Dylan Mythology Dissected Magnificently

"It has chaos, clocks, watermelons...you know what I'm sayin'...it's everything."
- Jude (CATE BLANCHETT)

I'M NOT THERE (Dir. Todd Haynes, 2007) It's funny that the upcoming WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY (the Judd Apatow written and produced comic mock epic with John C. Reilly as the lead) proposes to set fire to the tried and true clichés of modern music bio-pics because after the exciting experimental experience that is I'M NOT THERE those worn methods are already ashes. As most reading this know well by now Bob Dylan is portrayed by 6 different actors (Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Marcus Carl Franklin, Heath Ledger, and Ben Whishaw) who embody the man in different distinct eras and incarnations. Each has a different name, a different attitude, and of course, a different aesthetic. It may seem weird or even a bit pretentious in concept to cast a young black kid as a box-car hopping tall-tale telling pre-fame Dylan or an Australian Academy Award winning woman to play his Bobness at the height of his amphetamine-fueled rock star glory but the way it's played out here is mindboggling in its magnificence.

The finger-pointing protesting period provides the always up to the task Christian Bale with the Bob with most conscience through separate eras one - political and one intensely religious. Gere's Billy The Kid hiding from society persona seems to be the Dylan who is the most free - or at least pretending to be. Seemingly drawn from a tapestry woven from words spoken in every Dylan interview, every song in Dylan's catalogue being official or bootleg, and every single photograph or footage of the real man, some of the most affecting moments are the quietest. When Gere's Billy-variation-on-Bob surveys the vast unpopulated wilderness beneath him from a high mountain trail a notion of what Greil Marcus called the "Invisible Republic" can be sensed. That however is the musing of a Dylanologist like myself - someone who can't quote Bob chapter and verse may find that and other sequences slow and hard to decipher. Man, I pity those people.

Cate Blanchet as Jude has the most amusing and electric (yep, I went there) material and her presence in the black and white as-if-filmed-by-Fellini mid-60's montages never falters. As many have remarked she may look and act the most like Dylan - at that particular time that is. She has obviously studied DON'T LOOK BACK so she has every mannerism perfected -right down to the handling of a cigarette and the frantic on-stage flailing of arms. Blanchett's Jude is the most hostile and cornered of all the Dylans. If you've seen NO DIRECTION HOME or have at least heard the leering lyrical equivalent to acid being thrown into a former lover's face ditty "Positively 4th Street" - you may have an inkling why.Ben Whishaw as Arthur is the Bob with the least impact and screen-time. He simply recites carefully chosen media-taunting cryptic one liners from the public record. While the quotes are good - he's my vote for the weakest link here. Ledger's section (or sections as the structure gets broken up quite frequently) in which he plays an actor playing Bob (or actually Jack - Christian Bale's character) has a lot of merit with its discomforting domestic bliss breakdown and break-up intertwined with a Vietnam war time-frame but it's not as well visualized and vital as Blanchett's or even Gere's portions. Marcus Carl Franklin's bits are achingly sweet and for the youngest player here - his assured poise transcends any thought of gimmick casting. Other than the Dylans, the supporting cast is splendid - David Cross as Allen Ginsberg, Julianne Moore wonderfully mimics Joan Baez, and Bruce Greenword beautifully personifies the over-educated but still clueless interviewer / interrogator Mr. Jones from Dylan's classic "Ballad Of A Thin Man".

Filled with mostly Bob originals and a number of great sharp covers, the soundtrack * is spectacular but that's far from surprising. What is surprising is how this perverse take on the bio-pic formula works so damn well and how hypnotic its effect is. One shouldn't go see it to make sense of the myths or to put into any concrete cinematic context the life of Bob Dylan (director/writer Todd Haynes knew going in that that's impossible) but if one views it like a piece of modern art - where you have to squint to make certain parts focus and you have to open your eyes wide to see how distorted the details really are - they are certain to get more than just mere glimpses at greatness.

* As I suspected the bulk of the covers that make up the 2 disc so-called soundtrack (previously reviewed - Film Babble Blog 11/10/07 I'M NOT THERE Soundtrack Is Where It's At) are not featured in the movie. The amount of original Dylan recordings used could make up a nice alternate/actually accurate soundtrack - hey, now there's an idea for a great CDR comp!

