Film Is a Battleground #14 (Ray, Sideways, Shaun of the Dead)
RAY (on DVD)
SIDEWAYS (in theaters)
SHAUN OF THE DEAD (on DVD)
RAY (Taylor Hackford, 2004)
** (Worth seeing)
RAY is eminently watchable because it contains art but there’s little chance the film itself will be mistaken for art itself. Armond White accurately described the film as “conscientious but unimaginative.” Unlike Michael Mann (ALI) and Julie Taymor (FRIDA), Taylor Hackford makes no attempt to break free of the biopic’s constrictions. Neither Mann nor Taymor succeeded in dramatizing their admiration for their subjects. Both of those films exhibited far greater technical skill than does RAY, but RAY benefits from its modest ambitions. Too much of ALI and FRIDA seemed self-deluding; the filmmakers used their technical gifts relentlessly condescending to the genre and failing mask their lack of insight on their subjects.
Both ALI and FRIDA were long films and felt like it. Despite Hackford and screenwriter James L. White’s competent, pedestrian work and RAY’s prodigious running time one regrets the film’s abrupt ending which forgoes the second half of Charles’ life. All the film has going for it is Charles’ still-fascinating genius. As with Hank Williams or Bill Monroe, it’s amazing to consider that a man created a body of work so artistically innovative and universally popular that the culture completely assimilates them within a generation or two. In choosing to end the film at the point Charles vows to give up heroin, Hackford invites the cheap inference that the drug fueled the genius.
This choice undermines Jamie Foxx who has been quite rightly praised for rejecting the opportunity to make Charles a lovable character and embracing the man’s complexity. His anger and passion made him both a junkie and an R&B Caravaggio. Caravaggio found room in his religious commissions to depict the carnal, criminal life he lived. Charles used the passionate frenzy of gospel music to express similarly worldly desires. Somehow neither Caravaggio’s homosexuality nor Charles’ race and his blindness which their respective world’s treated as alienating weaknesses limited the scope of their artistic visions. Perhaps being put at arm’s length by the world gave them the perspective to conflate their realism about humanity with wonder of the transformative power of God’s grace.
Hackford deserves credit for surrounding the gifted Foxx with an impressive supporting cast. The film is filled with generally underemployed actors (Kerry Washington, Regina King, Terrence Howard, Curtis Armstrong, Richard Schiff, Clifton Powell, Bokeem Woodbine, David Krumholtz, and Wendell Pierce). Many of them are overqualified for their roles here as well, but Hackford clearly appreciates and makes use of their talents.
SIDEWAYS (Alexander Payne, 2004)
* (Has redeeming facet)
Like Matthew Broderick, Paul Giamatti is both an unassuming and an inventive actor. So, as Broderick did Alexander Payne’s similarly overpraised ELECTION, Giamatti brings an admirable dignity to an underwritten character that Payne thinks is a loser. Payne’s reticence has thus far prevented from developing any sort of style as a writer or filmmaker. Some have called this perceptively observational and evenhanded honesty. I just don’t think he has anything to say. This is, after all, the man who discovered Chris Klein and took offense to being compared to Preston Sturges upon the release of the worthless CITIZEN RUTH.
Still, Payne attracts good actors, and for a scene as good as the one in SIDEWAYS where Giamatti must make polite conversation with his ex-wife, I guess the whole enterprise (a dull, pretentiously middlebrow CALIFORNIA SPLIT) is somewhat worthwhile.
SHAUN OF THE DEAD (Edgar Wright, 2004)
** (Worth seeing)
A film of small, unassuming (not to be mistaken for slight) virtues that works better as social satire than horror film. The first half hour a minor classic, the film loses its way when rote zombie fighting dominates proceedings but recovers for a redemptive coda that simultaneously celebrates the human capacity for adaptability and satirizes the ambitionless manner we generally utilize that capacity.
