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Leonard Heldreth
3D film to be classic; graphic epic debated
This month’s films include an interesting father-son independent
film that debuted at Sundance, a stop-motion 3D animated film
destined to become a classic and a graphic-novel epic that left
viewers and critics debating its success.
The Great Buck Howard
Sean McGinly, writer and director of The Great Buck Howard, spent
some time in his youth as a road manager for the Amazing Kreskin,
a mentalist who appeared numerous times on Johnny Carson’s
“Tonight Show” and other network venues, but who gave
most of his performances for crowds in small- and medium-sized
cities.
Drawing on this experience, McGinly wrote a script that was coproduced
by Tom Hanks and starred Colin Hanks, his son. Playing the role
of the mentalist is John Malkovich, who dominates the show in
a positive fashion. Choosing not to satirize the subject of the
film, McGinly acknowledges Buck Howard’s egotism and eccentricities,
but also points out the man’s showmanship and genuine affection
for what he is doing.
The film opens with Troy Gable (Colin Hanks) realizing, as he
struggles with a test, that he hates law school and will never
be happy practicing law. He leaves the university and finds a
job in the classifieds managing a minor “mentalist”
and magician named Buck Howard, who has seen better days.
Although Troy doesn’t bother telling his father that he has
left college, the father (Tom Hanks) shows up one day and confronts
his son; the boy, however, is adamant that he finds the job interesting
and even educational. Most of the first half of the film presents
Troy’s adventures as he manages Buck’s presentations
in various cities.
The second half of the film shows Buck’s attempt to move
back into the big time by putting a large number of people to
sleep simultaneously. Although things go wrong, the project, through
ways no one could have predicted, accomplishes Buck’s goal,
but it takes more than one stunt to stay in the big time. This
half of the film also brings in Valerie Brennan (Emily Blunt),
a publicist for the big stunt, who has difficulties with Buck
Howard but almost pulls Troy into bed with her. Blunt is excellent
and funny in what would otherwise have been a routine role, just
as she was in The Devil Wears Prada.
Malkovich plays Buck Howard in royal fashion. Whether vigorously
pumping the arms of the people he meets, saying, “I LOVE
this town!” at every stop, or making a distinction between
mineral and distilled water, Malkovich gives one of the best performances
of his career. It’s easy to see why Troy is fascinated by
Buck Howard.
Colin Hanks, in a role that is essentially a reaction role to
what Malkovich does, is charming and naive, playing the role just
right to balance Malkovich. Ricky Jay plays Buck’s manager
in a typical Ricky Jay fashion; Steve Zahn is hilarious (and a
little touching) as Kenny, a bumpkin fan who gets on Howard’s
nerves; and Deborah Monk is funny as Kenny’s sister Doreen,
who simply must introduce Buck Howard her way. Of course, Tom
Hanks is good as Troy’s father, and, probably because of
Tom’s presence, there are cameos by Tom Arnold, Conan O’Brien,
Jay Leno, Jon Stewart, Martha Stewart, George Takei and Gary Coleman.
The DVD has an interview with the Amazing Kreskin, now seventy-four,
in which he discusses his signature act, used in the film, of
finding his money after it is hidden by a member of the audience.
Kreskin said he failed to find the money only nine times in his
career, but the stunt plays a slightly bigger part in the film.
Normally, I would be suspicious of a film coproduced by a major
star as a showcase for his son, but this time it works well. The
major reason it works well is named John Malkovich.
Coraline
Henry Selick, the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas and
James and the Giant Peach, has added another classic film to his
canon, and, like the previous ones, it will be enjoyed by parents
as much as by their children. Coraline, a marvel of stop-motion
animation is frightening, beautiful and exhilarating.
The film is adapted from British graphic novelist and fantasy
writer Neil Gaiman, author of works such as American Gods, Stardust,
Good Omens and Sandman. The story is made up of familiar parts
arranged in interesting ways—a secret place that children
find, a beautiful garden that blooms in the moonlight, a rambling
old Victorian house with hidden passages, the eccentrics who live
next door, people who offer to be surrogate parents in return
for affection and a cat who talks when no one is around. It offers
traditional moral lessons carefully submerged in the action—if
something seems too good to be true, it probably is; and be suspicious
of people who want to replace your eyes with buttons.
Coraline (voice of Dakota Fanning), a normal eleven-year-old girl
who is not especially pleasant, has moved with her parents from
Michigan to Ashland (Oregon)—the site of a well-known Shakespearean
festival, a fact which may account for her downstairs neighbors.
