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EC reviews 6 new movies: NICK AND NORAH, APPALOOSA, RELIGULOUS, HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS, RODANTHE and SAVE ME

October 6th, 2008 by Scott Marks

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (2008)
Directed by Peter Sollett
Starring: Michael Cera, Kat Dennings, Ari Graynor, Alexis Dziena, Rafi Gavron, Aaron Yoo, Jay Baruchel and Eddie Kaye Thomas as Jesus
Rating: ★★★½☆

Tris (Alexis Dziena) called it quits with Nick (Michael Cera) on his birthday and after 12 volumes of breakup mix tapes, she still finds room in her cold heart to rip on them before tossing them in the garbage. Although they have never met, Norah (Kat Dennings) wishes that she had a guy like Nick that would make her mix tapes. Sound predictable? If goes exactly where you’d expect and with this cast taking us through the motions, it’s a blessing. I didn’t see much to Michael Cera’s performance (or anything else) in Juno. He reminded me of a mildly catatonic Ted Bessell. The naturalistic appeal that once eluded at last brought a smile to my face. Some of it borders dangerously on cute. Nick is the only straight member of a gay boy band named The Jerk Offs, but the nonjudgmental manner in which the group is depicted sends out a message of tolerance and acceptance that contemporary teen audiences don’t get enough of. The film tries too hard to be PG-13. It’s all about a night in the life of a group of partying teens and there’s not one drug or cigarette in sight. There’s plenty of booze on screen, but neither of the title characters drink. Are we in Oz yet? This needed a bit more of an R rated Valley Girl bite to add an edge. Was Nick’s Yugo a subtle nod to Terry the Toad driving Opie’s Edsel, or am I thinking too much? Our lovers meet cute when Norah begs Nick to be her boyfriend for five minutes in order to prove that she has a date. Nick’s bandmates draw designated driver duty and are assignmed the task of driving Norah’s wasted BBF Caroline. Ari Graynor, handing in a hilarious, dead on depiction of a pretty (as in hot) drunk girl. For some reason, the image of Kat Denning sitting on the beach behind Edward Norton and Evan Rachel Wood is one of the strongest I retain from Down in the Valley. She learned early in life to stay away with movies that have “house” in their titles, particularly when they also feature words like “Bunny” and Big Momma’s 2.” Ms. Dennings takes a giant career move forward in this romantic charmer. As a date movie,  it lacks the intelligence of The Wackness and the verbal snap of In Search of a Midnight Kiss, N&N managed to quickly win me over. Honestly, it had me in reel one.

Nights in Rodanthe (2008)
Directed by George C. Wolfe
Starring: Diane Lane and Richard Gere

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

This probably would have passed by me had I not filled in at a vacationing friend’s movie group that screened it. (The Cinema Society of San Diego.) Long my favorite genre, melodramas, particularly romantic melodramas, are almost as dead as the western. This isn’t the one to resurrect the order, but it gives it a better shot that most recent soapers. It’s been a long time since Diane Lane and Richard Gere appeared together in The Cotton Club and their recent pairing, Unfaithful, didn’t win my loyalty. Lording over the proceedings is first timer George Wolfe (Tony winning director of Angels in America) and the entire show has two characters and is set in one location. Fortunately, he forgot to pack his hammer (the one most first time theatre directors use to nail movie cameras to the floor), as this is several cuts above canned theatre. Always a sucker for camera movements, there is a spectacular one as Gere approaches the inn that Lane is watching for a friend. The camera flies forward from the back seat, giving us only a momentary glimpse of Gere in the rearview, darts towards the inn and literally sucks the audience in as it swirls around the building before taking us through the front door. The suds are kept to a minimum and Ms. Lane gives the performance of her career. Former students with long memories will be quick to jump down my throat, but I have actually warmed a bit to Richard Gere. (Chicago had nothing to do with it!) Nowhere near as good as Nick and Norah and whole lot less funny.

