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Clockwatchers: The Name Says It All

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Clockwatchers (1998)

Now that the Producers is finally over, and even though I'm transitioning into yet another show, I think my film consumption (and, therefore, my blog entries) will increase in quantity, at least over the next few weeks. Clockwatchers represents the second indie in the previously mentioned queued quartet and the second film I viewed that was directed and written by Jill Sprecher, though this is her first film. Again, when I queued my films up initially (and it will be awhile before I make it through that initial lineup), I did so in an almost stream of consciousness way and frequently based my selections on random interest. Since I had never heard of Sprecher prior to the point, I was interested in this film based on its subject matter. A workplace satire? Workplace humor is very relatable. I enjoy both Office series immensely, for example, and look forward to watching Office Space (don't judge) when I can. Plus, this film stars Toni Collette, Lisa Kudrow, and Parker Posey, amongst other appearances by familiar faces. It had some serious comedic potential, not to mention possible resonant storytelling. Unfortunately, the film was underdeveloped in many ways and, frankly, a wee bit boring, undermining itself and its potential in a yawn-inducing way.

Iris (Collette), in an effort to avoid taking up a job lined up for her by her father (Paul Dooley), decides to join a temp service, which assigns her to Global Credit. This company is the epitome of faceless and nameless corporations, and, apparently, there is palpable hostility between permanent employees and the temps. Fortunately, Iris is able to strike up something of a survival friendship with three other temps. Paula (Kudrow), the aspiring actress, insists that she will only temp until an audition pans out. Jane (Alanna Ubach) is biding time until--and passes the time prattling on about--her wedding and marriage to her wealthy fiance, who her friends rightfully suspect is cheating on her. Margaret (Posey) is ever the rebel, decrying the villification of temps and general office procedure, all the while not-so-secretly being the most desperate of the four to transition into a full-time position. Eventually, office supplies and personal belongings begin to disappear, and the evidence seems to implicate one of the temp workers, specifically Margaret. As the four decide whether or not to stick together or be every woman for herself, they must also decide whether or not it is worth it to continue as temps in a corporate fish tank or to move on with their lives, with or without their friends.

Clockwatchers can best be described as a mixed bag. On the one hand, there are enough visual jokes and hilarious character insertions to keep the satire in the forefront, relevant, and occasionally funny. The office supply Nazi, the strategically placed water cooler, and the office setup itself made the film instantly relatable to anyone who has ever worked in a stuffy office setting. Bob Balaban plays a particularly frantic executive with a tendency to make last-minute and semi-ridiculous requests of the temps while he looks to deflect examination of his own incompetence. Debra Jo Rupp (Kitty Foreman!) hilariously portrays an office manager who is as condescending as she is not subtle about the permanent versus temporary dynamic. The depiction of office doldrums was effective and chuckleworthy and certainly the highlight of the film.

On the other hand, the story development in this film by screenwriters Sprecher and her sister Karen was seriously lacking. None of the four main characters - particularly Iris - was given a decent treatment, either in backstory or present motivations. Therefore, the viewer was given no reason to laugh at something they might have said that was presumably funny or to care about them by the end of the film. The only member of the main quartet that was remotely interesting was Parker Posey's character, and that is because Parker Posey is such an underrated and brilliant comedic actress, she infused her performance as Margaret with a spark and a charisma that her (presumably written) lines of dialogue failed to offer. The viewer is directed to care the most about Iris, and while you know that she is mousy and uninterested in a potential position at a frozen food company, you are given no reason why her eventual actions at the end of the film should be of any concern to you. In fact, Iris' motivations are never fully explained nor, really, are Margaret's, at least as to why she started at Global Credit to begin with. Only Paula and Jane's B-characters have plausible motivations, but Kudrow channels her Phoebe character from Friends in this performance, and Jane's character would probably be classified as annoying by most people.

Perhaps the biggest irony of this film is the correlation between the title and the film's unintended effects on the viewer. The temps are "clockwatchers" because the doldrums of their day are so acute, they actually watch the minute and second hand of the office clock slowly but steadily wind their way toward 5:00 pm. Yet, watching a film about people who are bored at their thankless and meaningless jobs, who are given no interesting story development, and who are lost in a plot that could have been interesting if managed by more capable hands, turns out to be as boring as the four main characters' jobs seem to be. More than once, I watched the DVD counter as it elapsed toward the end of the film's projected running time, and I had to watch the film in two halves because I fell asleep at some point during my first viewing attempt. There simply wasn't enough laughter to keep me entertained and awake, while the ending, and, therefore, the whole film, felt anticlimactic and trite.

