Fight Club: David Fincher's Best Movie? Brad Pitt's Best Performance?

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 86 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

Fight Club (1999)
DIRECTOR: David Fincher
WRITER: Jim Uhls (based upon the novel of the same title by Chuck Palahniuk)
PRODUCERS: Ross Grayson Bell, Ceán Chaffin, and Art Linson
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jeff Cronenweth
EDITOR: James Haygood
COMPOSERS: Dust Brothers (John King and Michael Simpson)
Academy Awards nominee

DRAMA/THRILLER with elements of action

Starring: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf, Zach Grenier, and Jared Leto

Some films fans believe that the glamour of old Hollywood, or of the so-called Golden Age, is gone. True or not, there are young actors today that the camera loves as much as it did Humphrey Bogart or Greta Garb, such as Keanu Reeves, Tom Cruise, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Johnny Depp among others. Another star that the camera definitely loves is the talented and ambitious Brad Pitt.

In David Fincher’s (Se7en) Fight Club, Pitt plays the alluring stranger Tyler Durden who introduces a disillusioned spiritual brother Jack, who is also the film Narrator, (Edward Norton, American History X) to the living. Jack has a white color job, suffers from insomnia, and consumes expensive, brand name items to fill in the hole in himself and his life. Jack becomes Durden’s first convert to Fight Club, which rapidly grows into an underground cabal of restless, directionless GenX’ers and late Baby Boomers. The club meets in hidee-holes, and the members pummel each other to a bloody mess. Perhaps, it is because pain is life and life is pain. Perhaps, these young men, who never knew the Great Depression or life as a soldier/combatant in an international war, need to know pain and suffering. Maybe, through beating each other they get to be men with each other etc. blah, blah, blah.

During his career as a music video director, Fincher showed enormous promise as a filmmaker with his videos for Madonna: Express Yourself, Oh Father, and Vogue. The politics of studio filmmaking crushed his debut Alien3, but with Se7en and The Game, his potential to be one of the best visualists since Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) and David Lynch (Blue Velvet) was again show to audiences around the world.

This film by Fincher is as much visual and symbolic as it is literal. For all its notions of male empowerment and of cutting away the material trappings of a corrupted civilization, Fight Club really delineates spiritual conundrums and the struggles with identity. It is the visual equivalent of a novel, but the novel as art and literature. With all that camera weaving and dodging, Fincher is essentially writing a novel. What words do for a book, his camera makes images do for a film. The film digs deeper than just angry white boys. Why are they angry? When are they angry? How are they angry? What else is going on in the world of Fight Club? Fincher answers those questions and builds a complex structure of story and environment that becomes a film. While it is eye candy for the male in the vein of Pulp Fiction, Fight Club has visual layers and subtexts awaiting the ambitious viewer. Does it take music video directors and directors of commercial advertisements to realize that the story, the characters, and the setting are best conveyed visually in film because a movie is all about what’s on the screen?

Norton is very good; a talented actor he can play the gamut of human emotions, from extreme to subtle. Helena Bonham Carter (Wings of the Dove) is a very talented actress, but she’s often lost in supporting roles. Here, as love interest/sex partner, Marla Singer, her part is extraneous, but the camera loves her. Whatever should could have brought to enrich the story is lost. The true gift of this movie is Pitt as the puckish phantasm, Durden. Whenever he gets a good role, Pitt lights up the screen, and the movie surges with energy and vitality. Many filmmakers have wasted his good looks and great talent; Fincher takes full advantage of having him.

The film does have its flaws, notably Jack’s narration, (in addition to the short shrift of Marla), which is sometimes redundant when the visuals serve the same purpose. Some interesting characters end up as ciphers and aimlessly fill up screen time when they could have served a definite purpose. However, Fincher and screenwriter Jim Uhls have created a beautiful and surrealistic film that is, like successful artistic efforts in other mediums, a statement about the time in which it appears. And heck, Fight Club is just plain fun to experience.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2000 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing” (Ren Klyce and Richard Hymns)

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The November Adventures of Negromancer

Welcome to Negromancer, the rebirth of my former movie review website as a movie review and movie news blog. I’m Leroy Douresseaux, and I also blog at http://ireadsyou.blogspot.com/ and write for the Comic Book Bin (which has smart phones apps).

