Film Is a Battleground #18 (A History of Violence, Corpse Bride, Friday Night Lights, When Will I Be Loved)
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (in theaters)
CORPSE BRIDE (in theaters)
WHEN WILL I BE LOVED (on DVD)
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS (on DVD)
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (David Cronenberg, 2005)
* (Has redeeming facet)
October 2nd, 2005: For the first time in the near twenty-nine years of my life, I saw a bad David Cronenberg film. One might argue I should have seen it coming, that the widespread, mainstream support for A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (especially when compared to the muted and/or hostile reaction that greeted his three previous masterpieces: SPIDER, eXistenZ, and CRASH) might signal a lesser film rather than a greater enlightenment.
I think the relevant precedent is De Palma and SCARFACE. Following the hostility which greeted the excellent DRESSED TO KILL and the relative disinterest which greeted his second masterpiece BLOW OUT, De Palma made SCARFACE. He received better-than-usual notices. Critics didn’t seem to mind the violence as long as it stayed segregated from sex and occurred within a terrifically dull film, or as Pauline Kael described it, “a De Palma film for people who don’t like De Palma films.”
So it is with A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE. One sits and watches the film, waiting for the sense of unease Cronenberg creates to transform into an epiphany. Unfortunately, scene after scene hints at the artificiality of the reality witnessed (as in eXistenZ and VIDEODROME) or the depth of experience that exists within (as in THE DEAD ZONE and SPIDER) without ever developing the particular, peculiar, and meaningful dissociations which make Cronenberg’s body of work so substantial.
The film ends with no hidden layers revealed and one is left with the odd desire to see more of a film you didn’t like. After watching A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, I was ready for the Cronenberg film to start.
Postscript: It made me sad to talk walk out of a Cronenberg film so shallow and uninvolving. Waking up the next morning and learning that August Wilson had passed put that disappointment in perspective. There remains the hope that Cronenberg will go on to make another, better film. There will be no more August Wilson plays. The moral and intellectual rigor of his sublime and powerful art will remain both an example and an unattainable benchmark for many of us. Wilson was great and he was good. We are blessed to know his work.
CORPSE BRIDE (Tim Burton and Mike Johnson, 2005)
0 stars (No redeeming facet)
Watching CORPSE BRIDE, I failed to discern a reason for its existence. The film is not funny (those with a weakness for obvious, telegraphed puns might disagree). It lacks the manic anarchy that carried MARS ATTACKS! The film is not scary (the villain’s identity is revealed in the first act). That there even is a stock villain makes this an atypically simple tale for a Tim Burton film. Even his less successful films create both tension and emotional empathy through external conflictions between and internal conflictions of misfits. Furthermore, Danny Elfman’s songs are every bit as middling as those he wrote for CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY but the production numbers in this film don’t take up the slack.
WHEN WILL I BE LOVED (James Toback, 2004)
** (Worth seeing)
Half-fascinating and almost entirely absurd, Toback does well both by himself (though one wishes the sublime character he plays here, Professor of African-American Culture Hassan Al-Ibrahim Ben Rabinowitz, had appeared in the more successfull cultural satire BLACK AND WHITE) and his latest young surrogate played by the fundamentally weird and compelling Fred Weller.
The film’s other half strands Neve Campbell and Dominic Chianese in a convoluted exploration of money, gender, age, sex, power, morality, and mortality that fails to engage with any of the issues it strenuously introduces.
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS (Peter Berg, 2004)
* (Has redeeming facet)
I’d rate the film above the book, though I apparently liked the book less than everyone else. To me, it was the Moneyball of the late-‘80s, a well-written book driven by the author’s passion about a new-to-him idea. In both cases it appears that the relevant ideas (some communities take high school football too seriously, statistical analysis has a role in major league baseball) were new to a lot of people. Unfortunately for those of us who were not shocked by either premise, both Buzz Bissinger and Michael Lewis did a better job of inciting and expressing their passion than advancing any original ideas. I prefer Lewis’s book, but that’s just because I’m more interested in general managers than high school football teams.
