Robert Mitchum, though older and even occasionally tired, could still kick the ever-lovin' sin out every man in the room in 'The Friends Of Eddie Coyle'

Credit: Paramount Pictures/The Criterion Collection

Selling out is never as easy as you're led to believe.

Seriously.  If you decided right now, as you're sitting there reading this review on this website, that you were going to sell out all of your ideals and totally roll over on everything that's important to you and you were willing to trade it all in for easy cash and decadence... who the hell would you offer to sell out to?

Eddie Coyle (Robert Mitchum in another in a long line of amazing, nuanced, seemingly effortless performances) is a mid-level scumbag.  He's not a killer.  He's not a bad guy.  He's not someone the police typically would hassle for doing his thing.  But he's a bit of a screw-up, and he's facing some time for being in the wrong place at the wrong time on the wrong job.  He finds himself pressed to roll over on people, and the really sad and painful thing about the film is the way Eddie gets played, the way no matter what he does, the screws keep getting tighter.  And tighter. 

Mitchum captures perfectly that sinking feeling, that no matter what Eddie does, it's not going to change what's happening.  He knows the fix is in.  The ship has sailed.  He's going down, no matter what, unless there's a miracle, and in the experience of Eddie Coyle, miracles seem real hard to come by.

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Mark Reeb and Nathan Harlan have an uncomfortable conversation, both physically and emotionally, in 'The Overbrook Brothers'

Credit: Sixth Street Films

One of the hardest things for a truly independent filmmaker at a festival is competing with the high-profile titles.  I try to balance what I watch when I'm in a festival environment, known and unknown, and sometimes it really pays off.  I like taking a chance on something you've never heard of starring no one you know written and directed by a name that's totally unfamiliar to you.  And I like when I'm rewarded for it.

John Bryant's "The Overbrook Brothers," from a screenplay co-written by Jason Foxworth, is one of those lovely surprises, a strong, consistent, occasionally ugly comed about sibling rivalry taken to a punishing extreme, adoption, identity, and maturity.  It's of the current school of the uncomfortable, comedy that is about a sort of unbearable reality.  Mark Reeb and Nathan Harlan play Todd and Jason, brothers who have been locked in a sort of hyper-exaggerated Wile E. Coyote/Road Runner rivalry that reduces both of them to six-year-olds every time they're together. 

Jason wants to get married to Shelly, played by Laurel Whitsett, and he's kept her completely separate from his family.  When a holiday brings them together, it's obvious that he's totally freaking out about it, and once it happens, it's obvious why he's totally freaking out.  Todd should not be allowed near decent folk.  He's Hannibal Lecter, emotionally.  He just pokes Jason in the soft spots as soon as he sees him.  And he's got a huge piece of information that he's just dying to lay on Jason this year, a bombshell that he uses as a weapon in a breathtakingly cruel moment:  Jason is adopted.

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Did James Cameron really decide to premiere the first images from his long-awaited 'Avatar' via video game concept art?

Credit: Ubisoft

Welcome to The Morning Read.

It's Tuesday morning, so that means we kick the column off today with our "On The Shelf" round-up of everything of note that's hitting home video today.  It's still not a great week, but it's better than last week was, and there are a few things I'll absolutely be picking up.

This is the first season I didn't watch "Weeds" while it was being broadcast, so I'm looking forward to catching up with "Weeds: Season Four" on BluRay.  I wish I was a bigger fan of "Defiance" or "Revolutionary Road" so I could be excited about their release this week.  Those are probably the two highest profile releases today.  Maybe "He's Just Not That Into You," the chick flickstravaganza starring everyone working in Hollywood today.  The Kenneth Branagh BBC release "Wallander" is of extra interest to geeks this week since it costars Tom Hiddleston, who'll be playing Loki for Branagh in the Marvel Studios film "Thor."  If you're looking for catalog releases on BluRay, it's a big mixed bag of a day.  Titles include "Air Force One," "The Graduate," "Glory," "Roadhouse," "Inside Man," "Out Of Time," "Anaconda," "Fletch." and the first one I'm going out of my way to find, "To Live And Die In LA."  Even though it's DVD only, I'm going to pick up "Tender Mercies," a film I really like, but that I haven't seen in a while.  I thought "Thrilla In Manilla" was a fascinating documentary at Sundance this year, another telling of the story of the fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, and the first to ever make me question my unblinking support of Ali in all matters.  Also at Sundance, but not nearly as good, as the comedy "Spring Breakdown," with Amy Poehler, Parker Posey, and Rachel Dratch.  It's not the worst thing I've ever seen, but it's so hit or miss that I would have a hard time recommending it.  Finally, I'm not sure I'll ever have the spare scratch for the 10-BluRay box of "Neil Young Archives, Vol. 1," but I've got my eye on it in case I just go crazy one day and start swiping my credit card randomly.

