The Hard Goodbye to our Valiant: Remembering Bob Hoskins

A hare-y situation: image courtesy of Cineplex.com

R.K. Maroon: How much do you know about show business, Mr. Valiant?
Eddie Valiant: Only that there is no business like it, no business I know.

I was very distressed to hear news about Bob Hoskin’s passing this morning at the relatively young age of 71 due to pneumonia.Though he announced his retirement from acting in 2012 due to being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, I'm sure many of us hoped we would have the pleasure of his company for awhile longer.

Hoskins singlehandedly revived the film noir genre (one of my favorites) to a whole new audience with his wonderful performance Eddie Valiant, a hardworking/hard boozing flatfoot private eye in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. An unlikely choice for a leading man, barrel-chested and standing 5’6”- but an unconventional film calls for an unconventional hero. I’m hard-pressed to imagine anyone else in the role. Cool World (1992), a similar real world/toon merging trying to ride on the coattails Roger Rabbit’s success, cast the dashing young Brad Pitt for their private eye, but unfortunately due to Pitt’s stilted acting and the horrible quality of the animation, Cool World was destined for the bargain bin. 

Hoskins never rose to the white-hot stardom of the likes of Philip Seymour Hoffman (who also passed away earlier this year, also far, far too soon), but he was always AROUND, embellishing films with his gruff voice and cantankerous charm. While Valiant is Hoskins’ best-known role, my very first exposure to Hoskins was as Iago in the 1981 TV Movie of Shakespeare's Othello (featuring, bizarrely, an overly stuffy Anthony Hopkins as Othello in blackface). Hoskins was the easily best part of the whole performance, impish, growling, and devious as all get-out. If it weren’t for Hoskins,1991’s Mermaids would have been nigh unwatchable. As Cher’s boyfriend, Lou Landsky, he adds a reality check to all the sentimental mush and angst being sprayed around liberally, almost choking the film completely. And was there ever a better live-action Smee to compliment the nefarious charm of Dustin Hoffman’s embodiment of Captain Hook in 1991’s Hook? 

Hoskins in 2012. Image courtesy of CNN.com

I'll wrap up this small tribute with an interview Hoskins gave shortly after Roger Rabbit came out (apologies, but the only link I could find to it has subtitles) that shows not only the dedication to his craft, but the wonderfully kind and good-natured person that he was. When asked what it was like acting around a bunch of characters that weren’t actually there, he explains that he had to “hallucinate” the characters to interact with them, and working with his young daughter, who had invisible friends of her own at that time, to achieve this level of believability in the make-believe. Of course, this would be enough to drive anyone a little batty: 

"After doing it for six months, for sixteen hours a day, I sort of, um, lost control of it. I had weasels and rabbits popping out of the wall at me, you know?"

Toby sez: Rest in peace, Mr. Hoskins. The world will never be the same without you. 

Current Reels: Mr. Peabody & Sherman brings wit but lacks bite

"Now don't touch that, Sherman..." Image courtesy of DreamWorks.

Back when I was a wee pup in oversized glasses not unlike Sherman's, I used to relish the time when the Rocky & Bullwinkle Show would come on the Saturday morning cartoons. It was quick-paced and sardonic, filled with political commentary of the time that generally went over my head, except for the Cold War villains embodied in Boris and Natasha. My favorite short was Mr. Peabody & Sherman, about a particularly precocious time-traveling dog who “owned” a little boy.

In the late 90s and early 2000s, Hollywood tried valiantly to bring Rocky & Bullwinkle and their accompanying sketches to the big screen - with limited success, to say the least. (Let’s not talk about Dudley Do-Right, except to say Brendan Frasier definitely put emphasis on the “Dud.”) In the course of making the material more accessible to current kiddies, the knife-sharp wit and sarcasm of the original show got lost on the cutting room floor.

This happens to some extent in the DreamWorks reboot. Mr. Peabody remains his impassive, unruffled self, but in the process of making him more universally kid-friendly, he does lose some of his acerbic wit. Ty Burrell gives Mr. Peabody a warmer, less nasally tone than the original, which smooths off a few of the rough edges that those of us who remember the original show came to know and love. But director Rob Minkoff (The Lion King, The Forbidden Kingdom) manages to succeed in retaining some of the original caustic quality of the show while bringing Mr. Peabody into the 21^st century. Peabody's no pushover, and still gets his jabs in where it counts, particularly when dealing with obnoxious human parents. His early 1960s-style home and decor, straight from the original source, takes on an appealing hipster retro look for today’s audiences. Sherman is also given more dimension as he struggles to make his way in the world having a dog for a father.

