Gus Van Sant

Who of us can look in his own heart and blame him?

on paper there's lots to despise (ie. warm tones and elliott smith soundtrack predates/predicts fetal rock/emo boom, robin williams in maudlin mode, "how dya like them apples", its launching of the hydraheaded damon/affleck monster) but in practice i found it well-written, capably-acted and surprisingly engrossing. the funny thing is that i can't remember a single person disliking this film when it came out, and now i'd have a hard time finding anyone who rates it. has your relationship with it changed? and if so, why?

In short, it's an honorable mainstream hit. I don't get some of the hate it inspires.

was this considered a mainstream film at the time of its release? williams aside, none of the actors were particularly well-known.

mainstream = 2 Oscars

how was the "it's not your fault" scene fraudulent?

Same here, kinda. I did see it again a few years ago and still liked it.

was this considered a mainstream film at the time of its release? williams aside, none of the actors were particularly well-known.

There was a bit of buzz. I specifically remember my mom was watching an Oprah that featured Matt and Ben (and maybe Williams?) talking about GWH around the time of the release and she called me into the room to watch it, because she thought I might find it interesting.

Now, if the performances move you, that's a matter of taste.

Alfred OTM, my understanding is that psychotherapy doesn't have "one-moment cures" like that. (I'm an Irish Catholic who embraces his guilt, so I've never tried it.) It's the equivalent of the"A-HA!" moment in artist biopics, where he discovers his style.

xp

Quite so. I vividly remember during the Titanic box office lockdown that Good Will and As Good As It Gets were the top two and three films for many weeks.

It imitates every psychoanalyst-patient relationship filmed by Hollywood

every single one? even what about bob? an incredible achievement!

my understanding is that psychotherapy doesn't have "one-moment cures" like that.

you're right! but only because psychotherapy doesn't preach "cures", period. or at least not in my experience. a better suited term might be "breakthrough". these tend to happen very fraudulently, sometimes in single moments, thanks to generous forces of accumulated pressure and/or anguish.

Robin Williams doing Dr Judd Hirsch, genius janitor who looks great shirtless gets the girl ... the triumph of this movie is that it was well-crafted enough not to get laughed off the screen.

I've never seen "Bob?" but I certainly prefer my shrink movies to be comedies.

'fraudulent' in relation to what? your experience? or everyone's?

Remember the next scene? Damon finally decies to Wise Up, abandoning his buddy to Follow His Dreams.

you were expecting him to stay in boston... ? and if he were to leave, would you rather it were apropos of absolutely nothing? or is an action causing a reaction too 'hollywood'?

(xpost)

http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/miramax_films/good_will_hunting/_group_photos/matt_damon7.jpg

it's funny, at the top of the thread it's all 'argh sell-out!' gvs has now 'gone back to his roots. does he now seem 'less fraudulent'?

hahaha otm!

It's coming soon. End of the year on Criterion.

october, to be precise (nice cover, too)

(i didn't really like this at all tho)

PUNISHMENT PARK

paranoid?

anyone else seen paranoid park? does it really not come out in the US until March? (outside of NYFF, i mean.)

it was good.

i really liked elephant, but last days was pretty bad, and gerry... fucking hell, that was the worst movie i've ever seen. and i have generally low standards.

This was the tread on which I was introduced to Morbz!

Mala Noche out at last.

These two consecutive comments:

I just remembered that my budding socialist college film-geek friend, who was openly disdainful of "mainstream culture," saw this when it came out and confessed to being moved to tears.
-- jaymc (jaymc), Monday, August 8, 2005

I vividly remember during the Titanic box office lockdown that Good Will and As Good As It Gets were the top two and three films for many weeks.
-- Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, August 8, 2005

... sent me straight back to that time period, when I was the only one in my group of college friends who preferred Titanic to Hunting and thought the latter was every bit as shameless a weepy as the former.

