Reviews
The Last Days of Disco (1998)
Whit Stillman's movies are elegies to lost eras
Having seen all three of Stillman's films- Metropolitan, Barcelona and now
The Last Days Of Disco, which I caught on the Canadian Showcase network- I
noticed that all of his films comment on the passing of eras that were thought to last forever; the end of the old-money debutante party scene in
Metropolitan; the passing of American "imperial" influence overseas in
Barcelona; and here, the passing of a seemingly ephemeral era in popular
culture--disco-- that has resurfaced in the 21st century as the rave and techno scene. Chris Eigeman is again brilliant as the witty cad, and the film contains enough highbrow quips to keep you smiling all the way through, if it never is laugh-out loud funny. What I found interesting was Stillman's weaving of
cameos from his two earlier films. The "Sally Fowler crowd" from
Metropolitan and Charlie Boynton (Taylor Nichols) from Barcelona both
appear at the club, and if you read the credits, you'll realize that Josh shares the same last name (Neff) as Fred from Metropolitan- they are probably
related. In fact, whole scenes and exchanges seem to be lifted from
Metropolitan - the taxi ride over the bridge, many of the conversations- Joel seems like another Tom Townsend and Alice seems to be the new Audrey
Rouget---even down to the voice. What is largely puzzling about the cameos
was the fact that Metropolitan seemed definitely set in the mid-to-late 1980s and Barcelona in the 90's- not so much from pop culture references, since
there were none, but from costumes, hair and surroundings and exterior shots
of New York and Barcelona. Then, we're asked to believe that both those
movies took place *before* the late 1970s? In fact, aside from the soundtrack, there were no clues or costuming to place this film in the early 80s (Blondie appears on the soundtrack - that's about it). If he was going to celebrate the passing of an era, Stillman could have paid more attention to that- but in his defense he did avoid the white-polyester-suit cliches of the era. However, it seems more like disco is peripheral, instead of integral, to the lives of the characters, even as it purports it to be.... That club was awfully brightly lit, and the haircuts and suits were completely 1990s. It seemed to share art
direction more with Less Than Zero and American Psycho than with 54, That
70s Show (which doesn't exaggerate that much, believe it or not) or Boogie
Nights. Fine performances all around, fantastic dialogue, a great "evil"
character from Kate Beckinsale, and Chloe Sevigny is sweetly radiant. But,
like the best films, it isn't for everyone...only bad films are for everyone.
Saturday Night Live (1975)
Time to revamp SNL
A lot of what made the legendary first cast of SNL groundbreaking, funny and memorable has been missing for a long time. A hybrid of Toronto and Chicago Second
City veterans, National Lampoon Radio Hour writers and
former Ivy League comedy stars, the first cast combined
outsider edginess with improv acting smarts and caustic
intelligence that melted the mediocrity of 70s politics and
entertainment. But today's SNL is so self-referential (and
self-reverential), an institution celebrated by its own 25th
anniversary special...the casting (barring the disastrous
1980-81 season) has been an attempt to Xerox copy the original cast (there is always a Chevy Chase-type, a Belushi-type, etc.) but now they have Xeroxed the Xerox for
so long that any resemblance to the revolutionary original
has faded. If they want to revive the original SNL spirit,
NBC should start a new show. Give them as little money as
possible, crack down on the writers, and cast young people
and writers straight out of off-Broadway, the Fringe, or
drama schools instead of from improv troupes like the Groundlings (who have, like many other improv troupes,
become copies of SNL in an attempt to become farm teams and not viable theatre). Sit back and see what happens. In the meantime, enjoy the old episodes on home video. ;)
Peter's Friends (1992)
It's partly autobiographical actually
...If you don't believe me, you can hunt up a 1983 book called "Footlights: One Hundred Years Of Cambridge Comedy" which is the history of the Footlights amateur theatrical society at Cambridge- whose alumni have included since the 1950s most of the auteurs of post-music hall English comedy.
