Hearts and Arrows

When I opened the NEW YORK TIMES in January (well, clicked on the link, to be precise) and looked at A. O. Scott's 10 best list for the year 2005 I thought I was looking at the TIMES OF LONDON's crossword puzzle. It was impenetrable. I had never seen most of the films, much less heard of them. And topping the list was THE BEST OF YOUTH [La Meglio gioventù] (Miramax, 368 minutes, 2003, NR, 1.85:1 enhanced, DD Surround in Italian, with French language track, and English and Spanish subtitles, static silent menus with 19-chapter and 24-chapter scene selection per disc, one-sheet insert with chapter titles, keep case, two discs, $29.95, released on Tuesday, February 7, 2006), which, incidentally, appeared on several other lists as well. Again, I never even heard of it.

So when it came out on DVD I was eager to see the film. I expected something outlandish and snazzy and gripping. I was expecting something exalted, that blended Visconti with Antonioni and Bertolucci or Pasolini, that redefined the cinema as it told a sweeping story that moved me to tears.

What I got was a six hour TV miniseries about two brothers and their experiences from about 1966, when they were both in college, to now. It's fine. It's good. It was interesting, it was sweeping. The director, Marco Tullio Giordana, and the writers, Sandro Petraglia and Stefano Rulli, intend for BEST OF YOUTH to be a look at all facets of the country in the second half of the 20th century. To that end one brother, Nicola Carati (Luigi Lo Cascio), becomes a doctor, and the other, Matteo (Alessio Boni), a soldier, then a cop, and their experiences and jobs take them to Florence during the famous flood, and to Turin, Sicily, and to Rome. Youth rebellion, the Red Brigade, the mafia, and the kidnapping of politicians and judges figure in the narrative. I was interested in the film's characters and worried about their fates.

But the best film of the year? Did THE BEST OF YOUTH really demand the hosannas proclaimed in its direction? I can understand a certain political motivation in the praise. The film was intended originally for Italian television but it was rejected, supposedly for some sex scenes but probably for political reasons. The filmmakers took it on the road to festivals where it won numerous awards, and Miramax picked it up. American critics might be making some kind of political statement by picking it in defiance of the opinions of Italian television executives.

Its being picked up by Miramax taught me a little something about that company. Though famous for risky movies such as PULP FICTION and PRIEST, the company's heart is really in old-fashioned sentimental tales. From CINEMA PARADISO to SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, Miramax has mostly favored big, blustery middlebrow European films with gentle stories about young people learning life lessons. THE BEST OF YOUTH is right up this alley.

BEST OF YOUTH comes via Miramax in a six hour version, which is good, because there are mysterious things within it. For example, the character and motivations of Matteo. Looking like a blend of Scott Glenn, Udo Keir, and Clint Eastwood, Matteo starts out wanting to be an intellectual. But he has some kind of anger issue with his parents and some kind of rescue fetish for women. He helps a girl named Giorgia (Jasmine Trinca) escape from the mental institute where he works, and together with Nicola attempts to return her to her family, which Matteo thinks will be better for her (even though he doesn't really get along with his own family). When he begins to have sexual feelings for a woman, he freaks out. In one scene he gets a blowjob from a transvestite hooker. It's not clear if he knows she is a he, but how could a vice cop not know that? Does this scene indicate that the melancholy Matteo is really struggling with suppressed homosexuality? Or is it saying something about Italian men, who, the film argues, have trouble with their real life, real looking women and in their spare time buy sex from the kind of outlandish superwomen that street hookers play? Nicola's relationship with Matteo is fascinating. All the women in the movie seem to be in love with Matteo, and Nicola basically inherits them from him. First there's Giorgia, who inspires Nicola to enter psychiatry and work for asylum reform, and later the woman who, unknown to Matteo, becomes the mother of his child.

The film plays out its tales straightforwardly. There is nothing progressive about its style. Some shots are beautiful, some are not. The car driving scenes look like something from an American cop show circa 1970, obviously unmoving vehicles set against a blue screen while someone off camera manipulates lights. Visconti this isn't.

I ended up enjoying THE BEST OF YOUTH quite a bit, because I am just as much a sentimental sap as the next guy. But for me, only time will tell if the film is THE LEOPARD, or another CINEMA PARADISO. The DVD is straightforward as well, two discs with no extras.

