AND THE WINNER IS...

I was just thumbing through some papers from last Oscar season and came across an interview with Tommy Lee Jones in the March/April 2008 edition of the magazine 02138 (the numbers come from Cambridge's zip code; the magazine is run by Harvard students) which features an exchange that, for some reason, I found/find absolutely hilarious. Discussing Jones' Oscar-nominated performance in In the Valley of Elah...

Interviewer: What was the name of the little boy?
Tommy Lee Jones: What little boy?
Interviewer: The one who played Charlize Theron's son [Devin Brochu]—you have an emotional scene with him.
Tommy Lee Jones: I don't know what that kid's name was. He was a good kid; we became friends. But not to the extent that I learned his name.

I'm so glad to see that Presto, the computer-animated short directed by Pixar veteran Doug Sweetland that precedes screenings of WALL-E, has shown up online, because it is a gem. My friend and I attended a late night showing of WALL-E that was predominately populated not with children thrilled to see the film, but with adults presumably seeking an alternative to Wanted and hoping just to be amused and pass the time. Things got off on the wrong foot with seemingly endless ads and previews of corny kids movies, but finally a Pixar logo appeared and people readied themselves for the main attraction, only to come to realize that what they were seeing was not WALL-E but rather something called Presto. (I actually worried for a moment that we'd sat down in the wrong theater.) As the short—which features no talking, only pantomime—began, the disappointment of a further delay was unmistakable... and then, quite remarkably, the audience was charmed and won over. There were a few chuckles at first, and then, before long, a full house of grown men and women fitfully laughing in unison at the zany antics of an animated rabbit (Bugs Bunny's grandson?) and the inconsiderate magician who owns him. In between my own chuckles, I looked around in amazement. All I could think of was the similarly unexpected scene in Preston Sturges' Sullivan's Travels (1941, which inspired the 2000 Coen brothers film O Brother, Where Art Thou?) in which a bunch of hardened prisoners from a chain gang are ushered into a church, sat down, and shown a Mickey Mouse and Pluto cartoon, and within seconds are howling with laughter as if they hadn't a trouble in the world. Such is the power of laughter, and nobody has offered it as purely, or consistently, or to as many people as Disney, and now Disney-Pixar. Check out the entire library of Pixar shorts on the company's site, and give a look to Presto—even though it loses some of its luster when removed from the big screen—below...

Jim Sturgess and Kate Bosworth in 21 (Columbia), which will be out on DVD on July 22.

I first heard about 21 (Columbia, trailer) more than a year before its nationwide release when a friend of mine was cast in a small part in the film and spent several days on set in Boston. My friend had already been a part of several big studio movies, good and bad, and told me he expected big things from this one, so I did, too.

21 was adapted from Bringing Down the House, Ben Mezrich's 2003 best-selling non-fiction novel about a group of M.I.T. undergraduate math prodigies who are corralled into a room by one of their professors, taught how to "count cards" during games of blackjack, and then begin a series of highly risky but also highly profitable weekend excursions to Las Vegas. The production offered a thrilling story jampacked with glamour, sex, danger, and fantasy; was given a $35 million budget; was to be helmed by the quirky-but-proven young Aussie director Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde, Monster-in-Law); and assembled a choice cast headlined by promising up-and-comers like Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe) and Kate Bosworth (Superman Returns) and supported by veterans Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix) and Oscar winner Kevin Spacey (who was also a producer on the film). All the pieces seemed to be in place.

And then, on March 28, 2008, the film opened and proved my friend neither completely right nor completely wrong.

On the one hand, it was a smashing commercial success, earning $24.1 million over its opening weekend to finish #1 at the box-office, and then retained that spot the following weekend by bringing in another $15.3 million. When its theatrical run came to an end eight weeks later, its cumulative take was an impressive $81.2 million, more than double its budget, and this was before it hit the ancillary markets (DVD, Pay-Per-View, etc.), where most movies make the majority of their money. On the other hand, it disappointed most reviewers, garnering a mere 35% approval rating from the nation's critics, and an even poorer 28% nod from the "Cream of the Crop" among them.

And where did I fall on the spectrum? I didn't see the film until this week when I was sent an advance copy of the DVD, which will be released nationwide on July 22. Here's my take:

It's an enjoyable escapist movie that could have been even more. Much of this falls on Sturgess, a 27 year old from England, who is being touted as the next big thing after roles in Across the Universe (2007), The Other Bolelyn Girl (2008), and now this. I don't see it. 21 is, in some ways, a descendant of Risky Business (1983), but Sturgess is, in no way, evocative of Tom Cruise or anyone with any real star power—he's okay looking, with a pleasant personality, and enough acting chops to get by, but I don't see any fire in the belly... I see a deer in the headlights, and not only when the part calls for it. Which brings us to Bosworth, the 25 year old Los Angeleno who previously worked with Spacey on the ill-fated Bobby Darin bio-pic Beyond the Sea (2004), in which she played Sandra Dee. The problem with her work in that film, and in this, is that she is the blonde minus the bubbly; she seems not quite a girl, and not yet a woman, and consequently afraid and unsure of how to handle herself. The result? On film, as incredibly hot as her appearance is, her personality is cold, rendering even her sex-scene—I won't tell you with whom—snooze-inducing. And yet I feel guilty criticizing her because she seems to be trying so hard, especially with her character's frequent costume, makeup, hair, and accent changes, almost trying to will a change of aura that never comes.

