Thompson On Hollywood

Gray Lady Airs Tom Cruise's Open Secret

(Posted by Peter Debruge)

In today's NYTimes, Michael Cieply recounts a Tuesday night industry screening of "Tropic Thunder" in which Tom Cruise "brought down the house with his surprise portrayal of a bald, hairy-chested, foulmouthed, dirty-dancing movie mogul of the kind who is only too happy to throw an actor to the wolves when his popularity cools."

Sure sounds funny. Can we assume Cieply caught this screening? Or was the whole "rapturous reaction" fed to him by the person described in this line?

Mr. Stiller, who played Mr. Cruise's obsessive stunt double in a popular Web video (and who is expected to co-star with him in "Hardy Men"), first talked with Mr. Cruise, his friend, about taking a role more than a year ago, according to a person who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid conflict with the film's promotion."

The whole story reads like the kind of "news" you'd expect to encounter on the Web (which got there first back in November), not in the pages of the Gray Lady. And that popular Web video? Cieply's referring to a televised sketch Stiller and Cruise made for the 2000 MTV Movie Awards. Here's a refresher:

Madonna Gets It On with Hubbie

Always candid and provocative, Madonna tells us more than we want to know about her sex life with husband Guy Ritchie.

Rotten Tomatoes Showcases USA Today's Puig

Rotten Tomatoes has started interviewing prominent film critics on their site, and asked USA Today critic Claudia Puig--arguably one of the country's most powerful--a few pointed questions about the state of things today:

What effect does the ongoing consolidation of the print medium have on film critics in general?

CP: Film criticism is at a critical (ok, pun intended) juncture, for several reasons. Print journalism is undergoing a massive change, with the emphasis at most papers on the internet versions of our newspapers. Film criticism has been substantially democratized with the inclusion of so many bloggers and internet sites that feature critics. I think it's at an interesting point, but it also means that no one critic (or two or 10) has much sway. It's all about critical mass.

While the print media continue to be consolidated, there are probably fewer newspaper critics out there, but internet critics have rushed in to fill the gap. It's actually quite fascinating to speculate on where film criticism will be in 5, or 10 years. In general, I think older audiences rely more heavily on the recommendations of individual critics (usually those in their local papers) and younger audiences don't pay as much attention to critics overall, since they're not in the habit of reading newspapers as much as older people. If they do pay attention to critical assessments, they go to sites like Rotten Tomatoes to get an overview of what critics think, rather than relying on individual "favorite" critics.

How's the atmosphere at USA Today in light of what's happened recently at Newsweek (David Ansen being bought out), the Village Voice (where Nathan Lee was laid off), and Newsday (which is losing critics Gene Seymour and Jan Stuart)?

CP: This is, unfortunately I think, indicative of the future. We had our very first buyout, and our paper's been around for 25 years, and has been pretty immune...when I was at the LA Times there were all kinds of buyouts, and a lot of newspapers have gone through some pretty bad stuff, but Gannett has always been a pretty strong chain. But I just think that the atmosphere is a little scary everywhere.

Some people argue that critics are out of touch with the movie tastes of the public...

CP: I think that's a viable complaint. With more and more blogging, with more internet sites, certainly things have become more democratized. As a woman of color, I can certainly vouch that critics have been white male dominated, over a certain age, there's a certain groupthink that has happened. So I think that's a fair criticism -- at times. And some people would just rather get their movie suggestions from friends and word of mouth. There are times when critics' choices and mass audience choices come together -- Juno, which turned out to be a big movie, and critics generally liked it -- but that's always been the case. I don't think this is anything new. Critics have always championed certain kinds of movies, certain kinds of books, certain kinds of art, and the masses have not always gone along with their particular choices.

Stop-Loss: In Defense

Philly's Carrie Rickey defends Kimberly Peirce's Stop-Loss, which I'll catch up with this weekend.

2001: A Space Odyssey: A Tribute

I'll never forget my first screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey. I went with a handsome kid from Andover who wanted to do what teenagers often do during movies. I made him stop. I didn't want to be distracted. Here's a lovely tribute with rich links by Ray Pride.

