Colors
Another one for the “I added it to my Netflix queue years ago and have no memory of why” file, I sat down to Colors expecting to have to endure it. For one thing, Sean Penn is not my jam, as an actor; I can set aside my distaste for his Tootight Angrylecturepants approach to world affairs to focus on the acting, but it’s seldom worth my while. The occasional exception doesn’t disprove the rule, and the roles considered his signatures don’t do it for me. Spicoli: over-imitated, unfunny, and doesn’t match up with the tone of the rest of the movie. Jimmy Markum: too showy, too screamy, and while the performance is neither the worst on display in Shitstick River (that’s Robbins) nor entirely Penn’s fault (that’s the writing, shoving around and/or boxing in some serious talent), it doesn’t change the similarity between the acting choices Penn makes here and those in I Am Sam.
Again, I’ve seen him in things where I’ve liked him; I would have given Richard Jenkins Penn’s Oscar for Milk, but with that said, I didn’t have a problem with it. It’s just such an effort to shovel away the other garbage that surrounds Penn — garbage that, frequently, he seems to pile around his own line readings in order to make himself feel better about not having gotten a poli-sci masters or something — that I tend to avoid his films. It’s too much work.
The other issue is the film’s genre. Colors is one of Los Angeles’s filmic meditations about its own problems as a city, and some critics find that kind of movie per se annoying — that the racial conflicts and the company-town divide between Hollywood and Hollycan’t get Moebiused together, lit, and carefully arranged around a navel.
No doubt books exist on The L.A. Movie (feel free to recommend one in the comments), and having spent something like 34 days total in L.A., I can’t speak so much to the particulars, but as a critic who tries to examine the narrative, I think dismissing the sub-type is unfair. When it’s done well, it’s done well (L.A. Confidential), not in spite of its classification but because it’s…you know, done well. When it’s not (Crash), it’s not because it doesn’t speak to the Nongelenos but because it spoke verrrry slowly and loudly and used verrrry small words and also acted them out as though nobody on the east coast can understand a class divide.
As well, Colors is 20 years old, and the prospect of that era’s attempts to explain gang violence to an audience that, today, is quite well acquainted with it both in real life and on film…I had visions of the West Beverly/Shaw school-dance episode, but with more cursing.
What a pleasant surprise, then, that it’s more or less well paced, subtly acted, and interesting. The plot is nothing you haven’t seen before — a veteran cop (Robert Duvall) tries to season his hotheaded new partner (Penn), each learns from the other, trust issues between civilians and LAPD, and so on — but despite playing a character that should activate Penn’s least attractive bellowy qualities, Penn is convincing and nuanced. Several scenes go on too long, like the fight in the restaurant kitchen, which is kind of hilarious and very realistic but acted like shackles on the pacing, and several dreadful sequences intend for T-Bone (Damon Wayans) to serve as tragicomic relief, but Wayans is doing too much for too long. Maria Conchita Alonso is, as always, pretty but two-note, and Don Cheadle is effective in his role, but could have done more good in one with more screentime.
But it’s successful when it isn’t trying to do too much. The “directed by Dennis Hopper” credit had me bracing for an indulgent travelogue with too much slo-mo, but it’s restrained, for the most part, and the transitional scenes, the ones that don’t try to tell us much of anything, tell us the most. The film is likely of limited interest at this point, except to completists, but worth a look if it turns up on AMC.
Tags: Beverly Hills 90210 Damon Wayans dear '80s we get it love Sarah Dennis Hopper Don Cheadle Harvey Milk Maria Conchita Alonzzzzo Richard Jenkins Robert Duvall Sean Penn The Oscars
There’s no arguing about taste on this kind of thing — if you don’t like someone, you don’t — but I would think that after the performances he’s given in Taps, Bad Boys, The Falcon and the Snowman, Colors, Casualties of War (especially), Sweet and Lowdown, and Milk, Penn is entitled to be considered a “good actor,” with the occasional (or in some periods, frequent) bad choice or self-indulgence as the “exception” rather than the “rule.” But that’s my own bias, I guess. And I suppose I’ve missed some stinkers.
I disliked Penn’s performance in Casualties Of War — although it’s of a piece with my dislike for his work in Mystic River, namely that he did the best he could with what he was given — but that’s my point: the “rule” is not that Penn is bad. The rule is that I don’t care for him.
