Making The Most Out Of The Mediocrity Of THE MONUMENTS MEN

So yeah, I'm not alone thinking that George Clooney’s fifth film as filmmaker, THE MONUMENTS MEN, is his weakest effort yet despite its exceedingly strong cast. Sunday evening, I discussed the movie, currently #2 at the box office, with my friend Kevin Brewer on his podcast (postmodcast) who found it be “banal.” 

I agreed and sadly mused that it was such a waste to assemble such a mighty group of actors - Clooney fronts a crew made up of Bill Murray, Matt Damon, John Goodman, Bob Balaban, Jean Dujardin (Best Actor Oscar winner for THE ARTIST), Cate Blanchett, and the guy from Downton Abbey (Hugh Bonneville) – and give them so little distinctive to do.

Clooney, who co-wrote the film with frequent collaborator Grant Heslov, has a promisingly noble premise in his hands involving a troop of aging oddballs who don battle fatigues to advance to the front lines of World War II to recover stolen art from the Nazis, but the execution is so boringly by-the-numbers. It’s no surprise to me that the film has a 34% Rotten rating on the Rotten Tomatoes website.

It’s great that Murray can do so much with just a few dry facial expressions because the screenplay gives him no memorable dialogue to work with here.

In our podcast chat, Kevin and I singled out Murray because we’re both big fans. I brought up how many directors often screen films during pre-production to their cast and crews to get the gist of what they’re going for – i.e. Paul Thomas Anderson screened Sidney Lumet's 1976 classic NETWORK to his team before filming began on MAGNOLIA – and that maybe Clooney should’ve shown Murray’s STRIPES (Dir. Ivan Reitman, 1981) to his people before they tackled the material. This occurred to me when watching Murray go through THE MONUMENT MEN's lamely written basic training scene. Kevin said that and THE DIRTY DOZEN (Dir. Robert Aldrich, 1967) would’ve made a good double feature for them.

I mean, Murray’s latest appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, in which he flew in on wires dressed as Peter Pan and had a shave during the interview, is absolutely more of an event than this movie.

This could be seen as a Major Spoiler but I also disliked how the ending was a slight re-write of the ending of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, a film that THE MONUMENTS MEN often feels like a comic companion to in its tone, the appearance of Damon as a heroic soldier, and the coming ashore to Normandy beach scene with its swelling score (Alexander Desplat aping John Williams). 

Here, the conclusion has Clooney’s character (played by Clooney’s 80-year old father Nick Clooney) decades after the War visiting a museum to view some of the art they saved with his grandson. It’s the same Spielbergian “was it all worth it?” sentiment.

But then my wife liked the movie, and even teared up at times. She posted a picture on my Facebook wall of one of the main pieces of art that was featured in the film: Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child inside Bruges Cathedral. It touched her because she’d seen it in person. She said that “it’s very unusual to find a Michelangelo outside of Italy. It’s in a tiny little church in a town that looks like medieval Belgium – not like huge Vatican stuff – a tiny little church, and they have a Michelangelo and it’s beautiful.”

I can appreciate that personal connection, but it still doesn’t elevate THE MONUMENTS MEN for me to being any more than a competently made yet majorly mediocre piece of film fodder.

It’s not an embarrassingly bad experience – just one that doesn’t take any risks or have any real oomph to it. A scene in which Damon steps on an unexploded landmine in a cave and his fellow cast members try to figure out how to help him is a good example of a bit that could’ve been hilarious but only ends up mildly amusing.

At its best, “mildly amusing” is really all THE MONUMENTS MEN has to offer.

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THE LEGO MOVIE Clicks Together Into A Supreme Piece Of Entertainment

Opening today at a multiplex near you... 

THE LEGO MOVIE  
(Dirs. Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, 2014)

How did this family film based on a long running line of toys, released in the dumping ground of February, turn out to be actually a lot of genuine fun?

I attended a screening last week of this movie shortly after visiting my sick 16-year old cat at the Animal Hospital so I wasn't really in the mood to see what looked like nothing more than a feature length toy commercial, one in which every single shot could be considered product placement, but very quickly the whole thing clicked together into a supreme piece of entertainment.

Every piece fit especially Chris Pratt's (Parks and Recreation, ZERO DARK THIRTY, HER) extremely likable performance as Emmet, a generic yellow construction worker mini-figure who is thought to be the chosen one to save the Lego universe from the evil plans of Lord Business (voiced by Will Ferrell).

Lord Business schemes to freeze all the various worlds of Lego (The Old West, Cloud Cuckoo Land, Medieval Times, etc.) with the use of what's called “The Kragle” (actually a tube of Krazy Glue that had a few letters rubbed off) on Taco Tuesday, no less.

We are first introduced to Pratt's Emmet in a big busy production number set to the beautifully banal pop song parody “Everything Is Awesome,” written by Shawn Patterson and performed by Tegan and Sara along with the musical comedy group The Lonely Island (the rest of the score by Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh is top notch as well).

This energetically silly sequence sets in place the satire of conformist consumerism of which Emmet is a happy participant - his favorite song is whatever's the #1 hit of the day and his favorite TV show is the stupid sitcom “Where's My Pants?” (shades of IDIOCRACY's “Ow! My Balls!” but PG-rated).

Emmet's life changes when he meets Wyldstyle (voiced by Elizabeth Banks), a punky fighter girl that thought she was the chosen MasterBuilder, which are sort of like the Jedis of the Lego universe.

Speaking of Jedis, there are cameos from the STAR WARS world of Legos including Anthony Daniels reprising his iconic C-3PO voice, and Billy Dee Williams once again putting on the charms as Lando Calrissian, while voice actor Keith Ferguson puts in a passable Harrison Ford impression as Han Solo.

