Movie Reviews
Good Night and Good Luck
Capote
Good Night, and Good Luck
by Steph
In the movie, “Good night, sleep tight,” David Strathairn plays the journalist Edward R. Murrow, a man who needed smoke in order to live. The character and hence the actor chain smoked the entire time, one cigarette after another. The only way the actor could have smoked that well was if he literally practiced in front of the mirror. He would exhale a tiny cloud and then quickly inhale it up his nose like the French do. The French perfected the art of smoking in the 19 th century, during the French Revolution. I spent my junior year abroad in France and let me tell you, everyone in France smokes, yet the French are so thin and Americans are overweight. Sometimes the actor would have smoke pouring out of both nostrils just for effect. He looked like a fire breathing dragon of intensity.
George Clooney did not smoke in the film, because he was too busy acting, writing, and directing! Clooney wore many hats and probably had to be in many places at one time. He must have come home bone tired at the end of a day. He chose to shoot the movie on old black and white film stock to give it an olden times feel. Back then there was no color. Also women did not work, so the film is largely populated by men. The only women who could work were married women who worked in the same office as their husbands, like “Shirley” played by Patricia Clarkson, so that their husbands could be with them at all times to supervise their behavior. And, back then, homosexuals like Liberace could get married…to women.
But the actor who really stole the film was the one who played Senator McCarthy (Do I smell Oscar?). In his scenes with Strathairn he was seething with pent up hostility that a newsman had the audacity to question his political crusade, when no one else would. Now a days we have newsmen like Jon Stewart who virulently question the government in power. Back then all they had was Edward R Murrow and William Paley, the president of CBS.
All in all, Clooney really captured the hard boiled realism of that area. The only thing I found phony was the character Murrow’s weekly closing statement “Good night, sleep tight.” I kept thinking about the last part…”don’t let the bedbugs bight!” I mean, why not say that too? Especially because there is a huge epidemic of bed bugs sweeping our country right now. And that is no joke. So for those of you reading this review, when you go home tonight check your sheets, and if you see tiny fecal spots, then I wish you good luck, you’re going to need it.
Capote: **WARNING: SPOILER ENCLOSED!!**
By Steph and El
In the movie, “Truman,” the very versatile actor Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the title role, an old (**SPOILER!**) homosexual writer, with a speech impediment to a “T”. Truman Capote, a homosexual from birth was an excellent writer and bon vivant. Bon vivants were a subculture of homosexuals who partied in the 50’s. During these heady times, the homosexual author, Truman Capote just drank and drank while living with his male homosexual lover in Brooklyn Heights. One morning while sipping a café royale and sitting in his favorite chair, he read about some murders in rural Kansas. In that instant he decided to solve the murders and author his own book about it. In the process, he befriends some unlikely characters…the actual killers! The film tells the story of one homosexual’s search for the title of his book.
The murder of a family of four was committed (**SPOILER!**) by a couple of gangsters just passing through the small Kansas town. Apparently, the family was hording thousands of dollars in cash in their house which tantalized the robbers, like a couple of moths to a flame. Back then, people didn’t keep money in banks but under mattresses and in coffee cans. Word to the wise: Don’t have a lot of cash lying around. You could endanger yourself and those around you.
Truman had a lot of friends: homosexual, black-what have you, including the woman female novelist Harper Lee with whom he had a lesbian relationship. Wearing an unflattering wig, Catherine Keener’s Harper Lee was a volcano of seething lesbian ambition. The way Philip Seymour Hoffman pursed his lips while slurping on a Tom Collins really captured the character of this homosexual bon vivant like a photograph. It was almost eerie. Hoffman played this role with the relish of a born homosexual. He has said in interviews that he took up acting to meet girls after a football injury, but we don’t buy it. We know a homosexual when we see it! The rest of the cast was equally talented with Chris Cooper reprising his role from “Adaptation.”
Capote cared deeply about the criminal justice system which at that time was prejudiced against criminals and homosexuals. He decided to go to Kansas and fight for the freedom of the two killers. He really stood out in Middle America. He wore this really expensive cashmere scarf (Bergdorf Goodman!) and a delicious floor length camel coat which he would flit about in, like a homosexual moth. During one prison visitation, the half Indian murderer asked Truman, “What is your book called?” Truman pretended not to hear him…”Mr. Capote, what is the name of it?!” Truman was like, “I don’t know yet.” Whoa! That was a big lie! Talk about cold-blooded! The other killer had a cool rockabilly style! The two killers became instant minor celebrities, posing in many fashion magazines, including Harper’s Bazaar.
In one scene, Truman fed the half Indian killer baby food because he liked the man's lips. His lips were dry, but sexy and full. Truman liked lips. He was a lip man. Now fast friends, Truman was so torn up about the killers’ execution, he had to take a trip to the Mediterranean nation of Spain just to calm down. One time in Spain Truman wore a child’s sailor shirt blouson. Man, that was so funny!
After drinking a lot of cava and eating his fill of tapas, Truman returned to New York and the scintillating nightlife that he missed so much. The movie director must have been born in the 50’s because he really captured the style of that era, like a moth caught in a web of art direction. One night, he met up with the lesbian lady authoress Harper Lee at a premiere for the movie “Mockingbird, “ which she starred in opposite homosexual matinee idol, Rock Hudson. Truman was jealous and drunk and didn’t even care about Lee’s major success. His behavior gave us the impression that (**SPOILER!**) all he cared about was himself.
Truman, out of the frustration of not being able to finish his book, has the two killers’ executed. Just before being put to death, he gets a call. The young cute killer wanted to see him! Capote couldn’t even get out of bed, he was so drunk. Eventually Harper Lee called him on the phone and sobered him up with some tough love. She told him to get his fat ass out of bed and down to the prison. When Truman finally sees the killers wrapped up their harnesses, he realizes we are all human: homosexual, straight, lesbian, Jewish-what have you, we are all the same in our hearts. ••
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