Review: "Pleasantville" is Pleasingly Pleasant

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 156 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux on Patreon

Pleasantville (1998)
Running time: 124 minutes (2 hours, 4 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some thematic elements emphasizing sexuality, and for language
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Gary Ross
PRODUCERS: Robert J. Degus, Jon Kilik, Gary Ross, and Steven Soderbergh
CINEMATOGRAPHER: John Lindley
EDITOR: William Goldenberg
COMPOSER: Randy Newman
Academy Award nominee

COMEDY/DRAMA/FANTASY

Starring: Tobey Maguire, William H. Macy, Joan Allen, Reese Witherspoon, Jeff Daniels, Jane Kaczmarek, Don Knotts, Paul Walker, and J.T. Walsh

The subject of this movie review is Pleasantville, a 1998 comedy-drama and fantasy film from writer/director Gary Ross, who would go on to write and direct the Oscar-nominated, Seabiscuit (2003). Pleasantville stars Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon as a brother and sister transported into their television set where they find themselves in the world of a 1950s black and white situation comedy.

It’s premise, especially the device that initiates the premise, is something straight out of pulp science fiction or pulp comics (in particular, EC comics), but Pleasantville ends up being a film poignant and delightful and thought provoking and entertaining. The film begins in the 1990’s with a brother and sister pair. David Wagner (Tobey Maguire), single, lonely, and unhappy, escapes his melancholy reality by watching the nostalgic 1950’s era soap opera, “Pleasantville.” After his TV breaks, a very strange repairman (Don Knott) gives him an equally strange remote control, but his sister, Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon), who is David’s exact opposite (happy and more far more sexually active than her brother), argues with David over watching the TV. During their struggle for the peculiar remote control, it transports the pair into the television to Pleasantville.

Suddenly, David and Jennifer are Bud and Mary-Sue Parker, and they find themselves completely assimilated into the new world. They are now black and white instead of color, and they have new 50’s era clothes. They also have new and different parents Betty (Joan Allen) and George Parker (William H. Macy), more pleasant than the old models. While David decides to blend in with this new world, Jennifer is sexually aggressive with the sexually naïve teenage boys of this “Leave it to Beaver” like world. David/Bud and Jennifer/Mary-Sue’s antics begin to change the world, and one thing leads to another and suddenly there is a vivid, red rose in this black and white world. Soon, the denizens of Pleasantville start to break rules and to break with long held traditions and before long, life is growing ever more colorful in Pleasantville. But not everyone is happy, including Bud and Mary-Sue’s Pleasantville dad and the town council, and they plan to do something about it.

There is so much to like about this movie, especially the wonderful cast. Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon perfectly portray the squabbling pair of siblings, playing them at just the right pitch to make this movie work. However, it is the adult or older actors that sell Pleasantville’s ideas and messages. The themes of conformity, rebellion, marital discord, infidelity, betrayal, loyalty, and mob violence and group-think come to life in the stand out performances of William H. Macy, Joan Allen, Jeff Daniels and the late J.T. Walsh. It’s fun to watch Ms. Witherspoon’s antics, and Maguire has that young everyman quality that draws audiences into living vicariously through him, but the older actors shape and structure the elements that define this film.

Many Oscar® watchers had pegged this film as an early favorite to receive some big nominations, but it only earned three Academy Award nominations in the so-called technical categories. I get the feeling that many people were put off by the film. The very things that make it so intriguing – from its ideas to its concept start to fall apart about midway through the film. Slowly, but surely, the structure becomes shaky the longer the film runs. At 124 minutes (2 hours and 4 minutes) this film seems about 20 minutes too long. The last third of the film seems especially too preachy, too obvious, and heavy-handed.

