Monday, 15 February 1999

NOT WEEKEND REVIEW

Happy President's Day! The powers that be decided not to cough up weekend estimates on Sunday this week. So, it is a pure four-day weekend. Frankly, as much as I hate to make race an issue, this is definitively not what was done for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday. As far as I'm concerned, a national holiday should be a national holiday. Anyway, tomorrow (around noon EST) will be the Weekend Review with all the latest box office stuff, some reaction from James Toback on this weekend's News By The Numbers (THB 2/13-14) and some reflection on the "real" X-Files movie. In the meantime, here are some reader letters and some comments on them from me.

ROTD No. 1 is Cooldaddy: "I'm sorry, but you're wrong. Jim Carrey probably gave the best performance of the year. He should've been nominated. I swear, people think someone has to have a funny accent or be off-the-wall to be considered great. (DAVID NOTE: I am not one of those people. I actually love the most natural performances best.) The better performances in any year are really the ones that are modest yet distinct. I was mad for the same reason when Geoffrey Rush won for best actor in '97 over Tom Cruise. Of the two movies, which do you remember more, Shine or Jerry Maguire? Don't even get me started as to what movie should've won that year. The Truman Show also should've been nominated for Best Picture. It was the second best movie I saw last year, losing only to Saving Private Ryan. Sorry David, but The Thin Red Line's not gonna win Best Picture. Saving Private Ryan will, and deserves it. (DAVID NOTE: Win it, it probably will. Deserve it? In almost any other year it would.) The things that didn't work about The Thin Red Line I don't even want to go into, but I'll try: The movie was hacked down a couple of hours, so we never really got to know any of the characters. Some of the characters are indistinguishable during the fighting so we don't know who lives or dies, and it tries to make war poetic, which it really isn't. That's why Saving Private Ryan is great and The Thin Red Line is only good, because it doesn't have any false moments."

(DAVID NOTE: The human condition is poetic. In any circumstance. The Thin Red Line is one the few movies ever to understand and acknowledge that the human condition before and after the battle is where the real war is. That's why is it is one of the greatest films ever made. Pvt. Ryan is also on that list, in my opinion, just not quite as high up on the list. It's kind of like the difference between the Rolling Stones and The Beatles.)

"Now you may say the cemetery scenes in Saving Private Ryan were sentimental, but I thought they added closure."

(DAVID NOTE: I never said that. Readers have said that. I liked the bookends. And unlike certain critics have claimed, the face of the old man never morphed into Tom Hanks, but there was a dissolve and it did offer the suggestion that Hanks was Ryan. As we all know now -- and it doesn't the ruin the movie if you haven't seen it yet -- Hanks was not.)

ROTD No. 2 is J.M. of Wilmington: "To defy the critics, I saw [My Favorite Martian] on opening day. Glad I did. I disagree with the roughcut.com review. I had a great time. Attitude is all. The right brownies help, as I found out. The first moments had me worried that this would be for kids only. But as it progressed, my brownie kicked in, and the whole experience became reminiscent of A Bug's Life. I had deep joy and appreciation. Special effects these days can make anything work, and this is a fun movie. It may go the way of Lost in Space, making most of its money in the video/DVD release (like Small Soldiers, per Entertainment Weekly in a recent issue). But it's well-crafted and boomer-on-brownie ready, so see it in your favorite theater, support it there (I say to your theoretical readers) and buy the DVD when it comes out!

"I can write at length about these film experiences right after they take place, but a day or two later, and it seems pointless to enumerate what I liked and why. I claimed it 'borders on The Flintstones in the early stages, so bear with it. Know what's in your brownies, and be glad you ate them.' Etc.: On Saving Private Ryan -- I saw it opening day of its pre-Academy Awards re-release. Most violent movie of 1998. Probably the decade. It's a tough but effective war movie. One leaves the theater in shell shock. Technically outstanding, but not for the sensitive or pre-teens. An adult film. On Cube -- watched while reflecting on Saving Private Ryan -- three viewings in 24-hour-period of rental DVD. With headphones, with commentary track, and in full Surround Sound mode. Remarkable sound. Gleeful filmmakers joking their way through it makes it easier to take, but I found it suspenseful and gripping the first time through. I'd have ended it differently, but for a lean-budget independent, this one is worth watching. Good performances, and a classic death scene early on, an image that hits like the exploding head in Scanners or the meltdown in Videodrome. Hard to forget."

(DAVID NOTE: Dude!)

