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"!
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What do you look for in a movie?

The day I signed up to formspring (as an experiment) someone asked me the following question. Can you articulate what you always search for in movies? I realized I probably couldn't do it in 140 characters on twitter. So I'll try right here.


Saying it depends on the movie is too noncomittal. So let's say instead that a movie should always be striving to be its best self. Flaws are really easy to put it up (and can even be hugely endearing) within a movie that is primarily itself. Same goes for television. I think this is why I have so little patience for knock offs, dully conceived remakes and product that doesn't challenge itself but merely regurgitates better stuff.

[tangent] I hate to pick on reality television (too easy) but it's a helpful example. The other night I walked in and The Boyfriend was watching Top Chef. Only it wasn't Top Chef. It took me a few seconds to calibrate that it was just one of many shows that use the same lighting design, same patterns of judging, same gender / age / race mixture panel of judges, same entrances and exit system for winners and losers and whatnot. This is why I detested that Work of Art reality show that was recently on. I actually felt like vomiting when I saw it (rare feeling for me). You'd think a show about visual artists would, in being its best self, be inherently different than a show about fashion designers or a show about chefs. But it was EXACTLY like the others. It had no connection whatsoever to ART, only to other reality shows. It's such a creatively bankrupt genre and it's really sad because -- this next bit is for Joe who hates that I pick on reality TV -- this genre is not inferior at it's core. It shouldn't really be any different than any other in its capacity for flexibility in form and content. There have got to be about 410,273 ways to make a competitive rulebook (at least) and who says it even has to be a traditional competition with one winner for every show? Why does each show have to be the same? Football doesn't have the same rules as tennis. A musical doesn't need the same scene structure as a historical drama.

editor's note: I got sidetracked. I was thinking about TV because I'll be live-blogging the Emmys AUGUST 29th. (Lots of movie stars are nominated) Heads up! [/tangent]

So what I look for in a movie is that it be true to itself, first. For example, I don't need to be "entertained" if the movie is a contemplative exploration of something solemn. I just need it to be thought provoking. Second, I'll admit that I am very focused on performances because acting and human psychology fascinate me. I'm not really a plot person. I think you can make a good movie from virtually any story or subject matter if you have interesting characters and/or visual finesse. So I'm often happy when I get those things even if the story is a thumbs down. It's a visual medium and I'm a visual person. Therefore, expertly judged and delivered eye candy wins me over more than a well turned plot (generally speaking). And as anyone who has read The Film Experience for more than a week or three probably knows, in no particular order these things are generally pluses for me: interesting themes, shot differentiation (I hate it when a director doesn't understand that a movie needs more than just a series of closeups), visual beauty or at least visible aesthetic style, a sense of humanity, great lines of dialogue, good actressing, an interesting color palette.

My favorite intangible thing about great cinema is harder to explain. The movies that thrill me most tend to be the ones where I can sense other movies -- not actual existant movies but imaginary other movies within the movie I'm watching -- just off to the side should the camera wander. This is probably why I feel absolutely alive when I'm watching Robert Altman's Nashville and it's probably why The Purple Rose of Cairo breaks my heart every time.

Some people like explosions. I like explosive characterizations. We all have our preferences. Speaking of... What do you look for in a movie? I'm assuming no two of us are the same. We're beautiful snowflakes! [*gag*] And since no two of us are the same, it's a great question.

Falling in Link Again

cinema
Self Styled Siren terrific piece on memorable movie costumes. The Siren writes beautifully. My favorite write-ups are those for Breathless and Strangers on a Train.
Dennis Cozzalio has an amazing piece about the 35th anniversary of Robert Altman's Nashville, one of the best movies ever made.
Boy Culture on the new Burlesque stills and out writer/director Steve Antin. I'm excited for this movie but also fearful that it'll just be the Christina Aguilera show. That would be epically disappointing given the rest of the cast list: Cher, Tucci, Cumming, Bell.
Cinema Blend Viggo & Fassbender on the set of David Cronenberg's Freud/Jung picture Dangerous Method. Can't wait. So excited to see two of today's best actors in character.
Cinematical Neil Gaiman is sick of vampires.

movie stars
I Need My Fix Jude Law in the Czech Republic. Apparently Sadie Frost is writing a book about their marriage. Uh oh.
Old Hollywood Ernest Hemingway to Marlene Dietrich. Awesome quote.
Diva Asia Apparently Gong Li is now divorced. I'm not that concerned with her marriage. I just want her in some incredible movies again. Like something as good as Ju Dou? That's too much to ask, right? I can dream.

a Buffy moment
Flickr Holy Hellmouth, this "Buffy Alphabet" is awesome thus far.
Low Resolution has a three-part incredibly detailed interview with one of the writers on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If you love Buffy you'll want to read it.

just for fun
pop licks "Best Headline Ever?" Maybe it is. It is pretty vivid.
Chateau Thombeau "Been There" hee x several.

....and because it's just amazing, the video "Big Bag Big Boom" by Blu.

