House of D, and David Duchovny
Mar. 30th, 2005 12:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperAs promised, here's some commentary on the movie ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mamishka and I went to go see on Monday night: House of D, which was written and directed by David Duchovny. It was a special sneak preview of the film for members of SIFF, the Seattle International Film Festival, and Meems got me in as her guest. THANK YOU MIMI! It was an enjoyable evening all around, both because of the film and because of the Q&A session afterwards--held by Duchovny himself.
I'd seen a negative review of this flick up on imdb.com, and Meems had mentioned that she'd seen negative reviews as well. So we were coming in with low expectations. But even taking that into account, we were both quite pleasantly surprised--because not only did the movie not suck, we both thought it was excellent as well in a low-key, subtle sort of way. The one negative review I saw harshed on Robin Williams being in it, describing his performance as nothing more than 'being cute' and accusing the film of getting him in the cast just for the sake of the 'big star name' value. It went on to call the film 'pretentious' and recommend against it for anybody except Williams and Duchovny fans.
All I can say about that review is that I'm pretty sure that the reviewer must not have gotten it on some fundamental level. To call Williams' performance just 'cute' is to do him no justice. And I am just not parsing why the reviewer thinks the film is 'pretentious', unless they keyed in on the fact that Duchovny does spend time before the camera as well as behind it. But he's only on screen at the beginning of the film and at the very end--because it's a coming of age story, and he's playing the adult version of the central character. The vast majority of the story focuses on that character's adolescence and the crucial things that happen in his life, so it can hardly be called a vehicle through which Duchovny is trying to show off. He's just not on screen long enough for that. They might also be keying off the title, I don't know--making some kind of sardonic joke about the D in the title standing for 'Duchovny' or something. (For the record, the title refers to the women's prison that plays an important part in the plot.)
What the movie's about: as I said, it's a coming of age story. It starts off with the main character triggering on the 13th birthday of his son, and having to revisit events in his life when he was thirteen. He starts telling his wife about his past, which he'd never done before--and then the film shifts into showing you the events, which make up the majority of the film. The young man playing the adolescent version of the main character walks right off with the story; he's engaging, he's smart, he's funny, and he does an excellent job of making you sympathize with him from pretty much the instant he's on camera. A huge part of his life at that age is involved with his friendship with Robin Williams' character, a mentally challenged man who works as the janitor at the school he attends, and how that friendship winds up playing a critical role in how his life collapses around him. Williams, too, does a fabulous job of layering his trademark wit into the role while scaling it appropriately to his character's mental capacity; at the same time, when the plot takes its turn for the serious, he deftly conveys a touching pathos as well in how his character reacts to everything that's going on.
It's not a huge, flashy movie. There isn't much action; it's entirely driven by the characters and the things that go on in their lives. But for me, they were characters I came to care about through the course of the flick, and I definitely enjoyed seeing their story. So I'd definitely recommend the film for anyone who thinks this might be their cup of tea.
Before the movie started, the lady running the event told us all that David's plane had landed and that he was on his way. He showed up by the time the film was over, and came up to the front of the theater to warm applause.
Seeing him in person caused me the same sort of visual discontinuity I get every time I see someone famous; I get all "Holy crap, he's REAL! In 3-D! Right here in front of me!" It has happened to me each time I've seen members of Great Big Sea offstage, and it definitely happened when we almost got to talk to Russell Crowe in Portland in 2001. So there I was, thinking, "Dude, it's MULDER! RIGHT HERE!" Which is, after all, how I still think of the man. ;)
He was very charming in general, in a sort of wry, self-deprecating way, and frequently funny as he answered the questions from the audience. Meems got the first questions in, and didn't even get to ask everything she wanted--so she got me to ask her other question at the end. Hee.
Highlights of what he told the audience about included speaking very highly of Anton Yelchin, the young man who plays the adolescent version of Tommy; praise for Robin Williams' work on the film as well as the way Robin's daughter got the role of Melissa; how his wife, Téa Leoni, got the role of Tommy's mother; how Erykah Badu got the role of Bernadette, and how well she pulled off her scenes with Tommy despite the fact that she and Anton never actually interacted with each other on the set; and how he set out to write a million-dollar movie but wound up coming in between 6 and 7 million due to having to write a period story and because of having to film in New York, which is expensive.
The thing that really got my sympathy for him was his talking about editing a film--and stating outright that he doesn't have a feel for editing at all. It would seem that editing a film is another order of magnitude more difficult than editing a novel. ;) But oh yes, did I sympathize with him when he described writing as a "lonely, dismal profession", but then went on to add that bursting out of your office with a story is the good part. Hee.
One audience member asked him one amusing question, too. Since one of the characters gets into a situation where she's in a "persistently vegetative state" in the hospital, the person asked whether David expected any flack to come to his film given current events in the news. David said he HOPED that his film would get a backlash just because that'd be the best thing that could happen to it.
