Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Lots happening, and all I've got is a movie review
A tremendous amount has gone on since my last post. I've moved, I bought and assembled a lot of new furniture, and I've been readmitted to the rolls - that is, I am practising law again, after a hiatus of 10-1/2 years. I guess it's all too much to write about. So, instead, I offer here a review of a movie - My Date with Drew - I watched last night on my new TV. (The TV is not that big a deal. It's a 20", like the old one. The difference is that the picture's about 50% brighter. If there's a night scene, there's still light. With the old set, I had to guess what was going on.)
In the new style of documentary popularized by Michael Moore – Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me is a good example – the filmmaker is in large part the subject of his own film. Or, at the least, the making of the film is a large part of what the film is about. However, these films still have a primary subject – usually, something the filmmaker is holding up to analysis and criticism, like the unhealthiness of eating at McDonald's or the corruption of the Bush administration.
My Date with Drew, on the other hand, is totally about itself. In that respect, it is not so much a documentary as a filmed version of reality TV. Or simply an entertainment.
Mind you, it is entertaining. Brian Herzlinger, the somewhat nerdy and underemployed fellow who professes an innocent obsession with Drew Barrymore and whose attempts to get a date with her form the ostensible subject of the film, is very likeable and charming. So, for that matter, is Drew Barrymore as presented here. And Herzlinger and fellow directors Jon Gunn and Brett Winn contrive to fill up 90 minutes with sufficient incident to hold the viewer's interest and create some fake suspense. (There's never really much doubt that there will be a date – otherwise it's a safe bet the movie never would have been released.)
But I found myself troubled when all was said and done. Here were three guys struggling in the Hollywood entertainment business to find a "concept" they could parlay into a movie, and this was the best they could come up with? I was, as I say, entertained; but I was also annoyed that we were expected to somehow see Herzlinger's quest as romantic and, worse, ennobling! It was nothing of the sort, despite some blather by Ms. Barrymore to that effect. The date isn't even a date, since we all know it's not going to be repeated; it's just a meeting. The idea of a date is simply a gimmick, nothing more and nothing less, on which to construct a film.
The DVD includes an extended scene of the "date". I found this fascinating. It shows that the three men who made this film actually have a lot more skill and wit than the film itself discloses. For in the film, Drew appears charming, genuine, intelligent, and warm. Unedited, she appears self-absorbed, ditzy, fatuous, and what I suspect she really is: one more Hollywood celebrity. Not someone any sensible, let alone ordinary, person would want a date with.
In the new style of documentary popularized by Michael Moore – Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me is a good example – the filmmaker is in large part the subject of his own film. Or, at the least, the making of the film is a large part of what the film is about. However, these films still have a primary subject – usually, something the filmmaker is holding up to analysis and criticism, like the unhealthiness of eating at McDonald's or the corruption of the Bush administration.
My Date with Drew, on the other hand, is totally about itself. In that respect, it is not so much a documentary as a filmed version of reality TV. Or simply an entertainment.
Mind you, it is entertaining. Brian Herzlinger, the somewhat nerdy and underemployed fellow who professes an innocent obsession with Drew Barrymore and whose attempts to get a date with her form the ostensible subject of the film, is very likeable and charming. So, for that matter, is Drew Barrymore as presented here. And Herzlinger and fellow directors Jon Gunn and Brett Winn contrive to fill up 90 minutes with sufficient incident to hold the viewer's interest and create some fake suspense. (There's never really much doubt that there will be a date – otherwise it's a safe bet the movie never would have been released.)
But I found myself troubled when all was said and done. Here were three guys struggling in the Hollywood entertainment business to find a "concept" they could parlay into a movie, and this was the best they could come up with? I was, as I say, entertained; but I was also annoyed that we were expected to somehow see Herzlinger's quest as romantic and, worse, ennobling! It was nothing of the sort, despite some blather by Ms. Barrymore to that effect. The date isn't even a date, since we all know it's not going to be repeated; it's just a meeting. The idea of a date is simply a gimmick, nothing more and nothing less, on which to construct a film.
The DVD includes an extended scene of the "date". I found this fascinating. It shows that the three men who made this film actually have a lot more skill and wit than the film itself discloses. For in the film, Drew appears charming, genuine, intelligent, and warm. Unedited, she appears self-absorbed, ditzy, fatuous, and what I suspect she really is: one more Hollywood celebrity. Not someone any sensible, let alone ordinary, person would want a date with.
# posted by Stephen @ 10:07 p.m. 