BIG BAG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Nashville Wrap Up 2: TiMER, Cleanflix, Jamie Travis, One Too Many Mornings

if you missed part one

I have a small window of time in Tribeca duties so I must wrap the unfortunately brief Nashville Film Festival coverage.

New Directors Competition
This is the jury that I served on along with Lou Harry A&E editor of the Indianapolis Business Journal and actor Brian O’Halloran who you’ll remember from Clerks. It's interesting to watch so many debut features back to back because patterns do emerge in regards to strengths and weaknesses within first efforts. The jury discussions were yet another reminder – as if I needed one covering the Oscars so closely each year – that one man’s treasure is another man’s… anyway, the discussions were lively and fun but so much disagreement! We ended up not spreading the wealth much because we were very divided about our slate of films and even the individual achievements within the films. Our two winners were both films with small casts performing tiny character implosions.

• Grand Jury Prize: Michael Mohan’s One Too Many Mornings
  I passed over this one at Sundance due to the title and description. My loss. Memorably shot and very well acted (not usually a strength in no budget indies), this black and white comedy brings two old friends together who are both having major life crises, though they're probably not the best sources of comfort or advice for one another. Alcoholism and male commitment problems aren't exactly fresh topics in film but it's all in the execution. There's enough idiosyncratic detail, smart filmmaking and sideways humor to keep this vivid and engaging. I'd eagerly take a second film from any of the people here which to me is a major test of a debut.
  
• Honorable Mention: Paul Cotter’s Bomber
  In this dramedy, a quick-tempered son takes his angry dad, a former airforce pilot, and chatty fussy mother on an anxiety-ridden roadtrip. Their vacation agenda is unclear but the father definitely has one. Bomber is a great title, because its clever beyond its literal meaning once you think over the film and the screenplay's construction.
  
• Best Actor: Anthony Deptula, One Too Many Mornings
  
• Best Actress: Eileen Nicholas, Bomber
  

Documentaries
I normally only catch a couple of doc titles so naturally I miss any fest winners. I saw City of Borders, an intriguing documentary about a gay bar on the border of Israel and Palestine. It gets good mileage from the depressing irony that the only community that seems to be cohabitating quite peacefully (the gay community) is the community that is reviled on both sides. I also caught the button pushing Cleanflix, about the idealogical/legal war between Hollywood directors and the Mormon entrepeneurs who reedit DVDs to clear them of dirty words and sex scenes (and small bits of extreme violence) to sell or rent them to people who can't handle such content. This documentary must have had a large budget because film clips are expensive to license but Cleanflix is loaded with hilarious examples of before/after sequences. My favorite was a scene from The Big Lebowski which entirely cuts out Bunny Lebowski (Tara Reid) but leaves in the dialogue addressed to her and reactions to her absent dialogue. So weird! Anything to avoid her aggressive bikini clad propositions, I suppose. The Cleanflix company even edits torture porn like the Saw series but draws the line at Brokeback Mountain 'for moral reasons'.

Here's to fucked up value systems!!!

Interestingly enough, I was speaking with the director of a small midwestern film festival after the movie and he asked what side I thought the movie was on? I said "Hollywood's obviously, 'my side'". He had the exact opposite reaction, believing the film came down firmly on the side of the Mormons, his side (though he doesn't share their fear of sex & swear words). Curious. The film gets a bit off track in its final act following the sex-crimes related incarceration of one of the many players in the 'scrub those dirty films' clean business! Oh the humanity.

• Grand Jury Prize: Marshall Curry’s Racing Dreams
• Honorable Mention: Taggart Siegel’s Queen of the Sun
  

Music Competition

• Grand Jury Prize: For Once in My Life
• Honorable Mention: For the Sake of the Song: The Story of Anderson Fair

Shorts Competition
I caught only one shorts compilation but aside from Applaus (see previous post) it was the highlight of my Nashville viewing experience. I'm nutty for the work of Jamie Travis so I knew I had to see the program "The Complete Works of Jamie Travis." I'd only previously see his Patterns Trilogy (trailer) which is one of my most favorite films filmobjects ever. The visually gifted gay Canadian is in demand these days making commercials (he says they like his crisp sense of color) but hopes to make a his first feature soon. The Patterns Trilogy, which charts the obsessive imagined (?) relationship of neighbors Pauline (Courtenay Webber) and David (Christopher Redman), is a weird blend of horror, surrealism, musical, romance and drama but the rest of his shorts (The Saddest Boy in the World, Why the Anderson Children Didn't Come To Dinner and his latest, The Armoire) are all about miserable children who are living outside of our typical reality in one way or another. He's basically a genius.

The Armoire [official site] less cute, more chilling then previous films

• Documentary Short: The Rauch Bros' Q&A
  
• Doc Short Honorable Mention: TG Herrington’s Mr. Okra
• Live Action Short: Jamie Travis's The Armoire
• Live Action Short Honorable Mention: Roland Honeycutt Jr.'s Dwight David Honeycutt for Conway School Board
• Animated Short: Chris Landreth’s The Spine
• Animated Short Honorable Mention: Nick Cross’s Yellow Cake
• Experimental Short: Joseph Ernst’s Feeder
• Experimental Short Honorable Mention: Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s A Letter to Uncle Boonmee
  If that last title, sounds familiar it's because Apichatpong has expanded the short into a feature and it'll be playing at Cannes next month
  

Specials
I was there to watch Carter Burwell receive his Career Achievement Award in Film Music (writing briefly about his True Grit score -- did you want to hear more about that interview? I couldn't tell from the limited comments.) but heard about these other prizes after the fact.

