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“The Men Who Stare at Goats” (R) – The Hawai’i Island Connection

In 1979 a secret unit was established by the most gifted minds within the US Army. Defying all known  accepted military practice – and indeed, the laws of physics – they believed that a soldier could adopt the cloak of invisibility, pass cleanly through walls and, perhaps most chillingly, kill goats just by staring at them.

Entrusted with defending America from all known adversaries, they were the First Earth Battalion. And they really weren’t joking. What’s more, they’re back and fighting the War on Terror. The Men Who Stare at Goats reveals extraordinary — and very nutty — national secrets at the core of George W. Bush’s War on Terror.

With first-hand access to the leading players in the story, Ronson traces the evolution of these bizarre activities over the past three decades, and sees how it is alive today within US Homeland Security and post-war Iraq. Why are they blasting Iraqi prisoners-of-war with the theme tune to Barney the Purple Dinosaur? Why have 100 de-bleated goats been secretly placed inside the Special Forces command center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina? How was the US Military associated with the mysterious mass-suicide of a strange cult from San Diego? The Men Who Stare at Goats answers these, and many more, questions. (Author’s website)

*Honoka’a People’s Theatre – The Men Who Stare at Goats (R)
775-000 / Showtime: 7 pm Dec. 1, 2, and 3rd
Movie Tickets: $6 adults, $4 seniors, $3 children 12 and under

Comedy, Action and Thriller, 1 hr 33 min. Reporter Bob Wilton is in search of his next big story when he encounters Lyn Cassady, a shadowy figure who claims to be part of an experimental U.S. military unit.
According to Cassady, the New Earth Army is changing the way wars are fought. A legion of “Warrior Monks” with unparalleled psychic powers can read the enemy’s thoughts, pass through solid walls, and even kill a goat simply by staring at it. Now, the program’s founder, Bill Django, has gone missing and Cassady’s mission is to find him. Intrigued by his new acquaintance’s far-fetched stories, Bob
impulsively decides to tag along. When the pair tracks Django to a clandestine training camp run by renegade psychic Larry Hooper, the reporter is trapped in the middle of a grudge match between the forces of Django’s New Earth Army and Hooper’s personal militia of super soldiers. In order to survive this wild adventure, Bob will have to outwit an enemy he never thought possible.

Starring:
George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey, Jeff Bridges, Rebecca
Mader, Stephen Lang and Robert Patrick

Related:

In 1978, (Hawi resident) U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Jim Channon announced: “I work for the planet.” While at the Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, Channon spent two years researching the value of the human potential movement. He created a proto-mythology for the soldier of the future known as The First Earth Battalion. These warrior monks would dedicate their allegiance, first and foremost, to people and planet.

Learn more about Channon’s remarkable vision for the military and how today’s The New Earth Army can take the next step to address the social and environmental challenges that we face…  http://www.neweartharmy.com/

…directed by Grant Heslov, written by Peter Straughan (script) and Jon Runson (book), starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, & Kevin Spacey.  The Men Who Stare at Goats chronicles the efforts of a small-town reporter named Bob (McGregor) to uncover the story of the Army’s efforts at developing and using paranormal and psychic powers.  After an interview with a veteran of the Special Forces’ First Earth the Battalion and being cuckolded by his wife, Bob heads for Iraq to try his hand as a war correspondent.  There he runs into Lyn (Clooney), the Army’s former top psychic, who has his own mission in the desert.

We learn about the First Earth Battalion’s founder,   Lt. Colonel Bill Django (Bridges, reprising the Dude in some respects), who came back from Nam and conducted extensive research on all the New Age stuff you could hope for, and convinced his bosses at Fort Bragg to start the psychic/paranormal soldier program.  Django wants to train Jedi-knights – warrior monks of peace who can convince the enemy to move beyond conflict through reason and telepathic manipulation - and enlists Lyn and others in this pursuit.  They’re interested in remote viewing, precognition, phasing, and of course physical psychic manipulations (hence the goats).

The story proceeds in a series of flashbacks as Rob narrates what he’s learned from Lyn about the First Earthers, even as Rob and Lyn move into Iraq in pursuit of some secretive objective.  The movie is based on real events and true efforts by the U.S. Military to understand and utilize the paranormal, and it attempts to follow the actual reporting rather than embark on some zany over-the-top spiel.  That said, the characters are still fairly zany and over-the-top even as they seem realistic.  Bob narrates allusions to Frodo and young Luke Skywalker at the beginning of the story – themes that return throughout.  Clooney is great as the intense, and earnestly nutty Lyn, and you’ll never get a complaint from me with Bridges doing a hippie/New Age Green Beret.  Kevin Spacey rounds out the cast as a jealous would-be psychic soldier who represents the Dark Side of psy-ops.

The movie has plenty of incongruous scenes and scenarios that are all the more hilarious if you know anything about the military.  Much of the humor is subtle and ironic in tone, based on carefully setting up scenes and having the actors deliver well-timed lines like true pros.  Because of this, and because the filmmakers chose to stay close to the source material of Runson’s books (hence reality) rather than embarking on some totally unrealistic Hollywood-style comedy, some viewers haven’t known exactly what to make of Goats.  It’s definitely not Judd Apatow or National Lampoon style humor.  It’s probably not for everyone.

That said, we enjoyed this movie immensely and recommend Goats highly.  It has great performances, quirky paranormal humor, and a highly entertaining story laced with Star Wars references (with Ewan McGregor delivering quite a few tongue-in-cheek Jedi lines).  The movie in fact has one of the great final lines I’ve seen in recent years.  Even the standard anti-war movie overtones are delivered in an earnest rather than preachy style.  So check it out in theaters while you still can.

As the Oscar season kicks into gear, there’s going to be a lot of talk where the terms “hype” and “buzz” are used interchangeably. In truth, the two terms are actually pretty different.

The difference is, hype is entirely manufactured, be it by a studio or otherwise. Let’s use the recent Jeff Bridges film Crazy Heart as an example. About a month ago, after their Oscar hopeful Amelia crashed and burned at the box office and with critics, Fox Searchlight was desperately in need of a film that they could get an Oscar push behind. They have the reputation of making “little movies that could”, such as Juno or last year’s Best Picture winner, Slumdog Millionaire, but more on Slumdog later. So Fox Searchlight needed an Oscar movie, then all of a sudden they moved the release date of the film Crazy Heart from Spring to a plum December booking where it could get a heavy Oscar campaign. The film itself, a drama about a beaten-down old country music star (Jeff Bridges), has already gotten some pretty solid reviews which emphasized the strength of Bridges’ performance. But then Fox Searchlight released a poster which looked fairly similar to one they released for The Wrestler last year.  And the trailer not only emphasized how this was “the performance of a lifetime” for Bridges, but also how many times he had been nominated for an Oscar and lost. I’m a big fan of Bridges work, and I’m sure Crazy Heart is a fine movie, but this is clearly the case of a studio manufacturing hype in an almost shameless attempt to get an Oscar.

Paramount was fairly similar in how they plugged Dreamgirls as an Oscar movie a few years ago, including a fairly ingenious “Roadshow” release strategy, but the film failed to take off because it was solely riding on hype. As for Crazy Heart, the jury is still largely out on the buzz of the film, but the hype coming from the studio has been pretty aggressive.

