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Happy 107th Birthday, Ayn Rand

2 February 2012

On this date in 1905, Ayn Rand was born. She escaped slavery in Soviet Russia, came to America – to New York City, then Chicago and Los Angeles and back to New York City, where she died in 1982 – and wrote screenplays, best-selling novels, newspaper columns and plays consumed by millions. She challenged the world and her philosophy, Objectivism, has since advanced throughout the West and among intellectuals, thanks to the efforts of the Ayn Rand Institute and, in particular, its founder, Leonard Peikoff.

I knew when I first read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged as a teen-ager that the world can be and ought to be as wonderful as Ayn Rand imagined and anyone who thinks her 1957 epic is strictly a dark prophecy of a nation in decline needs to think again. Atlas Shrugged is foremost an inspiring story of man at his best and it also offers an enriching philosophy for living on earth. Rand, who understood and fled Communism, saw that America was in deep trouble. Having seen the rise of the New Left first hand, and having been the recipient of its worst ideas, I also sensed, even 30 years ago, that the country was headed toward dictatorship. As I studied Objectivism, reading Dr. Peikoff’s philosophy books (The Ominous Parallels and Objectivism), attending lectures, courses and conferences, and engaged in what was really the first application of Objectivism to politics, a premature attempt to save medicine as a profession (in which some good was accomplished), I confirmed the worst. With the state-sponsored seizure of Elian Gonzalez, the Islamist attack on September 11, 2001, Black Tuesday, and today’s impending economic collapse, I must accept the fact that America is coming to an end, as Ayn Rand and Leonard Peikoff warned for decades.

But today brought good news. I’m not talking about the announcement that a second installment in a low-budget film series adaptation of Atlas Shrugged will be directed by Duncan Scott, who co-produced the restored film adaptation of We the Living, and released this fall (though with Scott on board, it may be an improvement over Atlas Shrugged, Part 1). Thanks to one of Objectivism’s new intellectuals, Tore Boeckmann (editor, The Art of Fiction by Ayn Rand), I learned that Leonard Peikoff’s forthcoming new book, The DIM Hypothesis: Why the Lights of the West are Going Out, is being published this fall and is available for pre-order on Amazon.com. Dr. Peikoff’s book is based on his final course, which I wrote about here, and I have every reason to think his third book will enlighten those who move the world. There are other reasons for encouragement, too many to mention, in several works – plays, exhibits, books, podcasts, movies, and I include my own work – by those influenced by the genius of Ayn Rand, including those who make no claim to be Objectivists. There isn’t much time to spare the United States of America, as far as I can tell, but her philosophy of reason, individual rights and egoism is making progress in changing the world. To which I can only say: Happy Birthday, Ayn Rand, in the name of the best within us.

Permalink | Posted in Ayn Rand, Books, Movies, Philosophy

Movie Review: Big Miracle

31 January 2012

Packed with subplots, politics and propaganda, the ecology movie Big Miracle is a big fish tale based on a true story from 1988. This Universal picture is brazenly loaded with more conflicts of interest than a politician, sprinkling in-bred spots from Comcast-owned NBC Universal’s other entertainment company, NBC News, whose presence in the film blatantly contradicts the anti-corporate theme. The movie manages to generate excitement in spite of itself.

The plot defies description but there are numerous forces that supposedly act in their self-interest to save three whales trapped under the ice near Barrow, Alaska. The incendiary spark is an unethical environmentalist (Drew Barrymore) who will do anything to achieve her ends and makes no bones about it. Part of the problem with Big Miracle is that it doesn’t know when it’s undercutting its ecological propaganda. It must be noted that children should not be exposed to this movie without a thorough grounding in the facts of nature, followed by a sober discussion about whether it’s moral to sacrifice humans to animals as the film repeatedly advocates.

But frankly half the fun is seeing multiple articles of leftist faith eviscerated; whether the tribe that hunts the mammals for its livelihood is subjugated to people who blindly follow the dogma that the individual and the collective – heck, anything human – must be subordinated to the whales. Besides the prospect of Ms. Barrymore’s Greenpeace activist being swatted to death and a helicopter full of humans deliberately being frozen to death, there are countless instances in which men, women and children are put at risk of death for the sake of the gray whales. Among the selfless are John Krasinski (Jarhead) as an affable local news reporter, Ted Danson as an oil titan married to a closeted Greenpeace accomplice (Kathy Baker), a cute tribal kid, a couple of dolts from Minnesota, a governor, a White House aide, competing reporters, tribesmen and village people and, of course, all of them are willing to risk death to save the whales. The most driven character is played by Dermot Mulroney as a National Guardsman. None of their efforts exactly succeeds but, lo and behold, Big Miracle saves the best for last, delivering ecologically inclined Communists who save the day with a Soviet icebreaker that takes us beyond moral equivalency and tops the Americans with a greater sense of duty to the whales, which are trapped by rapidly forming ice in the Arctic Circle.