Clockwatchers could, thus, be chalked up to a decent idea and a modest effort. I see that some people on Spout loved this film, so, perhaps, they saw something I didn't, but, frankly, I was disappointed by the final result, when my interest was purely topical to start. After some consideration, I think Clockwatchers warrants a 5.5 on the ratings scale between utterly mediocre and cute but mediocre because, to its credit, it had some visual gaffes and Parker Posey to make it somewhat interesting, even if the product as a whole made me sleepy. It also fails the test for obvious and explained reasons. No one wants to be a clockwatcher while watching a film, after all, though as LeVar Burton said on Reading Rainbow, you don't have to take my word for it.

Posted Monday, March 30, 2009 11:13 AM by pippin06 | with 0 comments

Revisiting Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for the AFI Project

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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

What's the AFI Project, you ask? For more information, or if you just enjoy my bemused ramblings, read here: http://www.spout.com/blogs/pippin06/archive/2008/3/1/25756.aspx

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is on the following AFI lists:

The Original Top 100 (#49)
100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains (The Queen is the #10 villain)
100 Greatest Film Songs (#19 - "Someday My Prince Will Come")
The Revised Top 100 (#34)
10 Top 10's (#1 Animated)

Due to Disney's ironclad vault system, I had to go scouting for a borrowed copy of this film because I refused to waste a Netflix rental on it, when I'd seen it at least a good handful of times. It's been a few weeks since I've watched it again, due to my four-week affiliation with the Producers at the Grand Rapids Civic Theater (yes, that IS a shameless plug - only one week more to see it!), but I've seen the film enough to discuss it at length. I know you're excited.

What can I say about Snow White? It's the first (American)* feature-length animated film. It's the singular template and formula pioneer for all classic Disney films (i.e. those produced under the chairmanship of the actual Disney). It has all of the elements viewers have come to expect from the Disney brand: a beautiful princess, a handsome Prince Charming, animals with people-like traits, a cruel and frightening villain (who gets her comeuppance), and comic relief caricatures with appeal to would-be watchers of all ages. Based on a Grimm's fairy tale, the story is as familiar as home sweet home. An evil but vain Queen daily asks her magic mirror "who's the fairest of them all" and is vexed to hear that it is Snow White, the pretty scullery maid that has caught the eye of the good prince. The evil Queen orders a woodsman to take the fair maiden to the woods and to cut out her heart as proof that he ended her life, but the woodsman has a change of heart in light of Snow White's beauty and kindness. Snow White runs, alone as she is except for the friendship of the woodland creatures who flock to her song, until they lead her to shelter - a house that seems to be occupied by children but is, in fact, occupied by seven fat little dwarfs with names anyone should know: Doc, Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Dopey, Bashful, and Grumpy. While Snow White makes merry and home for her stout hosts, the Queen, who is shocked to learn that Snow White lives, hatches a wicked scheme. Magically disguising herself as a fruit-selling hag, she takes a poisoned apple to Snow White while the dwarfs are away working in their mines. Left alone, who will save Snow White?

The AFI no doubt ranked this film - including a 15-rank rise on the Revised list - as much as it did because it was such a pioneering effort on the part of the great and beloved Walt Disney. Not only did it put to the test a formula that would be repeated for decades to come, it also used animation techniques never before utilized on such a large scale. Snow White is not a caricature but a beautifully drawn figure that resembles a normal human. The Queen is truly menacing and mean, drawn in a kaleidoscope of dark and sinister colors, and the animals and dwarfs are brightly illustrated to please children, even as they appeal to adults. The songs are iconically famous, from the ranked "Someday My Prince Will Come" to "Hi-Ho" and "Whistle While You Work," and the story, simplistic as it is, flows along like a work of great fiction under the beautifully rendered animation. Since the film was the first of its kind, it's no surprise that it would be held in such high esteem.