More later...

I'M NOT THERE Soundtrack Is Where It's At

"There was a movie I seen one time, I think I sat through it twice.
I don't remember who I was or where I was bound."
- Bob Dylan (from "Brownsville Girl" - Knock Out Loaded, 1986)

So with less 2 weeks to go til one of the most anticipated movies of year (at least by me), I'M NOT THERE comes to my area (it's released here Nov. 21st) I thought I'd post a review of the spectacular soundtrack to this film which is largely known by the masses as the film in which Cate Blanchett plays Bob Dylan (see above pic). It seemingly has a lot more to offer than just that - from this soundtrack alone it appears to have something for everybody. So hey ho - let's go:

I'm Not There (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack produced by Randall Poster, Jim Dunbarm and Todd Haynes) Dylan covers (and collections of such) have been commonplace ever since the era when he first became a household name. Some are the product of a an artist or a band showing off their hipster literary chops (Judy Collins, Bryan Ferry, The Byrds, The Hollies, Odetta, etc.), some are of various artists under a genre categorization (Is It Rolling Bob?: – A Reggae Tribute, Tangled Up In Bluegrass: A Tribute To Dylan, and Dylan Country), and some are artists not content just to cover a single song – they cover full albums like Mary Lee’s Corvette’s version of Blood On The Tracks or they cover entire concerts – like Robyn Hitchcock’s faithful re-recreation of the incredible 1966 Royal Albert Hall concert. So what’s so special about the new soundtrack from I’M NOT THERE? Well, it has great new renditions of Bob classics from modern as well as old timey acts that form a narrative over the 2 disc collection seemingly inspired by the film, it has Bob’s approval, and most importantly it has Bob himself on the 40 year-old never before released title track. But more about that song later.

This new batch of Dylan interpretations features a veritable who’s-who of the recent respected rock scene - Eddie Vedder, Sonic Youth, Calexico, Cat Power, Iron & Wine, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, Sufjan Stevens, the Black Keys, and so on. From the old guard – Roger McGuinn, Richie Havens, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, and Willie Nelson show their hands on the table admirably and perform alongside their younger counter-parts fluidly (Nelson and McGuinn are backed by Calexico). John Doe from the legendary L.A. punk band X has one of the collection's most show-stopping numbers – “Pressing On”. One of Dylan’s most overlooked Gospel era songs is presented with such soulful gruff conviction that it is sure to elevate the scene in which Christian Bale lip-syncs it (I’ve seen the clip and it does).

Film babble favorites Yo La Tengo put in a rowdy blazing take on “I Wanna Be Your Lover” and a plantive pretty “Fourth Time Around” as well. Stephen Malkmus of Pavement has 3 songs (including the subtlety-on-fire “Ballad Of A Thin Man”) with the soundtrack house band ( The Million Dollar Bashers *) - all of which sound more relaxed and rocking than he has in years. Mason Jennings, a young folk singer from Bob’s home state of Minnesota, does 2 Bob songs, one of which has been covered to death – “The Times They Are A Changing” but it doesn’t seem so when he sings it. Just about everyone else (including Los Lobos, Mark Lanegen, Charlotte Gainesbourg, and The Hold Steady) clock in with nice Bob tributes. Only one or two miss the mark like Eddie Vedder’s “All Along The Watchtower” (talk about overdone !) which has him repeating the last lines over and over in such an unnecessary fashion - to be fair Neil Young and Chrissie Hynde have done the same thing in their covers of the song but it's just more obnoxious when Vedder does it!

* The Million Dollar Bashers feature Steve Shelley, Tony Ganier (long-time Dylan bassist), John Medeski, Tom Verlaine, Lee Ranaldo, Smokey Hormel, and Nels Cline.

