Crazy Heart. This one really hit home. Such a good movie.
Read my rundown of the week's releases here.
Somehow we have set a standard of three cake events for birthdays. One at school (usually cupcakes), one at home that night (decorated by siblings) and one at the party (requiring licensed characters and/or creatures). I don't know how this standard came to be, I only know that it is now sacred and deviating would be like the changes of Vatican II, only more contentious.
Once I get TS out the door, I'm planning on piling PG and Turbo (my little guy) into the car, stopping by the store (I'm buying instead of baking this time. Sue me.) for cupcakes, dropping them off, then zipping over to TS's school where I'm scheduled to serve pizza for lunch. Good thing I've gotten all my movie reviews done early.
Full morning. But I'm supermom. I can do it.
Of course, it's never that easy. Disaster strikes. TS can't find his tie. Anywhere. Together we tear the house upside down. No luck. I am looking in the most unlikely of places. Under my bed. Kitchen cabinets. Even the drawer where it should be put away but of which it has never, ever seen the inside. Nothing.
At T-minus three minutes till school starts, I tell TS to go without and take the fates the gods send him (or his teachers).
He rides off and I rush the other kids to the car. But not before noticing that TS HAS LEFT HIS BOOKS AND HOMEWORK ON THE TABLE!!
I pick up his stack of books and work and shove them into his backpack. I have to get a forklift to do this. They weigh a lot.
I drive the younger two to school. Turbo mentions something about his backpack. I don't have time to check it. I shoo them out and off to a day full of wonder, exploration, and learning.
I drive to TS's school, where I jump out. But the backpack with his heavy books isn't in the car. Nowhere. I swore I put it in. Two other moms watch me as I circle the car repeatedly, peering in windows. I'm new here. My reputation can't afford unexplained car peering. I give a jaunty wave. A little laugh like I know what I'm doing.
I'll just swing back by the house after dropping off cupcakes and circle back to the school. Again.
I rush to the store. TS calls me. "My teacher is MAKING me call even though I TOLD her MOM KNOWS that I'm not wearing a TIE." I tell him see if he can borrow one and I'm bring his books just as soon as I zip back home and get them. "What books?" he says, "I have my books."
I'm so confused.
I drop off cupcakes, kiss my girl, serve pizza, banter with TS's class while trying not to embarrass him (a nearly impossible task, but I pull it off. I think.) and return home to crash.
After school, TS tells me the books he'd left on the table weren't needed at school that day. That's why he left them. Duh. So much for mom to the rescue.
But it's not until Turbo gets in the car that all is revealed. I had shoved TS's books into Turbo's backpack and sent him to school with 35 pounds of Jr. High work. He found this quite amusing.
Mystery solved. The kids were all fine. It was mom who was creating problems.
Again.
Epilogue: We found TS's tie in a pocket in his backpack. He'd had it with him at school the whole time. Isn't irony delightful?
]]>Read my rundown of the week's releases here.
In film, there's subversive and there's reset-the-genre subversive. A new superhero movie turns the genre on its head, starting with a title that many TV stations won't allow uttered on-air. Kick-Ass. With violence cranked up, irony maxed out, and the addition of a swearing, lethal ten year old girl, this entertaining and engrossing film rewrites the rules. But is that a good thing?
Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is a typical, practically invisible high school kid. He's not good at sports, not particularly smart, and doesn't have cool friends or a cute girlfriend. He isn't special in any way. Living in the kind of neighborhood where mugging is a common occurrence and going to school requires passing through a metal detector, Dave keeps his head down.
Meanwhile, across town, a revenge-addled father (Nicolas Cage as Big Daddy) teaches his pony-tailed daughter to take a bullet in the Kevlar vest. By shooting her at close range. It's just one of many "I can't believe they just did that" shocking scenes.
Mob boss Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong) runs the town, but Big Daddy lives to bring him down. D'Amico's son Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, McLovin' in SuperBad), loves comic books and wants to join daddy's business. He'll soon find a way to combine the two.
One day Dave looks around him, wakes up, and wonders why no one does anything to stop the reign of violent and evil men. He doesn't phrase it in such philosophical terms. He simply ponders why no one ever puts on a superhero costume and fights crime. He's shocked, deep in the core of his being, that people stand by and watch, doing nothing, as bad men have their way with society. So he buys a wetsuit and a couple of batons and sets out to put himself between the thugs and their victims. He becomes Kick-Ass.