Trailer Watch: Nic Cage in Bangkok Dangerous

Ebert to Return to Print Reviewing; Phillips Takes TV Seat for Now

I'm sad to report that Roger Ebert's last surgery did not go as planned. He had hoped to restore his speech. But he's recovering and cancer free and will return to reviewing after his next film festival in April, he writes.

Meanwhile Disney's Ebert & Roeper weekly review show soldiers on without Ebert or his thumbs. Chicago Tribune critic Michael Phillips, who was alternating with the NYT's Tony Scott in recent months, is filling Ebert's spot on the balcony, at least for now, confirms one of the show's producers. This returns the show to two rivals from Chicago's two daily newspapers, each of whom believes that he's smarter and better informed than the other. It worked for the original Ebert and Siskel. And it's fun to watch Roeper and Phillips tearing each other apart now. As much as I enjoy Scott, Roeper gushed over him too much. And thank God they got rid of the testosteroned Robert Wilonsky.

Leatherheads: Clooney Goes Retro

George Clooney is the sort of movie star who gets to do what he wants, especially if he's willing to direct himself. In this case the period football comedy Leatherheads had been languishing on the shelf at Universal for decades, and was going to be directed by Steven Soderbergh at one time. Clooney's version is a sweetly daffy valentine to classic Hollywood screwball comedies, Coen brothers comedies and romantic comedies. Clooney stars as a handsome over-the-hill football player who's pretty smart but gets beat up on the playing field and takes plenty of pratfalls and romances a wise-cracking reporter (Renee Zellweger).

Does Clooney have the directing chops of Howark Hawks (His Girl Friday's Rosalind Russell is a model for Zellweger's tough-girl reporter) or the Coens? That's a tall order, but he does use the Coens' storyboard artist, and the film looks great. It could have been a tad sharper and faster and better, and I suspect it will have more appeal to women over 25 than anyone else. Whether the football marketing will alienate them is anyone's guess, and the critics are bound to be mixed. Here's Variety's review.

Universal has been spending heavily on Leatherheads, even giving it a Superbowl send-off spot, but I can't imagine it will make its P & A money back, much less its budget. Which will make it all the more difficult for execution-dependent, overtly uncommercial movies like this to get made. All power to Clooney for having the moxie to go for it, commerciality be damned.

UPDATE: Here's Clooney's interview with Reuters.

Indiana Jones is Mostly CGI Free

This cool site has a feature on the production design of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which has been filmed with largely real world, as opposed to CGI, visual effects.

Gonzalez Inarritu Directs Three Anti-Meth TV Ads

Check out Babel director Alejandro González Iñárritu's three anti-Meth TV ads for The Meth Project, a private organization committed to reducing first-time Meth use. Gonzalez Iñárritu's three ads, as well as four print and nine radio ads, will begin airing three times a week in Montana immediately.

Film Critics: State of Play

As the film critic species looks more and more endangered--with the recent departures, for various reasons, of Gene Seymour and Jan Stuart of Newsday, Jack Mathews of The New York Daily News, Nathan Lee of The Village Voice, and David Ansen of Newsweek--folks are weighing in.

David Poland.

David Carr.

Shawn Levy.

Daryl Chin.

Defamer.

I'm collecting string on this topic, so let me know what you think. Do we need film critics? What is their purpose? Is it being served by something else? As aging film critics retire and move on, who will replace them? Are there some younger leading lights? What will replace print film criticism? Should every print critic with a job build a blog following ASAP? If the younger generation doesn't read newspapers and doesn't seek out that one person who reflects their taste online, where will they get their information on what to see? What is the impact on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic on film criticism? Positive or negative?

And sadly, at age 60, brainy film critic Paul Arthur has died. Manohla Dargis wrote his NYT obit. And here's what may be his last piece in print, for Art Forum, on Errol Morris's Standard Operating Procedure.

