The Dailies 1/11/09

Happy New Year! Welcome back to another edition of The Dailies, where I take a look at some of the films I’ve recently seen. Since the last column, I’ve seen four more films, so let’s get down to brass tacks, shall we?

Outside Providence (1999)
Dir: Michael Corrente
Principle actors: Alec Baldwin, Shawn Hatosy, Amy Smart, Timothy Crowe

It’s odd to look at the trajectory of the career of the Farrelly Brothers. Once the undisputed king of raunchy comedies, the Farrelly’s have since released a string of bombs and created a failed FOX television series. They arrived on the scene with Dumb and Dumber, and quickly followed that up with Kingpin and There’s Something About Mary, all three classic 90’s comedies. The aughts, unfortunately for them, haven’t been as kind. Films like The Heartbreak Kid and Stuck On You failed to find an audience, and they nearly ruined the 2004 Red Sox World Series victory by shooting Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore celebrating on the field, in real life, while the Red Sox were celebrating (for their putrid Fever Pitch). I still haven’t gotten over that one.

Outside Providence potentially represents their last half-decent film, at least in the court of public opinion (mine included). Though neither directed the film, they did contribute heavily to its creation and production. It isn’t the usual gross-out gag-fest that their other films are. It’s just fairly funny, fairly sweet, and ultimately forgettable.

The film follows the story of Tim Dunphy, affectionately referred to as “Dildo” by his father, a blue-collar bozo played by Alec Baldwin. “Dunph” is always in trouble and one night gets arrested, and Baldwin has had enough. Dunphy is sent to a private school for his senior year to get his act together.

Along the way, our hero finds true love, learns the value of study and education, and manages to bring his public school sheen of drug-induced coolness to the stuffy private academy. It’s predictable, but it is entertaining. There are some good lines and some decent gags. Nothing prompted me to guffaw, but I chuckled throughout.

Baldwin is definitely the best thing about this movie. He’s a little wooden in his delivery as the working class Rhode Island character, and his interactions with Dunphy (Shawn Hatosy) are borderline embarrassing, but he is funny. He constantly drinks, insults his son and friends, and in general acts like an ass. I enjoyed that.

Outside Providence will capture your attention but not much else. Unfortunately for the Farrelly’s, this makes some of their recent work look like Citizen Kane.

C

Fargo (1996)
Dir: Joel Coen
Principle actors: William H. Macy, Frances McDormand, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare

Yes, I know, I know. I had never seen this. Sorry. I do love the Coen’s work and I’ve seen most of their other films, but I had never gotten around to their most famous one until recently. I’ve heard from numerous people that this is the greatest film ever, and though it didn’t live up to those lofty heights, this was a very good film.

Most of you have probably seen this, but for those who haven’t: Macy plays Jerry Lundegaard, a car salesman with a fairly big debt on his hands. He’s so desperate for money that he arranges a ludicrous scheme in which his wife will be kidnapped by two morons (Buscemi and Stormare), his father-in-law (played by Harve Presnell) will pay a large ransom, and he’ll use the ransom to pay off his debts. Simple, right?

Of course, absolutely everything goes wrong. The kidnappers are a little more bumbling and a little more violent than Macy might have hoped. A local policewoman (played by McDormand) begins unraveling Macy’s plot. And in the end, Macy’s idiocy costs many people their lives.

Frances McDormand won the Academy Award for Best Actress, which makes sense. She perfectly embodies the small-town, wholesome Minnesotan she plays. Macy is great as the over-his-head and down on his luck mastermind of the operation, while Stormare is cold and ruthless as one of the kidnappers.

The scenery and setting very much played a character in itself. Everything in Fargo is so bleak. After finishing the film, I vowed never to set foot in the Dakotas or Minnesota, which I hope to adhere to. Desolate, ice covered landscapes fill the screen the majority of the time, and they do well to deepen and enhance Macy’s pathetic character. The use of the “Minnesota nice” language and dialogue was so powerful and important to the film that it entered American pop culture. This is definitely a must-see film.