Turns out, without a superpower, superhero work hurts. Hurts a lot. The closest thing Dave has to a superpower is the ability to take a beating. It's one thing he's good at. The film shows his continued abuse in graphic detail.
Eventually, his paths cross with crazy Dig Daddy and his highly-trained daughter, Hit Girl. Only about ten years old, Hit Girl has learned to be a killing machine in a purple wig. She wields knives, kicks windpipes, and shoots pistols with deadly accuracy. And she swears like a sailor.
Played by Chloe Mortez with chutzpa and convincablility of someone twice her age, Hit Girl makes the film both absorbing and somewhat horrifying. She slashes throats. She impales with long knives. She delivers kill shots to the head with the accompanying red mist out the other side. It's hard to keep count, but the tiny tot dispatches dozens upon dozens of bad guys in gruesome and violent ways.
Perhaps a first in movie history, she is on the receiving end as well. That's right. The audience is held spellbound as grown men beat up a little girl.
All this is done with flawless directing and fight scenes that make you hold your breath. One done in strobe light is particularly amazing. Another scene shows Hit Girl's view as she stalks bad guys with the help of night vision goggles, a view which looks suspiciously like a video game. Heck, it probably is footage from the actual video game version of the movie, which is likely being shipped to stores as I type. The title character achieves fame through a video on MySpace, also the conduit for contacting crime fighters, as opposed to a light in the sky. The movie feels unbelievably fresh and modern.
There are other aspects of the movie to make parents deeply uncomfortable, including extended segments about masturbation, some nudity, and teen sex. There's some drug use and constant foul language, much of it coming out of the prepubescent mouth of Hit-Girl. However, the high level of violence is the hardest to take. The audience doesn't just see the guy put into the industrial microwave. We see his head explode. In fact, we see many heads explode and throats cut, blood spurting in all directions.
Leo Partible, contributor to The Gospel According to Superheroes: Religion and Pop Culture, says such movies are "expressions of rage and fear we all have." Dave's crazy outrage that "nobody does anything" is the only morally sane position. Comic book Fanboys love the violence and envelope-pushing themes. The question for the movie is whether it will appeal to the non Fanboy demographic. "It might be too intense for women, for the demographic of women who will go to a superhero movie," Partible said.
The movie was too intense for major movie studios. Perhaps fearing to produce such a violent film with such a young girl, multiple studios turned it down. The director found independent financing.
So, should you see it? Your children should not see this film, including teens. Rated R, the film crosses many lines. Yet, it's a wild and exhilarating ride. Despite its many immoral elements, it has a very modern and moral core. Like the majority of superhero movies, it's about standing up to evil. Indeed, Kick Ass is an excellently made film and one that people will be talking about for a long time. There's virtue in knowing what formulates the thinking of your friends and neighbors. For those adult viewers who shrug off violence and graphic content, this is the movie hit of the spring.
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The year is 1957. TV is black and white. Families gather around the radio. And baseball is king. Far from the glamour and thrill of New York's Yankee Stadium, in Monterey Mexico, a group of boys play baseball in the dirt. Using a ball of string for a baseball and a crooked, carved tree limb for a bat, they play for the love of the game. Along with their priest, Padre Estaban, they gather around the radio to hear the play by play from distant Major League teams.
Cesar, a fellow baseball lover whose dreams of the Major Leagues were dashed by anti-Mexican discrimination, returns to Monterey to nurse his wounds. The boys need a coach and Cesar needs respect, so they form a little league team and cross the border to Texas to play the Americans.
"The Perfect Game" is the true story of a dirt-poor, scrawny Mexican little league team that came out of nowhere to win the Little League World Series and of the pitcher Angel Marcias, who pitched the only perfect game to ever occur in the Little League World Series.
If things had turned out just a bit differently, Cheech Marin, who plays priest Padre Estaban in the film, might have met the players on the field instead of on a movie set. "I was playing in the same tournament that they were," he told me in an interview last week, "I mean, we got knocked out in the first game, so I didn't ever encounter them. But if we had kept winning and they kept winning I would have played this team."
