Streep at 60: A Prairie Home Companion

The following article was originally published in January 2007. It's slightly revised below.

It didn't take Meryl Streep long. By 1987 at the very latest, just ten years into her career, we knew that she could do everything. We'd already heard the accents, seen the funny, witnessed the sexy, fallen in love, had our hearts broken and heard the magnificent singing voice. If she were less endearing and emotionally attentive as a performer her technical range would be just hateful, a thing to curse as she popped up again and again in films. But this woman has it all. She is, put simply, the most consistent versatile actor in the movies.

So what is there left for Meryl Streep to do? It turns out quite a lot.

The joy of watching her now, thirty plus years into a great filmography, is seeing which actors' muscles get flexed for each new project and seeing which past performances are its predecessors. There's also a communal thrill in watching her surprise both herself and us in each performance since there's nothing left to prove. Can you name another movie star who so regularly seems to be having a grand ole time while they're acting? Can you name another actor who is so technically accomplished but still regularly manages moments that feel spontaneous onscreen? I can't.

I've seen nearly all of her filmography which could explain why I prefer her comedic work. There's less of it so you have to hold it closer. Plus the thing I love most dearly about Meryl Streep (her joy in acting) bubbles right to the surface when she's asked to joke about. The Streep performance I cherish most on a personal level is her work in 1990's Postcards From The Edge wherein she also joked, sang, and played an entertainer. And all of this, if you'll excuse the breathless intro, is a very long way of saying that I was thrilled to see her comedic and musical chops get a work out again as "Yolanda Johnson" in A Prairie Home Companion .



Yolanda (Streep) is part of a singing group "The Johnson Girls" that once had more members but now includes just herself and her sister Rhonda (Lily Tomlin). For the first half hour of the film we get to know Yolanda in a series of brief sequences backstage. In the first she enters the theater where A Prairie Home Companion will hold its last broadcast (please note: this is a fictional film about the still running radio program) with her sister and daughter (Lindsay Lohan). She is holding too many things and nattering incessantly mostly to herself but ocassionally to others. Streep gives her character a quick easy laugh and a fluid temperament. As this sister act prepares for the show, Streep fills you in on the rest of Yolanda.

Yolanda's body language is a little fussy but also slow and open. She's often got her arms outstretched. She has a welcoming folksy presence but you get the immediate sense of fatigue from both age and a life on the road. There's also a weird dichotomous specificity of feeling that Yolanda is both a nervous girl and an old woman entirely at ease with her lot in life. Regarding the latter: several verbal remarks indicate otherwise but Streep plays them more like canned instinctual responses; They come from the character's simple humor and are uttered primarily for her sister Rhonda's benefit.

It's Rhonda who harbors more illwill toward their showbiz history. The famous Altman overlapping dialogue aids Lily and Meryl in detailing this sister act. Yolanda and Rhonda have spent their entire lives together and the actresses ably sell this. They're constantly talking to each other, but it's a well rehearsed decades-long togetherness: their minds are free to float elsewhere knowing that they'll always return to one another.

Yolanda's primary concerns are her death-obsessed daughter (whom she clearly worries about but takes joy in) and Garrison Keillor, the host of the show. You realize through her shift in demeanor with the host that she has either loved or romanced him before the events of the film takes place --Streep shows you this with simple glances even before the dialogue confirms your suspicions. She makes this dead romance her best running gag in the film, mining it for abundant laughs that a lesser actor wouldn't even know where to find let alone amplify.

By the time Streep hits the stage you're already completely aware of this woman's personality and her circumstantial simplicity (this life as a midlevel sister act is the only life she's ever known.) And, then in her vocal performances onstage she just keeps on deepening those initial impressions while giving a musical performance, full of idiosyncratic feeling and beauty.



As in all the best ensemble pictures, the performances of other actors inform each individual turn as well. In a great moment backstage Yolanda, realizing Rhonda is upset about a story they've been retelling, sings an old familiar tune and embraces her sister. When the tune ends, Rhonda tearfully says "singing is the only thing that ever puts me right". She's talking about herself but in Meryl's exuberant, silly, and vocally powerful stage performance that follows, you realize the same is true for her. They're peas in this showbiz pond. Singing also puts Yolanda right.

