Hundreds of Screens: Me and Orson Welles

Though I am loathe to spend a big paragraph merely explaining what I'm about to write about -- that's so Blogging with Training Wheels -- I make an exception.

I never have any time to write anymore which saddens me. I'm behind on reviews, interviews, articles, podcasts (very soon!): Part of this is my fault (procrastination, writer's block, fatigue), part of this is Hollywood's fault (They've never heard of the Gregorian calendar I don't think). Over at Nick's Flick Picks, my dear friend has been sharing his filmgoing diaries from the past decade and though nothing I type here will be its equal, my cameos in those memoirs convinced me that merely narrating my moviegoing adventures without editing might actually be the only way I'll be able to trick myself into confronting a collossal task: Getting through the Christmas glut and living to write about it.

I've been spending my time shuffling between shopping, day jobs, social life holiday business, industry events and movie theaters. First stop last weekend was the Lincoln Plaza which I often avoid because it, like so many arthouse theaters, has screens that aren't substantially larger than the one in my living room. I also avoid because the elderly patrons are quite noisy. They aren't into talking at the screen like moviegoers in my hood but they're most definitely interested in playing Voiceover Man for their confused, inattentive or hard of hearing friends. Plus, they're often fussy about seating arrangements. My mood was instantly lightened when I lined up to buy my tickets to Me and Orson Welles. Almost everyone in the line in front of me said "Broken Embraces". It's such a great feeling to hear people buying tickets en masse to your favorite director's new movie. Even if it's not one you care so much about.

The Movie? A pleasant sit to be sure. Possibly more than that for theater and Old Hollywood lovers. My chief complaint would be the vacuum at the center. I'm talking about the "Me" rather than the "and Orson Welles" in case you hadn't guessed. I know that Zac Efron has ardent admirers and it's possible that he deserves them (this is only the second thing I've seen him in, it's true) but I preferred him in Hairspray where his teen idol celebrity was put to literal use. In this love letter to the theater he's surrounded by actors as talented as Ben Chaplin, Claire Danes and Christian McKay (he of the Oscar buzz) and though Efron never ever comes across as 'not up to the task' he's also not really triumphant ... It reminded me of the lead performances in Away We Go. Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski were perfectly fine in their roles. They just lacked movie star magic so the supporting performers stole it. In other words the 'scale' was off for the big screen. (Even though this screen was tiny. But you know what I'm saying. Don't nitpick!) In happier news, Zac's musical solo near film's end is great and McKay is a ton of fun to watch as the infamously giant ego of stage and screen. I also thought James Tupper made a pretty good Joseph Cotton. Finally, I'm hoping Robert plans to cover the semi-prolific Richard Linklater in his directors of the decade series. This writer/director is hard to pin down, no?

When we were leaving the theater a man handed me this card...


It's looks just like the one Orson Welles gives his actors in the movie. Only they get actual cards with affectionate notes psychological manipulation inside. At first I thought it the strangest most useless promotional item ever. After all, I'd already bought a ticket, I couldn't give it away (it's not an actual card), it's too flimsy to double as a postcard. What is it for?

But here I am photographing it and placing it on the blog and remembering the shift from annoyance (people are always trying to hand you things on the street) to smiling recognition... a piece of paper as movie memorabilia? So, I guess it hit its mark.

Have you seen the movie?

Terrible Yellow Links

Today's Must Read
Newsweek brings Maurice Sendak, Dave Eggers and Spike Jonze together for an awesome conversation while Where The Wild Things Are heads to theaters. It's a must read. Here's a little bit about Sendak's issues with Disney

Do you think Disney is bad for children?
Sendak: I think it's terrible.
But you have all the Disney characters on your mantel behind you.
Sendak: I adored Mickey Mouse when I was a child. He was the emblem of happiness and funniness. You went to the movies then, you saw two movies and a short. When Mickey Mouse came on the screen and there was his big head, my sister said she had to hold onto me. I went berserk. I stood on the chair screaming, "My hero! My hero!" He had a lot of guts when he was young. We're both about the same age; we're about a month apart. He was the little brother I always wanted.
Jonze: What was he like when he was young?
Sendak: He had teeth.
Jonze: Literally?
Sendak: He had literally teeth. I have toys in the other room.
Jonze: Was he more dangerous?
Sendak: Yes. He was more dangerous. He did things to Minnie that were not nice. I think what happened, was that he became so popular—this is my own theory—they gave his cruelty and his toughness to Donald Duck. And they made Mickey a fat nothing. He's too important for products. They want him to be placid and nice and adorable. He turned into a schmaltzer. I despised him after a point.

