Monday, December 14, 2015

The 'Murricane' comes to Netflix with a holiday treat


Bill Murray, over the years, has evolved into a completely different animal than one might have guessed, watching his early progression through SNL, Stripes, Caddyshack and Ghostbusters, those years that made him a star.  But some of his recent work, notably Lost in Translation, Broken Flowers and Hyde Park on Hudson have gained him the respect as an actor that he seemed to crave when he wrote and starred in the problematic 1984 remake of The Razor's Edge.  Murray is, of course, one of those actors who is always himself, in every role.  But he has become a much more layered self, willing to show his vulnerability as well as his outrageous, fearless sense of humor.

Netflix's new special, A Very Murray Christmas, plays on both sides of this fascinating coin, with a fictionalized premise that shows Murray playing himself, attempting a 70s-style live variety show, but without guest stars -- one of the biggest blizzards in history has essentially shut down New York, and his intended guests can't get to the Carlyle to be part of it.  Directed by Translation's Sofia Coppola, the special is blessed with crisp writing and a mountain of self-deprecating humor, as Murray and his co-stars take potshots at Hollywood and the very medium they're mimicking.  It's clever, even laugh-out-loud funny.  The way he and the cast make fun of themselves, of bigger stars (especially Bill's most famous friend, Mr. George Clooney) and of everything they're trying to do is downright endearing, and the show somehow injects warmth, rather than cynicism, into wry, winking jokes and an unusual collection of Christmas standards.

That warmth may well come from a lot of fun on the set.  The production is decidedly a family affair, with Coppola's cousin, Jason Schwartzman as well as her husband, Thomas Mars, making appearances, and her brother, Roman Coppola, credited as producer and associate director.  The project is clearly filled with friends, as most (if not all) of the cast members have a connection with Murray, Coppola or both.  You can see genuine camaraderie in the way the cast interacts, even in the schmaltzy moments, where performing friends are most likely to overdo it when working together.

Nice surprises

A few small parts really stood out:  

  • Michael Cera is alarmingly sleazy as Murray's agent.  He still looks like he's about 12, but his range is expanding.
  • Jenny Lewis, playing a waitress who sings like an angel.
  • Julie White, an acerbic comedian we see too little of, was edgy and funny as one of Bill's handlers. 
  • Rocker David Johansen has several fun moments as the bartender.  (You may remember him as the cackling taxi driver in Scrooged.)  
  • Dimitri Dimitrov, a character actor with a small but respectable list of credits, was charming as Murray's manservant.  This is a role where other actors would try to steal focus and mug for the camera, but he showed nice comic timing in the background (even just de-linting his boss's jacket), without being annoying.  Would love to see more.


The music is so much better than expected:

  • One of the nicest surprises is the reminder that Murray can really sing:  this realization is the show opens with Murray up in his hotel room, running through "Christmas Blues" with Paul Shaffer.  It's a nice rendition, and shows off Shaffer's chops, too:  he's a very fine musician, and was never fully utilized with David Letterman.  
  • Murray and Miley Cyrus are good together in a later duet, and I quite liked her solo "Silent Night", which hints at her country roots and reminds us that this media princess is neither Hilton nor Kardashian -- this kid actually has talent.
  • Clooney, vamping from behind a Christmas tree in a funkadelic version of Albert King's "Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin".  One of the reasons we love him so is that he's so good at cutting loose and making fun of himself.  He actually had very little to do in this show, but that little moment will certainly stick in the memory for a while.

Click here for more info on Netflix.com, or to watch online (subscription required)




Friday, December 11, 2015

Done with Dr. Quinn: Why I'm walking away from streaming more of the series

I never watched the popular Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman TV show when it first aired in the ‘90s.  Perhaps I had other things to do that night, or perhaps my grad school years had me feeling too hip for something that wholesome.  (Nah, that couldn’t have been it -- I’ve never been all that hip.)

