PRETTY BABY, a retrospective

PRETTY BABY (1978)─Directed by Louis Malle from a screenplay by Polly Platt. The year was 1917, the year the United States entered World War I in the waning days of legal prostitution in the infamous red-light district of the Storyville section of New Orleans. Hattie (Susan Sarandon), a prostitute working in an elegant brothel run by the Madame Nell, has a twelve-year-old daughter Violet (Brooke Shields). Introverted photographer E.J. Bellocq (Keith Carradine) comes calling with his camera.
    Bellocq asks permission to take photographs of the women. Madame Nell agrees, but only if he pays. Peculiarly, Bellocq chooses only to takes pictures, he never has sex with any of the women.  His sole passion is photographing whores. His particular favourite subject is Hattie, as he photographs Hattie, we come to understand that the camera, the act of taking pictures has somehow become a surrogate extension of Bellocq's repressed sexuality. His strange demeanor and odd mannerisms fascinate Violet, whom he initially regards as a pest.
     The character of E.J. Bellocq is based on a real photographer who captured on glass plates of silver nitrate the real prostitutes of Storyville. Though the specific story built around him in the movie is fictional. The real Bellocq photographs are used to create a sense of the time and place and evoke the movie with authenticity.
     Over the next few months, Nell decides that Violet is now old enough for her virginity to be auctioned. At the auction Violet is bought by an apparently quiet customer, but her first experience of sex is brutal. Hattie, meanwhile, aspires to escape prostitution. She marries, and abandons Violet, leaving her daughter behind to face a life of prostitution. Bellocq continues to spend time with Violet, entranced by her beauty, and photogenic face. When the brothel closes, Bellocq marries Violet, ostensibly to protect her from a dangerous world; however there are some who question his motives.
     At the beginning of this film, there's a tight shot on Violet’s strikingly beautiful face. She appears to be watching something with great interest and we hear a woman moaning off camera. Since Pretty Baby is a movie about prostitution, one might naturally assume that the child is watching some sexual act. Actually, it’s just the opposite; as the moans turn to cries of pain. We realize with a wink and a nod that Director Louis Malle has tricked us. We see that it’s not a woman in the throws of ecstasy but rather a woman in labor, and that Violet is witnessing her baby brother being born.

     Pretty Baby is famous for one thing and one thing only: twelve year-old Brooke Shields get'n nekid. Brooke has four separate nude scenes, including one scandalous scene where she is seen completely naked lying in repose on a couch, while Bellocq takes her photograph. Apparently child nudity, any child nudity has been deemed too much for our modern American twenty-first century sensibilities.  If you view the new politically corrected  DVD version of Pretty Baby, be forewarned, the movie has been censored by re-framing the original scenes. This was done to avoid any naughty shots of Brooke’s pubic area or her baby buttocks.  If you want to see the original theatrical movie as shot, cut by Malle, you need to find  a VHS version.
     On the other hand, if all you want is to see nekid pictures of  Brooke Shields, the nudity in Pretty Baby is pretty tame by comparison to the Gary Gross photo shoot.  Two years earlier, before the hue and cry over Pretty Baby, Teri Shields, the consummate stage-mother allowed her then ten-year-old Brooke  to pose for photographer Gary Gross WARNING THESE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE EXPLICIT.  Brooke Shields by Gary Gross.  *Whew* Brooke poses completely nude in  a bath tub,  we’re not talking baby’s first bath pictures here. Brooke is posed, tarted up, oiled down, in all her full frontal prepubescent glory. No higher authority than the U.S. Supreme court ruled these pictures "art" and not child pornography.  Art or not, they are way too controversial to post on this blog.  Pretty Baby remains a testament to the fact that the 70’s were a vastly more liberated time, at least when it comes to issues of a naked child's sexuality. No American studio could (or would) make this film today.

Pretty Baby (1978)  ** ½

Prom picks with Dakota Fanning

     A prom isn’t the same without the perfect prom dress, as anyone knows who’s ever been horrified at past prom Polaroids or watched “Pretty in Pink.” Dakota Fanning wore a blush Hervé Léger mini to her prom at Los Angeles area private school Campbell Hall. And she sifted through four racks stuffed with 100 BCBG Max Azria dresses at Children’s Hospital of Orange County to help 35 teenage cancer patients and survivors pick their favorites for the hospital’s annual prom.

     “Do you want a long one? Do you want a short one? Do you want color?,” asked Fanning of the girls, who were treated to jewelry from Forever 21, and makeup and hair consultations from Stila and Frederic Fekkai as well as the BCBG dresses.

     After trying on three dresses, 17-year-old Danielle Knowlton chose a short black cocktail number. Emily Justiniano, 15, rejected nine dresses on the way to settling on a long, tiered silvery blue dress.

     “I got to meet Dakota Fanning, and she is so cool,” beamed Justiniano, while getting makeup tips on eyeliner application from a Stila makeup artist. “She is so much like a regular person.”

     Up next on the regular person agenda for Fanning is graduating high school and heading to college in the fall with plans to study psychology. Less regular is Fanning’s summer job working in London on the upcoming movie “Now is Good” in which she plays a leukemia sufferer. After “Now is Good,” Fanning, who won’t take a hiatus from acting for college, starts shooting another movie in New York in September. “The school is allowing me to be flexible. I don’t want to stop working for four years,” said Fanning, who also will be seen in “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2” next year.

by Rachel Brown

posted 05.27.11

on wwd.com

Dakota is a "VERY GOOD GIRL."



