I simply have to start today’s column with a recommendation. Over the weekend, I had the opportunity, or should I say privilege, to see a film that will certainly be making my Top Ten list this year. Ken Lonergan’s You Can Count on Me is one of the richest, most touching films of the year. It is in extremely limited release now, but if it is playing near you, I beg you to see it. This is not a film about flashy, stylistic choices or groundbreaking subject matter. It is about real people living real lives and making real mistakes. And I enjoyed spending time with these characters. Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo are absolutely fantastic in this film, and it is a shame that they will probably be overlooked during Oscar season. There are no showy performances here. Just believable ones. I can’t say enough about this movie. Just go see it. And then let me know what you think.

In addition to seeing You Can Count on Me, I also plopped down my nine bucks to see Quills. I enjoyed the film, but I didn’t love it. I didn’t feel it raised new questions or gave new insight into the influence of art on society. I know David Poland is a huge fan of the film, but I can’t get behind it. It didn’t move me. And before anyone accuses me of being prudish, I’d like to say that the subject matter of the Marquis work is not what turned me off. Doesn’t turn me on much either, but I don’t find it offensive. I would love to get a discussion going about this movie here at Civilian Voices. If you’ve seen it, please send me an e-mail with your thoughts. I’ll dedicate a second page to Quills comments in upcoming columns.

And now for the letters I received over the weekend. We’ll start with a lengthy letter from Ellen, who is responding to roughcut.com contributor Alli Joseph’s most recent The Right Coast column. You may want to read Alli’s piece before moving on...

"On Alli Joseph’s article on the trials and tribulations of troubled actors.... Huh? "I feel for Robert Downey Jr. It pains me to see such talent abused and wasted. But do I feel he’s been unfairly treated by the press? Less than I feel that his celebrity bought him more chances than the average citizen. Would judges have been as lenient? Would a noncelebrity be given as many wasted rehab opportunities as he has? There are many addicts in jail who would probably tell you they didn’t get quite as many opportunities as Mr. Downey. "When a person decides on a career, he or she takes the attendant behaviors along with it...a teacher knows there will be long nights grading papers and, despite the summer months off, a lower salary. Salespeople know that their job means a lot of time in the air and less time with the family. Firefighters know that every time they go out, they might not come back. An actor knows that with celebrity comes the press. "It’s a choice they make. It isn’t a surprise. It comes with the job they chose. Is it fair? Maybe not. No more than it is that the teacher gives up evenings -- outside of working hours to grade papers or tutor students. It’s just part of the job. "Robert Downey Jr. -- or any of the celebrities that Ms. Joseph listed -- had the choice of an anonymous job. If Downey were the neighborhood mechanic, his arrest wouldn’t have made the papers, let alone ET and Variety. Of course, he wouldn’t make the money he makes; he wouldn’t get the perks he gets; and he probably wouldn’t have been in that Palm Springs Hotel... more than likely, he’d still be in jail. "It isn’t the environment of yesteryear -- for anyone, not just celebrities. Forty years ago, the press didn’t report on the parade of women JFK had either. Today, the president [is involved in an intimate sex act] and it’s on the front page for months and everyone from the tabloids to Meet the Press talks about it. Employees didn’t take lie detector tests. Drug tests weren’t required in some professions. And celebrities with drug habits had it easier. "That said...any claim that the press makes anyone do anything is an abdication of personal responsibility in the worst way. Did the press make Judy Garland marry ‘not only gay actor Mark Herron but also disco manager Mickey Deans’? Did negative articles about Dorothy Dandridge make her take a drug overdose? Does the media focus on Robert Downey Jr. make him go back to drugs? No. Those were personal choices. "Any public figure can walk away at any time. They can make the choice that acting and celebrity are too invasive. That they do not want to live under the microscope. That they want their drinking and drug arrests out of the media. Of course, they have to give up the money, the power, the adulation, as well. Just like teachers who don’t want to give up their nights and weekends to grading papers for too little money. They can choose to live differently. To do something else. They have the same choices we all do. "There is an argument that the press doesn’t steal people’s privacy, that through their choice of profession, they’ve given it up. Willingly and willfully chosen that path. They’ve offered it up to the altar of fame and fortune. Even our legal system differentiates between public and private figures. "To rail that it isn’t fair isn’t...well ... fair. It is what it is. Part of being a celebrity, or politician, or any public figure in America these days is to have the press waiting for you to fail. The righteousness of that is a different discussion. But today, it is reality. And face it, that press comes in awfully handy in the good times, when you need a picture hyped, when you’re campaigning for that award-of-the-week, or, if you’re Robert Downey Jr., when you get a second chance via a part in a well-known television series. "So seldom do you see the press condemned when they film celebrities at their favorite charity events. Or when they sell photos of their wedding, or child, or favorite pet. Or when their cult of personality is what propels them into and sometimes keeps them in the limelight. Just when it isn’t favorable. As with most things in life -- nothing’s free, your choices come back to haunt you at times, and you don’t get to have it both ways. "As for Joe Roth stating that he has to think of his film ... Ms. Joseph seems to find this some kind of betrayal of Downey. I’m sure the fact that Joe Roth has a picture to make, hundreds of cast and crew members who rely on him for the jobs that film creates, and insurance on that film to worry about must have entered into her thinking at some point...? "That Downey is close to, if not completely, uninsurable. That he may have held it together on other films, but what guarantees he’ll do it this time? That if he does screw up, hundreds of people may be out of work, and money wasted. That fiscal -- if not moral -- responsibility says that Roth has an obligation to think about it. Roth is responsible for making those particular choices. "This doesn’t even address the fact that what Downey did was illegal. Whether you are a proponent of legalized drugs or not -- it is currently illegal. He committed a crime. "Downey screwed up. He screwed up. He made that choice. There are consequences for that. Just as there would be consequences if anyone else screwed up on this magnitude. The press is scrutinizing it and playing it for the ratings. Downey chose a profession where that is de rigeur. If you only want to enjoy the good press -- don’t screw up, or at least not as spectacularly. If you want to screw up in obscurity, don’t choose acting as a profession. "Also, assuming that my friend who has had too much to drink drives home and is stopped by the police -- even if he hasn’t hurt anyone -- he doesn’t necessarily get to laugh it off with the crew at work the next day and keep it quiet. DUIs, especially in the state of California, carry heavy and sometimes damaging penalties -- possible jail time (if only even overnight), heavy fines, suspension of your driver’s license, cancellation of your insurance policy, and court appearances. And few have the resources to rely on calling a good lawyer in the middle of the night to bail them out and take away all that unpleasantness. It is a serious issue, with far more consequences than Ms. Joseph gives credit for." -- Ellen

