News/Opinion – Page 397 – LFM: Libertas Film Magazine

Celebrity Extracurricular Activity

martin3 — Steve Martin hawking his new book.

By David Ross. Writing in The New Republic, Andrew Butterfield guts Steve Martin’s new novel, An Object of Beauty (see here), a racy and putatively biting satire of the modern art scene in Manhattan.

A dealer and scholar of real standing (see here), Butterfield accuses Martin’s novel of lazy preening and cliché mongering. In these regards, the novel sounds very much like the Hollywood movie that it will eventually become. Martin has merely saved his film adapters the trouble of dumbing things down and turning to pap whatever had personality.

Butterfield delivers a good number number of vicious but presumably merited groin blows, of which this is characteristic:

The Object of Beauty masquerades as a social satire – a sort of Bonfire of the Vanities, updated to cover the recent bubble in contemporary art – but really the book is a just a drab soap opera about the doings of one superficially hot but deeply unappealing young woman. Martin is too lazy or too diffident to try to describe this universe freshly or in any detail. Instead he lazily relies on knowingness. He drops names of famous people and famous restaurants without bothering in the slightest to tell you anything precise or new or imaginative about them. They are merely brands; shorthands for chic. If you already know what Sant’Ambroeus looks like, or who Bill Acquavella and Larry Gagosian are, you do not need to read the book. If you do not know who they are, or why they might have a claim on your time and attention, Martin will not tell you anything that will enable you to picture them. He does not even tell you why you should find them humanly interesting. All he makes you feel is that your ignorance should arouse your envy – that you, poor thing, are less fortunate than he and the fancy people in his book. The reader of this novel is like a tourist banished to the outside of the velvet rope.

Tilly3 — Jennifer Tilly at the poker table.

Nothing is more gratifying than to see Hollywood pretension pricked upon the pin of genuine expertise. Celebrities insist on putting on their wire-rim glasses and taking “courageous stands” and opining about art and literature and world affairs. Sometimes they even wind up on the Council on Foreign Relations, as did Angelina Jolie back in 2007. Apparently being a former self-mutilating, heroin-using goth-girl counts as a resume point.

None of this buttoned-up activity impresses me. This is yet more acting and not even good acting.

The only celebrity extracurricular activity that I have ever been able to respect is Jennifer Tilly’s poker career. It takes mettle to plunge into one of the few activities in which you cannot trade on your looks or fame, and in which there’s no possibility of taking cover in the fuzziness of subjective and decadent standards, and in which you’re likely to wind up tainted with the faint stench of the Red States. Jennifer Tilly at the poker table is far more impressive than Angelina Jolie delivering “prepared remarks” at a lectern.

Wikipedia provides details:

On June 27, 2005, Tilly won a World Series of Poker bracelet (and $158,625) in the Ladies’ No-Limit Texas Hold ‘Em event, outlasting 600 other players. She followed up this accomplishment on September 1, 2005, by also winning the third World Poker Tour Ladies Invitational Tournament held at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles. Tilly has appeared in the GSN Poker Royale series. She appeared in the third season of Poker Superstars but was eliminated in the preliminary round. Tilly played in the Celebrity Poker Showdown which aired June 14, 2006, on Bravo. Tilly was knocked out in third place by Bravo’s online poker champion Ida Siconolfi (the first non-celebrity to appear on the show) when her A♣ K♥ failed to improve against Ida’s starting hand of K♣ K♠. Tilly appears as a celebrity, rather than a poker pro, in ESPN’s Pro-Am Poker Equalizer. Tilly also appears in the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions 2007 Edition video game (along with boyfriend, Phil Laak) that was released in 2007 by Activision.

In a television interview in 2005, Tilly stated that at that point in her career she was more interested in pursuing poker than acting.By December 2008, Tilly announced her retirement from poker as a career. In her monthly column in Bluff Magazine she said: “I love poker but greatness in poker is an elusive dream. There are too many variants. Trying to find validation in poker is like trying to find a virgin in a whorehouse. I’m not giving up poker entirely – gambling is an addiction after all. I’m just going to treat it more like a hobby and less like a career.” Since January 2010, Tilly appears to have resumed her poker career. As of 2010, Tilly’s live tournament wins exceed $660,000.

