James Garner movies on TCM: ‘Grand Prix,’ ‘Victor Victoria’ among highlights (photo: James Garner ca. 1960) James Garner, whose film and television career spanned more than five decades, died of "natural causes" at age 86 on July 19, 2014, in the Los Angeles suburb of Brentwood. On Monday, July 28, Turner Classic Movies will present an all-day marathon of James Garner movies (see below) as a tribute to the Oscar-nominated star of Murphy’s Romance and Emmy-winning star of the television series The Rockford Files. Among the highlights in TCM’s James Garner film lineup is John Frankenheimer’s Monaco-set Grand Prix (1966), an all-star, race-car drama featuring Garner as a Formula One driver who has an affair with the wife (Jessica Walter) of his former teammate (Brian Bedford). Among the other Grand Prix drivers facing their own personal issues are Yves Montand and Antonio Sabato, while Akira Kurosawa’s (male) muse Toshiro Mifune plays a...
- 7/25/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Opens
Friday, April 30
Taking in "Envy", the new Barry Levinson comedy starring the ubiquitous Ben Stiller and manic Jack Black (and featuring a scene-stealing Christopher Walken) is sort of like watching a TV talk show with a particularly strong guest lineup.
The banter is sufficiently witty and engaging for the duration of the broadcast, but any lingering effects are permanently banished with a casual flick of the remote control.
Hanging at times precariously by the thread of Steve Adams' seriously under-plotted script, the low-key picture gets by on the genial charisma of its cast, but it fails to rise to the occasion when it comes to building to a necessary comic pitch.
With Stiller on a roll after "Starsky & Hutch" and "Along Came Polly", and Black Red Hot on the heels of "School of Rock", the DreamWorks release (Columbia is handling international distribution) could initially draw fans, but ultimately DreamWorks will have to wait for "Shrek 2" because their coffers probably won't be turning green with "Envy".
Stiller's Tim Dingman and Black's Nick Vanderpark are best friends, next-door neighbors and co-workers whose relationship is seriously put to the test when one of them becomes ridiculously successful.
That would be Vanderpark. After driving his buddy crazy with his harebrained ideas for wild inventions without a shred of scientific data to back them up, Vanderpark manages to hit one out of the ballpark after his notion of making dog poop evaporate into thin air with a single spray of Vapoorizer becomes a multimillion-dollar industry.
Dubious from the start, Dingman passed on the opportunity to invest a couple thousand dollars in the pie-in-the-sky enterprise, and now he's literally living in the shadow of Vanderpark's triumph -- cast by a sprawling new mansion complete with vintage merry-go-round, bowling alley, archery range and imported Roman fountains.
Consumed with envy, much to the growing frustration of his wife (Rachel Weisz), Dingman strikes up a relationship with a nutty drifter (paging Mr. Walken), and that's when things really start spiraling out of control.
Levinson, as always, creates a comfortable working environment for his comic ensemble to strut its stuff, but this time out there just isn't very much to work with, thanks to a warmed-over plot that's all setup with insufficient payoff.
As a result, the laughs tend to come in fits and starts, built around individual set pieces rather than being generated organically out of the storytelling.
That may be why the Stiller-Black matchup doesn't generate the anticipated comic sparks, leaving Walken to effectively walk away with the picture. As the off-kilter and opportunistic J-Man, he manages to spin the most mundane of lines into comic gold with the mere accentuation of a single preposition.
Behind-the-scenes contributions are generally on the money, especially the wardrobe selected by Levinson's longtime costume designer Gloria Gresham, while Dan Navarro does his best Leon Redbone as the film's off-camera troubadour.
Envy
DreamWorks
DreamWorks Pictures and Columbia Pictures present in association with Castle Rock Entertainment a Baltimore/Spring Creek Pictures production
A Barry Levinson film
Credits:
Director: Barry Levinson
Producers: Barry Levinson, Paula Weinstein
Screenwriter: Steve Adams
Executive producer: Mary McLaglen
Director of photography: Tim Maurice-Jones
Production designer: Victor Kempster
Editors: Stu Linder, Blair Daily
Costume designer: Gloria Gresham
Composer: Mark Mothersbaugh
Cast:
Tim Dingman: Ben Stiller
Nick Vanderpark: Jack Black
Debbie Dingman: Rachel Weisz
Natalie Vanderpark: Amy Poehler
J-Man: Christopher Walken
Running time -- 99 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Friday, April 30
Taking in "Envy", the new Barry Levinson comedy starring the ubiquitous Ben Stiller and manic Jack Black (and featuring a scene-stealing Christopher Walken) is sort of like watching a TV talk show with a particularly strong guest lineup.
The banter is sufficiently witty and engaging for the duration of the broadcast, but any lingering effects are permanently banished with a casual flick of the remote control.