Footlights revues since 1960 have included the casts of Beyond The Fringe (Jonathan Miller, Dudley Moore, Peter Cook and Alan Bennett), Monty Python (all of them), The Goodies (Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie and Tim Brooke-Taylor), Alas Smith And Jones, and Douglas Adams (Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy).
In 1981 the Footlights mounted an Edinburgh Fringe Festival show called The Cellar Tapes, whose cast included...Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson, and Tony Slattery!
The Cellar Tapes show won the Fringe's Perrier Award and pretty much guaranteed everyone jobs for life in British TV and film. The scene of them at school doing an amateur theatrical show for the university dons is a reference to this, supposedly.
Of the film, despite an interesting concept, some good moments and a talented cast I found this film disjointed, emotionally cold, only rarely witty, and even faintly unbelievable at times --the scene where Thompson breaks down and cries is so reserved and smug it's like she can never really let go- which she never does in anything she's in anyway!
It's rather as if they want to thinly satirize themselves- but only thinly, as if they take themselves too seriously to open themselves to self-mockery. For a better take on this concept, I recommend the 1998 film "Final Cut" starring Jude Law which has the current mob of Britpack actors playing themselves in an improvised film-- often times for laughs.
It's amazing how far Branagh's star has fallen since 1992 when he was The Olivier People Actually Liked. I guess some people really do peak early- he did the movie of Henry V (and wrote his autobiography) when he was 26! Since then?....Anyone?...Bueller?
The Black Hole (1979)
An also-ran that deserves a remake?
I remember seeing this film when it aired on the Wonderful World of Disney back in the 80s. It seems like a real transitional piece, made with 50s-looking designs (the Palomino could have come off the cover of Amazing Stories), techniques, film stock - very grainy Kodachrome yellow- and 50s actors at that. Remarkable when 3 years later the same company would herald the modern CGI era with fresh techniques and young, appealing actors in Tron ( has no-one noticed how the red Recognizers in Tron are pretty much a simplified version of Maximilian? ;) This film deserves a rewrite and a remake- and one significantly different from Event Horizon, which another poster well noted is the most similar film to TBH. Junk the cute robots, put an interesting misfit cast together (as Ridley Scott did for Alien), and a flawed, yet human villain-maybe Kevin Spacey or Robert Carlyle. And the ending? Well, I don't want to give away all my best ideas, but some have theorized that the matter that drains away down black holes emerges in other universes - maybe this time when the crew get sucked down they actually *become* another universe- i.e. they become God. Which is a better twist on the Disney ending, doncha think?
The World Is Not Enough (1999)
And now for Bond #20?
All I have to say about TWINE is that it was the humanizing moments that made it watchable: the complexity of Elektra King, Renard's weary fatalism (did anyone else notice the look of gratitude on his face at finally being released from a life of sensory deprivation when Bond offs him? Or the way Carlyle even made his character walk like someone with no sense in his limbs- heavy, clumsy even, as some people with leprosy and nerve damage or strokes do?) I wish there had been more of these character-defining moments and less clichéd set-pieces. Great pre-credits sequence, though. For Bond 20? Take the franchise back in time. We already have Jack Ryan and zillions of other 90s techno-thrillers. Bond is quintessentially a Cold Warrior, and placing him in the fractured political landscape of the 21st century isn't really his territory. Setting the next few films in the 50's-60s would place Bond in the kind of world we saw in the classic Connery flicks. A John Le Carre or Len Deighton world. If anyone's seen Funeral In Berlin and The Ipcress File, you know what I mean. Seeing 1950s Italy in The Talented Mr. Ripley makes me think this sort of reinvention of the Bond series would be not only viable, but necessary to get back to the root
Some Girls (1988)
The film is fiction, the family is real!
The family in Some Girls are the Taylors of Montreal...the screenwriter actually dated one of the Taylor sisters and fictionalized them into this movie...The father is actually world-famous philosopher and McGill U. professor Charles Taylor. Their late mother *was* very Catholic...and the legendary house is real- an old wooden Metcalfe Avenue mansion, in Westmount- since sold, but still there. Of course, this film annoys them to no end - so don't mention it if you're invited to