbleweeds” accompany The Stranger nearly every time he appears, luring us onward into the tall tale, introducing us to “The Dude” (Jeff Bridges) as he shops for half and half at the grocery store Ralph’s.

After a classic cold opening involving the Dude’s rug getting defiled, Bob Dylan’s uncharacteristically catchy “The Man In Me” hits the screen set to a bowling montage credits sequence. “Oh, what a wonderful feeling” Dylan sings as we see bowling shoes getting sprayed, pins getting knocked down, and bowlers in a choreographed line hitting their marks in sweet succession. This obscure 1970 song from Dylan’s New Morning LP defines The Dude in all his off the cuff ramshackle charm – maybe the only Dylan song ever to have repeated “la la la la la la” lines.

We hear the song again later in the film as it’s on a tape in The Dude’s Walkman labeled: “A: Venice Beach League Playoffs 1987 B: BOB”. If you have the itch to actually hear the Dude sing “The Man In Me” – there is this YouTube clip of Jeff Bridges covering the song at a Lebowski Fest funnily enough.

The Dude also listens to CCR, usually when driving with bits of “Run Through The Jungle” and “Lookin’ Out My Back Door” rearing their swamp rock heads. He has the lone new song on the soundtrack by Elvis Costello (“My Mind Swings”) blaring in his headphones when he goes to the doctor – one of the odd musical pieces that doesn’t quite fit.

As for his musical background, The Dude worked as a roadie for Metallica (“bunch of assholes”) and hates the Eagles who he can’t abide playing on a cab stereo (“Peaceful Easy Feeling”). The Eagles are also interpreted by the Gypsy Kings in a standout scene that has a Spanish version of “Hotel California” assimilating itself as the theme song of minor character but pivotal rival bowler Jesus Quintella (John Turturro).

Musical motifs continue throughout – the millionaire Jeff Lebowski (David Huddleson) has Mozart’s “Requiem” on his hi-fi in an intense dark chamber scene. Daughter Maude Lebowski (Julianne Moore) has an eclectic collection of vinyl including the fictional Autobahn (which features Red Hot Chili Peppers’ basist Flea) – “their music is a sort of–ugh–techno-pop” she says. Another tuneful thematic treatment: pornographer Jackie Treehorn (Ben Gazzara) has Henry Mancini’s “Lucon” to suavely set his tone. Like a tuneful tumbleweed itself, Townes Van Zandt’s cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Dead Flowers” speaks volumes of all these folk as the film wraps up.

In their use of the many songs in THE BIG LEBOWSKI the Coens were coming too close to making a full throttle musical. Especially when you consider the central sequence, another dream-scene in which The Dude imagines a huge Bubsy Berkely-type musical number. Kenny Rogers and The First Edition’s “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)” serenades the Dude joining dancing girls in Roman garb with Maude Lebowski as their leader and a Saddam Hussein look-a-like. This rousing set piece incorporated from another era forecasted the Brother’s next phase.

On the horizon approaching fast was coming a plucky period piece in which the music mightily overshadowed the movie.

 

The soundtrack for O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? is the most successful soundtrack of all of their films – a #1 hit (certified 8 times platinum) on the Country and Soundtrack charts that inspired a concert tour (documented in Down From The Mountain) and earned a Grammy for Album of the Year (2000).

This time T. Bone Burnett was “Music Producer” with Burwell credited with “additional music” so again the songs take the center stage. Over 50 performers are listed as personnel on the soundtrack including Alison Kraus, The Stanley Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Tim O’Brien, Gillian Welch, the Fairfield Four, the Cox Family, and everybody else in the Americana roots genre available it looks like.

The film is a great screwball romp about escaped convicts (George Clooney, Tim Blake Nelson, John Turturro) making their way across Depression-period Mississippi. They befriend blues guitarist Tommy Johnson (Chris Thomas King) who claims to have sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads. Many folks have thought that this was based on Robert Johnson but there was a real Tommy Johnson who made the same claim.

Johnson's tunage, though, is supplied by Delta blues legend Skip James – King performs James’ “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues” in one scene. Johnson lends a hand when the wanted men form a makeshift band – The Soggy Bottom Boys. With Clooney lip-syching to Dan Tyminski’s vocal, they record a invigorated version of the standard “Man Of Constant Sorrow” that becomes a regional hit proving that life does a pretty fair impression of art every once in a while.

