Welcome to WeeklyWilson.com, where author/film critic Connie (Corcoran) Wilson avoids totally losing her marbles in semi-retirement by writing about film (see the Chicago Film Festival reviews and SXSW), politics and books----her own books and those of other people. You'll also find her diverging frequently to share humorous (or not-so-humorous) anecdotes and concerns. Try it! You'll like it!
Connie has been reviewing film uninterruptedly since 1970 (47 years) and routinely covers the Chicago International Film Festival (14 years), SXSW, the Austin Film Festival, and others, sharing detailed looks in advance at upcoming entertainment. She has taught a class on film and is the author of the book “Training the Teacher As A Champion; From The Godfather to Apocalypse Now, published by the Merry Blacksmith Press of Rhode Island.
One day after her film adaptation of the 1888 Strindberg play “Miss Julie” opened the 50th Chicago Film Festival, actress Liv Ullmann was kind enough to speak with me one-on-one about the film, her future projects, and life, in general. We met at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Chicago and the beautiful Norwegian actress, muse to Ingmar Bergmann in so many of his films, was warm and welcoming.
Ullmann had much praise for her “Miss Julie” dream cast (Jessica Chastain, Colin Farrell and Samantha Morton) saying, of Jessica Chastain, “She is both cool and cold. She’s a young woman grappling with non-existence. I just think she’s a genius. It’s very much the way I act.” She added, “I think the actors’ movie is the actors’ movie” and praised the trio universally. Liv remarked on Miss Julie’s feeling of not belonging, indicating that she thought Ms. Chastain was remarkable as the female lead.
The director was no less effusive in her praise of male lead Colin Farrell, saying, “No one else could do the movie as he did it.” Although selected partially because of his handsome good looks, Ullmann remarked that, during filming, Farrell awoke one night and wrote a poem as though he were John the valet, writing to Miss Julie. “I tried to find a way to use it in the film,” said Ullmann, “but ultimately we could not fit it in.”
Ullmann said, of Farrell’s selection as the male lead, “I saw a lot of Colin’s movies and I could see that he is also a theater actor. For me, I like to work with theater actors because I like to make films that are film theater.”
I mentioned Farrell’s appearances in both “Tigerland” and “In Bruges,” both early films of his, and also repeated the quote that Al Pacino once called Farrell “the greatest actor of his generation.” Liv Ullmann said, “He was fantastic in “In Bruges.’ What first sold me on him for ‘Miss Julie” was what he said during a phone conversation. It floored me. I thought, ‘This is a soul mate.’ He’s an incredible actor and he’s going to bring what I think no one really will expect from him to television’s ‘True Detective,’ (with Vince Vaughan) because he has dimensions which you seldom see in a film actor. He shows you the good and, at the same time, he shows you the bad.”
I had brought along a Chicago Tribune clipping about an Atlantic Monthly article quoting Mayor Emanuel’s older brother, a noted oncologist and bio-ethicist, saying that 75 was the optimal life span. After that, suggested the Mayor’s older brother, you were not viewed the same way and might even be seen as pathetic.
Upon entering the room, I gave the article to Ms. Ullmann and said, “The Mayor of Chicago’s older brother says we all should die at 75.” This was a bit of a simplification, but the thought was definitely there in Ezekial Emanuel’s words. [Ezekial Emanuel is an oncologist and bio-ethicist at the University of Pennsylvania and has been singled out by his brother, the Mayor, as “the smartest one” of the three brothers].
Unfortunately, Liv Ullmann thought I had used the word “diet.” When she realized that the word was actually “die” she seemed as upset by Ezekial Emanuel’s remarks as I was. She is also deeply concerned about the class system and the unequal distribution of wealth that is occurring, world-wide, saying, “I believe more in its (the class system’s) existence now than ever!” She was praised for her humanitarian works from the stage on Premiere night by Colin Farrell.
New projects? “I will be doing an adaptation of ‘Private Confessions.’ Ingmar (Bergman) gave it to me years ago saying, “I don’t believe in God, but you do.” The National Theater in Norway will adapt it for the stage.” Ullmann said, “It is about connecting. How damaging is it to lie to one another? How damaging is it to be truthful?”
“The ABC’s of Death,” Part 2, screened as part of the After Dark series at the 50th Chicago Film Festival on October 12th. The film is composed of 26 short films about death, assigned alphabetically and shot by 26 directors from around the world. With titles like “B is for Badger” (one of my personal favorites featuring Julian Barratt as both Director and Star) and “F is for Falling,” done by the outstanding duo of Israel’s Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado (“Rabies”), the vignettes were often humorous and sometimes revolting. “B is for Badger,” which Julian Barratt directed, falls into the category of humorous. Barratt not only directed the short film, but plays the lead part of Peter Toller, a pompous television talking head who has taken his crew to a remote rural area near a large nuclear power plant to make the point that the power plant has driven the badgers away.
Only it hasn’t.
The (unseen) vicious badgers are not only alive and well, but apparently very large and aggressive, as Toller/Barratt finds out firsthand, till he utters the director’s command, “Cut!” Titles of the films, alphabetically, were: “A is for Amateur” “B Is for Badger” (**) “C is for Capital Punishment” (*) “D Is for Deloused” “E Is for Equilibrium” (*) “F Is for Falling” (**) “G Is for Granddad” “H Is for Headgames” (*) “I Is for Invincible” “J Is for Jesus: “K Is for Knell” (*) “L is for Legacy” “M Is for Masticate” “N Is for Nexus” (*) “O Is for Ochlocracy” (Mob Rule) “P-P-P-P Is for Scary” “Q Is for Questionnaire” (*) “R Is for Roulette” “S Is for Split” (**) “T Is for Torture Porn” “U Is for Utopia” (*) “V Is for Vacation” (*) “W Is for Wish” “X Is for Xylophone” “Y Is for Youth” “Z Is for Zygote” (*) Of the 26, I’d say that roughly half, starred or double-starred above, were absorbing, interesting and fulfilled the assignment in style. The less said about most of the other titles, the better. I don’t want to give away the plots of any of the short films completely but I did notice a disturbing trend. Just as comedians have to have a target for their humor [and, in this age of political correctness, that target has become harder and harder to find without offending some groupor cause], horror needs a Whipping Boy or Girl target, as well.
It used to be that comics could make fun of ethnic groups (now “out”), sexual preferences (verboten), and so on, to the point that sometimes it felt as though the only group left that was “fair game” were midgets (aka, “little people”)—until they, too, weren’t. (Remember the midget-throwing scene in “The Wolf of Wall Street?”). It seems that old people are the new target of horror. There is even one film entitled simply “Granddad” and in the short film representing the letter “I,” the three-man cast sets fire to their own grandmother. One Japanese film is entitled “Youth.” Sumechi Umezawa definitely does not represent the venerable Japanese tradition of honoring one’s parents. Its young star is a decidedly hostile teen-ager. “X Is for Xylophone” makes you worry about ever leaving your child in the care of her grandmother. So four (of 26)—or roughly 15%— are decidedly anti-elder. Many of the films have tried hard to combine humor with horror, with varying degrees of success. (“B Is for Badger” by Julian Barratt is one that succeeded; many did not. “P-P-P-P Is for Scary” was not scary, but was like watching a bad Three Stooges short, without the fun of watching Curly, Moe and Larry. Mention should be made of the excellent opening credits designed by Wolfgang Moetzel, which started the ongoing trend of either head-smashing or beheading. With so much actual beheading going on in the real world (not to mention smashing of same on “The WalkingDead”), I did not yearn to see beheadings onscreen. (There’s enough of that on the 6 o’clock news or on YouTube.) So, for me, roughly 50% of these 26 short films were entertaining and palatable and I’ve marked them with asterisks. It would be hard to pick an overall favorite as I did enjoy the new short film by Aharon Keshales (“Rabies”), whom I interviewed at last year’s festival, but I also enjoyed the excellent “Split,” which used a split-screen technique to portray a husband speaking with his wife long-distance on the phone while an intruder breaks into the house and terrorizes her and their baby. Juan Martinez Moreno directed and Gary Reumer did a good job portraying the concerned husband trying to summon help for his wife while far away at the time of the attack.
Chicago Celebrates 50 Years of Oldest Competitive Film Festival in North America at Premiere on Thursday, 10/9/2014 CHICAGO, IL (October 10, 2014) – Opening Night of the 50th Chicago International Film Festival was a golden celebration. Veteran actress Liv Ullmann, actor Colin Farrell, Festival Jury Member Kathleen Turner and “The Fugitive” director Andrew Davis joined Festival Founder and Artistic Director Michael Kutza on the red carpet for the U.S. Premiere of Ullmann’s latest film “Miss Julie” on Thursday, October 9 at the Harris Theater.
Academy Award®-nominated and Golden Globe®-winning actress Kathleen Turner; acclaimed filmmaker and New German Cinema pioneer Margarethe von Trotta; Turkish director Ferzan Ozpetek (whose latest film, “Fasten Your Seatbelts,” is an Official selection at this year’s Festival); award-winning Israeli cinematographer Giora Bejach; and Iranian editor and director Parviz Shahbazi. And then came the moment the media and the public were waiting for: Liv Ullmann and Colin Farrell, together on the red carpet with Michael Kutza.
