Sunday, August 4, 2013

The Canyons

I’ve been rooting for The Canyons from the beginning. The moment it was announced that Paul Schrader would be directing a script by Bret Easton Ellis, I was sold. The fact that the film was going to be about elitist loners (a group that, collectively, Schrader and Ellis have spent their careers chronicling) was an added bonus. The two filmmakers, along with their producer, Braxton Pope, took to Kickstarter to help fund their project. They each invested $30,000 of their own money, and asked the world for $100,000 more, ultimately netting a production budget of $260,000. With their film, they promised something new. Something fully independent from the studio system, shot for cheap, but not cheap looking. Something dark and immoral. Something that would make Schrader and Ellis fans proud.

When Lindsay Lohan was cast as the film’s star, The Canyons was no longer The Canyons. It was The Lindsay Lohan Show. After popular porn star James Deen was cast as the second lead, The Canyons turned into a joke. People laughed, mocked, and wrote it off. But I remained enthusiastic, albeit somewhat cautiously. A few months and one ruinous New York Times piece later, and The Canyons was made available on various OnDemand outlets for the public to scrutinize.
The film centers on Christian (Deen), a trust fund baby dabbling in the world of independent film production, and his girlfriend Tara (Lohan), who lives off the fat of the land. In the film’s opening scene, Tara and Christian dine with another couple, Gina (Amanda Brooks), Christian’s assistant and the director of the latest flick he’s producing, and Ryan (Nolan Funk), the freshly cast lead in Gina and Christian’s film.

Throughout The Canyons, we watch these four roll into and out of each other’s lives over the course of a few days. We learn of a previous, hidden relationship between Tara and Ryan. We learn of Christian’s obsessive jealousy. We watch Tara and Christian frequently fuck people they’ve met online, for no other reason than Why Not. We watch and learn many things, all with exceedingly less interest. As the story developed, I became increasing unconcerned in what was happening or why. Blame the script, the actors, or the director (or all three); for whatever reason, The Canyons is never fully engaging.
Naturalism is the vibe here. That’s what every performer in The Canyons is trying to achieve. Truth. Reality. A lacking showmanship. Acting without acting. With the exception of Amanda Brooks (who is genuinely fantastic throughout), and Nolan Funk (who is inarguably awful throughout), every actor in this film delivers a wildly uneven performance. All achieve rare, strong moments that are drowned out by laughable acting choices.

I’m one of those people who want Lindsay Lohan to succeed. With every new performance, I hope that this will be her chance to excel. If she had a shot at a comeback, The Canyons surely was it. Sadly, I’m forced to label it as a general misfire. Twice toward the end of the film, Tara is confronted by Christian, once with physical viciousness, the other with emotional intimidation. Lohan nails these scenes. She presents a scared shitless little girl void of direction and choice. And rather than harping on all of the things Lohan gets wrong as Tara, it’s kindest to say that these are two brief scenes she gets absolutely right.
As written, James Deen’s Christian is a quintessential Bret Easton Ellis character. Morose, insipid, selfish – a despicably entitled, carelessly wealthy Alpha male. Christian has all the makings of an exceptional Ellis character – the Patrick and Sean Bateman’s, the Clay and Julian’s, the Victor Ward’s, and so on. Problem is, James Deen is no Christian Bale. Hell, he’s not even James Van Der Beek. He’s a guy playing it cool who is so obviously playing it cool. Deen’s work is purposefully unflashy, restrained to a fault. His moments of conflicted silence, however, are flawless. Deen is in command of a menacing gaze that forced me to think, “Oh, wow, where has this guy been?” Delivery of dialogue and subtlety of movement is where he fails. His words are too stilted. His mannerisms are too theatrical. He delivers the simple, dismissive put down of, “Is this guy for real?” with the poise of a frat boy, and executes the act of zipping up a hoodie with the grace of a, well, porn star.

