300 Words About: I'm Still Here

Last week, before Casey Affleck inexplicably broke his silence about I'm Still Here being a mostly scripted hoax, I told a friend of mine how great it would be if Joaquin Phoenix walked out onto the stage of "The Late Show with David Letterman" tonight with a clean-shaven face and a normal personality. What a perfect "Gotcha!" opportunity it would have been.

Alas, his appearance will now be an anticlimactic reunion in which he will no doubt apologize to Letterman and probably fail to explain exactly what I'm Still Here is "about". From where I sit, having seen it a couple of weeks ago and immediately recognizing a number of things that just could not be real, I don't think there is anything to explain. Either you consider I'm Still Here a brilliant skewering of Hollywood celebrity culture (featuring a Best Actor-nominee worthy performance; the best of Phoenix's career), or you consider I'm Still Here just plain offensive, a joke on the movie industry and a waste of everyone's time. Much of your reaction may depend on whether you saw it before or after the cat was officially out of the bag - but if you have seen it, wasn't it pretty obvious while watching that Casey Affleck was documenting a manufactured reality?

Bad Will Hunting

We haven't seen a Boston foursome like this since 1997

The Town is surprisingly watchable, with a confident sense of place and no illusions about what it is (tense but forgettable) and what it isn't (moving or believable). I had no clue what it was about when I walked in, but I was expecting a melodramatic thriller like Gone Baby Gone, not a tightly wound cop vs. robber flick. The action sequences and set pieces were a major highlight, and the Boston accents were thankfully kept under control (other than Pete Postlethwaite's rogue brogue). And despite some truly horrendous dramatic dialogue between Ben Affleck and Rebecca Hall, the movie kept a brisk pace, rarely allowing your attention to focus on how preposterous the relationships and characters were.

So for the most part I liked it, and I've now tolerated Ben Affleck in three straight movies (The Town after Extract and State of Play), which hasn't happened in well over a decade. And speaking of those early Affleck years, there was something altogether too familiar about The Town, wasn't there? Not just because the last minute was reminiscent of The Shawshank Redemption, and not because Affleck's performance was recycled from Armageddon and Paycheck, but because, well...

Painful Moments in Movie History #1: The Animal Cracker Scene

Armageddon, 1998

Director: 

Michael Bay

Writers: 

Jonathan Hensleigh, J.J. Abrams, Tony Gilroy, Shane Salerno

______________________________

A.J.:
You know  what I was thinking?

Grace Stamper:
What?

A.J.:
I really don't think that the animal cracker qualifies as a cracker.

Grace Stamper:
Why?

A.J.:
Well cause it's sweet, which to me suggests cookie, and, you know, I mean putting cheese on something is sort of a defining characteristic of what makes a cracker a cracker. I don't know why I thought of that, I just...

Grace Stamper:
Baby, you have such sweet pillow talk.

A.J.:
I got like a little animal cracker, Discovery Channel thing happening right here. (affects Australian accent) Watch the gazelle as he grazes through the open plains. Now, look as the cheetah approaches. Watch as he stalks his prey. Now the gazelle is a little spooked. He could head north, to the ample sustenance provided by the mountainous peaks above. Or, he could go south. The gazelle now faces mans most perilous question: north...or, south...way down under. Tune in next week.

Grace Stamper:
Baby? Do you think it's possible that anyone else in the world is doing this very same thing at this very same moment?

A.J.:
I hope so. Otherwise what the hell are we trying to save?

300 Words About: State of Play

I've been itching a little bit to write more words about several new releases, but in writing 100-word reviews for MSPIFF films for the Strib a couple weeks ago, I'm still "thinking small" about crafting reviews (plus I'm perpetually short on time this spring). This will probably remain true for a while since I'm going to see about 10 movies a week for the next two weeks, but as with the films I highlighted from the Beyond Borders Film Festival two weeks ago, I hope to expand some of the MSPIFF write-ups/festival reports to full reviews before select films have their wide releases later this year.

In the meantime...

Why do we trust star investigative reporters to organize details when they can't even find a stapler on their desk?

