Thinking Outside the Box Office

One of the problems I have with the movie industry stems from the fact that men wearing the smartest business suits are the ones who get to decide for us, the movie-going population, what it is we will and will not enjoy seeing in the theaters. Now, don’t get me wrong, I fully understand the necessity of the business side of show business. And I’m not one of those people who boycotts every mass-market release in favor of viewing only independent movies. On the contrary, I think the guys making the decisions get it right many times, and I often find myself thoroughly enjoying a big-budget extravaganza. There! I said it.

But have you ever gone to a movie you thought you would love, and come out saying something like, “Man, that was nothing like the previews?” That’s because these suits, in order to market a movie into making the most amount of money, are driven to create trailers and TV spots that classify every movie into a very specific genre, even if they ultimately shouldn’t be considered that type of film. The people in marketing watch a movie, decide it can make the greatest amount of money if promoted as a comedy, and then pull out every scene from the movie that says to fans of comedies, “Hey! This is a comedy! You are going to love it!” and splice them all together into a two and half minute preview.

Sadly, there are many times when the guys who pull the purse strings can’t decide what to classify a movie, simply can’t figure out how to promote it, and that is when really terrific movies disappear into anonymity after a minor one hundred theater release, or, worse, experience the dreaded direct-to-video treatment. But some do get lucky. In 2008, a very small-budgeted film from India, in Hindi with English subtitles, and no major film stars, was scheduled for a late year, direct-to-video release. Suddenly, and very last second, a single, risk-taking producer saw the film, believed in the quality of its terrific story, believed that we were a much smarter and open-minded movie-going population than every other producer who had previously passed it over for release did, bought the film and sent it out into the mass-market. We now all know it as Academy Award winner, Slumdog Millionaire.

My point is this. In 2001, a movie called Freddy Got Fingered saw a lucrative, across America, mass-market release, and the winner of the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award for that same year exists in relative obscurity. If my blog does nothing more than unearth some undiscovered gems, and promote them to you, my readers, I will consider this venture a success.

Nowhere in Africa is a beautiful film that deserves to be seen again and again. This is the story of a Jewish family that flees Nazi Germany mere months before Kristallnacht, and lives out the remainder of the war in Kenya. A wealthy family, existing deep in the upper echelon of society before the war, the Redlichs live as poor tenant farmers in Africa, and must learn to cope with the vast differences between their old and new lives.

The daughter, Regina, immediately takes to the wondrous, new world she finds herself in at such a young age. The father, Walter, a successful lawyer in Germany, struggles with his new existence as farmer and foreigner, and with the possibility that his wife may have been more attracted to the lawyer than the man. Jettel, the wife and mother, is the character with the biggest story arc; the one who changes the most over the course of the years in which the story takes place. The journey she takes from beginning to end is a wonderfully drawn look at a woman who slowly learns to understand a strange world at the same time she is becoming a part of it. Her story is one of acceptance and growth through the appreciation of the different and unusual.

This movie takes its time in telling its story, and does not rush through plot points in any effort to quicken its pace. The story and characters are the richer for this. It is far from boring, but don’t go in expecting an edge-of-your-seat escape from the Nazis. Just trust me. The acting is excellent. Caroline Link, the film’s director, is confident and sure in her approach to the storytelling. The cinematography is breathtaking. You will be rewarded for the time you put into watching Nowhere in Africa. I am already looking forward to the next time I get to.

Until next week, here’s my hope that we all find our Shangri-La. Goodnight.

First Lady of Cinema

"It's Meryl freakin' Streep! She could play Batman and be right for the role." - Cam from Modern Family

This quote from one of my new favorite shows says it all when it comes to my opinion of the greatest living and most versatile actress working in movies. I don't usually speak in such superlative hyperbole, but it's Meryl freakin' Streep, so I'm giving myself a pass. She makes bad movies worth checking out, makes good movies better, and makes great movies classics. I love Meryl Streep. And while I am not prepared to dethrone Katharine Hepburn as my most favorite actress (that's two superlatives), I am always ready to declare Meryl Streep one of the greatest actresses of all time. Not only does she star in one of my top ten favorite movies, Out of Africa, she also starred in two movies in 2009. And it just so happens that, while one of those two movies was not exactly a romantic comedy*, the one that I saw this weekend in the theaters was. So I thought it would be a perfect crossover from last week's post to this week's to discuss It's Complicated.