I'm a big Cameron Crowe fan, or at least I was. Like everyone else, I loved SAY ANYTHING … and JERRY MAGUIRE. But I managed to miss ELIZABETHTOWN (Paramount, 123 minutes, 2005, PG-13, 2.35:1 enhanced, DD 5.1, and DD English Surround, and French 5.1, with English and Spanish subtitles, animated musical menu with 21-chapter scene selection, keep case, one disc, $19.99, released on Tuesday, February 7, 2006, also in a full frame edition) when it was in the theaters, which says something. I've been wondering what's going awry with his career. It's like there are two Crowes. One makes tightly focused, romantic movies with original characters, such as SAY ANYTHING. The other makes rambling, miscast excursions into some private obsession, such as SINGLES. ALMOST FAMOUS is deeply felt but now feels trivial or superficial, despite being autobiographical, and VANILLA SKY is totally anomalous, a favor to Tom Cruise who is the real auteur here. I was hoping that ELIZABETHTOWN would be the first, good Crowe, but something about it warned me off.

Now having seen ELIZABETHTOWN, I know why. The film provides something of a clue as to why his flops don't work, or rather, what it is that makes JERRY MAGUIRE and the others successful. In fact, JERRY MAGUIRE is the film ELIZABETHTOWN is closest to in tone and mood. JERRY MAGUIRE begins, as you will recall, with Jerry in voice over explaining who he is and how his world works. He is very specific about deals, money, office hierarchies. When that world goes awry, we understand what it means to him and the difficulties of his plight, of going out on his own. He travels a lot and practically lives in airports.

ELIZABETHTOWN is vague. Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom) works for a shoe company in Portland, Oregon (here is a cityscape from the film of my home town) that is very much like Nike. The owner is even named Phil (Alec Baldwin). Drew has done something wrong, and now a shoe he has designed is recalled at the cost of billions to the company (the shoe has a name, Spasmotica, but you don't know what it does or what's wrong with it). Drew's father is also vaguely in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, visiting his family where he dies on the same day Drew is fired. Like the kid in ALMOST FAMOUS, Drew has an overbearing mother (Susan Sarandon, mostly wasted) and a sister (Judy Greer) who can't cope with her. They make him fly to Elizabethtown to fetch the body. The world does not yet know of Drew's perfidy, and so he is greeted in the town as if he were a superstar (unlikely; a shoe designer?!). Not-very-interesting complications ensue when the relatives don't want Baylor pere to be taken back to Portland and incinerated. Also, a lonely and at-sea Drew ends up calling the one person who will answer her phone, the kooky stewardess Claire Colburn (Kirsten Dunst) he met on the flight to 'Liztown.

One guesses that the long phone conversation that Drew and Clair have is the heart of the film and may be based on some real life Crowean experience. It's a cool idea, if poorly realized, and Nicholson Baker even wrote a whole novel about a phone call. But this one doesn't work for some reason, probably because it is too elliptical and unspecific like the rest of the movie. ELIZABETHTOWN has moments of charm but feels disjointed and just plain uninteresting.

Paramount appears to have given up on the film too (unless there is an ultimate, complete edition in the works that adds back in 15 minutes eventually cut from the film and might change our minds about the film). The transfer is fine if not exceptional, and supplements consist of two conventional making ofs, two extended scenes ("Rusty's Learning to Listen Part 8," " Hanging With Russell in Memphis"), a big photo gallery, and two trailers ("Bad Day," "Drew").

A distinctly unerotic anthology film, EROS (Warner Home Video, 106 minutes, 2004, R, 1.85:1 enhanced, DD 5.1, with English, French, and Spanish subtitles, animated musical menu with 18-chapter scene selection, keep case, one disc, $27.95, released on Tuesday, February 7, 2006) nevertheless contains significant, interesting works by three important directors.