Once inside the theater, the audience was treated to video greetings from past Festival honorees and friends, including Davis; producer, writer and director Robert Zemeckis (“Forrest Gump”); and director Martin Scorsese, whose first film, “I Call First,” premiered at the 1967 Chicago International Film Festival. In his video message, Scorsese acknowledged the encouragement he received from both the Festival and a young film critic at the time named Roger Ebert.
Michael Kutza took the stage, acting as Master of Ceremonies, and introduced a video that illustrated the year-round work done by Cinema/Chicago, the presenting organization of the Chicago International Film Festival. After remarks from Chairman of the Governing Board Jeanne Randall Malkin, Representative Ken Dunkin, 5th District of the State of Illinois, and President and CEO of Columbia College Chicago, Dr. Kwang-Wu Kim, the lights went down and the audience was treated to a personal video message from Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel. Emmanuel acknowledged the role the Chicago International Film Festival has played in the City’s history.
Kathleen Turner (“Body Heat”), head of the jury at the 50th Annual Chicago Film Festival.
The Festival then presented American Airlines with the Gold Hugo for Leadership in the Arts, in recognition of American Airlines’ continued support of the arts and the Film Festival. Judi Gorman, Regional Manager, Sales Promotion & Community Relations, Central Division Sales for American Airlines, accepted the award on behalf of its worldwide employees and commented that both American’s and the Festival’s missions are aligned to “promote cultural diversity and raise the profile of Chicago as a city that does work.”
After formally introducing the members of the International Feature Competition jury, the Festival went on to honor some dear friends who are no longer with us in a video remembrance. Among the “Absent Friends:” director and writer Patrice Chéreau; writer, director and Chicagoan Harold Ramis; director and festival honoree Richard Attenborough; and silent screen comedienne and the Festival’s “Godmother” Colleen Moore, among others. But the largest round of applause was reserved for the final image on the video presentation: film critics and supporters of the Festival, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert.
Ullmann then joined Kutza on stage to present the U.S. premiere of her film “Miss Julie.,” based on the Strindberg play. Calling Kutza her “absolute favorite Festival director,” Ullmann declared films a “most important medium”—one that makes theaters a “magic place” where people can see “real life.” She described Farrell as a “genuine actor,” one who gave the best performance of his career for her film. Farrell returned the compliment by describing Ullmann as “the most incredibly deeply feeling” person he’s met and one whose work on behalf of the disenfranchised will long be remembered.
The morning after the premiere of “Miss Julie” I met with Liv Ullmann one-on-one to talk about the film. The review will be postponed, by request, until the film is released, as it is currently seeking distributorship in the U.S.
Robert Downey, Jr. and Director David Dobkin previewed their new film “The Judge,” co-starring Robert Duvall, in Chicago at the AMC Theater on Sunday, October 5th, 2014. It opens wide on October 10, 2014. The film should earn a Best Actor nomination for Robert Duvall and Robert Downey, Jr., as the prodigal son, gives just as strong a performance (Best Supporting?). When Duvall is shown at his wife’s graveside saying, “You’ve always been my sweetheart and you always will be. I want you to know that. I’ll be back tomorrow and every day after that,” you get just a tiny taste of what will surface at Oscar-time in clips, and it resonated with the audience around me. That is not the only powerful Oscar-worthy scene in the film. The courtroom scenes are equally strong and Duvall as a 72-year-old father with Stage IV colon cancer who must be helped in the bathroom by the son he is estranged from is equally powerful because it’s the way real life plays out. The script, by Nick Schenk and Bill Dubuque has just enough of the saucy, insouciant Downey attitude to ease us into his more serious appearance here as a lawyer not unlike Matthew McConaughey in “Lincoln Lawyer.” Although filming actually was done in Massachusetts, the setting is (supposedly) Carlinville, Indiana and Downey’s character, is described by his old high school girlfriend, Sam (Vera Farmiga), this way: “You’re just a boy from Indiana who’s gonna’ do whatever he has to do to forget that.” The main theme of the film concerns the relationship between fathers and sons, especially if the son in question was a problem child when a teenager. Not only was Downey’s middle child troublesome, he actually cost his older brother Glen (Vincent D’Onofrio) a possible pro career in baseball, causing a car accident while driving under the influence when they were teenagers. Dad has not forgiven nor forgotten. When Mom dies and Hank Palmer travels home, solo, for her funeral, the sparks between father and son fly once again. Seven years in the making, the film is long, but the script is good. Downey gets to spout lines like, “Don’t get sued before you lose your next case” to small town attorney Dax Shepard, whom his father has hired to defend him when he is accused of a hit-and-run murder. Once more in the bosom of his family, Hank is obviously Dad’s least favorite child, while dear old dad (Downey describes him to his 7-year-old granddaughter as “just a dirty old mummy”) favors Glen (D’Onofrio), the oldest boy, and Glen has looked after younger brother Dale, who is described as “a dimwit shutterbug retard” by some locals. The use of Dale’s home movies, which are his passion, allows us to see the boys when young, as we hear and see evidence of the growing chasm between father and son, caused by Downey’s wild antics as a young man. However, Hank cleaned up his act and graduated Number One in his Northwestern University Law Class, but his father, Judge Joseph Palmer (Duvall) cannot get past his resentment and disappointment in his middle boy, with sentiments expressed like, “You and you alone are responsible for the consequences of your actions.” It is true that we’ve seen films with these plots before, but it’s a good bet that you won’t see many 83-year-old actors turn in a stronger performance ever than Duvall does in this one. And, having said that, Downey’s good, too. As are the supporting cast mates, including Billy Bob Thornton as the prosecuting attorney; Dax Shepard as a hapless local lawyer; Vincent D’Onofrio as oldest brother Glen; Jeremy Strong as the retarded youngest brother Dale; Ken Howard as the judge in the murder case; Grace Zabriskie as the mother of the hit-and-run victim; Balthazar Getty as a cop, and featuring Thomas Newman’s music and Janusz Kaminski’s wonderful cinematography, complete with a waterfall outside the Flying Deer Diner, (which old girlfriend Sam now owns). There is a scene where jury selection is taking place and Downey—the slick Chicago lawyer from Highland Park—asks the jury how many have bumper stickers on their cars (or trucks)? Hands go up. Downey then asks what their bumper stickers say, and, among the answers are: “Gun control means using both hands” and “Wife and dog missing. Reward for dog.” With each response, lawyer Hank gives a thumbs up or a thumbs down sign to his second-in-command (Dax Shepard), a lawyer who throws up before every court appearance. When Shepard’s character asks what sort of juror they should be looking for, Downey says, “People who can be persuaded to swallow their tongues. Anyone who has seen a Sasquatch.” Lines like, “Everybody’s Atticus Finch until there’s a dead hooker in the hot tub” suit Downey’s snarky wit from his comic book turns as “Ironman,” but, as Downey said this night in his opening remarks, “Every 20 years or so I try to make a great movie. This is like free therapy. That’s all I’m going to say.” Everyone knows, from Downey’s previous fast-talking image onscreen, that he can deliver snarky lines with the best of them, but Duvall gets some great lines, too. Here’s one: “Imagine a far-away place where people value your opinion. Then go there.” It is the bull-headed, stubborn intelligent back-and-forth of these two old adversaries as they try to craft a defense for the older man who, admittedly, cannot remember all the events from the night of the accident. Judge Joseph Palmer has been on the bench for 42 years; he is worried about his legacy, while his outspoken lawyer son says, “Nobody gives a rat’s ass about your legacy.” There is the clash of small-town versus big city values, as well as the old personal wounds, whose scabs are, one-by-one, ripped open again. At one point, a detractor says of Downey’s Hank, “You’re a shined-up wooden nickel.” Another says to him, “You really aren’t a pleasant person.” Still, Downey manages to make Henry “Hank” Palmer likable, as we see how hard he has tried to redeem himself in his father’s eyes, and how little rewarded his adult efforts have been. I was reminded of “The Great Santini” while watching Duvall in action. Detractors (i.e., some other critics) have ripped the film for its length (it is long); for its “everyman” set of issues that appeal to all; for the lack of significant female leads and the almost superfluous old-girlfriend-back-home plot thread. One even criticized one of the scenes I found strongest, which is the elderly Duvall, weakening every day, having to accept help from his middle son in a dire moment in the bathroom. I’ve cared for three parental units as they faced their final days. It was Stage IV colon cancer that killed my father, although the situation faced in this film had more in common with my mother, who died of old age, but had more than one emergency trip to the hospital after passing out from extremely brittle diabetes. I’ve found her unconscious and had to scrub feces from the carpet after a coma sent her readings into levels so high they couldn’t even be measured in the hospital (800+). I’ve helped a proud dying man stagger to the bathroom. This is real life. Whoever wrote that it was treacly and sentimental is very possibly a young person who thinks they will live forever and never grow frail. (Good luck with that!) An interesting side note: Tommy Lee Jones and Jack Nicholson were both considered for Duvall’s part, while the director this night said he had Robert Downey, Jr. in mind for son Hank when he first began developing the script 7 years ago. [Director David Dobkin (“Wedding Crashers”) helped develop the story, but did not script it. From there, said the Director, “We got a good script and took it to Robert and Susan (Downey’s wife).” I enjoyed the film immensely and think Duvall and Downey, together onscreen, are a dynamite duo.