Personally, however, Snow White and even the merry dwarfs are not among my favorite Disney characters. I find that the film, which is now 72 years old, has not aged all that well, from the chirrupy character voice behind Snow White to the somewhat hokey nature of the humor and merriment in the piece. That's not an indictment of the film as much as it is merely a personal preference - Snow White was a great achievement, but obviously, a template can be tweaked and perfected and, for me, is executed more effectively in later Disney films such as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty and Pinocchio. Also, I tend to get bored watching this one; though the film might have mass appeal, I still think the tendency of the movie is to entice children, who are ultimately going to be the audience clamoring to see a long cartoon. I don't feel that way watching all Disney films, but Snow White gets older faster, and I'm afraid that fact grows only more true as I get older.

Like I said, however, these are my personal preferences. Snow White has its place because it has the distinction of being a landmark, and landmarks often inspire new and improved versions of whatever could be so praised as a landmark. Still, in the world of my ratings system, I feel that the film merits an 8.5, between minor flaws/very good and perfectly entertaining. I don't love this one due to my personal observations as stated, and as to the test, it doesn't pass for me. Even when Disney opens its silly (or ingenious?) vault, I would be disinclined to purchase Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, if only because I've seen it enough times to be satisfied. For the interested viewer, though, if you haven't seen the film, you should at least give it one look. After all, it's truly something to be the first (American)* movie-length cartoon.

*Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has been historically (and erroneously) labeled the official first feature-length animated film, but that's not entirely accurate. The Adventures of Prince Achmed, a foreign film, actually holds the title. I've never seen it, but since it hails from another country, I think it's fair to give Snow White the title of "first" if contextualized by attaching the word "American" to it, hence the parenthetical insertions.

Posted Sunday, March 22, 2009 10:31 PM by pippin06 | with 0 comments

Discussing 13 Conversations About One Thing

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13 Conversations About One Thing (2001)

I'm slowly but surely finding my way back to free time and films, including my beloved weekly red envelope. The next four as-scheduled queue entries are indies and the first two are both films directed by Jill Sprecher. Thirteen Conversations About One Thing is the second of the two, but as I was not familiar with this particular director, I didn't give much thought to how I was queuing up my films. My interest in this one was more topical - I mean, it's a heady subject: happiness, as seen through the eyes of a few otherwise innocuous and everyday people. This film had the potential to be truly powerful. Then again, it could also have fizzled spectacularly under the weight of its good intentions. Happily, it had some charm and sincerity even if it failed to present any earth-shattering revelation or take its ambitious subject to the heights toward which it reached.

The film depicts the verbal dissections of what constitutes happiness from the vantage point of five main characters. Gene (Alan Arkin) is a grumpy, aged insurance salesman who is eternally cynical, pessimistic, and tends to be a deliberate bummer to his co-workers and friends. Walker (John Turturro) is a physics professor who cannot see the excitement of life and, therefore, jeopardizes his own happiness by fabricating excitement through an extramarital affair, cheating on his suspecting and otherwise undeserving wife Patricia (Amy Irving). Troy (Matthew McConaughey) is a rising star of an attorney whose career falters after a hit-and-run accident, and Beatrice (Clea Duvall) is a maid hoping for something bigger than she is to appear in her life.

The movie is segmented into 13 vignettes preceded by titles derived from quotes of the movie's dialogue. What the viewer quickly realizes is that these five lives intersect in unanticipated ways, which would be really cool if it actually seemed to serve a purpose to the overall story. The question posited by the film is "what is happiness?" The answer, while rightfully vague, doesn't seem to be bolstered by the twisty connections between the characters or the vignette divisions that serve more as misdirection and an obvious attempt at cleverness than as a creative weaving of the tale.

That's not to say that the film wasn't an admirable effort in its own right. The screenplay was original and sweet and full of heartfelt examinations of feelings and thoughts that any everyday person might have. The film was shot in a beautiful way, playing with perspectives by bringing foreground and background interchangeably into focus, and the acting by all five of the primary performers in this film was good, particularly by Alan Arkin, who offers the most nuanced and heart-wrenching exploration of a curmudgeon considering the (however unlikely) silver linings of his dark clouds.

Yet, as I indicated, the vignette format felt contrived, which actually undermined the resonance of the topic. Put another way, I loved the well-written and well-acted observations of these characters in crisis, but I got bored very quickly by the vignette format, with its slightly pretentious nods to its own dialogue and out-of-order sequencing designed to reveal the clever connections between the characters. The film, therefore, could have been pure silver if it had not been slightly tarnished by its own conventions and occasional pretentions.