In so many melancholy and bittersweet ways Robert Altman's last film was a farewell. Casting America's most enduring Great Actress in this role made it sweeter. In the film's last scene the sisters and friends gab around a table about the departed radio show. Yolanda, giggling and reminiscing, is determined to jumpstart a farewell tour...

I love doing that last show. I just wanna do one last show and then another until I'm in a wheelchair. I just wanna keep doing 'em.

The Angel of Death (Virginia Madsen) enters this final sequence and smiles benevolently at these principal players corking Yolanda's infectiously loud joy. You realize immediately that one day all of us will give our last performance. One day all of these actors will be gone, even this beloved goddess of the cinema. Feel free to tear up. It's a testament to the film that the feeling is still somehow a good one.

Meryl Streep is now in her early sixties. She's been knocking her performances out of the park for thirty plus years and there's no reason not to hope for thirty more. She'll keep giving one last great performance until they put her in a wheelchair. She's gonna keep giving 'em.



'Streep at 60' Performance Write-Ups:
Julia, The Deer Hunter, Kramer Vs. Kramer, Plenty, Death Becomes Her, The River Wild, Music of the Heart and The Devil Wears Prada.

Oscar Nominations Discussed:
78, 79, 81, 82, 83, 85, 87, 88, 90, 95, 98, 99, 02 and 06

Lily Tomlin, Queen of Existentialism

"Identity is nothing but a mental construct. You mustn't fixate on it."



"I sure hope I'm still me."



"I'm no girl, I'm a woman. I'm not your wife or your mother or even your mistress."

"All the world's so sad and dreary, everywhere I go"



"We might see you floss or masturbate -- that could be the key to your entire reality."



I never cared too much for games and this one's driving me insane | You're not half as free to wander as you claim

"Artistic merit? What's so artistic about a man who turns into a woman? I sound like a good bet for the lead?!? Now you listen..."



"How am I not myself. How am I not myself. How am I not myself."

"I didn't always want to be a gifted actress."


Happy birthday, Lily!

LILY TOMLIN

Whatever this is and whoever you are, you're "primo"!
*

"Is this how we dress for the office?"

.

"You look like a blood clot."

[Great Moments in Screen Bitchery #404, Bette Midler in Big Business]

JA from MNPP here. I just gave a ton of love to Lily Tomlin's performance in this movie over at MNPP. I probably have too high an opinion of this film but what can I say, I was eleven when it came out and deeply infatuated with everything Midler at the time.

And the way Bette's naive-country-twin studies the Grand Dame bitch of them all, Alexis Carrington (Joan Collins) in Dynasty, for clues on how to be a ruthless business woman!

As if Bette ever needed lessons on bitchiness from anybody!
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Can We Talk About Damages ?

My general rule of thumb is that I don't talk about television on this cinema blog unless...

a) I can't help myself (Glee, Buffy)
b) it is connected to cinematic interests (Mad Men, Sex & The City) or...
c) it involves major film actresses

For today's small screen detour, we're talking "c". I watch Damages semi-religiously but I don't love it -- I curse you DVR! you made tv too easy for me -- and I think I've finally pinpointed why. The show is completely intimidated by its Star Actress.


Not that "two-time Oscar winning Gle"-- sorry, uh, "five-time Oscar NOMINATED Glenn Close" is not an intimidating force. She absolutely is. Have you seen what she can do to bunnies, dogs, and pfeiffers?

But Damages creative team seem to live in mortal fear of crossing her path. Every scene and plot development seems to tiptoe up to some big risky "in-your-face-Patty!" throwdown before it scampers away frightened. The way they construct both its rogues gallery and its elaborate plots boils down to the often non-riveting fact that Patty Hewes is an indestructable all-knowing amoral demi-god and everyone else is mere mortal.

For all of Damage's timidity in giving Hewes a true antagonist. -- Rose Byrne's "Ellen" has her moments but doesn't totally work when positioned this way -- you'd think the show would be more terrified to stare directly at Close's Medusa gaze. To make the show as riveting as it thinks it is, they need to focus on this fact: for all the staring matches, they have not yet turned to stone. Glenn Close will not destroy them if they fuck with her a little.

