Alexander Payne + Clooney + Hawaii = The Descendants

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLhdS-8-YS8

Dammit, dammit. Wrong link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vu6qUglcGo

Erudite white people suffering domestic strife in Hawaii. I wonder what Terry Gross will say?

shudder

That will end up in a red envelope in my PO box.

Weirdly difficult to buy Clooney as a dad.

screenplay co-written by Jim Rash, who plays the dean on Community

Prefer Buchanan tbh

Would still watch it and probably enjoy it too though, to be fair

This is the film Louis CK turned down because it meant too much time away from his kids, no?

i'll def take my mom to see this!

i'm not sure that there's ever been a movie set in hawaii where the #1 reason wasn't "million dollar paid vacation to hawaii"

or "pearl harbor"

no, not even that

Louis CK would have killed in that role.

This looks like it's right down some alley that's nowhere near my alley.

weird that this is the first movie he's directed since Sideways, wonder why it took 7 years

lol, " He also teamed up once again with writing partner Jim Taylor to write a draft of the screenplay for the film I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, a comedy directed by Dennis Dugan starring Adam Sandler and Kevin James."

lol @ not a single brown or asian person in trailer

so people were pretty into this i think? lotta raves about its depth

Was about to say I don't think I'll ever like anything by Payne again, but then I remembered this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIwval66mbI

i've been dragging my feet on catching up w/that because of the efforts of procuring it, particularly in light of not being as interested in everything that accompanies it -- hadn't realised it was on youtube, so thanks!

A.O. Scott ran out of adverbs praising this thing today.

suspiciously so.

the truth is probably between Scott and J. Hoberman.(in the middle)

My fondness for Citizen Ruth and Election is all that's keeping me from consigning Payne to the Reitman circle of hell.

There are times when you laugh or gasp in disbelief at what has just happened — an old man punches a teenager in the face; a young girl utters an outrageous obscenity; Mr. Clooney slips on a pair of boat shoes and runs, like an angry, flightless bird, to a neighbor’s house — and yet every moment of the movie feels utterly and unaffectedly true.

true american surrealism

george clooney runs in shoes!

lol

You know – angry, flightless birds always slip into their pairs of boat shoes.

i can just imagine how all those "funny" scenes play out (ok, maybe i'm remembering some from the trailer) and... no thanks.

"To call “The Descendants” perfect would be a kind of insult, a betrayal of its commitment to, and celebration of, human imperfection"

is it better than Citizen Kane?

Reitpayne movies are such critnip.

but but but "like an angry flightless bird" modifies "runs"

i'm excited for this cuz hawaii tho. edelstein's review seemed more trustworthy!

Its flaws are impossible to distinguish from its pleasures.

that should obviously be on the poster, solemnly intoned in the tv spot, etc.

You're all right to be hearing alarm bells, but I thought it split the diff between Election and About Schmidt.

That'd be 2.5/4.

I've only seen one Jason Reitman movie -- really, Juno was not mandatory -- vs all four of Payne's, but I'd say it's pretty insulting to lump him in with JS, even if About Schmidt was kinda loathsome.

JR, grrrr

a young girl utters an outrageous obscenity

We already had this movie and it was called Kick-Ass. Is this better than that?

creators of guilt-ridden slice of life angst starring inevitable Oscar nominees and Best Screenplay winners.

xpost No.

I would totally screw Matthew Lillard over George Clooney, btw

An angry, flightless Lillard in boat shoes is my kind of evolutionary move.

Stephanie Zacharek thinks this resembles Up in the Air way too closely.

That’s the thing about Payne: In pictures like Sideways and About Schmidt, he’s gotten away with the junkiest kind of sentimentality by packing deadpan gags around it, like ice around a dead fish.

Erudite white people suffering domestic strife in Hawaii. I wonder what Terry Gross will say?

― remy bean, Thursday, May 26, 2011 4:18 PM (5 months ago)

Mr. Clooney slips on a pair of boat shoes and runs, like an angry, flightless bird, to a neighbor’s house

you know how angry, flightless birds are always running to their neighbors' houses

oh hey domestic turkey next door can i borrow some worms? thanks i can't go fishing today on account of my awesome boat shoes that i don't want to get wet. thanks and * SQUAWK *

missing the "angry" imo but otherwise excellent

atop a Jonas Brother

Q.
Were there any scenes that you thought were really funny that you had to cut because they were too funny?

A.
Mr. Faxon: There’s a scene at the end of the movie where they’re spreading the mother’s ashes in the ocean, and it gets broken up by a cruise and a bunch of drunk guys. That was shot, it was funny. But they didn’t want to cut away from that very poignant emotional closure.

― Burritos are one of the things I'm nostalgic about!!! (Eazy), Sunday, January 29, 2012 12:09 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

i might've loved the movie if they had left this in

thanks for the perspective gr80. i still think i wouldve preferred to see a movie about nonwhite hawaiians, i dunno

yeah me too, but they decided to make a movie based on a book that was about rich haoles, and they did a p good job of it. the mom & daughter who's house they go over to and apologize for the pubes texts rang especially true to me-- feel like there really could have been more characters like that.

despite the scene where matt and him finally talk in the hotel suite, i feel like Sid was pretty useless overall, and suspect he had a more fleshed character in the book. same for the alzheimer's grandmother-- like there was no reason at all for her to have alzheimer's aside from setting up something for Sid to get punched in the face over.

i really loved how many lingering establishing shots there were of the mountains and the ocean and diff parts of urban honolulu.

i will see this again, may not have given it a fair shake

I was totally all who is this comic relief kid re sid but then he started to make sense to me, def still feel like he couldve been 75% less ott

never needs to be seen a second time by anyone

ok, i've cancelled my netflix order, thx.