Somehow, through the nonsense and preposterous or horrid themes and ideas – men are bad, white men are worse, productive white men are the worst – Big Miracle depicts townspeople coming together to make a profit off the media-hyped event, careers being made by the tragedy in the making, leftists clawing their way to the top much more voraciously than the capitalists, and, above all, that which is manmade conquering nature in order to suit man’s chosen purpose. That the machines serve an arguably irrational purpose – one person questions why the whales deserve more attention than the 30 wars on the planet – is emphatically not the point. Big Miracle is mystical about worshipping non-man on earth, complete with men on their knees in prayer – with entire families passively sitting on couches consuming food, entranced by the TV spectacle, as if in church, temple or mosque – but at least it shows, however accidentally, that what is truly miraculous is actually what is manmade.

Permalink | Posted in Movies, Universal

Star Wars Returns to Movie Theaters

29 January 2012

Like most people I know, I was seriously disappointed in the Star Wars re-boot that creator George Lucas offered between 1999 and 2005. Of the second trilogy, I liked Attack of the Clones (2002) the best. But it was a snoozer, too, and the third and final installment, Revenge of the Sith (2005), was particularly bad. The first part of that series, The Phantom Menace (1999), arrives in movie theaters on February 10 at participating AMC Theatres for a special 3D re-release.

Besides an animated feature release called The Clone Wars (2008), the original three pictures (Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi), released for the first time on DVD in 2004 as I reported here, are the only other Star Wars films and they are an historic part of 20th century American culture. Like Disney classics, the original three pictures have also been re-released in theaters, and the return of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace to theaters, now in 3D, will undoubtedly be popular among Star Wars fans of all ages. Lucasfilm announced that it will give away an all-new Hasbro Star Wars Fighter Pod with the purchase of each RealD® 3D ticket for The Phantom Menace, all weekend long, February 10-12 only at AMC Theatres (limit one per ticket, while supplies last). Lucasfilm also issued a statement that, starting Saturday, Feb. 11 at 11 a.m. local time, select movie theaters will offer activities, giveaways and interactive experiences, including (while supplies last): exclusive Anakin Skywalker Podracer 3D glasses with ticket purchase; a Hasbro Star Wars Fighter Pods collectible toy with RealD 3D ticket purchase; a Lego® promotion; a Darth Maul face-painting; special character appearances for photo opportunities and promotional demonstrations of an upcoming Xbox Kinect™ Star Wars. Additionally, these ten AMC venues in the United States will host exclusive event screenings of Phantom Menace in RealD 3D: Atlanta: AMC Southlake 24; Boston: AMC Loews Liberty Tree Mall 20; Chicago: AMC South Barrington 30; Denver: AMC Highlands Ranch 24; Orange County: AMC Tustin 14 at The District; AMC Ontario Mills 30; New York: AMC Empire 25; AMC Garden State 16; Phoenix: AMC Mesa Grand 24; San Francisco: AMC Emeryville Bay Street 16. Visit StarWars.com for more information.

I did not write reviews of the original movies (which pre-date my film journalism) or either The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones (which were released between my newspaper and online film criticism) but I succumbed to the mystique and attended opening weekends for all six movies. I must admit that, by the time I was assigned to review the last movie, the series had all but played out, as I wrote in a 2005 commentary. I disliked Phantom Menace enormously, and still do, with the needless and boring podracing and the moronic Jar-Jar Binks, whom I still joke about with friends, so there’s that (Darth Maul is the best thing about the movie). Being romantic to a fault, I enjoyed the grand-scale romance of Attack of the Clones, contrasted to the rise of fascism, and still think it holds up well compared to the others. Revenge of the Sith, was, well, the proper capstone to the whole series, which is to say it was an exercise in faith-based, malevolent monster moviemaking. While I wish the series well and respect the right of its creator to fuss with his movies all he wants (read my “George Lucas vs. the Stormtroopers“), I look to Marvel Studios and others for heroic, larger-than-life, grand-scale motion pictures, such as Captain America. Star Wars was a milestone in its day – an escape in dark, dreary times – and, if you’ve already seen The Artist and The Iron Lady, the thrilling lightsaber duel between Liam Neeson’s Jedi knight and Darth Maul (to an exciting musical score), minus the annoying bell-bottomed alien and the half-hour artificial podrace, might offer a decent value in movie theaters.

Permalink | Posted in Culture, Home Entertainment, Lucasfilm, Movies, Twentieth Century Fox

Movie Review: Undefeated

26 January 2012

One of the Oscar-nominated documentaries, Undefeated, sounds more dramatic and engrossing than it turns out to be: set in north Memphis, Tennessee, in the arena of inner-city high school football players during the chronically losing Manassas Tigers’ 2009 football season, a tough coach steps in to inspire the students to win the first playoff game in the high school’s 110-year history.

