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The M.O. signs off
I moved from my old post at Austinist.com to this here blog on austin360.com over four years ago. Now, after hundreds of blogs about everything from my love-hate relationship with breakfast tacos to whining about the new parking laws to chats with filmmakers, comedians and musicians, I am leaving this small corner of the Internet and my role as content producer on austin360.com.
But my departure from The M.O. does not mark an exit from the Statesman. I have simply moved across the newsroom to join the Statesman’s features department on a full-time basis. I will be reporting on the local film industry and other entertainment and lifestyle topics, as well as contributing film criticism.
What does this mean for you? Not too terribly much, except that you won’t see my smiling mug on the homepage of austin360 any longer (and there was much rejoicing). My voice will not be vanquished from the site altogether. I will be contributing regularly to the Statesman Movie Blog (austin360.com/movieblog) and at times to the Music Source blog (austin360.com/musicsource). So, if you haven’t already, please bookmark those sites or add them to your RSS feeds or whatever it is you do with the Internet.
To those who have visited this blog before, I want to thank you for your time and your comments and your emails. I have had a great time trying to maintain this thing with mildly entertaining bits of entertainment and ephemera and hope that you will continue to read all of our Statesman entertainment coverage on austin360.com.
(If you’ve found this page by accident or from an incorrect link, sorry to waste the last two minutes of your life. You probably weren’t going to do anything meaningful with them anyhow.)
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SXSW Talks: Tom McCarthy, ‘Win Win’
He had appeared in two consecutive movies as a 30-year-old wondering if he should get married or not. The only discernible differences between the roles were the films’ settings and his characters’ religious backgrounds. That’s when McCarthy decided to take matters into his own hands.
“Rather than complain about it, I decided to just start to write. And that was the ‘Station Agent.’”
McCarthy’s 2003 debut about an unlikely trio of characters finding solace in each other’s company won him the best original screenplay award from the Independent Spirit Awards and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
The writer-director followed those achievements in 2007 with “The Visitor,” a story of a lonely man who stumbles into companionship, which garnered him an Independent Spirit Award for Best Director and a nomination for best screenplay from the Writer’s Guild of America.
Both films showed a sensitive and subtle filmmaker exploring ideas of loss and the need for connection.
With his third feature, “Win Win,” which screened Monday night at the Paramount Theatre, McCarthy again examines relationships. But his story of a man who makes an unethical, and seemingly innocuous, decision that eventually impacts his family and those around him does not tread emotional ground quite as weighty and somber as his previous films.
“Ultimately, look, especially after ‘The Visitor,’ I wanted to have fun with this story,” McCarthy said Monday morning before his movie played SXSW. “I just wanted to loosen up and kick back — a little sloppy, a little fun.”
Despite his best efforts, middle-aged suburban lawyer Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti) can’t seem to stay ahead of life. When faced with the opportunity to take advantage of aging client’s dilemma, the straight-shooting Mike makes an unethical and out-of-character move that will earn him $1500 a month. Although it seems a victimless crime, Mike realizes his plan is not fool proof when his client’s grandson, Kyle (an excellent turn by Alex Shaffer), appears.
Although the movie is funnier than McCarthy’s previous script, the Yale drama school grad admits that the broad comedy also resonated with him on a deeper level.
“When decent people that we know - he has a family and he lives and town and he’s a good guy, but he did this thing,” McCarthy said. “That to me was speaking very, very directly to where we are as a society, especially financially.”
McCarthy has a nuanced opinion of some of the players involved in the economic calamity that has engulfed the country.
“I don’t think they’re all evil people; I’m not a big believer in that. My family works on Wall Street. But there were some really bad choices made by decent people. Too many things like this happen and we say, ‘Oh, those guys are bad guys. We’re in this situation cause of bad guy.’ I think we’re in this situation because collectively we’ve made some pretty bad choices.”
The filmmaker said he was specifically fascinated by the collapse of former Texas energy titan Enron.