I did not go into It's Complicated with the highest of expectations. While I was intrigued by the top-notch cast of Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, and of course Meryl Streep, some of the TV promos had me worried that the best parts were all in the trailers. I have not always liked Nancy Meyers as a writer/director either. What Women Want was interested in the gimmick of Mel Gibson's ability to hear women's thoughts first, interested in his relationship with Helen Hunt second. Her Jack Nicholson/Diane Keaton comedy Something's Gotta Give was a huge improvement, however, namely because she reversed these priorities. The plot device of Nicholson's character dating the daughter and then falling for the mother is only a jumping off point to the terrific relationship development between Nicholson and Keaton that takes up the majority of the film. Keaton also gives one of her best performances in it.

What Meyers succeeded at with Something's Gotta Give (making an endearing movie about mature people) she improved on with It's Complicated, a better movie. I loved this movie. It is funny without being cynical. It is endearing without being overly saccharine. It may be stating the obvious, and you may consider me biased after the preceding paragraph, but Meryl Streep is absolutely wonderful. Alec Baldwin is hilarious. Steve Martin is better than I've seen him in a long time. And Meyers, through her script, has brought up an interesting idea, the weight of which I was surprised to find in a romantic comedy. A divorce, no matter what the lawyers and judges say, or what the two parties may think or feel, is never completely final. However, a romantic comedy this mature and this well developed can handle a heavier topic, and does handle it perfectly, making it the better movie for risking the inclusion.

There is terrific poignancy to be seen here. There is some great comedy, by actors who understand what that really is. And there is a very romantic scene in a bakery that almost does for chocolate croissants what Ghost did for pottery...almost. This is a romantic comedy people. This is a romantic comedy and you should see it.

For those The Office fans reading, John Krasinsky has a fun part in the movie playing the future son-in-law of Streep's character. Some of the funniest scenes come from his character knowing something that none of the other characters knows, and trying to keep it that way, often ending up more involved than he'd like to be.

And speaking of John Krasinsky, he also starred in a movie last year that is one of the two great romantic comedies from 2009 I promised to mention this week. I had intended to say more about these, but Meryl Streep, well...Meryl Streep. Anyway, for now suffice it to say that I highly recommend Away We Go and 500 Days of Summer.

Until next week, have fun at the movies...

* Meryl Streep's performance in last year's Julie and Julia could earn her a 16th Academy Award nomination. I wonder how long before they just start calling them " The Meryls."

"Romantic" "Comedies"

Like Jay Leno and the rest of the NBC late nighters, I too am trying to find my right time slot. I have, for the time-being, strategically settled on Wednesday as my publication day, as this theoretically will give you time to find a movie you discover in these posts, and acquire it in time for a weekend viewing. Let me be clear that I have not been forced into this decision by any high-ranking authority, and have chosen Wednesday of my own free will.

Now then...

In an effort to avoid alienating half of my readership, let me preface tonight's post by making a very important clarification: I do not hate romantic comedies. I do not steer clear of them strictly because I am a guy, afraid of being observed by some judgmental arse willingly going into a movie designated a "chick-flick." No. In fact, on more than one occasion, I have found myself thoroughly enjoying a so-called "chick-flick" and I'm not ashamed to say so. However, I. Hate. Romantic. Comedies.

Maybe I should clarify again: I hate what romantic comedies have become. In the golden age of Hollywood, Tracy and Hepburn knew how to make a good romantic comedy. Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in "His Girl Friday;" great romantic comedy. Sexy and smart. Romantic and funny.

My problem with the gazillion romantic comedies that come out each year is this: they are not sexy. They are not smart. They do not strive for and therefore are not romantic. And aside from a couple of grin-inducing moments, they do not succeed at being funny. Romantic comedies today are completely satisfied with settling for "cute."

And yet, like clockwork, major studios with millions of dollars, apparently to spare, continue to release these lack-luster movies at an enormously rapid rate, at least one a week, and often are relatively successful at getting us to give them our hard-earned money to watch them again, and again, and again. Why?

Because they're easy and cheap to make. They earn all of their budget back in the first weekend of release (most of which goes to pay the salary of the two giant stars in the leads). They satisfy a relatively small contingent of the movie-going population for one night, are forgotten by the end of that same weekend, out of theaters by the following weekend, freeing up a movie screen to allow for the next in a long line of to-be-released romantic comedies.

The formula is simple. So take notes and you too could make a killing. Get two unreasonably good-looking people. Put them into a dozen or so scenes where they goofily stumble over and around, sometimes on top of, each other for an hour and a half, pretending that they don't like each other, or better yet, can't stand each other, all the while oblivious to the fact that despite their best efforts and slapstick antics, they will end up together. No matter what these two outrageously good-looking people do to each other and subject all others around them to over the course of an hour and a half to make you believe that never in a million years would these two ridiculously good-looking people ever get together in the end, you get them together in the end. Roll credits. Million dollars.

