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ONE HAND CLAPPING
By Chris Ryall
January 27, 2003
Jersey Girl
I got an e-mail from Kevin last week. It said:
"Wednesday, at 7:30 we're screening the flick at the Lot. Bring your lady."
"The flick" in question would be JERSEY GIRL, of course. "The Lot" is the edit bay where Kevin's been holed up for a month now. And "your lady" would be the girlfriend, so there we are. The first full screening of JERSEY GIRL and we'd be there to see it, among Kevin's family and friends. Take that, Owen Glieberman, you smug bastard!
Okay, so it wasn't my maturity level that got me the invite, I think we can all agree on that. But what did YOU see last Wednesday, Roger Ebert? And what movie did you catch at the Alamo Drafthouse, Harry Knowles? (Okay, before this becomes even more unbecoming, let's move on. You're lucky, Ken Turan, I've decided not to be a cocky, gloating jerk any longer. But I saved you a spot on the couch at The Lot and for some reason, you never showed...)
Anyway, the movie. I've seen maybe half the flick before, in various forms, whether it be dailies, the actual shoot, or just watching Kevin edit pieces of it together. But I haven't been able to see the ending yet -- read it in script form, but there was a considerable change and I was anxious to see that. And the girlfriend, who was totally caught up in the story the last time we watched maybe an hour of it, was equally as anxious to see everything assembled.
Now, the movie's probably going to hit the test-screening circuit soon, so there's a chance some of you will be able to catch it soon, too. And maybe even write it up for AICN or elsewhere, but I just ask that you preserve any big plot points or character developments for people so that the movie plays out as a surprise when it actually opens. There are spoiler elements that could affect the movie for people, so just try to keep reviews purposefully vague if you can--I'll do the same here, so you don't have to worry about that. After all, the movie's release date is looking more and more like late Fall or early Winter, so there's a lot of months to preserve the storyline for people that won't see it until it opens.
If any of you DO catch it in test screenings, I'd be happy to run some reader reviews in our Mail Shoot, so feel free to send 'em along.
JERSEY GIRL
Weeelllll...I was going to talk about the movie itself. After all, I've talked about bits of the story before, from the set-visit recaps but now...
They had everyone sign non-disclosure agreements last night at the screening. And while I think I could discuss the movie carefully and not spoil anything, I think I'll just leave it more vague right now. Instead, I'll talk bits about last night and the performances, but leave the movie itself alone, to preserve its sanctity for a bit longer. Owen Glieberman can spoil things, not me.
It felt like "old home night" at the screening. Like, hey, there's Gail [Smith's mother-in-law/assistant, who was so helpful to us in Philly]; there's Jen [Schwalbach-Smith], and Mosier and "Mysterio" [whom you've no doubt read at AICN] and other familiar folk. And I finally got to meet Paul Dini face to face, after a few months of e-mails. He had a cool new Jingle Belle statue for Kevin. We talked for a while about things and there's a good chance you'll see some stuff from Paul Dini on this site before DAREDEVIL opens.
Beyond that, I saw DD's Mark Steven Johnson and Jason Lee (who does a quick, funny cameo in JG) were there, but didn't get a chance to say "hey" to them. Which doesn't mean we won't also have an exclusive Mark S. Johnson interview here prior to his flick opening, too.
Impressions from the movie:
It's beautiful. One complaint critics have had (well, certain critics have had a lot more than one) about Kevin's movies has been the look of them. DOGMA may have covered some very weighty issues, but, well, it just didn't look all that great. And hell, CLERKS looks like it was shot on a hand-held camera with B&W film or something...but seriously, this movie, thanks to the amazing camera work of Vilmos, looks amazing. the colors are deep and rich and the camera work...at some points, it's really innovative and stunning. Kevin might have gotten more praise in the past for his writing than his directing, but this movie's really going to surprise a lot of people on that count. Our baby's all growns up!
Affleck owns this movie. Really. I mean, I'm like a lot of you--I've typically only liked his performances in the past in Kevin's movies, and not so much the big asteroid/WWII/reindeer movies. But after seeing his work in CHANGING LANES (a not-great movie with a really great Affleck performance) and now this...I think people are going to have a much harder time mocking the guy after this. Let's all face it and say it together: he's tall, good-looking, rich, talented, smart (I've talked to the guy--he's bright) AND a good actor. Sometimes, Hollywood people really ARE better than the rest of us. Seriously, his work in this is fun and light at times, and wrenching in others. Did you ever expect to get teary-eyed at a Kevin Smith movie? Multiple times? Well, get ready. Affleck makes this movie. I don't care what movie he's on after this, he should only let Smith write his dialogue.
