Gems Amid the Sprawl
Whatup?:
It may not be a good sign to start off an e-mail with a salutation from
Martin Lawrence, but what the heck? Scanning the trail of emails--ah, it's good
to be reminded of how stupid I am--I notice that no one seemed to have
mentioned that most movies these days take place in real time. Maybe that's why
I liked the animated stuff so much. I didn't suffer booty fatigue or gluteal
nerve-damage after leaving the theater showing The Iron Giant . There's a
resolute quality to all of this cinematic sprawl that hurts filmmakers. The
second half of Topsy-Turvy is the best thing Mike Leigh has ever done.
But the painstaking build to this payoff has people fleeing the theater in a
blind rage. It opens with a shot of an usher carefully checking a theater seat
in the corner of the frame. And sure enough, we see the usher go across the
whole row--the entire length of the frame.
I didn't mean to suggest I had a better way of making The Green Mile .
I don't think it's a critic's job to tell filmmakers how to do theirs. (Though
a recent New York Observer quoted a former boss of mine whining that I
didn't write enough "constructive criticism"--maybe I can start giving
directors marks in citizenship and playing well with others. And he wonders why
I left the Detroit Free Press ?) My point was that, by skirting the
issue, instead of making a movie about racism they may have made a racist
movie.
Getting back to The Best Man : It's not a great movie. But a lot of it
is funny, and Terrence Howard is better than anybody in The Wood , which
felt sitcomish and broad to me. Howard brought weight and class to the
picture--it's a genuine movie-star turn. (He'll be playing Muhammad Ali in a TV
movie soon.)
I do think that the influence of Godard has filtered into the current film
scene, Sarah. Maybe not intentionally, but it wouldn't be the first case of
trickle-down tribute to a director. And Run, Lola, Run pays tribute to
one of my favorite Godard quotes: "All you need to make a movie is a girl and a
gun."
I hate to end my correspondence on an up note, but I had a better time at
movies this year than I have in years. The girl who plays the younger sister in
Election is nothing short of fabulous--I hope someone gave her props.
There are shards of movies that stick with me. The first half of
Ravenous shows why Robert Carlyle deserves a film career. That freakish
doggie paddle he does before revealing himself is more unsettling than any of
the hokey vampire film that follows. Watching Matthew Broderick graduate from
playing Ferris Bueller to Jeffrey Jones in Election brings one important
thing to mind. If Godard doesn't turn out to be the most influential filmmaker
of the last year, then John Hughes will. Even American Beauty is staged
like a John Hughes film. It must be the eve of the millennium if I'm thinking
back fondly on The Breakfast Club .
Don't you forget about me,
Elvis
