Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Y’know, I haven’t gotten involved in all the ridiculous back-and-forth going on in the entertainment press about “the slump.” There are people who are preaching the end of theatrical distribution as we know it, the closing of an era, a complete sea change, and there are others who say that we’re simply coming off one of the most freakishly huge years in film history, and anything would feel like a let-down. To me, it all boils down to finding great experiences at the theater. Have I had any luck lately? Is there anything great out there waiting to be seen, or is it all too depressing, too pre-processed, all Hollywood cheese that just can’t be digested?
I haven’t seen THE DUKES OF HAZZARD, which Warner Bros. opens today. Wasn’t invited to any press screenings of it, either. Doesn’t mean anything. Sometimes I am with Warner Bros., and sometimes I’m not. I’ve been a pretty vocal supporter so far of Jay Chandrashekar as a director, ever since I saw SUPERTROOPERS at Sundance in 2001, and I hope DUKES is fun. I’m sure I’ll see it sometime in the next couple of weeks, along with other recent releases I’ve missed like LAST DAYS, GRIZZLY MAN, and SKY HIGH. I’ve actually got an import disc of 2046 here in the house, as well as an import of NINE SONGS, so I’m going to try to catch up with those this weekend for sure.
In the meantime, BROKEN FLOWERS opened today, and I can’t say this strongly enough... if you feel like you haven’t seen anything great for a while at the movies... if you want to see one of those little personal pictures that sticks to the ribs and satisfies completely... then get your ass to the theater now. I reviewed the film a while ago, and I just want to underline every point I made in that review.
This is a great Jarmusch film, and it’s not his “commercial” movie... it’s not compromised at all. It still retains every bit of his particular dry sense of humor, but the chemistry between Bill Murray and the rest of the cast and Bill Murray and his director... it’s beautiful. It’s a giant-hearted movie about someone who’s not even sure if he’s got a heart.
Need more convincing? Check out the website. Or, better yet, just check out the trailers (in either Quicktime High or Low or Windows Media High or Low) for yourself.
I also had a chance to see THE CHUMSCRUBBER, which is also opening in limited release today around the country. This is the debut film for director Arie Posin, and he does a very nice job, working from a tricky script by Zac Stanford. This is a dark suburban comedy, a la AMERICAN BEAUTY, and it’s all over the place tonally. One moment it’s a pretty broad comedy, the next it’s dead serious. Ultimately, I think Posin and Stanford love the absurd, and they do their best to roast everyone equally in this look at the way teen and adult cultures run simultaneously, sometimes even in the same space, without touching in more than the most oblique ways. Totally separate lives can be lived inches from one another, and there’s no way to bridge the gap unless everyone’s willing to try. The adults of the world are represented by Rita Wilson, Ralph Fiennes, John Heard, Glenn Close, William Fichtner, Jason Isaacs, Alison Janney, and Carrie Anne Moss, while the teens are played by Jamie Bell, Justin Chatwin, Camilla Belle, Rory Culkin, Lou Taylor Pucci, and Thomas Curtis. Everyone comes off well, and the film deals with some heavy ideas, including teen suicide and responsibility in the face of tragedy, while also going for some big strange laughs. The fact that so much of the film hits the mark is a real testament to the ability of all involved.
Jamie Bell, best known still as BILLY ELLIOTT, makes a really sympathetic lead out of a kid who’s a bit of a shit, and that’s not an easy thing to pull off. Justin Chatwin, who I thought only had one note to play in WAR OF THE WORLDS, does nice work here and shows a bit more range. I think the real find of the young cast, though, is Camilla Belle, and yeah, part of that is because I think she’s young-Natalie-Wood beautiful. At 19, she’s still young, but considering the genuine talent she shows here and how striking and poised she already is, I’m betting she is someone to watch for in the next few years. There’s a great role waiting for her, and this work proves she deserves whatever’s next. Rory Culkin continues to prove that he’s The Younger Brother Who Could, genuine and unaffected and always able to deliver. Ralph Fiennes has the most stylized role of the adults, and he finds some nuance in what could easily be a one-joke role. He knows how to play the desperate just below the surface of the manic, and it really works. Rita Wilson is always good, and this is a larger-than-normal role for her. She does great, and she’s got to find a way to reveal the heart of a woman who is a bit of a monster through most of the film, and again... fear seems to be the key. In fact, if CHUMSCRUBBER is about anything, it’s about the way people deal with the fear that all of us face each and every day as we have to confront any of the problems and the setbacks and the hardships that we encounter. There are good days, it seems, but there are a lot more bad. The title refers to a post-apocalyptic comic book/video game/animated show that is somewhat omnipresent throughout the movie, but never really made front and center. The important thing about it seems to be the world it depicts, decaying and horrible, always trying to kill the hero. Violence is the only response that makes any sense in the world of The Chumscrubber, and the film asks if that’s an option in the “real” world as well.
Go Fish, the smaller personal label at Dreamworks, used so far only for anime releases, is handling CHUMSCRUBBER as it rolls out, and I’m not sure they know what to do with a film this size. I think the cult that’s erupted around DONNIE DARKO might well embrace this film, and not because it feels imitative. I think there’s just a similar sensibility at work here, something that feels really genuine and earnest, and even if it’s not quite perfect, it’s reaching for greatness, and it wants to be profound, and in some ways, that’s enough.
RED EYE, the “big” Dreamworks release of the month, is totally different. I don’t think RED EYE means to be about anything. I don’t think it’s trying to do anything other than entertain, and as a thriller... as an exercise in film suspense... I think RED EYE is a pretty tremendous success. I’m not a big Wes Craven booster. I respect many of the things Wes has done, and I really like a few of his films (the original NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, in particular), but I’m still of the mind that SCREAM is more “clever” than “good,” and I don’t think he’s been very consistent over the years. He’s made a lot of DEADLY FRIENDs and SHOCKERs. With RED EYE, he’s not trying to make a horror film of any kind. This is a mainstream softball, pitched right down the middle, and Craven connects. He knows exactly how to do this, and the first half of the film is a pleasure because of the way he takes his time and sets the stakes and gradually moves all his pieces into play. Once he’s got the film up and running and he’s made his big reveals, all he has to do is pay it off, one scene after another, all the way to the end, and he does it with fairly merciless efficiency. I saw this with a packed theater, and they were literally screaming at the screen. “OHGODGETUPHE’SRIGHTTHEREBEHINDYOUONTHETHING!” and “DON’TOPENTHEDOORNODON’TDOIT!”, completely involuntary, and I had to laugh. This is the film that PANIC ROOM wanted to be, and it’s not so obsessed with being slick and overstylized that it loses sight of the basics. Cillian Murphy and Rachel McAdams both do really nice, charismatic work as the leads in the film, and when you like the good guy and the bad guy equally at the start of the film, it makes the entire ride more fun. RED EYE is not a film that you’ll still be buzzing about at the end of the year, but in the tradition of FATAL ATTRACTION, it’s a pop thriller that absolutely thrills. It’s better than August usually deserves.
I’m still working on more stuff for the weekend, so until then...
"Moriarty" out.