• NAHCC Award for Hispanic Filmmaker: Javier Fuentes-Leon, Undertow (previous reviewed from Sundance)
  
• GLBT Film: Leanne Pooley's The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls
  The artistic director of the fest really wanted me to see this one. Oops. You can't see everything.
  
• Rosetta Miller-Perry Award for Best Black Filmmaker: Mario Van Peebles, Black, White and Blues
• Best Film by a Woman Director: Jac Schaeffer, TiMER
  This romantic comedy has a fertile if ridiculously implausible sci-fi premise (humans are implanted with devices that countdown to the moment when they'll meet their life partner) but whatever problems it has in dealing with its premise, it almost makes up for with pleasant charm. Of course it helps that it pandered to me specifically as soon as its opening scene. I should explain: TiMER reunites Buffy's hilarious demons Anya (Emma Caulfield) and Hafrek (Kali Rocha) in the opening scene! Schaeffer spoils me. Schaeffer must be a Buffy fan and I thank her sincerely for her good taste. For what it's worth -- since other Buffy fans will be curious -- Caulfield acquits herself well as a movie lead. I think she was absolutely Emmy win worthy as Anya (but who in the doctor/lawyer/cop-loving Academy was ever going to vote for a love-hungry money-loving vengeance demon?) and she deserves to work a whole helluva lot more than she does.
  

Do you miss me when I'm away? I'm feeling needy. Say something!
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Nashville Wrap Up (Part 1)

Howdy y’all. Excuse the twang. I’m just back from Nashville (last night was their closing night) but now I have already plunged headfirst into freelance work for the Tribeca Film Festival. I miss my Film Experience baby but I’ll be back to regular posting duties on May 1st. I had hoped to write up several of the features I saw in Nashville to give you a better picture of this trip to the longest running film festival in the south but we’ll have to cover those films as they emerge on DVD or theatrical instead. For now a quick dashed off note about the festival’s main slate.

a poster for Applaus hangs over the moviegoing crowd

Narrative Competition
The winner was a blast of color and song, a Russian musical actually. The plot was weirdly reminiscent of John Waters Cry Baby only gender-flipped with a side of boys-who-can't-stop-dancing from Swing Kids (Anyone remember that?). It's squares vs. hipsters opening is thrilling but the first musical number almost derails it for sheer confusion before things really get hopping. It's not always a smooth ride but it's most definitely a ride. It gets better as it goes and the ending is a knowing hoot, contextually the title in a way that just about anyone will understand. Recommended! Bonus points: Giving us lots of Oksana Akinshina who you'll undoubtedly remember fondly from Lilja 4ever. She's all grown up now and ravishing, fully convincing as the unknowable dream girl "Polly" who gets the story rolling.

<--- Grand Jury Prize: Valeriy Todorovskiy’s Hipsters
Honorable Mention: The Be All End All
Best Actor: Anton Shagin, Hipsters
Best Actress: Paprika Steen, Applause

It probably won't surprise you to hear that my great takeaway from this festival was a performance by an actress. I was on a separate jury so I didn't vote on the main competition but I was both enormously pleased and as far from surprised as it's possible to be to hear that they were rewarding Paprika Steen for her portrayal of an alcoholic actress Thea in this Danish film. Not only is Steen sensational as the trainwreck actress but she's also blistering as "Martha" who Thea plays in a production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf that keeps tearing holes in Thea's own narrative with its constant intrusions. I loved this performance -- it's a monster, fully deserving of the closeups it's continually granted -- and I loved the movie, too. You may remember Steen for her intense work in the dogme breakthrough Celebration (1998). She's just riveting in Applause and I'm hoping that the film, which has been working the festival circuit for some time, finds distribution so I can demand that every last one of you see it.

Carter Burwell on Scoring the Coen Bros True Grit

more from the Nashville Film Festival

As an addendum to the "We Can't Wait: True Grit" post, I thought I'd share a few notes from my favorite special event at the 2010 Nashville Film Festival "Carter Burwell: One on One". Throughout the event last night, acclaimed film composer Carter Burwell spoke frequently about his work with the Coen Bros. He counts Miller's Crossing (1990) as his favorite working experience ever because he was given three months rather than the common three to six week time frame. When asked for a favorite score from his own career he offered up only "I like Fargo but I don't really have favorites."

The audience at the well attended event seemed especially intrigued by any hints as to what the soundscape for the upcoming True Grit (2010) might sound like.

"We don't always see eye to eye." Burwell noted when discussing his 14th collaboration with Joel and Ethan Coen. But when it came to the conception of the True Grit score "We both had the same idea at the same time: Protestant hymns." The composer went on to explain that the lead character, Mattie Ross (to be played by Hailee Steinfeld) was so convinced of her own righteousness that they all thought Protestant hymns would be a fine way to play with her misplaced rectitude.

