I Love Rock ‘N Roll (But…)
Believe it or not, I never saw the Broadway show the film is based on, which was wildly entertaining, according to my friends who actually did see it and whose opinions matter to me. It sounds like pure camp-heaven, so eventually I’ll get off my highfalutin horse and stroll on over to the Helen Hayes Theater to have a good ol’ time.
As fantastic as the show sounds, and appears to be, there are some major hurdles in the trailer for the film version of ROCK OF AGES.
For one, Russell Brand and Julianne Hough are in it. And it’s directed by the not-always reliable Adam Shankman, so strike one, two and, well, two-and-a-half by fiat.
Secondly, Alec Baldwin and Paul Giamatti are great comic actors, but when actors are blatantly winking at the viewer, it sorta negates the camp appeal it’s aiming for (I like my camp unintentional).
Thirdly, the soundtrack consists of the best/worst music from the cheesiest era in Rock N Roll history, the mighty 80s, e.g. Journey, Whitesnake, Quiet Riot, Styx etc. But, actually, this might work in its favor, as tit’s performed as, again, camp , which, if you think about it, is the only way one can perform Journey, Whitesnake, Quiet Riot, Styx etc. “seriously”.)
Lastly, the trailer is pretty dreadful:
See. Yet, I can’t muster a reasonable rationale as to why I can’t wait to see it. I never (okay, rarely) judge a film by its trailer, but there’s something intriguing about this wreckage that compels me to want to see it.
Oh, and P.S. While nothing will ever make me believe he’s anything other than a raving lunatic,I’m about to say something I’ve never ever said – even at the height of his fame – Tom Cruise look friggin’ hot! I know, it’s my evergreen lust for dirty, long-haired rockers. Even the faux ones.
National Violet
RIP Dame Elizabeth
It was imminent, forthcoming really (too often, her near death experiences and hospital visits were the fodder for tabloid headlines and sickening TMZ-style sleazeball journalism all but proclaiming her demise) but it’s still a sad day in Hollywood and the world of cinema.
I can say nothing that a thousand far superior writers can, have and will about Dame Elizabeth – who has left us today at the age of 79. She was one of the last of the great Hollywood icons, a true “movie star”, something that’s been lacking in the movies these last few decades. She certainly was and remains a revered actress (the too-often tossed around lapel “legend” actually applies to her), winning two Oscars for Best Actress (still an elite club) for 1960s BUTTERFIELD 8 and 1966s WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF.
She was also a great and peerless humanitarian….
After helping initiate amfAR, in 1991 Taylor founded the The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation (ETAF), which has raised countless millions of dollars for research. Her impetus was due to the death of her longtime friend, Rock Hudson, who succumbed to the disease in 1985. Her work for equality and understanding during the tumultuous beginnings of AIDS was profoundly tireless. Besides her two aforementioned Oscar wins and three other nominees (for 1957s RAINTREE COUNTY, 1958s CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, 1959s SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER) she was awarded the Jean Herscholt Humanitarian Academy Award in 1992 for her prodigious charitable work. It wasn’t enough to merely raise funds – she embraced her role fearlessly, understanding that while money was an absolute necessity, education and knowledge were the missing ingredients, and knowing it takes power to educate the uneducated mass.
Also one of the most beautiful women the movies (and world, really) has ever seen, Taylor’s natural, gorgeous violet eyes stunned the world into submission upon first arrival, and her magnificent beauty captivated fans for decades. They grew with Taylor, and every generation has succumbed to her charms and iconicity.
Rest In Peace, Dame Elizabeth. Will there ever be another like you?
R.I.P.: Pete Postlethwaite
Postlethwaite displaying his OBE honor
Sad news for movie lovers: the great Pete Postlethwaite – who Steven Spielberg (who directed him in AMISTAD) once proclaimed as “the best actor in the world” – passed away yesterday at 64 years old. He was battling cancer.
He started acting in TV and film later in life, beginning his career on stages and as director. Notable roles came in the 1996 Leonardo DiCaprio vehicle WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S ROMEO + JULIET (he was the only actor in the film to actually speak his dialogue in iambic pentameter, the language of Shakespeare’s play), THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK, the wonderful BRASSED OFF, and more recently in INCEPTION and the Ben Affleck-directed THE TOWN. He’s probably most remembered by film goers for a movie I detested – the 1996 cult classic THE USUAL SUSPECTS, where he played Kobayashi. In 2004, he was honored by Queen Elizabeth with England’s OBE,
Always a force of nature, he was nominated for an Oscar for the 1993 film IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER.
2011’s “In Memoriam” is 12 months away, but the greats are already leaving us.