Marin, who grew up as a huge baseball fan in LA listening to the Dodgers on the radio, remembers the 1957 Little League World Series vividly. "I was in little league when this story happened. They were exactly the same age as I was. I remember it like was yesterday. This was big news because I so identified with the kids because they were Mexican and they were little. And I was both of those."
Indeed, the surviving members of the 1957 team visited the set in and met the cast of the film. "Seeing them in present day," director William Dear said, "They were heroes: gracious, quiet and unsung heroes. We were at lunch once in Monterey with Angel, Pepe, and a few other players. A person came up behind Angel and just stood there quietly. Angel finally noticed him. He wanted an autograph and Angel was very gracious and gave him an autograph. These people, fifty years later, are regarded as heroes. They don't have big heads. Everything about them rang true."
Jake T. Austin (Wizards of Waverly Place) played Angel Marcias. Austin, a die-hard Yankees fan, also enjoyed meeting the original team, now in their sixties. He called Angel Marcias "A great guy. He's a dreamer and a very down to earth person, even though he accomplished so much. He was very excited and supportive of the whole film in general."
"They were cool," Marin laughed, "We kind of ask each other different questions than the kids ask, 'How's your health? How you doing? What do you do when you get cold at night?' And when I told them I was in little league at the same time, oh, such bond."
Marin plays a priest, a man who gives the children hope, encouragement, and spiritual blessing. The role of faith in the film is deeply respected, with the boys refusing to play in one game until their gloves are blessed. Was it difficult for Cheech Marin, of "Cheech and Chong" to play a priest? Not at all. "I just had to pick the tone I wanted to play", he said, "Very sympathetic and encouraging. He's an authority figure, but a soft authority figure. He didn't have to domineer the boys. I think I've played four priests. I'm looking for cardinal or pope next. Maybe I'll play Russian Orthodox or Greek Orthodox, grow a beard. I discovered this little niche of being The Mexican Barry Fitzgerald. The Mexican priest, not the Irish priest. The Irish priest drinks a wee bit."
The lovely film should thrill baseball lovers and appeal to baseball novices. It's the tale of an ultimate underdog, battling racism and poverty to chase dreams, with a bit of family drama and romance thrown in. Squeaky clean, it's rated PG for some thematic elements, most noticeably the racism the Mexicans encounter. William Dear was sold the moment he read the script "It was the father-son story and the story of accomplishment, the story of underdogs [that affected him]. I like the story of an underdog, the story of against all odds, getting to realize a dream."
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Exit Through the Gift Shop (in limited theaters)
Dudes who chiseled marble statues in Pompeii probably whispered that dudes who carved vases were sell-outs. This documentary shines the camera on a man whose mental oddities compel him to always shine the camera on everyone else. What he finds as he looks through the lens is a fascinating underground world of "street artists," people who walk the fine line between graffiti and art, imposing their vision on walls throughout L.A. and the world.
Our Take: Once you get over the discomfort of watching people so sure of their own genius that they don't think private property laws apply to them, the film sucks you into a world in which there are many posers among a few brilliant artists. A British artist, who goes by Banksy, has rightly achieved international fame. The surprising end of the film leads one to ruminate on the very nature of art and questions that cannot be easily answered. Or perhaps it's just a huge case of sour grapes.
Read the rest of the On Demand and In Theater options here.
]]>So Mickey Rourke is the new It Boy, er, It Man. Anyone see this coming?
There was a time when movie going audiences were familiar with the old Greek myths, Bible stories, and other foundations of our Western Civilization. A new movie, "Clash of the Titans," attempts to revive this interest in the ancient stories, but ultimately falls short.
Perseus (Sam Worthington of Avatar) lives as a simple fisherman with his adopted family until the war between humanity and the gods threatens them. Turns out, the fisherboy is really a son of Zeus, leader of the gods. Hades, god of the Underworld, tells the uppity city of Argos that unless they sacrifice their beautiful princess Andromeda, he will send the fearsome monster Kracken to destroy the city.
Obviously, this is a bum deal for Argos.
Perseus sets out, along with some soldiers and a semi-mortal maiden Io, on a quest to defeat the Kracken. Unfortunately for him, this requires a visit to some witches and a pas de deux with the monster Medusa, condemned to permanent bad hair days.
The primary problem with this film, and there are several, begins as a serious voice intones the history of the Greek gods and their spat with their human creation. It feels like sitting in a college mythology class being taught by a professor would rather discuss his passion for Ancient Greece with his colleagues than waste time with undergrads. One wants to ask what will be on the midterm.