GVS is doing the Harvey Milk biopic, starring Sean Penn. Newly cast are Josh Brolin as his assassin, Emile Hirsch as a gay activist, James Franco as Milk's lover (very savvy hotness quotient).

http://www.towleroad.com/2007/12/emile-hirsch-jo.html

hmmmm - there was an open casting call for this in SF a few weeks ago

won't Dianne Feinstein be a character in this? was she Council prez?

She was Supervisor on the Board (equivalent to City Council) - this definitely catapulted her political career.

I sort of hate her these days.

Emile Hirsch as a gay activist

Who will figure into approximately 80 percent of the film's running time.

in painted-on denim.

in 1993 he was talking about casting Robin Williams. It'd make more sense now that Williams is more of a bear than ever.

way too old now, tho? Harvey was surely too lean to be bearish?

yeah Harvey was skinny (more like an otter - lolz)

Penn's a better choice than Williams I think.

The writer is a guy from "Big Love."

Time for SFists to grow big broom 'staches!

The Castro is set to receive a makeover next month – Hollywood style – as the creative team behind the biopic on the life of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to office in the U.S., recasts the gay neighborhood back to its 1970s glory days.

Longtime denizens are likely to find some old haunts return to Castro Street, like the fabled Toad Hall bar – now part of Walgreens – and Milk's old camera shop – now the home of gift store Given – as the filmmakers recreate the streetscape from the days when Milk reigned over the area as the "mayor" of Castro Street.

"We want to dress this neighborhood the best we can like the 1970s," said Jonathan Shedd, the film's location manager. "We hope to create a feel that works."

Cars from the era will be parked on the streets. Awnings and street signs of businesses postdating that time will be changed. Even the Castro Theatre will be swept up by the time warp.

The movie-house's marquee, damaged by a Muni bus that ran into it while PG&E crews were doing work out front this fall, will be repaired next month and repainted to match the color palette it sported four decades ago. In addition to the settlement they receive from Muni – expected to be finalized in early January – the theater owners plan to spend upwards of $12,000 on the project.

http://ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=2555

"I sort of hate her these days."

Sort of? THESE DAYS! I've hated her forever.

Not sure this movie won't be a little to close for enjoyment (unlike Zodiac I was alive for and remember the fallout from Milk's assassination much clearer.) Brolin might be a good choice for White, but I can't imagine Penn as Milk at all.

Finally (after 15 years or so) got to see Mala Noche and it was good (probably his second best film), but not a patch on Drugstore Cowboy obv.

not a patch on Idaho, either (but a test run).

When we were drinking for ian's birthday in Brooklyn, the bar was showing a Hitchcock/Van Sant mashup of the Psychos. It's scene-for-scene but NOT always shot-for-shot.

Drugstore Cowboy was good but come on, thread

I'm not a fan of Idaho actually. The best sequences are the ones where Van Sant is talking to the real kids.

I thought Elephant was one of the most beautiful Movies ever made. The scenes with that red hoodie were amazing.

I could not get through more than like 20 minutes of Last Days, despite having been thoroughly into Elephant.

I really want to see it. I love Kim Gordon.

I too loved Elephant. Moonlight Sonata, so perfect.

This may or may not have to do with the Nothing preceding a looming shooting in a crowded, complex social environment being WAY more interesting than the predictable aimless depression preceding a looming suicide

Moonlight Sonata, so perfect.

Thank you for reminding me of the scene where the camera pans all the way around the room so, so slowly.

I just think of it as a mood piece. The beautiful colours the narcotically woozy camera movements. Those shots of the sky are gorgeous.

My ex-boss is scouting for the Milk film and I walked into one of my locals the other day and was surprised to see him there. Apparently they're going to shoot some in the Haight, too.

Michael can you let me know when they have an open call for extras? My wife really wants to be shell-shocked lesbian #12 or possibly emotional marcher #657.

Alex, I'm not that dialed in anymore and don't care to, but you might want to to call the Film Commission and they can ususally tell you who's doing extras casting though it's early days right now so I don't know.

