Miscellaneous Debris, December 2010 Edition

Closing the year with our roundup of news and observations that didn’t get a full post.

This year ends with a whimper in entertainment, the way most years do. Like too many of the previous years, we doubt 2010 will go down in the books as a particularly rewarding year for film or television, the occasional bright spots like The Social Network and The Fighter, and Terriers notwithstanding. (We’ll have our review of that second film up next week.) There was plenty to dissent about though, including The American and The Girl Who Played With Fire.

As this year shudders to a conclusion and the new one lurks just around the corner (beginning with the date 1-1-11, no less), here’s the news and other items we didn’t get around to blogging about this month. All opinions are our own, of course.

You gross 7.6 million opening weekend. That's how you know.

1. If 2010 concludes the decade, its last month in a sense ought to serve as a closing bell for the comic actors of the late 1990s. Both Jack Black and Owen Wilson had films that flopped this month – Gulliver’s Travels and How Do You Know, respectively – while Ben Stiller’s Meet The Fockers is making money but not fooling anyone about quality.

Ignoring for a moment that all three became paycheck actors years ago, each needs to start taking greater risks with their film choices again. (a couple of qualifiers: Greenberg was too mannered and too self-conscious by half; we’re not sure Black ever took risks.) By way of contrast, Luke Wilson has been quietly making offbeat work for several years now, even if most of his recent films (Middle Men, Henry Poole Is Here) have been neglected by the general public. We hope his contemporaries follow suit.

Surely they can't be serious.

2. The Library of Congress announced its list of 25 inductees into the National Film Registry this week, including no-surprise cultural heavyweights The Empire Strikes Back and Saturday Night Fever but making room for a few dark horses, too. This year’s list of inductees includes  The Exorcist, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, and Malcolm X. Perhaps the most surprising addition, however, was 1981′s disaster spoof Airplane!

Films included in the registry are preserved for future generations in environmentally controlled vaults. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington selected the movies from a list of 2100 films and short films suggested by the public. The complete list of 2010 inductees can be found here.

Bale in The Fighter

3. Speaking of films and awards, we’ll go ahead and start making our Oscar predictions now: The Social Network for Best Picture and David Fincher for Directing; Christian Bale for Best Supporting Actor in The Fighter, Nathalie Portman for Best Actress in Black Swan.

The spirit of this year’s Oscars will no doubt reflect youth and change, with hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway presiding over a ceremony that will likely include potential nominees Jesse Eisenberg, Mila Kunis, Amy Adams, and Ryan Gosling, among others. We’ve said before the torch is overdue to be passed – maybe this year’s ceremony will signify as much.

Oswalt's Wikipedia photo

4. Sooner or later, we think Patton Oswalt’s going to get some kind of Oscar of his own. It’s a strange world, and he’s a very smart guy. We came across his eulogy for geek culture in this month’s issue of Wired and want to pass it along. While we can’t agree with his tastes in all things geek, he’s pretty spot on about where fan culture and subcultures as a whole are heading, and (more importantly) where they need to go. As usual, he’s funny and candid too, rewarding geeks who’ll get his arcane cultural references but not making them necessary for his arguments to work.

5. We’re not sure where Kenneth Branagh’s film version of the Marvel comics hero Thor fits into the overall scheme of “all things geek” – like next year’s Green Lantern, the viking godling come to Earth is a perennial top-of-the-second-tier character. The trailer debuted on the Internet and in theaters this month, just slightly exceeding our fickle expectations.

On the plus side, star Chris Hemsworth seems to have natural leading man chops, and the production design looks like goofy fun in an Excalibur kind of way. On the downside, Nathalie Portman in a superhero movie is the answer to a question nobody asked, and the fight scenes seem suspiciously like standard action movie fare. At worst,  the film can still serve as the warmup to The First Avenger: Captain America, which debuts later that summer.

Thor arrives in theaters nationwide May 6.

So money: Lightyear, Woody

6. We’re reminded of a quote from the late, great Tip O’Neil: “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.”  Despite the second highest box office gross in history, 2010 will go down as something of a disappointment when compared to initial estimates by industry analysts. Entertainment Weekly‘s Keith Staskiewicz blames the letdown on a summer of disappointing tentpole attractions and an equally weak winter; much of the year’s first quarter, too, was buoyed by the carryover success of Avatar.

Final box office estimates for 2010: 10.55 billion dollars, down slightly from last year’s $10.6 billion. The highest grossing film, by the way, was Toy Story 3 with $415 million in ticket sales.

