Big White Cloud On Me

I did not plan on writing about Joe Carnahan's Smokin' Aces. Typically I only write about films that I love on this blog and I did not love Smokin' Aces. I'm actually not even sure I liked it, and yet since I saw it just over a week ago it has stuck with me.
This is Carnahan's third feature after Blood Guts and Octane (which I didn't like) and Narc(which I did but thought it was overrated). Smokin' Aces is majorly flawed, overly complex and incredibly violent film that feels like a very pesky candle that either burns too bright or not at all. Almost every review I have read of the film calls it 'Tarantinoesque' and I know what they are trying to say but it seems to be one of those cop out terms that critics use everytime a new crime film comes out.
Tarantino is a master scriptwriter who is able to pull many disparate elements in and make them cohesive. It is Tarantino's control as a director that makes his films so memorable. They might seem chaotic and frenzied but underneath each one is a really assured craftsman. There is nothing cohesive or controlled about guys like Carnahan or Guy Ritchie. These guys are just about the chaos and Smokin' Aces takes this to the extreme. It is an ultimate 'kitchen sink' film made by a talented director who appears to be extremely frustrated and angry.
A key to the brutality that Carnahan injects in his Smokin' Aces is the fact that he was thrown off Mission Impossible 3 a couple of years back. Suddenly an up and comer got the rug swept from under him and the frustration and fear that Carnahan must have felt is poured into everything frame of this film.
A major problem with Smokin' Aces is its cast of 'I know that face'. Everyone from Ben Affleck to Alicia Keys(who is actually very good) shows up and the film would have greatly benefited from a cast of unknowns. Some of the casting works (Jason Bateman is great in his two very odd scenes) while some doesn't (Andy Garcia gives possibly his worst performance).
I was also never completely sure what kind of film Carnahan wanted to make. It works best during its most serious and over the top moments, but the attempts at humor continually undercut it. One painfully unfunny sequence involves a Grandmother and overly hyper karate kid that has cutting room floor written all over it.
This is also one of the most gleefully sadistic American films I have seen in a long time. The ratings board is obviously getting more and more relaxed or jaded, I'm not sure which. It works in the films favor, Carnahan's force as a filmmaker comes through in the film's most violent moments. Even at it's most overblown and ridiculous the violence in this film is absolutely hypnotic.
Smokin' Aces is a major train wreck of a film, so why I am writing about it? I think that this very well might become one of the major cult films of this decade. Last years horrendous Running Scared, which I could barely get through, was a predicted cult film by many but it already seems to have been forgotten and I think time will not be kind to that film. I have a feeling, that I can't totally put my finger on, that time will treat Smokin' Aces well. It takes years to give a film a legitimate cult following but I think this, as well last year's equally over the top but a lot more fun Crank, will find an audience that will embrace it eventually.
The film's biggest asset is without a doubt Jeremy Piven, an actor who continually delivers impressive performances in less than stellar films. Here, as the title character, Piven really shines. This is one of the great melt-down performances of the last few years and Piven injects this character with a sad, tortured humanity that saves the film in every scene he is in.
Smokin' Aces achieves true brilliance just once and it is a scene that keeps coming back to me. Aces has just sold out the last friends he had and he is bordering on overdosing on all the coke he has been snorting. His life as just caught up with him and he stands staring into a mirror. An extended version of John Cale's extraordinary Big White Cloud, from his first solo album 1971's Vintage Violence, begins to play and for several minutes Cale's song plays and we watch Piven fall apart. It's a beautiful, tortured few moments that silenced the rather large audience I saw this with. Suddenly everything works and director, actor and musician are totally together. It is a perfect moment in a very imperfect film and the most exhilarating moment I have had a theater in this young year.
Smokin' Aces might disappear when it is released on DVD but I doubt it. Carnahan is talented and he might have a great film in him somewhere, until then his 'disasters' will probably be more interesting than a lot of 'good' films that will fill up our theaters.

