I Still Feel The Need, The Need For Speed

Here’s a little pop quiz. I’m going to list three famous people. What’s the first thing you think of when these names are mentioned? Michael Jackson, Pete Rose, and Bill Clinton.

Okay, what did you come up with? Something like: Groundbreaking Pop Icon, Legendary Hard-hitting Athlete, and Charismatic Public Official?

Or was it closer to: Wacko Pervert, Cheating Liar, and Slippery Philanderer?

Sometimes it’s hard to separate the achievements people make in their profession from what gets played out in Star magazine, isn’t it? We’re all victim to it, but it’s not really our fault. It’s the media’s. (Hooray, a scapegoat!) We’re surrounded everyday by a media onslaught of dirt about famous people. USWeekly, Entertainment Tonight, and TMZ.com, besides being deliciously intriguing, can define a star’s image with a single off-color sound bite or incriminating photo.

On the chopping block again this week is Tom Cruise, who seemed to have almost recovered from the rabid performance on Oprah and that unfortunate Today Show appearance where he single-handedly reintroduced the word “glib” to the vernacular. A new unauthorized tell-all by Andrew Morton hit shelves Tuesday and promises to serve up juicy tidbits about Cruise’s sexuality, his choke-hold on Katie Holmes, and the strange things he does for his religion. Also making the internet rounds is a video interview of an overly rambunctious Cruise spouting the virtues of Scientology.

Poor Tom.

No, honestly, poor Tom. I know he’s a movie star and a gazillionaire, but I also know he’s headed down the same road as the three people at the top of this column. All the film roles, all the charity work, all the contributions to the industry, and he’s going to be remembered as the Scientology nut who jumped on couches and put his brainwashed bride on lockdown. I think that’s sad.

From dancing in his tighty-whiteys in Risky Business to dangling from the ceiling in Mission: Impossible, Tom Cruise has entertained us with great performances in some fantastic flicks. In order to keep a little perspective on Thomas Mapother IV, I’ve compiled a list of my top five Cruise movies as a reminder that just because the tabloids tell us he’s a wack-job, sometimes there’s nothing better than a tub of popcorn and a little vintage Tom.

A Few Good Men
It may be my slightly obsessive fascination with Aaron Sorkin, or possibly my soft spot for Rob Reiner’s movies, but I don’t think Cruise movies get better than this. Tight script, impeccable pacing, just the right amount of Jack Nicholson chewing the scenery: this is the kind of movie that I can watch over and over and never get bored.

Collateral
Cruise goes way outside his comfort zone in Michael Mann’s taut thriller. And I don’t just mean the gray hair. As Vincent, a professional hitman, he uses nuance and subtlety to create an actual human being out of this vicious character. In a different movie, with a different actor, Vincent could have been a caricature, a comic-book villain twirling his mustache. With Cruise, he’s terrifyingly real. Watch this film and see Cruise doing some of his most delicate work.

Minority Report
Action-packed, powered by amazing special effects and helmed by Spielberg, this movie has Summer Blockbuster written all over it in huge block letters. But it’s also topical and provocative; it tells a suspenseful story but leaves the viewer asking some serious questions about the nature of privacy in an expanding world. Cruise can write his own ticket and make another gazillion dollars by starring in any old Popcorn Flick, but he chooses to make movies that challenge his audience. I think that says something.

Interview with the Vampire
Wispy blonde locks notwithstanding, this is a side of Tom Cruise I’d like to see more often. Cavalier, passionate, and teetering on the edge of madness. I mean, of course, in his film roles. So often, Cruise plays characters that are completely in control, so confident and sure that every action they take will succeed. His Lestat is a ticking time-bomb of insecurity deftly wrapped in an arrogant façade. It’s exciting to watch that pretense slip away, and Cruise’s range as an actor has never been better showcased in one movie.

Top Gun
If you don’t love Top Gun, you are never getting invited to my Oscar party. Tom Cruise is pitch-perfect as Maverick, just cocky enough and just vulnerable enough. Infinitely quotable, both funny and moving, this movie hits every note. The sweat-soaked flexing in the volleyball scene has nothing to do with my opinion, of course. (Yes, Goose, you can keep your T-Shirt on.) And for my money, the love scene with Kelly McGillis, shot in silhouette and shadow, is way hotter than the Rebecca DeMornay train escapade from Risky Business.

Are You There Oscar? It's Me, Kylie.

One of the strangest moments in life is when one emotion transforms into another so quickly it takes you a moment to recover. The anticipation of the first uphill climb of a roller coaster, for example. Pinpricks of anticipation and excitement envelop you as the car click-clacks its way to the crest. Then you arrive at the summit and realize exactly what you signed up for. Fear pushes the adrenaline tingles by the wayside and you suddenly start wondering if you have all your affairs in order.

I experienced one such moment last night while watching The Daily Show. Yes, apparently, Jon Stewart is that powerful. Stewart's "entertainment correspondents" Samantha Bee and Jason Jones were lampooning the Golden Globes press conference format, which was without question a snooze-fest. It was definitely funny and I was laughing. Good times all around. The roller-coaster switch snuck up on me at the end of the segment, though. Bee and Jones wished Jon Stewart good luck hosting the Oscar press conference next month.

The Oscar what-now?