Cool beans. I'll let her know. I'm looking forward to them closing the Diesel store in honor of this movie.

SFists, GVS wants you to be a '70s queer.

http://milkmarch.com/

On Monday night, February 4th and Friday night, February 8th, the feature film MILK (directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Sean Penn as Harvey Milk) will be re-creating three 1970's marches through the Castro. We are looking for volunteers to appear in the these marches in the film. THERE ARE NO AUDITIONS. IF YOU SIGN-UP ON THIS SITE AND SHOW UP, YOU WILL BE USED.

And here's Josh Brolin as Dan White:

http://www.towleroad.com/2008/01/first-look-at-j.html

"I was under the impression that he’s agreed to direct an upcoming version of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe’s nonfiction account of the aforementioned Kesey’s LSD-fueled 1964 bus trip across the United States. As it turns out, Van Sant has yet to officially sign on to this project (he said he was still in the midst of negotiating the deal and writing the script).

from Chuck Klosterman's On the Road piece in the latest issue of The Believer.

can be found here

I don't know what Dargis & Hoberman are smoking, but Paranoid Park was barely better than Last Days. Plz don't put me in the head of a skateboarder for 84 minutes.

I was surprised to find myself fairly engrossed in "Paranoid Park" (but I think "Elephant" and "Last Days" are his two worst films).

Didn't mind being put in the head of skateboarder for 84 mins.

I still think the ENDLESS lingering shots of billowy-lipped, hairless, baby-faced skateboard boys can come at the expense of other concerns, though (GVS and Larry Clark in a battle to the finish).

Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park

I think Elephant was probably his best film, but barely got through Last Days. This one splits the difference. All are still preferable to Good Will Hunting.

Need to see Mala Noche.

Mala Noche is just Private Idaho w/out the greatness.

http://www.deadline.com/2010/11/starz-greenlights-drama-series-starring-kelsey-grammer-and-directed-by-gus-van-sant/

has anyone seen restless? i really want to go see but like I hear you're not meant to

i've sat through way too many gvs movies in order to realize i like the idea of this guy more than i like this guy's work.

Well, you just need to watch "To Die For" again

I like all his movies a lot - that is, after long reflection, my pretty uncomplicated take on gus van sant

nb I never saw good will hunting so I might not like that one.

if you also like all of robin williams' movies a lot then oh boy just you wait

restless trailer makes it look v bad

going to give this boss telly prog with which he's involved a go

aero do you like apples

wrt restless, i cant imagine what drew him to the material. has anyone seen/liked it?

he's done some bad stuff but also a bunch of really good stuff. i appreciate his jumping from artier movies to more mainstream movies and back. i was really really into "paranoid park" (probably posted about it on the above-linked thread) and to a lesser extent "last days" but still haven't watched "elephant."

otm. and Milk was a deserved "crossover" hit.

I was kind of determined to see Restless anyway, but the critics have managed to put me off.

Every time I see that title I think of a rewrite of that Corrs hit.

YOU LEAVE ME RESTLESS

James Franco, on Restless and other recent Van Sant:

http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2011/11/10/the-star-crossed/

Also just read that VS directed the pilot episode of Boss.

wrt restless, i cant imagine what drew him to the material. has anyone seen/liked it?

― The sham nation of Israel should be destroyed. (Princess TamTam), Thursday, 27 October 2011 00:35 (2 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i just saw this & actually kinda really liked it? i think i would otm any critical takedown raised of it, because it's so cloying, almost entirely, in so many respects (overdone/cutesy/formulaic/sufjanwave) &c&c&c. & yet there are frequently parts that are quietly (rather than through the strength of the material), warmly affecting. there's a passage in which footage of the nagasaki a-bomb aftermath is accompanied by sensitive, sub-elliott smith, anonymous acoustic guitar musing, which does the work of going further than any absurdist criticism of what's terrible about touchy-feely modern teenage movies would feel compelled to go. & for all of that it was good. i feel like i ought to ps 'this movie is terrible', because it technically is, but that mattered less to me as its emotional charge deepened; as a film it kinda almost has the teenage naivete that teenagers in paranoid park are invested in (though is on another planet in terms of its accurate/thoughtful rendering of the teenagers), being so distant from a realism and so committed to a brief & romantic way of being.

