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I watched Henry and June the other day. The movie is based on the diary of Parisian author Anais Nin and chronicles Nin's (Maria de Medeiros) romantic and lustful affairs with both the famous American author Henry Miller (Fred Ward) and his wife June (Uma Thurman). Nin is unsatisfied with her sex life and unhappy she cannot find what she is looking for in her husband, Hugo (Robert E. Grant). When Henry Miller goes to stay with Anais and Hugo, Anais is instantly attracted to his sexual masculinity and bravado. Her attraction to Henry eventually leads to Anais lusting for Henry's wife, June. When June heads back to work in the States, Nin and Miller start a wildly passionate affair. Through the affair Nin continues to explore herself sexually through Hugo as well as other men along the way. Throughout those years in the 1930's, Nin successfully chronicles the relationships which is later published and Henry Miller writes the classic book, The Tropic of Cancer.
Henry and June was the first movie to receive a NC-17 rating over the former X rating. The reason for this is not the multitude of sex scenes, including the handful between de Medeiros and Thurman, but for a three second shot early on in the film depicting a sexually explicit photo of a Japanese woman and a squid.
Maybe I just didn't understand the movie. Maybe it wasn't what I expected. Perhaps it was just a bad movie. Regardless, after it was finished, I was left with a feeling somewhere between perplexed and unsettled. Instead of this movie being a captivating and romantic movie describing relationships as well as the people in them, this movie ended up being little more than a soft-core porn. The movie was beautifully choreographed and shot, but that was the only thing excelling in the film. From what I could see, Ward failed to capture the deep and intellectual Henry Miller, instead concentrating on, and subsequently, overdramatizes both his robustness and his insecurities. de Medeiros was a very gorgeous, but uninspiring actress throughout the film.
The movie was two hours of lust and sex scenes. Rather than capture the essence of the characters, Henry and June is instead relegated to beautifying adultery and condoning deceit. I'm not sure that alone would make for a bad movie, but I for one feel like director Phillip Kaufman missed the point of Nin's journal: sexual exploration was Nin's vehicle for self-discovery and human enlightenment. Kaufman merely shows the diary as Nin's version of intense sexual desire for pleasure and pleasure alone.
I wrote about Nicolas Cage's movies, roles, awards, and talent in the last post. Cage was in line for the starring role in The Wrestler, but pulled himself out of the race because he knew director Darren Aronofsky's number one choice for the role was Mickey Rourke. As you know, Rourke went on to receive an Academy Award nomination for best actor in the role. Rourke acted the part perfectly and deserved all the critical acclaim he received for his role in The Wrestler.
While Rourke did an excellent job, he was meant to play the part. It's no wonder Aronofsky wanted Rourke to play the part. The life of both Randy "The Ram" Robinson and Mickey Rourke have a number ofsimilarities that made Rourke's portrayal of Robinson so believable.
In The Wrestler, Randy "The Ram" Robinson is a washed up wrestler who was famous in the 1980's. He had since fallen out of the spotlight and now wrestles on the weekends in small independent venues. In the movie, Robinson struggles with trying to fix the part of his life that he ignored while being a famous celebrity. Even though his career is virtually over, he struggles with letting it go even when he's told by doctors his health has deteriorated to the point where he needs to quit.
Rourke in The Wrestler
In real life, Rourke became a star actor in the 1980's. He became well know through his critically acclaimed performances in such movies as The Outsiders, The Pope of Greenwich Village, and 9 and 1/2 Weeks. Towards the end of the decade and into the early 90's, Rourke acted in several box office bombs and poorly reviewed movies. He also made several perplexing acting decisions; Rourke is said to have turned down roles as Axel Foley Beverly Hills Cops, Elliot Ness in The Untouchables, and Nick Nolte's role in 48 Hrs. Between his opting out of successful films and the poor showings of the movies he did act in, Rourke was slowly fading out of the spotlight.
A Younger Rourke
He decided to go back to boxing and after posting a 6-0-2 record in the ring, Rourke returned to acting. After several years of taking supporting roles, Rourke once again found himself in the mainstream with a leading role in Sin City. He continued to find smaller roles in mainstream movies like Man on Fire and Domino.
Rourke in Sin City
And with irony working at its finest, Rourke seemed to make it all the way back to the top this past year in The Wrestler. To do so, Rourke had to play a role in which the character's life seemed to mimic Rourke's real life trials and tribulations. Rourke, who once found his way out of stardom, kept on fighting to get back on top of his game had finally made it, and he did so while playing--himself.
Over the last week or so I watched two movies starring Nicolas Cage, 8mm and Next. I had somehow never seen 8mm before and I rather enjoyed it. On the other hand, Next was a joke of a movie with horrible acting and a ridiculous script. It got me thinking; what happened to Nicolas Cage's acting career?
