bklyn-boylan

Before seeing Frost/Nixon, I didn't think much of Ron Howard as a director (both A Beautiful Mind and Apollo 13 struck me as no more than mediocre commercial jobs). Despite my long admiration for Frank Langella's work on stage and for Kevin Bacon's work on screen, I expected no more than a moderately OK movie). Underwhelmed by most of the new 2008 movies (f'rinstance, except for Cate Blanchett, Benjamin Button disappointed in every aspect), the best 2 new 2008 movies I saw were Edge of Heaven and Stop-Loss (OK, I'm quirky, so what?). Until Frost/Nixon, that is. Its excellence in every area astonished me. Best movie of the year, best directing, best acting by the male lead, best adaptation. The supporting actors were admirable, especially Kevin Bacon, which came as no surprise (though if I were a voter, my vote for supporting actor would go to Robert Downey). I cannot praise Ron Howard enough for using his commercial skills as solid building blocks for a film partly about people selling entertainment and themselves in a mass medium. Nor can I give enough praise to Langella, whose decades of acting experience paid off in what may be his most challenging role--of a man whose decades of performing for his own audience was, in a way, his own most challenging role.

As an admirer of Kaufman's other work ("Being John Malkovich," "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," "Adaptation"), which I consider excellent and "Eternal Sunshine" a film masterpiece, I was greatly disappointed upon seeing "Synecdoche, NY," to which I looked forward. At least at this point in his career, Kaufman needs a director to say "No" to, "change," or "add to" certain scenes & help him guide the narrative so that it makes sense. I enjoy ambiguity and don't care about lack of clarity upon a first viewing as long as the general narrative makes sense or is understandable on a surface level. Thus, for example, I loved "Adaptation" even though I enjoyed only its surface on a first viewing (on a later viewing I recognized that the title also refers to the real not reel Charlie Kaufman's adaptation to Hollywood requirements) and I found Guy Ritchie's "Revolver" and "RockNRolla" immensely entertaining even though much of the story makes no sense to me on a third viewing of the former and a first viewing of the latter). Maybe a second or third viewing of "Synecdoche" will unearth its treasures, but after one viewing on the big screen, all I found was incoherence and perhaps self-indulgence. "Noble effort but unsatisfying" is, sadly, my general verdict, at least now; when I see it again on DVD I hope to change my mind.

Saw a preview at my local mall in SW VA. Then visited a friend in Winston-Salem, where the Reverrun Film Festival showed it. Based on preview at my mall, which generated much laughter, I persuaded g.f. to see it & both of us thoroughly enjoyed it, as did the rest of the audience at that screening. Rashly, I predicted it would be the Little Miss Sunshine of 2008. But then it opened at theaters in selected big cities in the U.S. To my g.f.'s & my surprise, the national reviewers didn't take to it & moviegoers in the big cities followed the their generally lukewarm reviews & stayed away. Thus, Son of Rambow never got the distribution it deserved. It was scheduled for an August '08 DVD release but that was delayed. Hope it's released soon. I look forward to seeing it again.