All images appearing on this blog are © copyright and/or trademark their respective owners.

Annette Bening, Robert Duvall to Be Honored at Hollywood Film Festival

Press release:

ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE ANNETTE BENING AND OSCAR WINNER ROBERT DUVALL TO BE HONORED AT THE HOLLYWOOD AWARDS GALA

HOLLYWOOD, CA, September 29, 2010 -- The 14th Annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Awards, presented by Starz, are pleased to announce that Academy Award-nominated actress Annette Bening will be honored with the "Hollywood Actress Award" and Oscar-winning actor Robert Duvall will receive the "Hollywood Actor Award" at the festival's Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony.

"It is a privilege to honor and to celebrate Annette Bening's and Robert Duvall's extraordinary talent as well as remarkable work and to recognize their outstanding acting achievements," said Carlos de Abreu, Founder of the Hollywood Awards Gala.

The gala ceremony will take place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on October 25, 2010.


ABOUT ANNETTE BENING
Annette Bening has received three Academy Award nominations for her roles in "Being Julia," "American Beauty, " and "The Grifters." She can be seen recently in Lisa Cholodenko's "The Kids Are All Right," which also stars Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, and Mia Wasikowska, and Rodrigo Garcia's "Mother and Child."

Bening's other film credits include: Rodrigo Garcia's "Mother and Child"; Diane English's "The Women"; Ryan Murphy's "Running with Scissors"; Kevin Costner's "Open Range"; Mike Nichols' "What Planet Are You From?"; Sam Mendes' "American Beauty"; Edward Zwick's "The Siege"; Warren Beatty's "Bulworth"; Tim Burton's "Mars Attacks!"; Rob Reiner's "The American President"; Richard Loncraine's "Richard III"; Glenn Gordon Caron's "Love Affair"; Neil Jordan's "In Dreams" Barry Levinson's "Bugsy"; Mike Nichols' "Regarding Henry"; Irwin Winkler's "Guilty," "Postcards from the Edge"; Milos Forman's "Valmont"; and Howard Deutch's "The Great Outdoors."

ABOUT ROBERT DUVALL
Robert Duvall can be seen recently in Aaron Schneider's "Get Low" starring Sissy Spacek, Bill Murray, and Lucas Black. A leading man since the 1960s, Robert Duvall has specialized in taciturn cowboys, fierce leaders and driven characters of all types.He is respected by his peers and adored by audiences worldwide, he has earned numerous Oscar® nominations for his performances in "The Godfather," "Apocalypse Now," "The Great Santini," "The Apostle" and "A Civil Action." Duvall won the Academy Award® as Best Actor for his role in "Tender Mercies," and later earned the Golden Globe for his performance in the title role of HBO's "Stalin." More recently, Duvall was honored with the Golden Globe and Emmy Award for his iconic portrayal of "Prentice Ritter" in AMC's "Broken Trail." Duvall made his big screen debut in 1962, as the creepy "Boo Radley" in "To Kill a Mockingbird." He has gone on to star in such classics as "Bullitt," "True Grit," "M*A*S*H," "The Conversation," "Network," "The Natural," "Colors," "Days of Thunder," "The Handmaid's Tale," "Rambling Rose," "Wrestling Ernest Hemingway," "Phenomenon," "A Civil Action," "Open Range," and "Thank You For Smoking," among many others.

As a director and producer, Duvall got behind the camera for his labor of love project "The Apostle" in which he also starred. The film went on to earn many accolades, including being named on over seventy-five film critics? Top 10 Films for 1997 lists, including the "New York Times" and "Los Angeles Times." He also wrote, produced and starred in "Assassination Tango." Duvall was most recently see as the Old Man in "The Road," which stars Viggo Mortensen and is based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy.