Polling Summer 2008: Indy 4 and Dark Knight Lead the Pack

Fandango pollsters report that their filmgoers most want to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Dark Knight during the summer of 2008.

Here are the results of Fandango.com's online nationwide survey, conducted from March 13 to March 30:

Most Anticipated Summer 2008 Movie:

1. INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL (82%)

2. THE DARK KNIGHT (42%)

3. IRON MAN (38%)

4. THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN (37%)

5. THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR (30%)

6. GET SMART (29%)

7. THE INCREDIBLE HULK (22%)

8. THE UNTITLED X-FILES SEQUEL (20%)

9. SPEED RACER (19%)

10. SEX AND THE CITY (19%)

21 Tops Weekend: A Star is Born

I was disappointed by 21, which scored a miserable 32% on Rotten Tomatoes, at the same time that I knew that Robert Luketic had crafted an entertaining male fantasy crowd-pleaser.

21 opened surprisingly well, because it looks like fun. (The NYT's Manohla Dargis was not pleased.)

Coming off a weekend like this: Brit Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe) is a rising star. He's handsome. He can act. He can carry a movie that the critics don't like. He can sing. He can woo a girl. And he can do a credible American accent. Sold. EW's Owen Gleiberman agrees. Here's Lynn Hirschberg's fall profile.

Next up: Wayne Kramer's ensemble drama about immigration, Crossing Over, starring Harrison Ford and Sean Penn, and Kari Skogland's drama Fifty Dead Men Walking, in which he stars as real-life Martin McGartland, a Brit spy who infiltrates the IRA. And possibly Spider-Man on Broadway, with Julie Taymor, who discovered him, after all.

[NYT photo by Alisdair McClellan]

2008 Media Hot List

In a publishing universe beset by steep advertising declines, Adweek Media's eagerly awaited annual hot list is the one that tells all: it's about what's working.

Here are some noteworthy tidbits from the 28th edition: For the first time, global newsmag The Economist took the number one spot, jumping from number ten. Other returning titles from last year are Real Simple, More, Glamour and Martha Stewart Living. For the first time in three years, O, The Oprah Magazine, did not make the list. Condé Nast boasts a total of five publications: Vogue, Glamour, Condé Nast Traveler, Cookie, and Men’s Vogue, while Rodale has three titles: Women’s Health, BestLife and Bicycling.

Editor Adam Moss's multi-million investment in revamping New York Magazine is paying off, with a spot in the top ten. New York also grabbed Design Team of the Year for its creative output.

Men’s Health editor David Zinczenko earned the Editor of the Year award, and Men’s Vogue nabbed Startup of the Year.

Despite considerable online competition from celeb sites, People.com, one of the most trafficked magazine-generated sites, grew its audience by 48% in 2007, totaling 6.3 million monthly unique users. People.com won the Magazine Web Site of the Year award.

AdweekMedia’s 2008 Hot List:

Title Circulation Advertising Revenues

1. The Economist 720,882 +24%

2. Real Simple 1,986,605 +22.8%

3. Harper’s Bazaar 729,767 +26.8%

4. More 1,265,999 +25.4%

5. Vogue 1,273,546 +10%

6. Glamour 2,353,854 +18.2%

7. Family Circle 4,011,530 +17%

8. Martha Stewart Living 2,021,934 +24%

9. Condé Nast Traveler 819,683 +22%

10. New York 429,116 +16.3%

Selection to AdweekMedia’s annual Hot List is based on several factors, including: ad page and revenue gains; performance within a magazine’s competitive category; circulation gains; interviews with media buyers and consultants, and AdweekMedia’s own editorial judgment. Magazines must have at least $50 million in advertising revenue and publish 10 issues or more annually.