Last week's Close's strongest scene backs up my assertion. The actress nearly found a new note to play when confronted with a disturbing fact (involving her son) that her character was unaware of. Patty, you see, is never The Last To Know. The gap between what Patty always projects (absolute power and relentless determination toward End Goal) and Patty deciding what to project and how to get there without either of those fallbacks was delicious. The show needs a lot more of these gaps in its personality constructs.

Glenn Close is not going to be ignored... but neither, I don't think, would she mind a worthy acting opponent. I hoped, when I first heard that Lily Tomlin would play the Tobin matriarch that they'd make her Patty's arch-enemy. Instead the role, to this point, has been merely an above average take on a teary entitled widow.

I've included an entirely unrelated photo of Lily with Meryl just to make sure you're still reading. Aren't they cute?

I don't think Glenn Close has an equal in the intimidating factor -- unless they really thought outside the box and recruited someone foreign / frosty like a Isabelle Huppert type -- but drama doesn't need its protagonist and antagonist to be total mirrors. That's just one way to do it. Season 2 nearly found the right formula. The blithe carnality of Marcia Gay Harden (see previous post) was a smart, intriguing and non-reflective match for Close's blunt dominance. How, after all, would Patty stare down an opponent that wasn't staring back but checking her hair and talking in hushed sensual tones to everyone but Patty? Strangely though, the show decided not to truly pit the opposing councils against each other. Such a shame.

Should Glenn get another crack at Damages (a 4th season is up in the air), who should take a crack at her gorgon lawyer? Do you share my concerns about the show's imbalance... or do you merely despair that so many great actresses bolt the large screen for the small?
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National Coming Out Day: Queer Hollywood

Hollywood movies would be more dynamic --or at least more surprising --if there were more diversity in the faces, voices, genders and sexual orientations of the people in front of and behind the camera. We could use more people of color, women and GLBT talent willing to bring their own unique perspective to the movies. So today on National Coming Out Day we celebrate one of the underrepresented brave minorities of Hollywood.


Out Writers, Directors
[Links take you to to official sites or IMDB pages]
Pedro Almodovar -Spain's greatest living filmmaker and the man behind the kissable Volver, the Oscar winning Talk To Her the "fag noir" Bad Education and many other amazing films. I like him... a lot. OK, I lurve him
Jane Anderson Writer/director of The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio and the TV movies Normal and When Billie Beat Bobby
Gregg Araki -His most recent critical triumph was Mysterious Skin but he's got the Anna Faris stoner comedy Smiley Face awaiting release. Previous credits include The Doom Generation and The Living End
Alan Ball The creator of TV classic Six Feet Under. His current projects are Nothing is Private (awaiting release) and HBO's True Blood (a vampire series)
Clive Barker Horror novelist who also writes and directs his own adaptations including the famous Hellraiser which is getting a remake

Greg Berlanti He directed the popular gay film Broken Hearts Club but his real contribution is executive producing major television series including Everwood, Dirty Sexy Money and current favorite Brothers & Sisters (related B&S post)
Bill Condon The director of Dreamgirls and Kinsey. Oscar winning screenwriter of Gods and Monsters.
Lisa Cholodenko Director of Cavedweller, Laurel Canyon and the terrific, leztastic High Art with Oscar worthy performances from Ally Sheedy and Patty Clarkson (neither were nominated. grrrr)
Stephen Daldry Oscar friendly director of The Hours and Billy Elliott. He's got two promising films in the works: The Reader with Nicole Kidman and Ralph Fiennes and the ambitious adaptation of Michael Chabon mammoth bestseller The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Er... good luck with that Stephen.
Marleen Gorris Dutch director of Antonia's Line, Mrs Dalloway and the upcoming Heaven and Earth

