February 15, 2007

Friday Talkback + "What Goes Around Comes Around"

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Finally some Fellini, huh?

In the meantime, has anyone seen the despicable video for Justin Timberlake's "What Goes Around ...Comes Around"? Another sweeping epic from "Wake Me Up When September Ends" faux-teur Samuel Bayer complete with opening titles (the credit "written by Nick Cassavetes" might as well read "not written by John Cassavetes," given the pathetic attempts at Papa John's verisimilitude), this 9-minute X-ray of Timberlake's petty little head single-handedly justifies every knee-jerk bit of vitriol I've wanted to spew at him. Here's the premise: claiming to have already met her no-talent assclown quota for the evening (she motions to her "date," Shawn Hatosy), a blonde, noirishly-attired Scarlett Johansson--on whom one-time fan Glenn Kenny recently closed "the iron door" for this betrayal of her gender--spurns Timberlake's advances; proving he is the true inheritor of Vanilla Ice's mantle, Timberlake basically tries the drop-the-zero-and-get-with-the-hero approach, which, though the chronology is difficult to parse, apparently works, as just a few shots later he's making out with her. Scarlett subsequently does what any sensible woman would do after coming in direct contact with Timberlake and submerges herself in the nearest body of water, an act of Karen Silkwood self-preservation that JT immediately annuls by jumping in the pool after her.

Then the blind chimpanzee holding the camera has fun with the incongruity of au courant Timberlake--whose co-opting of black culture is so comprehensive that he's annexed LL Cool J's lip-licking tic--in a Carnival of Venice mise-en-scène and the AVID stutters out that Scarlett and Timberlake have become an item, that Hatosy is actually a close acquaintance of the two, and that Scarlett is a chubby-chaser with eyes for Hatosy. Timberlake is livid when he discovers his best friend and his best girl snogging in a stairwell and tries to beat up both until Scarlett, through the magic of lazy editing, manages to get in her car and drive away. The jealous Mouseketeer pursues her in a high-speed chase that ends with Scarlett spinning out of control into a flaming wreck Bayer oh-so-cleverly match-cuts with some fire-eaters back at the club. As Timberlake surveys the scene and cops a feel of Scarlett's corpse, the song's titular refrain adopts a malicious chuckle--and starts to conspicuously sound, in its passive-aggressive way, like an O.J.-ish warning to JT's on-again/off-again paramour Cameron Diaz. (Again we see that no black icon is sacred to Timberlake.) Indeed, this video confirms he was far too juvenile to be dating a woman ten years his senior in the first place; if nothing else, the hermetic seal of fame only seems to have made him less accountable since he commemorated his Britney Spears break-up with a stalker's lament ("Cry Me a River"), the video for which has him trashing an ex-girlfriend's pad in bullet-time then spying on her as she takes a shower. I've really had enough of this dick in a box.

51 comments:

Rick said...

Norbit making $33M, the spoken and unspoken support of Tim Hardaway's recent comments, and now this. The last few days of unfiltered hate have made me feel completely soul-sick. I am glad Walter beats a dead horse in pointing out the crimes of films like Norbit, because even the people who dislike this garbage flush it and move on. Its a tough choice though, because I doubt anything with change. So either see the way things really are and want to kill yourself, or do not think about it and go about the day.

Anonymous said...

Wow, she dies in the damn thing? That's pretty astonishing, actually. And I must admit, I laughed out loud at "we see that no black icon is sacred to Timberlake."

Carl

Walter_Chaw said...

Again we see that no black icon is sacred to Timberlake

Dittos. I'm ducking and I didn't even say it.

That's fucking brilliant.

Anyone here read Donald Bogle's books on the subject?

Anonymous said...

I really like that song, it's my favorite on the radio right now, because of its vitriol and not in spite of it. I'm not going to watch that video.

--Kim

JG Friend said...

I think ESPN.com's Bill Simmons summed up my take on JT (though I don't listen to his music):

Hey, it's OK to think he's talented, right? Two hit albums AND he's one of the best SNL hosts ever AND he sold at the highest point possible on Britney's stock AND he wrote the best revenge song ever (the "Cry Me A River" song that pretty much murdered Britney's soul) AND he's plowing through every hot female in Hollywood right now. He's a hero, I say.

Bill C said...

