Tag Archives: Bookeem Woodbine

Film Review: Primetime (dir by Lance Oppenheim)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

“What are you doing here?” Chris Hansen (Robert Pattinson) asks a man in a kitchen at the start of Primetime.

What are you doing here? That’s a question that several people struggle to answer over the course of the film. The man in the kitchen really doesn’t have an answer, though we know that he’s there because he thought he would be meeting an underage person for sex. And we know that Hansen is there because he’s the host of To Catch a Predator, a show that a lot of people now pretend they didn’t watch even though we all did.

What are you doing here? That’s a question that Dan Plum (Skyler Gisondo) also struggles to answer throughout the film. When we first see Dan, he’s being filmed as he explains that he doesn’t have an agent and that he’s not in the union but he has done some commercial work. Dan doesn’t know what he’s auditioning for. It’s only after he’s cast that he learns that he’s been cast not for his musical theater background but instead because he can convincingly pass for a 13-year-old. While the members of an organization called Perverted Justice entice pedophiles to come visit them at their “home,” Dan is the one who actually greets them at the door and gets them to come inside so that they can be confronted by Chris Hansen and his camera crew. At first, Dan feels awkward about being a decoy. Then, after one pedophile exposes himself, Dan is frightened by it. Chris’s producer, Andie (Merritt Wever), encourages Chris to take Dan under his wing as a protégé in order to keep Dan with the show. Soon, Dan is approaching his decoy work like an actor preparing for a great stage role.

What are we doing here? That’s the question that Andie wonders when Chris insists on filming an episode in the suburbs of Texas instead of on the then-hot Jersey Shore. Chris has been told by Xavier Von Erck (Matthew Maher), the founder of Perverted Justice, that he’s tracked down a pedophile who has political connections. Chris and Xavier are hoping for a Congressman or maybe someone even bigger. (When Andie expresses some reservations at not knowing for sure who they’re going after, “sensitive” guy Xavier descends very quickly into misogyny.) Instead, they have to settle for an assistant district attorney named Bill Conradt (Alex Winter). When Conradt, after talking to Dan on the phone and promising to come meet him at the house, fails to show up, Chris and Andie decide to confront Conradt at his home.

What am I doing here? Andie asks herself perhaps more than anyone else in the film. Having been with To Catch a Predator since the beginning, she’s been offered a chance to skip over to another network and produce a show called What Would You Do? What Would You Do? copies To Catch a Predator‘s humiliation format but instead of targeting pedophiles, it targets people who fail to return a wallet or who don’t speak up when an actor says something insensitive. If To Catch A Predator can at least claim to be putting bad people in jail, What Would You Do? can’t even pretend that it’s making the world a better place. Primetime suggests that humiliation, and not justice, was the true lifeblood of To Catch a Predator.

What are we doing here? That’s the question that the audience is forced to consider. Did we watch To Catch a Predator because we wanted to see bad people arrested or did we watch it because we enjoyed watching someone realize, on camera, that his life was essentially over? And are we watching Primetime because we’re interested in what it has to say about the show and the man at the center of it or are we watching because we’re nostalgic for the show that abruptly ended after Bill Conradt shot himself in his home? Did we watch originally because we were worried about the dangers of online predators or did we watch so we could laugh?

Primetime raises a lot of questions and, to its credit, it doesn’t offer up any easy answers. Indeed, it’s brave enough to admit that there is no either/or. Yes, To Catch a Predator‘s main appeal might be the spectacle of humiliation but that doesn’t mean that the men who appeared on the show weren’t deserving of it. The film’s ambiguity extends to its portrayal of Bill Conradt, who talks to someone whom he believes to be underage on the phone but who apparently changes his mind about going to the address that he’s given. Conradt suddenly finds himself staring out of his office window at an army of cops and cameramen. Earlier one of those cops is shown getting a Subway sandwich and glancing at a poster celebrating Jared Fogle. As Jeff Zucker (poorly playing himself) puts it to Chris Hansen, To Catch a Predator may be a sleazy show but it’s what America wants.

With the exception of Zucker, the entire cast is impressive. Not surprisingly the film is dominated by Robert Pattinson, who plays Chris Hansen as being neurotic and obsessive. While Hansen grills the men unlucky enough to be caught on camera and asks them how their families would feel, he cheats on his wife with another woman and his idea of a family night is to gather his kids in the living room so they can watch him on TV. Hansen enjoys his fame and he enjoys playing the righteous avenger but he’s full of envy for “serious” journalists like Stone Phillips (played, with the appropriate amount of smug smarminess, by Bill Heck). In one of the film’s strangest moments, he tells Dan about going to India and confronting an “ancient evil” that retreated into a cave only after the villagers that it tormented started to kill each other. Is Hansen telling the truth or is he playing a role? Even he doesn’t seem to know for sure.

