Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here, eagerly awaiting the Wrath of the Talkbackers.
When I returned from Austin over the weekend, I found a mailbox full of all sorts of goodies in the form of a HOT TUB TIME MACHINE backpack, a downright ornate box set of the new White Stripes documentary, and about a dozen or so screeners and review copies of DVDs, most of which were for films I'd seen already. One of the films in my bursting-at-the-seams mailbox was the two-disc NEW MOON DVD, and strangely enough, I couldn't quite get the idea out of my head of watching at least the special features on it just to see what was passing for "special" these days on a TWILIGHT SAGA DVD offering.
The main feature that will probably have TWILIGHT fans buzzing is the hour-plus-long, six-part documentary about the making of NEW MOON. Other than a couple of music videos and a commentary track from director Chris Weitz and editor Peter Lambert, the set is pretty light on the extras, so the doc is pretty much it. But as I started pouring through it, I actually had the itch to watch NEW MOON again before getting too deep into the Making Of. I remember pretty much loathing from top to bottom TWILIGHT, but NEW MOON at least had some elements that kept me entertained, particularly the segments set in Italy among the Vulturi, which includes some particularly juicy performances by Michael Sheen and Dakota Fanning. So as I soared through my second viewing of NEW MOON, I was reminded just how tediously written the love triangle aspects are and how much fun the Vulturi sequences can get. My original review holds, but watching the film again at least prepared me (I thought) for the Making Of doc…or so I thought.
Rightfully so, the documentary begins with the actors' reaction to the fan frenzy over TWILIGHT at events such as Comic-Con 2008. I was at this ground-zero event, and even got to interview a clearly shell-shocked Kristen Stewart and giddy director, Catherine Hardwicke. I also covered the Comic-Con 2009 events surrounding NEW MOON, although, not surprisingly, the interview opportunities were less available. I only asked to speak to Weitz and was politely turned down. I have to applaud the editor of the doc for actually bringing to life Stewart and Robert Pattinson, who rarely have anything coherent to say during interviews about these films. Perhaps the strangest aspect to the documentary is that Dakota Fanning is nowhere to be found either in the interview segments or any behind the scenes footage, which isn't such a big deal except that every other actor from the Vulturi portion of NEW MOON is so obviously present that her absence is practically broadcast from the highest rooftop.
There are a few insights into Weitz’s process, including an interesting story about letters he slipped under each cast member’s door just before shooting started that provided a detailed explanation of how the film shoot would be run and how excited he was about working of the project. Again, for reasons that are kept deliberately secret, the exact contents of Weitz’s letter are kept from us. I can’t imagine what was in these documents that would get him in so much troubled if revealed, but I’ll take his work for it. But the situation begs the question, why bring it up at all?
The rest of the documentary is fairly standard stuff: costume details, selecting shooting locations, stunt work, and reason after reason of why NEW MOON is “amazing” and taking it to the next level and how awesome Weitz is to work with, and how this gathering of talent is like a family. I’m sorry, but if you’re given more than an hour to tell your behind-the-scenes story, don’t waste people’s time with typical EPK garbage. Talk about logistical problems (there are little bits about the Pacific Northwest rain issue, but I bet there were more issues), show us how a particularly complicated sequence was put together, give those of us who actually know a little something about how is film is made something to grasp onto.
The makers of the NEW MOON DVD set have a lot to answer for in justifying making this release a two-disc set. I have a hard time believing they couldn’t have put all of this onto one disc. That being said, a more complete and probing documentary would have gone a long way to justify the second disc. No, I didn’t expect to get such a product, but a guy can dream, can’t he? I’ll say it again: NEW MOON is a better film than TWILIGHT, immensely so. But this DVD release doesn’t reflect the things about the second film that are improvements. No, I’m not surprised; this series seems intent on disappointing, and that’s fine. Whether or not this day turns into a good one or bad one isn’t dependent on the quality of a TWILIGHT-brand product. I consider this my latest infrequent attempt to dip my toe in the pool of a certain arena of youth culture and remind myself that it’s full of acid and shit.
-- Capone
capone@aintitcool.com
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