Previously announced honorees for this year's Hollywood Awards Gala include: Sean Penn for the "Humanitarian Award"; Helena Bonham Carter for the "Supporting Actress Award"; Sam Rockwell for the "Supporting Actor Award"; Andrew Garfield for the "Breakthrough Actor Award"; Mia Wasikowska for the "Breakthrough Actress Award"; Danny Boyle and Chris Colson for the "Producer Award"; Aaron Sorkin for the "Screenwriter Award"; Disney/Pixar's "Toy Story 3" and director Lee Unkrich for the "Animation Award"; Hans Zimmer for "Film Composer Award"; Wally Pfister for "Cinematographer Award"; Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall for the "Hollywood Editor Award"; Paramount Pictures' "Iron Man 2" and visual effects supervisors Ben Snow and Janek Sirrs for the "Visual Effects Award"; and Robert Stromberg for "Production Designer Award."

The festival and awards will mark their return on October 20 for a weeklong series of screenings, competitions and awards. The Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony will take place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on October 25, 2010.

The festival and awards presenter is Starz Entertainment, LLC, a premium movie and original programming entertainment service provider operating in the United States. The company offers 16 premium channels including the flagship Starz® and Encore® brands with approximately 17.3 million and 31.9 million subscribers respectively. Starz Entertainment airs in total more than 1,000 movies and original series every month across its pay TV channels. Starz Entertainment is recognized as a pay TV leader in providing HD, On Demand, HD On Demand and online advanced services for its Starz, Encore and

MoviePlex brands. Starz Entertainment (http://www.starz.com/) is an operating unit of Starz, LLC, which is a controlled subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation and is attributed to the Liberty Starz tracking stock group.

For more information:
Festival Contact: 1.310.288.1882
Hollywood Film Festival®
433 N. Camden Drive, Suite 600
Beverly Hills, CA 90210

Alex Gibney Hits the Jackpot with "Casino Jack" Documentary

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 81 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

Casino Jack and the United States of Money (2010)
Running time: 118 minutes (1 hour, 58 minutes)
MPAA – R for some language
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Alex Gibney
PRODUCER: Zena Barakat, Alison Ellwood, and Alex Gibney
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Maryse Alberti
EDITOR: Alison Ellwood

DOCUMENTARY – Politics

Starring: Tom DeLay, Thomas Frank, Adam Kidan, Bob Ney, Ron Platt, Sue Schmidt, Melanie Sloan, Neil Volz with Stanley Tucci and Paul Rudd

For almost 20 years, Jack Abramoff was an American lobbyist. He was also a businessman, film producer, and political figure. His ascendancy as an influential and powerful man, both as a lobbyist and within the Republican Party, began when the Republicans seized control of both houses of Congress in 1994. Over the next 12 years, Abramoff lobbied Congress for Indian casinos, sweatshop owners in Saipan, and even shadowy Russian interests. He eventually went to prison for defrauding his Native American clients and corruption of public officials.

Written and directed by Alex Gibney, Casino Jack and the United States of Money is a documentary film about Jack Abramoff, his career, his lobbying activities, and the people around him – including Congressmen, congressional staffers, fellow lobbyists, and assorted figures within conservative and right-wing Christian politics. Gibney won an Oscar for his 2007 documentary, Taxi to the Dark Side, but Gibney deftly plumbed the depths of economic and political scandal in the Oscar-nominated documentary, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.

However, Casino Jack and the United States of Money is not just about Abramoff. It is really about the buying and selling of the American government with lobbyists as the go-betweens for the buyers (powerful business interests) and the sellers (Congress). Gibney dazzles with stories of Indian tribal councils spending millions of dollars to keep their casinos and to keep other tribes from having casinos. There is the sex slave industry in Saipan and a murdered Greek casino tycoon. Cold War intrigue mixes with African revolutionaries. Congressmen take lavish, overseas golf trips – transportation by private, corporate jet. But the real story is about the looting of the American government, our broken system of government, and the perilous state of our democracy.

Jack Abramoff was in prison while Gibney was making Casino Jack and the United States of Money, and although he was able to interview Abramoff in prison, Gibney was unable to film the former lobbyist for inclusion in the film. Not having Abramoff is a glaring omission, but this film is really about Casino Jack Abramoff AND the United States of Money. For all that the film covers Abramoff, his career, activities, associates, and business partners, the underlying theme of this documentary is the legalized bribery and influence peddling that has basically turned the American government over to people who can afford to buy it.

