Critical Mass

Jon Favreau says 'Iron Man' is the real family blockbuster

2008-05-09T19:13:37Z

The Wachowskis attempt to craft a family-film blockbuster with Speed Racer and cram in so many digital gewgaws and effects they arrived at the aesthetic equivalent of a pile-up.

Jon Favreau in Iron Man strives to make a sophisticated superhero movie and does his job so well that with New Hollywood personnel he creates the sort of classy Old Hollywood entertainment that adults, teens and kids all enjoy, albeit at different levels.

In an interview a month ago, he said parenthood actually helped him arrive at his current accomplishment.

"As people become parents, it takes a lot of wind out of their sails, creatively or as far as their career goes, because it becomes your life work," says Favreau. "But for me, what’s fun is I get to make movies that help me parent. I can even share the experience with my 6-year-old – 'Here, come to work with Daddy, here’s what I do, here’s this, take a look at this one.' Making movies that make my son light up becomes part of the parenting experience. Elf, Zathura and this one are not geared for a 6-year-old, but they’re something me and my 6-year-old are bonding over. "

Favreau’s dual parent-child perspective has enabled him to take family-film forms and give them just the right amount of twist to please critics without alienating regular moviegoers.

]]> "The last thing you want to do is punish your audience for buying the ticket. I remember [the Schwarzenegger movie] The Last Action Hero – they were marketing it as an action movie, but it made fun of action movies (and, as a result,) of the people who were going to see the movie. With Elf I thought it had to be a Christmas movie first and foremost – it couldn’t make fun of being a Christmas movie. And with superhero movies, it’s very much a Joseph Campbell rise-of-the-hero mythic story you are telling."

Simultaneously, though, Favreau aims to make films that are authentic and of their time. "I know when I made Elf, having grown up in New York, and Christmas movies meaning New York to me, to be able not too long after 9/11 to show the Empire State Building and all these landmarks and have people think of them in a way other than just as a terrorist target, it felt like it was liberating, offering hope and simplicity. It was such a complicated, anxious time.

"And now that it’s six or seven years later, in Iron Man, I think you can let the times inform the backdrop even more and you don’t run the risk of pulling people out of the story. The big thing was to express these anxieties everyone is feeling. ... Tony Stark is a guy who is literally oblivious, fooling around, having drinks in a HumVee, then he wakes up to see himself in a hostage video. I think that’s how America feels."

(Photo by Zade Rosenthal)

Early ratings in for Midday With Dan Rodricks and WYPR

2008-05-09T16:27:18Z

Radio ratings for the first three months of 2008 suggest that the changes at WYPR-FM (88.1) have not led to the drastic ratings decline some fans of ousted talk-show host Marc Steiner predicted. But they also suggest the station has alienated some key listeners.

In the noon-2 p.m. time slot, where Sun columnist Dan Rodricks took over for Steiner beginning Feb. 25, WYPR took a considerable hit among listeners ages 25-54. The share (that is, the percentage of listeners tuned to a specific station in an average quarter-hour) declined 55 percent from a year ago (2.0 to .9). The total number of those listeners in a given week fell from 25,300 to 14,100.

Among overall listeners 12 and older, however, the change of share was only slight, from 2.2 in Winter 2007 to 2.0 in winter 2008; in fact, it grew from the last quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2008 (1.4 to 2.0). Among listeners 55 and older, the listenership grew considerably, from a 3.3 share in winter 2007 to 3.9 in winter 2008 (the increase was even more marked from the last quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2008, 1.9 to 3.9). The weekly average of those listeners increased from 16,100 to 26,900, almost making up for the loss in the 25-54 age group.

It's too early, based on the ratings, to make any grand assessment of how listenership has been affected by the Steiner furor. Typically, any abrupt change in programming results in a drop in listenership; whether the numbers pick up again will be measured in future ratings books. It's also possible that all the tumult over Steiner's firing attracted some curious listeners to the station, which could lead to a short-term spike in the ratings (judging by WYPR's numbers, the over-55 crowd must have been especially curious). Again, the question is, are those numbers temporary, or will they translate into loyal listeners?

The ratings were released last week by Columbia-based Arbitron.

