Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with the prolific man about Chicago, Capone. He's got a heads up on a couple of documentaries being overshadowed by the giant that is FAHRENHEIT 9/11. I'm particularly looking forward to THE CORPORATION (check out the trailer here!) which seems to be stepping up into the hole left by Moore moving into the political world. It's scary to think that there are corporations out there trying to OWN the genetic building blocks of human evolution. Anyway, after this bunch Capone's got a review of DE-LOVELY. See ya' on the other side!
This summer is clearly the season for high-action adventure films, movies for the whole family to enjoy, silly comedies, and documentaries that wear their liberal leaning on their sleeve. It’s a bit bizarre but none the less welcome that there seem to be a pack of these left-minded docs flooding America’s cinemas this season, led, of course, by Michael Moore’s FAHRENHEIT 9/11, which I will be first in line to see but probably won’t review. The coverage of this borders on overkill. Instead, let me steer you toward a couple other fine documentaries that have similar, anti-establishment agendas (including one that actually features Michael Moore as an interview subject. Later this summer, THE HUNTING OF THE PRESIDENT (a document of the 10-year, conservative conspiracy to bring down Bill Clinton as president) opens slowly nationwide, but over the next few weeks look for these two films if you don’t mind having the veil pulled back and having the crap scared out of you.
THE CORPORATION
Second only (perhaps) to Moore’s latest work in terms of anxiety-inducing documentaries is THE CORPORATION, an exhaustive, 145-minute examination of corporate practices and policies at their worst. The filmmakers make the point that if the legal definition of a corporation is a business with the rights and protections by law of an individual, than corporations of today are mentally disturbed sociopaths that need to be locked up with the key tossed into the bottom of the ocean. Directors Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott, and Joel Bakan make as strong a case as I’ve ever seen (with the help of dozens of interviews with the likes of Moore, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and countess other philosophers, economists, activists, cultural critics, industrial spies, labor leaders, and even a few CEOs) that the corporate structure as it exists today is threatening the lives of everyone on the planet. The film walks us step by step through the history and development of corporate culture, and provides numerous case studies of environmental atrocities, human atrocities (the section of businesses that profited in Germany during World War II made me feel like I’d been punched in the gut), and social injustices to back up its case.
Although clearly a film with a strong agenda, this doesn’t take away from the fact that the film forces you to look at the world around you in an entirely different light. Sure, it seems annoying to see logos and other types of branding on everything flat surface when you walk or drive anywhere, but after seeing THE CORPORATION, these images may incite you to near violence. It was the discussion of how companies factor in the costs of causing injury or even death in the production of their products into their forecasting and budgeting. We get lessons about sweat shops (with special attention, and even a little praise, put on the Kathy Lee Gifford scandal), the greatest polluters, the legalities that companies hide behind, CEO criminals, whistle-blowers, etc. The story of two Fox News investigative reporters whose story was effectively canned by the network because the subject of the investigation (the cow hormone rBGH) hit a little too close to home, especially when and appeals court judge said that lying about the news does not constitute a criminal act.
I’m not going to lie to you, however. THE CORPORATION is heavy, dense but necessary viewing. It will piss you off, hopefully inspire you, and force you to look at your world in a new, much darker light. The film, thankfully, ends with a look at companies that are making changes for the betterment of the world and not just their bottom line. We also get a look at a community that has essentially halted the growth of chain restaurants in their town, and another area that attempted to take away the protective rights one dastardly company. While not peppered with the gut-busting laughs of a SUPER SIZE ME or Moore’s films, THE CORPORATION does infuse humor in its analysis and makes the bitter pill a little easier to swallow, not that it should be. A double bill of this film and FAHRENHEIT 9/11 might make your head explode, but it’s worth it.
CONTROL ROOM
This film has actually been open in Chicago for a couple weeks, and has done some pretty brisk business. Maybe more than any of the other films I’ve mentioned here, this movie really frightened me. On the surface, CONTROL ROOM details the early months of the Iraq War (before it was “won”) from the perspective of the Arab world’s most popular news outlet, Al Jazeera, which continues to air video tapes sent anonymously of terrified American and now Korean POWs. In the early days of the war, the channel was accused of being a mouthpiece of Osama Bin Laden, and was severely criticized at the highest levels of our government for showing the dead bodies of American soldiers. At some point last year, PBS aired a similar documentary about the behind-the-scenes goings on at Al Jazeera, and most of the major players in the organization are also featured in this film. What you soon realize is that many of the embedded reporters from the other networks admire the work done by Al Jazeera, which has freedoms to show and discuss both sides of the war. Since Al Jazeera had an office in Baghdad when it was first invaded, it was able to dispute the U.S. military’s claims about their successes and positions. While the U.S. media was spoon fed facts by the military’s press liaison, Al Jazeera reporters were digging up their own information, sometimes paying the price for such access with their lives.
Michael Moore called the U.S. media “cheerleaders” for the war effort, rather than doing their real jobs: digging for facts, confirming information for biases sources, and questioning the very reason for being there. Now, they are doing these things...tentatively. Al Jazeera has been doing this from the beginning, and the confrontations shown in CONTROL ROOM between the Al Jazeera news editors and the information spokespeople for the U.S. military are pristine examples of dancing around the issues, the facts, and the truth. Even the employees of Al Jazeera admit that their feelings about the invasion are far from unbiased, but to categorically demonize the outlet as part of the terrorism problem (as Donald Rumsfeld did on several occasions) is clearly incorrect. And when you hear the Al Jazeera commentary on that familiar image of “Iraqis” tearing down that statue of Saddam Hussein in the plaza in downtown Baghdad, your heart will sink.