SIDEWAYS (in theaters)
SHAUN OF THE DEAD (on DVD)
RAY (Taylor Hackford, 2004)
** (Worth seeing)
RAY is eminently watchable because it contains art but there’s little chance the film itself will be mistaken for art itself. Armond White accurately described the film as “conscientious but unimaginative.” Unlike Michael Mann (ALI) and Julie Taymor (FRIDA), Taylor Hackford makes no attempt to break free of the biopic’s constrictions. Neither Mann nor Taymor succeeded in dramatizing their admiration for their subjects. Both of those films exhibited far greater technical skill than does RAY, but RAY benefits from its modest ambitions. Too much of ALI and FRIDA seemed self-deluding; the filmmakers used their technical gifts relentlessly condescending to the genre and failing mask their lack of insight on their subjects.
Both ALI and FRIDA were long films and felt like it. Despite Hackford and screenwriter James L. White’s competent, pedestrian work and RAY’s prodigious running time one regrets the film’s abrupt ending which forgoes the second half of Charles’ life. All the film has going for it is Charles’ still-fascinating genius. As with Hank Williams or Bill Monroe, it’s amazing to consider that a man created a body of work so artistically innovative and universally popular that the culture completely assimilates them within a generation or two. In choosing to end the film at the point Charles vows to give up heroin, Hackford invites the cheap inference that the drug fueled the genius.
This choice undermines Jamie Foxx who has been quite rightly praised for rejecting the opportunity to make Charles a lovable character and embracing the man’s complexity. His anger and passion made him both a junkie and an R&B Caravaggio. Caravaggio found room in his religious commissions to depict the carnal, criminal life he lived. Charles used the passionate frenzy of gospel music to express similarly worldly desires. Somehow neither Caravaggio’s homosexuality nor Charles’ race and his blindness which their respective world’s treated as alienating weaknesses limited the scope of their artistic visions. Perhaps being put at arm’s length by the world gave them the perspective to conflate their realism about humanity with wonder of the transformative power of God’s grace.
Hackford deserves credit for surrounding the gifted Foxx with an impressive supporting cast. The film is filled with generally underemployed actors (Kerry Washington, Regina King, Terrence Howard, Curtis Armstrong, Richard Schiff, Clifton Powell, Bokeem Woodbine, David Krumholtz, and Wendell Pierce). Many of them are overqualified for their roles here as well, but Hackford clearly appreciates and makes use of their talents.
SIDEWAYS (Alexander Payne, 2004)
* (Has redeeming facet)
Like Matthew Broderick, Paul Giamatti is both an unassuming and an inventive actor. So, as Broderick did Alexander Payne’s similarly overpraised ELECTION, Giamatti brings an admirable dignity to an underwritten character that Payne thinks is a loser. Payne’s reticence has thus far prevented from developing any sort of style as a writer or filmmaker. Some have called this perceptively observational and evenhanded honesty. I just don’t think he has anything to say. This is, after all, the man who discovered Chris Klein and took offense to being compared to Preston Sturges upon the release of the worthless CITIZEN RUTH.
Still, Payne attracts good actors, and for a scene as good as the one in SIDEWAYS where Giamatti must make polite conversation with his ex-wife, I guess the whole enterprise (a dull, pretentiously middlebrow CALIFORNIA SPLIT) is somewhat worthwhile.
SHAUN OF THE DEAD (Edgar Wright, 2004)
** (Worth seeing)
A film of small, unassuming (not to be mistaken for slight) virtues that works better as social satire than horror film. The first half hour a minor classic, the film loses its way when rote zombie fighting dominates proceedings but recovers for a redemptive coda that simultaneously celebrates the human capacity for adaptability and satirizes the ambitionless manner we generally utilize that capacity.
Labels: alexander payne, ali, caravaggio, edgar wright, frida, paul giamatti, ray, ray charles, shaun of the dead, sideways, simon pegg, taylor hackford
posted by Bret LaGree at 10:11
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