Original Mr. Peabody & Sherman, with the Wayback Machine.

The only true weak link in the film is the character of Penny, who plays the female protagonist that ruthlessly picks on Sherman, only to decide that he is actually cool when she finds out that Mr. Peabody owns a time machine called the “Wayback” (best name for a time machine ever - sorry Tardis). That’s where her character development stops. We never grow to love her in the way that the filmmakers clearly want us to, remaining pretty much a pain in the tuckis most of the way through.
 

As the plot winds up and Penny’s ditzy parents are properly disposed of so we can all get to the fun stuff,  the trio of Mr. Peabody, Sherman, and Penny bounce and careen their way through time, successfully rendering the lightning-quick pace of the original show. They are greeted by a variety of  historical characters voiced by an all-star cast, including Patrick Warburton, his booming barritone a perfect match for the thuggish but well-meaning Agamemnon, and a welcome surprise of the inimitable Mel Brooks as Albert Einstein.

One aspect where the film truly shines is how its nuggets of wisdom are subtly brought forth, rather than spoon fed to us, which is so often the case. The one “a-ha” moment for me is when Sherman takes one of Leonardo da Vinci’s flying crafts and sails it through the air with Penny in tow, and is doing just fine until Mr. Peabody says “Sherman, you can’t fly a plane!”whereupon he loses his nerve and goes crashing into a forest.

It wasn't all it could be, but then spinning a 10-minute segment of a larger show into a feature length film is never an easy task, and it succeeds better than most. If it does well enough for a sequel, however, I certainly hope they give more opportunities for Peabody's bite to be worse than his bark.

Toby sez: A successful reboot of dated source material and a good romp for kids, but leaves adult viewers wanting more.

Happy Belated Birthday, Blog!

I realized that as of March 17 of this year, this blog has remained insatiable (despite a few hiccups here and there) for the last four years! If you'd like to see how far we've come, read my VERY first review of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland here.

Toby and I thank you for your continued readership and support, whether you've been reading for all four years or have just stopped in today. Four more years! :D

Toby and I, looking on towards the thrilling future of things to critique!

Current Reels: The A.I. relationships in Her show us what it means to be human

Better bonding through A.I. - Amy Adams and Joaquin Phoenix.

A friend and fan of my blog Will Siss, who runs his own successful blog at Beer Snob critiquing craft beer (and really, what goes together better than a good movie and some good brews) suggested that I do a comparison with Her and Lars and the Real Girl, which was my movie pick this past Valentine’s Day.

While they are very different films, the heart of both is how successful relationships, no matter how unconventional, help take us out of our solitude and make us evolve into better people. It also tears open the envelope that we tuck all of our secret attractions into – those hidden desires and wants that we can’t talk about in polite company, but are real and vital to us all the same. I firmly believe in the notion The Princess Bride taught me – we are as real as the feelings we feel. 

The film takes place in disturbingly not-too-distant future Los Angeles, centering on the quiet life of Theodore (played by Joaquin Phoenix dressed in his best hipster suits), a writer who composes "personal, handwritten" letters on his work computer for people that don’t have the time or the talent to do so. (Think Cyrano for the digital era.) Indeed, the writing makes Her tick, and why I am pleased it won the Oscar for best original screenplay. Director and writer Spike Jonze seems to have found a happy middle ground between his more pedestrian works such as Jackass and the ultra-meta muddle that was Where the Wild Things Are. For instance, there is a delightful trash-talking A.I. alien that Theodore encounters in a video game he's playing that grounds the film nicely with his pointed reality checks.

A man, the sea, & the love of his life. Photos courtesy of Annapurna Pictures.