John Greyson Director of gay indies like Proteus and Lilies (please do see the latter --good stuff). Anyone know where he's gone to since Proteus?
Todd Haynes One of the greatest filmmakers in the world. He'll be expanding his fame and gathering more acclaim when I'm Not There, his Bob Dylan picture opens next month. He's already made at least two masterpieces: Far From Heaven and [safe]. Haynes posts
Nicholas Hytner Theater director who occassionally dabbles in the movies: History Boys, Center Stage, The Crucible among them
Dan Ireland Director of Passionada, Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont and Jolene
Miranda July The performance art charmer from Me and You and Everyone We Know is dating Mike Mills (Thumbsucker) but has been characterized as openly bisexual and "a queer woman" in many a profile
Tom Kalin He disappeared after Swoon his Leopold and Loeb queer indie but he's finally made another film: Savage Grace with Julianne Moore --coming soon.

Joe Mantello Broadway mover and shaker but no movies since Love! Valour! Compassion!
Rob Marshall Director of Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha and the upcoming musical Nine with Javier Bardem and Catherine Zeta-Jones
John Maybury Director of The Jacket and Love is the Devil... so you have him to thank for that shot of Daniel Craig naked in the bathtub (pre-Bond)
John Cameron Mitchell The multi-hyphenate artistic force behind neo classics Shortbus and Hedwig and the Angry Inch
François Ozon French auteur. He brought you the fabulous gallic divas of 8 Women. Past credits include Swimming Pool and Under the Sand. His new film starring Romola Garai is called Angel

Kimberly Peirce Director of Boys Don't Cry and the 2008 Iraq war soldier drama Stop Loss starring a who's who of young Hollywood including Ryan Phillipe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Victor Rasuk and Channing Tatum
Angela Robinson Director of Debs and Herbie: Fully Loaded
Don Roos Writer director of the highly watchable Happy Endings and The Opposite of Sex. His new project is called Love and Other Impossible Pursuits --JLo is currently set to star
Paul Rudnick Also known as columnist "Libby Gelman-Waxner" from Premier Magazine. His screenwriting credits include the brilliant Addams Family Values and the not so brilliant Stepford Wives remake. He's also a popular playwright
Adam Shankman This director had quite the summer with Hairspray. Previously directed other things best not mentioned now that he's made a really good film.
Joel Schumacher Oft-maligned director of The Number 23, Phantom of the Opera, Batman and Robin, and many more. But he'll always have bragging rights on Colin Farrell's Tigerland breakthrough

Bryan Singer Fanboy favorite director behind Superman Returns the two X-Men movies that are worth anything and The Usual Suspects. Next projects include Valkyrie with Tom Cruise and the mouthwatering possible greatness of The Mayor of Castro Street, a biopic on gay legend Harvey Milk. Please cast well Bryan. Please cast well
Rose Troche(Go Fish, Hung, The L Word)
Guinevere Turner This beautiful brunette acts in Go Fish, American Psycho, The L Word and she writes too. Screenwriting credits include Go Fish, American Psycho and The Notorious Bettie Page
Christine Vachon The legendary producing force behind Killer Films. She's shepherded dozens of the most influential and important American indies of the past two decades onto the screen. She'll be in the history books. Past triumphs include Far From Heaven and Boys Don't Cry and the book A Killer Life.
Gus Van Sant Indie director (My Own Private Idaho) turned Hollywood Oscar force (Good Will Hunting) turned curiousity (Psycho) turned artfilm auteur (Gerry, Elephant, Last Days, and the new film Paranoid Park)
Kevin Williamson Writer of the Scream films. Director of Teaching Mrs Tingle. Recently created the "Hidden Palms" TV series
John Waters American treasure. Credits include: A Dirty Shame, Hairspray, Cry Baby, Pink Flamingos and many more


Out Actors and Performers
Chad Allen Credits include Save Me, End of the Spear, Dr Quinn Medicine Woman and the recurring Donald Strachey Mystery movies on Here! television
John Barrowman Charismatic star of "Torchwood", abundant musical theater goodness, and the wonderful "Night and Day" sequence within De-Lovely
Jackie Beat Drag superstar. Films credits include: Adam & Steve, Flawless, and Grief
Simon Callow Beloved British stage star. Frequent film and television work including Phantom of the Opera, "Angels in America", "Rome", No Man's Land, Shakespeare in Love and of course A Room with a View
Craig Chester Indie film actor and best friend of Parker Posey. Starring roles include: Adam & Steve and Swoon

