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An Early Review Of Ron Howard’s FROST/NIXON!
Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
I’m looking forward to this one. I read Peter Morgan’s original play, but didn’t get to see it performed. Basically, the big question is how do you translate the play to the screen without altering the experience that’s been such a success so far?
Did they pull it off? One audience in Manhattan had a chance to see for themselves recently...
I thought you'd be interested in some early word on Frost/Nixon. I sent in a review of Baby Mama a few months back that you didn't use, but I'll reiterate that the Tina Fey-Amy Poehler pedigree is sullied. It's almost unwatchable in parts, and I'm a big fan of 30 Rock and UCB. Be forewarned.
Anyway...I saw Frost/Nixon last week in Manhattan (Union Square, in case you're looking for some kind of confirmation). Ron Howard was there, though he didn't emerge until after the focus group had concluded. He seemed more than willing to engage the huddle of fans who flooded him. I also noticed Harris Yulin (forever the Judge in Ghostbusters 2 to my twentysomething mind), who wasn't in the film, lingering around as well.
Anyway...the film is a solid but at times slight historical drama – no knockout but it fights a good fight and lands its share of solid punches. I was worried about a middleweight filmmaker like Howard getting his hands on Peter Morgan's play, which I haven't read or seen, but it's a satisfying film - a bit visually glossy, a bit surfacey at points (Michael Sheen's David Frost is less fully rounded than I expected), but competent and moving in minor bursts.
Frank Langella is very good - wearing very little make-up thankfully, he's nonetheless fully felt and fleshed out. His Nixon is competitive and guarded, but Langella makes him sympathetic - a former political fighter angling for one last twilight bout - without scrubbing him entirely clean of his...um...imperfections. That said, he isn't as entrenched as Hopkins, and this isn't Nixon the Mythic and Tragic. The inner fire is there, but it isn't raging.
I know you've seen the play, so I'll spare the details, but I'll say that I was hoping, for a brief moment, that Frost was going to eat dirt completely. He flubs the first 11 interview days, and I thought maybe, just maybe the film was going to be a study in one entertainment journalist's hubris coming up against a man twice his stature. That would've certainly made for a more interesting arc. Instead, nine of the interview days fly by in a too-quick montage that almost deflates any anticipation for that last confrontation and leaves Frost - who you keep hoping/expecting to break his paralysis a prize fighter - a shell of a character.
Sheen gives him something, but I'm not sure what, and he spends most of those interview scenes with a look of general unease, his eyes frozen and locked. I went with the 12th round showdown - its crafty, with both actors stepping up their games - but by that point, I didn't believe it. I took it less as Frost's last-minute competence and redemption than as Nixon conceding for his own reasons. And that, like Quiz Show, nobody or nothing won but the entertainment T.V. juggernaut still in its adolescence.
The film's only other glaring flaw is its framing device - a series of direct-to-camera interviews with its supporting players that offers some insight but is mostly an unnecessary and T.V. movie-ish crutch. It's pat and takes you out of the present tense drama. I hope they cut it, but no one seemed to mind.
Kevin Bacon is extraneous and flat, Sam Rockwell is feisty and the best thing besides Langella, and there's a subplot involving Frost's girlfriend that I didn't mind but my girlfriend thought just sat there.
The whole thing clocked in at just under two hours, and the moderator mentioned that Howard and the producers have reservations about the final scene - a nifty but perhaps too-neat play on "walking a mile in the other man's shoes". They'd do better to leave a small question mark at the end.
They seemed scared as well that political films have been treated as diseased this year and wanted thoughts on election year burnout. Frost/Nixon isn't short on parallels - deposed and reviled leader wrestling with his legacy in an entertainment-news culture looking for an easy quote to pin him with - but it's not unlike The Queen in seeming like a fairly benign and digestible historical drama.
I'd recommend it, even though my review, looking back, skews a bit negative. Take that as you will. I walked out satisfied, but it's not exactly a heady film. Hopefully the long interim before release will give them a chance to ignite the film's slower-burning passages. I have a feeling there will be only minor tweaking.
Have at me, forum lurkers. Spare me nothing.
If you use this, call me The National Boxer.
Anyway...I saw Frost/Nixon last week in Manhattan (Union Square, in case you're looking for some kind of confirmation). Ron Howard was there, though he didn't emerge until after the focus group had concluded. He seemed more than willing to engage the huddle of fans who flooded him. I also noticed Harris Yulin (forever the Judge in Ghostbusters 2 to my twentysomething mind), who wasn't in the film, lingering around as well.
