Deja Vu: 2006, dir. Tony Scott. Seen at Gateway (preview screening).
I grew up in the New Orleans area (Metairie, to be specific), and that’s the primary reason why I decided to see Deja Vu. In addition, I am one of the five people who actually liked Tony Scott’s previous film, Domino, so I went into the movie with cautious optimism.
Deja Vu is a good thriller with a supernatural twist, and with a minimum of that Tony Scott trademark camera style that makes me feel ever so slightly nauseated from vertigo. However, I think that if you are from New Orleans, you need to be aware of at least one plot mechanism that may make the movie hard to watch.
The movie opens with a crowd of people all piling onto the Algiers ferry one morning. At first, I wondered why everyone was wearing Mardi Gras beads, and thought, “Those damn filmmakers probably thought New Orleanians always walk around with beads on.” However, a few carefully placed signs and lines of dialogue indicate that this is supposed to be Fat Tuesday itself, 2006, post-Katrina. (I am still dubious, because I feel that Mardi Gras anywhere near the Quarter should be much more crowded … no one is even wearing a costume! And why would a group of schoolchildren be on the ferry; Fat Tuesday is a school holiday in south Louisiana. But I digress.) I hadn’t seen any trailers for this movie at all, so I had no idea what would happen next — I figured this was a setup where some of the people on the ferry would turn out to be important characters later.
Holidailies: Register, sponsor, read
If you’ve ever read Ain’t It Cool News (AICN), or anything about the Butt-Numb-A-Thon (aka BNAT), you know that AICN founder Harry Knowles refers to the annual BNAT screening event as “Geek Christmas.” It takes place on or around his birthday, and he obviously loves to plan the movies to show, the treats in the gift bags, the guest list, and the event as a whole. I haven’t actually attended a BNAT yet, but I can imagine he is just as enthusiastic during the event as he appears to be beforehand.
I don’t have a BNAT event to schedule (maybe someday …) but I suspect I know exactly how he feels. For the past seven years, my own little happy holiday takes place in mid-November and December. For the past two days, I feel like it’s Geek Christmas, or to be fair to my Jewish husband, at least Geek New Year’s … well, there’s definitely a holiday spirit in the air.
We opened Holidailies for registration on Friday morning. Since 12:01 am on Friday, I’ve received dozens of email alerts that people have signed up, and it’s like being showered with tiny gifts. People I know in real life, people whom I didn’t realize kept websites anymore, people who seem to update sporadically are all signing up and it’s a real treat. I have been known to exclaim aloud, or IM The Beau with joyous, “Look, Margaret signed up! And Pooks is signed up, and Katie! I forgot about Katie!” Later in the day, “Oh, my god, Jane Duvall has a site again!” and “Oh, look who’s back!” I nearly ran out of exclamation points. The Beau, who gets the same email notifications, even pointed out one or two signups he was happy to see.
Holidailies rides again
Celluloid Eyes has become more of a film blog than a personal site in recent years, but there are still people who remember this as the go-to site for Holidailies, the annual collaborative writing project. So I wanted to let you know that Holidailies is happening again for 2006. We haven’t updated the website yet for 2006 (although there’s a recent announcement posted to show that we’re working on it) but my fellow Holidailies partner and I are hard at work refurbishing the site. Well, he’s hard at work; I’ve got all the light chores.
If you haven’t heard of Holidailies, it’s a project that I started back in 2000. Every year, a bunch of people decide to update their personal online websites (blogs, journals, whatever) daily in the month of December. It’s grown from a handful of people on a webring to a full-fledged portal with all kinds of extra features. Last year, we had 250 registered participants: half posted to the portal every day, the other half “played along at home.”
Tying it in to the current theme of this blog: there’s no reason why film blogs can’t participate, updating every day with a movie review, short essay, anecdote, or commentary of some sort. I don’t know yet if I’ll participate myself with Celluloid Eyes or with another blog, or just stick with administering the site this year. But it’s loads of fun. I’ll post more info here as we update the Holidailies site and iron out the details.