Hanging at times precariously by the thread of Steve Adams' seriously under-plotted script, the low-key picture gets by on the genial charisma of its cast, but it fails to rise to the occasion when it comes to building to a necessary comic pitch.
With Stiller on a roll after "Starsky & Hutch" and "Along Came Polly", and Black Red Hot on the heels of "School of Rock", the DreamWorks release (Columbia is handling international distribution) could initially draw fans, but ultimately DreamWorks will have to wait for "Shrek 2" because their coffers probably won't be turning green with "Envy".
Stiller's Tim Dingman and Black's Nick Vanderpark are best friends, next-door neighbors and co-workers whose relationship is seriously put to the test when one of them becomes ridiculously successful.
That would be Vanderpark. After driving his buddy crazy with his harebrained ideas for wild inventions without a shred of scientific data to back them up, Vanderpark manages to hit one out of the ballpark after his notion of making dog poop evaporate into thin air with a single spray of Vapoorizer becomes a multimillion-dollar industry.
Dubious from the start, Dingman passed on the opportunity to invest a couple thousand dollars in the pie-in-the-sky enterprise, and now he's literally living in the shadow of Vanderpark's triumph -- cast by a sprawling new mansion complete with vintage merry-go-round, bowling alley, archery range and imported Roman fountains.
Consumed with envy, much to the growing frustration of his wife (Rachel Weisz), Dingman strikes up a relationship with a nutty drifter (paging Mr. Walken), and that's when things really start spiraling out of control.
Levinson, as always, creates a comfortable working environment for his comic ensemble to strut its stuff, but this time out there just isn't very much to work with, thanks to a warmed-over plot that's all setup with insufficient payoff.
As a result, the laughs tend to come in fits and starts, built around individual set pieces rather than being generated organically out of the storytelling.
That may be why the Stiller-Black matchup doesn't generate the anticipated comic sparks, leaving Walken to effectively walk away with the picture. As the off-kilter and opportunistic J-Man, he manages to spin the most mundane of lines into comic gold with the mere accentuation of a single preposition.
Behind-the-scenes contributions are generally on the money, especially the wardrobe selected by Levinson's longtime costume designer Gloria Gresham, while Dan Navarro does his best Leon Redbone as the film's off-camera troubadour.
Envy
DreamWorks
DreamWorks Pictures and Columbia Pictures present in association with Castle Rock Entertainment a Baltimore/Spring Creek Pictures production
A Barry Levinson film
Credits:
Director: Barry Levinson
Producers: Barry Levinson, Paula Weinstein
Screenwriter: Steve Adams
Executive producer: Mary McLaglen
Director of photography: Tim Maurice-Jones
Production designer: Victor Kempster
Editors: Stu Linder, Blair Daily
Costume designer: Gloria Gresham
Composer: Mark Mothersbaugh
Cast:
Tim Dingman: Ben Stiller
Nick Vanderpark: Jack Black
Debbie Dingman: Rachel Weisz
Natalie Vanderpark: Amy Poehler
J-Man: Christopher Walken
Running time -- 99 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
A small shelf in any conscientious collector's video library could easily contain many films over the years about "the troubles" in Northern Ireland. But few, if any, have ever viewed the strife between Protestants and Catholics as a comedy. Enter "An Everlasting Piece", a film from the always surprising Barry Levinson and written by Barry McEvoy, a Belfast-born actor who also stars.
Being an oddball movie with its own odd and quirky charm, "An Everlasting Piece" may well work as counterprogramming against the holiday blockbusters. But expectations can't be too high given the essential thinness of the material. It opens Christmas Day for a limited release.
Let's start with that punning title. While politicians continue, even now, to search for an everlasting peace in Northern Ireland, another piece plays a vital role in a land where tension and stress cause men's hair to fall out. Yes, baldness is rampant there.
So in the 1980s, fellow barbers Colm (McEvoy), a Catholic, and George (Brian O'Byrne), a Protestant and would-be poet, decide to corner the toupee market. Then they discover that a rival hairpiece company, Toupee or Not Toupee, is selling rugs like crazy.
Lost one night on a lonely country road, the two run into an Irish Republican Army patrol. Through a complicated series of circumstances, Colm winds up with an order of 30 wigs from the IRA. This creates a crisis of conscience because, as his disgusted girlfriend Bronagh (Anna Friel) points out, his partner would never approve of such a sale.
McEvoy bases his script on the memories of his dad, who was a barber and a hairpiece salesman in Northern Ireland before moving to New York. Consequently, the comic episodes have the ring of truth, though some tales are either too true to work as fiction or are exaggerated. And sometimes the urge to introduce whimsy into the sectarian conflict puts too great a strain on the story. But the film is too good-natured to make this a serious objection.