AMC Theater, Chicago, 50th Annual Chicago Film Festival.
I’m in Chicago, getting ready to cover the Chicago Film Festival.
Today—a beautiful 80+ degree day, and probably the last of our Indian summer lovely weather—I took advantage of the great weather to dine outside on Wabash at a Mexican restaurant (Zapatista’s) and to view a Press Only screening of “Force Majeure,” which is rumored to be a front-runner for Oscar contention for Best Foreign Film this year.
The film was set in a ski lodge (and made by Norway, Sweden, Denmark and France). Suprisingly, most of the movie was in English, with fewer subtitles than anticipated. Since most young people in Sweden are brought up to speak both Swedish and English, perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised.
Watching all the skiing scenes in deep snow made me sad to think that our lovely warm Chicago weather has deserted us (temperatures dropped 20 to 30 degrees as evening came on tonight, Monday, September 29th.) Since we were just in Las Vegas where it was 90 to 100 degrees (Fahrenheit) (and, before that, in New Orleans, where it was similarly warm, but much more humid)), watching this tribute to winter was less-than-thrilling, if you prefer beaches and warm weather (as I do).
With October just one day away and November lurking in the wings (to be followed by December), I’m already feeling the chill. Can’t take another winter like last year. Going to have to get out of Dodge. Planning on doing that after the holidays, but first, must market the NEW “Christmas Cats” book, which is speeding its way toward me as I write this. I’ll be doing signings WITH the costumed cat at three bookstores in the Quad Cities and, in all likelihood, will be at Razzleberries in LeClaire during their winter festivities, at Freddy Fritters’ Dog Bakery during the Village of East Davenport Christmas Walk, and at the Four Seasons store in Geneseo during their big Christmas parade. Dates to be announced as I find them out (although I do know that I’ll be in South Park Mall on Dec. 6th at Book World.)
AMC Theater, Chicago, 50th Annual Chicago Film Festival.
Last year, the Christmas Cats Chase(d) Christmas Rats. This year, The Christmas Cats Encounter Bats. First-rate artwork from Gary McCluskey helps drive home the message that all life has value and should be respected. And, of course, going all the way back to the first book, illustrated by local East Moline artist Andy Weinert, we’re talking about The Christmas Cats in Silly Hats.The cats are always going to be wearing silly hats; it’s their fashion statement. And they’re always going to be helping other animals in need. (Next year, frogs or deer, I’m thinking). This year’s book will also include access to FREE coloring book pages on the dedicated website (www.TheXmasCats.com) and mazes and other fun stuff, with young readers invited to send in their ideas, also. Stay tuned for further developments.
But, back to the film festival.
The leading man from “Force Majeure” will be in town for interviews soon. The examination of a marriage under stress had a script that I could relate to. (The wife: “It’s so weird that you won’t admit what happened.” The husband: “I want us to share the same view. I want to put it all behind us.”) The temperature flashed on the screen (for the ski lodge) was – 22 degrees, Celsius. (This converts to -7.6 degrees Fahrenheit). The movie’s themes aside, the mere act of watching people skiing in deep, cold snow reminded me of why I have never had any desire to ski. Water ski, yes. Snow ski? Uh…no thank you.
The performances from leading lady Lisa Loven Kongslo as Ebba and Johanne Kuhnke of Sweden as Tomas were outstanding, as were those of their two children.
So, stay tuned for adventures from the 50th Anniversary of the Film Festival that is the oldest film festival in North America. It doesn’t officially kick off until October 9th.
Rob Reiner appeared in Chicago on Wednesday, June 18, at the Icon Theater on Roosevelt Road for the preview of his new film, “And So It Goes,” a dramedy aimed squarely at Baby Boomers, which stars Diane Keaton and Michael Douglas. The 67-year-old director of “The Bucket List” (another film focused on “mature” people) was his usual warm, engaging self in the Q&A that followed the film. While the film may only rate a “C,” Reiner gets an “A+.”
With Rob Reiner in Chicago at the Icon Theater on June 18, 2014 preview of new film “And So It Goes.”
I first met Reiner in 2004 when he came to Davenport, Iowa to campaign for presidential candidate Howard Dean; he gave me a big bear hug that night. When I mentioned it, he gave me another big bear hug. His persona is truly engaging, enthusiastic and down-to-earth. He appeared fit and virile. I wish I could say the same about either Diane Keaton (a vocal opponent of plastic surgery, who became the spokesperson for L’Oreal in 2006) or for Michael Douglas. Both of them looked their respective ages (68 and nearly 70), and, to my untrained eye, Douglas looks sick (He was diagnosed with cancer August 16, 2010.)
I enjoyed Reiner’s Q&A after the film much more than the movie. Who wouldn’t want to hear behind-the-scenes stories from the director of such great films as “Stand By Me,” “When Harry Met Sally,” “A Few Good Men,” Misery,” “The Princess Bride,” “Sleepless in Seattle,” “This Is Spinal Tap” and “The American President” (another film starring Douglas)?
Reiner even has a small part in the film, cast as a piano player who accompanies Diane Keaton as she sings, (a la Michelle Pfeiffer in 1989’s “The Fabulous Baker Boys.”) When asked how he happened to take on the part of Artie Burns, the accompanist, Reiner said, “I needed an actor who would work for scale, and I found me. Plus, I had always wanted to have a role where I got to wear such a natural-looking toupee.” (A joke, as the rug is referenced with comic intent.)
Rob Reiner answering audience questions in Chicago on Wednesday, June 18, 2014.
Reiner’s point-of-view on the romance that slowly builds between Diane Keaton’s warm, giving widow and Michael Douglas’ unbearably cranky curmudgeonly widower in the film is, “Essentially, it’s always the same story. My view of the way woman and men react with each other. Women are more evolved, more mature. (applause from the crowd) It’s all about grabbing on to life and having fun with it.”
Reiner went on to say that turning 60 brought him to the realization that, “Thanks to medical science, we won’t be able to get out of here!” He pointed to his Morgan Freeman/Jack Nicholson 2007 hit, “The Bucket List” saying: “I think there’s an audience out there for this film,” meaning the baby boomers, the largest group in our nation (which begs the question of whether baby boomers actually leave home to go out to the theater).
The film’s message (and Reiner’s advice): “Live until you’re no more.” The script recites truisms like: “Love always comes at a price” and “Sometimes, life outlives love.” Unfortunately, the script also had dick jokes and lines like, “I’ve sold houses older than you and in worse condition,” and “What she (Keaton) lacks in curb appeal she makes up for with historic charm. She slept with Elvis.”
Originally, in the script by Mark Andrus (who also wrote “As Good as It Gets,” hence the extremely similar-sounding title), Keaton’s character was a woman who did something with tapestries and weaving, said Reiner. Declaring that pursuit essentially boring, Reiner credited Keaton, herself, with suggesting that Leah be a woman of a certain age embarking on a new career as a singer.
Keaton does all of her own singing in the film. Like Pfeiffer before her, she surprises with a pleasant delivery of old favorites like “The Shadow of Her Smile,” “Both Sides Now” and “Blue Moon.” Douglas’ character suggests she add some “more recent” tunes, specifically mentioning Bonnie Raitt. Reiner commented that he really liked the idea that Keaton was starting a new chapter in her life at an advanced age (in the film, Leah says she is 65; in real life, Keaton is 68) because his own mother started a singing career at age 65. (Audiences may remember Reiner’s mother Estelle as the older woman restaurant customer in his film “When Harry Met Sally” who says, “I’ll have what she’s having,” after Meg Ryan fakes an orgasm at the lunch table with Billy Crystal.)
Reiner described the famously eccentric Keaton telling him, “I don’t act. I just am who I am.” Reiner went on to say that there is no division between Keaton’s onscreen and off-screen images. “She just takes the dialogue and makes it come out of her mouth,” said Reiner. If only she could have taken the dialogue and made it better. The director also commented that Keaton recently told Jimmy Fallon on the “Tonight” show that Michael Douglas was one of the actors with whom she wished she had shared an onscreen kiss, but the two had never worked together.
The two share an onscreen kiss in this film, but there is no real chemistry. Douglas, in fact, as he closes in on 70 on September 25th, is showing every year. He has famously battled Stage IV tongue cancer since August of 2010. In an article that appeared January 11, 2011, medical experts said there was “a high chance of recurrence within 2 to 3 years.”
Of the “carpe diem” theme that repeats throughout the movie, Douglas, after some recently publicized marital troubles with wife of 14 years Catherine Zeta-Jones ( 25 years his junior) told “People” magazine’s Elizabeth Leonard, “When you’ve accomplished a certain amount in your career, you’re not so focused on your ambitions. It makes you appreciate— and hopefully you do that sooner rather than later—the value of your partner.”
Since part of the theme of the movie deals with Oren Little’s (Michael Douglas’) son, Luke, being a reformed heroin addict and ultimately drawing prison time, one wonders what was going through Douglas’ mind. His son Cameron with first wife Deandre Douglas has been in and out of trouble with the law for drugs since 1999 and will have to continue serving a prison sentence until at least 2018. Since much of the film deals with a son, estranged from his father, who must leave his 10-year-old daughter with his irascible father while he goes to prison, that theme may have hit close to home for the movie’s male lead.