The score was also lovely, but since I watched this movie two weeks ago, I can't really remember what I liked about it. I just remember thinking that it was dream-like and surreal, much as the ordinary lives portrayed in this film become.

Thirteen Conversations About One Thing is a pretty picture in some ways but in other ways, it leaves something to be desired. It gets bogged down by its overall philosophy and construction while still remaining elevated by its ambition and intention. The film is, therefore, complex and even complicated, though possibly frustratingly so. For me, I knew almost instantly that I would rate the film a 7.5, between shaky/entertaining and very good/minor flaws. I think the construction of the film force-feeds the viewer too much; if the film had been more free-flowing and, perhaps, stream of consciousness, the contrasts between the mundane of each character would have been richer and more interesting, and the connections and interconnections would have felt more meaningful. Granted, I'm not a filmmaker, but I experienced that reaction quickly and intensely. As to the test, I don't think this film passes. I enjoyed it on some basic levels but not enough to buy it. I applaud the effort, though, and I'm at least a bit curious about this particular director and screenwriter and the other topics she might have conversations about in the future.

Posted Monday, March 16, 2009 10:04 PM by pippin06 | with 0 comments

Viewing(ish) Jaws for the AFI Project

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Film Name Production Year

Jaws (1988)

What's the AFI Project, you ask? For more information, or if you just enjoy my bemused ramblings, read here: http://www.spout.com/blogs/pippin06/archive/2008/3/1/25756.aspx

Jaws is on the following AFI lists:

The Original Top 100 (#48)
100 Most Heart-Pounding Movies (#2)
100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains (The Shark is the #18 villain)
100 Movie Quotes (#35 - Chief Martin Brody: "You're gonna need a bigger boat.")
25 Film Scores (#6)
The Revised Top 100 (#56)

Greetings, ladies and gentleman. Apologies for the small hiatus taken over the last two weeks from movie viewing and reviewing (and thanks if you noticed). It's not easy opening a ginormous musical like The Producers at a theater, especially if you also contracted a debilitating virus to make things extra special. Thus, I was sort of horizontal and unable to process thoughts verbally or in writing when I wasn't trying to survive one of these harrowing performances. Do us a favor and stop on by if you're in the area – make it all worthwhile.

I digress, natch. Two weeks or so ago, I enjoyed a Saturday night film – the next film on the AFI Project. Now, I want you to do your best to keep all soft produce tucked safely away in their fridge-fresh compartments. I want you to keep an open mind and attempt to control all shock – last Saturday, my viewing of Jaws represented the first time I had actually seen the movie all the way through, from beginning to end.

Stop fainting. No, seriously, get up. There's no need for hysterics.

You see, Jaws, like "It's a Wonderful Life," is one of those films that have always been in the background in some form or another. When I was a child, my parents steered me away from it, thinking me and my impressionable, overactive imagination would likely be prone to shark nightmares. After all, I had freaked out to less, like gremlins, Ghostbuster dogs, and crazy robot ladies in Superman III, and you actually see the shark in this film. I don't know what prevented me from finally sitting down to watch it later in life, other than the fact that it sees as much cable rotation as anything, and I'd managed to catch it in parts (no pun intended), likely precluding my need to see the whole thing without commercial interruption. Fortunate, then, that I undertook this project because it forced me to finally see the film in all of its sharky goodness, and I must say, like the Jimmy Stewart classic heretofore mentioned, I was pleasantly surprised by just how fabulous the film was, how much I really got into it, and how much I loved it in the end.

