Cinema Hype

Excuse us; we at CH seem to have misplaced our Willie Nelson mojo. (Hate it when that happens.) Where were we? Oh, right. On the road again…

Today we’re making the grassy, wind-swept trip from Omaha to Chicago, but focusing more on the wide-open spaces than the devil in the White City (a city as big and as cinematic as Chicago deserves its own post, don’t you all agree?). The expanse of land just past the midpoint of the country has been well-documented—for better or for worse—on film. Iowa is especially, uh, fertile; perhaps Chicago sucks up all the cinematic energy from Illinois. Either way, there is no shortage of Midwest films to celebrate the great breadbowl states:

State Fair, 1933 and 1945: Their state fair is a great state fair, and don’t you forget it. (Official CH Fun Fact: I once went to the Iowa State Fair, and was deeply affected by the caliber of the butter sculpting there. American Gothic, 3-D and life-size! Fine dairy artists, those Iowans.) Most people are familiar (or familiar-ish) with the 1945 re-make—it’s the Rodgers & Hammerstein version—though the 1933 original was nominated for Best Picture.

Winterset, Iowa – The Bridges of Madison County: Cinematic sleep aid or not, lots of people apparently liked watching Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep lounge around and exchange longing looks among the titular covered bridges.

Anywhere, Iowa – Field of Dreams: THE Iowa movie. Or, perhaps, THE America movie? Cornfields and baseball—what’s next, apple pie? Still a winner, though.

Suburbs, Illinois – Mean Girls: The Chicago suburbs don’t exactly stand out in this movie; rather, they’re Everytown (or EveryHighSchool), USA. Regardless, this surprisingly funny and surprisingly thoughtful movie shows both Lindsay Lohan (starring) and Tina Fey (written-by and appearing-in) off to good effect.

Aurora, Illinois – Wayne’s World: What could be more American than cable access, a blue Ford Pinto, and Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody? Schyeah, that’s what I thought. (Bonus: Rob Lowe being hilariously creepy. How does he do that?)

Next up: Chicaaaaaaaaago!, as brought to you by Oprah, apparently.

Iowa, Illinois, midwest movies, Iowa movies, Illinois movies, Field of Dreams, Bridges of Madison County, Mean Girls, State Fair, Wayne’s World

Cinematically, the Salt Lake-to-Omaha stretch of our tour isn’t exactly packed. With the exception of westerns (one could make a case that lots of non-location-specific westerns could take place in these states), the west-mid-west region doesn’t attract tons of productions, despite being heartbreakingly beautiful. Thankfully, a few films actually did get made.

Colorado - Catch and Release: This slightly bizarre romantic comedy (or “comedy”; the best part is a scene in which Jennifer Garner gets drunk and tries to put her fist in her mouth at dinner) is mostly about death, healing, and disillusionment, but it’s also a fantastic advertisement for Rocky Mountain scenery. Watch Garner and her friends fish and frolic around in the Rockies and you, too, will want to vacate there. Promise.

Wyoming - Brokeback Mountain: The number of Wyoming residents (Wyomingans?) who’d like to be associated with everyone’s favorite gay cowboy movie is debatable, but its impression on critics and audiences alike isn’t. Heath Ledger nearly won an Oscar for his performance, and the movie in general is both a cultural touchstone and fair game for satire these days. Love story aside, this is a movie very much about place; Wyoming itself is practically a star. Beautiful.

Boys Town, Nebraska - Boys Town: “He ain’t heavy; he’s my brother!” Awww. Spencer Tracy founds a town for troubled boys, and everybody wins. Which may mean it’s the original inspiration for the Mighty Ducks and many other boy-bonding movies, but we won’t hold that against it. Even better, it’s a true story, and everybody likes a true story. Right?

Next up: A very special CH America! Chicago Edition

Thanks for your patience, readers, as Cinema Hype’s been experiencing technical difficulties, namely the logistical nightmare of shutting down operations in one site and getting set up in another 3,000 miles to the east. The bad news here is that we’re still in the throes of our move. The good news is that you get to come along—this week is the so-called CH America! Tour, in which I’ll be touring (literally and cinematically) some of the cities and regions of this fine nation. I hope you’ll come along, and also forgive the use of a superfluous exclamation point for emphasis. I can’t help myself.

We begin with what should be our (knock on wood) hardest day of driving, but a relatively eventful cinematic landscape. To wit:

Oakland - The Matrix Reloaded: We start our trip with the (in-)famous chase scene from the second Matrix film, which takes place on a digitally altered strip of the 880 freeway, and is basically a representation of the CH America! Tour. Some people play the alphabet game; we cause mayhem and escape with our lives. (I think.)

Reno - Sister Act: I bring this up not because it’s a specimen of spectacular filmmaking, but because of a single, repeatable line uttered by the fabulous, late Mary Wickes–”Reno…and Gomorrah!” A plane full of nuns will never not be funny to me, and we at CH do like our Biblical humor. What, you don’t?