Continue reading EC reviews 6 new movies: NICK AND NORAH, APPALOOSA, RELIGULOUS, HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS, RODANTHE and SAVE ME

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O.J. Simpson finally found guilty of something

October 4th, 2008 by Scott Marks

What a lovely wedding gift for Mr. and Mrs. Howard Stern!

Thirteen years to the day after O.J. Simpson was acquitted of murdering his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her “friend” Ron Goldman, the American judicial system finally found a charge that will stick. El Jucio has been found guilty on all counts in the gunpoint robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers in a Las Vegas casino hotel room more than a year ago. Simpson faces a prison sentence of 15 years to life. O.J.’s lawyers are sure to contest the verdict on the grounds that this time, the jury was all-white.

The 61-year-old ex-gridiron great (and even better movie star) stared at his shoes, sighed and shot daggers at the messenger while the verdict was being read. The  jury of nine women and three men returned guilty verdicts on 12 charges, including kidnapping, armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. Simpson and co-defendant Clarence “C.J.” Stewart, 54, also convicted of the same charges, were both handcuffed and taken into custody. Judge Jackie Glass set a Dec. 5 sentencing date.

Paramedics were called to assist Simpson’s sister Carmelita Durio, who gave many memorable performances during the 1995 trial, when she collapsed on the floor after her brother was escorted from the courtroom. (Insert: canned laughter and thunderous applause.)

Continue reading O.J. Simpson finally found guilty of something

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Dorothy Kilgallen story optioned for big screen biopic

October 3rd, 2008 by Scott Marks

Arlene Francis, Bennett Cerf, Dorothy Kilgallen & John Charles Daly

November 8, 1965 was the last time Dorothy Kilgallen, syndicated columnist of The Voice of Broadway, appeared as a member of the What’s My Line? panel. Twelve hours after that live Sunday night broadcast, Ms. Kilgallen was found dead on the third floor of her five-story New York townhouse.

It was her 515th stint as a regular panelist on the popular and erudite (by game show standards) quiz program and for years controversy has surrounded her death. Viewers of her last show saw a visibly disoriented Ms. Kilgallen slur, sweat and stammer her way through the thirty minute program. A career substance abuser (mostly booze), when her hairdresser arrived the next morning, he discovered the lifeless body of the chinless columnist. The cause of death was listed as a combination of alcohol and Seconal, possibly concurrent with a heart attack. Unable to determine whether or not her demise was a suicide or an accident, medical examiner James Luke added “circumstances undetermined” to the death certificate.

According to Variety, producer John Davis (Dudley Do-Right, I Robot, Fat Albert, Norbit) has optioned Good Night, Dorothy Kilgallen, a proposal for an expose book by Paul Alexander that ties the columnist’s death to her investigation of the JFK assassination. Kilgallen was an outspoken critic of the Warren Commission. A friend of JFK’s, she began a crusade to single-handedly uncover a conspiracy behind his murder. She conducted an interview with assassin’s assassin Jack Ruby that purported to contain important new information on the murder of President Kennedy. She conceived the interview as a centerpiece for her expose Murder One, Alexander’s book insists that Kilgallen died mysteriously and the notebooks containing the information she was about to publish disappeared.

While the Kennedy cover-up might have been her last bout with controversy, it wasn’t her first. Frank Sinatra refused to appear on What’s My Line due to a long standing feud with the singer that began after an antagonistic 1956 article titled The Frank Sinatra Story. Frank went out of his was to belittle the “chinless wonder” in his Vegas act and it wasn’t until years after her death that Sinatra finally agreed to appear as a WML? mystery guest. In addition to Mr. Sinatra, she also fought with Jack Paar and Arthur Godfrey. Her feud with Paar was based on his support of Fidel Castro and Kilgallen, a staunch anti-Communist, criticized him for it.

Producer John Davis will bring the project to Fox through his first-look deal. No talk yet of who they will get to play Ms. Kilgallen, but I’m rooting for Patricia Clarkson. As for the Bennett Cerf role, my vote goes to Dave Thomas! Sadly, SCTV’s What’s My Shoe Size? is no longer on available YouTube, so you’ll just have to make due with the real thing.

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DON’T VOTE!