Like a paper clip that's twisted one too many times, State of Play eventually snaps apart, unable to regain its form and sending you into your desk drawer, or rather film library, for a new conspiracy thriller. It's certainly taut and tense, but almost to its own detriment. From the jarring opening scene to the roaring climax, we're hardly given a moment to stop and consider what these characters are doing and, more importantly, why. Directed by Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland) but heavily influenced by the typically overambitious writing of Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton, Duplicity), it's full of memorably witty "gotcha" lines, but empty, for the most part, on thought-provoking insights.

Attempting and mostly succeeding in masking the blubbering writing (the characters are mostly relegated to shouting in newsrooms or mumbling into cell phones) is a high-caliber cast highlighted by Helen Mirren, Jason Bateman, Jeff Daniels, and, incredibly, Ben Affleck's mid-Atlantic/Philly accent. Less excellent but still decent are Russell Crowe (who evidently is embracing his newfound role as Hollywood's favorite "misunderstood yet resolutely righteous" schlub), Rachel McAdams, Viola Davis, and Robin Wright Penn, the last three of whom all deserved more screen time.

Moving on, I must declare that I'm becoming increasingly intolerant of manipulative, Michael Clayton-ish percussive sound effects and musical scores. Chases through dark alleys and parking garages are - or should be - harrowing enough without ominous musical blasts (evidence: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days). If the characters are well developed and the urgency of their plight is properly illustrated, crutches like shaky cameras and menacing music can actually end up detracting from the suspense, in my opinion.

I haven't seen the BBC miniseries on which State of Play is based, but I can see why it received critical and popular acclaim, as it touches on controversial and relevant issues involving everything from the death of newspapers to the birth of mercenary private defense contractors. But therein lies the problem - State of Play ends up only "touching" on these topics, compromising in-depth examinations of them for the sake of cheap suspense and a happy ending. It should say something that instead of discussing these controversial issues, my friends and I ended up talking about the overreaching coincidences and gaps in logic.

Call it a decent little thriller hiding a missed opportunity.

Underrated MOTM: Boiler Room (2000)

January's Underrated Movie of the Month harkens back to a time when the markets were strong and the crooks were, well, nobody really cared about the crooks because the markets were strong. Remember, 10 years ago, when the Dow was peaking at all-time highs and the internet bubble hadn't yet popped?

Near the end of this fattened-calf period came Boiler Room, Ben Younger's surprisingly still relevant drama that both glamorized and criminalized the free-wheeling lifestyle of a group of sneaky New Jersey stock brokers at the fictional investment firm JT Marlin. Younger (who has unfortunately done little of significance since Boiler Room) was planning a career in politics until he accompanied a friend to a recruiting session (similar to the one lorded over by Ben Affleck in the film) and came up with an idea for his first screenplay.

In an interview for New York Magazine, Younger, then 27, explained: "I walked in and immediately realized, this is my movie. I mean, you see these kids and you know something is going on. I was expecting guys who went to Dartmouth, but they were all barely out of high school, sitting in a room playing Game Boys. I had already run a campaign at this point, but most of these kids were still working at the gas station," says Younger. "Now it's all over the news, but going back five years ago, day trading, the Internet, none of that existed."

Of course today, almost a decade after the film was released, day traders aren't the newsmakers - despite the astonishing rise of "Playing the Stock Market for Dummies"-type manuals. Indeed we've come full circle, and investment firms and executives are once again the big bad bullies of Wall Street, ironic considering that at least in the public eye, Boiler Room seemed to mark the end of greedy stock brokers as we knew them from the Gordon Gekko-in-Wall Street days. Turns out these wannabe Scrooge McDucks lived the extravagant life right up until credit and credibility ran dry over the last 18 months.

And we were all on our way to early retirement with them, borrowing what we couldn't pay back and making risky investments in search of the highest short-term return we could possibly find. Unfortunately for us (and I loosely use the term; I've never had spare change to play around with), Boiler Room primed a generation of hungry brokers just waiting to hook us up with the "easy money". The dialogue from the movie appears to be ingrained in many of the people on the other end of our phone line, or so it would appear based on memorable quotes popping up in a mortgage broker forum I just happened across (from April of 2008, eerily titled "Lehman Brothers going down soon?").

