The Movies...They Play Better in My Head Than They Do Onscreen

by Tony Dayoub

So last night I had quite a vivid dream, which is strange since I rarely recall my dreams at all. As they usually do this one took the form of a movie, one in which my point of view is in the middle of all the action but with a sort of detached omniscience allowing me to see multiple angles... think of an action movie if it were not just in 3D but as immersive as Star Trek's holodeck, yet none of the participants can see you. Get it?

DVD Review: Sinatra - A Biopic and a Treasure Trove of Sinatra Favorites

by Tony Dayoub

To honor the 10 year anniversary of Frank Sinatra's passing, Warner Home Video has teamed up with Reprise Records (the label Sinatra himself founded in 1960), Turner Classic Movies, MGM Home Entertainment, and even the U.S. Postal Service for a unique tribute to the the singer. Among what you'll see are a commemorative postage stamp, a CD collecting 21 of his classics, and a month-long festival of films and specials on TCM. For their part, Warner is releasing a whopping 22 films, including 11 brand new to DVD, in four new collections. Also debuting is a two-disc DVD of Sinatra, the 1992 award-winning CBS miniseries.

Here's the rundown on the films:

The Rat Pack Ultimate Collector's Edition
Repackaged versions of Ocean's 11, 4 For Texas, and Robin and the 7 Hoods are great, but the centerpiece of the collection is the western, Sergeant's 3, never before released on DVD, with the core Rat Pack-ers being directed by John Sturges of The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape fame. Loaded with special features, this is the set to get for fans of the "Chairman of the Board".

The Golden Years
This one's a mixed bag, combining some of his most interesting work with some of his most forgettable. Most interesting: None But the Brave, Sinatra's only credited attempt at directing a movie; The Man with the Golden Arm, Sinatra's Academy Award-nominated performance as heroin addicted drummer, Frankie Machine, directed by Otto Preminger; and Some Came Running, a cult favorite directed by Vincente Minelli, and starring female Rat Pack member, Shirley MacLaine in an Oscar-nominated role. Least interesting: The Tender Trap, a cutesy musical with Debbie Reynolds, and Marriage on the Rocks his last film with Dean Martin, costarring Deborah Kerr. All of these are available for the first time on DVD. This set is for fans of Sinatra, the underrated actor.

The Early Years
Young Frankie Sinatra learning the Hollywood ropes in some pretty rare but unworthy films notable mostly for a look at the charismatic man he would become. All available on DVD for the first time, this set includes Higher and Higher, Step Lively, It Happened in Brooklyn, The Kissing Bandit, and Double Dynamite. This set is for fans of "The Voice".

The Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly Collection
The most disappointing set of the bunch, because it consists entirely of repackaged already released DVDs. And these are some of his most enjoyable films. Gene Kelly is disarming as the leading man, but you can see Frank starting to come into his own. Anchors Aweigh features Kelly's dance with Jerry of Tom and Jerry fame. Also included are Take Me Out to the Ballgame, and On the Town. This set is for fans of Sinatra, the underrated dancer.

Sinatra (1992)
Executive Produced by Tina Sinatra, this is a surprisingly brave, warts-and-all look at the singer. Philip Casnoff, who bears little resemblance to "Ol' Blue Eyes", nonetheless transforms into him through the power of performance. Playing him from his early twenties through his late fifties, one always forgets that he is not Sinatra. Maybe it's because he's got his walk down perfectly. Difficult job for Casnoff also, as he must remain sympathetic despite reenacting some of Sinatra's truly awful and pathetic moments. His contractual dispute with Tommy Dorsey (Bob Gunton), his serial philandering, and tempestuous relationship with Ava Gardner (Marcia Gay Harden) while wife Nancy (Gina Gershon) stays home to raise the kids, his shady connections with the mob, in the form of Sam Giancana (Rod Steiger), on behalf of the Kennedys, all get their spotlight in the surprisingly, too short 4-hour epic. Period details are captured perfectly throughout, and performances are all understated and top-notch. This DVD is a must-have for even the casual fan.

Still provided courtesy of Warner Home Entertainment.

