This is the thread in which we anticipate "Capote"

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actually i don't think the film has a single thing wrong with it in terms of competence in the acting and directing, but it's just such a by-the-numbers picture in terms of tone, music cues, and characterization that it came and went without leaving a mark. hoffman was good, clifton collins was good, keener was good, chris cooper played himself as well as he always does, the direction was nice enough, but i never felt like i was watching anything other than your average oscar bait/lead actor vanity project. and it was curiously unemotional, because the narrative never gained any power as it trudged along.

― gear (gear), Friday, 31 March 2006 17:51 (eighteen years ago) link

aw i disagree about cooper playing "himself," i just think he's been pigeonholed. see matewan frinstance!

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 31 March 2006 18:06 (eighteen years ago) link

i'm not saying he's bad, this was just the definitive "chris cooper" part!

― gear (gear), Friday, 31 March 2006 18:21 (eighteen years ago) link

gear totally OTM

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 31 March 2006 18:46 (eighteen years ago) link

"chris we think we need to put a slightly larger stick up your butt for this scene"

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 31 March 2006 18:48 (eighteen years ago) link

Yeah, I thought this was pretty boring, despite the good acting from Hoffman, Keener, and Cooper.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 31 March 2006 18:50 (eighteen years ago) link

i think you guys have some totally good points but i really liked this movie nonetheless! and i normally hate biopicism! but still! i was touched!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 31 March 2006 18:51 (eighteen years ago) link

Yeah but you have a thing for sensitive bad guys who get hanged.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 31 March 2006 18:53 (eighteen years ago) link

slocki's favorite films include return to paradise and an occurrence at owl creek bridge

― gear (gear), Friday, 31 March 2006 18:55 (eighteen years ago) link

The art direction and cinematography - everything filmed in carefully calibrated shades of drab - pretty much screamed "SERIOUS FILM". It seems like Hollywood can't resist turning anything to do with the death penalty into an excuse for agonizing, oh-the-humanity portentousness. We see people having fun in this movie - notably when Truman's regaling his buddies with jokes to which we only hear the punch lines, never the set-ups - but we aren't allowed to join them.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 31 March 2006 19:03 (eighteen years ago) link

I'd be a lot more impressed with it if I hadn't seen or read In Cold Blood. Nothing it added to that story was particularly involving or worthwhile. Competent film, but I really would have prefered a movie about the making of Beat The Devil.

― Zwan (miccio), Friday, 31 March 2006 19:05 (eighteen years ago) link

It seems like Hollywood can't resist turning anything to do with the death penalty into an excuse for agonizing, oh-the-humanity portentousness.

True, but in this film it was supposed to be portentious and agonizing: Capote was himself was guilt-wracked and agonzing.

We see people having fun in this movie - notably when Truman's regaling his buddies with jokes to which we only hear the punch lines, never the set-ups - but we aren't allowed to join them.

Yeah, this is even more true, but again, I suspect it's Miller's intention to put the audience at a distance from Capote. A cuddly Truman would have been a horror.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 31 March 2006 19:05 (eighteen years ago) link

it's NOT a biopic, though! which is a curveball. i talked with my dad about this movie last night and it turns out we both had the same reaction: we thought it was gonna be about, y'know, CAPOTE, but then it turned out to be about capote writin a book, i.e. it was about the new york publishing industry in a certain era. which still coulda been interesting, cf. my above delight at the convergence of lad-di-da NYers and small-town Real Men -- SHURELY a front-burner topic in this red-state/blue-state age, if overdrawn -- but the movie just skated by it after a cursory, token nod -- we never get into the heads of anyone in kansas, and capote's "i'm like you" speech to the killer only underscored how little we learned about even capote's ambiguous relationship to this kind of milieu. the book is the hero, not capote, so the title of the movie sets up some expectations that remained, for me at least, unfulfilled

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 31 March 2006 19:15 (eighteen years ago) link

Anthony has a point, though. This movie's pace may have felt a lot brisker had Peter Lorre been alive to play the grouchy Irishman he played in Beat The Devil

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 31 March 2006 19:18 (eighteen years ago) link

i was never entirely sure why capote agonized over a guy he'd spent apparently two minutes talking to. not that i didn't believe it, but it was never conveyed.

― gear (gear), Friday, 31 March 2006 19:29 (eighteen years ago) link

that's one of the main things i liked about it! i hate "life of..." biopics!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 31 March 2006 19:41 (eighteen years ago) link

gear i actually DID like return to paradise!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 31 March 2006 19:42 (eighteen years ago) link

me too! Joseph Ruben rocks!

(so does a pre-gut Vince Vaughan)

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 31 March 2006 19:45 (eighteen years ago) link

http://www.jms101.btinternet.co.uk/full_sets/gold/circular_bold_std/hanged.gif

― gear (gear), Friday, 31 March 2006 19:46 (eighteen years ago) link

s1ocki OTM, a "life of" capote biopic would've been pretty boring. the "in cold blood" stuff was the most exciting thing that ever happened to him, and i think it was a GREAT idea to just focus on that instead of trying to cram in his childhood or the "alcoholic later years" or whatever. the only birth-to-death biopic i can think of that was actually good was "prick up your ears."