Nevertheless, I started watching it on Amazon Prime recently, first out of curiosity, and then because I found that while the episodes are emotionally manipulative, formulaic and politically frustrating, I was genuinely moved by the characters, and the acting is often quite good. It's also way too much fun to see the earlier work of current treasures such as Joseph Gordon-LevittEric Balfour and Don McManus, as well as appearances by legends like Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash

But halfway through Season 3, I’m arresting the binge.  I couldn’t even make it to the much-touted wedding episode for Mike and Sully.  With the bizarre timeline errors, this season’s switching back and forth between two actresses playing Colleen, and the one-step-forward-two-steps-back annoyances in what passes for character development, I find myself angry at the writers and producers for a lack of organization, too many continuity failures and what seems a capricious attitude toward the investment they demand from their viewers. The way these writers expect us to constantly connect and then again hate the main supporting characters is infuriating rather than realistic.  Yes, Hank, Jake and Loren repeatedly show their softer sides, but while these revelations may be endearing in the moment, the fact that they don’t seem to learn more from each experience is intolerably frustrating.

We’ve made serious strides in reducing hatred and prejudice and ignorance in this country.  While there is still much work to be done, what good is there in revisiting the same racism and intolerance that stunted this nation’s growth after the Civil War?  It may be historically accurate (I wouldn't know), and I suppose there may be people who can learn from exploring how hard it was for basically good people to set those views aside.  Even now, in the face of new terror attacks and various public figures alternately talking about gun control and calls to arms, we're again seeing good people lumping others into labeled groups, making assumptions about each individual in those groups, and wanting to punish or exclude the groups wholesale.  Are we heading into a new, wilder west?

Perhaps it just hits too close to home right now.  But more likely, perhaps this isn't the time for a show which is so emotionally manipulative that the real anger I find myself feeling toward the bigotry actually seems artificially rendered, and therefore both needless and impotent -- it's not even my anger. For whatever reason (even if it’s my own moral arrogance), I just can’t take anymore.  For now, I’ll get my thoughts provoked elsewhere.  Like the newspaper, for instance.



Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman 

Series website

Dr. Michaela "Mike" Quinn, daughter of a doctor, leaves her stable life in Boston -- answering an ad for a town doctor in Colorado Springs.


(1993-1998) -- 6 seasons, 149 episodes
Duration approx 0:48 each
Created by Beth Sullivan
Starring: Jane Seymour, Joe Lando

Current availability

    

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Netflix bets big on original shows in 2016, and so deserves a song of their own

"Double down!", sayeth the Netflix bosses as the new year looms. The litany of plans for 2016 almost makes a nice "Five Days of Christmas", if you start with the golden rings:
  • Thirty-one originalllll serieeeeeeees!
  • 12 doc-u-men-ta-ries
  • 10 feature films
  • 10 stand-ups
  • and a whopping 30 programs for kids!
After inventive shows like Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (with the best earworm-y theme song in years) and Emmy nods continuing (34 noms this year!), it's not exactly a surprise move. But we the couch potatoes may not have thought of the financial savvy:  as tech blog Endgadget points out, creating original content makes sense as a long-term investment, as Netflix gets to keep the rights to what they create, forever. (Hear that, artists? Creating something new making financial sense: who'da thunk?) Way better than haggling for shorter-term contracts granting the use of someone else's stuff.

It's likely to work, of course, as long as this tremendous ramp-up is manageable.  So far, Netflix has done a pretty good job of creating engaging content and building a strong following.  House of Cards is still ringing bells with a stellar cast, and Orange is the New Black has been a huge success, even with lesser-known stars.  Other series are gaining ground, but the more they do, the harder it is to see through the haze and keep up with new offerings.  Marketing more shows isn't an issue of direct arithmetic:  you can't just put out twice and much and then publicize twice as much expecting double the return.  Some shows will get more support, from the production phase through marketing and release.  Others, good ones, will languish if the studio can't help get the word out.  They may have the same network woes coming their way as everyone else, if they can't properly support the new series and give them a decent chance of survival.