i think it is meant as a young-adult thing for twilight fans, i guess, & there is something intriguing to me about GVS working in those confines.

links on the late Harris Savides:

http://www.fandor.com/blog/daily-harris-savides-1957-2012

I forgot how glowingly gutter-contrasty the b&w 16mm in Mala Noche. Also the chickenhawkish whiteboy clerk is preety plainly depicted as racist, tho he wouldn't cop to it (he bypassingly even mentions his "privilege" in 1984).

The teen who played his lust object was Native, not Mexican, and hence all his Spanish dialogue was dubbed.

My rewatch was inspired by this:

https://www.fandor.com/keyframe/the-modern-breakthrough-of-mala-noche-628

this universally panned one, unveiled

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQvC9V1eLsE

Looks fine with the sound off.

GERRY, an ambitious American independent film, premiered 15 years ago and was/is genuinely different.

— Vadim Rizov (@vrizov) July 7, 2017

always liked that one tbh

new movie DON'T WORRY, HE WON'T GET FAR ON FOOT out this year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYWrgLTNKP4

has Joaquin P been in any of his films since To Die For?

nope

just looked JP's wiki to make sure, and am fucking shocked he is only 43

ok just watched the trailer, excellent use of John Lennon's "Isolation."

It's going to be at Berlin, and I'm going. So now I'm trying to catch up on his filmography.

Did anyone see what will probably be called the Logan Paul one henceforth?

did anyone see his new movie? I think it played here for a week tops

got ok reviews, looks middling but serviceable. maybe the studio (amazon) didn't back it because they're worried Van Sant would be me too'd soon ( he has a reputation)?

he does?

ever see Mala Noche?

I saw it at Berlin. There's a scene at an AA meeting where one character stands up and says how proud he is to have achieved mediocrity. Gus van Sant really seems to have taken that notion to heart...

Boy, he's not getting much American distribution anymore, is he?

Anyway, he peaked early. His smaller 2000s-era "experimental" films don't hold up well, but I admire his insistence on investing his Hollywood capital in'em.

I'd maybe swap Milk and Elephant's spots but otherwise, otm. Paranoid Park def the best of that run.

Gerry + Elephant is as good a one-two, one-year punch as any American director has managed in probably my lifetime.

Elephant is his best

I haven't seen Elephant since the Wednesday before Thanksgiving 2003, and it tends to live in my memory despite not thinking it was fully realized at the time.

pretty much exactly my experience, alfred. I've had a DVD of it for a while but never feel like revisiting it.

Some things aren’t meant to be rewatched. In a good way. I don’t think I could bear it.

I've seen Elephant maybe 8 times. I've always found it utterly transfixing, despite the horror.

Haven’t seen since the theater but just extremely sad but certain details have really stuck with me.

It's my #1 from GVS

xp the image that has never left me is the CU of the first girl with her brains blown all over the library stacks

never felt like i could deal with 'elephant' but loved 'paranoid park' and 'last days'

Haven’t seen since the theater but just extremely sad but certain details have really stuck with me.

The look the one girl gives the two mean girls in the bathroom after she runs in is one of those for me.

I think To Die For is his best, followed closely by Elephant. Never got the appeal of Idaho

Boys II Men scene in Last Days is so good.

