» Fringe Blog – Writing on Film, Culture, and Things on the Fringe

Mouth, Meet Hand

jelewis8 — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 18:24:32 +0000

In a bizarre turn, The Jacket director John Maybury, a Hollywood newbie, took pot shots at the films that recently won Academy awards, calling Million Dollar Baby a “piece of shit” and complaining about Thelma Schoonmaker’s editing for The Aviator.
He says his new film, starring Adrien Brody and Kiera Knightly, isn’t a tired, formulaic film like those dime-a-dozens like Memento and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind:

“When there are big narrative failings in a piece of storytelling, writers can just shuffle it all up and dump it on someone like me, the director, to try and sort it out. I think Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Memento, there’s been a whole raft of these kind of films…I love those kinds of films. But I knew that if I got my hands on that kind of screenplay, it wouldn’t be that anyway. I’ve made a romance that has kind of a subtext of being about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. So I think if I’ve made a much more interesting, a much more demanding film than the general kind of… No, I don’t have contempt for Charlie Kaufman. He’s a brilliant screenwriter as was proved last night at that corporate event.”

*Laugh!*
A subtext of being about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay…well, he’s got the corporate shill thing down, without actually actually being smart about it. Sure, he’s echoing the party line, but he’s not exactly being original, and his choice of dartboards seems to be a crop of technically and artistically brilliant films. Not what I would call a smart move, especially in a place that forgives little and doesn’t take kindly to unfounded criticism and self-aggrandizement.
Meet John Maybury, the man whose mouth is bigger than his brain. The Jacket opened Friday, March 4.
Via MonkeyFilter

Best Motion Picture

jelewis8 — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 06:35:48 +0000

Winner for Best Motion Picture.
- My pick: Million Dollar Baby
- Oscar pick: Million Dollar Baby
Dustin Hoffman is either plastered or had a stroke. What the heck is wrong with him, he apparently can’t speak English as well as Salma Hayek.
I’m amazed. Clint Eastwood scores again, and it’s a top choice. Marty’s gotta be pissed. Nice Ah-nold joke by the old-school gangster-voiced fellow. Good speech, good choice by the Academy for a final award.
I’m pleased. I hope you’ve had a good time keeping up with the Oscars and this liveblog exercise. See you next year!

Best Director

jelewis8 — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 06:32:09 +0000

Winner for Best Director.
- My pick: Clint Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby
- Oscar pick: Clint Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby
I called it and damn if I didn’t think the Academy would give it instead to Marty. Clint Eastwood is the best choice, and I’m pleased as punch about it.
I feel badly for Marty, but he just didn’t deserve it. Nice speech by Eastwood, and I notice they haven’t shown Marty yet. Has he exploded yet?

Best Actress

jelewis8 — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 06:02:29 +0000

Sean Penn. Is there anything that you need to say? He still looks drugged from last year. Sounds it too.
Winner for Best Actress.
- My pick: Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby
- Oscar pick: Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby
Awesome. Hilary Swank DEFINITELY deserves this win, and I’m just hoping she doesn’t forget her husband. Please don’t forget your husband, please, please…
Thank God! Okay, history has been redeemed. Husband is gonna get some tonight.

Best Supporting Actor

jelewis8 — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 03:48:17 +0000

Winner for Actor in a Supporting Role.
- My pick: Clive Owen for Closer
- Oscar pick: Morgan Freeman for Million Dollar Baby
0 for 2 so far.