Coraline’s parents are writers, and their current project,
already running behind schedule, is a gardening catalog, although
her parents do little gardening.
Consequently, with the cross-country move and the deadline, her
parents have little time for Coraline, who must amuse herself
by exploring the Pink Palace, the 150-year-old mansion in which
her parents have rented the first floor apartment. Upstairs lives
Mr. Bobinsky (Ian McShane), an aging Russian gymnast who trains
mice for circus performances. Downstairs live Miss Spink and Miss
Forcible (Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French of Absolutely Fabulous),
retired actresses (or maybe former burlesque queens) who spend
their time catering to the whims of their Scottish terriers.
Exploring the grounds, Coraline encounters a boy of her own age,
Wyborn “Wybie” Lovet (Robert Bailey Jr.), who lives
nearby with his grandmother, the owner of the Pink Palace. Wybie
gives her a doll that looks remarkably like Coraline, even to
her blue hair and dress. With Wybie, Coraline also finds a deep,
covered well and meets a black cat (Keith David), who may or may
not belong to Wybie.
Inside one of the bare rooms of her apartment, Coraline discovers
a small door that has been papered over, but when she cuts the
paper and opens the door, she sees only a brick wall. Ah, but
that night, just as she is drifting off to sleep, she sees mice
running through her room and follows them to the door in the wall,
which now opens on a tunnel that takes her to an alternate world
where she meets her Other Mother and her Other Father, people
who are just like her real parents except they dote on her and
have black buttons for eyes. The rest of the film details Coraline’s
adventures moving between the two worlds, what she finds out about
the people she meets there, and how, after some scary adventures,
she finally escapes and even rescues her parents.
Director Selick has tweaked the story a little from Gaiman’s
book, but his real additions are the stunning sets and animated
puppets. Each of the puppets has interchangeable parts so their
expressions can be changed, and hours are needed to create a few
minutes of screen time. Selick and crew have taken no CGI shortcuts.
For example, in one scene more than 200 dogs are seated in a theater,
and each of them is an individually maneuverable puppet.
The lovely costumes have been made with great care (some of the
shoes were made from antique Victorian gloves). Combine Selick’s
imagination with dedicated craftsmen and filmmakers, and the result,
even though it took several years to shoot, is spectacular. Among
the set pieces are the moonlight garden created by the Other Father
with his mantis tractor; the dancing mice performance in the Other
Mr. Bobinski’s apartment; the show put on by the retired
actresses for their dogs; the Yorkshire-terrier bats that hang
from the ceiling of the theater; the Other Mother’s transformation
into, essentially, a witch; and the talking black cat.
Coraline is the first stop-motion animation film designed for
and shot in 3-D (Nightmare Before Christmas was retrofitted for
the process and then released in that format). Selick has resisted
the temptation to throw things at the audience, and consequently
the process works without being annoying.
The tunnel leading to the alternate world stretches away into
the distance, a sharp needle extends too far from the screen to
be comfortable, and the long-tailed mice are so close that grabbing
their tails is tempting. 3D glasses come with the DVD, and although
they make the picture dimmer and the colors greyer, they add the
extra dimension. On the other hand, if the cardboard glasses are
annoying, the picture and colors are much brighter with the glasses
off, so enjoy it that way. I watched it all in 3D and then looked
at part of it in 2D just to enjoy the color and animation details.
Coraline is one of the best films of the year. Watch it in 3D
or 2D and share it with kids, although it may be a little intense
in places for easily frightened children. It’s rated PG for
that reason.
Watchmen
Watchmen opens with Bob Dylan singing “The Times They Are
A-changin’” on the soundtrack while a montage of scenes
tries to convey to the viewers exactly what the times are and
what else is involved in this film. It’s not an easy task
for those unfamiliar with the “Watchmen” phenomenon.
The movie spends a large portion of its nearly three hours in
flashbacks and explanations, showing what led up to the situation
in America in an alternate universe set in 1985. There is complicated
history behind the film’s creation.
Beginning in 1986, the original graphic novel by Alan Moore and
Dave Gibbons was published by DC Comics, first in twelve issues
and then as a 338-page compilation. Comic book fans hailed it
as a milestone, changing the way graphic novels and super heroes
would be treated in the future. Set in the Cold War era of 1985,
with the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. playing face-down with thermonuclear
weapons, the book described a political situation that saw the
U.S. winning the Vietnam war with the aide of Dr. Manhattan, Richard
Nixon serving a third term in the White House (the Watergate break-in
was never discovered), costumed vigilantes attempting to provide
justice and being outlawed, and a world verging on Armageddon.