What makes this disc worth buying alone is the original 1967 title track originally named “I’m Not There (1956)”. It has been available only to the connoisseurs of bootleg Dylan – it came from The Basement Tapes – the informal demos Bob made with the Band in Saugerties, NY while he was supposedly recovering from his alleged motorcycle accident. To be honest the sound quality on this first official release of the song is not that much better than the bootlegs I’ve heard over the years - seems like some of those hardcore Bob fanatics know a little about re-mastering. This is despite that this new mix comes from the master - long hoarded by Neil Young on his ranch since the time of tin soldiers and Nixon’s coming. It’s ballsy for Todd Haynes to title his unconventional biopic after an unreleased song only known to mostly hardcore Dylan fans - even ballsier to name it after such an unfinished unreleased song. That’s right – there are lines in which Bob hums or inserts what he later called “dummy lyrics” – line fillers until the real line was worked out but as history tells us - that never happened. It doesn’t matter though – the song, even unfinished, is as mystic and enveloping as any in his catalogue. A series of murky declarations set against a hazy bar-room organ background it seems at first listen to be impenetrable; every further listen renders it sublime.

It’s funny - Sonic Youth usually deconstruct musical norms, but here in their cover of the title track “I’m Not There” (yes, it appears twice here - in Dylan’s original and in this cover) they reconstruct an unfinished song as best as they can and like Malkmus’s tracks it’s one of their most recent likable efforts. As the booklet for the seminal Scorsese doc NO DIRECTION HOME said “this is not a soundtrack in the traditional sense” - this is an amazing amalgam of many diverse styles to form one big picture and that bodes very well for this reportedly grand but off kilter biopic. One of the only true to the soundtrack sense-of-being renderings is Marcus Carl Franklin’s (known among the 7 actors playing Dylan as the little black kid) magnificent “When The Ship Comes In.” Since by all reports the film is full of Bob originals this soundtrack appears to be more of a ‘inspired by’ compilation but I can’t vouch for that until I actually see it. When I do – you’ll be the first to know.

This post is dedicated to Norman Mailer (January 31, 1923-November 10, 2007). Yesterday on Wikipedia it said that among the literary highlights of his illustrious career he had co-written episodes of the 70's buddy cop show Starsky And Hutch. This is unconfirmed by IMDb and yeah, I know the changing nature of the Wiki-reliability. Turns out it was somebody's joke as that tidbit is gone today. Whew! That's a relief - the thought that the author of The Naked And The Dead wrote dialogue for Huggy Bear would take a lot to process.

Another funny thing recently removed from Wikipedia (on the grounds that it was too trivial) - "In the film SLEEPER Woody Allen is shown a picture of Mailer, Allen confirms his identity and states that Mailer donated his ego to the Harvard Medical School."

R.I.P. Mr. Mailer.

More later...

The Cameo Countdown Continues

"We now return to "Return Of The Pink Panther Returns" starring Ken Wahl as Inspector Clouseau..."
- An announcer on a late night TV broadcast in the background of Chief Wiggum's bedroom on The Simpsons

So I had such a gigantic response for my post - 20 Great Modern Movie Cameos (6/3/07 - 6/10/07) that I thought I'd honor my readers and their suggestions this time out. I got more email than I've ever gotten in my life in the last week so it is quite a task to go through it all but well worth it. Let's start with the major cameo ommisions - i.e. the ones that got the most votes :

Sean Connery - ROBIN HOOD : PRINCE OF THIEVES (Dir. Kevin Reynolds, 1991) I've never made it through all of this commercial Costner castastrophe but I keep hearing that one of its only saving graces was an appearance at the end of the collosal icon Connery (who played Robin Hood himself in ROBIN AND MARIAN, 1976) as King Richard. Since I doubt I'm putting this one in my Netflix queue I'll just have to take my reader's word for it.

Cate Blanchett - HOT FUZZ (Dir. Edgar Wright, 2007) I was so surprised by the amount of email I got that wanted this appearance noted! Especially since you can barely see her - I mean most people won't catch her but David G. puts it best in his email to me : "It's a gross but funny scene, and you never get to see her face...just her eyes...everything else is covered because she's working a gruesome crime scene. To top it off, she's arguing with the hero, her ex-boyfriend, about their relationship...so the scene also lays waste to that particular cliche."

Marcel Marceau - SILENT MOVIE (Dir. Mel Brooks, 1976) I agree that this should have made the list. The most famous mime in history has the only spoken line (well, spoken word) in Brooks' retro mid 70's silent film satire.

