Continuing the beginning of the year 2000 and, already, we have our first Oscar winner of the year!
Wonder Boys was originally intended for end-of-year awards consideration in 1999. Getting it all together proved a challenge, though, and the release date was pushed back to February 2000, a surprising decision considering how firmly the November-December period had become Awards Season by that time. Critically acclaimed but met by audiences with a shrug, it came and went at the end of February. Such was the support within the film and critical communities, it was re-released in November, better suited for awards consideration. Indeed, it went on to be nominated for four Golden Globes (winning Best Original Song) and was among the National Board of Review's Top Ten Films of 2000, while star Michael Douglas was named Best Actor by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
But that would be a December 00/January 01 story. We're still in January and February 2000, and Wonder Boys was one release of many - all seen this year for my first time:
Next Friday
release: January 12
dir: Steve Carr
pr: Ice Cube
scr: Ice Cube, based on characters created by Ice Cube & DJ Pooh
cin: Christopher J. Baffa
The continuing adventures of Craig, who hides out with family in Rancho Cucamonga when his nemesis breaks out of jail.
Never seen the first one, never seen the third, never watched the animated series, felt like I was dropped in on the lives of random people and forced to spend a day with them. Didn't hate that, actually, in fact I admired how it was able to balance the tension of Something About to Happen with the laidback laziness of a day that still must be filled despite no plans in place. Some jokes are stupid, some funny, many are both. Jacob Vargas makes the biggest impression as the leader of a Latino gang of brothers, his dedication to a whining register impressive. I'd watch it again just for his scenes.
Eye of the Beholder
release: January 28
dir: Stephan Elliott
pr: Nicolas Clermont / Tony Smith
scr: Stephan Elliott, from a novel by Marc Behm
cin: Guy Dufaux
A surveillance operative falls in love with a beautiful woman whose traumas occasionally lead her to murder.
Were it not for being on my Letterboxd, I would have totally forgotten about this movie. Now the only thing I do remember is k.d. lang as Ewan McGregor's handler at The Agency. Ashley Judd's great, though what else is new?
The Beach
release: February 11
dir: Danny Boyle
pr: Andrew Macdonald
scr: John Hodge, from the novel by Alex Garland
cin: Darius Khondji
An American backpacker in Thailand follows a legend of a secret island and finds a utopia...or so he thinks.
Remember this thing being a bit of a punchline back in the day, part of that period between Titanic and 2002 (Catch Me If You Can, Gangs of New York) where people were getting comfortable dismissing DiCaprio as a lightweight, a pretty boy, the Pussy Posse ringleader. Having that context makes this film even better: DiCaprio and Danny Boyle lean into that to deliver an indictment of such a type. The expat he plays is a type you've seen: total bro come to Bangkok in search of "adventure", his voiceovers full of pseudo-profundities about the state of the world and its people...though those voiceovers only seem to come when he is either thwarted in or held accountable for his actions. A sequence where he fantasizes himself the main character in a Crash Bandicoot-looking video game hits this home: it's all a literal game to him, and once he actually has to contribute meaningfully to this utopia and not just suck from its teat, it's not fun anymore. The "utopia" itself, of course, is not what it seems, made up of non-natives who've built their own "free" society - with their own invisible hierarchy, of course - their safety secured by a tense truce with gun-toting drug dealers. It's more dark comedy than straight-up thriller, if you're listening closely. Gorgeous visuals. Is this where the Danny Boyle-Alex Garland relationship began?
Boiler Room
release: February 18
dir/scr: Ben Younger
pr: Jennifer Todd / Suzanne Todd
cin: Enrique Chediak
An intelligent young man joins a shady brokerage firm and learns the cost of easy riches.
Or something like that. Listen, you've seen Wall Street, you've seen The Wolf of Wall Street (Jordan Belfort even claimed Boiler Room was loosely based on his life), you get it. He gets rich, loses his soul, tries to get it back. It all hangs on Giovanni Ribisi's shoulders, thank goodness: his sad-puppy face works great for this character. Vin Diesel steals scenes just the way he holds himself on the edges, such a charismatic, layered character actor. Its low budget is a benefit, hitting home how really low rent these people and their schemes are, no amount of pilfered money, nice cars, or rounds of bottle service can hide the cheap rot within them.
