Friday, November 25, 2005

Jackson

Time to get something up here besides that awful pizza man murder. And what better, yet still somehow appropriate, new topic than Johnny Cash, specifically Walk the Line? In a word, awesome. It hews close, of course, to the standard bio-pic beats, including one or two way too on the nose lines like, "You can't walk no line, John!" or "It burns...it burns...." There needs to be a cosmic ruler to smack a screenwriter's hand when he types those lines out, but otherwise, a great time at the movies. It's probably impossible for anyone else to sound like Johnny Cash and so Phoenix doesn't, not quite, but he has the same quality, he channels the same subterranean spirit, and so becomes Cash. Great chemistry between him and Reese Witherspoon should guarantee them both Oscar nods. Lots of great music. It ocurred to me that I would have enjoyed a concert movie by them, they performed so well. Go see it if you haven't.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looking forward to seeing it. One point: much of the time, screenwriters don't have a choice over terrible lines that get included -- the studio tells them to put it in, and if they don't, the studio just hires someone else. The "notes" process that screenwriters go through can be terrible -- John Gregory Dunne's book "Monster: Living Off the Big Screen" tells some lively stories of how idiotic studio types gave him idiotic notes, and how he dealt with them.

Paul said...

I thought of that after I posted this. And you're almost certainly right. That said, these are minor bits, one of which you barely hear.

Alison Stine said...

Yay. Johnny Cash!

Pamela Johnson Parker said...

"Jackson" has one of my favorite similes ever.

I wasn't as taken with Walk the Line as I expected to be. I thought Reese Witherspoon was great (she'll be there at Oscar time), and Phoenix was good, but not so good as Witherspoon. (Expect a nod for him, but not a win there--look for another brunette--Straithern or maybe Bana).

The Oscar Oracle has spoken, especially since my word verification is ayghrey. LOL.

Paul said...

Reese is great. I'd agree with you, O Oscar Oracle.... :)

Radish King said...

Loved it. Possibly the best movie I've seen all year, and I've never been a Johnny Cash fan. Also, I haven't seen many movies this year. I still loved it. Any time a tortured artist is throwing stuff around a hotel room, I get all warm and fuzzy. This has nothing to do with my own personal rage & artistic issues.