Most people just wrote in names but some fine folk took the time to write a bit 'bout their cameo picks - here's some I particularly enjoyed :

Jeffrey Singer writes :

One of my favorites was Charlton Heston in WAYNE'S WORLD. Mike Myers asks a garage mechanic for directions, and the mechanic goes into a tirade about how he loved a girl on that street. Myers turns to the director and says, "Can we get someone else to do it?" The scene is repeated with Heston. I thought it was wonderful.

Brad Weinstock puts in more than a mere 2 cents :

Meryl Streep's cameo (as a bogus version of herself) in the Farrelly Brothers' STUCK ON YOU is a high point in an otherwise so-so comedy. Her scene as a diva-fied version of herself in a restaurant in the middle of the movie is fine, but it's her tour de force at the end of the movie as Bonnie Parker in a ridiculous community theatre version of "Bonnie & Clyde: The Musical" (with Greg Kinnear as Clyde) that is absolutely priceless. It's a brilliant little moment of zen watching, arguably, the greatest living actress do a shrill, gangly, awkwardly dancing rendition of Dunaway's classic role. This segment is so hilarious and bizarre, that you wonder who was able to pull strings and convince her to appear. I had to put STUCK ON YOU in my Netflix queue for the sole purpose of watching this sequence again.

Craig writes :

Robert Patrick in WAYNE'S WORLD 2 as his TERMINATOR 2's T-1000 character, who pulls Wayne and Garth (Mike Myers and Dana Carvey) over on the highway, shows him a picture and says "Have you seen this boy?" When I saw this, the theatre erupted in laughter, since T2 was fresh in memory.

Kevin T. from Seattle sez :

What about George Lucas in BEVERLY HILLS COP 3? Extremely random cameo. He walks up to the theme park and says something cheesy. Onscreen for all of maybe 5 seconds. How in the Hell did they get him to make an appearence in that Awful Sequel? *

* Film Babble attempting to answer Kevin T.'s query notes that according to the mighty IMDb It's a "Director Trademark: ['John Landis' ] [filmmakers] Appearances by directors Martha Coolidge, Joe Dante, Arthur Hiller, George Lucas, Peter Medak, Barbet Schroeder, George Schaefer and John Singleton and filmmaker Ray Harryhausen were also in BEVERLY HILLS COP 3". That explains Steven Spielberg showing up as the Cook County Assessor's Office Clerk in THE BLUES BROTHERS!


I was happy to get an email from Jim Beaver (Ellsworth on Deadwood - pictured on the left, also on the new series John From Cincinnati, and the new old reliable classic CSI, and countless other film and TV performances and most importantly for film babble purposes a renowned film historian) who had a sweet handful of cameo contributions :

Yul Brynner in THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN. One of my very favorites. "Oh, yes!"

Peter O'Toole has a cameo in the original CASINO ROYALE which he asks Peter Sellers if Sellers is Richard Burton. (Sellers says, "No, I'm Peter O'Toole," to which O'Toole replies, "Then you are the greatest man that ever breathed!")

John Wayne in I MARRIED A WOMAN (1958). (Stretching the term "modern" here).

Count Basie in BLAZING SADDLES.

One I never see mentioned, an oddity in that it's a cameo by an actor who is already in the film in another role: Frank Finlay as the jeweler in the 1973 THE THREE MUSKETEERS. Finlay plays Porthos in the film, but as I recall, with heavy makeup he also plays the fellow who makes the fake necklace. What a great movie that was.

Danny T. writes :

Personally, my favorite cameos were in the movie DODGEBALL : A TRUE UNDERDOG STORY where we see Chuck Norris, William Shatner, and my favorite Lance Armstrong. While the first two were just quick jokes that just added a little bit of humor to the film, the Lance Armstrong cameo is absolutely ridiculous how he berates Vince Vaughn's character by using his cancer survival as a form of trash talking. And while Lance isn't exactly an Oscar quality actor (much less a Golden Globe one) he still at least had fun. And, the audience does as well.

Quizmaster Moses of Boston, MA offers :

Donald Bumgart in ROSEMARY'S BABY. (Remember when Mia Farrow calls the actor who her husband replaced?) Listen closely and the voice on the other end of the phone is none other than Tony Curtis. That is the equivalent of Cameo Gold, my friend - and probably the Best Movie Trivia Question ever.

