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lady wakasa

Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 4:14 pm

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 5911 Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon

Wow... and it isn't even New Years Eve yet.

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gromit

Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 4:34 pm

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9010 Location: Shanghai

Cadillac Records was kind of a disappointment. Adrian Brody didn't convince me at all. And Gabrielle Union was pretty bad as Mrs. Muddy. The music is great, but it relies way too much on quick shifts, such as Muddy recording I Can't Be Satisfied and seconds later they own a Caddy with the proceeds. And it conflates facts and dates, with Chuck Berry magically creating rock 'n' roll and Allan Freed naming it such when he first spins Maybelline. Just kind of silly.

My other main complaint was that they couldn't figure out any creative or interesting ways to show the songs being performed, so we get lots of shots of Leonard Chess and Muddy watching and reacting to performances. Cause those are the key characters in the film, see. Yawn.

And it's odd how Willie Dixon is the narrator, but he gets dumped for long stretches, and we hardly see him in the film. Willie Dixon was the key mover and shaker, writing, arranging, producing, talent scouting, rehearsing the artists and frequently playing bass. Instead Muddy Waters takes over the roles of Muddy the performer, Willie Dixon the right hand man, and brother Phil Chess always there to help out. (Apparently Phil is in the film -- or at least the credits -- getting a bottle of gin or something in one brief scene). Other important figures such as Harvey Fuqua and Bo Diddley don't even rate an appearance or credit, though the Rolling Stones stroll in briefly.
Muddy's great piano player, Otis Spann, is also a key no-show.

Other factual errors include:
- Little Walter hated My Babe when Willie Dixon gave it to him, and thought it would make him look like a pussy ("my babe, don't stand no cheating"). After much pleading and shit, he reluctantly agreed to record what would become his signature tune.
- Etta recorded I'd Rather Go Blind at Muscle Shoals studio down south, not in Chess Studios Chicago, as some sort of tribute to Leonard Chess, with Chess and Muddy standing by. Those were just two of the mistakes I was immediately aware of.

Most of the scenes between Brody and Beyonce are poor. And the film shifts into tight close-ups for the last 1/3 of its run, which grew tiresome. The ending sequence identifying when each performer was indicted into the R'n'R Hall of Fame seemed cheesy. And why did they run some undistinguished Beyonce song over the end credits? They couldn't turn up one or two more period Chess gems of the era?

I did like The Howlin' Wolf performance by Eamonn Walker. Had a nice air of menace and confidence and country issuing forth. There were times when the Little Walter storyline and character caught a spark (such as when they are touring and run across a ramshackle band pretending to be Little Walter & his band), but it was mostly just too rushed. Actually I think the whole thing would have been a helluva lot better had it focused on Muddy and Little Walter, with the Chess Bros. and Howlin Wolf, etc. as minor supporting players. Or better yet, the Willie Dixon story. Lastly, I couldn't help feeling that the picture was focused on the white businessman as a way of increasing the audience.

Last edited by gromit on Sat Dec 27, 2008 3:40 am; edited 2 times in total
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billyweeds

Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 4:51 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

I have sort of suspected the movie was cheesy in the way you make it sound.

Nancy

Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 4:55 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 4607 Location: Norman, OK

That avatar is definitely a keeper, billy.

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Isaacism, 2009

billyweeds

Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 5:14 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

Nancy wrote:

That avatar is definitely a keeper, billy.

Thanks...I think. The makeup was definitely a hoot.

I recently got to narrate the trailer as well. The editing of the film is finally finished after more than a year of post-production, so we shall see what happens next.

marantzo

Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 6:08 pm

Guest

Quote:

... indicted into the R'n'R Hall of Fame...

That's funny.

Billy, looks like a sure-fire Sundance material. I'll have to wait for mo's verdict on the makeup. You make a very good chief cannibal and you look like a caring one.

You are king of the avatars.

Syd

Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 7:19 pm

Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12921 Location: Norman, Oklahoma

Quote:

And why did they run some undistinguished Beyonce song over the end credits?

Is it original for the movie? They may have wanted something eligible for the Best Song Oscar.

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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament

Melody

Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 8:36 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 2242 Location: TX

Freakin' Adorable!

James Franco is Entertainer of the Year, y'all. First in Pineapple Express and now in Milk, he has captured my heart. So long, Johnny. See ya, Robert.

Brolin is wooden, Luna is loony, Hirsch is myopic, Sean Penn is probably the best Harvey Milk ever, but James is riveting every second he's on screen. You mourn the loss of him in the second act. You cheer the late night phone call. You melt when he grins. You pray to everything that is holy the DVD will have an "extended" pool scene.

C'mon, kiss me, James. I'll even put on a big ol' hairy moustache.