Click here to read the full post with comments
CORPSE BRIDE (in theaters)
WHEN WILL I BE LOVED (on DVD)
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS (on DVD)
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (David Cronenberg, 2005)
* (Has redeeming facet)
October 2nd, 2005: For the first time in the near twenty-nine years of my life, I saw a bad David Cronenberg film. One might argue I should have seen it coming, that the widespread, mainstream support for A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (especially when compared to the muted and/or hostile reaction that greeted his three previous masterpieces: SPIDER, eXistenZ, and CRASH) might signal a lesser film rather than a greater enlightenment.
I think the relevant precedent is De Palma and SCARFACE. Following the hostility which greeted the excellent DRESSED TO KILL and the relative disinterest which greeted his second masterpiece BLOW OUT, De Palma made SCARFACE. He received better-than-usual notices. Critics didn’t seem to mind the violence as long as it stayed segregated from sex and occurred within a terrifically dull film, or as Pauline Kael described it, “a De Palma film for people who don’t like De Palma films.”
So it is with A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE. One sits and watches the film, waiting for the sense of unease Cronenberg creates to transform into an epiphany. Unfortunately, scene after scene hints at the artificiality of the reality witnessed (as in eXistenZ and VIDEODROME) or the depth of experience that exists within (as in THE DEAD ZONE and SPIDER) without ever developing the particular, peculiar, and meaningful dissociations which make Cronenberg’s body of work so substantial.
The film ends with no hidden layers revealed and one is left with the odd desire to see more of a film you didn’t like. After watching A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, I was ready for the Cronenberg film to start.
Postscript: It made me sad to talk walk out of a Cronenberg film so shallow and uninvolving. Waking up the next morning and learning that August Wilson had passed put that disappointment in perspective. There remains the hope that Cronenberg will go on to make another, better film. There will be no more August Wilson plays. The moral and intellectual rigor of his sublime and powerful art will remain both an example and an unattainable benchmark for many of us. Wilson was great and he was good. We are blessed to know his work.
CORPSE BRIDE (Tim Burton and Mike Johnson, 2005)
0 stars (No redeeming facet)
Watching CORPSE BRIDE, I failed to discern a reason for its existence. The film is not funny (those with a weakness for obvious, telegraphed puns might disagree). It lacks the manic anarchy that carried MARS ATTACKS! The film is not scary (the villain’s identity is revealed in the first act). That there even is a stock villain makes this an atypically simple tale for a Tim Burton film. Even his less successful films create both tension and emotional empathy through external conflictions between and internal conflictions of misfits. Furthermore, Danny Elfman’s songs are every bit as middling as those he wrote for CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY but the production numbers in this film don’t take up the slack.
WHEN WILL I BE LOVED (James Toback, 2004)
** (Worth seeing)
Half-fascinating and almost entirely absurd, Toback does well both by himself (though one wishes the sublime character he plays here, Professor of African-American Culture Hassan Al-Ibrahim Ben Rabinowitz, had appeared in the more successfull cultural satire BLACK AND WHITE) and his latest young surrogate played by the fundamentally weird and compelling Fred Weller.
The film’s other half strands Neve Campbell and Dominic Chianese in a convoluted exploration of money, gender, age, sex, power, morality, and mortality that fails to engage with any of the issues it strenuously introduces.
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS (Peter Berg, 2004)
* (Has redeeming facet)
I’d rate the film above the book, though I apparently liked the book less than everyone else. To me, it was the Moneyball of the late-‘80s, a well-written book driven by the author’s passion about a new-to-him idea. In both cases it appears that the relevant ideas (some communities take high school football too seriously, statistical analysis has a role in major league baseball) were new to a lot of people. Unfortunately for those of us who were not shocked by either premise, both Buzz Bissinger and Michael Lewis did a better job of inciting and expressing their passion than advancing any original ideas. I prefer Lewis’s book, but that’s just because I’m more interested in general managers than high school football teams.
Labels: a history of violence, august wilson, corpse bride, david cronenberg, friday night lights, james toback, mike johnson, peter berg, tim burton, when will i be loved
Click here to read the full post with comments
posted by Bret LaGree at 14:15
0 comments