More Clickables
TOH As suspected Terence Malick's Tree of Life is delayed until 2010. Damn it's hard keeping those Oscar predictions up-to-date
Examiner on the top ten Woody Allen movies. Obvs Whatever Works (soon on DVD) isn't one of them
The Brown List who made the least liked Hollywood executives list? These people are supposedly hell to work for/with [thx]
Some Came Running if you're a fan of Crash (the David Cronenberg film, not th' other one) raise your hand. You can't see me but trust that my hand is high
Independent Eye Jennifer Aniston as rorschach blot
Galerie & Boutique art gallery highlights celebrating Where the Wild Things Are [thx]
Terrible Yellow Eyes and much more artwork inspired by that beloved story
Pop Hangover "Bell, Biv, Dafoe" teehee


Boing Boing "Logorama", a movie with repurposed corporate logos, looks so cool. Love that MGM Lion
In Contention on the AFI fest lineup
Cinematical has the premiere of the poster for Me and Orson Welles. They don't critique it but I personally think we have a candidate for worst poster of the year. My eyes are still bleeding so I refuse to show the photo here. It hurts me that someone was paid good money to make that
Salon the good thing about the resurrection of the decades-old Polanski crime is that fine film writers are writing about Polanski movies. This one is on Chinatown

Lev Leaves Toronto. And Stays.

Our young festival-going correspondent Lev (pictured left) actually lives in Toronto. So, he's not going anywhere now that TIFF has wrapped. But post festival frenzy he has one last report to offer us. Here he is...

That's a wrap! Well, at least it was a few days ago. I realize I'm a little behind the times. Here are my final three movies:

The Brothers Bloom - Rian Johnson's (Brick) sophomore effort is a predictable and slight film. Johnson seems to be channeling Wes Anderson in everything from the quirky-cleverness to the family issues to Adrien Brody, and if Wes Anderson doing Wes Anderson is past its prime then another director doing him is even staler. Brody is much too mopey, Ruffalo is fun but he doesn't have much of a role, Weisz overplayed her character to the point of irritation, and Kikuchi doesn't really do anything at all besides having a clever name that's not all that clever. C

It doesn't surprise me at all to hear that Weisz may have erred on the side of overplaying. That's exactly how I felt about her turns in The Shape of Things and The Fountain. Well, she'll always have The Constant Gardener.

Me & Orson Welles - I really really hate HD. My viewing experience would've been enhanced ten-fold if Linklater had shot film. HD just looks like bad TV. This actually feels like a TV movie, and it would have felt less so if it was shot film. I still had fun. The first two acts are much stronger than the third. I got the feeling the writers didn't really have an ending, so they just let it go on. Still, Christian McKay (as Welles) is a hoot, and Zac Efron doesn't make you cringe, although he can never quite match the brilliance of that basketball song in the High School Musical 3 trailer (for those who haven't seen the trailer, you have to see it for it's comedic brilliance). B-

Che - A lot of unjust controversy over this one. It's not really all that difficult or dense. Yes, Soderbergh does omit numerous dramatic moments, but this is nothing new. Wasn't it Bunuel and his co-writer Jean-Claude Carrière who wanted The Phantom Of Liberty to be a series of thinly connected stories and then stop each story right before it got interesting? That's not to say that Che is uninteresting. Besides the second act of The Argentine, the film(s) are quite compelling, and Soderbergh shifts from action to humour to powerful drama effortlessly. Benicio Del Toro is, as he always is, brilliant. He probably won't get an oscar nomination; he has no showy moments or breakdowns but he brings motivation and humanity to a coldly written character. Soderbergh shot in HD with the brand new Red camera, and for the most part it looks pretty dingy. Unfortunate, because Soderbergh knows how to shoot scenes: never cutting too much, choosing his angles carefully. Don't let the running time scare you, Che is well worth seeing. A-/B+

No matter how many times I hear that I shouldn't worry about the running time... I still do! I'm seeing it shortly @ NYFF press screenings and perhaps I'll have to do some yoga during intermission to make it through. Back to Lev...

I can't compare this TIFF to previous fests, but I learned a lot in terms of choosing my films, and next year I'll do a lot more research. My order of preference for the 12 films I saw.

1. Synecdoche, New York
2. Four Nights With Anna
3. Che
4. The Wrestler
5. Gigantic
6. Me & Orson Welles
7. Linha De Passe
8. Sugar
9. The Brothers Bloom
10. The Burning Plain
11. Acolytes
12. Zift

Thanks for reading

No thank you, Lev, for sharing your festival with us here @ The Film Experience. Give him a round of applause in the comments, please. And if you missed any TIFF coverage just click the label below for all the posts.
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Yes, No, Maybe?

Hi, Jonathan again with more biopic news. That's Orson Welles on the left and Christian McKay on the right. McKay will be portraying Welles in Me and Orson Welles, set for a 2009 release. Does he look like him? Uh, kinda. McKay's already successfully played Welles on the Broadway stage in Rosebud so I'm not as worried about him as I am about his co-star Zac Efron. I've seen the High School Musicals (yes, god help me I've seen them) and Zac was none too impressive in them but perhaps with a good cast and a good story things will be different. After all, both Richard Linklater and Claire Danes are involved and that could make for a damn good movie. Since I'm obsessed with period pieces based on real people in Hollywood history it's a must see for me either way (this takes place in the thirties during a Mercury Theater Production of Julius Caesar). If you're interested too a word of caution: tread carefully at IMDB - their plot synopsis covers every twist and turn and takes you from the beginning of the story to the end leaving out absolutely nothing ( I already knew the story so it was okay for me but geez).