Steven Soderbergh, fresh off The Informant!, discussed with MTV Movies Blog the tone of his upcoming Liberace biopic, which will feature Michael Douglas as the glamor god himself and Matt Damon as his young lover, Scott Thorson.

According to MTV’s in-depth research of the subject,

“Thorson met Liberace when he was 17 years old and was hired by the performer as a friend and companion, a role that had him flying all over the world and getting flooded with lavish gifts. After their relationship ended due to promiscuity and drug addiction, Thorson filed a headline-grabbing $133 million lawsuit against Liberace.”

Sounds like some good material for a film that seems like it’s shaping up to be an otherwise inconsequential footnote in Soderbergh’s sophisticated career. The director also talked about the tone of the film, which will straddle a line between drama and obvious comedy:

“I don’t think it’s a comedy, but it’s pretty funny because the environment and the lifestyle are so extreme that even just having these guys carry on a quote-unquote ‘normal’ conversation in one of these rooms wearing the clothes that they wore, it’s hard to look at that and take it at face value.”

Last we heard, the untitled Liberace film was being written by P.S. I Love You scribe Richard LaGravenese. Unless substantial revisions have occurred, it’s likely the finished product is still under LaGravenese’s pen.

More details as they arrive on AtomicPopcorn.net!

Matt Damon is The Informant

The Fix Is In.  That is the title of episode 168 of “This American Life” where the story of Mark Whitacre was first heard by screenwriter Scott Burns and eventually made into a movie.  Such is Hollywood.  After seeing the film yesterday, I looked up the Chicago Public Radio program and listened to it this morning.  I would have appreciated hearing the episode before seeing the film for most of the same reasons that I think the second viewing of this film will be more satisfying then the first.  I didn’t get to the screening early so I sat fairly close to the front (the only seats that were available).  Behind me slumped a group of irritating kids who spoke loudly to each other and said “Matt Damon” in the Team America voice every time he came on screen.  Idiots behind me and, on screen, idiots in front of me.  And Mark Whitacre does come across as a blundering idiot for most of the film.  Now, there is something to be said about the unreliable narrator in movies.  When we go to see a film, we assume, unless we are specifically told otherwise, that our main character is a normal natural human being that feels, thinks and behaves in the same way we all do and therefore we feel that we can trust them.  When we find out more then half way through the film that this is not the case, it can sometimes work – e.g., A Beautiful Mind.  Then again…..

This is Steven Soderbergh’s second film this year (third or fourth film depending on how you’re counting and depending if you got the Che double feature this year rather then last.)  Regardless, the guy is prolific, with his “one for the studios, one for me” mentality and what he churns out is fairly decent work.  That’s the consensus, anyway, as it appears that many people will take even a small role just to be in a Soderburgh film.  Melanie Lynskey (Rose from “Two And A Half Men”) plays Mark’s wife; Scott Bakula (“Enterprise” or “Quantum Leap”, take your pick) is FBI agent Brian Shepard; Joel McHale (from “The Soup”) is Shepard’s FBI partner Bob Herndon; Patton Oswald (comedian and voice of Remy in Ratatouille) plays a government worker; Tony Hale (Buster from “Arrested Development”) plays Mark’s lawyer; Clancy Brown (Inman from “Lost”), Thomas F. Wilson (Biff from Back To The Future) and yet another Ocean’s alum, Eddie Jemison, makes a stop.  Like I said, it’s a veritable smorgasbord or “Hey, it’s that guy from that show/movie.  You know.  Whats-his-name.” Everyone gets an extra fifty points for every Smothers Brother they can point out.

Soderbergh drenches this film in a yellow tint that, along with the fonts chosen, make this a cool throw back to cheesy spy films of the 70s.  He plays fast and loose with any seriousness the film might attempt.  I especially enjoyed the clever way he used his music cues.  During one of Mark’s random ramblings (the film is full of them), with music playing behind a montage of fields and factories, Mark happens to mention Mexico and for two measures the music changes into a Spanish flare with horns a-blazin’ before quickly changing back.  During the movie’s main takedown scene where the FBI raids people’s homes and you would expect to hear music thumping like nervous hearts or swelling heroically, Soderberg instead gives us a whimsical piece of melodic confection with kazoos.  After the first time Mark meets with the FBI, music fit for any James Bond movie kicks in as we see him driving home.  The music, along with most of the other choices, helps us get into the head of the Mark Whitacre – an odd place to be, indeed.  As I mentioned before, Mark does a lot of voiceover in this film, spouting random – interesting, but random – facts that just occasionally happen to pop into his head.  The voiceovers often drown out Mark’s own voice or the voices of other people who are talking to Mark, showing us yet another facet of his psyche.

Matt Damon, who does his Raging Bull transformation by packing on 30 pounds for this film, plays Mark Whitacre with enough naivete and short-sightedness to make him entertaining if not somewhat pitiful.  Mark is someone who equates himself with Tom Cruise in The Firm.  He’s a man who refuses to take responsibility for anything, caught in delusions of grandeur, and far too talkative for his own good.  Watching him in the trailers, I saw a dorky lout caught in dealings beyond his ability to reckon and I went to the movie wanting to see more of this bumbling hero, along the lines of Get Smart.  Plus, since this was touted as “From the director of Ocean’s 11, 12 and 13” I thought Mark might get into some sort of FBI caper.  Instead what I got was far deeper and far darker then I was prepared for.  If you’re armed with the knowledge that this isn’t the comic romp promised in the trailers, good: enjoy the film.  If not then, before you see the film, listen to the “This American Life” episode.  Yes, spoilers will abound – if this film can be spoiled. The foreknowledge of who’s who and why things are really happening will, I think, enliven the film.  I don’t feel the filmmakers intended any twists or a grand reveal.  If they were, they did it poorly.  What they did was play out a very intriguing story just as it happened and let the audience discover the truth alongside the FBI agents who work with Whitacre.  I can see why the agents were so frustrated.  So there.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Warning: Very minor spoilers for The Informant!

