Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Nice catch, Opie. These are three very interesting Sundance entries. I saw HAUTE TENSION at Butt-Numb-A-Thon in December and didn’t realize it was playing at Sundance as well. Your affection for this film will depend on how big a genius you think Donald Kaufman is. The other two, I’m verrrrrry interested to get a look at. I hope there are LA screenings of some of these in the weeks ahead. For now, here’s an excellent report from someone who’s there...
Greetings, all, from the internet cafe in downtown Park City. Lines are long, and the "hot tickets" are even harder to get this year, which is creating no small amount of tension amongst the populace. The local hotels are all fully booked, and EVERY ticket to EVERY screening of EVERY show playing at Sundance has been sold out weeks ago... which, if I'm to believe the locals, has never happened in the festival's history.
Looks like the word is finally out on this whole Sundance thing, eh?
But I digress. I have been lucky enough to snag some tickets to a few screenings here and there, and I will stop dicking around, and review them below:
OVERNIGHT
Yes, you've all heard correctly: this documentary is what Project Greenlight could have been. Nay, SHOULD have been. In a perfect world, we'd all have been lucky enough to tune in weekly to experience the train wreck that Troy Duffy's instantaneous success ultimately became. As it is, we have this, one of the single most entertaining, and hilarious documentaries I've ever seen.
I should probably preface this with the fact that I love The Boondock Saints. I think it's a very fun, stylish film created by a very talented auteur, and it's maintained a steady place in my DVD rotation over the past couple of years.
But, man-oh-man, do I want to bitch-slap Troy Duffy.
Troy Duffy wrote the screenplay for Boondock while he was bartending and jamming with his garage band in LA in the mid-nineties, and it immediately became a sensation all over town. It created a bidding war, with Miramax finally trumping New Line, and making headlines with one of the most audacious, and ballsy development deals in Hollywood history. Troy Duffy, in the terms of the deal he struck with Miramax, got 1) 300 grand, 2) to direct the film, 3) Complete casting approval, 4) Final cut, 5) A budget of 15 mil, 6) An exclusive deal for his band, The Brood, to write the score for the film, and... The kicker: 6) Harvey Weinstein ponied up the dough to buy the bar he worked at, and agreed to give part-ownership to Duffy. All of this based on a single screenplay. 120 pages. Double-spaced.
This sort of deal never happens in Hollywood. Troy Duffy is the perfect example of WHY.
This film was made over a peiod of about five years, by two friends of Duffy, who were also to concurrently manage the band. They had virtually constant access to every stage of every deal, and consequently, we as the audience get a fly-on-the-wall view of just what a raving egomaniac Duffy became. By getting such massive success without experiencing much failure first, Duffy charged head-first into the fray, filled with a "follow me, boys, I know what the fuck I'm doing" bravado, and virtually ruined his career before it began.
The film this most reminded me of was "Owning Mahowney," oddly enough. They both are films where you watch a man destroy himself, and, as an audience member, you are just forced to scream at the screen repeatedly, "Just quit it already? Don't you have any idea how bad you're making it for yourself?"
Unlike "Mahowney," however, "Overnight" generates massive bursts of incredulous laughter at Duffy's bahavior, as he smokes constantly, consumes enough alcohol to kill a herd of bison, pontificates constantly on how talented he is, how big he will become, and how much everyone around him should be grateful for the opportunities he has given them. He takes all of the credit for his successes, blames his agents, Harvey Weinstein, Meryl Poster, his friends, and the media for all of his failures, and by the end of the film, and a disturbingly weird event that gets partially captured on camera, he has morphed into a paranoid, megalomaniacal freak-show. All in front of our eyes.
This is the most shocking display of vanity that I have ever seen, and it's edited together by two guys with an incredible sense of humor. Especially for two guys who, on camera, are berated, belittled, and told to fuck off by one of their supposed best friends.
GARDEN STATE
And, now, from the example of what happens when one rookie is given too much power, we turn to a film that is its antithesis: an example of what can happens when a different, (perhaps more humble?) rookie is given the same amount of power. Zach Braff (of Scrubs, for chrissakes) wrote, directed, and starred in this film, and it's really quite a coming-out party. And, really, honestly... I think this guy may be the next Woody Allen. This film is that good.