Excellent letter, Ellen. Anyone else care to comment on this subject? Is privacy a luxury that celebrities should expect to give up in exchange for wealth and power? Does the press drive actors to make bad decisions? Would Robert Downey Jr. still be in jail for his prior offenses if he were an average Joe instead of a celeb? Send me an e-mail with your thoughts.

I brought up the topic of Harry Potter last week, and it seems I’m not the only one who wouldn’t have picked Chris Columbus to direct the film adaptation. I don’t think Columbus is a hack, as some have said, but I don’t think he has the visual style that best fits the world created by J. K. Rowling. Corbin provides us with his choice for Harry Potter helmer, as well as his thoughts on myriad other hot topics...

"Let me get these two out of the way first: Unbreakable is amazing, but it’s definitely not for everyone. It’s one of those movies on a very specific wavelength -- like, say, The Legend of Bagger Vance or Eyes Wide Shut -- and if you happen to be on it, too, then it’s really going to work for you. If you’re not, well, that’s your loss. But not to recognize the skill with which the film is made is just plain wrong. "The best director for Harry Potter? Simple: Terry Gilliam. One word: Time Bandits (okay, that’s two). "Now to the question of the most misleading trailer I’ve seen. That would be the trailer for Eyes Wide Shut. But it was a good thing. Like Tom Cruise’s character, who spends the film searching and expecting to find hard-core sex around every corner, audiences seeing Eyes Wide Shut thought they were in for a porno flick. And why not? Based on that trailer, in which Cruise and Kidman get it on in the buff, who wouldn’t? Bravo Kubrick. Not only did he make a great film, but he used the marketing to enhance the experience. That’s true genius. I’m just hoping that Robert Zemeckis has something similar up his sleeve." -- Corbin Saleken

Benjamin also wrote in with his views on misleading trailers and Harry Potter, as well as this year’s Best Song contenders...