Still, director/screenwriter Gary Ross created an enduring and charming gem; though flawed, it harks back to simply notions and an idealized simpler time in a fictional golden age. But the film does seem to ask, was that time really idealized and just how much is actually fiction about the good old days.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
1999 Academy Awards: 3 nominations: “Best Art Direction-Set Decoration” (Jeannine Claudia Oppewall and Jay Hart), “Best Costume Design” (Judianna Makovsky), and “Best Music, Original Dramatic Score” (Randy Newman)

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Review: Great Performances "Walk the Line" (Happy B'day, Joaquin Phoenix)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 177 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Walk the Line (2005)
Running time: 135 minutes (2 hours, 15 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some language, thematic material, and depiction of drug dependency
DIRECTOR: James Mangold
WRITERS: Gill Dennis and James Mangold (based upon the books The Man in Black by Johnny Cash and Cash: An Autobiography by Johnny Cash and Patrick Carr)
PRODUCERS: James Keach and Cathy Konrad
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Phedon Papamichael
EDITOR: Michael McCusker

DRAMA/BIOGRAPHY/MUSIC-SONGS with elements of romance

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Ginnifer Goodwin, Robert Patrick, Dallas Roberts, Dan John Miller, Larry Bagby, Shelby Lynne, Tyler Hilton, Waylon Malloy Payne, Shooter Jennings, Sandra Ellis Lafferty, and Dan Beene

Walk the Line, the Johnny Cash biopic, chronicles Cash’s beginnings as the son of Ray Cash, (Robert Patrick), a poor Arkansas cotton farmer, his rise to fame with Sun Records in Memphis, and his early status as a rock and country music star with Columbia Records. Along the way, Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) battles an addiction to pills, struggles with his first marriage to Vivian Cash (Ginnifer Goodwin), and meets the true love of his life and his soul mate, June Carter (Reese Witherspoon), a singer Cash admired when he was a poor Arkansas boy and she was a child star singer on the country music circuit of the 1940’s.

Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash is the primary reason Walk the Line succeeds. He plays Cash with equal parts mad abandon and quiet intensity. His Cash is one moment a wild man and the next moment a vulnerable soul desiring an intimate connection with June Carter or perhaps seeking reconciliation with the past. A film biography usually can’t give us the interior substance of the man a book could. However, a film biography can give us some kind of emotional and visual approximation of Cash. That’s what Joaquin does in Walk the Line.

Sadly, the film’s (almost) fatal flaw is the script because it’s shallow. The writers, Gill Dennis and director James Mangold, rely on several elements to give the film its emotional impact. One of them is Cash’s drug use, but the film takes a very surface look at it. Cash uses drugs; he becomes addicted, acts like an ass to his friends and family, and breaks things. That entire sub-plot comes across as what it is – old hat. It’s more annoying than interesting.

Two other important sub-plots are Johnny’s relationship with his father, Ray, and his wife Vivian. Robert Patrick gives a good performance as Ray Cash, but Mangold and Dennis mishandle the relationship (or misunderstood it while doing research for the film). It’s a clunky bit of writing that usually has a strung-out Cash staring oh-so-intensely staring at Papa Cash while Ray simply acts like a mean sumbitch. The film doesn’t need the father-son dynamic to be touchy-feely, but that relationship has no heart, is paper-thin, and the resolution is tacked on for a feel-good ending.

Vivian Cash, expertly played by the stunningly gorgeous Ginnifer Goodwin, gets the same dismissal. Mangold and Dennis once again rely on an old film stereotype, one especially big in biopics – that of the shrewish wife. Vivian is more whiny than happy, and the marriage is more or less played as being misbegotten from the get-go. That’s inaccurate (certainly by the accounts of Cash’s four children by Vivian), and if the filmmakers intended to play the marital strife for dramatic effect, they failed, instead ruining a good character.

The biggest waste in Walk the Line is Reese Witherspoon’s June Carter. As written here, the part isn’t a co-lead; it’s a glorified supporting role. Ms. Witherspoon and Phoenix certainly have some serious screen chemistry. They butt heads, stare deeply at one another, and bicker like siblings – or like longtime lovers. Ultimately, however, the story plays June Carter as being only important because she is something Johnny has to have. Of course, this isn’t really June’s story, but it’s obvious to anyone who sees Walk the Line how important June was to Johnny, though we only get a tantalizing piece here and there.

In Ray, the Ray Charles biopic, actor playing important supporting characters get at least one scene to define his characters both as an individual and as a larger part of the narrative. Walk the Line doesn’t allow this except for June Carter’s part. We also get very little of Johnny Cash’s backup band and or of his industry collaborators and acquaintances. Ray also gave the viewer numerous looks at Ray Charles’ creative process of songwriting, performing, and producing. Other than the concert scenes, Walk the Line gives us very little of Johnny Cash’s creative process.