Tracy Spry sez :

Marla Maples in HAPPINESS

William Burroughs in DRUGSTORE COWBOY

Dweezil Zappa in PRETTY IN PINK

Stiv Bators in TAPEHEADS and POLYESTER

George Plimpton in GOOD WILL HUNTING

Travis C. asks :

...where is the love for Neil Patrick Harris (TV's Doogie Howser!) as himself in HAROLD AND KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE? Come on! "Dude, I humped every piece of ass ever on that show" and "Yeah, that was a real dick move on my part, that's why I'm paying for your meal." Too funny...

Ronald Skinner writes :

I'd have to add: Veronica Hart in BOOGIE NIGHTS (Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, 1997). Hart plays Judge O'Malley in the child custody hearing of Amber Waves (Julliane Moore). The scene was inspired by Hart's own real-life custody problem. Veteran porn actress plays legitimate role while legitimate actress plays veteran porn star. And it's very discreet, so a casual viewer would probably not even recognize Hart. Art imitiates life imitating art. BOOGIE NIGHTS also has porn actress Nina Hartley playing Little Bill's wife.

Henri Cheramie really has some whoppers! -

Okay, here's a few for you...I don't know how great these are, but they are kinda cool :

Hugh Hefner in the trailer and early cut of CITIZEN TOXIE : THE TOXIC AVENGER IV. Due to Legal Issues, he asked to be taken out of the movie but in the trailer he is still seen saying "Only the toxic avenger knows for sure."

Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg in LAND OF THE DEAD (Director and Writer/Star of SHAUN OF THE DEAD make appearances as zombies in a photobooth.

John Travolta in BORIS AND NATASHA : He comes to the door with flowers asking "Is Natasha home?"

Johnathan Winters in THE ADVENTURE OF ROCKY AND BULWINKLE : In a movie rife with cameos and guest stars, his is the funniest, playing three roles.

Peter Jackson (LORD OF THE RINGS director) in HOT FUZZ : Dressed as a psycho santa, Peter stabs Simon Pegg in the hand.

Frank Oz in just about every film by John Landis.

Brad Pitt and Matt Damon on the Dating Game in CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND.
P.J. Soles in THE DEVIL'S REJECTS : She's the woman who gets harassed by Captain Spaulding and eventually has her car stolen.

Groucho Marx in SKIDOO!: He plays "God" the head of the Mafia. This mafia is filled with old movie stars.

Mitchell S. Nagasawa has the floor :

One of the best cameos and best kept cameo of the modern era has to be Will Ferrell in WEDDING CRASHERS. I am amazed that they managed to keep this secret and the impact of Chazz walking down the stairs to be revealed as Ferrell was HUGE on the audience that I was in. They couldn't have cast anyone better and by the reaction of all the movie goers, they agreed too.

Mpavlov echoes the sentiment of the Matt masses when mentioning :

My favorite cameo, that always seems to miss these lists, is Matt Damon in EUROTRIP. To refresh your memory, he plays the lead singer of the rock band that plays at the graduation party. Performing the hilarious "Scotty Doesn't Know" with a shaved head, tattoos, and piercings, Matt Damon bangs his head, grinds with Kristin Kreuk, shakes his tongue at the crowd and finally makes out with her. Very hilarious.

Chris French writes :

JAWS (Director Steven Spielberg, 1975) : Peter Benchley (author of the book Jaws) as the reporter on the beach leading into theJuly 4th attacks; Steven Spielberg as a voice on the radio in the same sequence.

CARS (John Lasseter, Joe Ranft, 2006) Not only does Richard "The King" Petty appear as one of his cars (a 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner Superbird -- which, ironically, he never won a race while driving), Lynda Petty (his wife) appears as the station wagon the Petty Clan used to use to drive to races. Mario Andretti as the car he won the 1967 Daytona 500 in.

HISTORY OF THE WORLD : PART 1 (Dir. Mel Brooks, 1981) : Hugh Hefner as a Roman citizen describing his new invention, "the 'centerfold'"; Henny Youngman as Chemist, source of the punchline for "a pack of Trojans"; Spike Millgan as the senile old man in the French Revolution sequence ("What fool put a carpet on the wall?").

BASEKETBALL (Dir. David Zucker, 1998) : Dale Earnhardt Sr. as the Cab Driver ("Can *I* drive faster? Hang on!"). Reggie Jackson as himself. (I don't count Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Siegfried & Roy, as they really don't do anything except sit in glass cases.

