Rolling Obituary Thread: 2020

His most notable are indeed probably The Lost Boys (as Gen X kitsch; Flatliners probably fits this, too), Falling Down (as sort of pop agitprop) and Batman and Robin (for being terrible and looking terrible). I just recall at the time thinking he hit all the marks of a bad director, working with bad scripts and getting bad performances and making movies that looked bad and reacting to criticism with a knowing what-can-you-do? shrug. But of course in retrospect he's mostly just kind of hacky and tacky, like Michael Bay or something.

I watched The Lost Boys on our school trip to France when I was 11 and it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen.

Watched it again aged 25 or so and it was the cheeseiest thing I'd ever seen, and not in a good way.

Aged 41 maybe should give it another chance? Not sure.

That Cry Little Sister song is good anyway.

I loved The Lost Boys as a kid, and still liked it when I last revisited it about a decade ago (and yes, I owned the soundtrack). Beyond that, his filmography is hot garbage.

Saddened to learn of the passing of Joel Schumacher, one of the most engaging people I've known. I first met him on the set of FLATLINERS, where he happily told me who was sleeping with whom among his cast and which drugs they were into.

— Dave Kehr (@dave_kehr) June 22, 2020

I mean, considering he was 51 at the time, if you can get that information out of them then you've got some kind of rapport!

i will say st. elmo's fire is one of the worst movies i've ever put myself through

i love batman & robin. i saw it on my 10th birthday. now i'm gay. coincidence

The first time I saw a sax player perform live and they neither had a ponytail nor were shirtless and greased, I just didn't know what to make of the world.

That Kael line about having style to burn applies to Schumacher.

That Kael line about having style to burn applies to Schumacher.

Can you give examples? Because even if you compare him to other "bad" directors like Michael Bay or Tony Scott, he seems to have no visual trademarks at all.

i love batman & robin. i saw it on my 10th birthday. now i'm gay. coincidence

My husband's reaction to the news was something like "is that the guy everybody hates for ruining Batman? Because I thank him for Chris O'Donnell's Robin suit."

i will say st. elmo's fire is one of the worst movies i've ever put myself through

hard agree

Schumacher began as a store window dresser.

Val Kilmer is my favorite Batman after Adam West, and his Incredible Shrinking Woman with Lily Tomlin is rather fun.

Had to check his IMDB page...I think I found Flatliners scary, and The Client was pretty good.

his Incredible Shrinking Woman with Lily Tomlin is rather fun.

Yeah, I have to admit I really liked that one.

I saw it when I was nine.

For anyone puzzled by my last post--I think I might be confusing Flatliners with Jacob's Ladder.

(Jacob's Ladder the movie--Huey Lewis is a different kind of scary.)

met Schumacher briefly a decade or so ago. some friends dragged me to dinner they arranged with him at the now defunct Lion Restaurant on W 9th, I remember all of us mostly listening while he did all of the talking

Incredible Shrinking Woman was written by Jane Wagner, Lily's collab/wife, and is a patchy but antic consumer satire. More meat than most Joel S projects.

Pretty good comment, I think:

Joel Schumacher used to come into my video store quite often and he was the nicest, funniest man. I asked what he thought of the LOST BOYS sequel he just returned. I believe his response is a big factor as to why he was so successful.
"Everybody deserves a shot." pic.twitter.com/uXgOsGUmpE

— Shane Bitterling (@ShaneBitterling) June 22, 2020

other "bad" directors like Michael Bay or Tony Scott

man tony scott doesn't deserve that

Like Michael Bay or Tony Scott Adrian Lyne.

(I don't think Tony Scott was a particularly good director, either, but he had his moments.)

I put "bad" in quotes because I love Tony Scott. I own Domino and Unstoppable and The Last Boy Scout and would happily re-watch Deja Vu and Man On Fire anytime.

Amazing.

