Hey folks, Harry here with his second report of the day from Santa Barbara. Allegedly he's on the road back to Austin and is probably counting cacti at this point somewhere outside Barstow. Here he is...
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here from Santa Barbara. We're in the last day of the fest now and I gots some movies too tell you about as well as pics from the Diane Lane celebrity tribute thingy that they threw.
Let's start with BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS from director Stephen Fry. I really liked this film, but I'm a sucker for the time period... Swinging '30s... gossip columnists, partying celebrities, harrumphing aristocrats. All good stuff.
This film is about a group of the rich and famous on a carousel of elbow-rubbing, schmoozing and boozing. Essentially it's about movie stars, famous party personalities and the mob of gossip columnists and "photo rats" who hound them trying to get that one great picture revealing the drugs or the deviant sex for the worshipping eyes of the public.
Of course the whole film is told with that fantastically dry British humor that fits so perfectly in this kind of setting. The actors, some known, some unknown, are all fantastic, including the lead Stephen Campbell Moore. He plays a novelist who owes a book to a big-wig Newspaper mega-millionaire played by Dan Aykroyd. He ends up being shuffled into the newspaper's mix and is first partnered with the lead gossip columnist known as Mr. Chatterbox, then ultimately is forced to take on the identity of Mr. Chatterbox due to his ins with the local party scene.
His fiancée (Emily Mortimer) is a staple of the party scene and the two are whisked through a series of adventures. The whole time Moore is trying to raise enough money to be able to marry Mortimer. In an early scene he wins $1000 betting with the super-rich just to give it to a character known as "The Drunken Major" played with great energy and timing by Jim Broadbent (MOULIN ROUGE) for a horse bet.
Of course the Major disappears at the very beginning of the movie and Moore's character spots him every so often and chases him down to get his money back. The chase becomes more hectic when he finds out that his horse, a 33 to 1 odds, wins and the money he's chasing has changed from $1,000 to $34,000.
The film is a tad uneven and the ending isn't as satisfying as one would hope it'd be, but the real success of the film are the characters. From the Drunken Major to the Hearst-like Megalomaniac to Peter O'Toole's brilliant turn as Mortimer's loopy father... My God, he's a gas in this film. The 4 minutes he spends on-screen makes the movie worth seeking out by itself. I can't wait to see him in TROY.
At any rate, this is a fun flick that succeeds more than it fails and it never fails to involve you in the story because you instantly grab on to the characters. I know it got distribution in the UK... here's hoping it'll get (or already has) US distribution.
I'LL SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD
I'm very, very hesitant to critique the man who made the original GET CARTER on how to make a revenge movie. It's something that a little cyber-reviewer shouldn't have the right to do, but I do not know what else I can say after seeing Mike Hodges' long, pointless and dreadfully boring I'LL SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD.
The acting is top notch, but the characters are pointless... You have great actors like Clive Owen and Malcolm McDowell playing opposing forces... Owen the seeker of revenge, McDowell the recipient, but the set up is long and muddled and the conclusion is abrupt and unmeaningful.
Essentially, Owen plays the older brother of Davey (played well by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), a handsome young man who has fallen into the drug world. One night he is tracked from deal to deal to the bed of a supermodel to home. Before he gets home, he is abducted and then raped by Malcolm McDowell. Davey drags himself back home, sets a bath, then cuts his own throat.
Mike (Owen) has a feeling that something is wrong and comes home. He has been living in a camper for some unknown reason and has been moving from back-breaking job to back-breaking job. We find out that he was at one point a strong gangster like figure, but left to go find himself.
First of all, it takes almost half the movie for him to even get into town, then the rest of the film has him trying to figure out why his brother committed suicide. When he figures it out the film peters out into one little confrontation. Throughout the film character threads are started, then ignored, situations set up and not brought to fruition. As a result, any sympathy we have for Davey or Mike is worn very thin by the time McDowell stands face to face with Owen.
Unfortunately, McDowell goes into a speech telling why he raped Davey and it is the most retardedly thought up piece of work they could have come up with. At the end of the movie, all I could think of was, "Wow. What was the point?" Really, this film is just out there lost, trying to find its way through a maze. Sometimes it goes down one avenue to find it's a dead end, then it turns back and tries for something else until it gets frustrated and says, "Fuck it!" and climbs up over the wall, escaping in a cheap and unfulfilling way.
Next we have Diane Lane. I like her as an actress... haven't seen many of her films, but it was always clear she's one of the best actresses out there. So I had a front row seat to Diane Lane's tribute, which was interesting. Leonard Maltin MCed the evening and presented clips going back to her first film, A LITTLE ROMANCE all the way up to UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN.
Take a look at this pic! This picture makes me laugh. This one just calls out for a funny caption. Talkbackers below give it a shot! Be creative! Here's the pic!
And then THE DUDE live and in person appeared and presented Ms. Lane with her award! He abides! The Dude! Too cool!
All right, squirts. Gonna get ready to hit the closing night celebrations. I will be back soon with some interviews with Jan Sardi (director of my favorite film of the festival, LOVE'S BROTHER) and the star of that film, Adam Garcia. I also got another bundle of reviews. Until that day, this is Quint bidding you all a fond farewell and adieu.
-Quint
