May 2, 2024
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
I think it was last week that all of you had the Jeff Bridges/ Matt Damon conversation. I missed it but since this is an empty thread just wanted to add my two cents.
Damon doesn’t fit the Bridges persona, he’s too much of a Golden Boy. His lineage would be a straight line from Redford through Costner. With the exception of Costner’s end of the world movies you could interchange any of the three actors into each other’s movies, compensating for age of course (and Damon would have to lose a little of the new found bulkage to match Redford’s dreaminess in Way We Were). But I certainly could see Damon match Redford’s turns in Brubaker or Out of Africa, as well as doing amiable turns like Field of Dreams (which looks like the vibe that Zoo is going for). Don’t Bourne, No Way Out, and Condor seem cut from the same cloth?
As for Bridges, I would say that Cusack is much closer in persona as the good natured ne’er do well or slick persuader. Could see Cusack easily being able to match Bridges turns in Tucker, Seabiscuit and Contender, just as a young Bridges would have been perfect for High Fidelity.
Now there might be a little question that Cusack isn’t capable to fill the more butch of Bridges roles (Against All Odds) in which case I would have to go with Woody Harrelson as the heir apparent. Look through Bridges roles and ask yourself if Woody at a corresponding age couldn’t have pulled that off.
I’m of course not asking for a bunch of remakes or anything, but since you were talking about who is passing which baton to whom….
I stick with my Damon/Bridges comparison, hcat.
Neither Cusack or Harrelson–both of whom I like–are remotely in the same league as Damon.
Except for DiCaprio, there isn’t another American actor who’s accrued such an enviable body of work (and so many auteur collaborators) in such a short period of time.
And I could totally see Damon playing Bridges’ roles in “Seabiscuit,” “Tucker” and, a few years from now, “The Contender.” I also don’t think a macho/romantic jock role like Bridges’ in “Against All Odds” is beyond his capabilities either. (Did you see his South African soccer player in “Invictus”? Or the cooler-than-Bond Jason Bourne?) If Damon has proven anything in the past 14-odd years, it’s that you should never underestimate his range. (Look at “The Informant!”)
On a completely unrelated note: how much is Scott Rudin paying the NYT to tubthump “ELAIC”? Today’s puff piece marks the third in as many weeks breathlessly dissecting the film’s Oscar buzz, Oscar chances, etc., etc. I bet Harvey Weinstein is green with envy at this point.
I always thought that the heir apparent to Robert Rodford is Brad Pitt. Ever since A River Runs Through It, it just seemed like the perfect fit.
Didn’t mean to underestimate his range, and loved him in Invictus and Informant (thought that was hilarious and oscar worthy). And being compared to Redford is hardly a negative connotation. I just see Damon’s underlying persona as one of rightous determination coupled with all american charm. The Redford/ Costner pluck is exactly what was on display in Invictus. Bridges is more weathered, often cock-eyed. As good as Damon is, he would probably not be my first choice for a modern day equivelent of Stay Hungry or Lebowski, which would probably suit Harrelson’s more gonzo style.
Bulldog, I never thought of that since Scheaffer had the more Redfordesque part. But River Runs Through It might be the best Newman/Redford movie not to star Newman and Redford.
Hcat your Woody call is inspired as a Bridges stand-in. That makes total sense. Movieman’s Damon is Bridges pronouncement from last week was and still is, wrong to me.
I’m not sure about movieman’s sexual orientation but I’m curious as to whether that might play a part in these discussions. No offense intended Movieman as I think my sexual orientation would also affect how I relate to actors. Sure we all like them in certain roles but if you have a major sexual attraction for an actor, won’t that play some part in how strong you feel about them in these sort of discussions?
I’m late to the party on this one, I guess, but YOUNG ADULT is terrific, and I don’t get how anyone can doubt Cody’s writing or Reitman’s direction at this point. And Theron certainly gives one of the best performances of the year as one of the year’s very best, most fascinating characters.
I’m betting that critical consensus will turn around in Damon’s favor around the same time it did with Bridges (middle age).
Despite a couple of Oscar nominations, Bridges was consistently underrated/undervalued in the early-ish stage of his career because–unlike his more fashionable peers (DeNiro, Pacino, Hoffman)–you never saw him “act.”
I think that’s pretty much the case with Damon today.
And I never intended to make the case that Bridges and Damon were interchangeable in their past (or present) film roles. Just that they have similar acting styles (both completely inhabit their characters without any visible sweat, etc.) and an identical professional ethos (it really does seem to be about the “work”/craft for them). Also, both have gone out of their way to work with the most interesting directors of their time, regardless of the box-office potential.
(Of course, Damon’s had more luck on that front–the “Bourne” and
Ocean” franchises for starters–than Bridges’ ever did back in the day. On the few occasions that Bridges picked really commercial properties–e.g., “King Kong”–it invariably backfired, unfairly or not.)
Right there with you, JKill. Can’t get YA outta my head. Brilliant, nasty stuff.
“than Bridges’ ever did back in the day. On the few occasions that Bridges picked really commercial properties–e.g., “King Kong”–it invariably backfired, unfairly or not”
Its almost something like ohhh 2012?
And that while Bridges has never been considered an top box office draw or someone they could build a franchise around he has been a constant presence in film for decades, doing some fantastic work and some paycheck stuff but almost always being interesting and was beloved by many?
Critics already love Damon and acting aside his career is too a-list and above the radar for the Bridges comparision.
Now all this is not to say that his style may not be tweaked in the future. All that we are talking about is really a matter of degrees and many actors go through different stages. Hanks went from Bob Hope to Gregory Peck to whatever he is now, mid 70’s Lemmon?
