Roughly one hundred years ago on November 18th, 2011 I took questions for the next Q&A and after what was meant to be a short diversion answering the oddly abundant small screen questions I am now answering them. I am many things but I am nothing if not punctual. This is Part one of two as there is much to answer. Tomorrow's edition will actually arrive tomorrow night as it's already written. Yay me!
Just to stretch out the variety a bit I asked y'all to refrain from any questions about legendary actresses this time -- my favorite topic and apparently yours since many of you didn't listen ;) -- so in this week's column, the men get a little time to shine. Let's go!
ANNIE: What was your favorite experience of seeing a movie with an audience, where the audience's reaction actually enhanced your viewing?
I've had many screenings like this that have enhanced my love of the movie we're all watching together. Which is why I believe so emphatically in the sanctity of moviegoing, and why I wish studios and theaters would lower prices before they price themselves out of populist relevance. TV is free and home theaters are getting larger so the movies really need to understand that they can't be making it so difficult for families to hit the multiplex or who will go? Movie attendance is a fraction of what it once was no matter how big the box office numbers seem and that is sad.
Jack and Leo discussing how awesome Barbra Streisand is in "Funny Girl"In terms of special events almost nothing beats Funny Girl's revival at the Ziegfeld several years ago here in NYC. It must have been sold out and that theater is HUGE. I saw at least one semi-famous person in the crowd and everyone was obviously there because they loved the movie. Seeing such a legendary star-making performance super-sized in a historic theater that had actual ties to the movie? Bliss. Nobody was raining on anyone's parades in there. It felt like oxygenated euphoria in that house. Also you know what movie was fun to watch with a typical noisy multiplex crowd just a few blocks from there? The Departed ! I still relish the audience reaction when you-know-who gets shot so mercilessly without fanfare or warning. It was as if there were tiny rugs under every individual theater seat and diabolical trickster Martin Scorsese had yanked them all at once and all OH.HELL.NO broke loose in there; the most fun you'll ever have watching someone get shot in the head!
How's that for a double feature: Funny Girl and The Departed ? Hee.
JOHN-PAUL: With three summer releases still alive in the Best Picture race (The Help, Midnight in Paris, The Tree of Life) and fall Oscar-bait movies seemingly underwhelming left and right (J. Edgar, The Ides of March, Carnage, A Dangerous Method, etc.), do you think the so-called "Oscar season" will become less relevant in the coming years?
I wish I could say "Yes" but this happens on a fairly regular basis and nothing changes. What's more this year has even more "one week qualifiers" than usual (4 or 5 by my count), so the system is definitely not changing for the better. I hate to be a broken record but I firmly believe that AMPAS should change the rules drastically. I don't think a film should be eligible for the Oscars unless it has allowed regular moviegoers to watch it in at least the top six markets. The current system gets called elitist on a regular basis but for stupid reasons ("Hey they didn't vote for that lame-ass blockbuster sequel that audiences flocked to for habitual lemming-like reasons!") and never for the actual elitist problem which is that you can show yourself for seven days in one theater in LA and ignore moviegoers totally and still be eligible for Best Movie prizes. That's all kinds of elitist, suggesting that the only audience a movie need concern itself with is 6000+ voting members of AMPAS.
Mr. W: Any thoughts on Jean-Jacques Beineix' 'Diva'?
Have you ever seen DIVA (1981)? It's quite a time capsule.
Love it. Saw it three times at least in the 80s on VHS. Unfortunately I remember little about it other than its distinctly 80s new wave aesthetic and the fantastic diversity of the cast (black, asian and white characters on equal footing in the narrative? So rare in the 80s! And even now). I also liked that the story was built around something as mundane but unusual as a bootleg concert of an opera singer who refused to be recorded. No one speaks of "bootlegs" anymore -- they were put out of business by illegal downloads and leaking.
JOHN T: Which legendary male actor would you like to pull a Christopher Plummer and make a comeback and get his first nomination-must be 65 or older to enter.
To make this easier on myself I only looked at like 5 years or so. From the 65-70 year old bunch it feels off somehow that performers as accomplished as Nick Nolte, John Hurt (who stars in a buzzy short film this year called Sailcloth), and Harvey Keitel don't have Oscars and it's flat out insane that Ian McKellen might never win. But you asked about men who'd never been nominated.
There are so many guys who've have great moments here and there but never the part to snag Oscar attention. But you asked for legendary. Hmmm. define legendary? Let's see...
