Monday, February 18, 2008
The Danger in the Oddly Drawn
Sometimes its hard to drop a work of fiction, on film or otherwise, that one wants to like but its foundational premise or oddly conceived environment or world is so flawed it kind of eats itself up causing a kind of lingering "what the hell was that?" sensation.
This is my aftermath of seeing The Amateurs, originally titled The Moguls, which is an independently produced comedy starring Jeff Bridges, Joe Pantoliano (of the Sopranos), Patrick Fugit (the Almost Famous Cameron Crowe alter-ego), Ted Danson, Valerie Perrine and a bunch of recognizable character actors. The set up is that Bridges, divorced mid-lifer who never made his mark frozen in arrested development decides to enlist a weird mish mash of Andy of Mayberry like misfits to create a porno film for fame and fortune. I think the key to Bridges in a movie is that he will always be associated with a character, either the owner of Seabiscuit or Tucker with amazing faith and optimism or the protagonist with demons in Fisher King or Fearless so there is almost a reflexive response to root for his character and the ragtags on this improbable enterprise.
Joe Pantoliano's character, who is given the name, Some Idiot, by the other wacky townies, lives with his Mom. Danson plays the town beautician, Moose, a closet gay who overcompensates with a macho act. Another character is in love with the town strumpet who always gets stood up. And Fugit's character lives in the back of the video store and DV records everything, etc. They talk dirty and excitedly about making a local porno, but with a kind of faux innocence insist on turning their backs and giving the actors privacy when there is any chance of nudity or sex on "the set."
Yes it is tempting to let this just dismiss this strange little outing as being a bad movie, which it really kind of is. But I see it as a reminder of just how hard it is to do satiric or quirky comedy well. Just as I did in my buffet entry on The TV Set a few months back, I thought about David Mamet's State and Main as a kind of model for this sort of film. Your town, your characters and premise can be oddly drawn. Farce,frivolity and surprise need to be added as seasoning. But if it is drawn too oddly or if the seasonings aren't quite right...then the "What the hell was that?" afterburn could easily result with the reader/viewer wondering what they just devoted a portion of their time on earth to.
posted by well-executed buffet at 9:54 PM
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