I think Matt Damon is more comparable to Paul Newman than any one – he can play indignant and serious, but also has an easy-going charm that he can turn on like that. It’s easy to forget the Newman of Slapshots, but I could so see Damon pulling off that same type of role when he’s in his late ’40’s/early ’50’s. And Damon is a good-looking guy, but I can confidentally say he’s no Newman – it’s debatable whether he will age as well.
The one actor from this group (’30’s to ’40’s in age range, including Tom Cruise) who is mostly likely to achieve legendary status is Leonardo DiCaprio. Damn, I had cable on today while working from home: within a few hours, there was This Boy’s Life, Catch Me if You Can, and Inception – wow, impressive range on this guy from the beginning! Probably cliche to say so, but he could hold his own as a kid against DeNiro – DeNiro in the early ’90’s was still a force. And yeah, a lesser actor could not have sold the plot or dialogue of Inception nearly as well as he could.
One thing he’s really missing on the resume are some lighter roles – ‘Catch Me was that the last one and that was nine years ago, when he was still playing sort-of teenager roles. All of the greats (Newman, Bogart, Grant) showed a light touch when needed and Leo needs to show more of that – people still think of Pitt as Floyd from True Romance more than almost any other character and THAT kind of role is needed in Leo’s CV. Dude need to take on some comedy. But that said, he was damn impressive in J. Edgar – his performance made Clint’s direction seem almost vibrant which, from me, is saying a LOT.
Damon’s awesome.
DiCaprio needs to reteam with Amy Adams for a Barefoot in the Park type marital comedy. Something smart, humerous and cheerful, I’m thinking somewhere around Steve Martin’s Roxanne frequancy. Except they don’t really make those anymore.
Now for Newman, such a talent cannot be simply replaced by one actor. I would split it three ways with Ed Harris for the heavy lifting (Verdict, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), Clooney for the charm and lighter drama(Slapshot, Sting, Blaze, Hud) and Willis gets the matinee stuff (Hombre, Inferno, Harper).
Though if anyone out there would like to remake Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean with either Clooney or Willis, let me guarentee you my ticket money and blu-ray purchase.
I’m with you on that, hcat…I think DiCaprio doing a smart comedy would be great. I’d love to see him sweat a lot less.
Can I say, that I actually miss Neil Simon movies. Sure, they all existed in the same universe but there was some great stuff in movies like Prisoner of Second Avenue and Sunshine Boys and The Odd Couple…and some great performances from people like Anne Bancroft, Mercedes Ruehl, Matthew Broderick, Jack Lemmon and Marsha Mason. I would totally love to see Leo do something like that.
God Yes, the world needs a new centuary Simon. Compare a cattle call comedy like New Years Eve to the similairly stuffed to the gills California Suite and see which does it better.
Glad they are big successes but I would love for Kloves to bang out another Baker Boys or Sorkin to make another American President style comedy.
GQ magazine has a cover story on Matt Damon ..
Wired magazine has a story about people on youtube making money off their art + comedy + acting …a lot of youtubers help each other out …kinda like funny or die
both articles are in print and aren’t online yet . worth checking out ..
last byob – i poste3d 3 things i found interesting – got no responses …sure it takes 30 seconds to check out that content but its not as important as the new dark knight movie. well if its hard to compette with something
popular that takes people’s minds …when the dark knight movie comes out …it’ll wipe out everything else for a few days ……sure they might be important breaking news of some sort but dark knight will stil be #1 .
so getting noticed in social media ain’t working out too good for me . massive fail.
i watch a lot of g4 tv and i find it amusing that they do movie previews that are 5 minutes on comlicated stories that are just as good or better than the dp/30 …
and g4 doesn’t get enough credit. g4 does geek out on the
tech side of movies and shows the tech gear used – DP never shows anything but the interviewer …
out of the 100 actors i want for dp/30 – i figured 5 would show up by the end of the year but nothing.
i have zero power for dp/30 requests.
like a dog with a bone, but leo’s career would likely look significantly different if river hadn’t karked it — total eclipse and basketball diaries both developed w/river attached, and cameron has made no secret of the fact that he wrote the role of jack dawson with river in mind (not that he would have done it, who knows)… but leo, who openly idolised river, rather stepped into his shoes, complete with the environmentalism. if i didn’t like leo it would almost creep me out
(eta i agree leo could do worse than to lighten up and do something funny/different, step away from the scorsese, let your freak flag fly a little)
watching the local news – yeah a big shock …all they do
these days is holiday theme things .
which means super fancy reporter suit guy does things that
anybody can find on youtube .
so instead of finding local government corruption or lost cat up a tree or something they waste time with this ..
local news has itself to blame for doing these basic stories and all the local tv news shows are doing it
that old rerun of the simpsons / seinfeld is probably getting better ratings than the local news right now.
if the local news spent 2 minutes doing a report on some indie film that might help but the local news got rid
of any entertainment reporters .
When Neil Simon was hot, he was hot. Seriously: I remember seeing three different productions of Plaza Suite within the space of 18 months in New Orleans back in the ’70s. During the heyday of dinner theater, he likely had plays produced in this country more often than Shakespeare. I’d be curious to see a revival of Barefoot in the Park — either on stage or at the megaplex — with, say, Kat Dennings and Daniel Radcliffe, just to see if the play still works as well as I recall.
I’m a long time fan of the website. David,I miss your writing. Where are all the reviews of this season’s holiday releases. The DP/30 are great, but I just wish you would get on the keyboard again with more reviews and analysis.
Totally agree about YOUNG ADULT….it’s been stuck in my head since I saw it Friday. But I still think Reitman was the weak link. I just don’t see what he brings to the directors seat. I like every single one of his films alot but still, I don’t see what he’s doing that’s noteworthy.