Anyway...the film is a solid but at times slight historical drama – no knockout but it fights a good fight and lands its share of solid punches. I was worried about a middleweight filmmaker like Howard getting his hands on Peter Morgan's play, which I haven't read or seen, but it's a satisfying film - a bit visually glossy, a bit surfacey at points (Michael Sheen's David Frost is less fully rounded than I expected), but competent and moving in minor bursts.
Frank Langella is very good - wearing very little make-up thankfully, he's nonetheless fully felt and fleshed out. His Nixon is competitive and guarded, but Langella makes him sympathetic - a former political fighter angling for one last twilight bout - without scrubbing him entirely clean of his...um...imperfections. That said, he isn't as entrenched as Hopkins, and this isn't Nixon the Mythic and Tragic. The inner fire is there, but it isn't raging.
I know you've seen the play, so I'll spare the details, but I'll say that I was hoping, for a brief moment, that Frost was going to eat dirt completely. He flubs the first 11 interview days, and I thought maybe, just maybe the film was going to be a study in one entertainment journalist's hubris coming up against a man twice his stature. That would've certainly made for a more interesting arc. Instead, nine of the interview days fly by in a too-quick montage that almost deflates any anticipation for that last confrontation and leaves Frost - who you keep hoping/expecting to break his paralysis a prize fighter - a shell of a character.
Sheen gives him something, but I'm not sure what, and he spends most of those interview scenes with a look of general unease, his eyes frozen and locked. I went with the 12th round showdown - its crafty, with both actors stepping up their games - but by that point, I didn't believe it. I took it less as Frost's last-minute competence and redemption than as Nixon conceding for his own reasons. And that, like Quiz Show, nobody or nothing won but the entertainment T.V. juggernaut still in its adolescence.
The film's only other glaring flaw is its framing device - a series of direct-to-camera interviews with its supporting players that offers some insight but is mostly an unnecessary and T.V. movie-ish crutch. It's pat and takes you out of the present tense drama. I hope they cut it, but no one seemed to mind.
Kevin Bacon is extraneous and flat, Sam Rockwell is feisty and the best thing besides Langella, and there's a subplot involving Frost's girlfriend that I didn't mind but my girlfriend thought just sat there.
The whole thing clocked in at just under two hours, and the moderator mentioned that Howard and the producers have reservations about the final scene - a nifty but perhaps too-neat play on "walking a mile in the other man's shoes". They'd do better to leave a small question mark at the end.
They seemed scared as well that political films have been treated as diseased this year and wanted thoughts on election year burnout. Frost/Nixon isn't short on parallels - deposed and reviled leader wrestling with his legacy in an entertainment-news culture looking for an easy quote to pin him with - but it's not unlike The Queen in seeming like a fairly benign and digestible historical drama.
I'd recommend it, even though my review, looking back, skews a bit negative. Take that as you will. I walked out satisfied, but it's not exactly a heady film. Hopefully the long interim before release will give them a chance to ignite the film's slower-burning passages. I have a feeling there will be only minor tweaking.
Have at me, forum lurkers. Spare me nothing.
If you use this, call me The National Boxer.
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+ Expand All
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"It's: Arrested Development."
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See Robert Altman's Secret Honor, a one-man movie starring Philip Baker Hall as Nixon, instead.
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I'm there! Haven't seen Secret Honor - heard it is brilliant though and Philip Baker Hall... that dude is just king, KING! PSYCHED!
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May you live forever on DVD
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Every president we've ever had is like Richard Nixon to a certain extent. They all seem to have this hubris that makes them feel they are above the law. Nixon, for some reason, and to me this is what is interesting, failed to cover his tracks as effectively as the others. Did he unconsciously plot his downfall? LBJ, Reagan, Clinton, and Bush/Cheney could have done everything Nixon did and gotten away with it, and probably did.
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"You're just a big chicken, Nixon. CHICKEN! Bawka, bawka, bawka, bawk!"
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"AROOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
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Boxer, by The National. It really is a game-changer, like Funeral or Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Best album of the year.
