Film Yap: Underappreciated Scorsese

Next week I’m giving a speech about Martin Scorsese. For part of my research I’ve gone back and rewatched his films throughout the past few months. One thing I’ve noticed is how there is almost something interesting in each of his films. Sure some of his films are duds (New York New York, Casino, Bringing Out the Dead), but they are always trying for something. There are a lot of his films that are just as great as the Taxi Drivers and the Raging Bulls, but haven’t received the proper treatment. Such as…

Who’s That Knocking at My Door?

If you like a director, it’s always a good idea to go back and see their first film. It’s a good way to learn a lot about them as artists. In the case of Scorsese you can see what he can accomplish with little to no money. This is the surprisingly compelling story of J.R. (Harvey Keitel in his first major role) who meets a girl in New York. This world will be later explored in Mean Streets, but there are some very innovative scenes with a new way to edit scenes. Cold violence, juxtaposed music and experimental camera movements; three of the reasons we are subconsciously drawn to his films.

The King of Comedy

This actually serves as the best companion piece to Taxi Driver. Once again DeNiro plays a probable sociopath who should not be in contact with humanity. This time he wants to work in show business. DeNiro’s Rupert Pupkin stalks Jerry Lewis who is playing a Carson-esque late night host. Pupkin is not interested in actually going through the steps to become famous; he wants it immediately. His reality is always in question. In the age of reality TV, this was brilliantly ahead of its time.

After Hours

It took me way too long to see this one. This is the only straight-up comedy Scorsese has ever made and it’s great. It’s really one of the best on-screen farces I’ve ever seen. On a whim, a word processor (Griffin Dunne) decides to go downtown to meet a girl. One thing leads to another and he ends up being trapped in the city jumping from one crazy place to another. It’s very funny and very clever on how all of the madness ties together for poor Dunne. It has a great supporting cast composed of Rosanna Arquette, John Heard, Catherine O’Hara, and even Cheech & Chong. Of all of his films, this is the one I wish was talked about more.

New York Stories – Life Lessons

In the late 80s there was an anthology film called New York Stories. Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen, and Scorsese each made a short film about the city they love. With such talent involved, it’s shocking only of these films was memorable. Written by the great novelist Richard Price, “Life Lessons” is about a painter (Nick Nolte) and his muse/assistant (Rosanna Arquette). They used to be lovers and she wants to move on, but he’s not as willing. This is one of the best films I’ve seen about art and what it means to be an artist, not just with paintings. Watching someone paint could be incredibly dull but once again Scorsese brings in a strong life to the visual style as if we were right there painting a possible masterpiece. Worth looking for.

Kundun

Breaking away from his usual Catholic observations, Scorsese went ahead and made a movie about the 14^th Dalai Lama. The visual style is beautiful with the wide array of colors and landscape. As much as I love The Last Temptation of Christ, it makes you wonder about what he could have accomplished if he had a budget. I found this movie to be fascinating especially considering how little I knew about this spirituality and the political struggles during this time. At the very least, it’s worth watching to understand the parallels with John Locke in the show LOST.

The Key to Reserva

This actually started out as an advertisement for a winery. Now it’s a beloved cult short film among film buffs. It’s a pseudo-documentary about Martin Scorsese finding a missing three pages of a lost Hitchcock script. He’s in comedic conflict on how to shoot the pages because he wants to shoot them like Hitchcock would back then. Halfway through the short, we get to see the filmed scene and it’s amazing. Not only does it capture Hitchcock but it sneaks in about a dozen references as well. It’s very clever and very funny. Also it’s still available for free online!http://www.scorsesefilmfreixenet.com/video_eng.htm

There are of course many many more Scorsese films worth checking out. He has been working consistently since the late 60s and shows no sign of slowing down creatively. He embraces the world of cinema unlike another other director, with a true love for the medium. If you want to hear me blabber on about him some more, I’ll be at the E.B. and Bertha C. Ball Center in Muncie, Indiana on Thursday at 10AM. Tickets are free, but you have to RSVP at 765-285-8975.