Still, I found myself getting emotional during much of Walk the Line. There are some powerfully emotional scenes here (for instance, when Johnny first performs for Sam Phillips, founder of Sun Records). Add such magical moments to Joaquin Phoenix and, to a lesser degree, Reese Witherspoon’s performances, and Walk the Line is a special biographical movie.

7 of 10
B+

Monday, November 28, 2005

NOTES:
2006 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Reese Witherspoon); 4 nominations: “Best Achievement in Costume Design” (Arianne Phillips), “Best Achievement in Film Editing” (Michael McCusker), and “Best Achievement in Sound Mixing” (Paul Massey, Doug Hemphill, Peter F. Kurland), and “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Joaquin Phoenix)

2006 BAFTA Awards: 2 wins: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Reese Witherspoon) and “Best Sound” (Paul Massey, Doug Hemphill, Peter F. Kurland, and Donald Sylvester); 2 nominations: “Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music” (T-Bone Burnett) and “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Joaquin Phoenix)

2006 Golden Globes: 3 wins: “Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Cathy Konrad and James Keach), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Joaquin Phoenix), and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Reese Witherspoon)

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Twilight Eclipses 2011 MTV Movie Awards

The MTV Movie Awards began in 1992.  Hosted by Jason Sudeikis, the 20th annual MTV Movie Awards aired live on Sunday, June 5, at 9 p.m. ET, from the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California.

Twilight Saga: Eclipse, the third film in the Twilight movie franchise, dominated the ceremony by winning 5 of the 13 categories.  Rising star Chloë Grace Moretz won two categories.

20th Annual MTV Movie Award WINNERS:

Best Movie Winner
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Directed by David Slade

Best Female Performance Winner
Kristen Stewart
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Directed by David Slade

Best Male Performance Winner
Robert Pattinson
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Directed by David Slade

Best Comedic Performance Winner
Emma Stone
Easy A
Directed by Will Gluck

Best Scared-As-S**t Performance Winner
Ellen Page
Inception
Directed by Christopher Nolan

Best Line From A Movie Winner
"I want to get chocolate wasted!"
Alexys Nycole Sanchez
Grown Ups
Directed by Dennis Dugan

MTV Generation Award Winner
Reese Witherspoon

Best Kiss Winner
Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Directed by David Slade

Best Fight Winner
Robert Pattinson vs. Bryce Dallas Howard and Xavier Samuel
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Directed by David Slade

Best Breakout Star Winner
Chloë Grace Moretz
Kick-Ass
Directed by Matthew Vaughn

Biggest Badass Star Winner
Chloë Grace Moretz

Best Jaw Dropping Moment Winner
Justin Bieber
Justin Bieber: Never Say Never
Directed by Jon M. Chu

Best Villain Winner
Tom Felton
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Directed by David Yates

Review: "Vanity Fair" is a Good Old Fashioned Costume Melodrama (Happy B'day, Mira Nair)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 28 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Vanity Fair (2004)
Running time: 137 minutes (2 hours, 17 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some sensuality/partial nudity and a brief violent image
DIRECTOR: Mira Nair
WRITERS: Matthew Faulk and Mark Skeet and Julian Fellowes (based upon the novel by William Makepeace Thackeray)
PRODUCERS: Janette Day, Lydia Dean Pilcher, and Donna Gigliotti
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Declan Quinn
EDITOR: Allyson C. Johnson

DRAMA with elements of romance

Starring: Reese Witherspoon, James Purefoy, Romola Garai, Tony Maudsley, Rhys Ifans, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Bob Hoskins, Douglas Hodge, Meg Wynn Owen, Natasha Little, Eileen Atkins, Jim Broadbent, Robert Pattinson, and Gabriel Byrne

Born into the lower class, Rebecca “Becky” Sharp (Reese Witherspoon) becomes a relentless social climber in London society, circa 1820. She ascends the social ladder with her friend, Amelia Sedley (Romola Garai), who is from a noble, but broke family. Becky begins as a governess before marrying a financially challenged nobleman, Rawdon Crawley (James Purefoy), who is also a gambler. She eventually discovers herself to be as vain and as foolish as anyone born of noble blood.