There's a lot that Lars and Theodore have in common - Lars is painfully shy and can’t get a girlfriend, so he buys a doll off the Internet. Theodore can’t admit that his marriage has collapsed and refuses to sign the divorce papers, so he develops a romantic relationship with his operating system, Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson, who continues to be sexy even in voice only.) They take something nonthreatening, something outside themselves, and use it as a security blanket, but in both instances, that step inevitably leads them to rolling out of their comfort zone and facing the hard truth that while romantic relationships are wonderful, they are also a lot of hard work. Amy Adams does backup in a small but important role as Amy, Theodore's human friend who has formed a less intense but still valuable relationship with her OS as well. 

Her demands patience; the story's spool unwinds with slow deliberation that made me realize how fast-paced and action-packed most films nowadays are. It is a slow walk through the park of someone's private life - surprisingly sensual, unexpectedly complex, incredibly deep. I found myself at one point going a bit pink in the dark theatre during a particularly impassioned sequence, even when there was absolutely nothing explicit being shown on the screen. The futuristic atmosphere is enhanced by part of Her being filmed in Shanghai, a great center of otherworldliness. I can recall a very specific evening in that city in 2011, wandering around the half-deconstructed behemoths from the 2010 World Expo underneath arches of fluorescent light, near a sculpture of giant stainless steel dancing bears. Doesn’t get more surreal than that.

The result of Her is a truly unconventional love story that addresses our innate problem with change, and it is a problem because EVERYTHING changes - even operating systems. Technology evolves, people evolve, and life takes couples down different roads and isn’t always kind in making those roads converge in convenient ways. "The past is just a story we tell ourselves," says Samantha at one point. It is appropriate the line is hers, because as an OS, that statement is literally true. But it is true for us as well. Lars and Theodore show us the only "real" we have is what is happening right now, and we need to appreciate each moment that comes to us, and be open to the possibilities ahead.

Toby sez: Sexy, sweet, and thought-provoking. Tried my patience at times, but the good writing and ultimate message won me over. But did anyone think to get lonely Theodore a cat? 

Audiobook Spotlight: Born Standing Up makes listeners sit down and think

One Wild and Crazy Guy: Image courtesy of Audible, Inc.

Here's the honest truth - I never really thought much of Steve Martin until about five years ago when I picked up his novel, Shopgirl. To me, he was just the goofball in feel-good comedies like Father of the Bride and that "wild and crazy guy" hanging out with Dan Aykroyd in the beloved bygone golden years of Saturday Night Live.

I was so floored by the delicate beauty that is present within the writing, effectively cloaking the core strength of the main character, Mirabelle, until the time is right. It shows the kind of despairing beauty that is Los Angeles, and the oft-seen but seldom discussed phenomenon of the significantly older man/younger woman relationship that blooms in the desert of loneliness and is so often doomed to fail by the harsh rays of reality.

 I kept flipping back to the cover and thinking, wow, STEVE MARTIN wrote this? And that was when I began to see Martin, whose humor as a child/teen I never quite got, as someone very different than the image I had formed in my head of the prematurely white-haired buffoon. 

In Born Standing Up, Martin takes his wry humor and turns it in on himself without being self-indulgent. Listening to the author relate his own words, cracking his own jokes, creates the sense that the story is being told just for you. Punctuated by banjo solos composed by Martin himself, the story of his evolution into the actor/musician he is today is a strange brew of concise and expansive, honest and circumspect. This is no "Steve Martin unplugged", no tearful confessions, no rants of the pressures of being a star. Indeed, at just a touch over four hours, it is a quick read/listen, and yet no less satisfying for the journey it takes you on.

There's a part of the book where Martin confesses that he's never been very good at acknowledging his fame with others; people expect him to be the off-beat, wacky guy that they see when he's off the stage or screen, when in reality, he is rather reserved. This made me recall a great story Rich, my dear friend from college, told me about spotting Martin in a quiet wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City a few years ago. He was wearing a black ball cap low over his face. Rich politely approached him, and said, "Excuse me. Are you Steve Martin?" Whereupon with a certain amount of dread, Martin turned his eyes to him and said warily, "Yeeesss..." To which Rich said, with the kind of affable charm that I can so easily envision thanks to our 10+ years of friendship, "Okay, cool. Have a great day!" and left him alone.

While I doubt that I will ever have an opportunity to meet Martin, or that he would even be pleased to make my acquaintance, I cannot help but admire the astonishingly wonderful writing that comes out of this contemplative, banjo-strumming fellow - the man he is when he puts "The Jerk" and "The Wild and Crazy Guy" on the shelf.

