DAN FOGELMAN – We Are Movie Geeks

LIFE ITSELF (2018) – Review

This week’s major studio (well, Amazon has snagged an Oscar or two) release is a big, star-studded bit of Oscar bait (it’s now Fall, ya’ know) that tries to answer a sixty-or-so year old question: can a current TV “wunderkind” also strike gold at the box office while being at the top of the Nielsen TV ratings? Yes, Dan Fogelman hopes to be a multi-media, double threat. His TV show, “This is Us”, is a real rarity, a broadcast network (NBC) show that has as fervent a fan base as those programs on cable (basic and premium) and streaming (oh, Amazon does that, too). He wants to expand that base into the nation’s multiplexes this weekend with this “quasi-anthology” storyline (well, storylines) jumping back and forth between cultures and countries (subtitles=serious cinema). So, will we be treated to another TRAFFIC or BABEL, or will it land with a loud, pretentious thud like THIRD PERSON (one of its stars is in this one also)? Well, the box office numbers are almost as unpredictable as LIFE ITSELF.

After the Amazon (and other companies) logo, the screen goes to black. White letters dissolve in with a “chapter” number and title (oh, oh..literary aspirations). We get a quirky funny sequence (hey, maybe it’s not too arty after all), narrated by a fave foul-mouthed star, that is not really the film’s true first subplot. We then meet mopey, disheveled Will (Oscar Isaac) acting up at a coffee shop (and being asked to leave) as he’s on his way to a court-mandated session with therapist Dr. Morris (Annette Benning). Will finally decides to open up about his ex-girlfriend Abby (Olivia Wilde). We hear of her sad childhood, then bounce ahead to her hooking up with Will while in college as she writes her major thesis on “the unreliable narrator” (could that be a…clue). Will and his doc roam about the fun times in the relationship (the couple even dress up as characters from a vastly superior flick for a costume party) before the “session” comes to an abrupt end and we’re off to “chapter two”. We zoom ahead to meet Will and Abby’s offspring Dylan (Olivia Cooke), a twenty-one-year-old hellion who’s making her grandpa’ Irwin’s (Mandy Patinkin) hair turn white with worry. After a thrashin’ punk rock concert, she punches out a chick that films her making out with her bass player. She races into the NYC night and sees a little Hispanic boy standing at the front of a city bus. For his backstory (and chapter), we hop across the pond to Spain and the opulent olive farm/ranch of Mr. Saccione (Antonio Banderas). He notices one of his workers who gently plucks the olives while others use rakes and nets. That worker, Javier (Sergio Paris-Mencheta) is called in to meet with the big boss in his study. Saccione tells Javier of his rough childhood and his rise to power. But after much vocal prodding, Javier refuses to share any personal history. Nonetheless, Saccione offers him a promotion to foreman which comes with a small dwelling on the big estate. Javier rushes to the town square where his girlfriend Isabel (Laia Costa) is finishing her shift at a tavern. Javier tells her of the new position and proposes to her. The two make a home at the ranch, eventually raising a baby son named Rodrigo. As the boy matures, Saccione spends most of his afternoons with him and ‘Rigo’s mother. His boss’s interest in his family begins to eat away at the usually easy-going Javier. It all comes to a boil when Saccione helps them out financially after a traumatic event. So just how will this tie into the family drama over in the “Big Apple”, or Nueva York? That’s for a couple more “chapters”.