ROTD No. 3 is Mike: "David my name is Mike and I just wanted to ask you if you, or Ric, your father, (DAVID NOTE: Ric Flair is not my father.) knows where Sting is because he is my absolute favorite wrestler in WCW and maybe even in WWF. I would also like to congratulate you on your victory over the biggest loser in wrestling, Eric Bischoff, and would really like to know what it felt like to smack him with a roll of Washington's. On a separate note I would also like to ask your father, Ric Flair, (DAVID NOTE: He's just a guy who thinks that I am the one) if he could have Bischoff do a job that consists of walking in front of you or your father (DAVID NOTE: That guy, I'm not his son. Woo!) and pick up or [sweep up] all of the trash on the ground in front of you. I know Bret Hart is complaining about that 'groan injury' but when Sting returns or before that I would love it more than anything if you could make a match between Sting and Bret Hart for Sting to get revenge on him for -- I'm not exactly sure if this really happened -- but, for putting him in the hospital."

(DAVID NOTE: I pity the fool who thinks I am a wrestler! I'll crush his little pinhead like a cheap accordion and send his soul right into the depths of hell! Fee, fi, fo, fum, I smell the blood of a... Sorry, I got carried away. I'm now getting a dozen letters a day asking who I am fighting next. It looks like I am fighting an uphill battle to avoid induction into WCW.)

ROTD No. 4 is Bailey: "Earlier in the week you mentioned that Rushmore would be released in more theaters this weekend. I go to college in Boone, N.C. (although I'm from New York and at this point miss it simply for the movies), so I know that many films don't make it here. I was sure that a wider release would bring Rushmore to at least Charlotte or Raleigh-Durham which would be a drive but hopefully worth it. I did a search of the theaters throughout North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina and Virginia including Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. The only place I found it was Philadelphia, so my question is what's the deal? Why is Disney forcing Rushmore to an early and quick death?"

(DAVID NOTE: I've gotten a lot of letters this week about how much people love Rushmore, Disney's slow release and anger over the lack of Oscar® nods. The company blew the nominations by waiting too long to release the film and then not even keeping it in theaters in L.A. and New York through nomination season. Damned shame. The film deserved better. And now, it's up to you, the audiences, to keep it alive. Take the responsibility.)

ROTD No. 5 is Barb: "I know most people don't care about anything but the top awards, but I have to say I disagree with your reader who preferred Elizabeth over Shakespeare in Love for Best Costume. I have designed and created historical costumes (mostly for re-enactors) and have done a fair amount of research on this period. The costumes in Elizabeth were certainly historically accurate (you really can't fault the British when it comes to this kind of thing) but to me, it had no style, no flair that would lift it over any standard issue BBC costume drama. There were a few excellent pieces for Elizabeth -- the red embroidered jacket, the blue outfit with that terrific hat, etc. -- but the men's costumes were dull, dull, dull. I found the movie chilly and dark and the costumes likewise. Maybe that was the intention. In any case, it didn't work for me. Also in a couple of early scenes, it seemed to me that Cate Blanchett's costumes didn't fit right. They seemed to be riding up, where bodices from that period should be immobile. Now this stuff is hard to wear and Cate may have asked the costume mistress to loosen the lacings for her, but it looks bad to the experienced eye. I did like the hats and headpieces very much, overall, however. One so rarely sees good headgear in historical dramas. If there was an award just for hats, Elizabeth could win.

"Shakespeare in Love, on the other hand, was also very good historically and yet had tremendous style and flash in both the men's and women's costumes. They did an especially good job with the class distinctions of the era, from poor to rich and the emerging middle class in between. I could go on and on about specific pieces, but I'm sure that would bore you. Shakespeare's slightly ratty leather-slashed jacket was great, the wedding outfits for Viola and Wessex were exceptional, as was Viola's dress in the first meeting Queen Elizabeth scene. I also loved Fennyman fussing over what hat to wear with his costume, which was too fancy for his part in the play, but exactly the thing his character in the movie would have chosen, and, of course, Queen Elizabeth's elaborate get-ups. And the change to their theatrical costumes for the performance was perfect, all very right for the period. Shakespeare gets my vote for Best Costume (not that the Academy really cares what I think).

"I haven't reviewed the other costume nominees extensively as the more intensive historical pieces tend to dominate, unless there is something exceptional like Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Boy, did I cheer the year that won Best Costume! True, Beloved is a historical drama, but I don't see the voters picking it over the flashier 16th/17th century stuff. Pleasantville, set in modern times and the '50s was good, but again, not likely to be a top vote getter. Neither of these films seem to have much buzz. The only question mark is Velvet Goldmine, which I haven't seen. The costumes were done by the same person who did Shakespeare in Love (Sandy Powell) so I'll have to check it out. Showing her diversity (and energy), Powell also did the costumes for Hilary and Jackie and The Butcher Boy, as well as last year's excellent Wings of the Dove, which was sunk by the Titanic juggernaut. I first noticed her when she made an indelible mark on the costuming scene with 1991's Orlando. It would be good to see her rewarded for an excellent, stylish and diverse body of work. Thanks for letting me rattle on about this -- some people really do care about the other award categories. It's like the Olympics, where all the sports, no matter how obscure, have their own devoted fans.

(DAVID NOTE: 'Nuff said. See y'all tomorrow. Or E ME today.)

 

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