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Early viewing review!
The Pom Pom Slut looks at O BROTHER
WHERE ART THOU
Hey folks, our favorite Pom Pom wielding Slut, Courtney Pierce
is back... and is sallying on up to the keyboard to begin
spilling about the latest genius from the Brothers' Coen.
I have now... officially been awake too long, now it's time
to plug into the unconcious activity machine. Adios...
That Bourgeois Tamed-By-No-Man Pom-Pom Slut Courtney Pierce
is back with a look at O Brother, Where Art Thou?
The Coen Brothers' newest endeavor is a delightful picaresque
mosey through Depression-era Mississippi that finds equal
inspiration in Homer's Odyssey (wait until you see the sirens)
and the humanist comedies of Preston Sturges (those of you
who have seen Sturges' Sullivan's Travels already know the
source of the title; there's also an explicit Sullivan's reference
in this film just after what may be the funniest fight scene
ever put on film, between Clooney and Ray McKinnon over the
lovely Penny). George Clooney delivers a stylized performance
as pomade-craving paterfamilias Ulysses Everett McGill that
is off-putting for about two minutes and then, as the film's
tone orients itself to his playing level, becomes another
winner for him. John Turturro, well, proves once again that
he is John Turturro and that he is one of the reigning character
actors in the business. The third member of the triumvirate,
Delmar, played by newcomer Tim Blake Nelson, is a find. His
work here is a starmaking performance if ever I have seen
one, filled with passion and reserve. Look for this name in
the future, you heard it here first.
The film is fairly episodic in structure, with several misadventures
happening throughout the countryside. NewsRadio & Office
Space's Stephen Root as a radio broadcaster is transcendently
funny, soul-selling bluesman Tommy Johnson (played by Chris
Thomas King) brings a precise level of accomplishment and
dignity to a unique character, and Michael Badalucco adds
George & Babyface Nelson to his gallery of famous killers.
That's not even mentioning John Goodman as a one-eyed bible
salesman/Klansman or Charles Durning in what may be his finest
comic performance since The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
as Incumbent Governor Pappy O'Daniel, or any of the other
interesting people who pop up during the course of the film,
including a possibly-enchanted toad.
Beautifully shot by the brilliant Roger Deakins (Kundun, Fargo)
in resplendent scope (actually Super 35, but you can hardly
tell), the Brothers tell a quirky and moving story. There
is a shot near the end of the film of pomade cans, police,
a cow, and several actors that is simply breathtaking.
Gone is the destructive irony that rendered Fargo so distasteful
(yes, fanboys, I didn't like Fargo), and the emotional resonance
of Barton Fink and The Big Lebowski has been increased. While
on the surface O Brother, Where Art Thou is a road comedy,
it has a defiantly big heart and truly likable characters.
When you add in the excellent music (which plays a huge part
in the film- to what extent I daren't reveal) and the twisted
glee that Joel and Ethan take in telling the tale, what you
have is a delightful film. Will mainstream audiences go for
it? Doubtful. It's not easily pigeonholed into any category,
and that hurt Lebowski as well. But banish that from your
mind, and enjoy the bonafide ride.
As always, the dude abides.
O Brother, Where
Art Tho
by Joel Coen
USA
About
the time they wrapped The Big Lebowski
and were gearing up for its European premiere
at the 1998 Film Festival, the Coen brothers were
already talking about their next movie. But which
one would it be? The hairdresser project? To The
White Sea their WW2 movie with Brad Pitt? Or,
most preposterous of all, their adaptation of
Homer's ancient classic, The Odyssey? The latter
seemed bizarre even by the Coens' natural standards,
and even they seemed to think it amusing, cracking
jokes about how great it would be to see spelt
out: "Based upon the Odyssey by Homer"
in (their words) "big, crumbly letters".
Astonishingly, this
is the movie they went on to make (although the
big crumbly letters have made way for a stately
black-and-white title card, in the style of a
silent movie dialogue frame). And Homer's fable
was indeed the starting point for O Brother
Where Art Thou?. As Joel puts it, "this
project's been in the works for 3,000 years, ever
since Homer started yapping about it". The
result is a lively and funny, Depression-era,
fantasy-musical-comedy that as is the Coens'
wont blurs several movie genres together, with
a superb script and a terrific team of actors.
Heading the cast
is George Clooney, wryly sending up his matinee-idol
image as the film's Clark Gable-style hero, Everett
Ulysses McGill (whose fondness for hairnets and
Dapper Dan hair grease is a running joke throughout).
McGill is shackled
to a chain gang, ostensibly for his part in a
major bank robbery. But by using his powers of
persuasion he gets two bird-brained fellow prisoners
Pete (John Turturro) and Delmar (Tim
Blake Nelson) to join him in making an escape
bid.