A few hints of redemption. Cinematographer John DeFazio does digital wonders with his Alexa Pro camera, making The Canyons look like it’s far more than a quarter million dollar picture. Brendan Canning’s music (with help from Me&John and a handful of electronica artists) is mostly on point as well. Eerie, leading, but never forced. And, as mentioned, Amanda Brooks deserves to stand out among the rest of the cast. She’s a star.
Perhaps my expectations for The Canyons were unreasonable. Perhaps my appreciation for Ellis’ novels and Schrader’s films blinded my judgment. With a movie as high profiled as The Canyons, everyone was bound to form an opinion before we had all of the context. And now here I sit, context fully discovered, opinion fully realized. I sit here as a self admitted fan who was ultimately let down. I give Schrader, Ellis, Lohan and Deen endless credit for trying something wholly different, and promoting it so boldly. Although The Canyons is a failed experiment, if Schrader, Ellis and Pope announced tomorrow that they were beginning pre-production on an entirely new project, you can bet I would be eagerly rooting for it to succeed. D 

26 comments:

  1. Well this is certainly a let down. I will be seeing this in the next few days and was excited to see this for Gus Van Sant (is he any good?) but hearing that almost every other performance is wooden and artificial in the worst way is disappointing. The few clips I watched online (seems like months ago) of a scene with Deen and Lohan didn't seem promising but hope still remained. This review has dried up whatever there was left.
    Very well constructed review regardless of the film's quality though!

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    1. Ha, thanks man! Okay, first off, that clip of Deen and Lohan that you're talking about (the one where he pushes her around and screams at her) is arguably the best acted scene of the film. So basically, the movie doesn't get stronger than that.

      Van Sant is good... for the 2 minutes he's on screen :\

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    2. Well, I just finished watching it and it wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be (though that isn't exactly saying much). You were correct, the cinematography was the highlight of the entire thing and it doesn't look like it was shot for the budget it was. Deen wasn't as bad as I thought either, he was passable, I guess; but as you said Amanda Brooks was the best one in here.
      Hopefully Ellis' team up with Gaspar Noe will produce better results.

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    3. I'm glad you were able to appreciate certain aspects of it, namely the look of the film and Brooks' performance. I've heard rumors of Ellis and Noe working together, but man, if that is true, how cool could that be?

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  2. Great review. I've been curious about this since the trailer was released, but I wasn't expecting much. Can't wait to see it for Amanda Brooks' performance, though.

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    1. Thanks man. Yeah, it would be wise to not expect too much, but maybe you'll have fun with it. Brooks is definitely solid. She saved me from totally panning the flick.

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  3. I never like to root against someone like Paul Schrader but the fact that he compared Lindsay Lohan to Marilyn Monroe made me lose some respect for him. Lohan is no Marilyn Monroe. Not in acting skills, charm, or notoriety. Plus, I've kind of had it with Lohan and her bullshit antics as she's just some spoiled, washed-up starlet who should be in prison right now for all of her crap and serve 7 years so we wouldn't have to hear from her for a while as well as those claims that it wasn't her fault.

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    1. Yeah that really was a bizarre claim. Schrader is obviously someone who speaks his mind, but that Monroe comparison threw me for a loop. I wanted Lohan to shine here, sadly... no.

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  4. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/magazine/here-is-what-happens-when-you-cast-lindsay-lohan-in-your-movie.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0&_r=0

    In-depth article about the making of this film, thought it might interest you. Whole thing was an absolute sham, brought out the worst in every one of its participants. Looks like the end result wasn't worth it either.

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    1. I've read that piece. It's fucking entertaining. I love those behind-the-scenes stories. I wish the books about the making of Heaven's Gate, Brazil, and Bonfire of the Vanities are still available. I would love to read those books.

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    2. I suggest Conquest of the Useless, by Werner Herzog. It's a compilation of his diaries during the making of Fitzcarraldo.