Gary from Novato, CA. says : James Cagney in RAGTIME (Dir. Milos Forman, 1981) - Because he was a screen legend, it had been 20 years since he'd last appeared in a film, and it was the last film he ever appeared in. It was also one of the most talked about cameo appearances.

Steven L. writes :

There are numerous examples of famous newspaper reporters, columnists, etc., appearing as themselves in cameos to add verisimilitude. Most often in political thrillers and science-fiction movies. Just to name two: Howard K. Smith appeared in THE BEST MAN. Eleanor Clift, Jack Germond, Fred Barnes, Morton Kondracke (now of Fox News) appeared in INDEPENDENCE DAY. *

Someone pointed out to me that the category of news media folks who have cameos in movies is a whole category in itself. Larry King (CNN) has had a zillion cameos in movies and TV shows, notably GHOSTBUSTERS (Roger Grimsby was in that movie too.) A number of other CNN personalities were in the movie CONTACT. Bernard Shaw (CNN) was in JURASSIC PARK II ; THE LOST WORLD

* They also appeared in DAVE (Dir. Ivan Reitman, 1993)

Daniel Garcia from http://TheDarkSideoftheGeeks.Blogspot.com remarks :

Earlier today I was watching SINGLES on TNT, and I didn't remember the cameo by Tim Burton... it's like 10 seconds long, but TOO funny to see him charging 20 bucks for a lousy video to a desperate woman!

Mikey Mouse on the record :

I love those cameos but as you will see most of them are part of a comedy.

Bob Barker in HAPPY GILMORE
*
Ronnie James Dio in TENACIOUS D IN THE PICK OF DESTINY

Ozzy Osbourne in LITTLE NICKY

Neil Diamond in SAVING SILVERMAN

Billy Idol in THE WEDDING SINGER

* (Happy retirement Bob! - Dan)

Scott N. writes :

A few more great cameos for you:

Reggie Jackson as himself in THE NAKED GUN... getting him to assassinate the queen, HA!

Warwick Davis as a pod race spectator in STAR WARS : EPISODE I - THE PHANTOM MENACE...IT'S WILLOW!!!!!

Ed Kowalczyk (lead singer of Live) as Waiter at Clifton's in FIGHT CLUB...personal bias

Me - as a blurry background shadow in SNAKE EYES ...got paid $120 to do it too.

Okay! So a lot of people wrote in with suggestions that didn't quite fit the criteria. A good example is ANNIE HALL - Paul Simon as slimey Tony Lacey fits the bill. He was a well known celebrity and instantly recognizable. But Jeff Goldblum, as much as I love his brief part on the phone at a Hollywood party - "I lost my Mantra" wasn't known at the time - neither was Sigourney Weaver (seen in long shot) in 1977 - so keep that in mind. I thought about making a 'cameos after the fact' post but c'mon! These are better labeled as "bit parts" not cameos. Okay?!!?

The Modern Movie Media Cameo Whore Award Goes To :

Larry King

As Steven L. noted above King has done zillions of cameos (including LOST IN AMERICA, CONTACT, MAD CITY, BULLWORTH, THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT, - too many to list here) all of which have him playing himself giving credibility to a fictional entity - be it characters or events that have become household names. My personal favorite King cameo comes from DAVE (also mentioned above) in which he interviews director Oliver Stone fresh from JFK about his conspiracy theories dealing with President Mitchell (Kevin Kline) being replaced by a double (also Kline). Great 'cause King scoffs at the notion and we all know that Stone is right. Sigh - just like real life.

Lastly I have to say to file this under "I got to take my reader's word for it" but I'll at least note that a lot of people loved Dustin Hoffman's cameo as himself in THE HOLIDAY. Still haven't put it in my Netflix queue yet though.

Thanks from film babble for all your suggestions, picks, ommisions, everything. Please feel free to email -

boopbloop7@gmail.com

More later...

