Showing posts with label Taryn Manning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Taryn Manning. Show all posts

Monday, May 24, 2010

Yes, No, Maybe So? Love Ranch

We've been ignoring trailers, so we might play catch up this week. Today's future enticement is the 70s brothel drama Love Ranch. Let's map out what makes us want to see it... and not.

If you'd rather not know the entire story, I'd advise you not to watch this particular trailer and just reading the less revealing text.



Most marketing teams don't realize (or perhaps have statistical evidence to the unfortunate contrary) that a well told concept, plot hook and name actors should be enough to hook your target audience. Why do they always think a point by point three act summary is best?

Do we want to see it?

YES.


The cinema has always had a preoccupation with prostitutes; Movie makers see the kinship between show & 'ho business' as well they should. Despite this infamous love affair, the brothel setting is underused. [This is completely tangential, but wouldn't a fictional brothel series be fascinating in the hands of the right HBO or Showtime creative team? There's more than enough TV shows about cops, lawyers and doctors so why not try some other drama-magnet workplaces! Those aren't the only three places where drama is a given.] Anyway, from the looks of the trailer the art direction (Bruno Rubeo and team), costumes (Melissa Bruning) and overall setting should provide moments of interest even setting aside the unknown quality of the script, directing and acting.

Plus there are the girls they're selling which include Bai Ling, Taryn Manning & Gina Gershon. Taylor Hackford and his casting team definitely weren't afraid of scene stealers when they went to work. Or maybe they knew that with Helen Mirren and Joe Pesci leading, scene stealing is a far less likely outcome than scene tug-of-wars.

NO.

The movies love boxers almost as much as hookers. Perhaps filmmakers see a kinship between show & body-blow business? But do we need both in the same movie? Love Ranch could be two full hours of clichéd story beats since we've got entrepreneurs, whores and boxers all battling it out for screen time and narrative arcs in the same movie. Those are three of the movies most familiar types right there. Explosive clichés are probably buried everywhere in that Nevada sand like so many film-derailing landmines.

MAYBE SO.

The casting intrigues. Helen Mirren is always worth a look (though "accent" work is always hard to adjust to in the time span of a trailer) and perhaps her chemistry with Joe Pesci will be odd couple fascinating? But I worry. I can't say that I'm a huge fan of Joe Pesci. He strikes me as an... um... excessive actor and I have a much easier time with 'over the top' when the performer taking me there has a vagina. It's just how I'm wired.

When it comes to Love Ranch are you a Yes, a No or a Maybe So?
And does 'maybe so' mean "wait for reviews" or "I'll watch it on DVD" for you?

Friday, November 6, 2009

Birthday Suit: Shapeshifters

Sing your favorite stars a happy birthday in the privacy of your own home.
Maybe not out loud.

Happy birthday to Ethan, Rebecca and Mike

11/06
Today's filmic / famous birthdays.
If it's your own birthday shout it out. It's your day, after all.

1882 Thomas H Ince actor who became a lifeguard then an actor again until he was a pioneering film director who became a studio mogul until he morphed into Cary Elwes having an affair with Kirsten Dunst ... and then died mysteriously.
1903 June Marlowe lovely brunette who became the Warner Bros proclaimed "Most Beautiful Girl On Screen" and eventually settled in as Our Miss Crabtree
1931 Mike Nichols Second City Improv founder who became a comedian then morphed into one of the most celebrated film directors of the second half of the 20th century. The filmography is kind of uneven, though, right?



1946 Sally Field a little Pasadena girl who became Gidget then a nun who flew before splintering into several personalities as Sybil. After which she became Burt Reynolds girl then a union activist who was suddenly a farmwife and, with that farm job, a Double-Oscar-Winner. Finally she was passing along the sweetheart torch as a grieving mom "I just want to hit something! I want to hit it hard" ...until she finally became Nora Walker. Judge me all you want but I freaking love her.
1947 Edward Yang an engineer who became a computer guy and then an auteur behind who made the internationally reknowned YiYi (2000)
1949 Brad Davis Floridian who became a television star then a film star of ridiculously potent sexual charisma (Querelle and Midnight Express ...about that shower scene) before becoming an AIDS activist in his final years

1952 Michael Cunningham, novelist (The Hours, A Home At the End of the World) who is also a professor and screenwriter and sometime awards magnet
1957 Lori Singer Fame's (1980) freaky cellist who became Short Cuts (1993) freaky cellist. Hey now, she didn't shape shift at all!
1978 Taryn Manning TV actor who became supporting movie player who I was worried had peaked (?) as snow bunny in Hustle & Flow... but thankfully she's employed for another couple of years at least. Lot of films in pre-production
1988 Emma Stone TV guest actress who is suddenly a busy comedic film actress (Super Bad, House Bunny, Zombieland)

Finally... three actors are celebrating big days and I can never decide how I feel about them: Ethan Hawke, a child actor turned film star turned Mr. Uma Thurman turned actor/novelist celebrates his 39th, the wildly uneven Thandie Newton (is there actually two of her? So good in some scenes/films, so ungood in others) turns 37, and themodel turned Femme Fatale turned nude blue lady turned TV star known as Rebecca Romijn also turns 37.

I haven't watched Romijn's new show Eastwick -- have any of you? -- because the Cher|Pfeiffer|Sarandon trinity is too holy for mine eyes to blaspheme. Is it any good?