Big men (and 2 crazy ladies)

I'm going to do my best to catch up quickly on some recent viewing:

POLLOCK (2001): Ed Harris directed this biopic of abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock and stars as Pollock, the artist whose style of dripping and spattering paint on huge canvases led to the famous museum retort, "My kid could paint that!" Here he is presented as a disturbed man, certainly an alcoholic and possibly a manic-depressive, who was pretty much always risking alienating his friends and relatives (though his wife, played by Marcia Gay Harden, blames the brother for sending Pollock off on his jags). Solitary creative endeavors like writing and painting are notoriously difficult to dramatize, but Harris does a great job making Pollock's painting style visual and exciting, if not necessarily explicable. Harris is good portraying an unlikeable and generally unfathomable man, and Harden is even better as the wife who puts up with a lot but still manages to stand up for herself once in a while--she won an Oscar for this performance. It was interesting to see Bud Cort (of Harold & Maude) in a supporting role, looking exactly like S.Z. Sakall, the white-haired bumbler Carl from Casablanca.

LOVE IS THE DEVIL (1998): Another biopic of another unpleasant artist, Francis Bacon, played by Derek Jacobi. The focus here is on his relationship with a small-time thief, played by Daniel Craig. Jacobi catches Craig in the middle of robbing his flat, and the two wind up bed (a novel approach to seduction). Against the odds, they forge a relationship, physical and affectionate, though sadomasochistic, but when Jacobi begins to tire of Craig's neediness, things end badly. None of Bacon's artwork is shown in the film, but the director, John Maybury, makes many of the images in the film look like Bacon's thick, exaggerated, impressionist paintings. The most we ever understand about Bacon's inner life is when he is asked about expressing his feelings in his work, he replies, "Feelings? I prefer to show two men fucking." Not a particularly interesting film except for the visual style. Bonus: brief nude shot of Daniel Craig!

THE GREAT BUCK HOWARD (2009): John Malkovich plays a magician whose best years are behind him; when he hires a new personal assistant (Colin Hanks), he tries for a comeback. This dry comedy reminded me of the Peter O'Toole film My Favorite Year. In both films, a young man goes through a coming-of-age process, led by a somewhat overbearing entertainer. Though Malkovich is magnetic as Howard, this is really the story of the Hanks character who has just dropped out of law school, despite pressure from his father (played by his real-life father Tom) to stay in; he's adrift trying to find a future that interests him. Of course, there's a love interest, played by the fabulous Emily Blunt (the British secretary in The Devil Wears Prada); in fact, she really seems way too fabulous for Hanks, and that strains the credibility of that plotline. But overall, it's a fun movie (though almost too lightweight) with a couple of clever scenes (one involving an off-screen Jerry Springer). Steve Zahn and Debra Monk are good in supporting roles.

BIG MAN JAPAN (2007): A Japanese man with a superpower (he can grow into a giant, pictured above, with the help of electrocution) is called upon to fight odd creatures that threaten Tokyo, but finds that being a superhero is a thankless job in today's society. This movie has a clever idea and might have made a good short subject, but at almost two hours and with a deliberately slow, even plodding, pace, it's not worth sticking with. It plays out like a documentary, with cameras following Big Man Japan around as an average citizen and as a giant, watching as he barely gets the best of the monsters, who, when defeated, are beamed up into the sky--no explanation is ever given, though I assumed that the monsters were being let loose on purpose, as entertainment for the masses. (?) The effects (mostly CGI) are fine, and the finale is truly weird, but I can't recommend it.

GREY GARDENS (2009): The "2 crazy ladies" movie of my subject line, this is a fictionalized TV-movie remake of the 70's documentary about two relatives of Jackie Kennedy Onassis who became infamous for living in a wreck of a house which was on the verge of being condemned. The original film documented the daily lives of Little Edie Beale, then in her 50's, a larger-than-life character who loved playing to the camera, and Big Edie, her mother, a more retiring figure who spent most of the day in bed. This film recreates a couple of key scenes from the original, but mostly, it consists of flashbacks that show us how these two former socialites lost (or, more precisely, gave up) their privileged life. I like the original film quite a bit, and this one is almost as good. Drew Barrymore (pictured) does a fantastic job with the accent and mannerisms of Little Edie; some critics have said she doesn't plumb the depths of the character, but frankly in this case, I think the surface is the character; I don't mean to trivialize the real person, but I think her surface was basically an exaggerated version of what was beneath. Jessica Lange is very good as well; the burden of her old-age make-up in the later scenes gets in the way of a full-blooded performance, but she's quite fine as the younger Big Edie. I'm not sure what folks who haven't seen the original Grey Gardens will make of this, but I was impressed and hope that Barrymore gets an Emmy.