A talented cast really works hard to make the often ludicrous twists and turns of the script work. The first act is almost a two-person play with dialogue bouncing back and forth like a tennis match with doctor and patient on either side of the net. As said patient, Isaac continues to be a most compelling actor, showing us the spark of new love in his eyes during the college sequence, then showing us that the spark has been extinguished in the present day. Will is a hair trigger, exploding then retreating with just a word or prompt. The always superb Benning is part prodding inquisitor, part animal trainer as she navigates through the dark recesses of the damaged man’s psyche. Though Will tries to dismiss her, Benning stands her ground and never lets him slither away. Wilde gets to show more of her witty, intelligent side (usually just seen on her TV talk show interviews) as Abby, but the script puts her back on the pedestal too quickly, making her the “dream girl” once again, rather than a complex character. Of course, the camera still loves her, but Wilde deserves much more interesting roles. Cooke as their daughter Dylan alternates between dead-eyed and emotionally drained to a tightly wound ball of fury ready to explode at the most mundane slight or offense. She’s a stark counterpoint to Patinkin’s calm, caring, but still tough and cynical Irwin. Though his days are dwindling, he still thinks he can get through to his often surly charge. In flashbacks, we see him as a warm sparring partner to the boisterous Jean Smart as his wife Linda, a lady with no filter, who never sugar coats her often dark thoughts. In the overseas “chapters”, Banderas gets to speak in his native tongue as the cultured gentleman drawn to his hard-edged helpers. He may seem aloof, but Banderas shows us the sadness that all his wealth can’t hide. His gloom is lifted with his surrogate family as Saccione delights in his “Dutch uncle” role. Peris-Mencheta is more of a mystery as Javier, who appreciates his boss, but tries to keep an emotional distance from him. Of course, there’s no wall between him and Costa as his adored lady love. Her Isabel goes through the most emotional changes, going from flighty waitress to adoring mother, and later as a fighter trying to hold her marriage and family together. The young adult version of Rodrigo is played with brooding intensity by Alex Monner, while Lorenza Izzo is full of emotion as the family member who tries to tie it all together in the story’s epilogue.

Writer/director Fogelman is aiming for the fences, attempting to make a sprawling epic that has an emotional family saga at its core. It seems to work best in the opening chapter with the story of Abby, Will, and his “shrink”, though it’s peppered with far too many “F-bombs” (maybe a reaction to dealing with network censors for two years). There are a few nice narrative flourishes that employ some neat bits of FX wizardry (bearded older Will caressing the soft shaven cheek of college Will, and later he and Doc Morris walk through a snowy park full of frolicking Abbys), but several sudden bursts of bloody violence are over the top with cartoon-like gore. The punk world of Dylan feels like a TV version of a dance club frozen in amber since the early 1980’s. Then the action truly grinds to a halt in dusty Spain with a booze-filled “back story-time” that never seems to end (or get interesting). This leads to a turgid tale of jealousy and class resentment that might feel more at home on the soap operas of the Telemundo cable channel, complete with a medical crisis that slowly weakens a major character. As the two-hour mark draws ever closer, Fogelman hastily crashes the stories into each other, culminating in a romance that we’re only told about. Which leads to the final lecture/denouncement that’s overstuffed with enough flowery platitudes to fill an airport gift shop and a month of social media posts and GIFs. All the clever stylings of the opening minutes are burned away by the final fade out. LIFE ITSELF pummels at the heartstrings, but never engages our intellect. Save the tissues for the new season of Fogelman’sTV prime time “sob show”.

2 Out of 5

AL PACINO Talks DANNY COLLINS

Al Pacino stars as aging 1970s rocker DANNY COLLINS, who can’t give up his hard-living ways.But when his manager (Christopher Plummer) uncovers a 40-year-old undelivered letter written to him by John Lennon, he decides to change course and embarks on a heartfelt journey to rediscover his family, find true love and begin a second act.

Recently, Al Pacino sat down with a small group of press to talk about taking on the role of Danny Collins, his relationship with Bobby Cannavale, and passing John Lennon in Central Park. Check it out below.

Inspired by a true story, DANNY COLLINS co-stars Annette Bening and Jennifer Garner. Written and directed by Dan Fogelman (writer of Last Vegas and Crazy, Stupid, Love).

(Al Pacino starts out…)

AL PACINO: Dan wanted me to be in the picture. He saw me in the part, and that’s always kind of, to me, it’s always surprising. But it’s good to know a director wants you. It’s good. I started that way with The Godfather. Francis [Ford Coppola] wanted me. That was it. I was unknown at the time. Even against everyone’s outrage that he would want someone like me in that part, but he just stuck with it. Even I didn’t think I ha … ‘Francis, it’s OK.’ That was what he saw. So much a part of directing, too, if you think of it, is casting. [He got] the people he wanted – Marlon [Brando], myself, [Robert] Duvall and Jimmy Caan – for that group. They rejected everybody. Then they rejected me and Marlon – that was the big rejection. Then finally they accepted Marlon, but there was no way I was gonna be in it. So Francis really did stick by it, and eventually…and I don’t know what I mean by all of that. I’ve just been going back, thinking about things. But basically, when a director wants you…it’s encouraging, for one thing. We need all the encouragement we can get when we’re doing one of these things. I had never done a part like this, for one.

