November 11, 2002

I’m 8 Mile exhausted…

After Friday’s numbers came out, suddenly everyone and their mother decided that it was time to tell e how wrong I was about 8 Mile.  But this hasn’t been like other movies.  People have been either very cautious or quite aggressive in turning my review into an accusation about me.  I don’t much like being patronized.  And I don’t really like to yell, on paper or in person.  Some have been just fine.  But my position on this film really seems to get under people’s skin. 

$54 million later, nothing has changed, except that everyone at Universal marketing and publicity should get a day off in thanks… maybe a giant company barbecue in a trailer park. 

I’m going to let it this one simmer for the moment.  I feel as though my 8 Mile comments are offensive to a lot of people who I like.  And while I stand behind them without wavering, I don’t want to linger in that spiritual place any longer this weekend.  I’m reading your e-mails and re-examining my position again and again and again.  And we can “talk” about it again later this week.  Until then, congratulations to all involved.  Business, after all, is business. 

Not making quite the noise that Eminem did, two films are maintaining their box office power with great élan.  Of course, the Monday school holiday helped, but an estimated 14.5 percent drop for The Santa Clause 2 and the 11.3 percent drop for The Ring have to be happy news at Disney and DreamWorks.  Both films seem likely to break the $100 million mark and The Ring will stand out as one of the most rare of commodities, a long legged beauty.  By the time its domestic run ends, the film looks to total more than seven times its opening weekend.  In the $100 Million Club 2002, only My Big Fat Greek Wedding can match that feat.  In fact, the only movie in the club to come close to five times opening is, of course, DreamWorks’ Road To Perdition, which opened to $22 million and is currently right under $105 million.

QUOTED:  “There are certain cliques in Hollywood which seem to prosper on spreading the rumor that a movie is disastrous before it’s even been shown – sometimes even while it’s in the shooting stage.  The venom springs from envy, of course – the envy of one man for another’s potential success.”

Sounds like this week’s L.A. Times, no?

It is a quote from Joyce Haber’s L.A. Times column in 1967, referring to Dr. Dolittle, which got raves in the U.K. before American critics gave it the high hat. 

Things don’t change much, huh?

I’m not sure about the envy thing being the exclusive issue.  I tend to think that pack mentality, the obsessive need to be first and a remarkable hypocrisy among film critics and writers about what we claim we want to see are also major components.  

On Friday night, I saw one of the best films of 2002.  And I fear, like I fear someone abusing a loved one, what the angry industry mob will make of it. 

I haven’t been given clearance to write about the film yet, as the screening was a special – and much appreciated - convenience by the studio.  I will see the film again as soon as possible.  And it will arrive in theaters before the month is out. 

Movies that speak directly to the soul… movies that don’t answer all your questions… movies that deserve to be called “art” in a way that isn’t a pejorative, as it is when spewed by those who claim that they seek originality and are then enraged by ideas that are easily within reach… movies that breathe and feel and live without cynical fits of pique… these are the movies that fan my flames. 

I saw Adaptation again on Sunday night.  That love affair continues.  And another one started Friday night.  Soon, I’ll invite you all to see this film through unjaundiced eyes… to decide for yourself…

BACK TO MAX:  I guess I have kind of left Saturday open in my tale.  That evening, I attended the L.A. debut of Max, the Menno Meyjes film about an art dealer in pre-Versailles Germany who gets involved with a young corporal named Hitler. 

This is a film I saw in Toronto and really enjoyed.  Unlike many, my experience of the film didn’t focus on the idea of young Hitler.  Obviously, there is baggage associated with the character, but this is a film about art and politics and loss.  It is about the banality of life… the unavoidable irony that spins the world on its axis.  It is about art and loss and fear. 

And it remained a strong experience.

NEW STUFF WORTH LOOKING AT:  Over at Movie City News, they just put up their first movie writer’s archive.  Anne Thompson has been doing this for a long time and she’s done some great stuff.  Check it all out here.

