Tag: Luke Wilson (Page 1 of 2)

A press conference chat with Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek of “Get Low”

August 27, 2010 / Bob Westal

In case you haven’t been paying attention to limited release movies aimed at an older audience, “Get Low” is one of the year’s real success stories. My pretty negative review, notwithstanding, I’m surprised but not upset that the movie is doing as well as it is, both commercially and critically. These days, it’s nice to see a movie with a coherent story, at least, doing well. As for its star, Robert Duvall, being an apparent lock for an Oscar nomination, I can hardly complain. This may not be even close to being his best performance, but it’s a very good one and he’s a national treasure at this point. That’s how these things work sometimes.

“Get Low” stars Duvall as Felix Bush, an irascible and sometimes frightening hermit who contracts with the mildly rapacious local mortician (Bill Murray) to stage his funeral while he’s still alive. Though Bush says the funeral is to hear what people think of him while he’s still alive, it’s clear something in his past is disturbing him. Mattie Darrow (Sissy Spacek) is a former girlfriend who may hold the key to some of that.

Arriving right on time for the press conference, I saw that things weren’t quite ready and decided to grab a quick (and free) beverage. Looking over the soft drink selection in the hospitality area, however, I turned around and saw a serenely patient Sissy Spacek beaming at me and, before long, talking to me as if I were an actual human being while looking so good I was slightly stunned. As her assistant smoothly parried my lame request to turn on my digital recorder for a brief impromptu interview, she asked that I inform the public that she, at least, had showed up on time for the event. I was too charmed to do anything else but comply with the wishes of the luminous star of “Carrie” and “In the Bedroom.”

Mr. Duvall, it turned out, was only a couple of minutes late and the event started before I could make a proper drink selection. It was immediately apparent that Spacek and Duvall get along quite well and enjoyed joshing each other in front of reporters. (They last appeared together in 2008’s “Four Christmases.”)

Actors, Actresses, Celebrities, External Entertainment, External Movies, Movie Dramas, Movies

Aaron Schneider Allison Janney Bill Murray Billy Bob Thornton Boo Radley Bryce Dallas Howard C. Gaby Mitchell Carrie Chris Provenzano Emma Stone Felix Bush Four Christmases Get Low Gods and Generals Harper Lee Headlines Horton Foote In the Bedroom Lonesome Dove Lucas Black Luke Wilson Mattie Darrow Network Robert Duvall Robert Duvall interview Robert E. Lee Seven Days in Utopia Sissy Spacek Sissy Spacek interview Tender Mercies The Help To Kill a Mockingbird Tommy Lee Jones

A roundtable chat with Kevin Pollak of “Middle Men”

August 17, 2010 / Bob Westal

A highly entertaining character actor, stand-up comic, and now also a screenwriter and Internet talk show host, Kevin Pollak will nevertheless remain forever in the shadow of three men. One is wise-guy crook Todd Hockney from Christopher McQuarrie and Bryan Singer’s slambam 1995 debut, “The Usual Suspects” (currently at #24 of all-time most popular films on IMDb); the other two are, of course, William Shatner and Christopher Walken. So powerful are the Pollak impressions of these two men, I’d venture that when most of us attempt to impersonate either actor, we’re really not doing Shatner or Walken, we’re doing Pollak doing Shatner or Walken. (Though, personally, my extremely bad Christoper Walken is really a very bad impression of Kevin Spacey‘s Walken but, for all I know, Spacey got his from Pollak while shooting “Suspects.”). Indeed, I can remember a time when it seemed like nobody did Shatner and I’m pretty sure it was Pollak who kind of opened to door for all the other impressionists into the voice and mannerisms of the man Pollak calls “the Shat.”