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I live at Union Square. Go to screenings there all the time. Can't believe I came home to visit Cali for Christmas. Now I hate my family even more. I saw this play twice in New York and loved it. Some of the complaints in this review make sense to me. I thought most of the narration in the play was unnecessary. Lines like "it wasn't the first time we disagreed, and it wouldn't be the last." Really pointless. But the stuff that worked made it one of the most entertaining and fascinating plays I've seen in years. Langella probably won't win an Oscar this year for Starting Out in the Evening, but I think he'll have a real shot next year if his performance is as good as it was on film. Sheen is also very understated, yet funny and engaging. I'm surprised this reviewer found Kevin Bacon to be flat. I thought this role would suit him pretty well. This play was so good that even you Ron Howard haters should know that he won't be able to screw this up. It's that good. Nice review, Boxer.
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Maybe I'll go see it when it comes out.
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"Has anyone in this family ever SEEN a chicken?"
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I don't think he is a bad filmmaker, I just think he chooses some bland material to work with. He generally gets very good work out of his actors. For instance, A Beautiful Mind is essentially a tv movie of the week, but Crowe, Connelly and Bettany are all great in it. I don't think Scorsese could have made good films out of the Grinch or Da Vinci Code. Frost/Nixon could be an interesting choice for Howard. It is low budget and was made on a very short shooting schedule. It is based on very good source material. I am looking forward to it.
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but great album indeed. Maybe not the best of the year (Battles?) but gorgeous all the way through. As you were.
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Will wonders never cease.
*Stupid talkback with its zero edit capability* -
Is the whole movie just comprised of reenacting the interviews? I haven't seen or read the play, so forgive me, but does anything actually happen in this film?
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It's called "Eat my Balls."
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On DVD. From Netflix.
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he was da bomb at foreign policy, yo. Eisenhower underlooked too. Reagan however is overrated to shit, opened the doors to the corporations with his shitty Reagonomics, wonderful in healthcare leading to homeless influx, "defeated" communism by surprise-attacking them in Grenada, Star Wars was a nice waste spending fantasy.
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Yulin enjoys plenty of "Hey! It's That Guy!" status, but don't let his ubiquity fool you: He really is a great actor. He gets so much frickin' work because he's able to deliver a solid, story-serving performance every time; and when the time comes for him take centerstage, he can definitely rock it. I mean did you see that DEEP SPACE NINE episode? The guy deserves an Emmy.
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thats what they do.
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Saw the play. Langella is king. The movie will likely be worth it for his performance, alone.
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but he gave Michael Keaton his first major role, Tom Hanks his first major role, and filmed John Candy's best film performance (aside from Spaceballs, and those who loved Planes, Trains, etc.). Running in with copies of Penthouse.."They printed my letter..they printed my letter.." Classic.
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as the kid genius
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No way in hell with Ron Howard beat that one
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Way too many boxing metaphors. Zero in depth look at the film. Somebody tell this reviewer this is not ESPN's fan site.
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than your average Lionsgate rental. Nevertheless, Nixon is a ripe subject (but not for an asshole like Oliver Stone, the very invocation of William Castle: "They tried to stop me from making JFK...they tried to hire a hit man, Ted...yeah..that's the ticket"). In the event that Howard prefers to make a profitable film (and he needs a hit), I suggest a remake of VILLAGE OF THE GIANTS.
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Never criticise a man til you've walked a mile in his shoes, he's a mile away and you've got his shoes
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Nixon was a victim, actually. In this film he may end taking full blame for Watergate, but he certainly wasn't as corrupt as history has painted him. Ask Kissinger ang Haig, if they ever tell the truth.
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the fact that this guy will go down in history as 'best director' of 2001, beating Peter Jackson who basically made a film that said 'anything is possible' will make me hate this cunt forever. Studio Hack.
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CHECKERS!!!! Dan Hedaya was really funny. And don't get me started on Woodward and Bernstein.
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If you are referring to one of the Lord of the Rings movies, I think those are already being considered overrated with the passage of time. Also, if the message was "anything is possible", I assum you are referring in part to the work of Weta. By that standard, then George Lucas should have won for any of the three star wars movies in the past 10 years because ILM did a superior job. Weta's work always looks drab and washed out. Like it's trying to hide something (Kind of like how you saw Godzilla only in the rain in that terrible Matthew Broderick movie. It masks imperfections).
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That's all I ever want to know about Ron Howard movies...
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i know it's easy to rag on Howard but the dude has made some contributions to the industry.
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you are fucked in the head. only star wars fanboys say ILM's work on the prequels is better than Weta's work. Weta's work looks realistic and their character work is convincing unlike ROTS' ridiculous digital characters. And where did you hear overrated? on an AICN talkback? sorry to say but it's considered the greatest trilogy made by most humans in this world, because the star wars one is fucked with ROTJ.
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