Cage's career started with roles in such classics as Fast Times at Ridgemont High ('82) and Valley Girl ('83). His first major successful starring role was in the Coen Brothers dark comedy, Raising Arizona ('87). After Raising Arizona, Cage was nominated for several various best actor awards for his roles in Moonstruck ('87), Vampire's Kiss ('89), and Honeymoon in Vegas ('92). With over twenty film credits to Cage's career, he landed his most acclaimed role yet in Leaving Las Vegas ('95). Starring opposite Elizabeth Shue, Cage plays Ben Sanderson, a depressed alcoholic for which Cage was awarded the Oscar for Best Actor.
Cage in the hillarious Raising Arizona
After his Oscar win, Cage starred in hit after hit for the next seven years. Cage starred opposite of Sean Connery in The Rock ('96), John Malkovich in Con Air ('97), and John Travolta in Face/Off ('97). Other highlights during this period for Cage was the cult classic 8mm ('99) and the entertaining Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000). Even though Cage failed to win this time, he was nominated for an Best Actor Oscar for a second time for his role as Charlie Kaufman in Adaptation ('02).
Cage is a convict in Con Air
Unlike his first Academy Award nomination, this one did not catapult Cage into over a half dozen years of success. As a matter of fact, after Adaptation, Cage has become a shadow of his former self. Sonny ('03) was Cage's disappointing directing debut. He followed that up with National Treasure ('04), somewhat flops Lord of War ('05) and Weather Man ('05). Those were followed by such disasters as The Wicker Man ('06), Ghost Rider ('07), Next ('07), and Bangkok Dangerous ('08). I know that the two Treasure movies he made were huge box office hits, but they were elaborate action movies produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and had no need for talented acting to succeed in making money.
Cage is Johnny Blaze in Ghost Rider
It seems to me that his career is moving backwards; he was known for taking quirking roles that were character driven and now seems to be content acting in movies that he can mail in his talent. He seems like he would rather produce mediocre movies rather than act in excellent ones. I only hope that he realizes this soon because he actually was a good character actor once and now he just disappoints. From what I've read, a turnaround doesn't seem likely with his new movie, Knowing, but hopefully Cage starts caring again real soon about making good movies.
The fourth and final volume of DMB's documentary concentrates mostly on their latest album, "The Road to Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King." The opening starts with Carter Beauford claiming every song on this CD is his favorite, but he really likes the song, "Seven".
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DMB went back home to produce their fourth studio album, Everyday. It did not go well and the band put the CD on hold and got rid of their producer, Steve Lillywhite. The six songs that they had finished were leaked and were dubbed as the "Lillywhite sessions". They went to Glen Ballard, who was known for his pop albums, and he helped write twelve songs to finish the CD. Dave Matthews said he felt that the album was not really "them".
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The second volume of the documentary begins in Charlottesville, Virginia. Dave Matthews met Carter Beauford and Leroi Moore at Miller's, a restaurant in Charlottesville. Dave asked to work there as a bartender after he heard Tim Reynolds play there. The band's birth took place upstairs at Miller's when Dave asked Carter and Leroi to listen to a couple of his songs. From there Dave picked up Boyd from his band, The Boyd Tinsley Band. Stefan Lessard was added when his father, who had played in the past with Carter, asked Carter to let his son audition for bass. That's how the band got together.
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The documentary started with the band headed out to play a live show; appropriate considering that is what the band is known for. The first half of the documentary is spent introducing the members of the band: Boyd Tinsley on violin, Tim Reynolds on guitar, Carter Beauford on drums, Steffan Lessard on bass, and new members Jeff Coffin and Rashawn Ross on saxophone and trumpet, respectively. The band members were described in the context of what they do and bring to the band's live performances.
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Dave Matthews Band performed on June 1, 2009 at Beacon Theater in New York. I caught the show streamed on Hulu. It was quite an excellent show. It was there watching that I found out that for the rest of the week, FUSE would be showing a four-part documentary the making of Dave Matthews Band's newly released CD, "Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King". Over the next four posts, I will be writing about each episode because, well frankly, I'm interested in seeing it.
I watched The Bounty yesterday on Hulu. I had never heard of the movie and was very surprised when I saw the cast. I figured the movie had to be very good with the actors being Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins, Daniel-Day Lewis, and Liam Neeson.
Well as it turns out, there was a reason I had never heard of this movie. It was terribly boring. Even with the acting being very good, the actors could not save this movie's simple and mundane plot. The whole movie's premise was explaining the events that led up to the mutiny of the English ship that was headed to Tahiti for trade in the 18th century
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So, as many have you probably have noticed, there's a new face of Anonymous Film Critic. I just want to quickly say thanks to all of you who read this blog and I guess my only real goal is to write informative posts that are enjoyable for you all to read. Obviously, the theme of the blog will not change--movies--but I will be writing about everything and anything having to do with film. Topics will vary from reviews to writing about the business or profiling actors, directors, producers, etc. Also I would like to heavily encourage anybody to join on. This blog is opened for writings from everyone; so if you want to write anything and post it then please feel free. Also, anybody who just wants to say something short and sweet or leave advice on how to make this blog better for you guys, then by all means, leave a comment about anything you wish. With that being said; I will talk to you later.
Yours truly
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on The Wrestler (2008) - Mickey Rourke Interview Included
Anonymous Film Critic