The film's salvation comes from two places: [1] its two veteran actors, Spacey and Fishburne, whose calling card is their simmering-but-repressed intensity (remember Lester Burnham from American Beauty and Morpheus from The Matrix, respectively?), and who deploy it to great effect in their small roles in this film; and [2] it's sleak aesthetics, which are owed to a first-rate team of professionals who worked behind the scenes, and which merit lengthier discussion below...

Despite any aforementioned shortcomings, nobody can accuse Luketic & Co. of "not getting it": what American moviegoers repeatedly demonstrate with their wallets and pocketbooks is that they value style much more than substance—its presence is largely why past Vegas-set movies like the Ocean's films (2001, 2004, 2007) have been commercially successful, and its absence is precisely why others like Lucky You (2007) flopped hard—and so that is precisely what the filmmakers of 21 offer from the first shot through the last.

The film opens with a shot from behind and afar of a person riding his bicycle over the Mass. Avenue Bridge with the Boston skyline behind him, and then—impossibly!—swoops around and in to a close-up of Sturgess' face. It is an awesome, seemless blend of camera footage (Panavision digital, taken from a helicopter) and CGI footage done in post-production—I was, therefore, not surprised in the least to find that the film's cinematographer was Russell Carpenter, who won an Oscar a decade earlier for doing that same thing, as well as anyone ever had, on Titanic (1997). He employs numerous other crafty shots using special lenses and innovative lighting techniques, the importance of which cannot be overstated: they, as much as anything, make the games of blackjack, which are inherently undertaken by individuals, accessible to the entire audience.

Along with the usual Filmmaker Commentary option, the DVD includes several additional bonus features, ranging from the very strange ("The Advantage Player" offers Sturgess, Bosworth, and others awkwardly reading from a teleprompter and trying, without much effect, to explain how to count cards just like they did, and ends with Bosworth saying "If we can help you be a better player and win more often, then we have done our job") to the very informative ("Basic Strategy: A Complete Film Journal," in which Luketic and Carpenter detail and discuss the differences and challenges of filming in Las Vegas versus Boston, and "Money Plays: A Tour of the Good Life," in which production designer Missy Stewart and costume designer Luca Mosca explain the deliberate choices and immense work that resulted in the look of the film's sets and fashion).

FILM: C+
DVD FEATURES: B+
IN STORES: 7/22

Other than film, there are only a few things that I truly love: family, friends, politics, baseball, and tennis. I've loved tennis all my life—played it since I could walk, including on my high school and college teams... worked as a ballboy for the world's top players at a major tournament as a kid... taught it at various sports camps and privately after that... and watched every major televised tennis match I could. Nothing, though, could have prepared me for what I saw today. Like most huge fans of of the sport, I was up bright and early this morning to watch the championship match of the sport's most hallowed Grand Slam tournament, Wimbledon, which pitted against each other the world's #1 and #2 players, Roger Federer (my favorite) and Rafael Nadal. The match began at 9am EST... and it only ended minutes ago, at about 4:30pm EST! While some of that epic length can be attributed to two brief rain delays, the majority of it is owed to the relentless, awe-inspiring efforts of two of the greatest players to ever step on a court, whose rivalry had already produced numerous instant-classics, and who have now given us the single greatest match in tennis history, with Nadal prevailing 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (8), 9-7. Don't take my word for it... none other than former world #1 John McEnroe just said the same thing on NBC, while hugging and thanking both players for the gift of what they just allowed us to see. If you're a tennis fan who caught today's match, you're very lucky. If you're a tennis fan who missed it, you're very unlucky. And if you're one of those closed-minded ninnies who are not a fan because you regard tennis as a girly-man, tier-two sport, I no longer feel any need to even argue with you... I'll put these two guys and their performance today up against anything you've got. The match re-airs on ESPN Classic at 7pm EST tomorrow evening, so see for yourself.

I've just gotten home from spending the 4th of July with some family friends. After dinner, they sought my advice about which DVD we should watch, and so I ran through the major players from last year's awards season. Upon realizing they had not yet seen The Diving Bell and the Butterfly—a film I first saw at a private screening in early November, then watched on DVD three different times with three different groups of friends in order to make sure they saw it, and still have not tired of—I aggressively urged them to give it a chance... as the good folks at Miramax found last awards season, though, it is anything but easy to coax people into watching a French-subtitled movie about a stroke victim during their leisure time, least of all on a happy holiday! Nevertheless, they relented, and by the end of the evening were, like the other groups of friends with whom I had watched the film, completely awestruck. Reactions of first-time viewers like these, as well as my own sense that the film holds up strongly on multiple viewings, lead me to believe that Diving Bell may well be the 2007 film that most impresses cinephiles years from now. Don't get me wrong: I still adore the characters who populate Juno, and respect the craft of No Country, and admire the ambition of There Will Be Blood, and revel in the brilliance of Gone Baby Gone, and enjoy the rollercoaster of Michael Clayton, and embrace the humanity of Lars and the Real Girl, etc., but the longer that Diving Bell saturates in my mind, the more I feel that each and every frame of it is a carefully considered piece of art, filled with layers of meaning, and that even one false move by screenwriter Ronald Harwood, director Julian Schnabel, or cinematographer Janusz Kaminski could have easily ruined the film, and yet there were none. If you haven't yet seen it, get on it. And if you have—or once you do—check out my conversations with star Mathieu Amalric, who plays Jean-Do (and will next play the villain in the latest James Bond installment, Quantum of Solace) and with supporting scene-stealer Max von Sydow, who plays Papinou, both of whom offer much further enlightenment on the film.

