The reviews are in. Next to “Hulk,” “Billy’s Long Halftime Walk” may be Oscar-winning director Ang Lee’s worst-received film. Scoring a fifty-percent “fresh” rate on Rotten Tomatoes (not that such review aggregators matter, of course), the adaptation of Ben Fountain’s 2012 National Book Award-nominated novel has left such critics as RogerEbert.com’s Godfrey Cheshire cold. “Too obvious to be effective,” he has sneered, and others seem to agree. I am not one of them, but I also am in the minority of reviewers who have seen this account of an American soldier’s brief return from Iraq in the format that Lee had intended. Using a new film technology, he has captured an essence of the book that otherwise might never have translated to screen. Continue Reading →
Archive | Film Matters
Election as Entertainment
As we head into the final days of the 2016 presidential campaign, election ennui has become a problem. Regardless of how you’re casting your ballot, chances are good that words like “rigged,” “pantsuit,” “orange,” and, of course, “Skittles” long ago lost their appeal. (Who knew candy could prove so controversial outside of dentistry conventions?) To take the edge off this malaise, I’ve nominated some political novels, television shows, plays, and films to put the entertainment back into the election.
ADAPTATIONS
“Primary Colors” (1998)
The gold standard of modern election entertainment, this thinly disguised account of Bill Clinton’s first run for U.S. President is adapted from a Joe Klein novel. Directed by Mike Nichols from a screenplay by his old comedy buddy Elaine May (swoon), in a genius bit of casting, it stars John Travolta as Governor Jack Stanton (aka Bill) and Emma Freaking Thompson as Susan Stanton (aka Hillary). Continue Reading →
Age and ‘Aquarius’
One of my favorite freelance gigs is giving talks to local cinema clubs. The groups mostly are comprised of people over 50, which is my preferred demographic of human beings. As Louis CK once said, “Even the dumbest seventy-year-old is going to have seen more than the smartest twenty-year-old.” The following is a lecture I gave to a Westchester club about “Aquarius,” a long, demanding film that nonetheless held us rapt.
“Aquarius,” a film about Clara (Sonia Braga), a retired Brazilian music critic’s battle to keep her apartment despite pressure from real estate developers and her own family, is about so many things at once. It is a revenge thriller of sorts. It is a treatise on real estate development, greed, and the politics of housing, an issue we also are confronting here in the United States. It is is a rallying point for the Brazilian left, as many citizens in that country identify Clara with the Brazilian president impeached earlier this year in what many describe as a right-wing legislative coup d’état. But most importantly, at least to me, “Aquarius” is an unhurried, almost luxuriant portrayal of a complex sixtysomething woman who has led a very full life, and is still healthy and engaged enough to have many more years of joy and pains ahead of her. Continue Reading →