Critics are gushing over this real-life Blind Side-type picture and it’s easy to see why. The coach, a Christian named Bill Courtney who volunteered to coach the boys’ team, is very dedicated according both to this movie and to an interviewed newspaper reporter who, the press notes disclose while the film does not, wrote an article that inspired the film. But Coach Courtney is a mixed case for coaching and Undefeated raises questions about its approach.

From the start, Coach Courtney is a bit theatrical, telling the players that he will kill himself for the team. Exaggeration continues, which is fine for a coach who needs to stir his team to victory, but rigorous training does not, judging by what we see. Undefeated is less interested in the athletics of football than it is in proselytizing its themes of selflessness, forgiveness and sacrifice. Also, with no pretext to why this documentary was made, by whom, or in what context, the perspective is blurred; in one scene, a kid’s in trouble yet in the next scene, the coach finds out from another player and we’re left to wonder why facts and sequence were edited out. And with a coach at the center who apparently attends a religious camp called ManRise, takes public school kids to church and leads them in prayer with not a peep from anyone in a state where the Scopes trial took place, Coach Courtney probably violates the law and certainly grates on the nerves.

As Undefeated tracks three players, big lug tackle O.C., criminally-inclined linebacker Chavis, and a smaller kid called “Money” who plays offensive lineman, it’s easy to get into this story of a sad, poor team and its feisty coach who preaches that character counts. We want to root for the kids, see them win and we’re so invested in their tales and troubles that we start to forget it’s a movie. Supposedly a documentary, though important action happens offscreen, as when Chavis assaults another player but not before the screen goes blank for no apparent reason, and Undefeated ultimately feels as real and authentic as so-called reality television. That’s not to say it’s without value, and I’m glad these kids apparently learned something and did well. But between references to “haves and have-nots” and fairy tale endings where anonymous rich people pay for an entire college education and thugs turn into humble servants, I noticed that preachy Coach Courtney never had time for his wife and kids, which he eventually admits, and that for all his preaching he sets a poor example as a father.

All of which is a shame because how schools conduct sports is a serious issue that deserves a serious documentary. We are currently plagued with news about concussions in football players (which never comes up here) and what may be a link to a form of encephalitis, sex abuse scandals and arrests at Penn State, Syracuse and the Amateur Athletic Union (whose director was fired after he was accused of abuse by former basketball players during his youth sports work in Memphis). Instead, Undefeated offers prayers, bromides and slogans, like an episode of Huckabee without the fiddlers, banjo playing and aw shucks grins.

Permalink | Posted in Movies, Sports, Weinstein Company, The

Movie Review: The Artist

21 January 2012

Small, abstract and intimate, the thoroughly contrived and well-constructed silent movie that’s the talk of Tinseltown deserves its gold-plated reputation. The Artist, which begins in Hollywood in the year 1927, is a layered and complicated love story that breaks your heart and dares to exact a happy ending. As silent movie star George Valentin, Jean Dujardin is at once commanding, agile and irresistible. When rising young dancer and actress Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) daydreams about being in his arms and caresses his face, it isn’t difficult to see why; she is a hero-worshipper at the core of her being, from showing up at the premiere of a picture in which he makes a mockery of torture by Soviet Russians to returning a favor that marks their shared sense of life.

Handsome, married actor and plucky, struggling actress fall in love but their goodness keeps them apart (until their vanity does, too). Upon reflection, The Artist portrays the artist as rather desperate and shallow and terribly insecure. He is wedded to a matronly ice queen in an apparent marriage of convenience which we’re left to project from scratch. As talkies and economic collapse emerge, he is plunged into false pride and despair in a way that contradicts his light, debonair sophistication and well-deserved stardom. George’s internal struggle is the film’s focus, really, with an adorable dog to magnify the conflict, and his journey takes psychologically deep, dark and twisting turns that ultimately lead to a more realistic approach to his art and to the art of living. The Artist depicts the intersection of art and life and how one ought to do both.

Peppy, for her part, is always on display, from her first audition to her first act of empowerment against a studio executive, ever armed with a grease pencil and guarding her true love for George while facing the consequences of her own short-range thoughtlessness. As Peppy ascends, George descends, with the always reliable Missi Pyle, James Cromwell and John Goodman and others perfectly suited to punctuate their psycho-drama, and the movie’s not nearly as manic as the trailer suggests.

Writer and director Michel Hazanavicius delivers endless sensory material with which to process the artist’s powerful transformation. A closing door signals exactly that. A silently mirrored scream signals an inaudible eruption of pent-up egotism. A studio staircase symbolizes that business is cyclical; some go up while others come down. A blindingly white hospital gives us light and life. None of this is presented in pretentious terms. The players’ dancing laughter has a lightness, gaiety and innocence throughout, in black and white silence, with Ludovic Bource’s score, with nods to Bernard Herrmann and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., whom George most closely resembles.