He is just beginning preliminary work ("research mode") while True Grit films in Santa Fe and warns that sometimes the early concept isn't what they end up going with at all. You might not hear any Protestant hymns in other words. But it's their early shared concept. "I like having a concept". He's currently looking for appropriate hymn recordings but griped that "they all sound too sweet." He has an idea for a sort of call and response feel to the theme, a solo instrument echoing back since Mattie is marching off alone, determined into dangerous territory to find her father's killer and recruiting others to join her.

Did he feel any pressure to conform to the sounds of classic Western film scores? No pressure at all. When asked about the 1969 film he reconfirmed that this is not a remake. "We're trying to go back to the book as much as possible and ignore that film."


In case you missed any of the "We Can't Wait: Summer and Beyond" series, here they are: The "orphan" picks Nathaniel (Burlesque), JA (Love and Other Drugs), Jose (You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger), Craig (What's Wrong With Virginia?), Robert (True Grit) and Dave (Brighton Rock); Team Film Experience Countdown #12 It's Kind of a Funny Story, #11 Sex & the City 2, #10 Scott Pilgrim vs the World, #9 Somewhere, #8 The Kids Are All Right, #7 The Illusionist, #6 Toy Story 3, #5 Inception, #4 Rabbit Hole, #3 Never Let Me Go, #2 Black Swan and #1 The Tree of Life.

Link-By Posting From Nashville

Hi y'all. Nathaniel (c'est moi!) is still in Nashville and feeling very out-of-time and place, shuttling from downtown hotel to movie theater to well attended/scrumptious VIP tent between said movie theater and parking garage. It sounds strange but it's pretty on the inside. There's even a red carpet outside for celebrities I don't recognize (Music City, you know). Celebrities seen wandering through VIP tent that I *do* recognize include Michael Clark Duncan, Mario Van Peebles, Sheryl Crow, Jane Seymour and always memorable character actress Beth Grant (No Country For Old Men, Little Miss Sunshine, Donnie Darko among many others). She's pictured below in what was a very flattering flowing emerald dress... though I wished when I saw her that it was more sparkly in motion. Uh... Get it? Ba dum dum. I'm here all week.


No Nicki Kidman like last year though *sniffle*. Last night I played poker until the wee hours (my first time ever!) with fellow jurors and a couple of filmmakers. Texas Hold Em Whilst In Tennessee. My my my my my my my my poker face. I don't have one. I lost.

There's so many newsy bits I haven't discussed since I'm in the alternate reality of the film festival and they all feel so ancient now despite just happening in the past week. Anyway, for now, random links!

Flickers remembers Yentl warmly. Someone needs to
Techland names 12 disaster movies that are better than Titanic for the 98th anniversary of the great ship's sinking
Deadline People keep asking me what I think of Kirsten Dunst joining Lars von Trier's Melancholia. A hearty nod of approval is what I think. She's making the right moves for a major comeback...i.e. potentially reminding people that she's actually a very talented actress, not just some overly famous celebrity


Guardian offers an amusing solution to the creativity drought of today's "remake it!" frenzy
GreenCine Daily on Summer Hours and the myth of age-appropriate cinema. Good piece but I have one tiny bone to pick. Kohn asserts that the main character is several decades older than he, suggesting that he is still in the womb. Charles Berling is only 51. If you were to be several decades younger than 51 how young exactly would you be? Have your parents even met yet?
Coming Soon Looks like Viola Davis is finally getting that lead role we've all known she deserves. She'll star as The Help, a drama about a housekeeper whose candid comments to a writer send shockwaves through her community.
/Film Joss Whedon to direct The Avengers? I refuse to be as enthused as the rest of the internet. Like I've said before I'll believe this entire movie's existence when I see it. It sounds like way too many contracts to corral into one movie. To me at least. Nevertheless the internet will keep writing about this movie until 2022 and beyond even if it spends decades in development hell.
Thompson on Hollywood on Ryan Phillipe and abs
Erik Lundegaard another interesting review of Kick-Ass
Peel Slowly remembers Jaws and investigates the tiny shifts in its iconic marketing

That's all for now. Enjoy...
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Waiting For Cannes Info...

The official Cannes lineup is announced tomorrow. [UPDATE: Here it is!] I bring this up a day early because occasionally while attempting to organize my hard drive (so many folders, so much disarray) I find rather inexplicable photos... Behold!

The Best/Weirdest Cannes Photo Buried On Nathaniel's Hard Drive

Quentin Tarantino affectionately attacks Kathleen Turner while Tilda Swinton, amused, seems to be conversing telepathically with the camera man.

I'd kill for a transcript of all Cannes jury deliberations, ever. So many crazy fabulous people, and such random groupings of the same each and every year. Oh, to be there in the heart of it all each May. This year's jury king is Tim Burton. Juliette Binoche is the light-painting official poster girl.


