Only now does it occur to me.... SCROOGED!

Only now does it occur to me... that once upon a time, John Glover and Robert Mitchum once sat at the same table and shared incredulous looks regarding the increasingly erratic behavior of one Bill Murray.



Long time readers of the site will know of my love for Mitchum and Glover, and to see them both in the same 80s locale in a popular movie that I'd even seen before came as a tremendous and welcome shock. Now, neither of these gents have a great deal to do in SCROOGED (Mitchum is sort of a low-key conscience figure for TV exec Bill Murray, and Glover is an L.A. quasi-sleazebag who's been brought in to direct the SCROOGE TV special which features the Solid Gold Dancers), but it's comforting to know that somewhere out there, John Glover was sitting beside Robert Mitchum, perhaps even helping him in his career-long pursuit of not giving a shit. Happy holidays!

Film Review: THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX (2009, Wes Anderson & Mark Gustafson)

Stars: 5 of 5.
Running Time: 87 minutes.
Notable Cast or Crew: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Willem Dafoe, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Wallace Wolodarsky, Michael Gambon, Owen Wilson, Eric Chase Anderson, Brian Cox, Mario Batali, Adrien Brody. Music by Alexandre Desplat (BIRTH, THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED). Co-written by Noah Baumbach. Animation director Mark Gustafson (did claymation for RETURN TO OZ and THE ADVENTURES OF MARK TWAIN, creator of the California Raisins TV series).
Tag-line: "This year, forget super... ignore incredible... it's all about fantastic."
Best one-liner: "Excuse me? Am I being flirted with by a psychotic rat?"

Utilizing the same stop-motion animation and adorable attention to detail which make Rankin/Bass productions like MAD MONSTER PARTY the cutest shit on the planet, FANTASTIC MR. FOX fuses that aesthetic with the stilted, familial comedy of Baumbach/Anderson and the boyish dream-logic of Roald Dahl in order to create  the sort of children's movie which I can actually stomach. You know, the kind which has Willem Dafoe playing a country-drawlin', switchblade-slingin', wife-slanderin' Rat, somehow the kiddie approximation of his role as Bobby Peru in WILD AT HEART.

It's been a lifelong dream to see Bobby Peru appear in a children's movie.

Much of what I love here is due to what some would call "imperfections"- the manner in which stop-motion lends itself to spontaneous, awkward humor (i.e., the voracious rapidity with which characters eat, or how silly they look dashing across a barnyard)

or the way the animals' fur flutters during shots (because it's an actual, organic object, and not synthetic pixelation). The voice-acting is beyond first rate, not only because of the ridiculous slew of talent, but because Anderson preferred to record outdoors, replacing the sterility of the recording studio with living, breathing, tactile nature. George Clooney's incorrigible, glorious scamp; Meryl Streep's wife, a force at once blazing and soothing; Jason Schwartzman's brattish, sympathetic son (in perhaps his greatest performance to date); Michael Gambon's seething villain:

Wallace Wolodarsky's bewildered chum; or Bill Murray's irascible pushover- the voice actors are the perfect blend of tonality, timing, and role, and the film could not succeed nearly as well as it does without them. I have to wonder, though- now that Anderson has succeeded in perpetuating his vision in a (basically) controlled environment, how will he feel about returning to live action?

What would have happened if Jacques Tati had ever presided over a production using the 'Animagic' process? Well, regardless of where he chooses to go from here- five stars of pure wild animal craziness.

-Sean Gill

Side note: Animation director Mark Gustafson is not actually credited as co-director, but clearly he deserves to be.

Film Review: THE LIMITS OF CONTROL (2009, Jim Jarmusch)

Stars: 2 of 5.
Running Time: 116 minutes.
Notable Cast or Crew: Isaach De Bankolé, John Hurt, Tilda Swinton, Paz de la Huerta, Gael García Bernal, Bill Murray. Cinematography by Christopher Doyle.
Tag-line: "For every way in, there is another way out."
Best one-liner: "The Sufi say each one of us is a planet spinning in ecstasy. But I say each one of us is a set of shifting molecules, spinning in ecstasy."

Jim Jarmusch is a master filmmaker. I love his deadpan humor, his visual style, his strange, earnest slapstick. But THE LIMITS OF CONTROL is not a good movie. I feel as if I can speak with authority because I've made the same mistake: You're on vacation with friends who happen to be actors and you happen to have your camera, so you start shooting. “God, it looks great! I'll write a scene or two as I go along. Here, stand in front of this neat building and brood.” Next thing you know- BAM- you've got a movie, right? Not really. This has the trappings of a cool 60's Eurocrime film, but that's all it's got.

Christopher Doyle's visuals are crisply elegant- deep blues, fiery reds, beautiful countryside, and angled modern architecture.


Isaach De Bankolé is a man on a mission. He always orders two espressos in separate cups.

He exchanges matchbooks and cryptic, quasi-existential banter with brilliant actors who were probably just in the neighborhood that day and Jim was like 'Hey, you want to do a scene?'

It’s punctuated by Isaach staring at the cityscape, doing tai chi, and visiting museums. The scenes of Isaach gazing at artwork just make you wish you were watching Bronson in THE MECHANIC, where scenes of him scrutinizing Bosch were bookended by that rare beast called a 'narrative.'

In DOWN BY LAW, Jim's coup was to not show the specifics of the jailbreak- we have characters in prison, then they're on the lam. The movie is about the characters, not the tunneling, the subterfuge, the act of breaking out. But here, there's not even character- there's empty words, blank stares, an issue of Italian Vogue come to life- a parody (?) of an art film. Jim realizes this and he accordingly ups the T&A ante, but, sorry, no sale.

There's a lot of name-dropping, too- names like Welles, Kaurismäki, Tarkovsky, Hitchcock. Yup, we know those names. Yeah, I've seen STALKER. We're both pretty smart for knowing those names and having seen STALKER, don't you think? For those who say it’s a blank slate meant to be read through the critical lens of your choice, I say it's better if viewed as the live-action version of CARMEN SANDIEGO, with Tilda Swinton as Carmen,

Bill Murray as The Chief,

Is Bill Murray working for ACME or V.I.L.E.?

and John Hurt as Baron Grinnit.

John Hurt answers some questions regarding his theft of the Sphinx. Click on the pic for a larger view.


I’d have to be drunker than Chris Doyle to recommend this. Two stars.

-Sean Gill