More problematic is Scottish actor-comic Billy Connolly. He plays the former monopoly holder of the toupee market in Northern Ireland who lost that monopoly when he went mad. He roams the streets and rants to no one in particular, a character mostly extraneous to the film's dramatic action.
"An Everlasting Piece" is a slight film, more a collection of amusing anecdotes played for all their worth than a dramatically coherent film. The acting contains great energy, which helps sustain the film during passages that feel padded.
Levinson's production team keeps the scale of the film appropriately small. Perhaps the comic, nonpolitical point of view would only have been possible for a film crew consisting largely of outsiders. But otherwise, the sense of time and place in these bleak Belfast locations is so dead-on that you might believe the movie to be the work of local filmmakers.
AN EVERLASTING PIECE
DreamWorks Pictures
DreamWorks and Columbia Pictures present
a Bayahibe Films production in association with
Baltimore/Spring Creek Pictures
Credits: Producers: Barry Levinson, Paul Weinstein, Mark Johnson, Louis DiGiamo, Jerome O'Connor; Director: Barry Levinson; Screenwriter: Barry McEvoy; Executive producer: Patrick McCormick; Director of photography: Seamus Deasy; Production designer: Nathan Crowley; Music: Hans Zimmer; Costume designer: Joan Bergin; Editor: Stu Linder. Cast: Colm: Barry McEvoy; George: Brian F. O'Byrne; Bronagh: Anna Friel; Scapler: Billy Connolly; IRA man: Colum Convey. MPAA rating: R. Running time -- 103 minutes. Color/stereo.
Being an oddball movie with its own odd and quirky charm, "An Everlasting Piece" may well work as counterprogramming against the holiday blockbusters. But expectations can't be too high given the essential thinness of the material. It opens Christmas Day for a limited release.
Let's start with that punning title. While politicians continue, even now, to search for an everlasting peace in Northern Ireland, another piece plays a vital role in a land where tension and stress cause men's hair to fall out. Yes, baldness is rampant there.
So in the 1980s, fellow barbers Colm (McEvoy), a Catholic, and George (Brian O'Byrne), a Protestant and would-be poet, decide to corner the toupee market. Then they discover that a rival hairpiece company, Toupee or Not Toupee, is selling rugs like crazy.
Lost one night on a lonely country road, the two run into an Irish Republican Army patrol. Through a complicated series of circumstances, Colm winds up with an order of 30 wigs from the IRA. This creates a crisis of conscience because, as his disgusted girlfriend Bronagh (Anna Friel) points out, his partner would never approve of such a sale.
McEvoy bases his script on the memories of his dad, who was a barber and a hairpiece salesman in Northern Ireland before moving to New York. Consequently, the comic episodes have the ring of truth, though some tales are either too true to work as fiction or are exaggerated. And sometimes the urge to introduce whimsy into the sectarian conflict puts too great a strain on the story. But the film is too good-natured to make this a serious objection.
More problematic is Scottish actor-comic Billy Connolly. He plays the former monopoly holder of the toupee market in Northern Ireland who lost that monopoly when he went mad. He roams the streets and rants to no one in particular, a character mostly extraneous to the film's dramatic action.
"An Everlasting Piece" is a slight film, more a collection of amusing anecdotes played for all their worth than a dramatically coherent film. The acting contains great energy, which helps sustain the film during passages that feel padded.
Levinson's production team keeps the scale of the film appropriately small. Perhaps the comic, nonpolitical point of view would only have been possible for a film crew consisting largely of outsiders. But otherwise, the sense of time and place in these bleak Belfast locations is so dead-on that you might believe the movie to be the work of local filmmakers.
AN EVERLASTING PIECE
DreamWorks Pictures
DreamWorks and Columbia Pictures present
a Bayahibe Films production in association with
Baltimore/Spring Creek Pictures
Credits: Producers: Barry Levinson, Paul Weinstein, Mark Johnson, Louis DiGiamo, Jerome O'Connor; Director: Barry Levinson; Screenwriter: Barry McEvoy; Executive producer: Patrick McCormick; Director of photography: Seamus Deasy; Production designer: Nathan Crowley; Music: Hans Zimmer; Costume designer: Joan Bergin; Editor: Stu Linder. Cast: Colm: Barry McEvoy; George: Brian F. O'Byrne; Bronagh: Anna Friel; Scapler: Billy Connolly; IRA man: Colum Convey. MPAA rating: R. Running time -- 103 minutes. Color/stereo.
Opens
Friday, April 30
Taking in "Envy", the new Barry Levinson comedy starring the ubiquitous Ben Stiller and manic Jack Black (and featuring a scene-stealing Christopher Walken) is sort of like watching a TV talk show with a particularly strong guest lineup.
The banter is sufficiently witty and engaging for the duration of the broadcast, but any lingering effects are permanently banished with a casual flick of the remote control.