Important Names for this Year's Fest

• Tim Burton, Jury President (Competition)
  Burton's Jury is composed of: Giovanni Mezzorgiorno (actress, Italy), Kate Beckinsale (actress, UK), Emmanuel Carrere (screenwriter, France), Benicio del Toro (actor, Puerto Rico), Victor Erice (director, Spain) and Shekhar Kapur (director, India). update: Some websites reported that Gael Garcia Bernal (actor/director/international-hottie) was on this jury but he's heading another jury instead.
  
• Claire Denis, Jury President (Un Certain Regard)
• Gael García Bernal, Jury President (Camera D'Or... which honors first time filmmakers)
  
• Atom Egoyan, Jury President (Cinefondation)
  Egoyan's jury is composed of: Emmanuelle Devos (actress/goddess, France), Dinara Droukarova (actress, Russia), Carlos Diegues (director, Brazil) and Marc Recha (director, Spain)
  
• Agnes Varda (to be honored with the Life Achievement Award)
  

That's May. That's next month -- would that I could be there -- but right now it's still April and I'm off to the Nashville Film Festival to do my own jurying. I'll undoubtedly spot a few celebrities (country music division)... only I won't know who they are thereby negating the excitement of it. While I'm away the We Can't Wait countdown continues and I'll try to pipe in with a couple of Nashville nuggets.
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Just Link With It.

/Film Chris Evans offered Captain America? I like Evans but I hope his management doesn't take this as some sort of sign that they were right to ween him off of the beefcake. He did it so well. That'd be like asking Hollywood's young actresses not to maximize the power of their cleavage. That'd be wrong. It'd be positively un-American!
Dear Jesus offers alternative Alice in Wonderlands she'd prefer to Tim Burton's.
Just Jared Penélope Cruz's role in 4th Pirates of the Caribbean revealed
i09 Enver Gjokaj (Dollhouse's MVP) is headlining a new web series he describes as "Twin Peaks Meets Clue" Two great tastes... but will they taste great together?
Film Essent Uppity liberal Kym Voynar lets Mississipi have it for cancelling their prom. GO KYM! (Now, I realize she spells her name "Kim" but after Rachel Getting Married I'm just changing the spelling for everyone else now. You're welcome, Kym Basinger!).
Guardian pokes fun at the Best Actress Oscar Curse. How should today's A-Listers avoid it?
IFC Some people don't want to let Precious-bashing go. It's a handy way for them to feel superior to those who love it. But the blatant willingness to disregard any element of a movie that doesn't fit your critical thesis (in write-ups like this and those before it) only reminds me of the sick state of US politics. It's all spin.

bummer news (for me at least)...

Keith, Sunday and Nicole at some airport or another last week

I was all ready to roar back to the Nashville Film Festival next month (I'm on the New Directors jury) when I got the bad news. Nicole Kidman, who was a likely attendee, will not *sniffle* be there after all. I don't know which upcoming movie is likely to blame for stealing her away (the travel-heavy lives of the rich, famous and well employed you know) but it better be a Moulin Rouge! and not a Stepford Wives if I have to go without her. It's hard to tell with Kidman because she always has so many projects lined up and the line-up is never very stable (not that anybody's is in Hollywood with start dates always shifting and people always bolting for new offers). After the grief drama Rabbit Hole (which she's already wrapped) there's the romantic comedy Just Go With It but that one is already filming and I'm assuming her role is small or even a cameo. Based on plot descriptions, Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler appear to be the leads. They're pretending to be a couple -- Sandler enlists Aniston to help win him some other girl -- which means that they are the real couple of the movie. You know how predictable rom-coms are. Somewhen during their charade, they'll realize that their pretend feelings are real!!! I'm sorry. I forgot to shout SPOILER. But you know as well as I do how these plots go.

Tatumic Temptations

This week my Towleroad article is gauging the amount of heat in the room (or subway) for one Channing Tatum since Fighting opened today. Don't you love that Tatum's extending his pinky in the screengrab? It only makes me love him more. This article also covers the gay bits (there weren't many) from the Nashville festival.

After I wrote the piece I saw one more film that could have figured in. It was called True Adolescents. The movie was about a 30something rocker (Mark Duplass) with more than a little of the Peter Pan syndrome. His aunt (Melissa Leo) convinces him to take her son and her son's friend on a camping trip. The movie starts out all slackerish and obnoxious but as it develops it becomes unexpectedly sensitive, especially in regards to the subject of adolescent sexual confusion. Not a gay film but gayish. It's uneven but it redeemed some of its louder impulses with a subtly tough ending.

Best of the Fest ~ Goodbye Nashville

As you read this I am quite possibly thousands of miles above you in a huge aluminum alloy vessel, travelling back to NYC. Nashville was a treat and I hope I get invited back to NaFF in some capacity. Here's a quick run down of the cinematic highlights for me. I was on the short film jury and didn't have a chance to see some of the narrative features so this is from a limited pool.