I imagine it’s a lesser feat to concoct an M. Night Shyamalan-style script. Get a central conceit, form a twist, reverse-engineer a story — bing bang boom. A script like Scott Z. Burns’ The Informant! (based on a book by Kurt Eichenwald), however, is a different machine.

That’s not to say there’s a twist in Steven Soderbergh’s film. There isn’t. The progression of the plot is a very natural extension of character that’s so subtle you may not pick up on it until it slaps you right in the face. With the exception of a very routine start to the second act, The Informant! follows a gradual transition, challenging the viewer to keep up without pandering or seeming to hide anything.

Hiding anything and everything is really the core of this film. We follow Matt Damon’s Mark Whitacre, a hapless neurotic schlub biochemist functioning as VP of agricultural giant ADM. He quacks out marketing strategies and business lingo as if he’s clearing his throat to delve into subjects of camouflage for polar bears or butterfly self-defense mechanisms. Yet before the audience can bat an eye, Whitacre is an FBI informant for agent Brian Shephard (Scott Bakula), revealing the a large-scale secret price-fixing operation within his employer’s domain.

Without spoiling the fun, I have to say that I laughed a lot at this sarcastic comedy. Half the time, I was laughing at the restrained but great performances, from Bakula to Damon to Arrested Development‘s Tony Hale who rounds out the ensemble as Whitacre’s exasperated lawyer. The other half, I was laughing at myself for not questioning the elements I was being shown, for questioning the naivete of the lead character.

Matt Damon is a true chameleon, able to shift from leading man hero in the Bourne films to a misguided Ned Flanders here; somehow, he’s great and fitting in both roles. Also, any film that brings Tom Wilson (Biff Tannen from the Back to the Future films) back into the business while making Scott Bakula an actual presence on the big screen is a creative feat to be praised.

We’re in a year of great mainstream original films battling the larger evil of rubbish that usually plagues this season. The Informant! is no different — I’d call it counter-programming, but it’s the programming studios are going with, and I couldn’t be happier about it. With this, and films like Where the Wild Things Are and Up in the Air, mainstream cinema is shifting toward more character-driven original works striving for asymmetry.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

]]> http://www.atomicpopcorn.net/the-informant-review/feed/ 0 http://www.atomicpopcorn.net/the-girlfriend-experience-review/ http://www.atomicpopcorn.net/the-girlfriend-experience-review/#comments Thu, 28 May 2009 21:13:07 +0000 Erik Buckman http://www.atomicpopcorn.net/?p=5045

Visually beautiful yet sickeningly distant in its presentation, The Girlfriend Experience is either a treatise on veneer thin materialism or an exercise on what independent features should not be: coolly detached with nary a reason to care about a single character in the film. Steven Soderbergh, who is a master of capturing inner turmoil (Sex, Lies, and Videotape) but can also have smirky fun (Oceans 11 & 12, not so much 13), creates a feature that is a beauty to behold. Sadly, beneath the glamour shots of New York City and designer duds, the story line and, more importantly, the characters, fail to create even a droplet of authentic emotion nor a reason to watch the film’s events unfold for its scant hour and 17 minutes. It’s no surprise that Soderbergh’s cinematography is exquisite, but filling the captured emptiness with the emptiness of shallow characters does little for its audience, assuming that the film was made for them in mind.

Can you buy me a feeling?

“Chelsea” (played by adult actress Sasha Grey) is a high-end call girl in Manhattan. When she’s not servicing men ranging from jewelry store owners to hedge fund advisers and charging a whopping $2,000 an hour, she lives with her hunky boyfriend and personal trainer Chris (Chris Santos). Chris knows all about his girlfriend’s career choice and appears fine with it. Until she meets a client who strikes her fancy and decides to spend a weekend with him, sending the fragile relationship into a tailspin. But that’s merely half the story. We follow our well-dressed whore in and out of a maze of difficulties in the industry like a pervert who runs a message board ranking escorts and a new popular competitor.

The Girlfriend Experience is set during the run-up to the 2008 election and showcases all the chatter of the time. Hot items like defending Israel, Obama and spending, and investing in gold. In many interactions with her clients, “Chelsea” receives advice on what to do with the money she receives from her johns after she sells her body. In turn, her boyfriend Chris is trying to score a high-paying helping to sculpt other people’s bodies which sets up the main theme of the tale: Life is merely a sequence of transactions.

The film is pure voyeurism with a fictional story made to look like a documentary. It’s strangely captivating but the viewing experience is similar to being trapped in a closet while watching a highly-trained technician build a bomb: boring with an appeal of danger but you can’t leave the closet because you may a) startle the guy with the bomb or b) miss something cool. In Soderbergh’s Girlfriend Experience, the bomb never goes off. As for Grey, who has starred in over 80 pornos, her detachment fits her role, though it’s unclear if this was just perfect casting of a non-emotive person (wouldn’t you have to be to star in over 80 porn movies?) or an actual human being cast in a non-emotive role. Whichever the case, audiences will come away feeling the same way: unemotional.

While not knowing much about this film, it seems to me its of epic proportions without seeing it. Che is the latest masterpiece from Steven Soderbergh and actor Benicio Del Toro, who have won awards a many already for their work on these films. Yes I said films, its such an epic that its cut into two parts.

While this is not my kind of film, I must admit I am intrigued with it. We shall see if we get the invite!

Enjoy the trailer:

Che will hit theaters as part of a special roadshow presentation in NY and LA on December 12, and will open wider on January 9. The trailer can be viewed in High Definition over on Yahoo.