Man in the Chair

Just got a chance to see this at the Heartland Film Festival. This is a wonderful film. You can read the synopsis for more detailed account of the movie, but for me, it's a reminder to live life together. Plummer's character is a gruff old gaffer that hasn't had many friends and lives in his former glory. But now near the end of his life, he meets a kid that wants to learn about how to shoot a film. At first, he's resistant, but eventually warms up to the idea and then enlists the help of many other former craftsmen in the field. It's a touching story. Plummer is awesome in the film. There are some effects that get a little jarring after a while, but don't detract from the film overall. It feels a bit like Finding Forrester at times, but hey, all the great story's have been done, and this is an awesome variation on that theme. A definite must see...especially film buffs.

A few weeks ago a friend mine called me and told that I had to watch a film called Man in the Chair on the Sundance Channel. He said that Christopher Plummer was in it, and that was good enough for me.

I had no idea that I was about to experience a film of absolute beauty. The writing, directing, acting, etc are beyond praise.

Plummer expertly plays a film gaffer who has not worked since 1968 and becomes involved with a young man attempting to make a student film to enter a competition for a film school scholarship. What ensues is a film about true friendship, elder abuse, animal neglect, and the raising of the human spirit.

All of the actors are superb, but special mention must be made of M. Emmet Walsh's performance of a writer who has not worked in decades. Perfection.

Actually, perfection sums up this film.

Thanks to all involved, especially writer/director Michael Schroeder, for this gift of a film.

As a member of the cast as well as an Academy member, I just loved the theme of "Man in the Chair." It develops a bond between a lost teenager and an alcoholic septuagenarian, magnificently connecting them to the making of a socially relevant student film while surrounding them with a bevy of older, former filmmakers in the screen actors' home in Woodland Hills. The writer/director, Michael Schroeder twists and turns this very human story that is kept lovingly together by a staggering performance by the amazing Christopher Plummer. As I left the Academy screening, several of my friends stopped me in the hall to say, "He's got my vote," and of course he has mine. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house.Finally,both young Michael Angarano,and the daring Emmet Walsh create a flawless sense of reality that help the film to be deeply touching.

I attended the World Premiere of "Man in the Chair" at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Good films should be bold and provocative. Yet no director creates a genre out of whole cloth. There's a basic dichotomy there and it's the challenge of the filmmaker to put a new spin on an old theme. "Man in the Chair" is, on the face of it, an intergenerational coming-of-age drama. You know the drill -- young buck meets old codger, ice meets flame, and water flows happily ever after. Some commonality brings each halfway towards the other and there are likely a few laughs as well as tears along the way. But something takes place here that is unexpected. Questions are raised which have not been addressed in contemporary cinema. This is a movie with a message, and in a politically correct world where feature filmmakers feel that it's not their place to rock the boat, "Man in the Chair" dares to tackle major social issues in a surprisingly entertaining fashion.

The young buck in this case is Cameron Kincaid (Michael Angarano), a high school kid with a passion for classic movies. The old codger is Glenn "Flash" Madden (Christopher Plummer), the last living crew member of "Citizen Kane." Cameron is a good kid. He just happens to do bad things. Flash is surly to bed and surly to rise, which makes him, well, surly. The two meet in a darkened theater while both while away the hours to pre-Technicolor gems of days gone by, one lamenting his past and the other dreaming of his future. But the kid has a sense of purpose -- an opportunity to win a scholarship to film school by shooting a 10 minute short. And thus begins the dance. Will the two forge a working relationship? Will it become something else? And what will be the subject of the student film, and what wonders will be discovered along the way? Those are just a few of the questions to be answered. Perhaps more important, though, are the questions raised by "Man in the Chair" -- are there people who don't matter? If there are wrongs to be made right, can anyone do it? Should we? That's a tall order for a filmmaker and writer/director Michael Schroeder accepts the challenge.

The legendary Christopher Plummer shows how he got to be so. His portrayal of the aging old gaffer, whose only joys in life are Cuban cigars and Wild Turkey, is daring and heartbreaking. How the Motion Picture Academy could have overlooked him all these years is a mystery, but that could change in a "Flash," and should. It's hard to imagine how an actor as young as Michael Angarano could hold the screen with him from start to finish and have it all look so real. The fact that he does so with such ease is testament to the fact he is arguably the most sought after teenage actor in America.