The idea that he’s “entitled” to my positive opinion doesn’t do much to bend said rule, either. I’m sympathetic as far as his tendency to pick projects that put him in the position of having to go really big in order to register against crappy writing, but three decades in the business should perhaps have wised him up on that tip by now, and compassion for his having to screech “IS THAT MY DAUGHTEH IN THEHHHH” does not translate to enjoying the final product.
Not to mention that, sometimes, everyone else onscreen is making him look good by comparison. I liked him in Taps, but compared to Tom Cruise (soaking-shorts terrified) and George C. Scott (flossing with the scenery)? It’s…not that hard to look like Olivier in the middle of that.
I also have to be convinced to see a Penn flick. He has this ferret-y quality that leaves me behind. I just looked at his imdb page to check to see if there is anything on his list I remember liking him in (which is not to say he’s likeable; I don’t think that’s his schtick, ever) and I came up with Colors and State of Grace. Everything else, I’m either solidly ‘meh’ or full on haaaate.
I like him offscreen, though. He could do talk shows and documentaries all day long and I’d be quite pleased.
But I will never, never, ever, never forgive myself for paying good money to see I Am Sam. I still get mad at myelf when I think of that. (Dakota Fanning put her young self in serious deficit in my book that she’s yet to earn out of. My grudges, they are long held.)
Aw, give her a break, attica, she was like 7.
I actually saw this movie in the theater in high school. I have a really hard time with realistic violence and in my opinion Duvall’s scene at the end of the movie (not to get too spoilery) was pitch perfect. I am also a crier at movies and I cried so hard at the end (keep in mind I was like 17 at the time) that when we left the theater several people asked what movie we saw so that they could be spared trauma. :)
I really liked it then and I might give it a spin if it’s on TV again.
Of course take that for what it’s worth, I’m sitting here right now watching Xanadu on HBO. The roller skating! The zoot suits! Olivia’s fried hair! The humiliation of Gene Kelly! I’m surprised I don’t own this on DVD.
I haven’t seen the movie “Mystic River” but I read the book. Given that I loathe Tim Robbins for completely personal reasons, your view of his performance in the movie interested me – what was so bad about it? (Please, please do tell me. I hate him. LOL).
Also, I LOVE that nickname for Sean Penn – Tootight Angrylecturepants is my new name for him.
@Elsajeni: Maybe I will when she’s 47 and out-Streeped her peers. Maayyybe. ;)
@RJ: Generally, I like Tim Robbins (…onscreen; it’s my understanding that IRL he’s a tremendouche), but I found that performance amateurish and lazy. It relied on trite physicality — shuffling, twitching — to get over, and did nothing new or interesting. The whole movie is like that: grand gestures signifying nothing but self-importance.
In his defense, I don’t think Robbins had many more options than Penn did. All the actors seem to have gotten by-numbers, The Actor Is But A Foosball-Table Man direction, and I liked the other Lehane adaptation I saw (Gone Baby Gone), so perhaps the issue is the director, Eastwood’s tendency to want to work in archetypes instead of specifics (Million Dollar Baby, which I liked, is practically a myth in the way it’s told)…I don’t know. Sometimes what looks like bad acting is actually bad writing that can’t be brought to heel (see: Linney in the same movie, doing a star turn as a character whose outline changes every ten minutes).
But that THAT is Robbins’s Oscar is just bizarre. Even he looked kind of embarrassed at the podium.
For my money, Penn’s *was* the worst performance in Me! Me!ME!stic River (sorry, Chief). I don’t use the word “clusterfuck”, normally, but, by God, I can’t think of another that fits that movie better. Absolutely everyone did something awful in that piece of dreck (WTF, Laura Linney?). As for I Am Sam, between the insulting writing and Penn’s mannered and, frankly, silly performance, I had no ire to spare for Miss Fanning. I’m with you, attica: I haven’t forgiven myself for spending good money to see that thing, and I only rented it. Could not get it out of the house fast enough. The chances of my renting Colors at this point are … not good.
@RJ: “Also, I LOVE that nickname for Sean Penn – Tootight Angrylecturepants is my new name for him.”
Oh, totally. From now on.
