October 31, 2002

Boo.

Today is the day for trick or treat.  The Hot Button has never been much into tricks.  And so, a treat.  Well, my treat.

I got to spend some time with Jason Patric and Joe Carnahan in the last couple of days. They are two of the guys behind Narc, which is slowly building into one of the best movie stories of 2002. 

I didn’t quite know what to expect from Jason Patric.  After all, he was the guy who went from virtual unknown to pretty-boy movie star overnight at the age of 21 in The Lost Boys.  (I’m going to pretend that Solarbabies never happened.)  And then, as I saw it through my 20something year old eyes, made this odd choice to be an artist instead of continuing to chase movie stardom. 

I moved out to Los Angeles just as The Beast was being released to an incredible cult reaction and almost no business.  Patric got amazing reviews for After Dark, My Sweet… and less than $3 million at the domestic box office.  Rush was one of the movies to beat for Oscar in 1991 and got lost in a cloud of pain… $7.3 million domestic.   He hooked up with the legends Walter Hill and John Milius... just as Hill crashed his directing career and the passionately put together Geronimo died at the box office ($14 million domestic).  John Duigan was all the buzz in America, until Sirens underperformed, despite a nude Elle McPherson.  That was the film before Patric did The Journey of August King with Duigan… and that film got all but abandoned by Miramax.  Sleepers was overloaded with name talent… so heavy it never took off.  And then there Speed 2: Snooze Control. 

That was a pretty tough run for a guy who was obviously trying to do something other than make a buck or get on magazine covers.  But it took one last car wreck to change the whole Jason Patric game.  Incognito was that wreck. 

And then, Jason Patric found Neil LaBute.

LaBute had made a little film called In The Company of Men that no one expected much from, but became a true sensation.  LaBute won awards from Sundance to Thessaloniki.  And Patric was on it.

LaBute’s next screenplay, Your Friends and Neighbors, would be produced by and co-star Jason Patric.  The film only grossed $5 million domestically.  But it was made for about that too, so it was profitable.  More importantly, it assured that Jason Patric would be friendly to financiers once again.`  Most importantly, he showed a dark, almost evil – well, evil, damn it -  charm that we had rarely seen in his previous work.

So did he jump?  Did he chase after some fresh fame and some increased fortune?  Did he glide along on his looks?  No.  He bided his time and waited for a project that he really wanted to do.  Four years later, that next film is about to be released.  And it was no easy ride.  But Narc will probably be Jason Patric’s biggest box office success ever.  Speed 2 did $48 million domestic.  Expect the low-budget Narc to pass right by that.

Carnahan… well, I had a better idea of what to expect.  I met Joe during the days of Blood, Guts, Bullets & Octane.  And he stinks of being a good guy.  I mean, just reeks!  And even then, he was a miracle man.  He made Blood-Guts for under $10,000.  And he had taken it to the point where it was actually getting released into theaters like a real movie.  That achievement alone was stunning. 

I guess it was meant to be… both of these men’s last releases, Blood-Guts and Your Friends and Neighbors, we released in 1998.  Both were touched by something special.  The guy who ran away with Julia Roberts – grandson of Gleason - and the warm-hearted film maniac who lives in Sacramento with his wife and kids and knows Mark S. Allen personally… meant to be.

TOGETHER AT LAST….

This may all sound like a fairy tale… some lucky streak.  But like any good story, the journey was filled with bumps.

During production, the actors weren’t getting paid because the financiers weren’t living up to their end.  Patric tells the story of his mangers telling him to walk off the movie if the producers didn’t come up with some cash to pay him dollar one… in the third week of production.  He stayed on.  Carnahan tells the story about not having any film to shoot with on the next day… waiting for a wire to arrive… and the financiers telling him that they wired the money, but couldn’t find the transaction number… then they had the number, but couldn’t remember what bank the money was routed to… are Carnahan puts it, the movie business version of “my dog ate my homework.”

After the first few days of production, Carnahan stopped seeing dailies.  It wasn’t an artistic affectation.  The lab hadn’t been paid and they weren’t going to be nay more cooperative than they had to be.  Five months later, Carnahan and his editor got their first look at all the footage. 

After all of that and more, they got the film to Sundance.  But showing up with distribution (Lion’s Gate), they were politically hamstrung in the Dramatic Competition… Sundance juries almost never select films that have real commercial potential.  And the film has all this catty, snow bunny mindset weight on it, with eyes drawn to Patric and co-star Ray Liotta and little focus on the work itself.  Besides that, the dramatic jury seemed compelled to dramatically award DV films that were barely watchable.