A Few New Reviews & Doing The Wright Thing

"I went to the video store and asked if they had the movie with Nicolas Cage and Hayley Mills. It was shot in black and white on color film. It was the one where they lost the war because they made all of the submarines out of styrofoam. Then I realized that wasn't a movie, it was a dream I had. Then I thought how cool it would be to rent your dreams. The guy says, "that's not a movie, that was a dream you had." I said, "how did you know that?" He said, "you tried to rent it last week. "I said, "well, let me know when you get it in.""
- Steven Wright

Thanks for everybody's comments and suggestions on my last post - 20 Great Modern Movie Cameos. I'm compiling the best reader's picks and will post them soon so please stay tuned. This time out a few movies now playing at a theater near you and new DVDs as well as a local live review of one of the greatest comedians (and sometime film actor) ever so please read on -


SWEET LAND (Dir. Ali Selim, 2005) This film has been around for a bit but only made its way to my local home town theater The Varsity this last week accompanied by the director who said this was his last stop on his publicity tour. Based on William Weaver's touching short story A Gravestone Made Of Wheat dealing with immigration issues and small town prejudices that delays the marriage of a German mail-order bride (Elizabeth Reaser) to a Norwegian immigrant farmer (Tim Guinee) in the days after World War I - SWEET LAND aims for a loving lyricism that for the most part it achieves. One of the only mis-steps are John Heard's Priest character who seems a bit off in tone to fully fit into the mechanics of this period piece - his "but I saw them dancing" dialogue feels a bit forced but Reaser is extremely beautiful (though her makeup is a bit much) and so is the Minnesota scenery. Remarking on the oft made comparisons to DAYS OF HEAVEN at the Q & A after the screening last friday night, director/writer Selim said "you can't shoot a field without people thinking you're referencing Terrence Mallick". Good point though for a first time film maker to be placed in such lofty company should make him as proud as he should be for this solid absorbing debut.

Also in theaters :

PARIS, JE T'AIME (Directed by 18 different directors including the Coen Bros, Alexander Payne, Wes Craven, Gus Van Sant, Tom Twyker, Alfonso Cuaron, and Isabel Coixet) In 1988 NEW YORK STORIES featured 3 short films made by master directors Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, and Francis Ford Coppola that collectively formed a valentine to the grand city. Multiply that by 6 and add a bit of LOVE ACTUALLY change the locale to Paris and you've got PARIS, JE T'AIME (translates to Paris, I love you). Much like its predessesors it's a mixed bag but with nearly 20 movie makers how could it not be? At its effective best it's as good as movies can get particularly the Coen Brothers-Steve Buscemi as a tourist in a subway segment which is the best thing the Coens have done since THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE.

Other successful bits are "Place des fêtes" by Oliver Schmitz which has a dying man falling in love with his paramedic and Alexander Payne's gorgeous "14e arrondissement" also about a tourist enjoying a profound day sight seeing. Even the misfires are interesting - Sylvain Chomet's "Tour Eiffel" about mimes in love is too cutesy but it's breezy enough and "Quartier de la Madeleine" by Vincenzo Natali with Elijah Wood and Olga Kurylenko is only useful if you've ever wondered how vampires make out. The Maggie Gyllenhall and Natalie Portman portions are annoying but then maybe it's just them that's annoying - I can't decide.With it's amazing photography and ratio of good material over bad PARIS, JE T'AIME deserves to be seen in theaters though it will also be fun later to skip and choose the best bits from the DVD platter. It's the tastiest anthology film I've ever been served.

Just released on DVD -

THE GOOD GERMAN
(Dir. Steven Soderbergh, 2006) Shot in black and white with its white washed exterior shots and rear projection when driving scenes THE GOOD GERMAN achieves beautifully the exact aesthetic of a film shot in 1945 so much that you may forget it's a current release and think you are watching Turner Movie Classics. Its got the look down but unfortunately it doesn't feel authentic. Soderbergh regular George Clooney plays a journalist who arrives in Berlin just after World War II has ended but the shadows and treachery still linger. He finds out that his scheming motor pool driver (Tobey Maguire) has been seeing Clooney's former lover (Cate Blanchett)- a prostitute with a complicated dark background. Well if you've read my reviews you know I'm not one for detailed plot descriptions so that's all you'll get. Overlong and undercooked with a cast that is as stiff as Mount Rushmoore (with the exception of the overacting Maguire who is completely out of his depth here), this film adds nothing to the great noir genre and left me feeling afterwards like I saw a bad CASABLANCA cover band. I'm sure after they were finished with this sober straight faced old school exercise I bet Clooney and Soderbergh were dying to get trashed and party it up OCEAN'S style.

