November
8
There Will Be Blood Plays Castro
Jeff Wells, bless him, went to see There Will be Blood at San Francisco's Castro Theatre November 5. I know Nikki Finke is kicking ass with the writers strike, and MCN's David Poland gives us invaluable insights and links to what's going on every day, not to mention the Gurus 'o Gold.
And of course I check Hollywood Wiretap's daily rundown of what is truly newsworthy. The LAT's The Envelope. Dana Harris's brand-new Scribe Vibe blog is tops. And Kris Tapley and Sasha Stone are killing on the Oscar blog front.
But day in day out my hat is off to a fellow insane blogger, obsessive and cinephile, Jeff Wells. I know what it takes to track all this shit and make it sing. And Wells is on it.
Say what you will about whatever personality traits he may have. The guy gets it. Here's my proof:
Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood is one of those legendary, go-for-broke, fiercely psychological big-canvas art movies that you need to see twice -- the first time to go "whoa!" and recoil and get all shaken up and bothered about, and the second time so you can reconsider and see what a masterwork it is, despite your feelings about the malignant emotional content. If you're a film maven of any kind you can't let your piddly emotions get in the way of recognizing diseased greatness.
He nails it. I had those emotions. I appreciated the genius. But he put my feelings into words.
My issue with most of my fellow bloggers is how much they do shill, play ball with the publicists to get access, etc. I have my own conflicts about this. How much do you promote what you love? How objective do you remain? What do you choose to cover and what not? I know that sometimes Wells is a fan and courts the favor of the creatives he admires. He doesn't keep a journalistic distance. But what I love about him is his sophistication. He loses it sometimes, I know, gets on a rant or rave about women's issues, whatever. He's a guy. What we have in common is the love of movies, the insatiable desire to scarf up knowledge about them and share with others. That's why we blog.
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Finke doesn't even like movies. She's turned on by the bad things that happen to the rich people who make them. And make no mistake, she LOVES The Strike.
Poland has too many opinions on too many things for us to take any of them seriously. Even the crazies are abandoning his site.
Tapley and Stone think the love of Oscars actually has something to do with the love of cinema. (glove slap)
Wells' blog, while the most reliable and most connected, seems to be the primary relationship in his life. I see him eating a lot of meals alone.
I guess that makes you the normal one, Anne. You seem to know the dangers of Know-It-All syndrome which discredits so many of these other "journalists." God bless.
Posted by: Crow T Robot | November 08, 2007 at 05:08 PM
Dave swims upstream, give him a break. I like the Dana Harris link. Wells gives a speach of a lifetime with TWBB.
Posted by: T.Holly | November 08, 2007 at 06:44 PM
I complain about Hollywood-Elsewhere more than I should considering how much time I spend there, but Anne has reminded me of why I keep going back.
It's the passion for movies that comes through more than just about any other site. It's what ultimately raises him above his frequently irritating quirks.
Posted by: cjKennedy | November 09, 2007 at 10:23 AM
Wells has his own Howard Beale vibe going...his honesty is the most refreshing thing about him (and he's capable of some fine writing in the process). He'll give you his reactions, and, if on mature reflection they change, he'll cop to that to. But he's not too hip to be moved by primal filmmaking, even if he's regrets it later.
Posted by: Griff | November 09, 2007 at 01:29 PM
You gotta give him props for "diseased greatness," if nothing else.
Posted by: Nordling | November 09, 2007 at 02:04 PM
Anne, will you please confirm the Carrot Top/PTA story, the one about PTA having Carrot Top deliver a message to some other directors he was supposed to participate in a roundtable with?
Posted by: Milkman | November 09, 2007 at 02:09 PM
Anne: I agree with your assessment of Mr. Wells. He loves movies and has pretty good taste and even when his taste is bad and/or strangely conflicted, I read his take. I tend to traverse the places where I feel IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MOVIES. Though he's attracted a lot of the typical passive/aggressive blogloon crowd, he's attracted some fairly astute and sane observers who I really enjoy reading. I've known Wells a looooooong time and even find myself joining the dialogue in his nabe, where I basically don't bother or wouldn't be caught seen many places elsewhere. Anyway, brave of you to say something nice about a fellow toiler in that nasty doggnarlingdog world of cine blogdom.
Posted by: Steven Gaydos | November 09, 2007 at 03:49 PM
Back when I was west coast editor of Premiere, we wrangled an indie directors roundtable and photo shoot in L.A. with F. Gary Gray, Allison Anders, Kasi Lemmons, and others who were supposed to include Bryan Singer and Paul Thomas Anderson. Singer did show up, but was dismayed--as we all were--when Carrot Top arrived with a poem/message from PTA (which is buried in my papers somewhere--I used to have it tacked on my bulletin board) explaining in rhymed verse why PTA was too tired/busy/whatever to attend this session. Carrot Top was supposed to "perform" the poem for the group, but we took it from him and read it, and let him leave. Singer's response was to take off--I tried to persuade him to stay. (He presumably didn't want to be a member of a panel that did not include another director at his level.)And then the rest of us went on with the proceedings. I believe that PTA thought this was an charming/amusing way to get out of something he didn't want to do. It wasn't. It was rude, finally. And I felt bad for Carrot Top, who was put in an embarrassing position. But that doesn't mean I've ever held it against PTA's movies. I remain an admirer of his work, from Hard Eight to There Will Be Blood.
Posted by: anne thompson | November 09, 2007 at 04:06 PM
"And I felt bad for Carrot Top, who was put in an embarrassing position."
I'd just like to note, for the record, that this is one of the greatest sentences I've ever read in my life.
Posted by: Bilge | November 09, 2007 at 06:10 PM
This fascinating story begs all sorts of questions, starting with: Why didn't you let Carrot Top recite the poem? Is he friends with PTA? When was this? Were his biceps as huge as they are now?
Wells is one of four movie writers whose taste I trust almost completely (not that there aren't other people I don't think are at least as good as writers, just that I don't agree as often). The others are Todd McCarthy, Joe Morgenstern, and Mike Clark (who doesn't write about new releases anymore). What they all have in common, for me, besides the fact that I spookily usually agree with them, is that they genuinely want to love movies, so their knocks come out of a sense of personal betrayal. Others' mileage will differ, but it's great having Wells, as the only one of that bunch who's out there regularly giving first impressions. as a personal bellwether.
Posted by: ChrisWillman | November 11, 2007 at 09:05 AM