Did you like About Schmidt or Sideways?... (1 Viewer)

[Holadem]

Thanks Adam, I can't say I agree, but what the hey.

I'll join the frey:

Loathed Election

Liked About Schmidt - wouldn't go out of my way to see it again

Loved Sideways, it's in my top 5 of 2004, but I am worried about backlash. IMO it fares better as a small indie viewed with little expectations, not the overhyped thing it's becoming.

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H

 

[Haggai]

Alex, About Schmidt and Sideways seem to be quite profitable, according to the numbers on boxofficemojo.com. Sideways is at something like $40 million on a $16 million production budget, and it's just gone wide in the last week or two. Schmidt had just over $100 million worldwide on a $30 million production budget. Payne is undoubtedly not hurting for work opportunities.

I've liked all three of his movies I've seen (haven't seen Citizen Ruth), but regarding Sideways, I share Holadem's concern about overhype and backlash. That definitely happened last year with Lost in Translation, which had a similarly gushing (sometimes bordering on worshipful) reception from critics. It also won the Oscar for original screenplay, and Sideways is surely the favorite in its screenplay category this year (adapted).

 

[Scott Beck]

Also -- don't forget Payne helped on the Jurassic Park 3 script -- in which he got a good paycheck, but they threw most of his ideas out the window.

He also worked (uncredited) on the scripts for Meet the Parents & City of God. Producers for the Charlie's Angels film also brought him in for a meeting, so he it seems he is finding other ways to make some money as well.

 

[Haggai]

Scott, Payne did uncredited work on City of God? Do you mean the Brazilian movie from the last couple of years? I'd never heard that before, seems unlikely to me.

 

[Scott Beck]

Haggai -- Yep, Payne did work on that same Brazilian film "City of God" at the Sundance labs. He said he only worked on it for a week, so it probably wasn't anything substantial.

Here's an excerpt from his interview with Cinema Confidential:

"I’m sometimes friends of films, like I have a credit on “City of God.” I worked with the screenwriter for about a week at a Sundance lab in Brazil. And “City of God” is amazing, one of the best films of this decade. And sometimes I just work on films, unpaid, I just help out some filmmaker friends, and they give me some credit."

If you want to read the rest of the interview, it's on my website, under 'Articles & Interviews' & under the Sideways section. (I'd post a link, but supposedly I can't do that until I post 15 times)

 

[Haggai]

Thanks for the info, Scott. I didn't know that any of the City of God people had been at Sundance when the movie was in development or production.

 

[Pamela]

Liked Election.

Really liked About Schmidt.

LOVED Sideways.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Quite naturally you are entitled to your view, but I don’t think that Payne meant to portray that family as either ‘well-adjusted’, or happy (though closer to happy than well-adjusted’).

It also occurs to me that you missed all of the places where Schmidt was the butt of the joke. But perhaps you did not feel that those parts were funny.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I got them on an intellectual level, the Tire place joke for instance. But I just don't sympathize with films that feel the need to laugh AT their characters rather than WITH them. The only times the humor turned towards Shmidt was when the mean bully of a script decided it had had it's fun with it's regular victims.

In short, it was a movie with an ultimately useless narrator whose journey mocks those who atleast TRY to find happiness and contentment. What admirable qualities the narrator does have are later ignored by the script in the name of conflict and more cheap humor. Garden State could have gone down a similar road, but it instead allowed its quirky characters to grow and found the human being behind the gag. Garden State mocks Peter Sarsgaard character but then finds the truth behind him. It mocks Sam's family then finds the sadness and love behind it. Large starts out as a Shmidt, but he wakes up and decides to smell the coffee. Shmidt declares he's not going to waste another moment of life, then proceeds to go on an ultimately pointless trip of close-mindedness - bringing no good to himself or others except for perhaps the last scene with Ndugu; as he cries, I was left only with the realization that after all this time the movie still hadn't defined him well enough to definitively decide whether those were tears of despair or small comfort.
I know plenty of people like Shmidt; and I wouldn't want to waste 124 minutes with them either.
But then, I hated Napolean Dynamite too, so what do I know?

 

[Qui-Gon John]

I liked Election, as well.

Did not like About Schmidt.

Should I avoid Sideways?

 

[Nick Sievers]

Don't avoid Sideways, John. It doesn't have much in common with Schimdt. Sideways is a lot more accessible.

FWIW I loved Election, Schmidt, and Sideways.

 

[ToddP]

Sideways has nothing to do with About Schmidt. They aren't even similar films. I'm not sure where this came from.

 

[Brian.L]

Liked Election (ending was a bit of a letdown).
Thought About Schmidt was okay, nothing special.
LOVED Sideways (#5 in my top 10 of 2004).

(Glad to see that I'm not the only person who didn't flip over AS, for some reason I had gotten the impression that was universally beloved or something.)

 

[Dustin A]

Loved Sideways

 

[Gregory Vaughan]

I find it interesting that a director can make 3 well made and generally appreciated films, and yet have them be so different that many people love some and hate others (although Sideways is likeable enough that I haven't found many people that react as negatively to it as some did to "About Schmidt" or "Election"). And Citizen Ruth is certainly a film that isn't for everybody.

Personally I really liked Election and Sideways, although in different ways, and I was indifferent to "About Schmidt". I'll certainly be interested to see what he does next (Nebraska).

 

[Holadem]

Well, they both feature road trips as a way of self discovery for the characters. They both feature somewhat detached, dissaffected and socially inept characters. These guys find themselves in sometimes situations that are comically challenging to them because they are at odds with the world around them.

I see similarities...

--
H

 

[Christ Reynolds]

havent seen citizen ruth yet
liked about schmidt
really really liked sideways
loved election

CJ

 

[chris winters]

I enjoyed Election, but loved About Schmidt and really liked Sideways.

Payne makes movies about the darker moods in all of us. Hes in touch with the neurotic and cynical sides of the human condition. Perhaps red staters, in stereotype, dont enjoy his movies becuase in general they are less cynical and neurotic. They long for ceremonies and pagentry as well as honors and romantic language ( How many times can Bush say the words freedom, liberty and tyrany in one speach?) Paynes movies can somtimes be mean spirited in tone, but his sense of sly humor and ability to capture the stark nature of what we often romanticize is very powerful. I also would guess that those who found About Schmidt offensive might not appreciate the scene in sideways where:

The overweight couple is having anal sex in front of a commercial showing the waving flag and a picture of president Bush while screaming obscenities

 

[Rob Willey]

Liked Election and Citizen Ruth.

Really liked About Schmidt.

Absolutely loved Sideways.


Rob

 

[ToddP]

Wow, generalize much? Not sure what political ideology has to do with opinion of film. I loved Sideways and enjoyed Election a lot...what do you know, I'm a republican.