Alright, now on to slightly lighter material! Kevin Kline and musical. I'm interested, even if it sounds a little shaky. Here's Capone again!!!
Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here. Of all of the songwriters of his day, I loved Cole Porter the best. There’s something sly, mischievous, even decadent about his work. Without most people even realizing it, Porter was writing about subjects that were extremely taboo at the time (late 1920 through the early 1950s). His work is filled with passion, bitterness, wit, melancholy, and playfulness, sometimes all in one song. So the prospect of Kevin Kline playing the notorious artist and a truckload of contemporary artists appearing in the film, taking turns singing some of his best known works, was just too exciting for words. But as I sat through this two-hour look at Porter’s life, my heart continued to sink as I began to see that screenwriter Jay Cocks and director Irwin Winkler (primarily known in Hollywood as a producer, but an occasional director of such films as LIFE AS A HOUSE, THE NET, and GUILTY BY SUSPICION) were choosing to only skim the surface of Porter’s life and essentially use it as a framework to move from song to song.
Make no mistake, DE-LOVELY is a musical, not a biography. Now you might wonder why someone who loves Porter’s music so much would complain about there being all this music; trust me, I’m not. The music is great, whether its sung by the actors or the guest players such as Sheryl Crow, Elvis Costello, Alanis Morissette, Natalie Cole, Robbie Williams, and Diana Krall. And if all you care about is hearing these songs, you’ll be in heaven. But I was looking for insight into Porter’s personality. The film tries to paint him as a straight man who occasionally slips into gay love affairs. The fact is Porter was probably 100 percent gay, and simply he slipped into a relationship with wife Linda Porter (Ashley Judd, for once not playing a woman being stalked by a serial killer) because she was perfection. Their relationship was nothing less than loving. She inspired dozens of his songs, but so did his secret life.
My biggest problem with DE-LOVELY is the framework. Similar that ALL THAT JAZZ, or perhaps “A Christmas Carol,” with an elderly Porter sitting in an empty theatre with a man named Gabe (Jonathan Pryce) watching a highlights reel of his life. Pryce is the Ghost of Christmas Past, commenting on the events along with the dower Porter. These frequent asides are a distraction and don’t give us any greater access into Porter’s mind. His uttering things about how beautiful his wife is or how much he tried to love her to the exclusion of all others doesn’t really get the job done. A straight telling of the facts might not have solved all of the DE-LOVELY’s shortcomings, but it would have helped. I blame the writer for these problems. When a sequence involving Cole and Linda in their early years living in Venice opens with a stunning shot of the city’s canals and buildings, you don’t need Porter saying “Ah, Venice.” Come on, dude. When Linda admits to Cole that she’s had a miscarriage, his reaction couldn’t be any more poorly written. “I’m so sorry.” This moment marked a significant turning point in their marriage, but Porter acts like his wife has lost her makeup bag. Perhaps Cocks’ worst crime is finding ways to drop in Porter song titles into the dialogue. “Let’s hope Cole doesn’t misbehave.” Cue music!!! That’s the stuff of amateurs.
Still, there are some fun moments sprinkled throughout the film. I liked the early scenes of Porter with Louis B. Mayer at the MGM lot. Mayer suggests to Porter not to always be so clever, to simplify the themes of his songs. The resulting number based around “Be A Clown” isn’t that funny, but it makes its point. I wish the film had delved into Porter friendship Irving Berlin. Instead, Winkler chooses to linger on scenes of Porter surrounded by handsome gay men (this is a PG-13 film, so don’t expect anything explicit). His exploits put a strain on his marriage, but they also fueled his songwriting, but the filmmakers don’t really do anything with the scenes. We get a sense we’re supposed to come away from those moments thinking “Cole’s being naughty again.” I didn’t have a problem with Kline or Judd’s performances. I actually liked that when Kline sings, he is faithful to Porter’s less-than-stellar singing style, while still managing to convey the necessary emotion. But at times, Kline plays Porter as distant, apart from the goings on, as if he’s saying “I’m not doing anything wrong; it’s being done to me.” It doesn’t make for a particularly sympathetic character.
Maybe the biggest problem with any attempt at telling Porter’s life story is that up until the last few years of his life, he didn’t have a troubles. He lived the life he wanted with his wife’s approval, never seemed at risk of losing it all. So by the time hard times hit him like a ton of bricks, we’re all thinking “It’s about time!” I realize it’s not the filmmakers’ fault that the inherent drama in Porter’s life is missing, but there are ways around that. Unfortunately, this gloss-over film doesn’t make the effort. They have the songs, why concentrate on a compelling story, right? Let me, a die-hard Porter fan, put it another way. In the first half of DE-LOVELY, I was saying to myself as the parade of hits began “Wow, look at how many songs this guy has,” and by the end of the film I was musing, “How many damn songs does this bastard have?” Even the sure fire ones fail sometimes.
Capone
email: Email Capone here and be sure to ask about the "similarities" between himself and Cole Porter!
