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TIFF! Copernicus Reviews Alan Ball’s NOTHING IS PRIVATE, The Festival’s Most Controversial Film!
Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
I am intrigued by the fury this film seems to have inspired in some viewers. Any time you deal with difficult sexual subject matter, some people are going to automatically snap, and it sounds like Alan Ball is pushing buttons overtly this time out.
But provocation is easy. Is there more to the movie than that? Well, one of our two busiest reviewers from Toronto has seen NOTHING IS PRIVATE, and he’s here to spill all of the film’s secrets. Copernicus... lay it on me:
We know Alan Ball can write Oscar winning material (AMERICAN BEAUTY), and write, direct, and produce Emmy winning TV (SIX FEET UNDER), but with NOTHING IS PRIVATE he's behind the camera for a feature film and he's pointed it like a laser at the contradictions and hypocrisies in American suburbia.
The screenplay was adapted by Ball from the novel Towelhead by Alicia Erian, and is set in Texas in 1991, during the first gulf war. It follows thirteen year old Jasira as she bounces between her mother and her pedophilic boyfriend, an abusive father, a horny boyfriend, racist neighbors and classmates, and pedophile #2, an Army reservist and neighbor (Aaron Eckhart). This is uncomfortable, heavy material, but a streak of dark comedy and the compelling performance of Sumer Bishil pulls the audience through.
After troubles with her mom's boyfriend, Jasira moves out to the suburbs with her father, played brilliantly by another SIX FEET UNDER alum, Peter Macdissi. Jasira's father is Lebanese, and he's trying desperately to fit in and be accepted as an American. He has no accent, he works at NASA, and has a nice house in the suburbs, so you'd think he would fit right in. Yet he goes to ridiculous extremes to prove this, like erecting a flagpole the front yard. At the same time, he hardly knows how to relate to his daughter, who acts like any American teen girl would. With a dad that is overly strict and at times abusive, Jasira turns to the very personification of the American father figure, her next door neighbor and Army reservist, Mr. Vuoso (Aaron Eckhart). He's a blond, strapping guy with a wife and kid, a truck, a stack of porn, and yes, a flagpole. Mr. Vuoso turns out to be a perv, and while Jasira is navigating that minefield yet another guy is pawing at her, this time schoolmate Thomas (Eugene Jones). The problem is that Thomas is black and even though Jasira and her father are routinely called towelhead and worse, Jasira is forbidden to see Thomas because her father thinks no one will respect
her if she dates a black man.
Ball shows that the American suburbs have all social jockeying and judgment of Victorian England, but the manners don't run as deep. There is posturing all around to prove who is the most American, who has the strongest values, but with so much friction between the neighbors the thin veneer of politeness is quickly ground away. There are decent neighbors too, notably Melina, played by Toni Collette, and her husband Gil (Matt Letscher). This isn't a one dimensional excoriation of American culture, only of a certain kind of mentality that values the appearance of decency over the real thing.
Even though some of the antagonists in NOTHING IS PRIVATE do some pretty despicable things, most are fully realized, complicated characters. In fact, nearly every character has some kind of baggage, though some have flaws that lead to more serious consequences than others. But among a stellar cast, Peter Macdissi as Jasira's dad steals the show. As the outsider to America, his character has some of the best one-line indictments of American culture, and their humor is underscored by his own hypocrisy. It would have been easy to play this role as a stereotype, but he keeps far away from that trap. He
is such a mess of conflicted emotions that you never know exactly what he's going to do, and when he lashes out he is either hilarious or heartbreaking, or often both. Rather than showing alternating callousness and affection, somehow he manages to portray both simultaneously.
So far at TIFF, I think I've seen most of the candidates for best picture, and I have to say that NOTHING IS PRIVATE is the front-runner in my mind. It may not be the absolute best picture of the year (my heart is with the Coen brothers), but it certainly resonates the loudest. It may be a tough sell in the heartland to have a judging finger pointed straight back at yourself, but sometimes deep down we all realize we need it. That kind of thing goes over like gangbusters in the Hollywood Oscar-voting set. But most importantly, NOTHING IS PRIVATE is American filmmaking at its finest.
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seems like it could be decent. will keep an eye out for it. Which is more messed up... this or ZOO?
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I live in that "heartland" and this movie sounds spot on. No doubt some tools on the talkback will bitch about "liberal america haters..." Such is life as a talkbackee.
