Roger Catlin | TV Eye

'Shine a Light'

There’s been a concert film about every big Rolling Stones concert tour for the past couple of decades, so what’s different about "Shine a Light" is that Martin Scorsese has jumped on board to direct (though when the Stones get started on stage it’s more a matter of keeping up), and that it’s presented in most places in IMAX.

That means it’s a huge square image, full of close-ups (or maybe it’s so big everything looks like close-ups) that it seems like it would work fine for TV, where it will inevitably end up as a cable offering or DVD production or both).

The biggest difference comes in staging the tour in New York’s Beacon Theatre, almost suffocatingly small compared to the expanses of stadia that have served Stones concert films for nearly 40 years.

The big sound and personality of the band can hardly be contained inside its doors and it seems there’s only a dozen or so rows from the front of the stage to the doors (though this is a trick of the Stones’ expanded stage and the camera).

Because these shows at the Beacon were benefits costing thousands of dollars, it’s not a typical audience at all. Never have you seen a Stones audience not sing along to songs. It’s not that they were overdosing on New York cool. Many of them didn’t know the lyrics, particularly those on the lip of the stage – young model types who swayed as they were supposed to but could have been rented from the Emperor’s Club for all their investment into seeing the band.

Anybody who’s fought to see the Stones even in a big place knows that their fans today look like, well, the fans in the King of Prussia mall theatre where we took in a weekend matinee – graying old fat guys who love the music and would normally be ringing the stage at any regular gig, throwing fists in the air, singing along to every syllable. True believers, yes; photogenic, not so much.

So these guys are almost invisible in the film (or are operating the myriad cameras). Also invisible are Bill and Hillary Clinton and their entourage. Though it’s a benefit for his foundation and he introduces the band, they’re never seen in their seats boogeying along or worse, Bill reacting too much to certain lyrics in “Some Girls.”

It’s probably the result an agreement of some sort between with Scorsese (who comes off as a cartoon version of himself, always nervous about planning the film in the opening 20 minutes or so). And yet the filmmaker misses some big stories of the concerts – not just the Clintons, but a fall taken backstage there by Ahmet Ertegun, the record producer who worked so closely with the Stones for years, and died of his injuries weeks later.

If you’re going to skip all that, why not skip all of the fussy details of planning a show that frame the concert? Just go to the concert, which, once it starts, steamrolls without pause.

There Will Be Awards

In order to do an Oscar report tonight that will actually make some since, I’ve been spending time this weekend seeing a couple of the most nominated films.

Seeing "No Country for Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood" on back to back days probably made them seem more similar than they are.

But check it: They’re both "guy" films of gritty, dark action, virtually without women. These were largely humorless films from directors who have been known to tap that side in past quirky films, and were perfecting their gifts for prefect casting, especially among the bit players and support actors.
The vast films of stunning visual impact were both period pieces ("No Country for Old Men" was early 80s, right?; "Blood" from 1898 to the 1920s). Both used the vastness of the Texas hills such that some of those scenes cresting over the landscape seemed the same locale (in fact, they were filmed so close to each other at the same time in Texas that the set of "No Country" had to be shut down for a couple of days until the smoke from the derrick fire in "Blood" died down).

Bad guys reign in both – Javier Bardem is already the most lauded supporting actor of the season and a lock for an Oscar; Daniel Day Lewis widely expected to win best actor for his riveting work in "There Will be Blood."

The two characters have intermingled on the cover of Entertainment Weekly and in a sketch on "Saturday Night Live."

There’s such an understood sensibility between the two films, you could imagine the casts (or crews) interchanged.

Certainly they’ll be intermingling tonight in celebration.

Ex- Musician Syndrome

Don't get a chance to see many movies in the theaters, but had a couple chances this weekend and was surprised to find a common element in both of them: the untrustworthy former musician.

In "Juno," Justin Bateman plays a would-be adoptive father, who tries to show the pregnant teenage donor how cool he is by showing off his guitars, and collections of CDs and comics. The two strum a Hole song together, discuss the merits of Sonic Youth and watch horror movies. Bateman's character was a member of a band whose main claim to fame was "opening for the Melvins." But he also mentions a Japanese tour. So either it was a going concern or he's exaggerating. His wife chides him for wanting to be a rock star.

"Juno" is a kind of a hit; or at least its ads have just about filled up late night TV.

"Margot at the Wedding" by contrast may not have ever opened commercially in Hartford; it was showing this weekend at the college revival house Cinestudio. In it, Jack Black plays a guy who played bass once with Ric Ocasek, "after the Cars, in a solo thing."

He listens to old music at home, strums guitar and spends a week at a time crafting letters to magazines about record reviews. And just as Bateman's character appears to be making moves on a teenager, so does Black's, making out with a teenage babysitter and threatening his own impending marriage.

is the failed rock musician the prevailing picture of ridicule for new Hollywood?

Hannah Tour to 3D Film

Unwilling as yet to turn to cloning to solve its Hannah Montana ticket problem, Disney announced today that the sold-out Hannah/Miley Cyrus tour will be available for fans to see on the big screen in 3-D nexct year.

