****
If Watergate were to take place in present day America … can you just imagine the circus that would ensue? The media would wet itself. Blogs would blossom. And somewhere some brilliant entrepreneur would create a set of personality cards-much like baseball cards-and you could collect the entire set of characters; good guys and bad. I could’ve used those cards in ‘72. For the better part of June, July and August I couldn’t keep track of the personalities involved. I eventually gave up and stopped reading the paper and watching the news. Until David Frost came along.
I was never a Nixon hater, or fan, but I still remember the look on his face as he stumbled through a kind of apology to the American people in front of Frost. I felt then that somewhere in that spare sliver of history between those two men that day lay Shakespeare. I was right, Frost/Nixon, the new film by Ron Howard, adapted from the stage play by Tim Bevan is tragic drama that will take your breath from you. There were literally moments during the movie when the audience seemed to have collectively stopped breathing. I looked around thinking that maybe I was the only one who was awestruck by the film and everyone else had nodded off. Not the case. Everyone was glued to the screen as if they were witnessing a train wreck.
As I stood to leave the theater there was that familiar buzz that goes on after you’ve seen a fine film. People take up conversations with perfect strangers. “Hey, I didn’t know that S.O.B. played the piano.” Others talked about Vietnam and who they lost, and others talked about how Nixon opened China up for the world. One guy stopped me and made a comment about the fact that everyone in the theater was over fifty. I looked around, sure enough. And that’s too bad, because with fine acting from Michael Sheen (Frost), an absolutely stunning Academy Award winning performance from Frank Langella (Nixon), and the finest direction ever from Howard, Frost/Nixon should be an Academy winner but it‘s not carrying a large enough audience. If your much younger than forty-five, Nixon seems like ancient history-without the car crashes. And who wants to see that?
Content aside, if you’ve been paying attention here then I suppose you get my drift. Want to see the finest drama of the year? Then take in Frost/Nixon. Oh, by the way, I have two mint Ehrlichman cards that I’d be willing to trade for one Archibald Cox in like condition.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
No Jolt With Bolt
***
Bolt, the newest from Disney, is a pleasant kid/teen animation that has taken a page from The Truman Show. As a holiday tent pole offering Bolt is not a jolt but more like a squishy shove into the holiday season.
Bolt (voice by John Travolta), a white German Shepard, is the star of a weekly television series along with his “person” Penny (voice by Miley Cyrus). The director of the series, (voice by James Lipton) is convinced that Bolt will perform at his best if the dog believes that the series is reality. He has kept Bolt in the dark about the fact the dog is just a dog and that each weeks adventures, when he saves Penny, are just TV-land fiction.
In a chain of unpreventable events (there’s always a chain of unpreventable events in films like this) Bolt, believing that Penny is in danger, bolts from his confinement and into the real world. Trusting in super powers that aren’t there the dog’s adventures spiral dangerously close to disaster but there are some funny moments during this initial confrontation with reality.
To save Penny Bolt nabs a cat named Mittens (Susie Esseman) who he’s sure works for the evil Green-Eyed Man. With kitten in tow Bolt starts his journey. The two are soon joined by a fat, ball rolling, hamster named Rhino who is Bolt’s #1 fan. Now it’s three for the road and though Mitten’s being dragged along against her will, Rhino the hamster has got Bolt’s back. Eventually Bolt learns that he has no super powers and that he’s just a dog, and he even begins to be okay with that. But he still has to return to Penny because he knows she loves and misses him.
I thought Bolt was cute but I didn’t revel in the story. The setup takes too long and the funny kid stuff that makes cartoons like this fun doesn’t show up until Rhino arrives. What makes the movie meaningful, is the interaction between a dog and a kid who love each other and in the tradition of film there’s not much better than a good old dog’n kid movie. While Bolt won’t be surprising it will be a good way to spend some movie time with your kids or grandkids during the holiday season. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Years.
Bolt, the newest from Disney, is a pleasant kid/teen animation that has taken a page from The Truman Show. As a holiday tent pole offering Bolt is not a jolt but more like a squishy shove into the holiday season.
Bolt (voice by John Travolta), a white German Shepard, is the star of a weekly television series along with his “person” Penny (voice by Miley Cyrus). The director of the series, (voice by James Lipton) is convinced that Bolt will perform at his best if the dog believes that the series is reality. He has kept Bolt in the dark about the fact the dog is just a dog and that each weeks adventures, when he saves Penny, are just TV-land fiction.
In a chain of unpreventable events (there’s always a chain of unpreventable events in films like this) Bolt, believing that Penny is in danger, bolts from his confinement and into the real world. Trusting in super powers that aren’t there the dog’s adventures spiral dangerously close to disaster but there are some funny moments during this initial confrontation with reality.
