6 November 2000

THE BAD: I am sad to report that I spoke to Warner Bros. distribution chief Dan Fellman last week and found out that The Dish -- the Rob Sitch movie that came in second to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in the audience vote, even though it premiered only two days before the end of the festival -- will definitely NOT be in the Oscar race in 2000. Regular readers know that I was behind this movie in a big way. I still am. But I also understand Fellman's concerns that the movie not be relegated to the status of Oscar Stunt, and that the studio take its time to build The Dish into a deserved box office hit. If only Warner Bros. had bought the movie a few months earlier.

The Good here, however, is that Fellman has a real appreciation for The Dish, and I believe him when he says that he won't allow the film to get lost. There is some chance that The Dish may make its American debut in Sundance, and you can look for it in a theater near you sometime around March.

THE UGLY: What was Lou Irwin at Showbizdata.com thinking when he headlined a piece based on a CNN interview with Will Smith, "SMITH A 'FETCHIT' OR JUST 'RESTRAINED'?" When you read the article, there is NO mention of race... none. Only Will Smith's urge to steal scenes and Robert Redford's preference for a low-key performance. I reprint it in total:

Will Smith has told CNN that he had to restrain himself during the filming of Bagger Vance in order to keep his character low-key. "It was so difficult for me to fight my natural instincts in those scenes," he said on CNN's Showbiz Today. "You know, there's this dude inside of me that's screaming, 'Yo, man, this is the shot, man. We can tear it up right now. We can blaze it right now. This is where we steal the movie, man. Go ahead. Go get it right now.’ It's like, 'No, this is not the kind of movie we're trying to make. Just relax.'"

That's it! Where is anything on which to hang a "Fetchit" accusation?

Others have also questioned the racial appropriateness of some of this film. Fine. But this is a recitation of someone else's news story; bringing what is, I guess, Irwin's own issues about the film into it, especially with a tag as tough as "Fetchit," is way, way, way over the line.

GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: You're a little more likely to see Im Kwon-taek’s Chunhyang, now that Korea has named the film its Oscar entry for this year. The film -- which played at Telluride, Toronto, and other festivals, and which has been passionately championed by MPRM publicist Laura Kim -- is due out in some markets on December 29, care of Lot 47 Films. But if it hits the final five, look for Lot 57 to expand the run. And I think the film has a real shot. (My festival report can be found here.)

JUST WONDERING: How popular was Steve Allen? He was elected to a SAG board seat six days after he passed away. Hi ho, Steverino! No comment on reports that SAG officials will offer his seat to Jack Paar.

JUST WONDERING 2: Has anyone seen Happy, Texas lately? I just did, and the movie closes with a Bjork song that played with the conventions of musicals. And it was 1,000 times more interesting and compelling than any part of Dancer in the Dark, except for the last 15 minutes... even performed by seven year olds.

NY TIMES QUOTE OF THE WEEK: This came from AtlMattl -- "What the hell does 'steatopygous' mean? ."

BAD AD WATCH: I love Quills. I believe that it will be a 7 to 11 award nominee come Oscar time. But I am not a fan of the new ad campaign. I’m not so much bothered that I got aced out on the pull-quotes, given my obvious insignificance next to the brain damage of Movieline or the feature writers of L.A. Magazine and the L.A. Times. But the tag line -- "The Pleasure Is All His" -- is wrong for this film, because what it suggests is not what the film is about. Quills is not about the Marquis de Sade debauching. Quills is about the absurdity of censorship and the behavior of those who fight in censorship’s name. And, like all arguments about censorship, it is easy to defend what you like, but not what you find offensive. De Sade is the ultimate example of society's hypocrisy in censoring what it wants to maintain that it does not like.

If the studio wants to make a play on de Sade's reputation, I would suggest something like, "His pain is their pleasure" or "Their pleasure is his pain" or even "He lives your pain." I don't know, exactly. I just know that selling the movie as titillation, although there are sexy and fun moments in the film, is a mistake that will leave audiences surprised and, perhaps, unhappy... even in the face of brilliant work all around.

READER OF THE DAY: From J.C. (not the religious figure) -- "I finally got struck by the irony of John McCain and Joe Lieberman's War on Hollywood. Here are two guys upset that kids under 17 are sneaking in to see violent acts, but neither man has a problem with the government teaching 17 and 18 year olds how to kill. Isn't Hollywood the training wheels in our warrior culture? Doesn't the Army use Saving Private Ryan to get kids to enlist? Think of all the kids who went into the Air Force after witnessing Top Gun.

Why aren't the studios demanding to know how the U.S. military markets itself to America's youth? How do they sell the military life to kids in high school? What is the Marines' "plan" to get a normal, GED kid from a small, peaceful suburban town to pick up a rifle and kill on command? Is it worse than a studio advertising an R-rated film on Moesha?"

E ME: What do you think? Tomorrow, it's Election Day. Remember to vote.