The carrot he uses
to entice them is a story of hidden gold the
proceeds from the robbery and the two dimwits
happily throw themselves in with him. Once they
escape, a wise, blind railway worker helps them
on their way, accurately predicting some of the
sights they will see over the next few days. But
it is his final words which prove to be the most
prophetic. "You will find a fortune,"
he tells them, "but not the fortune you seek."
The title comes from
Preston Sturges' 1941 film Sullivan's Travels,
in which Hollywood producer Joel McCrea longs
to make an epic film about poverty and hardship.
Dressed as a tramp, he goes under cover in the
first part of town to research the film, to be
called O Brother, Where Art Thou?.
With its jaunty
humour, the film is also likely to be compared
to Frank Capra, whose most popular work was
his lighter, Depression-era fare, and not the
1946 Christmas fantasy It's A Wonderful
Life, which was deemed too simplistic
for sophisticated post-war audiences. The Coens'
film is surprisingly light for them too, being
closer in tone to the physical farce of their
underrated comedy The Hudsucker Proxy
than the tight, dry writing showcased in Barton
Fink, Fargo and Miller's
Crossing.
Anyone put off
the Coens' trademark cerebral sense of humour,
which sometimes borders on calculated, will
be surprised at how warm and almost spontaneous
the whole film feels especially in scenes
with Tim Blake Nelson as the cretinous, lovable
Delmar. And to power things along, the score
features an infectious mix of bluegrass and
spirituals re-recorded, arranged and in one
case even written by country singer T Bone Burnett.
"Music became a very prominent feature
very early on in the writing," says Joel,
"and it just became more so as we went
along. There are very few scenes in the movie
that don't have an in-screen musical element
to them."
In fact, the music
actually dictated the Coens' decision to set
the film in the deep south of America, where
location filming around the Mississippi area
took them to perfectly preserved rustic backwaters,
with names like Yazoo City and D'Lo. "Early
on," says Ethan, "the issue of music
began to inform our thinking about it, and that
argued for a southern setting. One other thing
that conspired to make it southern was the early
idea of making the characters chain-gang refugees."
"The
two things came together at the same time,"
adds Joel. "It all coalesced around the idea
of doing a relatively contemporary version of
The Odyssey, but in this region, with bluegrass
music."
Who else but the
Coen brothers could conceive of such a thing?
And who else could hope to pull off? O
Brother, Where Art Thou? is yet another
dazzling entry in peculiar CV, occupying the
divide between mainstream and arthouse. It's
the real thing. It's bona fide.
Damon
Wise
|
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| Exclusive!
Sneak peek at Coen brothers' latest
That George Clooney's one slick hep cat
By Danny Lorber
iFUSE has sneaked peek at an unfinished print of the new Coen
brothers film, O Brother, Where Art Thou? It was still rough
and lacking a soundtrack, but we got the gist: It's a real
Brothers Coen picture, all right. Alive with dazzling camera
work, it's an odd story -- starring George Clooney as an ultra-suave
1940s slick and stylized cat frolicking through the South
with a couple of escaped
cons. The trio is looking for treasure it's gotten wind of.
As with all Coen films, the movie fuses reality with the surreal.
The characters talk in this stylized way that, while not quite
real, is so different it's fascinating. We don't want to give
too much of the plot away -- because we love the Coens and
don't want to spoil anything -- but here are a few crumbs:
• Clooney is thoroughly suave and old-school Hollywood
handsome. He comes across like a slicker, more striking Carey
Grant. He's so witty and movie-starrish that he almost comes
off as a spoof who's in on the joke. In fact, so does the
whole movie.
• The movie is full of references to classic Hollywood
films -- especially that of comic genius Preston Sturges.
The film actually is a descendant of a Sturges' masterpiece
Sullivan's Travels. (If you haven't seen that movie, do. It's
funny as hell.) The only problem: Most people haven't seen
Travels, so a lot of what makes O Brother funny could be lost
on the unwashed.
• One of the cons is, natch, John Turturro, in his typical
strange style. The other is Michael Badalucco, saved by the
Coens from mob movie hell.
• John Goodman is great fun as an overweight Southern
nutcase who screws up everything.
The yet-to-be-added soundtrack is always a crucial aspect
of a Coen film, and these guys are so particular that they're
bound to make tons of changes between now and O Brother's
summer release. So if we weren't quite blown away by the thing
(Ok, that's a hint) there is time for it to get better.