In a 2000 interview, when asked if he was a fan of country music by the British magazine Uncut, the normally elusive and ironic Joel Coen said he was but that “[the soundtrack is] not exactly country music. It’s American roots music – folk music, in a way – and there’s lots of different strands. In the movie there’s Delta blues, early mountain music, and gospel music. They’re all different but they all come from that time and that general area.”

The gospel must be stressed as much of the music in O BROTHER is spiritual. Prominent are such songs such as “Oh Death”, “Angel Band “, “Lonesome Valley”, and the beautiful rendition of the traditional “Down to the River to Pray” by Allison Kraus, who appears in the film. While Clooney has help from overdubs, Tim Blake Nelson takes lead vocal on “In The Jailhouse Now” – a reprieve from the heavy hymns dominating the proceedings.

Now that the Coens had taken on the stylings of an old school era and with the help of T. Bone Burnett put their stamp on an entire musical genre in the process it again looked like the right time to scale back. Minimalism, both movie and music-wise, was the order of the day on their next project.

Joel Coen told a reporter that their film the following year, THE MAN WHO WASN’T THERE was “about a barber who doesn’t want to be a barber.” Shown in luxurious black and white (there are color versions of the film available in Europe and Japan), the film is another period piece taking place in 1949 Southern California. With Billy Bob Thornton as the barber we’re back to Burwell basics with no T. Bone track-picking involvement – which means spooky repeated piano figures and swelling string sections punctuating key plot points. 

Mind you these points are few – most of the movie plays with no music and often when music does appear, it lurks beneath the surface, a separate non-intertwining track. Apart from his tasteful cues Burwell conducts his muted orchestra through a few truncated Beethoven numbers – “Pathétique,” “Piano Sonata No. 25” and “Appassionata” respectively. 

Among Thornton’s hardships in this eccentric existential exercise is his longing to help Scarlett Johansen as a piano prodigy get recognized for her talent.

When told by a pretentious teacher (Adam Alexi-Malle) that she would make a good typist – “tap tap tap” – one can see Thornton’s tortured long face get longer and sense his heart sinking. The aforementioned classical pieces with smatterings of opera and big band bits are just blips on the radar of this soundtrack. Fittingly, THE MAN WHO WASN’T THERE has a score that is barely there itself.

For the most conventional comedy they’ve made to date, 2003's INTOLERABLE CRUELTY has a soundtrack that, despite Burwell’s inspired contributions, is pretty indistinguishable from most rom-com platters. Tom Jones, Chuck Mangione, Edith Piaf, Simon & Garfunkel, (even a Melissa Manchester track!) all make for a bland background mix for a cozy cocktail party. Actually I’m sure that’s pretty much what they intended.

While I think the movie is better than its critical and commercial reception implies, I think the only really truly notable musical element is the credits sequence use of Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds.” Summing up the theme of the entire escapade and providing the tone with some much needed punch, especially after the less than classic cold opening (maybe the worse first scene in the Coens’ canon), the King’s mature yet winking vocal on top of crudely animated cupid imagery works wonders for a few minutes at least. INTOLERABLE CRUELTY has few fans but I’ll go on record to say it’s not without its musical merits.

Back with T. Bone Burnett, the soundtrack for the Coens' 2004 comedy THE LADYKILLERS was a failed attempt to catch the O BROTHER lightning in a bottle a second time. Nevermind that the film is unnecessary on many fronts – as a remake, as a farcical retread, as an ensemble piece – it also just goes through the motions and never quite hits any stride. The spiritual old timey leanings here just call attention to the ground already trodden.

The soundtrack alone though is a nice listen, split between “Trouble” songs (“Trouble of this World,” “Trouble In, Trouble Out,” and “Troubled, Lord I’m Troubled” by the Nappy Roots and Bill Landford respectively) and the “Let Your Light Shine On Me” songs, there is an infectious unity, but these flourishes come off cynical and smarmy in the context of the flimsy on-screen shenanigans. Still, the Coens’ brand of cinematic silliness does redeem itself in some surprisingly sincere segments in THE LADYKILLERS, as few and far between as they are.