Salt Lake City - Pride and Prejudice: A Latter-Day Comedy: You think I’m making this up, but I absolutely am not.

A friend accidentally ended up with it after a misguided session at Amazon, and swears it’s not bad, as adaptations go. The urge to make a Mr. Darcy/polygamy joke here is just too strong to be avoided (though obviously in bad taste), so I’ll compromise and let you all make your own.

Join me for a week of trans-national fun, and feel free to chime in with your own favorite location movies, especially if they’re on I-80. We’ll see you tomorrow.

Well, I’m back from my jaunt around England, having learned such words as “tallyho,” “cheers” (for more than toasts), and “rocket” (a type of lettuce, apparently). Also, “Wimbledon” and “beware of terrorists.”

I had a great trip, what with the whirlwind that is London and the absolute non-whirlwind that is the Lakes District (see Miss Potter for reference). I even snagged an evening here:

The British Film Institute’s theater is a big, artsy complex that bears a depressing resemblance to my middle school, but shows all kinds of films, from new releases to the truly arcane. I saw a 1959 John Cassavetes movie, Shadows, but I had a whole array of old Japanese and former Cannes winners to choose from (more thoughts on Shadows to come). Not a bad way to spend an evening.

And no, I didn’t spend my whole vacation at the movie theater, I promise.

indie filmmaking, independent films, British Film Institute, John Cassavetes

CH will be offline next week for a staff retreat–known in these parts as “vacation”–in England. As I plan my trip, I realize how much of my own mental map of England–and London in particular–comes from movies I’ve seen over the years. It’s a strange kind of geography that I’ve cobbled together: there’s that bridge that Renee Zellweger walks across each morning in Bridget Jones’s Diary; Lindsay Lohan (back in the wonder years of her youth, like the 90s) bouncing across Abbey Road in The Parent Trap; the airport suburb of Hounslow in Bend It Like Beckham. I’m staying near Portobello Road and Notting Hill Gate, and I realized this morning that in my mind, my hotel’s got to be near Hugh Grant’s house with the blue door.

And those are just the modern movies; don’t even get me started on the period pieces. And leave Harry Potter out of it, will you?

Am I surprised? Should I be? Movies are–so far–my best visual reference for England, other than the times I’ve flown over it on the way in and out of Europe. For me, it’s always sunny in the park (like in About A Boy) and always snowing in the streets at night, where I’ll probably be waiting for a geek-brawl to break out and interrupt a Greek birthday party. I’m sure when I come back, my mind will see the sights through the filter of my own time there, but until then I’m sort of at the mercy of Working Title Films.

Strange.

travel, movies, England

The cosmic “they” don’t let the CH staff out much, but this weekend we took a little jaunt–a junket, if you will–to the epicenter of moviedom, Hollywood itself. Oh, the glamor! We fit right in. Really. We spent some quality time schmoozing (if by “schmoozing” you mean “not seeing a single famous person, not that we were looking”), working on our non-dermatologist-approved tan, and observing the locals in their natural habitat while also kind of thinking, “More hamburgers for the rest of us!” Allll very natural.

But: business. We also spent some time seeing a sight or two, including the Warner Brothers VIP studio tour, which is surprisingly non-lame for an open-to-the-public brush with the celebrity life. We’re talking edutainment, here: Hollywood history sweetened with a generous sprinkling of Harry Potter paraphernalia (the REAL Sorting Hat says I’m a REAL Gryffindor, so there! Neener neener!) and the realization that for a movie blogger, my movie-watching record is kind of pathetic. But I learned, people. And now I’m going to share.

Top Five Facts Learned on the WB Studio Tour:

1. While filming Spiderman, Tobey Maguire stuffed Vaseline-dipped cotton balls up his nose to keep himself from drowning in the fake rain during his upside-down kiss with Kirsten Dunst.

2. The easy-break bottles used to hit movie characters in the head are made of sugar. They still hurt.

3. Anne Hathaway has been cast as Agent 99 alongside Steve Carell’s Maxwell Smart in the movie of Get Smart. CH staff are uncertain about this choice, as we have yet to see her be anything but totally self-conscious onscreen. We look forward to being proven wrong, if she’s up to the task. (Anne, consider the gauntlet thrown. It’s awwwwn!)

4. All of the real (i.e. non-CGI) exterior shots in The Perfect Storm were filmed inside, in the Jack Warner Memorial Indoor Swimming Pool, better known as “large sound stage with water tank.” The fake boat on a fake hinge made Mark Wahlberg seasick anyway.

5. Warner Brothers has filmed over 200 gangster movies in their 120-year history.

Hollywood, Warner Brothers, Get Smart, Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Spiderman, Tobey Maguire