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Hal Ashby directing Jack Nicholson and Otis Young in the classic 'The Last Detail'

Credit: Sony Picture Home Entertainment

You might think, given my lifelong love of movies and moviemaking, that reading biographies about filmmakers would be a big part of that.  But... not really.  It's sort of the opposite.  I've said before, in regards to guys like Woody Allen or Roman Polanski or Victor Salva or whoever, any filmmaker whose personal life was ever torrid or difficult or painful or even criminal, that I believe you have to separate the art from the artist.  I'm perfectly happy not knowing much about a filmmaker's early home life or how he treated his family or what his bad habits were, chemical or otherwise.  I prefer to get what biographical information I need from someone's movies, where it belongs.

Because let's face it... great filmmakers reveal themselves in their films.  Their interests... their obsessions... their weaknesses... their habits... all of it adds up to a portrait of how this person filters the world, and that's about as revealing as it gets.  Even impersonal big commercial guys who have a deep body of work start to show up in very recognizable personal ways in their films if they keep at it long enough.  That's what I love about really digging in with someone's movies, that discovery of this new personality.  Sometimes I really respect a filmmaker's craft but I reject their worldview.  It happens.

When The University Press of Kentucky sent me a press release and a copy of Nick Dawson's new biography, Being Hal Ashby, I realized how very little I knew about this fiercely original filmmaker, this guy whose body of work as a director really resonates with me.  His best film, "Being There," is one of my very favorite films.  I think it's beautiful.  I think it's the best showcase Peter Sellers ever had.  I think it's got great work from Dysart and Maclaine and Douglas.  I have a confession, though... the first time I ever took note of Hal Ashby's name on a movie, it was because I decided that I hated him.

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Sacha Baron Cohen comes in for a landing in the now-infamous moment at the MTV Movie Awards Sunday night

Credit: AP Photo/Matt Sayles

Tuesday June 2nd 2:00 AM update:

The posts referred to below are no longer online.  The original post was accurate as reported at 4:00 PM on Monday, June 1st.

***

Scott Aukerman is a very funny man. 

He happens to have a Twitter account, where he just posted this:

"RT @ScottAukerman: YES, the Bruno/Eminem thing was staged. For more: read my blog about the night."

I can hear what you're asking... how would he know? 

Well, he happened to be the chief architect of last night's MTV Movie Awards.

And that happened to be the show where this happened:

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Michael Douglas is having a very, very bad day in 'Falling Down,' new to BluRay

Credit: Warner Bros. Home Video

I'm not a raving fan of any film that Joel Schumacher has directed, but I also don't dismiss his entire filmography and label him "The Devil" like some hyperbolic fanboy.  I think Joel's got big neon mainstream taste, and occasionally he pulls a movie together in a way that people dig, and he really likes to flirt with a sort of heavily art-directed darkness in his movies that is about as far from edgy as a very special episode of "Blossom."

The real problem is that he's one of those guys who makes movies that sound better on paper than they play when you watch them.  "Falling Down" is a movie that sounds like an easy slam dunk as a livid social satire, and it works in fits and starts but never really pays off its best ideas.  By making D-FENS, the main character, a psycho before the events of the film start to wear on him, they rob him of his everyman status.  He is not any one of us just having a very bad day.  Instead, he's a guy who was already wired to implode, and we're just seeing him on the day it finally happens.

I'll say this for the BluRay transfer... it makes me deeply miss Andrzej Bartkowiak, whose cinematography here turns Los Angeles into a molten liquid Hell.  Accurately reproducing the kind of swimmy heat-stroke look of this film has never been easy on home video, and this transfer is fairly remarkable.  And, as seems to be the case with most of these Warner Bros. special editions, the packaging is very nice, as are the extras on the disc.  If you're a fan, you're well-served by what they've done here.

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Pixar's second film, 'A Bug's Life,' has just been released in a vibrant new BluRay transfer

Credit: Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar

Pixar's second film is the Rodney Dangerfield of Pixar movies, the one that had to come after "Toy Story."  Talk about a tough act to follow.  Honestly, "Toy Story" is the closest modern equivalent we have to the original "Star Wars" in terms of impact on the rest of the industry, and it's a fantastic piece of storytelling, even removed from the technical innovations.  So pretty much anything that came next would have taken a bit of a beating, and ten films down the road with this company that has one of the best track records in all of movies, the BluRay release of "A Bug's Life" seems like a perfect opportunity to take a fresh look at the film.

On its own, rewatching it with my son, I think it's very funny and often quite beautiful in an almost hallucinatory way.  The film's got an odd palette that seems to be a technical choice as much as an artistic one, but I think the film definitely gets a bum rap in terms of how watchable and engaging it is.  I mean, it's a riff on "Seven Samurai" starring a literal flea circus.  What's not to like?

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Optimus Prime prepares to hand a Decepticon (or two) their shiny metal butts in 'Transformers; Revenge Of The Fallen'

Credit: Paramount Pictures

Welcome to The Morning Read.

