A Controversial Show Vindicated (Again) by Awards Gold

January 31, 2012

It was Michel Hazanavicius’ night at the DGA Awards. Yes, you better learn how to pronounce the French director’s six syllable name of Lithuanian origin already. More on that in a moment.

 

It would be an understatement to say that “The Kennedys” began as a very rough road for Jon Cassar and everyone else involved in the production of the mini-series about the presidency of JFK, starring Greg Kinnear and Katie Holmes as Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy.

 

Dropped like a hot potato by the History Channel, the eight-hour series was quickly picked up by Stanley Hubbard’s Reelz Channel, and since it aired in April 2011, it has shaken off the initial controversy attached to it and become a huge awards magnet.

 

Perhaps the final vindication came when Cassar, well-known for his work on the vaunted “24,” won the Directors Guild Award Saturday night in Hollywood in the prestigious movies for television/mini-series category. Cassar had previously won the DGA in 2006 for directing “24.”

 

Patty Jenkins took the drama trophy for directing the pilot of AMC’s “The Killing” and Robert B. Weide scored the comedy prize for the legendary “Palestinian Chicken” episode of HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Other television winners included Glenn Weiss for musical/variety, “65th Annual Tony Awards,” Neil P. Degroot, reality program for “Biggest Loser,” and Amy Schatz, children’s programming for “A Child’s Garden of Poetry.”

 

William Ludel took the DGA for an endangered species, daytime serials, for “General Hospital” and Noam Murro won in the commercials category for among others, spots for Heineken, DirecTV and Volkswagen.

 

One of television’s most famous faces hosted the non-televised ceremony, with Kelsey Grammer taking over the duties long performed by legendary comedian Carl Reiner.

 

The show has a bit of a unique format among kudofests. Each of the feature film directors up for the top prize is lauded by a colleague or coworkers involved the project at hand, and bestowed with a golden medallion, giving currency to the throwaway line that “it’s an honor just to be nominated.”

 

It’s a crowd -leasing tactic as well, and a chance to lobby the picture further down the awards path to the Oscars.

 

Ben Kingsley, who plays director George Melies in “Hugo,” gave a moving introduction to the film’s director, Martin Scorsese, who then received a standing ovation, presumably, just for being Marty Scorsese.

 

Another George, Clooney, was the one to present “The Descendants” director Alexander Payne with his DGA medallion. Ever the gentleman, Clooney, who has been ubiquitous on the awards campaign trail with recognition for his lead role in that film, and for directing, producing, co-writing and acting in “The Ides of March” was careful not to overshadow Payne when it came to photo ops.

 

Kathy Bates, who plays Gertrude Stein in Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris,” was tapped to do the honors for Allen, who is notorious for rarely showing up at Left Coast awards presentations. In a rare turn of events, he spoke to the crowd of industry peers in a previously taped bit explaining why–saying that his funny façade, the nebbishy, neurotic Jewish guy from New York, disappears once he has to mingle with people, because he really has nothing to say.

 

DGA president Taylor Hackford lauded the also absent David Fincher for “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”

 

It was “The Artist’s” freshly and French-ly talkative, charming co-starring duo, Bérénice Bejo and Jean Dujardin who regaled the crowd with memories of making the silent film, directed by Michel Hazanavicius. They said that after multiple takes of the tap dance routine, he told them simply that it was “pretty good,” but to “smile more.”

 

After his win of the trophy, the trio had nothing but smiles on their faces, and after Dujardin’s surprise lead actor SAG win, presumably, will keep them through the Academy Awards.  

 

As for the pronunciation of Hazanavicius, we’re told you can go with ha-za-na-VEE-shus. There, that makes it a little easier.

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Awards Season, Entertainment, Featured Stories Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Living the Legacy: TV’s Best Achieve Tartikoff Status

January 30, 2012

The legendary television executive Brandon Tartikoff set a high bar in the industry, one that still sets a standard in the nearly 15 years since he passed away, far too young. Yes, he is always remembered fondly—but nowhere does his inspirational legacy come into clearer focus than at the annual Tartikoff Legacy Award ceremony.