I love costume dramas, especially English films of this type, so I was bound to be a sucker for director Mira Nair’s Vanity Fair, the film adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray’s massive 19-century novel. I’ve never read the novel, but I could still see that something was amiss. Reese Witherspoon seems ill cast as Thackeray’s cunning anti-heroine. Her accent is shoddy, her acting range is limited, and she’s just playing her Legally Blonde character in an English costume drama. Luckily, the camera loves her, and she has a charming film personality, even when she’s wrong for a part.

Vanity Fair also swings back and forth between being riveting and tepid, although Ms. Nair injects some exotic charm in it via Indian culture in the form of music, dance, costume, and bit players. What turns the film to its better half is that Ms. Nair and her primary screenwriter, Oscar winner, Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park), are able to wring poignancy out of the British stiff upper lip by emphasizing the disastrous consequences of human vanity and pride, mostly resulting from class prejudice. The theme seems to be that the personal cost of pride to the characters in terms of lost love and lost loved ones who departed (either through death or personal exile) before reconciliation is too high. In this the film rings true.

Vanity Fair is also a gorgeous period film filled with lavish sets and sumptuous costumes. Even the examples of poverty in the film and the portrayal of the filthy London streets seem authentic. The film’s visual flair more than makes up for its shaky moments, and while Vanity Fair isn’t as good as classic Merchant Ivory films like A Room with a View and Howard’s End, this classic of British literature, adapted with a hint of Indian spice, will sate the appetite for good old costume drama.

7 of 10
B+

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Review: Strange "Little Nicky" was Also a Romantic Comedy

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 165 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Little Nicky (2000)
Running time: 90 minutes (1 hour, 30 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for crude sexual humor, some drug content, language, and thematic material
DIRECTOR: Steven Brill
WRITERS: Tim Herlihy, Adam Sandler, and Steven Brill
PRODUCERS: Jack Giarraputo and Robert Simonds
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Theo van de Sande
EDITOR: Jeff Gourson

FANTASY/COMEDY/ROMANCE

Starring: Adam Sandler, Patricia Arquette, Harvey Keitel, Rhys Ifans, Tom “Tiny” Lister, Jr., Rodney Dangerfield, Allen Covert, Peter Dante, Jonathan Loughran, (voice) Robert Smigel, Reese Witherspoon, Kevin Nealon, Dana Carvey, Jon Lovitz, Carl Weathers, Quentin Tarantino, Michael McKean, Rob Schneider, John Witherspoon, Clint Howard, The Harlem Globetrotters (Orlando Antigua, Matthew Jackson, Curley “Boo” Johnson, Herbert Lang, William Stringfellow, and Lou Dunbar), George Wallace, Ellen Cleghorne, Reggie McFadden, and Philip Bolden with (uncredited) Dan Marino, Henry Winkler, and Ozzy Osbourne

Satan (Harvey Keitel) was about to give up his throne (after 10,000 years of ruling Hell) to one of his three sons: the sly Adrian (Rhys Ifans), the brutal and abusive Cassius (Tom “Tiny” Lister, Jr.) or his sweetest son, Nicky (Adam Sander). However, the King of Damnation decided to keep his throne for another ten thousand-year rule, much to the chagrin of both Adrian and Cassius, so they decide to escape to Earth and create a hell there where they can rule. Their rash behavior freezes the gates of hell, and Satan begins to disintegrate. Nicky reluctantly goes to Earth to bring his dastardly brothers back (by trapping them in a flask and returning both brothers at the same time), but he falls in love with a shy girl named Valerie (Patricia Arquette). Nicky’s love interest and his brothers’ bullying complicate his task while Adrian and Cassius turn Manhattan into a hell on Earth.

Many fans consider Little Nicky to be Adam Sandler’s worst film as a headlining star, but the film probably put off people for two reasons. First, it is a genre film that plays with magic and the supernatural, with Hell also as a major setting for the film. Secondly, it is a transition film that displays both the juvenile attitude and crude humor of Sandler’s mid to late 90’s star making turns in such films as Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, and The Waterboy and the romance of the comedy date films like Mr. Deeds and 50 First Dates that Sandler would emphasize in the new century. The young male audience that makes up a large part of Sandler’s fan base prefers the former gross out comedy to the latter relationship films.