Hanging at times precariously by the thread of Steve Adams' seriously under-plotted script, the low-key picture gets by on the genial charisma of its cast, but it fails to rise to the occasion when it comes to building to a necessary comic pitch.
With Stiller on a roll after "Starsky & Hutch" and "Along Came Polly", and Black Red Hot on the heels of "School of Rock", the DreamWorks release (Columbia is handling international distribution) could initially draw fans, but ultimately DreamWorks will have to wait for "Shrek 2" because their coffers probably won't be turning green with "Envy".
Stiller's Tim Dingman and Black's Nick Vanderpark are best friends, next-door neighbors and co-workers whose relationship is seriously put to the test when one of them becomes ridiculously successful.
That would be Vanderpark. After driving his buddy crazy with his harebrained ideas for wild inventions without a shred of scientific data to back them up, Vanderpark manages to hit one out of the ballpark after his notion of making dog poop evaporate into thin air with a single spray of Vapoorizer becomes a multimillion-dollar industry.
Dubious from the start, Dingman passed on the opportunity to invest a couple thousand dollars in the pie-in-the-sky enterprise, and now he's literally living in the shadow of Vanderpark's triumph -- cast by a sprawling new mansion complete with vintage merry-go-round, bowling alley, archery range and imported Roman fountains.
Consumed with envy, much to the growing frustration of his wife (Rachel Weisz), Dingman strikes up a relationship with a nutty drifter (paging Mr. Walken), and that's when things really start spiraling out of control.
Levinson, as always, creates a comfortable working environment for his comic ensemble to strut its stuff, but this time out there just isn't very much to work with, thanks to a warmed-over plot that's all setup with insufficient payoff.
As a result, the laughs tend to come in fits and starts, built around individual set pieces rather than being generated organically out of the storytelling.
That may be why the Stiller-Black matchup doesn't generate the anticipated comic sparks, leaving Walken to effectively walk away with the picture. As the off-kilter and opportunistic J-Man, he manages to spin the most mundane of lines into comic gold with the mere accentuation of a single preposition.
Behind-the-scenes contributions are generally on the money, especially the wardrobe selected by Levinson's longtime costume designer Gloria Gresham, while Dan Navarro does his best Leon Redbone as the film's off-camera troubadour.
Envy
DreamWorks
DreamWorks Pictures and Columbia Pictures present in association with Castle Rock Entertainment a Baltimore/Spring Creek Pictures production
A Barry Levinson film
Credits:
Director: Barry Levinson
Producers: Barry Levinson, Paula Weinstein
Screenwriter: Steve Adams
Executive producer: Mary McLaglen
Director of photography: Tim Maurice-Jones
Production designer: Victor Kempster
Editors: Stu Linder, Blair Daily
Costume designer: Gloria Gresham
Composer: Mark Mothersbaugh
Cast:
Tim Dingman: Ben Stiller
Nick Vanderpark: Jack Black
Debbie Dingman: Rachel Weisz
Natalie Vanderpark: Amy Poehler
J-Man: Christopher Walken
Running time -- 99 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Friday, April 30
Taking in "Envy", the new Barry Levinson comedy starring the ubiquitous Ben Stiller and manic Jack Black (and featuring a scene-stealing Christopher Walken) is sort of like watching a TV talk show with a particularly strong guest lineup.
The banter is sufficiently witty and engaging for the duration of the broadcast, but any lingering effects are permanently banished with a casual flick of the remote control.
Hanging at times precariously by the thread of Steve Adams' seriously under-plotted script, the low-key picture gets by on the genial charisma of its cast, but it fails to rise to the occasion when it comes to building to a necessary comic pitch.
With Stiller on a roll after "Starsky & Hutch" and "Along Came Polly", and Black Red Hot on the heels of "School of Rock", the DreamWorks release (Columbia is handling international distribution) could initially draw fans, but ultimately DreamWorks will have to wait for "Shrek 2" because their coffers probably won't be turning green with "Envy".
Stiller's Tim Dingman and Black's Nick Vanderpark are best friends, next-door neighbors and co-workers whose relationship is seriously put to the test when one of them becomes ridiculously successful.
That would be Vanderpark. After driving his buddy crazy with his harebrained ideas for wild inventions without a shred of scientific data to back them up, Vanderpark manages to hit one out of the ballpark after his notion of making dog poop evaporate into thin air with a single spray of Vapoorizer becomes a multimillion-dollar industry.
Dubious from the start, Dingman passed on the opportunity to invest a couple thousand dollars in the pie-in-the-sky enterprise, and now he's literally living in the shadow of Vanderpark's triumph -- cast by a sprawling new mansion complete with vintage merry-go-round, bowling alley, archery range and imported Roman fountains.
Consumed with envy, much to the growing frustration of his wife (Rachel Weisz), Dingman strikes up a relationship with a nutty drifter (paging Mr. Walken), and that's when things really start spiraling out of control.
