Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
This guy’s enjoying Austin’s Film Festival right now, and this is his second report. Sounds like he’s smitten by Elizabeth Berkley. I’ll let him explain...
Let me ask you all a question. What is better than seeing an intense, gratuitous shot of Elizabeth Berkley’s mouth on a movie screen? Well, if you see it in person of course. And I got to do that last night at the AFF-Austin Film Festival screening of “Roger Dodger”.
Now, normally I would be in there as a volunteer, but after over twenty hours worth of work, I finally earned my film pass, so getting in was a cinch. Proceedings started with Elizabeth Berkley and the director/writer of the film Dylan Kidd coming out for introductions and plugging the question and answer session later after the movie would end.
Well, I figure it would be an interesting way of capping off my exciting weekend of Bebop and meet and greets with the movie “Roger Dodger” and attempting to get a picture with Ms. Berkley. As for the film, it was going to take a lot to get me off the high I’m currently in.
The protagonist of the film is Roger (Campbell Scott, son of George C.). Roger is a middle aged advertising guy that works in a cubicle. He chain smokes, drinks socially, and claims to go to bed with a woman every night. Some nights with his boss, Joyce (Isabella Rossellini), who is probably about 20 years older than him. Roger has the “gift of gab” and seems to be able to talk himself in or out of any conversation, and become the center of debate and attention.
Eventually, his boss ends their relationship, and Roger runs into his blood nephew, Nick (Jesse Eisenberg). You see Nick is the son of Roger’s sister, who he hasn’t seen in a long time (the funeral of Roger’s mother to be precise). Roger is also estranged from his father as well. Nick knows that Roger is a “ladies’ man”, and well Nick really needs help with the ladies. He’s obviously tired of being turned down by hot women who constantly go after the bad boys, and told by every SINGLE woman he cares about that he’s a “NICE GUY!” and that he’s a “good friend” and…Oops, sorry. I was starting to have high school flashbacks.
So here’s where the movie kicks into high gear. Roger takes Nick around town teaching him the tools of the trade, in an effort to get him laid. At this point, the movie kind of breaks up into segments of Roger and nicking, hopping to bars, parties, etc. And if Roger can’t get Nick laid, he will have to use the “fail-safe.”
This is a good movie. I’m not a big George C. Scott person, but I thought he was great as Meitrich in “The Impostors” a few years back. He really does some good work here, especially in a “talky” movie, where each character’s dialogue kind of flows over each other, with more interruptions. Roger is an interesting guy, because I think he truly felt something for Joyce, and when she ends it, he seems to just bottle up that sadness and it turns into anger which comes out later.
Elizabeth Berkley and Jennifer Beals appear in the movie as Andrea and Sophie respectively. These are two women that Roger and Nick hook up with in a bar, and become Nick’s first crash course test into talking women into bed. Andrea and Sophie of course find it very sexy that Nick is a virgin and has no sexual experience. What’s even better is Sophie’s questioning of why guys need to look at themselves getting a…well you know…
Joaquin Baca-Asay’s kinetic, handy-cam cinematography in the film is kind of a mixed bag. The film has a mass of really intense, extreme close-ups. At times it seems to get annoying though because the close-ups are so extreme at times you’d just be staring at big black moving shadows, and for what seems to be too long you are just staring at blackness. Other times, I think it works really well especially when characters are just sitting on a table talking. Probably the best shot is that EXTREMELY extreme close-up of Ms. Berkley and her wonderful mouth.
Dylan Kidd, who wrote and directed the film, has some really playful solid dialogue here. I don’t want to say it felt “real”, but it wasn’t how in most films characters say a line and wait for someone else to talk. It had a very deliberate flow and direction to it. This was also Kidd’s debut feature film.
After the movie was over, Dylan Kidd and Elizabeth Berkley came out for a question and answer session on the Paramount theatre’s stage:
The moderator started off by pointing out that this was the first film to be shot totally on location in New York City after 9/11. Pre-production was around July, and the movie was shot in October of last year.
Dylan Kidd was asked about the camera work. Kidd said that since this was a very “talky” film he needed to find a way to get people to look at the film more intently and get on the edge of their seat to look in. He said the camera work was supposed to make it like Roger just doesn’t want to be seen and the camera is almost chasing him at times. The DP, Baca-Asay worked had to get really built for a month because he was running around with a handy-cam so much. Kidd said there was a bungee cord hooked up to the camera to help take some of the weight off Baca-Asay’s shoulders.
Berkley and Kidd talked about the very quick, paced dialogue. Berkley said how nothing in the movie was ad-libbed and it was all written by Kidd that way. Kidd pointed out that they needed two cameras on the characters most of the time so they could better edit it together.
Berkley pointed out that originally in the script the characters of Andrea and Sophie originally had more of a heated rivalry going. Since Berkley and Jennifer Beals were so close like sisters, Dylan Kidd let that relationship carry over to the film. I think that was a good choice, and it worked better that way in the movie.
Later, most of the questions were going to Dylan Kidd, and at one point the moderator told the audience to ask Ms. Berkely a question. Of course, the next question went to Mr. Kidd, and Berkley was so obviously peeved.
After the session was over, it was time to make my move. There was no way I was going to leave the theatre without getting a picture with Elizabeth Berkley. DRAT, some wayward fans are having her autograph their DVD’s of the Paul Verhoeven classic, “Showgirls.” And I’m not fricking kidding that really happened. Well, first I was able to get a snap with Dylan Kidd, and then after that I went for Elizabeth Berkley. Fortunately, she was very nice and posed for a picture with me, and after I thanked her I said, “Something to file away.” See the movie, you will get it.
Good work again, man. Keep it up.
"Moriarty" out.