Mimi got his autograph after, and I kept myself to two words: "Fabulous film"! He kindly thanked me, and that was that. :) Very pleasant encounter all around!
mamishka and I went to go see on Monday night: House of D, which was written and directed by David Duchovny. It was a special sneak preview of the film for members of SIFF, the Seattle International Film Festival, and Meems got me in as her guest. THANK YOU MIMI! It was an enjoyable evening all around, both because of the film and because of the Q&A session afterwards--held by Duchovny himself.I'd seen a negative review of this flick up on imdb.com, and Meems had mentioned that she'd seen negative reviews as well. So we were coming in with low expectations. But even taking that into account, we were both quite pleasantly surprised--because not only did the movie not suck, we both thought it was excellent as well in a low-key, subtle sort of way. The one negative review I saw harshed on Robin Williams being in it, describing his performance as nothing more than 'being cute' and accusing the film of getting him in the cast just for the sake of the 'big star name' value. It went on to call the film 'pretentious' and recommend against it for anybody except Williams and Duchovny fans.
All I can say about that review is that I'm pretty sure that the reviewer must not have gotten it on some fundamental level. To call Williams' performance just 'cute' is to do him no justice. And I am just not parsing why the reviewer thinks the film is 'pretentious', unless they keyed in on the fact that Duchovny does spend time before the camera as well as behind it. But he's only on screen at the beginning of the film and at the very end--because it's a coming of age story, and he's playing the adult version of the central character. The vast majority of the story focuses on that character's adolescence and the crucial things that happen in his life, so it can hardly be called a vehicle through which Duchovny is trying to show off. He's just not on screen long enough for that. They might also be keying off the title, I don't know--making some kind of sardonic joke about the D in the title standing for 'Duchovny' or something. (For the record, the title refers to the women's prison that plays an important part in the plot.)
What the movie's about: as I said, it's a coming of age story. It starts off with the main character triggering on the 13th birthday of his son, and having to revisit events in his life when he was thirteen. He starts telling his wife about his past, which he'd never done before--and then the film shifts into showing you the events, which make up the majority of the film. The young man playing the adolescent version of the main character walks right off with the story; he's engaging, he's smart, he's funny, and he does an excellent job of making you sympathize with him from pretty much the instant he's on camera. A huge part of his life at that age is involved with his friendship with Robin Williams' character, a mentally challenged man who works as the janitor at the school he attends, and how that friendship winds up playing a critical role in how his life collapses around him. Williams, too, does a fabulous job of layering his trademark wit into the role while scaling it appropriately to his character's mental capacity; at the same time, when the plot takes its turn for the serious, he deftly conveys a touching pathos as well in how his character reacts to everything that's going on.
It's not a huge, flashy movie. There isn't much action; it's entirely driven by the characters and the things that go on in their lives. But for me, they were characters I came to care about through the course of the flick, and I definitely enjoyed seeing their story. So I'd definitely recommend the film for anyone who thinks this might be their cup of tea.
Before the movie started, the lady running the event told us all that David's plane had landed and that he was on his way. He showed up by the time the film was over, and came up to the front of the theater to warm applause.
Seeing him in person caused me the same sort of visual discontinuity I get every time I see someone famous; I get all "Holy crap, he's REAL! In 3-D! Right here in front of me!" It has happened to me each time I've seen members of Great Big Sea offstage, and it definitely happened when we almost got to talk to Russell Crowe in Portland in 2001. So there I was, thinking, "Dude, it's MULDER! RIGHT HERE!" Which is, after all, how I still think of the man. ;)
He was very charming in general, in a sort of wry, self-deprecating way, and frequently funny as he answered the questions from the audience. Meems got the first questions in, and didn't even get to ask everything she wanted--so she got me to ask her other question at the end. Hee.
Highlights of what he told the audience about included speaking very highly of Anton Yelchin, the young man who plays the adolescent version of Tommy; praise for Robin Williams' work on the film as well as the way Robin's daughter got the role of Melissa; how his wife, Téa Leoni, got the role of Tommy's mother; how Erykah Badu got the role of Bernadette, and how well she pulled off her scenes with Tommy despite the fact that she and Anton never actually interacted with each other on the set; and how he set out to write a million-dollar movie but wound up coming in between 6 and 7 million due to having to write a period story and because of having to film in New York, which is expensive.
The thing that really got my sympathy for him was his talking about editing a film--and stating outright that he doesn't have a feel for editing at all. It would seem that editing a film is another order of magnitude more difficult than editing a novel. ;) But oh yes, did I sympathize with him when he described writing as a "lonely, dismal profession", but then went on to add that bursting out of your office with a story is the good part. Hee.
One audience member asked him one amusing question, too. Since one of the characters gets into a situation where she's in a "persistently vegetative state" in the hospital, the person asked whether David expected any flack to come to his film given current events in the news. David said he HOPED that his film would get a backlash just because that'd be the best thing that could happen to it.
Mimi got his autograph after, and I kept myself to two words: "Fabulous film"! He kindly thanked me, and that was that. :) Very pleasant encounter all around!
no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 10:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 11:07 pm (UTC)Mimi has much the same trouble you do every time she does SIFF, too! So! Many! Films!
no subject
Date: 2005-03-31 03:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-31 05:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-31 07:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-31 10:55 pm (UTC)