The film starts out as a stylized and darkly humorous look at fame and the media in America. However, as it progresses, Primetime takes on the elements of a filmed nightmare, with Hansen moving through the shadows like an almost soulless demon. What is he doing there? By the end of the movie, not even Chris Hansen seems to know for sure.

Almost Heroes (1998, directed by Christopher Guest)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Harry Shearer narrates the story of Leslie Edwards (Matthew Perry) and Bathowlemew Hunt (Chris Farley), the leaders of an expedition that competed with the more famous Lewis & Clark expedition to see who could first to reach the Pacific Ocean.  Edwards is foppish and naive.  Hunt is illiterate and loud.  Included in their expediton is French pirate Fontenot (Eugene Levy) and Fontenot’s Indian wife, Shaquinna (Lisa Barbuscia).  The journey leads the expidition to multiple whorehouses, an angry Eagle, and a group of arrogant conquistadors led by Hidalgo (Kevin Dunn).  Edwards tries to teach Hunt how to read but Hunt gives up after learning “A.”  Hunt, however, gets a chance to not only prove his worth but also to get a haircut from a taxidermist.

Given the talent involved, it’s too bad that this is neither a good comedy nor a good movie.  Christopher Guest directs with none of the wit that had made his improvised films so memorable.  Apparently, the film was originally envisioned as being an ensemble piece but, once filming began, the studio insisted on just focusing on Farley and, to a lesser extent, Perry.  This was also Farley’s last leading role, with the film itself being released several months after his death.  Today, if the film is remembered for anything, it’s for featuring two comedic actors who struggled with similar demons and who both died too young.  Unfortunately, neither Farley nor Perry are really at their best in this film.  Farley yells but with little of the energy that made Tommy Boy a hit.  Matthew Perry resorts to playing Chandler Bing in the 1700s.  For that matter, this film also features what may be Eugene Levy’s worst performance.  It’s a disappointing effort all around.  (Would the film have worked better with Farley’s usual foil, David Spade, in the role of Edwards?  Probably not.  I don’t think any combination of actors could have saved the script.)

What is unfotunate is that the premise had promise.  The early years of the United States was full of eccentric characters, quite a few of which were involved in exploring the still-largely uknown continet.  Christopher Guest really does seem like he should have been the ideal director for a project liket this but instead, Almost Heroes is overly broad and features its two leading actors giving performanes that fill more appropriate for a sitcom than a motion picture.  Almost Heroes was a misfire all the way around.

Days of Paranoia: Edmond (dir by Stuart Gordon)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Based on a one-act play by David Mamet, 2005’s Edmond tells the story of Edmond Burke (William H. Macy).

Edmond shares his name (if not the actual spelling) with the philosopher Edmund Burke.  Edmund Burke was a strong believer that society had to put value in good manners to survive and that religious and moral institutions played an important role in promoting the idea of people treating each other with respect and decency.  Edmund Burke knew what he believes and his writings continue to influence thinks to this day.  Edmond Burke, on the other hand, doesn’t know what he believes.  He doesn’t know who he wants to be.  All he knows is that he doesn’t feel like he’s accomplished anything with his life.  “I don’t feel like a man,” he says at one point to a racist bar patron (played by Joe Mantegna) who replies that Edmond needs to get laid.

On a whim, Edmond steps into the shop of a fortune teller (Frances Bay), who flips a few Tarot cards and then tells Edmond that “You’re not where you’re supposed to be.”  Edmond takes her words to heart.  He starts the night by telling his wife (played by Mamet’s wife, Rebecca Pidgeon) that he’s leaving their apartment and he won’t be coming back.  He goes to the bar, where he discusses his marriage with Mantegna.  He goes to a strip club where he’s kicked out after he refuses to pay $100 for a drink.  He goes to a peep show where he’s frustrated by the glass between him and the stripper and the stripper’s constant demand that he expose himself.  He gets beaten in an alley by three men who were running a three-card monte scam.  Edmond’s problem is that he left home without much cash and each encounter leads to him having less and less money.  If he can’t pay, no one wants to help him, regardless of how much Edmond argues for a little kindness.  He pawns his wedding ring for $120 but apparently, he just turns around and uses that money to buy a knife.  An alley-way fight with a pimp leads to Edmond committing his first murder.  A one-night stand with a waitress (a heart-breaking Julia Stiles) leads to a second murder after a conversation about whether or not the waitress is actually an actress leads to a sudden burst of violence.  Edmond ends up eventually in prison, getting raped by his cellmate (Bookem Woodbine) and being told, “It happens.”  Unable to accept that his actions have, in one night, led him from being a businessman to a prisoner, Edmond says, “I’m ready to go home now.”  By the end of the film, Edmond realizes that perhaps he is now where he was meant to be.