Wong Kar-Wai gives us "The Hand," a kind of IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE junior, looking and sounding the same, about a tailor who falls for a prostitute (Gong Li). "Equilibrium" is Steven Soderbergh's shaggy dog story about a '50s ad exec, Nick Penrose (Robert Downey Jr.) in an exploratory session with an analyst (Alan Arkin) where he discusses a troublesome recurring erotic dream. "The Dangerous Thread of Things" is the latest film by the master, Antonioni, and although he is hobbled by paralysis, it still shows vestiges of the old Antonioni style. It's about a couple (Christopher Buchholz, Regina Nemni) become infatuated with the same woman (Luisa Ranieri). The three films are beautifully shot, exquisitely designed, witty, and thoughtful, but they are not sexy, though they are about sex, or aspects of sex.

Extras consist of an additional film by Antonioni, MICHELANGELO EYE TO EYE (Lo Sguardo di Michelangelo), which shows the Master in what at first seems to be in location scout mode, but turns out to be him visiting a work of art by his namesake, Michelangelo. Finally, there is the theatrical trailer.

I'd like to comment on BLOOD AND WINE (Fox, 101 minutes, 1997, R, 1.85:1 enhanced, DD 5.1 in English and DD Surround in Spanish and Stereo in French, with English and Spanish subtitles, 28-chapter scene selection, keep case, one disc, $14.95, released on Tuesday, February 7, 2006), but the disc wouldn't play on my computer. From the box and other sources I know that this early Jennifer Lopez film has a commentary by director Bob Rafelson and scene specific commentary with other cast members Jack Nicholson, Michael Caine, Stephen Dorff, as well as producer Jeremy Thomas and film historian Stephen Farber. There is also a lengthy making of, deleted scenes introduced by Rafelson ("Poker Game," "Jason & Alex Drive," "Alex Lying on the Floor," "Boat at Anchor," "Looking for Jason," "Phone Call," "In a Coma," and "Screaming at the Sky"). There is also the theatrical trailer and a trailer for BLACK WIDOW.

BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S: ANNIVERSARY EDITION (Paramount, 115 minutes, 1961, NR, 1.85:1 enhanced, DD 5.1, DD restored mono, French language track, with English subtitles, 14-chapter scene selection, white keep case in pink slip case, one disc, $19.95, released on Tuesday, February 7, 2006) is one of the great "coded" tales. It's really about an old queen paying for a young earnest man who aspires to be a writer, who in turn, falls for a flighty promiscuous gay guy. All these people in Capote's novel have real life analogs (findable if you dip into any of the many books about the author), and given the viperfish personality of the writer, were meant to embarrass or expose them at the time.

But that doesn't mean that the movie can't be taken at face value, even if sometimes that face is repugnant, i.e., Mickey Rooney's disastrous Japanese impersonation as the landlord of the building Holly Golightly lives in. From its Jerry Lewis teeth to its slapstick it is horrible, and deeply mars the film. But that's what fast forward buttons are for.

On the other hand it has a great theme song, excellent exterior photography, and a funny story about high life. And I will confess that the scene where she looks for the cat in the rainy alley always makes me cry. I suppose it says something that I am more concerned with the cat in the film than the people.

On DVD, BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S has been enjoyed thus twice before, in September 1999 and April of 2001. Now it comes in a special anniversary edition with extras not on the previous versions.

Leading off, there's a spotty commentary by producer Richard Shepherd. The extras are a retrospective making of called, simply, "The Making of a Classic" (16 minutes), followed by "It's So Audrey! A Style Icon" (eight minutes), "Brilliance in a Blue Box" (six minutes), and "Audrey's Letter to Tiffany's" (two minutes), and the theatrical trailer.

As expressed in my original review, I kind of liked 13 GOING ON 30: FUN AND FLIRTY EDITION: ANNIVERSARY EDITION (Sony, 98 minutes, 2004, PG-13, 1.85:1 enhanced, DD 5.1, DD restored mono, French language track, with English subtitles, pink and perfumed keep case, one disc, $19.94, released on Tuesday, February 7, 2006) and Jennifer Garner in it. It must be popular, because now the film enjoys its third iteration as a DVD. What's curious is that despite all the packaging and hoopla, it is actually a step back. If you already have the August 2004 DVD, you have no need for this disc and its "improvements."

Most of the material on this disc comes from the August 2004 release, including "Making of a Teen Dream" an 18-minute making of, "I Was a Teenage Geek," a blooper reel, the Pat Benetar and Rick Springfield music videos, and the photo gallery, plus numerous deleted scenes. New to the disc are an atrocious alternate beginning and ending, far less satisfactory than the original (does no one in Hollywood know how to end their movies anymore?). In addition, there is a seven-minute feature in which teens explain why they love '80s fashion. Worse, the disc takes things away, including two commentary tracks, from the director and the producers. I hate it when discs start to shed features, scattering them across tapes, laser discs, and DVDs. It makes for a mess.