Gibney’s gift is to take subjects like accounting, finance, government, and law and make them interesting. Like the Enron movie, this Jack Abramoff movie is about corruption, and Gibney fills the film with interviews of the people involved and the people who are reporting on the takeover. What could be a boring piece of journalism is instead a compelling narrative that will wake up the viewer to corruption about which he should and must care. Gibney convinces the viewer that the corruption matters to him because it affects him and perhaps it will make that viewer become engaged and maybe even outraged.

Gibney can even find the humor in the con game. His interview with former Republican House Majority Leader, Tom Delay, reveals a man in denial about his activities with Abramoff. It is funny to watch Delay deliver half-truths and spin with smooth-as-silk dishonesty, as if he did not unethical, let alone wrong. I don’t know if Casino Jack and the United States of Money will make people take to the streets and demand change (probably not), but it is an important documentary in the modern history of American politics. It exists as a warning, a signpost on the road to American ruin. Ignore it at your peril.

9 of 10
A+

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

"Jesus Camp" Not as Passionate as its Subject Matter

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 25 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Jesus Camp (2006)
Running time: 85 minutes (1 hour, 35 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some discussions of mature subject matter
PRODUCERS/DIRECTORS: Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Mira Chang and Jenna Rosher
EDITOR: Enat Sidi
Academy Award nominee

DOCUMENTARY – POLITICS/RELIGION

Starring: Pastor Becky Fischer

The documentary, Jesus Camp, takes a sharp look at a particular part of the Evangelical revivalist subculture that indoctrinates devout Christian children and trains them to become “Christian soldiers in God’s army.” These are the children will grow up to become the adults who deliver the fundamentalist community’s religious and political messages.

The film focuses on Pastor Becky Fischer and her Kids on Fire summer camp at Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, where Fischer and her cohorts attempt to solidify and deepen the spirituality of the preteen children who come from around the country to attend the camp. Fischer and company also exhort the children towards political activism in which the goal is “taking back America for Christ.” The film also focuses on Levi, a boy who is already preaching to other children.

Early in Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s documentary film, a preteen girl finishes a faux-break dance routine, and then, tells the camera that she has to watch out and make sure that she isn’t “dancing for the flesh” and is instead dancing for Christ. Watching this film gives the viewer a chance to see how adults brainwash children and indoctrinate these impressionable young minds into whole heartedly buying the adults’ ideologies and beliefs. While this might appall some people, and, considering the politics of Jesus Camp’s subjects, also make liberals uncomfortable, brainwashing children is nothing new. As the film’s creepy star, Pastor Becky Fischer of Kids on Fire says, children never have a choice in what adults teach them. Thus, her attitude is more or less, why not program them with her ideas and lifestyle instead of allowing someone else to program them.

Certainly, Jesus Camp is excellent view of how religious factions and organizations indoctrinate children, but the directors certainly consider this a more important issue than I think it is. Ewing and Grady likely mean Jesus Camp to be more of a warning than a cautionary tale, and some viewers may find the contents of this documentary to be a sign of the looming apocalypse. No doubt there is a fair amount of shocking material here, but it’s shocking in a humorous sort of way. For instance, during a mini-rant about that literary “warlock,” Harry Potter, Pastor Becky mentions that Potter would have been killed in the Old Testament. When the members of a military family shown briefly in the film pledges allegiance to the “Christian flag” while holding an American flag, an Israeli flag, and some kind of flag with a cross on it, I laughed, (albeit with a bit of unease). Perhaps, the creepiest “star” of the picture is Levi, a boy who has really bought into the idea that he is going to be a preacher.

Why Jesus Camp received an Oscar nomination for “Best Documentary, Features,” over what I consider to be better documentary films (such as Why We Fight and Who Killed the Electric Car?), I’ll never know. There’s nothing cinematic about this documentary film, and it looks like something a television network such as CBS or ABC could have produced, although it is a co-production of A&E IndieFilms, a branch of the A&E cable network.

One thing that may have helped this film earn Oscar attention (and that of critics and audiences) is an appearance in the film by Pastor Ted Haggard of the Colorado Springs mega-church, New Life Church. In November 2006, Haggard resigned (or was removed) from his position at New Life Church after he confirmed some of the allegations of an alleged male prostitute that Haggard himself participated in homosexual sex and drug abuse. The resignation took place after Haggard was filmed for Jesus Camp.