But does a prescient movie make an underrated one? Not necessarily, but for also featuring a tense and believable screenplay and a remarkably talented young cast, Boiler Room rarely gets the respect it deserves. One of the cool things to do, for example, is criticize it as a rip-off of Wall Street or Glengarry Glen Ross. But on closer examination, with dialogue from those two classics deliberately used and obviously referenced (and in the case of Wall Street, actual clips of the movie shown), it would seem to me that Younger clearly knew his audience and acknowledged their influences. And based on the aforementioned fact that his dialogue is now being used by young brokers, I would argue that his material was plenty original.

One of the best scenes comes about halfway through Boiler Room, when Seth (Giovanni Ribisi) has finally gained enough confidence to shrewdly push a sale on a reluctant buyer (Taylor Nichols). It's uncomfortable and nauseating, mostly because we know how easily and often it happens every day. Observe:

Naturalistic conversations like this permeate the movie and are surprisingly well acted by an eclectic cast that includes Vin Diesel, Ben Affleck, Nicky Katt, Scott Caan, Nia Long, Jamie Kennedy, Ron Rifkin, Tom Everett Scott, and of course Ribisi. How his career has tanked so much in the last five years is a complete mystery to me - can you name his last movie? After a decent 2003 (Cold Mountain, Lost in Translation), he had a bizarre 2004 (Flight of the Phoenix, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow) and then...nothing - at least nothing worth mentioning. Hopefully, 2009 will mark a major return for this talented actor. He's currently attached to six projects on IMDb, two of which are among the most anticipated movies of this entire year: Michael Mann's Public Enemies and James Cameron's Avatar.

Ribisi never really blows you away with his acting, but the more you see his work the more you start to appreciate the small things, as is the case with this movie (i.e., the soundtrack). Of course there are missteps here and there, with a meandering father/son storyline and an unnecessarily heroic ending, but on balance Boiler Room is a taut and engaging film that deserves to be appreciated more in the context of our current economic climate.

Picking Through the NYT Mag's 2007 Breakthroughs

This week's New York Times Magazine features 15 actors who had "breakthrough" performances in 2007. It's a nice glossy yearbook even though some of the photos are too artistic for my taste. There are some online pieces that complement the magazine:

+ NYT Mag editor at large Lynn Hirschberg narrates an audio slideshow of the magazine photos while making some odd observations:

• "The Assassination of Jesse James by the 'Outlaw' Robert Ford." Uh? Really small, but how do you make that mistake - by that I mean where does it even come from? Oh well, great to see Casey Affleck as first up here.
  
• Jim Sturgess - I loved him in Across the Universe, but saying "he will have one of the biggest careers that anyone will ever witness" seems a little much at this point.
• Edith Piaf, as played by Marion Cotillard, is "probably one of the most well-known singers of all time." If that were true, La Vie en Rose would have been a box-office smash.
  
• Seth Rogen has created a character that will carry him "throughout the next 50 years of his career." Ay, I hope he finds more defining characters in that time.
• Hal Holbrook - fine, great, I liked him, but WHERE is Emile Hirsch in this group?! This is an even more incredible snub than his lack of an Oscar nomination.
  
• Ellen Page is "this year's special star." Fine - truth be told, Hirschberg's accompanying article is one of the more concisely convincing pieces I've yet read about Page's talent. Makes me feel like she succeeded despite Diablo Cody's writing of Juno MacGuff's character, not because of it.
• Josh Brolin - No Country for Old Men is covered, but shouldn't there have also been mention of his 2007 work in American Gangster, In the Valley of Elah, and Grindhouse?
  

+ Ryan McGinley's music video, "Shooting Stars," offers a behind-the-scenes look at the photo shoot:

• The comedy in this is presumably unintentional - but really, really great. Each of the actors is placed in what look to be extremely uncomfortable settings and positions (laying down on ice, standing in front of fireworks or a fire, sitting in the snowy woods or a smoky cave, wading in cold surf, Seth Rogen feeding geese in a park?) while wearing a "What am I doing here?" expression on their face (best exhibited by Sienna Miller, Michael Cera, Casey Affleck and Josh Brolin). The music works, though.