Long before there was BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN there was MAKING LOVE (Fox, 113 minutes, 1982, R, 1.85:1 enhanced, DD mono and stereo, and DD French and Spanish mono, with English and Spanish subtitles, static silent menu with 24-chapter scene selection, keep case, one disc, $14.95, released on Tuesday, February 7, 2006). This was the film that "dared" to address the issue of homosexuality on the screen. Of course, it had been done before, in a couple of TV movies. And it has also been done way back in the late 1940s, when Gore Vidal's novel, THE CITY AND THE PILLAR came out, and which remains a steady seller since. Its publication coincided with Kinsey's study of the American male, which claimed a high number of gay men for the robust U.S. landscape and the two books must have been a blow to upstanding straights everywhere, especially Vidal's book which both parodied numerous homosexual subcultures but also testified that a man having feelings and sexual desire for another is no more odd than him liking vanilla ice cream over orange sherbet.

MAKING LOVE is a "coming out" story, as has become conventional in gay cinema. The suppressed gay is a white doctor Zack (Michael Ontkean) who, like Dennis Quaid in FAR FROM HEAVEN cruises the occasional gay bar, but in Zack's case is too afraid to jump in. His wife, Claire (Kate Jackson), a TV exec, is unaware of his hidden feelings. When Zack meets Bart (Harry Hamlin), a writer with a penchant for being alone, he not only finally comes out, but also faces down the side of gay life that he is less inclined to embrace, promiscuity. The two men "break up" though they were never really together except for one long weekend, and Zack outs himself to his wife, who has to reconcile herself to the fact that she has lost him. Years later they happen to meet again and both have moved on with their lives and are reasonably happy.

Except for the fact that Bart and Claire talk to the camera in sub-Bergman style narrative interruptions, this is very much a TV movie, safely dealing with this "hot" topic. It should be given credit for its maturity and for treating the subject at all, but none of the characters seem interesting. In fact, to me, that seemed kind of insane, especially Bart who is supposed to be a charming wild man but who comes across to me like a nut. He is another writer, like the alcoholic screenwriter Vidal's main character lives with for an interlude in Hollywood, and like "kept" struggling young author in Capote's coded BREAKFAST.

Supplements consist of the theatrical trailer, which emphasizes the controversial but important nature of the film, and trailers for THE OBJECT OF MY AFFECTION, THE DREAMERS, and NEXT STOP, GREENWICH VILLAGE.

More to the taste of the American public, at least until BROKEBACK came along, is THE WEDDING CRASHERS: UNCORKED EDITION (New Line, 128 minutes, 2005, PG-13, 2.35:1 enhanced, DD 5.1 and 2.0, and DD English Surround, with English and Spanish subtitles, animated musical menu with 21-chapter scene selection, several advertising inserts, keep case, one disc, $19.99, released on Tuesday, January 3, 2006, also in a full frame and UMD editions and "corked" editions) which celebrates rampant hetero male sexuality. My views on the film have been established; I would say that the disc is better than the movie.

New Line's disc of the film has a terrific commentary from actors Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. Less invigorating is the commentary from director David Dobkin. There's also four deleted scenes, with optional commentary, including a sequence in which Vaughn and Wilson sing "99 Red Balloons" (one of my favorite songs) at a reception. There are two making ofs ("Event Planning" and "The Rules"), "The Rules of Wedding Crashing" list, the various ads, including the teaser, a soundtrack ad, the theatrical trailers, and the music video "Circus" by The Sights.