“The thing Joe and I kept talking about was Enron. We kept looking at the Enron model. That’s the thing that interested me. Because it was this company, which now we are all aware of its fall from grace, but which at the time it was the pillar. The company was the flagstone. And a lot of good came out of that - a lot of decent people’s lives were made, kids went to college and philanthropically and bolstering the economy in local communities and all this great stuff. Granted a few people were getting very rich, but all this wonderful trickle-down fallout … until that moment happened and everyone was like, ‘Whoa! Hold it. What? What is this?’ Then it didn’t look so good. And that to me was really interesting.”
The filmmaker, who continues to work regularly as a character actor (most notably as unethical Baltimore Sun reporter Scott Templeton on HBO’s “The Wire”), never judges his characters in “Win Win,” primarily because they are good people who succumb to bad decisions, just like all of us do at times.
“I think if we were all cognizant of the bad choices we’re making, we wouldn’t make them,” McCarthy said. “If we just lived with them fully all the time, we would be less prone to engage in them. But it’s the fact that we can compartmentalize …”
Look for more from my conversation with McCarthy and “Win Win” actress Amy Ryan when the movie opens in Austin.
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SXSW Talks: Rainn Wilson and James Gunn, ‘Super’
The movie stars Rainn Wilson as Frank, a schlubby soul who loses his wife and then reinvents himself as an absurd superhero with no superpowers. Joining Frank on his battle to enforce justice and save his wife is comic book store employee Libby (Ellen Page), who is also desperate for a chance to inject meaning into her life.
One would expect a movie starring Wilson and Page to be cute and clever, maybe even too much so. Those fears would be unwarranted. “Super” is funny, but it’s also sad, violent, gory and a bit disturbing.
“I think for some people, it’s a little too much frankly because it comes at you from so many different angles at the same time,” Gunn said Sunday following the film’s U.S. premiere Saturday night at the Paramount.
Wilson said he recognizes the complexity of the sometimes dichotomous emotions that the film elicits, but argues that life is the same way, with comedy and tragedy often juxtaposed.
“I think sadness and comedy happen to us all everyday. Actually, I’m not comparing ‘Super’ to ‘The Office’ at all, but ‘The Office’ does that very well,” Wilson said. “There’s sadness in ‘The Office.’ People are lonely and disconnected and they’re uncomfortable, but it’s also hysterical and weird and goofy at the same time. And I think that’s why it strikes a chord.”
Gunn originally wrote the screenplay for “Super” in 2002, but had shelved it for several years before his ex-wife Jenna Fischer suggested to Gunn that he show the script to her “Office” co-star.
“A lot of people think I wrote the role for Rainn because he fits it so completely,” Gunn said.
“I like to pretend that he did,” Wilson said. “Sometimes I’ll sit at night in my PJs and drink hot cocoa with little marshmallows and think, ‘Oh, James wrote that beautiful role just for me.’”
Once Wilson signed on to the project, Gunn knew he had to make the movie.
“The Blues Brothers were on a mission from God. Frank (Wilson’s character) is on a mission from God. And me and James were on a mission from God to make this movie,” Wilson said.
(“Super” screens again Monday night at 9 at the Arbor.)
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SXSW Talks: Morgan Spurlock, ‘The Greatest Movie Ever Sold’
“The Greatest Movie Ever Sold” film pulls the curtain back on the world of product placement, as the filmmaker lines up product tie-ins to pay for the entire endeavor. Pretty meta. It is both funny and a little unsettling, as discussions with advertising executives, branding gurus, corporate marketing departments and filmmakers reveal the degree to which “selling out” has become de rigeur in the entertainment business … with the operative word being business.
The documentary is the fifth film Spurlock has been connected to that has played at SXSW, which he called the “greatest film fest on the planet.”
The filmmaker may be spending even more time in Texas soon, as he is developing a TV show for HBO about Texas politics. The pilot has been written by literary giant Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, who teamed up for the “Brokeback Mountain” screenplay. Spurlock says rewrites are ongoing with hopes for production of the pilot to begin as soon as possible.