Goodbye, Bernard Schwartz
Another Hollywood legend gone. Click on the photo for Tony Curtis’ obit in Huffington Post.
Look To The “Rainbow”?
- Photo courtesy Wikipedia
I remember as powerful a play as a lily-white newly teenaged man/child could comprehend…I vaguely remember being one of very few white people in the audience…and I remember the black woman sitting next to me, tears streaming down her face one moment, her self-affirmative, “Mmm hmm! That’s right!” proclamations the next; her juxtaposition of pride, fear, love and anger, joy and sadness, all accumulated…I was a minority – encompassed within a coterie of sisterhood who lived and breathed the fire and air that was on display on that stage…and I never felt more at ease with my homosexuality up to that point in my life. The ladies who surrounded me were being guided through their own explorations, and though I couldn’t decipher the emotional catharsis and confusion at the time, naturally, the consanguinity was both tangible and intangible.
I saw FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF when I was 14 years old. There are so many shades of grey detailing that time frame of my life – like scattered fragments that can never make a whole. I can’t remember if I was solo, or if this was a school trip, or a date with my older “friend” (I was 14, involved, so to speak, with a 23-year-old from the neighborhood – a man who, of course, recoiled in the dank caverns of cowardice and later married)…or if I wandered into the Booth Theater one afternoon while sojourning the streets of a insalubrious, Mayor Abe Beame-era Times Square (never had I imagined that I would find my way back to the Booth Theater throughout the years as a spectator to many Broadway performances, from 1984s SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE to NEXT TO NORMAL only a few months ago…)
The plot synopsis in Wikipedia:
Structurally, For Colored Girls is a series of 20 poems, collectively called a “choreopoem.” It is performed by a cast of seven women characters, each of whom is known only by a color: “Lady in Yellow,” “Lady in Purple,” etc. The poems deal with love, abandonment, rape, and abortion, embodied by each woman’s story, i.e. Lady in Blue’s visceral account of a woman who chooses to have an abortion, and Lady in Red’s tale of domestic violence. The end of the play brings together all of the women for “a laying on of hands,” in which Shange evokes the power of womanhood as the Lady in Red begins the mantra “I found God in myself/and I loved her/I loved her fiercely.”
I wouldn’t have been able to oblige such intricate details so locked within/lost forever from my psyche three decades later…
So, out of historical curiosity, I do want to see the adaptation and probably will (and not because inside every gay man is a black woman trying to break free. Although…). But…
What irks and worries me beyond admittedly logical cognition about the film, retitled FOR COLORED GIRLS, is that it’s directed by Tyler Perry – a man responsible for more cinematic bile than any man has a right to without being brought to justice. And the film stars Janet Jackson, who unintentionably has given more risible performances that any woman has a right to without being brought to (poetic) justice.
Prejudging is never something I’m apt to do – but I’ve suffered through far too many Perry debacles to automatically assume anything positive. Yet, in this particular situation, perhaps I should give him the benefit of the doubt. As a young, gay black man raised within an abusive household, Perry must have felt a kinship to this play that far too many young black men (and women) should ever have had to – he’s told the stories of his tormented and abused childhood at the hands of too many elders, especially his father. His affinity for these characters must be innately palpable. He’s far too young to have seen the original Broadway production, but as a prolific playwright, he’s sure the have read the text and been moved by it.
So, despite those aforementioned caveats and with that modicum of hope, at lleast the rest of the cast boasts some of the finest actresses working today. Phylicia Rashad, so magnificent in her Tony Award-winning roll a few seasons back for A RAISIN IN THE SUN, is the one I’m really looking forward to seeing. But with Whoopi Goldberg, Loretta Devine, Kimberly Elise, Thandie Newton, Anika Noni Rose, Kerry Washington in the cast it’s sure to be packed with some powerful performances.
The film was originally scheduled to debut in January 2011, but bumped up to November in hopes for Academy Award consideration.
Viewing the trailer brings back nothing familiar as far as plot points are concerned, and I notice that Perry subjected the storyline to a modernized setting. And, while it’s hard to say, “OSCAR-CALIBRE!!” from a trailer, I see nothing that displays any award-worthy potential:
What a refreshing change if this time my assumptions were unwarranted about “A Film Directed By Tyler Perry.”
“Vampires” Sucks? As Bad As “Twilight”?
*****
No matter how abominable VAMPIRES SUCK might be, I’ll never know because I’ll never see it. Popular consensus is that it really, really, really does indeed suck – it received an almost unheard of 3% on rottentomatoes.com.
