Two Cats Clawing Their Way in 'Inside Llewyn Davis'

Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) and Jim Berkey (Justin Timberlake) make some beautiful music together in "Inside Llewyn Davis." Photo by Alison Rosa / Long Strange Trip LLC.

“I feel like I need a bath,” spat one scribe lucky enough to get a seat in super-packed Walter Reade Theater during the press screening of “Inside Llewyn Davis” ahead of its North American premiere at the 51st New York Film Festival (NYFF) in September.

“This guy just sits around on other people’s couches playing his guitar; he never washes,” scribe fairly sneered.

Fresh off of a “Best Feature” win Monday night at the 23rd Gotham Independent Film Awards (http://www.bit.ly/1967BTw), “Inside Llewyn Davis” chronicles a week in the life of the singer-songwriter (Oscar Isaac) of the title and a stray cat on New York’s folk music scene in 1961 – BD (Before Dylan. It opens in limited released today in New York and Los Angeles. (See trailer below).

The latest effort from writers, directors, co-producers Ethan and Joel Coen romanticizes this particular grittyistic New York of a bygone era. The acting is first-rate and Bruno Delbonnel’s cinematography is celestial.

During the post-NYFF “Inside Llewyn Davis” screening, it was clear that the Coens’ enjoyed the experience of birthing the film. "We wanted to do something set in the scene before Dylan showed up specifically …, " said JC, the mouthpiece of the duo. "There were people writing songs and singing them before Bob Dylan … " (Benjamin Pike appears as a young Bob Dylan, before he owned the milieu, as it were).

The siblings re-uped with T Bone Burnett, ensuring the authenticity of the sound. Also starring is another frequent collaborator, John Goodman, along with Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake and F. Murray Abraham.

A second scribe who also scored a seat before they were gone gave “Inside Llewyn Davis” a thumb’s up. “Good. I liked it,” was his pithy assessment.

Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Oscar Isaacs and John Goodman face the media after the "51st New York Film Festival" press screening of "Inside LLewyn Davis." Photo by Brian Brooks / New York Film Festival.

Generally, critics and preview audiences concur with Scribe No. 2. It is unclear whether “Inside Llewyn Davis” left them feeling dirty.

“Inside Llewyn Davis” is rated R for language including some sexual references; visit http://www.insidellewyndavis.com/home to learn more about the film.

Career, Family Matters in 'Trouble With the Curve'

ON the surface, “Trouble With the Curve” may look like a baseball movie. After all, it is about a scout and many scenes are shot in ballparks across the United States.

“Trouble With the Curve” is actually a buddy film, though an atypical one. In this variation on that theme the pals are father and daughter, Gus and Mickey Lobel, played by the unlikely duo of Clint Eastwood and Amy Adams. The film opens nationwide today.

Gus is a widower and scout trying to hold it down in a young man’s game. Mickey, is an abandoned child transformed into a high-powered career woman with way too much to prove. Of course, they have issues and will work through some of them on the roadtrips they make with an eye toward saving Gus’ career. (See trailer above.)

Opening today in wider release is “The Master” (http://www.bit.ly/R0yhx7)… More shortly.

A Rather Striking Example of a 'Bad Teacher'

Elizabeth (Cameron Diaz) and Amy (Lucy Punch) have a showdown in the principal's office in "Bad Teacher." Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment.

HELL hath no fury like a gold-digger shorn of her pick:

1. She’ll make a mockery of teaching i.e., drinking alcohol in class; sleeping in class, smoking dope on school grounds;
2. Dress provocatively to attract dirty men … er … cars to a 7th-grade car wash;
3. Skim a portion of the car wash profits;
4. Seduce, then blackmail a state education official;
5. Steal a standardized test;
6. Give a disturbing, new meaning to corporal punishment;
7. Show indifference toward and contempt for anyone who has no money and no use for her, and on and on and on.

In general, middle-school teacher Elizabeth Halsey really just doesn’t give an F. Yet, she is the protagonist in “Bad Teacher,” the comedy starring the delightfully way-over-the-top Cameron Diaz as the title character. It opens nationwide today.

“Bad Teacher,” directed by Jake Kasdan (“Freaks and Geeks”), is a perfect movie for the season. It is summertime and the living is easy. Light, funny, low-browesque fare with only one bit of toilet humor is the order of the day. This is a film that will attract a wide demographic; certain males – adolescents to near-death – will particularly enjoy it for no other reason than to feast their eyes on the delectable confection that is Senorita Diaz.


Elizabeth (Cameron Diaz) uses her considerable assets to drum up business for a car wash in "Bad Teacher."