The story centers around an ancient theological issue: Can mankind rise up against gods who wantonly kill and abuse them? Are they obligated to love the gods? What court do you enter when you have a claim against the gods?
I'm sure the debate over this theological tidbit really twisted togas in Ancient Greece. Not so much now.
The audience came for a reason and it isn't theology. We were promised a Kracken. Where's the Kracken?
Unfortunately, by the time the battles come around, you no longer care much who wins.
The movie is a remake of a wildly popular 1981 film, but it feels much more like a 1950s epic, the kind you watch on a Wednesday midmorning when you're home sick and the only other choice is The Price is Right. Heavy, dark makeup and dramatic overacting - note the small role of a crazed Hades loving priest - feel very retro. Roles are played straight, without a touch of irony, out of a 50s era book of standard characters: the noble soldier, the noble princess, the wicked king turned monster. Characters aren't developed and feel flat. In contrast, the recent film Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief puts modern flesh on ancient stories.
When the battles finally come, they're a disappointment as well. They would have been impressive five years ago, but in the post-Avatar world, they're merely acceptable. The film is being offered in 3D, but there's no reason to pay the extra money for a 3D ticket. The 3D element feels tacked on.
Costuming in this movie, whether of the witches or the ferryman at the river Styx, can be creepy enough to rule out elementary school children though the actual action never gets as exciting or dangerous as the costuming suggests. There are a few swear words, the worst something that refers to a female dog. It's a chaste film, except for one odd but fairly tame line that gets the biggest laugh of the night. All these elements add up to a PG-13 rating for fantasy-action violence, some frightening images, and brief sensuality.
Sam Worthington, as Perseus, is the best thing about this movie and we watch his future roles with interest. The rest of the film is not what we were all hoping to see. They should have just let sleeping Krackens lie.
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Nicolas Sparks, the prolific and high-selling author of The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, and Dear John, releases his latest movie today, "The Last Song." I spoke with Sparks about Miley Cyrus, this story of first love, and how he builds his popular stories.
Disney superstar Miley Cyrus headlines the film. She plays Ronnie, a recent high school graduate who travels with her younger brother to visit their father Steve (Greg Kinnear) in his fantastic house on the beach. Furious at him for the divorce of her parents and his subsequent desertion, Ronnie can barely stand to be in the same room as her once beloved dad.
She's troubled.
We know this because she wears black.
Once Ronnie meets Will (Liam Hemsworth, as the tabloids breathlessly tell us, Cyrus's real-life boyfriend), things begin to change. Will plays competitive beach volleyball, works at an auto shop, volunteers at the aquarium, and stays up all night protecting sea turtle eggs from raccoons. That, plus the three hours a day he obviously spends in the gym keeping his sixpack intact, keep him busy. But not too busy to fall for Ronnie.
"I've always kind of taken it that love is love, regardless of whether it's your first time or fifth time, whether you're seventeen years old or eighty years old," Sparks said, "Love feels wonderful. Makes you feel wonderful things."
Of course, this being a Nicholas Sparks film, you know there's trouble on the picture-perfect horizon. Like a turtle egg-eating raccoon, tragedy lurks in the dunes. Will's snobby parents, Ronnie's edgy friend, and a dark secret threaten to separate the happy couple. Of course, that's nothing compared to the three-hankie news revealed in the second half.
Perhaps the most moving part of the movie has nothing to do with the Artist Formerly Known as Hannah Montana. Bobby Coleman, aged 11 or so in the film, is Ronnie's younger brother Jonah. As a little boy still young enough to adore his father, yet broken up by fears of losing him again, he works quite well. His scenes will wrench tears even out of the most determined anti-emotional movie-goer.
Cyrus, in her first big-girl role, wavers between her cartoonish Disney persona and occasional genuine emotion. In her Disney show, she played a goofy, Lucille Ball-ish character composed mostly of pratfalls and one-liners. In this film, she's expected to portray emotions from anger to first love to overwhelming grief.
There's no blonde wig in the world that will fix that.
Clearly, she made an impression on Nicholas Sparks. "Miley is a 17 year old girl," he said, "Who also happens to be an uber -celebrity. She's charming, she's intelligent. And she's very passionate about acting and about becoming a good actress. She's fun. She's funny. She makes me laugh. She's got a good sense of humor."