Steve Martin is Steve Martin AND Lily Tomlin in "All of Me"
I'd always kind of hoped that Tim Curry would get one last indelible role in a movie... maybe something against type which would challenge him to restrain himself but still utilise his showmanship in the service of the movie; I've always loved Bob Balaban's confidently low key presence in character parts. He has been nominated before but as a producer (for Gosford Park); Ben Vereen rarely works anymore but wouldn't it be fun if some movie musical found an eyecatching part for him at least for a legend-honoring cameo?; I'd love to see John Cleese get another showcase as good as A Fish Called Wanda; But my final answer is going go to be Steve Martin because he should have had the title Oscar-Nominee decades ago. He rarely challenges himself anymore onscreen but it'd be so great if he did. He still has a razor sharp sense of humor as his twitter feed and books show and he's still an adventurous creative type as the recent Grammy nomination for bluegrass album reminds us.
LAIKA: Best performance of a good/great actor as a lousy actor? Bonus points if the answer does not involve 'Waiting for Guffman'?
Jean Hagen is a star in "Singin' in the Rain" but it's Debbie Reynolds who's got the talent.
I have two go-to answers to this question but few things in movies are more delightful than this particular switcheroo trick. I think Julianne Moore is 100% brillz at porn acting in Boogie Nights but that's a very specific kind of bad acting. So maybe my answer would be Jennifer Tilly's apocalyptic acting in Bullets Over Broadway which is still screamingly hilarious 17 years on. "The heart is labynthinine!" I'm so so pleased she won an Oscar nomination that year.
But then again almost anybody going this route should say a few Hail Hagens on their way to the set. "I CANNNNNNNNNNT STAN' IT."
IGGY: What do you think about the Occupy Wall Street movement?
I'm all for it but because it is Oscar season I can't attend. I'm working through this very specific sort of abstract career where I earn money based on donations (see sidebar subscription links if your blessed with an extra $2.50 a month you can spare to keep me from starving. I really can't stress enough how much this helps just from the handfuls of generous souls who've signed up), freelance articles, and ad buys (click away). I have to devote all my time towards building up goodwill for future abstract revenue. My life is weird. But I am all for Occupy Wall Street in this horrible vampire economy where all the money trickles up to people who could never possibly spend what they have but also view taxes as beyond the pale, even though they wouldn't even miss the money. Civilized equitable society requires taxes to function. Grow up people! Stop with the demonization of taxes already [except taxes going to super profitable companies who have rigged the system to get your tax dollars as subsidy in addition to their profits.] I mean, who wants a society where only rich people could call law enforcement for help? Where only rich people could go to the doctor? Where only rich people's children could learn to read? I mean who wants these things besides Fox News viewers who've been brainwashed to vote against their own well being in favor of the 1%.
All of which is not to say that the über wealthy are evil. Wealthy people are, like poor people, capable of both good and evil but our country has been tilting towards conservative policies for so very long that it's now this totally unbalanced place where working people are considered 'greedy' for wanting annual raises or job security and redistribution of wealth is considered evil when it's trickling down to people whose lives it could change but well and good and right when it's trickling up to people who don't need it and have only "earned" it insofar as they are part of a particular social class who can afford to lobby to bend the system in their favor and build the trickle up machinery.
All of which made The Iron Lady a really hard watch for me since it basically worships that icon of the hard right. It's so weird that such a warm and liberal actress would be playing such a cold conservative giant. The movie makes some feint nods at problems people had with her policies but always in scattered, ineffective and very very brief ways. Mostly it's just like "What a woman!!!"
WENDY KROY: Sharon Stone (Crazy!!!) and Helena Bonham Carter (Crazier!!!) are starring in a stage musical of "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" Who plays which part and why? :-)
Are you trying to kill me? I wish to never hear Sweeney Todd's Helena Bonham Carter singing again. So obviously I'd have to give her the Joan Crawford part and keep her gagged as well as wheelchair bound throughout the narrative. So Sharon gets all the songs.
Anyway I said no actress questions in this edition! Pay attention class ;)
QUESTIONS O' THE WEEK
AMES: If seeing a film in a theater with another person, how long do you wait before discussing it: credits, walking out, drive home, next day over the phone, never?
Great question. It depends on the person but I actually have trouble with that "so, what did you think?" the second the credits are rolling. I get that that's totally natural and I'm sure I've asked movie friends this question too early myself. If going out to dinner afterwards that's perfect but wait till after you've chosen from the menu. At the very least, give me at least until the "no animals were harmed" moment in the credits. Then, if you must, ask away. "So, Nathaniel. What did you think?"
YOUR TURN
• Which purposefully bad acting do you admire?
• Which retirement aged male actor would you love to see in a meaty Oscar-worthy role?
• How long do we have to wait to get your insta-judgment of a movie. I mean... is it truly instant or does it require like grinding, steam pressing or percolation?