Also- I saw I SAW THE DEVIL last night and holeee shiiiiiiit. What an amazing, gory, intense and awesome film. No one does revenge like the Asians.
HBO has canceled “Hung,” “How to Make It In America,” “Bored to Death” and renewed “Enlightened.”
I was bummed that bored to death was cancelled. I like that show. But all my friends who sampled it didn’t care for it.
Also surprised. With Ted and zach, it seems to be a good sell.
Comedy sucks.
Why does everyone on every message board ever ALWAYS have to say, “I wish (so-and-so actor) would LIGHTEN UP and do a NICE COMEDY.”
Fuck comedy. Pacino didn’t do comedy (Author Author excepted), De Niro was deadly in comedy until the self-parody stuff starting w Analyze That… Mickey Rourke doesn’t do comedy, Sean Penn SUCKED in We’re No Angels… Maybe Leo and whoever don’t wanna do some pastel-colored 1.85 NO STYLE bullshit for some HACK director.
You may all have noticed, but Fincher, Tarantino, Scorsese, Van Sant, Eastwood, Ridley and Tony Scott, Cameron, Michael Mann– ie, REAL DIRECTORS– don’t do CHARMING ROMANTIC COMEDIES, because while those occupy a pleasant place in my starlet-ogling sphere, they are not REAL MOVIES unless you’re a middle-aged hen or a gay man.
So, NO, I don’t wanna see Leo LIGHTEN UP or do bullshit. No actor wants to play that shit anyway– actors like pain, anguish, misery, edginess, sleaze, violence, sex, torture.
Fuck comedy. It’s stupid.
BORED TO DEATH is a great show….HBO didn’t do shit to promote it I don’t think. Stellar cast and really funny…..whatta shame.
LexG: You do know that two Clint Eastwood comedies — Every Which Way But Loose and Any Which Way You Can — outgrossed Dirty Harry, right? And that Robert De Niro did TWO Brian De Palma comedies and The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight before Mean Streets, right?
Lex but Penn is hilarious in I AM SAM.
Joe, Hi Mom, one of the most radical and subversive comedies of all time is as close to light comedy as you can get right?
Eastwood is still Eastwood in those ape flicks. He’s practically the same character from Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, which has similar amount of comedy as the Every Which Way series.
I don’t think Lex was referring to these types of films when he says CHARMING, ROMANTIC COMEDIES.
any actor will tell you, the timing required to pull off comedy is far harder than drama
also, did anyone above say they wanted to see leo in a fluffball romantic comedy? no. they said simon-esque/smart comedy.
(re: ‘i saw the devil’, if i recall i think i put it on my top ten list for last year)
I can’t wait to see Leo in The Devil in the White City. Assuming it actually gets made. Great book.
Don’t worry, folks, as soon as Garry Marshall makes another terrible, terrible holiday-themed romantic comedy movie with everybody he knows in it – including at least one or two actresses Lex finds even marginally attractive – Lex will backtrack on the comedy hating immediately and proclaim it MOVIE OF THE YEAR, BOW.
brand new interview with Joss Whedon
1 hour audio
http://www.nerdist.com/2011/12/making-it-23-joss-whedon/
Would’ve liked to see Del Toro and Penn in the Stooges movie, buuuut…
“any actor will tell you, the timing required to pull off comedy is far harder than drama”
This isn’t entirely true. You happen to be speaking to a CLASSICALLY TRAINED SHAKESPEAREAN ACTOR here (ie I audited at L.A. theater troupe Noise Within for a month), and let me tell you something DEFINITIVELY AND YOU WILL BELIVE ME because it is true:
The only actors who say “comedy is harder than drama” are people WHO AREN’T FUNNY IN THE FIRST PLACE. Yes, I’m sure for a Sean Penn or Michael Fassbender or Mickey Rourke, hitting punchlines outta the park like 1978 Pryor or just coming off as “light” would be harder than bellowing, blustering and sobbing for the umpteenth time. But I’m sure on the flip side, someone NATURALLY FUNNY like Jack Black or Dane Cook or Patton Oswalt or Robin Williams just MIGHT tell you that, yes, portraying a tortured, dark character with layers and monologues and maybe even socio-historical import and truth is a FUCK OF A LOT HARDER than doing SHTICK, ie comedy.
Comic timing is EASY for people who are actually naturally funny. For all I know, co-starring in SCREWBALLS III would be the acting challenge of a lifetime for Penn, Fassbender or DiCaprio, but for actors with a functioning sense of humor who’ve done standup, it’s the easiest, EASIEST thing in the world.
Drama is hard. Comedy is bullshit.
Lou, aka Hat, you are well aware that I am a HUGE fan of romcoms, and I acknowledged that in my earliest post, that they put a SMILE ON MY FACE a mile wide and usually give me a boner because it’s cute chicks I like being FUN and HOPPING AROUND CUTESILY.
But doesn’t mean I wanna see some firebrand asshole actor like Bale or Fassbender doing that weak shit. I like how the actors in modern romcom/chick flicks are usually comfortably in that douchey-harmless Chris Evans-Zac Efron-Ashton Kutcher-whoever the fuck that guy from Something Borrowed was mode, where none of the REAL DRAMA GUYS are wasting their time on BAREFOOT IN THE PARK, which is an EMBARRASSING TITLE that I’ve always hated.
Remember when HBO used to show FILMED PLAYS in the early 80S and they had a BAREFOOT IN THE PARK with Richard Thomas in the Redford role? That was on CONSTANTLY.
“You happen to be speaking to a CLASSICALLY TRAINED SHAKESPEAREAN ACTOR here”
oh my god. yes, i’ll disregard all the actual actors i’ve talked to/seen work over the years and listen to you
(and anyone familiar with performing the works of shakespeare will know, good comic timing is crucial)
still wondering if movie critics and actors give anything to each other during the holidays …gift cards or cars ..
some actors are richer than others .
isn’t Jennifer Aniston the only real actress that can get
any real actor to do another romantic comedy with her ?
