In Contention

Tag: David Gordon Green

  • LIFE WITHOUT OSCAR: 2003 and 2004

    Catch up with the idea behind this series here.

    2003 belonged to “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” as it won every single award it was up for, tying the all time record haul of 11 trophies. Few could argue that Peter Jackson had accomplished something unique with the execution of this trilogy, but in my humble opinion, this is the most boring and bloated Best Picture winner since “Around the World in 80 Days.”

    Throw in the fact that Tim Robbins in “Mystic River” and Renee Zellweger in “Cold Mountain” are both embarrassingly bad performances and you can start to realize why Oscar and I have agreed to go our separate ways. At least “City of God” nabbed a few nominations, causing a stir in an otherwise sterile race.

    Clint Eastwood completed his transformation back into Oscar darling in 2004 with a Best Picture triumph for “Million Dollar Baby,” which also scooped up awards for Director, Actress and Supporting Actor, dooming Martin Scorsese to another year in the loser’s bracket.

    Billy Crystal hosted in 2003, mistakenly thinking that constant jokes about New Zealand were going to be entertaining. At least we had this though.

    Chris Rock took the reigns in 2004 and may have not won over Sean Penn, but I thought his bit interviewing moviegoers at the Magic Johnson theater about Oscar contenders was amazing. Anyway, hope you all watched “Pootie Tang” this week and are ready for some new suggestions.

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  • “Listen you f***ers you screwheads…”

    I was watching some special on “Eastbound & Down” recently where one of the producers (might have been Will Ferrell, or maybe it was David Green) was talking about how the show is a commentary on the state of the hero in pop culture.  Then I heard the talk out of SXSW about “Observe and Report,” Joe Leydon’s review, for instance, indicating transgression and the idea of capturing the film’s essence in four words: “Travis Bickle: Mall Cop.”

    More and more I dig what this crew (Jody Hill, Green, Seth Rogen, etc.) is doing with comedy on the screen and forgive me, but I think Jeff Wells is missing the purposeful irony of a tag line like “Right now, the world needs a hero.”  Given the perspective Hill and company have on protagonists on the small screen, I think this is more than just an arbitrary Warner Bros. marketing decision.

    I haven’t seen “Observe and Report,” but I’m catching a whiff of something truly special.

    Observe and Report advertisement in Times Square

  • David Gordon Green catches his stride in comedy

    (from left) Danny McBride and David Gordon Green on the set of Eastbound & DownIt has to be doubly sweet for my southern brethren to take in HBO’s “Eastbound & Down” every Sunday night, but even if this country detail or that passes below your radar, or heck, even if you don’t know a blatant Ric Flair gag when you see one, I can’t imagine anyone not laughing their ass off at this thing week after week.

    Then again, maybe I’m wrong.  The Danny McBride brand of humor might be seen as an extension of the Apatow/Rogen trajectory we’ve been on, toilet humor a bit too low on the brow for some.  Not me.  I’m eating it up.

    Strikingly, I think the last three episodes (plus last year’s “Pineapple Express”) prove that David Gordon Green should stick to comedy and prepare to make his mark there, because this seems to be his calling.  I’m all for the era of artistic stretching he’s been interested in since “George Washington” leaped off the neighborhoods of North Carolina and onto Roger Ebert’s top 10 list, though 95% of all of that never worked for me.  And I’m sure he’ll go there once again.  But as long as he wants to stick in this vein, I’m game.

    Not only is the timing something special (and just take a look at the editorial choices made in “Pineapple” by flipping between the extended and theatrical cuts on the Blu-ray or DVD for evidence there), but the mundane is represented like never before.  Last July I wrote of “Pineapple” the following:

    Yes, the man who staked a claim on the mundane mumblings of children and the love-struck in films like “George Washington” and “All the Real Girls” has applied those sensibilities to a niche genre that roots itself in same.

    And it works! It works so well it’s a shame Terrence Malick never tried his hand at “Up in Smoke.” The pieces slide into place and find a cohesive fit that couldn’t have been more unexpected.

    And that’s the case with “Eastbound & Down.”  100%.

    Of course, plenty of credit is due to co-creators McBride and Jody Hill (directing this summer’s “Observe and Report”), but the guidance behind the camera is exceptional.  I only hope I’m not the only guy taking this stuff for more than surface level, however, because it deserves more — whether it knows it or not.