Levinson, as always, creates a comfortable working environment for his comic ensemble to strut its stuff, but this time out there just isn't very much to work with, thanks to a warmed-over plot that's all setup with insufficient payoff.
As a result, the laughs tend to come in fits and starts, built around individual set pieces rather than being generated organically out of the storytelling.
That may be why the Stiller-Black matchup doesn't generate the anticipated comic sparks, leaving Walken to effectively walk away with the picture. As the off-kilter and opportunistic J-Man, he manages to spin the most mundane of lines into comic gold with the mere accentuation of a single preposition.
Behind-the-scenes contributions are generally on the money, especially the wardrobe selected by Levinson's longtime costume designer Gloria Gresham, while Dan Navarro does his best Leon Redbone as the film's off-camera troubadour.
Envy
DreamWorks
DreamWorks Pictures and Columbia Pictures present in association with Castle Rock Entertainment a Baltimore/Spring Creek Pictures production
A Barry Levinson film
Credits:
Director: Barry Levinson
Producers: Barry Levinson, Paula Weinstein
Screenwriter: Steve Adams
Executive producer: Mary McLaglen
Director of photography: Tim Maurice-Jones
Production designer: Victor Kempster
Editors: Stu Linder, Blair Daily
Costume designer: Gloria Gresham
Composer: Mark Mothersbaugh
Cast:
Tim Dingman: Ben Stiller
Nick Vanderpark: Jack Black
Debbie Dingman: Rachel Weisz
Natalie Vanderpark: Amy Poehler
J-Man: Christopher Walken
Running time -- 99 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 4/30/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
A small shelf in any conscientious collector's video library could easily contain many films over the years about "the troubles" in Northern Ireland. But few, if any, have ever viewed the strife between Protestants and Catholics as a comedy. Enter "An Everlasting Piece", a film from the always surprising Barry Levinson and written by Barry McEvoy, a Belfast-born actor who also stars.
Being an oddball movie with its own odd and quirky charm, "An Everlasting Piece" may well work as counterprogramming against the holiday blockbusters. But expectations can't be too high given the essential thinness of the material. It opens Christmas Day for a limited release.
Let's start with that punning title. While politicians continue, even now, to search for an everlasting peace in Northern Ireland, another piece plays a vital role in a land where tension and stress cause men's hair to fall out. Yes, baldness is rampant there.
So in the 1980s, fellow barbers Colm (McEvoy), a Catholic, and George (Brian O'Byrne), a Protestant and would-be poet, decide to corner the toupee market. Then they discover that a rival hairpiece company, Toupee or Not Toupee, is selling rugs like crazy.
Lost one night on a lonely country road, the two run into an Irish Republican Army patrol. Through a complicated series of circumstances, Colm winds up with an order of 30 wigs from the IRA. This creates a crisis of conscience because, as his disgusted girlfriend Bronagh (Anna Friel) points out, his partner would never approve of such a sale.
McEvoy bases his script on the memories of his dad, who was a barber and a hairpiece salesman in Northern Ireland before moving to New York. Consequently, the comic episodes have the ring of truth, though some tales are either too true to work as fiction or are exaggerated. And sometimes the urge to introduce whimsy into the sectarian conflict puts too great a strain on the story. But the film is too good-natured to make this a serious objection.
More problematic is Scottish actor-comic Billy Connolly. He plays the former monopoly holder of the toupee market in Northern Ireland who lost that monopoly when he went mad. He roams the streets and rants to no one in particular, a character mostly extraneous to the film's dramatic action.
"An Everlasting Piece" is a slight film, more a collection of amusing anecdotes played for all their worth than a dramatically coherent film. The acting contains great energy, which helps sustain the film during passages that feel padded.
Levinson's production team keeps the scale of the film appropriately small. Perhaps the comic, nonpolitical point of view would only have been possible for a film crew consisting largely of outsiders. But otherwise, the sense of time and place in these bleak Belfast locations is so dead-on that you might believe the movie to be the work of local filmmakers.
AN EVERLASTING PIECE
DreamWorks Pictures
DreamWorks and Columbia Pictures present
a Bayahibe Films production in association with
Baltimore/Spring Creek Pictures
Credits: Producers: Barry Levinson, Paul Weinstein, Mark Johnson, Louis DiGiamo, Jerome O'Connor; Director: Barry Levinson; Screenwriter: Barry McEvoy; Executive producer: Patrick McCormick; Director of photography: Seamus Deasy; Production designer: Nathan Crowley; Music: Hans Zimmer; Costume designer: Joan Bergin; Editor: Stu Linder. Cast: Colm: Barry McEvoy; George: Brian F. O'Byrne; Bronagh: Anna Friel; Scapler: Billy Connolly; IRA man: Colum Convey. MPAA rating: R. Running time -- 103 minutes. Color/stereo.
