At The Cinema - March 2010

First the Review, then the Tribute

Ghost Writer – 8
You’ll like this movie if you
a. Like Roman Polanski
b. Like an intelligent, adult story
c. Like international intrigue

Not that this movie is at all believable. The first disconnect comes when you find that most of the movie takes place in the United States, in a Cape Codish New England Compound. It is distracting because I couldn’t help thinking, wait – did Polanski sneak into the U.S. to film this? How did he do this? It took me about 30 minutes to get over the incongruity. I was caught completely by surprise.

Then the story of international intrigue unspools for awhile, until the end when there is a big reveal and for me, the movie completely comes apart in the last 30 seconds, yes the last 30 seconds, with a ridiculous ending that strains all the credibility that has been built up for 2 hours.

Despite these bookend problems, the movie is actually well made and interesting. It involves a Tony Blair era British prime minister (Pierce Brosnan – very good here) who is being accused of war crimes as he employs a new ghost writer for his memoirs (Ewan McGregor - as bland as ever) after his long-time ghost writer has bit the dust in a wave of suspicious circumstances.

Polanski exhibits his usual polish. It ain’t no Chinatown, but what is? It’s got the requisite number of smoke screens and plot twists and you won’t fall asleep. You won’t believe it all, but you won’t be bored.


And now the tribute.

An era ended last week with the cancellation of At The Movies, which was chaired for so many years by Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and then a succession of equally enthusiastic, although not quite as engaging, hosts. Each week the pair would review movies and the thing that you always got from them was their joy of discovery when they had found a masterpiece.

Life is filled with many coincidental relationships.
There’s the luck of the alphabetical draw, the high school friend you sit next to in class after class until you have a lifelong connection.
There’s the college friends you connect with through a fraternity, a class, or a shared passion for something.
There’s the fellow worker that you click with.
There’s the moment of luck that puts you at the same intersection with what will be the love of your life.

Then there’s a teacher who unlocks a lifetime hobby. For me it was that Film Introduction Class at the University of Southern Mississippi. The Teacher was Colonel Albers and I sat there enthralled as he took us through the history of film, much of it silent classics by DW Griffith and other long forgotten directors. The class culminated with a full screening of Hitchcock’s Rebecca, and I was done. I’d always liked movies, but now it became a full fledged useless, costly, but thoroughly enjoyable hobby.

That thrill that Siskel and Ebert felt became mine too. In the 70’s when I walked out of Chinatown, or The Exorcist, or Nashville, or Star Wars, or Annie Hall I had that same exhilaration, just like seeing a Broadway play, or a classic sports event.

Siskel and Ebert walked me through the movies. Almost every week I’d listen, learn, and follow. I learned that I often agreed with Siskel on drama and Ebert on comedy, but when their two thumbs went up, it was probably going to be good.

When Gene Siskel died suddenly I felt like I had lost a friend, and I remember how much he loved Saturday Night Fever, Fargo, and arguing with Roger.

When Roger Ebert’s voice was lost to cancer, I was so sad that I would never get to hear his excitement again. I remember his passion for Raging Bull and Apocalypse Now.

Roger wrote a beautiful piece last week about Sneak Previews/At the Movies and its demise as a syndicated show. Everything’s changing, but I had just assumed it would go on forever, even though I had to admit I didn’t watch much in the last few years.

So, my hat’s off to Siskel & Ebert and their successors. What a wonderful appreciation you’ve given us for one of the truly unique American products.
Hooray for you. Hooray for Sundance. Hooray for Hollywood.


Here's Roger:
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/03/see_you_at_the_movies.html

And here's a real film critic's incredible take:
http://sunsetgun.typepad.com/

Idolatry

Now I stoop to blogging about American Idol. By request, I might add.

I rarely get to watch American Idol when it comes on. Thanks to the DVR, I can spin through the vocals on the weekend. But, as usual I’ve picked my early favorite.

The first time I saw Jordin Sparks I said that we would be entertained by her for a long time to come..

That was followed by 2 men with guitars. David Cook and Kris Allen charmed America because, well America loves men with guitars.

This year it looks like the media darlings are guitar-strumming women – Crystal Bowersox and Lilly Scott. The male favorite is Casey Price, another strummer. Most think they’ll be the final 3 left standing.

So, of course I’m going to go on record with my darkhorse. My pick is Siobhan Magnus. Her voice and stage presence has blown me away, and I think she’ll be entertaining us for years to come, win or not. She’s a pure singer, shows no fear, and sings whatever she feels like. Don’t miss her. Who knows how long she’ll last.

Here’s the irony. I’m getting the feedback that Idol has jumped the shark.

Maybe it's the addition of the 4th judge that has done it. Kara played the spoiler role last year, but she’s grown on me, even though I think when her mouth is moving it’s just Randy’s opinion getting sterilized. This year Ellen Degeneres has been an intelligent upgrade to Paula Abdul, who’s not missed at all. Or maybe it's her unpredictable wackiness that's actually missing.

The problem is there’s no diversity of opinion. Except for Simon Cowell, the judges parrot each other. Meanwhile Simon seems to be advancing an agenda rather than judging singing. Last year I got a little frustrated with him for his constant undermining of Alison Iraheta as the finals neared. He constantly derided her with non-performance related critiques like “I don’t think you think you can win.” He gets a theme going on a contestant and he hammers away on script.

He’s started down the same road with Siobhan. He obviously doesn’t want her in the finals. His pick is Crystal and I say, “not so fast.” Crystal’s been very good so far, but let’s see what she does when she has to come out from behind the guitar. His comments this week that Siobhan didn’t do anything different with “House of the Rising Sun” were ridiculous. Maybe it’s reverse psychology. I don’t know. For years he's been the whole show, on the mark most of the time. He looks bored and he's become as Johnny-one-note as any of the contestants.

The thing to appreciate about American Idol is that it has brought back some great old music. They constantly say it’s a singing competition. It’s not. It’s a performance competition. They yammer on about song selection, instead of the delivery of the song. “We don’t know who you are,” etc. etc.

Too bad.
It's the most popular show in the history of television, but so far this year it's old, it's stale, and it's fading. The contestants are not up to par, and the judges are even more boring.
It's a little pitchy.
It just doesn't work for me.

At least not yet.