At first glance at the role, what excited you about it and what challenged or terrified you about it?

AL PACINO: Well, I’m usually relatively terrified in a way. Anything you do. Because it’s such a presumption. I seem to have the stand-by guide, which is the text. If I relate to it, if I really like it, or feel I’m somehow connected to it…especially now in these later years I think, am I right for this? Am I connected to it? Is there something that I can say in it? Does it cover some aspect of my own insight in my life, my perception of things? Where I am right now – my looks, my state of being. You try to connect with that. And with the singing, which I had never sung, not really – and the odd thing here is that I was in musical comedies as a kid. Then I was hired. As a matter of fact, Hal Prince hired me in the beginning when I was very young. He hired me to be in “Zorba the Greek” to play the Alan Bates role. Herschel Bernardi played Zorba, and I played the other guy. And he hired me! I remember I was unknown. He saw me in a play, one of the first plays I did professionally in New York, but I had worked a lot in the theatre outside of New York in the provinces – the whole birth of off-, off-Broadway; that was all part of that. So I had a lot of experience, but I was still only 26 years old, and he hired me. I remember saying, ‘Wow, Hal Prince…and me,’ but I remember it was going away for 18 months, ‘How am I going to wait for 18 months?’ and it wasn’t for much money, and I said, ‘Well, it’s great that I’m going to be with Hal Prince’ – who I love, by the way, and was so generous and sweet to me. But…I said, ‘Do you think you can write a scene or two in there for me?’ [Hal said,] ‘Huh?’ I said, ‘Well, I could use another song and a couple of scenes.’ He actually said, ‘Who the F do you think you are?!’ I said, ‘I’m an actor. I’m gonna be in this for 18 months watching Herschel Bernardi singing. That’s good for a couple nights, but I gotta play a part. That’s what I’m here for.’ And they were really appalled that I would actually say that, because why would I want that? I should just count my lucky stars that they want me. And I said, ‘Yes, I understand that. But what about the part? I think it would be better for the show.’ He said…Anyway, I wasn’t long for that world. I was gone.

Dan Fogelman said you could recognize in the writing that he wrote it for you. What was it that made that obvious?

AL PACINO: Well, probably I heard that he wrote it for me. Maybe. But when I read it I thought, for one thing, I really liked it. I thought this was a very sensitive person who has a real heart – this kid has got a heart – and he can write. No doubt about it. Crazy. Stupid. Love. I mean, he can write. And this is his first picture [as director]. But I think I saw the vulnerability in this character that he had in the script. It was there. This is a real story, too, to start with, and it stirred Dan and made him imagine the rest of the script. But the idea is there. But this is a kid who, when he’s starting out, is being touted as the next Bob Dylan at this age – 20, 21. And his next song is a complete disaster and he’s vilified, eviscerated. How do you cope with that at that age – as a sensitive person? How do you deal with it? I love the fact that he dealt with it as survivors do. He just said, ‘OK, I can dance. I have some charm. I’m kind of good looking. I can get through a thing. I know how to do that, I know how to put over a song. Maybe I’m not the greatest singer in the world, but I know how to put over a song.’ That he went to those kind of things, and the mini tragedy of it is he never looked back to his writing. He just left it. It scared him. He felt the impact of that shock. I enjoyed that in the character, that he had that survivor’s ability. There’s something cool about it, and something that ingratiates you to him. And I found him a very ingratiating character to play, so I enjoyed that fact. He was also – even though he was kind of childish and self-centered in his ways – there was a generosity to him, a size to him.

John Lennon aspect … did your life ever intersect with his?

AL PACINO: The only time I saw John Lennon – I saw Orson Welles the same way – we were passing, and I was so grateful to have seen John Lennon, and smiling at me in Central Park. I was walking, there was John Lennon, and I looked at that face and I knew I knew him. And he smiled in recognition of me, and I smiled back. That was all that happened. It was enough. It was great. I loved it. That he would recognize me, I was really surprised. But this was around – not long before he died – it was around 1980. It was really sweet.

Dan said you told him this was the first time you cried at one of your movies. Just because none of the others have had the emotional impact, or…?

