By Melanie Addington
As Published in the Oxford Town
“Brüno” will likely be one of the hot topics this weekend after it begins at Oxford’s Malco tomorrow.
While the character is not new, he is no less controversial.
Sacha Baren Cohen first created Brüno in 1998 for the Uk Comedy Central (at the time known as Paramount Comedy Channel) and later carried on his adventures in his Da Ali G Show for the popular skit “Funkytime with Brüno.”
Setting the stage for his America tour, Brüno apparently gets fired after disrupting a fashion show in Milan. He decides to head to America to interview people about gay-life in America as well as perpetuate his own self-induced celebrity as a famous fashion reporter.
Similar in concept to Borat, Cohen once again reveals the underbelly of America’s reactions to anything foreign, this time touching on the nerve of homophobics. Although hilarious skits make up most of the movie, many critics are panning the film for not providing much of a message or further exploring the topics.
One of his interviewees, Dr. Paul Cameron, chair of the Family Research, had no idea he was in the movie until the New York Post called for an interview this week. He explained that Brüno came to him for advice over a year ago with his producer saying that he was suicidal and needed help. Cameron told the Post that the man did push some boundaries but that they talked for two or three hours.
Lloyd Robinson, a talent agent in L.A. is also one of the interviewees that had no idea who Brüno was and takes part in a scene where Brüno is trying to break into acting.
Chris Stevens, a deputy sheriff in Alabama supposedly arrests Brüno, however, he told the Post that the event never occurred. Also interviewed in Alabama is Pastor Jody Trautwein who counseled Brüno on how to come out of the gay lifestyle.
In on the schtick is talk show host Richard Bey where in the film Brüno brings his newly adopted child to discuss unique parenting styles. The scene brought much ire from the audience with numerous guests walking out after Brüno explains he has named the child a “traditional African American name, O.J.” The child also wears a Gayby shirt and serves as his toy to prove his fame, like Madonna or Angelina Jolie.
The scene is one of the most outrageous in the film, although the wrestling match is sure to be the most talked about scene in the film. I will leave that one to your own discovery.
For me, when I saw a few sneak peek scenes at SXSW film festival this year, the one disturbing scene is when Brüno is interviewing real parents for a casting shoot for the baby scene and asks numerous real parents whether their child would be OK with loud noises, bees or being thrown from a building. Shockingly, almost all of the parents have no problem with any of the more and more outrageous questions, so desperate to get their child a starring role.
When he asks one mother whether her child could lose 10 of its 30 pounds before next week, guess what she replies quite eagerly?
One woman did not appreciate the portrayal. Richelle Olson is suing Cohen over an alleged attack at a bingo hall, something that TMZ reports does not appear to be true from any of the footage. Most of the others on film told the Post that actually Cohen and director Larry Charles were respectful when filming, despite some of the over the top antics.
Another scene, the Latoya Jackson interview, has been cut but rumor has it you can find it on YouTube. Of course there is also Paula Abdul, Ron Paul and Harrison Ford amongst plenty of others that are caught up in the mockumentary. Its anyone’s guess whether we will be laughing with them or at them.
See the trailer below:
Malco is once again hosting the Elvis Film Festival on Aug. 11 this year.
The fest occurs during Elvis Week®, at Studio on the Square in Midtown Memphis, Tennessee. Tickets are $5 each and on sale now at the theatre box office & online. Proceeds from the festival will benefit the Elvis Presley® Charitable Foundation.
Films this year include Fun in Acapulco, Roustabout, Jailhouse Rock and King Creole.
Fun in Acapulco
Starring: Elvis Presley, Ursula Andress
Run Time: 97 min.
Rated: PG
Premiered: 1963
Director: Richard Thorpe – earlier had won a Directorial Achievement award for Ivanhoe (1952) and Great Caruso (1951)
Writer: Allan Weiss (also wrote Blue Hawaii and others)
Fun Fact – a Young Teri Garr is in one of the hotel scenes.
Roustabout
Starring: Elvis Presley, Barbara Stanwyck, Leif Erickson
Run Time: 101 min.
Rated: PG
Premiered: 1964
Director: John Rich – best known for his direction of TV hit, All in the Family
Writer: Allan Weiss (also wrote Blue Hawaii and others)
Fun Fact – a Young Raquel Welch plays a college student in one of the scenes.
Jailhouse Rock
Starring: Elvis Presley
Run Time: 96 min.
Premiered: 1957
Director: Richard Thorpe (see above)
Writer: Guy Trosper (nominated for an Oscar for writing The Pride of St. Louis)
Fun Fact – Disney is working on a new Jailhouse Rock through Varsity Pictures with Brian Robbins directing with a 2011 release date.
King Creole
Starring: Elvis Presley, Walter Matthau, Carolyn Jones
Run Time: 116 min.
Premiered: 1958
Rated: PG
Director: Michael Curtiz – director of Casablanca
Writer: Herbert Baker (known for Flip Wilson and The Danny kaye Show), Michael Vincente Gazzo (nominated for Oscar for supporting role in Godfather 2, primarily an actor)
Fun Fact – Last black and white film Elvis worked on – and of course Curtiz became Elvis’ favorite director after working on this film.