Why Texas?
“It’s Texas. It’s its own place,” Spurlock said.
Spurlock says the plan is to shoot the yet-to-be-named (or at least title-to-be-announced-at-a-later-date) show in Texas.
Even if the state tax incentives go away?
“We’ll cross that bridge when it’s burning,” Spurlock said.
Video: Chatting with Morgan Spurlock about his new film.
Look for more from this interview when “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold” opens in Austin.
Photo of Morgan Spurlock at the Hyatt Hotel on March 13 by Jenni Jones.
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SXSW Talks: Jake Gyllenhaal and Duncan Jones, ‘Source Code’
I spoke with “Source Code” star Jake Gyllenhaal and Jones (separately) on Saturday, and both discussed the comedic elements of the film Jones said lands in the gray area between hard sci-fi and soft sci-fi.
“Duncan and I both have a sort of weird, strange, sick sense of humor that we relate to,” Gyllenhaal said. “I always love the character where they walk through the door and they hit their head and then they beat the crap out of somebody or they get the crap beaten out of them. It’s the idiosyncrasies and the strangeness of life that makes things funny … We just found those moments and we just went with it. And sometimes I just think that comedy is confidence, and we just had this confidence in those situations.”
In talking to Gyllenhaal about the character, I was reminded of Harrison Ford, a sentiment that Jones, unprovoked, later echoed in comparing Gyllenhaal to Indiana Jones.
“An everyman who’s pissed off and frustrated with the rest of the world but you share the ride and the humor of the stuff he goes through,” Jones said of the similarities between Gyllenhaal’s character and Indian Jones.
Jones said the original script, which both he and Gyllenhaal praised, spent a little too much time on exposition, which can kill a sci-fiction film.
“We thought it was important to keep the focus on where it needed to be - on the characters on the relationships and on the fun of the story,” Jone said. “I think that is what I kind of brought to it initially was the tone of the film. I talked to Jake and said my take on this is let’s lighten the tone, let’s inject some humor into this because that’s going to help do the job of getting the audience to buy into it in the first place. I think humor is a very powerful tool, especially in filmmaking because you can immediately create a connection between the audience and your protagonist.”
With all of this talk of humor, it seems only fitting that my interview with Gyllenhaal was pushed back a few minutes thanks to a surprise visit from comedy icon Paul Reubens aka Pee Wee Herman, who popped in to spend a few minutes with the actor.
(Look for more from this conversation closer to the April 1 release of “Source Code.”)
Photo from @PeeWeeHerman on Twitter.com.
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SXSW Talks: Susanne Bier, director of ‘In a Better World’
Bier’s moving tale of forgiveness and revenge plays Friday night at the State Theatre, less than two weeks after the movie garnered the Danish director an Oscar for best foreign language.
“It’s huge,” Bier said of her triumph at the Academy Awards. “I don’t think anybody realizes the pride a country of five million people takes in winning this prize. It’s been seen by 10 percent of all Danes. So already before going to the Oscars there was a lot of investment in the film; there was a lot of engagement in the film. Everybody was very excited about winning the Golden Globe and the Oscar was like crazy. It was like winning the World Cup. It’s actually really wonderful. It’s very gratifying.”
The film chronicles two families dealing with pain caused by death and separation and the friendship that two young boys cling to during a time of domestic difficulties. Set against the backdrop of atrocities enveloping a refugee camp in Africa, the film shows the universality of the human character regardless of language or income level.
The original title of the film in Denmark was “The Revenge.” While the name is representative of one of the film’s main themes, Bier says she is pleased they had time to change it for international release.
“I much prefer the English title because it points at the hopefulness of the film, whereas revenge points at the severeness of the film. And I prefer the hopefulness,” she said.
Although reluctant to go into much detail regarding her next project, Bier says she is determined not to let her Oscar lull her into complacency.
“Never look back and always look forward,” she said with cool conviction.