Reiner had nothing but praise for Douglas’ professionalism onset, saying the two had both come from a background in series television (Douglas on “Streets of San Francisco;” Reiner as “Meathead” Michael Stivic on “All in the Family”) and were both the children of famous men. He remarked of Douglas, “ He’s just got incredible craft. He hits his mark and knows his lines.” (Douglas won his Best Actor Oscar in 1987 portraying Gordon Gekko in “Wall Street.” He also won an Oscar in 1975 for producing “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and an Emmy last year, portraying Liberace in Steven Soderbergh’s “Behind the Candelabra.” Keaton won her Oscar April 3, 1978 at the 50th Academy Awards portraying Annie Hall in the Woody Allen film of the same name.
Reiner noted, “Of all the movies I’ve made, not one of them could be made today, because the studios just don’t make them.” He singled out “A Few Good Men” as being particularly problematic, because of the politics in the plot. Reiner added, “The studios only make three kinds of movies today: blockbusters, usually from comic books; animated films; and R-rated raunchy comedies.” Reiner didn’t mention the recent glut of horror movies, but he might have. Recently 5 previews at my local movie house were all for slasher films.
Other questions for Rob Reiner, post-film, and his responses:
Question 1, about Diane Keaton’s wardrobe. “Did Diane Keaton just wear her own clothes in the movie?”
Reiner responded indirectly, saying that, “All the things she wore are the things she knew she could wear.” (One woman in the theater audience commented that a certain dress had been worn previously by Keaton in another film).
Question 2: “Was it difficult to get the money to make this movie?”
Answer 2: “It’s always hard to get money from people. Give me five dollars! See (Reiner laughed), she won’t give it to me!” He noted that it took 4 years to get the financing to make “This Is Spinal Tap.”
Question 3: “What was the purpose of having Oren deliver the baby in the film?”
Answer 3: “It shows Oren’s (Douglas’) character arc. He was turning his back on life (after he was widowed). Then circumstances, a series of events, start affecting him. They’re all designed to make him come back to humanity.” Earlier, Reiner had noted that, after passing 60, he was enjoying life the most he ever had. “And so you go along and live your life. Be in the moment where you are. That’s all you have.” He joked that there was “a 100% demographic” of baby boomers for the film, saying, “60% of them will want to see it, but only 40% of them will have the ability to get to the theater.”
Question 4: “You recently played Max Belfort in ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ for Martin Scorsese. How was that?”
Answer 4: “I actually met Mr. Belfort. He’s a very excitable fellow, but shorter than me, and you can see how his son Jordan could be so charming and convincing. When Martin Scorsese calls, you just do it. What is more unbelievable? That Leonardo DeCaprio is a Jew, or that I’m his father? Maybe I’m better-looking that I thought!”
Question 5: “Have you ever worked with Albert Brooks?”
Answer 5: “Yes. I worked with Albert in ‘The Muse.’ I played myself, so I was pretty believable.”
Question 6: “What is on your own personal bucket list?”
Answer 6: “Just doing what I’m doing now. In terms of life fulfillment, I’m doing what I want to do.”
Question 7: “There is a reference to Sammy Davis, Jr. in the movie, and none of the younger people know who he is. How did that come about?”
Answer 7: “That’s just so typical. Recently, I was with my family and we ran into Warren Beatty coming out of a restaurant. Now, I have three children who are 20, 23 and 16 (with second wife Michele Singer, a photographer he married in 1989 after meeting on the set of “When Harry Met Sally.”). They had no idea who Warren Beatty was, although they vaguely had heard of Bonnie & Clyde.”
Question 8: “Will you ever come back to Illinois and Chicago to direct a film?”
Answer 8: “Filmmakers today go where the tax breaks are. It was Michigan for a while—then Louisiana. If you have a small budget, you follow the tax breaks. We shot this in Connecticut because of the tax breaks. If they give you 30% above AND below the line, you go there to make a film.” He added that Chicago is a great place to make a movie and that the college scenes in “When Harry Met Sally” are represented by the University of Chicago. A representative of the Illinois Production Alliance in the audience said that Illinois does have good tax incentives for filmmaking in the state, and Reiner responded that he’d love to be able to make another film in Chicago.
Question 9: “You were politically active at one time, supporting Howard Dean in the 2004 election and also becoming active in California in 2006. Are you still considering running for office?”
Answer 9: “I sat my family down and polled them on whether I should run or not. I only polled 40%. When you only poll 40% in your own family, you shouldn’t run.”
The theme of the movie is (relentlessly) “carpe diem.” As Douglas, himself, told “Uinterview,” “When you’re older, you focus that energy on the people closest to you, on your family.”
My favorite story told Wednesday night involved a scene where Diane Keaton’s character is auditioning for a singing position that her self-proclaimed “manager,” Oren Little (Douglas), has arranged for her. Renowned singer Frankie Valli played the small part of the club owner listening to Keaton sing in a darkened room. “Diane didn’t know that Frankie Valli was sitting in the back listening to her sing and she got very nervous about it. She didn’t know he was in the movie at all. I told her, ‘Don’t feel bad. I have to play piano in front of Liberace!’” (a reference to Michael Douglas’ Emmy-winning 2013 television role opposite Matt Damon.)
The film opens in July (either July 11th or July 14th, depending on the source).
Just returned from seeing “Godzilla” and, Boy, am I confused! Here’s an actual line from the movie that sums it up: “You have no idea what is happening!”
I cannot refrain from writing something snarky about this movie. It cries out for snark. I would warn any of you who do not want your viewing of the film ruined that my snarky comments may contain “spoilers.” This assumes, of course, that you CAN spoil “Godzilla” after 9 attempts at bringing the Japanese “top of the primordial ecosystem” monster to the big screen. (And, sometimes, as in 1998, to the small TV screen). Snarky remark #1) WHY was Bryan Cranston wearing the world’s WORST toupee? Doesn’t Bryan have normal hair of his own, now that he’s no longer playing Walter White on television? What was wrong with Cranston’s real hair? I can’t decide which was the more horrible hair treatment: this thick brown dog-like rug or the Obama chia pet plant. It’s too close to call. Snarky remark #2) So many good actors. So little for them to do. By all means, stick us with that uncharismatic leading man nobody has ever seen before for 90% of the movie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) when there are really good actors standing around doing nothing (or disappearing from the plot after 15 minutes).
Seriously, folks, Bryan Cranston, [fresh from “Breaking Bad,” possibly the Best Dramatic Series Ever on Television] takes THIS role? What’s wrong with this picture? [Of course, Jessie Pinkman (Aaron Paul) didn’t do any better with his first film foray, a fast car movie that sank like a rock].
French actress Juliette Binoche, from the 2006 film “The English Patient” and 2013’s “A Thousand Times Good Night” (a wonderful film which I saw at the Chicago Film Festival last year) played Cranston’s wife for about 15 minutes. What a waste. Or, what about Sally Hawkins? Say it isn’t so, Sal! She finishes co-starring opposite this year’s Oscar winner, Cate Blanchett, playing her blue collar sister in “Blue Jasmine,” a Woody Allen film which Hawkins also was wonderful). So, next film: “Godzilla”? Sounds logical— (not). [Please tell me it’s not ALL about the money!]
The wonderful Japanese actor Ken Watanabe (playing Ishiro Serizawa) who was in such great films as “Inception” (2010); “Letters from Iwo Jima” (2006); “Memoirs of a Geisha” (2005); “Batman Begins” (2005) or, my personal favorite, 2003’s “The Last Samurai,” (where he played Katsumoto), now takes THIS part? Watanabe mainly looks puzzled throughout. “Blue Jasmine’s” Sally Hawkins looks like she could use a stiff drink.
And then there’s David Strathairn, who was in both “Lincoln” and “The Bourne Legacy” in 2012, the excellent made-for-TV film “Temple Grandin” in 2010 and, for me, most memorably, played Tom Cruise’s ne’er-do-well brother in “The Firm” in 1993. He is reduced to playing Admiral William Stenz, and coming up with a lame-brained plan to defend against Godzilla that sounds like a military action designed by George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. Good actors are reduced to shouting lines like, “ARE WE AT FULL FUNCTION? TAKE US OFFLINE! DO IT NOW!” The poorly planned and even more poorly described or executed military defense against the mutant monster (“I guess we’re monster hunters now.”) makes “W’s” bombing of Iraq over non-existent yellow cake uranium look like genius. Snarky remark #3: I did like this line, “It’s gonna’ send us back to the Stone Age,” because, after “Godzilla” outings on film in ’54, ’67, ’77, ’78, ’84, ’94, ’98, ‘and ’99, I thought we WERE back in the Stone Age, if we’re still watching this giant lizard terrorize the populace. (And, let’s be honest: wasn’t half the original fun watching the dubbing that never matched the actors’ mouth movements? Good cheesy fun.)