Monumental, uh, suckage or not, I refuse to believe that it could be any worse than the agony I endured suffering through the first two films it spoofs, TWILIGHT and TWILIGHT: NEW MOON. I still refuse to see TWILIGHT: ECLIPSE due to the permanent mental injury sustained from those first two.
If the following (stunningly cringe-inducing) scene is indicative of the film as a whole, then, well…I really don’t have to say anything, do I?
Titanic II
I know, ever since it ingrained itself into the pop culture consciousness over a decade ago, that it’s hip to hate James Cameron’s great epic TITANIC, despite the fact that, flaws and all, it was exhilarating – visually, natch, but via the tremendous acting as well. It’s my opinion that Kate Winslet was robbed of her first Oscar by Helen Hunt’s annoying tics in the overrated TV Movie Of The Week AS GOOD AS IT GETS. And, as Roger Ebert said, “Leonardo DiCaprio not getting nominated for TITANIC is like Clark Gable not getting nominated for GONE WITH THE WIND“. True dat, Rog.
I say, in the nicest way possible, screw you! You’re all liars. TITANIC is a fantastic epic for the ages. But, I digress.
I CAN and WILL say, though the wannabe critic in me is telling me not to, that I will more than likely, indubitably HATE this. Easily. No questions asked.
Unprofessional? Sure. But only if I was paid for my analysis.
My 25 (…Or So) Favorite Films Of The Decade
****
A peculiar thing happened as I sat down to write the list of my favorite films of the decade. I first thought to pick 10, but that wouldn’t do. Then I listed 15. Nope. 20? Uh uh. I couldn’t stop. As someone who could stream-of-consciously pontificate ad nauseum, I finally disciplined myself to halt at 25 (…or so). And since that was frustrating enough, I realized to list them in order of preference would clearly be more of an arduous task, so I figured, screw that. Let me take the easy way out and list them alphabetically. You know, the easy way out.
Now, that’s not to say I don’t have one particular favorite – I didn’t need a proverbial gun pointed at my head and told “Pick one, boy, or imma gon’ shoot you” to state that PAN’S LABYRINTH, without hesitation, is it. No film has haunted me more, both visually and viscerally, than Guillermo Del Toro’s fantasy. It’s one of the most remarkable films of all time. That was the easy part. But what’s a wannabe critic to do?
At first, I wasn’t going to boast such lofty platitudes as to state “I’m a critic”, but then realized, “Hey! I guess I am!” But really, who isn’t? If you have an opinion, or some basic knowledge of craft, you are a critic (hat I am not is a film expert). Film, like music and all arts, is a personal experience, and opinion is individualistic, and what effects/affects one’s soul might alter over time and differ from the friend who sits next to you.
It’s strange cataloging such a vast amount of cinematic experiences for a whole 10-year span when you consider I haven’t even chosen a Best of 2009 list yet. I haven’t finished watching some end-of-year releases. And while I’m looking forward to the unseen, I can’t fathom that any of them could live up to the two revelatory experiences that I did see in 2009 that join this “decade favorite” shortlist – the glorious UP, and Kathryn Bigelow’s THE HURT LOCKER. The former joins the Pixar Parthenon (whose first 11 minutes alone – which include a four-minute soliloquy quietly detailing a love affair from the genesis at childhood to marriage to old age to the inevitable - are some of the most joyful and heartrending moments ever put on-screen and are proof enough of its addition here), while the latter should finally eliminate the Academy’s long-standing history of misogyny; in over eight decades, only three other women have ever been nominated for a Best Director Oscar (Lina Wertmuller in 1976 for SEVEN BEAUTIES, Jane Campion in 1993 for THE PIANO and only a few years ago, Sofia Coppola for 2003s LOST IN TRANSLATION) with no wins. After deservedly bestowed with just about any and every critics award for Best Film and Best Director, that long-festering Oscar scar should be healed and the award should go to Bigelow. And she’ll deserve it.
One thing I noticed while compiling my favorites was how similar my list was in comparison to many other published lists. Though I don’t remember Spike Lee’s great 25TH HOUR receiving that many rave reviews upon initial release (which at that time I found curious – when I saw the film I immediately elevated it to Lee’s high echelon of masterpieces alongside DO THE RIGHT THING and MALCOLM X), I’m happy that here, at the end of a decade, the film makes multiple showings on various Top 10s. Better late than never, I surmise. Other notables were expected (e.g. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, PAN, ETERNAL SUNSHINE) while others’ inclusions I was happily surprised with (who knew so many admired MINORITY REPORT, A.I. and David Fincher’s greatest film, ZODIAC as much as I did?). Others made my list that I couldn’t find on anyone else’s with a fine-tooth comb, accolades notwithstanding (THE DESCENT – the scariest horror film of the decade, and IN THE BEDROOM, a master class in acting by its cast). See, art is subjective.
