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Every year I try and believe that the Academy Awards are going to be different, that there’s going to be something new to finally love about this stroke-fest, but I should know better because there is nothing that I can ever see ever making this pomp and circumstantial production any more palatable. Apart from all the digs that one could make at Jon Stewart’s middle-of-the-road comedy, and it’s really not his fault that he has to keep the jokes in vanilla territory, it’s really just the fact that this show is essentially a political exercise that will prevent it from ever really evolving.
The one stand out moment has to be, without question, ONCE’s “Falling Slowly” winning an Academy Award; it was the best reason why you should believe in the Academy voting every now and then. It certainly filled me with the kind of armchair happiness for this film that I haven’t felt for a lot of films being entered into these contests in quite a while. And, to boot, Jon Stewart’s insistence to allow Marketa Irglova to give her speech after Bill Conti’s Gestapo Noise Brigade shuffled them the hell off the stage after Glen Hansard spoke so passionately about the experience. I had a sense of validation for being so vocal in this column for people to get out and see this little film that could and, most importantly, it represented the choice on my ballot that meant I tied the leader for the most number of correct guesses: my wife.
Now, I’m calling bullshit, throwing the yellow flag, falling on the floor and throwing a hissy fit because, really, I think that if you’re going to play the Oscar game the wild card choices of Best Editing, Best Sound, Best Costume (Sorry, I’m not a femme, and I always lose this one) shouldn’t be part of the overall picture. However, I can see that the inclusion of these are like handicaps for those of us who are hopeful that we can at least get one answer right out of the couple dozen choices.
I think I’m just Monday Morning Quarterbacking the fact that I could not shake my bride’s choke hold on this contest after getting those throwaways right out of the gate. Alas, my dominance was not meant to be this year, and Sherry deserves the annual shout-out as the co-winner, but I have every gun set on next year’s petition to keep Best Art Direction (I mean, really, who’s to say what is art? Why not just have a fucking Am I Hot Or Not contest thrown in there too?)
As well, now that we all can stop stroking the legend of stripper cum scribe, Brook Busey-Hunt (Diablo Cody. Seriously, every journalist can stuff their pieces about this being an inevitable backlash because of how edgy she was and how she is really “fringe” and you’re not supposed to be successful if you’re “edgy” can go suck a pickle.), can we all talk about other movies now that are a little more deserving of some attention? I would appreciate that greatly. JUNO’s backlash is only happening because JUNO’s patois is so incredibly painful to listen to as a viewer looking for something that isn’t contrived because that first 20 minutes is absolutely contrived in ways that people just are finally coming to understand. I’m happy she’s going to be flooded with offers to keep working and I hope she finds some really good material because I would be open to seeing something new from Brook. Something genuine. Something that doesn’t sound like it was put in an E-Z Bake Oven of Witticism.
In other, more important news, I took my 4 year-old to see U2-3D on Sunday afternoon.
I was curious to expose her to some of the most cutting edge technology being employed at IMAX and there was some delight on my part to try and give her a taste for the theatrics and pomp that Bono and company employ so well. One of the things that U2 understand well is how commerce and technology blend together.
As an aside, Chuck Klosterman wrote a piece on Bono which should be required reading for any person interested in what makes this band so prodigious. If you understand that U2 merely understands what it takes to be one of the biggest independent bands in the world and it’s what holds a lot of bands back: if you make the money men happy they will leave you the hell alone. It’s not a sellout if no one’s willing to buy it and U2 figured out that equation a long time ago.
And thankfully they have because they decided to put their band’s brand into the capable hands of Mark Pellington, a guy who could wow on the video screen, a little questionable for his full-length work, but the perfect choice for this blend of 3-D, concert footage and the little artistic touches he made to this beautiful movie.
I would dare anyone to not be moved by the song “Where The Streets Have No Name” where it’s not the band that does the moving, but the audience. The pogo-ing, the perspective we’re given from the audience, Mark eschewing the sterile “band only” shots some concert films suffer for having, the deft editing, it all factors nicely as to why this film needs to be seen and experienced.
