This is the first post examining a film on the Top Ten list on the right and why it's essential to NOLA filmmaking. (Expect at least 9 more. ;-) You may have noticed an change to the list— I replaced DEJA VU with THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, because while the former is the first post-Katrina feature completed in NOLA, the latter is a better template for filmmakers as its story has more actionable lessons.
A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG was ignored and abandoned upon release. Made in the "Bob Yari era" of indie cinema (2004), it has all the hallmarks of the time: over-budgeted, movie stars cast against type and working for scale, first-time director (Shainee Gabel, also adapting an unpublished novel), edgy content with an incongruously happy ending.
Ironically, the reason the film probably failed— weird, shamelessly self-destructive alcoholics living hand-to-mouth in a southern slum— is why it is Essential NOLA Cinema. To the Straight Square World (ie the non-NOLA part of America; eg America) these people are disgusting. To us, they are our friends and neighbors (and often, our heroes and their opposite, our politicians). What's the shock of disgust to them is the shock of recognition to us.
At least, that's what happened with me: I first saw the film as advanced sneak peek in LA at the William Morris screening room. I loved lots about its direction, music, and style, but I didn't "get it" in most respects, not until I moved to NOLA in '06 and saw it again. (In the Q&A at WM, I learned the film was a WMA "package" meaning that the agency repped all the stars and director, and financed it (with Yari, of course, under the "El Camino Pictures" banner which was a short-lived partnership with WM), and took a packaging fee (really a producers fee) instead of the usual percentages. Acquisition press release)
WHAT IT GETS RIGHT—
The characters are dead authentic. The settings (Algiers, with Bywater pillar Bud Rip's standing in as their local watering hole) are great. The story has a disarmingly languid rhythm but its episodic feel is just slight of hand. The decisions of the characters, their motivations, foibles, and reactions, are equal parts fascinating, funny, and tragic. The cinematography is outstanding. Above all, it gets NOLA time right. Time does not follow calendars in NOLA, it is fundamentally different here, all periods of American life exist simulateously. David Simon's "Treme" worked so hard to get details right but failed hard because its premise fundamentally misunderstood the flow of NOLA time. This film gets it right.
WHAT IT DOESN'T—
There's 2 main problems, the casting and the ending, and how fatal these are varies widely among people I've talked to. Scarlett Johansson performs her role well but never takes the chances necessary to make the character authentic to her circumstances— Gabel shares the blame here, because her character would realistically be much more like, for instance, Lindsay Roberts' character in Craig Brewer's THE POOR & HUNGRY. A genuinely run-down, feral performance would've complimented Travolta's complete, vanity-free immersion in the title character. The ending is complete miscalculation, probably designed as a commercial hedge against the ugliness of the prior 90 minutes, which obviously didn't work. (It also might be the result of too much fealty to the novel.)
THE TAKE-AWAY—
Making good films about NOLA requires not just authentic characters and places, but organic plot, meaning actions consistent with character, and progress, developments, reversals, etc that happen in NOLA time, not calendar time, according to the unique logic of the town and the people in it. But as this film proves, you don't need much more than that, either. At the end of the day, it's a "people in rooms talking" film but it never feels small or cheap or dull because the characters and what they're saying is so original and compelling.
Personally, I think it's one of the best films ever made about here. An easy addition to the Top 10 list.
A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG is playing at Indywood tonight at 7p, Sun 4/27 at 3:30p, Mon 4/28 at 2p, Tues 4/29 at 930p, and Wed 4/30 at 6p.
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Welcome!
Let's talk about New Orleans cinema, and by that I mean, stories set in or about New Orleans told in narrative cinema (no tv or web, although we'll most likely touch on a few documentaries along the way).
By far the most unusual, idiosyncratic city in America, somehow NOLA's cinematic legacy is weak. Weak in quantity, weak in quantity. This is baffling. I want to look at the history of NOLA cinema and get a discussion started on questions like:
Why are so few films set in NOLA any good? Is the track record as bad as it looks from a glance?
What is it about NOLA that resists easy adaptation?
What can NOLA filmmakers learn from the successes and failures in NOLA's cinematic past?
With all the hype around "Hollywood South" where is the indigenous filmmaking community?
Is it possible to tell original NOLA stories without compromising method or content to mainstream America?
Is it possible to elevate the role of cinema in a city so fundamentally musical and culinary?
To the right are 2 TOP TEN lists, one for features and one for documentaries. They are intended as provocation and stimulus, and I will be revising the lists regularly as I watch more films set in NOLA.