Despite the melodramatic tones, this is not one love story, but two. It's a story of first love between Ronnie and Will, to be sure, but also a love story between Steve and his children. Sparks said, "This is a story about family. It's a story about forgiveness. It's coming of age. It's a story about first love. It's a story about father-daughter relationships."
What is it about Nicholas Sparks stories that makes them so popular? I suspect in part, it's because the lives of the characters complicated but the characters themselves aren't. The people in his stories are invariably good. Will is a stand-up guy, the kind every father would love to have their daughter bring home. He even calls Ronnie's father "Sir." Steve, despite his mistakes in the past, is kind and loving and desperately wants his children's love. Even Ronnie, with all her anger, is a good girl at heart. Blaze, a hard-bitten girl who tries to frame Ronnie, only needs to be understood before she turns around. Heck, her thuggish boyfriend Marcus would probably be a good guy as well, if only we got to know him better.
It's a soft-focus view of the world, one informed by Spark's Christian faith. "When you see the way [Steve] deals with his daughter, it's very much with the lessons of Christ in mind," he said, "It's very much turn the other cheek. Forgiveness. Love. His love for his children is very much like God's love for all of his children. You have to do these things very subtle when you're writing a screen play."
The film is appropriate for family viewing, as Sparks intended. "It deals with some heavy issues, he said, "It's certainly a very chaste film. I thnk there's some kissing. It's PG, it's not even PG-13. It's a very family friendly film. At the same time, you deal with elements. Divorce or a rebellious teenager. You're dealing with real life issues."
Contrast "The Last Song" to last year's "Crazy Heart," not a PG film, in which burned out country musician Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) hurts the people he loves, acting out his own brokenness and, yes, evil. Bad Blake's redemption, when it comes, feels truer.
I want to like Nicholas Sparks, but I find him unsatisfying. Faith, redemption, family, decency are all there on screen. I like his focus on families and on parenting. He creates characters who truly want to live good lives, instead of the selfish, self-focused characters we so often see. I like that he's uncynical and clearly believes that love that can last a lifetime.
I just wish he'd let his characters be unappealing or even ugly at times, so they could change for the better. Then, maybe, we'd have something.
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Why can't I recommend it? Because it is possibly the most disgusting movie I've seen to date. Let's start with swear words. There are 517 f-bombs in the film. Kidding...Seriously, do you think I counted? No, silly, I was laughing too hard. But extrapolating and doing the math, 517 seems like a conservative estimate. They drink. They use drugs. Everything from cocaine to mushrooms, but they're miraculously clearheaded twenty minutes later, about when in real life they'd be headed for the E.R. There are multiple sex scenes...mostly funny, but still uncomfortable. Nudity, you bet. Several times of hairy male buttocks....images I can never get out of my brain. Several gags revolve around sex acts you can't mention in a family paper, or family web site. And body fluids.
You know you're in for a wild ride when in the opening, there's an improper self-removal of a catheter.
You know that nagging worry that the funniest moments of a comedy are in the trailer and it's SO not funny for the other 87 minutes? That's not the case here. The trailer is simply the parts that would be allowed to be shown on TV under decency rules. All three minutes of them.
Years ago, there was a TV network, PAX, that would edit out swearing and "offensive" material from TV and movies and air the sanitized and shortened versions. The trailer is the PAX version of the film. In its entirety.
The story follows three old friends, Adam (John Cusack), Nick (Craig Robinson) and Lou (Rob Corddry). Their adult lives have not lived up the the promise of earlier days. They remember their 80s debauchery at a ski resort with fondness. After an apparent suicide attempt by Lou, the three head back to the mountain. For reasons I don't quite recall (I was probably laughing too hard), they bring Adam's nephew Jacob (Clark Duke) along.
The resort is a now a run-down dump manned by a bitter one-armed bellboy. More on him later. Uncountable beers later, and with the help of some illegal Russian energy drink, Chernolblee, the hot tub glows, swirls, and spits them out in 1986. There's also a dude in a bear suit drinking beer. Somehow, it just works.
In 1986, preppy is in, the bellboy has two arms, and Jacob's mom is a slut. The four men resolve to not change a thing, because they don't know what the slightest change will do to the space-time continuum and their futures.