Dakota Fanning is in talks to star opposite Elizabeth Olsen (infamous little sister of the titular Mary-Kate & Ashley) in Naomi Foner's  “Very Good Girls.” The rest of the cast is no less stellar and includes the talents of  Peter Sarsgaard, Dustin Hoffman and Sissy Spacek.


     Written and directed by Naomi Foner (Loosing Isaiah),the storyline revealed thus far: “Very Good Girls” follows two teenage girls through the New York City summer after they graduate from high school and decide to lose their virginity. When they both fall for the same charismatic street artist, their friendship is tested and they have to find their way through a tangle of lies and complicated intentions to discover what real love is.  Producers Gale Anne Hurd and Hawk Koch head production; filming is expected to start in September.

     Excuse me, am I missing something here?  Haven't we seen this all before?  I may be a bit old fashioned, behind the times, but it seems to me that a race to loose one's virginity doesn't  rank as one of life's most decorous,  unachievable, not to mention exemplary behaviors . . . I think the word we're looking for here is SLUT. 

     "Get off the table Mable, that money is for the waitress!"  I may be having a Déjà vu moment, but it seems like  we've seen this all before from from the pure at heart, Barnaby and Cornelius . . .  ♫ Out there, there's a world outside of Yonkers . . . ♫  in HELLO DOLLY to the raunchy and debased PORKY and dishonorable mention AMERICAN PIE. Who can forget the unfortunate pairing of Kristy McNichols and Tatum O'Neal in LITTLE DARLINGS, that vacant vapid vacuous 80's summer camp movie, in a race to loose their own virginity.  Yeah, been there, done that.
 

     I for one remain very disappointed in Dakota and her management, that she is unable to find any better material than this.  Saorise Rohan at least got herself cast as an Elf  maiden in "The Hobbit." I might be a little old fashioned, but the last time I checked, getting your cherry popped doesn't exactly rank up there with the achievement of discovering plutonium.

 

Dakota you could do so much better.

HANNA

Sunday

April 10, 2011

HANNA (2011) Okay, let’s be upfront about this, get our cards on the table. I’m a huge fan of girls with guns, I can’t help myself; I just love 'em!  Whether it's the Japanese graphic novel Gunslinger Girls, Natalie Portman in The Professional, or a gun toting Dakota Fanning in Push.  Most recently we were treated to the titular pint-sized foul mouth assassin Chloe Moretz in Kick Ass.  I think it’s safe to say that Hanna will join the pantheon of my favorite tough-girl films.

     Saorise Rohan is Hanna a 16-year-old girl raised in the wild arctic tundra of Finland by her "father" (Eric Bana) an ex-CIA agent.  Trained to be the perfect assassin, young Hanna is sent into the world by her father on a mission, Hanna cuts a swath of dead bodies across Europe all the while eluding agents dispatched after her by a shadowy ruthless intelligence operative with secrets of her own (Cate Blanchett).

      This is Bourne Supremacy meets the brother's Grimm fairy tales, an intense techno-action fable about a teenage girl groomed to be the ultimate assassin. The plot is confusing at times and not enough is explained which makes the whole chase sequences a lot less interesting. Even after the end of the film I still had questions as to the story and the reasons why things happened. There are some obvious plot holes, why does Eric Bana have a big red button, and why does Hanna feel compelled to push it?

     Some of the bad guys have a tendency to spend far more time brushing their teeth and cackling about how "evil" they are than they do developing character.  It seems the bad guys profess far more malevolent vengeance than the thin plot can justify. For her own part, Hanna is capable of bring down a bull moose with a bow and arrow, yet she is naive and sheltered, she's never seen an electric kettle or a ceiling fan, nonetheless, at one point in the film she effortless sits down to a computer and easily Goggles her way into solving the story’s central mystery. These kids now days . . . At this point I gave up trying to keep track of the plot and spent more time wondered, just what in the Sam Hill is going on here?   That’s not to say Hanna is not entertaining, there’s one pulse-pounding chase sequence through a maze of air shafts of a military installation . . . note to self, next time when designing impregnable underground military installation, do not install random unguarded manhole cover.  There is another pursuit through an impossible jumble of shipping containers, owing much of its excitement less to the compelling plot, and more to the pounding beat of the Chemical Bros. techno, trip-hop electronic soundtrack.

     Joe Wright (Atonement) makes very good character-driven movies that are often visually stunning.  This movie is interesting in the way it was filmed. There are parts which seem more like a music video, and then other moments that are sensitive and unexpected. 
      More than a few people have devoted far more time than they should to conjuring up or otherwise fabricating a non-existent rivalry between Dakota Fanning and Saorise Rohan.  I for one don't see the connection, what is clear to me is why Joe Wright chose to work with Rohan again.  Rohan is an absolute star!  This girl has a face the camera loves, with stunning blue eyes and a smattering of girlish freckles,  Saorise is beautiful in that "girl-next-door" sort of way——she possesses a charisma and worldly-wise magnetism that transcends her scant sixteen years.

HANNA (2011) **1/2

"Oh Lola" Oh Dakota!

Sunday

27 March 2011

 

DAKOTA FANNING'S modeling career appears to be on the fast track. Dakota is to be the new cover girl for Marc Jacobs’ new fragrance “Oh Lola.” The campaign was shot by Juergen Teller, who as you may recall is the photographer who shot Fanning’s first campaign for Marc Jacobs back in 2007 when Dak was 13.

     Dakota is beautiful; the photos are however more than a little bit provocative. Fanning is older now, she turned 17 in February, so I guess that's to be expected.  Still one has to question who made the decison to have her pose with a perfume bottle stuck in her crotch. What were they thinking?