Narc would be lost to the Gods of Indie… Lion’s Gate would release the film, but not the way you would want to see it released.  They would get around to it eventually.  It would make a few bucks.  It would head to cable.  It would become a cult favorite.

But then another piece of magic happened.  The film started turning up in private screening rooms around L.A.  And the calls started coming in.  Warren Beatty… Dustin Hoffman… William Friedkin… Harrison Ford… and eventually, Tom Cruise.  The response wasn’t just amusement or interest in Carnahan’s next film.  These men of esteem were ready to put Narc on Hollywood’s map. 

The feelings about Narc ran so high that when Harrison Ford selected Carnahan to helm his next film, reporters on the press tour weren’t sure whether to take Ford seriously when he told them that Narc was one of the best films he had seen… “This Year?”  “Ever.”

But Ford was serious.  Cruise and his producing partner Paula Wagner were on-board as Exec Producers and Paramount took over distribution responsibilities from Lion’s Gate. 

And now, this film that feels like it is right out of the early 70s… this film that didn’t have the money to pay its actors on time or to even have film to shoot… this film that sat on a shelf for five months before the director even got to start editing… this film that was passed by at a Digi-happy Sundance…. this film starring a reluctant movie star and a great actor who had made a bunch of direct-to-video level titles and written and directed by a second time director whose first film’s entire budget was less than the budget for one day on Narc…this film is serious about Oscar.  And with the kinds of friends it has…

How was Jason?  Smart and funny and obviously in love with films of quality and more than a little put out by films of excrement.  We talked Yankees and movies and Liotta and Carnahan and Narc.  We talked about that Speed 2 time, when he “listened to them” about his career.  We talked about LaBute.  We talked about the technique he brought to this film and the ways he worked for Carnahan even before he hit the set.  We talked about how Beatty tracked he and Carnahan down at a Santa Monica restaurant to talk about the film for an hour and a half.  He had the Orange Roughy.

Joe?  Still the same guy I met a few years ago.  But this time, I could hear his experience in this town, floating on the back of his tongue.  Joe’s still living in Sac-Town.  He doesn’t want the kids playing violent videogames.  He’s working with Harrison… talking great Frankenheimer stories… considering offers… figuring the Oscar angles… but he’s still Joe Carnahan.  Some guys don’t know how to turn into Hollywood assholes.  “Carno”… which seems like a natural nickname for him… is one of those guys.  We talked movies and great directors and Glengarry Glen Ross  (“This is gold to you… and you don’t get them.”) and the magic of Kubrick’s 10 film career and Ain’t It Cool News and the Coen Brothers and tough times on the set and his turn-on of the day… Punch-Drunk Love.  He had the porterhouse and the shrimp cocktail and the chocolate desert that takes 30 minutes and some asparagus and some potato skins… and he practically giggled as he stuffed himself silly.

Sometimes you get great surprises in this business.  Sometimes, you root for the good guys.  Narc is a terrific film.  And I am rooting for these guys.  Passion and skill usually come in separate packages.  These two guys are just hitting their strides.  And next week, I get to chat with Liotta. 

Trick or treat?

READER OF THE DAY:  JECKLE’S PAL writes:  “Finally, someone who agrees with me about Joy Ride. I remember when it came out at the theaters and was DOA, Roger Ebert gave it a good review.

I didn't go see it and hadn't given it a second thought since reading Ebert's review. Then, a couple weeks ago it was on HBO and I watched it and I am glad I did. What a fun movie. I have since watched it 2 more times. This is "B" movie making at it's best and a really good thriller that actually delivered the goods. I made my wife watch it and some of my friends and they really didn't seem to think it was anything special so I was surprised to see your blurb about it today.

Although I can live without Paul Walker (just another disposable pretty boy), Steve Zahn and Leelee more than made up for him. Zahn is always good (except in Boys on the Side). Because of everything the movie got right (no Mtv style cutting, no rap-rock soundtrack, genuine thrills and Zahn) the movies faults can be forgiven.

I am constantly surprised what movies fail and succeed and am curious as to why the Studio let this one languish for 2 years before releasing it. People may see this movie described as a "B" pic and automatically think it’s going to be cheesy and bad but making a really good "B" pic is hard and this one succeeded. When John Dahl is on (Red Rock West, Joy Ride, The Last Seduction) he is very good but when he's off (Unforgettable, Rounders) you wonder if it can be the same director.  He's a talent definitely worth watching. In a world of McG's and other dumbass MTV video directors its easy for someone like Dahl to get lost in the shuffle because he isn't as flashy which is too bad. Joy Ride will join my short list of recent and not so recent "B" movies that got it right (Tremors and Anaconda to name a couple) that I will watch anytime they are on the boob tube.”

E ME:  What movies surprise you when they fail or succeed?