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My heart told my head: This time, no.

inlareviewer

Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 8:50 pm

Joined: 05 Jul 2004 Posts: 1949 Location: Lawrence, KS

Melody wrote:

LOL. He is orfully gewd, and, frankly, you wouldn't have to 'stache it up. He bats for the opposite-sex team, tee-heem.

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"And take extra care with strangers/Even flowers have their dangers/And though scary is exciting/Nice is different than good." --Stephen Sondheim

Joe Vitus

Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 11:19 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston

Truth be told, I found Emile Hirsch the most adorable. But I liked Franco's opaque eyes: that look of invitation without revealing one bit of the inner self is a kind of come on you see a lot in the gay community, but has never, to my knowledge, been captured on film.

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yambu

Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 11:30 pm

Joined: 23 May 2004 Posts: 6441 Location: SF Bay Area

Joe Vitus wrote:

And in the straight world, on the male side. cf McQueen, Nicholson, et al. It's as old as chimps.

Joe Vitus

Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 11:36 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston

I don't think we're talking about the same thing, or maybe I'm not describing it correctly. It's a kind of angelic smile that could be a come on and could be an imminent rejection and you just can't tell until you put yourself on the line, and I've never noticed it from any of the men you list.

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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.

-Topher

Rod

Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 12:08 am

Joined: 21 Dec 2004 Posts: 2944 Location: Lithgow, Australia

All I know is that after I saw the abominable Flyboys I said to friends: "James Franco needs a new agent." But perhaps he got one, leading to Milk and Pineapple Express, and soon to be Allen Ginsberg (huh?) in Howl.

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Syd

Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 2:50 am

Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12921 Location: Norman, Oklahoma

Doubt is a movie that is going to pick up a slew of Oscar nominations, including Picture, Director, Actress, Supporting Actress (possibly twice), Supporting Actor (unless Philip Seymour Hoffman is considered a lead), screenplay, and possibly a couple more. Score is a good possibility. It has an interesting premise, the battle between doubt and certainty, and how the former makes us much more human, and the latter can make us compassionless monsters. However doubt may make us blind to the existence of a different kind of monsters.

Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Father Flynn, a Catholic priest heavily influenced by Vatican II. Meryl Streep is Sister Aloysius, the head of the nuns at a Catholic school, and more devoted to the principles of Pius XII. Flynn is her superior, so there is a natural conflict between them. Sister James (Amy Adams) is caught between them.

WARNING: Some spoilers below

Sister Aloysius runs a tight school, described by Sister James at one point as being a jail. For instance, Aloysius will prowl through Sister James's class criticizing students despite the disruption that this causes the class. One day the school's sole black student is called to the rectory from Sister James's class, and returns behaving strangely, with alcohol on his breath. Sister James reports this to Sister Aloysius, giving all the ammunition Aloysius needs. Father Flynn comes up with a plausible explanation, which Sister James accepts, but Sister Aloysius is already certain that Flynn is a child molester, citing her experience, although we never discover what this experience is that makes her so damned certain.

Doubt is a strange movie (and, I presume play) in that the central conflict can never be resolved; that's the whole point of it. Sister Aloysius has some shreds of evidence that's sufficient to convince herself--except that she has to cling to her certainty to silence her own self-doubts. She speaks to the child's mother, and gets an unexpected response which is beyond her comprehension.

The audience on this film is going to be split on what actually happened. There is certainly slight evidence against Flynn, and he does act suspicously when confronted by it. He has been transferred several times in the last few years, which reminds us of scandals involving Catholic priests.

As I said, this film will get a lot of Oscar nominations. I don't expect it to win the big ones, because so much is left unresolved. Amy Adams has earned an Oscar several times over, but she's better in Mrs. Pettigrew Lives for a Day. Streep might win, but her performance is rather two-dimensional. Hoffman may have the best shot. The film has an excellent shot for adapted screenplay. I feel that the screenplay has to lean so heavily toward making the conflict unresolvable that it distorts the entire movie, including not asking certain people what actually happened (for instance, the boy himself and Flynn's former pastor.)

DEFINITE SPOLERS: My theory is that Father Flynn is a homosexual but not a child molester. The child is a homosexual (Sister Aloysius seems to overlook the possibility that the child may already have a sexual orientation) and Flynn is counseling him on it. There is a plausible explanation for the alcohol on the child's breath, but there are a couple of other things that suggest Flynn doesn't have an innocent past. However, we have no idea what his previous indiscretions might have been.

Last edited by Syd on Sat Dec 27, 2008 11:47 am; edited 3 times in total
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament

Syd

Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 3:07 am

Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12921 Location: Norman, Oklahoma

I suggest the screenwriter might want to avoid the pathetic fallacy. You do not need the wind blowing to suggest change. You do not need lightbulbs shorting out at convenient moments. You do not need torrential rain to add atmosphere to crucial conflicts. He does it five or six times during Doubt, and soon it becomes laughable.

_________________
I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament

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