 

The 9th annual edition was held at the Fontainebleau Resort inMiami Beach during the 2012 NATPE Market & Conference, in a lively ceremony hosted by “Access Hollywood’s” Billy Bush, a self-described aspirant to one day achieving the award.

 

The four honorees represent a diverse slate of television talent: Matthew Weiner, creator and executive producer ofAMC’s award-winning drama “Mad Men”; Cecile Frot-Coutaz, CEO of FremantleMedia North America (FMNA) and executive producer of “American Idol”; Fernando Gaitán, vice president of production and content for Colombia’sRCNTV and creator of “Ugly Betty” (“Yo Soy Betty la fea”); and Dennis Swanson, President of Station Operations forFOX Television Stations Inc.

 

Lily Tartikoff always speaks eloquently, and recalled how Brandon knew Swanson, who was an early champion of her Revlon Run/Walk benefiting women’s cancer research.

 

It was Dick Ebersol, a recipient of the Tartikoff award last year, who introduced Swanson, noting that in his storied 40-year career, Swanson has worked at all four broadcast networks, discovered Oprah when he was a GM in Chicago, put Regis and Kathie Lee together at ABC and was instrumental in the resurgence of Monday Night Football.

 

Swanson thanked his wife of 50 years and reminisced about some of his fondest television moments, aside from telling Oprah to “just be herself.” One of those was making the Christmas tree lighting at Rockefeller Center, which had previously been a tape delayed segment, into a live show.

 

Frot-Coutaz may not be a household name, but she is the center of the “American Idol” universe. FreemantleMedia CEO Tony Cohen recalled meeting the executive early on, and knowing she had what it took to run the North American division of the company – and handle the likes of Simon Cowell and Simon Fuller. He also joked that she’s been called a kitten and a shark, kind of cute, but then she bites.

 

Gaitán also came in for some good-natured ribbing by Guillermo Arriago, a director, producer and screenwriter. Picking up the animal theme, he compared the Colombian television titan to a tiger.

 

Gaitán stepped up to the stage with a woman, creating some momentary confusion. Was she the star of one of his new shows? She certainly wasn’t an Ugly Betty, quite the contrary. No, it turns out she was his translator, as he said he did not know how or like to speak English. The language barrier certainly did not prevent him from making a well-received speech citing the major influence American television had and continues to have on him as the VP of production and content for RCN TV.

 

When it came time for Matthew Weiner to be introduced, Lionsgate television president Kevin Beggs did the honors. “He has indelibly changed the TV world. He’s a consummate showman, a master craftsmen, a visionary who inspires people,” Beggs said. “’Mad Men’ will make its mark for generations to come.”

 

And with that pronouncement, a comical taped message of congratulations from his coworkers on the award-winning drama was rolled, many of them alluding to his notorious demand for secrecy about the scripts. “I have to sign a nondisclosure for my own show?,” remarked Lionsgate’s Jon Feltheimer in one of the bits.

 

Saving the best for last, Jon Hamm acknowledged Weiner’s plethora of awards, saying he could put all of them on his head, but it still wouldn’t be “this,” the actor pointing to his own handsome visage.

 

Weiner immediately commented that he couldn’t believe he was unaware that all of this was shot on his own set without his knowledge. He relayed his youthful experience with television, from when he was a bad student whose parents forbade him to watch it except on Friday and Saturday nights, but that he made up for it during his college years. Weiner said he idolized Tartikoff, especially his respect for the audience.

 

Weiner acknowledged the risk that Lionsgate and AMC took with “Men,” which has been a critical darling and a pop cultural force since it premiered five years ago.” I got to turn a hidden vice into a way of life,” he said. “I wanted people to be entertained.”

Filed Under: Entertainment, Events, Television Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

It’s the Battle of Los Angeles, Art Show Edition

January 19, 2012
Blue Cars by Johnny Taylor at Affordable Art Fair

It’s a big art lover’s weekend in Los Angeles as several art fairs hit town, from downtown to Santa Monica, and we got a chance to preview two of them.

 

The Affordable Art Fair is at the LA Live Event Deck downtown, featuring galleries from around the world showcasing contemporary art by almost 3,000 emerging and established artists. It’s the first edition of the show to be held in Los Angeles, and since its debut in 1999 in London, is now held in eleven cities around the globe.