Being an oddball movie with its own odd and quirky charm, "An Everlasting Piece" may well work as counterprogramming against the holiday blockbusters. But expectations can't be too high given the essential thinness of the material. It opens Christmas Day for a limited release.
Let's start with that punning title. While politicians continue, even now, to search for an everlasting peace in Northern Ireland, another piece plays a vital role in a land where tension and stress cause men's hair to fall out. Yes, baldness is rampant there.
So in the 1980s, fellow barbers Colm (McEvoy), a Catholic, and George (Brian O'Byrne), a Protestant and would-be poet, decide to corner the toupee market. Then they discover that a rival hairpiece company, Toupee or Not Toupee, is selling rugs like crazy.
Lost one night on a lonely country road, the two run into an Irish Republican Army patrol. Through a complicated series of circumstances, Colm winds up with an order of 30 wigs from the IRA. This creates a crisis of conscience because, as his disgusted girlfriend Bronagh (Anna Friel) points out, his partner would never approve of such a sale.
McEvoy bases his script on the memories of his dad, who was a barber and a hairpiece salesman in Northern Ireland before moving to New York. Consequently, the comic episodes have the ring of truth, though some tales are either too true to work as fiction or are exaggerated. And sometimes the urge to introduce whimsy into the sectarian conflict puts too great a strain on the story. But the film is too good-natured to make this a serious objection.
More problematic is Scottish actor-comic Billy Connolly. He plays the former monopoly holder of the toupee market in Northern Ireland who lost that monopoly when he went mad. He roams the streets and rants to no one in particular, a character mostly extraneous to the film's dramatic action.
"An Everlasting Piece" is a slight film, more a collection of amusing anecdotes played for all their worth than a dramatically coherent film. The acting contains great energy, which helps sustain the film during passages that feel padded.
Levinson's production team keeps the scale of the film appropriately small. Perhaps the comic, nonpolitical point of view would only have been possible for a film crew consisting largely of outsiders. But otherwise, the sense of time and place in these bleak Belfast locations is so dead-on that you might believe the movie to be the work of local filmmakers.
AN EVERLASTING PIECE
DreamWorks Pictures
DreamWorks and Columbia Pictures present
a Bayahibe Films production in association with
Baltimore/Spring Creek Pictures
Credits: Producers: Barry Levinson, Paul Weinstein, Mark Johnson, Louis DiGiamo, Jerome O'Connor; Director: Barry Levinson; Screenwriter: Barry McEvoy; Executive producer: Patrick McCormick; Director of photography: Seamus Deasy; Production designer: Nathan Crowley; Music: Hans Zimmer; Costume designer: Joan Bergin; Editor: Stu Linder. Cast: Colm: Barry McEvoy; George: Brian F. O'Byrne; Bronagh: Anna Friel; Scapler: Billy Connolly; IRA man: Colum Convey. MPAA rating: R. Running time -- 103 minutes. Color/stereo.
- 12/19/2000
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This is a tale about the tail that wags the dog, in this balmy case the tail being a White House media team that manipulates public opinion by misdirecting the media, i.e., the dog.
It's a deliriously funny and decidedly cynical sendup of hardball spin management, starring Robert De Niro as a White House media troubleshooter who is a hired gun for extreme and delicate situations and Dustin Hoffman as a vainglorious Hollywood producer secretly hired by the White House to "produce" a war.
Cerebral and silly all at once, this smart Barry Levinson satire will tickle the fancies of sophisticated viewers everywhere -- except perhaps those currently in residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue -- and New Line should have a fine time wagging the political press with this daffy delirium.
At this point in time, as Congressional testifiers might declare, we have a president (dubbed by some as Slick Willy) who has been known to get in a sticky situation now and then and whose sexual history makes for great tabloid teases. Accordingly, "Wag the Dog"'s narrative springboard is that the president has had a quickie in the White House with a Fire-Fly Girl (think Girl Scout but purer) just before the election. Although he holds a strong lead in the polls, a sex scandal could turn the tide.
What to do?
Call in the firepower -- in the person of a master media manipulator Conrad Brean (De Niro), who is sort of a cross between Joseph Goebbels, James Carville and Dick Tuck. He's a sleight-of-hand artist who can get the media to look at the misdirection razzle-dazzle all the while he's safely pulling the rabbit out of his hat. Dirty tricks and misinformation are this guy's specialty, and not only does he put spin on his releases, they're filled with spit as well.
With a ticking clock -- eleven days to the election -- Brean goes into overdrive. A sex scandal with an underage teen is about the only thing that could keep this wishy-washy prez from being re-elected, and Brean realizes that although he can't keep the girl's story (she's going to file suit) from the press, he can at least downplay it and, perhaps, divert the press's attention.
