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Week Of August 13, 2007 - Fri
August 17, 2007
Macho, Macho Men
Yes, Virginia, there is a new Hot Button...
I am not prepared to review Sean Penn's Into The Wild, but I made a point of reading the John Krakauer book that was the basis of Mr. Penn's screenplay. The experience was interesting, since Penn so faithfully tells this story, varying only on the degree of emphasis on some characters. But like Krakauer, he takes a clear position about how he feels about Christopher McCandless in the body of the movie. And this is what will make the future of this film so interesting.
Unlike the well made, but problematic A Mighty Heart, this true story riles people up. It seems that there was a great deal of rumbling when the book first came out. Was McCandless an arrogant punk or the embodiment of man seeking to reconnect with the base of nature, human and otherwise? What about his journey is truth and what is self-aggrandizement or misleading? How does experiencing his journey make you feel?
It made Krakauer fall in a near-romantic love. It is rare to read a biography in which the writer so breathlessly defends every possible attack on the book's focus ... and then identifies so strongly that he feels a need to contribute 3 chapters about how he identified. And in Penn's case, it seems like he too has a deep, personal identification with McCandless, the prism used in the film often feeling like Penn is telling us, as an audience, exactly how he sees his own place in the world.
Likewise, the defining characteristic of The Apatow Oeuvre is a gentle self-examination. Apatow is all about the man/boy, whether the hero character is 17 or 47. Put Stiller, Carell, Farrell, and Rogen's characters in a room with Jonah Hill's persona and Hill might be the adult in the group.
I am certainly not the first person to point out that this is the state of machismo in Hollywood these days. The top five movies of this year are male leads by Tobey Maguire, Mike Myers, Johnny Depp, Shia LeBouff, and Daniel Radcliffe. There might be plenty to love or lust at for any of these men, but machismo is not a part of the equation. They might outthink you, but don't expect to see a fist from a-one of them.
Even with 300, we are led by the super-CG-ripped Gerard Butler ... aka The Phantom. When Bob Zemeckis looks for his Beowulf, he gets the grand and macho Ray Winstone ... and then makes his body young and ripped with the computer.
The only two stars who push the machismo button in films that have grossed over $50 million this year are Matt Damon as the moody, emotional Jason Bourne and Bruce Willis, still pushing a shaved head and a 3-day growth in Live Free or Die Hard.
It wasn't much better last year, though we got a new, edgier Bond in Daniel Craig (who often goes against machismo in his other roles), a visit from Rocky Balboa, and Borat wrestling nude with a 350 pound dude. On the fop side, Leo tried to get tough in Blood Diamond, Colin Farrell burned off what seemed to be the last of his macho currency in Miami Vice, Jack Black in tights, Vince Vaughn emasculated by the former Mrs. Pitt, Tom Cruise emasculated by a weak script and an ancient Sumner Redstone, Hanks with comedy hair, and even the muscular Will Smith as a man scraping his life back together (though no one would ever call the real Chris Gardner anything less than stinking of macho, even in pastel shirts).
It kind of makes sense that Bond and The Departed were so successful last year. They were the last bastion of manliness in the movie universe.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy most of the Man/Boys. There is way too much blind, stupid machismo in the world. But the loss of machismo in the movies is not just about guns, it is about the moral equivalency of the players as well. We can be charmed by these men, but expecting anything of them other than for them to simply exist tends to be problematic.
And the irony is that this Fall is filled with films that are extremely harsh about the boundary setting. Whether is it Tommy Lee Jones fighting to find his kind of honor in In The Valley of Elah or Javier Bardem as a murderer with his own logic in No Country For Old Men or Jamie Foxx leading a team of hard asses into Saudi Arabia in The Kingdom, a harsh look at the ramifications of torture in Rendition, Denzel & Russell machoing off in American Gangster, and a close to the year with Will Smith getting his muscle flex on in I Am Legend. We even get Cate Blanchett as a hard ass Queen Elizabeth and Jodie Foster getting her gun in The Brave One!
I don't think that Man/Boys are coming to their end. Fact is, this entire generation of adolescents are a bunch of freakin' Man/Boys themselves. This is the spawn of 60's hopefulness, for better or for worse. But after years of trying to "do the right thing" and years of a war that no one much supports, maybe there is some yearning for structure. The question, as always, is whether the artists are in front of the culture or following the culture.
Fuck it! Let's go see Shoot 'Em Up!
E Me.