J-Lo. People really need to stop the hate-mail campaigns. Stop with the "I'll go see this movie despite J-Lo's appearance," like you're doing anyone a huge favor by making this sacrifice. Hate her and Ben's publicity people, if you must, but don't hate them for being in the news this past year. Don't let anything in people's personal lives color your impression of their ability. The part she plays in this movie...it's perfect for her. You'll see why. And you can see the affection in both of the leads' eyes in this movie. It's a love story, and you can actually believe that they're in love with each other. Y'ask me, that's a pretty good thing for a movie like this. Whatever you feel about their personal lives, or their work in GIGLI or her music...it means nothing in this movie.
See...this is why I don't think I should give a review of the movie right now. There's no way to work FOR a guy who made the movie and give an honest assessment of said movie and have people take it credibly. All it does it look like I'm shilling for the boss (which, you know, career-wise, isn't a horrible plan, but it's not what's going on here). It looks like I'm defending the guy or his casting choices or the movie, it doesn't sound like an honest review. Or so I've been told. I'm not sure why "Bilbo369," who may or may not have an axe to grind against Kevin/Ben/Jen, can post a review at some other movie site and seem more credible, but that's the way of things, it seems. So I'll stop raving and just try to reiterate that this is heartfelt, not anything else. I drove home last night in such a good mood...the movie just makes you feel like hugging the person next to you (luckily, that person was the girlfriend and not some stranger). It somehow manages to be feel-good without feeling sappy, heart-breaking without feeling maudlin, and even have the odd STAR WARS reference without feeling forced. Man, it just works for me.
Truth be told, there is one scene that worked less well than the rest--it's a pretty pivotal scene in the movie and it really needs to be there to set up the final act, but I can admit that I didn't buy it quite as much as I did the other parts of the movie. There--lest anyone say I have no critical eye at all, take that. But even with that scene, I also understood the need for it and think, taken as a whole, the movie is wonderful. Really.
The other folk in the movie, Liv Tyler and George Carlin, Steven Root and Mike Starr...they're all so good. Such great casting in this. Carlin's a true pro, and Liv...Liv is so sweet. Wish I could tell you more about their characters--hell, you might drink away the brain cells before the November opening and it could all be fresh again--but I can't take that chance.
Oh--the little girl who plays the titular "Girl"? So damn cute. Kids can be tough--even while on the shoot, I saw that kids, obviously, just don't have the same degree of either acting experience or life experience to draw from, which makes it harder for them to be believable. And I could see this a bit on the set. But after all that...she comes off great in this. She couldn't look or even sound and just feel any more like the off-spring of Jennifer Lopez if she really was, I don't think. It's fortunate, because she has some awfully big scenes in this movie and you need to believe her for this to all work.
The formula for this movie--a rich guy struggling to deal with hardships that come from marriage and a baby and such--isn't a new one. And yet, telling this kind of tale successfully without feeling forced...that's a HUGE challenge. And it's so nice to report that this movie does so grandly, rather than me having to say, "Uh, yeah, I had to sit through THE FAMILY MAN last night...you know, for work and stuff. Yeah, I know, I pity me, too." Nothing like that. To quote Kevin's favorite trilogy, he's "taken his first steps into a larger world." That damn big softie!
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The cool little bonus about being involved in Kevin's world is that you spot so many faces in the crowd of his movies. Either familiar faces from past flicks or even some of us Poop Shoot'ers. Our Webmaster Ming is in there, our "Renaissance Man" Antony Teofilo is in the crowd, Matt Singer is there, and the scene with the girlfriend and I made it in intact. We'll all hope our little cameos prove so popular with the public that there's a big outcry for a spin-off movie, like with Jinx, or Elektra. Poop Shoot: The Movie? (note: check with Vivid Video to see if this title is already taken) One can only dream...