SITTING WITH LIOTTA:  The Narc train continued through Poland over the weekend, when I finally got a chance to sit with the third member of the Narc troika, co-star, co-producer Ray Liotta. 

Nice guy.

There’s not a whole lot more to tell you about Narc at this point, though Carnahan says the third time is the charm.  (My guess is a third viewing, which I will actually want at some point, will only lead to Joe’s suggestion that a fourth screening with really bring out the nuances.  Which would be funnier if there wasn’t some truth to it.) 

But Liotta, who really rocked my moviegoing world with his explosive film debut in Something Wild and who fronted Scorsese’s seminal GoodFellas… he’s got a gentle curiosity about everything… a real interest… a joy in exploration…  a really nice surprise.  Within ten minutes of meeting the guy. I knew stuff about him that most celebrities wouldn’t cough up on a tenth interview.  And he was asking real questions, not only of me, but of my studio sidekick as well.  Maybe he had some motive, but it didn’t feel like that.  He seemed like a wide-eyed kid of sorts, embracing life and tossing off the difficult moments like an old pro. 

We did talk Narc, but I feel like I know the history pretty well by now.   If these guys are bluffing, they have done a good job of getting their stories straight.  The thing that’s struck me is that this trio, each one such a strong, unique personality, coming together to make a really good, really surprising movie is a small miracle. 

I’d love to give credit for this gathering to the casting team, but the cash-drawing talent is more often than not a business decision as much as a creative one.  Carnahan’s Narc screenplay was lingering in spec hell when Liotta happened to switch talent agencies and got the script.  He attached himself and they went searching for money.  Jason came along later.  The fit was perfect.  Two actors with very different working styles, but both very serious about the work.  A director who wanted to let the actors work.  A set in an ongoing cash crisis that brought the headliners together.  And after Sundance, Arnold Koppelson to Sherry Lansing to a studio berth and some serious support.

Sometimes, the best stories are true. 

GREAT PROMO:  Fox sent out a movie preview in a bright pink video cover last week.  It was for their spring fling, Down With Love, which seems poised to be a huge hit for adult audience… playing on the zeitgeist of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Renee Zellweger’s likely Oscar nomination for Chicago, Ewan McGregor following in Leo’s Catch Me If You Can I’m-finally-having-fun-and-being-charming-like-a-movie-star footsteps and Payton Reed following up his surprise success – teen cult and otherwise – in Bring It On. 

Fox is positioning the movie betwixt and between on April 11, presumably hoping for a Zelweger Oscar win and not going head to head with mega-summer flicks, X2 and M2 (and if you don’t know what films those are, its time to get a movie map).  Me, I would be looking at March, in case Zellweger loses.  And if I were Miramax, I would welcome the film, which will increase the heat around Zellweger just when she needs a boost to go over the top. 

But the reason I am writing this is that the preview reel they sent out - which is not, it says, intended for broadcast on the web or TV – is sensational.  The film was written by former TV writers Eve Ahlert & Dennis Drake, who got enough heat from this to get the gig to write the Legally Blonde sequel, Red, White & Blonde.  It seems to be a knock-off of the great late 50s, early 60s American sex comedies, particularly the Natalie Wood/Tony Curtis 1964 classic, Sex & The Single Girl, in which Wood plays the real life Helen Gurley Brown.  (The ironies of that film abound.  When it was made, Helen Gurley Brown had already been married for five years to David Brown, who was the number three man at Fox in `64.  Of course, the film was made at Warner Bros.)  As Ewan McGregor says with a glint in his eye in this preview clip, “Sex comedy is much funnier and better and classier and  cooler… and a romantic comedy is just shit.” 

I must admit, I haven’t been able to find anyone under the age of 20 to respond to this clip… and I’ve shown it to a half-dozen kids.  But it hit my nostalgia button pretty hard.  I love the old farces and those Neal Hefti scores and all of that.  For me, quality kitsch is worth its weight in gold. 