Besides conveying the paranoia and depression of its political
climate, the Watchmen series deconstructed the myth of the super
hero, showing that the people, with the exception of Dr. Manhattan,
had no superpowers, and they were as varied in their motives and
as psychologically complicated as everyone else, e.g., the Comedian
is a ruthless killer.
Dr. Manhattan, formerly Jon Osterman, was caught in a lab “accident”
that destroyed his body, but he reconstructed it at the nuclear
level and has the ability to manipulate matter, time and space
in godlike fashion, e.g., all time exists simultaneously to him.
He almost single-handedly ended the Vietnam War (Vietnam, in this
alternate universe, is now the fifty-first state), and he is the
United States’ major deterrent against the Soviets.
Almost as soon as the series began publication, filmmakers fought
over the rights, but various famous directors, e.g., Terry Gilliam,
gave up after considering it, and twenty years went by. Finally,
Zach Snyder, best known for the CGI-enhanced Spartan epic 300,
working from an earlier screen adaptation by David Hayter and
modified by Alex Tse, created the current film, originally released
theatrically at more than 160 minutes and then on DVD at more
than three hours.
In the meantime, the original writer, Alan Moore, declared the
book “unfilmable,” and, disappointed with the way his
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and other works had been filmed,
asked to have his name removed from any film version.
While several subplots have been excised from the series and details
omitted or changed (the ending seems to be the biggest change
from something involving a giant squid to the current version),
those familiar with the original graphic novel say the film is
about as faithful as it can be, given the time limitations.
There is rumor that a much longer, five-disk version will be available
for Christmas 2009. The title, by the way, comes from the Roman
author Juvenal who asked who would watch the watchmen, and while
he was referring to the slave overseerers of his time, the phrase
has taken on political qualities.
The initiating event for the plot is the murder of Edward Blake,
the Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who is thrown through the
plate glass window of his apartment. Although the police say Blake
was killed by a robber, Walter Kovacs, the Watchman known as Rorschach
(Jackie Earle Haley), thinks it was murder and begins his own
investigation to see who may be killing off the Watchmen.
The ensuing investigation fills in the background stories of Laurie
Jupiter/Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman), Jon Osterman/Dr. Manhattan
(Billy Crudup), Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias (Matthew Goode), Sally
Jupiter/Silk Spectre (Carla Gugino) and Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl
II (Patrick Wilson). The chase leads Kovacs, Osterman, Dreiberg
and Akerman to a fortress in Antarctica where they meet Veidt,
the smartest man in the world, whom an assassin also has attacked,
and the final confrontation plays itself out.
One of the film’s difficulties is the large number of characters.
Although all are distinctive, none of them appear very well-rounded
or engage the viewer’s sympathy. Only the pathological Rorschach
(Haley) has any passion or emotions. Silk Spectre II and Nite
Owl II start an affair that is more humorous than erotic, and
all of the Watchmen seem involved in matters that force them to
focus beyond themselves. This quality is most apparent in Osterman/Dr.
Manhattan, who, in his godlike view, is so detached from the human
race he finds it hard to differentiate between the living and
the dead. People who know the characters from the graphic novels
may be able to empathize with them, but for newcomers to the series,
it’s difficult.
The film has many striking scenes. Osterman transports himself
and Silk Spectre II (his former lover) to Mars where he creates
a stunning structure of turning wheels and golden light. The Antarctica
base also is beautifully realized (note Ozymandias’s curious
pet), as is the Owl ship that transports the Watchmen there. The
fighting scenes are well choreographed, but, except for those
involving Rorschach (who has the coolest mask), they often seem
almost mechanical.
Osterman varies his size to suit himself, sometimes creating a
giant nude, vacant-eyed, heavily-muscled bald man who glows. Note:
for those for whom it is an important issue, Osterman’s nudity
is complete with many frontal views of his CGI genitalia. His
nudity seems to indicate his growing lack of interest in human
social customs.
On the negative side, the characters playing Richard Nixon (Robert
Wisden), Henry Kissinger, and others are badly made up and relatively
unconvincing in their performances. Also, the film has several
scenes of gratuitous violence (a prison scene that’s especially
bloody), as might be expected from the director of 300.
Watchmen is a curious blend of exceptional and average filmmaking.
It is no small accomplishment that Snyder made as good a film
of the material as he did. It’s one of those films that is
impressive and curious enough that people will watch it just to
see what all the buzz is about.
—Leonard G. Heldreth
Editor’s Note: Films are available on DVD or VHS from local
stores. Reviews of earlier films can be found at www.mmnow.com
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