Hanging Up
release: February 18
dir: Diane Keaton
pr: Nora Ephron / Laurence Mark
scr: Delia Ephron & Nora Ephron, from the book by Delia Ephron
cin: Howard Atherton
A woman juggles job, family, her increasingly ailing father, and her strained relationship with her two sisters.
Now, this one I remember TV and print ads for, even distinctly remember seeing an interview in an in-flight magazine from the time (with who? I don't know, I was 11 at the time, I merely noted it and kept going). Finally, I got to see it, now with age, wisdom, and a familiarity with all the creatives involved. It's fine. It goes down easy enough, it gets the absurdities of serious things right, and there's one scene with Cloris Leachman that knocks the breath out of you. But it needed an Ephron at the helm, there's a sense of momentum that is missing. It doesn't flow, it just keeps going.
Pitch Black
release: February 18
dir: David Twohy
pr: Tom Engelman
scr: Jim Wheat & Ken Wheat and David Twohy, story by Jim Wheat & Ken Wheat
cin: David Eggby
A ship crashes onto an empty planet whose only apparent inhabitants are carnivorous creatures who only come out at night - and there's an eclipse on the way...
The only other movie I can think of that is this insistent in its color tinting is Freddy vs. Jason. It's blinding at times, headache-inducing, I might even say, but it does successfully suggest something so alien as to leave one discombobulated. It's a pulp horror-sci-fi, the kind of thing you might read in, oh, I don't know, E.C. Comics. No one ever feels safe, it's not the most predictable order of deaths: that's exciting. Vin Diesel is two-for-two, between this and Boiler Room, he and Radha Mitchell prove great foils, and he's an overall chilling, still presence.
Wonder Boys
release: February 23
wins: Best Original Song ("Things Have Changed")
nominations: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing (Dede Allen)
dir: Curtis Hanson
pr: Curtis Hanson / Scott Rudin
scr: Steve Kloves, from the novel by Michael Chabon
cin: Dante Spinotti
A series of misadventures over one life-changing weekend for English professor and one-time Great American novelist Grady Tripp and his wünderkind writing student.
Yeah, a tough movie to try to summarize, for two reasons. One: despite being jam-packed with things happening - a dead dog, a stolen car, a gay awakening (for the student, and no, not with the teacher) - it still feels less plot-driven than character study. But the real reason it's tough to talk/write about this one is that, despite recognizing that it's a well-made film, well-cast, with a great performance by Michael Douglas at its center, I just didn't warm up to it. Maybe the zany antics kept me at arm's length from the actual character dramedy happening. Maybe I just didn't care for these people. I certainly didn't care for the Bob Dylan song, "Things Have Changed", that bookends the movie! But what else can one say about a movie one doesn't dislike but still doesn't like?
Judy Berlin
release: February 25
dir/scr: Eric Mendelsohn
pr: Rocco Caruso
cin: Jeffrey Seckendorf
A total eclipse of the sun gives residents of a Long Island community opportunities for self-reflection.
Magic and melancholy. Does a great job establishing this community - mostly focusing on aspiring actress Judy (effervescent Edie Falco), her schoolteacher mother Sue (prickly Barbara Barrie), and their neighbor Alice (chatty Madeline Kahn) - before plunging them into a dreamscape that transforms their neighborhood and knocks their own sense of self off-balance. The familiar becomes unfamiliar - as Alice says, "We're space explorers!" - and that can be exciting but it can also bring into perspective how much of your own life feels alien or unknown. Sue is shaken by both the eclipse and by a hostile encounter with the retired teacher whose classroom she takes over; she's also left in a frustrating between-state in her non-physical, unspoken romance with her boss, Alice's husband. Alice is childlike in her excitement for the eclipse, but the darkness brings to light her own distance from her family and the increasing lapses of memory she's experiencing. And our titular Judy is given a fresh look at her home, a chance to reflect and see people and places as though literally coming through the darkness of a dream or a memory, before she takes the afternoon train in her great move to Los Angeles and, hopefully, a career in Hollywood. Beautifully acted, thoughtful in writing and direction. It's a small-scale film, but there was this feeling in my chest while watching, a recognition of how home still pulls you even when you know you can't stay there. Exquisite movie.
Tomorrow, my rewatches of March: Drowning Mona, Final Destination, and High Fidelity.
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