 

While your definition of “affordable” might be different, event organizers say the works range from $140 to $10,000—with half under $5,000. We particularly were taken with colorful, graphic works in acrylic by Johnny Taylor, repped by Artspace Warehouse on Beverly Blvd.in LA, with many of his 18” x 18” canvases for sale at $625.

 

The opening night benefited Free Arts for Abused Children, with all of the proceeds donated to the organization, which helps about 30,000 kids in foster case and those who are homeless or at risk due to violence, poverty or substance abuse.

 

The fun and friendly environment was made even more so with a lively bar and food station with items from Wolfgang Puck.

It’s an ambitious undertaking, and organizers have supplemented the exhibits with a series of talks with artists and curators, including one with producer/director Morgan Spurlock on collecting.

More info: www.affordableartfair.us

Filed Under: Art, Entertainment, Events Tagged With: ,

Extremely Moved by Extremely Loud

January 18, 2012

It was with a small dose of trepidation that we approached “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” based on the 2005 novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, but only because images and emotions from 9/11 are still difficult to absorb.

 

Yet this beautiful film (opening wide January 20) is well worth the trip back in time to that trauma of “the horrible day,” as it is called by the main character, a precocious and intuitive boy named Oskar Schell, played by an outstanding young actor named Thomas Horn.

As we see in flashbacks, he is especially close with his father (Tom Hanks) who takes Oskar on exploratory, scientific adventures all over Manhattan and insists that there is a missing sixth borough– a concept that fascinates the boy no end.

 

When his father asked him to bring back something from every decade, the boy produces a rock, much to his father’s delight. Thus we see the the solidity of the relationship, even as Mom (Sandra Bullock) doesn’t seem to have much of a role other than to be supportive of them.

 

We are not giving anything away here to say that the father perishes in the twin towers, after a heartbreaking series of missed phone messages left on the answering machine of the home where Oskar has not yet arrived after being let out of school early.

 

Never able to ascribe meaning to the tragedy and becoming increasingly estranged from his mother, Oskar fixates on a key he finds hidden away in his father’s belongings, a key that he hopes will unlock the mystery of why his dad had to die, or at least give him a message from beyond or some type of meaning.

 

He’s already shown himself to be an incredibly bright child with a growing obsessive/compulsive disorder, which works to his favor in mapping out and tracking down the clues that he feels will lead him to what the key unlocks.

 

Afraid of public transportation, he walks great distances in the search. All the while, as he pushes his mother away, he becomes closer with his paternal grandmother, who lives across the way in a building that he can see from his bedroom window. They communicate by walkie-talkie and grandma warns him not to talk to a strange man who rents a room at her place, a person she simply calls “the renter.”

 

Played by Max von Sydow as a man who can’t speak and writes down his answers or comments quickly on paper or shows the “yes” or “no” that are written on the palm of each hand, young Oskar becomes fascinated with him and quickly begins to view him as a father figure. So much so that the mystery man is asked to come along on the journeys to find the lock the the key fits.

 

It is here that “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” soars to new emotional heights as the boy learns to overcome his fears, which include meeting the diverse group of people who may be able to provide answers to his search.

 

Through all of his methodical searching, and just when he’s close to giving up, Oskar does finally find the person who has the key the the lock opens– and the movie takes an entirely new direction in a journey the audience will never forget.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, rated PG-13

Directed by Stephen Daldry, written by Eric Roth

 

 

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Gervais Gets Neutered, Silence is Golden for The Artist

January 17, 2012

It was the second coming of Ricky Gervais to the emcee podium of the Golden Globe Awards, or actually, the third. After last year’s controversial performance, people forget that the British comedian also hosted the 2010 edition of the kudocast.

 

The hyped-up fascination of who he would offend this year paid off again in the ratings, with Nielsen estimating that about 16.8 million viewers tuned in to Sunday night’s NBC telecast.

 

But mirroring his insistence that Johnny Depp was on recreational drugs, Gervais apparently took some recreational nice pills before the show. With a few exceptions, his jabs just didn’t have the bite that aroused such vitriol last year from the likes of insult target Robert Downey Jr.