+ Jake Paltrow - Gwyneth's brother - directs the short film Breakthroughs, in which 8 of the 15 breakthrough actors discuss the actors that inspired them:

• The beginning of this was really cool.
• Casey Affleck is a lot cooler than Ben Affleck.
• Ellen Page - "I loved Jurassic Park. I thought Laura Dern was super cool....and I just thought, how cool is this person?"
• Jim Sturgess (on River Phoenix - "This guy is very cool") is going to be really cool in future roles.
• James McAvoy's accent is pretty cool.
• Amy Ryan is cooler than Helene McCready.
• Paul Dano is cooler than I thought.
• Marion Cotillard's piece would have been cooler had she been speaking French.
• James Brolin has some cool insights, but he's not quite as cool as he thinks he is.

Neither am I.

REVIEW: Gone Baby Gone (B+)

Background: In addition to being Ben Affleck's directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone has received a lot of buzz for portraying "authentic" Boston since it was filmed on location and features a number of extras who were just picked up off the street during filming. Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane (author of "Mystic River"), Gone Baby Gone stars Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James...), Michelle Monaghan (North Country), Ed Harris (Pollock, Apollo 13), and Morgan Freeman (The Shawshank Redemption). See if you can differentiate the real Boston accents from the fake ones - I bet Amy Ryan fools you. Also, watch for Boston rapper Slaine in a shamefully likable role as Affleck's drug dealer buddy.

Synopsis: When 4 year-old Amanda McCready goes missing in South Boston, her aunt (Amy Madigan from Uncle Buck) hires private investigators Patrick Kenzie (Affleck) and Angie Gennaro (Monaghan) to talk to the people who don't talk to the police. Kenzie and Gennaro, along with help from Boston police (Harris & Freeman) work their way through the tough neighborhood before eventually accusing Amanda's mother, Helene (Ryan), of mixing Amanda up in a drug deal. In the ensuing search for Amanda, Kenzie has harsh words for everyone he meets, and a number of people are killed, including Amanda. Soon, Kenzie begins to suspect a larger conspiracy that the police are trying to cover up, and he is left to decide how far he wants to go in discovering the truth about Amanda's disappearance.

I Loved:
+ That there were genuine moments of suspense - the drug house, the first bar scene, and the quarry.
+ That the final dilemma is left unresolved on the screen and in your mind.
+ That Ben Affleck wasn't in it.

I Liked:
+ That the Boston accents were authentic, and not forced when they weren't natural (Morgan Freeman).
+ That there were few stereotypical Boston references - Red Sox game, "Hahvahd" jokes, etc.
+ The solid supporting performances from Ed Harris, Amy Ryan, and Morgan Freeman.

I Disliked:
- Casey Affleck's performance - he didn't seem nearly tough enough to be talking they way he did to everybody.
- Michelle Monaghan's performance (or just her character) - she was awkward and seemed lost. By the way, does she not look identical to Emma Stone from Superbad?
- The similarities to The Departed - yes they were probably coincidental, but the gravelly rooftop showdown was a little much.

I Hated:
- That while it was suspenseful, the plot twists were extremely far-fetched. With the exception of The Usual Suspects, you can't have an ending that is totally out of left field and for which there are no clues (even in the obligatory flashbacks) that you could have picked up on.
- The creepy bathroom discovery scene - a little too graphic.

Grade:
Writing - 9
Acting - 8
Production - 10
Emotional Impact - 9
Music - 4
Significance - 4

Total: 44/50= 88% = B+

Last Word: You're going to leave Gone Baby Gone feeling pretty sick about society, or at least you should if you have any decency. I was pleased with the portrayal of Boston, or at least of the Boston I knew going to school there. Oddly, though, all the evil characters didn't really make me want to move back. I haven't read any of Dennis Lehane's novels, but I'm pretty sure he always sets up a dark, creepy Boston, like in Mystic River. I don't know if I would consider Gone Baby Gone a grand lesson about humanity, but there is a fairly complex dilemma that is posed at the end and it's especially well written and executed. Ben Affleck gets the family award in this one, as he was able to create some extremely suspenseful scenes. Casey, while fine for the role, just didn't do much but spout his tough lines. I missed his character in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. I would recommend Gone Baby Gone for fans of "CSI" or "Cold Case", neither of which I've ever seen but both of which always seem to be about sensational violence and sordid child abductions. Isn't a little troubling that this is the most popular show genre year after year? Makes me sick...