On most ‘best’ lists that you’ll read is David Lynch’s MULHOLLAND DRIVE. I’m usually allergic to Lynch’s trash-pretending-to-be-art oeuvres (most notably the dubiously honored yet detestable BLUE VELVET and WILD AT HEART), and after viewing this confounded curiosity back in 2001, my feelings hadn’t changed. Perhaps a second viewing is in order to at least try to understand the trifecta of critical, hipster and geek appeal. Or maybe I have better things to do…
A major exclusion on my list (but whose inclusion on most critics lists is not so startling) is Martin Scorcese’s THE DEPARTED. Scorcese’s remake of Alan Mak and Andrew Lau’s 2004 INFERNAL AFFAIRS told a solid story, sure, and his direction is flawless, which we could/should always expect from the greatest director alive. But I could not get past the embarrassingly cringe-inducing Jack Nicholson performance. If it’s true that he’s played The Joker for about 20 years now in one form or another in every film since Tim Burton’s gorgeous-looking yet sterile BATMAN (and it IS true, since I’m the one who said it), then his Frank Costello was a compendium of every one of those over-the-top performances he’s given since that film – and for a great actor who has (mostly) coasted on his legend rather than his art these past 2 decades, that’s saying a lot (Oscar be damned, AS GOOD AS IT GETS was pure Lifetime Movie Of The Week. And if you mention THE BUCKET LIST I will get violent). THE DEPARTED is not Scorcese’s best – though certainly not a clunker, but I can’t help but feel his Best Director Oscar was a consolation prize for the multiple he should have won for a lifetime of masterful moviemaking (who can deny that he was robbed for TAXI DRIVER, GOODFELLAS, or RAGING BULL?).
As I’ve written, I could have continued the list with another 25+ titles but with PAN’S LABYRINTH as my favorite film of the past 10 years, the proceeding, alphabetized 25 (…or so) could be listed in any sequence. Without agenda, or really much of a formula in my decision-making process, these are the films I gravitated toward more and more, and those which left an indelible heart-print on some subconscious or conscious level. I won’t say these are the “best” films of the decade (I’m not always comfortable making such proclamations) but they are my favorites. I also won’t be so audacious to claim that my favorites are any better (or not) than yours.
Remember, art is subjective.
****
25th Hour (dir. Spike Lee 2002)
****
A.I. (dir. Steven Spielberg 2001)
****
Almost Famous (dir. Cameron Crowe 2000)
****
Brokeback Mountain (dir. Ang Lee 2005)
****
Children of Men (dir. Alfonso Cuarón 2006)
****
City Of God (dirs. Fernando Meirelles & Katia Lund 2002)
****
The Descent (dir. Neil Maarshall 2005)
****
The Diving Bell And Butterfly (dir. Julian Schnabel 2007)
****
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (dir. Michel Gondry 2004)
****
The Hurt Locker (dir. Kathryn Bigelow 2008)
****
In The Bedroom (dir. Todd Field 2001)
****
The Incredibles (dir. Brad Bird 2004)
****
Kill Bill Vol I & II (dir. Quentin Tarantino 2003/4) (I’m counting as one – so sue me – and someone on YouTube was smart enough to mash-up the two trailers)
****
The Lives Of Others (dir. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck 2006)
****
Million Dollar Baby (dir. Clint Eastwood 2004)
****
Minority Report (dir. Steven Spielberg 2002)
****
No Country For Old Men (dirs. Joen & Ethan Coen 2007)
****
Once (dir. John Carney 2006)
****
Ratatouille (dirs. Brad Bird & Jan Pinkava 2007)
****
Spirited Away (dir. Hayao Miyazaki 2001)
****
There Will Be Blood (dir. Paul Thoman Anderson 2007)
****
Up (dirs. Pete Docter & Bob Peterson 2009)
****
Wall-E (dir. Andrew Stanton 2008)
****
Y Tu Mamá También (dir. Alfonso Cuarón 2001)
****
Zodiac (dir. David Fincher 2007)
****
A quick P.S. if you will…
There are pangs of guilt for leaving off other favorites that I’ve loved over the years, like the brilliant Romanian 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, AND 2 DAYS (2007) by director Cristian Mungiu, Todd Haynes’ astonishing Douglas Sirkian homage FAR FROM HEAVEN (2002), Gus Van Sant’s great 2008 biography of Harvey MILK, the best “monster movie” of the decade, Joo-ho Bong’s great THE HOST, Richard Linklater’s magical 2004 sequel BEFORE SUNSET, Ang Lee’s exhilarating 2000 martial arts epic CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON or Miranda July’s 2005 masterwork ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW. So let it suffice to say – all worthy.