There are only 16 minutes of music in the Coen brothers Oscar winning Cormac McCarthy adaptation of NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. Burwell sans piano uses singing bowls and Buddhist metal bells to make his most minimalist score ever. The result is the first Coen movie to have no issued soundtrack. There are 2 Hispanic songs heard in the movie – “Puño de Tierra” and “Las Mañanitas” – but like the almost non-existent backing in THE MAN WHO WASN’T THERE, movie-goers should be instantly forgiven for not remembering them.

In methods mostly circular – like the old timer said in RAISING ARIZONA – the Coens and collaborator Carter Burwell have tracked and back-tracked over styles and genres, fearlessly leaving marks on the movie and musical map for pop culture appraisers and explorers to chart for ages to come.

They again will have the chance to hit the mark coming this fall with their next film, BURN AFTER READING *. ‘Til then we’ll have their scenes and songs to soothe our cinematic souls. Any one of the tracks I talked about may be the “Same Old Song” like the Four Tops sang in BLOOD SIMPLE, but they sure have a different meaning since the Coen brothers came along.

* This was written in 4/08. 

Coming soon: Part III: From a Star Studded Spy-style Lark to a Dark Folksinging Farce (2008-2013)

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THE ROAD: The Film Babble Blog Review

THE ROAD (Dir. John Hillcoat, 2009)

Your eyes may roll when once again reading the phrase “set in a post apocalyptic world” and that this film’s release was pushed back several times (it was originally set for Dec. ’08) may be discouraging, but hold on because this film is an intensely moving and towering piece of work.

While on the surface its bleak depiction of an ash covered world in ruins with death in every direction may be for many a grueling experience, in all the darkness a tiny light shining off a glimmer of hope can be seen.

That light is almost impossible to see at times for a man (Viggo Mortensen) and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee), only credited as “Man” and “Boy”, in rags making their way through the rubble with a grocery store shopping cart and a gun that only has 2 bullets in it. We’re never told how this all happened, we’re only given a few flashbacks from before the devastation that present the Man’s wife (Charlize Theron) sacrificing herself for her family as the world seemingly comes to an end.

Mortensen gives a career best performance as the Man, a desperate but ferociously protective father tuned into every threatening tick of movement on the terrain surrounding him and his shaking but just as driven son. Every element they encounter might as well have “from Hell” attached to it. They hide in the woods off the road from groups of hunters or hoards of cannibals, they look for food in battered houses, they share dwindling provisions with a grizzled old Robert Duvall (the only character in the film given a name – Ely), and they just keep on heading towards the ocean.

This sprawling epic is the third film adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy novel (the others being Billy Bob Thornton’s ALL THE PRETTY HORSES and the Coen Brothers’ acclaimed Oscar winning NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN). Save for the expansion of the role of the wife, THE ROAD is extremely faithful to its source, retaining its scary tense tone with almost all of the spare spoken dialogue verbatim from the book.

It’s maybe the anti-“feel good” movie of the year (or the decade) but its strengths as a tale of survival and its powerful emotional pull will linger for a long time. The Man tells his son that they’re “the good guys” and that they will live through this.

The Boy believes it and somehow in the face of the complete breakdown of society and all the anarchy of the wilderness we believe it too. THE ROAD may be a long tough one, but it does get to that glimmer and it really got to me.

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BURN AFTER READING: Not As Disposable As Its Title Suggests

BURN AFTER READING (Dirs. Ethan Coen & Joel Coen, 2008)



You can’t get any more A-list than the cast of this movie. George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton are Oscar winners, John Malkovich has been nominated more than once, and Brad Pitt is, well, Brad Pitt (yes he’s been nominated too). 

Mix in a couple of the most acclaimed character actors working today - Richard Jenkins (Six Feet Under, THE VISITOR) and J.K. Simmons (J. Jonah Jameson in the SPIDERMAN series, JUNO) and you've got as rich and tasty an cinematic ensemble soufflé that could be served today. 

Coming off the ginormous success of NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (yes, more Oscars) it seems the Coen Brothers needed to blow off some steam just as RAISING ARIZONA was the silly satirical followup to their dark debut BLOOD SIMPLE and THE BIG LEBOWSKI came right after FARGO, this is the ice cream to NO COUNTRY's full steak dinner. Okay, I’ll get off the food analogies. Seems somewhat pointless to try to recount the plot but I’ll still have a go at it. Malkovich is a boozing low level CIA agent whose files and memoirs are copied onto a disc by his wife (Swinton) after he is fired and she plans to divorce him. 