But what -- short of a war -- would supersede a sex scandal involving the president? Bingo!
So, it's off to Hollywood to solicit a reclusive Hollywood producer, Stanley Motss (Hoffman), who has had experience, Motss reasons, that make him invaluable as a White House Fire-Fly Girl fighter -- he's produced the Oscars. If Brean can feed the mass media with enough misdirection, phony leaks, misinformation and then crank it to a hysterical pitch, perhaps the Fire-Fly Girl story will, well, drop to an inside page and be forgotten.
In the grand political tradition of bread and circuses while the city is burning, Brean and Motss create a "pageant," namely a war in Albania that monopolizes TV news time and ink-stained press coverage. With Motss orchestrating the "war" with victim symbolism that ranks right up there with Joseph Goebbels' "genius" in staging mass-march funerals for fallen Hitler youths, the deadline press is deluged with misguided images and red herrings, making them think they are actually uncovering "news."
The vanity of the press is perfectly captured in this droll mockery. Hilary Henkin's and David Mamet's script is a brainy and wicked satire of how easily the mass media can be manipulated, recalling Michael Ritchie's excellent political satire "The Candidate", starring Robert Redford as a vacuous John Tunney-type who seeks a Senate seat in California.
Levinson's satirical grip is just perfect -- light, somewhat distanced and understated. Such a deadpan take, letting the absurdities speak for themselves, also allows the acid to seep through without corroding the film's entertaining nature. Sure, one could nit-pick on certain implausibilities in the plotting, but anyone who has ever been near a newsroom or a Hollywood public relations firm could easily top every narrative extravagance here with a real-life, even goofier, story.
De Niro is marvelous as the cynical and unscrupulous pied piper of the press. His crisp performance and Machiavellian demeanor (the goatee, the dorky press hat) are smart accouterments for this breed of cat. Hoffman's full-blown performance as the megalomaniacal producer (reportedly based on Robert Evans) is wickedly droll. With his sky-tilted stare, fussy walk and scarfmanship, Hoffman is a romp as the self-absorbed nut case who has no connection to the real world. In short, he's truly Mr. Hollywood.
A well-chosen batch of supporting actors breathe further lunacy into this amusement. Willie Nelson, as a whacked-out songster (hired to compose the theme music for "The War"), and Woody Harrelson, as a medicated rapist, are particularly effective, while Anne Heche is downright credible as a straight-arrow White House press person who gets all stirred up by the bogus story they're creating.
The technical credits are powerful, chiefly because of their delicate execution. Under Levinson's well-played hand, Robert Richardson's dead-on framings are a droll hoot, while editor Stu Linder has stoked the satire with a salvo of low-key, incendiary cuts. Special praise to Mark Knopfler for the tangy music, including a wondrously wayward theme song and a daffy "We Are the World" -type schmaltz anthem.
WAG THE DOG
New Line Cinema
A Tribeca/Baltimore Pictures/Punch production
A Barry Levinson film
Producers: Jane Rosenthal, Robert DeNiro, Barry Levinson
Director: Barry Levinson
Screenwriters: Hilary Henkin and David Mamet
Based on the book "American Hero" by Larry Beinhart
Director of photography: Robert Richardson
Production designer: Wynn Thomas
Editor: Stu Linder
Costume designer: Rita Ryack
Executive producers: Michael De Luca, Claire Rudnick Polstein, Ezra Swerdlow
Casting: Ellen Chenoweth, Debra Zane
Music: Mark Knopfler
Color/stereo
Cast:
Stanley Motss: Dustin Hoffman
Conrad Brean: Robert De Niro
Winifred Ames: Anne Heche
Sgt. William Schumann: Woody Harrelson
Fad King: Denis Leary
Johnny Green: Willie Nelson
Liz Butsky: Andrea Martin
President: Michael Belson
Amy Cain: Suzanne Cryer
John Levy: John Michael Higgins
Grace: Suzie Plakson
Running time -- 105 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
It's a deliriously funny and decidedly cynical sendup of hardball spin management, starring Robert De Niro as a White House media troubleshooter who is a hired gun for extreme and delicate situations and Dustin Hoffman as a vainglorious Hollywood producer secretly hired by the White House to "produce" a war.
Cerebral and silly all at once, this smart Barry Levinson satire will tickle the fancies of sophisticated viewers everywhere -- except perhaps those currently in residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue -- and New Line should have a fine time wagging the political press with this daffy delirium.
At this point in time, as Congressional testifiers might declare, we have a president (dubbed by some as Slick Willy) who has been known to get in a sticky situation now and then and whose sexual history makes for great tabloid teases. Accordingly, "Wag the Dog"'s narrative springboard is that the president has had a quickie in the White House with a Fire-Fly Girl (think Girl Scout but purer) just before the election. Although he holds a strong lead in the polls, a sex scandal could turn the tide.