The screenplay is more plain than obvious yet its simplicity is deceptive. A movie that evokes sadness when the hero is losing in a scene in which he is literally sinking – or places a little red wagon on a city sidewalk – or leaves the woman wanting and waiting patiently for the man – and manages to leave us tap dancing with the conviction that art requires effort and that making art like life, and life like art, is hard, is modern in theme, old-fashioned in form and both in the best sense. Wrenching and delightful, The Artist does to us what it does to its characters. It takes our breath away.

Permalink | Posted in Movies, Visual Arts, Weinstein Company, The

Movie Review: Ayn Rand & the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged

18 January 2012

Surprisingly, there’s a lot I don’t like about the new Ayn Rand documentary, which I watched with a sold-out audience, including friends who worked on the 84-minute film, at a special screening at the ArcLight Hollywood last night. Because I know many of those who appear in or worked on it, I wanted to like every second of Ayn Rand & the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged and there is much to like in this movie, which I enjoyed as an experience of seeing Ayn Rand on the big screen again. By the time we see what relevance Rand’s epic novel has to today’s dark times, there are many good points, read directly from her 1957 Random House bestseller and contrasted with well-chosen works of art depicting opposing ideas. But the good points get bogged down in an overbearing movie.

With a booming male narrative, breakneck pace and incessant score, the independent documentary is better suited to the intimacy and immediacy of television. Writer and director Chris Mortensen achieves amazing results given the ground he has to cover in this short time frame. There’s just too much material crammed into the movie, which covers the truly prophetic Atlas Shrugged, set in what novelist and philosopher Rand called the day after tomorrow and dramatizing America collapsing under a corrupt establishment of government regulators and their favored businessmen who prey on individual achievement. Nothing wrong with being ambitious, but the unfortunately named Ayn Rand & the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged, which at its worst plays like a bombastic infomercial, delves into the book’s history at the expense of explaining key connections to today’s events.

The film relies too heavily upon two discredited Rand biographers, Jennifer Burns and Anne Heller, both of whom wrote deeply flawed accounts of Rand’s life in 2009, though they don’t repeat their worst errors or transgressions here. Presumably, they’re included for balance, the lack of which was a criticism of Michael Paxton‘s excellent Oscar-nominated 1997 documentary, Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life, but this effort is best when it sticks to people who know and grasp Rand’s life, art and ideas, such as former Ayn Rand Institute (ARI) director Mike Berliner (editor of Rand’s Russian Writings on Hollywood and Letters of Ayn Rand) and current ARI President Yaron Brook. What most Atlas Shrugged readers know, that reading Ayn Rand makes you feel awake and alive and achieves a sense of weightlessness, is left to Burns for observation. But neither Burns nor Heller has much credibility on the subject.

A steady stream of scholars and students and businessmen capably discuss Rand’s ideas and the students’ insights are most effective in demonstrating the relevance of Atlas Shrugged. The most prophetic points are in abundant evidence and the discussion of the tunnel scene is particularly clear and compelling. However, Objectivists will want to know where is English literature professor Shoshana Milgram, who has lectured extensively on Rand and her greatest literary influence, Victor Hugo, or philosophy professor Robert Mayhew, who has edited several volumes on Rand’s courses and writings, or Rand’s heir, Leonard Peikoff? Each of them has produced outstanding material about Atlas Shrugged. General fans of the book may simply wonder at the absence of literary scholars in a film about the power of a novel.

As propaganda for an exceptional book that runs over a thousand pages, contains larger-than-life themes that challenge the dominant ideas of our times and tells the unforgettable story of the mind on strike, Ayn Rand & the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged partially succeeds. Among the assets are images of Ayn Rand in rare footage, including the author at a press conference with the film’s comic relief, a colorful movie producer named Al Ruddy (The Godfather), who pitched a movie version of Atlas Shrugged to her until she pitched it back (and did he drop the ball). Other footage includes scenes from the first cinematic adaptation of Rand’s novel, last year’s unsuccessful Atlas Shrugged, Part 1, and a rarely seen clip from President Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell speech, in which Ike essentially warned about encroaching total government control of industry. So there is plenty of good, insightful material here, and Mortensen’s judgment can be impeccable, but there is too much of it, it is too imposing, and, as usual, Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, which has remained in print, sold over a million copies and should be read and studied by every rational man and woman, deserves better.

Permalink | Posted in Ayn Rand, Books, Movies, Philosophy, Random House

Movie Review: Dirty Girl

17 January 2012

New on DVD today is the story of two troubled high school students, Dirty Girl, barely released in theaters by the Weinstein Company last year. An obese gay kid named Clarke (Jeremy Dozier in his movie debut) is tagged in a voiceover by the school’s tramp, Danielle (Juno Temple, Atonement). When they’re teamed in special education with a bag of flour for parenting class, their worlds collide, merge and challenge what they think it means to be young, independent and “dirty.” This low-budget film, written and directed by Abe Sylvia and picked up by Weinstein at the Toronto Film Festival, begins in Norman, Oklahoma, with broad comedy and Pat Benatar’s “Shadows of the Night”. It evolves into a poignant tale of friendship.