Best Overall Prodigal Sons Filmmaker Kimberly Reed tells me she'll be ineligible for the Oscar for Best Documentary because of something to do with BBC screening or funding (?) which is a real shame because I could see it getting nominated. Other goodies: (500) Days of Summer and That Evening Sun, pictured left. [more on Prodigal / more on Summer]
Best Actress Zooey Deschanel in (500) Days of Summer
Best Actor Hal Holbrook as "Abner Meecham" in That Evening Sun. It's based on the short story by William Gay about a farmer who escapes the old folks home and returns to his beloved farm only to find it occupied by new tenants. The film is well directed by Scott Teems, graduating from short films to his first feature, and an Oscar campaign could materialize for Holbrook if this movie gets a solid enough release. Holbrook plays a stubborn old ornery codger... one could say it's an Eastwood'ish role with less of Clint's squinty menace and more of Hal's weary sensitivity. Honorable mention: Joseph Gordon-Levitt in (500) Days of Summer

Best Supporting Actress Three standouts for me. Don't make me choose. It's actresses.

Kaitlin Olsen in Weather Girl pictured right. At first I thought she was doing just an amusing but generic perky blonde sendup. Then she took a late film monologue much farther than I believed it could go. Laugh out loud funny. 4realz. I actually LOLed. Shellie Marie Shartzer in Make-Out with Violence. She has no lines to speak of as dead girl "Wendy" but man does she sell the conceit and work her physicality [more on Make-Out]. Remember that woman that Clive Owen comically seduced over martinis in Duplicity? That's Carrie Preston who is moving in That Evening Sun as a woman who is trying to stand by her man. Mia Wasikowska is also good as her restless friendly daughter. [You'll be seeing the In Treatment regular a lot onscreen soon. She's in Amelia later this year and then Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland]. She wants to get away from Daddy as soon as possible.

...speak of the devil.

Best Supporting Actor Ray McKinnon as Lonzo Choat in That Evening Sun. He plays the tenant of Meecham's old farm. They both want each other off the land. They both intend to stay. McKinnon never once lets his white trash role teeter towards dimensionless bad guy, even though he does despicable things and is pitted against the ultra sympathetic Holbrook. That's quite a feat and this treatment of the character really girds up the central conflict. You might remember McKinnon as Revered HW Smith on Deadwood.

I didn't see the performance that won a special prize for acting from the main jury here (Vincent D'Onofrio in The Narrows) but since the character is disabled I don't know how much to trust that prize. You know how disabled equals kudos as acting goes.

I don't know if I'll have time to talk about the dozens upon dozens of short films I screened but Nick has done a frankly awesome job of relating what our jury decisions were about and reviewing many of the best shorts along his way.

Here's his take on the animated shorts (my favorite was Western Spaghetti) documentary shorts (The Witness was tops and I wanted Steel Homes for our honorable mention but I couldn't convince my fellow jurors to go with it for the prize. grrrr) and several posts on the plethora of live action shorts. We watched for hours upon hours.

Oh, look here's Western Spaghetti. It fills me with delight.

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Transgendered Siblings & Zombie Girlfriends

NaFF ~ Day Five
Yesterday I caught the film that got Nicole Kidman and her hubby here on day three, a documentary called Prodigal Sons. I have no idea why Kidman herself chose it (perhaps it was research for The Danish Girl?) but she chose well. The film is from transgendered filmmaker Kimberly Reed and begins by recounting her journey to her 20 year high school reunion. Her hometown knew her as football quarterback Paul. For the film's first several minutes I expected that the movie would be a traditional but queer slanted memoir doc. I assumed it would recount this reunion and disparate reactions to Paul's new identity as Kim and Kim's own struggles with accepting her past (a lot of post-operative transgendered types destroy all photos and pretend that said past didn't exist). I underestimated it.

Prodigal Sons quickly morphs into something much greater. It's a complicated, well judged and rather astounding study of identity (not just Kim's), family history and dynamics, shared phantoms, mental illness, grief, biological and adoptive parenting, and even some old Hollywood history. I don't want to tell you more than the tag line does "a brotherly rivalry between a man and a woman... and Orson Welles" because I'm really glad I went into it blind. There were moments that hit me like a truck emotionally. I assume it will find distribution and get a major market theatrical release and when it does, go. A-

The other film I saw yesterday was called Make-Out with Violence, a real oddity about two brothers and the girls they pine over, one of whom is dead. Here is the trailer.



The film surprisingly won the top honor at the festival (from the jury that included Elvis Mitchell and Girlfriend's director Claudia Weill). I assume that they were responding to its promise and on that I'd agree. I'd definitely like to see a second picture from the Deagol Brothers. I wanted to love it a lot more than I did but it's worth a look.