 

Trashing Kim Kardashian and comparing her unfavorably to Kate Middleton? Standard fare for any standup comic. Dissing Eddie Murphy for bailing as host of the Oscars but saying “yes” to “Norbit?” Fair game. Asking Depp if he’d even seen “The Tourist,” a film he’d trashed last year? Amusing.

 

The wrath of Ricky, despite endless promos touting it, turned out to be pretty toothless during one of the few gigs where it’s okay, and even expected, to drink on the job. After reading the rules he was supposed to follow, like no profanity (yeah, right) and no jokes about Mel Gibson, he quickly followed up with an innuendo-laden rant about Jodie Foster’s (film) “The Beaver,” which the actress/director seemed to take in good humor by giving a thumbs-up from her seat in the Beverly Hilton ballroom.

 

Similarly, evoking sexual innuendo and insults, he lashed into Madonna in his introduction to her as a presenter, which she quickly turned around to bash him. “Ricky, if I’m still like a virgin, why don’t you come over here and do something about it? I haven’t kissed a girl for a long time. (Pause.) On TV,” she said–as he ran back and forth behind her on stage.

 

It was one of the funniest moments of the show, which, despite its reputation for raunchiness saw its share of dignified moments, starting with Christopher Plummer’s acceptance speech as supporting actor for his role in the little-seen film “Beginners,” and continuing with Helen Mirren and Sidney Poitier’s presentation of the Cecil B. DeMille award for lifetime achievement to Morgan Freeman.

 

There were other Oscar-worthy acceptance speeches as well, not surprisingly, from those who have taken home those more “esteemed” trophies—as Gervais called the grand dame of award shows in comparing it to the Globes—like Kate Winslet (for the lead role in HBO’s “Mildred Pierce”) and Julian Fellowes for PBS’s “Downton Abbey.”

 

Hollywood Foreign Press Association voters went all in for quality television, awarding new and niche shows and their stars golden statuettes. “Homeland,” “Boss,” “Episodes” and “Enlightened” thus have frontrunner status on the road to the Emmy Awards, while critical and popular favorite “Modern Family” added to its trophy case with the prize for best television comedy and “Game of Thrones” scored with a win for supporting actor Peter Dinklage.

 

But back to the show. Seth Rogen drove the lewd scale to a new low when he took the stage as a presenter with actress Kate Beckinsale and promptly remarked upon being unable to contain his physical arousal. (That must have been on the same teleprompter that wasn’t there for Rob Lowe and Julianne Moore—resulting in their ad lib of cold reading for Steven Spielberg.) She never regained her composure as they proceeded to present an award.

 

Who would have guessed that in addition to Gervais’ planned profanities, Meryl Streep caused a bleep when she apparently uttered an expletive upon realizing she forgot her reading glasses as she took the best actress prize for her role as Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady.”

 

Leave it to the ever suave, sophisticated, sexy two-time winner of the night, “The Descendants” star George Clooney to be both funny (coming out on stage with Brad Pitt’s cane, making fun of Michael Fassbender in “Shame”), and touching (complimenting best actor rival/friend Pitt on his humanitarian work).

 

If there were any residual effects of the anti-French sentiment from the Bush era, the people behind the burgeoning awards powerhouse “The Artist” dispelled it with their charm in receiving three Globes, including the top prize as best comedy/musical.

 

As that black and white art house film is showing the world, sometimes silence can be golden–and Rogen could surely take a lesson from that.

 

Filed Under: Awards Season, Entertainment, Featured Stories, Television Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Young Adult: Billed as a Comedy but Heartbreaking at its Core

December 19, 2011

Although we’ve seen some of the key comedic scenes multiple times in commercials and trailers –Charlize shopping for a hot outfit, Charlize talking about her baggage–watching “Young Adult” felt fresh and new.

Full disclosure: Charlize Theron is a huge favorite of ours, as an actress, as a person and as one of the most beautiful women to currently grace the silver screen.

By all accounts, her character, young adult author and Minneapolis (or Mini-Apple, as small town Minnesotans apparently call it) resident Mavis Gary, was supposed to be “vile,” a word that is rarely used but brings to mind horrendous qualities about a person.