There is only ONE survivor of the train disaster (Most Creative Use of a Train since the kids’ film “Super 8”)—who is, of course, Bryan Cranston’s son, Ford Brody (played rather wanly by a British actor no one has ever heard of, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, whose previous credits consist of “Kick-Ass” in 2010 and “Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging” (2008). [It’s difficult to know what this young actor’s name is, since it is listed as Aaron Taylor-Johnson, but when you look him up on IMDB, it says Aaron Perry Johnson.]
After 14 months away at war as a Navy demolitions expert, Ford Brody, returns to Elizabeth Olsen, playing wife Elle Brody and doing a good job, and his young son (C.J. Adams) but almost immediately has to jet off to bail Dad out of a Japanese jail.
Next thing you know, we’ve got MUTO (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism), or, as I like to call it/ them: Mostly Uninteresting Tyrannosaurus-like Oddities. There are at least 3 of them…and there’ll be lots more if the female gets to lay her eggs. What do they eat? Why, radiation, of course. What do they look like? Hard to tell. As the old song goes (hum along): “A big tail here, a big tail there. A big foot here; a big foot there; Here a tail, there a fin, show ‘em o’er ag’in and ag’in.”
So, it isn’t until the odd monsters start fighting amongst themselves that we really get a good look at the entire clan. All I can tell you is that there is a creature very reminiscent of “Alien.” There are two flying horrors. There is a bear-like dinosaur-ish fire-breathing monster perhaps once seen swimming in Loch Ness. All of them are awkward and have trouble moving gracefully and, apparently, they don’t get along well—although why is not clear. (Watanabe murmurs: “Let them fight,” which is all the poor guy really gets to say; he mostly just looks worried.) Here’s a line I enjoyed, from the botched military plan, proposed by Nit-wits #1 and #2: “This bomb we’re going to use makes the bomb we tried to kill it with in ’54 seem like a firecracker!” Of course, no thought given to the fact that detonating a nuclear bomb just off the coast of a major U.S. city (San Francisco) would probably not be a very good idea. Just what we need: another half-baked military fiasco, planned with no back-up Plan B, and depending on (drum roll, please), Bryan Cranston’s son, Ford Brody, who has just returned from military duty, [so he isn’t even on active duty any more, but seems intent upon trying to get himself killed in either Hawaii, San Francisco or Tokyo]. The plot’s constant carping about how Ford Brody wants to return to his wife and child made me instantly think of Brad Pitt in “World War Z.” It was Brad’s insistence on a similar plot point that made THAT movie go waaay over budget when everything had to be re-shot, and now we have the same plot again. Only, this time, no zombies. Just MUTOs.
At one point, Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) announces that he can defuse a bomb in 60 seconds, which would have been helpful, since detonating an atom bomb that close to San Francisco would be a not-too-bright move, but then he falls asleep onboard a boat with the bomb, so good luck with THAT plan! Are there no bright spots?
Well, I noted that John Dykstra’s name flashed on the screen, listed as helping design the awkward creatures. If you don’t know his name, look him up on Wikipedia, because he is The Man. I learned that the original score was composed by Alexandre Desplat, with Music Supervision by Dave Jordan and that it was recorded on Sony Pictures’ Barbra Streisand Sound Stage. (Who knew Babs had her own sound stage?) I learned that the film is dedicated to Richard Fowkes and Jake Foerster, who are almost as well-known as the film’s leading man, Aaron Taylor-Johnson. I learned that we bury our nuclear waste in Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, which sounded yucky. I learned that the list of stunt people and digital special effects people probably earned more than the combined GNP of several African nations. I learned that Godzilla maybe is “the good guy,” not the “bad guy, by film’s end?” [Although, if that is the case, why all the bombing and hostility?] I learned that they nearly blew up Oakland, California, but, if memory serves from my college days at nearby Berkeley, that would mainly take out tattoo parlors. (Please: no hate mail from Oakland; it’s a joke, Son.) And, ultimately, I learned that saying, “That’s gotta’ smart!” every few moments to my husband will eventually earn me a punch in the arm. And, as my parting snarky comment, may I utter these immortal words, “Godzilla has left the building.”
Jason Bateman is a veteran character actor, familiar to audiences for his work on television’s “Arrested Development,” playing Michael Bluth, straight man to a cast of eccentrics. Bateman attributes much of his success to how he approached that role, saying, “It was a show the industry watched, as opposed to America. The people who hand out jobs watched it.”
And Bateman has been handed a lot of jobs since “Arrested Development.”
To be accurate, young Jason was acting long before that, starting at the age of 12 in 1981 with a recurring role on “Little House on the Prairie,” as well as with roles as varied as some on “Silver Spoons,” “Knight Rider” and “The Hogan Family.”
It was the latter series that gave him his first directorial experience at the age of 18, making him the youngest director in Directors’ Guild history and, also, allowing him to follow in his father’s footsteps. (His father was a director, actor and writer.) Jason’s older sister, Justine, was a regular on the Michael J. Fox sit-com “Family Ties” and he has been married (since 2001) to one of Paul Anka’s daughters, Amanda, (with whom he has two daughters). She plays the role of the National Public Television narrator in the film. In “Bad Words,” Jason has the opportunity to return to directing. His work is informed by such dead-pan black comedies as “Being John Malkovich” and “King of Comedy.” Bateman told Michael Phillips of the Chicago “Tribune,” “The comedy I’m most drawn to is a little tougher to market. Even though I’ve been involved with some high concept studio fare (think “Juno,” “Identity Thief,” and “Horrible Bosses”), I’m drawn to something a little more tamped down. A film like ‘Being John Malkovich,’ there’s no pie in the face. We used that one as a tonal example—a tonal and aesthetic example…I knew that because we weren’t spending a lot of money we wouldn’t be asked to wink a lot or to rewrite the script so there’d be some big set pieces they could cut a trailer with. I didn’t want them thinking we’d even have a shot at recouping on the first weekend, because the movie looked glossy or super-commercial.” So, right away, the theater-goer should realize that they’re in for a quirky sort of comedic turn, like Billy Bob Thornton’s “Bad Santa.”
The super-funny “Bad Words” features Bateman as a 40-year-old malcontent who never graduated from 8th grade and has spent the past 40 years “making bad decisions” and proofreading warranties for a living. A lot of his problems stem from childhood issues originating with his father. He has now found a loophole for entry into The Golden Quill Spelling Bee that will allow him to annoy the hell out of Grand Poo Bah Dr. Bowman (Philip Baker Hall) and the woman in charge, aka, the Queen Bee, Dr. Bernice Deagan, played by Allison Janney. [Janney is a well-known face from her work on “The West Wing” and is pitch-perfect in her role of someone just a little bit too fond of rules and regulations. Barbara Bush would say she is a “rhymes with witch” but Bateman/Dodge would just come right out and say she is a colossal bitch].
Bateman’s character is the same glib trash-talking character Vince Vaughan and Billy Bob Thornton have played in countless comedies. He is truly representative of someone who just doesn’t care what other people think or say about him. He is going to have HIS say whether they like it or not.
That, in fact, might well be an accurate one-line summation of the entire plot of “Bad Words.” And many audience members will find that kind of independence and courage liberating.
Sure, there are reasons (revealed as the plot develops) why Bateman’s character Guy Trilby behaves the way he does. A follow-up article in the March 24th Tribune by Steven Zeitchik attributed all the potty-mouthed misbehavior (as well as that of predecessors like Archie Bunker and Jonah Hill) to our current climate of political correctness, where any little joke can spell doom if offense is taken by any group of any kind. It doesn’t matter whether the joke is at the expense of an ethnic group, midgets, or an inanimate object: SOMEONE is bound to take offense. Therefore, characters in films by Judd Apatow, Todd Phillips, the Farrelly brothers, Adam Sandler and others—(all the way back to W.C. Fields)—-say what they’re thinking, which so many of us no longer have the freedom to do, and that is considered subversive in today’s society. Some find it offensive. Some find it liberating and secretly are muttering, “You go, Guy.” (Pun intended)
“Bad Words” was directed by Bateman from a script by a first-timer, Andrew Dodge. Dodge told Zeitchik, “I think comedies have gotten a little vanilla. We’re so afraid of offending, so it’s a reaction to that.” He added, “That makes independent filmmakers more willing to be bold.” The spec script for “Bad Words” kicked around Hollywood for years. A studio executive said to Dodge, “This is funny, but could Guy start helping the kids in the third act?”
Dodge’s response? It’s superhard to make a character likeable enough that you still want to watch him, but hateful enough that it’s still funny.”
Steven Zeitchik postulates that the film is a “Rambo”-like rise of a new type of Superhero: the malehero jerk</strong>. I’m not as convinced that there’s anything “new” to a comic jerk in the tradition of W.C. Fields. I laughed at the clever, smarmy way Bateman pulled off eliminating the other competitors, one by one—even though his methods were underhanded and less-than-honorable. He displayed the kind of psychological warfare that allowed one team to dominate this year’s Super Bowl or allowed Muhammad Ali to defeat the likes of Sonny Liston, 50 years ago. It was strictly, “All’s fair in love and war.”