Dirty Girl is choppy at first, trying to bring everything together, with Clarke’s conservative parents (Dwight Yoakam and Mary Steenburgen) sending him to therapy and ready to dispatch him to military school and trailer park girl Danielle’s negligent mother (Milla Jovovich, Resident Evil) keeping secrets and ready to convert to Mormonism to snag a husband (William H. Macy, TV’s Shameless) who wants to adopt the teen-aged tramp. Danielle refuses, literally kicking and screaming, while Clarke’s gay porn literally gets him busted. Just as Danielle feels she’s being “starved into being Mormon,” Clarke makes a run for it. Before you can say Thelma and Louise, the unlikely duo become runaways for Fresno, California, in search of liberation by way of finding Danielle’s long-lost father (Tim McGraw).

They clash, live and learn and encounter a Westward-bound drifter (Nicholas D’Agosto) who offers a distraction from their stated goals, as Danielle puts it, culminating in a beautifully filmed striptease. With worried parents, Clarke’s obsession with singer Melissa Manchester (Jeff Toyne’s underlying orchestrations enhance the 80s’ pop songs) and that sack of flour cleverly serving both as Dirty Girl‘s Greek chorus and as a reminder of their mutual homework assignment, they become as liberated as they can handle and, of course, discover facts of life, particularly in an evocative sequence to the tune “Rainbird” in which both teen-agers face the reality of their parents’ choices. Jovovich and Steenburgen add depth and tenderness to their maternal roles and the cast, especially Temple, generally shines in this unusual, moving tale of friendship and self-realization. The ending is contrived, and it’s uneven here and there, but the better second half ties into a thoughtful, musically integrated theme that boys and girls ought to grow up on their own terms with parental guidance best focused on facts and fitness for life. As untamed in language (with full frontal nudity) as its title suggests, Dirty Girl is a bit raunchy. But like most of what people call “dirty”, it serves a joyful sense of play.

Permalink | Posted in Movies, Weinstein Company, The

Interview: Mary Steenburgen and Melissa Manchester

14 January 2012

The unique experience of interviewing two of my favorite artists, Grammy-winning singer Melissa Manchester (“Don’t Cry Out Loud”) and Oscar-winning actress Mary Steenburgen (What’s Eating Gilbert Grape) about their collaboration in motion picture songwriting was an early Christmas present. The three of us talked about their mutual work and careers in a lively and earnest conversation. I can attest that the ladies, who let me address them informally, are as lovely as they seem on screen and on record. This is an edited transcript.

New York-born Manchester, daughter of a Metropolitan Opera Orchestra musician and clothing entrepreneur, has studied under Paul Simon, performed as a solo artist in Greenwich Village, played Carnegie Hall and headlined at Radio City Music Hall. Her hit singles include “Midnight Blue”, “Whenever I Call You Friend”, which she co-wrote with Kenny Loggins, “Through The Eyes Of Love” and “You Should Hear How She Talks About You.” In 2010, Ms. Manchester co-created and starred in the ballroom dance spectacular Fascinating Rhythms, and her song “I Know Who I Am” was recorded by Leona Lewis for Tyler Perry’s For Colored Girls.

Nine of her songs are highlighted in Dirty Girl, including the original theme song “Rainbird” which she recorded and co-wrote with the movie’s co-star, the widely known and popular Mary Steenburgen, most recently seen in The Help and The Proposal. Ms. Steenburgen (Philadelphia, Back to the Future III, Melvin and Howard, Life as a House) is represented by Universal Music and has been working as a songwriter for the last five years. Dirty Girl is the story of a reputedly “dirty” schoolgirl in an Oklahoma town, circa 1987, who is paired with someone who is secretly gay. Together, they flee to California, and discover each other and themselves. Though the Weinstein Company gave Dirty Girl a brief theatrical release last year, it’s available this Tuesday on DVD. The soundtrack is available on Lakeshore Records.

Scott Holleran: Had you known one another before your collaboration on “Rainbird” for Dirty Girl?

Mary Steenburgen: We had only just met shortly before Dirty Girl. We actually started with another song that had nothing to do with the movie, which didn’t exist yet. I completely idolized Melissa. She narrated many moments of my life—we actually even look a tiny bit alike—including this one day on a bus, when someone thought I was Melissa Manchester. So, everyone that knew me knew I adored her and that her music resonated with me. When I first found out that I might write with her, I was like a little kid. What was so strange about the movie was that she was already on my mind. I had made my list of what I needed to do. The script had been sent to me and I was a little behind in my reading. I started reading the script and it was like a love poem to Melissa—and I thought it was the most beautiful coincidence.

Scott Holleran: Melissa, are you part of the picture’s plot?

