Movies for Your Pleasure: "Man From Elysian Fields" and "The Show Must Go Off!"
By Lauren Isaacson
Man From Elysian Fields
I’m
a sucker for romance. Nothing sets my heart aflutter like a dapper young
man, who brings you flowers and takes you dancing on the beach at sunset.
But I am also a realist and know that although those things are nice and
make for pleasant memories, but do not a relationship make. Real is your
grandparents who have been together for fifty years, through all the good
times and the bad, and if modern medicine had its way, would probably
be together for fifty more. That makes my heart ache with yearning and
brings a warm tear to my normally cool exterior.
This is also why I thought “Man From Elysian Fields” was a brilliant film. It wasn’t about the fantasies of romance, but about the realities of love.
Byron Tiller (Andy Garcia) is a failed writer. His last effort is in the bargain bin and his latest effort can’t even be published. He has a wife, Dena (Julianna Marguiles), and a son who he doesn’t know how to support now that his literary career is in the toilet. Yet Dena, devoted and in love, has faith and knows everything will turn out fine.
When Byron is at his wit’s end, he meets Luther Fox (Mick Jagger),
a professional male escort and pimp. Luther sees great potential in Byron
and seduces him into his world. Part of the seduction is his first assignment
– taking Andrea Alcott (Olivia Williams) to the opera.
She is as gorgeous as she is refined and is the wife of three time Pulitzer
Prize winning author, Tobias Alcott (James Coburn), who’s body is
slowly failing him and will soon be dead, but not before he completes
his last novel. Unfortunately, the years have taken too great a toll and
his writing is not up to par with its former glory. He needs help and
she enlists her salaried lover, Byron. As Byron achieves the financial
security for his family that he had hoped for, he is drawn away from them
to the brink of loss.
This is not about the magic of a budding relationship, it’s about people who stay together despite tremendous circumstances and finding a path to forgiveness. The script was well written, the casting was inspired (Mick Jagger as a pimp?!! Who would have thought?), and the imagery was stunning.
The special features were lacking at first glance. Just the director’s commentary and the movie trailer (Where’s the deleted scenes?! I love the deleted scenes!). But the director’s commentary was, in fact, quite special. The director, George Hickenlooper , talked about how his wife took him back after a three year seperation and how much that meant to him. He also talked about how he thought it was odd that critics thought it was old fashioned that Byron and Dena get back together in the end. His response was that he had little hope for a world where couples and families were expected to disintegrate. I would have to agree.
And just like Roxy Music, this was for your pleasure.
The Show Must Go Off! Neil Hamburger live at the Phoenix Greyhound Park
They
say that a bad review is better than no review at all. Let’s put
that to the test, shall we….
This sucked so hard I thought my eyes were going to burst from their sockets and my eardrums would pop from the lack of static pressure. To be blunt, it was simply god-awful.
Hamburger’s entire act was composed of question and answer jokes. You know what kind I’m talking about. The kind that was barely even evoked a giggle in elementary school. The most memorable of which was something to the effect of: “Why are the Red Hot Chili Peppers so popular? Because they have so many ‘hits.’”
My fifth grader-self would counter this not so clever attempt at a laugh with the equally juvenile statement of, “That was so funny, I forgot to laugh.”
I would like to take the time to thank Kung Fu Films for sending this to Jen (who gave it to me) with the intention of it being reviewed. I’m all in favor of free. Free is good. DVD is bad.
And unlike Roxy Music, all copies of this DVD should be burned, except
for one which should be kept as a monument to bad taste and an example
of what it means to be unfunny.