Posted on January 6th, 2011 at 10:28am.

Escaping The Soviet Gulag: Peter Weir’s The Way Back

By Joe Bendel. They endured harrowing extremes, including Siberian winters, blistering deserts, and utopian ideologies. In 1940, a Polish POW and six assorted political prisoners walked away from their gulag. Their ultimate destination was India. A harrowing tale of physical and spiritual survival adapted from Slavomir Rawicz’s novelistic memoir, Peter Weir’s The Way Back briefly opens an award qualifying engagement this week in Los Angeles, in advance of its regular January theatrical run.

1940 was a bad year to be a Pole in Russia. It was also pretty miserable being a Russian in Russia, unless your name was Stalin. Janusz, a Polish Cavalry officer, was fighting the invading Nazis from the West. The Russians invading from the East branded him a spy (using his “contact” with the Germans as a staggeringly hypocritical pretense) and imprisoned him in a Siberian work camp. Here he meets a broad cross-section of Soviet society swept up in Stalin’s purges.

Janusz quickly befriends Khabarov, a Russian actor sentenced for his overly sympathetic portrayal of an aristocrat. He also comes to respect Mr. Smith, an American engineer lured to Russia during the Great Depression with promises of work, but he is instinctively distrustful of Valka, one of the “Urki” (a.k.a. “Thieves By Law”), the career criminals who run the camps at the barracks level. However, they let the thug to join their escape attempt because of the knife he brings to the party. Along the way they also reluctantly allow a girl to join their ranks: Irena, an orphan of the purges. Though Smith fears she will slow them down, she seems to be the only one able to draw the men out of their prison-hardened shells.

The plan was simple—head towards Lake Baikal with the only rags they had on their backs and then improvise from there. Of course, there were plenty of complications, like food and shelter. It is hard to imagine a more daunting landscape than the one they faced, including the Ghobi desert and the Himalayas – and this long trek was not the original idea. Yet, when they realized Mongolia had also succumbed to the ideology of Communism, they had no choice but to press on.

While Way works very well as a man against nature film, it also captures the realities of the Stalinist era quite forthrightly. For instance, we see the abandoned remnants of Buddhist monasteries razed by the Communists, which echoes the experiences of Voss, a Latvian Orthodox priest, whose soul was essentially destroyed along with his church.

With its forbidding vistas and scorching sunlight, Way is a perfect vehicle for director Weir’s visual sensibilities. The audience really does feel like it is seeing remote corners of the globe never previously trodden by human feet. Yet the film also features some considerable performances. Although Jim Sturgess has appeared in some high profile screen projects in the past, none of his previous work has been of this caliber. It is hard to be the “good guy” among an ensemble cast, but he actually makes Janusz the most memorable of the escapees, effectively establishing the deeper motivations fueling his superhuman drive. Ed Harris is also well cast as Smith, nicely expressing his guilt, resentment, and fundamental decency. Really, nearly the entire cast becomes one with their characters, blending seamlessly into this epic story of average people – except for Colin Farrell, who stands out a bit awkwardly as Valka.

Way might be a story of rugged survival among the elements, but it is really part of a larger man-made tragedy. Weir nicely drives that point home with his evocative final payoff. A finely executed, emotionally engaging human drama absolutely worthy of award consideration, Way begins a highly limited LA run this week at the AMC Covina.

Posted on December 30th, 2010 at 11:06am.

Afghanistan’s Black Tulip Screens in Los Angeles for Oscar Consideration, 12/30-1/5

By Jason Apuzzo. Recently Libertas’ Joe Bendel wrote an important piece about Black Tulip (see the trailer above), Afghanistan’s official submission for the Best Foreign Language Film award at this year’s Oscars.

