Comments on The House Next Door: Links for the Day (November 27th, 2006)

Jeff: "Maybe if [NASHVILLE] had a scene where Ron...

2006-11-28T05:47:00.000-05:00

Jeff: "Maybe if [NASHVILLE] had a scene where Ronee Blakely blamed her fainting spells on being disconnected from the means of production, [Rosenbaum] would have liked it more."

On the one hand, that's funny enough to justify Rosenbaum's critique (though I agree with Matt's hats-off to Rosenbaum's, and Steven Boone's, unapologetic contrariness).

On the other, isn't that pretty much Blakely's complaint during her onstage meltdown at the riverboat concert?

Andrew Sarris once wrote something that's been rin...

2006-11-28T03:45:00.000-05:00

Andrew Sarris once wrote something that's been ringing my ears ever since I read it: "Cynicism and sophistication, relatively rare in movies at any time, are apt to be seized upon as indicators of the full register of a director's personality." He was writing about the critical tendency to distrust sentiment when it comes from the likes of Billy Wilder or Richard Lester; I think it applies to some of Altman's more suspect work, too. Of course Nashville is cynical--but that's certainly not all it is. As Pauline Kael pointed out, if you watch carefully, you notice that the most misanthropic character (Haven Hamilton) turns out to be the only stand-up guy when push comes to shove. For me, the film is pure anthropology, and maybe a bit of a Rorschach test.

Everybody is talking about Nashville and nobody is...

2006-11-28T02:05:00.000-05:00

Everybody is talking about Nashville and nobody is talking about Bobby. The latter is quite spectacularly about nothing- it gets a whole bunch of people together at the assassination for reasons only God and Emilio Estevez know for sure. It's not merely bad, but it's pointless- and Rosenbaum's championing it puts him in the winner's circle with Armond White in terms of curmudgeonly insanity.

Amen about Nashville. I thought I was the only lun...

2006-11-28T00:54:46.406-05:00

Amen about Nashville. I thought I was the only lunatic around who saw through that flick's cartoon canvas. Not to pile on a dead man, but there's a fair amount of cynicism and hatred in a lot of Altman's crowded tapestries. If his compositions were as immaculate and rigid as, say, Wes Anderson's, this would be easier to see. Doll houses. Altman's people-as-wildlife zoom lens photography and overlapping dialogue pushed an illusion of verite authenticity to beef up some pretty thin ideas about AMERICA.

Oh dear. When Mick LaSalle is more persuasive than...

2006-11-27T23:13:00.000-05:00

Oh dear. When Mick LaSalle is more persuasive than Jonathan Rosenbaum, that is a sad day for American film criticism indeed!

I like contrariness as much as anyone, but not when it's purely reactionary and myopic. Dismissing "Nashville" as "cynical" is a tired old knee-jerk response that's been around as long as the movie has -- but it may have been more understandable in the seventies, when Altman's sensibility was more novel and shocking to mainstream sensibilities. This smear reminds me of those who lashed out at "Do the Right Thing" for being hateful and cynical (and the colors weren't anything like the REAL Bed-Stuy!). What's missing is an appreciation for the exuberance, the openness and joy of the movie (and the moviemaking), and the appreciation of conflicted human characters who don't fit anybody's formulaic idea of "sympathetic."

Besides using "Bobby" to bash "Nashville" is like using "Neil Simon's California Suite" to belittle "Short Cuts." (Or "The Towering Inferno" to trash "Playtime" -- just a coupla movies about architecture, right?) To quote Bob Mould: Makes no sense at all.

BTW, Matt -- Your review of "The Fountain" is fantastic (in the very best sense[s] of the word), the most thorough and eloquent assessment of the movie I've seen.

LaSalle's piece does make similar points, and in a...

2006-11-27T21:26:36.213-05:00

LaSalle's piece does make similar points, and in an altogether more persuasive way, I think.

Sigh. Guess I have to move this title up from the "maybe" list to the "gotta have an opinion on it" list. So many movies...

Mick LaSalle wrote a similar review of BOBBY in th...

2006-11-27T21:22:40.620-05:00

Mick LaSalle wrote a similar review of BOBBY in the SF Chronicle. I cannot believe it. But, I haven't seen the movie.

As for NASHVILLE...I need to give it another spin.

As for Spike's new venture: who's ready for Jon Miller and Joe Morgan to take over the World Series?

Nowadays, the words "Sports journalism" are about ...

2006-11-27T18:06:27.943-05:00

Nowadays, the words "Sports journalism" are about as oxymoronic as they come. Not only are the athletes managed and handled and programmed to deliver the same answers over and over, so too are the reporters who ask the same lame-ass shit of them day after day.

How do these cats do this, day after day after day, without losing their freakin' minds?

Yeah, I'm fairly staggered that a critic as promin...

2006-11-27T16:31:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I'm fairly staggered that a critic as prominent as Rosenbaum could misunderstand Nashville as much as he is there, but God bless the stubborn.

Maybe if it had a scene where Ronee Blakely blamed her fainting spells on being disconnected from the means of production, he would have liked it more.

Re: Item #5. Bravo to Spike for trying to do some...

2006-11-27T16:12:22.203-05:00

Re: Item #5. Bravo to Spike for trying to do something rather than just complain. But the unanswered question is, is this effort just going to alter a percentage, or will there be a mandate to produce good sports journalists, rather than circus ringmasters or ass-kissing fanboys?

Re: Item #1: My knee-jerk reaction is to say that Rosenbaum's wildly misreading the finale of Altman's Nashville, and resuscitating the "cynical" label only makes me think he's missing the forest for the trees (and that complaint about the song being pseudo-country has a pretty long beard on it, and is not terribly germane to what the film is doing and saying). That said, I love that he's the only critic with any kind of a profile who's willing to go against the grain during a week when Altman was all but canonized. And to praise a movie by Emilio Estevez, yet! I think Altman would have appreciated that.

Haven't seen Bobby yet, so I can't vouch for its quality, but I do think Estevez is a better director than he's generally given credit for being.