Except their futures suck. Can change be all that bad?
Well, not for the three older guys, at least. Jacob is concerned. He's done the math. He knows he was conceived somewhere around this time. He'd prefer that particular detail to not change.
Does this sound familiar? It should. The film plays as an homage to time travel movies in general, but especially to "Back to the Future." That bellboy? He's played by Crispin Glover, Marty's hapless dad in the Back to the Future franchise. I don't want to give anything away, but his role alone makes you almost loose a spleen from laughing.
Lots of 80s references (Wolverines!), music, and style add to the fun. But in the end, it's a tight script and flawless comedic acting that make this movie never miss a beat. Chevy Chase plays a cryptic hot tub repair man who may or may not be a wise time travel guru. And that dude in a bear suit keeps showing up.
It takes a lot of work to make a movie like this seem so effortless. But I can't recommend it. Seriously. If you go against my recommendation and see it, it's on your head. And certainly, if you think you see me there in the theater, watching for the fifth time, well, I deny it's me. I have a lot of lookalikes.
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Quenton Aaron played Michael Oher in "The Blind Side." I spoke with him about this remarkable movie and its great success.
Congratulations on the Oscars. What was it like for you to be there?
Oh, it was crazy. It was amazing. I still can't explain being able to go. I know how big a deal it was and I was I was just honored to be there.
You got to see Sandra Bullock accept her award.
Yeah that was cool because I knew she was going to win. I haven't had a chance to tell her I told you so.
Did she believe you when you told her before hand?
She wouldn't let me say it a lot because she didn't want to jinx it.
What was it like working with her on this project?
It was cool. It was real cool working with her on this project. I've been a fan of hers for a long time. Being able to come to work and hang out with her and joke around with her and work with her every day. It was like working on my dream job.
Was it a fun set to be on?
Yeah. It was real fun. Everybody was real nice. And then we all had a humor and tried jokes on everybody and cracking up in front of the camera. Especially Tim McGraw.
So Tim was a goofy guy?
Yeah. He's quite the comedian. That Guy. He was cracking me up.
Have you had any feedback from Michael Oher?
No. Actually I haven't met nor spoken with Michael yet.
Yeah. He seems to be interested in playing football and not really interested in being in Hollywood circles.
Yeah. We're the opposite in that area. His life is about football. My life is about entertainment.
Let me ask you about the role. I loved your character. I thought you played such a gentle young man. And not at all the cliché of what people think a young African-Amecian from the projects is like. Where did that come from?
I think a lot of it came from me. Because even though I grew up in rough neighborhoods, I never became a product of my environment. I pretty much kept to myself. I've always known there was something I wanted to do that hanging around my neighborhood and stuff wouldn't get me. I focused on getting out of there.
Was that in Brooklyn that you grew up?
No. In the Bronx. So a lot of what you see in the movie, the guy who keeps to himself, he doesn't have a lot of friends, that's how I was growing up.
How did you get into acting?
I started out doing plays when I was in church, school, and then a couple years back I joined this teen organization back in 2004, called Teens in Motion. They had drama, they had dance, music, model. I became part of the drama program. We did a couple of plays. From there, I wanted to work on film. I got onto Be Kind Rewind. Which was my first film. With Mos Def, Jack Black and Danny Glover and then from there I just started auditioning and doing a lot of background stuff.
Did you say that you started when you were younger in church and in school?
Yeah. Around the age of 9, my first play was a Christian play at my church.
What was it about?
It was basically about you know the song Away in a Manger? That was the title of the play. It was about Jesus in the manger.
It was a Christmas play?
Yeah. It was cool. I had the lead part in the play. I was hooked on acting.
And now do you live in LA?
Yeah.
You've moved the big transition into LA
Only just recently though, I thought I'd be out here for a while. I'm about to run to New York, going to New York tonight to do a television show.
Has this movie opened some doors for you?
Yes. Law and Order SVU which airs next Wednesday.
What in your opinion...obviously this movie made a ton of money and did well at the Oscars. What made it so popular?
I think that it was such an inspiring movie. We don't get a lot of those. Especially today's day and age, people need to be inspired. They could relate as far as Michael having such a rough upbringing, and going from that to college and just where he's at today in the NFL. For kids have dreams of going to the NFL and in their current predicament they think that will never happen. This movie gives them hope and inspires them that it can happen if they work hard at doing what they want to do.