(Look for more of this conversation with Bier in coming weeks.)
Click here for our capsule preview of the film.
“In a Better World” screens at 6 p.m. Saturday at Alamo South.
Updated to correct Friday screening location to the State Theatre.
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SXSW capsule preview: ‘In a Better World’
Young Christian and his father Claus have moved from London to Denmark following the death of Christian’s mother, a loss the child struggles to process as he holes up in his cramped room, isolated from his father.
At his new school Christian befriends bullied classmate Elias, who finds comfort in his new companion. Elias is enduring his own difficulties at home as his parents work their way through a separation with his doctor father splitting time between an African refugee camp and Denmark.
The two children form an unequal but touching alliance, with Christian controlling the weaker Elias, as they both deal with the frustration of their parents not being exactly who their children hope them to be.
A youthful and dangerous bout of rebellion tests the limits of the two boys’ friendship and their relationship with their parents, as unspoken fears and resentments eventually boil over at home.
If this Academy Award winning film was produced by an American studio, it would likely play as a straight horror film, with the troubled Christian (William Jøhnk Nielsen in an incredible debut performance) depicted as the embodiment of evil, but Bier delivers a beautiful and nuanced film with characters that earn our sympathies without asking for them.
“In a Better World” screens Friday, March 11 at 6 p.m. at the State Theatre and again on Saturday, March 12 at 6 p.m. at the Alamo South.
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Five must-attend panels at SXSW
Dozens and dozens of panels will be held during the South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival. Here’s a look at five must-attend events.
1. Straight from the Source (Code) Duncan Jones’ debut feature, “Moon,” wowed SXSW attendees in 2009. The director comes to Austin this year with his second film, “Source Code,” in tow. Stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan join the director for a discussion about the time-space-continuum-melting thriller that opens the film festival. (11 a.m. Saturday, Austin Convention Center, Room 16AB)
2. SUPER-Talented: A Conversation with James Gunn, Ellen Page and Rainn Wilson Take a peek inside the mind of Troma Entertainment alumnus writer-director James Gunn and see how this filmmaker devised his superhero-meets-camp horror-meets-parable flick. Expect Page and Wilson to dazzle with their astonishing superpowers of charm and wit. (12:30 p.m. Saturday, Austin Convention Center, Room 18ABCD)
3. Catherine Hardwicke’s Directing Workshop McAllen native and University of Texas graduate Catherine Hardwicke got her start in the movie business as a production designer. But she marked herself as a filmmaker to be watched with her stirring debut, the indie coming-of-age tale “Thirteen.” The director whose reimagining of “Red Riding Hood” screens at the festival will discuss her process while sharing exclusive clips, concept drawings and storyboards. (2 p.m. Saturday, Austin Convention Center Room, 16AB)
4. A Conversation with Todd Phillips Chances are, Todd Phillips has made you laugh countless times, whether you want to admit it or not. The director has helmed some of the funniest and highest-grossing comedies of the past decade, including “Old School,” “Due Date” and “The Hangover.” Later this year, he will try to top his box-office feat of 2009 with “The Hangover II,” which should provide plenty of fodder for your annoying friend who likes to retell movie jokes in their entirety. (3:30 p.m. Saturday, Austin Convention Center, Room 18ABCD)
5. A Conversation with Paul Reubens
The creator of the most memorable comedy character of the 1980s embedded his laugh into the national consciousness with his television series “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” which earned the actor multiple Daytime Emmy Awards. Decades later, he has reinvigorated his career with a successful Broadway run of “The Pee-wee Herman Show,” which will air on HBO starting March 19. Separate fact from fiction, and the character from the character who created him, at what promises to be a wildly entertaining discussion. (12:30 p.m. Sunday, Austin Convention Center, Room 18ABCD)
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SXSW capsule preview: ‘Ceremony’
Sam (Michael Angarano) fancies himself quite the bon vivant: He’s a writer; he likes a good cocktail; he snaps at waitresses; he winks at people a lot.