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political debate. Sounds somewhat interesting. blckmgk13 I going to guess that Zoo has the most messed up topic (though Pedophilia is damn terrible) there is something about a man being fucked to death by a horse that just more bizarre - maybe it's because we as a society see pedophiles in the news and fiction so often that we are more insulated toward the acts - where as horse fucking isn't on the evening news every damn night.
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This sounds like a great film. The type of film which will indict even the rabble rousing naysayers who point fingers at it to call it an un-American movie.
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On another matter, when's that Dakota Fanning movie of the same ilk [well, that scene anyway] coming out?
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The similarities between American suburbia and Victorian England are actually very striking come to think of it. Sounds like Ball's gone and made another great (if somewhat bleak/disturbing & that's not neccessarily a bad thing) movie. I also always find it interesting that people who are discriminated against turn around and do the exact same thing for the exact same reasons to others. As a race we certainly don't learn quickly do we? I've been to Austin TX(loved it) but I noticed how segregated it was compared to my own hometown (Toronto) were I find (especially with the under 25 crowd) race seems to be far less of an issue. I'm sure once I Am Mr Monkey and USSCygnus read the review their going to start up with their trite RA RA America/un-american-commie-leftist-pinko girlyman bashing. Ann Coulter will be so proud.
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I mean, deep in the south of Texas, this is clearly what all red-blooded Americans are salivating to know.
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until Mamet brings that UFC-Samurai flick.
That, Stuck, and No Country. Gonna be a good year. -
As others have said, you do realise you're posting to a mostly jingoistic U.S. AICN TB, right?
None of whom will bother reading back to these early posts by the time they get here. Let the indignation begin!
(I'm a bit simple when it comes to politics but surely active questioning and reappraisal of both government and people's actions, rather than being 'America-hating' is the very definition of democracy in action? I don't think that the majority of people ANYWHERE realise they need it!) -
I guess it's still cool to show how the suburbs are really these awful terrible places full of oneupmanship and hypocrisy and eeeeville... yawn. Ya know, I live in the evil suburbs, and my neighbors are all pretty normal and stuff. They're even kind of friendly. OMG!!! Real people are actually normal?!?! WTF??!?! This is no surprise coming from the author of American Beauty, though. Ooh the secrets we all hide!! Whatever.
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It came very close to describing how I feel about American Beauty and some of the more ridiculous episodes of 6 feet under. People all thought Crash was heavy handed and unreal; this just seems like Crash with more explicit and controversial scenes. If you want to see REAL abuse of middle eastern women, read Housseini's latest book A Thousand Splendid Suns.
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Sorry but how controversial can a film about molesting a 13 year old be? After sitting through Ray Winstone slipping a newborn baby the sausage in Tim Roth's THE WAR ZONE nothing will ever shock me again.
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and not just a totally safe, dull and comofortably middle class blandathon where people live pleasant lives. Just because little happens there you can't make shit up to get angry about. Most people in the world would give their right arm to live in american suburbia, so fuck all these films "exposing" its seedy underbelly.
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growing up in the suburbs I somehow managed to dodge all the closet pedophiles, serial killers, racist-sociopaths, rabid dogs, cannibals, defenestraters, basketball wielding robot corpses, etc. I'm not naive enough to think that there wasn't a little bit of crazy shit going on I didn't know about, but come on, this is getting a little ridiculous. Do we really need another movie like this? So far Edward Scissorhands skewered the suburban scene much better than any other suburbia-sucks film I've seen since, and that was from 1990. Plus, it managed to do it without tossing pedophilia into the mix (something that seems a requirement for most of the suburbia-sucks films since). I really liked Six Feet Under (the last episode was a masterpiece), but I was yawning just reading the synopsis of this film. I'll pass.
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starring Rummy as the fluffer.
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I wish the suburbs were as interesting as the movies made them seem. I grew up in Houston and the biggest thing that ever happened was a big hailstorm when I was seven.
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...to find the necrophiliac, pedophilic group sex. You guys are going over to little Billy's house, when really, all the while, the action is across the street at the Thompson's - don't say the suburbs are tame just because you aren't in the know.
Meanwhile, Yeti commented that it's funny that those who have racism directed at them turn around and do the same thing, and isn't that sad. Actually, all animals do that - put a dominant and a submissive mouse in a cage and let the big guy kick the little one's ass. Take the dominant one out and put in a mouse even smaller than both of the others. The mouse who just got his ass kicked won't look to the little guy for support, he will kick it's ass. The medium mouse feels better by asserting it's dominance after being made submissive by an alpha. It's called the pecking order, and it happens among individuals, groups and even nations. Food for thought. -
yepp agree with you there..funny thing is I saw that movie around 4 days ago...L.I.E. is another yummy one for you man-boy activists.... Is it me or is the word "controversial" getting annoying. I always think of Joan Rivers saying it whenever I read it.
