Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
The man. The myth. The center of a quickly-growing cult here on AICN. All this from a barstool in Atlanta next to a rapidly-shedding cat with various glandular disorders. Pretty damn impressive.
Thanks to those wonderful people at CHUD.com, I caught a screening of DEATH TO SMOOCHY tonight. This is a film I've been looking forward to for a while. Robin Williams is a comic genius. Like many of you, I grew up on his stuff, and I'm still a huge fan. But lately, he's been making movies that just haven't agreed with me. "Safe" films, like MRS. DOUBTFIRE, JUMANJI, JACOB THE LIAR and PATCH ADAMS.
But comedy isn't safe. And those films weren't funny. The sad truth is, Robin Williams hasn't done anything worth seeing since THE BIRDCAGE six years ago.
At it's core, comedy is dangerous. It's risky… it's got an edge. >From the look of things, Williams has finally come to his senses. He has cast aside his Disney persona, and he's returning to that manic, dark comic we all knew and loved. He's got three films coming out this year: SMOOCHY and ONE HOUR PHOTO are both very dark comedies, and he's playing against type in INSOMNIA, the Chris Nolan thriller. It's a bold move for Williams, but he hasn't left himself any choice. He can either reinvent himself, or die a slow and painful death watching from the sidelines.
The good news is, he pulls it off.
The bad new is, he does it in a supporting role. If you walk in expecting a Robin Williams film you're going to be a little disappointed. It's a pretty good movie, but it's not the one you're expecting.
Robin Williams is Rainbow Randolph, an ambiguously gay children's show host. Loved by children worldwide, he's given the boot by the network after a payola scandal. The network has to find a new host; their only criteria? The new host must be squeaky clean. Frank Stokes (Jon Stewart) and Nora Wells (Catherine Keener) are given the unenviable task of sorting through the heroin addicts, pedophiles and other freaks which populate the sordid world of children's entertainment, in the hopes of finding a character who wont create another scandal.
They find Sheldon Mopes (Edward Norton) in a methadone clinic. He's trying to make ends meet, strumming his guitar in a purple rhinoceros suit. He's an absolute schmuck - but he's clean. When he's given Randolph's old time slot, his "Smoochy" is an instant success.
Randolph can't believe it. Overnight, he's gone from beloved icon to pariah. He's lost his job, his home, his reputation, his girlfriend and his agent to a stuffed purple rhinoceros. Something just snaps, and he sets out to destroy the root of all his suffering. Oh yes. SMOOCHY must die.
But he's not the only one on this Safari. Children's television is a nasty business, filled with graft, corruption, and really bad promotional tie ins. Mopes may be a simpleton, but he's a true believer. When his fame turns to power, Smoochy turns the tables on his producers. When he tries to clean up his show, he crosses the wrong people. Pretty soon, everyone wants him dead.
It's a great setup. Hell, it's the funniest concept I've read since Corona's aborted PULP MUPPETS project. The performances are first rate. It's dark, it's wicked, and it's funny as hell. But it's all about the performers - moments for the individuals characters in the universe the film creates. The story itself is a tangled mess. I don't think DeVito knew what this film was about when he shot it, and it's painfully obvious he didn't know where the end was. This was a great idea for a film, but something got lost in the translation.
We've all seen Barney & the Teletubbies on television, and recognized them as beings of unspeakable evil. But writer Adam Resnick saw it a little clearer than the rest of us; he created a wonderful neverworld of children's TV, and it's a perfect playground for the characters he's created. It's a world of depraved glee: mob-controlled Ice-Capades, midgets with shifting allegiances, and goose-stepping Nazis. He sets the perfect tone with wonderfully depraved childrens songs - the lyrics of "friends come in all sizes" is a backstory in itself. There's this universe of forgotten children's characters, such as Rickets the Rhino. It's a Bizarro-Disneyland, and I loved every minute of it.
Resnick created unforgettable characters to live in that world, and Danny DeVito went out and got a stellar cast to bring it to life. The result is a series of remarkable performances.