Allan Corduner Fine character actor. He was Sullivan to Broadbent's Gilbert in the fine Topsy Turvy and his many other credits include Vera Drake
Alan Cumming <--click away. His website is fun. Broadway superstar, cologne hawking cheeky celebrity, X2's Nightcrawler and frequent supporting player in films and television
Wilson Cruz TV supporting player. Seen most famously on My So Called Life. Recently: Noah's Arc and Rick & Steve the Happiest Gay Couple in all the World
Ben Daniels British theater actor. Film credits: Beautiful Thing, Passion in the Desert
Rupert Everett Enduring celebrity. His beloved supporting role in My Best Friends Wedding didn't bring the expected mainstream lead roles but he's a fine actor and can still get media tongues wagging. Most recently seen in Stardust. Also writes books (More Rupert scribblings)

Harvey Fierstein American treasure. Broadway legend and lifetime activist. Most famous film credits include Mrs Doubtfire and Torch Song Trilogy. Recent Broadway activity includes the smashing revival of Fiddler on the Roof and a TONY win for originated the Edna Turnblad role for the stage version of Hairspray (and yes, he runs rings around John Travolta)
Peter Frechette Theater actor with film and TV credits including Inside Man, Grease 2, and an Emmy win way back when for thirtysomething
Stephen Fry Most famous to movie awards fanatics as the frequent host of the BAFTAs. Also writes hilarious books and acts in films from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy to Wilde
Robert Gant -From Showtime's Queer as Folk. He'll next be seen in Kiss Me Deadly with Shannen Doherty
Malcolm Gets Recently starred in the romantic comedy Adam & Steve, most famous for several seasons of TVs Caroline in the City
Jason Gould Son of Barbra Streisand. There's gotta be a movie in that, right?

Neil Patrick Harris "Doogie Howser" finally came out. Currently starring in How I Met Your Mother. And for my money the best part of the Broadway revival of Sondheim's Assassins (great singing voice) though he wasn't the one that got TONY attention.
Cheyenne Jackson United 93 ensemble player and Broadway über hunk: the star of All Shook Up and the colead of the current camp hit Xanadu (More on Cheyenne)
Derek Jacobi Highly acclaimed stage star and frequent film actor. Recent appearances include Underworld: Evolution, Nanny McPhee, Hamlet and Gosford Park. He was also Daniel Craig's keeper (the painter Francis Bacon) in Love is the Devil
T.R. Knight Series regular on Grey's Anatomy
Nathan Lane Broadway megastar. Most famous film roles: The Producers and The Birdcage
Eric Millegan Series regular on TV's Bones and lots of theater

Sir Ian McKellen Gandalf. Magneto. Superstar. Activist. Hero.
Denis O'Hare Broadway star. Recent film credits include Michael Clayton (now playing) and that cynical journalist in A Mighty Heart. Let's not talk about that hideous TV movie version of "Once Upon a Mattress"
Peter Paige Most famous for his series regular role on Queer as Folk but he's kept himself busy since with TV, stage, and indie film
David Hyde Pierce "Niles" on Frasier finally came out. It was about freaking time.
Anthony Rapp An original cast member of Rent. Other films include A Beautiful Mind and 80s guilty pleasure Adventures in Babysitting

Christopher Sieber Star of TV's shortlived gay themed comedy It's all Relative. And you have to give him credit for playing straight man to the Olsen Twins in another one season TV flop Two of a Kind. Will be in next year's romantic ensemble drama See You in September
George Takei "Sulu" of TV's legendary Star Trek . Just got killed off on Heroes but not many people stay dead on that show. We'll see.
Rufus Wainwright this folkrock god has been paying homage to Judy Garland for so long now he's starting to feel like a real actress. Plus he's actually acting in films now including Heights and this year's Canadian Oscar submission L'age Des Tenebres (Rufus! Rufus! Rufus!)
Gedde Watanabe Still most famous for playing "Long Duk Dong" in Sixteen Candles but he's done lots of TV work including a few seasons of E.R.
BD Wong Eternally busy thespian and activist. Lots of Broadway (M Butterfly, Pacific Overtures), voice work, and TV under his belt including major lengthy stints on Oz and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Simon Woods Shy cutie Mr. Bingley in Pride & Prejudice and Octavian on HBO's Rome