I know there was some push back about a white woman saving or whatever an African American kid, but it seemed a movie that everyone could get behind and find some good in. What's your take on that?
I think what people say about it being a typical movie about a white woman saving an African American, I don't really believe that because it was a true story. A lot of times, people don't think of what happens, what's the consequences of things that happen? If you look at our life, a year ago today before the Blind Side, I was almost homeless. I was almost out on the street with my brother. My mom had passed away months before I got the role. It turned everything around for me in such a way that had it not shown up I don't know where I'd be today. The movie is not only an inspiring movie, inspired everyone across America, but was a blessing to my life personally. I'm thankful that movie came along and I thank the Touheys for putting the story out there, allowing me to portray the character because that's such a blessing to me. The fact that it's a true story, both parties, Michael Oher as well as the family, allowed it to be told. I don't see why people should have a problem just because it's about a African American kid who's taken in by a white family. If he doesn't have a problem with it, why should anybody else? It's not their problem or business to be upset about it unless it happens to them.
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I spoke with John Hancock last week. The DVD of "The Blind Side" is now available in stores.
Congratulations on the success of Blind Side. You must be thrilled.
Beyond thrilled. It's been a wild ride.
Tell me what the Oscars were like for you.
I'd never been before. I told my wife that I'd never go unless I had a good reason to. This was certainly a good reason. As much as I've been here a while, you go to different award shows and stuff. All the pageantry, it becomes old hat a bit. But it was pretty cool, I have to say.
What was it like seeing Sandra win?
I was really happy for her. Really happy for her. I thought the job she did on this....the degree of difficulty I felt was so high...that she made it look so effortless was a real tribute to her and her talents. And also she's just such a good person. It was great.
What was your interaction like with the Touheys?
I love the Touheys. I feel like I've known them forever now. It takes a long time to get a movie made. I met them three, four years ago. My family has gone down and spent Thanksgiving with them. It feels like they've been a part of my life forever now. They're wonderful, wonderful people.
One of the things I loved about this movie was that you kinda wanted to be Touhey. You wanted to join that family. It looked like a lot of fun. Are they really that fun?
They really are. I wanna be a Touhey too. My kids love em. You'd think you'd go, 'We're going to go down to Memphis Tennessee and visit this family that you don't know that don't have any kids your age.' You'd think a 9 year old would go "Oh." But they just wanted to be a Touhey. My daughter would jump in the back seat with Leigh Anne and they'd head off somewhere exciting.
Were you prepared did you expect to have the enormous reaction to this movie, the boxoffice, the Oscars and everything?
Oh no. It's hard to get a movie made. I was so happy it was getting made. Once we finished it I thought the movie worked and the movie was good. And that if people saw it they would like it. And hopefully like it enough to tell their friends to check it out. But I had no expectation for this degree of financial success. It's unbelievable and great and it'll never happen again so I'm enjoying it.
I'm sure people are asking you what the magical formula is. What would you say has led to the success of it?
I don't know after the fact you can look at a lot factors, I'm sure. But after that, it's all guessing. Job one is to make a really good movie. It's hard. It's hard to get a movie made. It's almost impossible to make a really good movie. I think first and foremost is that people really enjoy the movie. Beyond that, I think a PG 13, kind of a soft PG13 I would say, it is an opportunity for families to go. I think also a key factor is that it came out during football season. We got an enormous amount of free advertising every Sunday when Michael Oher was playing with the Ravens. They would talk about the movie. And I think coming out at Thanksgiving, which is a family time, it seems like this is a movie about family and they took Michael in around Thanksgiving. So all those things I think probably helped. That said, there's no way to predict success to this degree.
In the movie, you're very respectful toward but not really focused on faith, can you talk about walking that line in a movie?
Well, I kinda felt like this. If you consider who the Touheys are, it would be disingenuous of me to strip them of that. I also thought that at its heart, this is a movie about a charitable act and about how you always get more than you give. I think the story is still a great story of charity even if the Touheys aren't Christian. A charitable act is a charitable act. But the fact that they are Christian means you have to respect that. And you want to present that in a way that isn't your stereotypical Hollywood think inside a box way of stereotyping someone. Certainly when you meet her, Leigh Anne defies description or stereotype. I thought all that was good. It makes for a very interesting character. One we haven't seen before.