And, no, I'm not just going to spend the morning reposting moments from the MTV Movie Awards, because I don't watch the MTV Movie Awards.  I know they employ many funny writers and performers each year, but (A) the awards mean nothing to me and (B) I did not, alas, adore "Twilight," so watching the halftime show for this year's release of the sequel is not something I'd spend two hours on.  My esteemed colleague Dan live-blogged the show, and he did it with a better sense of humor and patience than I would ever be able to muster for the event, so if you'd like to read some well-honed snark about a very silly show, check out what he wrote.

Instead, let's see what else is going on out there.  First up, congratulations to a friend, BenDavid Grabinski, who has just been handed a potential franchise in the form of Tom Swift.  And when I say "handed," I mean, "Damn, that's a good idea and he and Barry Sonnenfeld together musta looked pretty tasty to the studio."  They are, after all, making "The How-To Guide For Saving The World" together, a well-liked entry on last year's Black List.  Tom Swift is a property that's been around longer than modern pop culture.  Seriously.  The first book was in 1910.  There were several different reboots of the character and the premise over the years.  It's been written by about a bajillion people, originally published under the name "Victor Appleton."  The original incarnation is probably the least like what Grabinski and Sonnenfeld are going to do.

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Sam Raimi demonstrates his hypnotic powers to Alison Lohman in Cannes before a special screening of 'Drag Me To Hell'

Credit: AP Photo/Joel Ryan

The way some critics are reacting this weekend, you'd think Sam Raimi had just been rescued after a few decades on a desert island.  Considering the phenomenal success he's had with the "Spider-Man" films over the last few years, his career's been in what can only be described as overdrive.  But in many ways, it's felt like Raimi has been working in a less personal mode, so more than anything, the celebratory nature of the "Drag Me To Hell" reviews suggest to me that there are a whole lot of critics who have been waiting on signs of the old Raimi.

But... why?

What is it that distinguishes the work of this filmmaker?  I wouldn't argue that Raimi is the greatest pure horror filmmaker.  Looking at his resume as a producer, it's obvious that he loves the genre, but he's always been willing to subvert it for his own purposes.  Raimi loves to make you react, and he's just as happy to get screams or laughs or even tears.  But one thing's sure... this is a filmmaker who loves to engage an audience, and that's the tendancy that stands front and center in his new film.

It all begins with "The Evil Dead," which is still the scariest thing he's ever made.  This is the film that people like Joe Bob Briggs and Stephen King went crazy for, and it was one of the first of the video age cult phenoms.  It was one of those movies that became a rite of passage, a dare that was passed around at slumber parties when it was time to seriously freak someone out.  It's the perfect "spam in a cabin" movie, and it's super-low budget only makes it freakier.

The '80s were rough on Raimi, though.  You'd think starting the decade with a cult sensation would get things started right, but he didn't make another movie until 1985, when he released the little-seen "Crimewave."  Raimi disowns that film today, and I would imagine that the movie's birth was so difficult that he hates remembering it.  That's a shame, though.  "Crimewave" marks the one significant creative collaboration between Raimi and his long-time friends and former housemates Joel and Ethan Coen.  Even if it's flawed, there are things to like about it, and I love the way it blends weird surreal humor and film noir conventions.

It wasn't until 1987's "Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn" that Raimi really found his voice, and it's easily the most significant film in his career.  The mix of humor and horror is not radically different than what he tried to accomplish with "Crimewave," where he tried to pull off a screwball noir.  It's just that he found the right blend with "Evil Dead 2," somehow mixing real scares with a psycho hillbilly aesthetic and laughs straight out of the Three Stooges.  It's a concoction that shouldn't work... but does.

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Jason Schwartzman IS Mark Taylor Jackson IS 'Yo Teach' in what looks like a new sitcom... but isn't

Credit: Universal Pictures

Welcome to The Morning Read.

Yesterday's double-feature was marked by huge stress getting to one theater (LA won that round, slowing me down enough that I was almost 20 minutes late) and then a nice surprise with the second film ("Land Of The Lost" is better than you think it's going to be), and then all sorts of tomfoolery here at the house once I got home.  But here we are, last Morning Read of May, and there's plenty to discuss, so let's jump right into it, starting with what's On The Screen this weekend.

It's one of those rare days where there are two major releases, and both of them are equally worthy in different ways.  Just depends what you're in the mood to see.  If you're taking the family to see something, then you can't go wrong with Pixar's gorgeous new film "Up," and if you're on a date and you want something that's just plain fun, then "Drag Me To Hell" is about as good a ride as you're likely to get outside of an amusement park.  There are a few limited release titles opening as well, including "Departures," the Japanese film that won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar this year, "Pontypool," a movie that's part zombie film, part Ionesco-style word game, and finally Jonathan Glatzer's "What Goes Up," (not to be confused with "Away We Go," which comes out next week) which stars Steve Coogan as a New York Times reporter who goes to a small town in Connecticut to interview kids about the Challenger launch, only to learn that his old friend, their teacher, has evidently killed himself.  Olivia Thirlby, Josh Peck, Molly Shannon, and Hilary Duff co-star.

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