One of the cute films that played at Atlanta Film Festival, “Lightbulb” comes to Oxford for one screening as part of the Oxford Film Festival Summer Series tonight. Playing at 7 p.m. at The Lyric, the film is a good fit for the 4th of July as it tell a very American story.
Based on Mike Cram’s own life, Dallas Roberts and Jeremy Renner star as inventors that are failing at life until the one great idea hits. See the trailer below:
The Youth Symphony Orchestra of the J.S. Bach Musikschule in Leipzig will perform a free concert of music from the movies under the direction of Ron-Dirk Entleutner.
The program for the concert is
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartoldy: A Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture, op. 21
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartoldy: Hebrides Overture, op. 26
George Antheil: Symphony No. 5 “Joyous”
Intermission
20th Century Fox Fanfare
Symphonic Suite “James Bond – 007″
John Williams: “Fawkes, the Phoenix” from Harry Potter
John Williams: Schindler’s List
Symphonic Suite Forrest Gump
John Williams: Star Wars Suite
The orchestra members are drawn from the best students of the approximately 5,000 music students in the greater Leipzig area. With frequent opportunities to perform in “side-by-side” concerts with the Gewandhaus Orchestra and the musicians of the Middle Germany Radio Symphony Orchestra, the youth observe and learn from their professional stand partners.
Tickets are available at the UM Box Office at the Ford Center and the Student Unio
Bobby Ubangi, one of the subjects in the documentary We Fun, was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer nine months ago. It quickly spread to his brain, liver and bones, and he is near the end. died on July 2.
“I’m trying like hell to get donations for his burial. I left cancer out of the documentary because I felt it was wrong for the kind of film I was making, but I put together this short video for the CL story,” said WE FUN director Matthew Robinson.
“He has NO FAMILY other than his close friendships with Atlanta’s music community: Black Lips, King Khan, Deerhunter, et al. It’s one of those times where a hand-to-mouth arts community comes up a bit short, and fans, friends, well-wishers and supporters can make the difference,” Robinson said.
A benefit concert was held last night but more is needed.
See the Creative Loafing blog story on this for the way to give or e-mail ubangipreservationfund@gmail.com.
Over the weekend I geeked out with some other film aficionados on the new Web site, www.flickchart.com. The site serves as yet another way to rank movies but does so in a more interesting manner. Forced to choose between two films, you must decide which is the best.
Sometimes this is simple: “Citizen Kane” vs. “The Hottie and the Nottie.” Sometimes this is quite painful: “Goonies” or “Stand By Me.” A personal but stressful way to form your top 20, 100 or 250 list, flickchart is, if nothing else, highly addictive to those of us with OCD tendencies.
You can judge films based on genre, year, decade or all movies (the hardest way to judge). I found that by judging by year it helped me to really sort through and recall my favorite years for film.
Sorting through films all weekend reinforced my theory that the best year of film of all time is 1979. The year brought us “Alien,” “Norma Rae,” “Monty Python’s Life of Brian,” “Apocalypse Now,” “The Jerk,” “The Amityville Horror,” “Kramer vs. Kramer,” “Dawn of the Dead,” “The Muppet Movie,” “La Cage aux Folles,” “All That Jazz,” “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” “Being There,” “Rocky 2” and so on and so on. Overall I can count 17 movies from that year that I own or will eventually purchase. On average for other years I only care for about four to six of the films enough to own or rewatch.
1987 and 1980 also had some hits, “The Shining” in 1980, “Grease” in 1978, but nothing like the extensive list from 1979.
But 1989 and 1999 also have been some of the most tremendous years for film.
1989 brought “Say Anything,” “Field of Dreams,” “When Harry Met Sally,” “Dead Poets Society,” “Do The Right Thing” among others.
The other banner end-of-the decade year, 1999, brought “Being John Malkovich,” “Office Space,” “Fight Club,” “Run Lola Run,” “Election,” “Eyes Wide Shut,” “The Iron Giant,” “Shakespeare in Love,” “Trick,” “All About My Mother,” “The Sixth Sense,” “American Beauty,” “The Blair Witch Project,” and more.
1969 brought us “Midnight Cowboy,” “Easy Rider” and “The Reivers.” 1959 brought us “Ben Hur” and “North by Northwest.” 1949, perhaps the weakest of the end-of-the-decade years, brought us “Mighty Joe Young” and “White Heat.” 1939 brought us the beloved “Gone With the Wind” and “Wizard of Oz.”
And while there are excellent films made every year along with a lot of really bad ones, the end of the decade seems to bring the most films that stand the test of time, 1979 being the height of this theory. Why is this I wonder? Does something about the end of a decade provoke studios to create more challenging films? Is it just luck over the past 40 years that the best years of film have just coincidentally been the last year of the decade? Will 2009 hold up to this theory?
So far this year, 2009 has brought us “Up,” “Watchmen,” “Star Trek,” “The Wrestler,” “Gran Torino.” Films like “Public Enemies,” “District 9,” “Inglorious Basterds,” “The Road,” “Avatar” and “Sherlock Holmes,” are likely to hold up the theory that this could be yet another banner year.
What is your best year for film? You may be surprised once playing on flickchart just what bubbles up to the top of your list.
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1979 film posters – Photo Illustration by Marya Paolillo
Article by Melanie Addington
As Published in the Oxford town