Out Actresses and Performers
Alexis Arquette Sister of Patricia and Rosanna. America witnessed her journey towards the big snip on The Surreal Life. Past film credits include: Pulp Fiction, The Trip, Wigstock, and Threesome
Sandra Bernhard Legend. Without her you're nothing. Former comic superstardom
Saffron Burrows Eric Bana's delicious lady love in Troy also loves the ladies. Recurring character work on Boston Legal. Other credits include: Reign Over Me, Frida and Miss Julie. Dated her director Mike Figgis and also Alan Cumming (in the list of men above) but is now partnered with Fiona Shaw (The Black Dahlia) --scroll down for her
Ellen Degeneres Talk show megastar. Former leading sitcom lady
Sara Gilbert "Darlene" from Roseanne. Riding in Cars with Boys, 24, Twins
Jane Lynch Awesome comic supporting player: You'll remember her from For Your Consideration, Best in Show and seductively singing to The 40 Year Old Virgin

Cherry Jones Broadway goddess. Longtime activist. Sarah Paulson's girlfriend. Sometime film actor including: The Village and Cradle Will Rock. Meryl Streep snagged Jones's TONY winning Doubt role for the film version
Miriam Margoyles Wonderful character actress who you delighted in (even if you don't know her name in The Age of Innocence, Magnolia and Being Julia among many others
Heather Matarazzo Treated rather gruesomely in this year's Hostel Part 2. Previously seen in The Princess Diaries and abused in Welcome to the Dollhouse
Tammy Lynn Michaels Melissa Etheridge's partner. Television actress most famous for her role on the defunct series Popular. Recent credits include stints on Committed and The L Word
Cynthia Nixon Sex & the City's Miranda. Currently reprising the role for the film version. Also busy on the boards

Rosie O'Donnell Talk show troublemaker. Former comedic superstardom
Sarah Paulson Fresh off of a leading TV role in the cancelled Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Previously rocked stylized period pieces like Down With Love and The Notorious Bettie Page whilst rocking Cherry Jones' world. Her next gig: joining the starry cast of The Spirit directed by Frank Miller
Portia de Rossi From the dearly departed Arrested Development. Formerly of Ally McBeal. Currently on Ellen DeGeneres' arm
Fiona Shaw Stole the show in last year's DePalma oddity The Black Dahlia. Terrorizes Harry Potter every couple of years for a few minutes as Aunt Petunia. Receives endless kudos for brilliant stage work. Next movie is The Other Side with Angelica Huston, Jim Broadbent, Jason Lee, Lili Taylor and many other famous faces. Dating Saffron Burrows
Lily Tomlin Legend. Recently of I Heart Huckabees. Eternally in Nashville. Came out officially in 2000. She's been living with her girlfriend and writing partner Jane Wagner (The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe) since the 1970s

For every A list actor/actress who repeatedly lies about it... For every gay casting director who refuses to consider gay actors for straight or gay roles (grrr and for shame) ... there are a ton of hardworking admirable professionals like these above who aren't afraid to speak their personal truth. They can say the G word with pride ...or at least a minimum of fuss or angst. More power to these brave and awesome entertainers.

Buy tickets to their movies. Watch their TV shows





If you're here for the first time: please check out the most recent postings. There's daily movie-loving hijinx here at the film experience.

Further Reading? If you want to see more complete lists there's also the Wikipedia pages for a MUCH longer list of famous GLBT people . You'll notice that the list you've just read above has more than its share of Brits: they tend to come out in greater numbers over the pond. Here's the pink list --a list of influential gay Britons published last year in The Independent

Lilies of the Field Lawn

This post is a contribution to the Slapstick Blog-a-Thon hosted by Film of the Year

"Have you ever transcended space and time?" -Vivian Jaffe
"Yes. No. Time, not space --no, I don't know what you're talking about" -Albert Markovski
I Heart Huckabees (2004)

OK. Let's start with space. Cross this lawn.