On the plus side it has a few really terrific moments, solid visual ideas, beautiful cinematography (it doesn't often look like a low budget indie) and an extremely creepy and well performed twist on the notion of "zombies". In the minus column, it struck me as quite messy: too many characters (two of whom could have been extracted from the picture with very minor script changes), dropped implicated plot threads and an overly repetitive structure. But most problematic I thought was its absolutely bizarre sense of pacing. Nick told me he actually liked its arrythmic feel but it didn't work for me. Initially I gave this film a B- but it linger well. So I'm bumping it up to a B. I am a tough grader [sigh]. I think people who tend to respond to unusual takes on horror or dreamy takes on privileged kids (there's a teensy bit of a Sofia Coppola feel going on within the cinematography) will like it a lot more than I did. I hope some distributor picks it up and asks for another round of editing because the Deagol Brothers have something here but some fine tuning never hurt.

more later...
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Girlfriends (Let's Do the Time Warp Again)

Nashville Film Festival ~ Day Four
A sizeable dilemma arrived last night, the kind film festivals enjoy torturing cinephiles with as two coveted films ran in the same time slot. Do I see the lost 70s movie Girlfriends (1978) or the new film from the terrific young Mexican director Fernando Eimbcke, Lake Tahoe? I've been raving about Eimbcke to anyone who would listen since fall 2004 when I saw his debut Duck Season in Toronto. It opened in the States, finally, two years later [2006 top ten list]. If I have to wait until 2011 to see Lake Tahoe I may expire of anticipatitis and regret my decision but I went with Girlfriends. Here's why: Girlfriends has only been on VHS once (many aeons ago) and copies are hard to track down, no DVD release ever materialized and none is planned and I love movies about women.

Girlfriends is about a young Jewish photographer Susan Weinblatt (BAFTA nominated Melanie Mayron, of thirtysomething fame) whose best friend and roommate Anne, a WASPy blonde (Golden Globe nominated Anita Skinner), gets married and leaves her behind in the city. The rest of the film merely observes the independent minded Susan as she struggles to come into her own as an artist and navigate casual friendships and romances in Manhattan as a determinedly single girl. Though the movie is definitely of its women's liberation time (Looking for Mr. Goodbar and An Unmarried Woman preceeded it into theaters though it was filmed concurrently) it's not "dated" so much as a resonant time capsule. Its naturalism is refreshing. They don't make movies like this anymore though I suppose some TV shows still traffic in the miniature nuances of daily human drama. The budget limitations show but they also add to the movie's inventiveness. The crucial wedding sequence that sets off the direction for the movie (more of a jumping ground for character arcs than a plot) is covered with only still photos and then a very smart visual transition where Susan repaints her apartment, both of which sum up the life changes and emotional gear-switching in sharp succinct detail. Mayron is an engaging funny lead and the ensemble is strong: Famed character actor Eli Wallach is effective as a rabbi and Bob Balaban and Christopher Guest are the principal love interests for the girls. The latter casting was a little strange to see. From our 2009 film culture we don't tend to think of either of these admired screen talents in terms of romance or even in Guest's case in terms of naturalistic acting. A-

Melanie Mayron and Christopher Guest lose their clothes and fall into romance (without cohabitation) in Girlfriends. Photo Source --- >

Though Girlfriends didn't receive any Oscar attention in 1978, it was a critical pet and an influential film: It won the Audience Award at the Toronto Film Festival, garnered minor Golden Globe and BAFTA attention and played at Cannes. Cast and crew fared well: the '78 film led to a studio gig for the director Claudia Weill (It's My Turn with Jill Clayburgh) and she was invited to join AMPAS a couple of years afterwards (one of the first few female directors ever invited), first time production designer Patricia von Brandenstein (who also did the iconic costumes for Saturday Night Fever during Girlfriends long stop and start production) went on to much larger success as an Oscar regular, Mayron's EMMY winning character on thirtysomething was actually based on her role in this film. What's more, the film's core issues are still relevant and still being discussed today in modern femme-centric work like Sex & the City (albeit in a completely different stylistic and more confused political mode).

Girlfriends even had Stanley Kubrick as a vocal fan. Stanley Kubrick! So what happened? It's a real shame and even a little bit of a mystery that it's disappeared so thoroughly. Perhaps Warner Bros will one day make it available since they've recently begun to open their vault.
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I Missed Nicole! And Other Festival Stumbles

Nashville Film Festival ~ Day 2
Began the day with the Inuit drama Before Tomorrow and fantastical optimism. Basically I was expecting another Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner. Atanarjuat, one should know, is nearly impossible to repeat. Followed that with a tiny indie called Mothers & Daughters (so tiny it doesn't have an IMDB page) which... I hesitate to talk about. It was so in love with its actresses that I imagine it would be the type of movie I would make (warts and all) if someone handed me production equipment and several eager actresses eager to chew on scenery. Not that anyone should hand me those.

<--- You'd probably be more interested to hear that it was preceded by a short called Water Pills which starred none other than Winona Ryder. She played a shaky sweating desperate hot mess of a former actress / addict. Um... ouch. She attacked the role so aggressively that I kept thinking she was going for a deglam Oscar. Apparently nobody had the heart to tell her that it was only a short film and you can't win gold for those.

That said, Noni fared better in front of the camera than other big 90s stars did behind it... but more on Demi Moore and Courtney Cox later.