But is it really so terrible that she apparently has trouble meeting deadlines, loses herself in casual sex, drinks from a huge bottle of Diet Coke as a hangover cure first thing in the morning or pulls her hair to relieve stress? C’mon people, Mavis is not that out there, especially when she settles in with a bucket of KFC to watch the latest ep of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” or tries to remember to feed her pocketbook-sized Pomeranian.

You could possibly say she’s a bit deluded, but nothing completely off the charts–until she decides to trek back to her small Minnesota town and win back the heart of her high school boyfriend, a married hottie (played by Patrick Wilson)  who just had a baby girl.

OK, this is a pretty common scenario—in your dreams, though. Who hasn’t wanted to go back to high school and re-live young romance, especially if you were hooked up with the cute star player on the baseball team who was also the lead singer/guitarist of a band who played around town—or the equivalent?

What makes Mavis’ fictional story so interesting and relatable—through Cody’s sharp script and Reitman’s direction—is the filmmakers’ refusal to let her off the hook for her foibles, or to grant her any sort of redemption in the third act.  

Sure, some of the scenes are painful to watch, like the meltdown at a family party, which we won’t spoil, or when we realize she was never going to call her parents who live in the small town, which is continually bashed as a hick haven whose haute cuisine is the newest location of a combo Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC.

More humor comes in her overindulgence in Makers Mark at the local bars, of which there appear to be two. One dive, one not so dive—where she originally makes her play for Wilson, who has agreed to meet her for old time’s sake.

Mavis’ fantasy of stealing him away from his salt of the earth wife—who’s also a drummer in an all-new-mom garage band—takes over her reality, and we’re in for the duration, a surprisingly short and snappy hour and a half.

And what heroine, drunk, disheveled or at her best, doesn’t need a kicky confidant? In this scenario, he’s played by Patton Oswalt in an authentic take on a high school nerd twenty years later, making homebrewed liquor in the garage of the house where he lives with his sister, who idolizes Mavis.

Patton, as Matt, was Mavis’ locker mate during high school, but she barely acknowledged his presence—until he was brutally beaten by bullies because they thought he was gay.

As bizarre soulmates with wounded psyches—his from much longer ago and hers more recent, it seems—they make a riveting pair. You almost, almost, hope that Mavis will see the light and realize what a great, available guy he is, a man who would worship the ground she walks on—even knowing her “truth.”

But Reitman and Cody have another ending in mind, and it’s not a typical Hollywood one.

Young Adult, Rated R

Directed by Jason Reitman, written by Diablo Cody.

Running time: 1:34

Filed Under: Entertainment, Film Tagged With: , , ,

New Year’s Eve: Worst Holiday Movie Ever?

December 14, 2011

 

Holiday movies, by virtue of the power vested in them, are supposed to have uplifting elements to them. But in the case of the celebrity-packed “New Year’s Eve,” from the makers of the similarly-themed “Valentine’s Day,” the dominant emotions are stultifying boredom and dread.

The story certainly had potential for that warm, fuzzy feeling. The concept: take a bunch of diverse, but generally inordinately attractive people like Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Zac Efron and Josh Duhamel – some couples, some former couples, some singles and some kids – and mash up all their stories in New York City on New Year’s Eve.

Make one of the centerpieces a last-minute glitch in the the famous ball drop at Times Square, overseen by a toothy Hilary Swank, and a race between two couples to deliver the first child of the new year for a $25,000 prize and you have yourselves the making of a lighthearted, fun comedy.

But the mix of movie and television stars thrown together for seemingly no other reason than their tabloidability just never seems to work– until the surprise ending – which we are not going to spoil. Only to say that it partially mitigated the previous two hours of discomfort of watching scenes like:

– a slacker/hipster Ashton Kutcher (gee, that’s a stretch) stuck in an elevator with an aspiring singer played by Lea Michele. If you’re a fan of hers, you may appreciate the skintight red bandage dress with black tights. Otherwise, not so much.

– SNL’s Seth Meyers as the husband of pregnant Jessica Biel. You’ll be waiting for him to say something funny, but it just doesn’t happen.

– Jon Bon Jovi as a gasp, hot, headlining rockstar who gets religion about relationships and tries to pull out some stops in order to win back his ex, Katherine Heigl, masquerading as an accomplished chef catering one of the city’s biggest bashes. We must say Bon Jovi, not singing, was one of the film’s highlights.