Having read the script for the
Coen Brothers' latest film they have seen fit to share with
us mere mortals... I am eagerly awaiting their latest work
of genius. Retooling HOMER into a story about 3 ex-cons' attempt
to well... Actually you know.. the less one knows about a
Coen film... the better it is. However, I cannot resist reading
their scripts the second they hit my hands. They should be
published and studied as an artform. The jokes they create
just in the way they write are so wondrous, that I delight
at their misspellings, the accents... Sigh... Every year it
seems that George Clooney manages to find his way into something
wondrous. Two years ago it was OUT OF SIGHT. Last year it
was THREE KINGS. This year it will be O BROTHER WHERE ART
THOU... even though some may be looking forward to Wolfgang
Peterson as that special Clooney movie of the year... well...
They're wrong. PERFECT STORM will be a delight, but this one
will be magic. The word from Digital Domain on the effects
work being done for this film, is that the Coen Brothers are
attempting their version of a biblical sized epic. And the
film will feature another fantastic turn by John Goodman.
Anyone that doesn't have this movie on their radar is making
a HUGE mistake.
Entertainment Weekly: Jan.
21/28, 2000
O Brother Where Art Thou?
Clooney and the Coens go South
They got the Midwestern winter down cold in Fargo. But for
this
Southern-fried, Depression-era comedy, Ethan and Joel Coen
(in sunglasses) filmed in Jackson, Miss., during a 100-degree-plus
summer heat wave. Still, star George Clooney (center), who
plays a jailbird on the lam, found the soot a piece of cake
compared to Three Kings' desert locations. "I grew up
in Kentucky," he explains. "Hot and humid, I can
do. Hot and dry, that's
rough."
O, Brother, Where Art Thou?
A couple of months ago I vowed
to score a copy of this, the latest Coen Brothers script.
About a month ago I did. O, Brother, Where Art Thou?
is currently shooting in and around Jackson, Miss., with George
Clooney in the lead role. It's based on Homer's The Odyssey
and set in the rural South of the 1930s. Part slapstick, part
fable, it's like a hayseed version of Barton Fink.
It's even got John Goodman as a salesman with a dark secret.
The story's about three escaped
chain-gangers keeping a step or two ahead of the law while
trying to score some buried loot. Their leader is Ulysses
Everett McGill (Clooney), who, like Homer's mythical hero,
is looking to reunite with his wife (Holly Hunter) and three
daughters and assume his rightful position as "the damn
paterfamilias." John Turturro plays one of the other
cons.
Over the course of their journey
they run up against a cross-section of mythical Deep South
characters -- conniving county-seat politicians, black blues
singer "Tommy" Johnson (obviously meant to be Robert
Johnson), gangster Baby Face Nelson, some Ku Klux Klansmen,
a radio deejay, a country prophet, and a local-yokel posse
complete with shotguns and hound dogs. There's even a musical
sequence or two.
The title, as I mentioned a few
weeks ago, is the same that director John L. Sullivan (Joel
McCrea) wants to use for a bleeding-heart message picture
about man's inhumanity to man in Preston Sturges' 1941 classic
Sullivan's Travels. The chain-gang, bum-on-the-lam
idea was derived from the final quarter of the film, in which
Sullivan finds some rough going as a hobo, and then as a chain-gang
worker.
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
is pure flavor. Joel and Ethan Coen's dialogue sings with
backwoods idiom and alliteration. It's classic Americana
funny, outlandish, occasionally surreal re-imagined
as myth. There's never been a Coen Brothers film I haven't
at least somewhat liked. I can't imagine O Brother Where
Art Thou? not being, if nothing else, amusing. It may
wind up operating on levels I can barely foresee. All I know
is that the script is self-aware and all of a piece. |
From the Jackson,
Mississippi Clarion-Ledger, Wednesday, July 21, 1999
By Paige Porter (staff writer)
It's 1 p.m., and George Clooney
has ducked into his set trailer to escape the glare of the
torrid Mississippi sun - and a growing crowd of female onlookers.
The actor, who is starring in
Joel and Ethan Coen's latest comic brainchild, O Brother,
Where Art Thou?, has already shaken countless hands and posed
for so many pictures one might imagine he's running for office.
But Clooney hasn't sojourned
south for politics. The 38-year-old actor is here for another
odyssey altogether. "The script for O Brother is loosely
based on Homer's Odyssey," says Clooney, who at the moment
is boasting a later-than-five-o'clock shadow and a subtle
mustache.
Clooney, who plays Ulysses "Everett"
McGill in the film, says the character experiences a journey
analogous to that of the classic character, Ulysses. "I
read The Odyssey after I read the screenplay, and it was amazing
to discover the connections between the two," Clooney
says. Clooney adds that the strength of the comedy is not
predicated on its connections to the classical work, insisting
O Brother's plot stands on its own.
Written by comic geniuses Joel
and Ethan Coen, the brothers who have made an indelible mark
in the independent film world with features such as Raising
Arizona, Fargo and The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art
Thou? Is the story of three men's odyssey through the Depression-era
American South.