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Aren't they all flag waving pedophiles and perverts?
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Gerry Studds. For Congressional Leftists, pedophilia becomes part of a successful re-election campaign. You might want to do some reading before you start pointing fingers at Republicans. And for the record - it's not Republicans supporting NAMBLA. No that'd be the leftist ACLU.
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"This isn't a one dimensional excoriation of American culture..."
This is the only part of the review that makes the movie sound like anything other then a "one dimensional excoriation of American culture".
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taboos show what a society considers to be sacred. anything sacred in our culture gets scrutinized until it doesn't seem sacred anymore..........
the use of terms like "hypocrite" or "hypocrisy" designates self-righteousness. it's a co-opting of religion, the traditional science of the sacred. in those cases, the subject becomes "holy" through perfect judgment.....the hollywood version of suburbia tends to be as absurd as islamic fundamentalism's version of america, which in turn is really just a judgment on the hollywood vision in general. -
Sep 15, 2007 12:34:46 PM CDT
It's not realistic, but that doesn't mean it's not evil
by monkey butler
Suburban American terrifies me, and a hell of a lot of people that aren't American. I don't know exactly what it is, but something about waking up in 15 years and finding that I've turned into fucking Everybody Loves Raymond or 7th Heaven or According to Jim, hell even that my girlfriend ends like the sister from Knocked Up scares the shit out of me. The banality of that existence is so unbearable, a few rabid dogs and 'towelheads' wouldn't go astray.
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I guess Larry Craig, Mark Foley, and Vitter are all paragons of morality. No. They just talk a good game of family values, then go out and troll men's rooms and chat rooms and New Orleans cat houses. Sure, there's enough bad behavior to go around, but at least one side of the aisle doesn't pretend to tell people how to behave, then go out and do the opposite.
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I'm not sure that I agree with your points, but the fact that you referenced DEADLY FRIEND was awesome.
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My, it must take quite a bit of courage for a Hollywood film to (gasp!) call out suburbia for all its faults, cast a US serviceman as a pedophile, and have a character pontificate with 'indictments of American culture'.
No, this certainly won't sit well with Middle America, as the finger is pointed back at them. These brave film-makers dealing with such 'controversial' material (cuz the story title says so!) that's never been tempted before. Why not set it during an Iraqi war, doesn't matter which one...oh wait, it is!
<
Yes, we certainly haven't seen this story, setting, tone, characterization, theme, or indictment before. What brave souls indeed are Hollywood, the last true heroes. -
Republicans oust their reprobates, either by urging them to resign or, if they don't resign, at the polls. Leftists however continually defend and re-elect theirs. And it's because we oust our reprobates that we *are* the party of family values.
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American beauty was as big of a joke as Crash. the academy loves to give awards to liberal masturbation fests that celebrate the evils of america...
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its fucking boring...where are the pedophiles? not here.
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Producer: "So, let's see, you've got a pedophile, suburban ennui...I'm sorry, Allan. It's all been done before. It's just not edgy enough."
Allan Ball (thinks for a moment): "What about two pedophiles?"
Producer: "Bingo!" -
the most terrifying aspect of the suburbs is realizing the school bus is going to be late and you might have to walk to school. im glad i live in the city, where im safe.
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because people don't know about it. It's not normally seen. I group up in the outskirts of the suburbs and the number of upper middle class kids whose parents had connections to criminals was insane. One kid in my class, a perpetual stoner, who came from a well off family had his father arrested in a drug sting. In fact, the largest drug bust in Northeast Ohio history. Another kid in my grade, whose mother was one of our school counselors and leader of an anti-drug group, had his father arrested for keeping a farm filled with marijuana. I was over their house once, and it was easily worth over half a million. No pedophiles though. Point is, there's some seedy stuff in the suburbs, you just don't know about it.
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Does the plot hinge on a wacky case of mistaken identity followed by substantial jinks elevation?
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Tell america to give up SUVs, while you have 4 parked outside your 20,000 square foot home. Talk about helping the poor, while you get $400 haircuts.....put that in your ass and smoke it, moon bats.