Million Dollar Baby

jelewis8 — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 17:58:09 +0000

I almost wish I could say the critics are wrong about this one. Every so often, a few films come along that are so well-received by everyone and their mothers, it almost becomes annoying to have to write one more praise for it. Yet when the gold is weighed and measured and counted, what really does count at the end is how pure it is.
What has come out of the dross of the Hollywood studio system is a film crafted in subtlety, grace, and style. Clint Eastwood, who helmed, produced, stars in, and even composed music for Million Dollar Baby, is to be credited (as he is by other critics) for the rich pacing, the muted palette of blues and greens that bathe each shot with the duality of light and shadow, and tweaking the mesmerizing performances out of Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman. Paul Haggis’ script, based on a collection of short boxing stories entitled “Rope Burns” by F.X. Toole, is a marvelous creation in its own right, weaving characters who live and die a reality few films ever achieve. Eastwood himself turns in a performance of grizzled perfection, providing the film’s moral and conflicted center.
Frankie Dunn (Eastwood) is a fight trainer who has lived his years as a man too afraid of hurting his fighter to ever give them a chance. He runs a fitness gym with the help of Eddie “Scrap” Dupris (Freeman), an old fighter who reached his boxing limit at fight number 109.
When white-trash waitress Maggie Fitzgerald (Swank) shows up one day and asks Frankie to train her, he’s disgusted. “I don’t train girls!” he snarls, and she replies, “I’m tough, Mr. Dunn. Tougher than I look.”
“Girly, tough…ain’t enough.” he retorts.
It’s a refrain that echoes shades of Frankie’s own life. His estrangement with his daughter finds him attending church nearly every day, asking his priest (Brian F. O’Byrne) questions of faith that simply have no answer grounded in the real, everyday world in which he lives. His life, so tough and burled with time and loss, is empty with dreams of a world that has since passed him by.
Maggie never gives up, never surrenders to a future of waiting tables in nasty dives. She keeps coming back to Frankie’s gym. Scrap encourages Maggie to continue training, teaching her what little he knows of boxing practice techniques, and she learns quickly. Frankie keeps his eye on her; horrified by her abuse of technique, he steps in and agrees to train her until she can find a good manager.
It’s a good match. Frankie is as tender as he is tough, and his love, like a father, for Maggie grows, whilst her abilities increase with practice and his firm, guiding hand. The inevitability of love puts Frankie into the manager’s seat once more, and he finds himself arranging fights for Maggie. Fewer fights, though, as her one punch knockouts estrange them both from getting the good fights. Frankie battles Maggie’s strong will in and out of the ring, but her ability is undeniable.
Yet this is not a movie about a scrappy fighter who rises through the ranks to take home the championship. Though elements of that play here, they merely serve the greater story of the triad of people lonely and caught up in a broken world. Their connection is more than transitory, however. Eastwood is subtle enough not to bandy about metaphors about boxing and life. Instead, the conflict that builds character, and the tragedy of love taken to its highest peaks of perfection and beauty, are the focus of the camera and the story.
Here, redemption is not found at the end of a championship run, but in the heart of a surrogate daughter. Swank is a wonder to watch. Her eyes glow with intensity and fierce love of boxing, and her sculpted body, honed by months of pre-training, looks the part of a woman who pays dearly in pursuit of a dream. Freeman, often overutilized as the wizened but wise aged friend, is the film’s narrator and experiences his own redemption in a subplot that is as rich and nuanced as the main storyline.
The film takes turns that will leave you hurting. Eastwood spares nothing in his pursuit of a conclusion that, in a way, could only have been achieved through pain. But there are also moments of light, and baths of innocence amid the dark grittiness of the world. And there is beauty, even at the end. What Eastwood has wrought should stand every test of time and leave viewers with a deeper knowledge of the beauty and conflict of love.
Fringe Rating: out of 5

Blogging In the Time of Cholera

jelewis8 — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 17:26:29 +0000

Please excuse the lack of original posting of late. In my spare time I’ve been pumping out a feature script which I started Sunday afternoon and which I am hoping to finish by Thursday evening. That’s 90-120 pages in five days, which for me is unprecedented. It’s more important for me to write uninterupted than to break the flow I’ve got going with blogging. Sorry.
I know it’s a cardinal sin to inform readers that they’re being given the shaft, but at least it’s only temporary.
I’ll be gone all day Friday, Saturday, and most of Sunday…basically, I’m pretty strapped for time, and blogging just got moved down the priority list for this week. Don’t worry, I’ve still got some good stuff on the way.
I saw Million Dollar Baby the other night, and will try and post a review before the weekend. In addition, I’m nearly done seeing what Oscar nominated pictures I can get to, though I don’t think I’ll be able to view all of them before the 27th. With that in mind, I’ll be doing my Oscar predictions, with the usual colour commentary you’ve come to expect and hopefully love.
Like I said, sorry for the insubstantial posting of late, but I will get back into the groove after this week. In the meantime, I’ve got a few links for you to check out below.
The Christian Carnival is up at Wittenberg Gate.
Carnival of the Vanities #124 is now up at Ken Sain’s place. Bloggy goodness therein.
I got an odd email from Justin Katz, who I haven’t heard from in a while, not since our last online tete a tete, which was more civil and respectable than the word tete a tete implies. Not that we were ever bosom buddies or anything…anyway, it concerned an article of his that I first read back in December in the National Review, that attempts to explain the rationale of Andrew Sullivan, a man who can’t quite define or pinpoint his own political, cultural, social, and theological beliefs. I’ve stopped reading Sullivan since he started lacking focus with the war issue, and since then have kept up only loosely with his politics since going all blue state over the gay marriage issue.
Justin has now posted his article online at Dust In The Light. It’s long, detailed, but worth a read if you’ve ever, like me, tried to figure Andrew Sullivan out and simply failed after a long bout in the ring.
Greg Piper has a good writeup of the launch of the new DC paper, the Washington Examiner. He notes copious copy errors (no stranger here!), but a launch party filled with champagne and an editorial page note to readers that seems to echo his own alt paper’s (PUNCH) philosophy.
Protein Wisdom (a blog I need to read more) has a McSweeney-like list of 9 names the UN would PREFER we give to the “not genocide” in Darfur. (Via Instapundit)
Lauren is travel blogging. Lots of airport and hotel troubles, so you can probably relate.
Philip Johnson, noted American architect, has died. He founded the US international style of glass towers architecture, and compared corporations to Renaissance figures such as the Medicis and the popes of old.
Languagehat links to an article on the future of the modern Irish language. Speaking of the UK, LH also has a BBC article linked that discusses the ways Londoners speak. Cool stuff.
Okay, I really do have to start my day now, so ta ta for now.