Christopher Rouse gets resident post at Peabody

2008-05-08T19:31:40Z

Pulitzer Prize-winning, Baltimore-born Christopher Rouse has been named Distinguished Composer-in-Residence at the Peabody Conservatory, where he'll work with composition students starting in the fall. An annual public concert of Rouse's music will also be part of the residency.

The composer, who is on the faculty of the Juilliard School in New York, lives in Baltimore, where his work has long been championed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Current BSO music director Marin Alsop is among his advocates; she conducted his Flute Concerto here in March and is conducting his Der gerettete Alberich this week with her other BSO, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, in England.

PHOTO: Christopher Rouse consults with Marin Alsop during a Baltimore Symphony Orchetsra rehearsal. Baltimore Sun Photo (Monica Lopossay)

Rutstein leaves Everyman

2008-05-08T17:40:17Z

The exodus of managing directors from local theater companies continues.

Sara Rutstein, the second-in-command of Everyman Theatre, announced her resignation earlier today. Her last day will be July 31, departing shortly after Michael Ross leaves a similar post at Center Stage. Signature Stage in Arlington, VA., also lost Sam Sweet, its longtime managing director, earlier this fall.

Like Ross, Rutstein doesn't have another job lined up, though she has told friends she'd like to find a position better utilizing her recent MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

"I will always cherish my time at Everyman and I have high hopes for its future," she says in a news release. "The staff is exceptional, and the work the company produces is first-rate. It is simply time for me to explore different career possibilities and move on to new challenges."

]]> The managing director job can be a burn-out position, requiring near constant networking and fund-raising. Rutstein has worked in non-profit theater for 20 years, including at the Woolly Mammoth and Shakespeare Theatre Companies in Washington.

Vincent Lancisi, Everyman's artistic director, says that Rutstein has been a big factor in the company's success in the nearly three years that she has been with the troupe.

"Sara has been a great partner and resource to me over the years," he says in the release. "I've thoroughly enjoyed working with her. She's been hugely supportive of the artistry at Everyman, and she will be missed."

Everyman's board has hired a consultant to spearhead the search for Rutstein's successor.

(Photo courtesy of Everyman Theatre)

MFF2008: Confessions of a Melvin van Peebles fan

2008-05-05T20:39:03Z

Melvin van Peebles' Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-Itchyfooted Mutha brought the 2008 Maryland Film festival to a raucous close Sunday evening. The 75-year-old independent film and African-American film pioneer brought the crowd to its feet with a semi-autobiographical, blues-influenced, stream-of-consciousness extravaganza that packed in enough joy and inventiveness to make movie-making seem like the most fun anyone could ever have.

With brio, humor and self-effacing candor, van Peebles' film, which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival last weekend and was getting its second public showing here in Baltimore, celebrated a life of equal parts confusion, obstinance and perseverance. Employing everything from from slow-motion to animation, from rotoscoping to a guy in a gorilla suit, Confessionsofa was the work of a mind that will never grow either old or content.

Thanks, Mr. van Peebles, for reminding us all how much fun creativity and passion can be.

See a clip from the film here:

Soulful Gospel at the Meyerhoff

2008-05-05T17:31:50Z

The Soulful Symphony, conducted by Darin Atwater, ended its season with the joyful sound of gospel music this weekend thanks to a guest appearance by one of the genre's greats, Donald Lawrence.

For an hour and half, the capacity crowd at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall listened to the 75-piece orchestra, accompanied by a choir, perform contemporary and traditional gospel songs. The two combined to do Kirk Franklin's "My Life Is In Your Hands,', Anthony Wilkin's "Grace,' and Walter Hawkin's "Jesus Christ is the Way,'' among other well-known songs.

However, there were times when the volume of the music made the choir's vocals indistinct.

Atwater, who promised, "Tonight, we are going to have church,'' seemed to quench the spirit in several spots in the program.

Although the crowd applauded for several minutes after a soloist did a powerful version of Donald Lawrence's "When the Saints Go to Worship,'' the orchestra quieted. No other song received such a huge standing ovation.

Lawrence, who made three appearances in the second half of the program, appeared out of place as well.

]]> As the former director of The Tri-City Singers, a group that retired in 2006, he was accustomed to commanding and directing the attention of his choir through call and response, which is similarly done by such artists as Franklin.