Still, when Bateman is calling his Indian opponent Chaitanya Chopra (Rohan Chand) “Slumdog” and throwing lines at that adorable Indian boy that sound racist, it can be offputting. In telling the boy not to call a soft drink “soda pop” Guy says, “I’d just say soda. Otherwise, you’re just gonna’ get raped.” You do get the feeling that his young charge really enjoys the adult male attention and that, alone, may be enough of a reason to excuse some of Guy’s bad influence. At least he IS an influence in the lonely young scholar’s life, unlike the rigid father figure who is glimpsed coaching his kid in their own secret strategy to get rid of the competition.
When Guy is placed in a room that is actually the storage closet of the hotel, [a futile attempt to discourage him from competing] and co-star Kathryn Hahn (who plays Jenny Widgeon), the reporter who is his accomplice helping him gain access to the Golden Quill Spell-Off and with whom he occasionally gets it on (while she, all the while, screams, “Don’t look at me!”) asks about her missing underpants, Guy tells her he hasn’t seen them, noting, “I probably would have seen them. I have no sink, no closet and no bathroom.” Guy dubs his miniature admirer “a little Quaker” and, after encouraging him to let loose with some dirty words asks, “And did your soul just burst into flames?”
In other words, Guy is a horrible role model for young children, but his smirky Vince Vaughn-like delivery is hilarious to a slightly jaded and cynical older audience. This is NOT Family Friendly Fare, but the adults should give themselves a chance to feel a little naughty as they watch Guy and his young charge misbehave. Is this a good way to go through life? Probably not. On the other hand, there IS a compelling reason that Guy is the way he is, and you just know that, sooner or later, that will come into play to explain all the previous shenanigans. And maybe some of the more frequent movie-goers will find it a little bit too transparent early on. (“The Sixth Sense” this isn’t.)
The movie definitely is filled with blue language. There are many situations that any self-respecting parent will decry as setting a bad example, just as the employees of “Office Space” were not candidates for Employee of the Year but were funny as hell. For this viewer, the movie was a hoot. It was made even funnier at the Icon on Roosevelt in Chicago by a man a few rows behind me to my left whose loud laughter sounded exactly like explosive farting.
There was a lot of it from my fellow theater-goer on opening night, and even writing that line now makes me smile.
So, if you are not easily offended and enjoy making fun of stuffy, pompous events like The Golden Quill (and, Lord knows, I certainly qualify after my last post), you will find this movie hilariously entertaining. I’d put it in a comic indie category with the film “Cedar Rapids,” which featured Ed Helms and John C. Reilly and was similarly entertaining.
Guillermo del Toro, with Ron Perlman in background.
Russell Crowe.
In reading today’s March 21st Chicago Tribune, an interview caught my eye, with comments from television’s Giuliana Rancic. She relates that when she was conducting red carpet interviews and was fairly new at her job she encountered Russell Crowe.
Says Rancic: “Russell Crowe was so mean to me. I had been at ‘E!’ for a year, and I thought, ‘I’m going to go easy because he’s pretty tough.’” (Giuilana might have been referencing the telephone-throwing incident that has haunted Crowe since a New York City hotel stay.) Rancic: “Are you excited to be here? Your big movie premiere!”
Crowe: “I’m contractually obligated to be here. What’s your next question?”
Rancic: “OK—um—isn’t it so wonderful to see all the fans?” Crowe: “’That’s your second question? One, two, you’re through.’ And then he walked away, says Rancic.
The retelling of a bad interview brought back memories of some, good and bad, that I’ve conducted over the years. Perhaps among the worst was the interview of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., I conducted when a college sophomore at the University of Iowa.
I needed 2 more hours to transfer from Iowa to Berkeley and it was too late in the semester to sign up for an additional class, so I talked my instructor in “American Humor & Satire” into allowing me to do a special paper interviewing the notoriously crotchety author, who was then teaching on campus at the Writers’ Workshop. I had to get at least a “B” in order to transfer to Berkeley from Iowa. That didn’t happen when the interview subject clammed up and became monosyllabic.
I had been interviewing adults since I was ten, so I had 8 or 9 years of experience interviewing others, but I had never interviewed a celebrity as prominent as Vonnegut.
Nor, as it turns out, as difficult as Kurt Vonnegut turned out to be.
Many years later, I was told that he hated, on sight, “little blonde girls from Minnesota.”
I wasn’t from Minnesota, but I qualified on the other counts.
I had read every book Vonnegut had ever written and was a huge fan. I was also immersed in the writing of other humorists and satirists as part of my “American Humor & Satire” class. We had just completed discussing “Catch 22” by Joseph Heller.
When I asked Vonnegut how he would compare his worldview with Heller he looked very irritated. It was late on a cold, wintry night. At that time, writing classes met in Quonset huts left over from World War II. He looked tired, haggard, cold, impatient, and like he’d rather be anywhere than where he currently found himself. Still, he had agreed to the interview, and I was trying to be properly respectful and had done my research on the Great Man.
Vonnegut fixed me with a tired, baleful glare and said, “There is no basis for any comparison.”
Welllllllllll. If you know anything about the work(s) of these two men, you might say that, at the very least, they deserve comparison because they were of the school of humorists then being dubbed “the black humorists” and were contemporaries.
After that, the interview quickly descended into Vonnegut acting like a bad guest on an old Johnny Carson show, and me beating a hasty retreat to try to make a paper out of few, if any, quotes. No longer could I plug in the author’s Words of Wisdom to the paper I had been working on for weeks, because he had offered no usable quotes of any kind.
The only thing I can say is that later Edie Vonnegut (Kurt’s daughter) ended up in my University Lab School class, never attended, and, therefore, flunked, so maybe there is some sort of Divine Justice.
As I read of Giuiliana’s experience(s) with Russell Crowe, I thought back to other famous celebrities I’ve been placed on the Red Carpet to interview, and how they have treated me as a print interviewer.
First, the good ones: Guillermo del Toro was a dream and so was Ron Perlman, who accompanied him. When I gave del Toro a copy of my book It Came from the 70s: From The Godfather to Apocalypse Now, he actually stopped so long that his handlers had to come urge him to move along. While standing in front of me browsing the book (in which he seemed genuinely interested), he noticed that his shoe was untied and said, with a laugh, “Oh! Oh! Fat man with shoe untied! Not good.” Ed Burns (“The Brothers McMahon”) was also very nice, posing with people in a friendly fashion. He was very charismatic. Likewise, Gary Cole was a good guy, but his companion that night (Dennis Farina), who I thought would be friendly and welcoming to any journalist in the Chicago crowd, was not, which surprised me. I expected him to give all of us a moment of his time, but the late Farina headed straight for the TV cameras and gave everyone else short shrift. Likewise, Forest Whitaker was kind and giving (when he finally arrived—quite late).
Among the worst experiences (after Vonnegut) was that of Alan Cumming (Eli Gold on “The Good Wife”). It wasn’t so much that Mr. Cumming was actively rude but that he acted as though anyone who did not have a TV camera on their shoulder was beneath his dignity. The rest of us were invisible. His handlers were actively involved in keeping all print journalists at bay.
As for writers, I’ve yet to encounter one who was as actively rude as Vonnegut in 1965, and I’ve interviewed David Morrell, Jon Land, Joe Hill, Anne Perry, William F. Nolan and many, many others.
Maybe writers are just naturally inclined to act more like “real people” since, in a sense, they ARE real people, known to audiences only because of their fictional constructs. There may be a few who don’t fit that description, but, in general, a best-selling writer can be as much of a celebrity (or as little of one) as he or she wishes, which is one good
Spike Jonze, former husband of Francis Ford Coppola’s director daughter Sofia (1999-2003) has created, in this year’s Oscar-nominated film “Her,” a futuristic tale of how things might become. Or perhaps it is a tale of how things already are?
Spike Jonze (birth name in 1969, Adam Spiegel) is a three-time nominee in the 2013 Oscar race, with his film nominated for Best Film, Best Original Screenplay (for which it has already won Golden Globe and Writers’ Guild of America Awards) and for Best Song (“The Moon Song”). Jonze was also nominated as Best Director in 1999 for “Being John Malkovich,” scripted by Charlie Kaufman, so this makes 4 nominations. Will “Her” win the Best Picture Oscar on March 2nd?
No, but it has a very good chance to pick up Best Original Screenplay, and—given the fact that, somehow, all the music from “Inside Llewyn Davis” escaped nomination—“The Moon Song” and/or the song from “Frozen” would seem to be potential favorites for Oscar gold on March 2nd.
“Her” is an odd film about a man who falls in love with his operating system in a futuristic city meant to represent Los Angeles of at least ten years (if not more) in the future. Everyone has an ear bud in his (or her) ear, and no one talks to “real people” any more.
This is foreign territory for me, because I rarely turn on my cell phone and only give the number out to people I don’t want to talk to. I hate the idea of being “tracked” and telling the world, “Just ate at the House of Pies” (as one Facebook friend always does), and I’m not impressed with “apps” at all, [unless I’m trying to avoid a tornado at the time—then, I like them].
But that’s because I’m Old School, of the generation(s) that actually talked to one another, rather than “LOL-ing” our way from Facebook to Twitter to Pinterest to Tumblr to My Space to whatever the next online fad might be. I do remember that, when I had to begin using a computer (1985) to write a book (29 years ago now) I was alone among my peers in even HAVING a home computer. Nobody else had computers much in the Heartland. Maybe they did in Silicone Valley, but they didn’t play in Peoria—or anywhere within 200 miles.
