This is the thread in which we anticipate "Capote"

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I mean Buffalo 66!

― 400% Nice (nordicskilla), Friday, 7 October 2005 23:03 (eighteen years ago) link

I know, I just wanted to point out that at least one of your questions is rhetorical.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Friday, 7 October 2005 23:04 (eighteen years ago) link

You might recognize something!

Are you in it, then?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 8 October 2005 00:41 (eighteen years ago) link

B-b-but I really do know Dan Futterma@! He might win an Oscar! His role on "Judging Amy" should have won him an award-for actor acting like he didn't want to be in a tv drama.

― aimurchie (aimurchie), Saturday, 8 October 2005 01:53 (eighteen years ago) link

capote was very good! but i couldn't help thinking that philip seymour hoffman's vocal affectations reminded me of damon wayans.

catherine keener was all kinds of terrific... i wish they'd given her more to do, but she's great at conveying nonverbal expressions. i liked the "jealousy" subplot between harper lee and truman's boyfriend (such a little bitch!).

but yeah, it was nice to see a movie with such a conflicted main character -- proving that being a self-interested, vain careerist doesn't preclude caring about people, and unfortunately vice versa. (fuck, those were some lars von trier levels of emotional cruelty.)

― glasgow coma score (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 04:07 (eighteen years ago) link

also, it was kind of a trip seeing bob balaban playing wallace shawn's dad!

― glasgow coma score (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 04:33 (eighteen years ago) link

?!?!?!

How do they pull that off?

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 13:33 (eighteen years ago) link

they're not that different looking...

http://www.vedmehta.com/gallery/shawn_william.jpg http://www.shortsupport.org/gif/whowho/Balaban_Bob.jpg

― glasgow coma score (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 13:41 (eighteen years ago) link

That's not the Wallace Shawn I was thinking of.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 13:43 (eighteen years ago) link

― glasgow coma score (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 13:44 (eighteen years ago) link

http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/walt_disney/the_incredibles/wallace_shawn/record1.jpg

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 13:44 (eighteen years ago) link

wallace shawn's dad was william shawn, who edited the new yorker for many many many years. bob balaban played william shawn in the movie.

― glasgow coma score (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 13:46 (eighteen years ago) link

Ah, that makes sense. I thought you meant Balaban played a character who was the father of a character played by Wallace Shawn in the movie, which seemed weird because Shawn looks older than Balaban. I r dum

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 13:47 (eighteen years ago) link

now wally shawn has to play bob balaban's dad, so everything can come full circle and the world can explode.

― glasgow coma score (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 13:49 (eighteen years ago) link

They should do a biopic of Chang and Eng.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 13:52 (eighteen years ago) link

This is the best movie of 2005. No contest. Not only is the performance great (if they give an oscar to Jamie Fox and not Hoffman, there is no good in the world), but the movie is also brilliantly written and beautifully shot. The implications of the trap Capote sets for himself are nearly bottomless -- humanism vs. careerism is only the tip of it. Humanism toward who? A man who shot a whole family in the face with a shotgun? To what end? Is the work of art that Capote created more important than the lives of the people it's about? More important than his own feelings? These are the questions, the movie implies, that Capote could not handle, and that ultimately drove him to slow, alcoholic suicide (not to mention career suicide). Capote is a mess of contradictions. Brilliant and arrogant is not an uncommon combination, but manipulative and warm is not something you see too much of, not in movies anyway.

What a great movie.

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Sunday, 23 October 2005 04:12 (eighteen years ago) link

Manipulative and warm: The scene where he gets the young girl to talk by telling her what an outsider he always felt like. He does it for his book, but it's not untrue and it doesn't feel the least bit contrived (a testament to Hoffman's acting as much as anything else). He's getting his way by telling the truth. It's only when his interactions with Perry Smith begin to require lies that he's eaten up inside. He says early in the movie, "I don't lie." And you get the feeling that he doesn't -- he brags, he manipulates, he is full of grandiosity and extreme self-centered-ness, but he does not lie. But eventually, his art begins to require sacrifices to his soul.

Can I say it again? What a great movie.

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Sunday, 23 October 2005 04:23 (eighteen years ago) link

i tried to see this tonight but the projector broke down and they kicked us out.

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Sunday, 23 October 2005 07:05 (eighteen years ago) link

It is indeed good, and a marvelous performance. At first I said "uh oh," worried that the vocal tics would result in caricature, but he embodies the role so well that it seems natural.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 24 October 2005 15:17 (eighteen years ago) link

i am excited to see this.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 24 October 2005 15:30 (eighteen years ago) link

I thought this movie might cure me of my PSH crush due to the vocal tics, but it was so good that it didn't. Kenan OTM about everything. I also enjoyed Catherine Keener's performance a lot -- she was dignified and earthy and fun and modest. I loved it.

― The Milkmaid (of Human Kindness) (The Milkmaid), Monday, 24 October 2005 15:31 (eighteen years ago) link

keener rocks. she brings so much.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 24 October 2005 15:34 (eighteen years ago) link

I wanted more of Keener! Harper Lee biopic, please.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 24 October 2005 15:34 (eighteen years ago) link

No kidding!! I liked the dynamics of the two of them too, the old friends, and how she cared for him but found herself tiring of his relentless self-centeredness. Her face rules.