AdweekMedia’s 2008 10 Under 50 List highlights the top magazines with under $50 million in annual revenue:

Title Circulation Advertising Revenues

1. Women’s Health 907,838 +145.6%

2. BestLife 496,053 +61.1%

3. Men’s Vogue 336,189 +122%

4. Cookie 436,197 +95.9%

5. Everyday Food 918,946 +25.9%

6. All You 843,874 +46.5%

7. Fast Company 749,095 +26.3%

8. Veranda 470,449 +15.2%

9. National Geographic Traveler 738,907 +19.6%

10. Bicycling 416,706 +12.3%

Widmark Tributes and Clips

My favorite Richard Widmark performance ever--he's sexy as hell as a tough-guy with a heart--is in Sam Fuller's masterpiece, Pickup on South Street:

Widmark's death last week at age 93 has inspired some terrific obit/tributes from Aljean Harmetz, Richard Corliss, Glenn Kenny, Michael Sragow, and last but not least, the NYT's resident auteurist Dave Kehr--and yes, that critical approach applies to an actor who brought depth and grace to every role, no matter how big or small, mean or creepy. He was always compelling.

Here's GreenCine's wrapup.

And a clip of Widmark in his star-making first role at age 32, as Tommy Udo in Kiss of Death, which won him his only Oscar nom:

HBO Gives Polanski Doc Oscar Qualifying Run

It's the HBO way. The fuss is all about the HBO launch--and getting an Oscar nom, natch--not building a successful theatrical release. Marina Zenovich knew this when she made her rich HBO deal for Polanski: Wanted and Desired. The movie quietly slipped into New York for an Oscar-qualifying run, reports Spout and Defamer.

UPDATE: Manohla Dargis' review is in Monday's NYT, for a movie that opened without press screenings--although it was launched to great fanfare at January's Sundance-- last Friday in one theater each in Manhattan and Pasadena. Here are the review's opening graphs.

The Judge, the Director and the Vagaries of Justice By MANOHLA DARGIS

The sharply argued documentary "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired" isn't about the innocence or guilt of its title subject, who after pleading guilty in 1977 to having "unlawful sexual intercourse" with a minor flew from Los Angeles to London, never again to return to America. Neither is it about Mr. Polanski's likability, his tragic past, morals, short stature, brilliant and bad films, the sleaze factor or your personal feelings on whether there's anything wrong with a 43-year-old man's having sex with a 13-year-old girl. All these elements come teasingly into view here, but really this is a movie about a very different kind of perversion.

"Wanted and Desired," which opened on Friday without advance press screenings, was bought by HBO at the Sundance Film Festival in January. Its one-week theatrical run will make it eligible for Academy Award consideration, though given that organization's often pitiful record when it comes to nonfiction film, it seems unlikely that a movie this subtly intelligent would make its short list. That's especially true because the director, Marina Zenovich, refuses to wag her finger at Mr. Polanski, even when presenting the sordid and grimly pathetic details of his crime, like the Champagne and partial Quaalude he furnished the 13-year-old girl and her repeated nos.

Indy 4: Good for All Indiana Jones DVD Sales

Over the spring break, my college freshman daughter Nora watched Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. And she wants to catch up with all the Indy Jones pics. Raiders of the Lost Ark came out in 1981, long before she was born. So she wants to be up to speed when the highly anticipated first installment in 18 years comes out.

Paramount is well aware. They sent to press around the country a mailer full of posters of all the Indiana Jones movies. They also sent out leather whips. Boomers saw these movies as they came out. They are fond of them, and will take their kids to the new one. Folks all over the world will be ordering the three-pic Indiana Jones DVD set before the May 22 opening --many of them from Lucasfilm's handy-dandy Indy Jones store on the Indiana Jones site, which offers the Young Indiana Jones series on DVD as well.

Paramount has posted the latest Indy 4 TV spot at the Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull website.

Ansen to Leave Newsweek After 30 Years

The deadline for 146 staffers to accept or reject a handsome buyout offer from Newsweek was March 25. The offer was too good--including a sweetened pension, health coverage until age 65, and two years salary-- for 30-year Newsweek veteran film critic David Ansen to refuse. "It was a good deal," he said. "They didn't want me to leave, which put me in a nice bargaining position. They may have been shocked at how many people took the offer."