But the major guest appearance that steals the show is Will Arnett (Arrested Development, The Millers) as Batman, a terrific take on the ominous gravel voiced Dark Knight of recent vintage which is pure comedy gold. Every line out of Arnett's mouth made me laugh, and I loved that his version of Batman makes techno music on the side that's supposed to be as dark and brooding as he is - he plays a track he composed entitled “Untitled Self Portrait" on the Batmobile's stereo system (stay through the end credits to hear the whole song).

Also scoring big laughs are appearances by Liam Neeson as Lord Business' two-faced henchman Bad Cop/Good Cop, Channing Tatum as Superman who is annoyed by the man-crush the Green Lantern (Jonah Hill) has on him, Cobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother, THE AVENGERS) as Wonder Woman, Charlie Day (It's Always Sunny in Philadephia) as '80s Space Guy, Alison Brie (Community, Mad Men) as the unicorn/anime concoction Uni-Kitty, and Morgan Freeman as the MasterBuilder Wizard Vitruvius.

In the movie's amazing climax, Directors/writers Lord and Miller, the filmmakers behind CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS and 21 JUMP STREET, take this Lego adventure to a whole new level with a surprise twist that I won't spoil that takes the heights of comic invention here to comic genius. Again, I won't say what it is, but it floored me and the audience I was in, and I bet when these guys hit upon the idea they were doing cartwheels all over the writer's room.

THE LEGO MOVIE cleverly builds upon the playthings coming to life themes of the TOY STORY trilogy and WRECK-IT-RALPH almost as if they're interconnected blocks with round-peg parameters that it can snap together with. It also has an actually inspirational message about improvising outside of the box, and the self awareness to kid about it (Freeman tells Emmet: “I know that sounds like a cat poster, but it's true.")

I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed THE LEGO MOVIE as much as I did (one only complaint is that they stay too long in The Old West world). During its rich and rewarding 100 minute running time, I was transported away from my worries (mostly about my ailing aging kitty) and had a blast. What more can you want out of a movie?

Postscript: Just in case any cat lovers out there are curious - my cat is doing much better these days.

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THE GREAT BEAUTY: The Film Babble Blog Review

Opening Friday in the Triangle at the Rialto Theater in Raleigh, the Carolina Theatre in Durham, and the Chelsea Theatre in Chapel Hill...

THE GREAT BEAUTY 

(Dir. Paolo Sorrentino, 2013)

On a trip through Europe last year, my wife and I stumbled upon an exhibit entitled “Fellini and the Arts” at the Ludwig Museum in Koblenz, Germany. On display were hundreds of the late Italian filmmaker’s drawings, photographs, documents, costumes, props (including the original moulding of Donald Sutherland’s head for FELLINI’S CASANOVA) – all reminders of the vividly wild worlds of decadence and introspection the director created for nearly fifty years on film until his death in 1993.

So when word was going around that Paolo Sorrentino’s newest film, THE GREAT BEAUTY (Italian title: LA GRANDE BELLEZZA), was extrememly Fellini-esque – a modern update of LA DOLCE VITA many critics have called it – I was incredibly intrigued, but while the comparisons are valid, this film has a heartbeat (a techno beat at times) and a vision that are all its own.

Sorrentino regular Toni Servillo stars as one of my favorite film archetypes: an author of a very celebrated debut book who never came through with a follow-up (see D.OA., WONDER BOYS, STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING, SINISTER).

So Servillo poignantly portrays a once promising novelist turned high society magazine columnist who looks back on his life with a renewed self awareness. This happens a few days after the over-the-top rooftop rave of his 65th birthday party (a flashy and fun opening sequence) when he finds himself going through a “what does it all mean?” phase while he suavely schleps in expensively tailored suits around some of the Rome’s most exquisite sights.

Such material can bring fears of pretentious pontification, but Servillo’s jaded journalist attacks pretentions at every turn. When interviewing a question evading publicity seeking performance artist (Anita Kravos) whose act consists of head butting the wall of an aqueduct and speaks of living on extra sensory vibrations, Servillo sensibly states that “all I’ve heard is un-publishable fluff. You can’t charm me with things like: ‘I’m an artist, I don’t need to explain.’”

In another stand-out scene, Servillo savagely rips to shreds the criticisms and boasts of a fellow socialite/writer (Galatea Ranzi) with his savage wit and an honesty that doesn’t spare his own status. Somehow, by the end of their exchange Servillo appears to have compassion and empathy for his verbal victim when he speaks of her “untruths and fragility.” There’s a great beauty in that, I can’t help saying.

Though it’s Servillo’s show, notable characters on the sidelines include Giovanna Vignola as the writer's blue-haired dwarf editor, Carlo Verdone as a struggling playwright friend, Sabrina Ferilli as an aging stripper that Servillo has a few genuine moments with, and Roberto Herlitzka as Cardinal Bellucci, who brushes our protagonist off when he asks questions about his spirituality.

Herlitzka is one of the protectors of a 104-year old Mother Theresa-like nun (Sonia Gessner), who Servillo poses his existential concerns to. But like everybody else, Gessner just asks “Why did you never write another book?”

Even with its immaculate imagery that could serve as an erotic ad campaign for the splendors of Italy, I wanted more of THE GREAT BEAUTY to be more dialogue-driven by way of Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello’s layered screenplay, but the sumptuous cinematography by Luca Bigazzi makes the point to 'screw the meaning of it all, just look at how beautiful the scenery is' better than these folks’ words ever could.

As for the Fellini-esque-ness of it all, the thing I hope it most resembles the great Italian masters' work in is that it wins the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, like 4 of Fellini's films did, at this year's Oscars.

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