The Truth Is Out There: Ramblings and Comments From A Hollywood Outsider – January 2011

Welcome to the first in my depraved/misguided/ill informed ramblings and comments from the outside of Hollywood. With this column I will give a voice to my frustration, vent my anger and editorialize the latest happenings from the weird world of tinseltown and maybe bring something to your attention that you perhaps overlooked or were not aware of. And then (god forbid) you may form an opinion of your own and can comment below and we can discuss further.

The Sundance Film Festival and Red State:

January brings us the first film festival of the year in Park City, Utah for Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival. Originally intended as a showcase for guerilla filmmakers and independent film, as the years have gone by Sundance seems to have slowly but surely been hijacked by the studios who need to find a place for the latest quirkfest they financed which the marketing suits don’t understand. Everybody is looking for the latest break out success, everybody is looking for the next Quentin Tarantino but the Independent has become the mainstream and often times people like Shane Carruth, Gareth Edwards and Vincenzo Natali make great intelligent films that never cross over with the mainstream the way that earlier films like Reservoir Dogs or Clerks did. 2011 has an interesting looking line up with titles like Hobo with a Shotgun, Bellflower, Cedar Rapids and Like Crazy all looking promising. Which brings me to the most talked about film of the festival before its even been seen; Kevin Smith’s Red State.

On the surface, Red State is what Sundance should be all about, Low budget controversial subject and buzz. The problem is also the movies biggest selling point, Kevin Smith. Now I’m not sure what happened and if maybe this is just because I was not online so much during this period but it seems to be that around 2001 or 2002, Smith stopped being a popular filmmaker whose next project was looked forward to and became something of a poster child for bad movies akin to Joel Schumacher circa Batman and Robin. Now If I’m honest and I’m not being biased here but this seems a little unfair. Clerks and Chasing Amy are great great movies. They are a tad overwritten and do not have any visual flair but they have heart and honesty and that's something to be applauded. Even Smith’s lesser films like Mallrats, Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back are entertaining and interesting in what they tried to accomplish. Clerks 2 is a great film and a return to form for the man, I must have missed the memo that said we all hate Smith now after that film came out. Okay Cop Out was not good and made for a studio with a star who clearly couldn't be arsed, but I don't understand how Smith’s decision to make a horror film with a controversial subject matter has been met with critical derision before release.

Smith has done himself few favors though, taking to task the critics who slated Cop Out was not the best idea. This lead to Smith also making a decision not to hold any press screenings which has pissed off the online critic community even further.He has decided he does not need the online critics to justify his films anymore and more power to him for that level of self belief. He then turned around and decided to invite select critics to a screening later on in LA. This has led to pre-emptive accusations from bloggers that these critics are unable to provide an unbiased review should the film not live up to the hype. Devin Faraci, formerly of Chud and now of Badassdigest.com has been leading the charge to pre-emptively dismiss any positive reviews that may come from the Sundance premiere of Red State via Twitter. For the record Faraci is truly an odious online presence that gives the online critic world a bad name. He is the very definition of an angry film fan who found an audience, an audience he hates judging from his remarks to people on the Chud boards and on Twitter. I understand that online you get a lot of anonymous shit from geeks disagreeing with your opinion but don't let it affect you to such an extent that your world view comes across as negative and snarky as the cycle will only perpetuate itself. Drew McWeeny formerly of Aint it Cool and now of Hitfix took Devin to task for his comments on Red State and shut him up. Good for Drew, here is a man who has been blogging about films for nearly twenty years and still has enthusiasm and intelligence in his writing.

As of time of writing Red State is about to premiere along with a protest by the Woodsboro Baptist Church who inspired the subject matter for the film. This is the very definition of buzz that Sundance should be courting and will get the film noticed. So to sum up; Don’t slag off a film until you have seen it…

Remakes:

The start of this year has been a whammy of news stories about what is about to be remade. Gareth Edwards has signed on to make a new version of Godzilla for Legendary Pictures. I’m intrigued about this as you all know I think Monsters is the greatest thing since Coke Zero but at the same time I would quite like Edwards to do a few smaller films first before launching into a studio tent pole the way Christopher Nolan did it. With Godzilla I think we can all agree that the 1998 version is somewhat disappointing but to be honest its hard to imagine a different direction a new big budget film would go in. I cannot imagine for a second that a studio would finance a film as bugnuts as Destroy all Monsters with a Hollywood effects budget but thats the sort of thing we need to make a new Godzilla worthwhile. While we are on the subject check out Ryuhei Kitamura’s Godzilla – Final Wars if you have not already done so and dream of a movie that cool being made.

