The Screengrab : the full monty

Trailer Review: The Rocker

Paul Clark — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:00:00 GMT

This summer looks to bring the release of a number of high-quality comedies. But judging by the trailer, The Rocker probably won’t be one of them. Admittedly, Rainn Wilson’s snarky-doofus persona doesn’t lend itself easily to leading man roles in the same way as, say, Jack Black. But still, wouldn’t Wilson’s Office popularity lead one to expect better than a shabby mashup of School of Rock and Drillbit Taylor? Worst of all, it’s just not funny, which is pretty surprising considering how easy a target heavy metal makes itself (the flashback sequence here is especially dire). Looking up the movie on IMDb, I was a little surprised to find it was directed by Peter Cattaneo of Full Monty fame- admittedly not a wonderfully-made film, but nonetheless a very funny one. Cattaneo hasn’t done much of note in the past decade, and from the looks of this trailer, that streak won’t be ending this year.

Vanishing Act: Bill Forsyth

Scott Von Doviak — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Some vanishing acts are harder to explain than others. Who could possible have a problem with Bill Forsyth? He’s no budget-busting megalomaniac like Michael Cimino, nor a purveyor of edgy indie curiosities like Harmony Korine. Maybe you could blame him for inspiring the plethora of quirky British comedies that overtook arthouses in the mid-to-late 1990s – The Full Monty, Waking Ned Devine, Saving Grace, etc. – but that would be excessively ungenerous. The first Scottish director to break through to an international audience, Forsyth began his film career in collaboration with the Glasgow Youth Theater, with whom he produced two low-budget comedies: That Sinking Feeling and the breakthrough hit Gregory’s Girl. With his third film, the fish-out-of-water tale Local Hero, he whipped up a delicate blend of appealing regionalism and low-key whimsy that has often been attempted – and rarely duplicated – since.

After 1984’s Comfort and Joy, Forsyth moved to America, though it would be an exaggeration to say he went Hollywood. His U.S.-made movies weren’t particularly successful; although Housekeeping and Breaking In (featuring one of Burt Reynolds’ many comeback performances) both have their admirers, the 1993 Robin Williams vehicle Being Human was an unmitigated disaster. The closest thing to a big-budget picture Forsyth ever attempted, the film suffered from a troubled production and a nearly non-existent theatrical release.

So much for Forsyth’s American career. Six years passed before the director resurfaced with Gregory’s Two Girls, the Scottish-made sequel to his second feature film. (This is what the experts call “coming full circle.”) Never released theatrically in the U.S., it remains Forsyth’s final film to date. Judging from a recent interview with the London Times, he plans to keep it that way. “I have to put my hand on my heart and say I'm ten times happier not making films than making films.” he says. “I did it 'cos they let me. It's not something you decline…I can't stand the cinema. We did go once three or four years ago just to experience it. We went to a mall outside Glasgow and had a pretty horrendous experience.”

Retirement from filmmaking doesn’t always stick, however, and Forsyth’s vanishing act is one we wouldn’t mind seeing come to an end.

And the ReOscar Goes to…Peter Fonda?

Scott Von Doviak — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:00:00 GMT

While we’ve been busy with our spreadsheets and slide rules, trying to figure who the big winners will be come Sunday night, Time’s Richard Corliss is just getting around to giving his picks for the 1998 Oscars. No, Corliss hasn’t slipped through some sort of wormhole in the space-time continuum. Instead he’s presenting Time’s First Annual Re-Oscars.

The premise is that the Academy may have occasionally made a mistake or two over the years, a controversial notion we’re nonetheless prepared to embrace. "What we're offering is a second chance at the Academy Awards handed out on March 23, 1998," Corliss writes. "To a lot of people, the record eleven Oscars that James Cameron's Titanic lapped up that night were suitable acknowledgment of a much-loved movie that quickly became the top box-office attraction in film history. We're asking how Titanic, which was named the Best Picture of 1997, and the performances that won in the four actor categories have stood the test of time. And we're answering: Eh, not so well."

