cult film freak: edward norton

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Written by James M. Tate / 11/01/2014 / No comments / 2014 , arthouse , edward norton , emma stone , indie , michael keaton

MICHAEL KEATON STARRING IN BIRDMAN

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">year: 2014 rating: ***</td></tr>
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Orson Welles, who opened TOUCH OF EVIL with a brilliant four-minute tracking shot without cuts (intentionally outdone by Robert Altman in THE PLAYER while Fred Ward mentions TOUCH OF EVIL), once noted that for directors, a scene without cuts separates the men from the boys. Well in this case, BIRDMAN filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu is Methuselah… <br />
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The entire movie consists of several long sequences without the impression of any cuts... A prolonged single take allowing the actors to venture backstage and on stage of a Raymond Carver adaptation that Keaton’s Riggan Thomas... who once played a cinematic superhero named Birdman... is starring in to revamp a nostalgic career. <br />
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As is completely obvious, Keaton’s casting is no accident… He was Batman in two films and Riggan was Birdman in three: And neither has broken any real ground since. But pop culture coincidence aside, BIRDMAN feels more like a John Cassavetes meets Darren Aronofsky impromptu piece, zigzagging through cathartic diatribes only to be hindered by distracting special effects.   <br />
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Keaton does a good job whenever speaking his mind with a desperately primitive heart and soul. One particular scene as he lectures a snobby critic is topnotch. But there are moments where he seems to be going through the motions – yet these motions leap beyond any character he's ever played, which could be the intention all along. Even when BIRDMAN flies higher than necessary, there’s always something, and someone… including Edward Norton as a moody stage actor and Emma Stone as Riggan’s disgruntled daughter… to marvel at. But Keaton deserved a more subtle approach to be completely effective. In a canvas stretched beyond its own paint, our hero gets lost in the shuffle.

2014, arthouse, edward norton, emma stone, indie, michael keaton

MICHAEL KEATON STARRING IN BIRDMAN

year: 2014 rating: *** Orson Welles, who opened TOUCH OF EVIL with a brilliant four-minute tracking shot without cuts (intentionally out...

Written by James M. Tate / 3/12/2014 / 1 Comment / barry pepper , crime , drama , edward norton , philip seymour hoffman , rosario dawson , spike lee , zeroes