The disc is found at the gym Hardbodies where McDormand and Pitt work who, the money-grubbing schemers that they are, plan to blackmail Malkovich with. Meanwhile Clooney (also an idiot) who is having an affair with Swinton meets McDormand on one of his many misadventures with online dating. Misadventures is the right word for all of this as we see these pathetic people go through a series of sloppily handled escapades. 

The disc is, of course, a MacGuffin as its contents are unimportant and, as anyone in the film who studies it confirms, worthless. The conviction of McDormand, who wants the money to have extesive cosmetic surgery (“I’ve gone just about as far as I can go with this body”) coupled with Pitt's badly bleached blundering makes for a lot of laughs while Clooney’s wide eyed doltish womanizing brings his fair share of funny too. Malkovich's jaded jerk of a foul mouthed (his most repeated phrase throughout is “what the fuck?!!?” I think) failed spy won’t win him any awards but it’s among the finest comic acting of his career or at least since BEING JOHN MALKOVICH. 

Swinton seems to be the only one that is ill at ease with the material though that's probably because her character is so ill at ease with these situations. “We don’t really know what anyone is after” J.K. Simmons as Malkovich’s former superior says in an indifferent ‘whatever’ manner at one point and I bet many critics will say the same about BURN AFTER READING. After the powerfully astute NO COUNTRY... this may seem merely a funny throw-away.

A high class but trivial piece that treads water between more ambitious efforts, I’m sure some will remark, but I believe there is a lot more going for it than that. 

Sure, it would be easy to conclude that this is a silly statement on our current technology driven paranoia and that everybody is stupid, glib, and completely out for themselves but I think that would be dumbing it down considerably. With their patented low angles, wide interior shots, and the overall free for all spirit that they appear to instill in all the films participants, the offbeat world we are presented could only be Coen created - this is a view of their private sector, to use some Washington D.C. jargon. 

Like many Coen Brothers movies this will take repeat viewings to fully appreciate and to formulate more of a take on where it stands in their canon. Right now I can only say that BURN AFTER READING is consistently hilarious with a host of A-listers at the top of their game and I’m looking forward to seeing it again. It’s an enjoyable and extremely silly sector that I’m glad they don't keep so private.

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Woody Gets His Groove Back! VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA - The Film Babble Blog Review

VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA (Dir. Woody Allen, 2008)

Woody Allen’s 43rd film as director is lush, absorbing, and easily his best film in 10 years.


The 4th in his series of films that abandon his long-time cinematic comfort zone of Manhattan for the splendor of a European escapade, Allen is reunited with his most recent muse Scarlett Johansson but this time with terrific not abysmal results.


After the traditional Allen white on black credits (now with Spanish guitar and not big band jazz accompanying) we join Johansson and best friend Rebecca Hall as they get off a plane in Barcelona - they are the Cristina and Vicky of the title. A narrator (Christopher Evan Welch), a device that evokes memories of the docudrama style of HUSBANDS AND WIVES, tells us about our leading ladies' temperments - Johansson is romantically impulsive while Hall is stable, analytic, and most importantly engaged to be married to a buttoned-down reliable but bland Chris Messina.


While dining one night a smooth Spanish painter (Javier Bardem) approaches them and proposes that they join him for a romantic weekend in Oviedo: “We’ll eat well, we’ll drink wine, we’ll make love.” Hall is immediately cynical and put off by Bardem, having heard troubling gossip about his ex-wife, but Johanssen is giddily enchanted which wins over and we're off and running!

Bardem’s ex-wife, the sultry and simultaneously sulking Penélope Cruz, is trouble indeed; she shows up after getting out of the hospital asking for vodka with daggers in her eyes aimed at Johansson as she storms into their life. Possible Spoiler!: both Hall and Johansson have fallen for Bardem by this point which threatens Hall’s marriage and makes murkier the matters of the heart between all of them. What’s never murky is the photography with gorgeous shots of the temples, landscapes, and luxurious patios of Spain framed by cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe.