7. We’ve talked it up it a couple of times already, so we feel a little obligated to mention that Matt Damon’s The Adjustment Bureau is now scheduled for a March 4 release. Based on a short story by Blade Runner author Philip K. Dick and with a supporting cast that includes Emily Blunt, John Slattery and Terence Stamp, the film tells the story of star-crossed lovers engineered to remain apart by a team of reality mechanics, despite their best efforts to come together.

Universal had previously scheduled its release for last September, around the same time as advance promotion for Damon’s ultimately underwhelming Hereafter.  We’re always in the mood for brainy, stylish sci-fi, and the delay is only fueling our expectations.

8. We’ll end the year with the same plea we made last year, to ask everyone to seek and demand better entertainment across the media spectrum – film, television, online, and so on. It seems to us that the general feeling, more and more, is that our culture is on the decline, becoming “schlocky and superficial” (to quote Boston Legal) while focusing increasingly on the regressive and the reductive. But that’s not going to change until we all agree to do something about it.

As a new year’s resolution, swear off the junk of reality television and other “guilty pleasures,” and resolve to see one classic film and read a classic book each month – twelve classic books, twelve classic movies in 2011. We promise you that you’ll feel good about it, and that the old junk will seem so much more meaningless in comparison. If you need a place to start, here’s a list of the American Film Institute’s Greatest 100 Movies.

Thanks for reading. We’ll be back in the new year with more reviews and features each week than we had in 2010. Have a great holiday weekend.

- Michael Kabel

Miscellaneous Debris, January Edition

Our irregular discussion of matters of passing interest.

So how’s your 2009 going so far? Over the holidays we got to see two of the big holiday releases, and both were letdowns. Of the two, Benjamin Button was the bigger disappointment, if only because the stakes there were much higher; Valkyrie was so close to being good we were cheering for the film to tighten itself up halfway through. We’re going next week to see Revolutionary Road, a use of time we’re pretty sure will count as an act of penance.

January is the traditional dumping ground for films whose studios have very little confidence in their success. Time was, Thanksgiving was the season for such likely bombs, a practice that led to films expected to fail getting the nickname “turkeys.” This week, theatregoers are subjected to Bride Wars and The Unborn, two rigidly formulaic genre flicks perhaps distinguished most clearly by their appearance in a theatre at all instead of heading down the direct-to-DVD chute.  January is also if nothing else a time to catch up on the December prestige releases trickling into wider release – Gran Turino and The Reader both open  nationwide tomorrow.

The following is stuff we thought worth mentioning but not worth blogging about for a whole entry. All opinons and snark are our own.

1. Next week’s big release: Paul Blart: Mall Cop, a “comedy” starring the fat guy from The King of Queens. Did Larry the Cable Guy pass on this project? Previews boast that it’s from Happy Madison, which means it’s for sure a script even Adam Sandler passed on (probably Rob Schneider wanted it though.) If God forbid there’s a sequel, we bet anything it’s set in the Mall of America.

2. The Dark Knight is finally getting some recognition from the various awards-givers. The Director’s Guild of America is nominating Christopher Nolan, along with more celebrated directors David Fincher, Ron Howard, Gus Van Sant and Danny Boyle. The film, and Nolan, undeniably deserve the recognition. Besides raising the bar for a genre that’s become one of the most prevalant and profitable of the decade, Nolan’s masterpiece includes Heath Ledger’s already-legendary turn as the Joker as well as the best work of Christian Bale and Aaron Eckhart’s considerable careers. It’s not the kind of film that usually garners awards, but given the apathy greeting Oscar-bait flicks like Benjamin Button and Changeling maybe it’s time to open the awards to other kinds of films.

3. Speaking of superhero movies, rumors are circulating that Sam Rockwell and this year’s comeback kid Mickey Rourke are in talks to play the heavies in Iron Man 2. According to Reuters News Service, if talks go as planned Rourke would play the superpowered villain Whiplash, though Variety says he’ll appear as The Crimson Dynamo, who in the books was the Soviet Union’s answer to Iron Man. Rockwell would appear as Stark Industries rival billionaire Justin Hammer. As reported earlier, Don Cheadle will replace Terrence Howard as Jim Rhodes, though Robert Downey, Jr. is confirmed and Gwyneth Paltrow reported to return to their roles as Tony Stark and Pepper Pots, respectively.

4.  From the Snowball’s Chance In Hell Department: Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt and chief Girls Gone Wild cretin Joe Francis plan to petition Congress for a $5 billion bailout. That’s right, the porn industry wants the government to give them money, saying that it’s only fair given the assistance already sent to banks and to the Big 3 automakers. Whatever, we imagine the hearings will go something like this: CONGRESS: We’re not sure why we should give you any money. PORN INDUSTRY: There must be something we can do to persuade you. We’d do anything. (takes off shirt) Anything. CUE MUSIC: Wonk, chicka chicka wonk wonk… Actually, we think Flynt deserves some kind of recognition for producing Who’s Nailin’ Palin?

