More Movies I've Seen...
The Wolf of Wall Street
Bodacious tale of hedonism on Wall Street in the late eighties and early nineties. Based on Jordan Belfort’s autobiography of the same name, “The Wolf of Wall Street” gives Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort more than enough meat to sink his teeth into. If he doesn’t get the Oscar or at least a nomination I will have no choice but to believe there is a conspiracy against poor Leo. He ramps it up to 13 in this role. Supported by a whipsmart and brutally funny script by Terence Winter (“Boardwalk Empire”) and helmed by Martin Scorcese, the film shows excess to the Nth degree.
Belfot (DiCaprio) starts out just with a dream of working on Wall Street. But after being indoctrinated to the wealth that can come to a broker by Mark Hanna (Matthew McConaughey, in a brief but great performance) Belfort decides to rich further.
After the stock market crash of ‘87 he has to rebound. This time in penny stocks where the respect from Wall Street is nil but the profit is great. Before long Belfort and his friend Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill) are leading a team of brokers to fortune. As they booze/pill/snort/sex it up, the Feds led by a straight arrow Denham (Kyle Chandler) are out to take down Belfort’s empire.
I can count on one hand the Martin Scorcese films I have seen but I don’t remember him directing a film this ostentatiously. In a interview with The Hollywood Reporter he compliments DiCaprio on making him love directing again (Now if only Scorcese can bring projects to Leo that challenge him more.)
This film has had a long road to travel. DiCaprio bought the script at auction from under Brad Pitt seven years ago but had difficulty getting the film made due to its racy content. Seven minutes into the film we are treated to DiCaprio snorting cocaine out of a woman’s butt. I’m assuming it’s her posterior and not her vagina since he’s using a straw and if it was the vagina he’d just lick it out what with the moisture and all. It’s not like wet coke is going to make it through a straw.
Yeah.
And there’s also all the full frontal female nudity that was rampant in 80’s film (there is also some male nudity thanks to DiCaprio’s Miley Cyrus-like cakes and an all too brief gay orgy scene (not including Leo or Jonah Hill). The film had to have some edits to get an R rating down from NC17.
I think the film would’’ve better been served coming out in November as originally slated (delays from Hurricane Sandy and the cuts that were needed delayed the film).
The film clocks in at nearly three hours (down from the four hours that Scorcese ended with) and it moved really fast, thanks to the fascinating depictions of this seedy world and the entertaining cast. Actor/Directors Jon Favreau and Rob Reiner has roles as well as director/director Spike Jonze (who was very cute in his brief scene) and writer Fran Leibowitz.
The major complaint I’ve read is not the length of the film but the likeability factor. There are people who feel that not many people would want to spend close to three hours watching dickbags. But I think this rollercoaster of decadence is highlighted by Leo’s performance…one that fans would want to see: a looser, wilder performance than he has given in years, if not ever.
The real Jordan Belfort
And I just like to think that Leo is nothing like Jordan Belfort. Even though George Clooney has opinions on this.
George talks Leo’s posse
” …Clooney and DiCaprio once ran into each other in Cabo and struck up a conversation based on their common interest in basketball. They each have ongoing games, and their ongoing games have attained a celebrity of their own. Clooney suggested they might play someday. DiCaprio said sure, but felt compelled to add, “You know, we’re pretty serious.”
They played at a neighborhood court. “You know, I can play,” Clooney says in his living room. “I’m not great, by any means, but I played high school basketball, and I know I can play. I also know that you don’t talk shit unless you can play. And the thing about playing Leo is you have all these guys talking shit. We get there, and there’s this guy, Danny A I think his name is. Danny A is this club kid from New York. And he comes up to me and says, ‘We played once at Chelsea Piers. I kicked your ass.’ I said, ‘I’ve only played at Chelsea Piers once in my life and ran the table. So if we played, you didn’t kick anybody’s ass.’ And so then we’re watching them warm up, and they’re doing this weave around the court, and one of the guys I play with says, ‘You know we’re going to kill these guys, right?’ Because they can’t play at all. We’re all like fifty years old, and we beat them three straight: 11-0, 11-0, 11-0."And the discrepancy between their game and how they talked about their game made me think of how important it is to have someone in your life to tell you what’s what. I’m not sure if Leo has someone like that.”