Sample Leah conversation with an actor:
“Oh, hey, Viggo, can you sign–” (as he skulks off not hearing her.)
BOOOOOOOOOOOYAH HERE COMES THE SLAM.
Sanj, what the fuck is up you crazy Indian motherfucker?
I was in Henry IV Part I and As You Like It in college, so I’m about as classically trained. I’d say it’s about notes. You hit a false note in drama, it’s lame. You hit a false note in comedy, it’s a confounding thud.
Sanj, what the fuck is up you crazy Indian motherfucker?
waiting for you LexG to get a dp/30 with all them movies you watch you should get one or go betray DP and go do an interview with another oscar blogger. yeah.
I asked Poland to let me handle the Zoo DP/30s with Scarlett and Elle and to my surprise he said yes.
Should be up in a day or two. Everyone will enjoy.
Leahz: And it’s also possible that River Phoenix would be the second lead on a basic cable cop show right now. And John Belushi would be on his third sitcom. And David Janssen would be the irascible grandfather on a ABC Family drama.
DP did 2 hours of dp/30 with those super old guys …
but is there such a thing as too much dp/30 with any actor /director …
if K-Stew is not busy give her 5 dp/30’s in a row .
after the 5th dp/30 – how bored does DP and K-Stew get …
all them good actors are in new york – DP should move there in times square and beat every other interviewer and
get stuff up even faster .
Joe – get an hour interview with Ethan Hawke next year … hes good . you beat DP with your interview.
woo.
i just figured out i’ve been addicted to interviews long before i watched the dp/30’s like 3 years ago.
River Phoenix would be hiding under the name Gus Samuelson as a brick layer in rural Oklahoma just to avoid Leah and movieman’s endless gaze.
I’d like to give K-Stew 30 DP/5s, if you know what I mean.
there’s an episode of seinfeld where kramer is doing interviews in his apartment but with no audience.
sometimes the dp/30 remind me of that.
there probably is a math formula for dp/30 …at least 8 different factors go into it . some super math nerd can figure it out …
overall – good year for dp/30 – i got an extra 100 actors in my head.
Sanj: Go to you YouTube and do a search of “Joe Leydon” and you’ll find lots and lots of celebrity interviews. Of course, most of those interviews are 10 to 15 years old, but what the hell.
well joe re: riv, hopefully you’re not turning into lex – blech – but i’d say while anything’s possible, i very much doubt it.
first of all, river was arguably the finest actor of his gen. he had that rarest of indefinable qualities (? natural talent, raw instinct, vulnerability, depth and tremendous versatility), and many, many of the finest directors and other actors of his time (as well as critics) have said exactly that.
most of riv’s contemporaries and friends, who don’t posses nearly his talent – johnny depp, keanu, leo, pitt etc – are still around in the big leagues, so singling out the far more gifted river as being the one to be doing abc family dramas now seems a bit random… and neither david janssen nor john belushi were actors on the freakishly gifted level riv was, so i’m not sure how those comparisons are particularly apt
(like i said anything is possible, but i’d think it far more likely that river would have quit the business and concentrated on his love of music and the environment than teleplay-ing it on abc family. maybe a great sitcom, you never know, he was a funny fucker with a great sense of humour)
oh, and lex may have teased and intimidated movieman out of talking about river here, but good luck with that where i’m concerned! meanwhile, TEN-WART has a multi-jurisdictional restraining order out on certain creeps here
Define “his generation,” Leahz. Because, frankly, the 6-years-older Nicolas Cage has, to my sights, a firmer grasp on the title on “finest actor of his generation.”
River Phoenix was a fine actor but in what performance(s) can anyone derive “finest actor of his generation” from? As nasty as it is to say, he was a good actor on the way to being great and he died thus making him automatically great. I love many of his films but with a list that short, it’s like saying a halfway risen loaf of bread is amazing.
Don: As I often have said: One of life’s greatest tragedies is a promise forever unfulfilled. Would James Dean have gone on to even better things? Or would he have been doing TV by the late 1960s? We’ll never know.
I don’t like this “ten-wart” thing Leah keeps trying and failing to get going.
Wouldn’t Robert Downey Jr. be of River P’s “generation” if Brad Pitt is? I’m really NOT picking a fight over this because Phoenix was GREAT in Running on Empty, Stand by Me, and Private Idaho (I’ll also assume Dogfight would be way up there, but I’ve never seen it)… but would Leah/Movieman really be including trifles like Little Nikita, Sneakers, Jimmy Reardon? How do you judge a 25-year full body of work like Downey’s, Depp’s or Pitt’s against four or five admittedly great Phoenix performances?
Lex: Well, in her defense, think about it — James Dean has been a frickin’ icon for a half-century on the basis of three movies.