What also may have most turned people away is the Little Nicky’s excessive vileness, particularly in regards to religion, religious authority, and religious institutions. I found that aspect shocking, mildly offensive, and unnecessary; still, I applaud the filmmakers’ boldness in handling religion in such a fashion. That’s just one of the things that makes Little Nicky stand out from the crowded field of juvenile comedy. There’s lots of crude humor, and most of it is quite hilarious, and it’s not just visual gags because there is a frankly raw use of language that really gives this film zing. There is also a wonderful romance between the shy couple of Nicky and Valerie that works because they are such a perfectly matched, mismatched couple.

The film does go a little wrong in its second half. Nicky’s pursuit of his brothers abruptly begins to dim the film’s comedy, and more time should have been spent on the Nicky/Valerie relationship. Still, for all its rawness and crudeness, Little Nicky is a feel good film, and it accomplishes its feel good attitude with lots of movie star cameos. Even small appearances by well-known actors give a film brief bursts of energy, and Sandler fills the film with friends, especially fellow alumni of “Saturday Night Live” where Sandler starred from 1991-95.

As for Sandler’s performance, it is a bizarre part that he actually plays with a touch of sweetness and goofy charm that really sells the character. He, however, keeps his fire low to allow his wonderful supporting cast to shine, and they make Little Nicky as much theirs as it is his – an unusual film that is uncommonly funny.

7 of 10
B+

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Review: "Four Christmases" Kicks that Holiday Spirit in the Butt

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 6 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

Four Christmases (2008)
Running time: 88 minutes (1 hour 28 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sexual humor and language
DIRECTOR: Seth Gordon
WRITERS: Matt Allen & Caleb Wilson and Jon Lucas & Scott Moore; from a story by Matt Allen and Caleb Wilson
PRODUCERS: Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum, Jonathan Glickman, Vince Vaughn, and Reese Witherspoon
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jeffrey L. Kimball
EDITORS: Mark Helfrich and Melissa Kent

COMEDY

Starring: Vince Vaughn, Reese Witherspoon, Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight, Jon Favreau, Mary Steenburgen, Dwight Yoakam, Tim McGraw, Cedric Yarbrough, Brian Baumgartner, and Kristen Chenoweth

Once upon a time, I hated Christmas movies, but now I enjoy the good feelings they bring. Four Christmases brings along lots of good feelings, simply because it is so funny. Packed with lowbrow, vulgar, and slob humor, Four Christmases works because it connects crude laughs with the rudest joke of all – Christmas with relatives.

Brad McVie (Vince Vaughn) and his girlfriend Kate (Reese Witherspoon) are an upscale, happily unmarried San Francisco couple. Because both their parents divorced, they aren’t thinking about marriage, even after three great years of dating, nor have they visited their parents since getting together. After their Christmas vacation in Fiji gets sidetracked by fog, they become obligated to finally visit their parents. That means not two, but four stops, where childhood, adolescent, and family wounds are reopened and resentment thrives. Somewhere along the way, Brad and Kate reexamine their relationship and future.

There are five Oscar winners in Four Christmases: Reese Witherspoon, Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight, and Mary Steenburgen. Usually this might mean a poignant Christmas drama full of family and healing. Four Christmases is full of family and healing, but it’s damn funny. It’s also damn honest. Getting together with family over the holidays, especially Christmas, is worse than nightmare on Elm Street or any street. We tolerate the toad relatives because they come with some beloved family that we’re genuinely happy to see.

Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon must be really good actors or their screen chemistry is the real deal. They are so good together that they should always be together, like a great screen couple. Vaughn performs his shtick to maximum effect, and Witherspoon is, as always, solid. Together, they make even this film’s turn towards serious relationship drama late in the story not seem phony.

Four Christmases captures the joys and the miseries of the holiday so well and with so many laughs that it is bound to be an impolite (but not boorish) Christmas classic. Also, watch for the always good Kristen Chenoweth doing some enjoyable scene stealing.

7 of 10
B+

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

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