After viewing his art exhibition yesterday, I suggested James Franco might want to remove one string from his bow, but the man apparently thinks he hasn’t been busy enough lately: he can now add “celebrity Twitterer” to his increasingly long list of occupations. There’s not much yet on the @jamesfranco account to prompt discussion — just two introductory tweets to a rapidly accrued 45,000 followers (and counting, of course) — but I have no doubt he’ll mold his entertaining odd persona to the medium soon enough. His online hello is below. (Meanwhile, while we’re gathering Franco videos, he and Judd Apatow kid about Oscar hosting after the cut.)
Tag: Judd Apatow
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8/17 Web Round-up
• Amid sticky financial days for The Weinstein Company, Harvey Weinstein tells you to “sit tight” and “don’t bet against” him and brother Bob. [New York Times]• It must be going around, because ditto Universal execs Mark Shmuger and David Linde. [Los Angeles Times]
• Sharon Waxman is frustrated at the word-count of the Weinstein piece yielding little insight into the company’s financial woes. [The Wrap]
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Eric Bana’s summer versatility
One of the highlights of Judd Apatow’s “Funny People” for me was Eric Bana’s supporting performance, a perfect blend of jack-assery and sincere complexity that stood out from the otherwise troubled film (along with Adam Sandler’s rather brilliant portrayal). It wasn’t until later, though, that it hit me how diverse Bana’s output has been so far this year, with featured but strikingly varied roles in Apatow’s film, “Star Trek” and “The Time Traveler’s Wife.”I haven’t seen the latter yet, but I was pretty much on-board for Bana’s villainous turn in J.J. Abrams’s franchise reboot. The role perhaps suffered from a lack of motivation in many ways, the only botched element of the story, but that’s not Bana’s fault and he carried across a Romulan vengeance-seeker with relative ease, I thought.
Well I guess I’m not the only one impressed by Bana’s versatility this summer. Writing in the pages of the Chicago Tribune, Lisa Rosen has taken note, using the occasion to remind that “Funny People” brings Bana back to his first brush with entertainment years ago in his native Australia.
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SUNDAY CENTS: ‘Funny’ money
*All historical figures are adjusted to today’s dollars.It was no laughing matter at the box office this weekend as Judd Apatow’s “Funny People” opened at the top spot with a disappointing $23.4 million. Not only is that lower than both “The 40 Year Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up,” but it’s also the lowest figure to top this particular summer weekend since “A Time to Kill” in 1996. Don’t forget that “Virgin” and “Knocked” cost $26 million and $30 million, respectively, while “Funny People” carries a price tag of $70 million.
Bottom line: this film didn’t perform like an Adam Sandler summer comedy at all. This is a guy who has opened six low-brow comedies in the summer months and had an average debut of $46.0 million. “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan” opened with $38.5 million, for Pete’s sake. Even his notorious misfire “Little Nicky” opened to $21.4 million. So no matter how Universal wants to spin this, it’s not pretty. It dropped from Friday to Saturday, indicating that fanboy rush and word of mouth is not going to be great enough to keep it in theaters much longer than Labor Day.
I think a $65 million finish is the best-case scenario and Apatow has officially lost his “cancer subplot” and “two-hour-plus running time” privileges. And you can kiss those Best Original Screenplay chances goodbye.
“G-Force” fell 46% to third place and $17.1 million. The guinea pigs already have $66.5 million in the bank so go ahead and mark your calendars for “G-Force 2” in July 2011. And just to reiterate, no matter how bad or good you think “Funny People” is, it’s a filmmaker with a distinct voice trying something a little different and people soundly rejected it in favor of films like this.