5 of 10
B-

Thursday, February 01, 2007

NOTES:
2007 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Documentary, Features” (Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady)

Honors for Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin at Hollywood Film Festival

Press release:

Danny Boyle, Christian Colson, Aaron Sorkin, Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall to be honored at the Hollywood Awards Gala

Hollywood, CA, September 27, 2010 -- The 14th Annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Awards, presented by Starz, are pleased to announce that producers Danny Boyle and Christian Colson will be honored with the "Hollywood Producer Award," screenwriter Aaron Sorkin will get the "Hollywood Screenwriter Award," and Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall will be honored with the "Hollywood Editor Award" at the festival's Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony.

The announcement was made by Carlos de Abreu, Founder of the Hollywood Awards Gala.

"We are honored to recognize these exceptionally talented artists for their outstanding work and creative vision at this year's Hollywood Awards Gala," said de Abreu.

Previously announced honorees for this year's Hollywood Awards Gala include: Sean Penn for the "Humanitarian Award"; Helena Bonham Carter for the "Supporting Actress Award"; Sam Rockwell for the "Supporting Actor Award"; Andrew Garfield for the "Breakthrough Actor Award"; Mia Wasikowska for the "Breakthrough Actress Award"; Disney/Pixar's "Toy Story 3" and director Lee Unkrich for the "Hollywood Animation Award"; Paramount Pictures' "Iron Man 2" and visual effects supervisors Ben Snow and Janek Sirrs for the "Hollywood Visual Effects Award"; Hans Zimmer for the "Film Composer Award"; Wally Pfister for "Cinematographer Award"; and Robert Stromberg for the "Production Designer Award."

The gala ceremony will take place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on October 25, 2010.


ABOUT DANNY BOYLE AND CHRISTIAN COLSON
DANNY BOYLE's (Director/Screenwriter/Producer) career started in the theatre with Howard Barker's "Victory," Howard Brenton's "The Genius" and Edward Bond's "Saved," which won the Time Out Award. Boyle also directed five productions for The Royal Shakespeare Company before moving into television where his work included producing Alan Clark's controversial "Elephant" and directing "Strumpet," "Vacuuming Completely Naked In Paradise" and the series Mr. Wroe's Virgins," for which he received a BAFTA nomination.

In 1994 his first feature, "Shallow Grave, earned him the Alexander Korda Award for Outstanding British Film at the BAFTA Awards, among a host of other accolades. Boyle's second film, "Trainspotting," is one of the highest grossing British independent films of all time. The critically acclaimed film won four Empire Awards including Best Director and Best Film and was nominated for a BAFTA Alexander Korda Award and an Academy Award® for Best Adapted Screenplay.

In 2002 the smash hit horror film "28 Days Later" earned Boyle a Saturn Award for Best Horror Film from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. Boyle's other feature films include "Millions" starring James Nesbitt, Alex Etel and Lewis McGibbon; "The Beach," starring Leonardo DiCaprio; "A Life Less Ordinary," starring Ewan McGregor and Cameron Diaz and "Sunshine," starring Cillian Murphy. "Slumdog Millionaire," his eighth internationally theatrically released film, won the People's Choice Award at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival and went on to win more than 100 international industry awards including 4 Golden Globes, 7 BAFTAs and 8 Academy Awards including best picture. Boyle's latest feature "127 HOURS" stars James Franco in the extraordinary true story of outdoorsman Aron Ralston's entrapment in Blue John Canyon, Utah and will be released theatrically by Fox Searchlight on November 5th 2010. The film marks Boyle's second collaboration with producer Christian Colson and the duo are together developing a slate of new films.

CHRISTIAN COLSON (Producer) is an Academy Award® winning film producer, and Chairman of the London-based production company Cloud Eight Films. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1968, Christian graduated with a First Class Honours degree in English from Oxford University. In 1994 he began his film industry career at the talent agency London Management before becoming Head of Development UK for Harvey Weinstein's Miramax Films in 1998.

Between 2002 and 2009, Christian was Managing Director of Celador Films where he produced seven features including Neil Marshall's 2005 worldwide horror hit THE DESCENT, which won a Saturn Award for Best Horror Film from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, and the Empire Award for Best Horror Film. In 2008 Christian produced Danny Boyle's multiple award-winning "Sumdog Millionaire," for which he received the Academy Award for Best Picture of 2008. 127 HOURS marks his second collaboration with Danny Boyle and will be released theatrically by Fox Searchlight on November 5th 2010.