The novelty release of four episodes of THE SIMPSONS repackaged for Valentine's Day, called THE SIMPSONS: KISS AND TELL THE STORY OF THEIR LOVE (Fox, 88 minutes, NR, full frame, DD 2.1 in English, French, and Spanish, and with English and Spanish subtitles, animated musical menu, keep case, one disc, $14.95, released on Tuesday, February 7, 2006) can be dispensed with quickly. The four episodes have little to do with the "theme" of the disc, and there isn't much extra on the DVD. The four eps are "Natural Born Kissers," from season 9, Large Marge," from season 14, Three Gays of the Condo," from season 14, and "The Way We Weren't," from season 15. Only the last one really is about Homer and Marge, and there is a flashback in "Gays" that also addresses the couple's past. Fox keeps publishing these selection discs, probably getting the idea from the Treehouse of Horror episode anthologies, and I can't believe that enough people buy these to make Fox continue to issue them, when the whole season collections are a better deal.

Given that DALTRY CALHOUN (Miramax, 93 minutes, PG-13, 2.35:1 enhanced, DD 5.1, with English subtitles, animated musical menu with 13-chapter scene selection, keep case, one disc, $29.95, released on Tuesday, February 7, 2006) is produced by Quentin Tarantino and directed by someone he's mentoring, and produced by L. Driver, who also did the documentary on FROM DUSK TILL DAWN and lent her name to a character in KILL BILL, you'd think that the film would be a wild, crazy, innovative, and quotable. But in fact, DALTRY CALHOUN is a conventional, almost conservative tale of a man's redemption, born of his reunion with the daughter he didn't raise. < P>

In brief, the story is of a man (Johnny Knoxville, of course) who abandons his wife and daughter only to meet up with them decades later, when he has reformed and become a prominent citizen in Ducktown, Tennessee, famous for the sod he sells, used in golf courses, and other products that have helped the economy of his town. As in Hardy's THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE, his wife May (Elizabeth Banks) and now teen daughter June (Sophie Traub). While Daltry works out his personal problem, the town and his friends help him out with a business problem, and everything works out in the end. One suspects that for Knoxville the film was a chance to "stretch" his acting skills, even in fact to pander to the audience by appearing in a gentle, sentimental story that goes against the grain of his JACKASS persona. Perhaps Knoxville should have taken the advice of Calhoun's wife, who tells him while she's bathing to stop being sentimental.

The film is easy going and cozy and then rushed and complicated all at once. It's a curious thing because you can't figure out why it exists. The supplements, which are celebratory, don't help. First off is a commentary in which Tarantino serves as interviewer to writer/director Katrina Holden Bronson and producer Danielle Renfrew. It is interesting, but very insiderish and backstagish. There's a short making of, another featurette on the cast, five deleted scenes with optional commentary by the yak trio ("Frankie Comes To Town," "Frankie's Room," "Take Care Of Your Daughter," "Mean Makes You Ugly," and "You Ruined My Life"), bloopers, the trailer and a music video, Blue Mother Tupelo's "Put Your Head on My Shoulder."

D. K. Holm's 2006 Film Diary (Otherwise Known as a Blog)

Monday, 6 February, 2006

Occasionally, people ask me how I ended up writing at MoviePoopShoot. It's a slightly interesting story. About 10 years ago I was trying to figure out what to do with my life after having worked the previous 10 years at a local paper. I was a little at sea, but I was working at a local biweekly called PDXS doing movie reviews. With the aid of a friend I devised a "business plan" for the following five years. Under his tutelage I included a list of all the worst things that could possibly happen. It is an integral part of a business plan, so that one can plan for contingencies. In my case, of the five things I put down they all came to pass, and the business plan proved to be a harbinger of disaster. One of those bad things was the collapse of PDXS, where I'd been writing for a few years. My friend Jim Redden, who later went on to work at the PORTLAND TRIBUNE, a then-recent start up, where he broke open the "Ward Weaver, or Oregon City Girls" case, edited it. In fact, he was just on 48 HOURS a couple of Fridays ago, talking about the case. Well, PDXS did shut down, back in 1998, and I spent a few years floundering around trying to fine a way to keep the heroin (i.e., free movies, books, and later, DVDs) flowing. It was hard, and man, when you don't have a post at a respected organ the publicists treat you like shit. About four years ago, looking for Jeff Wells's latest column at Reel.com I ended up transferred to a relatively new website, MoviePoopShoot. I looked around it and thought, this is really cool. I checked out the editor, Chris Ryall, and even though he made it clear that the site had enough columns to keep him busy, I took a chance and wrote a query, to see if he wanted a book review column in which gossip about movie stars was distilled from their bios for the reader's convenience. To my surprise and delight, Mr. Ryall welcomed the column. That one led, through the course of several changes, to the one you are reading now. Just last week, on Wednesday, I think, my mind wandered and I began wondering, boy, what if MPS changed? What would I do? Word of caution: never think the unthinkable, it always comes to pass. And I have been really enjoying writing for MPS just these last few weeks, and grateful for it as a high profile forum for my cranky views or approach to movie writing. Today I read Chris Ryall's parting column and again, the news of Ryall's leaving it hit me like a steel wall. Chris Ryall was, quite simply, the best editor I ever worked with. He was encouraging, excited, helpful, and as knowledgeable as me, if not more so, in several of my areas of interest. I even dedicated a book to him. I am as upset about his departure as I've been about anything in what passes for my career. At the moment, I write while waiting to see what major changes, if any, will be implemented. Change is inevitable. I just happen to hate it.