So, I’ll admit to having watched the Matt Damon episode of Inside the Actor’s Studio. This all reminds me of a point he made during the Q&A at the end. He said (paraphrasing here) that there’s a type of acting that gets rewarded which was followed by Damon’s imitation of an over-actor crying. Then, “Who fucking does that?”
I could swear he was talking directly to Sean Penn there.
I should probably put I Am Sam in my Netflix queue and watch it again, just to see if my years-old memories are accurate. I recall thinking the script was a transparently emotionally manipulative pile of garbage which left no room for subtlety. Hence, I figure Dakota Fanning did about as well as a helpless little girl can do when thrust into a shitstorm of glurge, and I recall thinking Michelle Pfeiffer did the best she could with a barely-coherent character in an epically unsubtle script. However, I also recall Penn’s acting as the only honest thing in the movie; I just loved how he dove into that anti-nuanced pile of glurge headfirst with both hands tied behind his back.
Am I alone in feeling that way? Am I remembering that shitstorm correctly? Was Penn really that heroically undignified tour de force I recall, or was it just a dazzling show of Oscar-whoring? (Notice I said Netflix queue; I’m certainly not going to put actual money towards seeing it again.)
Having read Lehane’s book, my feeling on “Mystic River” is that Robbins was mostly at fault for playing his character as broadly (almost hilariously so) as he did; that certain shortcuts in the script, while necessary, cut Marcia Gay Harden’s legs out from under her; and further shortcuts in the script (while probably even more necessary) really should have led to Linney’s character being almost completely eliminated. That Lady MacBeth turn at the end makes a lot of sense in the book and is quite effective, but it needs to be set up with a whole lot of narrative tangents that a movie simply doesn’t have time for.
Considering the complete lack of challenging choices in Matt Damon’s career (compare and contrast Mark Wahlberg–who’d a thunk the underwear model would be an artist?), he’s got no room imitating anyone else working today, including animal actors.
LA Confidential has nothing to do with real Los Angeles. To Live and Die in LA, Training Day–those are LA movies.
compare and contrast Mark Wahlberg–who’d a thunk the underwear model would be an artist?
Seriously? Leaving aside the slam on Matt Damon, which I don’t agree with either, I wouldn’t call variations on the same Southie-goes-straight theme over and over “artistry.” I actually don’t mind Wahlberg, but: The Happening. There was a lot wrong with that shit that had nothing to do with him, but boyfriend’s limitations weren’t helping.
Sean Penn . . . hate. Just . . . no. I cannot even be convinced to see a movie he’s in. Part of it (most of it) is the feeling that he is a Great Actor. I disagree wholeheartedly, and I feel as though he feels he is one, and deserves respect as such. That sort of attitude irks me to no end, especially when he’s made so many clinkers.
I do agree with Sars, though, that a lot of what we see as bad acting is really bad writing that the actors can’t get out of. However, yeah, after a certain amount of time, you would think they’d learn “good script; script that got greenlighted because someone’s desperate”.
Meh. Thinking about it leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
@Alyson: you’re right on about I am Sam- the film is total dreck. Personally, I’m a total homer for Penn, but in his less than over-the-top roles. I thought I am Sam was pretty fucking sad, and his Oscar nomination for that role was one of the biggest travesties in the history of the academy. His whole performance is so textbook, it might as well have been an acting exercise for a freshman theater class.
I still think the man’s best work was in 21 Grams, which actually had a real sense of gravitas that he contributed to, as opposed to trying to rise above; one of the weaknesses that he has as an actor in my opinion is trying to make everything into a ‘huge’ moment on screen. I was ambivalent towards Milk for that very reason.
If you really want to see a truly terrible performance by Penn, and I mean what I consider the standard for his terrible performances, try out All the King’s Men, one of the worst movies with one of the best casts that I’ve every sat through.
I love Dennis Lehane’s books as much I as love chocolate-bourbon-pecan pie, but they — obviously — don’t translate well to movies.
I couldn’t watch more than half an hour of Mystic River, and when I heard Casey Fucking Affleck* was going to be portraying Patrick Kenzie, I knew that I would just have to pretend that movie doesn’t exist.
In my opinion, the Kenzie/Gennaro series has to be taken whole; you can’t just pull Gone, Baby, Gone out of the pack. The ending in the book isn’t as resonant, I guess, if you don’t know the whole story of Patrick and Angie’s relationship.