Her Elizabeth looks like no middle-school teacher anyone has seen outside of a Hollywood film. Besides denim shorts that make Daisy Duke look matronly, her wardrobe includes form-fitting dresses and sweaters, pencil skirts, skinny jeans and omnipresent five-inch Christian Louboutins. Complementing these ensems are long, wavy blond hair, eyes that are the deepest ocean blue, a perfect tan and cherry-red pouty lips.

Elizabeth is a vision, and interestingly enough she looks classy rather than trashy (excepting the car wash get-up). Expensive, not cheap, as if she stepped off the cover of Vogue or ELLE – just the sort of woman many males covet. Lacking an A-list movie career or a seven-figure income, they can do the next best thing: plop down $10 or $12 and ogle her from the comfort of their seat in a darkened movie theater.

Comedy suits CD as well as that black, cap-sleeved linen dress with a flounced bodice in which Elizabeth is turned out in one scene. She earned her comedy chops in “There’s Something About Mary” and solidified them in “What Happens in Vegas” and the mini-franchise, “Charlie’s Angels.” How refreshing, a goodlooking actress who is not reluctant to laugh at herself and flirt with the limits; she’s a 21st-century Lucille Ball.

Elizabeth (Cameron Diaz) becomes no-nonsense when she learns that teaching can actually serve her interests in "Bad Teacher."

Speaking of ball, CD always seems to be having one in her comedies, her infectious energy bringing along the audience, too. To her credit, as well, CD is the type of showstopper that most women are not threatened by largely because she is unaware of and/or unaffected by her looks. She has a girl-next-door quality, too; one wants to be her friend. Other women could have a beer with her; they wouldn’t feel insecure about leaving CD alone with their boyfriend for two minutes.

In “Bad Teacher,” Elizabeth rates herself an 8 to 81/2. Ordinary mortals might give her 91/2 or even a 10. But in Elizabeth’s world – where the longer the legs, the slimmer the hips, the longer and possibly blonder the hair, the bigger the breasts – there is always some 22-year-old piece with a D-cup ready to take your 35-year-old B-cup place.

Elizabeth thought she’d struck gold until the mine owner’s mother cast her out. Alas, she has to start anew, and has decided that D-cups are the answer to all of her questions. But how to afford them? Beg, borrow, embezzle and steal, of course! This quest drives much of the comedy in “Bad Teacher.”

CD, who excels with at best average material in “Bad Teacher,” is surrounded by a winning supporting cast, including Lucy Punch who almost steals the film as her arch-rival for the affections of a fellow teacher; Phyllis Smith (“The Office”) is a colleague who idolizes Elizabeth, while Jason Segel is the gym teacher who dogs her for a date and calls her on her copious crap.

Elizabeth (Cameron Diaz), Russell (Jason Segel) and Scott (Justin Timberlake) have a moment during recess in "Bad Teacher."

Former real-life beau, Justin Timberlake, is the colleague/heir on whom Elizabeth has set her sights. The two have a romantic scene that is both a little discomfiting and tongue-in-cheek.

It is unlikely that “Bad Teacher” will be nominated for any Oscars (a best actress nod for CD? Not impossible). By the same token, it is doubtful that it will dominate at the Razzies. It is indeed perfect for the times.

After 92 minutes of "Bad Teacher," moviegoers should leave their seats feeling just a little better than when they arrived – not at all a bad thing.

“Bad Teacher” is rated R for sexual content, nudity, language, and some drug use.

Genesis of 'The Social Network' Like No Other

Jesse Eisenberg as an exasperated Mark Zuckerberg, above, in a deposition scene from "The Social Network," about the making of the 500 million-friend strong Facebook, below.

FOR a few weeks before I saw the film last week, I’d been seeing an ad on the side of buses that read “PUNK GENIUS BILLIONAIRE” wholly ignorant that it was an ad for “The Social Network” about the birth of Facebook. The film opens nationwide today.

In fall 2003 when Mark Zuckerberg&Co. were busy at Harvard creating (or not) the algorithms and other innards for the platform that would transform the way half a billion people interact, I was holding it down in Paris (France), helping a friend plan a wedding, amongst other things.

It wasn’t until sometime in 2006 after I’d moved to New York that I first heard of Facebook. I didn’t get it. “The Social Network” scriptwriter Aaron Sorkin (“The West Wing”) who has a cameo in the film and who appeared on “The View” on Wednesday to promote the film – which he did unabashedly – articulated my sentiments. “I know about Facebook the way I know a car has a carburetor,” he responded when asked whether he was on it or knew about. “But if I opened the hood I couldn’t find it.” AS is not on Facebook and has no plans to join, he declared.

