Gawker: defamer, jonathan demme

The Pool Movies That Ruined a Generation's Greatest Directors

Natasha VC — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:50:36 EDT

Remember the 90's? The decade when America ran out of cocaine and was forced to go to the movies instead? Some of those movies were really good! So why did those filmmakers turn out to be so disappointing?

There was a ton big budget slop but there was also a hefty amount of grit.
Movies like Usual Suspects, Pulp Fiction, Memento, L.A. Confidential, aw hell, even Fight Club were a great mix of pulp and substance.

With dynamos like Quentin Tarantino leading the charge, it looked as though Hollywood had a new surge of quality filmmakers. If you remember all that then you certainly remember the sense of betrayal you felt when you heard something, like, say Robert Rodriguez was directing Spy Kids 2? What happened to these guys?! Was it the pressure? The art? The women? According to a new GQ interview with Tarantino, it was the swimming pools!

"When you gotta go out and make a movie to pay for the kids' private school and for the three ex-wives, don't talk to me about your artistry. It's their job. I don't want to have to watch the movie I made to pay for my pool." Taraneninto went to say he didn't want to be making movies into his 60's."

It's true! On a long enough time line everyone's success rate reaches zero. And judging from the mixed reviews of Tarantino's newest flick, it looks like that timeline is really short! So we looked at some of the best directors of the 90's and tried to mark the precise moment they decided to re-tile their pools.

And sure, some will nab a prestige comeback flicks but there will always be that bottomless chlorinated beast to feed.

David Fincher: Se7en, The Game, Fight Club
Pool Movie: Panic Room

Fincher was a decorative filmmaker with a pretty morbid vision. Then he made Panic Room with Jodie Foster, who some time in late 90's also decided that she would stop picking plum roles and just you know, show up. Now grasping at commercial success with movies like Benjamin Button, it's safe to assume that Fincher will continue to splash around in the shallow waters of mediocrity.

Jonathan Demme: Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia.
Pool Movie: The Truth About Charlie
Silence of the Lambs was a game changer for all psychological thrillers about wang-tucking serial killers. Then he encouraged us to reach out and touch a gay, which was fine. But then Demme dropped the Whalberg bomb with The Truth About Charlie. That is an awful movie! And Demme has not made anything not-awful since!

Curtis Hanson previous films: L.A. Confidential, Wonderboys, 8 Mile
Pool Picture: Lucky You

Three years too late, Lucky You tried to capitalize of the poker craze of '02 with a jerky rom-com staring Eric Bana (whose appeal is still a mystery to me) . Lucky You was an undredeemableIe flop. Rex Reed put it best: "I don't know a grand slam from a royal flush and couldn't care less, so I might just as well have been watching a two-hour translation of Egyptian hieroglyphics."

Steve Soderbergh: Sex, Lies, Videotape, Traffic, Che
Pool Movie: The Good German
When Soderbergh made Ocean's 11 in 2001 you could fill an Olympic sized pool with the art house tears. But Ocean's was crowd-pleasing pop at it's best. Soderbergh's real paycheck flick was The Good German . An updated noir vehicle for George Clooney that mucked the line between homage and mockery.

Ang Lee: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain
Pool Movie: The Hulk
Way to go, Ang! Just when we were starting to believe that you were as good as everyone said you were, you go and make The Hulk.

The Once-Great Jonathan Demme's Cold Streak Continues With 'Rachel Getting Married'

Mark Graham — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 20:50:00 EDT

It wasn't so long ago that Jonathan Demme was considered one of Hollywood's preeminent directors. Actually, scratch that — after checking out his IMDB profile, we now realize that the last time he made a film that had any sort of cultural impact (or, for that matter, even approached the state of being "watchable") was 1993's landmark Academy Award winner Philadelphia. Over the last fifteen years, his resume includes such stinkers as Beloved, The Truth About Charlie and The Manchurian Candidate (in the spirit of fairness, the documentary The Agronomist was pretty decent). Which is why after seeing Demme sputter out with a couple of ill-fated remakes, we were mildly excited for his return to directing an original script, the Anne Hathaway vehicle Rachel Getting Married. Emphasis on the word "were."

From the looks of the trailer, Demme and screenwriter Jenny Lumet have been watching and studying the oeuvre of Noah Baumbach a little too closely. From the intricately tangled relationship between sisters (see: Margot At The Wedding) to the interracial couple that serves as a foil for the film's screwed-up protagonist (see: Mr. Jealousy), this film's plot points feel like something we've all seen before. Then when Anne Hathaway — trying her first "dark" role on for size since her breakout role in The Devil Wears Prada — starts falling apart at the seams, her performance seems like nothing more than a rehashed version of what Sandra Bullock did in 28 Days. And what's even worse is the gall of all parties involved when they try to invoke the spirit of Tom Wilkinson's triumphant performance in Michael Clayton by having Hathaway introduce herself to the rest of the members of the wedding party as "Shiva, The Destroyer." Really? With the way Jonathan Demme's career has regressed over the last 15 odd years, we're pretty happy to see him headed back to the concert doc circuit for his next project.

Rachel Getting Married [Sony Pictures Classics]

Jonathan Demme Does Scorsese A Solid

Seth — Wed, 21 May 2008 15:30:00 EDT

· Jonathan Demme has stepped in for the departing Martin Scorsese on the authorized Bob Marley documentary project. This is the movie Marley's estate want released before the Weinstein's Bob biopic, a scheduling snafu that caused an irate Harvey to whip a can of Diet Coke at an assistant's head as he taunted the incapacitated call-roller to, "C'mon, Josh! Get up, stand up. Stand up for your rights!" [Variety]
· More legend docs! Spike Lee told a crowd at Cannes that he's hoping to bring a feature-length documentary about Michael Jordan to the festival next year, contingent of course on Denzel playing Michael. [Variety]

· Miss Guided casualty Jude Greer was cast in Barry Sonenfeld's HBO pilot Suburban Shootout, about a woman who finds "herself caught between two rival gangs of homicidal housewives as they vie for control of their idyllic town." [THR]
· For the first time, Fox was the overall winner of the strike-marred 2007-08 TV season. [Variety]
· Sony Pictures Releasing launched the Hot Ticket, which will distribute live shows to digital-cinema-equipped movie theaters, giving musical theater lovers who can't be bothered to catch the touring production a viable, Rent-seeing alternative. [THR]