Although I know a few, I've never seen one on the big screen before.
I know some Leigh Anne Touheys as well. But yeah I don't think they've been portrayed quite the way this Leigh Anne was.
The other sweet spot you seem to have hit, you seem to have attracted both white audiences and African American audiences
Yeah, which is really wonderful.
How did you walk that line of race portrayal in a movie like this?
Well, I think you pretty much just tell the story. I knew there would be some people...you know the Touheys came under fire for bringing an African American kid into their house saying that hey had ulterior motives. Michael Lewis came under fire when he wrote the book. He told me, "the haters of this story are so rabid that it's as if they wish it had never happened, this charitable thing had never happened." He warned me. There are some that are just going to hate. It's just what it's going to be. They won't allow themselves to watch the movie. That said, to me this wasn't really a movie about race. To me this was a movie about haves and have nots, and nature vs nurture and a kid who had been thrown on the waste heap of society, and how when place in a family where he's nurtured and loved and a premium is placed on things like education, he succeeds. I think that is a strong vote for nurture. So I took that as the more important message of it. As Leigh Anne Touhey told me, she was talking about people saying, you just took in a black kid because you thought that made you look holier than thou, better than everybody. She said I didn't stop and put him in a car because he was black, I put him in a car because he was cold. I thought yeah that's a pretty good answer, that's kind of it.
I walked out of that movie just loving it when I screened. I lived for ten years in DC, transitional, that the newspaper articles you have at the end of the kids that just kind of disappear, you know, we saw those every week and it was just so true. What part of the movie just kinda hits you the most?
It's hard because you've seen behind the curtain. If you put together things and think about them for the maximum ability to move someone, you know, you're responsible for putting this together. I do think that is something that has an impact on me, when you see those faces, when you go these are wasted lives, these are someone's son. There are lots and lots and lots of Michael Ohers out there.
Do you have any other projects you're working on that you're talking about?
It's really difficult to get movies made in Hollywood. You'd better have six going. Chances are none of them will get made. I'v e got a bunch of stuff I've written, a bunch I'm attached to. I'm writing something now for Sony and Overbrook, Will Smith's company, which is based on the life of John Keller, five days in the life of John Keller, an ordinary guy in extraordinary circumstances during Hurricane Katrina. It should be inspirational and cool.
]]>The Blind Side
Read about the rest of the week's releases here.
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Yes, I'm available.
I'm available to pick up my kids. I'm available to respond to an interview offer. My blackberry makes it all possible. Five years ago, I would have had to wait at my desk for that important email or risk missing it to get my kids. Fifteen years ago, I would have been tethered to my office phone as well.
Not so now.
Need a chaperone for a field trip? I'm ready. I move my writing schedule around, answer email on the fly, and am there with my daughter to learn about water snakes from the ranger at the riverfront park.
Need someone to assist at the Fun Fair? I'm your gal. I send in my article before I go, not worrying about missing feedback from my editor. I can download her comments to my blackberry in a document, respond, and turn back to passing out cotton candy in a flash.
A midday movie screening? I'm so there. If the movie goes long, I text my son that I'll be a little late and he simply hangs with his buddies a bit longer after school.
A publicist calling from L.A. doesn't know the background noise is my son's science lab. It could just as well be a film set. The actor's rep doesn't know I'm answering his email from a playground.
What they see is someone who is professional and responsive, which is what I am. What my kids see is a mom who is there much more than if I was working a traditional 9-5 in an office.
Read the rest of my defense of PDAs, Smartphones, and interconnectivity here at SixSeeds.tv.
]]>These are the times that try men's souls. Omaha Beach. St. Crispin's Day. The London Blitz. And....The first day of Jr. High.
"The Diary of a Wimpy Kid," like a disturbingly frank documentary, covers the most harrowing of what life can throw at a kid: sadistic P.E. teachers, school musicals, and (I shudder as I write this) the Jr. High cafeteria. In this faithful adaptation of the popular book of the same title, opening March 19, Greg Heffley (Zachary Gordon) is a skinny, scrawny boy eager to make a glorious place for himself in his new school.
Read the rest of the review here at SixSeeds.tv.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=cfe9f0f4-0751-496d-8c44-9c40508e7f05)