It's a simple enough action for a filmmaker to choreography and capture: have your actor run across the screen. But for David O' Russell, the writer/director behind the brilliant I Heart Huckabees, there's nothing simple that can't be made hilariously unwieldy. Let's add the zig-zag spray of a sprinkler system for the antagonist. Lily Tomlin in a powder blue suit plays protagonist. She'll begin the scene all spy-like, hiding behind a tree with white gloves gesturing to her husband Bernard to follow close behind. Then she'll make a dash for it...

The camera has to jerk and dart a little to keep up with her awkward spray-dodging techniques. She crouches down. She adjusts her speed. She hops.

She does all of this in stilleto heels.

And she gets hit full spray. It's physical comedy - whaddya want?

One of Huckabees recurring visual motifs is a grid-like collapse of the screen, pieces fall off to reveal another image underneath. It's mostly used as a way to illustrate Bernard and Vivian's theories about everything being connected; everything different is the same. It's also a spot-on visual embodiment of the layering of comedy. Like all jokes in Huckabees this one has an extra layer or four.
Sprinkler. Tomlin. Costuming. Physical Comedy. And for an extra giggle: this extremely verbose character suddenly has a monosyllabic potty mouth.

But we're still not quite finished. The laughs in this blissfully funny smart movie are never simple. Huckabees has an inimitable sense of humor and O'Russell and his game actors add new punchlines every time the jokes seem to have peaked. The gags build on each other, gathering momentum. For instance, Hoffman will now follow Tomlin across the lawn and try to step over the jet sprays instead. Even the purely physical gags get funnier after they're over; punctuated as they are with intellectual and physical exclamation points.

Vivian dives into a garbage can and empties its contents for the existential investigation.


"Look at this: Kafka! He's planting garbage for us" -Vivian
"Kafka. That's so cliché" -Bernard Jaffe

Despite O'Russell's notorious onset tussles with cast members from George Clooney (Three Kings) to Lily Tomlin (previous post), he knows just how to cast actors and make the most of their specific gifts. Huckabees gets tremendous mileage from Wahlberg's man boy sensitivity, Jude Law's golden god status, and Naomi Watts's overemphatic intensity. And I'd argue that he gives Lily Tomlin her best role since Robert Altman immortalized her in Nashville during the "I'm Easy" musical number, presenting her in one of the cinema's greatest closeups. Even the slapstick classic All of Me with Steven Martin didn't make use of all of her gifts (Martin got most of the physical comedy in that one).

Tomlin's physical antics in Huckabees (she also dives into cars, lustfully makes out with her husband, crouches in hallways, and plays peeping tom several times over) are a hoot in and of themselves but they're made sillier because the actress and her character are so entirely... so purposefully conspicuous. Lily with her serious face flirtatiously delivering unsexy absurdities and Vivian's costuming choices (stilletos, cleavage cutaways) --well, this woman couldn't get lost in a crowd.

Why was she trying to cross that lawn with stealth, anyway? For her very next move she dives (loudly) into a garbage can and then she enters the house she's spying on and begins to snap photos of its residents in their full view.

This knowingly absurd film is an extremely rare thing: a comedy with true staying power and after-giggles. It's one of the only comedies that's as funny to think about afterwards as is it to actually screen. I heart Huckabees and Lily Tomlin, too.

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for more slapstick go to Film of the Year
related: I Heart Huckabees top ten of 2004 (yes, I wish it was higher)

Tues Top Ten: Funny (?) Girls

for the list maker in me and the list lover in you

Today is the birthday of both Barbra Streisand (the Funny Girl herself) and Warren Beatty's Sister (like Babs, expert with the comic timing) so in honor of them and other funny ladies of yore (I'm partial to Carole Lombard, Irene Dunne and Judy Holliday) I thought I'd do a list of female comediennes. The only trouble was that once I started to form it I realized that I don't see a lot of what passes for comedy these days (mostly because it's male driven and those comedy stars aren't always that funny to me and some I'm straight up allergic to: David Spade and Jon Heder for example) so my list would have too many glaring omissions.