It’s a disturbing film, all the more so because Edmond is played by the likable William H. Macy and watching Macy go from being a somewhat frustrated but mild-mannered businessman to becoming a blood-drenched, racial slur-shouting murderer is not a pleasant experience.  Both the play and the film have generated a lot of controversy due to just how far Edmond goes.  I don’t see either production as being an endorsement of Edmond or his actions.  Instead, I see Edmond as a portrait of someone who, after a lifetime of being willfully blind to the world around him, ends up embracing all of the ugliness that he suddenly discovers around him.  He’s driven mad by discovering, over the course of one night, that the world that is not as kind and well-mannered as he assumed that it was and it all hits him so suddenly that he can’t handle it.  He discovers that he’s not special and that the world is largely indifferent to his feelings.  He gets overwhelmed and, until he gets his hands on that knife, he feels powerless and emasculated.  (The knife is an obvious phallic symbol.)  It’s not until the film’s final scene that Edmond truly understands what he’s done and who he has become.

Edmond is not always an easy film to watch.  The second murder scene is truly nightmarish, all the more so because the camera remains on Edmond as he’s drenched in blood.  This is one of William H. Macy’s best performances and also one of his most disturbing characters.  That said, it’s a play and a film that continues to be relevant today.  There’s undoubtedly a lot of Edmonds out there.

3000 Miles to Graceland (2001, directed by Demian Lichtenstein)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Five thieves show up in Vegas to rob a casino.  The casino is also hosting an Elvis convention so the criminals all dress up like Elvis before trying to pull off their heist.  Since one of the criminals is played by Kurt Russell and Russell famously played Elvis in a made-for-TV movie, it’s a meta joke.  The worst of the criminals is played by Kevin Costner because, in 2001, Costner’s career was dead in the water and he was trying to reinvent himself as some sort of badass character actor.

As a result of a shootout and series of personal betrayals, Russell and Costner are the only two thieves who survive the heist.  Kurt Russell ends up taking all of the money for himself and running off with single mother Courteney Cox.  (Yes, Cox’s then-husband, David Arquette, does have a small role in the movie.)  Costner pursues them, killing anyone who he comes in contact with until it all leads to one final shoot out.

3000 Miles to Graceland is a stupid, stupid movie that was made at the time when every director was still trying to remake Reservoir Dogs and The Usual Suspects.  If you need any proof of how bad this movie is, just consider that it is one of the few Kurt Russell films to never develop a cult following.  There are people who would jump into the mouth of a volcano if Kurt Russell told them to and even they won’t watch 3000 Miles to Graceland.  Even the worst 90s crime films have at least a few people willing to defend them but 3000 Miles to Graceland has been abandoned on the ash heap of crime film history.  Despite having a once-in-a-lifetime supporting cast — Christian Slater, Bookeem Woodbine, Kevin Pollack, Jon Lovitz, Howie Long, Ice-T, and even Paul Anka — 3000 Miles to Graceland has never even received a direct-to-video sequel.

Why is 3000 Miles to Graceland so forgettable?  The heist storyline has been done to death and this film doesn’t bring anything new to the genre.  The only new wrinkle that 3000 Miles to Graceland brings to its familiar story is that the thieves are all dressed like Elvis and that gets old pretty quick.  The other problem is that Kevin Costner is miscast as the psycho villain.  Michael Madsen could have handled the role.  So could Tom Sizemore or Woody Harrelson or just about other actor out there.  But Kevin Costner, who first found fame as a sort of modern-day Gary Cooper, never seems comfortable playing a cold-hearted sociopath.  He makes up for this discomfort by trying too hard.  Comparing his performance here to his more nuanced turn as another criminal in A Perfect World shows just how miscast he was in 3000 Miles To Graceland.

Fortunately, better things were ahead for almost everyone involved in this movie.  Kevin Costner has recently returned to playing the type of roles that made him a star to begin with and Kurt Russell has become an American idol.  Fortunately, 3000 Miles to Graceland is remembered, if at all, as just an unfortunate detour in their otherwise distinguished careers.