October 2nd, 2008 by Scott Marks

Even though this features Halle Berry and Ashton Kutcher I ask you to watch. NSFW!

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Frank Tashlin’s VAN BORING (HE NEVER SAYS A WORD)

September 30th, 2008 by Scott Marks

An after work cocktail was never far from Van Boring’s (or Tashlin’s) thoughts.

An article in this morning’s edition of The Stripper’s Guide (a blog dedicated to the history of the American newspaper comic strip) caught my attention. It had been ages since I considered Frank Tashlin’s early work as a comic strip artist and the time seemed right to talk about this chapter in the career of my favorite comedic filmmaker.

Where I come from, Francis Fredrick von Taschlein (no wonder he went by the name Tish-Tash) is a cultural icon. I was with Tash in diapers, watching his Looney Tunes on my parent’s ancient black-and-white Philco. The films he made with Jerry Lewis followed me through adolescence and as a budding young cinephile, and his CinemaScope masterpieces The Girl Can’t Help It! and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? forever changed the way I look at movie comedy. As an adult, nary a day passes where I don’t view some aspect of our modern world through Tashlin-colored glasses.

Tashlin’s strip was so popular that it spawned its own doll!

Everyone knows that Frank Tashlin was a brilliant animator who later went on to apply his squash-and-stretch sensibilities to live-action features. He began his career in animation on Paul Terry’s Aesop’s Film Fables. In 1932, after a brief stint with Amadee Van Beuren, Tashlin moved to Termite Terrace where his rapid ability to crank out drawings made him one of Leon Schlesinger’s star players. What many of you may not know is that while at Warner Bros., Tash started up his own “silent” comic strip in 1934 called Van Boring (He Never Says A Word).

At first glance, the squat, bald-headed Van Boring resembles jazz band leader Paul Whiteman. In a 1971 interview, Tashlin told animation historian Michael Barrier, “We used to make cartoons (of our) bosses all the time, of Van Beuren, around the studio. We were always doing anti-Van Beuren things. We developed a character, which looked something like him. Well, I started using him in magazine cartoons, as a throwaway character, and then when I came out (to L.A.), I developed him as a pantomime comic strip.”

To the best of my knowledge, Tashlin never appeared in any of his live action features, but a fellow named “Tish-Tash” was a regular in the Van Boring strips. According to Michael Barrier, Van Boring’s lanky, stringy-haired accomplice “was a recurring character in Van Boring, especially in the continuity that made up its last few months, when Tish and Van were marooned on a desert island with two children, Nip and Tuck.”

Tashlin was fired from Warner Bros. when he refused to give Schlesinger a piece of his comic strip revenues. “He wanted a cut of it,” Tashlin remembered, “and I said go to hell. So he fired me.” At that time, Tash had his sights set on bigger fish: “The thing that I had in mind then was to have my own cartoon studio. That’s what I wanted.” After leaving Warners in 1934, Tashlin worked for Ub Iwerks’ animation studio and as a gagman for producer Hal Roach. In 1936, after Van Boring had been put to rest, Tashlin returned to Warner Bros. where he went on to direct several comedic masterpieces, most notably the existential antics of Porky Pig’s Feat.

See more Van Boring comic strips here.

Frank Tashlin’s “Porky Pig’s Feat” (1943)

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Is Michael Moore the only one to see through George Bush’s $700 billion thievery?

September 29th, 2008 by Scott Marks

Being a fan of conspiracy theories, something didn’t set right about Bush’s government forking over $700 billion to save America’s financial system. God Bless Michael Moore! I can’t even begin to tell you how angry I am. Just read this.  Bad mortgages my ass! Can’t wait until Obama evicts Bush from the White House.

Watch our Idiot-In-Chief’s lame attempt to explain the failed bailout to the American public. When it’s over, listen to the brief analysis. New York Magazine’s John Heilemann notes: “I don’t think that comforts anybody. I don’t think that moves a single vote. With due respect and sympathy for the man, that was the picture of a beaten dog. That was the picture of presidential impotence right there. He looked terrible like his bell had been rung.”

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