"Hanna Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour" is the unwieldy title of the film that will play in Disney Digital 3D for one week only Feb. 1-7 in North America.

The film will be shot during several stops of the 54-city tour that begins in St. Louis Oct. 18 and made by a couple of guys from the company’s sports arm, Bruce Hendricks and Art Repola ("ESPN’s Ultimate X: The Movie").

The film will also play international markets such as the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America and German speaking Europe next spring.

The Simpsons’ Big Weekend

''The Simpsons Movie'' exceeded expectations by grossing $70.1 million in its opening weekend, earning another $100 million overseas, succeeding in building up what was essentially an elongated edition of a show that’s already run more than 400 episodes.

It was good, and reliably funny, just as the show has continued to be despite perennial gripes about dips in quality. The move to the big screen was translated mostly in hugely wide shots, assisted by computer animation, that shifted the background or, more often, was able to fit in as many characters into the screen as possible.

One of the legacies of ''The Simpsons'' show is having introduced hundreds of memorable characters and populating its cartoon community. I had heard there was a scene when all of them are pictured, but I was surprised to learn there were several such scenes.

While most favorites can be depicted in the background, few get a chance to do anything. Somebody far in the future watching ''The Simpsons Movie'' will have to guess the importance or backstory of the squiggles they'll see saying one line and disappearing forever. In that, ''The Simpsons Movie'' is like the movies they used to make out of old radio shows, where favorite characters are mentioned or flash by, but are hardly given a context within the movie. A better example may be the movies made out of favorite comic strips, from the series of ''Blondie'' movies or those with Lil' Abner. Changing the frame size of a favorite franchise can alter its focus altogether.

There were also way too many of those massive set pieces designed for the big screen – crossing the canyon in a motorcycle or knocking oneself out with  wrecking ball that have already been seen too many times in preview.

Never before has the Simpsons' house seemed so three-dimensional, though the original requirements for a funny cartoon never required such visual verisimilitude.

As solid as the film is, ''The Simpsons Movie'' may be more a triumph in promotion. With a number of smart promotions, from instant Kwik-E-Marts to the Springfield video competition, a nation of closet ''Simpsons'' fans were at once reinvigorated and reintroduced.

Homer’s head became the icon it deserves to be.

Rating the 14 Springfields

It’s not easy to compare and contrast the 14 video entries from various towns named Springfield, all vying on a USA Today website to hold the premiere for “The Simpsons Movie” July 26.

None would load from my computer at work yesterday, I leaned, because the tube’s cookies were disabled (as Homer would say, “mmm, cookies!”).

So I had to watch the more than dozen five-minute productions at home. I started at one end of the country and swept west ’til they all started to blur (or maybe they just weren’t focusing professionally).

Overall, it was kind of sweet look in on so many small towns trying so hard to gain recognition based on their community pluck and some local’s deep (and sometimes deeply troubling) knowledge of the most arcane Simpsonsania.

Springfield's Simpson Battle: The Teddy Factor

Of the 14 Springfields vying to host opening night for “The Simpsons Movie” next month, some have power plants, other have stoic founders' statues and still others boast a nearby Shelbyville.

But filmmakers in nearby Springfield, Mass., believe they've got an edge.

Not only has the series drawn locations that look suspiciously like their armory and Memorial Bridge, it has also boasted a producer who hailed from West Springfield, and featured a rock band whose drummer lives in Springfield.

But the Springfield. Mass., film also has Kennedy.

U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy paused amid his Washington duties to have his own crew shoot a bit of footage that was part of the five minute clip Massachusetts filmmakers sent in this for a competition to determine which Springfield will host the feature based on “The Simpsons” cartoon show.

The cartoon family of Bart and Marge, Lisa and Bart have long made Springfield their home, but the show's creators have been deliberately coy not to spell out exactly what state it's in.

Existing Springfields were invited to prove they're the rightful home of the characters in the month-long competition, where various towns submitted 3-to-5 minute films showcasing their “Simpsons spirit.”

In the Massachusetts video which will be open for online voting on the USA Today website Monday, Kennedy doesn't quite pretend to be Mayor Quimby, the portly cartoon politician with the familiar patrician accent straight out of Hyannis.

But he does say “chow-dah.”

“It's truly outstanding for a guy like Kennedy to come to the aid of Springfield for something like this,” says David Horgan, producer of the Massachusetts entry. “ ‘The Simpsons' has poked fun at the Kennedy accent for a long time. It's a great thing for a little city that he'd take part. We couldn't be happier.”

Horgan wouldn't venture to say whether Kennedy was a “Simpsons” fan.

But he was sure of something else: “He's a Springfield fan.”

Kennedy is likely the best known of the cast of hundreds who took part in the filming over the last few weeks – a group that included Tom Ardolino, drummer for NRBQ, which sang three song on an episode once.