So what is buzz then anyway? Buzz is simply word-of-mouth, how a film really affects people and gets them talking. A key case of this is Slumdog Millionaire last year. Slumdog got an Oscar push from Fox Searchlight, but a lot of its momentum came from its initial limited release where it did extremely well and it had audience members raving. Love Slumdog or hate it, I can remember walking out of the theater when I first saw it, and feeling the energy of the crowd around me. People were really jazzed about that movie, and while I don’t think it’s the most worthy Best Picture winner, I truly believe that I lot of its success is based on how people responded to it, which is admirable.

Sadly, buzz alone is often not enough to carry a film to the Oscars. Look at Anvil: The Story of Anvil, a tiny documentary that barely had a marketing campaign, but still hit a nerve with audiences and had a long run in limited release. It was recently excluded from the shortlist of Best Documentary nominees, to the chagrin of its adoring critics and cult followers. But as shown by Slumdog, the key to Oscar success is both hype and strong buzz. I don’t have very much respect for the Academy, but I am continually fascinated by the Oscar process. We’ll see what the future holds for buzz, hype, and the Oscar potential of Crazy Heart.

Sejujurnya saya merasakan kegundahan yang teramat mendalam ketika membuat prediksi ini. Entah mengapa tahun ini perjalanan Oscar Season terasa sangat tidak menarik, membosankan sekali. Nama baru muncul di kategori Best Actor. Sementara The Big Four (Avatar, Nine, The Lovely Bones, dan Invictus) belum juga diketahui kabarnya. Screening untuk Nine sudah dilakukan, namun berbagai media diwajibkan untuk tutup mulut sampai filmnya benar-benar dirilis. Selidik punya selidik, filmnya sendiri mendapat antusias yang luar biasa, bahkan ada yang mengatakan lebih bagus dari 8½, film yang menjadi adaptasi Nine ini. The Lovely Bones ternyata mendapat review mixed di Inggris sana. Invictus sudah screening namun media disarankan tutup mulut dulu. Kebanyakan mengatakan kalau keempat film besar tadi tidak akan merubah game yang sudah terjadi yang nampaknya Precious dan Up in the Air tetap menjadi kandidat kuat peraih trophy utama. Sampai saat ini saya masih berharap terjadi kejutan. Akan sangat dibuat bahagia sekali jika The Hurt Locker menggondol trophy utama.

Minggu depan, National Board of Review akan mengumumkan pemenang-pemengnya sekaligus 10 film terbaik versinya. Setidaknya setengah dari sepuluh film itu kemungkinan masuk Nominasi Oscar. Baiklah, inilah prediksi untuk bulan November ini:

Note:

a) Nama diurutkan secara alphabetis.

b) Nama yang dicetak TEBAL merupakan favorit saya sebagai pemenang.

c) (*) menandakan kandidat yang saya prediksi secara objektif akan menjadi pemenang berdasarkan oscar buzz yang diterima (buzz berasal dari review kritikus, apresiasi dan prediksi para blogger yang memantau Oscar, dan raihan penghargaan serta penerimaan dari berbagai festival <precursor>).

Best Actor:

1. Colin Firth – A Single Man (*)
2. George Clooney – Up in the Air
3. Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
4. Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker
5. Morgan Freeman – Invictus

Big Threats: Matt Damon (The Informant), Daniel Day-Lewis (Nine), Viggo Mortensen (The Road), Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man)

Possible: Michael Sheen (The Damned United), Sam Rockwell (Moon), Sharlto Copley (District 9)

Thought: Matt Damon terdepak dari prediksi saya mengingat masuknya frontrunner Jeff Bridges yang sudah pernah masuk nominasi lima kali dan katanya kali ini kesempatannya sebagai pemenang besar sekali lewat film Crazy Heart, sebagai seorang penyanyi country yang kesepian. Dilihat dari trailernya, mengingatkan pada The Wrestler. Mickey Rourke tahun ini?

Best Actress:

1. Carey Mulligan – An Education
2. Gabourey Sidibe – Precious
3. Marion Cottilard – Nine
4. Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia (*)
5. Helen Mirren (The Last Station)

Big Threats: Abbie Cornish (Bright Star), Saorsie Ronan (The Lovely Bones), Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air),

Possible: Penelope Cruz (Broken Embraces,) Michelle Monaughan (Truck), Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)

Thought: Prediksinya tidak ada yang berubah. Hanya saja untuk label (*) atau winner-nya di Carey Mulligan terpaksa dihapus, karena saya mencium bau overdue untuk kategori actress ini.

Best Supporting Actor:

1. Alfred Molina – An Education
2. Christoper Plummer – The Last Station
3. Christopher Waltz – Inglourious Basterds (*)
4. Matt Damon (Invictus)
5. Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones

Big Threat: Alec Baldwin (It’s Complicated), Peter Sarsgaard (An Education)

Possible: Christian McKay – Me and Orson Welles

Thought: Tidak ada perubahan. Namun yang menarik Alec Baldwin sekarang muncul di barisan calon nominasi setelah di screeningnya banyak yang mengatakan penampilannya di It’s Complicated cukup memukau, bahkan sudah ada kolumnis yang memprediksi dia pasti masuk nominasi. Lihat saja nanti perkembangannya.

Best Supporting Actress

1. Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air
2. Judy Dench – Nine
3. Julian Moore – A Single Man
4. Monique – Precious (*)
5. Penelope Cruz – Nine

Big Threat: Maggie Gylenhall (Crazy Heart)

Possible: Susan Sarandon or Rachel Weisz (both from The Lovely Bones)

Thought: Melanie Laurent ternyata di-push untuk kategori Best Actress oleh Harvey Weinsten yang nampaknya akan menghalangi kesempatannya meraih nominasi. Nah, siapa sekarang yang punya kesempatan? Nampaknya wanita-wanita dari Nine tetap paling punya kesempatan. Meski boleh dikatakan juaranya sudah ketebak jauh-jauh hari, Monique! Hm, boring ah.

Best Original Screenplay:

1. Bob Peterson & Pete Docter (Up)
2. Coen Brothers (A Serious Man)
3. Jane Campion (Bright Star)
4. Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker) (*)
5. Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber ((500) Days of Summer)

Big Threats: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)

Thought: Tidak juga ada perubahan. Tetap The Hurt Locker harapan juara.

Best Adapted Screenplay:

1. Tom Ford (A Single Man)
2. Nick Hornby (An Education)
3. Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious)
4. Peter Jackson (The Lovely Bones)
5. Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air) (*)

Big Threats: The Road, Nine

Thought: Tidak ada perubahan. Namun ada sedikit senyum di bibir saya, mengingat seorang pemerhati Oscar yang sudah membaca skrip The Lovely Bones mengatakan kalau skrip filmnya merupakan salah satu skrip terbaik tahun ini. Crossed fingers.

Best Director:

1. Jason Reitman – Up in the Air
2. Katryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker (*)
3. Lee Daniels – Precious
4. Peter Jackson – The Lovely Bones
5. Rob Marshall – Nine

Big Threats: Coen Brothers (A Serious Man), Jane Campion (Bright Star), Clint Eastwood (Invictus), James Cameron (avatar)

Possible: Lone Scheirferg (An Education), Tom Ford (A Single Man)

Thought: Seperti yang diduga, sekarang profil Katryn Bigelow semakin naik saja. Akan sangat senang sekali kalau dialah yang naik ke podium. Meski tetap Jason Reitman memiliki momentum yang kuat tahun ini.