Edward Norton is Sheldon Mopes. He's the straight man. There isn't a mean bone in his body. He's in the business because he genuinely loves kids. He's reluctant to do songs about junk food - he's a vegan, and he eats only organic products. He's absolute milquetoast, but every now and then, Norton gives us a glimpse of the fire underneath. This movie is really about him - the innocent making his way through the sewer. Norton is brilliant. Perfect. Couldn't have been better. This character could have been as boring on the screen as he must be in life, but Norton brought something to the role… It would have been easy to turn this guy into a cartoon, but Norton makes him human. He's the soul of the film.
Catherine Keener is Nora Wells. She's the ice queen of KIDNET - the network that produces Smoochy's TV show. She's really the only one with day-to-day contact with Smoochy, so she represents the cold, heartless reality of children's TV. Watching her abuse Norton is hilarious. Moment after moment of sadistic glee. But Keener is so much more than just a sadistic bitch. She's got a past… a helluva past, as it turns out, and it's fun to watch the ice melt away. I'd never really noticed her before. That will change. You'll be seeing a lot of her this year. She was absolutely wonderful.
But lets face it. You're coming to see Mork.
He's amazing. Un-Real.
Rainbow Randolph is a evil mixture of Liberace, Tommy Tune, and Mr. Rogers. A true song & dance man, he's all rainbows & happy on the outside. Inside, he's rotted to the core… hopelessly corrupted. Every time he's on the screen, magic happens. Even if it's only an obscene phone call, it's riotously funny. Norton makes the perfect victim… he's simply dumbfounded by the whole situation. Kinda like a cute little bunny, who just doesn't comprehend the idea of Godzilla.
Williams is manic, he's smart, he's vulgar. He's WAY over the edge. And he's brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. He dances like a madman. He gives Chris Walken a run for his money. He reincorporates physical comedy into his act, and he takes more than a few hits: every one, agonizingly funny.
All of these elements combine to create some of the most genuinely funny moments I've seen in a while. This film is PAINFULLY funny.
But that's all they are. Moments. Nothing more.
The story that underlies this film is a mess. There is, at once, both too much and too little going on. I have to wonder if DeVito really understood the film he was making. There isn't any clear line through the material, and it's almost like you're watching two separate movies. The Williams stuff is great, but it just ends up fluttering around the story. It's fun, but it doesn't advance the plot in any meaningful way. It's like they got Williams involved, and then beefed up his part to support his name. He runs around like some sort of mad bomber, hurling comic grenades. It's fun, but it's so much MORE fun than anything else that's going on that it trashes the pace of the film. Additionally, Williams almost never interacts with the rest of the cast; it's like he did all of his stuff second unit on weekends. It just doesn't mesh with the rest of the film.
SMOOCHY needed an edit. Desperately. The whole film feels like it went on about 20 minutes too long. It almost as if DeVito didn't know where the end was, or maybe the Williams material was just too good to leave on the floor. This film started off manic and depraved. It's a shame it has to end tired & stupid. The exit is ripped straight out of 1970's movie of the week. It's bad. Awful bad. Even worse, the gags that play over the credits are hilarious, so you HAVE to sit through it. It was almost as if the script just wasn't ready yet. Like it needed a few more rewrites. The setup was perfect. The story doesn't work.
On top of this, SMOOCHY did nothing for me visually. My eyes got bored. "Dark comedy" is a figure of speech, Danny. It doesn't mean ever character has to be draped in shadows. They shot at least some of this in NYC, and it looks like they spent maybe 2 days shooting in Times Square. Yes, there was some cool stuff with the neon signs, and the TKTS stand… and there was ONE wipe at the end of the dance number that I will never, ever forget. But other than that, nothing. Yawn.
Despite all of these flaws, I really dug this film. It's agonizingly funny, and it has moments of pure caustic glee. The performers, the characters, they're all spot-on perfect. I just wish DeVito could have found something a little more interesting to do with them.
But with SMOOCHY, PANIC ROOM, and the FELLOWSHIP relaunch, you're going to be spending a lot of time in the dark next week. The good news is, you'll enjoy it.
PS: Does anyone know what was up with that random Stone Roses song in the diner scene? It felt like an inside joke I didn't get.
And he even did his own HTML encoding!! DEAR GOD, I LOVE THIS MAN!!
... ahem. I mean... ummmm... thanks, Steve. Good work.
"Moriarty" out.