The would-be raconteur and his friend Marshall (Reece Thompson) take off for a restorative weekend on Long Island. While taking in some much-needed pool time — Marshall has shut himself off from the world for a year — the two young men stumble upon a wedding down the beach.
But, as Marshall comes to realize, this is much less happenstance than a designed ruse by Sam. The 23-year-old still holds a candle for the bride-to-be (the always stunning Uma Thurman). Over the wedding weekend, Sam attempts to win back the heart he never owned while undermining her dashing British fiancé, Whit (Lee Pace, in the movie’s finest performance). As a debauched weekend gives way to personal insight, Sam slowly and bravely comes to realize that he is not yet the man he imagines himself to be.
Writer-director Max Winkler (son of Henry Winkler) shows promise in his feature debut that aspires to be the type of film that made everyone fall in love with Wes Anderson.
“Ceremony” screens at 5 p.m. Saturday, March 12 at the Paramount.
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SXSW capsule preview: ‘Win Win’
Slightly schlubby with shoulders slouched forward, a jogger sputters along a wooded trail as a couple of fleet-footed runners pass him. He stops, winded and defeated.
Such is life for Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti). Try as he might, the middle aged lawyer in small town New Jersey can’t seem to stay ahead of life. A tree in the front yard is threatening to topple and collapse the roof of his family’s house, the boiler at his small law office is on the fritz and his roster of small-time clients aren’t getting the bills paid on time. Adding insult to injury, the high school wrestling team he coaches in his spare time couldn’t pin an autumn leaf to the ground.
When faced with the opportunity to take advantage of aging client’s dilemma, the straight-shooting Mike makes an unethical and out-of-character move that will earn him $1500 a month. Although it seems a victimless crime (the blasé treatment of elder abuse here is slightly unsettling even for a dark comedy), Mike realizes his plan is not fool proof when his client’s grandson, Kyle (an excellent turn by Alex Shaffer), appears.
At first the bleached-blonde teen offers more solutions than problems: it turns out his fantastic wrestling skills are a windfall for Mike. But the specter of catastrophe looms (and looms for quite awhile, as much of the movie unfolds placidly - and somewhat unbelievably - with almost no real conflict), and it seems just a matter of time before Mike’s plan begins to unravel. That’s when we get the frantic and nervous Giamatti character we’ve all come to gladly endure if not quite love. Kudos go to Bobby Cannavale and Amy Ryan as Mike’s best friend and wife, respectively.
“Win Win” screens Monday at 7:15 p.m. at the Paramount Theatre.
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SXSW capsule preview: ‘Super’
The moping Frank D’Arbo (Wilson) tells us that he has only had “two perfect moments which offset a life of pain, humiliation and rejection.” Those moments were marrying his gorgeous wife Sarah (Liv Tyler) and meekly alerting cops to the direction of a fleeing robber. Not much to hang your hat on. When Sarah, who has succumbed to a life of drugs, leaves him for a sleazy club owner, Frank’s first brush with perfection is shattered.
Inspired by a ridiculous Christian superhero on TV, Frank decides to revisit his fleeting heroism. Combing comics for research to help create his own superhero alter ego, Frank meets the wise cracking and spunky Libby (Page), who, after first shaming Frank for his tepid imagination, takes a shine to the lonely loner. After a somewhat disturbing visitation from a grotesque monster, Frank, who believes the finger of god had touched him, transforms into The Crimson Bolt, a hapless hero who patrols the town whacking bad guys with a massive wrench.
In an effort to become a more fully realized version of himself, Frank, filled with a hopeful naïveté and aided by his new sidekick Boltie (the indefatigable Libby) goes on a murderous killing spree as he attempts to save his wife from the clutches of evil, as personified by her new boyfriend-pimp-drug dealer (played to uneasy effect by Kevin Bacon).
The movie shifts wildly from cute to cruel and back, exploring religious themes of salvation and grace while lampooning the conventions of movies about both heroes and sad sack alike. It’s not what you think it’s going to be, until it is. But only for a moment.