Nashville Film Festival ~ Day 3
Finished jury discussions/ selections today (must keep private until the reveal closing night) so for the rest of the fest I'm off the hook for official duties. Now it's just about seeing movies and trying to spot celebrities. Today there was a lot of excitement on the red carpet but I didn't recognize most of the people causing the rubbernecking. You'd be safe to assume that that's because I know zilch about country music and this is Nashville. The only country stars I'd recognize are those who've married A list actresses (i.e. Chesney & Urban), tried their hand at acting (Reba, Mr & Mrs. McGraw-Hill) or played themselves in movies I'm obsessed with (I do not ♥ Shania Twain but I sure do ♥ Huckabees)

Giancarlo Esposito and Dominique Swain working the crowds

Nick and I did speak briefly with Giancarlo Esposito in the VIP tent after the screening of his directorial debut Gospel Hill. I told him I was thrilled to see Angela Bassett again -- we don't see her enough -- and he said that he was glad to have finally met her through this movie (they didn't know each other before? Or maybe he said he was finally able to work with her through this movie. It was noisy in there). The movie is loaded with celebrities as first films from known actors tend to be. The Bassett but also: Taylor Kitsch, Danny Glover, Nia Long, Samuel L Jackson, Adam Baldwin. Julia Stiles also appeared working her absolutely favorite miniscule niche: down white girl in interracial dramas. It's more niche than Jodie Foster in tight spaces.

A few minutes after meeting Giancarlo I learned that ♥Nicole Kidman♥ was in the building! If you must know, she and Keith were attending the premiere of the documentary Prodigal Sons in the next theater while I was watching Gospel Hill (so close and yet so far!). They chased it with Antonio Campos' Afterschool (which I saw at NYFF last year). I waited in vain for her to come out of the latter but she was too sneaky. Secret exit! I should have known. Basically I have zero in the way of stalking skills. I love my favorites but I'm mostly content to do so virtually and from afar.
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500 Days of Joey & Zooey

Nashville Film Festival ~ Day One
NFF chose well with their opening film. (500) Days of Summer = exuberant crowd pleaser. It's always so enjoyable to see smart comedies with an audience that actually laughs out loud repeatedly (critics screenings can be brutally quiet). The audience was totally with the movie and Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer's (Zooey Deschanel) difficult romance from start to finish. I was a little more tentative about falling for it. Within its first few minutes it threw four things at me that I am completely allergic to: omniscient narrator, precocious child as wizened soul, men vs. women ('they're different!') jokes, and chronology jumbling. I didn't even sneeze. It won me over.

It's 'Zooooey'

I predict big things at the box office. I'm not suggesting it's going to be Juno-sized but I'm guessing it shouldn't have a problem entering that Tyler Perry zone -- $40ish? Or maybe even that Forgetting Sarah Marshall / Role Models $60ish zone? The film cost less than $10 million to make (or, as the moderator joked with its director Marc Webb during the Q&A, 'less than the catering on The Dark Knight') so it should turn a nice profit is what I'm saying.

[editor's note: Who has stolen this blog? Nathaniel knows squat about box office!]

At the very least (500) Days... will make bigger stars of its leads. Zooey may be on her 11th variation of free spirit fantasy girlfriend (definite echoes of her roles in Yes, Man and All the Real Girls in particular) but she's not phoning it in. The film has very smart pacing but in one of the more interesting bits within the Q&A, Webb mentioned that it was hard to control that because Zooey has such unusual "back beat timing" and was always finding new things to work off of within the scenes. He also adjusted the film's entire color palette with the production designer to better accentuate Zooey's popping blue eyes. Good move. The movie falls hard for her just like Tom.

Speaking of. The film is told from Tom's perspective and Gordon-Levitt is _________ [insert your superlative of choice, it probably applies]. He has no trouble whatsoever carrying the picture (see also Brick). Webb called him a "super, intellectual, intense actor" and noted his "great command of his physicality", the latter an observation which I had already scribbled in my notebook whilst watching so I concur. Not only does Levitt shift Tom's body language for every gradation of his relationship with Summer and his own arc but he also completely sells the film's funniest sequence, a dance number, which maybe shouldn't work but works like gangbusters. You feel as happy as Tom by the end of it.

It was strange in the Q&A to hear the director's confession that JG-L didn't think they'd get funding for a movie starring Zooey and himself because they weren't big enough stars. I was thinking to myself: 'But everyone loves Joseph Gordon-Levitt!' And then I remembered. 'Self. Bubble. Bubble. Self. You live through cinema and you talk to other movie fanatics all day long on the web. John Q Public still mostly wants to see Nicolas Cage on opening weekend.'

Opening Night Festivities
No celebrities present (sniffle... although I suppose local celebrities could have been there) but free booze to help you pretend that they were. The festival did provide celebrity intro commercials before the films, though. First up was Mr. Nicole Kidman Keith Urban who welcomed us to the festival onscreen (where was Nicole? I demand Nicole!). Carrie Underwood did the same. In her bit she said "my fellow film lovers" which cracked me up. I was trying to picture Carrie Underwood conversing on Spanish cinema ("Almodóvar and Buñuel. Discuss.") or taking sides in the great critical debate of 2007 (No Country For Old Men or There Will Be Blood?) but my imagination failed me. What do you suppose her preferred genre is? favorite actor?