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Jesus’ Son was an interesting festival experience for me. I first saw the film, with buzz all around, at Toronto 1999. It was a breakthrough film. It was a possible Oscar film. It was this. It was that. And for me, it was a miss. It didn’t help that I saw it at an 8 a.m. screening. So here it comes to EbertFest and I’m ready to find myself wrong. But I can’t. I liked the film better than I did the first time around. I really like director Alison MacLean’s work and would suggest that any producer who wants more than the run-of-the-mill work on a film that is more than another piece of crap, hire this woman immediately. I would be a lot more interested in seeing Alison MacLean’s American Psycho than I was while watching Mary Harron’s. Harron came up with a concept and followed through. MacLean’s work on this film suggests that she works hard within the moment, always reaching for a little more. Also, I found that I was able to decode much of the film, actually fighting for the film and its depth of meaning in various conversations after the screening. And Billy Crudup is great here, as is Samantha Morton, Jack Black and Holly Hunter.
But I still don’t like the movie much.
For me, this is a simple parable about a man who floats through life. Drug addict ... okay. Thief ... if the moment takes him. Sweet soul ... absolutely. I think the title, Jesus’ Son, is about not judging this character. Look at him and don’t judge. He is just another man, another one of Jesus’ sons, like us all. (I’ll pass on religious argument for now.) And Billy Crudup carries the whole movie, making any horror okay by portraying a kind man, open to anything. But where does this journey take us? It seems to say that we can find our way through the morass and that we should embrace that opportunity in all of our lives. But at the end of the film, I got the feeling that our "hero" could just float off in a new, less self-loving direction at the will of the slightest breeze. Oh well ...
To be completely honest, I skipped the last two films of the festival. I’ve seen Sam Raimi’s A Simple Plan a few times already and I have never been able to join the lovers of the slight thriller. I like it okay, but as a great work? Nope. Not for me. The performances were strong and the idea is solid, but I don’t think Raimi brought the drama home.
I have seen Woody Allen’s Everybody Says I Love You at least ten times, all told. And yet, I still consider it a miss as a complete film. I’ll happily watch Edward Norton sing My Baby Just Cares For Me. Or even more so, Tim Roth’s intimately spectacular version of If I Had You. Unfortunately, great moments like those don’t make up for Allen’s absurd on-screen pursuit of Julia Roberts or the over-the-top, not-the-Marx-Bros-no-matter-how-hard-it-tries hospital number or the repetitive nature of Graciella Danielle’s choreography. I love musicals and I love the idea of a modern film with great old songs as musical numbers, but Allen just doesn’t have the camera skills to pull it off. God knows, I wish he did.
In the end, as when I saw it, Such A Long Journey stands out as my "Best of" find at EbertFest 2001. I loved seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey the way it was meant to be seen. (Will Warner Bros. take the lead of The Exorcist and do a 1000 screen release of this classic sometime in the fall? Doesn’t look like it. This would be, to put it mildly, a mistake.) I loved the Kubrick documentary. I really enjoyed almost everything I saw, first-look or fifteenth. But Such A Long Journey, which was part of the Shooting Gallery series last year and which should be available on video and DVD sometime this year, reminds us of the reality of life and translates into any country. It’s all about the journey. And we all have challenges and we all have failure and we all have success. But if we stay true to our hearts, the road will take us to the light ... eventually. Beautiful.
My thanks, as ever, to the entire EbertFest team, led by Roger, Nate, Nancy, Melissa and Nickie, for making the journey to Champaign-Urbana so comfortable. And to all the filmmakers who came in and just hung out. And especially to the people of Champaign-Urbana and surrounding communities who took the time to buy over 15,000 tickets this year. These are the moments when we jaded types get to remember that it is, no matter what, about the movies. Gotta love the `loid.
READER OF THE DAY: From Buffalo’s BK Broiler: "I see Kip Perdue went to the same acting school as Ben Affleck. I actually liked the movie Driven, even without a (boob) shot. Not since Oskar Schindler have we seen a German character portrayed relatively fairly like that driver in this movie. I know that dude was a little brash, but he's lonely. such a sad story, he he he. I wonder what the Simon Weisenthal Center thinks about the movie (I read that link to the story criticizing the Center on LA Times website).
I never imagined anyone could make a movie like this. Town And Country is a fast cutting romantic comedy.....jeez, did Michael Bay direct it? Talk about quick edits, there's no worrying about not laughing at a scene because here comes another one 2.45 seconds later. I was waiting for Jerry Bruckheimer's production company logo to appear on screen, he he he."
E ME: What overlooked films should Roger consider for 2002’s festival?
Bermuda 2001
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Overlooked Film Fest 2000
Preview
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
©2001 David Poland
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