Now, I have seen the formula done well, usually thanks to some fresh ideas and a well-written script. And it usually helps if the two "Holy Cow! Could these people be any freakin' better looking" actors are playing likable characters. But too often than not, the formula allows for one of the two people to be a complete jerk, and yet we are still expected to believe he or she is still going to get the guy or girl in the end (and if the formula is being followed, you know that last part has to happen).

As much as I love the 1997 Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt Academy Award-winning "As Good As It Gets," it is this flaw that keeps it from being a truly great film. I love the characters; so well-written. I love the acting; completely deserving of the Oscars they were awarded. And yet, no chance in Hell does this guy get this girl. But the script is so intent on this conclusion, that, every time I watch the movie, it's almost as if I can see two giant hands pushing Nicholson and Hunt reluctantly into that final embrace at the end. I can believe they would end up friends, but lovers is too far a stretch.

One of the two movies that made 2009 the year of Sandra Bullock ($348,027,057 and still going strong), "The Proposal," suffered from two major romantic comedy flaws. The first being that Bullock plays a total bitch for the first 80 minutes of the movie. Within the last 10 minutes lies the 180 degree turn-around, where we the audience are asked to suspend our disbelief to the point where it is feasible to believe Ryan Reynolds has fallen in love with her. Unfortunately, too many of the in-between scenes show these two apart, which simply doesn't leave enough time for a reasonable human being to forget what a nightmare this woman has been to him for an hour and fifteen minutes.

And therein lies the second major flaw: too many superfluously dumb scenes included (Sandra Bullock haphazardly attempting to retrieve the family dog from the tallons of a swooping hawk comes to mind); too many relationship-building, character-developing scenes excluded. The script usually throws in a great deal of unnecessary complications to keep the two apart and postpone the inevitable happily ever after. Love is complicated enough without adding over-the-top subplots to keep our lovers apart. True romantic comedy can be found in the mere attempt of getting two so enormously different beings to meet and have anything at all to say to one another.

So understand, it is not my intention to bash the romantic comedy. I only wish to compel its creators to make it better.

My next blog will be about two 2009 romantic comedies that completely ignored the above formula, and were therefore far more successful and enjoyable films. And they were both romantic. And they were both funny.

So it begins...

Those of you who know me well, and I imagine at this early stage in the blog game, any of you reading this pretty much know me well, know that I have two great loves in my life. One of them I will not be writing about here. The other will take up the majority of the space on this blog.

I love movies. I can't remember a day during any year of my 28 that I have not loved movies. I love watching them. I love absorbing them. I love watching them for directorial techniques that nobody else notices or realizes he's noticed. I watch a Steven Spielberg movie and look for that moment when he aims the camera directly into a really bright light. Happens every time. I watch a Woody Allen movie for the scene where the camera gazes almost nonchalantly at two people talking on a sidewalk from a distance across a busy New York street. Best in black & white. I love movies.

People who know me know this about me. In college I was the movie guy. The biggest box I unpacked in my freshman dorm on the day I moved to Furman University in 2000 was my collection of VHS tapes. Probably the only 18 year old in history who has ever owned both a copy of The Godfather and On Golden Pond. The latter of which still retains the slot on the top of my all time favorites, even after the release of The Dark Knight in 2008, one of the greatest movie going experiences ever!

Yes, I love movies. Yes, I love watching them, although usually not in a theater, a fact that I will expound on in a future blog post. But I also love talking about movies. And I love talking about them more than the standard:

"Honey, did you like that?"

"Yeah, I really did. Toss me the remote."

or

"Hey, what did you think of that one?"

"ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ..."

"Sweety?"

that usually goes on in my apartment.

My blog is my outlet. I have a lot to say about movies, and the genius of blogs is they give us all a forum to say whatever we want. Whenever we want. However we want. And it doesn't matter if nobody reads it, I won't get fired for a lack of readership...although, you know, come to think of it, I would like some readership. And I can design my blog however I want, complete with goofy picture of me dressed up like I'm a discerning critic at a world premier, and I still get the job.

So that's my introduction. My pitch. I'm going to be here talking about movies. New movies. Old movies. My favorite movies. Movies I whole-heartedly despised...and at nearly $10 dollars a pop (and that's not including popcorn), you can bet I have something to say about those.

Alfred Hitchcock once said "Drama is life with the dull bits cut out." So if you're interested in forgetting about the dull bits for a while, that's what we'll be doing here. You're all invited.