Yakuza, Monsters, Horror...and Pink
One other thing I wanted to mention this week is a new book I was sent from DH Publishing. Called JAPANESE MOVIE POSTERS: YAKUZA, MONSTER, PINK AND HORROR, it's a full-color celebration of 50 years of movie posters and graphic design from Japan's movie studios.
Essentially, it's a collection of Japanese movie posters, and features everything from cult movies to feature animation to big-budget epics. And "pink" movies, of course, which I'll get into in a minute.
The book is 96 pages long, roughly 8-1/2" x 12", and features at least 80 full-coor reproductions of posters from 1950-2001. It's amazing to see these old posters and see just how influential they've been in the graphic design of our own posters, video games and even comic books. Of course, it's also very amusing to see just how unchanged the style of these posters is over fifty years. Take a look at this poster from 1995, which is from the Samurai flick RETURN OF MUSASHI MIYAMOTO:
And then, fifteen years later in 1970, there was this movie that falls into the Yakuza genre, JAPANESE MAFIA: RISING DRAGON:
As you can see, there's not a huge variation in the style of the posters. They follow the same basic rule as maybe two-thirds of the posters reproduced in this book: a pastiche of images from the film, all surrounded by copy and overlapping, with some scenes and characters larger than others. It's not an incredibly unique formula, but when you look through the book, you see that it is an incredibly charming one. Not to mention influential as can be on Western film-makers. Remember George Lucas' original posters for THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and RETURN OF THE JEDI? There's no way to look at this book and think the look of those posters wasn't influenced by Japanese film posters.
Many of these movies are things you've seen before, if only in a memory: I remember seeing bits and pieces of some of these movies on Saturday afternoons as a kid. The genre movies, Samurai and Monster especially, were among the first imports from Japan that got wide airplay in the US, and this book brings you some of the best from every genre. You have the Horror films:
And some of the best of them all, the Monster movies (which also includes giant-robot flicks like THE WAR IN SPACE or ULTRAMAN TIGA:
Along the lines of the Samurai movies also came Ninja movies, and it was probably these that really captured my imagination as a kid. If you were a kid in the early 80s, and especially if you read Frank Miller's DAREDEVIL, you couldn't get enough Ninja. The posters in this section bring back that childhood passion (which hasn't diminished as much as, say, collecting baseball cards has):
And what good would a book of Japanese movie posters be without what they call Pink movies? Pink movies, Japanese adult films, seem to spend an awful lot of time with the women in the movies in bondage, if these posters are any indication. And, much like the one pictured here (RAPE!, 1976), the women in the posters never look to be enjoying what's going on:
Rounding out the sections are Animation posters. And this is where the book really shines. Unlike many of the genre movies that stick to a basic formula (Photoshop has helped the overlapping of images blend more seamlessly, but even movies from today have a very familiar feel, for the most part), Animation posters go in very different directions. SPIRITED AWAY, Miyazaki's 2001 treasure, isn't so different but the beautiful, clean animation and backgrounds add depth that many of the live-action posters don't:
There are others, of course. The poster for GHOST IN THE SHELL, one of the only instances I can remember where a Japanese movie poster set a stark image against a white background, is maybe the best poster in the book. And others, for movies like FAREWELL SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMOTO, stretch the boundaries further.
The book's concluding section is called New Cinema, and it features posters of films from Japan's recent (the last 10 years or so) resurgence. The industry was hit hard by recession in the early 90s, but things have started to rebound, and with them, it seems, a new energy that can be seen in posters like this one, for 1993's A NIGHT IN NUDE:
At the bottom of each poster, the book gives you the year of the film, the director and stars, and a short synopsis. Each section is introduced by Japanese film/movie experts, with some fun words about the genre and some of the stronger movies in that category, and there's even a poster order form in the back of the book, in case you like what you see enough to want it on your wall. And you can't NOT like what you see. Where else can you find a collection of movie monsters, samurai with sharp swords, ninja, women in peril and ground-breaking anime, all in one book?
In all, the book's a lot of fun, and most of the images, are rewarding each time you look at them. If you want more information, check out DHP Online.
Next Week:
Big news.
/chris
Comic of the Week: Eddie Campbell's EGOMANIA #2: The Alan Moore Interview
PS2 Game of the Week: THE GETAWAY
CD of the Week: LOUDERMILK, "The Red Record"
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