Best Picture:

1. A Serious Man
2. Avatar
3. An Education
4. Invictus
5. Nine
6. Precious
7. The Hurt Locker
8. The Lovely Bones
9. Up
10. Up in the Air (*)

Big Threats: Bright Star, The Last Station, Inglourious Basterds

Possible: District 9, The Road, Where The Wild Things Are

Thought: Avatar menggantikan posisi A Single Man bulan lalu mengingat kecilnya profil yang didapat film ini termasuk beberapa review yang mengatakan film ini terasa “limited” karena durasinya yang singkat tadi. Masih punya sedikit keraguan dengan A serious Man apakah mampu masuk Best Picture. Namun, di lain hal profil Inglourious Basterds mulai naik lagi setelah pamor Quentin Tarantino naik akibat Governor Awards beberapa waktu lalu. Meski filmnya bukanlah bermateri Oscar, namun ada unsur seni yang digusung film tersebut. Terlebih nama Quentin Tarantino ternyata meski banyak yang tidak menyukai filmnya, namun tetap respek dengan seorang Tarantino. Namun belum berani memasukkan ke daftar. Lihat perkembangannya Desember nanti.

Best Animated Feature

1. Coraline
2. Ponyo
3. The Fantastic Mr. Fox
4. The Princess and the Frog
5. Up (*)

Big Threats: Cloudy With Chance of Meatballs

Possible: Mary and Max

Thought: Resmi sudah kalau nominasi tahun ini akan menjadi lima. Sayangnya pemenangnya sudah ketebak. Meski Coraline bisa saja menjadi kuda hitamnya.

Best Foreign Language Film

1. A Prophet (France) (*)
2. Ajami (Israel)
3. I Killed My Mother (Canada)
4. Mother (South Korea)
5. The White Ribbon (Germany)

Big Threat: Samson and Delilah (Australia), The Dancer and the Thief (Spain)

Thought: Ternyata film Mother dari Korea Selatan mendapat respon yang positif di sana. Hm, apalagi dengan temanya yang lebih membumi, nampaknya bisa saja merangsek ke posisi lima besar. Ditambah dengan overdue-nya sinema Korea diakui di kancah Oscar ini, bisa jadi Mother menjadi film yang layak untuk dinominasikan. Belum ada gambaran jelas bagaimana nominasi ini akan tergambar di finalnya. A Prophet tetap jadi prediksi juara meski kemungkinan (saya punya feeling) tidak akan menang Maret nanti menginggat temanya yang agak ekstrim. Tapi siapa yang bisa menerka apa yang bisa terjadi nanti. Lihat saja ya.

Well, siap-siap untuk menyimak bagaimana prediksi bulan Desember nanti yang akan lebih memiliki gambaran karena pemenang National Board of Review akan diumumkan. Meski jarang yang sesuai dengan Oscar, tapi cukup memiliki andil dalam memprediksi film apa saja yang memiliki buzz paling kencang. Okay, happy predicting, guys!

Je cherchais des nouvelles du “dude” alias Jeff bridges vous l’avez reconnu , immense acteur charismatique à la voix absolument magique quand je suis tombé sur le site cinema teaser …
des chroniques critiques , des potins people pour les plus feignants d’entre nous mais attiré par le clinquant , des sorties prévues, et un esprit geek complétement assumé…
Dans un style beaucoup plus “critiques cinés” mais bien écrit et sans concession ( pas de druckerisation ou de michel denisot ici ) ; Le blog de rob Gordon qui a , selon lui “toujours raison”….

- por Bernardo Brum

A era hippie acabou e agora todos estão trabalhando. Mas você sabe, às vezes tem um homem que pode mudar tudo isso.  Sem comunistas, agora no máximo podemos acreditar no discurso deste republicano ou daquele democrata. Mas às vezes existe um homem para provar como nós todos estávamos enganados. Tudo agora é baseado no dinheiro para a caridade, para as artes plásticas ou para fortalecer a máfia da pornografia em videotape, que não sabem mais o que é cinema. Só que as vezes tem um homem que não liga, chega e destrambelha tudo.  E esse homem que eu não conheço não é ninguém importante, mas você sabe que às vezes tem um homem que… Hum, perdi o fio da meada.

Eis Jeffrey Lebowski, O Cara, exímio jogador de boliche que junto de seus incapazes amigos – o cardíaco Donny e o psicótico ex-combatente do Vietnã Walter – é tirado do seu mundo de baseados, white russians e calorosos debates nos clubes onde bolas rolam e pinos caem para fazer as vezes de Sam Spade. Ou de Philip Marlowe. Para aqueles sombrios anos pós-depressão,  o homem era Bogart, gel no cabelo, terno impecável, cigarrinho no canto da boca e frases ferinas. Nesses anos de incrível ressaca moral, nós temos que deixar isso pra lá e buscar compensação por nossos carpetes mijados e nossas fitas do Creedence.

Esse é o dilema moral do Cara. Tomado por um milionário homônimo, tendo seu carpete mijado e tendo que sair por aí atrás de uma ex-atriz pornô casada com o tal Grande Lebowski – que, segundo o próprio foi raptada por uma gangue de… niilistas? E, claro, no meio do caminho tendo que aguentar moleques arrogantes, a filha excêntrica do milionário, o síndico afetado, o pederasta mothafucka’, agiotas do mundo pornô, a polícia, um taxista que é fã do Eagles, os ataques de Walter, e lá vamos nós.

Predileção dos Coen, O Grande Lebowski é um grande filme sobre o nada, a desinformação, a estupidez e a fragilidade da vida. Só O Cara que não parece ligar sobre isso, e em momento algum ele reina soberano – o mundo faz gato e sapato de um pobre vagabundo metido em uma conspiração digna de um O Falcão Maltês ou À Beira do Abismo que, no final das contas, surgiu apenas por causa do caos que faz de nossas vidas grandes campanhas em nome de coisa alguma e que só foram empreendidas, afinal, porque nós somos estúpidos demais para fazer qualquer coisa útil. Ou preguiçosos, talvez.

Aí, uma bola de feno sendo empurrada por aí pelo vento logo transforma-se em sonhos psicodélicos envolvendo garotas gostosas vestidas de viking em uma pista de boliche, ou cinzas de um defunto sendo jogadas em nosso rosto. É tudo muito frágil, ridiculamente frágil. E é tudo muito estúpido, hilariamente estúpido. O planeta é tão rico em oxigênio quanto em burrice, e assim segue o balaio das grandes epopéias dos inúteis, por gerações. Por que, às vezes, tem um Cara para nos mostrar tudo isso. Às vezes, tem um cara para acender uns baseados e ouvir uns rockzinhos safados antes de terem a cabeça afundada na privada. Às vezes, tem… um Cara.

5/5

Ficha técnica: O Grande Lebowski (The Big Lebowski) – 1998, EUA. Dir.: Joel e Ethan Coen. Elenco: Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Tara Reid, John Turturro, Flea

The difficulty of turning non-fiction into a convincing and enjoyable fictional narrative has defeated many a director including most recently Richard Linklater with the inexorable Fast Food Nation, so an adaptation of Jon Ronson’s book The Men Who Stare At Goats was always going to be hard work for first time director Grant Heslov, who previously co-wrote George Clooney’s Good Night and Good Luck.