I’m really interested in the fact that so many people can never revisit Elephant again while I’ve literally played it twice in a row on more than one night. The inevitable doom is crushing, but for whatever reason that dream take walk through that day with those kids makes it something beyond the ultimate tragedy. It’s a haunter that pierces some primal things for me.

circa1916 - I watched Elephant for the first time since 2003 per your post the other day. You're right, it's completely hypnotic, and less thoroughly terrifying. I could easily imagine watching it on a loop if it weren't for the shooting, which imo goes on too long, or takes up too much of the movie's time (forgot how short it is, only 80 minutes). But the kids are fantastic, excellent use of non actors and long, lingering takes. Many beautiful moments: closeup of the girl kissing Alex, the punk kids, everything with Michelle, Timothy Bottoms (!) as the dad at the end, the drawn out banal everyday trauma of an alcoholic parent faced with acute traumatic violence, him mildly putting his hand on his son's shoulder as they watch the school burn. also forgot about the Gerrycount game.

In 'c'mon folks, you could have also led with THIS too' news, the Ryan Murphy/FX publicity machine is doing everyone a disservice because I only just found out today that van Sant has directed the first four of eight episodes of Feud: Capote vs. the Swans, and maybe more too. You know, minor details!

Whaaaat

I know, right! Jesus Christ, way to bury the lead!

Finished both S5 of Fargo and E1 of the Capote series today; couldn't help noticing the similarity between Jennifer Jason Leigh's jailhouse speech in Fargo and Diane Lane's reaction to "La Côte Basque" in The Swans.

Feud looks so fuckin good, Gus still king

Gira is really branching out.

love diane lane

and chloeeeeee my heart

Two episodes in. The performances are uniformly good, with so much opportunity for caricature. Enjoying the score, too--kind of new-agey classical. (Didn't get the Michael Gira joke above at first, so I checked to see if he'd done it...)

Flashing back to the '66 ball for the third episode was a great idea. Like a lot of people it seems, my first question was whether or not this Maysles Brothers film exists. Yes, sort of:

http://mayslesfilms.com/film/with-love-from-truman/

There was a book a few years ago about the ball that I read; truly fascinating snapshot of a moment.

https://www.vulture.com/article/gus-van-sant-feud-truman-capote-black-and-white-ball-interview.html

Watched the first ep and at least so far GVS is in for-hire mode here. Can't overcome the Ryan Murphy-ness of it all

Didn't like E4 as much as the first three, but I think two great performances are emerging. I love Capote and PSH--almost a comfort movie for me--but I think Tom Hollander might be even better, or at the very least benefits from his comparative anonymity. (PSH is such a presence for me, I don't think I can ever stop being entirely aware it's him.) And Naomi Watts is someone for whom I've always had an arm's-length appreciation, but I think she's so good here.

episode 3 was pretty great

the way GVS recreated the Maysles style was so good, esp since there never was Maysles footage of the ball or anything! the only thing they ever did together irl was just a very short reel of interview w Truman in long island apparently

the ball looked amazing, and the side by side scenes of truman dancing alone then w his mother was so good

havent seen ep4 yet

E3 was a classic self-contained episode--I think you could enjoy it without watching the rest of the series.

Watts plays Babe Paley. The real-life version:

https://i.postimg.cc/vHYZfdXZ/babe.jpg

Wasn't 100% sure whether this week's episode was the last--it could've worked as the finale, although they would have needed a written postscript. (Which I'm sure will be part of any finale.) Anyway, two more, next one directed by Jennifer Lynch. Thought E5 and E6 were both pretty good, although E3 is still the highlight so far. Getting "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life" in there was nice.

Thought Capaote's drunken TV appearance in E7 was the series' worst scene--accurate, maybe, but overracted--but the Babe Paley stuff, especially their conversation on Truman's deathbed, was very good. Intrigued as to how they'll handle Dead Truman in E8; hope they don't get overly clever.

yeah the babe/truman scenes were great & agree abt the drunk tv

i love this show but there’s also something about it that i find a little boring?
idk what it is

I guess it's that there's not really a lot of room for surprises. Truman drinks, Truman tries to finish the book, and that's about it (and we know the ending already). I loved the ending of E7, the way it led to the last line. Hope Tom Hollander and Naomi Watts win Emmys--I take it there's a separate category for this kind of show?