McGill, a Mississippi chain
gang prisoner, is running from the law with former chain mates
Delmar (Tim Nelson) and Pete (John Turturro) in hopes of claiming
a small fortune - proceeds from an armored car heist - buried
on McGill's land.
"The humor of this story
took me back to Raising Arizona," says a mannerly Clooney,
free (for the moment) of his shackles and chains. "I
enjoy doing comedy if it's well written, and this script is
sidesplittingly funny. Joel and Ethan are just so smart."
The Coen's first approached
Clooney with the O Brother script while he was in Phoenix
working on the upcoming film Three Kings. "I was nearing
the end of a very tough five-month shoot, really ready to
go home, and Joel and Ethan flew into Phoenix and handed me
the script," recalls Clooney, who had never before worked
with the highly respected filmmakers. "They told me they'd
written it with me in mind and asked me if I'd do it. I said
yes without even reading the first page. They both started
laughing and asked me if I wanted to read it before agreeing,
but I told them that wouldn't be necessary."
And the actor - who only this
year ended his five-year run on NBC's hit show, ER, in order
to focus on his film career - says he is amazed O Brother
fell into his lap. " I get about five scripts a week,
and that's after a large screening process by two agents and
the studio," says Clooney, thumbing through a few screenplays
piled on a table in his small kitchen. "And out of those,
I rarely get even one really good one," says Clooney.
"I've ended up with a great project here."
The actor commends the cast
and crew of the movie, which has been filmed throughout Mississippi
- from the Delta to Vicksburg. And Clooney says the directors
have cultivated an amiable environment on the set. "In
my mind, these are the greatest directors in the business,"
says Clooney. "On top of being remarkably good at what
they do, they're also really nice people who are very easy
to work with. That doesn't happen often in an actor's life."
"Most directors insist on
doing 15 to 20 takes of a scene. But these guys, because they're
so well prepared, they'll do two takes, and that's that. It's
unheard of."
Clooney, who is wearing a wedding
ring for the part, locates three storyboards for the day's
scenes, including one in a box car Clooney shares with four
hobos and his two chainmates. Lining up the small drawings,
Clooney explains how attuned the directors are to every detail.
"All movies have storyboards, but on this film, I get
detailed sides each morning, like these pages here,"
Clooney says, pointing to the shrunken pages of the day's
dialogue. "Andy every morning, every single shot has
already been lined up. These guys are the most prepared professionals
I've ever seen."
Co-producer John Cameron says
Clooney's professionalism is equally laudable. "He's
a consummate professional, and I mean that sincerely. He's
a tireless worker." Clooney's co-star John Turtutto agrees.
"George is good at what he does, and he's a really nice
person," says Turturro, a favorite of the Coen brothers,
who have cast him in several of their films.
An unassuming Clooney, whose
baseball throwing sessions during shooting breaks have begun
to gather stadium-worthy crowds, says his labors are mere
attempts to avoid "screwing up a really great thing."
"I pinch myself every day,
and I can't believe I'm here working with such a great cast,"
says Clooney. "I'd never met Holly (Hunter) before, but
she's as talented an actress as I'll ever work with, and she's
a beautiful, smart lady," he says of the Oscar winning
actress (The Piano) who plays Penny Wharvey, Everett's estranged
wife.
"He (Clooney) walks around
and talks to the extras as if he's part of our family,"
says Richard McDaniel of Vicksburg. "I was in a scene
with him, and he was entertaining us with jokes and stories.
He's a real showman."
Cameron says he can't imagine
how many photographs of Clooney are floating around Mississippi.
"He's so nice to everyone, rarely turning down an autograph
or picture request. Honestly, I don't know if I've ever seen
a more gracious actor."
"I understand the interest,"
says Clooney. "I grew up in a small town in Kentucky
where they shot a series called Centennial, and I followed
Raymond Burr around everywhere he went."
"I know what it's like to
see someone in person who you've watched on television or
seen in the movies, and I don't get upset when people approach
me, because I did the same thing," says Clooney, who
leaves Jackson this week for four weeks of shooting in L.A.
"I've had a great time
here in Jackson," says a well tanned Clooney, propping
his feet on a counter in his kitchenette. "I've found
some great places I can go eat with my friends, watch a ball
game, and not feel like a tourist attraction."
Nearly an hour has passed since
Clooney has had to face the lurking humidity and the ever-present
autograph seekers. But wardrobe sends word he's needed on
the set. It's time for him to shed his black T-shirt and gray
shorts for slightly more conspicuous, wide striped prison
garb. Clooney, who pulls off the dreadful horizontal stripes
with surprising appeal, smiles as he makes his way to a nearby
box car, just another stop on this actor's already successful
sojourn. |