EDWARD NORTON IN 25TH HOUR W/ PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">year: 2002 rating: ***</td></tr>
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<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #cccccc; color: #073763;"></span></i></b>Blaming director Spike Lee for making a film in which the soundtrack is almost louder than the dialogue, providing a misleading aura that something incredibly intense is about to happen at any given moment, would be like knocking Martin Scorsese for the use of excessive violence: only the latter is far more intriguing and befitting the plot... But let’s give Spike some credit for this particularly edgy joint…   </div>
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In 25TH HOUR, Edward Norton’s Monty Brogan is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. Even before the opening credits he saves the life of a really angry dog that has been dumped and, bloodied-up and close to death, is all fangs and noisy drama…</div>
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Thus the veil lifts to a post 911 New York, and much like a Spaghetti Western or even a Mad Max venture, Monty is a wandering loner in a city of (partial) ruins… yet he’s not entirely alone...</div>
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With a newly reformed mutt he visits his friend Jacob, a teacher at the Catholic school he had attended in the past, thus providing the late Philip Seymour Hoffman one of his more subtle, low-key performances. Despite being one man’s odyssey, the movie isn’t really about a singular character, cutting back and forth between three friends also including an intensely unlikable Barry Pepper as Frank, who works in a makeshift office as a Wall Street stockbroker, his fancy apartment shadowing Ground Zero...<br />
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During one scene, while Frank and Jacob are discussing Monty while overlooking the ghost of the World Trade Center… Possible symbolism aside, this conversation is important because their best friend doesn’t exactly play by the rules… </div>
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Monty is a drug dealer who winds up busted by the DEA, and has an entire day and night before being incarcerated for seven years, a melancholy journey in which to say goodbye to friends, family, and especially his lover, Rosario Dawson’s sexy and down home stripper, Naturelle… Yet the story, leading to this pivotal point, may sporadically grate on the nerves…</div>
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In what’s probably the most memorable scene, Monty stares into a restroom mirror, shouting “f--- you” to everyone he's got it in for: ranging from Italians to blacks to Bush and Chaney to Jesus Christ himself, all being shown in quick visualized snippets...</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pepper, Norton and Hoffman toast</td></tr>
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One might sense there’s more author intrusion, or perhaps the director trying too hard to be controversial, than a genuinely personal frustration on Monty’s part… It almost seems like he's on the verge of saying, "Are<i> you</i> talkin' to me? I'm the only one standing here..." at any given moment...</div>
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Although, despite being somewhat forced and overboard, this jarring montage delves into the frantic mind of a character that is only likable on the outside.</div>
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The best and most important part has all the characters, including Jacob’s flirtatious jailbait student, banded together at a noisy bar: While Frank, Jacob and Naturelle tie loose ends, Monty... who has mere hours until being locked up... is practically forgotten until an intense scene with a backroom Russian mafia… Here we get to know how tough our man really is: Discovering the moment of truth in more ways than one.</div>
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25th HOUR has a slow build up that gets more interesting as it goes, leading to a bombastic clash between the main characters... But the ending, although visually stylistic and poetically written, packs too much dialogue for the senses: An ambiguously dream-like sequence where Monty’s father narrates what could happen if his son doesn’t chose jail…</div>
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While there’s intrigue to whether the character will do his time or split town, it would be difficult to sit through this part a second or third time. As for the rest of the movie, with so many ingredients constantly being thrown into a boiling pot, it can only get better with each viewing. </div>

barry pepper, crime, drama, edward norton, philip seymour hoffman, rosario dawson, spike lee, zeroes

EDWARD NORTON IN 25TH HOUR W/ PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN

year: 2002 rating: *** Blaming director Spike Lee for making a film in which the soundtrack is almost louder than the dialogue, providi...

Written by James M. Tate / 6/25/2012 / No comments / 2012 , bill murray , bruce willis , comedy , coming-of-age , edward norton , quirky , wes anderson

MOONRISE KINGDOM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>title:</b> MOONRISE KINGDOM <b>year:</b> 2012 <b>cast:</b> Bruce Willis, Bill Murray <b>rating:</b> *</td></tr>
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There's an Orson Welles quote: "The enemy of art is the absence of limitations." Well you can overdose... or go overboard... on just about anything, including quirkiness. And Wes Anderson piles on his patented absurd creativity but only as far as the symmetrically flamboyant images go: from a neat looking lighthouse to a tree-house dangling high up on a thin trunk, it's all about the visuals.<br />
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Set in the gorgeous New England outdoors, the story (using the word plot would be a stretch) centers on two young lovers. One, the boy, is a disassociated orphan in a camp troop and the girl lives across the water in a nice house with stone cold parents. The kids are probably the worst child actors ever – or could it be Anderson’s intention to make them so robotic? Perhaps their lack of energy brings out the gorgeous scenery around them. Either way it’s difficult to feel for their Romeo and Juliet plight, traversing the land with cop Bruce Willis, scout master Ed Norton and his troop on their trail. Both are supposedly discovering true love but we never really understand their attraction in the first place... Though it’d take real actors and a decent script for that sort of character arc.<br />
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The pallid boy wears glasses and represents the hipster movement in rudimentary form, bent doing things his own way. And even after being captured and taken to the main camp run by Harvey Keitel, then helped to escape and being reunited during a formidable lightning storm, artsy director Wes Anderson provides the usual aesthetic pleasures his fans expect (and accept) yet there’s nothing more going on: style trumps story at every turn. Even Bill Murray lacks soul and purpose. Now that’s a feat in itself.

2012, bill murray, bruce willis, comedy, coming-of-age, edward norton, quirky, wes anderson