Try as I might, I can't really find Truman Capote a particularly interesting historical figure

i think limited series? idk abt such things

but yeah Watts & Hollander are incredible. also like Sevigny too

not a fan of Ringwald in this tho? her performance feels very strained somehow

Agree--she just seems wrong. Weird to watch Treat Williams play the husband of a dying woman, knowing he died himself after making this.

yeah it’s nice seeing him in this

oh you know who i love in this? Calista Flockhart - her Lee Radziwll is really good, very arch & shady

and Demi was excellent her small role

I like both of them. I'm a little on the fence with Sevigny, probably because her performance is so different from what I'm used to with her.

Holly Golightly = Carol Matthau...I guess that's true? Hard to picture Walter Matthau married to the Holly Golightly of the movie.

oh huh i didn’t know that!

matthau irl seems too curmudgeonly to tolerate a golightly but there you go
there’s someone for everyone i guess

Wait, what? I just came across her name elsewhere.

Regarding Glenn Close's performance in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical adaptation of Sunset Boulevard.

Close modeled Norma’s grotesque look on Walter Matthau’s wife, Carol. Close didn’t know her, but she’d heard that when Carol was young she had porcelain skin. As she got older, she applied white makeup to her face, which made her look odd, even a little frightening. “But I’m sure when she looked in the mirror she saw that porcelain skin,” Close said. “Norma’s makeup morphed into something grotesque. But she was seeing something different in the mirror. She was seeing what she looked like in the 1920s.”

Riedel, Michael. Singular Sensation: The Triumph of Broadway (pp. 20-21). Simon & Schuster

You hope for a strong finale; thought this one meandered, so I'll knock the series down a notch overall. They should have ended with E7.

I did like the very ending though, the last five minutes and the final shot. I don't know if that young couple bidding had special significance--I thought something was going to be revealed about them, but no. Love that bit of music at the end, which played throughout the series.

The ending was of a piece with the Black and White Ball. I think I find that so interesting because it feels like the last time that glamour and celebrity still largely belonged to people over 40 (pick whatever number you want--50 maybe). From '67 forward, that changed.

I watched the whole thing thinking Answered Prayers was eventually published in more or less its finished form. I guess not, although the version published in 1986 is 180 pages long.

Drugstore Cowboy is on Prime.

Did Lana Del Rey steal like 99% of her look from Kelly Lynch in this movie?

lol

My two favourite Gus Van Sant films are at opposite ends of his one-for-me, one-for-them filmography: Elephant, which concedes nothing to the thousand obvious ways to tell that story (took me two or three viewings to realize how great it is), and The Promised Land, possibly my favourite old-fashioned mainstream film this century, and which may as well have been directed by Ron Howard.

Dead Man's Wire is tilted heavily in the one-for-them direction.* I liked it, though it looks like not as rapturously as the reviews (and not as much as The Promised Land). The trailer, which I'd seen a couple of times, made me think Michael Shannon was the lead actor. I wish he had been; I found Bill Skarsgård a little rote, or too earnest, or something. Thought Dacre Montgomery was very good as the kidnapped son, and while I flinched the first time Pacino spoke--big accent--he's good too. Van Sant clearly loves Dog Day Afternoon and The China Syndrome, and now he's made his own version.

Assuming I could look up a complete list of songs when I got home, I left when the last bit of real footage played. Nothing online yet, so I can't identify this one song I liked. Some good '70s stuff throughout. "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" fell a little flat for me--that one's owned by another film. (I'm probably the only person here who wants songs to be a surprise.)

*I don't know if directors like Van Sant still have the luxury of one-for-me, one-for-them.

it's his best since Milk, a solid mainstream film. The interpolation of photos and film -- a tic since Mala Noche -- felt like an imposition this time, a reminder of artier times.