This film starts with the disclaimer that more of this story than you would think and goes on to tell the story of hapless Ann Arbor journalist Bob Wilton who uses the break-up of his marriage as the catalyst to become a war correspondent on the War on Terror.  Frustrated and humiliated in a Kuwaiti hotel, Wilton stumbles across George Clooney’s Lyn Cassady, a name he recognises from his days interviewing in Ann Arbor.  What follows is part-road movie and part-madcap comedy exploring the antics of the so-called “New Earth Army” – a black op exploring the possibilities of the mind in combat led by Jeff Bridges’ Bill Django.

There are a number of problems with this film, most notably with the film’s structure.  The road movie sections are present day which leaves much of the antics of the army in flashback narrated by McGregor.  As a device, this doesn’t work and takes the audience in and out of the movie.  The other problem is that I just didn’t find a lot of this film to be particularly funny.  A lot of the jokes fell flat, particularly between McGregor and Clooney and this is symptomatic of  performances which feel “phoned in” and unremarkable.  With no-one is this more apparent than with Jeff Bridges who could play the drugged-up hippy role in his sleep.  In the case of Clooney, McGregor, Bridges and Spacey, all of them have played similar roles better in better films.

The book is a fun interesting book and whilst some of that fun makes it onto the screen, once again this film is just another illustration that adapting non-fiction is tricky.

4/10

Lo que nadie duda a estas alturas de la partida es que Ewan McGregor es uno de los actores más aclamados y reputados de su generación, ni Daniel Craig o Jude Law han conseguido alcanzar su status dentro de la industria cinematográfica. Acaba de estrenar en Estados Unidos “The Men Who Stare at Goats“ donde interpreta a Bob Wilton. Le acompañan en el cartel de esta alocada comedia nada más y nada menos que George Clooney, Kevin Spacey o Jeff Bridges. Pero en la videoarena nos preguntamos ¿cuál fue el primer papel cinematográfico de este actor escocés? Cómo fueron sus inicios  antes de convertirse en el fetiche de Danny Boyle.  

Renton le trajo la fama internacional.

El viaje al estrellato de este actor comienza en 31 de marzo de 1971, fecha en la que nace. A los 16 años deja su localidad natal de Crieff para iniciar su carrera teatral uniéndose a Perth Repertory Theatre. Sus padres no tardarían en animarle a que abandonara esta compañía para que se formara como actor.  Así que comenzó sus estudios de arte dramático en Kirkcaldly en Fife y en la Escuela de Música y Drama de Guildhall. Allí compartió estudios con Daniel Craig, Alistair McGowan, David Thewlis o Naveen Andrews, famoso por su papel de Said en “Perdidos” y con el que mantiene su relación de amistad en la actualidad. A los 22 años tras haber interpretado en la televisión a Jimmy en la serie “Family style”, consiguió dar el salto al cine y consiguió su primer papel gracias a Susan Figgis que le ofertó el papel de Álvarez en la película del director escocés Bill Forsyth llamada “BEING HUMAN“, y que en España se tradujo como  “Un hombre perdido en el tiempo”.

Un hombre perdido en el tiempo, 1993.

Una historia dividida en cinco capítulos que recorre la historia de la humanidad a través del personaje de Héctor interpretado por Robin Williams. McGregor aparece en el tercer segmento en un corto y tragicómico papel. Os centro un poco en la trama. El barco español donde viaja esta suerte de héroe temporal naufraga enfrente de la costas de África. Allí los supervivientes pasan hambre y sed. Un par de marineros no se les ocurre la feliz idea de robar y beberse todo el agua que queda. Por ese motivo, Don Pablo jefe de la expedición les castigará a la pena máxima, morir crucificados bajo el sol.  Será Álvarez el que se presente voluntario en lugar de Héctor para ajusticiarlos.

No fue uno de esos comienzos escurridizos como el protagonizado por Sigourney Weaver. McGregor tenía un par de frases. Cortas pero las tenía, y encima se echo una carrerita por la playa.

Un año después Danny Boyle le descubriría y le daría el papel de Alex Law en “Tumba abierta“. En 1995 mientras trabajaba en el programa de televisión “Kavanagh QC” conoce a diseñadora de producción francesa Eve Mavrakis en Francia. Durante ese verano el 22 de julio se casan en Dordogne, Aquitania (Francia) y fruto de esta unión son las dos hijas que tienen, Clara Mathilde y Esther Rose. Un año después daría el salto definitivo a la fama gracias al papel de Mark Renton en “Trainspotting“. Aquí volvería a coincidir con un viejo amigo, ya que ambos habían coincidido durante su debut cinematográfico, hablo del actor Robert Carlyle, que aparecía también en “Un hombre perdido en el tiempo” interpretando en el primer segmento a Shamen. Un vikingo que le robará a Hector su mujer e hija.

Pero las coincidencias en su carrera no acabarán aquí ya que la llave que le abrió las puertas al estrellato vino de la mano de Baz Luhrmann que le ofreció el papel Christian en “Moulin Rouge” y fue George Lucas quien le diera el empujón final al ofrecerle el papel de joven Obi Wan Kenobi en la famosa epopeya galáctica. Aceptó el papel porque su tío el también actor Denis Lawson aparecía en ”La guerra de las galaxias” interpretando a Rojo dos en la batalla final en la Estrella de la Muerte.

Denis Lawson es Rojo Dos en "Una nueva esperanza"

En la actualidad, McGregor ha formado una compañía de producción con sus amigos Jonny Lee Miller, Sean Pertwee, Jude Law y Sadie Frost, llamada “Natural Nylon”. Con ella esperan hacer películas innovadoras que no se ajusten a los estándares de Hollywood.

Jeff Bridges stars as a faded Country music star hitting the comeback trail.

Jeff Bridges has built a career of playing outsiders, losers, and misunderstood souls, from his earliest leading roles to later, under-appreciated projects like American Heart and The Fabulous Baker Boys to the still-in-theatres The Men Who Stare At Goats. He’s seldom given a bad performance in forty years (though he’s appeared in a few bad movies) and created at least one cinema legend in Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski. Yet for all that work the man has yet to win a Best Actor Academy Award, despite four nominations going back to 1971’s The Last Picture Show.

His latest film, Crazy Heart, might be the film that changes that. Based on Thomas Cobb’s novel and adapted and directed by first timer Scott Cooper, it tells the story of Bad Blake (Bridges), a washed up and alcoholic country singer whose fortunes improve when he falls for a music journalist (Maggie Gyllenhaal) sent to profile his life and career. Colin Farrell co-stars as Tommy Sweet, an up-and-coming performer that Blake takes under his wing even as Sweet’s growing popularity eclipses his own resurgence.

Bearing immediate resemblance to The Wrestler, judging by the trailer below the film also draws influence from well-remembered works such as Tender Mercies (1983) and the 1976 remake of A Star Is Born. Actually, the connective threads run pretty tight: Tender Mercies starred Robert Duvall as a washed up country singer undergoing spiritual rebirth, and Duvall appears in Crazy Heart, too. A Star Is Born featured Kris Kristofferson as a faded music star, and with his leathery skin, scraggly beard and flowing hair Bridges’ Blake looks an awful lot like that legendary singer-songwriter. The rustic cinematography also reminds us, though more implicitly, of Hal Ashby’s 1976 Woody Guthrie biopic Bound For Glory and Clint Eastwood’s Honkytonk Man (1982).

Kristofferson (Not Bridges.)