Eh, his is not my kind of music and I don't think he's exceptional in any way, but I'll concede that I don't possess the vocabulary to articulate why I feel that way. (And there are far more penetrating "take that, bitch" songs, if we're really going there, like "Crowds" by Bauhaus.) Respecting him because he gets a lot of celebrity tail is more honest, I suppose, but have we learned nothing from the veneration of Scott Baio?

JG Friend said...

Scott Baio was great in "Arrested Development"...

Bill, I just think it's amusing that you think about Justin Timberlake enough to rant about him. :)

Anonymous said...

Hey, if you're presented with shit masquerading as entertainment and inundated with details of his life from the media, I don't see why it is "amusing" to form an opinion -- even a hostile one -- about him. Rather, I would think that's the route usually taken.

JG Friend said...

It's amusing in the sense that with all that Bill has on his plate with the site and in the context of all the serious film discussion on the blog, the Timberlake rant comes out of nowhere.

I don't mean anything negative about that...it was just unexpected and I got a good chortle out of it.

It is possible to be amused in a positive and friendly way.

Anonymous said...

The video is reprehensible, but that is one of the best albums last year.

mimo70 said...

Yes, finally some Fellini. It's about time.

James Allen said...

It doesn't seem all that unusual of Bill to bring it up since videos being discussed has precedent on the site, and an actress of note is in it. (By the way, if her production schedule for 2007 is any indication, Johansson probably took advice from her Prestige co-star, Michael Caine, to take anything and everything offered to her. That she consented to do a freaking music video is pretty good indication of such a theory. What's next, guest judge on American Idol?)

By the way, no review of Ghost Rider? It wasn't screened? (Well, it was on the shelf for about a year, wasn't it? So I guess I shouldn't be shocked.)

Finally, here's a postive view of Norbit from (who else?) Armond White.

JG Friend said...

Thanks for reminding me why I stopped reading the message boards...

I apologize for having been caught off guard by Bill's Tinberlake take. Knowing that he had previously used this forum to praise Madonna etc. I should not have been amused.

I have been corrected and I humbly beg forgiveness.

Alex Jackson said...

Murphy responds to post-Dave Chappelle self-insult comedy with a better, more experienced sense of self-awareness (that is, self respect). Norbit is the meek part of Murphy, yet he wears a perfectly spherical Afro (like the teens in TV’s “What’s Happening”) that is like a halo of blackness—a nostalgic affection for his own youth. And don’t get angry at Norbit’s attempt to off his ogre-wife; its precedents recall Walter Mitty performing the Martha Rayes scenes of Chaplin’s Monsieur Verdoux. Not misogynist, just a funny function of a frustrated id. Rasputia herself is an outsized image of the frustrations that fuel obesity and black female stereotypes that turn into (often comical) rage. Dig the name, Rasputia. It’s a satirical ghetto moniker that brilliantly suggests a blinkered awareness of the non-black world; a joke worthy of Murphy’s terrific animated TV series “The PJs.”


Director Brian Robbins showed his knack for outrageous/sweet humor in Ready to Rumble. A perfect illustration of his buoyant sketch-style is the water amusement park sequence where Rasputia appears in a bikini and mounts a water slide. Robbins builds-up to a finale so amusingly preposterous than no big finish can be big enough. Impossible mission accomplished.


Ha ha! I love Armond White! What a loon! This actually makes me want to see the film.

Bill C said...

Ha, no apologies necessary, S-Jeff. Touche, in fact.

That Norbit review is one for the ages. Sadly, I predicted Armond's rave from the first time I saw the trailer.

jer fairall said...

I don't know what's more disturbing...

a) The words "Written by Nick Cassavettes;"
b) Timberlake mumbling "you got what you deserved" and "you shoulda listened to me, baby" over the footage of Scarlett's car crash;
or
c) that this "Director's Cut" is nevertheless an shorter clip of an upcoming 34 minute (!!!) version

It's pretty much settled, though: Scarlett is, unfortunately, well on her way over the shark (she also has a Tom Waits cover album due out, I hear) and Timberlake is a douche-nozzle.

JG Friend said...

If Murphy hadn’t already perfected doing multi-character turns in his Nutty Professor movies, Norbit would be enough to confirm his status as the most brilliant comic actor in America.

ok, NOW I'm amused.

Bill C said...

For what it's worth, I think this is Scarlett's second video since last summer, the other one being for Bob Dylan's "When the Deal Goes Down." Bennett Miller (Capote) directed it and it's OK, mostly a "Wonder Years"-type home movie in which Scarlett's beauty is preserved in Super8-nostalgic amber; Dylan doesn't appear in it at all.