John Carpenter Q and A Day Two: Craven, Scar and Morricone

John Carpenter concluded his question and answer session this afternoon and while several of the same topics from yesterday were covered, many interesting new ones were also brought up.
After a nice introduction Carpenter quickly settled into the same relaxed tone as yesterday, only today to an even smaller audience. He talked a bit more about Bowling Green and he credited much of the 'evil' in his films as being directly related to his time here. Specifically he mentioned an evening in Russellville involving a girlfriend and a stepfather that had particularly stuck with him, but he didn't give any details.
Highlights of the first half were a conversation about how the unexpected success of ASSAULT ON PRECINCT THIRTEEN in England really helped set the stage for HALLOWEEN. Carpenter admitted that while THE THING was his favorite film of his own, HALLOWEEN remained his best experience. He credited the youth of almost everyone involved and the excitement of working with Donald Pleasance.
The subject of his actor's came up more today and Carpenter said that he still treasured being able to have worked with his Henry Brandon in ASSAULT, since Brandon had played Scar in THE SEARCHERS (still one of Carpenter's favorite films.) John credited the classic Hollywood directors of his youth, specifically Howard Hawks, Hitchcock and Orson Welles as being his biggest influences. When asked about the easiest to work with Kurt Russell's name immediately came up. James Woods name was mentioned when Carpenter was asked about the most difficult but John quickly added that Woods is a brilliant actor, and it seemed clear that there wasn't any real animosity. He did admit that Courtney Love gave him the biggest headache before being replaced by Natasha Henstridge in GHOSTS OF MARS due to her drug and emotional problems. Love recently sent Carpenter a written apology and he said he hoped she was continuing to do better. GHOSTS OF MARS remains one of Carpenter's most under-appreciated films and I personally love Henstridge in it asnd I can't imagine that Love could have brought the same coolness and presence to the role.
Several questions came up concerning Carpenter's peers including one asking whether he had ever felt any competition, specifically with Wes Craven. He replied no and said that he still kept in touch with Craven who had told recently told him to 'stay away' from the Weinstein group. This led into a talk on Crapenter's distaste for the 'corporate Hollywood' system and how the director as author idea was getting more and more lost.
The subject of music took up a lot of the talk today. GRINDHOUSE was brought up and Carpenter mentioned Rodriguez had wanted him to score it but he had a commitment to the MASTER'S OF HORROR program. He said he hadn't seen GRINDHOUSE but that he liked both Rodriguez and Tarantino (whom he labeled endearingly as an 'incredibly talented fanboy') and he took great interest in our audience's different opinions on GRINDHOUSE. He pointed out that if he hadn't been a director that music would have been his second choice or perhaps even an English teacher.
With the topic of music in the air I asked him about his collaboration with Morricone in THE THING and he still seemed obviously proud of it. He described going to Italy to meet with Ennio, even though Carpenter couldn't speak Italian and Morricone couldn't speak English, and getting bits of music to take back to score THE THING with. He asked me if I liked the score from THE MISSION, a personal favorite of his, and I said of course but I pointed to the Argento scores as some of my own personal favorites. I was surprised to see that Carpenter had forgotten that Morricone had done work with Argento and he asked me to name the films and he seemed particularly pleased to be reminded of them, especially BIRD WITH CRYSTAL PLUMAGE. I wish now I would have asked about Goblin's work in DEEP RED in relationship to Carpenter's score from HALLOWEEN.
A final topic that stood out was a question that brought up Carpenter's canonization in the classroom and his thoughts on it. "Better than getting my ass kicked" was a pretty perfect answer and then he said it was 'very flattering.'
His message to young aspiring filmmakers was a simple but effective one, 'just make sure you HAVE to direct', that 'halfway' wouldn't cut it.
With a final joke of, "I have to go meet my drug dealer" John Carpenter wrapped up this second session to our really small but appreciative crowd. I got to meet him afterwards and he signed my THE FOG soundtrack and was a very warm man to speak to. A friend of mine was lucky enough to get a poster from HALLOWEEN signed that had me very envious, but I am pretty happy with an autographed copy of one of may favorite scores (which I have scanned here.)