To save Penny Bolt nabs a cat named Mittens (Susie Esseman) who he’s sure works for the evil Green-Eyed Man. With kitten in tow Bolt starts his journey. The two are soon joined by a fat, ball rolling, hamster named Rhino who is Bolt’s #1 fan. Now it’s three for the road and though Mitten’s being dragged along against her will, Rhino the hamster has got Bolt’s back. Eventually Bolt learns that he has no super powers and that he’s just a dog, and he even begins to be okay with that. But he still has to return to Penny because he knows she loves and misses him.
I thought Bolt was cute but I didn’t revel in the story. The setup takes too long and the funny kid stuff that makes cartoons like this fun doesn’t show up until Rhino arrives. What makes the movie meaningful, is the interaction between a dog and a kid who love each other and in the tradition of film there’s not much better than a good old dog’n kid movie. While Bolt won’t be surprising it will be a good way to spend some movie time with your kids or grandkids during the holiday season. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Years.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Duba-U
****
Oliver Stone’s light satire, feeling mercifully less agenda-than-entertainment driven, soaks the screen with a 131 minute psychology profile of a character who might just as easily have been a store manager at Walmart as President of the most powerful country in the world. In the current atmosphere, W. could have been a hatchet job or a total tragedy. It’s neither. It is a well researched, nearly evenhanded if hastily put together- shot in May for November release- silhouette of the Bush Jr. Presidency.
I’m not a fan of Stone films, often finding the Director’s objectivity filled less with fact than personal ideology corrupted most often by his politics. But this brazen attempt to display the trials of a sitting President- the first ever of its kind- attracted me right off. I’ve been strangely drawn to the commercials of the film and I think it’s simply because, like everyone else, I’ve wondered just how an administration could get so far off track so fast.
Using flashbacks, dream sequences and bits of newsreel, the film jiggits its way unapologetically and a bit too jarring through George’s life. With glimpses of the party-boy, failed business and political ventures, and the worst of his alcoholism we get a view of a man who matures into his failures until touched by the hand of God and led to the promised land of the Presidency. All of this is backlit by the meat of the story, life in the administration after 911 and during the early days of planning the invasion of Iraq. Here we begin to see just how W. might have been led to war as easily as he was led to the Presidency; a delusion of purpose, driven by the desire to please.
This truly could be the story of a man whose highest goal is to prove to his father his worth by becoming the manager of a Walmart. W. is a father and son story lacking substantial depth and too often veneered by odd cuts of George’s dream job as owner of a baseball team. But, W. has one great plus . . . a wonderful cast that resembles the White House ensemble both physically and in temperament. From Richard Dreyfuss as the cunning Dick Cheney to Thandie Newton as the nearly boot-licking Condi Rice, the over-the-top cast revolves around James Brolin in his first leading role almost as if he were the real deal.
W. is a good pick for a matinee or an evening’s DVD choice if you’re a center-of-the-road moderate. If you want to see him strung up, there’s not enough rope here, and if you want to see him deified you’re going to have to wait until after the Rapture hits Hollywood.
Oliver Stone’s light satire, feeling mercifully less agenda-than-entertainment driven, soaks the screen with a 131 minute psychology profile of a character who might just as easily have been a store manager at Walmart as President of the most powerful country in the world. In the current atmosphere, W. could have been a hatchet job or a total tragedy. It’s neither. It is a well researched, nearly evenhanded if hastily put together- shot in May for November release- silhouette of the Bush Jr. Presidency.
I’m not a fan of Stone films, often finding the Director’s objectivity filled less with fact than personal ideology corrupted most often by his politics. But this brazen attempt to display the trials of a sitting President- the first ever of its kind- attracted me right off. I’ve been strangely drawn to the commercials of the film and I think it’s simply because, like everyone else, I’ve wondered just how an administration could get so far off track so fast.
Using flashbacks, dream sequences and bits of newsreel, the film jiggits its way unapologetically and a bit too jarring through George’s life. With glimpses of the party-boy, failed business and political ventures, and the worst of his alcoholism we get a view of a man who matures into his failures until touched by the hand of God and led to the promised land of the Presidency. All of this is backlit by the meat of the story, life in the administration after 911 and during the early days of planning the invasion of Iraq. Here we begin to see just how W. might have been led to war as easily as he was led to the Presidency; a delusion of purpose, driven by the desire to please.
This truly could be the story of a man whose highest goal is to prove to his father his worth by becoming the manager of a Walmart. W. is a father and son story lacking substantial depth and too often veneered by odd cuts of George’s dream job as owner of a baseball team. But, W. has one great plus . . . a wonderful cast that resembles the White House ensemble both physically and in temperament. From Richard Dreyfuss as the cunning Dick Cheney to Thandie Newton as the nearly boot-licking Condi Rice, the over-the-top cast revolves around James Brolin in his first leading role almost as if he were the real deal.
W. is a good pick for a matinee or an evening’s DVD choice if you’re a center-of-the-road moderate. If you want to see him strung up, there’s not enough rope here, and if you want to see him deified you’re going to have to wait until after the Rapture hits Hollywood.
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