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December 31, 2006
Thank You For Smoking
Jason Reitman, USA, 2006
Rating: 3.8
Don't be fooled by the snarky title. This darkly comic fable from
first-time director Jason Reitman doesn't so much take a firm moral
stand against smoking -- this is no The Insider or even Fast
Food Nation -- as it takes uncanny and often-hilarious aim at a host
of ripe-for-the-skewering targets. Lantern-jawed Aaron Eckhart nails the
part of cigarette lobbyist Nick Naylor with welcome brio; he's a master
of Teflon doublespeak who enjoys arguing for the merits of tobacco for
the sport of it. Smoking, based on Christopher Buckley's novel,
engagingly pokes fun at politicians (embodied by William H. Macy as a
socks-and-Birkenstocks-wearing senator from Vermont), journalists (Katie
Holmes is slightly miscast as a manipulative seductress),
Hollywood, advertising and the smarmy "If you argue correctly, you're
never wrong" mindset of slick salesmen and spin-meisters. Among the
latter are Naylor's lobbyist friends, played by Maria Bello and the fine
David Koechner, who shill for alcohol and guns, respectively. But Naylor
is the acknowledged leader of the pack, a smiling shyster who has no
problem taking his young son along as he courts Hollywood (Rob Lowe, as
a handsomely self-absorbed agent, and Adam Brody as his unctuous
assistant, almost steal the film) and bribes the "Tumbleweed Man" (Sam
Elliott), who's dying of lung cancer. Inevitably, the movie Naylor a
crisis of conscience, and the movie falters slightly in the final
stretch as a result. But its dead-on potshots at silver-tongued,
ethically challenged snake oil salesmen and a portfolio of solid
performances (including Kim Delaney as Nick's skeptical ex-wife and
Robert Duvall and J.K. Simmons as his bosses) help keep Smoking
from losing its black, nicotine-stained wit.
:::
Kevin Forest Moreau
Top
December 31, 2006
Hollywoodland
Allen Coulter, USA, 2006
Rating: 4.0
Talk about method acting: You come away from Hollywoodland
wondering if Ben Affleck gamely spent the last several years picking up
a paycheck for his work in Armageddon, Forces of Nature
and, well,
Paycheck as research for his solidly affecting turn as frustrated
thespian George Reeves. One can't help but project some of Affleck's
tarnished It-boy baggage into his portray of the 1950s star of TV's
The Adventures of Superman, whose real-life death under mysterious
circumstances sparks this well-crafted exploration of the high price of
unwanted fame and the deep psychic cost of failing to live up to one's
own expectations. Whether Reeves' death was in fact a suicide or, as
posited here, something arguably even more pedestrian, sordid and
tragic, Affleck convincingly portrays the late Reeves as a likeable lug
whose status as the kept man of the beautiful, neglected wife (Diane
Ladd) of a powerful Hollywood producer (Bob Hoskins) -- and his
inability to break out of Superman's shadow -- weigh heavily on his
broad shoulders. (Affleck deserves awards consideration just for the
scene in which his appearance in a premiere screening of From Here to
Eternity provokes derisive laughter.) As a down-on-his-luck private
detective investigating Reeves' death (and seeking to overcome his own
self-imposed limitations), Adrien Brody convincingly executes a
regular-guy counterpoint to Reeves' tragic fall, adding an extra human
dimension to this cautionary tale of fallen would-be idols.
:::
Kevin Forest Moreau
Top
March 06, 2006
Capote
Bennett Miller, 2005
Rating: 3.8
Biopics typically bend over backwards to present their titular subjects
in a favorable or, at worst, ambiguously murky moral light (see Danny
DeVito’s Hoffa for a good example). Bennett Miller’s Capote
surprisingly does just the opposite, exposing the shameless ethical
failings of the flamboyant author. Focusing on Truman Capote’s
researching and writing of his most famous work, In Cold Blood,
the film follows Capote (in a note-perfect bit of mimicry from the
physically ill-suited Philip Seymour Hoffman), urbane intellectual
personified, on assignment for the New Yorker in Halcomb, Kansas,
where he's to report on the brutal murder of a farming community family
of four. Accompanied by childhood friend -- and future To Kill a
Mockingbird author -- Harper Lee (a woefully underwritten part
demurely played by Catherine Keener), Capote manages to cajole and charm
his way into the lives of those affected by and investigating the crime.
The legwork part of Capote’s assignment is well handled. The main
problem stems from the subsequent capture of the two assailants and,
specifically, Capote’s fascination with (and exploitation of) the
seemingly more vulnerable of the two, Perry Smith (a strong if too
likable Clifton Collins Jr.). Miller takes great pains to show just how
duplicitous Capote was when it came to extracting information from the
doomed killer. Worse, when the inmates’ appeals drag on (eventually
reaching the steps of the Supreme Court), a self-serving Capote frets
he’ll never be able to finish his book until the pair has been executed.
We get beaten over the head with this insight into Capote’s substantial
flaws when simply showing his inaction on the killers’ behalf (such as
helping them get a good lawyer to argue before the nation’s highest
court) would have been stronger than having Harper Lee act as his
too-obvious conscience.
:::
Laurence Station
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