The Motion Picture Retirement Home is the setting for a good portion of the film (the first time a camera crew has ever been allowed to film there), where an ensemble of other Hollywood veterans put their hearts and souls into this, and it shows. M. Emmett Walsh is a standout in this and almost steals the film. I was stunned when he first appeared on screen. What he did was about the bravest thing any actor can do, particularly at his age, and his performance is breathtaking. In fact, as Schroeder explained in the Q&A, other actors turned it down because it would have broken their hearts to do the role.

"Man in the Chair" has the look and feel of a cutting edge indie, with a surprisingly rockin' soundtrack that left me wanting more and dazzling visuals. Cinematographer Dana Gonzales used quadruple exposure and hand crank camera to create a look that says "special effects" but is actually all "in-camera." What you see is what was captured on film and not created digitally in a studio. To do otherwise wouldn't be true to the very subject matter, and these techniques are a tip of the hat to the first filmmakers who had nothing but their cameras and lenses to create what we see on screen. There were more than a few "whoa" moments in the theater. I sat in wonder at the creativity of this team.

It's hard to imagine anyone of any age not being able to relate to this film and be moved by it. "Man in the Chair" is so groundbreaking that it has the potential to be a modern-day "Grapes of Wrath." The storyline exposes the ills of society without being preachy or heavy-handed. It tugs at the emotions like few films I've seen in recent memory. If you're not surly to bed and surly to rise you'll surely walk out with a tear in your eye. And even if you are, maybe, just maybe, you'll have a change of heart.

Michael Schroeder's new movie should have taken him out of B-movie obscurity. The director of the two "Cyborg" sequels has finally grasped some serious material, but unfortunately he hasn't let go of the cheese from his previous films.

The story trails lonesome, alienated Michael- a movie buff who wants to win a film scholarship, which is available through a student video competition. His torrid home life and nonexistent social life start to weigh down his dream of becoming a filmmaker. By chance, he meets a cranky old man named Flash (played very well by Christopher Plummer) who has connections to Orson Welles and the golden age of cinema.

"The Man in the Chair" begins with a montage featuring some Tony Scott-type mock handcrank shots. It's a questionably flashy beginning, but it creates a serious tone that allows you to take it seriously. This tone is betrayed immediately when Michael is introduced. He is bullied in an unrealistic, Nickelodeon-worthy fashion. What is particularly jarring is when he jumps on top of the bully's car with his bicycle (!?). Immediately, the movie turns into an artificial and inept after school special.

As a result, much is wasted. The cinematography by experienced Hollywood camera operator Dana Gonzales is absolutely beautiful, but the handcrank shots (added as reference to classic cinema) become distracting and irritating. However, there is crisp lighting and some impressively done sequences. Great performances by Plummer, Mitch Pileggi and M. Emmet Walsh are marred by the campiness of the screenplay. This is an unfortunate movie that didn't deserve any of the talent it attracted.

The real problem with "Man in the Chair" is its utter lack of credibility. This is an optimistic story that is full of good cheer, but it tries to get by on its likability alone. Truly important details, like believability and honesty are half-attempted. The development of Michael consists of platitudinous and insincere movie references. Michael is a cardboard "cinephile" with no depth, just a poorly developed passion. One character gets into trouble with the law, but this is shown with very little long-run consequence. The movie tries to avoid clichés that would be seen as "too Hollywood" to the point that it feels like a self-conscious Hollywood movie. The lack of honesty is not only appalling, it is embarrassing.

The clichés don't stop. The generation-gap jokes between Flash and Michael are tired and mostly unfunny. Also, there is far too much similarity to "Finding Forrester" to acknowledge this movie as even marginally original. There are countless plot conveniences filled with poorly thought out logic. Schroeder skims on plot details, making the movie lose respectability with every scene.

This is a feel good movie that seems to be aimed at idiots. Schroeder's film may have been passable as a mid-90's Disney movie, (minus some useless foul language inserted for a "hard edge") but he doesn't realize that American audiences have moved on from absolute characters and feel-good clichés. Unfortunately, Schroeder hasn't left his B-movie tendencies behind. Maybe he should stick to the straight to video shelf.