The Big Sleep: The Current State of Things and a Few Words on Glenn Kenny

by Tony Dayoub

So here is the current state of things around here. Got back from Tribeca a week ago when the following proceeded to occur:

• My laptop died. Thought it'd be a simple matter of replacing the hard drive and recovering some data from the old one. Turns out the whole motherboard is fried (or some such shit like that... I'm not the tech-savvy type) and the data is, to quote Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) in Blade Runner, "lost... like tears in rain." Included in that data, pictures of my son's first Christmas. Lesson: Always back everything up.
• My cell phone is dying. Which has made it almost impossible to conduct business while I wait for my new laptop, since my cell was the only way I could answer email. Working on getting that replaced as well.
• My car could go any day now. Scary is hoping your car doesn't die out in Atlanta traffic with an unreliable cell phone to depend on.

The good news is that I've had plenty of time to watch a stack of screeners that was waiting for me when I got back from NYC. So you'll be getting plenty of reviews as soon as I'm back up, including:

• A survey of all the Indiana Jones material available out there as we approach the release of the new chapter: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
• Todd Haynes' look at Bob Dylan, I'm Not There
• Hilary Swank in the romance, P.S. I Love You
• A look at some new Sinatra material, out on DVD tomorrow
• Several documentaries like Surfwise, At the Death House Door, and When the Moors Ruled in Europe

Until then, let's talk about something else that has been on my mind. Premiere Magazine, a film magazine that started in France (and continues to be published there), was first published in the U.S. in 1987. Some have been critical of the American magazine for trivializing the art of film, i.e. concentrating on celebrities and box office tallies, and even putting out an annual list ranking the most powerful people in Hollywood. I was a subscriber from day one, and I can tell you that at fifteen, it was a considerable influence on my approach to analyzing cinema. Sure, if you were looking for scholarly examination of film in the context of world cinema you were probably better served by reading Film Comment (a publication I still enjoy greatly). But there was still room for Premiere's brand of journalism. Because though some would accuse it of trivializing the medium, I found it was honest in covering American film in the grander scheme of things, covering everything from independents to blockbusters, films to home videos, spotlighting actors both famous and obscure, and never letting you forget that though you may love film for its art, it was ultimately the business forces that decided if it would get made or not. Last year, Premiere, in the U.S., succumbed to the erosion of advertisement income now plaguing much of print media in the face of the rising popularity of the internet as news outlet. Many of the staff lost their jobs as it transitioned to a second life on the net, except one.

Glenn Kenny, the mag's resident film critic, continued in that capacity as the magazine became one of many entertainment sites that abound online. His singularly distinctive voice and style was one of the few reasons to continue to visit the site, as he also supplemented his reviews with a fantastic blog, "In the Company of Glenn". Not only does this man have an opinion (which I frequently disagreed with), but he is a master of the English language. You'd be surprised how few of those exist online. Here's an example of his way with words from his post on 4/21/08 entitled Monday Evening Palate Cleanser:

It vexes me. I am terribly vexed.

Why, on this mild Monday evening, do the words of Joaquin Phoenix's Commodus echo through my head?

That's a rhetorical question. I know exactly why. That answer's multi-faceted. Part of my vexation stems from encountering, in this here blogosphere, a putative paean to a particularly distinguished work of cinema, which praises the particular work at the expense of practically every other movie the director of that work ever did, trotting out heavyweight quotes the better to swat at...David Denby, who recently had the temerity to cite said director's "refinement." What such score-settling has to do with the work at hand is, naturally, beyond me. But the score-settler seems to believe he's achieved the ambition of that character in Gass' "In The Heart of The Heart of The Country," which I guess is nice for him, not so nice for those turning to him for some wit or perception. And in thinking about all this, I further think, "Dude, you really want to get into it like this?" "It" being the week, after a weekend of examining some of the other discontents readily available in the film-appraisal corner of our world. And I answer, "No, I do not."

I bring up Mr. Kenny because Premiere just terminated his position. And as NPR reported on a story on the very day Kenny announced his departure, he is but the latest casualty in a long string of critics who've accepted buyouts or have been terminated from magazines and newspapers nationwide. So a site struggling to stand out from all the others just got rid of the one person who had the most potential to help them in doing so. And another veteran film critic loses his job because of ever increasing competition from bloggers who write more often, more incoherently, and often for free.

Though I am thankful for the immediacy, and facility, that the online world affords me in expressing my views on this subject I adore, cinema, I will always defer to journalists with formal training and experience when it comes to writing. Here's hoping that Mr. Kenny will land on his feet quickly, and get on with the business of provoking us to think on cinema from his perspective, no matter how often I may disagree with it.

An archive of Glenn Kenny's blog for Premiere, "In the Company of Glenn", is up, for the moment, under my Recommended Blogs to the left. His new writings may be found under a blog he set up, all by himself, called "Some Came Running", also under my Recommended Blogs.