Happy Sunday, folks!
tfw tomorrow’s monday
This really hit the spot for me between childlike fable and adult humor — over at McSweeney’s, read “Frog and Toad Tentatively Go Outside After Months in Self-Quarantine.”
If you’ve got some time today, I’d really recommend reading this New York Times feature entitled “The Coronavirus Generation.” Author Jason DeParle explores the potential effects we could have on an entire cohort of young Americans should we not take more aggressive action to alleviate childhood poverty during this crisis. Here’s a key graf, to me:
“Some people fear that if you give people benefits you create a culture of poverty,” said Ms. Schanzenbach, an economist at Northwestern. “This shows the opposite is true — if you invest in poor kids, they’re less likely to need benefits as adults.”
As you might have guessed given that I pivoted to a Chadwick Boseman memorial newsletter yesterday, I was mercifully unaffected by Hurricane Laura. However, many along the Gulf Coast were not so lucky to avoid widespread devastation. Whether you live in the area or not, The Houston Chronicle compiled a list of ways you can support, help and donate!
Now, what you came for…
DAY 171: Elizabethtown (available on Amazon Prime)
It feels weird to say “they don’t make ‘em like this anymore” about a movie that came out just 15 years ago, but I really struggle to imagine how a movie like Cameron Crowe’s Elizabethtown would fit into today’s moviemaking ecosystem. It almost certainly could not get funded the way it did: through a major studio (Paramount) and given a major nationwide release in the fall. The corporate giants have ceded the territory of personal, non-IP driven stories to indie labels, though something as unashamedly earnest and sentimental as this feels like a stretch for the A24 or Neon “brands” to sell. It’d *maybe* get a streamer’s backing on the residual goodwill from Crowe’s big hits (Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous), though recent stumbles (We Bought a Zoo, Aloha) could spook them into giving it a shoestring budget.
Apologies if you found that intro a bit too “inside baseball” and just wanted a movie recommendation, but I think it’s key to why I found a rewatch of Elizabethtown quite refreshing. Because there is so little like it in sentimental, intimate filmmaking these days, I was more willing to overlook the movie’s flaws (of which there are many). Cameron Crowe’s biggest strength has recently become a bit of an Achilles’ heel — he’s painfully, achingly earnest. Even, and especially, when it’s unfashionable. Recall the sage advice of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Lester Bangs from Almost Famous: “The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool.”
Elizabethtown delivers a rarity in American cinema: a male lead who’s unabashedly emotional and wears his feelings on his sleeve. (You can probably come up with a few examples, but think of the last time you saw a major star cry or express the full range of his emotions in a scenario that doesn’t involve injury or tragedy.) Orlando Bloom, riding high on Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean superstardom, stars as Drew Baylor, an upstart twentysomething handed two huge personal blows in a short period of time. He loses his company nearly a billion dollars after a botched product launch, only to then learn his father has passed away … and his mother and sister task him with going to Kentucky to retrieve the body.
Dealing with his personal and familial shortcomings all at once leads to some real introspection for Drew, though he wears the emotional journey outwardly. I must confess, I think Bloom is a bit miscast in the role and is not entirely adept at selling all the character beats convincingly. Still, he’s just going for it and swinging at every pitch he gets … not unlike Elizabethtown itself, which is messy and disorderly yet also disarmingly sweet should you choose to let your guard down. I’ll take an interesting misfire over a rote triumph any day of the week, personally.
People well-versed in Internet dialogue around movies might recognize this movie for an ignominious honor: it’s what spurred Nathan Rabin to coin the phrase “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” to describe Kirsten Dunst’s character Claire, a kind of spiritual shaman to lead Drew out of his funk. It’s possible to hold both two thoughts in your head about Elizabethtown, that you can want better for Dunst/Claire and recognize that elements of her character do work because Crowe deploys the archetype with so little irony. She’s an almost angelic presence in the film, guiding Drew towards enlightenment and satisfaction with giggles, quirks and bubbly smiles.
Because she has a borderline supernatural quality to her, it becomes a little easier to stomach what typically reads as flat, uninspired and misogynistic in less skillful films. I don’t think Elizabethtown should be condemned for the way it treats Dunst/Claire; we should just point out where it falls short of standards, encourage contemporary films to do better and expand opportunities for female storytellers to create full, nuanced portrayals of women who do more than help a man achieve his full potential.
Be good to yourselves and to each other,
Marshall