While many of the 111 Newsweek employees who did accept it will leave May 30, the 62-year-old Ansen negotiated to continue reviewing for the magazine until year's end, at which point he starts a year-long contract as contributing editor delivering reviews and longer features.

As Newsweek prepares to move its Manhattan offices downtown near Ground Zero, "obviously the climate at newsmagazines is not great," said Ansen. "More cost-cutting, more trimming." Ansen looks forward to writing books, teaching, and "not going out to screenings every night," he said. "I want to watch DVDs of movies I might actually like and read a book or two. Face it, a lot of movies are not that interesting to write about these days."

Radar initially reported the Newsweek buyout.

The current harsh publishing climate has been hard on film critics. Gone from newspaper staff reviewer ranks are The Chicago Reader's Jonathan Rosenbaum, Newsday's John Anderson, The Village Voice's Nathan Lee, The New York Daily News' Jami Bernard and Jack Mathews, The Chicago Tribune's Michael Wilmington and The Atlanta Journal Constitution's Eleanor Ringel Gillespie. Some have retired and some have been pushed out. "It is scary; they're letting a lot of good people go these days," said Ansen. "It's like a return to the hard old days when I was growing up when anybody could be a movie critic, and they'd take somebody off the sports desk."

[Newsweek critic David Ansen, right, with Sidney Kimmel Entertainment's Bingham Ray, at this year's Indie Spirit Awards.]

Pitt/Jolie Wedding Rumors Rampant

This Huffington Post report about the various tabloid and celeb mag reports this weekend about the possible New Orleans wedding of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie is fascinating. The New York Daily News, for example, reported Saturday that they were married, citing The Star website. But Sunday, Fox News relies on People Magazine's assertion that it's not true.

Petersen Museum Hosts the Art of Cars

I snuck out of work this afternoon for a peek at the Petersen Automotive Museum's new Pixar exhibit, which opens here in Los Angeles tomorrow (March 29). To be honest, I'm not that hot on cars (in general) or Cars (the 2006 Pixar film), but this show really is a perfect marriage: The museum cleared out most of its upstairs Hollywood Room (where the Batmobile, Herbie and the Mach 5 are normally parked) to display the paintings, sketches and maquettes created for the movie Cars.

It's a rare treat for animation fans. Apart from the Museum of Modern Art's big 20th anniversary tribute to the studio (this was back in 2006), much of this art hasn't been displayed off-campus. And as Elyse Klaidman, dean of art and film for Pixar U., explained, those "Art of ..." promo books Pixar releases for each film are compiled and printed too early to include the full spectrum of great work that goes into all these designs.

Elyse further explained that preparation breaks down into three stages — story, characters and environments — and the Petersen arranges them accordingly (it would be fair to add "marketing," the stage that explains the attractions most likely to interest the kids: "life-size" fiberglass replicas of Lightning McQueen and Mater).

Seeing the work divided up this way explains a lot about my reaction to the film: The story felt rather uninspired (a Doc Hollywood redux), the character designs leave the most fun to minor characters, but those Route 66 landscapes, with their hood-ornament-shaped outcroppings and retro Americana flair, totally steal the show.

Watching Cars, you can't help but be distracted by all that gorgeous, high-concept scenery, and an installation like this allows you to take all the time you want exploring the world John Lasseter and company created (maybe a "24-Hour Cars" screening, like the Hirshhorn Psycho exhibit). But there's a tremendous amount of thought that goes into every stage, as we uncovered when Variety first speculated about moving the eyes from the headlights (a la Herbie) to the windshield.

For the MoMA show, Lasseter and Ed Catmull wrote:

Many people don't realize that we have almost as many artists at Pixar working in traditional media — hand drawing, painting, pastels, sculpture — as we do in digital media. Most of their work takes place during the development of a project, when we're working out the story and look of the film. The wealth of beautiful art created for each movie is rarely seen outside the studio, but the finished film we send around the world would never be possible without it.

And now Angelenos have a chance to see some of that great work firsthand.

(Peter Debruge)