On Dakota being naked, redux

Saturday

12 March 2011

ON FEBRUARY 9th, 2007 I wrote an essay titled On Dakota Being Naked. This has proved to be my most popular article on this blog, receiving on average of fifty page requests per day. I stand behind this article and do not retract a single word written—However, it does trouble me that in lieu of the numerous other enlighten articles to appear on this blog—that the apparent prurient nature of this single essay  attracts so much attention.

     It was never my intent to be salacious or provocative. You should understand, this article was written in the days before the movie HOUNDDOG was even released. A great deal of the information was based on a news release by BLUE LINE RADIO based on purported script excerpts from Deborah Kampmeier’s original script. Much of the most inflammatory and licentious aspects of the script never made it to film, viz. The up skirt shots of a then nine-year-old Isabel Fuhrman ORPHAN (2009). Lewellen forces Buddy and Grasshopper to strip naked and she ties them together forcing them to touch each other. A scene where Lewellen stands in front of the full length mirror takes her clothes off and looks at herself naked in the mirror. Daddy sneaks into Lewellen’s bedroom as Lewellen lays in bed in her underpants. Later on he climbs in her bed nude. Daddy wants Lewellen to sit in his lap, Lewellen asks why and he smiles and says because it “feels so good.” None of these scenes ever happened, and if they were in a draft of the script, they never made it on screen.

     In the context of February 2007 we were faced with the very real prospect that  "Fern,"  our fresh faced pig-tailed Fern of CHARLOTTE’S WEB (2006), was about to take off her clothes in front of the camera. That Dakota Fanning, the most prolific and influential young actress of her generation was on the cusp of doing a nude scene. For the record, Dakota NEVER appears nude; Dakota does however spend a considerable amount of screen time, cavorting about in her underwear.  Go figure.

     So where does that leave us?  No where really, underage girls have appeared naked in American film before.  Keira Kightley was sixteen when she took off her top and exposed her boobies in THE HOLE (2001).  Brooke Shields, although no where near as famous as Dakota at the time, does appear nude, lying in repose, on a couch in Louis Malle’s PRETTY BABY (1978).  Jenny Agutter who was a little bit older, but decidedly under age when she appeared nude in Nicolas Roeg’s WALKABOUT (1971). I don’t see anything wrong with the decision by Jenny to appear nude in this film. Jenny was beautiful, the film was poignant and the nudity was crucial to the story.
 

     The first amendment absolutely protects the depiction of a child nudity on the screen. Even full frontal nudity, is protected as long as the child is not depicted in a salacious or overtly sexualized situation. I think the biggest misconception in the public mind is that child nudity, even full frontal nudity is somehow analogous to child porn. I don't think its so much the actual depiction of  a naked child on screen that upset the public, African children appear naked on National Geographic, on Discovery channel all the time without any discernible outrage. No, I think it's more the idea of a famous child appearing nude, that's what really got the public's knickers in a twist! In February of 2007 we suffered credible reporting that Dakota Fanning was prepared to do a nude scene. This absolutely did not happen, and I apologize to my readers for even the appearance of purporting, perpetuating, or otherwise propagating this rumor as it is patently untrue.
 

 

      Our Dakota is no longer a child, she is a young woman, when I recall the tight little black dress Dakota famously wore on the Tonight Show, I get the distinct impression that  Miss Fanning isn't what you might call a particularly shy girl,  (she knows she looks good), she defiantly doesn't mind us "looking." Dakota turned seventeen last month, whether  or not Miss Fanning chooses to take off her clothes on screen anytime soon is entirely her choice. 

DAKOTA FANNING GONE "WILD"

Sunday

February 20, 2011

DAKOTA FANNING has gone wild, “Mississippi Wild,” that is. The sixteen-year-old actress will play the girlfriend of a teen Ryan Donowho (The O.C.) together the pair go on the lam after Donowho’s character steals some jewelry belonging to a local gangster.

     The rest of the cast is rumored to include some serious Hollywood heavy weights; Mickey Rourke is slated to play the gangster while Forest Whittacker has reportedly been approached to take on the role of a rival gangster who is chasing after Rourke’s character. Robert Duvall has also signed on in an unspecified role at the moment. Bager will direct the movie from a script he has written while Shannon Makhanian and Ryan Johnson produce with Todd Slater set to executive produce.

     “Mississippi Wild” is scheduled to begin shooting on March 21 in Atlanta, with a release date sometime in 2012.

Dakota goes royal in "GIRL'S NIGHT OUT"

Dakota Fanning is attached to Michael Hoffman’s project “Girl’s Night Out” a romantic fairytale, from a script by Trevor De Silva. Dakota will play teenage Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth's sister, who is allowed out from Buckingham Palace for one night to join in the celebrations. Alongside her yet-to-be-cast sister Elizabeth, the two teenagers  have an adventurous night on the town. Inspired by real-life events, Girl’s Night Out will be filmed later this year, Variety reports. Set against the backdrop of V.E. Day in 1945, the story concerns a weekend in which the two royal siblings were allowed out of Buckingham Palace to celebrate the end of the Second World War alongside the rest of the country.

     The director is Michael Hoffman, who filmed 2009 Tolstoy biopic The Last Station and recently unveiled Gambit, a crime caper remake written by the Coen brothers due to arrive next year.

