‘Tender Mercies’: ‘Crazy Heart’s Grand-Daddy

We’re rolling toward the end of another week, and to keep you, dear listener, satisfied until Jett and I can present the brand shiny and new upcoming Episode 111 – in which we plan to discuss Mel’s descent in Edge of Darkness, Jeff’s beard in Crazy Heart, and the very concept of human mortality itself in a classy documentary called ‘Flight from Death’, here are some items I made earlier:

Werner Refuses to Give a Rogue Film School Refund

1: Picked up a funny little piece by someone who claims to have forged his way into Werner Herzog’s Rogue Film School (I particularly like the idea of Herzog having be-suited enforcers).

2: Something for the Weekend:

If you’re in Kansas City this weekend (and believe me, we know you’re there, KC listeners), you could do worse than heading over to the delightful and character-filled Tivoli Theatre (where once I was introduced to the amazements of Bertolucci’s ‘Stealing Beauty’ and Schnabel’s ‘Basquiat’) to see the magnificent Hal Holbrook in Scott Teems’ slow-burning ‘That Evening Sun’, which we reveled over in Episode 108

Or…if you’re near anywhere that’s screening ‘A Single Man’, get there as soon as you can – it’s a beautiful, thoughtful, moving film that reminded me of ‘American Beauty’.  In a good way.

And, wherever you happen to be, if you want to see ‘Crazy Heart’, and despite more than a hint of predictability, there’s no good reason why you shouldn’t, check out ‘Tender Mercies’ first; they make a delightful double bill, and not just because Robert Duvall shows up in both.

3: I read Peter Biskind’s biography of Warren Beatty this week.  It was mostly depressing, stocked full as it is with snarky references to the hyphenate’s sex life and people insulting each other; but amidst the gossipy detritus is a reminder that Beatty has made some rich, memorable films ‘(‘Reds’ can, I think, bear comparison to epics in the ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ mould; ‘Dick Tracy’ looks astonishing, and is delirious fun to boot; ‘Bulworth’ really does deserve its reputation as one of the riskiest political films recently funded by a mainstream Hollywood studio).  On top of that, there’s an ultimately profound existential question about how power may be fun for a while, but if you don’t figure out what to do with it, it might turn into paralysis.  I think Biskind could have taken us somewhere fascinating through that lens; and if the book had avoided the tabloid tendency, it could have been half as long and twice as interesting.  Which sentiment suggests to me that the ‘TFT Friday Roundup’ should also be short and sweet.  Have a great weekend.