Opening Weekend: Tripping with Carrey, Clooney and Hana
By Brian D. Johnson - Friday, November 6, 2009 - 3 Comments
Now that the November winds are blowing and the nights are getting longer, it’s time to fly away. To go anywhere, as long as it’s elsewhere and there’s a glow of magic to warm the heart. Magic—in Hollywood, they like to think they can manufacture the stuff. But it’s not that simple. This week I’m looking at three very different films that deal in magic. But only one of them really makes me believe it. It’s also the smallest of the three and, believe it or not, it’s a documentary—Inside Hana’s Suitcase, which is beautifully directed by Canadian filmmaker Larry Weinstein, is a real-life fable about lost child of the Holocaust, a miraculous film that draws hope and inspiration from horrific tragedy. The other two movies are the A Christmas Carol, a 3D opus starring Jim Carrey as virtually every character in the cast, and The Men Who Stare at Goats, an off-kilter comedy starring George Clooney as a U.S. solider trained in para-normal powers. A Christmas Carol, directed by Robert Zemeckis is the weekend’s designated blockbuster, and although it has some of my colleagues dancing an early Xmas jig, it left me cold. But then I wasn’t especially fond of Forrest Gump either. My humbug response to A Christmas Carol appears in this week’s magazine, and you can read it by clicking on: Everybody wants a piece of Scrooge.
George Clooney meets his match in 'The Men Who Stare at Goats'
The Men Who Stare at Goats
This may be a George Clooney movie. But it’s not the George Clooney movie. Because this fall there are two, both having premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. The other is Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air, which is not out until December. And there are also two George Clooneys, at least. There’s Serious George, the shrewd professional who doesn’t suffer fools gladly. You find him movies like The Good German and Michael Clayton. Then there’s Uncurious George, the know-it-all goofball who pops up in Coen brothers pictures like O Brother Where Art Thou and Burn After Reading—an idiot who thinks he’s a rocket surgeon. Both of Clooney’s new movies are comedies, up to a point, and both are based on books. The Goats picture is an outlandish zany farce about guy trying to walk through walls, although it’s inspired by a true story; Up in the Air is a serious comedy about the world we live in, although it’s fiction.
And here’s the thing. If you’re going to see just one George Clooney movie this fall, you should wait for Up in the Air. It’s by far the better film; and it’s the one for which he’s guaranteed to get an Oscar nomination. Which doesn’t mean Men Who Stare at Goats isn’t worth a look, if you’ve some free time, and free money, and you don’t want to wait for the video. Hmmm. Talk about damning with faint praise. Continue…
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From Cannes: Up, Up and Away
By Brian D. Johnson - Thursday, May 14, 2009 at 9:42 AM - 1 Comment
'Up' inflates hype on the Carlton pier; Charles Aznavour voices Ed Asner's role in the French version/ photos by BDJ
On its opening day, the Cannes Film Festival lived up to its reputation for extremes. Last night the quite delightful Disney-Pixar movie Up became the first animated feature to open the festival in its 62-year history, not to mention the first 3D movie to open Cannes—presenting the bizarre sight of the Lumiere theatre filled with people in tuxedoes and dark glasses. Up is playing out of competition. But the same day, we saw the first competition entry, China’s Spring Fever, which also set a precedent of sorts. A bleak tale of a young man who betrays his wife for a homosexual romance, it has to be the first movie we’ve ever seen from China that’s loaded with explicit gay sex scenes. And this morning, as I sat down to watch Francis Ford Coppola’s Tetro, the opening film of the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar, a fellow critic pointed out that “humping is big” in the Fortnight, especially of the gay variety—notably in I Love You Phillip Morris, starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor, and a perky comedy called Humpday.
This is my 14th year at Cannes. For professional lovers of film, the May pilgrimage to French Riviera is a rite of spring. We come hoping to be surprised, provoked and, if we’re lucky, blown away by a film that shows up out of the blue and takes cinema to the next level. And each year, those of us who take part in this rite wonder if we”ll make it back here for another year. Well, the ranks are thinning. As media companies reel from the recession, film criticism is under assault wherever you look. Some North American newspapers have axed their critics. Others have decided that sending them to Cannes, the world’s cinephile summit, is a luxury they can no longer afford. This year both the Globe and Mail and the National Post have not sent their critics (although The Globe‘s London correspondent, Liz Renzetti, will be on hand for a few days.) This should not go unnoticed. It’s the first time the Globe has not sent its film critic since the 1970s, when the late Jay Scott first began coming here—and helped put Canadian cinema on the map, as Cannes discovered the likes of Denys Arcand, Atom Egoyan, Jean-Claude Lauzon and Patricia Rozema. Meanwhile, the U.S. presence is also severely reduced. Entertainment Weekly’s presence is cut from three to one writer. People doesn’t have a staffer here. Vanity Fair is not holding its usual bash.
So I feel lucky. It’s s good to be back, even on a recessionary shoestring. Continue…