     Fanning continues to be  one of the most prolific actresses of her generation; she most recently starred in The Runaways and Push, and she can be seen in the upcoming two-part finale of The Twilight Saga. Over the years it has been our privilege to watch Miss Fanning grow-up from a child starlet to a promising teenage actress, due to celebrate her 17th birthday this month. Few child actors are able to sucessfully transition from their adorable stage and blossom into mature talents—but our Miss Fanning seems to be the rare exception. Dakota is on a fast track to take her rightful place as one of Hollywood’s most beautiful and talented leading ladies.

W Magazine loves Dakota!

Friday

January 14, 2011

Dakota Fanning is featured in W magazine’s February “movie issue” issue along with other A-listers like Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis.  Our Dak is still on top with her "A" game, and has a sweet photo shoot to prove it.

     Perhaps the most remarkable moments in film this past 2010 film season weren’t the loud in-your-face 3-D crash and burn action sequences that seem to proliferate the movies; but rather the more underrated  subtle performances like Dakota Fanning and her brilliant portrayal of Cherie Curie, the little girl lost in the 70’s biopic The Runaways.  The Runaways came, went, and never even opened in my home town. Almost nobody saw Dakota in this movie, well they should.

     

    "It was important for me to go to a normal high school. I have a locker, which was a big deal. My mom had to buy me a lock and teach me how to use it. It’s the little things: Where do you go at lunch? How do you open the locker? I wanted a yearbook! Now I have a lot of signatures in my yearbook—‘Have a good summer’ and all that."

—Dakota Fanning

Does anyone else think the W picture of Dakota owes its photographic composition and artistic lineage to that classic Jodie Foster pic from Taxi Driver?  The hat, the curly hair, the juxtaposition between the caryatid columns of neon signs. Perhaps any homage, real or imagined is all in my head—but its always seemed to me that Dakota and Jodie share this weird ethereal parallel karma. Whatdoyou'all think, just wondering . . .

LAWN DOGS

LAWN DOGS (1997) Here’s a little undiscovered gem, a bone for you’all to chew on while we wait for Dakota Fanning to make up her mind—Let’s rewind fourteen years to 1997 and imagine the O.C.'s Mischa Barton as cute a ten-year-old.
    Newly arrived in an up-scale housing development, quiet ten-year-old Devon  Stockard (Barton) doesn't quite fit in. Ignoring the urgings of her social-climbing father, Devon chooses the company of Trent (Sam Rockwell), a young man who makes his living mowing lawns, rather than  the "camp fire" girls her own age. The friendship between Devon and Trent continues  to blossom until  one night she unexpected  visits his trailer home.  Although their relationship is a completely innocent, it is obvious that such a relationship between an adult man and a little girl is open for misinterpretation.  
     Lawn Dogs is one of the best treatises on innocence and platonic relationships ever filmed. Trent is an honest hardworking noble fellow, he likes Devon but only in the purest “little sister” platonic way. Devon likes Trent, it remains clear from the onset that she is the instigator, but it’s a innocent little girl crush and nothing in the way of anything sexual ever develops between them. Yet appearances are everything, and appearances threaten to tear the relationship apart. This is a sad tale of unrequited platonic love.
 

     There is a genuine friendship here between an adult man and this little girl. Even when the girl takes off her shirt and shows Trent her scar from open heart surgery, he is uncomfortable; he has great hesitation even looking at her, and when he finally does touch her, its clear that its a loving compassionate touch. Devon for her part isn’t baiting him or tempting him by flouting her naked chest.  She's honest and sincere and her motives are pure. She never tries to kiss him or be romantic with him. Devon sees Trent as a real friend, someone she can trust. She shows him her scar, to prove that she has "scars" too.  Its a tender moment, there is only friendship between them.

     This movie is full of uncompromising images. There is the scene where young Devon climbs onto the roof, tosses her nightgown into the wind and stands naked on the roof top, she howls like a wolf. One could draw all kinds of Freudian symbolism from this scene. I just found it a visceral experience, an act of rebellion; a protest against her parent’s skewed values and the confines of life in a gated-community. Devon’s naked roof top spectacle was meant as a public exhibition of her own “imperfections.” Meaning, that Devon was to all outward appearances is a perfect little girl, yet she was scared, damaged goods from her heart surgery, an imperfection her parents want to desperately conceal, yet Devon felt was an intrinsic part of who she was, not something to be shuttered away, but literally shouted from the roof tops.

LAWN DOGS (1997) *** 

HANNA, first look

Dakota Fanning  has signed with prestigious  IMG modeling agency, you can view her portfolio here  IMG Agency, DAKOTA F. In other Dakota news it appears our favorite actress has dropped out of the supernatural drama "If I Stay."  Sources close to the actress said Fanning has opted not make that movie, which leaves Fanning without a major leading role. Representative for the star confirmed actress’ desire to finish her senior year of high school and enroll in NYU in the fall. Fanning is still on track to shoot the two The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn films (in which she plays Jane, a role that brings a decidedly less demanding workload). It appears Fanning is following the Jodie Foster, education first model. Fanning’s stock remains high with producers who say they are attracted to her mix of vulnerability and maturity, qualities she aptly demonstrated in last years biopic The Runaways.   What all this means is, that with the exception of a few magazine covers, some token two-minute appearances in Twilight, and maybe the promise of an indie quickie, that pretty much leaves this blog without a leading lady.

     We will have to look elsewhere, which brings us to the subject of this post, the action espionage thriller Hanna. I saw the trailer in the theater and was immediately impressed.  If it could be said that  Dakota Fanning has anything resembling a rival—the only actress out there who can hold a candle to Dakota would have to be Irish born Saorise Ronan (The Lovely Bones).  This girl is so talented, so natural it’s almost scary!  So I’m sitting in the movie theater and this trailer begins, it’s obviously a young girl lost in a frozen arctic wasteland, all dressed in animal skins like some kind of white-girl Inuit.  This piqued my interest, but it just kept getting better, turns out this girl kicks ass!  Saorise is such a chameleon actress that I didn’t even recognize her at first.
 