Tuesday, 7 February, 2006

In an effort to cheer myself up over the Ryall departure, I submit a query email to Hard Case Crime pitching a thriller I've been thinking about for a while. Hard Case Crime is the new yet-already-award-winning mystery publishing company. I stumbled upon one of the firm's books only recently, and was surprised that I hadn't heard of them yet (and I even work in a book store). Since around fall of 2004, Hard Case has published both new and reprinted hard boiled crime stories, about 26 in all so far, from authors ranging from Charles Williams, Ed McBain, Max Allan Collins, and Donald Westlake, to Madison Smartt Bell, Pete Hamill, John Lange (i.e. Michael Crichton), and Stephen King. The cover art of these mass market paperbacks, too, is a mix of new and reprinted paintings, from the likes of Richard B. Farrell, Gregory Manchess, and Robert McGinnis. Not only that, Hard Case has one of the best, most attractive, and easy to navigate web sites that I've found among publishers, which tend to be lazy, rarely updated on time, and rely on pre-fab web templates that are counterintuitive and have inept search functions. The line up of Hard Case books looks great, and that old style lurid cover art makes them even more appetizing. But HC makes it easy on you to choose a title: the website offers a sample chapter from each of its books.

So far I've read three of the Hard Case books, FADE TO BLONDE (HHC No. 002, 220 pages, $6.99, ISBN 0 8439 5350 0) by Max Phillips, THE COLORADO KID (HHC No. 013, 184 pages, $6.99, ISBN 0 8439 5584 8) by Stephen King, and LITTLE GIRL LOST (HHC No. 004, 221 pages, $6.99, ISBN 0 8439 5351 9) by Richard Aleas, apparently the pseudonym of a prolific short story writer. FADE TO BLONDE, which has a terrific opening chapter, concerns a failed actress-model-whatever seeking out a failed screenwriter (and ex-boxer) to serve as muscle for a bind she's in. Complications ensue. In LITTLE GIRL LOST a New York P.I. looks into the death and mysterious life of an old friend. King's shortish book is something of a shaggy dog story, but in giving Hard Case a boost of attention it's a cunning addition to the line up. Each book is written in that deceptively simple or plain American pulp style that never receives the imprimatur of academic scrutiny but is generally more readable and more "artistic" than the prose of highly touted art novelists from Thomas Wolfe to E. Annie Proulx. I can't wait to read the rest of the series.

And incidentally, if you are interested in KILL BILL, you might find my new book, KILL BILL: AN UNOFFICIAL CASEBOOK useful. It is now available in fine bookstores everywhere, or from Amazon.

Not only that, I've got a new book out on an aspect of film noir I call film soleil, titled simply FILM SOLEIL. It is sure to alter film criticism as we know it to its very core. Order it now!

And if you are interested in what I sound like, I can be heard on KBOO radio (90.7 FM) the second and the fourth Wednesday of the month, at 9 AM in the morning (Pacific Standard Time) on Ed Goldberg's show MOVIE TALK along with Dawn Taylor. It's available via streaming audio (in 20 Kbps Stereo). The next broadcast is Wednesday, February 22, at 9 AM, with the critics' ten best lists.

COMING SOON: Italian horror films, giallo, and action films, plus Italian poster books, a package of Hitchcock movies and TV shows, REMINGTON STEEL and other TV mystery shows, many STAR TREKS, the third annual DVD Tray of Horror, and more!

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