Pacino's broadness would've oppressed me had his role been bigger; in his small doses he made he chuckle several times, especially when he maliciously relishes how his kid doesn't cry but Skarsgard toes.

OTM

My impression is that every script Gus gets interested in directing gets shopped the same way, and certain of them get big budget greenlit, and other's get small budget greenlit, and the production and resultant film are adjusted accordingly toward expectations of the investors. I was adjacent to the pre-production of Milk, and at the time, many years having passed since Good Will Hunting (and Finding Forrester), it wasn't even clear to anyone involved in the early stages if the film was going to be a glossy one or an arty one. Then the money came through and the big names got hired.

Interesting! Not as pre-determined as I thought. Follow the money...

Tbh thought Pacino was only in this as a nod to Dog Day Afternoon.

In any case it totally worked for me as a gritty seventies callback/throwback/wayback tribute with a groovy period soundtrack.

xp I don't think it's so much "follow the money" as Gus's place in the industry requires him, oftentimes, to "play ball"; his films typically don't make a tonne of money. It does perplex/frustrate me that Gus hasn't even come close to getting a $5m budget for any of his own scripts since "Even Cowgirls..."; in comparison, Woody Allen has consistently been getting between $20m and $40m this century, even recently, but... Allen's films tend to make money. God knows why.

woody is coasting on his rep among those for whom his rep is positive. plus. he still attracts talented actors who think working with him will polish their own reps

xps Van Sant did a few Q&A's for this film and I attended one. He didn't start this film, the producers initiated it and originally had Werner Herzog set to direct, but at some point, Herzog dropped out and Elwes approached Van Sant (who he already knew) about taking his place. I'm not sure how much of the decision-making was already done, but they did tell him it was already set up to shoot in Louisville (even though it didn't take place there) which actually appealed to him because he was born there (though he didn't grow up there). Pacino was already cast by the producers with the stipulation that they had to shoot all his scenes in one day. But IIRC Dacre Montgomery was cast by Van Sant himself (I think he auditioned and Van Sant picked him on the basis of that). It sounded like he basically had to jump in and hit the ground running because they were going to shoot fairly soon, so it all had to come together very fast. At least some of the music was not chosen by him - "Raindrops" for example was a favorite song of one producer and he licensed it even before Van Sant was involved, so he basically had to use it for that reason. I thought the film was okay. It's far from his best work, but at least it wasn't terrible.

FWIW, the ones I like best (i.e. absolutely love) are his early shorts, Mala Noche, Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho, and Elephant. I’ve been meaning to revisit Paranoid Park and Last Days, I had reservations before but I may appreciate them more now. To Die For and Milk are fine, I enjoy them mostly for the performances. But everything I’ve seen by him from the last 17 years hasn’t done much for me. He had a hell of a run to start his career and it was a much better time for a filmmaker like him to get things made, so I don’t blame him if he doesn’t have it in him to do anything more than director-for-hire work. He’s 73 now and he’s earned his laurels.

Look, Mala Noche, Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho ? Stupendous run. MOPI is often my favorite film, period. But To Die For is a splendid comedy, especially when it concentrates on the kids; and Milk does something similar with Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, and their crew as they strategize about politics. Elephant and Paranoid Park hold up.

In addition to everything else it has going for it, MOPI has an excellent use of Udo Keir.

We should film club this guy— it’s been years since I watched that first run and he’s due

In addition to everything else it has going for it, MOPI has an excellent use of Udo Keir.

One of the pleasures of those early films was how even the smaller roles were brilliantly conceived and cast. Kier's role is one example, but I especially loved Burroughs in Drugstore Cowboy. I first saw the movie as a pre-teen who wasn't that familiar with Burroughs, but with the benefit hindsight, it's really impressive how that was done with such confidence and ease from someone who was making only his second feature - still an indie production too albeit the first one that wasn't a microbudget DIY production.

All of those early shorts appear to be scattered across different releases. Could be a rights issue, but would be nice if someone properly restored them all and collected them in one release.