     THE PLOT: Hanna (Ronan) is a fourteen-year-old girl, who possesses the strength, the stamina, and the smarts of a solider; these qualities come from being raised by her father (Bana), an ex-CIA man, in the wilds of Finland. Living a life unlike any other teenager, her upbringing and training have been one and the same, all geared to making her the perfect assassin. The turning point in her adolescence is a sharp one; sent into the world by her father on a mission, Hanna journeys stealthily across Europe while eluding agents dispatched after her by a ruthless intelligence operative with secrets of her own (Blanchett). As she nears her ultimate target, Hanna faces startling revelations about her existence and unexpected questions about her humanity.

     Sounds cool! I love a story about a self-assured young girl who can kick-ass, and with the capable Ronan as the girl, this one promises to be significantly less cartoony than Chloe Moretz’s Hit girl. This is one movie we will defiantly be keeping our eye on. Hanna has an announced April release date.

      

JACKIE EVANCHO, voice of an angel

Friday
December 10, 2010

Jackie Evancho is a star.  All I can say is WOW! When I saw her for the first time, this little girl she absolutely blew me away—if you close your eyes, you might be fooled into thinking you were listening to voice of an adult woman, not even close, Jackie is all of ten-years-old and has poise and talent to spare.
     After Tatum O’Neal and Jodie Foster, lit up the screen in the seventies, I waited patiently for twenty-five years for Dakota Fanning to come on to the scene. The precocious little girl with the wispy blond hair and gravely sing-song southern voice, appeared first in I AM SAM and later in TAKEN.  I was not disappointed.  Since then, we've enjoyed a renaissance of sorts,  a mini-brat-pack if you will, consisting of Abigail Breslin, Anna Sophia Robb and Alison Stoner. All are very talented charming young women but none replaced Dakota. Alas, ever since Dakota Fanning hit sixteen, I’ve been in sort of a maudlin mood, watching and waiting for the next big thing. While I certainly don’t mean to imply that we are prepared to “jump ship” and hastily rename this blog Jackie Evancho: Viewpoint.  It's safe to say, Jackie has caught our interest.

     Little girls are by nature ephemeral creatures, it seems now we have Jackie as heir apparent, and I couldn’t be more pleased. This young lady is destined to become the next Charlotte Church or Sarah Brightman. Let me rephrase that, because I really hate comparisons, the way Dakota was always being compared to Jodie Foster, I found this annoying.  Jackie is a huge talent in her own right, she’s Jackie Evancho, and no comparisons are necessary. I am confident Jackie will develop her own style and bring her own uniqueness to the “classical crossover” of which she is already well on her way to mastering.

     Okay, let’s get this out of the way first and upfront. It goes without saying that Jackie didn’t win America’s Got Talent. This is a lame show with lame performers and looser judges who think themselves clever but if the truth be told don’t know their ass from a hole-in-the-ground. The proof is in the pudding, the one contestant who comes on the show that REALLY does have talent and what happens?  She looses, to whom? Michael Grimm, well the joke is on Mr. Grimm and the millions of people who voted for him. Grimm, isn't worth the powder to blow him up, and is destined for the dusbin of history. Michael Grimm who?  I’m sure in the moment young Jackie was disappointed, crushed, in hindsight; this represents not a loss but a blessing in disguise. Jackie is free to pursue her career unfettered by the constraints of any manipulative AGT contract. Her career is sure to soar!     
     Our Jackie on the onther hand gets to enjoy the last  laugh, her debut album O HOLY NIGHT has already gone platinum! Jackie performed for President Obama at Lincoln center for the lighting of the National Christmas tree. Let's listen to this wonderfully talented young girl. Yeah, Jackie!

PAPER MOON, a retrospective

Sunday
December 5, 2010

PAPER MOON (1973)—As P.T. Barnum put it, "There's a sucker born every minute."
     Paper Moon Directed by Peter Bogdonovich, from a screen play by Alvin Sargent  adapted from the novel, “Addie Pray” by Joe David Brown.  Paper Moon is the story of Moses Pray and eleven-year-old Addie Loggins, who may or may not be his daughter. Together the pair grift the back country of Missouri and Kansas under the guise of the “Kansas Bible Company”—selling bibles to unsuspecting widows, and short-changing dim witted five-and-dime clerks.
     Paper Moon is without a doubt one of the finest pieces of American cinema to grace the 70’s. Lazlo Kovacs' stunning black and white photography  gives the film a nostalgic beauty that perfectly complements the Depression-era it attempts to recreate. The film’s sound track only reinforces the movie’s charm, with the wonderful opening title track; It’s only a Paper Moon setting the stage for the drama . . . Peter Bogdonovich once consulted with no less than Orson Wells, as to whether to call the movie Addie Pray or Paper Moon. To which Wells replied, “That title is so good, you shouldn't even make the picture, you should just release the title!”
     The soundtrack is a marvelous nostalgic cavalcade of vintage recordings like, "Keep your Sunnyside up" and "Let's have another cup of coffee." Madeline Kahn is hysterically funny as Miss Trixie Delight, and Ryan O’Neal gives one of the best performances of his career.