Despite the recent controversy over whether the film qualifies for the Best Foreign Language Film category, I was happy to learn recently from Black Tulip co-producer Chris Cole that the film is indeed still in contention for that award (see here), and is also having a limited one-week theatrical release here in Los Angeles starting this Thursday, December 30th at the the Laemmle Sunset 5 (on the corner of Sunset and N. Crescent Heights). According to Chris, this limited theatrical run is intended to qualify the film for Best Score, Best Original Song (from Natalie Cole) and Best Cinematography consideration.

We want to encourage everyone in the Los Angeles area to turn out and give this film the buzz and support it needs heading into awards season. Imagine for a moment what it would mean to the people of Afghanistan to have a film in the running for an award on Oscar night – at a time when the Taliban and their allies are still trying to snuff out free speech in that country.

Screening times for the film in Los Angeles are as follows:

Laemmle Sunset 5

Thursday, December 30th at 7:30pm
Friday, December 31st through Wednesday, January 5th at 1:00pm

We want to congratulate director Sonia Nassery Cole and co-producer Chris Cole on their courage in overcoming extraordinary obstacles in getting this film made and out to the public. Their example is one that I wish more filmmakers here in America would follow, and we wish them every success with this important film.

Posted on December 29th, 2010 at 3:01pm.

Tati Magic: LFM Reviews The Illusionist

By Joe Bendel. He was France’s favorite uncle, “Monsieur Hulot.” Indeed, the gentle but ever so sly physical comedy of Jacques Tati enchanted audiences the world over in classic Hulot films, like Mon Oncle and Play Time. However, Tati would have taken on a new role as a father figure in a screenplay he completed yet chose not to realize on film. With the blessings of his estate, renowned animator Sylvain Chomet sensitively adapted Tati’s unproduced script as the pitch-perfect The Illusionist, which opened Christmas Day in New York and Los Angeles.

As the film begins, the perhaps once-great Tatischeff (Tati’s pre-showbiz name) schleps his mean-spirited rabbit and assorted magical gear to and from dilapidated theaters and middling private gigs. In a pleasant surprise, one of his best bookings turns out to be a small pub far up in the Scottish Highlands. The locals are all friendly in their strange Gaelic way and appreciate the show well enough. Alice, a shy young maid in his public house, is particularly fascinated by the Illusionist and his illusions. Something about her touches him, as well, inspiring an act of kindness on his part. So when she invites herself along with the Illusionist, he begins to act as a kind of surrogate father.

While there is a gentle wistfulness to most of Tati’s comedies, Illusionist reaches a poignancy of a far greater order. Time passes the Illusionist by, both professionally and personally, as the girl matures and his magic falls even further out of vogue. Yet, like a truly Chaplinesque figure, he indomitably carries on as best he can.

Simply seeing Tati come to life as the scuffling vaudeville magician Tatischeff is a joy. Chomet’s animated rendering is absolutely spot-on, capturing the look and mannerisms of the French cinematic mime to a tee. His Illusionist is a gentle soul, a clown more apt to make us cry than laugh.

From the rugged Scottish landscape to the vintage 1959 city settings of Paris and Edinburgh, Illusionist has a richly detailed, handcrafted look. It even sounds impeccable, sparingly employing dialogue that matches the disembodied resonance of Tati’s great comedies. Completing the elegant ambiance, Chomet’s own appropriately wistful themes nicely suit the on-screen drama, while evoking French Chanson chanteuses Josephine Baker and Hot Club Jazz.

Illusionist is one of fifteen films to qualify for Oscar consideration as best animated feature and “Chanson Illusionist” is one of forty-one tunes to eligible in the best song category. Frankly, in a just world it would win both awards in a walk. Tati’s Illlusionist, by way of Chomet, has far greater soul and humanity than anything cranked out by Disney or Pixar this year. It is so good it deserves easily quotable superlatives like: “wise and sad, but touching and beautiful.” Not just the best animated film of the year, The Illusionist is one of the best films overall, which fittingly opened Christmas Day in New York at the Landmark Sunshine and in Los Angeles at The Royal.