Melissa Manchester: Yes. It’s not a spoiler to say that—my work is sort of a muse for one of the characters.

Scott Holleran: Mary, were you moved by the script?

Mary Steenburgen: Yes, and while the press was just catching up with the issue of people being bullied for being gay, it resonated with me on many levels. It’s also funny and quirky and original. I loved the character I was playing.

Melissa Manchester: It’s about this lost young gay guy—[writer and director] Abe Sylvia refers to this film as a vulgar valentine—but it isn’t preachy.

Scott Holleran: The main character is a girl who’s perceived as dirty—?

Mary Steenburgen: —She’s the girl who’s got a bad reputation. Like many of those girls, she’s complicated. It doesn’t ruin anything to say they get thrown together in a parenting class. My character is married to a character played by Dwight Yoakam, with whom I worked in Four Christmases. We’re both terrible gigglers, so we enjoy working together.

Scott Holleran: Is it the girl’s story or the boy’s story?

Mary Steenburgen: It’s even-handed. To me, the film centers on both characters.

Scott Holleran: Melissa, what it means to be female and the art of being feminine is a career theme. Do you see your work as a journey of self-expression?

Melissa Manchester: Oh, yes. My job is totally about the art and craftsmanship of self-expression. I started writing and walking my track of being a singer-songwriter at the height of that [1970s self-help] movement. That’s what we did and I inadvertently became a passing communicator of the women’s [liberation] movement. The unexpected gift is that, when you perform, your work becomes the listener’s version. It’s always a gift.

Scott Holleran: Mary, different points in time are a recurrent theme in your career, from your first film, a Western, to Dirty Girl, which takes place in the 1980s, and the time travel movies. Does this contribute to the perception of you as a versatile actress with a timeless persona?

Mary Steenburgen: I don’t think about how people perceive me. I think it would confuse me and put a pressure on me that I don’t want to have. I’ve never had a game plan. I literally read the things that make me laugh or cry and, if it does, then I want to do that film. Or if [a script] intrigues me or makes me scared that means I will probably do it—it’s like what Melissa said about her music; the receiver takes the work and makes it their own. For every artist, you put your work out there and someone makes it their own. I recently had someone come up to me on a plane. She was a very conservative-looking woman who was a flight attendant and she asked if I would talk with her. She told me her brother was gay and, she said, ‘to be honest, we were not comfortable with that and we kind of banned him from my family—and he was banned from family gatherings and was no longer welcome.’ She said he later became diagnosed with AIDS. In its later stages, she said, he came to them and finally said, ‘I won’t bother you again, please just watch this movie, Philadelphia‘ [1993]. She said they did watch it. After they saw the movie, they saw how the family rallied behind the Tom Hanks character and the family did the same. She told me that it wouldn’t have happened without that movie.

Melissa Manchester: —that is a prime example of what art can do—

Mary Steenburgen: —I lost one of my best friends to AIDS two days before that movie. [Pauses]. Peter.

Scott Holleran: I’m sorry to hear that, Mary. [Pause]. Were you thinking about losing him when you delivered that powerful line, “God I hate this case”?

Mary Steenburgen: Yes. I had just lost him. I was such a wreck when I got there—I was overemoting in every scene and I was struggling so much. When we shot the first scene, I wasn’t good in it. By the time we got to that scene where [my attorney character is] holding the mirror up to [the AIDS patient’s Kaposi’s sarcoma] lesion, [director] Jonathan [Demme] said ‘I think we should add this line’. So, we did. [Pauses]. Philadelphia is really not about AIDS. It’s about justice.

Scott Holleran: It’s interesting and both the lawyer character in Philadelphia and the mother character in Dirty Girl play against the stereotype that the straight woman is the ally of the gay male—

Melissa Manchester: —Right. As with any fear that’s based on ignorance, any time we demonize others, we eventually become the others. The only way to bridge that gap is to humanize them. For example, I work with women in prison. They are largely there for having killed their abusers. When I work with them, the layers are peeled away to reveal their humanity. What’s there is the compassion.

Scott Holleran: What is the musical theme of Dirty Girl and does it match or complement the film’s dramatic theme?

Melissa Manchester: Abe Sylvia comes from the world of musical theater so he understands that, in the world of film, music is an afterthought—and there’s a sort of Greek chorus in Dirty Girl. It’s a whole other texture. It’s a story where music is integral.

Mary Steenburgen: To your question, I can talk about Melissa easier than she can. Just as her music was very personal to me, she is this boy’s muse but she’s kind of more than that. I recently read about this kid who wrote a letter to Lady Gaga about bullying. This boy’s world is not safe, so he related to Lady Gaga—I did this, too [as a youth], by the way, creating a magic world, only mine was in books—and this boy’s world [in Dirty Girl] is not safe and beautiful, so he appreciates beauty and drama and music. He finds all those things in the music of Melissa Manchester. So, his safe place is in his room, with his gigantic headphones, listening to her [songs] and trying to be [like] her and connect with her. In those moments, he can be fully alive. And that’s part of his connection to this girl. So Melissa’s music is the heart of the movie. When you get around to “Rainbird”, for me, it was almost as though Melissa Manchester was speaking in her beautiful, caring, all-knowing voice, saying that it gets better. That is what we are trying to say.