Danny A that Clooney namechecked with Leo’s common law husband Lukas Haas and Jon Berethal
I don’t know how Clooney jumped that that conclusion but oh well. I do know one thing:
This is funny
The Wolf of Wall Street trailer
Click to viewBits from Jonah Hill’s Q&A
*Said that he first met Martin Scorcese at the Oscars when he was up for “Moneyball”. He was sitting directly in front of Scorcese, “not placed by order of importance, obviously.” Scorcese later told him, “(as Scorcese) “You sat there and you didn’t move. Really impressive.” Okay. Thanks Scorcese for knowing I exist.”) He was too afraid to talk to him but did say hello to him. A month later he got the call that Scorcese wanted to meet with him and talk about the role that “so many better actors that that wanted the job but I was so excited to get the opportunity to sit in the room and converse”. Hill called back and asked that instead of a meeting if he could audition to show Scorcese what he would do with the part if given the opportunity.
*Hill said his pitch to Scorcese was “Look, unfortunately I know who this person is in society and I think they are what is wrong with society. And as much as I hate this person it would be a great experience to bring this person to life and manifest that and I have to play that part.” He says “Cyrus” was another role he just “had” to play. He said if he didn’t get that role he would’ve “gone to the set and ruined it…picketed the set.” He says there are films he’s done where he could see someone else playing the role but “Cyrus”, “Moneyball” and now “The Wolf of Wall Street” he knew that no one else could do that role but him.
*He says that he met Leo when they were both promoting movies in Mexico. “I pulled a Donny Azoff (the character he plays in the film) (and called him) ‘Where are you?! I’m coming to find you! I set him down and said, “Listen, I have to play this part.” I think he was so overwhelmed with y my enthusiasm for it. He was the person to call em to tell me I got the part. He called me and said, “They just asked me to make the approval …asked if I approved as a producer and I said ‘of course’. Let’s do this.” I started crying like a baby.
*Hill didn’t tell his family or friends that he had auditioned for the role so when he told them he got the role he had to convince people because they felt that had he really been up for the role he would’ve told everyone since Scorcese is his hero. He calls the film the most incredible experience of his life. After the shoot he wrote a letter to Scorcese telling him that everything from now one will be egg noodles and ketchup. A nod to “Goodfellas” when Henry Hill is in witness protection and asks for pasta and marinara sauce and instead gets egg noodles and ketchup. While there are still more directors Hill would love to work with on a personal level this film is his special achievement. He says the gain of being nominated for an Oscar is ‘being in the same room with my hero” “This is it for me, guys. You don’t understand. This is what I wanted my whole entire life (to work with Scorcese) to even sit up here to talk about the film is very emotional for me and exciting for me.”
*The casting process was a long one. There was 2 month gap between booking the meeting to having the audition. Then another two months while they were still casting around. So when it came time to shoot the film , specifically the scene that introduces Donny to Jordan (which was one of Hill’s two audition pieces) he had a total of six months with that scene so it went well. The scene directly afterwards didn’t go so easily as he had been too focused on the proceeding one. After blowing take after take, Scorcese cleared the set and said, ‘Kid, come here.’ I think anyone under the age of fifty he calls kid. I loved it. When he says that it makes me feel really awesome.” Scorcese had Hill sit with him as Scorcese read the newspaper. After ten minutes of freaking out Hill relaxed (he says his biography about making this film would be called “My Perpetual Anxiety Attack”). After twenty minutes Scorcese said, “Okay, kid back to work.” Everyone returned to set and the did it in one take. Hill says he tried to think of what the lesson was from that moment and he took away was that Scorcese was trying to show him “when you get into your head too much nothing good can come of it. If you clear your head and relax you can get through it.