Which is not to say that all that homage is necessarily a bad thing. For years now, raiding the film legacies of the 1970s and early 1980s has helped energize the careers of filmmakers such as Steven Soderbergh and James Gray, and of course Quentin Tarantino seemingly can’t help but return to those wells again and again. But the films that Cooper ostensibly draws from here – Tender Mercies especially – are particularly well-regarded, both critically and by devoted fan bases. Bridges is such a slam-dunk for a part like this it’s sort of surprising that it hasn’t happened yet (1989’s The Fabulous Baker Boys, in which he played a hard-drinking and self destructive lounge pianist, notwithstanding.) For the sake of creating a story around his undoubtedly pitch-perfect turn the rest of the film needs to be more than the sum of its influences.

Ultimately it’s always a pleasure to watch Bridges work, and this part is exactly the kind of role for which Academy members love to vote; a win for Bridges might also serve as mea cupa for chickening out on giving The Wrestler’s Mickey Rourke the statue he deserved last year. Everybody needs redemption sooner or later, even Oscar voters.

Crazy Heart opens in limited release December 16.

-Michael Kabel

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Much of “The Men Who Stare At Goats” follows dumb-struck reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan MacGregor) and straight-faced former psychic spy Lyn Cassidy (George Clooney) meandering through the Iraqi desert.  Sadly, the movie follows suit, heading in several different directions at once, none of which with confidence.  It is satirical but never makes the target inherently clear.  It is farcical yet it continues to persist that what we are watching really happened.  Thankfully, the movie manages to give the audience some good belly laughs while they scratch their heads trying to figure out the direction it is heading.

The main plot arc follows Wilton and Cassidy as they traverse through Iraq on a mission to find the remnants of the New Earth Army, a battalion using New Age tactics to gain such powers as invisibility, remote viewing, and walking through walls.  Strangely, it is Wilton who tells us the history of the group informally known as the “Jedi Warriors.”  It is curious that the filmmakers chose him to narrate the story through fragments in the principal narrative, seeing as Wilton would have no idea of what happened.  These segments are the best and most uproarious parts of the movie, but they are thrown into the story so haphazardly that it becomes difficult to remember what is happening to Wilton and Cassidy.  Both were story lines crucial to a full movie, but with a little discretion and some more mapping, a more cogent and enjoyable experience could have been easily possible.

“The Men Who Stare At Goats” really shines in its moments of pure absurdity, which could be exactly what the filmmakers didn’t want since they want us to believe that much of what is portrayed actually occurred.  They aim for bizarrely plausible, but they wind up with laughably ridiculous.  It is certainly enjoyable to see George Clooney in a role where he isn’t quite so staid and upright, and one can get a hearty chuckle out of seeing him with longer locks and putting on his boogie shoes.  Ewan MacGregor, possibly cast just for added irony on all the Jedi jokes, performs almost a straight man-straight man routine with Clooney, yet somehow the combination yields a great deal of laughs.  Jeff Bridges channels a bit of “The Dude” and Kevin Spacey brings an antagonistic smugness to his role, but neither seem entirely committed.  In the end, “The Men Who Stare At Goats” provides you some of what you want but definitely not in the way that you want it.  B /

I actually made time to see a movie last weekend. Here is a review piece I wrote on The Men Who Stare at Goats.

If you like watching middle-aged men staring intensely into space for uncomfortable amounts of time, then The Men Who Stare at Goats is the movie for you. The film includes some staring, a few goats, and a whole lot of ridiculousness.

The movie begins with a disclaimer stating that “More of this is true than you would care to believe.” A better warning would be “This is not as funny as you were led to believe.” Despite the A-list actors and over the top story, there is very little in The Men Who Stare at Goats worth laughing about.

The story, such as it is, focuses on likable Ann Arbor reporter Bob Wilton, as played by a fresh-faced Ewan McGregor. Wilton’s world begins to crumble when his wife leaves him for his one-armed editor. Determined to prove himself to her and squash the voice of the “little man” inside him telling him to live his “little life,” he packs up and goes to Iraq to engage in serious journalism.

Only he doesn’t. He ends up stuck in Kuwait, awaiting permission to cross the border. It proves fortuitous, as he meets Lyn Cassady (played by a mustached George Clooney) in the hotel bar. Wilton remembers his name from an interview that identified him as being part of a military unit focusing on psychic abilities. Much to his surprise, Cassady confirms the story. “So what you’re saying is that… you, are a uh… psychic spy?” Wilton disbelievingly asks.

“A Jedi warrior.” Cassady replies with all seriousness. He then invites Wilton to accompany him on his last mission into Iraq – since a doodle in the reporter’s notebook makes him think it is destiny for them to travel together.

Along the way – as the pair gets into a series of increasingly unbelievable mishaps – Cassady tells the story of the New Earth Army. The project was the brainchild of a Vietnam Vet turned New Age spiritualist Bill Django (as played by Jeff Bridges), who decided based on a vision that psychic powers would define the military’s future.

Cassady’s story, shown in a series of flashbacks, details the rise and eventual fall of the New Earth Army, which he believes was brought about the moment the psychic powers were used to kill a goat. Wilton realizes a little too late that he is in over his head and his only option is to tag along on Cassady’s crazy quest for redemption.

The audience, much like Wilton, begins to suspect they’ve been taken on a strange journey. In both cases, the ending is not as rewarding as they have come to expect.

The problem is simple. The Men Who Stare at Goats confuses being absurd as being funny. In sacrificing believability for a laugh, it only alienates the audience, who are more likely to roll their eyes or sigh than anything else.

This is illustrated in the scene where Cassady and Wilton encounter an Iraqi man during the course of their journey. They run him over while attempting to rescue him (after they have all escaped from militant kidnappers, of course) and then continue to call him Mohammed even though his name is Mahmud. It’s tired, and frankly, a little insulting.

The movie seems to be relying on the strength of its cast to carry the heavy-handed dialogue. They work with it as best they can; yet none of the roles allow them to flex their acting muscles.

Clooney manages to retain his charm, but the script prevents him from ever hitting the level of intensity he is capable of reaching. Of interest is the similarity this film bears to one of Clooney’s previous projects, Burn After Reading, from the convoluted nature of the plot down to the typeface used on the movie posters.

One of the films few successes was Bridges in the role of soldier-turned-hippie Bill Django, complete with long grey braid and Om necklace. The flashbacks to the New Earth Army are some of best, carried by his paternalistic bearing, grinning with pride as he shapes the powers of his Jedi warriors. But then again, Bridges is comfortable in the role of the father figure, as seen in some of his recent works – Stick It!, Ironman, and How to Lose Friends and Alienate People all come to mind.

Those who are interested in The Men Who Stare at Goats would fare better by simply watching the trailer instead. You’ll get the basic story, see the few funny jokes, and save the cost of a movie ticket.