A write-up of a live performance by a comedian? Isn't this supposed to be a film blog? Well I think Mr. Wright's connection to the world of movies is pretty undeniable especially since he's won an Oscar damnit! (For the short film THE APPOINTMENTS OF DENNIS JENNINGS - 1988) So hush your bitchin' and let me babble on :

"When I was a little kid I wish the first word I ever said was the word 'quote' so right before I died I could say 'unquote.'"

STEVEN WRIGHT live at the Carolina Theater, Durham June 6th, 2007 - I've seen Steven Wright before - in 1985 at Memorial Hall here in Chapel Hill and it was one of the funniest performances of stand-up I've ever seen. With a load of new material and a reputation from years of movie appearances (see below) and TV guest shots Wright walked onstage to thunderous applause early this month. Although the audience was familliar with a lot of his act (a recent Comedy Central special and DVD release When The Leaves Blow Away documents the new stuff) just about every line killed and it was fascinating to see him experiment with some lines that were obviously works in progress. He did about an hour and 40 minutes never losing momentum and I believe he only used a handful of jokes he had done 22 years earlier (pretty sure "I got arrested for scalping low numbers at the deli" and the bit about Harry Houdini locking his keys in his car were repeated) but these one liners are like classic crowd pleasers so that's not really a criticism. He even played 2 songs on the guitar - one was introduced as a song he wrote when he was three years old - "the kittie's trying to kill me". So nice in these stupid celebrity obsessed times to have a non-topical apolitical clever crafty comedian still going strong and gaining new generations of fans. Can't wait to see him again in 2029!

Wright was considered for my Cameos post last time out but didn't make the list so I thought I'd take this occasion to pay tribute to the great man with this handy dandy list :

5 Great Wright Roles

1. NATURAL BORN KILLERS (Dir. Oliver Stone, 1994) Maybe the closest to a dramatic part as Wright's ever done, uh well no not really. Dr. Emil Reingold is pure Wright through and through. When told by Robert Downey Jr. - "Mallory Knox has said that she wants to kill you."He responds in a matter of fact manner - "I never really believe what women tell me."

2. HALF BAKED (Dir. Tamra Davis, 1998) Uncredited and only known as The Guy On The Couch Wright has very few lines - "is it January?" he asks at one point but everybody always remembers his part in this aptly named pot comedy. Well, at least all my stoner friends do.

3. CANADIAN BACON (Dir. Michael Moore, 1995) Quite possibly the only legitimately funny part of Moore's only non documentary flop comedy Wright appears at his laconic lucid finest as "RCMP Officer at Headquarters". Thinking that there's a war with Canada angry American invaders (John Candy, Kevin J. O'Connor, Bill Nunn) are further angered by Wright's Canadian tongue - "I don't know what you're talking aboot, eh?" Bill Nunn yells in Wright's face - "Aboot! It's ABOUT! And what's with this 'eh' business?!!?

4. COFFEE AND CIGARETTES (Dir. Jim Jarmusch, 2003) In the opening short film "Strange To Meet You" Wright meets Roberto Benigni for a cup of coffee and yes cigarettes. Fimed in 1986 the scene is relatively meaningless beyond its basic description but there is a palatable amusing sense of awkwardness when these guys styles mix - Benigni sure doesn't get Wright's caffeine popsicle bit. Credited as Steven he has one energetic moment - "I like to drink a lot of coffee right before I go to sleep, so I can dream faster." You can see the clip here.

5. SO I MARRIED AN AXE MURDERER (Dir. Thomas Schlamme, 1993) Another near lame movie saved from complete lame-ocity because of a Wright appearance. As a pilot of a small plane he scares the Hell out of passenger Mike Myers with his admission that he has never flown at night and when pointing at the instrument panel he says "that's the artificial horizon, which is better than the actual horizon."

Notable mention goes to his DJ voice-over in RESERVOIR DOGS, his take on the infamous naughty joke in THE ARISTOCRATS, and his film debut in 1984 as Larry Stillman D.D.S. in DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN (which was Madonna's film debut too by the way).

More later...