JG Friend said...

Yes, I'm bored at work today---

I need to get this out there...

I feel much worse about William H Macy being on "The Unit" and in a movie with Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence, AND John Travolta then I do about Scarlett J. being in a video.

I mean, is it that much of a step down from the Michael Bay movie she was in?

Actresses generally have short shelf-lifes. There's always somebody newer and hotter coming along. Maybe she is just cashing in while she has the chance.

Though I agree, it doesn't mean we have to enjoy watching it.

Jefferson Robbins said...

As few forums as there are to actually WATCH them nowadays (pink slips aplenty at MTV Networks this week, and really, shouldn't that tell them something?), music videos once were on their way to being as important and as discussed as cinema. This particular video's associations with the Cassavettes name (dear God) trigger such responses, and its content seems by and large an attempt to do just what it's done: stir up comment on webboards.

I wouldn't try to psychoanalyze Timberlake as a person based on this piece. It's hard to say just how much input he has had on his videos' content --- pop stars are really just the front-companies for their teams of management mafiosi, much like politicians -- but this one is trying hard to claim cinematic credibility, with its "story by" title card and the presence of a major ingenue.

Cassavettes and Timberlake ... may they go far together. Far away. As for Scarlett, I sort of pine for Thora Birch sometimes.

tmhoover said...

In all fairness to Timberlake and Cassavetes (mostly Cassavetes), Alpha Dog is surprisingly well written and extremely well acted by most of the participants- Timby's a little wobbly, but the rest of them do remarkably well. That doesn't make a certain video any better (haven't seen it, can't comment) but I just thought I'd make the statement.

Rick said...

Wasn't Thora Birch in a Limp Bizkit video? Scarlett and Thora know how to pick 'em.

I love how almost every huge Fellini fan I meet loves And the Ship Sails On. It's like they think the man could do no wrong and they accept anything that is completely uninspired. Also see: people who love Lost Highway.

Speaking of things void of meaning, my friend is trying to get me to watch The Tulse Luper Suitcases 1-3. All fucking 3. I have a very high standard for comedy, usually it is Mr Show or nothing. And now I have to sit through style over substance attempting to be witty? Good lord, I wish I wasnt a pushover and I could tell people "no".

Anonymous said...

Eh, I don't feel hardy enough to watch the JT clip right now. It's so hard to work up the ire, lately.

Surfing the Apple trailer site can be oppresive: Daddy's Little Girls, The Valet, Nancy Drew, I Think I Love My Wife, Full of It. They all try so hard to resemble total rubbish.

The question no longer seems to be, "Will this film be sexist trash?" but rather, "Will this film be sexist in a way that's not so predictable as to elicit pure despair, a gun in your mouth?"

James Allen said...

Oh my God, the trailer for I Think I Love My Wife makes it look like a woman-hating piece of shit. "From writer/director Chris Rock" indeed. I guess this is what you get from a (reportedly) almost divorced man who thinks that every pretty girl out there wants to fuck him. This probably originated from a line in his last HBO special wherein he cynically proclaimed that "a man is only as faithful as his options."

It is funny the way he's trying to make himself look like the rom-com version of Will Smith. Kinda. Whatever it is, it ain't working.

James Allen said...

Jeff:

Speaking of trailers, I agree with you about William H. Macy. I saw the trailer for Wild Hogs, and it's the kind of trailer that slowly sucks away your will to live.

Jefferson Robbins said...

... And it's the kind of trailer that other people around you in the theater laugh at heartily. I find that kind of thing helps counterbalance the will-suckage with a dosage of misanthropy, thus keeping me alive and hating.

On another point of interest, Lewis Lapham has an essay in the latest issue of Harper's (unfortunately not online) that engages the Oscar-trolling late 2006 film releases (blood Diamond, Children of Men, Babel et al) as sociopolitical barometers. Lewis is a crusty and fairly predictable lefty (but so am I), but his commentary runs in parallel with a lot of the discussions I see on this site and blog, particularly Walter's reviews. Worth a look if you get near a newsstand.

Anonymous said...

Travis, I noticed you did double duty on Breach, posting a review both at filmfreakcentral and The House Next Door. What's more, you generally praise it here, but pan it there. I read both articles and I can see that you make a consistent point with both, only there its flaws overcome its strengths and here, it transcends those flaws. Perhaps this is all some connected Jungian duality statement? Whatever, more power to you.