*Hill says his whole ambition wasn’t to do comedy. He loves acting and he loves movies. He got his first role at 18 and it was a comedy. Then the comedies just kept doing so well that’s what people knew him for but he didn’t set out to do dramatic roles “I didn’t think ‘I need to do an AIDS drama’ but that he knew that after years of doing comedy and by then 23-years old he wanted to do something different and felt that people would get tired of him doing the same thing .
*Hill says he tries to find the good in all of his characters but couldn’t find it in Donny. He thinks the guy is really “fucked up. I’d love to put it some other way, but he’s fucked up, but he’s entertaining”. He and Leo would spend time with Jordan Belfort and they asked Belfort if he could do it over again differently would he. Belfort said that if he could’ve got rich without bilking people he would. He regrets hurting people. He said the difference is that Donny really liked hurting people. Hill says that he really hates the man. He says the movie is shocking, yet truthful and once he got over watching himself play someone who sucks it’s one of his favorite movies even if he wasn’t involved in it.
Though based on a real person (Donny Porush), the real Porush wouldn’t let his name be used in the film so they made him a composite character using different personalities that Belfort knew into this one character.
*He had to wear fake teeth for the role so for a month to learn to speak without a lisp he would call Best Buy and call customer service and ask questions about computers to get a grasp on the prosthetic teeth and Long Island accent. “Shop at Best Buys because they have patient customer service people. I hope someone at Best Buy watches the film and says, ‘Holy shit! That was Jonah Hill!”
*There was a scene in which his character eats a goldfish. He wanted to really do it but they said PETA wouldn’t allow it. So they figured away around it. He says when the fish came to set it was carried by “three adult humans. This fish had minders.” There were specific rules in which they could use the fish like only holding it in his mouth for 3 seconds at a time. As soon as he put the fish in his mouth the fish defacated in it “Instanteously so I was like “fuck this goldfish.” His revenge for me wanting to eat him.” But it all worked out. He’s alive. I talk to him. He’s married with children living in Maine.
*He says his whole ambition is to be the least talented actor in the room so that he work and watch actors who are better than him. He joked that if he wasn’t an actor he’d be homeless, but admitted that he would more likely have a job working with children.
*Hill says DiCaprio “plays really rough (citing the scenes in which Leo’s character has to hit him and Hill ended up getting hurt) and he’s way bigger than I am so I couldn’t physically retaliate so I knew, ‘I gotta get him back’. His chance came when there was a sushi eating scene. In the original script Jordan asks Donny if he’s going to get the last piece of yellowtail but Donny eats it. Jonah improv-ed that Donny lets Jordan eats it. “We did that scene over 100 times so he had to eat 100 pieces of yellowtail. By the end of the night he’s on the floor throwing up into a waste bin. Everyone’s so concerned “Leo, are you okay?” The only people hysterically laughing are me and Martin Scorcese. We have the same sick sense of humor. He says he loves the guy and thinks this is his best performance.
Lone Survivor
A Peter Berg harrowing film based on Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell’s book of the same name about the compromised mission that killed his fellow SEALs in 2005 and left him stuck behind enemy lines awaiting rescue.
Marcus Luttrell (Mark Wahlberg), Danny Dietz (Emile Hirsch), Mike Murphy (Taylor Kitsch) and Matt Axelson (Ben Foster) are sent to get intel on and kill Taliban leader Ahmad Shah when a perfect storm of incidents causes the mission to go downhill fast. As the team fight to get to safety, at their base Lt. Commander Kristensen (Eric Bana) is struggling with the protocol that is hampering the rescue mission.
The majority of this film is spent watching the men try grapple with the situation but great care was taken to give audiences insight on their personalities with the establishing scenes. Hirsch, Wahlberg, Kitsch: all beyond capable actors, all truly believable but Ben Foster is magnificent. I won’t even say he’s the best actor of his generation because no qualifier is needed. He is just one of the best actors period (Wahlberg wanted him so much for the role that he gave up a portion of his salary to pay Foster’s salary).