“Super” screens at 10 p.m. Saturday, March 12 at the Paramount Theatre and Monday at the Arbor at 9 p.m.
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My thoughts on the parking apocalypse
Last year the city installed those computerized parking stations. There were some positives and negatives in the city’s attempt to save some money. Positives: You could pay with a credit card, the lanes could fit more cars and they malfunctioned less (although, I always call 311 when i arrive at a broken meter and let the city foot the bill). The downsides: It was harder to feed the meter during the middle of your allotted time (which may very well be illegal anyhow), and harder to pass along excess minutes to the next car (although you can leave an unexpired sticker on the pay box, though that is probably illegal, too). All told, it was a minor adjustment for all of us, and probably worked out for the best.
Then came news of the most recent change to street parking. (If you have not read the news, check out this piece from the Statesman’s Ben Wear.)
I realize the city needs money. And the addition of fees for evening and weekend parking downtown will apparently raise about $3.1 million, according to Wear’s piece.
And, at first blush, the idea of paying to park at meters in the evening and on weekends did not ruffle my feathers too terribly much. After all, I often park at my office for free and walk downtown and I often use cabs. However, my concerns are not just about my individual parking situation.
Under the new law, parking charges on city meters downtown will apply from 8 a.m. until midnight on weekdays and Saturdays. (God forbid we include Sunday and anger the churchgoers who attend those tax-exempt institutions.)
What does this all mean? Well, with the current three-hour time limit, it means that if you park on the street to go to dinner and a concert, you will likely need to buy one sticker to get you through your meal, then return to the pay box and pay for a new sticker to get you through to the end of the show. Very convenient. I understand that the time limits for the meters under the new law have not been established and could vary depending on the part of downtown. So, you will have to go to walk to a pay box before knowing what the restricted length is for your chosen space.
Not the most convenient thing in the world, but manageable, I reckon. But let’s get to the real sticky part. Say you go downtown and have a few too many drinks. Now, and in the past, you have been able to take a cab home and leave your car at the downtown meter and return the next morning, afternoon or night to pick it up. Under the new law, if you try that, you will come back to a car with a ticket on it. And maybe a boot eventually. I really hope this doesn’t lead to more people trying to drive home drunk. Cause we know how that ends (and I don’t mean more money for the city.)
I would imagine the city is doing this not only to raise more money, but to increase turnover at parking spaces. But many people like to park and then spend an entire night downtown. Who was in charge of this new law? The pay-lot union?
I realize we could look at this through a positive eco-friendly lens and say, “Good, the city is forcing people to make better decisions and bike, walk or take public transportation downtown.” Well, that’s all good and well in a perfect world, but there is nothing close to ‘perfect’ about our public transportation system or the city’s walkability.
Let me now state the obvious: Parking in downtown Austin is much easier than the last city in which I lived: Washington, D.C. And it’s a lot easier than other cities I’ve lived in and visited. The catch? Those are big, dense cities with less space for parking per capita and, most importantly, they are cities with efficient and effective public transportation. They are also more walkable.
I am sure, like the smoking ban, we may one day look back on the uproar of the new parking laws and realize that it was much ado about not-so-much. But in the meantime, I don’t think I see this as a positive for the majority of Austinites. But I am no expert (on anything) and, as always, am open to being persuaded by thoughtful opinions.
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I can’t think of a better way to kill small downtown businesses that are already struggling. Our city council is populated by idiots. All these years, and they still haven’t noticed that when you raise prices on something, people buy less
... read the full comment by keith | Comment on My thoughts on the parking apocalypse Read My thoughts on the parking apocalypse
NJM: as the writer states, all of this would be fine and indeed normal if we were talking about a city with useful public transportation, like Chicago. But try going downtown for a whole evening using Cap Metro. As long as you don’t mind leaving
... read the full comment by jtc | Comment on My thoughts on the parking apocalypse Read My thoughts on the parking apocalypse
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