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    3. I actually linked that article in my review. Interesting read indeed. In addition to Conquest of the Useless, My Best Fiend is basically a documentary dedicated to the Herzog/Kinski feud. Great flick.

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  5. I actually really liked the film, although it's cold indeed. It's just so...modern. Weird. Your review touches on most of the reasons why I can see someone might not like it. I wrote my own one here, which seemed to come out as an massive diatribe against the people whose criticisms I think are somewhat unfounded;

    http://adventuresofasuburbanstreetposse.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/film-review-canyons-paul-schrader-2013.html

    Nolan Funk is pretty shit, isn't he? I remember one scene where he's walking along swinging his shoulders in these huge movements and it just looks fucking ridiculous.

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    1. I liked your review a lot. And I agree with you, I think most people considered the film DOA once Deen and Lohan were cast, and that does indeed make for an unfounded review. Glad we agree than Funk was shit though.

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  6. What I don't understand is why Lindsay's team keep getting her to do these 'dramatic' films when she's a comedy actress. If you look at her earlier stuff (Mean Girls, Freaky Friday, Parent Trap), it's all comedy and that's where she shines most. She's got great comedic timing (well, in my opinion) and she should therefore start looking at comedy scripts instead.

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    1. It is odd that she has seemingly abandoned the genre that made her. I appreciate that she wanted to shift her career to be "taken seriously" but it obviously isn't fully working. I don't know if she'll ever outlive her infamy.

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  7. There are plenty of ideas that Ellis' screenplay likes to toy around with, but never do anything with. It only preaches to us as if he and Schrader had nowhere else to bitch about the current-state of cinemas, and decided to take up an-hour-and-a-half of our lives to do so. I didn't hate it, but it did feel a bit ugly, and not in the way they were going for either. Good review Alex.

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    1. I did appreciate their intentions, but yeah, the final result left me completely bored. I didn't fully hate it either, but I doubt I'll ever have a reason to watch it again.

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  8. Things don't work out, sometimes fantastically, but I commend you for not letting that dampen your enthusiasm for those involved.

    I'm not particularly rooting for (or against) any one - not sure if that will enhance or detract from the experience. We'll see...

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    1. Oh I'll always love Schrader and Ellis, no doubt. A worthy experiment, but definitely a failed one in my eyes. I'm curious to hear your take.

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  9. Awesome read Alex, you had really set it up in that I thought it might actually be good! Glad to see you had an open, positive view going into it, gave it every chance, alas, it mustn't be very good and I don't have any motivation to see it myself.

    I did go and watch the clips of Lindsay online though, because why not. Hahaha.

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    1. Thanks man! I set it up that way because I really did want it to be good. I had nothing but hopeful intentions, but sadly, those were squashed almost immediately.

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  10. I read that article you linked here and it's actually one of the more positives articles I read on this one, at least they had some good things to say about Lohan.

    I'll probably see this soon, the story seems interesting but Ellis's ridiculous tweets really seem to indicate he has lost it completely so I'm not surprised he himself wanted Deen to star in the movie so bad.

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    1. A lot of people saw that Times article as bad, but I dunno, Schrader said it was mostly accurate, so there's that. I'd be interested to hear your take on this one, for sure.

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  11. For what it's worth, I think Lindsay Lohan's best performance was in Georgia's Rule.. I can't help to like her in that.. I can't help to like the movie as well. I've never been Lohan's hater, I just hate her decisions in life which have downgraded her roles in Hollywood. Amongst the Disney chicks, she isn't a bad actress.. she just gets bad roles due to her real life persona.

    And an answer to your question: “Oh, wow, where has this guy been?” - in porn, honey.. in porn. :D

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    1. Ha, I meant where has this very convincing creepy version of Christian been. Not Deen in general.

      Glad you've never been a Lohan hater either. I don't agree with some of her life choices, but I've always rooted for her success. If nothing else, I hope The Canyons can somehow jump start her career. We'll see.

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