Melissa Manchester: In the end, the heart yearns for the resonance of melodies—it’s what stills that swirling anxiety—and then they can move mountains. Melodies can move kids away from that ledge. The currency of the song can be life-changing and that is no hooey. Mary’s performance occupies as small a space as possible. It left me breathless. The trajectory of her character, who finds her voice and finds a way out, is fantastic.

Scott Holleran: Do you appear in the film, Melissa?

Melissa Manchester: Yes. Mine is a sweet little cameo.

Mary Steenburgen: It’s a wonderful moment.

Scott Holleran: You have something else in common—you both worked on projects with Kelsey Grammer.

Mary Steenburgen: Well, I just did a voice for a call-in on one of the Frasier episodes. And of course [my husband] Ted [Danson] worked with him for so many years [on Cheers and Frasier].

Melissa Manchester: I had a spectacular time working with Kelsey on Sweeney Todd. It was unbelievable working with Stephen Sondheim, who was there, while I played Beggarwoman, so that was thrilling. Working with Kelsey was great but he was still filming Frasier, so it was a bit of a challenge. He is tremendously talented.

Scott Holleran: Mary, how was working with Lasse Hallstrom on What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?

Mary Steenburgen: I adored that experience. I would be an idiot to say that I didn’t enjoy spending a large part of my day kissing Johnny Depp and I was huge fan of Lasse’s since My Life as a Dog—and of [writer] Peter Hedges, whose book I had read. I wanted to play Betty Carver. I would love to work with Lasse again—he hasn’t asked me. It would be amazing.

Scott Holleran: As established artists, do either of you encounter sexism?

Mary Steenburgen: [after a long pause] Sure, though I feel very blessed and things are getting better. I love seeing so many women crew members. But I just saw some statistics on women writers, what women are paid and the number of women CEOs specific to [the entertainment] business and I was shocked at how far we have yet to come. When I started, sexual harassment wasn’t even discussed as a subject, so it has gotten better. I’m a proud feminist, but I don’t have a chip on my shoulder. If there’s anything that makes me sad, it’s that some women find the word feminist worrisome or objectionable. To me, it means that I want every woman—just as I want every man—to be the best they can be.

Melissa Manchester: I’m with Mary. There are more roadies that are women and life on the road is a very singular experience. There are certainly more bands made of women. The thing that saddens me is that there’s a sense of entitlement among some women and groups of artists.

Scott Holleran: Your collaboration for Dirty Girl is the bittersweet song, “Rainbird”, which combines a sense of melancholy with an upward arc. Any thoughts on the tune in the context of the motion picture?

Mary Steenburgen: I’ve written a number of songs and the experience of writing that song in particular had a sort of alchemy to it. I’m proud of what the song says as a song and in the movie.

Melissa Manchester: Me, too. I really appreciate that Abe got the point of the song for this moment in the movie—it’s a rare opportunity to be given a song to write after everything’s finished. This song is serving such a special purpose.

Scott Holleran: Why do you think Dirty Girl didn’t do well in theatrical release?

Melissa Manchester: I went with Abe on several [promotional press] junkets to gay pride [events] and people were screaming ‘I love this film!’—but in reviews it was just getting its heart broken. Critics didn’t seem to get it.

Mary Steenburgen: I don’t read reviews, with all due respect, and especially the good ones are bad for me. So I didn’t read a single review. I do know that the movie was very successful at the Toronto Film Festival, one of only two films that the Weinstein Company bought there—they currently have The Artist, The Iron Lady and My Week with Marilyn—and I don’t know if they eclipsed Dirty Girl. With some films, they get lost. Europeans tell me that they don’t know how Melvin and Howard [1980] was dumped for distribution and every time I go to Europe, people ask me why it was never released. They couldn’t figure out how to sell this movie that in their minds was about a loser. I think with this film that may have happened, too. I watched it with my family. They loved it.

Melissa Manchester: I watched it with my daughter. I know there’s always an astounding reaction to Dirty Girl. But, sometimes, it takes a whole lot of people to push something up the mountain.

Permalink | Posted in Interviews, Movies, Music, Weinstein Company, The

Movie Review: The Iron Lady

13 January 2012

Concerned that hers would be a distorted, doddering depiction of Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1979-1990), I was more or less dragged to see The Iron Lady and was pleasantly surprised by the movie, starring the overrated Meryl Streep (Doubt, Mamma Mia!), one of my least favorite actresses. The framing device, Thatcher’s delusional visits with her late husband, Denis (Jim Broadbent), provides a subtle focus on the price she paid for power and, while some may find it distracting, I found it interesting. The framing of this old former prime minister, holding on to her top value as a means of orienting herself to a harsh reality, deepens one’s understanding of what might motivate an intellectual woman to seek power over one of the West’s greatest countries.