Posted on December 29th, 2010 at 2:13pm.

LFM Reviews True Grit

By Joe Bendel. Rooster Cogburn is not just a familiar character, he is an icon. Considering the critical drubbing the Coen brothers’ last classic movie remake (The Lady Killers) received, taking on such a storied figure of Americana certainly was gutsy. Yet thanks to their satisfying command of the western genre, the Brothers Coen’s True Grit is able to establish its own identity while keeping faith with the spirit of the original film and source novel. Considered to be a major player for Oscar campaigning (despite being blanked by the Golden Globes), Grit recently opened in select theaters nationwide.

Of course, Grit has an Academy Award winning lineage. John Wayne won his only Oscar for playing the one-eyed, cantankerous old Cogburn. Given the large shadow the Duke casts, it is quite impressive how comfortably Jeff Bridges eases into the role. In a weird way, there might be a similarity between Cogburn and Bridges’ “Dude” from the Coens’ Big Lebowski. Both have a healthy disregard for social convention – however, Cogburn is not exactly what one might call laidback.

As in the Henry Hathaway classic, young Mattie Ross is looking to avenge her father, so she hires the grizzled old Cogburn to track down the killer, Tom Chaney. La Boeuf, a Texas Ranger, is also on Chaney’s trail in hopes of collecting the reward offered for another murder the fugitive committed. Ross is not looking for courtroom justice though, but justice of the frontier variety. Despite Cogburn’s questionable commitment, they press on into forbidding country, in a halfway alliance with La Boeuf.

TRUE GRIT — Hailee Stenfeld as Mattie Ross.

Though Grit is a tad slow out of the blocks, the Coens show a deft touch staging old school western shootouts. Genre purists will be happy to know that not only is Cogburn’s famous battle cry still in the film, Bridges totally nails it. And exhibiting assurance on-screen beyond her years, Hailee Stenfeld invests Ross with considerable grit as well. Unfortunately Matt Damon often seems distractingly off target as La Boeuf, almost portraying the Texas lawman as a caricature of Talladega Nights’ John C. Reilly. Still, Cogburn is the key to the film and Bridges really does pull it off.

Slightly more wistful than the original, the Coen Grit will pleasantly surprise diehard fans of the John Wayne film, nevertheless. Indeed, Bridges ought to be in contention for Oscar consideration. Executed with the gusto the filmmakers are known for, Grit represents a welcome big time return of the western genre to the American film industry. Definitely recommended, it is now playing in select theaters around the country.

Posted on December 23rd, 2010 at 1:30pm.

Invasion Alert!: Tron Girls, Anne Hathaway & Stanley Kubrick Join the Invasion!

By Jason Apuzzo. • Tron: Legacy opened reasonably well, although well enough to launch a franchise? I have doubts. I can’t escape the feeling that Disney blew a major opportunity here – that a film which could’ve been a major ‘tech noir’ classic slipped away into something frivolous … something that audiences really weren’t pining for to begin with (an over-merchandized sequel to an almost 30 year old film, featuring an extreme overdose of Jeff Bridges). I bought the Daft Punk soundtrack over the weekend, loved it (read interviews with Daft Punk here and here), and was left with the sense that what Disney could’ve had here was the anti-Avatar: i.e., a large-scale, humanistic sci-fi epic with the style and design of Blade Runner, and the heart of the original Star Wars. It’s too bad they settled for so much less.

Sci-fi’s Big Three – Lucas, Spielberg and Cameron – get a lot of criticism, especially in the overheated world of the internet. The reason those three are such indisputable masters of their craft, however, is that they focus attention on their lead characters – who typically are broken or otherwise unfulfilled young people with major challenges in their lives. I never had the sense that the spoiled-rotten billionaire kid in Legacy had really ever had his teeth kicked in; everything in life was just a little too cozy for him – and neither Lucas, Spielberg or Cameron would’ve allowed their lead character to have such an easy time of it.