Robin Wright loves intense actors. Thankfully Ben is saner than Sean Penn
Though it sucks that she no longer has Michael Penn and Aimee Mann as in-laws
I love Peter Berg madly (he hugged me at a test screening of “Hancock” years ago! I loved him before that hence the hug, but that made me love him more) but I’ve been long wary of what I viewed as his strident pro-military bent (“Battleship”, “The Kingdom”, “Lone Survivor”, an interview he did where he pestered an Israeli reporter on why he didn’t serve in the Israeli military-the reporter explained off-air that he had a medical condition that precluded him for serving) but during the Q&A he conveyed that he’s more pro-solider than pro-military…a very slim distinction. He feels that the US government put too many lives in danger overseas and that the military spending could be better used in the states. But he also feels that these soldiers volunteered and that they deserve thanks for putting their lives on the line. He also says that he doesn’t politicize films and that he worked very hard, especially on “Lone Survivor” to not politicize it since all of the Navy SEALs he have met are “the least political people I’ve ever met”. He says that they don’t care if someone shares their same political belief; they signed on for a job and they will die for it no matter what political affiliation.
During the Q&A he asked if there were any military in the audience and several men raised their hands. To back up a point he would make he would ask one of the vets about their experiences to show that he made the film as true as he could. Afterwards I even thanked him for his commitment with showing the reality of military service. He said, “I gotta. This is their lives.” I commended him for “Battleship” (of all films) because there’s scenes shot in a real VA hospital and we see amputees. That’s what they don’t show us in these war movies or series. There’s not only a loss of life but loss of limbs (not to mention psychological and emotional damage, sexual violence in the military against female soldiers and/or civilians). I’ve not witnessed the effects of violence in film the way I have seen in “Lone Survivor”. It’s not grotesque but it’s brutal. And the reality of what happened to these men outweighs what the film presents.
Bits and Bobs from the panel
*Peter says he got into writing and directing because when he was on “Chicago Hope” he felt like he was in prison. He says he’s grateful to David E. Kelley and thinks he’s wonderful but all they wanted for were the actors to stand in a certain place, say the lines the way they were written and not listen to any suggestions from the actors. By contrast he says while he writes a script he allows the actors to change lines as long as they keep the tone of the film. He says that a majority of scenes in the film between the men were made up on the day.
The scenes where the guys are shown just hanging out was also improv-ed. He says that writing conversations to him come off boring. ‘He explains, ’Those are nice shoes. Where did you get them?’ That’s a conversation someone would have, does have. It’s a valid conversation but boring.” So he let the guys just vibe off each other.
*He deferred to Marcus Luttrell and the families of the deceased soldiers on how to proceed. He said if they wanted anything cut he would have because as much as he wants a successful film he’d never do anything to upset the families.
*He admits that there are detractors who feel that Luttrell has presented himself in a more heroic light than he really is. Berg says that people can go online and read about it if they want but he believes Luttrel. Though he wouldn’t say whether or not he believed the figure of 200 combatants that Luttrell says had the guys boxed in. When asked by the mod how many men he thinks they were Berg responded, “Too many.”
*Berg doesn’t like reading stuff online because people can make up anything. The first question the moderator asked was about the college Peter attended. Turned out it wasn’t true. Someone wrote on IMDB that Berg attended that college when all he did was go to plays there.
One thing that is true is that he went to college with Ari Emanuel agent/inspiration of Jeremy Piven’s “Entourage” character and brother of Chicago mayor Rham Emanuel.
*He says that the Navy SEALs he had on set would frequently had a rivalry with the stunt people because the stunt people wanted to show how tough they were. On the first day a stunt man rolled off a cliff and ended up breaking his ribs and collapsing a lung. Berg then called a meeting to bring peace to the set.
He said of all the actors Ben Foster is insane and wanted to do his own stunts. He would have to monitor him to make sure he didn’t replace his stunt man.
*Berg believes in immersion when doing a film. He spent five months researching for “Friday Night Lights” by living with a Texas family. He spent time with military for “The Kingdom” and he and the cast spent two months with SEALs for “Lone Survivor”.