P.S. J.T. is such a smug son of a bitch, I want to punch his fucking teeth in. I strongly disagree with whoever said Alpha Dog was solid. I was falling asleep watching it. It was cliches, hammy performances and eventually a murder that made no sense, except as a "statement". Indie Guigenol without being indie.

tmhoover said...

The conundrum the film possessed was not praise/pan but works on one level/suggests better one. So when presented with the opportunity for writing two reviews, I had the luxury of taking both tacks. As a side issue, I also reviewed the film for Exclaim!, making me the only living entity to write three reviews for the thing. If that's any kind of distinction.

Rick said...

For anyone who is interested, or people who liked IFC's Ultimate Film Fanatic Challenge, on ABC all week Who Wants to be a Millionare (10am ET) is having movie trivia shows. Today they had a question about one of Walter's favorites, The Conversation, and all the late show questions were really challenging. I didn't get any wrong (of course), eventhough one was the actor trying Shaq to Chris Penn, and another asking what was the signature on Jack Nicholson's bat in The Shining. I wish I could go on one of those shows dammit. I may have the worst taste on this message board ( I watch Chuck and Buck and The Cable Guy more than I should), but I can kill at movie trivia.

Rick said...

And I found Alpha Dog to be entertaining, but If you want to see people with no concept of consequences ineptly plot to kill someone, I would just rent Bully instead.

Jefferson Robbins said...

Did anyone else viddy Ghost Rider over the weekend? My God, the retardation was eight feet thick up on that screen. Mark Steven Johnson (double offender as both writer and helmsman) proves his love of the fatally stupid voiceover and utterly wastes the talents of both Sam Elliot and Donal Logue. On the plus side, though, Cage does more of that cool, Elvisesque limp-fingered God-on-the-Sistine-Chapel-ceiling pointing thing than he's done at any point in his career since Wild at Heart.

On the minus side, Eva Mendes.

Bill C said...

Apropos: Outlaw Vern on Ghost Rider.

James Allen said...

Good ol' Vern. A few thoughts:

It seems that the trouble some films based on comic books has is being stuck telling the origin story, which is most cases takes up way too much time and is not very interesting. (When I read the comics way back when, I just jumped into whatever issue was on the stands at the time.) This is one reason why Spider Man 2 is better than Spider Man.

Although there are additional problems with Ghost Rider, which Vern describes perfectly:

Treat [the premise] seriously and everybody wins. If you think the premise is too stupid to do with a straight face then for God's sake don't make the fucking movie, you assholes.

The movie didn't have the balls to be truly dark, and for christ sakes am I ever sick of movies incessantly winking at me all the time. But I do agree that it's better than Daredevil, if only because I'd rather watch Nick Cage fart the Star-Spangled Banner than watch Ben Affleck do anything.

As an aside, Vern made a little observation that would go neatly in Ebert's glossary of movie cliches' (if it isn't there already) paraphrased thusly: if you see a character smoking who coughs, he/she has (or will have) cancer.

Anonymous said...

Ian, I enjoyed your "Earl" review I've been a little suprised by this show; though it's lately served only as comfortable filler as I wait for "The Office" A winning cast and some sharp writing aside, I initially thought that it was a one-note premise that couldn't possibly
sustain itself; reminding me a bit of "Ed" a good-natured show which was quickly hamstrung by over-reaching for quirkiness and unearned sentiment. Guess I'm just suprised how "pretty good" the show is, after expecting the Shark Jump around the time Burt Reynolds appeared. I don't watch a lot of TV; but to my mind, it may
be the only network show set in a recognizable (if not realistic) lower-middle class milleu. Still,
the "life lesson" template for every episode has begun to grate on me a bit, along with the whip-pan, smash cut approach to comedy beaten to death by "Family Guy" and "Malcolm in the Middle"--nonetheless, with the exception of "Scrubs" the
Thursday night NBC stuff looks mighty good,

Anonymous said...

At the end of the movie, which was anti-climatic since the whole movie is building up to a custody hearing which is solved by a street fight, the two villians are standing in front of a judge who informs them that they had pounds and pounds of marijuana in their car and pounds of crack in their apartment. Their lawyer replies: "Yes, your honor, but their were no witnesses."