The trailer:

For some sentimental reason, I’m really looking forward to this movie! I think it’s the American West that does it, or maybe the music, or maybe the “last chance saloon” feel to this movie. Either way, it looks like a decent Christmas sit-down-and-cry and wake-up-felling-better winner. As they say in the movie, “one more try…”

Ready are you for the weekend? How about Oprah stepping down in 2011? Didn’t see that one coming at all. Thanks for all your great Jeff Bridges feedback yesterday — I promise you won’t be disappointed with his efforts in Crazy Heart. (And yes, yes, next time we’ll include Starman in the poll!)  In other movie news, a new article in Forbes magazine cites movie stars as an investment –  as in,  if you invested in them what you’d get back in return — based on their salary. More on this later but for now, just know that the most overpaid star in Hollywood today if you factor in his big salary, is Will Ferrell. Just saying. And now we head to the cineplex.  Specifically flicks you might want to catch this very weekend. Maybe even tonite. And of course, you knew it was coming. It’s the elephant in the living room. Or rather the vampire in the living room. The movie franchise that makes hundred year old people very, very sexy.  It’s outsold just about every other movie opening out there — and fans are beyond excited. I’m talking of course about the Twilight Saga: New Moon. But before we get to today’s poll, I’ll mention what else is playing, because there are indeed a few other fun movies opening this weekend. How about Planet 51? This is an animated feature with the voices of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Gary Oldman and John Cleese. I’ll see that. Then you might want to check out The Blind Side which is probably going to make people feel really, really good. I cried during the trailer. Sandra Bullock stars. Nic Cage is in Bed Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans…and that’s a very controversial violent remake of another very controversial violent film. If you see it let us know what you think. Now back to New Moon. It’s the whole gang:  Edward, Bella and Jacob plus tons of  forbidden love and a whole new crew of werewolves and vampires. What could go wrong? Which leads me to wonder which of these stars might be the most genuinely interesting conversationalist? Voice your choice in today’s featured poll and tell us which of New Moon’s 3 stars would you most like to have lunch with?

1) Kristen Stewart

2) Taylor Lautner

3) Robert Pattinson

It probably shouldn’t be the case, but a film’s ending is really it’s beginning. It’s the last thing in your mind when you leave the cinema; so a satisfying ending if likely to define an audience’s response to a film. Similarly  a poor one. One of the most famous examples of this is the original cinema release of Bladerunner. This film was always going to divide audiences, with its dark palette, moody atmosphere and serious themes for a sci-fi story with the star of Star Wars. Some responded well to what they saw, though – struck by the film’s seriousness, skill and depth…until a tacked on ending under studio pressure, that undermined much of went before with a happy and upbeat conclusion. It’s taken 25 years to fully fix that, with a Director’s Cut that wasn’t really, and a Final Cut that probably is. With a suitable ending in place, it stands clearly as the masterpiece it undoubtedly is. A film of Bladerunner’s quality shouldn’t have suffered so much over its last few seconds; but it did, hampered for years by a few misjudged seconds (as well as the needless narration).

The Men Who Stare At Goats is no Bladerunner, but it shares a similar problem with its ending. Its based on a non-fiction book, about the ’secret’ psychic spy division of the US army. The unit’s story is told in flashback, as Ewan McGregor’s journalist accompanies George Clooney’s army man into modern-day Iraq – it’s a device that’s not in the book, understandably added in to give the film narrative momentum. The flashbacks tend to work better; the road movie plot is unconvincing and could have been done more simply and effectively. There is, though, a lovely light comic tone that carries the film along over the many flaws along the way. Some truly hilarious moments will live a long time in the memory – Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey and Ewan McGregor are all engaging presences. This, though, is Clooney’s film, and his pitch perfect portrayal is funny, skeptical, satirical and kindly all at the same time. He is truly a master of his craft; there are few contemporary actors capable of this kind of role.

All of which makes the ending all the more disappointing. Until the last two minutes, the narrative flaws are largely ignorable thanks to the film’s good-nature, fine performances and well-paced laughs.  Up until the end, the viewer’s given just enough to make you understand why people can fall for the nonsense of psychic spies; to see that coincidences can sometimes look like more than that. The film’s conclusion, though, is a ludicrously miss-judged attempt at feel-good up-lift; it’s no less than an insult to audience intelligence and devalues so much good that’s gone before. It’s an attempt at joyful wonder, ignoring that true wonder is about undeserved grace and favour and beauty rather than achieving something patently impossible.

It could be argued that such an ending allows a more honest view of the film’s flaws; that’s understandable, but unfair. See it, but close your eyes and shut your ears for the last minute; that way you’ll walk out laughing at a flawed but entertaining comedy. If not, you’ll just feel let down.

“Pirate Radio”  Rated R, 1 hour 56 minutes.  Distributed by Focus Features, Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Friday & Saturday @ 2pm, 4:30, 7pm & 9:45

Sunday to Thursday @ 2pm, 4:30, 7pm & 9:30

Recently I defended Michael Bay (while simultaneously expressing how odious his movies can be), and now I rush to the defense of another man used as a lazy punchline to a billion deeply unfunny jokes about bad cinema: the acting colossus called Nicolas Cage. As with Bay, Cage is treated like a cautionary tale about how that vile, Chthonic monolith called Hollywood can drive people insane with greed, how talented individuals can lose their way and begin a descent from making art to making dross. He is accused of sleepwalking through films, cashing checks, appearing in unworthy crowd-pleasing dreck, and working with anti-cinematic infidels. His personal life is raked over (he keeps impulsively marrying women! He calls his kid a silly name! He buys too much crap!), his eccentricities treated as signs of mental illness, and his success used as example number two in the case against modern culture (example one being the success of Bay). Only Ben Affleck is treated with less respect, a fact that I intend to address in a future post where I defend him too. (I’m serious about that. Affleck is awesome.)

There are millions who seem to love to take a short-cut in thinking and just refer to Cage as a has-been with no understanding of what a joke he has become, though Cage’s most famous critic has been Sean Penn, the former friend who once told the New York Times, “Nic Cage is no longer an actor. He could be again, but now he’s more like a…performer”. This was said around the time that Cage appeared in two Bruckheimer productions — The Rock and Con Air — which seems to be the one thing an artist can do that will sink his credibility. Why did Penn single out Cage for that and not Cage’s co-stars Ed Harris, or Sean Connery, or John Cusack, or John Malkovich? They’re respected actors who have won awards and are considered to be fine actors, but Cage falls into the line of fire for moving from carefully considered character pieces like Leaving Las Vegas to action movies, three of which he did in a row (the third being the classic John Woo SF actioner Face/Off). His wildly broad performances in those movies were almost certainly a factor, but then he has always given broad performances, within which lie subtle moments (see also Wild At Heart, Birdy, Peggy Sue Got Married, etc.). They’re entertaining displays of eye-rolling crowd-pleasing acting pyrotechnics, but there’s a soul there too. This is what I think of as getting The Full-On Cage Experience, with madness and soulfulness tied together. Penn could never pull off anything like that. When he mugs, he ends up wrecking the movie.

By all that’s holy and unholy, how much better was Penn in Milk, or Dead Man Walking (incidentally, that’s one of my favourite screen performances of all time)? It’s not even a fair competition. Besides, this accusation, insinuating that Cage is no longer an actor, is rich coming from someone who appeared in I Am Sam. I’ll take an entertaining and unpretentious actor having fun playing a demonic avenger with a flaming skull than some humourless chide wasting his talent on Oscar-baiting bullshit like that any day of the week. Sadly, Penn’s not the only one who thinks Cage has pissed his talent away. In this little essay, Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman compares Cage to Dr. Wesley T. Snipes, which is prescient considering Cage’s current tax woes, but while Snipes has descended into Direct-To-DVD hell, Cage is still working on big-budget movies and smaller curios, still attracting the viewing public, and still cranking out performances that are — at best — thrilling, and — at worst — merely entertaining.