    (And hel-lo Katy Mixon.)

  • Funny ha ha

    James Franco in Pineapple Express

    While James Franco was brooding and winning a Golden Globe for the TV telepic “James Dean” and fighting superheroes in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man franchise, the actor says he longed for the escape of a comedy.

    Soon enough, producer Judd Apatow approached Franco to star alongside Seth Rogen in David Gordon Green’s “Pineapple Express.” After years of playing ultra serious characters, the actor had finally found an opportunity to let his hair down.

    “I didn’t get offered a ton of comedies, and the ones I did get offered were more like romantic comedies. That wasn’t really my thing,” Franco says from San Francisco, just before the world premiere of Gus Van Sant’s “Milk.” “So when Judd said he wanted to do something together, it was kind of a relief.”

    From a 11/21 Variety story by yours truly concerning actors moving between dramas and comedies this year.  I’m still stoked at Franco’s Golden Globe nomination yesterday for Gordon’s film.

  • Rebecca Hall talks ‘Vicky’

    I guess “Lunch with David” has morphed into DP/30.  I’m never quite sure what’s going on over there, but in any case, this video interview with “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” star Rebecca Hall is totally worth a look.  She’s an intoxicating beauty and, as noted, she does a lot of the heavy lifting in the film while being surrounded by an intimidating amount of beauty and talent.

    Also, from a while back, DP chats up director David Gordon Green.

  • Vulture on David Gordon Green’s action prowess

    (from left) James Franco and Seth Rogen in Pineapple ExpressIn my review of “Pineapple Express” yesterday, I mad it a point of mentioning director David Gordon Green’s salute to the greatest (or worst) of 1980s action cinema.  At the time I wrote:

    Green’s obvious devotion to the action epics of the 1980s that his generation grew up on makes its way to the surface more than a few times (I swear I’ve seen that knife toss before…can’t place it). He makes no bones about an affinity for Steven Seagal and lord knows he found a proper outlet to show his respect for what I like to call the “Steven E. de Souza subgenre” of actioners. But to mix it in with a pothead extravaganza…absolute genius.

    And today, it looks like the ever-insightful writers of New York Magazine’s Vulture blog have taken it a step farther, asking with the utmost sincerity, “Who’s the better action director: David Gordon Green or Christopher Nolan?”

    Take a look:

    Obviously Green is no John Woo, but the [finale] is lucid, well paced, and nowhere near as stupid-looking as one might reasonably anticipate, especially considering that it includes shots of Rogen firing an automatic weapon. There are explosions, bleeding injuries, and some passably impressive stunt work, not bad for a freakin’ Judd Apatow movie.

    They then go on to point out the problems with Nolan’s handling of action sequences in “The Dark Knight” that have been mentioned in a number of mixed or negative reviews of the film.  “Sure, the action in Nolan’s film is more ambitious,” they write, “but the fact that Green’s is infinitely more coherent and suspenseful is…well, sort of funny, right?”

    Gotta love those caljones.  And it’s not exactly an out-of-bounds observation.  Read the full post here.

  • REVIEW: “Pineapple Express” (****)

    Columbia Pictures\' Pineapple ExpressThe dust will settle on a record-breaking summer movie season and much will be made of super heroes and unexpected, makeup-infested comedic portrayals. But an unassuming stoner comedy that breaks free of the mold and becomes something akin to sheer film-going bliss will be one of the few left standing.

    A truly side-splitting yarn that takes its lead from Cheech and Chong and the greatest (or worst) of 1980s action and comedy standards, the film carves its own spot as a new staple. And going into an Oscar season that looks a bit shallow from afar, “Pineapple Express” seems to be the best film 2008 has had to offer so far.

    Hell of a thing.

    Fresh, authentic, appreciative of its lineage and rife with absolute truths of the stoner way, this one was always guaranteed to leave your gut cramped from unyielding laughter. At the center, however, is a strange thread of realism that is incredibly intriguing. No matter the level of absurdity this sequence or that may reach, on some level, one can’t shake the sense that if these things were going to happen…this is exactly how it would go down.

    It’s an odd characteristic that I don’t believe I’ve ever seen out of a film such as this, and all the credit in the world seems to belong to filmmaker David Gordon Green. After making his way in the indie sector on his own terms, his marriage to this material becomes the most natural fit to date.

