Behind the Candelabra

The more mundane aspects of Liberace’s relationship dominate in this biopic, and “Behind the Candelabra” feels like an empty and overdone Vegas showpiece.

Too gay, was the reason Steven Soderbergh gave that “Behind the Candelabra” became an HBO TV movie rather than a wide released feature. And yet this biopic on Liberace’s relationship with Scott Thorson shoves the homosexual politicking to the background in favor of the more familiar trope of marital bickering. Although much of the film is enjoyable in that Mr. Showmanship way, this genre, unlike Soderbergh’s other recent genre experiments, does not fit him as well.

Although Liberace (Michael Douglas) was a skilled pop pianist in the ‘70s, his real claim to fame was his fine-tuned crowd work. We’re introduced to Liberace through a dopey Boogie-Woogie number in his Vegas stage show made fun through his simple pleasantries. It’s not that Liberace was the natural showman, but that everything he says here seems just right, and it’s no wonder he wins over Scott Thorson (Matt Damon) along the way.

The nuance of Michael Douglas’s performance, one that strays away from impersonation, is that he does feel as though he’s trying. It is a performance, no matter whom he’s talking to, and that shows. It’s when we’ve been around this act too much that it grows old and tiresome, and that’s exactly what happens to Scott. Continue reading “Behind the Candelabra”

Cinema Isn't Dying; The Business Is

Big Data could be poised to help the movie industry stay afloat, and it can do so without damaging the integrity of the art.

“Ack! You can’t make movies out of statistics! That’s not art! AARRGGHHH!”

That’s my impression of a filmmaker or critic reading an article about Big Data, a currently buzzy, business-y tech term that every industry is currently figuring out what to do with, including Hollywood.

Now, I understand that most of the people who got into making movies or writing about them did so because they never wanted to have to learn about something like Big Data. But as a struggling movie blogger, I’ve had no such luck, and Big Data makes up a big chunk of the articles I’ve been reading for the past few months.

So it came as a shock to me to hear about this panel called “Big Data and the Movies” at the Tribeca Film Festival and see my worlds colliding. It happened to coincide with Netflix’s release of “House of Cards,” this New York Times article about a man using analytics to give notes on screenplays, and then of course two wonderfully insider and apocalyptic discussions about the state of cinema, one by A.O. Scott and David Denby at Tribeca, the other by allegedly retiring filmmaker Steven Soderbergh at the San Francisco International Film Festival.

With all those things together, I began to wonder: How does the movie industry innovate? Continue reading “Cinema Isn't Dying; The Business Is”