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Is quite pleasant (by most accounts) I grew up in it relatively trauma free. Thing with suburbia though I find is the unsavory element (which exists everywhere) blends in much better. As kids a lot of stuff goes over our heads.
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who just got home from an international flight. This is one fucked up neighborhood.
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Reading the review made me think of this movie for some reason. It was damn good imo, just very, very disturbing.
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i'm sure reviews will use words like "brave" and "gutsy" when describing it. i like kuguys3000's point that hollywood feels the need to call everyone else out without pointing the finger inward. the smug from george clooney's oscar speech is moving throughout the country.
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Michael Cunningham adapted 'Evening' and from out of nowhere comes a male character who is sexually confused, to put it mildly. Alan Ball looks at suburbia and it's a smogasbord of pedophiles.
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No pedophiles, racists or crazed neighbors. Just the guy two doors down that hasn't cut his grass in a month and that rusted out S-10 that appeared one morning and hasn't moved since. Fucking boring as hell!
However in defense of this movie, I will say if it took place in a military family housing complex I would believe every bit it. In my eight years in the Army the most depraved, violent, crazy shit I have ever seen took place in military housing. Now that would make a good movie.
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and I still don't get what happens in it. Sounds like Jazira is the only chick in town. That's about as far as it ever gets. I was intending to see this because I love Aaron Eckhart, but I don't know. It's starting to sound like it's controversial for the sake of being controversial. Or even worse, it could be Crash Part II: Pervert Bugaloo.
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I didn't even read what Bobo_Vision wrote. My bad. And I spelled it wrong too.
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"People all thought Crash was heavy handed and unreal; this just seems like Crash with more explicit and controversial scenes"
I agree that both Paul Haggis and Alan Ball can be heavy handed, BUT there is a at least a sense of humor in Ball's work. -
has anybody here read the book this film is based on? I have. it's really disturbing and they try and sell it as quasi autobiographical of the author... just saying
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You love a movie that was universally panned. And you bash a movie (Lust, Caution) that everyone else loves. I'm starting to think you might just be a contrarian. Incidentally, if you want to see a powerful indictment of the war in Iraq, watch Heavy Metal in Baghdad. Great documentary. Better and less heavyhanded than Body of War. And it doesn't have a douchebag director like Phil Donahue.
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I'm not one to damn the burbs, but I would suggest viewing the PBS Frontline episode of the title above, as it shows a community is asking for trouble if: (a) developers design a subruban utopia of 3500 square feet per lot but think one Chuckie Cheese per county is enough to keep the kids away from cocaine and group sex and (b) insulatng a family in a bubble to keep little Susie away from the bad (i.e. black) kids may have the opposite effect than intended.
By the way, my classmate was molested by her Baptist church going gymnastics teacher. Naturally, the other girls sided with the molester. Thankfully, the jury thought otherwise. -
I'll be sending my review in tonight, so I won't elaborate in this post. So, so good though, and I hope it gets Oscar recognition, in spite of the risky material.
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Please tell me where to look. I moved to Brooklyn to escape the suburbs and I dread having to go back for a visit every year. I'd love to find out where the Thompson's live in my relatives' neighborhood. The chance to hang with a few horse-fucking neo-nazis is pretty appealing when the alternative is another discussion about lawn care or the Packers.
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One of the funniest running "jokes" in the movie.
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Meh...lame....etc. Once again, a-moral liberal tripe so far up it's own ass it fails to recognize it's glorification of pedophilia.
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filmmakers, TV series, films, actors, and screenwriters bashed to shit. "Alan Ball sucks." "No he doesn't." "Yes, he does." Blah, blah, blah...
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I've been reading a lot of reviews after seeing this film on Saturday, mostly scathing. I understand their points but this is the only one i fully agree with. It's strange to watch a movie that makes light of pedophilia somewhat (more through association), but it works. I found it more honest. I don’t buy the good/evil mentality and I don’t feel laughing at hypocrisy isn't the same as condoning it. Every character shows depth in this film and they display the contractions our environment imposes on our nature. The lead is young, impressionable and easily taken advantage of due to her need for acceptance and alienation from nearly all groups around her (schoolmates, family).
My date (note: definitely not a date movie) had a hard time with this movie and the girls actions, like a lot of people. Although she laughed and cried throughout, she decided in the end it was too harsh for her. She didn't like feeling the girl’s vulnerabilities. For me, when film is so affecting, it's when i appreciate it most.
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Isn't showing the shallowness and general lousiness of suburban life cliche yet?
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