phew that was close

Dr Morbius 1D0% OTM

think i'm going to see it again.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-h62fEE11dvs/TuZRhD3h7NI/AAAAAAAAIhM/yRpztwRSqk8/s1600/George-Clooney-Running-in-Hawaii-520x736.jpg

RUNNING

How could y'all not love the costumes in this?

terrible form clooney!

its hard to go balls out in those puppies

were he mid striking thered be NO PROBLEM

jeez clooney

http://www.fresnobeehive.com/archives/george_clooney300-thumb-300x400.jpg

can we get Robert Forster to punch Aaron Sorkin in the face if he wins best adapted screenplay again?

sure np dr

Finally saw this. Um...it was very pretty to look at, and the music was lovely. Otherwise, it was about on par with, like, Kramer Vs. Kramer (i.e. fair-to-middlin' Oscar fodder). In a way, I was the prime audience to get my heart strings tugged hard after having several family members recently fade away in hospital, but it really didn't get to me on that level at all. I'm happy for Jim Rash that he won an Oscar. I just wish it had been for something better.

yeah i agree. i wanted this to be some kind of emotional blockbuster but i never got really involved with it. it was perfectly respectable and well-made but not super engaging.

this movie was bogus

feel like he kind of bit the Michael Clayton ending

how so? i don't actually remember the last shot.

i think "bogus" is actually a kind of brutal but fair term to apply to this film.

ok wait now i remember. do you just mean it ends w/ a silent long take meant to make us wonder what the character(s) are thining? that's kind of tradition that goes back far beyond michael clayton though.

a.o. scott's incredibly enthusiastic review was really weird btw, and reads even weirder today.

http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/11/16/movies/descendants-with-george-clooney-review.html?pagewanted=all

To call “The Descendants” perfect would be a kind of insult, a betrayal of its commitment to, and celebration of, human imperfection. Its flaws are impossible to distinguish from its pleasures. For example: after what feels as if it should be the final scene, a poignant, quiet tableau of emotional resolution and apt visual beauty, Mr. Payne adds another, a prosaic coda to a flight of poetry. Without saying too much or spoiling the mood, I will say that I was grateful for this extra minute, a small gift at the end of a film that understands, in every way, how hard it can be to say goodbye.

i mean it's a kind of 400 blows gesture in a way.

I wish more movies simply ran out of film and were forced to freeze.

...on George Clooney in sockless boat shoes

"bogus" is a good word. A dubious honor for Clooney to star in two of the most meretricious Oscar films of the last twenty years.

There’s a scene at the end of the movie where they’re spreading the mother’s ashes in the ocean, and it gets broken up by a cruise and a bunch of drunk guys. That was shot, it was funny. But they didn’t want to cut away from that very poignant emotional closure.

You can't have humor interrupting very poignant emotional closure!

Still prefer both to Syriana.

DWH needs to reappreciate Kramer vs Kramer

someone get Sotosyn some friggin' boat shoes already

I'm wearing a pair with argyles.

I'm not saying Kramer Vs. Kramer is bad, Morbs. It's just nothing terribly special, and surely not the best film of 1979 any more than The Descendants has one of the very best screenplays of 2011 (hopefully you'll forgive my dubiousness towards the decisions of the esteemed Academy).

Morbs agrees, I think.

he liked Boat Shoes Vs. Boat Shoes more than a lot of us

Both end with the credits rolling over George Clooney as he stares thoughtfully into the middle distance

It's not the fact that they end with that kind of shot, but holding it for so long with the credits over it is something I can't remember seeing before MC

i considered barking a little in defense of kramer vs. kramer, yesterday. i remember it fondly, though i was only 12 at the time, but i decided that it's been too long for me to say with any certainty that i'd still like it. also, i thought there was a slight misogynist streak to the descendants, similar to what jonathan rosenbaum objected to in KvK.

I kinda think all the characters in The Descendants are equally miserable.

It's not the fact that they end with that kind of shot, but holding it for so long with the credits over it is something I can't remember seeing before MC

― A Little Princess btw (s1ocki), Tuesday, May 22, 2012 9:02 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'll agree that it works better in michael clayton.

I found this kind of a snore, tbh. However I really loved seeing Hawaii shown in a 'hey people live here' way. Honestly I enjoyed it more once I ignored the story and just watched it as a travel documentary, lol

Not bad--except for a couple of scenes near the end (Judy Greer's bedside scene), not as mawkish as I expected/feared.

However I really loved seeing Hawaii shown in a 'hey people live here' way.

I liked that too. Shailene Woodley and Robert Forster were good. And not to get sidetracked, but another demurral on Kramer vs. Kramer, which is really good, and might indeed be the best American film of 1979--I'd take it over Apocalypse Now and (easily) Being There, and maybe over Breaking Away too.

I saw this on DVD some years ago and I see I didn't bother to comment in here at the time.

My lasting, if vague, impression is that it might have been faithful to some archetypal Hawaiian story that rang true as a bell to the residents of Hawaii and it possibly held a mirror up to the islands such as has rarely been captured on film, but for a non-Hawaiian such as myself I recall it as insufficiently engaging or entertaining to allow me derive any real enjoyment from it. I recall all the main characters as coddled dullards with more money than sense, who stayed in character to the bitter end. Fascinating is not the word that springs to mind.

george clooney runs in shoes!

― occupy the A train (difficult listening hour)

If you think of this as a Flirting with Disaster-type road film mixed with a Terms of Endearment-type melodrama, the road film is better.

It has a good soundtrack.

i never did see this