Movies & The Decline of Civilized Behavior
Posted on | March 28, 2004 at 3:49 pm | 8 Comments
Saw a couple of new movies this weekend, both from filmmakers who, though fairly well known these days, still get pegged as mostly cult types. Following are some capsule reviews, and some mini-rants about about movie-going in general and a bad parent in particular.
First up was The Ladykillers, which I saw somewhat accidentally (it’s a long story). I’m split on the Coen Brothers – they do some really good stuff (The Big Lebowski, Fargo, Raising Arizona) and some I didn’t care much for (The Man Who Wasn’t There, Barton Fink). I admit I haven’t seen their entire oeuvre – for example I still really want to see O Brother, Where Art Thou and Miller’s Crossing. But I think that at least when they have a failure, it’s an interesting failure. The problem with Ladykillers is that it degenerated into farce near the end – almost slapstick farce that wasn’t particularly funny. It was interesting seeing Tom Hanks doing such an affected character (thankfully not Forrest Gump-affected), especially when he does that weird little laugh, but there’s not much else to recommend the movie. Gospel music, no matter how well done, doesn’t do much for me. Maybe worth a rental, but don’t rush out and see it at the theater.
The second movie I saw this weekend was Kevin Smith’s Jersey Girl. I’m a big Kevin Smith fan – again, even when he has a failure (Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, for example), at least it’s an interesting failure. The major critics are saying that the big problem with this one is that after 10 years, Smith really hasn’t matured much as a filmmaker and that his directing style lacks pizzazz. Frankly, I think if you added pizzazz to a Kevin Smith movie, you really wouldn’t have a Kevin Smith movie anymore. The visual style was competent enough, and the dialog was of general high quality, but the plot was a bit too predictable and sentimental. Gosh, will Ben Affleck really choose his family over his career? Was there ever any doubt? I must say that Liv Tyler was great, and I wish more of the movie had been about her character. The romance gets short shrift. I’ll give this one a reserved recommendation.
In other movie news, Project Greenlight 3 just came out with their list of Top 1000 Screenplays from the screenplay contest (out of over 4000 submitted). Though I did not submit a screenplay (someday, someday…), I did review two from other people. I wanted to review more, but just didn’t have time. Both screenplays were fairly mediocre, but both ended up on that Top 1000 list anyway. It will be interesting to see if they make it further. If this experience has taught me anything, it’s that it can’t be too hard to write a screenplay – I definitely thought I could do better than either of the ones I read. I know, famous last words…
In Roger Ebert’s latest Movie Answer Man column this week, he talks about how the general public really didn’t like Lost In Translation (a movie that affected me a great deal), because it’s just too ambigious and meandering for most Americans to deal with. I think this is very sad. When I saw it, it didn’t occur to me that audiences would not like it, and so I was surprised when I started hearing from people with that opinion. Seems like average Americans just don’t want to put much thought into their movie-going these days. My favorite quote from Ebert’s column: When I’m told by people that they hated Lost in Translation, I have to restrain myself from replying, “You are saying more about yourself than about the film.” Amen.
Lastly, there was an incident at The Ladykillers that really put me off the movie-going experience and convinces me even more how the American movie-watching public just doesn’t get it, and how civilization is becoming a thing of the past. At about 2/3rds of the way into the movie, two young boys entered the (nearly sold-out) theater and sat down in the empty seat next to me. They looked to be aged about 8 and 3. After a couple of minutes of the younger one squirming around and starting to climb on me, I asked the older one, “Where are your parents?” He said that his father was getting popcorn. I told him that this wasn’t a movie for kids (it was rated R, after all) and that he really needs to go to his dad. After another minute or so of fidgeting, they left. After momentarily panicking that I did the wrong thing and was contributing to these kids getting lost or worse, I noticed they came back in with the father and the popcorn and sat down near the front. There was so much wrong with this scenario that I don’t even know where to begin. That father should be imprisoned. Taking such young kids to an R-rated movie? Making them go into the theater alone? Coming in when the movie was almost over? I’m sure he didn’t pay for it. I tell ya, this town needs a fire. And I have no idea what happened in the movie during those 10 minutes or so I was going through this. I’m glad I have my own home theater. Perhaps I should just stick to viewing movies there in the future. If only the DVDs came out the same day as the theatrical releases…
Latre.