REVIEW: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (A)

Background: I didn't see the last movie made about Jesse James, American Outlaws (starring Colin Farrell as James), but I think it's safe to say that the legend of James has faded quite significantly from American pop culture. My limited knowledge of his life is how I'm measuring it, though, so that might not count for much. In any case, James is back on the scene in a big way thanks to Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment, which adapted the acclaimed 1983 novel that shares its ridiculously long name. The film, which was set to be released well over a year ago but delayed due to editing issues, stars Pitt as Jesse James, Casey Affleck (Ben's younger brother) as Robert Ford, and a host of supporting actors as the rest of the James gang, notably Sam Rockwell (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind). It was directed by inexperienced kiwi Andrew Dominik and filmed primarily in Alberta, Canada. Oh, and Nick Cave has a cameo as the saloon singer at the end. Weird.

Synopsis: We meet the James gang in 1881, on the eve of their final train robbery in Blue Cut, MO. Having lost most of their original crew to the elements (prison, death), Jesse (Pitt) and Frank (Sam Shepard) James hire a ragtag group of outlaws for the job, including Charley Ford (Rockwell) and his younger brother Robert (Affleck), who grew up idolizing Jesse. Robert's creepy affection earns him acceptance and friendship from Jesse, but eventually Robert gets in the way of Jesse's return to normalcy and is sent home. Months go by and the disbanded gang goes through periods of jealousy, mistrust, betrayal, and even murder. Jesse, who is increasingly paranoid that there is a plot to turn him in for reward money, reconnects with the Ford brothers essentially to keep an eye on them. In the meantime, Robert has arranged a deal with the Governor of Missouri (James Carville!) to kill Jesse, a sensible decision since Jesse appears ready to take out both Ford brothers at any time. As evident by the title, Robert succeeds, but eventually regrets his action after he is subject to initial waves of admiration, then humiliation, and finally outright hate.

I Loved:
+ Casey Affleck's tour-de-force performance, amplified by the expectations I had beforehand - most of his screen credits recently have been in the American Pie and Ocean's trilogies.
+ The cinematography - sweeping vista views, great framing and use of blurred-edge focus, freeze-frame, slow motion, color, etc.

I Liked:
+ The narration - it was the quickest way to give us important background information about the characters.
+ The ensemble supporting cast, each excellent in their part.

I Disliked:
- That the movie felt as long as it was - if you weren't expecting it you might become restless. Basically, it dragged a bit.
- The occasional chimey, winsome xylophones in the background - these felt out of place.

I Hated:
- When Brad Pitt totally came out of character with his trademark obnoxious laugh.
- The usual gunshots to the head.

Grade:
Writing - 10
Acting - 10
Production - 9
Emotional Impact - 10
Music - 5
Significance - 3

Total: 47/50= 94% = A

Last Word: Like I said, I didn't know much about Jesse James before seeing this, other than that he was a celebrated outlaw and lives on as the only reason to visit Northfield, MN, where is he curiously revered. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford strikes an excellent balance in making the viewer feel sympathy for and conviction of the title characters. Casey Affleck just went nuts with this role. Apparently Shia LaBeouf was lined up to play Robert Ford but was considered too young. LaBeouf is a legitimate rising star, but this is Affleck's breakout role as a potential leading man, although I didn't see his well-received turn in Lonesome Jim. Pitt goes through the motions of his usual character: cocky, smirky, reserved, weepy, lonely, unpredictably crazy, etc. He plays James as a mixture of his roles in Syriana, Ocean's..., and Fight Club, but somehow it works. He did well casting himself, though somebody like Christian Bale probably could have added more depth to Jesse. The Assassination is not a traditional Western, but if that's your thing you'll probably enjoy it. However it ends up being categorized, it's an intriguing and well told story, even though it runs almost as long as its title.