WHAT? That would be like OJ showing up to court drenched in blood, with the murder weapon and the defense saying: "But there were no witnesses." It is a crime to have pounds and pounds of illegal drugs, and the state certainly doesn't need witnesses if you were arrested with those things in your possession. However, this idiotic defense set up the big moment of everyone in the courtroom standing up to say that they were witnesses. It is a pretty terrible movie, and I really tried to keep an open mind.

Bill C said...

That would be like OJ showing up to court drenched in blood, with the murder weapon and the defense saying: "But there were no witnesses."

Isn't that precisely what happened?

Anonymous said...

I thought it was something more like: "There was a racist cop involved, and setting O.J. is a referendum on all the times a black man was falsely tried and convicted." In other words, O.J. used the one and only "Get Out of Jail Free Race Card." Still, the case is even more open and shut in Daddy's Little Girls. The charge of possession with the attent to distribute is automatic with large amounts of substance, so the witnesses are completely unnecessary.

Bill C said...

I must say, I've been strangely fascinated by Tyler Perry since watching his stab at a sitcom, the aptly-named "Tyler Perry's House of Payne". It was like tuning in to a weekly transmission from Mars, especially with actors who seemed to be in their 20s playing the thirtysomething protag's grumpy old parents.

Anonymous said...

I sorta agree with benaiah, except for the "free" part. The only reason that OJ had the get outta jail race card was because he was rich enough to buy it and capitalize on the long-standing resenment felt by various folks on the jury. It's not that race doesn't matter anymore, much less that "reverse racism" is letting blacks kill whites with impunity, or some idiotic nonsense, it's just that you can actually tip the scales with enough money.

Carl

JG Friend said...

I'd be interested in Ian's thought's on whether or not "My Name is Earl" has tanked in Season 2. I greatly enjoyed the 1st season...but find myself flooded in all kinds of narrative gimmicks
this season...it's like they started with one gimmick when the show was created and in it's 2nd year they got away from it and wanted to go through every single plot device that signals a jumping over the proverbial shark.

Anonymous said...

A gem from Vern's new review of Babel:

"I probaly missed something, but when it ended I wondered why exactly I had to sit through all that horrible misery. What have I gained? I'm not sure. Just a guess, but I bet this guy is the gloomiest of the three amigos. I can imagine them sitting somewhere having lunch and Guillermo is all excited about some monster movie he just saw. Alfonso is interested and asks a question about the cinematography. But Alejandro just pouts, poking at his food, staring blankly at the plate. He mutters,'Who gives a shit anyway, it's all bullshit. The world is a cruel bitch and she will stick a mop handle up your ass whether you deserve it or not.' Whatever, Alejandro."

Anonymous said...

Alejandro seems to have cornered the market on the Film-Malaise genre.

I'm thinking now that "The Departed" may well trump "Babel" on Oscar night. Though it's sort of a companion piece to last years winner "Crash" it certainly hasn't enjoyed the profile or the BO that the Haggis stew enjoyed. Guess we'll see.

Anonymous said...

Jeff:

I can see what you mean by narrative gimmicks, but to be honest I need to take a closer look at Season 2. Once again, however, you'll notice that the show seems to have a lot more fun when Earl is being an asshole (such as the entire episode which took place inside an episode of "Cops" during his petty thief stage, or his hilariously appalling explanation of adoption).

Re Ghost Rider:

I love Vern's review, but I have to disagree in the sense that Johnson and Cage do take themselves seriously--thereby offering twice the camp value as that of Hannibal Rising (AKA The Abominable Dr. Lecter). Notice how they revere their brand of Evel Knievel faux-defiance: not just as a counterpart to Old West gunslingers, but as a preferable ideology to its predecessors/successors in generational rebellion. In posing Peter Fonda as Mephisto, it has real disdain for late '60s Easy Rider soul-searching; and then you've got Fonda's on-screen son Wes Bentley as the "real" threat, Blackheart--who is, more or less, a late '90s goth/emo teenager who's angry at the world.

The jokes are there for the simple reason of "it's a comic book movie," but the problem there is that the movie never takes pleasure in the hyper-logic required for that kind of attitude to work. Johnny Blaze is a trick motorcyclist, after all--a profession that seeks to titillate you in its over-the-top behavior, rather than make you laugh; the actual attempts at humor in Ghost Rider seem more orchestrated as a form of "relief" from the action/exposition scenes. Which, considering the film's generally desperate, sedate nature, makes no sense.

Bill C said...

I love the opening line of Vern's Babel review:

"It turns out we're all connected.

The end."

Ayup.

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