The one argument that genuinely annoys me is the one where Cage is cranking out piss-poor, lazy performances since his last truly astonishing performance in Jonze and Kaufman’s Adaptation. I’ve often said that I think his work in that (along with his work in Leaving Las Vegas and Raising Arizona) deserves a coveted Shades of Caruso Free Pass…

…but of all the movies he has made since, only three performances really disappointed me: his work as Benjamin Gates in the first National Treasure movie, where he seemed awfully tired; his creepy performance in Next, the empty action thriller adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s clever short story; and his catatonic turn as a greasy-haired loser assassin in the disastrous remake of Bangkok Dangerous, which I suspect he took so he could get a holiday in Thailand. That last one really did give me cause for concern, but Gleiberman likes to make out that Cage is regularly signing on for “grade-Z genre schlockers”, which apparently include Ghost Rider and The Wicker Man. Neither of them are good movies, but they were not developed as low-budget cash-ins. Ghost Rider was obviously meant to be a big comic book adaptation, with a pretty good cast and a $110m budget, and even if it was absolutely dire, it was made with love by fans of the character, of which Cage is one.

The Wicker Man is a dumb-ass movie by any standards, but it’s made by Neil LaBute, who was once a promising director. He could have turned in a thoughtless remake of the excellent original (which would fit under Gleiberman’s umbrella of “genre schlocker”) but instead made something personal, for better or worse. For all it’s faults it’s obviously of a part with his other movies, dealing with his favourite themes of misanthropy, deceit, misogyny, fear of opening up to others, and gynophobia. I’ve occasionally argued that The Wicker Man is a satire on male fear of impotence and castration, a paranoid comical fantasy about a scheming cabal of exaggerated feminist ballbreakers who are out to destroy the penis, turning all men into drones and semen-donors whose sexuality is merely a sacrifice of power to the almighty womb in order to replenish the earth with children.

Sadly, even if this was LaBute’s intention — and even if Cage was in on this project for that reason alone — it’s still ridiculous and poorly made and filled with wonderfully camp moments. Cage maintains that the comedic aspects of the movie were not lost on him. In an interview with Spike Jonze, Drew McWeeny discusses meeting Cage, and Jonze is full of praise:

Jonze: I love [Cage]. We had the best time working together. He really works and focuses.
McWeeny: His publicist was a little wary of me being there, I guess, because he doesn’t do a lot of press and he doesn’t allow press around a lot, but he really was very accessible once I’d been there for a few days, and he kind of warmed up to me. And he was really just fascinating. I loved chatting with him about stuff.
Jonze: Totally chill.
McWeeny: Yeah. And I think far more self-aware than most people think. Like I think some people think Nic is in this vacuum and doesn’t realize how crazy some of his performances are. I got the feeling he was totally aware of how people perceive things. We were talking about THE WICKER MAN, and he was like, “How do people call that an unintentional comedy? I’m in a bear suit kicking Lelee Sobieski in the throat. I know it’s funny.”
Jonze: He just takes it so seriously that nobody knows how to take him. Like PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED, I was like, “What is that?” Like I was 15 so I didn’t really know.
McWeeny: I just love how you can always count on him to push things further, like VAMPIRE’S KISS. He ate a roach, man.
Jonze: And also just the insanity of that performance, just the balls-out fearlessness.

Is it enough that Cage is aware of the ridiculousness of the movies he is appearing in? For me it is. I strongly suspect Cage is the most easily bored person in the world, and unfortunately that is paired with the ability to get work in movies that pay millions of dollars for him to spend on cars and comics and castles. Some of the films he has been in lately are truly awful, and I would never argue that they weren’t. Neverthless, I watch them for those flashes of manic commitment from Cage — The Partial Cage Experience — that delight me so. Are they valid acting choices, or is he merely trying to entertain himself while he trudges through formulaic populist bilge? As far as I’m concerned, even if he’s merely trying to entertain himself, he succeeding in entertaining me, and surely that’s what counts.

The only other popular actors that delight me as much are Clooney (who can do pathos and comedy equally well), Streep (who is always the best thing about everything she has ever been in), and maybe Jeff Bridges. Even those fine actors have not given me as much pleasure as Cage does, even when you forget about his early, golden years and concentrate on this bizarre stretch of poor movies. Since Adaptation we’ve had the insanity of Not The Bees…

…a literally hysterical fiery transformation…

…a Shout-Off with Rose Byrne (who is utterly overmatched, despite her invention of the word “chuldren”)…

…a run in with an obnoxious know-it-all child (the best part of which is how he treats the kid like an adult for most of the scene)…

…and a frustrating teaser of what could be his finest hour, if ever Rob Zombie got the money to make it…

His willingness to make fun of himself is the thing that keeps his crazy public and professional persona viable, and though many of his actions seem completely deranged, I honestly believe he’s playing a trick on us. Can someone who makes a series of adverts like these really be unintentionally weird?

(N.B. Anyone who has a sense of humour about themselves gets a break from me. Even the reportedly tyrannical and insensitive director Michael Bay gets points for playing up to his image with this commercial for Verizon:)

I’m a fully paid up Cage fan. For entertainment value, he can’t be beat. To see a person with such intelligence, quirkiness, restlessness, fearlessness, and energy do his thing in such big-screen movies is a rare thrill. If I squint I can see why Cage is now considered a hack by critics and film-watchers, because it’s easy to confuse being in a terrible movie and actually being terrible, but I worry that maybe people are also turned off by his intensity and his allegiance to the weird. The odd soporific performance aside, perhaps what baffles people the most is seeing him devote so much energy to projects that they feel don’t deserve it. Personally, I think that’s admirable. He’s getting paid enough, after all. Dance, you fucking monkey! Dance for your millions!

And yet even though I revel in his passionate and unpredictable work in crud, I’ve become concerned that we would never get another performance out of Cage that is as electrifying as his best work (disclaimer: I’ve not seen Lord of War or The Weather Man, and some have said he gives solid, rounded performances in both). Once upon a time he would work with Lynch and Scorsese, and the performances he gave were over-the-top yet grounded in some kind of emotional profundity, but lately those performances — while entertaining, memorable, and stronger than popular wisdom would have you believe — are lacking that extra fire. Well, I’m happy to report the return of The Full-On Cage Experience, as he takes on the task of being the 21st Century Klaus Kinski. More on that tomorrow, when I review Werner Herzog’s excellent Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans.

I went to a screening of Crazy Heart last night. It stars Jeff Bridges, as a washed up drunk country music star, who through love and tragedy gets his life and his ability to create back in hand. It’s produced by our friend T-Bone Burnett (among others) and the soundtrack features some extraordinary songs by Bone and the last work of our dear departed Stephen Bruton. It’s the first directorial effort for an actor named Scott Cooper, and it’s a stunning debut.  Jeff Bridges is going to finally win an Oscar (he’s been nominated four times) for this work, which will make your heart sing and break at the same time. And for me, Crazy Heart is right up there with Where The Wild Things Are for Best Picture.