In a culture that fetishizes powerful women instead of admiring them for themselves and their achievements, The Iron Lady stands out as a well-crafted tale of a woman who merely steps in to run things because no one else is really up to the job. Another forceful mind in history, Ayn Rand, once wrote unfavorably about the issue of a woman president and, seeing The Iron Lady, one is reminded why. Throughout modern history, from Catherine the Great to Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, the toll such power takes is clear and director Phyllida Lloyd (Mamma Mia!), with writer Abi Morgan, deftly suggests that what moves Margaret Thatcher is looking up to man, not looking down upon men.

Shuttling between certain episodes of Thatcher’s past and present (centered during the aftermath of the Islamist terrorist attack in London), which is often awkwardly activated, we see the young, middle class grocer’s daughter form her political philosophy early in life from gathering lessons based on talks and actions in abundant example by her father, an extraordinary man who taught young Margaret (Alexandra Roach) rational virtues such as pride and productiveness. With her daughter Carol (Olivia Colman) bearing indignities of her own from her mother’s harsh words, Thatcher trudges onward, gamely filling in gaps where strength and dignity are lacking in the world around her. In other words, like most strong women of the 20th century, she became the man in an era in which men were weak, indecisive and increasingly emasculated by feminism because, rather sadly, she had to.

Here is where Streep’s performance should have been brilliant and isn’t (and critics’ conventional wisdom that Streep is better than the movie has it backwards). The real Margaret Thatcher, by most accounts, possessed an undeniably fiery sexuality in her Parliament and Downing Street years, and none of that’s in evidence in Streep’s performance. Margaret Thatcher was womanly, in the best sense, during her stirring and passionate speeches, as if she was laughing or winking to the mostly foolish men that surrounded her and they were everywhere in politics (and still are, only more so). Streep’s Thatcher is more dowdy and plodding than womanly, though her best scenes involve striking recreations of Thatcher’s finest speeches, which resonate powerfully for their words and meaning, and one craves more because Thatcher, who was always better than Reagan, has wickedly been vindicated.

That fact, the rightness of her political philosophy of capitalism, is inescapable in its logic as dramatized in The Iron Lady and, while it’s not as neatly created and edited as The Queen, seeing Margaret Thatcher as she might have been in her prime is reason enough to see this movie. There are glaring omissions, such as her relationship with the British royal family, but seeing an intelligent woman take on the world in order to be both her best and live in a liberated world of her making is its own reward. In one scene during the controversy over the poll tax, Thatcher’s harsher side is exhibited when she dresses down one of her Tory leaders. She snaps and rips him and everyone realizes she’s gone too far. The unspoken thought is that everyone realizes she’s right. Margaret Thatcher, born in 1925 and still living in Britain, held to certain ideals like a steel claw. Whether taking on an American diplomat urging her toward appeasement during the initiation of force against Britain off the coast of South America, labor unions and socialists or Irish terrorists, Thatcher was an iron lady. The Iron Lady demonstrates why.

Permalink | Posted in Movies, Politics, Weinstein Company, The

Movie Review: Joyful Noise

13 January 2012

The slow-moving gospel musical Joyful Noise agnostically alternates between the religious and the secular and winds up with something blessed with jubilation. Peppered with references to humility and greed, this family-themed musical story follows two Baptist churchgoing women suddenly abandoned by their men who must choose whether to suffer or live in the light. Rich grandmother G.G. (Dolly Parton, all bust, make-up and post-cosmetic operative) loses her husband (Kris Kristofferson), gains a wayward grandson (Jeremy Jordan) and faces off with her choir’s newly appointed director, nurse Vi Rose (Queen Latifah, Just Wright) as they head into national competition. Vi Rose has already lost her husband (Jesse L. Martin, Rent) to the Army and is trying to raise an autistic child (Dexter Darden) and a strong-minded daughter (Keke Palmer, Akeelah and the Bee).

Joyful Noise packs in both stories and songs, with subplots about independence and interracial romances, in this economically depressed Georgia town laced with lessons about faith, grief and pride. Ultimately singing praise to God with modern tunes by Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson, a country ballad by Parton and an old-fashioned Negro spiritual beautifully rendered by Latifah, who executive produced, the racially harmonious film wakes up in the last act when the church choir gets to the competition, no thanks to a conservative pastor (Courtney B. Vance). They compete against Our Lady of Perpetual Tears and others in a Glee-like climax that showcases everyone’s inner talent and a subplot wrap that’s sure to tick off feminists. Though it takes a while to come to life, and it’s a strictly superficial outing, Joyful Noise, composed by Mervyn Warren (Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit), makes you want to say “Amen!”