Team Experience: The Master

I'm out and about again (finally!) so my greedy eyeballs will be on The Master soon. I challenged Team Experience to describe the film in three words since so many critics can't even settle on what it's even about (I'm avoiding reviews but the non-consensus as to meaning is out there).

Four brave souls took me up on the challenge...

Matt Zurcher writes:

Fevered heart need.
The intensity of The Master is impossible to understate. The style itself is unhinged -- crazy, even. The characters are bloated visions of Freudian extremes. The Master is filmmaking of the highest order, yes. But it's also cinema that works on its own terms, so full of cocky flair and delightful self-indulgence that the audience has no choice but to follow it wherever it wants to go. Anderson's fable can seem alienating or disorganized on first viewing, but a second reveals the director's compassion. Joaquin Phoenix's face is a shattered one, but his tears are so heartbreakingly believable. The passion and need that these two men feel for each other begs to be known. And in all the intellectualization of this film that we're going to see, let us remember that it's really just about two people who need each other and who love each other. It's the best love story I've seen since Punch-Drunk Love.

You can read Matt's full review here.

Beau McCoy writes:

Opaque Rabid Jazz

"The Master" makes "Cosmopolis" look as accessible as a Spielberg film. Purposely distant and muddled; what are we watching and why? Ferocity abounds in its many forms and incarnations. Moves like a jazz solo; we don't know where we're going. Why should it matter? Premature.

Alexa says:

Disappointing Beautiful Molasses
There's a truly great film here waiting to be pulled out of the molasses...

You can read more of her thoughts, here.

Finally, Jose was even more succinct but I suspect it's something of a spoiler so I'm putting it after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Will "The Butler" Do It?

For Oscar I mean? Oscar winner Forest Whitaker was recently snapped on the set of 2013 Oscar hopeful The Butler, from Precious director Lee Daniels.  Given the The Weinstein Co will distribute the film and the subject is a long time White House butler and his relationship to the first families, one expects so.

Forest Whitaker shot on set by Anne Marie Fox

The Paperboy, which is nearly upon us, doesn't look like anyone's idea of a typical Oscar magnet, but neither did Lee Daniels' first film Shadowboxer (yes, that one. The one with Hitwoman Helen Mirren romancing Cuba Gooding Jr.). Perhaps Lee Daniels will be an every other film type Oscar player?

Have you given much thought to the starry cast of The Butler ... or any 2013 film's Oscar chances? It's always a struggle to stay in the now when it's so fun to fantasize about what's ahead of us.

Link Machine

New York Observer Nicole Kidman reborn. On The Paperboy and her upcoming NYFF tribute
The Genteel the great costume designer Jacqueline Durran (Vera Drake, Atonement) on her Anna Karenina work
New York Times "Rian Johnson Builds a better Time Machine" on Looper.

Los Angeles Times Singer Andy Williams ("Moon River") has passed away
Stale Popcorn Glenn is angry with the "100 best gay films" list that was crowd sourced. The gays really do have bad taste! (I'm allowed to say that as a gay.
Broadway Blog congratulates director Jason Moore on his feature film debut (Pitch Perfect) and looks back at other Broadway directors that made the leap.

John August on his contribution to the Frankenweenie soundtrack "Praise Be New Holland"
Vanity Fair a standard post Emmy party or any given day in Betty White's life? Hee
In Contention when to strike with your Oscar campaign when the deck is stacked against you

Finally, for those of you interested in Platoon and the 80s Oscar lore, Oliver Stone optioned his story early on but it didn't get made until he made it and he recently published photos on his own website from his time there.

Oliver Stone in Vietnam.

In 1976 I optioned “Platoon” to a producer, but it was not made. The production manager asked me to entrust him with many of my prints and negatives from Vietnam. He thoughtlessly sent it all in a package from New York to Los Angeles, but it never arrived. I’m sure they’re somewhere in this world—anyone know (reward offered)?

So recently when we were setting up our website, I went hunting thru storage for various materials that are now on the site—or will be. In the back of a home closet was an old shoebox marked ‘classic snaps, 1950s.’ There were many family pictures, but at the very bottom were 7 envelopes of worn-looking negatives in 35mm and the vanished 126 format. They looked vaguely like Vietnam. It is an amazing moment when something lost reappears after more than 40 years...

If only I could find everything I lost in the 80s!

Red Carpet Emmy Pt. 2: Seventeen More

Presented without commentary but for yours...

God, Lena Dunham, Kerry Washington, Jena Malone

Ginny, Nicki, Glenn Close, Ms. Lange

Aaron Paul, Damian Lewis, Reid Scott, Vincent Kartheiser, Jack Huston

Lucy Liu, Kat Dennings, Lena Headey, and Mare Winningham

Who among them is: your imaginary dream date to the show? to the parties afterwards?

Of the five seasons of the year, I love Awards Season Best. (Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer are runners up and in that order)

Curio: Recycling Celluloid

Alexa here.  The arrival of The Master, possibly the last film shot in large format film, has many lamenting the turnover of most theaters from celluloid to digital. Next year 20th Century Fox isn't even distributing film prints of its movies, and the other studios will likely follow soon. Digital is cheaper and easier, but the magical grain and glow of film are certainly unique.  The projectionists are being cast aside along with the reels (see The Last Projectionist for a great trip through that lost craft).  

And what of all those soon-to-be useless reels? Fox's Latin American division announced that they would be sending all that celluloid away to be manufactured into polyester fabric.  Rather than create more flammable clothes, here are some crafters and artists putting all that leftover film to more creative ends.

Collapsible bookshelves using recycled film by VU35.Portraits of Audrey and Marilyn using recycled 8mm film by Erika Iris Simmons. 

Click for more creations, and for how to get your hands on some film stock yourself...

Click to read more ...