Comments
8 Responses to “Movies & The Decline of Civilized Behavior”
March 28th, 2004 @ 7:50 pm
I gotta admit, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back didn’t even inspire me to sit through more than ten minutes of it – even though it was a rental, even though I hadn’t even paid for it (thanks J&A…although I’m sure you regret that $3 as much as anyone else…). I’m not sure if the intent was to parody being willfully obnoxious by being willfully obnoxious…but uh it’s still willfully obnoxious.
I love the Coen Brothers – hell, I even like The Hudsucker Proxy, which apparently the whole entire rest of the universe hates. Although I dunno…O Brother… wasn’t my favorite. I should re-view it.
I think some people think movie theaters are night-time daycare centers: about halfway through some R-rated movie a year or so ago, an entire family trooped gradually into the theater, including several young children. They plopped themselves at apparent random intervals through the theater, freely moving around, sharing popcorn and candy, etc. I thought it was only a bunch of kids – and then I looked over and saw the father, paying no attention to the movie, just like his kids, and only half watching them. Luckily, the theater had the movie at the usual ear-splitting volume (I think primarily to deal with talkers-through).
You know what superpower I’d like? Invincibility – so I could tell anyone, no matter how large or aggressive – just exactly how straight to go to hell as they babble moronically while I’m trying to watch a movie. It’s gotten bad enough that unless the movie’s some sort of big-screen-requiring number, I’ll wait for the DVD. Grrr.
March 29th, 2004 @ 10:49 am
I love the Coen Brothers, but I read in several reviews that The Ladykillers has lots of bathroom humor, jokes about irritable bowel syndrome, etc. That is an instant turn-off for me. Really, shouldn’t we outgrow out fascination with "poopy jokes" after age 9? Maybe a rental, so I can fast forward through the yucky bits…
March 29th, 2004 @ 3:58 pm
> favorite quote from Ebert’s column: When I’m told by people that they hated Lost in Translation,
> I have to restrain myself from replying, "You are saying more about yourself than about the film." Amen.
Right there, that’s most of what you need to understand to "get it" re: anything good in life.
People don’t think things through.
March 29th, 2004 @ 10:57 pm
You know, for kids.
For what it’s worth, O Brother and Miller’s Crossing are my least favorite Coen Brothers (although there are a couple I haven’t seen, and I love the O Brother soundtrack).
WRT the Ebert quote: I haven’t seen Lost In Translation, but there are some ambiguous, meandering movies I like and some I don’t, and I’d be kind of annoyed if I read this quote about one of the latter. I find it hard to believe that everyone who likes LiT is a philistine.
Damn, this comments box is small.
March 29th, 2004 @ 10:58 pm
D’oh! Dislikes.
March 30th, 2004 @ 7:59 am
I am trying to figure out how to make the comment box bigger… my first attempt failed. Damn templates!
Good point – I think there are valid reasons to not like LiT, but I’m not sure I’ve heard many of them. A lot of criticism focuses on the ending, which is not a typical Hollywood one. I think that’s partly where Ebert is coming from.
March 30th, 2004 @ 5:27 pm
i liked hudsucker proxy.
better than miller’s crossing.
sometimes i think the brother’s c are more interesting when failing though. (cf "successes" fargo and big l — which i liked, but which felt like they were coasting…)
April 2nd, 2004 @ 1:33 pm
As far as the Coen brothers go, I won’t go see a movie just it’s them, but I will usually consider it. It seems like for every Fargo and O Brother (both of which I really liked) there’s a Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, or The Man Who Wasn’t There. And while I wouldn’t classify the last group as bad persay, I didn’t find them all that interesting or entertaining.
I did want to mention that as far the Brothers C go, I don’t think they’ve ever reached the heights of Blood Simple or Raising Arizona since those two, though they still do some superior work, and taken as a whole I feel their body of work is far more interesting and of a far higher quality than the vast majority of other movies.