    And her name is Tatum O’Neal; Tatum is just cool.  Tatum so completely steals this movie and I’m not just talking about the quality of her acting, there's just something about her, when she's sitting in bed, clad in a white cotton singlet smoking a cigarette, the camera is in love with her.  We are in love with her. From the second Tatum comes on screen, this little girl who swears and smokes and runs cons with a man who may or may not be her daddy made a powerful impression on me. I think it is safe to say that Tatum O’Neal, for better or worse changed me.  The year was 1973, at fifteen years-old, I was young and impressionable. I was smitten.

     It’s Tatum who gets the best lines (and best close-ups), in one of the film’s classic sequences, Addie confronts Moze at the county fair . . .

ADDIE

I had my photo took Moze!

MOZE

You did, huh? Ain’t that fine.

ADDIE

Moze, can you come have your photo took with me?

MOZE

Can’t right now sweetheart.

ADDIE

Only take a minute.

MOZE

Not now, you hear me? And stop standing around here checking on me . . . you don’t have to worry. I ain’t about to leave some poor little child stranded in the middle of nowhere. I got scruples you know. You know what that is, “scruples?”

ADDIE

No, I don’t know what it is, but if you got them, I sure bet they belong to somebody else.

Paper Moon (1973) ****

ANGELA

Friday
22 October 2010

ANGELA (1997)—A haunting tale of a young girl driven by her religious obsessions into a frightening world of childhood fantasy and superstitious delusion.

     The story begins by introducing us to ten-year-old Angela (Miranda Stuart Rhyne), her six-year-old sister, Ellie (Charlotte Blythe), and their parents Mae (Anna Levine) and Andrew (John Ventimiglia) as the family moves into a new house in up state New York. Andrew and Mae are washed-up performers looking for a better life and a new start. The family's fortunes or misfortunes are rooted in Mae's increasing mental illness. Andrew is a loving father and devoted husband and he desperately tries to make ends meet and keep the family together and happy.

     A dark and compelling Indie film, Angela is carried by the two principal child actresses, Miranda Stuart Rhyne and Charlotte Blythe who both deliver touching and poignant performances. Rhyne, in particular, is engaging as the young protagonist caught in a heavenly struggle between good and evil in a misguided effort to save her mentally ill mother. Precocious, to say the least, Angela has visions of Lucifer coming to take her and her sister away, Angela compels her six-year-old sister, Ellie to endure numerous regimens of “purification” in an attempt to rid themselves of evil, which she believes to be the cause of their mother's mental illness. One of her extreme remedies is for her sister to remain within a circle of dolls and toys until they see a vision of the Virgin Mary come to them.

     Written and directed Rebecca Miller, Miller is a bold courageous story teller who takes many chances in Angela; there is a decidedly unsettling scene in a carnival where the two girls are befriended by a man whose intentions are creepy to say the least. It’s unclear as to the man's true intentions until he lures the girls away to a secluded location and kisses Angela and promises to “make her happy.” Angela, naive as to the man’s true motives, mistakes him for a sign from heaven and scares him off with her religious delusions.

     The viewer should be warned there is a considerable amount of child nudity in Angela; I don’t understand why people get all exercised when there is a naked child in a film. Quite frankly I’ve secretly always found many of Shirley Temple’s films of the 1930’s to be more suspect, coy, and salacious, than what amounts to basically two kids skinny dipping . . . In reality, kids are naked all the time. Children possess a natural inhibition to being naked. To their way of thinking there’s nothing wrong, wicked or immoral about being naked; it’s a natural state of being—Being naked is a normal part of life. So, why not on film? Rebecca Miller dares to ask this question. I just don’t get it. Okay, so I do get it, but I’m being deliberately dense for the sake of argument. Main stream filmmakers steer away from child nudity like the plague because of the controversy over Brooke Shield’s relatively chaste nude scenes in Pretty Baby. Please, don’t get me started on the unfounded, scurrilous uproar caused by Dakota Fanning in Hounddog. I think the biggest misconception in the public mind is that it is somehow illegal to depict a child naked on American film. That child nudity, even full frontal nudity is somehow analogous to child porn. This is unequivocally and for the record patently untrue! As long as the child is not depicted in a salacious or overtly sexualized situation, child nudity is perfectly legal and is protected by the First Amendment.

     Young Charlotte Blythe does most of the heavy lifting as far as getting naked on film. She’s the one depicted in full frontal covered in mud, in the hauntingly beautiful water nymph scene. Miranda Rhyne, not to be out done, takes her turn, staring whimsically in the mirror at her flat little-boy-chest, while she traces the outline of her hoped-for-boobies-to-be in magic marker. A poignant moment made all the more sad because it is never to be.

     Angela will never grow up to be a woman. Angela’s death scene is one of the saddest, most powerful scenes I’ve ever watch on film in recent memory. Almost as powerful and memorable as the death of Bambi’s mother, well, maybe not quite, but you get the idea. As Angela’s mother continues to spiral downhill into the depth of madness. Angela seems even more obsesses with finding a spiritual cure. She goes down to the river to baptize herself and her sister. Angela figures if one good dunking washes away your sins, another and another must do even more. What she doesn’t figure on is the river’s rushing current and her own inability to swim. Well, let’s just say John the Baptist is not a lifeguard. Ellie plaintively calls and calls to her sister, “Angela, come back!” But it’s too late . . . it’s forever too late, Angela is never coming back. Ellie now for the first time in her life is free from her sister's delusions has an epiphany of sorts and is free to “fly” and take charge of her own destiny.








