Cinema Sugar Toast

I saw two films recently I want to write about so...

Good Night and Good Luck – There are so many good things about this movie – many already said and printed - that I’ve decided to address some of the middling bad press it’s been getting.

True, director and actor and co-writer (and notorious liberal) George Clooney has set out to attack one of the worst times in American Republican history (and there are many) by illuminating the 1950s McCarthy hearings on communist activity. True, he also recruited David Straithain to take on the role of legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow in a performance that should not be ignored during Oscar nom time. And, yes, this concise little 93-minute film is in beautiful, sharp black and white – like a crisply restored D.A. Pennebaker documentary.

The criticism is that Clooney’s film is unfair. Straithairn envelops a grounded, gravely and bigger-than-life Murrow. But McCarthy is left to represent himself in shoddy, tinny old news reels. Murrow is intellectual, a well-spoken performer. McCarthy was a Wisconsin nitwit, a bumbler and a bully who doesn’t have the benefit of a good actor to make him look more human in this film. Murrow raked McCarthy over the coals and was instrumental in bringing the commie witch-hunts to and end. But here, McCarthy – lacking a realistic actors’ performance to flesh him out - isn’t given a fighting chance. So the critics say.

What they may not have noticed is that Clooney purposefully framed this movie to be solely about the world of television. The action almost entirely takes place in the CBS studio. It’s shot in black and white for a reason; that’s what TV had to work with in the 50s. The film begins and ends with Murrow (Straithairn) giving a press speech about what television can achieve.

Instead, he frets, of bringing intelligent discourse to every American living room, TV peddles the shallow, the vapid, the easy answer and the cheap laugh. This movie isn’t so much about the evil Republicans – or for that matter, any media or political bully - as it is about the intelligent people with the power but without the backbone to stand up to them. Television news – then and now – falls directly under that criticism.

Notice a specific choice Clooney makes in the film. Murrow, every single night of his broadcast, is seen with a lit cigarette in clear view; its smoke curling around his hand. Following one news segment is a sponsor commercial for the very same cigarette, touting itself as a “healthy” choice for smokers. We laugh, and Clooney shows us that even television can have its historical missteps.

However, that doesn’t exclude television news from doing what is truly right and good, fair and balanced. Murrow knew that then. Good Night and Good Luck seems to dream of a few newscasters today who would exemplify some of Murrow’s more noble values, his eloquence and his courage.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang – This film reminds me of an Andre Gide quote – “We are always rediscovering the past, bending it to our own will to make it new again.”

Shane Black wrote the first two Lethal Weapon movies. Although, he didn’t invent the buddy flick, his scripts certainly gave it a much-needed shot in the arm. Black also wrote and directed this one, borrowing from several more current films to create a new amalgam of the old buddy formula. KKBB has culled itself stylistically from Guy Ritchie and David Fincher films (Snatch and The Fight Club respectively), Charlie Kaufman’s goofy narration (specifically Adaptation), and the amoral characters of Tarantino’s films.

This rape, pillage and plunder technique really works. Even with this borrowing, if Black gets passed up for a Best Original Screenplay nomination, he will have been robbed.

If I give away too much of the wonderfully ridiculous plot, I would essentially rob you of the act of discovery, so I’ll keep it pretty brief. New York petty thief Robert Downy, Jr. gets mistaken for an actor, flown out to LA for a screen test in a crime film, and teamed up with a stalwart gay detective brilliantly played by Val Kilmer. Sexy women enter the picture, ugly murders occur, our boys get implicated, and all hell breaks loose.

KKBB is a hilarious, far-fetched modern version of the 1950s pulp detective novel. Director/writer Black knows this; he even inserts plot-points from a fictitious pulp writer, Johnny Gossamer, bloodying them up with silly noir-ish narrative (by Downey, Jr.) and a darkly comic glee.

Besides the impossibly complicated plot, this film has two of Hollywood’s legendary bad boys riffing off each other and giving the best performance they’ve had in years. Kilmer’s gay detective is, ironically, the straight man, typically cool and collected. He deflects any jibes of his homosexuality by getting to the punch line first, delivering it in a dry, jaded monotone. Downey, Jr. is a well-meaning and strangely moral village idiot. It seems impossible he was ever a competent petty thief, but he makes an even worse detective. Rounding them out is a slightly whorish Michelle Monaghan, who is a lot smarter and more resourceful than almost anyone gives her credit for.

All of KKBB is morose and violent and extremely amusing. The camera work is gritty and schitzy, even in the most glamorous LA location. The dialogue is gloriously sharp and intelligent. And incidentally, I believe its worthy of the same sort of four-picture franchise Lethal Weapon had. In fact, KKBB deserves it more.