Three movies that were just a hair more immortal than A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon.
oh please. i’d put riv’s perf as ‘mike’ in ‘my own private idaho’ as better than any other actor of his gen by a country mile, including nic cage, who i’ve always thought of as a predecessor of river’s but i suppose would qualify as a contemporary. just because his perf in MOPI wasn’t ocsar nom’d because of the subject matter/type of film doesn’t mean it wasn’t one of the all-time greats (and it received critics/festival awards/critical praise out the yazoo). couple that with his oscar nom at just 17 for SUP ACTOR in ‘running on empty’ and numerous other critically acclaimed perfs, his being called ‘the best actor of his gen’ is not just something i made up. nic cage in ‘leaving las vegas’ is also one for the ages, granted, but not as a young actor. the comparison of cage and river is actually an interesting one, and of course difficult because river died at only 23 yet already had an impressive – and high diverse – body of work under his belt.
over the 7 year period from around 1985 when ‘stand by me’ was filmed and starting river’s film career in earnest, to his death:
The Thing Called Love
Silent Tongue
Dogfight
My Own Private Idaho
1988 Vampire’s Kiss
Peter Loew
1987 Moonstruck
Ronny Cammareri
1987 Raising Arizona
H.I. McDunnough
1986 Peggy Sue Got Married
Charlie Bodell
1986 The Boy in Blue
Ned Hanlan
1984 Birdy
Al Columbato
1984 The Cotton Club
Vincent Dwyer
1984 Racing with the Moon
Nicky/Bud
1983 Rumble Fish
Smokey
I Love You to Death
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Running on Empty
Little Nikita
A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon
The Mosquito Coast
Stand by Me
comparitively, from age 19 to age 23 nic cage had achievd this: (i have to go fetch it)
1987 Raising Arizona
1986 Peggy Sue Got Married
1986 The Boy in Blue
1984 Birdy
1984 The Cotton Club
1984 Racing with the Moon
1983 Rumble Fish
Joe- I was totally going to threw Dean in there….totally agree.
leah- ages 15-23 barely qualifies him as an adult actor. Child actor, sure. He was great. Are you saying Ricky Schroeder is an amazing actor because he was so great on SILVER SPOONS and THE CHAMP?
don, are you on crack? you’re comparing silver spoons and the champ to river’s extremely mature, adult work in ‘my own private idaho’ and ‘dogfight’? river was nominated for a lead actor oscar at age 17, name another actor who did that
(eta sorry, supporting actor, my bad)
Leahz: I’ll help you. At age 20, Cage did Birdy. Wipes everything River ever did right off the map. At 23, he did Raising Arizona and Moonstruck. Sorry.
what’s with the patronizing joe? i believe i posted both birdy and raising arizona in my list above, no help from you necessary. i guess it’s subjective, isn’t it, because i don’t see the range in cage’s work that river had. and i certainly don’t think cage was better in ‘birdy’ than riv was in ‘MOPI’
How come 33-year-old Leah was allowed to ogle River Phoenix in 1988 but she always gives me static about liking hot young ingenues at my age?
Leahz: Did not mean to sound patronizing. Sorry if you interpreted it that way. Saw My Own Private Idaho at the Toronto Film Festival. Interviewed River Phoenix there. He seemed like an affable young man. He might have gone on to do great things. But I can’t honestly say that performance was one for the ages. And he didn’t appear to think it was, either.
i’m a few years older than riv, moron
(eta not to joe)
“I can’t honestly say that performance was one for the ages”
well, l guess we’ll have to just disagree, joe, and i think you’d find a lot of other people would agree with me. also, do you think riv is going to toot his own horn in an interview? not his style, i don’t think he gave much of a shit
You’re a few years older than Riv like I’m a few years older than Chloe Moretz.
Like 25.
whatever you say, it’s almost as if you’re getting personal and trying to bait me into something (no, shocker!), which i’m pretty sure the big kahuna around here has asked us not to do
It’s always subjective, Leahz. As far as I’m concerned, Michael Caine is the best film actor of HIS generation.
arguing over who’s better: the kid who died before he reached his prime or the guy who has spent the past 20 years murdering the craft of acting.
joe, fwiw a few of the official accolades for river in MOPI (and i won’t even attempt to copy over the overwhelming amount of critical praise for river in ‘MOPI’, ebert’s was a cracker):
Independent Spirit Awards
Year Result Award Category/Recipient(s)
1992 Won Independent Spirit Award Best Male Lead
for: My Own Private Idaho (1991).
National Society of Film Critics Awards, USA
Year Result Award Category/Recipient(s)
1992 Won NSFC Award Best Actor
for: My Own Private Idaho (1991).
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
Year Result Award Category/Recipient(s)
1991 2nd place NYFCC Award Best Actor
for: My Own Private Idaho (1991).
Venice Film Festival
Year Result Award Category/Recipient(s)
1991 Won Volpi Cup Best Actor
for: My Own Private Idaho (1991).
oh my goodness, i don’t what happened to the list of river’s movies in my post @ 7:40, something horrible obviously happened while i was copying over nic cage’s list, yikes, i didn’t realise i murdered it
The Thing Called Love
Silent Tongue
My Own Private Idaho
dogfight
sneakers
I Love You to Death
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Running on Empty
Little Nikita
A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon
The Mosquito Coast
Stand by Me
there, all better
I will direct this at myself as much as I am at leahnz or movieman, but it’s always odd how we idolize and idealize celebrities– it ALWAYS makes me wish for an Annie Hall moment where said celebrity could magically pop up and tell the fan in question they’ve got them all wrong. Or like if Kurt Cobain or Che Guevera or Abe Lincoln or Jesus could supernaturally appear just for 10 seconds to tell their fans to fuck off, that they think you’re an asshole.
It would do most of us a load of good.
Like any time some writer or some dude is like WAY TOO INTO Lincoln or Jim Morrison or James Dean or Marilyn or Elvis, I have a 99%-certain sneaking suspicion that Abe, Jim, Dean or Elvis would think that person was a TOTAL LOSER… Like when some guy does a BIO and is all CERTAIN about the facts and how GREAT some old dead guy was, you just KNOW that old dead guy would absolutely HATE the author in real life– for example, you just KNOW that Jim Morrison wouldn’t really like Oliver Stone. Yet Stone in the day would go on shows with this BIG SMILE like some AUTHORITY on the subject.
You even see this on E! channel all the time, these fawning gossip-hound fashion editors all BUG-EYES like some authority on Angelina and Brad, or the Kardashians, like they’re SO in the know… Meanwhile the celebrities don’t give a FUCK about these bottom-feeders.