The dialogue is crisp and wittier than Woody Allen has given us in ages with even subtitled lines (Cruz and Bardem exchange many private asides in Spanish) stinging as the pace never drags with many expertly crafted uncut tracking shots flowing as the characters themselves flow through the beautiful scenery. Great naturalistic acting from all the principals abounds with supporting turns by the always charming Patricia Clarkson and the underused Kevin Dunn filling out the most colorful Woody Allen movie so far.



With Cruz, the Spanish locale, and Aquirresarobe (Director of Photography on TALK TO HER) it could look at first glance that Allen is aping Aldomovar but the pessimism, views on art and forbidden love, as well as the neurotic behaviour (can’t write a review of a Woody Allen film without some use of the word “neurotic”) is all classic Woody Allen.


If you only know Bardem from his role as the cold blooded killer Chighur in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN his role here will be a revelation. Johansson does her best work since LOST IN TRANSLATION fully inhabiting her character with flare and much moxie. All the promotional material for this film (the poster, trailer, etc.) for a large part excludes Rebecca Hall (pictured at the top of this review) which is odd because it’s her tortured entanglement that really gives the film its narrative thrust - I suppose she wasn’t enough of a name for the publicity department.


The tedious repitition of worn-out plot points (Hello, MATCH POINT) and the lackluster lines of his last several films is replaced by a passionate and vital sense of purpose (and a great screenplay) which makes for a extremely satisfying meal of a movie.


The only possible reservation I have is for the inclusion of Welch’s voice-over narration; much of the time I thought the film could do without it but I have to admit it contained some insightful and amusing remarks so I’ll leave it be. VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA is a welcome return to form for the Woodman and with his next project, the already completed WHATEVER WORKS with Larry David and Evan Rachel Wood (also featuring Clarkson) here’s hoping he’s on a roll. 

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SEMI-PRO - Completely Amateurish

SEMI-PRO (Dir. Kent Alterman, 2008)


Does the Will Ferrell sports comedy genre (epitomized in TALLADEGA NIGHTS, KICKING AND SCREAMING, and BLADES OF GLORY) have a future? Does it deserve one? 

Well, judging by this recent entry - no. 

Will Ferrell is undoubtedly one of the biggest comic actors right now - just a week ago he came to my area and performed to a sold-out crowd at a local basketball arena (The Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, NC). I doubt sold-out crowds will show for this because even hardcore Ferrell fans will have a hard time finding SEMI-PRO anything but only fitfully funny. And it's more fitful than funny. 

It's set in Flint, Michigan in 1976 - why? Because everyone knows the '70s are funny with their wacky hairstyles and kooky clothing while Flint, an economically troubled crumbling city as Michael Moore has often illustrated, I guess the filmmakers figured also has comic possibilities. 

We meet yet another full-of-himself Ferrell character, Jackie Moon, a one-hit wonder (with the creepy single "Love Me Sexy" that opens the movie) now turned owner / coach / player of the the American Basketball Association's Flint Michigan Tropics. 

His team, of course, is a gaggle of underdog losers who may have to fold because of a merger of the ABA with the NBA. Ferrell makes a deal that if the Tropics finish in the top 4 at the end of the season they can make the move to the NBA. 

Farrell recruits Woody Harrelson (squandering all the cred he just gained with his measured performance in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN) as a former NBA player, and he ups the promotional ante with gimmicks like corn dog night, clown makeup night, and even gets in the ring with a live bear named Dewey one night to put bums in the seats. So far so bad... 

It's all supposed to be in the realm of "outrageous comedy" but very little amuses here. Co-star André Benjamin (also known as André 3000 of the band Outkast) makes the same mistake Harrelson does - they both act like they're playing real people when they should of cozied up to the cartoon trappings like Ferrell knows to do. 

The rest of the cast is capable - former Conan co-hort Andy Richter is always likable but given little to do, Maura Tierney (Newsradio, E.R.) plays another thankless girlfriend part, and SNL's Kirsten Wiig (as the bear handler) along with Arrested Development's Will Arnett try in vain to get some laugh action. An odd appearance by Jackie Earle Haley, (no stranger to sports comedies with BAD NEWS BEARS back in the day) as a zoned-out hippie who Ferrell screws over because he can't afford to pay him $10,000 Haley won at one of his promo nights, suggests a profound sense of laziness in the screen-writing process but that's evident everywhere. Especially in the tired jabs at lame 70's targets like Pong, Shasta, and Fondue sets that seem like rejects from ANCHORMAN. 