At least we have the hope of more Kimmy. Come on, let's all sing along!


One final thought:  the rights issue does make one wonder if we should grab the DVDs of our favorite series while they're available.  Just in case Netflix decides to pull a Disney, and hold back sets to create mock scarcity?  Probably not an immediate issue, but just in case:

Monday, December 7, 2015

Reconnecting with Roz: 'Never Wave at a WAC'

Rosalind Russell was a rare bird: beautiful, smart, stylish funny and absolutely magnetic onscreen. Tonight I “discovered” a 1953 gem I’d never seen before:  Never Wave at a WAC, which also stars the terribly underrated Paul Douglas and classic “handsome actor”, William Ching.

Russell plays a D.C. socialite, the spoiled daughter of a senator, who joins the army so she can get a free ticket to Paris and be with her new beau (Ching).  Her father, however, thinks the army would be good for her, and rather than pulling strings to get her the officer’s commission she expects, he sees to it that she goes through boot camp as a private, which of course, challenges everything she knows about herself and how the world works.  But there’s more ahead, as her ex-husband (Douglas), who clearly still loves her, is creating specialized garments for the military, and requests her for special testing of new uniforms and gear for Arctic conditions.  He puts her through a frozen hell in a testing chamber, and she stands up to it all, impressing him and proving to herself that there’s more to her than parties and charm.

For those of us in the midlife crisis zone, this all sounds very Private Benjamin, and Goldie Hawn may well have had this film in mind when she donned her helmet nearly three decades later.  But the original stands on its own, and will surely be a new favorite, despite quite a few tolerable anachronisms and plenty of sexism.

Finding a classic romantic comedy like this is a beautiful thing for a movie junkie like me, and this prompted an awful lot of giggles, which begs the question of why it’s not one of the classics in regular rotation today.  With clever writing, strong performances and an almost (sorta/kinda) believable premise, the film is comedic without being over-the-top campy, and the relationships are surprisingly believable, e.g. the verbal pacing is quick, but not so revved up that it’s stagey.  Director Norman Z. McLeod clearly possessed a gift for pacing and “bits” at almost the Easter Egg level, and yet the conversations and situations somehow seem as if they could actually have happened -- the dialogue is snappy, but surprisingly relatable.  Even still, it’s definitely a product of its age, and is connected to the Korean conflict rather than WW2, which may partially explain why it hasn’t remained in the pantheon.  But it’s fun and well worth a look.


Never Wave at a WAC

Divorced society hostess Jo McBain (Russell) decides to join the Women's Army Corps to be closer to her boyfriend Lt. Colonel Sky Fairchild (Ching), in Paris. Jo thinks that her high connections in Washington, D.C., will help her get out of the service at any time she desires. However, her ex-husband decides to teach Jo a lesson by influencing his own army contacts to give her a difficult time in her new army life. A secondary plot follows scene-stealing, well-endowed former chorus girl Clara Schneiderman joining the WACS alongside Jo to escape the legions of men who pursue her.

(1953) -- Duration 1:26
Directed by Norman Z. McLeod
Starring: Rosalind Russell, Paul Douglas, Marie Wilson

Current availability

         

Saturday, December 5, 2015

Get out of my head: The narrator as spoilsport in "Listen Up Philip"