Like I can moon over some ridiculous idealized notion of what K-Stew is like, but we all know she’d think I was THE BIGGEST DOUCHE EEEEEEEVER, some weird old out-of-shape pushing-40 creep… And on the flip side, once I got past her hotness, she’d probably be about as boring to me as I’d be to her…
But it’s like you guys think you have some CELESTIAL COSMIC CONNECTION to River Phoenix. How do you know he wouldn’t be a GIANT ASSHOLE TO YOU if you somehow supernatually met him?
So he had at least one performance that impressed a lot of folks. Good. The same could be said of Montgomery Clift.
christ, ftr i don’t think i have a freakin’ celestial cosmic connection to river – nor do i idolise or idealise him, i’m not 12, and i’m around actors quite a lot and know from experience just how ordinary they are – i think he was a ridiculously talented actor (and from ALL accounts a really, really lovely, caring person who loved animals and the environment and took care of those around him before himself) who had a hard time dealing with the fame and pressure side of the movie business and made a huge mistake trusting the wrong people just when he’d come out the other side of a low point.
But Leahz: We’ll never know. That’s all I’m saying: We’ll never know. We can guess, we can try to extrapolate from what he did manage to accomplish — but we’ll never know. That is how life works, alas. That’s why I brought up James Dean – and, for that matter, John Belushi. We will never know.
yes, no. he’s dead and we’ll never know. can’t argue that. (maybe there’s a psychic out there who knows, but nobody will listen when she tries to tell people river would have been the one to successfully convince the world to ween off the fossil fuel teat and we’d no longer be dependent on the sludge had he lived, and now were royally screwed)
Yeah, River Phoenix would’ve single-handedly saved the entire planet.
Be awesome if he was a big smirking-ass Rick Perry-style Republican then went out and torched an entire forest.
The environment. Who cares.
On the flip side: What he did, he did on film. So he is immortal. Someone can die, but their movies will be forever in the present tense. Francois Truffaut, Cary Grant, Bette Davis, Mary Pickford, Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks, Alice Guy, John Ford, River Phoenix, Blake Edwards, Audrey Hepburn, John Cassavetes… The list goes on forever.
Tomorrow I am showing students a double bill of In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. I strongly suspect this will the first encounter most of them will have with Rod Steiger, Spencer Tracy, Warren Oates and Katharine Hepburn. And so for them — those luminaries are alive.
River kicked ass in anything he ever appeared in. Sure there are always more variables out there but come on, most of the people who are turned into greats due to dying young, and turned into greats because we all sort of agreed that they were going to be great. It doesn’t matter what could have happened, but what happened. Based off of that, they become greats, and that is indeed that.
Also, Ang, killer line up there, sir and on a totally unrelated note, that Hobbit trailer kicked ass. I’ve started to fall back in love with those LOTR films, and knowing there’s two more does make me supremely happy.
“I’d be curious to see a revival of Barefoot in the Park — either on stage or at the megaplex — with, say, Kat Dennings and Daniel Radcliffe, just to see if the play still works as well as I recall.”
Joe, I saw the 2006 Broadway revival with Amanda Peet, Patrick Wilson, Jill Clayburgh (RIP) and Tony Roberts. They kept it in period, and it holds up very well, indeed. I was particularly impressed with Peet, who has the most difficult role (Corie is onstage virtually the entire show) and pulled it off brilliantly.
Kat Dennings has hit the wall at record Liv Tyler speeds.
“River kicked ass in anything he ever appeared in. Sure there are always more variables out there but come on, most of the people who are turned into greats due to dying young, and turned into greats because we all sort of agreed that they were going to be great. It doesn’t matter what could have happened, but what happened. Based off of that, they become greats, and that is indeed that.”
yay
yay, little nikita. yay, sneakers.
Corey Haim was in more legendary movies.
yeah totally lex. COREY HAIM! why don’t you just spout off a whole slew of stupid, inane comments trying so desperately to be ‘provocative’ but in reality just being naff and asinine – like always – and get it over with.
(oh and btw, river is AWESOME in sneakers with his awesome costars – aykroyd, redford, poitier, mcdonnell, strathairn, kingsley – such an endearing goofball. and river is AWESOME in ‘little nikita’, sidney poitier had nothing but praise for his hugely talented co-star. full of shit much?)
What’s wrong with Corey Haim? I’m not really trying to be provocative, and I’ve never had anything against River at ALL…
I don’t begrudge you or Movieman your love of the guy, but I wish either of you would just come and say it’s just because you had epic-sized crushes on him. Which is fine… You liked his looks and his persona and the image of who he was… But WHY do you have to put down everyone else in the book just to sing his praises? Movieman in particular has been BRUTAL in the past here against Heath Ledger, talking all this smack about how Heath wasn’t this or that compared to his boy River…
And you just threw Depp, Keanu and Pitt under the bus… It’s like, we get it, you guys wanted to jump the kid’s bones and liked his acting; That’s fine. But this DEIFICATION of some lucky Hollywood street kid with crazy hippie parents who HIT THE JACKPOT as a kid actor same as the Coreys into this messianic figure who’d SAVE THE PLANET…
It’s not like he was MAGICAL like Kristen Stewart is or anything.
Oy, forget it. Yes…he was spectacular in MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO.
And as to Lex’s question “How come 33-year-old Leah was allowed to ogle River Phoenix in 1988 but she always gives me static about liking hot young ingenues at my age?”
