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Thursday, 8 July 2010
Attention, folks. Just a short reminder for you LAMBs to sumbit your entries for LAMB Casting by Sunday. We're recasting My Friend's Wedding so just head on over HERE, read the rules and play along.
Okay. At ease.
So many of you made guesses as to who you expect to see in the countdown to my favourite voice performances when I listed the first batch of ten. I will say, a number of you were on point, but I'm not giving away any. Here are the next ten voice performers that stick in my memory. Even though I love making lists I do find it difficult ranking them though, really sometimes I think voice acting is more difficult. You really have to sell it, or else you're forgettable.
#40: Barbara Luddy in Sleeping Beauty
as Merryweather
“I'd like to turn her into a fat ol' hop toad.”
She will always be the best of the godmothers, and though they do come in three she stands out from the rest. Her voice is the only one I remember without rewatching, and she’s just so fun and funny with those line readings. It's nice performances like these that make me a little sad, voice actors don't have faces so unless they're NAMES we forget them.
#39: Phil Harris in The Jungle Book
as Baloo
“You better believe it.”
The Jungle Book doesn’t exactly thrill me (I have a soft spot for the live action version, oddly) but who can resist the jovial singing bear? Mowgli is an unassuming (dare I say, boring) hero but his sidekicks are amusing.
#38: Catherine O’Hara in Where the Wild Things Are
as Judith
“Happiness isn't always the best way to be happy.”
She singlehandedly makes the movie hers and she becomes the wild thing that’s not only wildest but most interesting. I did not love the film, but it was beautifully rendered and the wild things were a deligh - Catherine more than any.
#37: Jodi Benson in The Little Mermaid
as Ariel
“I love you, Daddy.”
She’s easy to forget…the supporting players are quite fun, but Benson is doing a good job here. The naïveté, the subtle bits of innocence and bravery; she’s doing her very best to make this animated caricature into a full blooded character and she succeeds…on so many counts.
#36: Janet Gabor in The Aristocrats
as Duchess
“Oh, c'est très jolie, monsieur. Very poetic. But it is not quite Shakespeare.”
This is a forgotten Disney gem which I grew up with, so I have soft spot for it. Harris puts up a good showing as the tomcat in the show, but it’s Gabor’s sultry Queenie who leaves the mark. It’s a slight film, and the anamorphic characters don’t have anything new to tell us but Gabor is like Grace Kelly, as a cat.
#35: Helena Bonham Carter in Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit
as Lady Campanula Tottington
“Please, Wallace, call me 'Totty'.”
The more I think of it, the more I wonder why I don’t like this film. Perhaps, claymation just doesn’t do it for me. Still, the voicework is on par and among her many assets I’ve always love HBC’s voice the most, so expressive.
#34: Glenn Close in Hoodwinked
as Granny
“Bring it honey!”
You probably didn’t see this one coming. I can’t blame you. I liked Hoodwinked; a well intentioned and oddly smart animated flick that was poorly received. Glenn doesn’t get enough credit for her voice, but when you can’t see her you realise just how much she uses. This take on the “new” grandmother is inspired and hilarious and extraordinarily nuanced.
#33: Angela Lansbury in Beauty & the Beast
as Mrs. Potts
“Well, that didn't go very well at all, did it?”
Few voices are as diffidently calming and yet surprisingly funny as Lansbury here. :umiere and Cogsworth are the utensils most remembered (no, they are not on the list) but it’s Angela’s voice that shines through – heartfelt, sincere and yet irresolute when necessary.
#32: Linda Larkin in Aladdin
as Jasmine
“I am not a prize to be won!”
My, oh my. Can anyone resist Jasmine? I have a thing for Disney’s sultry voiced characters (you shall see later) and Jasmine is an excellent characterisation by [ ]. Sure, the film is not centred on her – but she’ll make you forget with every voice inflection and every subtle line reading (remember Evil Jasmine?)
#31: James Earle Jones in The Lion King
as Mufasa
“Simba, I'm very disappointed in you!”
Oh man, this man has a VOICE!!! Who doesn’t shudder when they hear him? Jones is an icon – plain and simple, and his work as Mufasa is just superb. With just a voice he embodies all we could hope for in the steadfast and devoted father.
Aha, and there goes round two. How are you liking the choices so far?
Marshall is celebrating her blogging anniversary and interviewing some of her fellow bloggers. Here's her interview with ME. She sure does know to make you blush with that lead in description...
Despite the title, I'm actually quite content with the nominees for the most part, I'm busy at the moment so I can't analyse the nominees as I wish so I'll just break it down quickly, and be back LATER with an in-depth look. Maybe.
THE GOOD
*Amy Poehler has her Emmy nomination. I cannot explain to you how happy this made me. It is easily my favourite nomination in a year of mixed stuff.
*Sharon Gless has an Emmy NOD!!! Burn Notice only gets one nod, but this nod makes me happy (even though I wish it had gotten more).
*My usual favourites are back again - Dexter, Damages, Tony Shalhoub, JANE KRAKOWSKI!!!!