Braff plays Andrew Largeman, a struggling actor who returns to Jersey for his mother's funeral, after being away, and estranged from his family, for nine years. That's the short version of the story. This film contains themes ranging from clinical depression, love and what exactly that entails, the search for direction in life, and the growing trend of medicating the young, whether they really need it or not. That a film which deals with such heavy themes and dramatic moments is also hilarious at times is probably its most impressive quality.
The New Jersey of the film is a comfortable, whimsical place populated with offbeat, but undeniably human characters. Not a single moment really feels false. All of the humor springs from real moments, out of the characters (think of the locals jabbering on at each other in "Fargo," and you get the idea), and not from the mindset of a "goofy comedy." More often than not, the laughs come on short bursts, during emotionally heavy moments. Instead of ruining these moments, the comedy makes them more real, more human, more heartbreaking.
I won't even begin to list the vast treasure trove of quirky characters, or quiet, restrained performances that Braff is able to get out his talented cast, which includes very subtle turns from Ian Holm and Peter Sarsgaard, but I must say one thing:
Natalie Portman in this film is a revelation. I shouldn't sound so surprised when I say that, because we all fell in love with her smartass cutie in "Beautiful Girls," but I was really blown away by her performance in this film. She plays Samantha, an epileptic and an admitted complusive liar. (And by the way, if you, like me, hear that she's an epileptic, and then start counting the minutes until she has a grand mal seizure during the emotional climax, well then I have news for you.... This movie is not that cheap. It's got much grander plans for you) Braff has written a character that is quirky without being overly cute, intelligent without being a smartass, and vulnerable without being weak. Portman takes this character, which must have been great on the page, and just runs with it. I don't know if it's a credit to Braff as a writer/director, or to Portman's talent as an actress (probably both), but they have created one of the most original female characters in years. Portman embodies this character and makes her so real, so familiar, that the craft of acting is completely buried, even in the most emotional of moments. You know women like Samantha. You've had conversations with them, and crushes on them. But you've never seen them on a movie screen before. A completely fun, real, honest character like this... well, I can't remember one since "Annie Hall."
Which brings me back to the Woody Allen comparisons. Besides its suburban setting, and the relative youth of its characters and overall sensibility, this film constantly reminds one of those early Allen comedies. Manhattan. Annie Hall. It's that good.
This is not an easy film. The plot meanders at times, and some moments are a little too heavy-handed, but the sheer emotional pull of this film, and its resonance afterward cannot be denied. This is a brilliant, glorious film. Also, I don't know how the word got out, but this was the first film to sell out every screening, and the film with the longest waitlist lines, with some people lining up four hours ahead of time, in the snow, just to see it. It got, and deserved, a standing ovation at the screening I attended. Believe the hype.
HAUTE TENSION
Okay, so I should also include a note at the bottom here that I saw Haute Tension last night at a midnight show. It's gotten a shitload of ink up on this site (in fact, it's because of all of those BNAT reviews that I purchased a ticket, so thanks, guys!), so I won't go into too much detail, but Holy shit, my fucking God.
There is an early shot of a man getting a blowjob from a woman in a van. He finishes, and then, the big reveal..... It was not a woman at all, but a fucking severed head, which the guy nonchalantly tosses out the window.
OK, Frenchy. You have my attention.
What can I say about this film without spoiling it. Incredibly suspenseful. An homage to horror/slasher/suspense/chase movies that does not let go. Ever. Plenty of "Holy Shit" moments. One of the best closing shots in recent memory (yes, better than the stupid, cheesy "Freddy Vs. Jason" closing shot). I walked out of the movie out of breath, and my chest hurt.
Some dickweed during the Q+A kept quizzing the director on whether he knew he had intentionally ripped off sequences from the Dean Koontz novel "Intensity" (oh, yeah, like no one has EVER done the ol' "hiding in the bathroom stall while the killer kicks each door open slowly" sequence), and really made the filmmaker (and most of the audience) uncomfortable. But he got shouted down, like the stupid fucktard that he is.
Well, that's it for now. I will write back later in the week with reviews of Neverland: The Rise and Fall of the Symbionese Liberation Army, Marie and Bruce, We Don't Live Here Anymore, Saw, and (oh boy oh boy) The Dreamers.
If we're still going by aliases, I'd like to be called Opie, if that's at all possible.
Just saw the trailer for THE DREAMERS yesterday in front of THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE. Interesting. I commend Fox Searchlight for having the balls to release it as an NC-17. Can’t wait to see what you think of NEVERLAND, Opie. I hear it’s great. Enjoy the fest, and I look forward to your next report.
"Moriarty" out.