– Robert DeNiro in a throwaway role that probably took a couple hours to shoot as a dying man in a hospital bed who refuses treatment– and whose last wish is to see the ball drop from the rooftop. Yeah, right. Going out of this life on a real highlight.

– Michelle Pfeiffer as you’ve never seen her before, and wouldn’t want to again, as a scattered, mousy music industry secretary who quits her job and goes on a “bucket list” journey with none other than Zac Efron. Okay, will admit it – he’s cute and charming.

– And then there’s Sofia Vergara in another caricature of her va va voom Latina bombshell persona, which has become extremely tiresome, spouting one inane line after another as she thrusts herself in the direction of Bon Jovi– even though she works for Heigl.

Need we say more? One person we haven’t mentioned is Sarah Jessica Parker. That’s because she supplies the only real emotions and romantic drama in the whole piece. You go, SJP.  Everyone else, probably best to forget you were in this stinker.

New Year’s Eve, directed by Garry Marshall, written by Katherine Fugate

 Rated PG-13, Runs 1:57

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My Week With Marilyn: Michelle’s Revealing Take on a Legend

December 6, 2011

That’s funny. Or maybe, not so much. For Golden Globes, “My Week With Marilyn” is being entered as a comedy. Funny is one of the last adjectives that come to mind after seeing this well-crafted film. Tender, touching and perhaps, a bit amusing maybe, but laugh out loud comedic, no.

But one thing’s for sure.

Michelle Williams is a revelation as the great screen and sex icon Marilyn Monroe. That comes as somewhat of a surprise as the pixie-haired actress known for her roles in “Blue Valentine” and “Brokeback Mountain” wouldn’t seem like a natural, as Scarlett Johansson or Charlize Theron might, based upon their looks and acting abilities.

 

In fact, Johansson was reportedly up for the role, as were Amy Adams and Kate Hudson.

 

Williams had to pad out her slim physique to mimic Marilyn’s curves and go through extensive makeup every day, but it’s what comes from the inside that shines through in this fascinating tale of Monroe’s time in London, making the 1957 comedy “The Prince and the Showgirl” with one of the acting world’s all-time greats, Sir Laurence Olivier.

 

Based upon two books by Colin Clark, who was a 23-year-old glorified gofer on the film, the story chronicles his time in England with Monroe after her then-husband, Arthur Miller briefly joined her for the production and then went back to the United States.

 

Predictably, Clark, played by a charming Eddie Remayne, falls in love with the vulnerable bombshell and is at her beck and call, as she struggles with showing up on time on the set and dealing with the renowned Olivier and his movie star wife Vivien Leigh.

 

The tone is set when on the first day of shooting, Monroe keeps the entire cast in full costume waiting for two hours while she prepares with her protective acting coach, Paula Strasberg.

 

Olivier, who shows no patience forMonroe’s “Method,”  is played by the superb Kenneth Branagh. The exemplary cast also includes Dougray Scott, Judi Dench and Emma Watson in supporting roles.

 

My Week With Marilyn, Rated R

Directed by Simon Curtis, written by Adrian Hodges

Running time: 101 minutes

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Shame: Michael Fassbender’s NC-17 Sex in the City Thrill Ride

December 2, 2011

Deep, dark, gloomy and, dare we say, penetrating. That’s the feeling you get from the very beginning of the new thriller, “Shame.”

 

If you missed seeing the Irish born actor Michael Fassbender in “X-Men: First Class,” “Jane Eyre,” “Hunger,” or this season’s “A Dangerous Method,” you’ll never forget him as Brandon in the Steve McQueen directed “Shame.”

 

We first meet the handsome, brooding Brandon in bed at his New York apartment and within less than a minute, see him full-frontal– and then furiously masturbating in his bathroom and then in the men’s room in his office, where he also accesses porn on the company computer.

 

His exact occupation is left somewhat of a mystery – he may work at an advertising agency– but one thing is quite clear. He’s a sex addict who has difficulty connecting with himself or with other people as human beings. A soulless Manhattanite who needs the release of sex multiple times a day, whether it’s by himself, with a pickup at a bar or a prostitute.