So, rather than do a list of the "funniest women", which might include a few SNL or sitcom alums or even Charlies Angels if I'm generous and would include everyone who works with Christopher Guest, I thought I'd do a list of people I wish would yuk it up more often on the big screen

Actresses Who Should Do More Comedies

10 Jamie Lee Curtis. It pains me greatly that her career ended with Christmas with the Kranks and not the one for which she shoulda been Oscar nominated: Freaky Friday. She never got the credit she deserved during her acting career. She was nearly always much better than she had any right to be given the films and the roles. Such a funny and unique talent. sigh. Well we'll always have Halloween, True Lies, A Fish Called Wanda and Freaky Friday

09 Anna Faris Perhaps I should have said "actresses who should do more good comedies" --I think she's quite funny in the bit roles in which I've seen her but it's not like I'm going to sit through most of the dreck she finds herself in to see if she's as funny as she seems. Can't someone who writes intelligent comedy (f.e. the Coen Bros, David O'Russell, Christopher Guest, Woody Allen, or Alexander Payne) get her some better material?

08 Christina Ricci. Now that she has taken a step back towards recovering her screen mojo (Black Snake Moan), I'd love to see her seize a comedic role with the same intensity and enthusiasm that she did back in her Addams Family Values days. That'd be off the chain. Get it? Um... Black Snake Moan plus... oh never mind.

07 Holly Hunter. More on Holly's best work here.

06 Rachel McAdams. I sometimes get the sense that we're all holding our breath for nothing. It's clear that should she want it, huge stardom is hers. But her career is awfully quiet in proportion to the enthusiasm from moviegoers. She proved she could carry films with Red Eye and The Notebook but my favorites in her filmography are in comedic supporting roles: the caustic sister in The Family Stone and that already classic queen bee in Mean Girls ("I know right?")

05 Meryl Streep. Last year's twofer (Prairie Home Companion and The Devil Wears Prada) confirmed what Streep fanatics have known for a longtime: her legend was built from drama but her delicious silliness deserves its own act in her career.

04 Lily Tomlin. Never mind those Huckabees videos... what matters is what ends up onscreen and Tomlin always delivers. So why is it that one of the best film comediennes only gets teensy roles once every three years or so? Huckabees, All of Me, Nine to Five and Flirting With Disaster are lonely for company in the great comedies playroom

03 Joan Cusack. She's the only female Saturday Night Live alum to win an acting Oscar nomination, two of them in fact (Working Girl and In & Out), marking one of the rare times that Oscar voters have really been wise to the skill and inspiration a comedic performer has brought to the filmmaking table. I wish she'd make more movies. It was good to see her again in Friends With Money.

02 Laura Dern. She's a subtle hoot in The Year of the Dog as an overprotective suburban mom. Pair that with her brilliant film carrying work in Citizen Ruth (1996) and be forcefully reminded that there's much more to this undervalued actress than playing formidable muse for David Lynch.

01 Reese Witherspoon. She's following up her somewhat divisive Oscar-win for Walk the Line with another teary drama (Rendition) and I get the sense that that's the direction she's headed in in general. But she's a spitfire in a good comedy, elevating both Legally Blonde movies and selling the heck out of her career breakthrough in Election. I had to "Pick Flick" for the top spot.

Who would you like to see in more comedies?

I Heart They Hated Huckabees

These videos from the set of I Heart Huckabees are sprouting like evil mushrooms around the net though YouTube keeps pulling them down. So watch while you can. The first is Lily Tomlin pissed off and frustrated at the shooting of a sequence (Dustin Hoffman & Isabelle Huppert are mostly mum). The second is the director himself absolutely losing his shit. NSFW and also NSFLTLBDORISIMTHITC hich translated is Not Safe For Lily Tomlin Lovers Because David O'Russell Is So Incredibly Mean To Her In This Clip.

I really love this movie so the end result was worthwhile but surely a great movie could've still emerged from a less volatile set. All I know is that I would have hated to be a Human Resources Manager on this production or be whoever fills that type of role on a film set.