Okay, I know that it was part of the bit; Jon Stewart's perfectly timed crestfallen reaction shot is duly noted, but does very little to relieve the dull ache behind my eyes at the thought of the Academy Awards being cancelled.

But I read last week's Entertainment Weekly cover story, "Will the Oscars Happen?". And I know that SAG is standing firm on not crossing any WGA picket lines. And with declining Oscar telecast ratings already a concern, I don't think it's going too far out on a limb to say that the Academy Awards happening without writers, nominees and presenters is about as sure a bet as going all in with a two-seven offsuit.

For the love of Bruce Vilanch, we can not let this happen! The Oscars are my Superbowl. Keep your hundred yards of green turf; I've got a hundred feet of red carpet. Who needs Tom Brady or Brett Favre when you can have Johnny Depp and George Clooney? And instead of one moment of victory, the Oscars have about 30. The commercials on the Superbowl win hands down, of course, but who has time to watch commercials during the Oscars? I'm too busy updating my ballot.

The writers are taking a stand over, among other things, the issue of Internet rights, and I respect that. It's a complicated problem that will inevitably become more so as production companies and studios adapt and incorporate new technology into the way they deliver their product. But the group who is really pulling the short straw when it comes to this strike is not the WGA or the AMPTP or even the advertisers; it's us. It's the audience.

I can handle the fact that there are no new episodes of CSI: or Scrubs for a while: labor union strikes take time to work out, as we all learned in 7th grade social studies. I can turn a blind eye, for a while, as the networks crank out reality show after reality show to replace scripted television. And I am even contented with the state of the movies, for a while, because the summer lineups are already whetting my appetite for popcorn.

But what comes next?

To me, if Hollywood can't work out some sort of compromise regarding the Oscar telecast, it's a slap in the face to the viewing public that ultimately pays their salaries. I know, I know. It's just an awards show where rich, beautiful, powerful people get together and congratulate each other on how rich and beautiful and powerful they are.

But it's also the celebration of film as the ultimate, collective art form. It's a recognition of the most moving, influential and entertaining performances of the past season. It's one night out of the year when film fans can forget about the lawsuits and the DUIs and the tabloid antics and really see a picture of Hollywood at its best: creative people who can work together and produce evocative and joyful experiences for their audience.

I think that audience has a little more patience left for Celebrity Apprentice and reruns of The Office, but it's wearing thin. A sign of hope for resolution of the strike might keep us going. A compromise to allow the Academy Awards show to go on could be that sign.

So please, Oscar, don't stand us up this year. We deserve better than that.

Ratatouille, Why Not "Rata2-D"?

In a conversation about film, the term “two-dimensional” is almost always a negative critique. It usually means the characters were poorly drawn or that the plot elements fell flat. In animation, sadly, it’s come to mean the same thing. And I think the words “drawn” and “flat” in the previous statement should indicate where I’m going with this.

Before you think me some kind of rabid animation purist, let me get one thing straight. I love the Pixar films. A Bug’s Life, Toy Story, and Ratatouille, this year’s Golden Globe winner for best animated film, are sweetly told, brilliantly rendered and all have a home on my DVD shelf.

I recognize the ingenuity and technical skill that it takes to create the realistic light and shadow in the underwater world of Finding Nemo or the pieces of burned tire skittering on the Cars racetrack. I laud the fact that there are still creative forces out there, searching for new and exciting ways to tell a story. Pixar Animation studios is doing the kind of innovative work with CG that Disney Animation did with hand-drawn back in the 30s and 40s. But they’re also obliterating the audience’s desire for the very techniques upon which their art form is based.

Disney’s recent live-action effort, Enchanted, opens with eight minutes of traditional cel animation. But the sequence that serves as both a launching point for the live-action fairytale and a satiric homage to classic Disney animation wasn’t even produced by Disney animators; it was outsourced to an independent animation team in California. In the late 1990’s, when the wave of computer animated films began, Disney drastically downsized their animation department. So what we’re left with is a Disney movie with an animation sequence created by non-Disney animators. Somewhere, Walt’s “Nine Old Men” are hanging their heads in shame.

Take a look at one of this award season’s critical darlings, Persepolis. Writer-director Marjane Satrapi tells her story using stark, black and white traditional animation. Her autobiographical tale of a rebellious Iranian woman is not lessened by a lack of startling special effects; it’s enhanced by it.

With all respect to John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Brad Bird and their colleagues, they have made careers for themselves by convincing filmgoers that 2-D is dead. Yes, realism in animation is now at levels that were unimaginable a scant five years ago. But why is animation now judged on how realistic that tree looks, or how convincing that rain is on the windowpane? Put simply, the charm and simplicity of 2-D animation still has a place in modern filmmaking.

Go back and re-watch The Little Mermaid. Go even further back, before Disney’s 90s renaissance, and take another look at Peter Pan or Sleeping Beauty. Does a lack of CGI bells and whistles make the stories any less moving? Are the characters not as relatable or as delightful? I know that my nephews and nieces will grow up in a generation that will remember Monsters, Inc. as a classic, but I sincerely hope that they invest some time in my classics, and my parents’.

One of Walt Disney’s famous quotes is: “It all started with a mouse.” More specifically, it all started with one animator, drawing that mouse on a page. Congratulations to Remy, Pixar’s animated rat on the Golden Globe win, but I have to say, if push came to shove, my vote is for the Mouse.