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Monki is an Altman that loves Dick. AKA - PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION and THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED!
Hey folks, Harry here with Monki's look at a pair of first day films from SXSW - unfortunately it seems too many of the AICN types are seeing the same titles and nobody is really experimenting.... other than me. I saw 3 great documentaries tonight that I'm writing up. Here's Monki...
Monki here back once again with coverage of the South by Southwest film festival here in beautiful, sunny Austin, Texas baayyybe. I’m psyched to be back at SXSW this year as I wasn’t even sure if I would be able to fit it into my schedule. All in all, everything worked out and here I am bringing you fine folks some reports about the goings on around Austin.
A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION
I started off my SXSW 2006 experience with a film that was pretty amped up to see. A Prairie Home Companion plays a special role in my childhood. My father is a faithful listener of the broadcast and I have purchased many a CD of Lake Wobegon stories for him. I cannot count the number of times I’ve listened to Garrison Keillor spin yarns about Guy Noir and the city where the children are smarter and the women are good looking usually while going to grandma's house.
John C. Reilly and Woody Harrelson steal just about every scene they are in as the cowboy duo Lefty and Dusty singin’ bout the range. A very pregnant Maya Rudolph acts as Molly, the stage manager. Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep play the Johnson Sisters, a former family band now whittled down to the two. Lindsay Lohan plays Streep’s daughter, a suicide-poetry writing teenager who aspires to sing someday too. Kevin Kline plays Guy Noir, now a real person instead of the character created within the show. Most of the Prairie Home Companion regulars are there as well with Garrison Keillor acting as himself, the ringleader of the show.
After seeing this cast and with Robert Altman at the helm I figured not much could go wrong, and not much did go wrong. The entire piece is shot documentary-like, but with aspects of narrative thrown in. Kevin Kline steals every scene he is in as Guy Noir, former private eye now in charge of stage security and data acquisition. Keillor also works incredibly well basically playing himself, but up against huge stars like Streep and Tomlin, it says something that his performance was one of the stand-outs of this film. Music covered every inch of this film and was quite beautiful. Dusty and Lefty’s tunes stand out as the most memorable.
The only real problem I had with the film was the pairing of Tomlin and Streep together. They seemed to want to take over every second they appeared on screen and it just didn’t seem to fit very well with the fluidity the rest of the cast had together. It wasn’t a huge deal as they are only a small portion of the overall story, but their scenes proved quite jarring when placed up against the rest of the cast.
Overall I enjoyed the piece quite a bit and I am content knowing that I have an easy gift in the DVD for my father for Christmas.
THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED
Skipping out on the John C. Reilly Q&A after A Prairie Home Companion was a tough choice, but I’m glad I did and got into line to see This Film is Not Yet Rated. As you have probably read on the site, Kirby Dick, a documentary filmmaker, has taken on the task of attacking the MPAA head on and shedding some light in this very secretive organization.
The film takes an in-depth look at some very hypocritical rulings thrown down by the MPAA and uses quotes from Evil Lord Valenti to really point out this huge problem in Hollywood.
Kirby Dick has crafted a fine film that should be on every film fan’s list of must-see movies. This is an important look at one of the most powerful organizations in the film industry. As any great documentary does, this film keeps you entertained as well as informed throughout. Go see this film.
So far so good at SXSW 2006, I’m planning on catching some really cool looking films over the next few days including some local artist films as well as some cool documentaries such as Doug Pray’s new doc about graffiti artists. So, until then, keep on keepin’ on.
-Monki
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Why am I up now?
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They don't want us to see this. Didn't I read somewhere that IFC will show it uncut sometime?
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Are making me even more depressed that I'm more than likely never going to see this thing in a theater.
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God, I want to see the movie so badly I can feel it in my loins. I'm also curious to see if they took it far enough. There's a lot of things hypocritical about the MPAA and it's not just the NC-17 controversy.
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Oscar, Oscar, Oscar.
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specifically, the film was given an NC-17?
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Because it shows scenes from other films that got them NC-17 ratings. Therefore, in the minds of the MPAA, it contains NC-17 material.
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that Dusty and Lefty were going to be played by Tom Waits and Lyle Lovett, which sadly would've been a hell of a lot cooler.
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