To date, I have not seen KID CREOLE, THE BIG EASY, or NEW ORLEANS, and I need to re-watch THE PELICAN BRIEF and CAT PEOPLE. These will be ingested at home and digested here.
Some definitions:
"NOLA cinema" means films ABOUT and/or OF the city of New Orleans, as defined by the Orleans parrish line. If it takes place in a bayou, it doesn't count. Sorry IN THE ELECTRIC MIST, PAPERBOY, SOUTHERN COMFORT, BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, ANGEL HEART, etc. Probably at some point I'll do a post about this type of film, maybe even add a Top Ten list for debate.
It also disqualfies 99.9% of the "Hollywood South"'s product. Sorry LOOPER, GREEN HORNET, OLDBOY, JURASSIC PARK 11, DIE HARD 7, HOT TUB TIME MACHINE 4, 29 JUMP STREET, etc.
"Hollywood South" is an term umbrella term to describe LA and NY based productions that shoot in Louisiana for tax credit reasons, but do development, casting, pre-pro, post, etc elsewhere. (By this fairly uncontroversial definition, BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD counts, which is a story for a future post.) Typical features of "Hollywood South" include movie stars, millions of dollars of budget, screenplays telling a story than can happen anywhere, and a finished film that doesn't resemble New Orleans because they shot the most beautiful city in America to look like Anywhere USA.
"Hollywood South" is a major economic engine but a severe mixed blessing to local filmmakers. Expect a post or seven about that in the future.
This isn't an academic exercise: my end goal is to provoke discussion, dialogue, and inspiration that will create and foster an indigenous film community in New Orleans.
TOMORROW: a look at one of the high water marks for NOLA film: A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG, written and directed by Shainee Gabel from a novel by Ronald Capps, father of songwriter Grayson Capps.
By far the most unusual, idiosyncratic city in America, somehow NOLA's cinematic legacy is weak. Weak in quantity, weak in quantity. This is baffling. I want to look at the history of NOLA cinema and get a discussion started on questions like:
Why are so few films set in NOLA any good? Is the track record as bad as it looks from a glance?
What is it about NOLA that resists easy adaptation?
What can NOLA filmmakers learn from the successes and failures in NOLA's cinematic past?
With all the hype around "Hollywood South" where is the indigenous filmmaking community?
Is it possible to tell original NOLA stories without compromising method or content to mainstream America?
Is it possible to elevate the role of cinema in a city so fundamentally musical and culinary?
To the right are 2 TOP TEN lists, one for features and one for documentaries. They are intended as provocation and stimulus, and I will be revising the lists regularly as I watch more films set in NOLA.
To date, I have not seen KID CREOLE, THE BIG EASY, or NEW ORLEANS, and I need to re-watch THE PELICAN BRIEF and CAT PEOPLE. These will be ingested at home and digested here.
Some definitions:
"NOLA cinema" means films ABOUT and/or OF the city of New Orleans, as defined by the Orleans parrish line. If it takes place in a bayou, it doesn't count. Sorry IN THE ELECTRIC MIST, PAPERBOY, SOUTHERN COMFORT, BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, ANGEL HEART, etc. Probably at some point I'll do a post about this type of film, maybe even add a Top Ten list for debate.
It also disqualfies 99.9% of the "Hollywood South"'s product. Sorry LOOPER, GREEN HORNET, OLDBOY, JURASSIC PARK 11, DIE HARD 7, HOT TUB TIME MACHINE 4, 29 JUMP STREET, etc.
"Hollywood South" is an term umbrella term to describe LA and NY based productions that shoot in Louisiana for tax credit reasons, but do development, casting, pre-pro, post, etc elsewhere. (By this fairly uncontroversial definition, BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD counts, which is a story for a future post.) Typical features of "Hollywood South" include movie stars, millions of dollars of budget, screenplays telling a story than can happen anywhere, and a finished film that doesn't resemble New Orleans because they shot the most beautiful city in America to look like Anywhere USA.
"Hollywood South" is a major economic engine but a severe mixed blessing to local filmmakers. Expect a post or seven about that in the future.
This isn't an academic exercise: my end goal is to provoke discussion, dialogue, and inspiration that will create and foster an indigenous film community in New Orleans.
TOMORROW: a look at one of the high water marks for NOLA film: A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG, written and directed by Shainee Gabel from a novel by Ronald Capps, father of songwriter Grayson Capps.
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