Do you know the story? It's a fairly well known chestnut. Teenagers on small town Amity Island enjoy a night of partying and drinking beside a moonlight bonfire, when one of the girls decides to tease one of the boys by jauntily hopping in the ocean for a spontaneous skinny dip. When she disappears, the boy contacts Police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider, RIP) to investigate. Brody transplanted his family from New York City to the small island in the hopes of "making a difference," perhaps in a sunnier, more vacation-like spot. When Brody and the boy find what's left of the girl on the beach, Brody suspects the waters around the hamlet may be shark-infested. He appeals to the mayor (Murray Hamilton) to put up warning signs or even close the beach, but the mayor hears none of it, fearing that to take such measures would steer away money-spending vacationers visiting the island for the upcoming Fourth of July weekend. Brody keeps a watchful eye and invites an ichthyologist named Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) to the proceedings after additional victims are claimed, including one young boy in front of a beach full of sunbathers. Still guided by the almighty profit margin, the mayor encourages local fishermen to search for the culprit, and though they catch a likely candidate, seemingly validating the mayor's wish to keep the beaches open after all, Hooper is convinced that a Great White shark in the shallows has perpetrated the crimes. Thus, Brody appeals to the city council, and a local fisherman and shark expert named Quint (Robert Shaw) is enlisted, at the right price, to search for the terror, along which Brody and Hooper come for the ride aboard Quint's vessel, "The Orca." As they track the wily shark, each man must face his individual fears and obsessions with the hungry beast.

Jaws is really quite a good film and a mixture of movie genres that could appeal to many audiences. It's an action-adventure flick, filled with gore and high seas danger. It's a subtle stab at small town politics as well as social commentary on greed and bureaucratic dogma. Also, it's a horror flick and one of the most effective I've ever seen. Because the film takes on all of these different levels, making it more than just a picture about a giant, man-eating shark, the film not only crops up on several AFI lists but really can simply be categorized as an ingenious little picture.

It was adapted from a novel and directed by Steven Spielberg as one of his first films. It's creation is stuff of movie-making legend: over-budget and overburdened by bad weather and a faulty mechanical shark nicknamed Bruce, Stevie decided to rely on more basic filmmaking techniques to convey sheer terror to the would-be watcher. In fact, the film plays out much like the only film that outranks it on the AFI's thriller list and could almost be a better film if the story in Psycho weren't so complete and spun with Hitchcock's genius and panache. Spielberg's genius and panache, though, were remarkably sophisticated, nothing to sneeze at, and I will forever use this film to highlight just how good the guy is as a director (I will forever be a stalwart supporter, even if it is cliché). The first act relies and toys heavily with what is unseen. The viewer never catches even a glimpse of a dorsal fin or any dislodged teeth: the camera, instead, follows the perspective of the unsuspecting swimmer, alone but for a startling movement or presumed brush by bare skin and then switches to a vast underwater view beneath a solitary pair of scissor-kicking legs. Coupled with John Williams's now iconic (and AFI ranked) score, the soundtrack of which I purchased years ago even without having seen the film, and the famous main theme emphasized by the grinding of lower stringed instruments, this act really elicited some sincere jumps from me. I was surprised by how much I was into it and by the fact that the film could really make my spine tingle and send me twitching out of my seat, especially since the shark's arrival is always heralded by cellos – the viewer simply never knows when those famous chords end, and the shark attacks.

The second act then sets the stage for the seen and the climactic final battle with the shark. Yes, it still looks fake (thanks, Marty McFly), but fortunately, there's enough going on that you're still at the edge of your seat, taken in by every minute. I especially love the acting by the three main men in this film, but I was intrigued by the speech Quint offers about his experience in World War II aboard the Indianapolis. With Shaw's individual spin on this monologue, it rang echoes of Moby Dick, and really, each man in the film is his own Ahab, seeking revenge against the shark for what it represents to each. I also enjoyed how Spielberg still used the "unseen" factor to set the viewer up for the final scares, between floating yellow buoys, harpooned into the shark's skin, to sunken ships and dangerous cages.

Jaws is actually an excellent movie, and I loved it in spite of myself. I'm happy to say it didn't give me nightmares, but I'm probably not going to be too happy to see sharks at an aquarium in the future. I'm also sort of interested now in seeing Jaws 2 (though not the last two sequels, I've heard they're utter rubbish). Because Jaws appeals to an almost primal sense of terror in each of us and effectively scared me despite being so omnipresent in pop culture, I'm inclined to rate the film an 8.5 for being between very good/minor flaws and perfectly entertaining. I would have rated the film a full 9, but there are a couple of scenes in the film that tend to drag, even as their purpose is to serve as a sort of calm before the next storm of shark-related scares. As to the test, the jury is out for me on this one. I could see owning it, but, then again, it is a cable favorite. Maybe if I found it in a bargain bin. In the meantime, if you are one of the other three people that haven't seen Jaws, I highly recommend sitting down and watching it to the end. You'll eat it up!