If your memory of the films that challenged Titanic for Best Picture that year is a little shaky, we don’t blame you. Somehow we’d forgotten those timeless classics As Good as It Gets and The Full Monty were nominated as well, although with guns to our heads we probably could have guessed Good Will Hunting made the final five. Given those choices, we’ll go along with Corliss’s selection of L.A. Confidential as the first Re-Oscar winner, although his reasoning is a little shaky: “A guilty secret of film criticism is that reviewers often lavish their fondness on modern versions of the kinds of genres they don't make any more. Thus The English Patient, a film in the David Lean epic tradition, was my choice for best film of 1996. L.A. Confidential is a time trip back to the period in which it's set, the early '50s, when film noir (as the French called Hollywood's crime dramas) argued that postwar optimism was a lie — that brutality and betrayal lurked around the every city street corner, where the cop on the beat might also be on the take.”

Corliss also reminds us of one of the laziest Academy decisions in recent memory: Jack Nicholson winning his third Oscar for his Jack Nicholson-esque performance in As Good as It Gets. "Nicholson had lost an Oscar a few times when he deserved one: in Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces and especially Chinatown, a great performance that lost to Art Carney's turn as a lonely older guy with health problems in Harry and Tonto. . . Chalk up Nicholson's third Oscar as an early Life Achievement Award." Instead, Corliss chooses to recognize Peter Fonda’s nearly forgotten turn in the all-around understated Ulee’s Gold. Hey, we’re happy for him. For the rest of the ReOscar roster, click here.

Not Just for Kids: The Columbus International Children's Film Festival

Peter Smith — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 18:00:00 GMT

This weekend brings this year's incarnation of the Columbus International Children's Film Festival, being held from Thursday, November 29 through Sunday, December 2, at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. Currently in its fourth year, the Children's Fest is co-organized by Wex assistant film/video curator Chris Stults and youth program educator Kendra Meyer, as a collaboration between the Center's Film/Video and Education departments. Similar festivals geared to children are held in Toronto, New York, and Chicago, and they're extremely popular in Europe.

The Children's Fest seeks to spotlight a diverse lineup of international family-friendly fare, and this year is no exception. The films include Full Monty director Peter Cattaneo's Opal Dream, Michel Ocelot's African animated film Kirikou and the Wild Beasts, the classic educational film The Way Things Go, documentaries Third Monday in October and Darius Goes West: The Roll of His Life, and a program of cartoons. "One constant," Stults says, "is that we always show a classic silent film — with live music when possible — and it's a delight to see how well those films still play for young audiences." This year's silent selection is one of the greats: Charlie Chaplin's City Lights.

This year, two titles are of particular interest. After the rousing success of this spring's Jim Henson retrospective, the fest will be screening the original TV version of Henson's 1977 holiday special Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, introduced by Muppet performer Dave Goelz, best known as the voice of Gonzo.

In addition, the Festival will present the Columbus premiere of Jafar Panahi's Offside, a film geared to a somewhat older crowd than the Festival's usual audience. In Stults' words, "not only is it a great film, but it's a wonderful view into one aspect of life in Iran, a country that children and teenagers might hear a lot about these days but which they probably have few opportunities to see — especially in ways that they would understand or relate to."

Childhood is a time of almost boundless creativity, but too many films for children are lacking in that department. As Stults says, "Once children start accepting films like Cheaper By the Dozen as the norm, then they're that much likelier to have lowered expectations about the possibilies of art and film for the rest of their lives." This is why the Columbus Children's Fest and others like it are invaluable not only for children but for their families as well.

In just four years, the Children's Fest has quickly become a highlight of the Wexner Center's film schedule, bringing in new audiences every year. As Stults tells me, "the most satisfying reactions often come. . . when someone (usually a parent) writes to say how a film they saw gave their family something to talk about for days afterwards, or how a screening made a child look at the world or their life in a different way." Isn't that what great cinema — both for children and for adults — is all about?

— Paul Clark