Colin Farrell has signed on to star in a new version of Total Recall with director Len Wiseman. Wiseman can do big budget destruction which he has proved but again they probably need to go in another direction. The Arnold Schwarzenegger version of Total Recall is a violent and fun sci fi schlock fest and a great document of a time of excess in the late 80s/ early 90s. In the 80s, The film was originally supposed to be something akin to The Bourne Identity in space with David Cronenberg directing which is a much more interesting prospect and probably the way they need to go with this. I’m not going to write this one off just yet…

The news that truly made me slump my shoulders and cry into my cereal was the news that a new version of Lethal Weapon is planned by Warner Bros. Do people not realise that Lethal Weapon is a product of its time?, much like Tab Clear and Wallabies Lethal Weapon is pure 80s cinema all the way, as is the buddy cop action movie. They should just leave this alone, the best we can hope for is a Bad Boys 3 which is even more insane than Bad Boys 2.

Spider-Man version 2.0

I’m not going to see Marc Webb’s Spider-Man reboot/revamp/remake/whatever in the cinemas. I’m not the aforementioned angry blogger about this I just don’t feel a need to rush out and see it. For my money there was nothing wrong with the Sam Raimi/Tobey Maguire versions of Spider-Man and I just feel bored that there is already a rebootening of the franchise when the first Spider-Man movie came out less than ten years ago. Having said that when I see the first still of Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker, I am intrigued. Garfield certainly looks like Peter Parker and hasn’t been at the gym, he also appears to have web shooter gadgets like the comics which makes me curious about this new interpretation…I’d still rather see the Broadway show which thanks to its elaborate stunt antics, has the added bonus that you may actually see someone die on stage and has begun a whole new sub-genre ‘Snuff Theatre’…

Frightfest

One of the most frustrating things about being a film geek in the UK is the lack of film festivals here and having to put up with reading reports from festivals like SXSW, Toronto, Venice and Sundance which all have some great films premiere which we then have to wait about a year to see in the UK. Thank god then for Frightfest which has now expanded from a yearly event in London to include a weekend in Glasgow and a weekend earlier in the year as well as events in London at Halloween. I have not been to a whole weekend for a good few years but I’m very tempted to go to Glasgow, whose line up has just been announced and includes: I Saw The Devil, Rubber, Mothers Day and Hobo with a Shotgun. One of my dreams is to create my own film festival screening underrated films and cult movies, some day….. You can get tickets and check out the line up here: http://www.frightfest.co.uk/index.html

Hero of The Month: Ricky Gervais

British comedy hero Ricky Gervais blew into the Golden Globes as a presenter and proceeded to offend and alienate everyone of the PC Hollywood elite who couldn't handle someone telling it like it is. Gervais brought back uncomfortable memories for Robert Downey Jr, Called Tim Allen talentless and indirectly slated Scientology and called John Travolta a closet homosexual. All was met by uncomfortable gasps from the audience who found the humor not bland or middle of the road enough. Some like Robert De Niro found his antics hilarious, which isn't surprising as De Niro hasn't taken himself seriously for years. Most looked appalled, they cut to a shot of Steve Buscemi during the coverage who looked like he was at a funeral. Supposedly the Hollywood Free Press Association who are behind the globes will make it hard for Gervais to win any awards from them due to his presenting stint. I’m sure Gervais does not care. They must have seen his stand up shows and knew that he treads the line between funny and mean spirited. Kudos to our Ricky for not changing his act or selling out.

Films by Bands

The film by a band or starring a band or with music by a band seems to be a rare thing these days. Gone are the days of Yellow Submarine, Tommy or ahem Spiceworld. Green Day were talking up a movie of American Idiot for a while which seems to have successfully transitioned to Broadway but the film has yet to see the light. Arcade Fire’s music is cinematic as hell and after the video for The Suburbs I would love to see them team up with Spike Jonze for a full length movie of some sort.Jonze has mentioned in interviews that Where the Wild Things Are was heavily influenced by Arcade Fires first album Funeral. Thank god then for Angels and Airwaves who I thought were over and done with thanks to lead singer Tom Delonge getting back together with Blink 182. For the past four years they have had director William Eubank working in his backyard on a science fiction love story called erm Love for which Angels and Airwaves will provide the music. If you have heard any of their albums this isn't much of a shock, their songs are all very epic and 80s ballady and wouldn’t be out of place in some kind of science fiction emo fest. I don't think anyone expected Love to look like it does though, the trailer recently appeared and its positively epic and visually stunning for a film with a low budget made guerilla style and now I can’t wait to see it. This could be one of the genuine surprises of the year…

Lovefilm Player

The Lovefilm Player is now available through your PS3 and is near faultless. Much of the time its just like having a DVD library at your fingertips but without the shelving space that would take up. Its also good for seeing things you may have missed or are hard to find. Just in the last month I have caught up with Reefer Madness, Dark Star, Return of The Living Dead and The Good German. I’m also able to rewatch stuff from my youth like Tango and Cash, The Hidden and The Fugitive. Its great and worth investing in a PS3 which along with the BBC,ITV and Channel 4 on demand players truly is a gift that keeps on giving. The fact that more and more films are premiering via on demand services before they hit DVD and also Amazon have just bought Lovefilm is a reason to invest now!

by Chris Holt

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