A familiar cartoon voice is heard – June Foray, the Springfield, Mass., native who was voice of Rocky the Squirrel. Foray, who had a part during “The Simpsons” first season, phoned in a line especially for the entry.

And a crowd scene involved 300 volunteers turning up at Courthouse Square on Father's Day for a colorful scene.

“It was as bizarre as you can imagine,” Horgan says. “There were a lot of people in blue hair, a motorcycle group, giant donuts .....”

Horgan says the project has been a way to show off the talents of the Valley-area filmmakers – editors, producers, animators, writers, cinematographers and directors – working together for a common cause. “It's a great showcase for all these guys.”

But mostly, he says, it's nice to help boost a city whose headlines haven't always been so good over recent decades.

“This can help the city Springfield have some fun and get some positive publicity,” he says.

If Springfield is traditionally known as “The City of Homes,” the motto of the short movie is “The City of Homers is the Home of Homer Simpson.”

Voting will continue at the USA Today site through July 9, with the winner announced July 10 from a field that will also include Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, New Jersey, Florida, Michigan, Kentucky, Nebraska, Colorado, Louisiana and Vermont.

The prize is the “yellow carpet” premiere of “The Simpsons Movie” on July 26, the day before it opens nationally July 27.

If Massachusetts wins, it will be held at one of the two Showcase Cinemas in the area, at Eastfield Mall or in West Springfield.

But, Horgan, warned, whatever town does win, some mysteries will remain. “People don't realize it,” he says, “but they're still not going to reveal which Springfield is the Simpson's Springfield.”

Hartford: 'Sicko' Central

Because it had its origins in a bit on his "TV Nation" show, Michael Moore's new "Sicko" is worth a mention here, especially since the scathing indictment on health care industry points its finger directly at the culprit: insurance companies with bloated profits and, often, headquarters in Hartford.

The corprate facades of Cigna and Aetna are pictured prominently in the film, which had a preview in Manchester Wednesday night that didn't seem to be attended by big wigs from either (that crowd can afford home theaters).

Moore goes out of his way to push all the buttons, hinting as he did in "Bowling for Columbine" that things in Canada may be a little more civil and humane than it is here in the lower reaches of North America. He goes farther, though, with visits to England and France, each of which offer better health care for its citizens that is also free.

The low blow comes when he visits what look to be cutting edge medical facilities in Cuba, where, minus any subtlety, he attempts to take 9/11 volunteers with lingering illnesses to get the kind of treatment the Al Qaeda prisoners in Guantanamo Bay are being promised (his boat never quite makes it to the base).

Moore's irony would serve him better if he didn't go so far. Mentioning that the anti-Michael Moore website has to be abandoned because a medical emergency has bankrupt the writer is one thing; paying the $12,000 donation to the guy anonymously is something else (and, since the gesture ends up in the film, hardly anonymous).

Maybe it just looks like he's playing things up big because it's on the big-screen. Like the pieces that preceded it on "TV Nation," maybe visually it would work better on a home screen.

Though insurance and private health management companies, awash in billions, are already circling the wagons, I'd like to think that the release of "Sicko" next weekend will lead to fundamental changes in health care.

But I'm also the guy who thought "Fahrenheit 9/11" would make the difference in the last presidential election.

Among the 'Little Children'

Went out to the movies, meaning to see “The Queen,” which was starring the Dame, who was already won Golden Globes for her HBO role as an earlier Elizabeth.

But for some reason, there was no afternoon showing of that film at the googleplex, so went to “Little Children” instead.

I had read the Tom Perotta novel and had heard good things about the movie starring Kate Winslet (in what role? I wondered) and directed by Todd Field, whose only other major movie was “In the Bedroom” with Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson.

Winslet plays the mother in the story who is supposed to be a little frumpy. But Hollywood doesn’t do frumpy so the dazzlingly beautiful Winslet is in the role in which she’s surprised to have gotten the attention of the dad among moms at the playground known as the Prom King. She’s good in it, and the film works. She plays the kind of mom who has Charlie Rose on TV, so it’s quite natural there’s another famous player from PBS in the film as well.

Jackie Earle Haley may well be the surprise casting in “Little Children.: He’s the odd looking kid from “Bad News Bears,” now 45, who hasn’t had a movie role in 13 years and only then for a TV movie called “Prophet of Evil: The Ervil LeBaron Story,” who plays the released sex offender Ronnie J. McGorvey that the little town of East Wyndham, Mass., is all up in arms against.

But it’s just as surprising to have the film narrated by the generally uncredited Will Lyman – yes, the grave voice that also narrates just about every report on “Frontline.” 

The Roots of ‘Borat’

Finally saw “Borat” over the weekend and was a little let down. I probably should have seen it opening weekend. But even by then, with the commercials and incessant talk show pitches, I had, in the manner of modern movie marketing, pretty much seen most of the funny scenes already.

Hollywood by now doesn’t care at all if it gives away the movie in an ad, as long as it gets you to buy a ticket.

As modern as reality gotcha shows with “Jackass” boldness, the traditions of “Borat” go back generations in comedy.