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7/31 Web Round-up
• Rose Byrne, leading lady at last. [Daily Telegraph]• More on the story that won’t go away as the “Moneyball” drama spills into the pages of Vanity Fair. [Hollywood Elsewhere]
• Stephanie Zacharek wonders whether the “Judd Apatow moment” might be over. [Salon]
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7/30 Web Round-up
• Jeremy Piven would like to see an “Entourage” film. Who wouldn’t? [CNN]• Vincent Cassel refuses to court Hollywood. Who needs it when you’ve got Monica Bellucci at home? [Daily Telegraph]
• Robert Levin sits down with “In the Loop” director Armando Iannucci. [Film School Rejects]
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Sandler grows up in ‘Funny People’
I caught up with Judd Apatow’s “Funny People” last night, and the knee-jerk reaction was that the writer/director was close…oh so close. The film isn’t a failure but is an intriguing miss nonetheless, a reminder that while Apatow seems quite qualified to tell a story with these particular layers, he might have better served the project by giving it a few more years to marinate.The stand-out element of the film is definitely Adam Sandler’s performance. The actor takes on a character whose arc is curiously flat but brings a fleshed out sense of reality that, frankly, seems to be coming from the same deep, dark places of experience that Mickey Rourke must have plumbed for “The Wrestler.”
In taking a trip down Sandler movie memory lane, MSNBC’s Dave White seems to think that notion of remaining true to who Sandler is represents a good reason why the film, and the performance, works in the face of attempt after attempt at working against the grain of the actor’s personal truth.
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7/28 Web Round-up
• Whoa. Remember Anna Chlumsky? [CNN]• Do “Antichrist” and “The Proposal” peddle outdated views of women? [The Guardian]
• Roger Ebert talks at length with “Funny People” director Judd Apatow. [Chicago Sun-Times]
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Is Sandler a contender for ‘Funny People?’
I can’t say I saw this coming. Since the expansion of the Best Picture category, several people have considered Judd Apatow’s “Funny People” as a possible populist nominee in the race, while speculating that it could also land him a writing nod after near-misses (and Guild citations) for his previous two features.Meanwhile, others (Kris included) have sniffed awards potential for well-liked supporting thesp (and, of course, Mrs. Apatow) Leslie Mann. But whether due to his own dodgy résumé or the Academy’s anti-comedy bias in the lead races, no one has mentioned the film’s star, Adam Sandler, as much of an awards threat.
The reviews, however, tell a slightly different story. Although response to the film itself is mixed, the word for Sandler is very strong indeed, recalling the “OMG he can act” notices he garnered for “Punch-Drunk Love” seven years ago (which of course landed him a Golden Globe nod, if no Oscar traction).
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7/23 Web Round-up
• Kim Voynar wonders where the Brat Pack for today’s generation is. [Movie City News]• Judd Apatow gets the MOMA treatment in NYC. [Movieline]
• Andrew O’Hehir talks “Shrink” with actor Kevin Spacey. [Beyond the Multiplex]
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7/17 Web Round-up
• Judd Apatow’s risky departure from formula with “Funny People.” [Wall Street Journal]• Denise Martin talks to “(500) Days of Summer” star Joseph Gordon-Levitt. [Los Angeles Times]
• PODCAST: Yours truly talks the Oscar’s move to 10, the “Let the Right One In” remake and more with John Campea et al. [The Movie Blog]
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The long haul
Patrick Goldstein has already covered this matter in some detail, but I must admit the news that Judd Apatow’s “Funny People” is due to clock in at 150 minutes in length gives me some pause.
Editing is a sensitive and flexible art, and one shouldn’t presume to have a better sense than the director of the rhythmic requirements of an unseen film. And as Goldstein points out, if James L. Brooks-style dramedy really is Apatow’s creative touchstone here, a languid running time is par for the course.
But as someone who found both “Knocked Up” and “The 40 Year-Old Virgin” on the over-extended side of things, I’ll just say that the film will have to be very sharp indeed for me to enjoy two-and-a-half hours in the company of Adam Sandler.
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Not such funny people
I recently discussed the positive buzz building around Judd Apatow’s “Funny People,” which has thus far turned up numerous allusions to the unabashedly sentimental seriocomic stylings of James L. Brooks — a comparison that promises either polished awards-bait, mawkish pap or both, according to taste.Suggesting that the Brooks similarities hold true beyond a glib glance-over of the film, Apatow fully acknowledges his debt to the “Terms of Endearment” filmmaker (with whom he worked on the 1990s animated series, “The Critic”) in this recent New York Times piece, which addresses his and his team’s weightier aims for the project:
Asked why, at 41, he would follow movies about sexuality and childbirth with a film about mortality, Mr. Apatow was circumspect. “I’ve unfortunately been around people who have been ill and seen people figure out how to deal with it,” he said. Some, he added, “just keep plowing on forward, and they don’t seem to change.”