A

The Deer Hunter (1978)
Dir: Michael Cimino
Principle actors: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep, John Savage

I made the mistake of watching Michael Cimino’s 1980 film Heaven’s Gate before I watched this. That film, called one of the biggest flops in Hollywood history, ended up ruining Cimino’s career and bankrupting United Artists. Budgets spiraled out of control and the movie became longer and longer in length. Roger Ebert called it “the biggest cinematic waste I’ve ever seen”. To top all of that off, it really wasn’t very good at all.

I say it was a mistake viewing that film first because The Deer Hunter, directed two years earlier by Cimino, is regarded as a cinematic masterpiece. It won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Cimino won the award for directing. While watching it, though, I couldn’t help but look at it through the lens of Heaven’s Gate. This film is infinitely better, but I went into this looking for hackery and wastefulness on screen. There is evidence here of what will happen in his next film, but for the most part, Cimino is right on target here.

That’s not to say it isn’t extravagant, perhaps needlessly so. The movie runs a shade over three hours long, and as with every Michael Cimino film, there is a ridiculously elaborate dance sequence that lasts about a half an hour long. But Cimino is very, very good at making even the simplest things seem grandiose. There is a small-town wedding at the beginning of the film that is filmed with such precision and beauty that it looks like a Papal procession. Cimino is certainly a gifted filmmaker.

The actors here are terrific too. De Niro is money in the bank in the 70s. He plays Michael, and together with two of his pals (Walken and Savage) decides to enlist in the army and enter Vietnam. Bad move. Before long, in a truly powerful and frightening scene, he and Walken are being made to play Russian roulette against each other for the sport of their Vietnamese captors.

“War is hell” is indeed the motto of this film, but it’s more intelligent than that. The characters are from Clairton, PA, a hellhole of a steel-mill town that looks dreadful to live in. Yet, compared to the horrors the characters face in Vietnam, Clairton looks like a paradise.

One of the fascinating things about The Deer Hunter is seeing the characters live through Vietnam together, whether they actually went there or not. Walken is so traumatized by the experience that he decides it’s a good idea to become a professional Russian roulette player, which sets up the memorable final scene.

It’s long, and there are a couple of dead spots, but this is a terrific movie. It’s a shame that Cimino wasn’t able to properly follow this up, but this isn’t a bad film to have on your headstone.

B+

Gran Torino (2008)
Dir: Clint Eastwood
Principle actors: Clint Eastwood, Christopher Carley, Bee Vang, Ahney Her

I’ve been looking forward to Gran Torino for a while. I’m a big Eastwood fan, especially of his Westerns, where he plays the ultimate badass. With Clint getting on in years (he’s 78), I thought this might be the last chance for me to see him kick a little ass. Though I didn’t necessarily get what I expected (“Geriatric Dirty Harry”), what I got instead was a very tender, very powerful film.

Eastwood plays a newly widowed old man, a racist Korean War veteran by the name of Walt Kowalski. Walt is not an easy man to like. He constantly scowls, groans, and nitpicks. He’s unapproachable and carries himself with an aura of “leave me the fuck alone”.

Kowalski softens, however, when he comes to the aid of the Korean family that moves in next door. Thao Lor (played by Vang) and Sue Lor (played by Her) are being plagued by a Korean gang in the area, and Walt comes to their aid. Soon he’s being showered with gifts from the family, who call him a hero. At first he reacts typically, but eventually he capitulates.

Gran Torino is a borderline comedy. At first, his racist barbs are funny because it’s kind of funny to see an old man act racist in general, because it’s so ridiculous. But later, even after he befriends Thao and Sue, he uses the racist remarks as punch lines, and the kids fire them right back at him. The best pieces of the film are the old man opening up to the young Korean teenagers. Walt gets Thao a job, buys him tools, and even loans him his prized 1972 Gran Torino to go on a date with.

Things get serious, however, when the Korean gang does a drive-by on the Lor family home (in retaliation for Walt kicking one of their asses). Sue is raped and beaten badly, and Thao is struck with a bullet. A local priest, played by Carley, eventually causes Walt to realize that his life has been meaningless, and Walt decides to avenge his past stagnation by helping the kids become free of the gang, by any means necessary. The ending is fantastic.

Though Gran Torino isn’t what I expected, it’s a really good film. We won’t get many more chances to see Eastwood in anything. I urge you to see this.

A-

John Lacey