5. Is it just us, or has The Office turned into a mean-spirited, slow-moving snore this season? Jim and Pam are treading water following their slapdash engagement, Dwight is an unmitigated asshole (instead of a mitigated asshole, like before) and supporting characters like Creed and Stanley are all but absent from the storylines. This year’s Christmas episode, in which Michael tried in vain to get Meredith into a detox center while Angela provoked Phyllis into revealing her adulterous affair to the whole staff, was about as funny as smog. And while it’s possible writer Paul Leiberstein enjoys bashing his own sad-sack character Toby, the joke itself is getting pretty old.

6. Marley & Me, a film in which two fading celebrities are bullied by their asshole dog, has grossed $106 million in just two weeks. What the hell, America? What the hell.

7. The Christian Science Monitor ran an intriguing article a couple of weeks ago about the resurgent popularity of film noir, and how even the genre’s fans are hard-pressed to define its forms and criteria. The cause for its rediscovery by modern audiences isn’t that difficult to theorize: film noir enjoyed its Golden Age in the late 1940s, a time when America was both tired of war and deeply skeptical about its place in the future of the world. In other words, a time exactly like right now. As a reminder to Hollywood, two of Jame Ellroy’s L.A. Quartet novels have yet to get adapted to film, and no one would mind if The Black Dahlia got a do-over.

8. ABC brings its adaptation of the cult British sci-fi series Life On Mars back to the schedule on January 28, giving it the berth after the network’s “That’s not over yet?” former hit Lost. During its six-episode stretch last year, Life On Mars got better by leaps and bounds with each episode, so if you’re looking to get in on the ground floor of something here’s your chance. Oz and Homicide: Life On The Street fans take note: Lee Tergesen and Dean Winters both carry important recurring roles on the series.

9. An era in 00′s television ends next week with William Petersen’s departure from CBS ratings behemoth CSI:  From his earliest work in gritty 80s neo-noirs like Manhunter and To Live And Die In L.A., Petersen has always been a superb craftsman actor who’s inhabited dozens of characters with perfect modulation and poise without showing off for the camera. You’ve probably never seen him in films such as Kiss The Sky, Gunshy, or The Rat Pack, so with his exit from weekly television this is a good time to look up those worthwhile efforts. (His Jack Kennedy in The Rat Pack is so authentic you’ll get chills.)

10. Not that this should do anything for you – we hope it doesn’t, but do your own thing – last year’s clunkers Righteous Kill, Bangkok Dangerous, Pineapple Express, and Babylon A.D. all arrived on DVD this week. Combined with two weeks of reruns, January is the scrap heap even in home entertainment.

We’ll be back next week with some honest-to-Jeebus film reviews. Have a good weekend.
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DVD: Darjeeling Limited

The Anderson train runs out of steam.

In Wes Anderson’s recent The Darjeeling Limited and its short film prologue Hotel Chevalier, the once promising director delivers what’s easily his most disappointing work to date. 

The story centers on three brothers – Francis (Owen Wilson), Peter (Adrian Brody) and Jack (Jason Schwartzman) – who have not spoken in over a year since their father’s funeral.  When Francis proposes a train voyage across India, Peter and Jack seize the opportunity to run away from their problems: Jack is reeling from a disastrous breakup with his girlfriend (Natalie Portman), while Peter struggles with deep anxiety about impending fatherhood. Little do they realize that Francis is pushing them towards a meeting with their estranged mother (Anjelica Huston), who is herself trying to escape a previous life. The brothers’ journey is fraught with silliness and tragedy, but the film never manages to get over itself enough to come together. 

Co-written by Anderson, Schwartzman and Roman Coppola, both film and short film feature the director’s set of trademarks: a kitschy production design, quirky characters, and a precocious 60′s pop soundtrack. The story also includes the by-now-unsurprising coterie of Anderson veterans, including Bill Murray as (presumably) the brothers’ late father.  So if audiences liked Anderson’s previous works, they should enjoy this too, right?  If only. 

Bottle Rocket, Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums succeeded because of the emotional attachment that the films’ characters earned from the audience.  In Hotel Chevalier and The Darjeeling Limited, Anderson seems preoccupied with perfecting his signature style and less concerned with making the interpersonal relationships resonate.  Of course, Anderson may have intended to forego extensive character development in order to portray the intimate family conflicts as subtly as possible; unfortunately any subtlety is devoured by patronizing symbolism and rigidly stylized costume and set designs. 