#JoelSchumacher was the funniest, chicest, most hilarious director I ever worked with. Once,on set,an actress was complaining about me within earshot; how I was dreadfully over the top (I was)Joel barely looked up from his NYT+said “Oh Honey,no one ever paid to see under the top”

— Minnie Driver (@driverminnie) June 23, 2020

lol

St Elmos Fire is such a weird, stupid movie. I’ve seen it a bunch since I was a kid and never understood it; if anything it was better as a kid bc all i cared about was Rob Lowe playing sax & Demi Moore’s crazy loft with the billowy curtains that looked like a dance studio where Debbie Allen yells at dancers

Phone Booth and Lost Boys are both good, and especially good at achieving the specific tone they're going for. Falling Down is very good at the latter, though the lead-and-almost-sole character so repellent that I can't imagine ever revisiting it.

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/PlumpWaterloggedIrrawaddydolphin-mobile.mp4

Steve Bing, Film Financier & Philanthropist Jumped From Century City (Los Angeles) Building

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/steve-bing-dies-film-financier-001540014.html

100-1 Grand National winning jockey Liam Treadwell, aged 34.

Ugh. Never a good sign when wealthy philanthropists in their '50s are jumping off buildings.

Margerita Pracatan, who took Clive James' audience laughing at her and turned it into a minor celebrity career.

Oh, no! Margarita Pracatan was only recently so cheerful and ebullient on twitter. Her age was a complete mystery to me and it was difficult to decide which parts of her backstory to accept as true. She was obviously far better known in the UK than in the US, but I've wondered, why was she booked on Clive James' show to begin with? I saw her perform in a club in Manhattan once to an audience of about twelve people - one of whom was Fred Schneider of the B-52s! She did a meet-and-greet afterwards and I said to her, "you smell wonderful!" and she said, "I took a shower."

She was one of those "hey foreign TV shows lol" things that Clive James hosted. She was a hit. So, he hired her directly for his chat show.

I was about to ask which foreign TV was she on (I never saw her on US TV and she lived in NYC), but Wikipedia says Clive James discovered her on Manhattan public access TV in 1994 - that makes sense

Marc Fumaroli, French literary critic, historian and académicien. He was 88. RIP.

I saw Margarita Pracatan when she was the surprise guest at The Phoenix Festival in (I think) 1996, she took the laughter very well, she was way too fabulous to be anything as gauche as "in tune".

RIP Margarita. I think she was hanging on till Clive James was out of the way, she had a long wait.

Harry Britt, a progressive way ahead of his time who was appointed to the SF board of supervisors to replace Harvey Milk after his assassination in 1979

https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Former-Supervisor-Harry-Britt-dies-helped-15364407.php

Marvel Comics artist Joe Sinnott, 93

the Labour Party, 120

Angela Madsen

Madsen, 60, had reportedly been trying to become the first paraplegic, the first openly gay athlete and the oldest woman to row across the Pacific Ocean. She reportedly shipped out on a 20-foot rowboat from Marina Del Rey in Los Angeles in April with the goal of reaching Honolulu in four months.

Madsen’s cause of death remains undisclosed, though the Coast Guard has reportedly recovered her body. She reportedly stopped responding to messages from her wife, Deb, on Sunday.

https://www.presstelegram.com/2020/06/23/long-beach-paralympian-angela-madsen-dies-rowing-alone-across-pacific-ocean/

Phone Booth and Lost Boys are both good, and especially good at achieving the specific tone they're going for. Falling Down is very good at the latter, though the lead-and-almost-sole character so repellent that I can't imagine ever revisiting it.

Rewatched both since posting that, and they're each a little better than I remembered. Might give Cousins a crack too.

RIP Margarita - always enjoyed the very quick journey from "lol at the nutter lady" to "every single person involved is delighted that the untalented lady is so popular and entertaining"

(also obv. imagine how well-cared for Joe Sinnott and his family would be if he had royalties / supporting corporate comics is funding the protection of sexual abusers / buy author-owned work from direct market shops, etc etc)

amen

Cellular was so much better than Phone Booth ... that you could say it made phone booth obsolete

Never a good sign when wealthy philanthropists in their '50s are jumping off buildings.

it's a very very very gooood siiiiiiiiiign

Is that an oblique Nick Lowe reference? Thumbs up to Morbs!

it was a blunt deadly reference