It seems like Film Festivals are happening somewhere every day of the year, GOOD! Film awareness will breed better film goers, which in turn will breed a better crop of films in the future, or at least I hope it works out that way. At any rate Father Geek here just loves getting all these fest reports and reviews, keep them coming. The following review comes to us from the Baked Bean capitol of the East Coast, Boston, and it's on a film we here at Geek Headquarters think will knock your socks off this Fall,Gary Ross' Pleasantville.
Call me Tom Thompson.
Surprised that no one wrote in yet to tell you that Pleasantville was screened at the Boston Film Fest on Friday with director/writer Gary Ross ("Big," "Dave") in attendance. Really good flick. Here're some relatively spoiler-free comments.
Insert background info here ... two '90s teenagers get sucked into a typically 1950s black and white family sitcom ... stars Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, William H. Macy, Joan Allen, and Jeff Daniels, and JT Walsh ...
Basically, the film starts out as a total spoof on Nick-at-Night. Maguire's character is a "Pleasantville" addict and can cite trivia from every episode. Long story short, it's a great opening and sets up the nostalgia factor well.
Once zapped into the tv, the 90s teens' sensibilities start to affect the Pleasantville townspeople and the townspeople gradually turn from black and white to color. This creates a lot of tension between the "real" citizens of the town (those who stay B&W) and the "colored" ones. Signs appear in store windows that read "No Coloreds Allowed." Books that have come to life (before they were blank and without titles) like "Catcher in the Rye" and "Alice in Wonderland" are burned. Graphics resembling KKK and Nazi symbols are used.
But the movie does not get heavy-handed or hokey (though it does border a little on cliche). It parodies the small-town life of the show ("What's beyond Pleasantville?" Whitherspoon asks during a two-street geography lesson) and inserts social commentary in a light but effective way. Like other movies that go from comedy to drama at the drop of a hat, this one stays consistent in tone (think "Truman Show"'s tone) and the emotions raised are from a realization of how easily the townspeople had reactions similar to 1950s southerners and Nazi-era Germans. It's at once a scary yet light-hearted look at the battle between 50s-era conservativism and 90s-era liberalism. Ross has done a great job here and has created a memorable movie.
Despite winning performances all around, the film's star is really Don Knotts, who plays the mysterious tv repairman whose remote control zaps the kids into the tv. In a brief role, good ole Mr. Furley generates the most laughs of any character. Who knew the guy still had it in him. And I know I'm being brief here, but it doesn't even come close to describing how funny Knotts is.
As I said, Gary Ross stayed afterwards for some Q&A and while I don't remember all that was said, he emphasized that the film had more FX shots than "Titanic" but cost only, I think, $40mil. And it was great to work with all the actors, Knotts is still a spry and well-prepared guy, what a loss JT Walsh was, you really think there're similarities with "Truman Show?" (that's how he responded. Another good laugh), etc. etc. Must have been 20 minutes of questions.
Not sure when the film actually comes out, but surely it will rank as one of the year's best.
Have a good one,
"Tom"