READER OF THE DAY:  GOSH DARN writes:  “Although you probably have no interest, I urge you to check out Attack of the Clones at Imax. Not just for the presentation (pretty impressive by the way. I just wish there was an Imax screen that wasn't so 4:3), but also to check the cuts made to the film to fit it under 2 hours. I have to say the cuts are very good. They tighten the pace up well and have gotten rid of many of the things/moments that people found fault with the movie (mainly the wooden performances/ love story moments) I really think that if Lucas had released this cut in the theatres Clones would have had much more revenue (impressive, but low for a Star Wars flick) and it would have been much better received critically. I would really love to hear/read your take on this. I doubt this cut will ever be seen again (as it's not the one on DVD) and yet it makes the film MUCH better.”

IN THE MIDDLE writes:  “Saw Bloody Sunday over the weekend in Pasadena, and all I can say is what a damn shame it is that this film is not in a wider release.  It is absolutely extraordinary.  I was completely blown away, and the movie still lingers in my thoughts two days later.  Comparisons to Black Hawk Down are 100% apt.  You are there.  You are in the middle of it, you want to go home, and there's no way out.  I even picked up the book after the movie, and the film matched very well with the actual photos taken in the middle of that day.  Granted, this is not a fun film.  It's kind of like Schindler's List, a great film you may never want to see again.

The one thing about Bloody Sunday that still makes me think (especially when set up against Black Hawk Down) is they're both very intelligent essays on the limits of Military power.  What happens when you use too much of it (Bloody Sunday), or too little (Black Hawk Down).  I've always wondered what would have happened in Somalia if Clinton had allowed the use of the AC-130 Gunships over Mogadishu.  For a long time, I wished he had.  Now after watching the movie, I wonder if the result wouldn't have been a lot like Derry that January morning.

Another thing that struck me was the lack of Command and Control on both sides (which is what usually leads to Military disaster nine times out of ten).  On the Civil Rights side, there was a clear element of youths who were just spoiling for a fight.  Now these weren't IRA guys (the book makes it clear that the IRA was going to stay away to avoid a confrontation), these were just kids full of piss and vinegar looking to prove themselves.  The MP played by James Nesbitt was not in control of that crowd (nor could he have been), but maybe if he had clipped off those youths early on, just said stay home, we don't want you, maybe...sorry, too many maybes; too much like blaming the victim.

On the British side, the Army had no control over those Paratroopers, who seemed to willfully ignore orders and attacked as they damn well pleased.  (At one point, I distinctly hear Orders go out for one company to move in, and then hear the Paras say A,B and C Go!  Sounds like three companies to me).  As a side note, this is why we have Posse Comitatus laws in the U.S., why the Army wasn't allowed to hunt for the Sniper in the D.C. area as a lot of people in the area called for.  Any Army is not a Law Enforcement body, as much as we would like to pretend otherwise.  They are about Combat, and their solutions revolve around what they have been trained to do.

I would also encourage Voters and Lawmakers to see this movie before sending our brothers, sisters, sons and daughters off to Iraq...if for no other reason other than that last shot of that incredibly long line of youths picking up their rifles from the IRA.  Al Queda was going to get a recruitment boost no matter what we did in Afghanistan (and it was absolutely necessary to go in and wipe out them and the Taliban).  But if we go into Iraq as well, instead of a line of twenty guys, it will hundreds if not thousands...

P.S.  According to the book, a new inquiry into the Incident was launched by Prime Minister Tony Blair under the direction of a Lord Seville in 1999, and it's still ongoing.  Apparently, the British Paratrooper, who is listed as Soldier 027 in the movie as well as the book has gone into the Witness Protection Programme, and has told the Seville Committee what actually happened in Derry.  No one's been arrested to my knowledge (or ever will be), but the truth is going to come out.”

E ME:  Do you think you’ll be down with Down With Love?