"The most misleading trailers I’ve seen in recent memory were for Twister and the Devlin/Emmerich Godzilla. I still remember the excited buzz from half a dozen movie audiences for the Twister trailer -- it was tense, scary, wild. Nothing at all like the mostly predictable movie. "Same for Godzilla -- the series of trailers (I think there were three) hinted at real menace and scariness, but the movie was shockingly boring and stupid. Also, the trailers respected the legend of the monster, while the movie did not. "Interesting point about this year’s Best Song Oscar. I read somewhere that Bob Dylan contributed an original song to a recent movie [See JJ’s letter below.], so I’d bet the Academy won’t be able to resist giving him an Oscar, whether or not the song is any good. There’s usually at least one ‘Miss Misery’ among the nominees (did anyone at all notice that song, which wasn’t half bad, from Good Will Hunting?), but it looks like this year we may have five. Does the Destiny’s Child song ‘Independent Women’ count, from Charlie’s Angels? Usually the Oscar-winning song is a Billboard Top 40 hit, because that’s what the Academy members have heard on the radio. "As far as Chris Columbus’s Harry Potter, yes, I fear it greatly. Can you imagine what someone like Terry Gilliam could have done with the material? But I have great faith in the cast -- Maggie Smith, Richard Harris, Robbie Coltrane, Julie Walters. Good stuff there. "Finally, regarding book-to-movie adaptations, Fight Club was one of my favorites from last year. I bought the book afterwards and was surprised to discover that I had enjoyed the film a lot more. The cinematic ending to Fight Club was a lot more entertaining, more direct, and closer to the spirit of the story than the ending in the novel. "Same thing is true for American Psycho. From interviews, I think [novelist] Bret Easton Ellis, as well as [screenwriter] Mary Harron, had the same motivations in tackling this story. Harron (with the help of the amazing Christian Bale) got it right. Ellis, I think, fell short." -- Benjamin Scuglia

Anyone else think that the big-screen versions of Fight Club and American Psycho were better than the material on which they were based? What novel would you like to see made into a movie? What novel do you think would be most ruined by a film adaptation? Before you answer that, Brigitta would like you to remember that Hollywood isn’t completely inept when it comes to adaptations...

"People who complain that any book which gets turned into a movie is automatically ruined gets a pretty long lecture from me. So that fella who wrote in the list of good movies made from books really got my attention. He listed some movies that I hadn’t even thought of. But here are a few more: "One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, all of the recent Jane Austen novel adaptations (Emma, Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility, etc.), The Man Who Would Be King, The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers (the Richard Lester movies), The Milagro Beanfield War, Little Women, and, as it is nearly Christmas, the 1951 version of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. (I also really admired the George C. Scott version, but that was made for TV, so I don’t think it can be counted in this discussion.) "All of these movies would serve well as a sort of ‘Cliff Notes’ for a lazy student." -- Brigitta in Wisconsin

Now that the year is winding down and Oscar buzz -- or, more accurately, a lack of Oscar buzz -- is in the air, JJ is trying to find a tune worth nominating for Best Song...

"Offhand, the only song I can think of that is worthy of Oscar recognition this year is Bob Dylan’s ‘Things Have Changed’ from Wonder Boys (assuming it’s eligible). I suppose ‘Need to Be Next to You,’ the catchy if not memorable end title theme for Bounce, might have a shot. The comic songs that Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara performed in Best in Show were hilarious, but probably too brief and silly for serious consideration. Beyond these, I’m stumped. Looks like we might be in for a repeat of 1988, when there were only three nominees in the Best Song category." -- JJ

Continuing with the subject of movie tunes, Alex thinks it’s time for the Academy to add another Oscar category...

"Recently, you had a writer discuss the fact that there are no real ‘front runners’ for Best Song. And this year, that statement is true. However, it was mentioned that former front runners included ‘My Heart Will Go On’ and ‘I Will Always Love You.’ This is what I want to discuss. "‘I Will Always Love You,’ while a huge hit for Whitney Houston, was not nominated for Best Original Song. And it wasn’t, because it was a cover of Dolly Parton’s song from the film The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. The same holds true for ‘Gangsta’s Paradise,’ which sampled a Stevie Wonder song and, thus, was not eligible for consideration at Oscar time. "Best Original Song is a category by itself, yet there is a category for both Adapted Screenplay and Original Screenplay. At a time when some of the best music in films are covers, or in the case of the Coolio song, samples, why not institute a Best Adapted Song Oscar? "There’s no denying that Whitney would certainly have captured an Oscar and that Dangerous Minds would have scored gold for Coolio. And certainly there was better music in the film version of Evita, which didn’t get to be nominated because it was from the actual musical, as opposed to being written specifically for film. "I’m interested in what your other readers think about this, as I truly believe it is time for adapted music to be considered as much as original music. Maybe I’m alone on this, but I believe that there is a lot of award-worthy music that will never get that chance, simply because the music isn’t new." -- Alex

What do you think? Should there be an additional category for songs that were penned for other mediums, performed by a different artist, or feature samples? My usual complaint with the nominees for Best Song is that the songs rarely have anything to do with the film or contribute to its effectiveness: They’re played over the end credits or simply used as filler. Do you agree or disagree?

Great batch of e-mails. Keep ’em coming. And for those of you who’ve seen Quills, please let your fellow readers know what you thought of the film. I’d really like to get a discussion going about this movie. I’ll be dedicating a separate page to your comments, so don’t be afraid to include spoilers. I’ll be sure to warn those who haven’t yet seen the flick that they read at their own risk.

 

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