For one thing, the Internet was in its infancy (Al Gore hadn’t invented it yet, I guess) and all messages flew across the screen as Egyptian hieroglyphics, which required several painstaking steps to convert to regular English. Practically the only online “source” was the Department of Education at One DuPont Circle, and only AOL was a factor in “the olden days” of computer technology. Son Scott (one year older than Spike Jonze/Adam Spiegel) had a distinct advantage over his schoolmates in having a humongous WANG PC in his basement, courtesy of Performance Learning Systems, Inc. which hired me to write a book and insisted I use the WANG PC to do it. (I just love saying WANG PC!)
If it weren’t for Scott’s ministrations, I would never have figured out how to do anything on this behemoth with the gigantic laser printer, and, today, Scott troubleshoots computer programs for steel companies written by his United Kingdom Company, Broner Metals,located in Sheffield, England. Do I feel that his early exposure to computer technology in our basement in East Moline, Illinois, when he was 17 years old, helped him to gain an advantage over his less fortunate peers? Yes, I do. Does he? No idea.
I mention this generation gap only because I think it has a lot to do with how audiences will perceive and react to the film. If you’re past 45 or even older (God forbid, because we’re all supposed to simply keelover quickly after retirement so that our children don’t have to pay even higher money in to the broke Social Security coffers to support our feeble elderly selves) or even older, “Her” won’t resonate as much as it will for the younger generations, which my 26-year-old daughter confirmed. (*Aside: have you ever noticed how women’s magazines never have a decade category past 50? Recently Christie Brinkley at 60 and looking 30 made the cover of “People” magazine, but you rarely see women touted as “attractive”–or even alive–in their 70’s and 80’s. We are all supposed to be good little parents and die off quickly in our 60’s, even if we look like Christie Brinkley!)
If you are my son’s age (and, also, a fan of Weezer and the Beastie Boys and Kanye West and Jackass and all the other groups Spike Jonze has been involved with during his video-making career ) you may find this film wonderful. If you are younger than 45 (Jonze’s age) you may find it spectacular. If you are “mature” (euphemism for “old”) you may just find it a “meh” experience—except for the futuristic sets and the first-rate script.
As an oldie-but-a-goodie, I found it curiously lacking and weird as entertainment. For me, the single line that best summed up the film was one spoken to Joaquin Phoenix’s character, Theodore Twombley, by his blind date, when she says, “You’re a creepy dude.”
No matter what part he inhabits, Joaquin Phoenix IS a “creepy dude.” The Old Man pants pulled up to his armpits [as humorously engraved in my brain-pan forever by favorite comics like Jeff Altman and Martin Short], may echo what I see happening in men’s fashion right now (i.e., they seem to have run out of material, so Adam Levine and his contemporaries are wearing tight, short jackets and tight, short pants) but that just adds to the “meh” moment(s) that the AARP generation will experience while viewing this film. But the alienation issues addressed by Jonze’s script are happening right now. I could definitely relate to the lines that sum up angst as experienced by many of us. Example, explaining his divorce to friend Amy Adams: “I think I hid myself from her and left her alone in the relationship.” This bit of wisdom may be a personal note on the demise of Jonze/Spiegel’s own marriage to Sofia Coppola. Indeed, many have speculated that the busy on-the-go photographer who rushes off and abandons his lovely wife in a hotel room to be wined and dined by Bill Murray, (played by Giovanni Ribisi in Sofia’s film “Lost in Translation”) represented the problems in Sofia’s own 5-year union to Spike.
Whether that is true or not (Sofia says “not”), the lines in this film seem intensely personal but the emotions, as expressed by Scarlett Johanssen’s tour de force vocal performance, are Words of Wisdom that many of us can relate to in our current 2014 lives. The observations are universal truths. It’s no wonder that the Original Screenplay category is one for which this film has received the nod this year. Here’s another gem: “I sometimes think I’m going to feel all the emotions I’m ever going to feel.” Or how about, “I want to discover myself.”
The speaker of that last line is the OS1 operating system Samantha, who is seeking discovery, because she is, —well, a disembodied voice. But Theodore is so lonely and estranged after his marriage to his childhood sweetheart founders that the comforting voice of a machine becomes human to and for him. Soon, Samantha, the disembodied voice, is his love interest, telling Theodore, “You helped me discover my ability to want.”
Of course, as the script notes, love is a form of socially acceptable insanity and having a machine for a wife means that you don’t have to cope with the reality of actually dealing with anything “real.” That, in fact, is what his ex (played by Mara Rooney) tells Theodore when they meet to sign the final divorce papers. Theodore’s ex had a childhood with demanding parents for whom her best was never quite good enough. Theodore was able to restore some of her self-esteem in the early days of their marriage (Is this hitting too close to home?), but, ultimately, he was not enough to mend her. Theodore constantly reminisces (in flashbacks) of happier times. My favorite glimpse of the couple showed them wearing traffic cones on their heads. I got the feeling that Theodore would have taken his ex back in a heartbeat—especially since he has been reticent to sign the final divorce decree and his dating life is a disaster, complete with a hilarious phone sex service scene. But, as so often happens IRL (in real life), the path of true love seldom runs smooth(ly).
After the initial “honeymoon phase” of their relationship, complete with phone sex and longing for face-to-face contact (as if anyone in this futuristic society gets THAT anymore!), Theodore even begins to find tiny, niggly little things about his Vocal Dream Girl that annoy him, like the way she takes a breath when speaking. Then he discovers that she sometimes is speaking with more than just one person, when she pledges her love. How many more? A LOT more! A male voice in the audience actually cried out, “Oh, no!” at this betrayal of the flesh-and-blood Theodore by the mechanical Scarlett/Samantha voice. It was an amusing moment. I wasn’t sure if the audience member was being sincere or sarcastic.
Another line that is gold: “You’re always disappointing someone.” Or how about, “All I do is hurt and confuse all those around me.” (How many of us have had THAT feeling a few times in life? Hmmmmm?) Ultimately, one of the messages that resonated with me the most was, “We’re only here briefly, and, while I’m here, I want to allow myself joy.”
Kudos to Amy Adams who plays Theodore’s good friend in the building, as well as to Chris Pratt (“Parks & Recreation”) and to Hoyt Van Hoytema, who has done a fantastic job of creating a futuristic world with his cinematography, shot in both Shanghai and Los Angeles.
And while we’re praising Scarlett Johanssen’s sexy vocalizations (she replaced Samantha Morton, for reasons that are not quite clear), listen closely for Brian Cox’s easily recognizable voice as Alan Watt, a dead philosopher who has been recreated in the unreal world that Samantha inhabits and may be (one of) Theodore’s rivals for Samantha’s affections.
If you ever saw “Three Kings,” you may know who Spike Jonze/Adam Spiegel is, after all, as he portrayed the dimwitted, bigoted Conrad, as directed by his good friend David O. Russell, [who is, himself, up for an Oscar this year for “American Hustle” (and was similarly nominated for “Silver Linings Playbook” last year).]
Let’s put it this way: if you’re coming off directing “Being John Malkovich,” “Adaptation” and “Where the Wild Things Are,” you have a pretty good streak going, and, while I, personally, will not recommend this film to anyone in my age range as “entertainment,” the thoughts in the script and the message about how we all long to connect to someone and how it is becoming increasingly more difficult to do so with each new technological advancement (I use the term ironically) was interesting and thought-provoking.
And, besides, I got to say WANG PC at least four times in this review, and that, alone, made me smile. ,
Last year, the Christmas Cats Chase(d) Christmas Rats. This year, The Christmas Cats Encounter Bats. First-rate artwork from Gary McCluskey helps drive home the message that all life has value and should be respected. And, of course, going all the way back to the first book, illustrated by local East Moline artist Andy Weinert, we’re talking about The Christmas Cats in Silly Hats. The cats are always going to be wearing silly hats; it’s their fashion statement. And they’re always going to be helping other animals in need. (Next year, frogs or deer, I’m thinking). This year’s book will also include access to FREE coloring book pages on the dedicated website (www.TheXmasCats.com) and mazes and other fun stuff, with young readers invited to send in their ideas, also. Stay tuned for further developments.
Rob Reiner Appears in Chicago with New Film “And So It Goes”
By Connie Wilson
On June 19, 2014
In Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews
Rob Reiner appeared in Chicago on Wednesday, June 18, at the Icon Theater on Roosevelt Road for the preview of his new film, “And So It Goes,” a dramedy aimed squarely at Baby Boomers, which stars Diane Keaton and Michael Douglas. The 67-year-old director of “The Bucket List” (another film focused on “mature” people) was his usual warm, engaging self in the Q&A that followed the film. While the film may only rate a “C,” Reiner gets an “A+.”
With Rob Reiner in Chicago at the Icon Theater on June 18, 2014 preview of new film “And So It Goes.”
I enjoyed Reiner’s Q&A after the film much more than the movie. Who wouldn’t want to hear behind-the-scenes stories from the director of such great films as “Stand By Me,” “When Harry Met Sally,” “A Few Good Men,” Misery,” “The Princess Bride,” “Sleepless in Seattle,” “This Is Spinal Tap” and “The American President” (another film starring Douglas)?