(Wahlberg got emotional after the screening at AFI
Lone Survivor trailer
Dallas Buyers Club
Another true story but with some embellishments (the characters of Rayon (Jared Leto) and Dr. Eve Saks (Jennifer Garner) are composite characters of people the writer believes Ron would have encountered).
When ladykiller, rodeo enthusiast and electrican Ron Woodroff (Matthew McConaughey) is diagnosed as HIV positive and given a month to live, he sets out to get into the AZT trials in order to prolong his life. When he’s denied into the trials by his doctors (Denis O’Hare and Garner) he schemes to get his hands on AZT.
While doing research for other medications to save his life he goes to Mexico and meets a doctor (Griffin Dunne) who opens Woodruff eyes to the hazards of AZT and the helpful meds that the FDA is keeping out of the states. Seeing a way to help himself and make money, Woodruff opens a buyers’ club where he smuggles the illegal AIDS drugs from other countries and sells them in the states. This leads him to doing business with his former hospital roommate Rayon (Jared Leto) who introduces Woodruff to clients.
So much is said about Leto’s performance because of his transformation, but his performance is lovely as Rayon who acts the optimist but who delves further into drugs to ignore her fate.
By contrast to Ron who is fighting not only for his life but against the FDA and the blockades they’ve set up. It’s a non-sentimental film: Ron doesn’t because a better person per se: he still does what he does to make money, at one point turning away a man who couldn’t afford the drugs.
Based on an article by Craig Borten, the film has kicked around for a few years with Brad Pitt and Ryan Gosling being considered for Woodruff, but McConaughey has the gift of personalizing every role. He becomes Ron Woodruff. Like Keanu Reeves McConaughey pretty much always plays himself: he doesn’t disappear into a role. But unlike Reeves McConaughey gives authenticity to every single role; a believability and honesty that makes audiences feel involved and care.
Diane Kruger on Jared Leto: ” If you're very lucky as an actor, one day, a director hands you a script with a part so perfect, so right for you, that your hands are trembling when you finished reading. And if you're even luckier, it comes at a time in your career when you're ready. Scared to death … but ready to rise to the task of the demands and commitment the character needs.
Well, to say the least, Jared Leto was just that when he was offered to play Rayon opposite Matthew McConaughey in the intense and unflinching “Dallas Buyers Club,” directed by Jean-Marc Vallee. In lesser hands, the transsexual Rayon could have been an offensive caricature.
Instead, Jared literally “became” Rayon. His performance is heartbreaking … sincere and deep. I was mesmerized by this gentle, lost soul … Jared completely disappears behind Rayon. His physical transformation is nothing less than astonishing and complete. I found myself haunted by the movie, haunted by Rayon's/Jared's eyes that burnt up the screen. It is without a doubt one of the best performances I have seen this year.”
*Jared has won a few critics awards for his role in the film but can we all agree he deserves Best Hair?
Emile Hirsch on Matthew McConaughey: ” In “Dallas Buyers Club,” portraying Ron Woodroof, Matthew fearlessly breaks down previous social conventions and crosses stereotype boundaries; the physical - as we see his body wasting away until we as an audience actually fear for him - and the mental - we see the archetype of the bigoted redneck cowboy blossom (at least partially) into a more enlightened human being before our eyes.
Oddly, the partiality of his enlightenment becomes one of the chief sources of much of the comedy from the performance; he never fully abandons who he is, and is all the more believable for it. My favorite scene in the film is when Woodroof scoffs at one of his former friend's refusal to shake his new transsexual friend Rayon's (Jared Leto) hand when chance encountering the man in a supermarket.
McConaughey gives a shocked, patient smile, realizing how stupid and pointless his former prejudices were, beaming with understanding. That his priceless expression is followed up promptly by him putting the man in a gripping arm lock and forcing him to then shake Leto's hand, it becomes a delightfully guilty pleasure piece of a tough man's noble sense of justice.”