Angela (1997) ***

KICK-ASS

Chloe Moretz is HIT GIRL

KICK-ASS (2010)—Blame my brother for recommending this movie, unusual, yes, as our mutual taste in entertainment seldom converge. I was initially skeptical about the prospect of watching yet another superhero spoof movie, as the most recent attempts at the genre have been decidedly disappointing to say the least. Kick-Ass some how manages to break that cycle, completely transcending its predecessors through the use of an intelligent script that combines a montage of stylized über-violence with hilarious comedy, an eclectic if clichéd music score and snappy direction by Mathew Vaughn. Kick-Ass, as it turns out is every bit as campy tongue-in-cheek as its profane title implies.

Kick-Ass tells the story of Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), your average teenage nerd, whose obsession with comic books inspires him to create his very own superhero, “Kick-Ass,” despite his complete lack of any discernible superpowers. Dave’s initial attempts to become a vigilante crime fighter not only confirm his complete superhero ineptitude but end in near disaster. After bumbling about a bit more his impromptu rescuing of a cat changes his luck and the publicity propels him into the public limelight and establishing him as a cult phenomena. Sudden fame does have its draw backs and our hapless Dave also manages to inadvertently run afoul of a nasty drug lord who confuses Kick-Ass with another mask avenger “Big Daddy” (Nicolas Cage), the rest of the plot you can pretty much figure out for yourself.

Which then brings us to the film’s most outrageous, over-the-top side-kick ever, “Hit-girl,” as played by Chloe Moretz, everyone’s newest favorite pint-sized superhero, complete with purple wig, mask and black spandex. the eleven-year-old assassin with a penchant for naughty language. Girls with guns, you gotta love ‘em, and I do love them! Not since Natalie Portman teamed up with Léon in the “Professional,” have we been treated with a spectacle of a pre-teen girl who goes about the merry art of blood-letting with such wanton abandonment. Moretz’s outrageous homicidal spaghetti-Western character shoots, maims and decapitates her opponents with such infectious glee that she easily steals the show.

Matthew Vaughn’s directing is top-notch from a screenplay based on the Marvel comic’s graphic novel of the same name by Mark Millar and John Romita. An essential part of the film is its eclectic soundtrack, with choice tracks taken from excellent films such as “28 Days Later,” and “For a few dollars more.” I think my favorite use of music was the over-the-top spectacle of Hit Girl slaughtering villains to the tunes of “The Banana Splits theme.”

You might be taken aback a little bit by the prospects of an 11-year-old girl going around killing people and using explicit language. Kick-Ass is the right vehicle and Chloe Moretz has just the right combination chutzpah  acting chops, and a tempestuous gap-toothed grin to make a success. While I don't mean to assert I think she’s the “next” Dakota Fanning, I feel confident in my prediction that this girl has sufficient talent to go far. I’ll be watching for her . . .

Kick-Ass (2010) ***



THE BAD NEWS BEARS, a retrospective

THE BAD NEWS BEARS (1976)—TCM is celebrating the work of Walter Matthau for Summer under the Stars; one of the featured films  was THE BAD NEWS BEARS. What a great movie! Where were you in 1976? When I think back, for me, 1976 represents a seminal year, I was eighteen, I had just finished high-school, and I was preparing to enroll in Michigan State Technical School. 1976 was also the year Jodie Foster received her Best Supporting Oscar nomination for her portrayal of a twelve-year-old prostitute in Taxi Driver. Jodie didn’t win that year, she lost to Beatrice Strait. POP QUIZ, what was the name of the movie? * 1976 was also the year of Rocky, All the Presidents Men, A  Star is Born and Network.

The Bad News Bears, directed by Michael Richie tells the story of an aging, down-on-his-luck ex-minor leaguer Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau) a beer swilling, cigar chomping pool cleaner who agrees to coach a bunch of eclectic pre-teen misfits whose penchant for elementary school high jinks is only exceeded by their seemingly boundless maladroit lack of baseball ability. All the usual archetypes are brilliantly portrayed by the then unknown cast. There is your clichéd fat kid with the loud mouth, the shrimp with a hot temper, Alfred Lutter, from Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, as the know-it-all smart kid, the nerdy Jewish kid (complete with glasses), the African-American kid who wants to be “Just like Hank Aaron” and then there’s Kelly Leak, (Jackie Earl-Haley) the local bad-boy who rides a motor-cycle and smokes Marlboros.

While Buttermaker may be a poor excuse for a little league baseball coach, The Bears don’t give him much to work with. I think Tanner Boyle summed it up best in one of the movie’s classic politically incorrect lines: “What do you expect? All we got on this team . . . is a bunch of Jews, spics, niggers, pansies . . . and a booger-eating moron.” The  Bears loose their first game in appalling fashion; all while Buttermaker drinks himself into oblivion he hardly even notices. After seeing the kids humiliated—and after being insulted one-too-many times himself by the arrogant Yankee coach Turner (Vic Morrow)—Buttermaker decides to pull out all the stops.  He reveals his secret weapon:  his former girlfriend’s eleven-year-old daughter Amanda Wurlitzer (Tatum O’Neal). Amanda is a pitching ace, as Buttermaker tells it, “The best pitch I ever taught her was the curve ball . . . not only a curve ball, but the most tantalizing knuckle ball you ever saw in your life.”

Tatum O’Neal . . . (my god, I had such a crush on her!) In her first screen role since winning the Oscar for Best Supporting actress for her portrayal of Addie Pray, the worldly-wise eleven-year-old shyster in Paper Moon. Tatum has the most to prove, while Amanda Wurlitzer is no Lady Macbeth, Buttermaker’s relationship with Amanda remains complex. Amanda cooly trys to win his affection, Buttermaker, adamantly refuses to admit how much he cares about her, even when she practically begs him . . .  In one particularly memorable scene Buttermaker splashes beer in her face; I’ll have to say to anyone who thinks Tatum O’Neal can’t act, this scene is required viewing.