The answer is- the same reason Gus Van Sant is “artistic” for having preteen boys shirtless and making out in most of his films. ie; I don’t know why.
wait, what? i’m 4 years older than river, don. maybe you should rethink your defence of lex ogling 14 yr olds
(i’d copy over rheams of commentary from directors/actors/critics/fans/etc who have called river the greatest talent of his generation, lex, but you’re not worth it. here’s a tip: it’s not me and movieman, and it’s not because he was good lookin’, but you just go right on ahead being a tool)
River Phoenix was tremendously talented, all the way back to his child acting days (EXPLORERS, anyone?), though I would argue that his brother has proven to be the even deeper, more interesting actor. Ledger was even more extraordinary. To look at their work is to realize what a total mannered lightweight Leonardo DiCraprio is.
I don’t ogle any actresses under 17.
Come on, DiCaprio’s been in 4 Scorseses, Titanic, Romeo and Juliet, a Ridley Scott movie, and is THE GOD OF ALL AWESOMENESS who gets MAD SUPERMODEL VAG and makes fat stacks. I never heard of River Phoenix being in the Pussy Posse or being a real-deal power player, just sort of an earnest, arty alterna-kid.
A good friend (actor) worked with River on MOPI has many accounts of what he (and Keanu) were really like at that time of their lives. Leah, I think you’d be somewhat surprised.
I’m a huge River fan btw but was not really shocked when he died. The 911 call from Joachim however is burnt into my synapses forever. I actually like the ineffectual Jimmy Reardon simply due to River and to be frank Natty Gans cans!
ow i stubbed my toe
good to see some riv fans speaking up.
re: river during the MOPI shoot, anything you can share in any vague sort of way JBD? (i’ve heard quite a few things about the shoot over the years – like the first time doing h for riv going methody, thanks flea! – and certainly don’t think of him as an angel, i know he had his moments of partying hard. sorry i shouldn’t have posted i got distrcted — it sounds from what samantha and others have said, being quite forthcoming about that time, riv was on the straight and narrow going into ‘dark blood’ and taking that hit from what’s-his-name that fucking fuckwad that night was just a bit of a lapse after such a stressful shoot w/judy davis, and turned out to be way too much for him)
also i can’t really listen to that 911 recording it just makes me sick, but the operator guy was such a dick, all he could do was lecture joaquin to calm down rather than doing his job and asking pertinent questions to calm him down and ascertain what was going on. here’s hoping that jackass got the sack.
how many movies did you guys watching during the opening weekend – fri – sat – sun …and did you enjoy spending full
price tickets.
does not apply to movie critics cause they get in for free.
i always go in the afternoons to save money.
why would people pay extra money for any movie if they don’t have too ?
watched vice guide .. north korea slave camps in russia ..
where they cut down trees … its in the middle of nowhere
so nobody really knows about this ..
its in 7 parts – the last 3 parts are good …
first few parts just show them going on a train ride
and watching people get drunk on beer ..
http://www.vice.com/vice-news/north-korean-labor-camps-part-5
i’d say this is the videos you super important film critics should be watching … but your not. your watching
the dark knight trailer for the 100th time.
watching Patton Oswalt on tv ..he talked about Charlize Theron like LexG would – Look at Her!!!! for 1 minute.
Sanj, link?
I absolutely LOATHE that I am pro-Oswalt now. The guy has the entire life, to a T, that I always envisioned for myself– tubby movie/metal geek with pop culture references has a hit comedy act, gets into movies, gets to be in a movie with Charlize’s legs and bare feet.
Meanwhile I’m transcribing 60 hours of religious programming in a florescent dungeon in the Valley where nobody talks to me and I haven’t had sex in nine years, and no women will speak to me because I’m disfigured.
” Yes, I’m sure for a Sean Penn or Michael Fassbender or Mickey Rourke, hitting punchlines outta the park like 1978 Pryor or just coming off as “light” would be harder than bellowing, blustering and sobbing for the umpteenth time.”
Admittedly they’re not pure comedies, but anybody doubting that Sean Penn can bring the yuks needs to watch FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH and SWEET AND LOWDOWN again.
ETA: Shit, religious programming? Weren’t you doing soft-core porn before?
Leah I didn’t realize Flea had spilled the beans about that. I mean who has time for all the Chili Pepper bios! So you’ve got an idea of where the stories I heard could lead to. Imagine the right two actors on the right film, both slightly in awe of the other, egging each other on towards the ultimate method performance. It was nice to hear from this friend just how sweet, naive and completely fearless both of them were.
LexG it was on Chelsea Latley talk show –
thanks for the reply jbd i get your drift, hearing so much stuff over the years from different sources it’s hard to know what to believe.
(what i heard re: flea was more about him than from him, friends of riv who say they were there claim that while they were all living together in that house during the shoot flea was the supplier, but again i don’t know how true that is)
interestingly in some piece with van sant he said he left it up to riv and keanu how physically intimate they wanted to get during the campfire scene, for which river wrote the dialogue, and of course the scene in the film ends ambiguously so it’s left up to our imagination what occurs between them…but in the unused footage you see that when push comes to shove, riv and keanu don’t get sexy but rather howl at the moon (i have a clip somewhere)
17 films for 2012 .
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/12/17-films-to-look-forward-to-in-2012/250263/#slide1
Sean Penn was hysterical in Carlito’s Way, no joke.
So I somehow managed to avoid any incarnation or plot point of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO for the past decade or for however long it’s been in the zeitgeist. I just never seized the moment to get aboard. Today I saw the Fincher version and gotta say….that’s IT?? Everyone was excited about THAT storyline? About those characters?? Wow.
I mean, it’s cool and intricate but I was really pretty ambivalent about the whole affair. I wasn’t skeezed out really and I certainly didn’t hate the film but I found it all to be passable and not all that amazing or fascinating. Maybe the books or the original film version are “better” but I just found the plot to feel like something I’d seen before. I thought Rooney Mara was good, not great. It was all just so….meh.