I am such a whore.

http://www.thefilmyap.com/2010/03/12/underappreciated-scorsese/

Film Yap: Our Family Wedding

I’m not entirely convinced that Our Family Wedding is a movie. Yes, it’s in theatres but did it mean to be? It looks a lot like a bad soon-to-be canceled sitcom and there were a lot of moments where I think they were pausing for laugh tracks. SPOILER: There were no laugh tracks.

The plot is a very odd one. A couple that is devoid of personality and chemistry are engaged. One is played by America Ferrera and the other is played by Lance Gross. That’s right! One is Mexican and the other is African-American. Don’t jump the gun. They go home to inform their families about their engagement, but it turns out their families are unlikeable and racist. Now the conflict starts. Their respected fathers (Forest Whitaker and Carlos Mencia) already hate each other before this announcement was made. See Mencia towed Whitaker’s car when it was in a no-parking zone. They argued and said racist things. Hilarity forgot to ensue.

So for some sort of power struggle the two families keep interfering with the wedding. They fight over the cake and the traditions, but mostly they fight over the fact that one family is black and the other is Mexican. When Guess Who Came to Dinner? came out is was well received but there was still questions of its social relevancy. With this movie it is already feels dated. It is difficult to root or tolerate characters that are this boring and insensitive.

Aside from that all of the humor falls flat. The dads are constantly trying to be the last to sit down in an embarrassing competition. There is a powerfully random softball game that is mishandled. I don’t know a whole lot about sports, but I know you don’t pitch to your own team and you don’t slide into first. Then, of course, we have the rampaging goat that gets doped up on Viagra. None of these moments flow well into the story and pathetically feel like “Here’s a comedy set-piece. Please laugh!”

So much of this movie feels incomplete. Scenes are abruptly cut off before the main conflict arises. For example in a painful scene where Mencia accidently destroys Whitaker’s bathroom, the audience was waiting for something to come of this. Whitaker to come in and get angry or something. Instead they cut away before anything is fixed and never mention it again. Sometimes scenes don’t have any relevancy. Sometimes I have no idea what day it is. This may just be one of the worst edited films I’ve seen in my life.

There’s further confusion as the movie seems to push an anti-romance agenda and then riddles the film with sayings even Hallmark would reject. The movie feels like a complete mess, but there really isn’t anything worth salvaging.

1 Yap.

http://www.thefilmyap.com/2010/03/12/our-family-wedding/

Words Words Words: Writing For Somebody

A few weeks ago I watched something fascinating. The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson has always been the unsung hero of the late night game. Equipped with a low budget, Ferguson dramatically breaks the norm each and every night. Last week he did something that got a lot of attention. There was no audience.

His guest was the brilliant Stephen Fry and aside from the crew, they were the only ones in the studio. There was no traditional monologue, but only an introduction to this experiment. He said people like Larry King and Charlie Rose are able to do this and he wanted to try it. What follows was simply a free form conversation covering a variety of topics from Twitter to America. Fry is always entertaining because he is wise and articulate while still being funny. So is Ferguson actually. He plays the buffoon card a lot, but he is also a very intelligent individual.

Now this is where the episode intrigued me. All performers and writers are conscious of their audience. I know others will read this article so I am trying to convey my thoughts in a manner that they will understand. It’s more than being considerate; it’s being responsible. On a typical episode, Ferguson is constantly interacting with the audience. He plays off the jokes that are working and always wants to make them laugh. This isn’t just for him, but for them. The audience arrives each night to see him.

On the episode with Fry, he wasn’t the usual performer. He wasn’t playing the manic kooky host. He was calm and very interested in what Fry was saying. There were still jokes in the conversation because the two of them are naturally funny people. They were there to entertain each other and themselves. If the audience is there to see Ferguson, isn’t this the Ferguson they would want to see? This purer and more honest Ferguson?

It is silly to suggest that Ferguson the Performer and Ferguson the Man are two different people. Both of these personas still have the audience of him. The show he has is the show he wants. This is how he wants to do the monologue—what appears to be entirely improvised. This is how he wants to perform the interviews—without pre-scheduled questions designed by publicists. There is honesty in his program.

All writing has an element of truth in it because we write to satisfy ourselves first. That night we saw something that he really wanted to do. As with most experiments, it had the chance to backfire and bomb. Instead it was a great moment of television.