Even with Amanda’s ninety-mile-an-hour fast ball on board, the Bear’s can’t win if they can’t score. There is one more piece of the puzzle and it’s left to Amanda to use her pre-teen feminine wiles to snare local bad boy and top athlete Kelly Leak. Now with a batting offence and competent outfield, the Bears make a serious challenge for first place and end up in the play-offs against the hated Yankees.

There are many things to like about this film, the music, the script by Bill Lancaster, but ultimately I think the most important aspect is the film’s unflinching, unapologetic look at the underbelly of little league baseball. This is no Disney movie, the film is refreshingly unsentimental. When the story starts the kids dislike Matthau and he dislikes them, he’s a bum. By the story’s end, they still aren’t wild about each other, he’s still a bum, but they’ve developed a mutual respect. In the final reel, the Bear’s loose the championship, no sad faces here, there’s beer for everyone! The arrogant Yankee’s make a pathetic attempt to rub the loss in the Bear’s face. The Bears remain undefeated. Once again it’s spunky Tanner Boyle who delivers the films classic closing line: “Hey, Yankees! You can take your apology and your trophy, and shove it straight up your ass!”

* “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”

—Peter Finch, NETWORK (1976)

The Bad News Bears (1976) ****

THE RUNAWAYS

THE RUNNAWAYS (2010)—I grew up in the seventies; I was never what you might call your typical impressionable hot blooded American boy, I was never into hard-rock.  I was much more country, into Don Mc Lean, Gordon Lightfoot,  and Olivia Newton John.  But I stood up and took notice when the all-girl band THE RUNAWAYS hit the music scene. I was fifteen; I listened to their music, I bought their records and worshiped those girls. I think I always knew their was something slightly naughty or forbidden  about them. I think that’s what appealed to me most. With promotional pictures of Cherie Currie, with her shirt unbuttoned down to her fifth button . . . Currie was always proffered as the band’s sex-pot front woman. Joan Jett, she however remained my favorite. There was something about Jett, her short coifed black hair, Drano-singed raspy voice and tough girl attitude that I always found very appealing. I think it was partially her bona fied passion for rock-n-roll that made Jett different from the other girls. I have been a Joan Jett fan for her entire career. So,  it was not without anticipation, high expectations, and a perhaps even a little bit of a personal vested interest that I approached this film.

      Directed by Floria Sigismondi, scripted  by Sigismondi and Cherie Currie based loosely on her book Neon Angel. The Runaways essentially  tells Joan Jett's and Cherie Currie's version of things. As a consequence, as a necessity,  much of rock history is compressed or deleted altogether, most notably, the omission of real-life base player Jackie Fox who is completely written out of the Runaways’ canon. Replaced by a  fictitious character named “Robin.” (Fox, who is a lawyer, threatened to sue, so the filmmakers didn't take any chances).

     The story focuses mostly on Cherie Currie and Joan Jett. Dakota Fanning plays Cherie Currie, a confused 15 year-old with a messed up family life. The family includes a mom, played by Tatum O’Neal (in a weird coincidence of déjà vu, Tatum was my number one crush in the seventies), who announces she is getting married and moving to Indonesia. Currie’s dad is an alcoholic, so Cherie is left alone and vulnerable and is an easy recruit for Fowley and Jett. Kristen Stewart’s portrayal of Joan Jett is phenomenal. She’s get’s the slouchy guitar, the gum chewing, the swagger and the foggy voice nailed down pat. Jett, as a girl is quite pretty, but she’s always had this tough girl, boyish manner. Stewart gets it right.

     Some may question the things that happen in this movie, and Jett in her audio commentary admitted as much that some events were stylized, fictionalized. Did they really write “Cherry bomb.” on the spot for Currie's audition? Did Fowley really teach the girls to dodge garbage thrown at them on stage? Did the Japanese really go THAT over-the-top ape-sh*t over the band? (Yes, they did).

     Both Stewart and Fanning do their own singing for the movie and Stewart sounds exactly like Jett as she belts out portions of one of Joan’s original early songs, “I Love Play’n  With Fire.” Unfortunately, the only song we get to see performed in it’s entirety is, “Cherry Bomb” (sung by Dakota), which was co-written by Fowley and Jett, specifically for Cherie and amounts to the band’s one and only true “hit.”

     Joan Jett was the heart of the band, but it took oddball music producer Kim Fowley to put the band together and get the recording deal. Fowley may be the most interesting character in this story. Here he is played with force by the very talented Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road). What the film really nailed was the relationship between the Runaways and their sleazy manager/producer Kim Fowley. Michael Shannon does a fabulous job playing this over-the-top character. His expletive-filled rants are simultaneously hilarious as they are cringe-worthy.

     Ultimately though the standout award in the film must go to Fanning, who even from an early age has always possessed this worldly-wise awareness of her sexuality. People were shocked when Fanning appeared on David Letterman in a slinky black dress that came half-way up her ass. I was not. Fanning is Hot and she knows it, and she’s not afraid to flaunt it. So it’s probably no accident that Fanning elects to spend a large part of the film dressed only in corset and  underwear. Dakota’s depiction of Currie amounts to a full onslaught assault of jail bait sex appeal. Fanning acquits herself quite well with her vocal duties and while she doesn't quite make it her own, Fanning does a credible job belting out a lusty version of “Cherry bomb.”

The Runaways (2010) ***