Among the nearly 90 or more productions he’s been involved with as an actor, Kevin Pollak’s latest release is “Middle Men,” a black comedy-laced drama owing more than a little bit to Martin Scorsese. The film stars Luke Wilson as straight-arrow businessman Jack Harris who falls in with a pair of highly inventive cokeheads (Gabriel Macht and Giovanni Ribisi) and would be Internet porn kings during the late 1990s. The pair have developed the first really viable method for collecting money over the ‘net in a reasonable amount of time. Of course, things get massively complicated from there and Pollak turns up later in the film as an FBI agent who comes to Harris and his porn star girlfriend (Laura Ramsay) with a startling new reality. The film, co-written and directed by George Gallo, best known as the screenwriter of “Midnight Run,” is actually just part of an ongoing collaboration between the director and the actor-comic and now screenwriter.

As is often the case, I was one of a number of scribblers who were participating in a roundtable with Pollak during the “Middle Men” press day at L.A.’s Four Season’s hotel. Pollak arrived in a friendly but highly subdued mood. He was a late addition to the press day and obviously has been keeping very busy. Among many other projects, he had a new stand-up special ready premiering, and an increasingly popular podcast, Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show, with recent guests including Neal Patrick Harris and John Slattery of “Mad Men.” Pollak frankly seemed a little tired at first, though going out of his way to be funny — because that’s what you expect from Pollak. Things perked up as it went.

Actors, Actresses, Celebrities, External Entertainment, External Movies, External TV, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, New Media, News, TV, TV Comedies

A Few Good Men Amy Smart Beau Bridges Bryan Singer Christopher Mallick Christopher McQuarrie Christopher Walken Columbus Circle Gabriel Macht George Gallo Giovanni Ribisi Headlines Jason Antoon Jason Lee Jason Shuman Jason Statham John Slattery Kevin Pollak Kevin Pollak interview Kevin Pollak's Chat Show Kevin Spacey Laura Ramsay Luke Wilson Mad Men Midnight Run Neal Patrick Harris Quentin Tarantino Selma Blair The Littlest Suspect the Shat The Usual Suspects Todd Hockney William Shatner

Gun play!

August 13, 2010 / Bob Westal

In all likelihood, this weekend’s likely #1 film, “The Expendables,” is not really a movie you need to see before you die. But if you are going to take that long, “Wild Bunch” style, walk to the multiplex, this totally entertaining 15 minute mash-up of numerous gratuitously violent, gun crazy, flicks from Steven Santos, Aaron Aradillas, and good ol’ Matt Zoeller Seitz, sponsored by The House Next Door, is just the thing to get you in the correct spirit.

Lock & Load from Steven Santos on Vimeo.

Pretty magnificent. Also, Nice to Luke Wilson from “Bottle Rocket” in there. Fun coincidence considering the post below this one.

I guess it’s partly because of production code censorship, but it’s interesting that, while guns and movies have always gone hand-in-gunslinging-hand, the extreme fetishizing of the things seems to have begun about the time the production code truly died, paving the way for arguably the first truly ultraviolent big studio film, 1969’s “The Wild Bunch.” It also happens to be, I’m pretty sure, the second oldest film featured here (after ’66’s “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”) with one obvious exception from the birth of the movies right at the end. Or maybe I’m wrong. If anyone can think of a movie before 1966-69 in which guns were portrayed in the kind of tender loving detail we’re now used to, let me know.

Finally, get even more in the spirit of, er, gun fun, with this piece from the Bullz-Eye blog celebrating various multi-star manly action fests.

Action Movies, External Entertainment, External Movies, Movies

Bottle Rocket Headlines Luke Wilson The Wild Bunch

A roundtable chat with Luke Wilson of “Middle Men”

August 13, 2010 / Bob Westal

It’s been nearly 15 years since producer James L. Brooks bankrolled a feature version of a short film made by some Texas youngsters, and that movie (“Bottle Rocket”) introduced the movie world to director Wes Anderson, Owen Wilson, and his brother, Luke. Since then, Dallas-born Luke Wilson’s movie-star handsome likeness has become a highly familiar to filmgoers, playing both leading men and supporting roles mostly in comedies like “Legally Blonde,” “Old School,” and Mike Judge’s criminally maltreated “Idiocracy,” as well as “Rushmore,” “The Royal Tenenbaums,” and a classic cameo in “Anchorman.” (He was the anchor who — spoiler alert — got his arm was sliced off with a sword by Tim Robbins.)