Remembering Ann Richards
The flags in Austin have been at half-mast since former Texas Governor Ann Richards died last week. Dozens — no, probably hundreds of people have been writing and telling stories about their experiences with Richards and what she meant to them, politically and personally.
Richards was also part of the Austin (and Texas) film community, as other people have noted:
- Matt Dentler remembers her from SXSW premieres and her years emceeing the Texas Film Hall of Fame awards.
- Quint of Ain’t It Cool News remembers seeing Richards at a number of local film events.
- Austin Movie Blog shares quotes from local film-related personalities.
The only time I ever came close to meeting the former Texas governor was at a film premiere. Austin Film Festival held a gala screening of the recut/remixed Blood Simple at the Paramount in 1998, with reserved tickets. I had a seat up in the balcony near some friends. We waited in line for what seemed like forever, outside the theater in the heat (even in October) until the Paramount ushers finally released the doors.
video podcast: Idiocracy
I realize that at this point, Idiocracy may be playing at exactly one theater in the country (Alamo on South Lamar)*. So why I am posting a video podcast about the movie now?
The podcast you are about to watch was meant as an experiment. My husband is learning about video production and needed some footage to edit for a Final Cut Pro class. So last weekend, we shot the following video, which he then edited and fancied up. We did not intend this to be professional, which is why you can see a blanket on my lap, and the cat’s tail is visible near the end of the episode, and … well, you’ll see. It’s only three minutes long, and you get to watch me and The Beau exchanging not-quite-witty repartee.
Hollywoodland (2006)
Hollywoodland: 2006, dir. Allen Coulter. Seen at Galaxy Highland (press screening).
I love watching movies that re-create or fictionalize notorious Hollywood history. For example, I’m very fond of The Cat’s Meow, the retelling of the mysterious death of Thomas Ince. The new film Hollywoodland, as indicated by its title, is also about a famous unsolved Hollywood murder, back in the day when the Hollywood sign contained four extra letters*. The difference between The Cat’s Meow and Hollywoodland, however, is that The Cat’s Meow devises a fictional and satisfying resolution to the unsolved murder. I’m told the upcoming film The Black Dahlia does something similar. Hollywoodland, on the other hand, prefers to stick to the facts as much as possible, which causes some problems with the ending.
The movie focuses on the unexpected death of actor George Reeves (Ben Affleck), best known for his TV role as Superman, by gunshot wound in 1959. The death was ruled a suicide, but detective Louis Simo (Adrien Brody) finds evidence that may rule otherwise. Was his death related to his longtime affair with Toni Mannix (Diane Lane), a studio exec’s wife? What about his fiancee, Leonore Lemmon (Robin Tunney)? Or is there some other, hidden motive?
Hollywoodland neatly wraps two storylines into one narrative: Simo’s involvement with the case, and the ways in which it affects his personal life; and a flashback of Reeves’ life from his meeting with Toni Mannix to the night of his death. The movie does an excellent job at tying the two storylines together so that we’re always aware of which time period we’re in. When the movie cuts from one time period to another, we immediately see one of the principal characters to anchor us in the proper storyline. My only complaint is that the film also includes some fantasy sequences about the night of Reeves’ death, which are filmed in the same style as the rest of the film. The first time, it seems to be done strictly for a “gotcha” effect (like the dream sequence in The Princess Bride); but it’s a weak device that adds unnecessary confusion. The story should be suspenseful enough without these scenes.
Labor Day reading material
I’ve been neglecting this poor Web site to write and publish interesting things elsewhere. And I’m not the only one writing some good stuff about film right now. Here are some articles written by me or by other fascinating people, for your holiday weekend perusal … or for Tuesday morning when you can’t get going on actual work and need something to help wake up your brain.