Sigh.
Leahnz, you once came down on me for an exchange with someone that lasted 3 posts long, telling me that I was hammering something to death.
16 posts from you, about River Phoenix…going back and forth mostly with Lex, of all people???
Really????
River is to Leah what K-Stew is to me.
Exactly the same thing. Nothing wrong with that, I just wish she’d admit it.
hey glamourboy, i’ve had a few beers out in the sun and i’m slightly blurred and sunburnt so i’ll tread carefully:
yes, really. before i have any future convos on the hotblog longer than three comments, i’ll post a disclaimer/apology to you, how does that sound? god forbid.
and yes, i vaguely remember what you’re referring to – rather misleadingly to boot; if i recall you had gone from thread to thread to thread posting something like this in each thread ad nauseum: “this is a terrible movie, it sucked, i can’t see how anyone could like this movie, it was so bad, how could anyone think this was a good movie” (unfortunately i can’t remember what movie it was). so after the third or fourth thread jump of said bad mouthing and rebutting, i said, “we get it, you don’t like the movie and you can’t understand how we do, no need to beat a dead horse” or something to that effect – me expressing my annoyance as one commenter.
now, if you can’t see the difference between that circumstance – jumping from thread to thread to put down a movie and the people who liked it over and over again, as if people didn’t hear you the first time, and someone saying ‘we get it, you don’t like the movie” – and people having a conversation/debate about an actor in one thread (yes with lex interjecting with the usual ignorant/attention-seeking nonsense and getting personal trying to pick a fight), i don’t know what to tell you. perhaps a reading comprehension/learning anex course at your local community college is the ticket. good luck
(and k-stew isn’t fit to lick river’s fungal toe jam, NO COMPARISON. don’t tell me what to admit)
Hahahahaha New Leahnz kind of rules.
I am back to genuinely liking her again.
It is also very clear she personally addresses my “ignorant nonsense” because she secretly likes me too.
pigtail-pull! cuuuute!
with the major holiday coming – DP is cranking out all new dp/30 …
with a seperation dp/30 – there is an english transaltor – that must cost like 10,000 bucks – still need to watch
this one.
– dp/30 nato president – dude talks all lawyer like . probably a real lawyer.
– dp/30 – la luna – some new guy from disney ? thats not the top 3 disney guys everybody talks about
– dp/30 – puddy tat – DP doesn’t take 1 minute to explain
if this is a movie or tv show or what . old people sure
can talk animation
– dp/30 – Kenneth Branagh – look another british actor who loves talking about how amazing shakespeare is.
hmmm. maybe not best to watch this .
– dp/30 – margin call – 1 guy who actually talks about
what movies cost to make – DP is the movie biz guy – somehow doesn’t go far enough with numbers . also doesn’t go far enough with the directors past history of films he’s done. something that would take a few minutes.
still haven’t seen the actors i want for dp/30 . my expections are way to high i guess .
that’s the dp/30 roundup . i should sell these to film schools and charge like 9.99 . saves people time ..30 minutes of time.
HAHAHAHAHA SANJ RULES. I know other ppl say they skip over his stuff, but I read every Sanj post and laugh every time.
I don’t even care if it’s a put-on, just his hypothetical scenarios for David Poland and the idea of someone being THAT into DP or his interviews– always funny.
17
18! (thought i’d help you out)
well i guess i’ve well and truly exceeded my ‘glamourboy-stick-up-the-ass’ thread quota… what’s my glamourboy limit, so i know for next time i have a conversation here, when to start fearing the glamourboy comment-counting and posting retribution? but wait, why don’t you count other people’s posts – there are lots of long conversations here and people who comment numerous times on a topic (and i certainly don’t give a shit or try to intervene) – or is it just me you’re obsessed with because i made ONE comment to you like half a year ago? anyway for my own amusement i hope you keep it up. goodness knows anyone who’s been reading this blog for long knows i’m long-winded and blather on/babble habitually, you got your work cut out for ya)
oops, wtf, somehow just duplicated my entire comment above (ha, 19!)
Leah, you know people hold grudges on here. It’s just how the place works.
Don, Lisbeth is awesome, and that’s why those books are so big. I do love that basically Fincher made a more expensive version of TGWTDT and it’s only slightly better than the Swedish TV version.
LexG – it just proves i actually watch these dp/30’s .
i also listen/watch a lot of movie reviews ..
the Moretz one got the most comments . a lot of people
freaking out how good of a talker she is ..
she talked about how her family helps her with her acting so lets a dp30 with them .. DP can get a world
exclusive here .
when ellen – talk show host does interviews with teens
they usually include family or friends and its a better
interviews….with DP sometimes actors under 18 ..its
DP the suit and tie serious reviewer guy … teen
actors can’t just rant about anything they want.
if a teen actor wanted to talk about twlight for 15 minutes it might drive DP totally nuts….but when a british actor goes on and on about how amazing theatre is or shakespeare is ..its totally fine.
here’s a fun video
“Chloe Grace Moretz” Dance With Her Brother
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Lt2i19-kr8
new music video – lots of shooting gun’s 80’s style. think LexG might like this
LANA DEL REY- OFF TO THE RACES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XLHFiGauDY&feature=player_embedded
really amazing pictures of actors / celebrities .
click on all of them.
http://samspratt.com/
i predict the future … 6 months from now.
i predict no Bale or Nolan dp/30 for dark knight rises.
too famous.
out of the 10 major cast members i predict Gary Oldman and Juno Temple doing a dp/30 ..cause they know who DP is .
entire cast will do comic con / geek interviews only .
super easy questions …
although with the crazy cost of the movie – the studio
could force Nolan /Bale to do a dp/30 . of course it’ll be
in a hotel with ugly lamp.