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  • David Gordon Green hearts Steven Seagal

    David Gordon Green took a strong dive into a typical post-film school career in 2000, and I’ve never been afraid to admit that his breed of cinema failed to speak to me on pretty much every level (despite us sharing an alma mater).  I found “George Washington” to be derivative, “All the Real Girls” to be unqualified (though it is my favorite of Green’s efforts and is certainly striving for something more) and “Undertow” to be an utter mess.  I’ve not yet seen “Snow Angels” (though I plan to).

    However, “Pineapple Express” has real promise.  Not because I want desperately to see something so anti-Green, but because a filmmaker who has so quickly identified himself within a certain milieu is willing to go there.  I have no doubt Green has a sense of humor (we’ve never met though we have countless mutual friends), but it says something when a guy is willing to stretch that part of his creativity and offer a different side of his persona to a fan base that, frankly, might be unnerved by it.

    With that in mind, I’ve been meaning to link to this Guardian item since I read it on the tube a week ago.  It’s a heart-felt appreciation for action star Steven Seagal and, apparently, is part of an introduction for the upcoming book “Seagalogy.”  Since I’ve got “Pineapple Express” on the brain these last few days (M.I.A. on the iPod, supporting actor updates bouncing around my head, etc.), now’s as good a time as any to give it some space:

    Who wants to see Jean-Claude Van Damme in Death Warrant or Cyborg when you could witness the brutal human elegance of Seagal’s Marked for Death or the astonishing Hard to Kill? His stretch of films that promoted themselves with three dramatic words was for me a trademark and a guarantee that I would be getting my money’s worth…

    …A strange tide turned as his fame and fortune grew. Perhaps it was the dazzling spotlight of Tinseltown that prompted a shift in his work. He was no longer studying linguistics and martial arts in the Orient and making intimate action movies. Suddenly, I found myself sitting in front of a slew of message films. Beginning with On Deadly Ground, Seagal began to slip environmental themes, spiritual quests and politics into his films. Perhaps he had lost touch with reality and was living in a vacuum. Where was the soft-spoken shitkicker I gravitated toward in my youth?

    Fortunately, as would any true movie fanatic, I was able to grow to appreciate his personal crusade. I chose to accept this curveball and take my own enjoyment and expectations to the next level.

    Check out the rest here.

    As for “Pineapple Express,” I’m glad to see James Franco popping up on people’s radars lately.  He landed on our charts back in May and two people who’ve seen the film have told me the performance is sensational.  One thought it was destined to make people sit up and finally take notice of the actor, offering that an Oscar nod was indeed possible.  The other guy is completely in the tank for both the film and the performance but thinks Oscar might be a stretch.

    Whatever.  I can’t wait.  Finally someone might be able to reel Judd Apatow in a touch.

    httpv://youtube.com/watch?v=3ryfqsLt6Y0

  • The independent film not to be missed

    Every year the best of independent cinema convenes at a series of festivals and awards programs, most notably the Independent Spirit Awards.

    In February, Jeff Nichols, a first-time filmmaker, won an ISA for his first feature length film “Shotgun Stories.” The effort chronicles a deadly family feud between two sets of brothers that ensues upon the death of the father they share.

    The film produced by fellow Arkansan David Gordon Green, has finally made it’s way to major film markets (it screened in Little Rock, Arkansas, Mr. Nichols’ hometown, although he now lives in Austin, Texas, late last year), including Los Angeles. Susan King of the Los Angeles Times described the film as a “stark, Eugene O’Neill-esque tale.”

    There was a rousing welcome in Mr. Nichols’ home state for “Shotgun Stories.” In addition to critical accolades, It managed to win multiple awards on the festival circuit too, including Grand Jury prizes at the Seattle International Film Festival and the Austin Film Festival. It opened in New York a few weeks ago, and while the film is considered a 2007 release, I didn’t want my friends on the west coast to miss it.

    Last month, New York Magazine’s David Edelstein wrote of the film’s lead actor, Michael Shannon:

    His deliberateness can be lovable, even romantic, but can also signal desperation, as if his head were too cavernous for him to snatch and string together all his thoughts. He’s a fascinating actor—the perfect hero for movies suffused with rage against the Creator.

    The same might be said of Mr. Nichols. He’s a young director to watch.