(*he’s about 10 years too young and about 40 life experiences short)
Even if I could have taken anything Sean Penn does seriously, it all went away after his response to Chris Rock’s joke about Jude Law at the Oscars. Whether or not you thought Chris Rock was funny, jeez dude, take the stick out of your ass.
@shan: I’d forgotten about that. He’s such a pill, truly.
This is what I think is awesome about Matt Damon, actually. Hard worker, doesn’t take himself too seriously.
I have to say I think categorizing Damon’s career as completely lacking challenging choices overstates the case considerably.
I think Penn confuses his own willingness to appear deficient in dignity onscreen with emotional or intellectual honesty.
“Considering the complete lack of challenging choices in Matt Damon’s career…”
… to counter which, I offer The Talented Mr. Ripley. There are others, but that nuanced, quietly heartbreaking performance (in a severely underrated movie, perhaps my favorite of the last decade) will do for Exhibit A.
In fact, after The Informant! recently, I recall thinking that Damon has quietly, almost without people noticing over the years, been building up a good list of impressive screen performances in highly diversified projects without ever indulging the spill-your-guts-onscreen school of “notice me!” award-baiting.*
(*Yes, I admit that Penn has done this. I am not, in fact, a devoted fan or anything like that. But I do feel that he’s done some work of a quality impossible to discount. Not everyone does, obviously)
“to counter which, I offer The Talented Mr. Ripley”
Word. He’s fantastic in that. And he has a few bits in Ocean’s 12 that kept it from dying on the vine.
I don’t think he gets enough credit for the Bourne movies, either — the first one, mostly. He gives the character dimensions immediately, when the character doesn’t even know his own dimensions his own self. Pretty neat trick, and not showily pulled off.
Everyone, and @Lisa particularly: Ok, you guys are freaking me out. Not only did I just finish reading Mystic River (stumbled across it at the library and thought I’d see whether it was better than the movie, which it was), but I also just ate the last piece of the Kentucky Bourbon Pecan Fudge Pie I made for Thanksgiving. If I were more paranoid, I would think the entirety of the Tomato Nation was stalking me.
As for Sean Penn, he’s quite the ham most of the time. I did grant him some redemption for Milk.
@Rinaldo and Sars
” ‘to counter which, I offer The Talented Mr. Ripley’ ”
Word. He’s fantastic in that. And he has a few bits in Ocean’s 12 that kept it from dying on the vine.
I don’t think he gets enough credit for the Bourne movies, either…”
Yes, yes, yes – to all of the above. I’d add The Good Shepherd, too; at least parts of it. I’m looking forward to The Informant! very much.
Milk is the Penn-exception for me as well, Sue. It’s a less glaring (in every sense), more generous performance, in many ways, but also much more restrained than I’ve seen from him in a while.
Oh, Crybaby Sean. He lost me with Dead Man Walking, and that terrifying perm in Carlito’s Way. Like most of you, he strikes me as such a humorless pr*ck, and all his movies are heavyhanded ‘Films’ with a capital effing F. Too much work. I was reassured that he didn’t cry in Milk, and that he was great in it, but my bias was too strong to overcome.
And all I can say is, for the record, thank the Boston gods for Mark Wahlberg and Matt Damon. Now I have to go rewatch the Departed.
If you want to see two people who really like themselves a lot, check out the Iconoclasts episode where Sean Penn and Jon Krackaur pay tribute to Christopher McCandless. By the time they are at the school bus site in Alaska spilling some white russian for their dead homey, I thought I might throw up. But I could not look away.
Damon played a composite of preps in Ripley Jude Law would have better casting. . And Boogie Nights is hardly
“Southie-goes-straight theme .” But whatever.
Very late to the commenting party on this, but just wanted to say I’m so glad I’m not the only person who hated “Mystic River.” It was a movie that might have worked 10 years before procedurals became so common on TV and the Lady Macbeth shit at the end was like, “Whoah! Where did THAT come from?”
I’m sure the book is probably outstanding, but the movie was just clunky and horrible and boring to boot for me. We saw it at an advanced screening in Austin before the movie had been released and we ducked out after the movie, but before the screenwriter hit the stage to do a Q&A. Needless to say, I was horrified that entire awards season. It’s on my Most Overrated Movies Ever list.