I love words, and tend to gravitate toward films that put them center stage.  But while movies about writers are often inspiring and revelatory, today I experienced a film that had all the right elements in place, yet just annoyed me for two hours.  Listen Up Philip, a 2014 film starring Jason Schwartzman and Elisabeth Moss, seems like it should have been an incredible journey, combining a super cast, a witty script, real issues about artists, a quirky interface, and the self-consciously "artless" indie photography that is supposed to come across as unposed, doc-style realism.  I did a little reading-up on the flick before finally deciding to sit down and watch it, and everything I learned suggested that this would become a new favorite.  But largely for one big reason, the whole thing fell flat, where it actually could have shone. Written and directed by Alex Ross Perry, the dialogue is snappy and engaging.  The directing and visual decisions are strong, and the filmmaker has some valid, if un-subtle, points to make:
  • Being an artist doesn't offer license for self-involvement.  
  • Even "artistic" isolation isn't a good thing. 
  • Teaching is hard, and so is being a mentor.  
  • Selfish people hurt others.
But as multi-layered as the relationships are, and in spite of an impressive series of strong performances, one basic conceit of the film ended up tearing it apart:  the narrator ruins it. This long-beloved cinematic device can be a useful tool, introducing an omniscient character, or at least one with the benefit of hindsight.  But where the narrator is usually icing on the cake, here he becomes a stoic, oppressive presence, telling us what to think about the characters and the choices they make. The voice crashes through the polite boundaries of free thought, and doesn't provide us with much information that we couldn't glean from the action. Worse, it doesn't give us a chance to figure anything out for ourselves.

In a way, this active participation by the narrator changes the format of the film:  it's more like an illustrated storybook, where the narrative resides in the text and the images enhance the experience. But the images should be more important than that in filmmaking, and this particular execution of the concept actually treated us like children, explaining the story and telling us what we should be learning: "See kids? When you use words as weapons and separate yourself from the people who love you, you'll be unhappy, and so will they!"  Yeah, that horse is dead already.  [Note, to be fair: this is my own snarky paraphrase, and not an actual quote from the film.]  

Curiously, the filmmakers have already made this point for me, as the narrator is absent from the quite intriguing trailer, which allows the characters to speak with their own clear voices:



Here's where I must apologize to the narrator himself, Eric Bogosian, and make it clear that his performance was not the problem here.  As a huge fan of this enigmatic and engaging actor, finding his name in the cast list was a surprise and a disappointment, as his considerable talents deserve a more functional role in any project.  The voice sounded great, but he deserves a better opportunity to shine. For instance, Jonathan Pryce was terrific as Ike, the sardonic older author who takes Philip under his wing, and Pryce was pitch-perfect, as usual.  But taking the character another direction, Bogosian might have been an intriguing, more Faustian alternative there.  The point is, Hollywood needs to give Eric B. more to do -- he's being wasted.

As for the rest of the cast, Schwartzman and Moss were both at their very best. Krysten Ritter was a nice surprise in her role as Melanie, Ike's neglected daughter, showing off subtle moments that must expand the perception of her range.  I'm sorry we didn't see more of her.  That goes for Jess Weixler, as well:  a master of layered, likable portrayals, she captured the intimacy of sisterhood with small gestures and relatable chemistry, well beyond the fact that she and Moss really do look related.  As Yvette, the spiteful faculty member who makes Philip's difficulties a little more real, Joséphine de la Baume was luminous and startlingly human, and I look forward to seeing her again.

In the end, while it's easy to embrace a true partnership of words and pictures, I found myself agonizing over this film's pacing ("are we done yet?") and frustrated, rather than terribly enlightened. If you're so sure your audience isn't going to understand your characters, re-write, or re-edit.  Show us, don't tell us. No deep-throated voice is going to save it.  In reality, the aggressive gimmickery breaks down the beauty of an otherwise very smart film.

An alternate view with excellent points:

Dana Stevens, Slate, 10/17/14 -- "Philip, Stark"  [Alt headline: "The greatest Jason Schwartzman role of Jason Schwartzman's career"]


Listen Up Philip 

When a self-obsessed novelist (Jason Schwartzman) has problems with his novel and his girlfriend (Elisabeth Moss), he seeks refuge in his mentor's cottage where the peace and quiet allow him to focus on his favorite subject - himself.

(2014) -- Duration 1:49
Written and directed by Alex Ross Perry
Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Elisabeth Moss, Jonathan Pryce, Krysten Ritter