Last night, I was having dinner at Carmine's, one of my favorite local restaurants, and began chatting with our waiter, Frankie Mosca. I introduced myself to Frankie the last time I was in for dinner after I overheard him telling some other patrons about the ups-and-downs of his other career as a filmmaker. Since that visit, he was the subject of an interesting profile in the local paper, and has continued to struggle to complete his passion-project, entitled This Wretched Life. Anyway, last night, while discussing Hollywood's ruthless and corrupting ways, Frankie mentioned a fairly recent film on that very subject which had somehow skipped over my radar—a documentary called Overnight (2003), which, according to IMDB, captures the remarkable "rise and stumble of Troy Duffy, the bartender-cum-filmmaker who was swept up by Miramax's Harvey Weinstein to turn his script for The Boondock Saints into a feature film." I saw the completed film version of The Boondock Saints (1999), which stars Willem Dafoe in a slick orgy of violence that has made it a cult favorite among many young people, but it never quite won me over. Nevertheless, I've just ordered a DVD of Overnight on Amazon, and look forward to checking it out. You can check out its trailer below...

Heading into Manhattan today for a few more "pre-season" chats, and then a little picnic and movie with a friend in Bryant Park, where classics are shown outdoors on a big screen every Monday night—tonight's selection is Hud (1963), in which my friend Patricia Neal gives a great performance opposite Paul Newman (who is now ailing), and for which she ultimately received the Academy Award for Best Actress.

UPDATE: The bad news? Rain drove us away from the outdoor screening fairly early. The good news? It drove us to the Regal Cinema in Times Square to see WALL-e, something I had put off doing independently—I'd had a scheduling conflict with the press screening, and then found other things to do this past weekend when it was released nationwide (and, along with the Angelina Jolie-starrer Wanted, made history: never before had two newly-opening films both earned more than $50 million at the box-office in a weekend.) The bottom line? I'm man enough to admit it: WALL-e is the real deal. I'm not as convinced as some that it can earn a Best Picture nomination (the early release date and widespread condescending attitudes toward animated films will probably be too much for it to overcome), but it certainly represents Pixar's best argument yet, is earning a ton at the box-office, and seems a cinch to win Best Animated Feature. The capper? At about 10pm, on my way from the theater back to Grand Central Station, I passed Bryant Park, and was pleasantly surprised to see that not only was the screening going forward, but that the lawn was absolutely packed with people of all ages, races, and orientations who seemed to be eating it up. As someone whose greatest hope is to see old movies find new audiences, this really warmed my heart... or perhaps the heat can be attributed to the one steamy scene from the film that I stuck around for before running to catch my train, which you can see for yourself below...

I am on a cloud right now, having just finished a wonderful hour-and-a-half interview with the lovely and legendary actress Eva Marie Saint, who starred as Edie Doyle opposite Marlon Brando in Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront (1954) and as Eve Kendall opposite Cary Grant in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959). Saint, who will turn 84 next week, is one of the few true greats of the Golden Age who is still walking and talking, and it means so much to me that I will be able to include her among the more than 100 other interviews I have conducted for my book project (through which I hope to excite young people about old movies). Tremendous, tremendous thanks to Gena, Lea, and Jeff for helping to make this happen.

A few days ago, I strongly criticized a new list from Entertainment Weekly that purported to identify "The 100 Best Films of the Last 25 Years." I feel it is only fair and right, therefore, to share my own list of "The 100 Best Films of the Last 25 Years." No list of this sort fully pleases anyone but its maker—a few exclusions, inclusions, or oddly-ordered choices will always tick off people—but I'd like to think that my list, at the very least, reflects more consideration than the 15 minutes that EW apparently devoted to theirs. You can check it out and decide for yourself by clicking below...

We've been talking about movie lists all week thanks to AFI's annual special, but AFI is not alone. Entertainment Weekly has introduced another one into the discussion—"The 100 Best Films of the Past 25 Years"—which is causing a big uproar on the net, and deservedly so: this is the worst selected, most inexplicably ordered "greatest" list I have ever seen from a supposedly-credible outlet, and whoever was involved with this at EW should be embarassed. Casino Royale (2006) ahead of Schindler's List (1993)? South Park (1999) but no The Shawshank Redemption (1994)? And that's just the tip of the iceberg. To be fair, I'll post my own top choices in a few hours, but in the meantime click below to see the EW abomination for yourself...