Miscellaneous Debris, August 2010 Edition

Our monthly roundup of news that caught our eye and what we have to say about it. 

We’ve complained about it for months, so here’s our last word on the subject: this was the Summer of Disappointment, with little in the way of surprise but plenty in the way of letdown. Even the surprises were themselves born of relief, with films like Despicable Me and The A-Team offering more than we expected; when the best you can say is that some films weren’t as terrible as you feared,  it’s a bad time for film and a bad time to be a movie fan. This month there’s been precious little to lure us into multiplexes, aside from the occasional goofy pleasure like The Expendables and The Other Guys, and even those weren’t quite alluring enough. 

All of this is to apologize for the comparative dearth of reviews posted over the last several weeks. We’re working on it. Anyway, once a month or so we get together all the news items of the previous four weeks and offer commentary on what they mean for the entertainment industry and the audience alike. The opinions are purely those of SBR. Thanks for sticking with us. 

1. The Emmy awards ceremony this past Sunday night was virtually surprise free, with Mad Men getting Best Drama and show creator Matt Weiner also winning for best writing. Bryan Cranston won best dramatic actor for Breaking Bad and Kyra Sedgewick won best actress for The Closer. On the other hand, Modern Family was something of a welcome surprise to win in the Best Comedy category; we’d guessed voters would just hand it to 30 Rock (I show whose appeal is lost to us) once again. 

Kudos to Mad Men, but we’re curious to see how this year’s kick-’em-when-they’re-down fourth season will fare at next year’s awards. Don Draper and company are in some murky waters just now, and it wouldn’t surprise us if the show’s winter of discontent translated into a chilling factor among Emmy voters. 

2. A couple of weeks ago we posted how The Sorcerer’s Apprentice represents something of a dying breed among films – the star-driven, big budget summer vehicle. Add to the pile of flops mentioned in that review the Jennifer Aniston tanker The Switch, which debuted in seventh place at the box office a couple of weeks ago and has since grossed only about sixteen million dollars. 

There are lots of reasons for the film’s failure and why it won’t derail Anniston’s career, as indieWire’s excellent analysis provides, but we think it’s unfair to blame Jason Bateman’s unproven leading man bankability. The simultaneously cloying yet distasteful television ads, omnipresent for weeks leading up to the premiere, surely had something to do with the public’s indifference. The public may also (finally) be growing tired of Aniston playing yet another variation of Rachel Green. 

3. TV Guide’s assertion that the Hawaii Five-O reboot is “fall’s hottest new show” despite its premiere remaining three weeks away would normally make us wonder if the fix was in. In this case, however, they’re probably right. Stars Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan are overdue to break through with the right vehicle (this is O’Loughlin’s third show on CBS) and co-stars Grace Park and Daniel Dae Kim will likely draw curious fans from, respectively, Battlestar Galactica and Lost. 

It gets a plum timeslot, too, inheriting the Monday at 10/9 Central berth that CSI: Miami has enjoyed since its premiere eight years ago. (That show moves to the same time on Sundays.) 

4. Joel and Ethan Coen are probably few people’s idea of theological teachers, but religion journalist Catherine Falsani makes an oft-compelling case for the brothers as  spiritual guides in her breezy 2009 book The Dude Abides. Examining each of their fourteen films, from Blood Simple to A Serious Man, Falsani illuminates the moral and philosophical issues the brothers subtly raise (if not always address) in each film, analyzing plots and themes as well as characters from an allegorical perspective. She reaches a bit in molding her thesis to the films of their middle career – Intolerable Cruelty lacks text, let alone subtext – but her readings of major works including Raising Arizona and of course The Big Lebowski are articulate and convincing. A fun read for the brothers’ fans or anyone looking for a spiritual treat. 

Kramer's 1959 melodrama about nuclear fallout

 5. On the subject of reading material, Saul Austerlitz’s online essay calling for a re-thinking of the career of director Stanley Kramer (Judgment At Nuremberg, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner) is both fearless and illuminating, bucking a lot of conventional wisdom of the last forty years while extending the maligned director some fresh respect. 

Without meaning to sound disparaging, Kramer made films that if produced today would be released in December and considered unabashed Oscar-bait. All the same, as Austerlitz contends there’s plenty of rewarding material both in Kramer’s pragmatic camera eye and in his approach to his subject matter, and his body of work remains laudably diverse. In fact, you’ve probably seen one of his films without realizing it. 

6. Ever see a preview for something and think it’s going to either be spectacular or go spectacularly wrong? The trailer for Martin Scorsese’s pilot to the HBO series Boardwalk Empire gives us that sense of optimistic dread. On the plus side, there’s a fantastic cast in a sprawling and lavish retelling of the early days of prohibition. On the other hand, it’s been a long time since Scorsese really impressed us, especially when dealing with organized crime (The Departed, Casino, and Gangs of New York were all variously near and wide misses), and this level of ambition rarely pans out when produced for television. At any rate the cast is intriguing: we’ll watch Steve Buscemi, Kelly MacDonald and Gretchen Mol in anything. 

 

7. The comic book movie genre has reached its tipping point, and it’s likely that 2010 will likely be remembered as the year everything started to fall apart. Following the box office disappointments of The Losers, Jonah Hex, Kick Ass, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, it’s likely that studios will become increasingly cagey about which comic-inspired projects are greenlit. Meanwhile the Green Lantern and The Avengers projects seem increasingly problematic: Green Lantern for its inauthentic-looking CGI costume, and The Avengers for its slowly deflating scope and scale. 

Time Out magazine recently posted its list of 50 essential comic book movies. That there are fifty at all boggles the mind.

8. Finally, the handsome previews for Ben Affleck’s upcoming The Town made us realize it’s about time again to re-watch Heat, Michael Mann’s 1995 similar exploration of conscience-plagued thieves and the relentless cops who pursue them.

Besides the three stars in the poster, Heat features Ashley Judd,  Jon Voight, Diane Venora, Dennis Haysbert, Amy Brenneman, Nathalie Portman, and William Fichtner. Not an entirely perfect movie, but for its kind it comes as close as any film ever did. The trailer below basically implies that if you don’t see it, you don’t deserve to go to the movies.

We’ll be back later this week. Thanks for reading.

- Michael Kabel

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