― The Milkmaid (of Human Kindness) (The Milkmaid), Monday, 24 October 2005 15:36 (eighteen years ago) link

Yeah, she has that great moment where she's anticipating everything Truman is saying and repeating it with him ("94 percent accuracy"), and it's just the kind of thing old childhood friends would do -- her laugh at the end of the scene is so generous.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 24 October 2005 15:36 (eighteen years ago) link

you know what movie is the best example of keener's keenness? the 40-year-old virgin! a role that coulda been so nothing, so sleptwalk-through, and she's so totally alive and real in it.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 24 October 2005 15:37 (eighteen years ago) link

I thought PSH was magisterial in the role. He managed to perfectly invoke the mixture of fascination and repulsion I always felt for Tru. Keenan was great but Clifton Collins, Jr., as Perry Smith was excellent.

― M. White (Miguelito), Monday, 24 October 2005 15:38 (eighteen years ago) link

Word to that. He said more with a twitch of his lip than I've said all day. And I've talked a lot today.

― The Milkmaid (of Human Kindness) (The Milkmaid), Monday, 24 October 2005 15:39 (eighteen years ago) link

Clifton Collins, Jr., as Perry Smith was excellent

Yeah, no doubt. I haven't actually read any reviews that have singled him out, but I hope he gets some supporting-actor consideration, even though it's unlikely he'll actually get nominated, unless there's a groundswell around the movie itself.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 24 October 2005 15:41 (eighteen years ago) link

Another thing I loved: it was SO QUIET. There wasn't any intrusive scoring or sappy "THIS IS HOW YOU SHOULD FEEL RIGHT NOW" musical cues. I brought some crackers with me to eat and they were too loud so I had to not eat them.

― The Milkmaid (of Human Kindness) (The Milkmaid), Monday, 24 October 2005 15:42 (eighteen years ago) link

That's interesting. I have to say, I was very conscious of people eating popcorn around me, but I didn't think to pin it on the quietness of the film.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 24 October 2005 15:45 (eighteen years ago) link

I noticed the quietness too.

― M. White (Miguelito), Monday, 24 October 2005 15:48 (eighteen years ago) link

I'm seeing this in an hour. Who's laying odds on I hate it?

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Monday, 24 October 2005 17:02 (eighteen years ago) link

haha -- speaking of quiet

― Jams Murphy (ystrickler), Monday, 24 October 2005 17:06 (eighteen years ago) link

Ooh. I really am excited for Forty Shades of Blue.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Monday, 24 October 2005 17:18 (eighteen years ago) link

I am curious whether Eric hates it.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 24 October 2005 17:27 (eighteen years ago) link

I am too.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Monday, 24 October 2005 22:22 (eighteen years ago) link

Haha!

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 24 October 2005 22:24 (eighteen years ago) link

I thought it was really good, BUT I thought the direction, esp. near the end unfortunately, had moments where it veered too close to over-obvious and where Hoffman responds by over-acting just a tad (like they both knew this was a "Oscar" performance and that they had to have these "serious" moments in order for the Academy to take notice.) Also has the misfortune of paling in comparison to the fantastic '67 film of In Cold Blood which was basically anti-obvious film at some of its best. But these are (relatively) minor quibbles. It's well worth seeing.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 14:35 (eighteen years ago) link

I mean, obviously I'm not warm on this one, but it's not a warm film. It's sort of intriguing that it reflects Capote's misguided attempt at feigning journalistic neutrality.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 14:59 (eighteen years ago) link

I agree that, next to each other, In Cold Blood is the better movie. Especially when you add in the Robert Blake murder drama.

― The Milkmaid (of Human Kindness) (The Milkmaid), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 15:06 (eighteen years ago) link

Yeah well that was the role Blake was born to play (even the resemblance is downright creepy.) It's to the guy in Capote's credit that he does a good enough job that it's not totally distracting that he isn't ROBERT BLAKE.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 15:12 (eighteen years ago) link

I'm really happy Catherine Keener's being singled on ILX; her performance has been somewhat overlooked. Let me also say a word about Chris Cooper: a small, tense performance, especially in the scene in which he looks as if he wanted to belt Capote when the latter confesses that he doesn't care whether law enforcement catch the Cutter family killers.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 16:33 (eighteen years ago) link

i thought this was really good! it had one of the best closing lines of any movie i've seen in a long time.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 6 November 2005 06:38 (eighteen years ago) link

"i love you capote!"

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 6 November 2005 07:25 (eighteen years ago) link

I just saw In Cold Blood: crap. The music should have been a clue: atmospheric nonsense portending doom and destruction. It's a violation of Capote's tonal control.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 6 November 2005 15:02 (eighteen years ago) link

???!!? The soundtrack is great!

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Sunday, 6 November 2005 15:26 (eighteen years ago) link

Like I said, the music was inappropriate.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 6 November 2005 21:16 (eighteen years ago) link

one month passes...

i finally saw this (god it took a long time getting here)... and i really liked it. i thought it was actually pretty moving. psh was rad, as was c-keen. and chris cooper is always great.

i thought it really walked a thin line... sorry i'm going to have to think about this before i can articulate it well, but there was this balance between bleakness and warmth that i thought was very nice. the tone was controlled very well.

and only a few biopic-y moments ("this is going to change everything, truman!" "what was it called again? 'killing a mockingbird?'") to bug me

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 8 December 2005 17:21 (eighteen years ago) link

two weeks pass...

I was discussing this movie with my non-film critic friend, in relation to the VV poll. We were both sort of skeptical of Catherine Keener's really really high placement on that poll. We were also wondering if we both might've liked the movie more with Divine in the lead role.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Monday, 26 December 2005 22:24 (eighteen years ago) link

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