Election (1999)

yeah not getting the Sideways hate. I can't say I especially loved it and it was likely over-praised at the time. Which I also seem to remember leading to a meta dissection of the critical praise. (i.e. lol feel-good movie for malcontent culture-snobs lol). But I still enjoyed it.

well, maybe not "feel-good"

My mum hated Sideways because, and I quote, "It's a middle-aged man's wank fantasy".

but as those go, funnier than Leaving Las Vegas or Before Sunset.

I think the thing I liked so much about "Sideways" was how all of this relatively light-hearted farce was mapped over some incredibly heart-wrenching events (THC's total fear of commitment and its attendant fallout; PG's incredibly deluded lovesickness). The final confrontation between PG and his ex is super harsh and (I thought) awesomely staged and acted.

Yeah, I thought it was a lot less forgiving on its leads than my mum did. Add Giamatti's borderline alcoholism to the stuff Dan said.

'forgiving TO its leads'

I love the freeze on Tracey's face just before Broderick launches into a load of exposition about her. Her facial expression is genius.

Anyone who's read the novel: is it written in the various character's voices ala the movie's multiple VOs, or was that Payne's idea?

-- chap, Thursday, February 7, 2008 4:06 PM (45 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

he didn't tell her about the freeze frame when they shot the scene haha. i think he came up with it in the editing room.

I saw this doc on editing which had an interview w/Payne and he admitted that when cutting Election he was influenced by The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly in terms of freezing on close-ups and such.

the weird screaming native american music cue whenever tracey gets angry is my favorite movie music since the yodelling in raising arizona

-- n/a, Thursday, February 7, 2008 11:01 AM (54 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

this is morricone's theme from navajo joe!! it was in kill bill too

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/4362/vmsy400sx600bt5.jpg

totally didnt notice the fuck thing hahahah

I'd like to point out that this is the only film I can think of where product placement is actually rather cleverly and naturally integrated into the storyline and the characters, and is done in such a way that it explicitly equates one of the products (Pepsi - he throws a PEPSI at the car not a coke!) with being a loser

I seem to remember Perrotta switching first-person narrators by chapter too. (The Klein jock is not a moron in the book, either)

"Looks like you could use a CUPCAKE!"

For 12 seconds I thought Chris Klein was cute.

this thread is making me regret throwing out my VHS copy of this movie

Reese is cute, for someone who looks a human bulldog.

xp: C Klein is way cuter than the guy Katie Holmes left him for

yeah, but he was such an SP.

when david brooks or somebody wrote a column last year about whatever happened to middlebrow culture, sideways was the first thing i thought of. it's ironic middlebrow, but it's still sort of proudly middlebrow. which i think is fine, middlebrow culture deserves some respect. but i think that's payne's whole orientation.

-- tipsy mothra, Thursday, 7 February 2008 08:06 (10 hours ago) Link

lol what ISN'T middlebrow these days? oscar voters and film comment finding middle ground on 'no country' and 'milkshake' == middlebrows have won.

which is fine but what does this guy even mean by 'what happened to it?'?

what is high brow these days?

David Lynch

highbrow is furriners whose unseen movies leave PT Anderson in the dust (Jia, Weerasethakul, Hong, Tsai etc)

yep. figured as much.

I thought you hated Jia, Morbs.

I love all those dudes, but I'm really not interested in claiming them as "highbrow".

betcha you can't name three living 'highbrow' filmmakers working in the US

1. Brett Ratner
2. Uwe Boll
3. Keenan Ivory Wayans

Who gives a shit?

x-p

ahhh, Little Man

x-post

4. Paul Haggis

(i'm totally kidding, i think the whole highbrow/middlebrow/lowbrow distinction is wicked retarded)

^

no, the only Jia film I've found wanting was The World.

Yeah, Fools Gold or Passio. all the same. FART

ps. i really liked sideways and schmidt and ruth and election, and i think that together they make up a neat little canon of very american films about this country, in the present tense. they are praised out of proportion, sure, and sometimes for the wrong reasons ('touching'! 'incisive'!) but they make great use of low-key ironic/comic detachment to tell vaguely realistic stories, while avoiding the So Serious kitchen-sink realism that is the usual provenance of 'highbrow' stories

for the record, i don't think any of them are brilliant. but all of them are entertaining, humane, and unique little trifles

^^^ yes

after election i was kinda disappointed by sideways but really the only thing payne did that i hated was jurassic park 3

though i think election actually is brilliant and the rest are entertaining humane and unique trifles

I never saw Passio, but it seems like burning the negative after screening your movie in a couple of churches is a pretty easy way to pass for highbrow.

or just good PR.

So Serious kitchen-sink realism sounds "middlebrow" to me.

The contempt for the characters is what made About Schmidt unbearable to me. A friend who liked it said, Well yeah, fuckin' Middle American assholes, hooray for honesty.

it might be a matter of parsing: i read payne's portrayal of silly Middle Americans as self-inclusive and knowing, not contemptuous and condescending. there are pretty pervasive thematic resonances of redemption and transcendence running through most of his characters: they are broken and battered and weird, but at heart still good, solid, hopeful people.

yesterday i listened to tony gilroy on 'the treatment.' he talked very poignantly about about how the true meat of the american story is in the phrase 'a few minutes too late' –- a conceit i think payne knows and employs very very well.

they are broken and battered and weird, but at heart still good, solid, hopeful people.

Isn't this patronizing? I don't want Schmidt redeemed -- he's a shit.

as usual people who accuse directors of hating their characters are projecting because they hate the characters themselves

The contempt for the characters is what made About Schmidt unbearable to me.

yeah I couldn't bear this either

i think kathy bates & dermot mulroney are gross caricatures that almost ruin the film but everybody else is nuanced + great

telling stories about people the author hates is as old as fiction ethan wtf

that's kind of mean and off the mark, to my eyes

im not saying that no director has ever made a movie about characters they hated, just that i dont think alexander payne is that dude

look how excited he is to cast all these normal people - do you think he's laughing at the janitor in election or the waitress in about schmidt?