John Carpenter is receiving a much deserved honorary doctorate tomorrow from the university. In a career that has now spanned nearly 35 years and highlighted by some of the most influential and creative genre films of the modern era, John Carpenter is a true icon. It was a real pleasure to listen to him speak on these two occasions and to get share a moment and handshake with him. I hope the awards ceremony tomorrow is a memorable one for him.

****POSTSCRIPT**** Here is a photo from WKU's website of John getting his honorary degree. Congratulations, I hope it was a great day for him

Brother, What Happened To You?

A big debate amongst film fans throughout the 80's and 90's was this one: Pacino or De Niro? I was on the fence for a long time but sometime in the late 80s it stopped being a conversation for me because I had my answer. Pacino, after making his comeback with 1988's Sea Of Love, has continued to give great performances in quality films. Pacino's work in films like Carlito's Way, Donnie Brasco, Insomnia, Looking For Richard, Heat and People I Know will all fit in nicely with his legacy. Even misfires like Simone or Two For The Money aren't total embarrassments, Pacino has continued to give us performances in films that are worth his and our time.
De Niro is another story. At his height from 1973's Mean Streets to 1980's Raging Bull he was without question our finest actor. The range he showed in film's like Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter, 1900, New York New York, and Godfather 2 is almost beyond comprehension. Something happened after Raging Bull though, of the 11 films he made in the 80s only The King Of Comedy, the underrated Midnight Run and the astonishing Once Upon A Time In American are the equal to his work in the 70's. Perhaps he exhausted himself, perhaps somewhere along the way he just stopped caring.
The 90's should have been a great decade for him but even in his final films with Scorsese: GoodFellas, Cape Fear and Casino he never seems totally engaged. There is never a moment in those films, no matter how great they might be, that he makes us feel the way he had before. Never a moment when he lets us understand things about ourselves the way he had, suddenly he just became....an actor.
He worked alot through the 90s, 25 films including one he directed himself. He gave two of his best performances in Heat and Jackie Brown. Other roles in such films as CopLand, Ronin, and Wag The Dog would allow him characters that he could slip into without going too deep. Nothing he would do in that ten year period would be embarrassing but ultimately it all comes down to his last scene in Jackie Brown when after shooting him Samuel Jackson asks, what happened to him, 'Your ass used to be beautiful.' De Niro, like his character Louis in Tarantino's greatest film, hit a wall somewhere and he's yet to recover.
This decade has seen perhaps the finest actor this country ever produced making lousy film after lousy film. Films like 15 Minutes, Hide And Seek, Godsend and Showtime aren't simply bad films, they are extreme examples of everything that is wrong with modern American film. Films as disposable products and there is our man De Niro stuck right in the middle of them. No longer is he giving voice to the dark and hidden side of men, he's floundering, in trouble and seems only capable of giving us one disappointment after another.
I'm aware of his charity and Tribeca work and that is the excuse we keep giving him, that the money he is making is going towards something good. Ultimately though he could make the same money and not destroy the rich legacy that he's given.
The last time Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro worked together saw them back in New York, back in Black and White only this time it wasn't Jake LaMotta, Johnny Boy or Travis Bickle it was a 60 year old man working in an American Express commercial. Our man working for the man and breaking the heart of everyone that had loved him so much in the first place.
Dear Bobby, come back to us. Although you don't owe us nothing, you know you owe it to yourself. Remember what you said in The Deer Hunter, that thing that it's all about....'One Shot'....One Shot Bobby, we'll give you a million chances but ultimately it's up to you to remember. We've got all this hurt and rage built up inside, we need our communicator back.