AL PACINO: Well, I cried at a few that were, you know…I didn’t cry for the right reasons. (Laughs) I went home and cried. This one touched me. This one touched me in a way, without giving the film away, that these two men have met – this parent and a child – in this kind of way not really knowing each other, and somehow it shed light on that moment. You can have that moment with two people that have been together their whole life and then they have that moment, but this juxtaposition just brought it out more how much we need each other. It doesn’t matter father/son, daughter, friend, acquaintance – it’s the need for that in that moment that we all face, that we all have. It just brought it to me – boom! – it just hit me. I don’t know how you felt about it, but I know it caught me off guard. I didn’t cry, but I did tear up. I welled up. It made me feel something. It really made me feel.

We’ve heard a lot today about your closeness with Bobby Cannavale, so how much more did it mean to you that it was him in that role?

AL PACINO: Oh, Bobby. Bobby is…when you work on the stage with someone like that you just merge in some way. The trust is there – you always need the trust – but the knowledge, understanding, the love is there! It’s just there. Because that’s what we do together. We’re like tightrope walkers. We depend on each other. You can’t help it. We perform. And so I felt that connection with Bobby. So it helps to have that.

Do you have to manage when people see you as an icon to get them to see you as a fellow actor?

AL PACINO: Yeah. Well, you simply have to. When you get over the initial…thing…I mean, these are pros you’re working with, so they’re formidable actors. And before you know it you’re sort of throwing the ball back and forth. So there’s no time to feel any other way but the way – because you’re interfacing in such a way that you’re close. But I am aware of it, so I try not to put the foot on the gas to be over-friendly, because that can be a presumption. I’m just an actor with you; don’t worry, we’ve got time – to myself, I say. And I think they sense it. And it works. We’re all in the same boat.

Like happens to you in the movie, did you ever write to anyone you respected or appreciated when you were younger?

AL PACINO: Well, imagine Marlon. Holy smokes! Whoa! Marlon was…I couldn’t believe it. But you have to play the part. And he was totally great with everybody. Marlon was always joking around and doing different things. And it was interesting with Godfather – we all had a dinner once at Patsy’s in Harlem. We first got together as a family. Francis had this dinner, and the most interesting thing that happened is that at the dinner, everybody went into their role. I sort of became a little bit…reluctant, a little moody. And after a while, we retreated into our characters’…Jimmy was up and Bob was involved. We sort of took our position. Marlon was at the head of the table. It’s funny how that happened. It was a very clever idea by Francis to put us together that way. Your body language went into that…Diane Keaton was there.

Annette Bening…what was so special about her?

AL PACINO: She’s sort of like, everywhere you go you see a lioness. There she is in the cage, and you say, ‘Wow.’ But you don’t get in the cage with her. But in this business, you get in the cage with her! I’m in the cage with a lioness! She is amazing. And she was so rich and full of energy and full of thought, sensitivity and all visceral and…wow. Just when you think [you’ve got it], she keeps going. You’d finish a take and she’d say, ‘Let’s do it again! Let’s go another way!’ This is the kind of spirit…completely devoted to it. Oh, I’d love to work with her again. She’s just that kind of person.

DANNY COLLINS is in select theaters now

Al Pacino And Christopher Plummer Star in New Clip From DANNY COLLINS Movie

From Bleecker Street studio comes the first clip for DANNY COLLINS, starring Al Pacino, Annette Bening, Jennifer Garner and Christopher Plummer.

Plummer and Pacino together – this scene alone makes me want to see the film.

Al Pacino stars as aging 1970s rocker Danny Collins, who can’t give up his hard-living ways. But when his manager (Christopher Plummer) uncovers a 40 year-old undelivered letter written to him by John Lennon, he decides to change course and embarks on a heartfelt journey to rediscover his family, find true love and begin a second act.

From director Dan Fogelman, the movie features songs by John Lennon.

Go behind-the-scenes of DANNY COLLINS in this featurette. The film opens in select theaters March 20th.

Bleecker Street is also releasing this fall TRUMBO, a film I can’t wait to see and one to watch when awards season comes around. The successful career of 1940s Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) comes to a crushing end when he and other Hollywood figures are blacklisted for their political beliefs. TRUMBO (directed by Jay Roach) tells Trumbo’s story and his fight against gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren) in a war over words and freedom, which entangled everyone in Hollywood from John Wayne to Kirk Douglas and Otto Preminger.

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DANNY COLLINS is in select theaters now

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