You can't have Will Ferrell and this cast and not have some laughs - a poker table Russian Roulette scene has its moments and there are scattered lines that may elicit chuckles but this is a wasted enterprise overall. 

SEMI-PRO is the worst Will Ferrell film I've ever seen (and yes that includes BEWITCHED) but I'm hoping it offers some hope that the powers that be recognize it as such and scrap all future Ferrell sports projects. Yeah, as if.

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Oscars 2008 Recap!

So, it’s the morning after and I’m looking over my predictions. 

None of my wild cards paid off and some of my darts didn’t hit the bulls-eye so what do I got? Well, I don’t know whether to feel comforted or disturbed by the fact that I got EXACTLY the same amount right that I did last year – 13 out of 24. So here’s at ‘em:

1. BEST PICTURE: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

2. BEST DIRECTOR (S): Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - Though everybody was saying this was a lock I was still somewhat scared that this was wishful thinking. So glad that it happened - it is definitely the Coen Brothers time. Seeing them on stage - Joel stoic and commanding with Ethan cutely quietly fidgeting made them look like the Penn & Teller of movie directors. 

3. BEST ACTOR: Daniel Day Lewis for THERE WILL BE BLOOD.

4. BEST ACTRESS: Julie Christie - WRONG! - Marion Cotillard for LA VIE EN ROSE - As much as I loved Christie in AWAY FROM HER I am not disappointed here. Cotillard's performance was amazing and the award is well deserved. Besides Christie's won before. 

5. BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Hal Holbrook - WRONG! Javier Bardem for NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN - I knew I'd be wrong about this one but didn't care. Bardem was excellent and his short acceptance (hard to call it a speech) 

6. BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Cate Blanchett - WRONG! Tilda Swinton for MICHAEL CLAYTON - This was a real surprise. Still, she did a good job in her role and I liked that backstage afterwards she said winning is often "the kiss of death". Yeah, just ask Cuba Gooding Jr.

7. ART DIRECTION: SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET

8. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Roger Deakins for THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD - WRONG! - Robert Elswit for THERE WILL BE BLOOD - I knew I'd be wrong here but still thought Deakins would win but for NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. I loved TWBB so I'm happy it got 2 major awards.

9. COSTUME DESIGN: ATONEMENT - WRONG! - Elizabeth Byrne for ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE

10. DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: NO END IN SIGHT - WRONG! - TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE

11. DOCUMENTARY SHORT: SARI’S MOTHER - WRONG! - FREEHELD

12. FILM EDITING: THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY - WRONG! - THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM - BOURNE surprisingly swept the technical award categories. Maybe I should see it. 

13. MAKEUP: LA VIE EN ROSE

14. VISUAL EFFECTS: TRANSFORMERS – WRONG! - THE GOLDEN COMPASS - I called it a "no brainer" but I should've remember the Academys track record on this category. I mean E.T. won over BLADE RUNNER for this 25 years ago! 

15. ORIGINAL SCORE: ATONEMENT

16. ORIGINAL SONG: “Falling Slowly” from ONCE - A nice moment during the broadcast was when host Jon Stewart quipped "wow, that guy is so arrogant" after Glen Hansard's humble as Hell acceptance speech. It got a big laugh from the audience and the folks at the Oscar party I was at last night.

17. ANIMATED SHORT: I MET THE WALRUS - WRONG!- PETER AND THE WOLF

18. LIVE ACTION SHORT: AT NIGHT - WRONG! - THE MOZART OF PICKPOCKETS

19. SOUND EDITING: THERE WILL BE BLOOD - WRONG! - THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM

20. SOUND MIXING: THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM

21. ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: JUNO by Diablo Cody - This was the real 'no brainer.'

22. ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: ATONEMENT - WRONG! - NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN adapted by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen.

23. ANIMATED FEATURE FILM: RATATOUILLE

24. FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: THE COUNTERFEITERS 

Okay! So I did no better or no worse than last time out. Sigh. Story of my life.

More later...