Christian is currently in pre-production on the Civil Rights drama "Selma," to be directed by Lee Daniels, and is developing a slate of films with Danny Boyle.

ABOUT AARON SORKIN
Screenwriter and playwright Aaron Sorkin wrote the screenplay for the highly anticipated film "The Social Network," directed by David Fincher and starring Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake. The film is about the formation of Facebook and is set to be released on October 1.

Sorkin made his Broadway playwriting debut with the military courtroom drama "A Few Good Men," for which he received the John Gassner Award as Outstanding New American Playwright. He made his screenwriting debut with the film adaptation of "A Few Good Men," starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore, which was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Sorkin followed this success with the screenplays for "Malice" and "The American President." He also created and wrote the television series "Sports Night" and "The West Wing," for which he won numerous awards, including the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series for each of his four years on "The West Wing." Sorkin recently adapted "Moneyball," directed by Bennett Miller and starring Brad Pitt, which is currently in production at Sony. He has also acquired the rights to "The Politician," the best-selling book by Andrew Young about the downfall of former Senator John Edwards. Sorkin will adapt the book and make his directorial debut with "The Politician," which he will also produce.

ABOUT KIRK BAXTER AND ANGUS WALL
Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall were both nominated for an Academy Award for their editing work on "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. Together they edited David Fincher's latest masterpiece "The Social Network" that stars Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, and Justin Timberlake. In addition, they both edited David Fincher's "Zodiac" starring Jake Gyllenhaal.

Baxter's previous credits include title designer for HBO's "Big Love" and editor on the Academy Award nominated short live action film "Killing Joe." Wall's previous editing credits include Mike Mills' "Thumbsucker"; John Woo's "Hostage" starring Clive Owen; David Fincher's "Panic Room" starring Jodie Foster, Kristen Stewart, and Forest Whitaker; and Adam Collis' "Sunset Strip" starring Simon Baker.

The festival and awards will mark their return on October 20 for a weeklong series of screenings, competitions and awards. The Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony will take place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on October 25, 2010.s

The festival and awards presenter is Starz Entertainment, LLC, a premium movie and original programming entertainment service provider operating in the United States. The company offers 16 premium channels including the flagship Starz® and Encore® brands with approximately 17.3 million and 31.9 million subscribers respectively. Starz Entertainment airs in total more than 1,000 movies and original series every month across its pay TV channels. Starz Entertainment is recognized as a pay TV leader in providing HD, On Demand, HD On Demand and online advanced services for its Starz, Encore and MoviePlex brands. Starz Entertainment (www.starz.com) is an operating unit of Starz, LLC, which is a controlled subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation and is attributed to the Liberty Starz tracking stock group.

For more information please go to
Festival Contact: 1.310.288.1882
Hollywood Film Festival®
433 N. Camden Drive, Suite 600
Beverly Hills, CA 90210

Review: First "Iron Man" Film Was Good - Surprisingly Good

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 26 (of 2008) by Leroy Douresseaux

Iron Man (2008)
Running time: 126 minutes (2 hours, 6 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence and brief suggestive content
DIRECTOR: Jon Favreau
WRITERS: Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby and Art Marcum & Matt Holloway (based upon characters created by Stan Lee, Don Heck, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby)
PRODUCERS: Avi Arad and Kevin Feige
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Matthew Libatique, ASC (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Dan Lebental, A.C.E.
Academy Award nominee

SUPERHERO/FANTASY/SCI-FI/ACTION

Starring: Robert Downey, Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, Leslie Bigg, Faran Tahir, Clark Gregg, Sayed Badreya, and Shaun Toub

After years of watching other movie studios make hundreds of millions bringing its comic book characters to the big screen (Spider-Man, X-Men), Marvel Studios makes its first foray into financing and making its own superhero movie. It’s called Iron Man, and this first Marvel Studios movie is as bold and as brash as Marvel’s attempt to bring the classic armored superhero to the silver screen on its own dime.

Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) is a billionaire industrialist and genius inventor, and his Stark Industries is the U.S. government’s top weapons contractor. He has celebrity status as the protector of American interests around the globe and lives a carefree lifestyle. While in Afghanistan, his military convoy/escort is attacked, Stark is gravely injured by life-threatening shrapnel embedded near his already weakened heart. Kidnapped and held hostage by a group of insurgents, Stark is forced to build a devastating weapon for Raza (Faran Tahir), the mysterious leader of the insurgents. Instead, Tony uses his intelligence and ingenuity to build a high-tech suit of armor and escapes captivity.

Returning to America, Stark is determined to come to terms with his past and vows to take Stark Industries in a new direction, but meets resistance from Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), his right-hand man and top executive, who took the reigns of the company while Stark was gone. Spending his days and nights in his workshop, Tony develops and refines the suit of armor that gives him superhuman strength and physical protection. When he uncovers a nefarious plot with global implications, Stark once again dons his new, more powerful armor, and with the help of his longtime assistant, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), and his trusted military liaison, Jim “Rhodey” Rhodes (Terrence Howard), Tony Stark fights evil as his new alter ego “Iron Man.”

There are several reasons why this Iron Man film turns out to be such a joyous and entertaining film. The main reason is Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man. Much has been made that Downey has used his experience as an addict to play Stark (a heavy-drinking playboy), who, in some of the Marvel comic books, was portrayed as an alcoholic. The truth is that Downey is simply a superb actor whose talent has been overshadowed by his public battle with his demons. Here, Downey offers a complicated view of both the man and superhero just as Tobey Maguire has done as Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Christian Bale as Batman (in Batman Begins).

Downey presents Tony Stark as a hard worker and hard player. He’s dedicated to creating the best weapons for the United States, but he focuses on his down time with equal zeal; he’s all work and all play. This is how Downey presents Stark as a man who is so self-centered and so focused only on what he wants to do that he essentially ignores everything and everyone else around him. Stark takes his friends for granted, and although he works hard to create the best inventions for his company, he actually ignores how Stane is running it. By presenting such a fully developed character, Downey uses that performance to drive both the narrative and its central conceit – in order to better the world, Tony Stark, with the help of Iron Man has to better himself.

Iron Man’s visual effects are another element that sells the film. The CGI and other special effects look slick, as would befit a futuristic hero who wears shiny, beyond state-of-the-art technology. Still, there is an earthy quality to it that becomes this tale of a knight in shining armor that saves both the world and the man inside the armor.

The third and fourth elements about Iron Man that really stand out are actor Jeff Bridges and director Jon Favreau (who also has a small acting role here). Bridges is a consummate actor, and I would be hard-pressed to find an instance in which he gave a poor performance. Stane, for the most part, is a small role, but Bridges so easily creates the duplicity, menace, and outright evil of Stane that the character’s dark presence and ominous machinations straddle the narrative just the way a villain and his wrongness should do in a superhero movie.

Finally, Jon Favreau already has a blockbuster to his directing resume, the heart-warming and wonderfully endearing Christmas flick, Elf. It was, however, his thoroughly underrated children’s sci-fi flick, Zathura (2005) that gave him the chance to show how much he understood handling a complicated technical production. In Elf and Zathura, Favreau also showed his knack for constantly offering surprises in his film narratives. It doesn’t matter if it is a quiet moment, a moment of intense drama, or a sequence of slam-bang action and SFX; Favreau always offers something visually appealing – the presentation of an event or a bit of dialogue that keeps the film fresh and moving. The viewer’s interest is usually stimulated and kept focused on the film. With Iron Man, Favreau wisely takes Downey’s witty and droll turn and makes a film that from beginning to end is absolutely fun to watch – with no time for a dull moment.

7 of 10
A-

Monday, May 19, 2008

NOTES:
2009 Academy Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Achievement in Sound Editing” (Frank E. Eulner and Christopher Boyes) and “Best Achievement in Visual Effects” (John Nelson, Ben Snow, Daniel Sudick, and Shane Mahan)

2009 BAFTA Awards: 1 nominations: “Best Special Visual Effects” (Hal T. Hickel, Shane Mahan, John Nelson, and Ben Snow)

2008 Black Reel Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Supporting Actor” (Terrence Howard)

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