Reiner even has a small part in the film, cast as a piano player who accompanies Diane Keaton as she sings, (a la Michelle Pfeiffer in 1989’s “The Fabulous Baker Boys.”) When asked how he happened to take on the part of Artie Burns, the accompanist, Reiner said, “I needed an actor who would work for scale, and I found me. Plus, I had always wanted to have a role where I got to wear such a natural-looking toupee.” (A joke, as the rug is referenced with comic intent.)
Reiner went on to say that turning 60 brought him to the realization that, “Thanks to medical science, we won’t be able to get out of here!” He pointed to his Morgan Freeman/Jack Nicholson 2007 hit, “The Bucket List” saying: “I think there’s an audience out there for this film,” meaning the baby boomers, the largest group in our nation (which begs the question of whether baby boomers actually leave home to go out to the theater).
The film’s message (and Reiner’s advice): “Live until you’re no more.” The script recites truisms like: “Love always comes at a price” and “Sometimes, life outlives love.” Unfortunately, the script also had dick jokes and lines like, “I’ve sold houses older than you and in worse condition,” and “What she (Keaton) lacks in curb appeal she makes up for with historic charm. She slept with Elvis.”
Originally, in the script by Mark Andrus (who also wrote “As Good as It Gets,” hence the extremely similar-sounding title), Keaton’s character was a woman who did something with tapestries and weaving, said Reiner. Declaring that pursuit essentially boring, Reiner credited Keaton, herself, with suggesting that Leah be a woman of a certain age embarking on a new career as a singer.
Keaton does all of her own singing in the film. Like Pfeiffer before her, she surprises with a pleasant delivery of old favorites like “The Shadow of Her Smile,” “Both Sides Now” and “Blue Moon.” Douglas’ character suggests she add some “more recent” tunes, specifically mentioning Bonnie Raitt. Reiner commented that he really liked the idea that Keaton was starting a new chapter in her life at an advanced age (in the film, Leah says she is 65; in real life, Keaton is 68) because his own mother started a singing career at age 65. (Audiences may remember Reiner’s mother Estelle as the older woman restaurant customer in his film “When Harry Met Sally” who says, “I’ll have what she’s having,” after Meg Ryan fakes an orgasm at the lunch table with Billy Crystal.)
Reiner described the famously eccentric Keaton telling him, “I don’t act. I just am who I am.” Reiner went on to say that there is no division between Keaton’s onscreen and off-screen images. “She just takes the dialogue and makes it come out of her mouth,” said Reiner. If only she could have taken the dialogue and made it better. The director also commented that Keaton recently told Jimmy Fallon on the “Tonight” show that Michael Douglas was one of the actors with whom she wished she had shared an onscreen kiss, but the two had never worked together.
The two share an onscreen kiss in this film, but there is no real chemistry. Douglas, in fact, as he closes in on 70 on September 25th, is showing every year. He has famously battled Stage IV tongue cancer since August of 2010. In an article that appeared January 11, 2011, medical experts said there was “a high chance of recurrence within 2 to 3 years.”
Of the “carpe diem” theme that repeats throughout the movie, Douglas, after some recently publicized marital troubles with wife of 14 years Catherine Zeta-Jones ( 25 years his junior) told “People” magazine’s Elizabeth Leonard, “When you’ve accomplished a certain amount in your career, you’re not so focused on your ambitions. It makes you appreciate— and hopefully you do that sooner rather than later—the value of your partner.”
Since part of the theme of the movie deals with Oren Little’s (Michael Douglas’) son, Luke, being a reformed heroin addict and ultimately drawing prison time, one wonders what was going through Douglas’ mind. His son Cameron with first wife Deandre Douglas has been in and out of trouble with the law for drugs since 1999 and will have to continue serving a prison sentence until at least 2018. Since much of the film deals with a son, estranged from his father, who must leave his 10-year-old daughter with his irascible father while he goes to prison, that theme may have hit close to home for the movie’s male lead.
Reiner had nothing but praise for Douglas’ professionalism onset, saying the two had both come from a background in series television (Douglas on “Streets of San Francisco;” Reiner as “Meathead” Michael Stivic on “All in the Family”) and were both the children of famous men. He remarked of Douglas, “ He’s just got incredible craft. He hits his mark and knows his lines.” (Douglas won his Best Actor Oscar in 1987 portraying Gordon Gekko in “Wall Street.” He also won an Oscar in 1975 for producing “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and an Emmy last year, portraying Liberace in Steven Soderbergh’s “Behind the Candelabra.” Keaton won her Oscar April 3, 1978 at the 50th Academy Awards portraying Annie Hall in the Woody Allen film of the same name.
Reiner noted, “Of all the movies I’ve made, not one of them could be made today, because the studios just don’t make them.” He singled out “A Few Good Men” as being particularly problematic, because of the politics in the plot. Reiner added, “The studios only make three kinds of movies today: blockbusters, usually from comic books; animated films; and R-rated raunchy comedies.” Reiner didn’t mention the recent glut of horror movies, but he might have. Recently 5 previews at my local movie house were all for slasher films.
Other questions for Rob Reiner, post-film, and his responses:
Question 1, about Diane Keaton’s wardrobe. “Did Diane Keaton just wear her own clothes in the movie?”
Reiner responded indirectly, saying that, “All the things she wore are the things she knew she could wear.” (One woman in the theater audience commented that a certain dress had been worn previously by Keaton in another film).
Question 2: “Was it difficult to get the money to make this movie?”
Answer 2: “It’s always hard to get money from people. Give me five dollars! See (Reiner laughed), she won’t give it to me!” He noted that it took 4 years to get the financing to make “This Is Spinal Tap.”
Question 3: “What was the purpose of having Oren deliver the baby in the film?”
Answer 3: “It shows Oren’s (Douglas’) character arc. He was turning his back on life (after he was widowed). Then circumstances, a series of events, start affecting him. They’re all designed to make him come back to humanity.” Earlier, Reiner had noted that, after passing 60, he was enjoying life the most he ever had. “And so you go along and live your life. Be in the moment where you are. That’s all you have.” He joked that there was “a 100% demographic” of baby boomers for the film, saying, “60% of them will want to see it, but only 40% of them will have the ability to get to the theater.”
Question 4: “You recently played Max Belfort in ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ for Martin Scorsese. How was that?”
Answer 4: “I actually met Mr. Belfort. He’s a very excitable fellow, but shorter than me, and you can see how his son Jordan could be so charming and convincing. When Martin Scorsese calls, you just do it. What is more unbelievable? That Leonardo DeCaprio is a Jew, or that I’m his father? Maybe I’m better-looking that I thought!”
Question 5: “Have you ever worked with Albert Brooks?”
Answer 5: “Yes. I worked with Albert in ‘The Muse.’ I played myself, so I was pretty believable.”
Question 6: “What is on your own personal bucket list?”
Answer 6: “Just doing what I’m doing now. In terms of life fulfillment, I’m doing what I want to do.”
Question 7: “There is a reference to Sammy Davis, Jr. in the movie, and none of the younger people know who he is. How did that come about?”
Answer 7: “That’s just so typical. Recently, I was with my family and we ran into Warren Beatty coming out of a restaurant. Now, I have three children who are 20, 23 and 16 (with second wife Michele Singer, a photographer he married in 1989 after meeting on the set of “When Harry Met Sally.”). They had no idea who Warren Beatty was, although they vaguely had heard of Bonnie & Clyde.”
Question 8: “Will you ever come back to Illinois and Chicago to direct a film?”
Answer 8: “Filmmakers today go where the tax breaks are. It was Michigan for a while—then Louisiana. If you have a small budget, you follow the tax breaks. We shot this in Connecticut because of the tax breaks. If they give you 30% above AND below the line, you go there to make a film.” He added that Chicago is a great place to make a movie and that the college scenes in “When Harry Met Sally” are represented by the University of Chicago. A representative of the Illinois Production Alliance in the audience said that Illinois does have good tax incentives for filmmaking in the state, and Reiner responded that he’d love to be able to make another film in Chicago.
Question 9: “You were politically active at one time, supporting Howard Dean in the 2004 election and also becoming active in California in 2006. Are you still considering running for office?”
Answer 9: “I sat my family down and polled them on whether I should run or not. I only polled 40%. When you only poll 40% in your own family, you shouldn’t run.”
The theme of the movie is (relentlessly) “carpe diem.” As Douglas, himself, told “Uinterview,” “When you’re older, you focus that energy on the people closest to you, on your family.”
My favorite story told Wednesday night involved a scene where Diane Keaton’s character is auditioning for a singing position that her self-proclaimed “manager,” Oren Little (Douglas), has arranged for her. Renowned singer Frankie Valli played the small part of the club owner listening to Keaton sing in a darkened room. “Diane didn’t know that Frankie Valli was sitting in the back listening to her sing and she got very nervous about it. She didn’t know he was in the movie at all. I told her, ‘Don’t feel bad. I have to play piano in front of Liberace!’” (a reference to Michael Douglas’ Emmy-winning 2013 television role opposite Matt Damon.)
The film opens in July (either July 11th or July 14th, depending on the source).