Week Of April 3, 2006 - Life In the Bubble - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of April 10, 2006 - List Week - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of April 17, 2006 - Review Week - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of April 24, 2006 - Overlooked Week - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of May 1, 2006 - Mystery Week - Tue / Wed / Fri
Week Of May 8, 2006 - How We Watch Week - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of May 15, 2006 - Premature Week - Oscar Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of May 22, 2006 - B-13 Mon / Inconvenient Wed / Fri
Week Of May 29, 2006 - Wed / Fri
Week Of June 5, 2006 - 666 Tue / Iraq Doc Wed / Seattle Fri
Week Of June 12, 2006 - SIFF Mon / SIFF Wed / Fri
Week Of June 19, 2006 - Cinevegas Mon/Deliver Us Wed/Prada Fri
Week Of June 26, 2006 - Pirates Mon / Super Again Wed / Fri
Week Of July 5, 2006 - Wed
Week Of July 12, 2006 - M. Night Mon | You, Me & Wed | Monster House Fri
Week Of July 17, 2006 - 8 A Year Mon / Water Wed / Revamp Fri
Week Of July 24, 2006 - Comic-Con Mon / Gossip Wed / Fri
Week Of July 31, 2006 - Mel G Mon / Talladega Wed / Fri
Week Of August 7, 2006 - Mon / Wed
Week Of August 14, 2006 - No Column Mon / Wed / Snakes Fri
Week Of August 21, 2006 - Snakey Mon / Anniversary Wed / Scoundrels Fri
Week Of August 28, 2006 - Mon Love / Berloff Wed / Fri
Week Of September 4, 2006 - Thur
Week Of September 11, 2006 - TIFF Mon / Bobby Wed / Fr
Week Of September 18, 2006 - Mon / TIFF 1 Wed / TIFF 2 Fri
Week Of September 25, 2006 - Mon / Wed
Week Of October 2, 2006 - Atonement Mon / Wed / Indie Fri
Week Of October 9, 2006 - Flags Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of October 16, 2006 - Mon / Epagogix Wed
Week Of October 23, 2006 - TCIFF Mon / Wed / Catch A Fri
Week Of October 30, 2006 - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of November 6, 2006 - Mon / Dead Girl Wed / Fri
Week Of November 13, 2006 - Bond Mon / Wed / TomKat Fri
Week Of November 20, 2006 - Mon / Thankful Wed
Week Of November 27, 2006 - Mon / Auteur Wed / Blood D Fri
Week Of December 4, 2006 - Mon / Wed
Week Of December 11, 2006 - Mon / Wed
Week Of December 18, 2006 - Mon / Wed / COM Fri
Week Of December 27, 2006 - Wed / Worst of 2006 Fri
Week Of Janiuary 3, 2007 - Best Of 2006 Wed
Week Of Janiuary 8, 2007 - Mon / COM Book Wed
Week Of January 17, 2007 - Little Red Writing Hood Wed
Week Of January 29, 2007 - Mon
Week Of February 5, 2007 -This Thing We Do Wk - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of February 12, 2007 - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of February 26, 2007 - Rough Oscars Mon / Zodiac Wed / Doc & Foreign Fri
Week Of March 5, 2007 - Mon / Fri
March 14 / March 21/ March 28
Week Of April 4, 2007 - Wed / Grindhouse Fri
Week Of April 9, 2007 - Indie Distirbution Mon / Star Ranking Wed / Top 20 Fri
Week Of April 16, 2007 - Mon / Piaf Wed
Week Of April 23, 2007 - Mon / Tribeca Wed / Costner Fri
Week Of April 30, 2007 - Spider Mon
Week Of May 7, 2007 - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of May 14, 2007 - 10 Thing Studios Don't Want Wed / Fri
Week Of May 21, 2007 - Mon / Pirates Fri
Week Of May 28, 2007 - Knocked Up Friday
Week Of June 4, 2007 - Hostel 2 Mon / Ocean's Wed / Seattle Fri
Week Of June 11, 2007 - Sopranos Mon
Week Of June 18, 2007 - Mon / Sicko Wed
Week Of July 2, 2007 - Xanadu Fri
Week Of July 9, 2007 - Mon / Hairspray Fri
Week Of July 23, 2007 - Bourne Mon / Superbad Wed
Week Of July 30, 2007 - Shoot Em Up Mon / Fri
Week Of August 6, 2007 - Wed / New Line Fri
