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cynical behavior
3/20/05:
I would like to praise Stephen
King for being able to speak his mind on the quality of movies in his
widely read Entertainment Weekly column. I don't actually share
his taste in films (he loved the remake of The Manchurian Candidate)
and I have never been that big a fan of his books (or movies adapted from
them), but I admire his opinions and his urgings to Hollywood for change.
I know, this is a man that had to remake his The Shining because
he wasn't happy with the Kubrick version, but he obviously has a connection
with the book that made him dissatisfied with one of the greatest examples
of scary filmmaking of all time.
Despite the fact that King, a man
with enough clout that he can rant on anything in such a popular corporate
medium, has issues with the motion picture industry, he seems to be missing
the point by saying that Hollywood ignores proof that story attracts more
than stars. From what I can gather by Edward Epstein's new book
The Big Picture, stars are an even greater factor of marketing to foreign
markets and right now international success is almost more important to
studios than that of domestic. Then there is video rental and sales,
probably even more important than box office grosses these days.
People tend to rent what they wouldn't see in the theatre and stars often
have a big impact on this. The top ten rentals this week contain
Flight of the Phoenix, Exorcist: The Beginning, and
I Heart Huckabees, all of which did poorly in theatrical release.
When Alexander comes out on DVD, the title will top the chart,
I guarantee you.
So, Stephen King wants to change
Hollywood, just like I do, but thanks to Epstein's book, and other factors,
I am very jaded at that possibility almost as much as I am apathetic to
poltical revolution in this country. Anyway, there are ways of Hollywood
making good movies with stars and special effects. They did it fairly
well in the 1980s.
I do hope that people can begin recognizing
good scripts, though, at least in this country where we should have a
better appreciation for English dialogue and exposition. Stephen
King made me more aware of my critical conquests. We are not the
only ones who are disappointed with the writing in major releases and
there should be some way of getting audiences to pay more attention to
film's writers as an attractive tool in the way stars are. That
will never happen, though, especially as long as other celebrity critics
lower their standards to recommend films like Ice Princess (as
Ebert and Maltin do).
People don't need to take
my word for it. I didn't like Sideways so what do I know?
People also don't need to take King's word for it. He wrote and
directed Maximum Overdrive (I think it is brilliant, actually).
But next time you come out of the theatre with disappointment, let it
affect you a little bit more. Look how much money you just spent.
But don't avoid the theatre because that won't make Hollywood's product
better, it will only make them depend less on the multiplex. Avoid
the massive consuming of DVDs you haven't even seen and may only watch
once in your life. That is where studios are making their money,
from idiots with expendable dollars at Best Buy.
To paraphrase "The Critic"
for today's culture: If you stop buying bad movies, they'll stop
making bad movies.
3/19/05:
This year's ShoWest is giving me
a big stomach ache. You've got George Lucas hyping
his "Titanic in space". You've got NATO prez
John Fithian begging Hollywood for more family crap.
You've got MPAA prez Dan Glickman showing himself as
a superdad to the real-life equivalent of Nice-Guy Eddie (Reservoir
Dogs) and Teddy Beckersted (One Crazy Summer)
and whatever other spoiled son character you can think of. Jack
Valenti may have been a piece of shit but at least he didn't
have a son who made awful movies like The Pacifier.
Yesterday, as the convention
came to a close, Fox gave theatre owners a look at its four "event
films" for the summer. They claim they will break their box-office
record of last year's $2 billion. Their biggest movie last year
was The Day After Tomorrow which, despite all the money it made,
has no fans that I have heard of. Same goes for Garfield,
another one of their big movies of 2004. They also, through Searchlight,
released Napoleon Dynamite and they cannot be forgiven for that.
I almost dislike them more than Paramount lately (that studio's biggest
film, Lemony Snicket... is only #25 of the year's grossers, by
the way).
So I thought I'd look
at the boastful Fox's movies for this summer and ponder the chances of
them having another good year. Well, they've got Star Wars
so chances are they are not undeservedly full of themselves. After
that, Mr. and Mrs. Smith could be a decent copy of True Lies
and will probably get a good push by marketing itself during episodes
of "The O.C." since director Doug Liman used to be
big part of that hit show.
Next there's Fantastic Four, a blockbuster flop in the wings
if Fox doesn't roll out a better trailer. The reaction so far seems
pretty ugly. And, finally, Fox has Kingdom of Heaven.
Aside from the benefits of Orlando Bloom (the girls love him), Ridley
Scott (the boys love him) and The Crusades (the Christians love themselves),
the period epic is coming on the heels of disappointments like Troy
and Alexander. I'm not sure how much more epic battles
audiences are willing to take, even from the man who started the resurgence
with Gladiator.
Anyway, ShoWest will always
amuse me because it is full of suits shouting to each other, "look
how rich I will make us!" The Academy Awards may be a totally
fake appreciation of the art of cinema but ShoWest doesn't even try to
hide the fact that movies are barely different from any other consumer
product out there.
3/3/05:
Last night I went to see Le
Tigre in New Haven and greatly appreciated their inclusion of
video projection. Not a whole lot of smaller bands can insist on
video and according to their website, they will only play venues that
allow it. As little is necessary the distraction away from the three
women on stage (I've had a crush on Kathleen Hanna since
she bopped around in Sonic Youth's "Bull in the Heather" video),
I came to realize that live music without accompanying visuals is like
a film without a soundtrack -perfectly fine but not as fulfilling to the
senses. Imagine a Wes Anderson movie without the music. Le
Tigre without the video would have the same effect probably. Now
I am going to only fully enjoy a live act if they have some kind of footage
behind them. Attention Kasabian: get on it.
Incidentally, Le Tigre's Johanna Fateman used to do a
zine with Miranda July, maker of my favorite film at
this year's Sundance Film Fest, Me and You and Everyone We Know.
Blog Archives:
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
September 2004
May 2004
April 2004
March 2004
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003
November 2003
October 2003
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