I don’t follow celebrity news much myself, except as is unavoidable in the pursuit of film-related news. Cinematical asked me to take over the site’s weekly gossip column, and I decided to look on the assignment as a writing challenge. The first column appeared Friday — go read it, it won’t bite you. I’ve had several compliments on the writing style, which is non-snarky. I’m not very good with the snark — for some reason, it’s one of the few writing styles I can’t seem to master — so I went with a more down-home approach. It still feels weird that I’m writing a gossip column, though.
I can think of one item that I’d love to hear some gossip about: the inside story behind the very limited release of Idiocracy, Mike Judge’s latest film. I have been writing about this movie everywhere, it seems. Earlier this week, I discussed the mystery of the non-publicized release on Slackerwood. On Friday, the Beau and I caught the movie at Alamo on South Lamar, and I wrote a review for Cinematical. I took some photos at the movie Friday night and posted them, along with some observations about the screening, to Slackerwood.
one year ago today …
One year ago today, my now-husband and I went to the movies. We do that sometimes, just for fun. Here’s the ticket stub (although Alamo’s receipts aren’t all that ticket-like):
We’d been waiting a long time to see The Aristocrats — I wanted to see it at SXSW in March, but knew there was little chance I’d get into the midnight screening and didn’t even try. Then it took forever for the movie to reach Austin, and I think we actually waited a week or so longer after its release until it got to Alamo Drafthouse, because we prefer seeing movies there. And on August 27, I was feeling a little nervous and thought I could use a distraction.
Quinceanera (2006)
Quinceanera: 2006, dir. Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland. Seen at Barton Creek Cinemark (press screening).
Quinceanera was a nice little film, but I expected something more memorable from a movie that was so highly praised at Sundance. I know many people who would expect anything that won an award at Sundance these days to automatically be unexceptional, but I was optimistic. The week before, I had reviewed the formulaic teen dance film Step Up, and it was surprising to find Quinceanera nearly as full of cliches, stereotypes, and predictable plot twists. Fortunately, the characters are so engaging that they help overcome the more mundane aspects of the familiar coming-of-age storyline.
The film focuses on Magdalena (Emily Rios), who is preparing for her quinceanera, the big party surrounding a girl’s 15th birthday, and dealing with a variety of emotions. Sometimes she wishes she didn’t have to be feted, but at the same time she wants the accoutrements her wealthy cousin enjoyed at her party: a new dress instead of a hand-me-down, and a Hummer limo to carry her and her friends to the party. In the middle of all this, Magdalena unexpectedly finds herself pregnant … without having had sex. Her father, a preacher, refuses to believe her and Magdalena moves in with her great-uncle Tio Tomas (Chalo Gonzalez), who has already taken in another family black sheep, Magdalena’s gay cousin Carlos (Jesse Garcia). Carlos and Magdalena both try to determine who they are, what they want, and how they should prepare for the future.
Scoop (2006)
Scoop: 2006, dir. Woody Allen. Seen at Arbor Great Hills.
I made a solemn vow about two years ago, after seeing Sweet and Lowdown on DVD, never to watch a post-Bullets over Broadway Woody Allen movie again. (Read the last paragraph of the above-linked review for the exact wording of the vow.) I was tempted by Match Point, because so many people who’d given up on Allen were praising the film to the skies. I was tempted recently by an ebullient review I read of Curse of the Jade Scorpion. But I still felt skeptical.
I broke my vow last weekend, to see Scoop … mainly because my husband wanted to go. He doesn’t like Woody Allen movies much, and I was so surprised by the role reversal (three years ago, I would have been urging him to go) that I felt I ought to acquiesce. I’m not entirely sure why he wanted to go — it was the least annoying comedy in theaters, he likes Scarlett Johansson, he read some good reviews — but off we went.
Scoop was a charming afternoon’s diversion — another entry in the genre I’ve discovered this year that I call “the smart person’s dumb comedy.” Light comedy might be a more appropriate term. I came up with the term after we saw Thank You for Smoking and Art School Confidential, both flawed comedies that were not as clever as they wanted to be (or as I wanted them to be), but entertaining fluff that didn’t rely on bodily-function jokes, offensive stereotyping, or the Wilson brothers.