My daughter, never seeing a full-length 3-D film, wasn’t wowed by Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen, Bono or the Edge doing their best to display their prowess as multi million dollar captains of the musical world but it was the fans being hoisted on their companion’s shoulders that promoted her to try and reach out with them. It was a strange but telling moment that what made this film so groundbreaking was its attention to the fans.
It was the fan at the beginning of “Streets” and you can’t miss him; he’s the one with curly black hair who looks very happy to be there. It’s seeing people like that peppered throughout the film that blends the 3-D uniqueness with the humanity of a documentary.
I know I don’t say it much but really, truly, get out to see this movie at the theater if you’re any kind of fan, casual or otherwise.
Director: Michael McCullers
Cast: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Greg Kinnear, Dax Shepard, Romany Malco, Maura Tierney, Holland Taylor, Sigourney Weaver
Release: April 25, 2008
Synopsis: Successful and single businesswoman Kate Holbrook (Tina Fey) has long put her career ahead of a personal life. Now 37, she’s finally determined to have a kid on her own. But her plan is thrown a curve ball after she discovers she has only a million-to-one chance of getting pregnant. Undaunted, the driven Kate allows South Philly working girl Angie Ostrowiski (Amy Poehler) to become her unlikely surrogate. Simple enough… After learning from the steely head (Sigourney Weaver) of their surrogacy center that Angie is pregnant, Kate goes into precision nesting mode: reading childcare books, baby-proofing the apartment and researching top pre-schools. But the executive’s well-organized strategy is turned upside down when her Baby Mama shows up at her doorstep with no place to live.
An unstoppable force meets an immovable object as structured Kate tries to turn vibrant Angie into the perfect expectant mom. In a comic battle of wills, they will struggle their way through preparation for the baby’s arrival. And in the middle of this tug-of-war, they’ll discover two kinds of family: the one you’re born to and the one you make.
View Trailer:
* Large (QuickTime)
Prognosis: Negative. Want to see where the JUNO comparisons are going to begin?
Welcome to BABY MAMA, a miserably titled film which wants to have the cache of being a witty take on the many incarnations of Maury Povich rejects who are cattle called onto his show just to see which unemployment earner has sperminated a hapless welfare taker.
I could live with the title if it wasn’t such a hard movie to try and get over with regard to we all having seen this already. I’m not positive if this is trying to be like JUNO-lite, a more mainstream syrup for middle-America to swallow but I think this trailer does a disservice to itself on a number of levels.
First, Tina “I loved to laugh at all my own jokes on SNL†Fey sets this yarn up with the following idea: she’s 37 and in need of a child. I’m a little confused how this woman had an adoption attorney shake his head with regard to her being able to adopt a young one; was she homogenously a wreck of a person and, if so, shouldn’t this be the focus of the film?
The joke, as well, of her talking about inseminating herself, her adoption woes and everything else she’s trying to do to get a kid, all the while being on a first date (Ha Ha!) isn’t funny. It’s something I would expect from a badly produced sitcom but there’s obviously more going on here.
I will say that the bright spot of having Sigourney Weaver and Fey doing a tête-à -tête with regard to the price of having a surrogate versus having someone killed is funny, and gave me a bit of hope, was dashed by the introduction of the usually hilarious Amy Poehler and the never amusing Dax Sheppard; the two of them are stereotypes of the lowest common denominator and I can see why they’re easily employed to provide the easiest of all jokes, the low-brow finger pointing.
(By the way, the Tracey Morgan joke about “put a baby in you†is wretchedly employed and even if Tracey thought it would be great for them to use his oft-quoted line it’s pretty hard on the ears here.)
Romany Malco’s inclusion here should have been great but I’ve seen this character before in 40 YEAR-OLD VIRGIN. I guess it’s not a big deal for him to have collected a check when asked to do what made that movie great but it’s distracting when you know you’ve seen this before. Example: his thoughts on the surrogate baby listening to DMX and what will happen if the womb is exposed to it. Thanks, what a winner of a joke.