Someone attempted to explain this phenomenon to me in 2006, “Well, if people want to know what you’re doing, they can just go to your page and see everything, so you don’t have to send out a global.”

Believing in the power and reach of Yahoo! e-mail, I remarked, “I don’t mind sending out a global.”

It was not until last year that I joined Facebook – after the birth of VEVLYN’S PEN. I reasoned, “Now I can try to make it useful for myself because I have something to say that is not personal and perhaps can benefit VEVLYN’S PEN” – and by extension, Yours Truly. Though I’ve joined and still don’t quite get it, I don’t use Facebook as much as I should. As recently as a month or so ago, I sent out a blast, complaining that I did not find Facebook user-friendly amongst other grievances. I ended in utter frustration with, “Where’s my wall?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Watching “The Social Network” at its star-studded gala premiere and opening of the 48th New York Film Festival, it was fascinating to imagine how Facebook might have come about. AS wrote the script from Ben Mezrich’s “The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal.” The title of the 2009 best-seller fairly sums up what the book and the film it informs are about. Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin was a consultant on BM’s book. He and co-founder MZ had a falling out, so MZ’s account of how Facebook came into being may be somewhat different. The latter refused to cooperate on the book or the film.

So whose to know what’s true or what’s not true. Did Mark really steal the idea of Facebook from the Winklevoss twins&friend? Did Mark really, under the bad/good influence of Sean Parker, really squeeze Eduardo out of the company and his shares? Did SP aka Napster after a multiple apple-martini dinner with the co-founders, or on another occasion, really assert, “One suggestion: Get rid of the ‘the’. Just ‘Facebook’. Flows better.”

I haven’t followed the story like, say, my Chase banker. She was at university when Facebook was coming together and has some insights into such questions and is very interested in seeing the film. I did not allow her, however, to coerce a review out of me before I was ready to share.

Mark Zuckerberg – the 35th richest person on the latest Forbes list with a net worth of $6.9 billion and reportedly the youngest, richest in the world – does not come across in the best light in “The Social Network.” But at the same time, I don’t think he looks so terribly evil either. Maybe a little cantankerous for one so young, but one must keep in mind that this young man is a social misfit. This social awkwardness is part of what breathed life into Facebook.

Because of the Internet we have platforms such as Facebook, which has revolutionized the way we relate to each other. To think that one can live in New York and be in touch with one who lives in Timbuktu if s/he has an Internet connection. It’s beyond – even though it’s real, it’s surreal – comprehension. It’s a bunch to wrap the brain around.

Overall, I like the film. The first third, though, is a little plodding, even as we see Mark having that famous fight with his girlfriend (Rooney Mara) that gives life to the precursor to Facebook. I was fidgeting here and during other scenes, a sign that I am bored. It’s a little dull, but I was interested in learning about the story so that kept me rooted in my seat.

The scenes at the computer when the magic is happening are engaging enough but are annoying, owing to a personal beef. I don’t believe anybody types that fast, especially when numbers are involved. Of course, the movies are edited thusly for dramatic purposes. But still. Why can’t programmers be depicted making typos – even if a very few? I think there is drama inherent in that, too. A minor quibble.

There are also early scenes in the film of the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll variety that are a little superfluous, but the crux of the film revolves around the separate lawsuits filed against Mark (Jesse Eisenberg) by both Eduardo (new Spiderman Andrew Garfield) and the Winklevoss’ (Armie Hammer/Josh Pence). The action is set in a law office where depositions are taking place. As complainants give their accounts of basically how Mark screwed them over, the scene goes back in time to depict the events of their testimony before toggling back to the deposition chamber.

It is fascinating. AS’s writing is sharp, crisp, real, human. Fans of “The West Wing” will recognize his voice. The players, especially in the deposition scenes, deliver the lines with verve. All principals put in strong, credible performances. They become the people they are depicting. JE is Mark, especially after seeing the latter on Oprah the day after the story was leaked about his $100 million-gift to the Newark, NJ school system. The resemblance is uncanny. The scuttlebutt is that Justin Timberlake as Napster steals the film. Whenever he is in a scene … I’ll just say that JT makes the most of his time on screen. And delivers delicious lines such as the one about “the” in the title and when he asks Mark and Eduardo whether they want to make millions or billions, rendering them wide-eyed, open-mouthed and mute.

“The Social Network” is a film to see because Facebook is a huge part of world culture. The story is unfolding in real time. It is not yet at an end. Its full impact is still an unknown. It’s exciting and, scary.

Visit www.filmlinc.com to learn more about the 48th New York Film Festival.