The Occasional Blog of Jonah Weiland

I saw the movie “Factotum� tonight. I vaguely recall hearing something about Matt Dillon making this film a year ago, but then didn’t hear anything about it until Dillon’s recent appearance on “The Daily Show.�

“Factotum� is based on the book by Charles Bukowski in which Charles writes through his alter-ego Henry Chinaski about a period of his life that saw him loose many jobs and live a pretty miserable experience. That’s pretty much true for most of Chuck’s (or should I call him Hank?) books, really.

I like his writing. A lot. It’s terribly honest, visceral and often times painful. There are very few writers that can use words in the same way that he does. When you read him, you don’t always like him, but you are always captivated.

Now, “Factotum� is a pretty good movie. Dillon does an able job playing Henry, without completely channeling Charles. And that’s a good thing because there is only one Bukowski. But, the problem with both this film and “Barfly� – another film based on the writing of Bukowski – is that it’s impossible to capture Bukowski’s descriptive style in film. It works uniquely well on the printed page and unless you have lots of narration, it never quite comes across on the screen. It’s not a bad movie, but it doesn’t have near the impact that his writing does.

I think my favorite member of the cast is Lili Taylor who plays Henry’s girlfriend Jan. She perfectly embodies the typical Bukowski woman – a drunk crazy who loves to fuck constantly. Lili’s a great actress and a beautiful woman and boy did they white trash her up for this film.

All told, it’s a decent movie, but I can’t really see anyone enjoying this film unless you like Chuck’s writing. If you don’t like the world he lives in, there’s no point in seeing it.

While I didn’t get a chance to watch the Emmys this year, it’s seems the shows I love did well. Congrats to “The Daily Showâ€? and “The Officeâ€? for their big and much deserved wins. Also, “24â€? was honored as it should be as the show refound its footing this past season. But what made me most excited was to discover that “The Girl in the Caféâ€? —
the little HBO film I thought nobody watched — won three Emmy awards including Kelly MacDonald’s win for Best Supporting Actress, Miniseries or Movie category. I blogged about my love for the series here last July. Really, Bill Nighy should have won an award for his performance as well, but at least the thing won for Outstanding Made-for-TV Movie. It’s quite good and worth your time.

Hopefully this recognition will get BBC America to reply “State of Play,� which starts MacDonald and Nighy and is also directed by the same guy who directed “The Girl in the Café.� “State of Play� is the finest television I’ve ever seen. It’s like “The West Wing� meets “All The President’s Men� in London, but better.

This past weekend was one filled with lots of movie watching. I figured I’d stop here for a moment and tell you what I saw and thought.

“Layer Cake� – I’ve been meaning to see this since it came out in 2004, but only got around to it recently. The film stars Daniel Craig who’s set to take over the James Bond role with the new film coming out this year, so suddenly this film is on everybody’s watch list. Does he have the chops? Can he pull of James Bond? Based on his performance in this movie, I think he can easily.

People have commented that he’s not as “good looking� as say Pierce Brosnan or the other Bond’s who came before. Whatever that’s about, the guys got looks and style and a ruggedness that previous Bond’s lacked, which will work in his favor. He’s uniquely British looking, which is another plus for the role (Brosnan looks like your typical Hollywood actor to me). But, most important, the guy can act. He plays an understated role in this movie with real moments of anger, fear and rage.

“Layer Cake� refers to the many levels of the British crime syndicates. Craig plays a member of that crime syndicate who finds himself in shit loads of trouble. For fear of spoiling it for those of you still interested in seeing it, I’ll forego a long recap of the film’s story by just saying it’s great stuff. A really intelligent action film that shows you the high-stakes game of being a British mobster. Lots of fun with some great performances by Craig, Colm Meaney as Gene and George Harris as Morty (who steals the show in a major way half-way through). If you like gangster films, you should love this one. Good action and style throughout.

“Little Miss Sunshine� – A movie that really surprised me. All I really knew about this movie going in was that Steve Carell had a supporting role in the movie, which was enough to get me to the theater. The cast is just fantastic, featuring Carell, Alan Arkin (one of my favorites), Greg Kinnear and Toni Collette (who is far more beautiful than the haggard look they give her for this film). The story follows a highly (yet believably) dysfunctional family who rally around their youngest member, little Olive played by Abigail Breslin, whose biggest dream just came true – she’s been selected to compete in the Little Miss Sunshine talent competition in Los Angeles. So, the family loads up the van and travels out to California so that Olive can realize her dream. Along the way, well, lots of drama happens. Delays, car problems, family problems, job problems, money problems and much more challenge their quest to make it to California in time for the contest. It’s a story of how this family grows and becomes honest with one another and it’s a site to behold. Equal parts touching and hilarious, this is a movie that really can be enjoyed by anyone – especially those of you who think those children talent competitions are hideous examples of what’s wrong with everything in the world! (Oh they’re so disgusting!)

“Bullitt� – I realized recently that outside of “The Towering Inferno,� I’ve not seen any Steve McQueen movies and that needed to change. “Bullitt� recently played on one of the movie channels, so I had my TiVo record it. I need McQueen education.

Wow, what a movie. The movie is almost 40 years old and definitely a product of its time, so modern audiences might not be as satisfied with the action elements of the film, but if you look at it for what it is you see just how influential McQueen and this film have been on future generations. The dramatic car chase that takes place in this film is fantastic and has clearly been copied over and over again since. It lacks some of the dramatic camera angles film makers can achieve with today’s technology, but as you watch it you realize this chase is completely real. No CGI, no bull crap.

There’s nothing I can say about McQueen that hasn’t been said before. Frankly, I find a lot of similarities between how McQueen played this role and how Craig played his role in “Layer Cake.� Both actors trust themselves to live in the moment and not fill every scene with constant movement or conversation. No doubt, this film turned me into a McQueen fan and the TiVo will be on the look out for other McQueen films.

The story itself is rather simple – a San Francisco lieutenant becomes obsessed with finding the man who murdered the witness in his charge. Pretty basic, no major twists and turns. What’s remarkable about the script is how silent it is at times. There are huge swaths of the film that lack dialogue, relying on the physical ability of the actors to pull off each scene, which they all do nicely.

With that dialogue also comes a lot of silence, which is unusual by today’s film making standards. Music doesn’t permeate this film, rather it’s used selectively and not constantly like you would find today. Honestly, it’s a bit of an adjustment for this modern film watcher, but it certain doesn’t distract from the enjoyment of the film. It’s just different and often times different is good.

Like I said, the movie is a product of its time and as a result there’s one very unintentionally humorous seen in the film. In the second act we’re back at the police station as a bunch of detectives and cops stand around waiting for a fax or I guess it must be a telex to come in with information that will help their investigation. It’s a giant machine that makes lots of noise and sound, but does absolutely nothing visually. For what feels like 45 seconds we have a bunch of cops standing around this machine, watching it make noise with absolutely no comment from anyone. At the time this was very high tech and probably an amazing scene to watch (“Wow, look at how fast that fax must have come in!�), but now it’s just hilarious. How far we’ve come.

Three very different films, all very enjoyable. I’ve got a number of other films on the TiVo to watch in the coming week. If I’ve got time, I’ll post my thoughts here.