Movie Jail Relay Race

In the comment section for my recent review of This is 40, I explained to one loyal reader my personal distinction between indifference and hate, as it relates to film. To summarize, I basically explained how uneasy it makes me feel to hate a piece of work that falls under the artistic medium I love. I don’t want to hate any movie, actor, director and so on. But sometimes we do, and Nostra and Terrence’s brilliant new Relay Race opens the opportunity for a little friendly payback. 

What the Movie Jail Relay Race purposes is simple: 10 movie-related people are thrown in jail and a blogger has the chance to remove one person (after they state their reason why) before throwing a new person in. One goes free, one gets slammed.

Here are the rules in Nostra’s words:

It’s time to put some movie people in jail. The object is to give a prosecutor’s argument as to why these movie people belong in “Movie Jail” whether it be for violating the integrity of the content source of one their films, or being a sell-out, just making bad movies overall, getting worse as time goes on or not being in a good movie for many years.

The baton will be passed to another blogger who will have to do the following:

In order to free someone from Movie Jail they have to do two things
1 – Give a defense attorney argument defending the plaintiff
2 – Pay bail: the cost of which is another case for the court and a prosecutor’s argument against the actor/director of their choice that will replace the one set free.

There must always be 10 people in Movie Jail.

Bloggers Who’ve Taken Part in the Relay:

Nostra at My Filmviews

Sati at Cinematic Corner

The Current Inmates:

Jennifer Aniston

Michael Cera

Tom Cruise

Clint Eastwood

George Lucas

Robert De Niro

Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer

M. Night Shyamalan

Lars von Trier

Sam Worthington

Who I’m Defending: Robert De Niro

Those are 10 rather worthy convictions right there, some more than others. And while I am a steadfast admirer of the films of Lars von Trier, I do think he deserves a least a few more rounds in the slammer. So I’m bailing out De Niro. Why? Three words: Silver Linings Playbook.

No one has been more hopelessly let down by De Niro’s current career than me. Well, actually, that’s not true. Most of us have been hopelessly let down by the contemporary state of Robert De Niro’s career. But his work in Silver Linings Playbook changes things. His performance as Pat Solitano, Sr. calmly, gently, fiercely and tenderly asserts that De Niro’s still got it. There’s Rupert Pupkin’s desperation, Jake LaMotta’s anger, Travis Bickle’s awkward sensitivity – it’s the role of a lifetime, or at least a lifetime that hasn’t spawned a great acting performance in, what 15 years?

So, for now, I cautiously grant De Niro a stay of execution. Silver Linings Playbook got you a pass, old boy. Let’s try to keep it going.

Who I’m Throwing In: Al Pacino

Might as well swap one legend for another. My argument here isn’t particularly strong, but I don’t suppose it has to be. The films speak for themselves. Pacino is perfect as Roy Cohn in Angels in America, and if I stretch, I can call his work in You Don’t Know Jack worthy, at best. He’s got a David Mamet- penned Phil Spector biopic coming up, but keep in mind, these are all HBO programs.

Fact is, Pacino hasn’t delivered a Pacino-good performance since The Insider (he’s damn fine in Insomnia, but not The Insider fine). And what’s worse, not only are his current roles lame and phoned-in (like De Niro’s), but they’re fucking awful to boot. Playing himself in Jack and Jill was the most confounding, repugnant career move he’s ever made. Give me a Silver Lining and maybe I’ll consider giving Pacino a pass.

Who I’m Passing It Onto:

Tough choice, but I’m going with Steven at Surrender to the Void. Why? Because I can’t wait to hear his argument for whomever he throws in the slammer. Seldom do people write vehement prose like Steven does.