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 31 March 2006 21:15 (eighteen years ago) link

the "in cold blood" stuff was the most exciting thing that ever happened to him

And meeting Gore Vidal, thus instigating a lifetime of delicious, creative insults and one-liners.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 1 April 2006 01:43 (eighteen years ago) link

I think writing a script the day its shot with a bunch of drunken lunatics is way more exciting than interviewing folks in the bible belt.

― ant@work.com, Saturday, 1 April 2006 02:22 (eighteen years ago) link

five months pass...

Trailer for "Infamous" (2006)

from IMDB

While researching his book In Cold Blood, writer Truman Capote (Jones) develops a close relationship with convicted murderers Dick Hickock and Perry Smith

http://z.about.com/d/movies/1/0/D/d/8/infamous0327067.jpg

er... what?

― Slumpman (Slump Man), Monday, 4 September 2006 15:10 (seventeen years ago) link

I can accept two movies less than a year apart which are both about, oh i dunno, a volcano erupting. Or dinosaurs! But two movies about truman capote writing the book "in cold blood"?

too much capote!

― Slumpman (Slump Man), Monday, 4 September 2006 15:12 (seventeen years ago) link

they should have called the 2nd one "pacote"

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 4 September 2006 15:13 (seventeen years ago) link

sandra bullock as harper lee OH NO!

― fellini-esque-lit-rockist (tehresa), Monday, 4 September 2006 15:21 (seventeen years ago) link

if it was called "peyote" i'd see it

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Monday, 4 September 2006 17:02 (seventeen years ago) link

I think this one was actually filmed first, actually, but got delayed.

― milo z (mlp), Monday, 4 September 2006 17:04 (seventeen years ago) link

how about Compote - Now Even Fruitier (har har)

― timmy tannin (pompous), Monday, 4 September 2006 17:05 (seventeen years ago) link

I have complete confidence this will be the better Capote film, excepting maybe Bullock as Harper Lee.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Monday, 4 September 2006 20:49 (seventeen years ago) link

capote II: the legend of curly's gold

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 4 September 2006 20:50 (seventeen years ago) link

Ok, this new Capote was the voice of Dobby the house elf in Harry Potter 2.

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Monday, 4 September 2006 20:57 (seventeen years ago) link

capote III: dream warriors

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 4 September 2006 21:01 (seventeen years ago) link

Capote IV: Cruise Control

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Monday, 4 September 2006 21:11 (seventeen years ago) link

I can accept two movies less than a year apart which are both about, oh i dunno, a volcano erupting. Or dinosaurs! But two movies about truman capote writing the book "in cold blood"?

Yes, but according to Jack Nicholson, the 2005 film is "CA-POH-TEYY."

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Monday, 4 September 2006 21:14 (seventeen years ago) link

Capote 2: affected boogaloo!

Yes, but according to Jack Nicholson, the 2005 film is "CA-POH-TEYY."

er, how is it pronounced, then? CA-POAT? CA-POTTY?

― Slumpman (Slump Man), Monday, 4 September 2006 21:54 (seventeen years ago) link

"cap hoat"

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 4 September 2006 21:56 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/images/smilies/Drudge_Siren_Small.gif BOB BALABAN IS IN BOTH!! http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/images/smilies/Drudge_Siren_Small.gif

― chaki (chaki), Monday, 4 September 2006 22:35 (seventeen years ago) link

When will some talented queen write and direct a film about the Gore Vidal-Truman Capote verbal slugfests???

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Monday, 4 September 2006 22:43 (seventeen years ago) link

kəˈpoʊ.ti

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 4 September 2006 22:55 (seventeen years ago) link

BOB BALABAN IS IN BOTH!!

-- chaki (chaki.tim...), September 4th, 2006.

whoa, same character, too?

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Monday, 4 September 2006 22:57 (seventeen years ago) link

he plays a younger version of himself (amazing wig) in this one.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 4 September 2006 23:01 (seventeen years ago) link

bob balaban is my dad

― PARTYMAN (dubplatestyle), Monday, 4 September 2006 23:04 (seventeen years ago) link

plz rename your blog that

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 4 September 2006 23:09 (seventeen years ago) link

you have a blog again? i keep track. link?

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 4 September 2006 23:18 (seventeen years ago) link

same link as before

― PARTYMAN (dubplatestyle), Monday, 4 September 2006 23:28 (seventeen years ago) link

and slocki your wish is my command

http://fineturkishtobacco.blogspot.com/

― PARTYMAN (dubplatestyle), Monday, 4 September 2006 23:32 (seventeen years ago) link

maura: oh have you seen 'minor accomplisments' yet
maura: balaban is an exec rpoducer
strongo: oh yeah? then where's my mom's alimony

― PARTYMAN (dubplatestyle), Monday, 4 September 2006 23:39 (seventeen years ago) link

one month passes...

So I saw the trailer for Infamous last night before Science of Sleep and my friends and I were all looking at each other going "WTF." The thread revival of a month ago clears up some mysteries, but still.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 5 October 2006 19:46 (seventeen years ago) link

'infamous' might be better than 'capote', which actually isn't high praise

― gear (gear), Thursday, 5 October 2006 19:51 (seventeen years ago) link

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