THE BAD
*One nomination for Entourage, two nominations for Grey's Anatomy, one nomination for Desperate Housewives? Piven? Wilson? Oh? Cross? My heart bleeds, not really but you get the point. Those snubs hurt me.
*Two and a Half Men is still getting love, and I don't know WHY!
* No love for supporting players in The Office and Parks & Recreation? Really?
THE BLAH
* The Big Bang Theory. I just don't get it.
*Mad Men. Other than Slattery I'm really not interested any more...I can't say why?
*Lost...ummm, I don't know. I don't get this one either, and no Naveen Andrews? Le sigh.
Okay. You go? Good? Bad? Blah? Shout it out below.
FULL LIST HERE
I don’t live anywhere near Hollywood, but yet I hate the way that the mythical city/concept seems to exist. The mob psychology is unnerving. The success of one Twilight means that emotional vampires are in, Shrek’s success means three more parts on the way and so on. In the same way, the perceived poor performance of Knight & Day means that Tom Cruise is a poor actor and his star has gone out. There’s an irony – once a film allows itself to have a huge budget it must make that budget back (triple) or it’s a failure. I suppose the message there is: don’t have big budgets. But I digress. I was excited to see Knight & Day. Cameron Diaz still amuses me as a more than competent comedic leading lady and I’ve let go of my irrational hatred of Cruise. It’s not his fault that Oprah likes him so much.
Knight & Day is a curious film – it’s a comedy, but it’s also an action film and there’s a definite bit of romance in there. It’s an interesting genre (subgenre?) and one I can’t say I’ve noticed – positively, at least – before. But it works. After viewing the first thing that struck me was that Knight & Day was like a more aggressive (and at times less smart) version of Duplicity. Note: I really liked Duplicity (another "flop"). Knight & Day doesn’t have an impressive script going for it, it doesn’t have the charming Julia Roberts but what it DOES have is a pair of leads willing to entertain us backed by a band of well played supporting players. I cannot overstress how much Knight & Day depends on the Cruise/Diaz dynamic. The script is fine, but uninspired and the two make a brilliantly funny, but realistic pairing. Every moment between the two is golden, and you never get the feeling they’re “sinking down” to the level of the movie. They’re having fun – and sometimes, that’s just refreshing. It’s strange, seeing this I considered whether Cameron Diaz ever considered doing a Shakespearean comedy. I don’t believe I’ve seen any of her contemporaries show that ability to make the strangest of soliloquies sound so remarkably…normal.
Knight & Day has its issues, and they’re obvious. For the first ten minutes the film has trouble finding itself, and the last five minutes are only good (though Diaz in particular sells it) but the middle is a blast. Viola Davis and Paul Dano stand out as two supporting players that bring their A game. Davis just has a natural cadence to her that I realise stealing scenes just may be her habit. Sarsgaard plays Sarsgaard, but I like Sarsgaard so I’m fine with that. Mangold is a far way from Walk the Line, but despite the annoying amount of CGI (enough with the CGI) he knows when to step back and make his actors the centrepiece. I think I’ve been subconsciously waiting for something to calm me this summer at the movies. And though Knight & Day isn’t ostensibly calming it just might be the most fun to be had in 2010 release I’ve seen yet. That’s no mean feat.
B-
Wednesday, 7 July 2010
Confession: I don't like watching movie trailers. I have no real reason, I just don't. The only trailer from last year I saw before I saw the film was Nine and Bright Star...other than that, no. If I must watch, I watch without sound - so the first trailer for any 2010 release I anticipated was a silent Never Let Me Go Trailer...of course the trailer that the internet has recently been abuzz with was that of Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows. In case you didn't know, I love these books. I know it's literary suicide to admit that (and from a Literature student, no less) but I do. I'm always saying that I'm looking forward to great things from the cast, none of them more than Rupert Grint, who I continue to maintain has a promising career ahead of him.
And I'm not the only touting Grint apparently, my favourite director Martin Scorsese has only recently pimped him HERE*. I feel validated...I mean, that probably made my month (yes the month has been going that horribly).
I still haven't listened to the trailer, but for those of you who actually watch trailers here it is.
I've broken down my five favourite things about it.
I almost screamed when I saw the shot above. If you read the book you know what's going on, if you haven't (what's wrong with you?) I won't spoil it. I will say, I'm so glad that that my darling HBC will get to have some fun. Yippee.
Perhaps it's because I too am sporting a beard, but I feel a sense of validation in seeing that the disheveled look is in. Though teen romance is not particularly poignant Grint and Watson do have great chemistry...so I'm interested to see what comes of their "romance".
ONE THING I LOATHED
I'm not the only one waiting for November...am I?
*ADDENDUM: If you click on the link, you'll see that some sick person started the Scorsese/Grint rumour. Boy, the know to get me worked up. Sigh. As you were.