What to do?
Call in the firepower -- in the person of a master media manipulator Conrad Brean (De Niro), who is sort of a cross between Joseph Goebbels, James Carville and Dick Tuck. He's a sleight-of-hand artist who can get the media to look at the misdirection razzle-dazzle all the while he's safely pulling the rabbit out of his hat. Dirty tricks and misinformation are this guy's specialty, and not only does he put spin on his releases, they're filled with spit as well.
With a ticking clock -- eleven days to the election -- Brean goes into overdrive. A sex scandal with an underage teen is about the only thing that could keep this wishy-washy prez from being re-elected, and Brean realizes that although he can't keep the girl's story (she's going to file suit) from the press, he can at least downplay it and, perhaps, divert the press's attention.
But what -- short of a war -- would supersede a sex scandal involving the president? Bingo!
So, it's off to Hollywood to solicit a reclusive Hollywood producer, Stanley Motss (Hoffman), who has had experience, Motss reasons, that make him invaluable as a White House Fire-Fly Girl fighter -- he's produced the Oscars. If Brean can feed the mass media with enough misdirection, phony leaks, misinformation and then crank it to a hysterical pitch, perhaps the Fire-Fly Girl story will, well, drop to an inside page and be forgotten.
In the grand political tradition of bread and circuses while the city is burning, Brean and Motss create a "pageant," namely a war in Albania that monopolizes TV news time and ink-stained press coverage. With Motss orchestrating the "war" with victim symbolism that ranks right up there with Joseph Goebbels' "genius" in staging mass-march funerals for fallen Hitler youths, the deadline press is deluged with misguided images and red herrings, making them think they are actually uncovering "news."
The vanity of the press is perfectly captured in this droll mockery. Hilary Henkin's and David Mamet's script is a brainy and wicked satire of how easily the mass media can be manipulated, recalling Michael Ritchie's excellent political satire "The Candidate", starring Robert Redford as a vacuous John Tunney-type who seeks a Senate seat in California.
Levinson's satirical grip is just perfect -- light, somewhat distanced and understated. Such a deadpan take, letting the absurdities speak for themselves, also allows the acid to seep through without corroding the film's entertaining nature. Sure, one could nit-pick on certain implausibilities in the plotting, but anyone who has ever been near a newsroom or a Hollywood public relations firm could easily top every narrative extravagance here with a real-life, even goofier, story.
De Niro is marvelous as the cynical and unscrupulous pied piper of the press. His crisp performance and Machiavellian demeanor (the goatee, the dorky press hat) are smart accouterments for this breed of cat. Hoffman's full-blown performance as the megalomaniacal producer (reportedly based on Robert Evans) is wickedly droll. With his sky-tilted stare, fussy walk and scarfmanship, Hoffman is a romp as the self-absorbed nut case who has no connection to the real world. In short, he's truly Mr. Hollywood.
A well-chosen batch of supporting actors breathe further lunacy into this amusement. Willie Nelson, as a whacked-out songster (hired to compose the theme music for "The War"), and Woody Harrelson, as a medicated rapist, are particularly effective, while Anne Heche is downright credible as a straight-arrow White House press person who gets all stirred up by the bogus story they're creating.
The technical credits are powerful, chiefly because of their delicate execution. Under Levinson's well-played hand, Robert Richardson's dead-on framings are a droll hoot, while editor Stu Linder has stoked the satire with a salvo of low-key, incendiary cuts. Special praise to Mark Knopfler for the tangy music, including a wondrously wayward theme song and a daffy "We Are the World" -type schmaltz anthem.
WAG THE DOG
New Line Cinema
A Tribeca/Baltimore Pictures/Punch production
A Barry Levinson film
Producers: Jane Rosenthal, Robert DeNiro, Barry Levinson
Director: Barry Levinson
Screenwriters: Hilary Henkin and David Mamet
Based on the book "American Hero" by Larry Beinhart
Director of photography: Robert Richardson
Production designer: Wynn Thomas
Editor: Stu Linder
Costume designer: Rita Ryack
Executive producers: Michael De Luca, Claire Rudnick Polstein, Ezra Swerdlow
Casting: Ellen Chenoweth, Debra Zane
Music: Mark Knopfler
Color/stereo
Cast:
Stanley Motss: Dustin Hoffman
Conrad Brean: Robert De Niro
Winifred Ames: Anne Heche
Sgt. William Schumann: Woody Harrelson
Fad King: Denis Leary
Johnny Green: Willie Nelson
Liz Butsky: Andrea Martin
President: Michael Belson
Amy Cain: Suzanne Cryer
John Levy: John Michael Higgins
Grace: Suzie Plakson
Running time -- 105 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 12/15/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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