And this is not to mention the acclaimed films I never even watched these past years that made many critics lists, including ADAPTATION, LOST IN TRANSLATION, GOSFORD PARK, SIDEWAYS, THE CLASS, CACHE. If you ask me the reasoning behind my flippancy for these much-discussed, mostly applauded works, I won’t have a satisfying reply.
American Psycho II: The Dark Douche
In case you haven’t heard this by now, here’s the TMZ-leaked audio of Christian Bale’s tirade against a director of photography after he accidentally walked onto the set during a scene in progress during the filming of “Terminator: Salvation”~
Not sure if I’m sickened by his vileness or kinda turned on:
Heath Ledger, We Will Never Know
I was thinking about Heath Ledger today while watching his portrait on the Biography Channel and decided to repost something I had written on the day he died, a little over a year ago, on my now-defunct Myspace blog…I know the truth of how he died has since been revealed (accidental overdose on prescription medication) but at the time, the gossip bloodhounds had a field day, as they always do but I was just saddened by the death of a great, young actor.
Word of mouth out of Hollywood, even before its release, was that Ledger was a shoo-in for an Oscar nod for “The Dark Knight”. Insiders reveled that not since Anthony Hopkins seared the screen as Hannibal Lechter has a film villain been so diabolical, so nonchalant in the human pursuit of evil. That the hype sustained the truth is testament to Ledger. His Joker is an archetype, a new paradigm in cinematic villains.
Also, as of that writing I had only seen “Brokeback Mountain” once, and thought it was a fine film, but not so quick to jump on the ‘masterpiece’ bandwagon. It is only in revisiting it do I truly understand its depth and beauty and, yes, I could see why people (Jake Gyllenhaal’s sterile performance notwithstanding) would call it a ‘masterpiece’.
January 22 2008
Heath Ledger
Current mood: melancholy
Category: Movies, TV, CelebritiesA revelatory, astonishing performance by a soon-to-be great actor in a good-not-great film. That’s what I said when I first saw Heath Ledger in ‘Brokeback Mountain.’ So few times in my film-going life had I witnessed a performance of such visceral implosion – a man bleeding inside out from inner torment. In an improved more cohesive world, Ledger would have walked the stage and accepted a most deserved Oscar that year.
As you all heard, Ledger died a few hours ago, and I only hope it wasn’t due to drug abuse, which has been hinted at, or suicide – that would only prove his cowardice. I feel sadness for his daughter and ex-wife (especially if it were drug use), but my tolerance remains quite low for suicides and overdoses due to recreational drug use (no sympathy whatsoever for that kind of overdose, actually – you know what the risks are), especially when children are involved.
Something struck me when I heard the news. I’m not sure why it affected me – not since River Phoenix died almost 15 years ago (of an overdose, no less) has an actor’s death made me stop and take a deep breath. Here was a man not privy to the gossip hounds, nor a usual staple in the tabloids eighth level of hell. Not much on the radar in Perez Hilton’s subhuman swill pool (and he, after all, is the gatekeeper to that eighth level of hell).
Sure, the gays loved him because of ‘Brokeback’ and I often wonder how many gay men would really care all that much of his passing if he never starred in that film or if he didn’t possess such a manly beauty.
But lovers of film in general knew him as a raw talent – as an actor, he seemed to come from another time, where and when actors delved into their psyche to explore the human remains, no matter how dim-witted the film or revolutionary the project. Here was a talent that would stand with the greats in time. Just like Marlon Brando and Sean Penn, he wasn’t transient. He was that good.
I actually believe that. And now, I’ll never know. And that’s partly why it affected me so. I mean, actors and actresses die all the time, but so few so young. And even fewer so talented. We will never know.
What a loss for true film fans. This is a music video directed by Ledger. It’s for Ben Harper’s “Morning Yearning” and proves that Ledger also had an instinct for directing.
I will never know. We will never know.
My fingers touch upon my lips
It’s a morning yearning
It’s a morning yearning
Pull the curtains shut try to keep it dark
But the sun is burning
The sun is burningThe world awakens on the run
And we’ll soon be earning
We’ll soon be earning
With hopes of better days to come
That’s a morning yearning
Morning yearningMorning yearning…
Another day another chance to get it right
Must I still be learning?
Must I still be learning?
Baby crying kept us up all night
With her morning yearning
With her morning yearningMorning yearning…
Like a summer rose I’m a victim of the fall
But am soon returning
Soon returning
You’re love’s the warmest place the sun ever shines
My morning yearning
My morning yearningMorning yearning…