By the way, the LA Times just ran this interesting piece on whether Tron‘s world reflects the way the schizophrenic mind works. It’s an interesting question, actually, and one that I was ruminating on myself while watching the film; Tron really does present quite a paranoid vision of the digital/virtual world we ‘live’ in nowadays.

• The trailer for the new Transformers movie is out, and it’s actually a good deal better – and more epic in scale – than I would’ve expected a trailer for one of these films to be. The only question I have is how representative the trailer is of the rest of the film, as the trailer feels like something designed to capture the first 5-10 minutes of the movie in which the plot’s set up. I assume the rest of the film will involve watching Shia and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley run around, which I’m not necessarily looking forward to. In any case, the trailer is a nice start so far. Here‘s another new interview with Michael Bay, incidentally.

• On a similar note, Apollo 18 just started shooting in Vancouver – which, by the way, is apparently where Disney shot Tron. California’s back to being unaffordable again for filmmaking, which Hollywood’s Democrats didn’t bother to tell you when they were all out stumping for Jerry Brown recently. The new Total Recall, by the way, will similarly be shooting not in LA but in Toronto.

battlela456 — The new "Battle: Los Angeles" poster.

• A new poster for Battle: Los Angeles is out. I have the feeling this film is going to be the cream of the Alien Invasion crop, so to speak.

• First it was Rose McGowan, and now word has it that Anne Hathaway may be attached to the on-again/off-again remake of Barbarella. I generally have nothing against Ms. Hathaway, but she’s a bit gawky and a poor choice for this role – as I suspect she would ultimately push the film too much in the direction of Austin Powers-style comedy. With that said, she’s certainly fetching, sympathetic, and she meets the ABF Standard (Anybody But Fonda).

• There were a flurry of rumors recently about Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel(s), one of which was that the film would be titled Paradise, but those rumors were subsequently shot down by a Fox exec. The latest news is that H.R. Giger may be involved in the design of the new project; also, Olivia Wilde has confirmed that she’s not going to be appearing in the film. Hooray!

• In other Alien Invasion News & Notes: Sam Raimi’s huge alien invasion thriller Earth Defense Force is being rewritten right now; I Am Number 4 director DJ Caruso has a new interview out, and that film also has a new, extended trailer; Universal and the SyFy channel are going to partner on making low-budget (probably $5-$10 million) sci-fi films; production art has leaked for the forthcoming Battlestar Galactica prequel series Blood and Chrome; Matt Damon may end up toplining Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium (God help us); J.J. Abrams confirms that the screenplay for the new Star Trek still hasn’t been completed yet; Terry Gilliam will be godfathering a new, animated, retro-sci-fi spectacle set in 1884; the new Star Wars Frames book really looks wonderful; check out this great post over at TCM’s Movie Morlocks on Howard Hawks’ The Thing as a Christmas movie; and people in China are now getting Avatar-themed weddings, which is really depressing.

trongirl89 — Brazilian model Sasckya Porto goes "Tron."

• On the Classic Alien Invasion Front, Green Slime is finally getting a decent DVD release! And it’s about time. That news pales, however, in comparison to news recently that an extra 17 minutes of 2001: A Space Odyssey (cut from the film by Stanley Kubrick right after the film’s release) was discovered recently, although Warner Brothers claims they already knew about the footage and have it themselves under lock and key. Apparently, since Kubrick himself edited the footage out, Warners has no plans of putting it back in the film or re-issuing it on a Blu-ray. We’ll see if their resolve on that point holds.

• On the Aquatic Invasion Front, Ving Rhames may be back for Piranha 3DD, which is currently planning to shoot in New Orleans (doesn’t that sound like fun?). Also, David Fincher has apparently confirmed that he’ll be directing 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, so we should be seeing giant squid squirm across the big screen a few years from now …

• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … Brazilian model Sasckya Porto adopts the Tron look, which more women should really should adopt in their everyday life – don’t you think?

And that’s what’s happening today on the Alien Invasion Front!

Posted on December 23rd, 2010 at 1:08pm.