Despite his uncontrollable urges and his lack of introspection about them, Brandon has his routines down pat. We see him showering in the morning, repeatedly listening to a phone message from what sounds like a desperate ex-flame that he’s blown off, commuting to work on the subway–where he often flashes back to his sexual gratification and gives the eye to attractive women. Then, his day involves dealing with his workload and his boss, played by a schlumpy (as we’ve never seen him) James Badge Dale– who’s more of a bar buddy wanting in on some of Brandon’s action.

 

And then there’s the joyless sex– on the street, in his apartment, or in the window of the Standard Hotel in full view of the street below. It’s not identified, but that’s where a lot of the action takes place.

 

As they used to say about “Sex and the City,” New York City is a character in this film and its aficionados will enjoy figuring out other sites where scenes were filmed.

 

All may be fine and good, as it apparently has been for years, until a big complication arrives at Brandon’s doorstep in the form of his sister, Sissy, in a stunning performance by Carey Mulligan. She is as emotionally open and needy as he is contained, demanding that she stay with him, where she proceeds to press all of his buttons in the wrong way, including walking in on a masturbation session.

 

It’s when Sissy– a nightclub singer with her own deeply felt emotional issues– takes up with the married boss that things get really out of control and start to spiral downward for Brandon, who already perceives the walls closing in.

 

Meanwhile, he’s trying to start an actual dating relationship with a coworker played by Nicole Beharie. They start off on an awkward dinner date and, well, we’re not going to spoil what happens.

 

The whole time, with shades of “American Psycho,” you’re wondering what Brandon is going to do next. Rape, murder? Assault? The journey involves a gay sex club, some seedy bars and a threesome– all through the lens of Brandon’s desperation and despair.

 

Shame, Rated NC-17

Directed by Steve McQueen, written by McQueen and Abi Morgan

Running time: 1:39

 

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Rampart: Harrelson at His Best as a Very Bad Cop

November 28, 2011

 

If you’re expecting another “Training Day,” in which Denzel Washington played a corrupt LA cop in the role that won him an Academy Award, you’re probably going to be a bit disappointed in “Rampart,” a much buzzed about film in limited release to qualify for awards.

 

Washington, you may recall, was riveting as a rogue cop running his own drug and cash enterprise within the LAPD, and nearly as mesmerizing, Woody Harrelson will definitely be on the Oscar shortlist for his portrayal of officer Dave Brown.

 

Set in 1999 in the scandal-plagued Rampart division, the square-jawed, self-proclaimed “soldier in the jungle” Brown hasn’t learned the lessons of the 1992 Rodney King beating and ensuing Los Angeles riots. He is caught on tape, single handedly and in broad daylight, brutally beating a suspect who has the audacity to crash into his patrol car.

 

The assault – which is played endlessly on the local and national news– forces Dave and those around him at work and in his messy home life (he has two ex-wives, sisters to each other, and a daughter born of each) to confront the demons it unleashes.

Previously, we’ve been introduced to his M.O. on the job, intimidating his young female partner in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant by forcing her to eat some French fries in a game of mindfuck which he’s clearly going to win.

 

While Brown’s crooked cop is magnetic as the audience gets to know him through his multiple flaws and sexual magnetism– he has no trouble getting multiple women at his local bar sleep with him– that relationship with the partner is quickly dropped and you never see her again. Which is a shame, because she could have been a great storytelling device.

 

Instead of a tight, dramatic, suspenseful story like the aforementioned “Training Day,” or a period piece like “L.A. Confidential,” “Rampart” is more of an impressionistic, noir-in-bright-sunlight take on a deviant personality whose bad behavior within the LAPD is condoned until it can simply no longer be contained.

 The story, written by director Oren Moverman and crime lit maestro James Ellroy, left us longing for much more cop/corruption/detective action–the kind that nearly makes you jump out of your seat.

Instead, we got some additional suspense in the form of an excellent, heavyweight supporting cast including Sigourney Weaver, Steve Buscemi, Cynthia Nixon, Anne Heche, Ned Beatty and Ben Foster, who also starred with Harrelson in Moverman’s ”The Messenger.”

Rampart, Rated R, Running Time 1:52

Directed by Oren Moverman, written by Moverman and James Ellroy

TAR Rating: 3.5 Stars

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