“What I took from (working with Brooks) was, the audience is supposed to like the movie, as simple as that sounds,” Mr. Apatow said. “If they’re not loving it, you failed.”
But even Mr. Apatow’s closest confederates recognize that “Funny People” may not be as easily loved as his two previous films. “I wouldn’t describe it as dark,” said Mr. Rogen, a star of “40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up.” “I would say it’s more ambitious in what it’s attempting to make light of.”
This sober tone colours the entire piece, as Apatow expresses his desire to make a “Tuesdays With Morrie”-type story but — before you retch — with the twist that “the main character learns nothing,” while the words “grown-up”, “intensely personal” and even “existential” come up at various points. No pressure, then.
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‘Funny People’ an ‘award-level thing?’
I don’t mind admitting that I wasn’t entirely won over by the trailer for Judd Apatow’s “Funny People,” which, for all its smartness, seemed to me a little too calculated in its bid for laughing-through-the-tears pathos. Like pretty much everyone else, James L. Brooks struck me as an obvious point of reference — but whether we were talking Brooks on a good or bad day was unclear to me. It’s just a (very long and over-expository) trailer, after all.Now Jeff Wells has chatted to a couple of folks who have seen it, and is passing along the word that Apatow has seemingly channeled Brooks on a very good day indeed. Awards-season good, even:
Possibly an award-level thing, a director friend said this morning, although he was just passing along the chatter. It’s more in the realm of Sandler for Best Actor and Apatow’s script for Best Original Screenplay, he speculated, than a Best Picture shot…but you never know.
So I called a non-vested guy who’s seen it, and here’s what he said: “Really funny, a really sweet movie, a lot of veracity…really a brilliant film. Everybody’s game goes up a lot. It’s a James L. Brooks-level thing and a great role for Adam. It’s a perfect blend of everything Sandler has done in a serious vein. The film could be a bit of a marketing problem because it’s about show business but it’s so real.. It’s about a famous guy, a comedian, having to deal with the fact hat he has no life and nobody to turn to. But he gets better [through a relationship with a younger comic]…it’s basically a love letter to having a family.”
No specific mention of Leslie Mann, who struck me on paper as the film’s likeliest awards prospect, but that was a shot in the dark. Anyway, I seem to recall hearing near-identical chatter about “Spanglish” before it finally surfaced, so I’ll remain guarded. (I’m expecting something better than that fiasco, of course, but I’m just sayin’.) Encouraging buzz, nonetheless.
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David Gordon Green catches his stride in comedy
It 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.)
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Three more highlights
Collecting all my thoughts last night was bound to leave a few gaps and so while flipping through the DVR recording of this year’s Oscar ceremony, I stumbled across a couple of moments that I had to tip my hat to.I already updated the recap post with a few notes about the Judd Apatow short, which was fantastic (especially the stoned giggling at “The Reader.”) But having Janusz Kaminski in the mix was a stroke of genius. We crossed paths last year and he cracked me up every time. Nice to see him take the stage to present, the first time ever for a D.P.
But also, I have to mention the class that was Danny Boyle thanking the producers of the telecast for putting on such a great show. It really seemed like the obvious thing to do, yet it took until his Best Director presentation for someone to go there. I can’t think of the last time the telecast was praised on the air like that, but then again, I can’t think of the last time the telecast deserved to be praised on the air, so there we are.
And finally, I have to say that Philippe Petit’s appearance on the stage was a moment of levity that brought a huge smile to my face. I preferred other docs in the category, but it’s difficult to argue with the feat. And seeing him swiftly run up to the stage and steal the spotlight like he was meant to do so…it was just a great moment.
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Judd Apatow’s ‘Funny People’
Before we really dig into net year’s Oscar race on Monday, what about the new Judd Apatow comedy “Funny People” starring Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen. Could the multi-hyphenate finally find some love from the writers’ branch, maybe? Acknowledgment for Leslie Mann’s antics, maybe? Anything outside of HFPA?
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Funny ha ha
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.