To this day, Wilson has a habit of turning up in odd and interesting places, like a series of well-known commercials for AT&T or in the uneven but entertaining “Middle Men,” in which Wilson very credibly stars as a Texas businessman who gets much more than he expected at the intersection of e-commerce and adult entertainment. He is also preparing to play the part of Laura Dern’s flaky ex-husband on “Enlightened,” a new TV series from cult writer-producer Mike White (“Chuck and Buck,” “School of Rock“) with episodes directed by Oscar-winner Jonathan Demme.

At the risk of creating an embarrassing but perhaps partially correct impression of a man-crush, in person Luke Wilson is a highly charismatic guy. Behind his highly colloquial speech — I’ve left out a lot of “likes” — is an intelligence that, without giving away much of anything, dispenses with a lot of the usual show business interview platitudes. Now in his late 30s, he also appeared thinner than his slightly chunky appearance on “Middle Man” or his recent AT&T commercials. That was because Wilson had deliberately gone over his normal weight by about 25 pounds for the role of a hard-driving businessman and family guy.

What was that like?

Actors, Celebrities, External Entertainment, External Movies, External TV, Interviews, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News, TV

Andrew Wilson AT&T Bill Murray Bottle Rocket Christopher Mallick Chuck and Buck Coppolla David Letterman De Niro Dian Fossey Eastwood Enertainment Tonight Enlightened Errol Morris Get Low Headlines High Plains Drifter Hunter S. Thompson Jake LaMotta James Caan Johnny Depp Laura Dern Legally Blonde Luke Wilson Luke Wilson interview Michael Mann Middle Men Mike White Owen Wilson Raging Bull Rushmore School of Rock The Royal Tenenbaums The Thin Blue Line Wes Anderon Woody Allen

A Chat With Producer and E-Commerce Pioneer Christopher Mallick of “Middle Men”

August 7, 2010 / Bob Westal

He’s definitely not a household name, but if you’ve ever bought anything over the Internet, Christopher Mallick has had an impact on your household. If your purchases include an occasional picture of illicit sex or gratuitously naked people, that goes double.

Mallick is the producer and inspiration for the highly fictionalized new film, “Middle Men,” which covers the early days of Internet porn as seen through the eyes of businessman Jack Harris (Luke Wilson). Harris makes millions and gets in way over his head after meeting up with a couple of drug addled fools and geniuses (Giovanni Ribisi and Gabriel Macht), who, in the process of selling dirty pictures, have developed a way to safely and securely collect credit card numbers over the Internet so they can sell dirty pictures.

In real life, the one-time chief executive of Paycom pioneered the technology that makes buying anything from a DVD to a raincoat to a monthly membership in ButtBusters.com easy, safe, and more or less confidential. He is said to have many outrageous and hilarious behind-the-scenes tales that provided background for the fictional film.

“Middle Men” is actually just the start as Mallick appears to be very serious about the film industry. He’s got more projects coming along the way including films with writer/director George Gallo and a documentary about former porn people, “Exxxit: Life After Porn,” directed by Bryce Wagoner and written and produced by “Middle Men” co-writer Andy Weiss.

I met Mallick during a recent press day at the L.A. Four Seasons. There was a last minute change in the planned location of the room, from the second floor to the first floor, where we were to talk. When I arrived, I found Mallick — who is apparently slightly camera shy (that little picture to the right is it as far as available online photos are concerned) — in a wheel chair, wearing a leg brace, and, I am told, the company of a bodyguard, who apparently was so good at his job I didn’t even notice he was there.