The real Ron Woodruff
American Hustle
Written by Eric Singer (“The International”) and film’s director David O’Russell, “American Hustle” is a fictionalized take on the Abscam arrests of the Seventies where the FBI employed a con man to take down local politicians.
Christian Bale stars as Irving Rosenfeld who along with his mistress Sydney (Amy Adams) make money offering fake loans for a price. When they are arrested by Richie (Bradley Cooper), a FBI agent trying to make a name for himself, they take a deal: help Richie take down four con artists in exchange for their freedom.
As the trio embark on the task Richie decides to shoot for bigger fishes: politicians on the take. He zeroes in on earnest mayor Polito (Jeremy Renner) whose dream is to revitalize Atlantic City.
Fearing the people Richie is forcing him to take on and dealing with a fracturing relationship with Sydney and his wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence), Irving tries to find a way to keep ahead of the game.
Almost as over-the-top as “The Wolf of Wall Street”. I found it tiring with it’s changing POV voice-overs. I think the film is too clever by half. Someone called it a “fun mess”. I think Adams and Bale were on five where Cooper and Lawrence were at eleven. I think it would’ve been a better film if everyone was on the same path: some were really earnest and Cooper and Lawrence were over-the-top.
O’Russell with Lawrence and Bale
But the look of the film is outstanding. The real stars of the film are cleavage, double-sided tap, hair: chest and wigs and Halston dresses.
Jack Huston and his devilishly handsome self is in it
Also Shea Whigham (Eli Thompson of “Boardwalk Empire” is in it. He’s also in “The Wolf of Wall Street”).
I think the film was almost as interesting as Bradley Cooper crying.
Cooper crying at 2:12 while watching DeNiro cry
Inside the Actors Studio
American Hustle trailer
Her
I mean.
Written and directed by Spike Jonze (his first feature length film in four years) “Her” is set in the not too distant future and finds Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) sleepwalking through life. Lonely and not ready to finalize his divorce, he finds companionship through the purchase of an phone with a sentient OS. Naming itself Samantha (Scarlett Johansson), Theodore finds the companionship and the joy he’s been missing. But what he also finds is the unexpected complexities of Samantha.
On a date with Samantha
A tad too long (like ex-wife Sofia Coppola, Jonze excels at imagery and shoots the hell out of a scene but can be short on real substance), “Her” is a nice look at modern relationships even though it’s set in the future.
Theodore friends (Chris Pratt and Amy Adams) are accepting and nonplussed by his dating an OS because dating a phone is not that far from the way we date today. People have relationships online that can last for years though the couples have never met (any episode of “Catfish”), we form friendships through online communities without never speaking or meeting each other (my QAF fandom had a dustup earlier this year when it was found out that a prolific male fanfic author who died was really a woman with two sockpuppets that people in the fandom swore they had phone conversations with). But as “Her” shows as much as we may not want to deal with the complexities and the pain that being in love can bring, but we crave it; we long for it and even when we have not experienced it, we have a sense of what it is like and yearn for that pull. As Amy Adams’ character says in the film “falling in love is kind of like form of socially acceptable insanity”.
Jonze has given Phoenix a gift with this role because it wipes away all the ill-will that was thrown Phoenix’s way with his Andy Kaufman-esque prank on the world that backfired spectacularly (an in Vulture article about Casey Affleck who directed Phoenix’s documentary Matt Damon says that he and Ben Affleck begged Casey and Joaquin to let people know it was a joke). Although he looks like “The Simpson”s Ned Flander, Theodore isn’t a nebbishy guy, instead he’s just a person who has lost his light and looking for something to set a spark within him.
Johannson is wonderful in this role (there was talk that she could be the first actor nominated for an award for giving a performance strictly off-screen) and considering she was a last minute replacement for Samantha Morton (Samantha Morton was actually was on set the entire shoot working from tiny booth so that she and Joaquin couldn’t see each other to keep in line with the story. For some reason it took Jonze until post-production to realize her delivery wasn’t jibing with what he wanted the relationship to convey).
A sweet film. A bit navel-gazey at times but beautiful to look at.