It’s Thursday, and we’re spending time this week looking at the PCA Fave Lady Movie Star noms (you all had LOTS to say about Sandra Bullock AND Anne Hathaway…whenever I think I’ve gotten a suitable cross -section of films you remind me that Ella Enchanted and While You Were Sleeping should have been a players in our daily poll. Good call.) Now, turning to the actors, it’s been revealed that Johnny Depp is People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive. Again. This is a distinction he shares with very few gents, as in George Clooney and Brad Pitt. So bravo to Johnny D: great actor, undeniable looker, philanthropist, and by all reports a genuinely committed father of two (not that common in Hollywood, you’ll note) — plus, a PCA nominee too. So there’s that. Now on to our poll. Which has to do with an amazing performance I saw today in a movie you’ll definitely want to catch. It’s all  about  a down-on-his luck country music singer. It’s called Crazy Heart, and I was curious because I’d heard some quiet Oscar buzz about this little film. Apparently, even though we might think this year’s Best Actor Oscar race is clear (more on that later) this movie features a performance that could change that. A role belonging to  none other than Jeff Bridges. Brother of Beau, son of Lloyd, arguably one of the most well-liked men in Hollywood who’s  been Oscar-nominated 4 times (First time? 37 years ago) and has never won. Plus, JB’s long been referred to as “the Most Underrated Actor in America”. So today, I want to throw out the idea that quite possibly he’ll get nominated again for this movie. Where he (opposite Maggie Gyllenhaal, Robert Duvall and Colin Farrell) is so good you cannot take your eyes off him. And if he gets nominated, you heard it here first. With this in mind, and because we’re going to hear a lot more about Crazy Heart (which hits theatres mid-December) let’s focus our poll upon the work of its star. Voice your choice in today’s featured poll and tell us which Jeff Bridges movie is your favorite.

1) The Big Lebowski

2) The Contender

3) The Fabulous Baker Boys

4) Iron Man

Pause.

I’ve been thinking about ‘Tron Legacy’ a lot today. Here’s a spot of cinephile autobiography: I can break down my entire existence film by film. Officially, the film that I love the most is ‘The Outsiders’ but for all-out impact for the last twenty seven years the film has been ‘Tron.’ Why? Because it made me into a heathen. Before you assume it’s because this computerised ‘82 epic made me contemplate our role in the world, technology’s prominence as the new god or Flynn’s faithless conquest over dark forces, it wasn’t that. I was four for fuck’s sake. On the run up to the film’s release I got hyped. Probably more hyped than you’ll ever know. Sick. Ill with the hype. So much so that my folks began to worry that I could be autistic.

I pored over every page of my storybook adaptation of the film, marvelling at images of disc combat and the Master Control Program. I sought arcades on holiday to experience the game I’d been told about. I wanted a Tomy ripcord-powered Light Cycle too. Like Lynch’s ‘Dune’ two years later it was on notebooks, lunchboxes and pencil cases long before anyone at school saw the actual movie and realised how slow paced and baffling it was to a young mind. By the time of its winter ‘82 release, my older brother and father announced a visit to the cinema to see the movie, which had now gathered near-mythic status, egged on by my equally excited sibling. One catch – they would go, and I wouldn’t. Worse than that, I attend a particularly premature (mid November?) sunday school xmas party.

Stood in the corner of a church, rocking brown cords and sandals with Christ-knows-what soundtracking a game of musical chairs, I quietly renounced Christianity and religion altogether, knowing that no god would place me in such a situation while half my family got to watch what had now surpassed any conceviable religious experience in my tiny mind. Think of it as a psychlogical version of Oldman’s bombastic sword/crucifix interface at the beginning of Coppola’s ‘Dracula.’ On returning, my brother waxed lyrical about what he’d seen, dismissing my storybook as barely coming close to the ‘Tron’ spectacle.

Twelve months or so later (bear in mind Disney were slow to release VHS of their films), after the film reputedly underachieved at the box office I finally saw it. It was interesting – it wasn’t underwhelming like ‘The Black Hole’ (Maximillion didn’t disappoint though) – it was visually arresting, but the expressionist looks of the heroic computer denizen’s was off-putting to me and the pace was slow. Looking back at it, things flow with all the smoothness of the animated star of Dire Straits’s ‘Money For Nothing’ promo. I’d preferred the build-up to the main event, but ‘Tron’ mania left me a changed person, I think, for the better.

Now, in an era where people flood to see dreck like ‘2012′ and ‘Transformers 2′ as event flicks, I can acknowledge that ‘Tron’ (or in the US, ‘TRON’ or best of all, in Australia, ‘Tron: The Electronic Gladiator’) is a masterpiece. How the hell did it ever get made?

Team Tron “Uh, we need seventeen million dollars to make a film?”
Disney “What would it be about?”
Team Tron “It’s about computer programmers and corporations battling it out in a computer realm.”
Disney “Hmm.”
Team Tron “It’s gonna have new effects with no proven track record.”
Disney “Uh-huh.”
Team Tron “People in the computer world will look like the stars of old black and white films…but futuristic versions!”
Disney “Who will star in it?”
Team Tron “Jeff Bridges – the guy from ‘Heaven’s Gate’ and the ‘King Kong’ remake.”
Disney “Hmm…anyone else?
Team Tron “David Warner!”
Disney “Huh?”
Team Tron “You know – the guy from ‘Nightwing’ and ‘Time After Time”
Disney “Doesn’t ring any bells.”
Team Tron “Oh yeah, and we want Wedny Carlos to do the music.”
Disney “Who?”
Team Tron “You know; the avant-garde composer who had a sex change years ago.”

It’s a miracle the film ever got made. Most films (think ‘The Bishop Of Battle’ segment of ‘Nighmares,’ ‘The Last Starfighter,’ The Wizard,’ ‘Brainscan’ etc.) using computer games can be well regarded, but they’re horribly dated too. ‘Tron’ doesn’t look like any game I ever played. It’s its own aesthetic. There’s no sense of any precedent – it’s a true original. The amount of designers, musicians and programmers left altered by the film are legion. Some missed the point – the adicolor ‘Tron’ shoe is the work of someone who didn’t “get” whatever “it” is when it comes to ‘Tron’ and neither did K-Swiss. ‘Tron’ was apparent in the design of the Nike Air Max 97 and Zoom Spiridon, or when Apple upped the ante with the coloured iMac collection – more characters altered by exposure to the film. Between 30 and 50, there’s a generation ‘Tron’ dispersed across multiple age brackets.

It’s been nearly three decades now. Offering a sequel for December 2010 that scoops up youngsters nostalgic for a decade they missed, and oldies obsessing over past glories feels a little cynical. By its very nature, Daft Punk offering some gnarly-sounding Carpenter synths and a visit back to those stark visuals with a 21st century tweak is reverse-engineering that’s at odds with a pioneering original. But hey, it looks like fun, and if it leads even one small child to rethink their whole faith system? Job done.

Thanks to the magic of YouTube, here’s a few ‘Tron’ related music videos and performances. I’ve omitted Infernal’s pop dance hit ‘From Paris To Berlin’ because it’s shit at every level.

Journey’s ‘1990’s Theme’ is their idea of what the 1990’s would sound like. It’s from the ‘Tron’ OST too. It’s amusing when you consider that Steve Perry from Journey may be the least futuristic man that ever lived.

Scott Grooves ‘Mothership Reconnection’ (Daft Punk Mix) is ruined by some atrocious late ’90s computer graphics that look worse than anything delivered in ‘82. It does however, have a CGI Bootsy Collins, which can only be a good thing.

The Strokes ‘12:51′ is my favourite ‘Tron’ inspired video. They’re unlikely candidates for these visuals, but it worked.

Undeniable flyness from Kanye and Daft Punk at the 2008 Grammys.  Kanye-bash all you like, but it beats a stage sleepwalk over a DAT.

Bonus level – nerds talking ‘Tron’ toys.