Thanks Steve, for finding a way to show us the thoughtful guy behind the funny face.

Listen to an audio sample here. 

Toby Sez: Author's voice and banjo riffs add depth and charm to this concise and honest tale of one man's road towards comedic success.

First impressions of Her; Critic comments on the Oscars via Twitter tonight!

Ellen lookin' sharp and rockin' the iconic gold little guy

 Hey guys! If you don't already follow me via Twitter, go click on that handy little Follow button below. I'll be Tweeting my impressions of the Oscars tonight.


Also, my brief synopsis/impression of the movie Her was favorited by the movie's official Twitter page! That kind of thing never gets old. Keep an eye out for the forthcoming full review treatment.

Her is a sexy little musing about conventional and unconventional relationships we make and the our capacity to love without restraint. #Her
— TheInsatiableCritic (@TheInsatiCritic) March 2, 2014

Everyday We are Hustlin': American Hustle Shows the Beauty in Survival

The con is on: Ensemble of American Hustle. Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures.

The art of survival is a story that never ends. 

These are the last words of American Hustle, and they echoed in my head long after I left the theatre. As an avowed word nerd, I was impressed that the whole plot of a film could be summed up so succinctly and with such elegance.

It should be noted that  director David Owen Russell also directed 2012’s Silver Linings Playbook, which I LOVED. I also love movies made and based in the 70s – that era of American history holds a certain draw for me, so the bar was set pretty high right from the get-go. 

What strikes me about Russell’s directing style is his knack for showing life as it is happening. He winds up the plot and lets the actors take it away. He chooses his actors carefully and gives them the creative space to make their characters come to life, to slip into their respective skins, which is the point of American Hustle – how people create images, caricatures of themselves in order to survive.  The actors are being actors of the characters they are acting. (Try saying that five times fast).

Christian Bale as head con man Irving Rosenfeld gives the performance of a lifetime. Almost unrecognizable with a paunch and a comb over, he drives the plot and owns the storyline with all the languorous reluctance of a king who doesn’t want the throne he's placed on. Amy Adams as his business partner and lover Sydney Prosser acts as his perfect foil, a hard-charging, fiery beauty masked under wide blue eyes and a sweet smile who eschews conventional society as easily as she does her bra. 

Stirring the pot is the ever-versatile Jennifer Lawrence as Irving’s unstable wife Rosalyn, and Bradley Cooper as Richie DiMaso, an unhinged FBI agent who finds an opportunity to force Irving and Sydney to use their dubious talents to uncover a crime ring in New Jersey. This also includes deceiving the mayor of New Jersey, Carmine Polito, who is played with understated panache by Jeremy Renner. What quickly escalates is a power play of wills, and the stakes become increasingly higher as the con gets underway. There's also an excellent cameo of one of my favorite actors (I won't say who, don't want to ruin the surprise) and a very welcome appearance of Jack Huston as a mobster, whom I'm well acquainted with as Richard Harrow on Boardwalk Empire.

Pounding in the background behind all of this is an excellent selection of 70s hits, including “Delilah” by Tom Jones and “Long Black Road” by Electric Light Orchestra. Throw in a score composed by Danny Elfman and you’ve got a pretty bangin’ soundtrack. However, there are times when I wished Russell had opted to turn down the booming tunes and turn up the dialogue. Watching Rosalyn with her ever-present crazy updo furiously cleaning her house while singing along to “Live and Let Die” struck me as vaguely ridiculous, and didn’t add that much to the film overall. 

It is the inspired ordinary moments amid the glitz and glamour that make the film worth a second view - love blossoming in the mundane as clothes on dry cleaning racks swirl around, the simple joy of walking down the street hand in hand. Camera angles dip and whirl to create their own statements. In one memorable moment we view Richie's frantic movements through the flashing lights of a disco club so they appear stilted and slow. This deftly shows rather than tells the paradox of heightened passion and slow motion effectively trapping Richie in his own mental anguish of wanting to move forward but never getting ahead. 

All of this leaves the audience wondering  - what does it take to survive? And is it possible to make an art out of doing so? 

If American Hustle gives any indication, than the answer is yes. 

Toby sez: Solid storytelling, acting, and execution that leaves one coming back for more.