Her trailer
Paul Dano on Joaquin Phoenix: ” It is hard for me to write about an actor whose work, like all great art, transcends the words one might use to describe it. Joaquin Phoenix's performance in “Her” has to be seen, not read about.
It is even harder to write about an actor when there is no acting to be seen. Joaquin Phoenix IS. I cannot say whether he became Theodore Twombly, or whether Theodore Twombly became him. It doesn't matter. I felt their instincts, guts, heart and soul. I felt their loneliness, joy, sorrow and love. Never has Joaquin's smile been so beautiful and full. Never has he made me laugh so hard. Never has he been so disarming, playful, simple and true. He gave all of himself to us.
And he is flying up there.
Theodore Twombly, like the film “Her” itself, is a beautiful and singular creation. Spike Jonze and Joaquin Phoenix are perfect dance partners.
To watch them search, discover and play together is a special cinematic experience. But the best thing I can say about Joaquin's work is this: It speaks for itself. Go see it.”
It was the premiere
but the only actor from the film I saw was Matt Letscher who plays Amy Adams’ husband.
He was seated across the aisle from me. In my row was Simon Helberg (Howard, “The Big Bang Theory”). He was with a friend who was tall so that made Simon look like a pygmy. Then he was wearing skinny jeans and an oversized sweater so he looked like he had been shrunken.
He was the 1st seat so to exit I would have to move past him because he wasn’t moving due to listening to the end song (He exclaimed “Supersymmetry”! as soon as it came on-that’s the Arcade Fire song playing over the credits). I could’ve squeezed out along the aisle on my side but I decided to wait it out. And I’m glad I did because I sat through the acknowledgements and dedications and Jonze dedicated the film to Maurice Sedak whose "Where the Wild Things Are" he turned into a film, James Gandolfini who voiced one of the monsters in "Where the Wild Things Are" and Adam Yauch, MCA of the Beastie Boys whose videos Jonze directed.
In his thanks he acknowledged his fellow directors David O' Russell, Steven Soderbergh, Chris Cunningham, Charlie Kauffman, David Fincher and Miranda July all of whom he turned to for suggestions on how to edit the film with Soderbergh’s suggestions on what to cut heeded. And actors Chris Cooper (whose role was cut from the film with Soderbergh's edit) Samantha Morton and his former actors Catherine Keener("Where the Wild Things Are") and Andrew Garfield ("I'm Here").
Jonze and his producers including Megan Ellison (president of Anapurra Films what also produced “American Hustle”) took the stage to introduce the film. He thanked his agent and friend Bryan Lourd (ex-husband of Carrie Fisher) for giving him the confidence to go ahead with this film. He thanked the new and old regime at Warner Bros and his crews and “my actors Scarlett Johannson who is not here; Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, Chris Pratt and Joaquin Phoenix who is here. Thank you guys and I hope you like the movie.”
Before the film started I saw Flea and Anthony Kiedis of The Red Hot Chili Peppers in the lobby. Flea was wearing a orange knit cap like a longshoreman. A fan ran up to him to shake his hand and told him he was a fan and played the bass too. I saw Johnny Knoxville as he entered the actual screening room. A fan ran up to him and took a picture with him. And there were HUNDREDS of mangy hipster beards. I’ve never seen that many hobo beards, tight pants, ill-fitting suits, nifty mustaches and jaunty chapeaus in my life. And I’m from San Francisco.
“Her” is the only Spike Jonze film I’ve seen but I’ve been a big fan of his video work.
My faves
All About the Benjamin (Rock Remix)
*At 5:11 when Lil Kim is pulled by the music or when Diddy goes charging down the hall! It’s the best.
Bjork’s “It’s Oh So Quiet”
The Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage”
It wasn’t his first video, but this is the one that put him on the map IMO Weezer’s “Buddy Holly”
This video he directed and its song by Beck, to me, reflects the feel and sentiment of “Her”
* “Guess I’m Doing Fine”
Beck - Guess I'm Doing Fine by mellow1_nate2