Perhaps equally frustrating is Anderson’s unwillingness to resolve or even explore dangling plot threads, which in turn are complicated by the almost complete absence of a climax.  While most directors entrust plot resolution to the viewer’s individual interpretation, even the most experimental filmmakers seldom cloak their works in funny animals and annoyingly cheerful folk music.  And with this film, that evasion of stance is getting annoying. It’s as though Anderson is terrified of getting caught saying Something, and it’s hard to take an insistently whimsical filmmaker seriously.

In a film obsessed with style over substance, the actors themselves ultimately become moving set pieces.  Wilson delivers the most engaging performance, his overbearing enthusiasm hiding deep despair. Sure, it’s remarkably similar to Dignan (his charming dolt from Bottle Rocket), but I for one am glad to see the actor return to form after playing a string of one-dimensional buffoons such as in Drillbit Taylor. Brody and Schwartzman are so deadpan that they’re both unmoving and unmemorable. Portman shows up, gets gratuitously naked and disappears, while Huston basically copies Wilson’s performance (only more quietly). 

If I seem overly harsh, it’s because the enduring quality of Anderson’s first three films demand that the director be held to a high standard.  Even the bloated and disjointed The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou managed to gel, ulimtatley, into a sublime climax.  Ironically, Anderson’s better works all feature one constant that The Life Aquatic and Hotel Chevalier/The Darjeeling Limited lack: Owen Wilson as co-writer.  Given that Drillbit Taylor recently tanked, it’s becoming obvious at this point in their careers just how much Wilson and Anderson need each other.

 - Steve Kabel

Review: Drillbit Taylor

Audiences deserve more for their money.

In the new comedy Drillbit Taylor, Owen Wilson plays an affable loser who manages to help redeem the lives of three troubled adolescent boys through an earnestness that’s as glowing and perfect as his exquisite suntan. The character is no new territory for Wilson, to be sure. The film also represents some familiar stomping grounds for producer and current comedy kingpin Judd Apatow, as well as frequent Adam Sandler director Steven Brill. It’s fine that no new ground gets broken, but the execution of the by-the-numbers plot shouldn’t feel so stale. 

The sitcom-ready premise follows three high school freshmen more or less interchangeable with the loveable horndogs from Superbad.  Terrorized by the school bully and his beta male, the kids hire alleged bodyguard-to-the-stars Taylor to protect them. A homeless Army deserter content to hang out at the beach, Drillbit initially sees the kids as a cash cow and milks his new job for every cent he can get. But in between inappropriate jokes about gonorrhea, multiple shots of Wilson’s bare ass and a freestyle rap-off , he becomes a surrogate father to the boys while romancing exactly the kind of hot yet inexplicably single teacher (Leslie “Mrs. Apatow” Mann) only found in movies. 

Of course, Drillbit is eventually exposed as a fraud and must overcome all odds to regain lost trust while the boys find self-esteem by standing up to their tormentors. Everything else falls into place, too: The Michael Cera-esque character wins the heart of the girl he’s smitten with, the Jonah Hill and McLovin clones realize that they’re friends after all, Drillbit gets the girl, blah blah blah. You’ve seen it before, and you’ve seen it done better.

Predictably, summer camp humor, pratfalls and sight gags supply much of the comedy. While admittedly there are some funny moments, the bulk of the gags fall flat and fall hard. The always delightful Leslie Mann and Stephen Root as the school principal are both underused. Cameos by David Koechner (how strange would it feel if he actually failed to show up in a modern comedy?) and Adam Baldwin are wasted.

It wasn’t that long ago that Wilson distinguished himself by skillfully inhabiting alternately bleak yet endearing outsiders in minor masterpieces like Bottle Rocket and The Royal Tenenbaums. Yet his recent lazy willingness to reiterate the Butterscotch Stallion persona again and again (Wedding Crashers, You, Me and Dupree) only solidifies his position as a paycheck movie star as disingenuous as his pal Ben Stiller. And to be fair, perhaps he realizes as much: it’s tempting to wonder if his perpetually bloodshot eyes are an actual character choice or evidence of his recent emotional troubles. 

All of this won’t matter if you heed the film’s tagline and remember that you get what you pay for. It’s a pleasant enough diversion, and at the Saturday matinee I attended most of the audience seemed at least entertained. If nothing else, the film respects its audience enough to avoid the kind of bullshit conclusions so prevalent in modern comedies (for example Brill’s Sandler vehicle Mr. Deeds). The refreshing absence of a gratuitous Will Ferrell cameo is also welcome. But with a story partially credited to 80′s film legend John Hughes, a screenplay co-written by Superbad collaborator Seth Rogen, and starring the potentially brilliant Wilson, moviegoers deserve better. Perhaps another more inspired teaming of Apatow and the red-hot-right-now Rogen can salvage Wilson from his steep, troubled path to mediocrity.

- Steve Kabel