But even in this mess of pastiches there is one joke that succeeds to go beyond the usual mainstream fare. The baby proofing of the house in which Poehler and Fey share and what happens when Amy needs to take a leak. I know it’s not much to see Amy crouched in a sink as she urinates but it was one of those jokes that actually managed to make me like this film. It’s just unfortunate, though, that the trailer ends with a train wreck of a set-up with a gag involving water breaking and a moment where a clever quip regarding using Pam on the vagina is what we’re left with.
JUNO comparisons, without a question, will dog this turkey but I can say that even for all the problems I have with that film at least JUNO didn’t feel as plastic and false as this film does.
SMART PEOPLE (2008)
Director: Noam Murro
Cast: Dennis Quaid, Ellen Page, Thomas Haden Church, Sarah Jessica Parker
Release: April 11, 2008
Synopsis: Into the life of a widowed professor comes a new love and an unexpected visit from his adopted brother.
View Trailer:
* Large (QuickTime)
Prognosis: Positive. Ever feel like you’ve stepped onto a branch that might not hold the weight?
It’s not often that I would whole heartedly say I would willingly see a movie with Dennis Quaid (If INNERSPACE would come back into theaters I would so be there) and Sarah Jessica Parker and an Ellen Page that seems less HARD CANDY and more like the acerbic JUNO which I still can’t stand. But I like this trailer and I like the feel of this film.
We’ve come to expect, and I’ve expected, my films to mean something, to be something more than they are, and it takes a film like this to recalibrate everything in way that will make me appreciate “slices of life†films that aren’t out to angle for anything more than to just be good.
I like the cheeky beginning, not so much for the Ellen Page bit about self-absorption and its place in the modern society, but it’s the simplicity of Dennis looking haggard and his inability to connect with others that feels endearing. This trailer eschews the voiceover, the spoon fed stills that shove information in our minds so we don’t have to think about the story, and it lets things just happen.
Again, Ellen Page pops in to add some of that JUNO-esque levity but what really made me take notice of this trailer is the introduction of Thomas Haden Church.
What once was just a run of the mill family drama turns into something more when the drama now shifts from father/daughter to smart brother/loser brother. Needing a chauffer because he suffers seizures and can’t drive himself this looks like a film, and it’s beautiful to look at, where it’s about the relationships between siblings that will dominate.
I like the inclusion of the words “socially retarded†and the shift from a melodrama to a fill-on UNCLE BUCK meets MY TWO DADS meets every story where it takes a down on his luck loser to shift everyone’s paradigm.
I have to give a legitimate high five to the trailer maker in the sky for including Paul Westerberg’s “Dyslexic Heart†into the mix of things. I love the song in ways that make me reflect on the reasons why SINGLES stands as the most excellent romantic comedy my generation has ever produced but it really is Thomas Haden that brings this kind of deadpan legitimacy to a movie that looks like it would die a February death if it didn’t have him in it.
I’m not keen on SJP, I can’t really remember anything that I’ve liked her in but I am hopeful that this trailer making it out to seem like she’s just window dressing on a larger story between brothers is actually true. Like I said, it’s not often when I’m enamored with a cream puff movie like this but it’s a good trailer that does everything right and even throws a little “edginess†(yeah, I hate that word too) to make it feel like a legitimate movie you could break even for if you’re having to go to the movies with the ol’ ball and chain link and she’s not into watching and exploring the peculiarities of how Javier Bardem is such a bad ass in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN.
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One Response to “Trailer Park: Oscar Party C-Block”Leave a Reply |
February 29th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
I was ecstatic about Falling Slowly’s (love it) win and allowing Marketa to give her speech was a really nice touch. Can’t wait to see the film, though…for shame, I haven’t seen it.
“In other, more important news, I took my 4 year-old to see U2-3D on Sunday afternoon.” –> Can you say coolest 4-year old on the block? 🙂