I always look back in surprise that The Big Chill did so well at the 1983 Oscars. In addition to the Supporting Actress nomination for Glenn Close, it also picked nods for its screenplay and Best Picture. Of course I feel it deserved more, but for a film so self-effacing I’m still surprised it managed to gain even these laurels. From the general sense it seems the jury’s still out on the longevity of The Big Chill since in so many ways it’s a film that exists completely in its time – the eighties. But for someone who was neither alive then, nor an American, I like to think that The Big Chill exists as more than some misguided hammy ode to idealism for the baby boomers’ generation from Kasdan. It’s my bias, of course. But is it too naïve of me to see The Big Chill as it ostensibly sets itself up to be – a commemoration of that charming thing called friendship?
Obviously the lovely Meredith from M. Carter at the Movies doesn’t think I am too naïve, her words are quite perceptive, as usual.
"Too many people insist that The Big Chill is just a movie about some Baby Boomers – former college pals including Tom Berenger, Mary Kay Place, William Hurt and more – whining about their problems while reconnecting after the suicide of their roommate. These people have missed the point. The Big Chill is both timely and timeless in its central message: The dead zone years between college and middle age are rough for everyone, a period of self-discovery marked by highs and lows, the realization that no one, really, ever aces his own life. There’s something wonderfully comforting about that."
That perfectly encompasses a great deal of the film’s charm…the ability it has to comfort…
The setup is simple. A group of friends spend a weekend together when one of their original group members – Alex – commits suicide. It’s the simplest of plots. A wedding, a funeral, a reunion – all are ideal ways to get a group of persons together. Kevin Kline and Glenn Close play the generically “good” couple. It’s their house we spend the weekend at, but the film depends on all - Mary Kay Place, Jeff Goldblum, Tom Berenger, Meg Tilly, JoBeth Williams and the man of the eighties William Hurt. We will learn a number of things over the next two days. We’ll learn who had an affair with Alex, who’s having problems in their marriage – the usual things we detect when we haven’t seen friends in a while. In this way, the normalcy of The Big Chill is obvious, but it’s a normalcy that is never rudimentary. Chemistry is something that cannot be forced, and even some excellent actors are unable to forge an authentic onscreen relationship. With The Big Chill the lot of actors working together is never affected, but always genuine. It’s, by far, the most appealing thing about the film. We’re willing to buy the slight conceits of the plot because we’re so willing to believe that these people did have a life, a friendship, together not so long ago. And what happens when friends come together? Music.
Yojimbo contributes a mere line, but it says much: “Best soundtrack evah.” Not sure if I’d call it the best “evah” but it’s somewhere near the top and its as nostalgic, cool, smooth and sweet as necessary….and I do love music.
Walter Hollman of the very diverse Silver Screening Room is another fan of the ensemble dramedy (hate that word, but it applies):
"Call me a sucker for ensemble films (I am), or an unabashed lover of all things Close or Hurt (guilty), but I love this movie. Glenn Close, of course, is great in her nominated role, but I always come back to Mary Kay Place and William Hurt, two vulnerable performances that become the most relatable. What I really love, really, is that, despite centering around a suicide, the film is rarely dreary and often funny. Great soundtrack, and the fact that they actually manage to make that absurd pregnancy subplot not awkward is a credit to the actors and Kasdan."
Walter hits on another sentient. Mary Kay Place tells us that the world is cold, it is, but like friendship The Big Chill gives us that cathartic embrace that makes us forget - temporarily, perhaps - but that's enough. Zeitgeist? Probably...but not any less for it...
Nonetheless, I’d warrant that the chemistry of the cast is just a notch above Kasdan’s script. Even though it’s easy to craft a film around a group of people meeting, it’s often quite uninspiring. I would not doubt that The Big Chill sits in my top ten as one of those “you had to be there” experiences – but, then, isn’t that the very principle of making a list of favourite films? The words are potent not because they exist as brilliant reflections on life and its subsistence I always smile (although the joke is more of an in-joke) at the easiness with which Kasdan decides to craft their meeting.
I am vastly aware that my love of The Big Chill is greatly driven by emotion, but yet it remains laudable. It’s not so much that it has low standards, but Kasdan is conscious that sometimes there is beauty in the modest. Never does it deign to tell us how life should be, or what it should represent. It’s always well aware of its aims – a look into the lives of people you’re more than likely to meet sometime in your life. It’s a diffidence that charms me throughout even as there are moments that are obviously “cinematic”. Sometimes, the pithiness does protrude as an obvious tenet of the trade, but The Big Chill succeeds so much in its quest for calmness it’s easy for us to leave it forgetting that these friends haven’t solved their issues, and if so – only tenuously. But it’s Kasdan’s flair for normalcy – like life nothing is settled and no even is seismic, but life must go on. As the credits prepare to roll and the friends set up impromptu camp in the kitchen and Jeff Goldblum utters the line we took a secret vote. We're not leaving. We're never leaving. I always smile. It’s the same way I feel – I’m never prepared for something so charmingly human, but so beautifully soothing to finish. And, ultimately few things are more attractive in a film because sometimes we forget that the things that are most interesting in the world are people just like us.
The countdown continues with The Big Chill appearing at #8. Coming up next is a recent one from the last decade…does The Big Chill make you feel warm and fuzzy too...?
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