On Saturday, his overtures on "Giants," "Never Seen the Righteous Forsaken" and "The Blessing of Abraham'' were stiff and mannered rather than rousing, which was his signature during his days as Tri-City Singers' front man.

He sometimes turned his back to direct the choir, only to see Atwater doing the same.

Still, Lawrence's verbal cueing to the choir on his hit songs was precise and fluid.

The night was aptly titled "Say Amen Somebody.''

Many did just that.

Riccardo Muti to take Chicago Symphony post

2008-05-05T14:54:44Z

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra today named Riccardo Muti, the brilliant 66-year-old Italian conductor, as its 10th music director, effective September 2010.

His initial five-year contract calls for a minimum 10 weeks of subscription concerts each season. Muti, who recently ended a productive, if often stormy, tenure as music director of La Scala in Milan, succeeds Daniel Barenboim.

As one of the world's greatest orchestras, the Chicago Symphony has a distinguished history of music directors, including Georg Solti and Fritz Reiner. Muti guest-conducted the CSO last fall in Chicago and on a European tour, generating enormous praise and a steady buzz that he should be given the podium full-time.

The breaking news item posted by my colleague John von Rhein on the Chicago Tribune Web site includes a link to the CSO's press release on the appointment.

The Muti coup in Chicago (the New York Philharmonic had wooed him too, before choosing Alan Gilbert) puts renewed pressure on other major ensembles still left with music director vacancies -- the Philadelphia Orchestra (where Muti was once music director) and the National Symphony. Stay tuned.

Photo: AP

Everyman's move to Town Theatre is delayed

2008-05-05T10:00:08Z

Don't call the moving trucks quite yet.

Everyman Theatre initially announced plans to relocate to the Town Theatre on the West Side in the fall of 2009, but the troupe's move has been pushed back.

For the next two or three years, the actors will continue to perform in the intimate, black box venue at 1727 N. Charles St. Artistic director Vincent Lancisi says that tax credits and paperwork are delaying the relocation until 2010 or 2011.

"When I began this process, experts told me that building a new theater would take more time, and cost more money, than I ever thought possible," Lancisi says.

MFF2008: Three questions with ... Liz Miller

2008-05-04T22:25:59Z

Baltimore native Liz Miller, Bryn Mawr Class of 1985, was at the festival to show her documentary, The Water Front, a story of class struggle, water rights and the need for common-sense urban planning. The film centers on the plight of Highland Park, Mich., a city neighboring Detroit whose predominantly low-income African-American population suddenly found its water bills increasing exponentially after a corporate accountant brought in from the outside tried to balance the city's budget by upping the price its residents paid for water by 60 percent, and by implementing severe collection practices on past-due balances some residents never knew they had.

How did you find this story?

I was going to international conferences, and I went to a conference in Miami on water, specifically on water privatization. I heard Maureen Taylor, of Michigan Welfare Rights, talking about the 52,000 water shutoffs in Detroit alone. She's a very compelling speaker, and she moved me to want to make a movie. So I went to Highland Park, and I found that she was way too busy to be a subject of a film. But she put me in touch with some people who had had their water cut off, and I found that almost half the people in the city had had their water cut off. The irony of this city being close to the largest body of fresh water in the world was too drastic to be ignored.

How has the public reacted? The people in Highland Park?

I've shown it internationally, and I've shown it in Highland Park. The reaction to the film has been shock, in some cases indignation. Because it's had these international screenings, people are very intrigued to know that this sort of city and water problem is happening in the United States.

We screened it in Highland Park before we had finished the final cut. It was a full house, and there was heated debate. We actually recut the piece based on some of the feedback that we got. Some of the residents felt that we were showing Highland Park to be a broken city. There are residents who have lived there their whole lives, who work on a regular basis to keep their block of the city beautiful. So that was an incredibly important screening.

It was important for the film to serve as a catalyst for dialogue.

You admitted that one of the film's shortcomings is that it didn't always explain the complex issues involved adequately. Do you feel you could have done better?

The issue is, how do you balance telling a good story and informing the public? I was nervous that the water affordability plan (favored by Highland Park residents), would be more technical than audiences would be interested in. But I think people are interested in this alternative. And so, instead of lamenting, what we've done is put the entire plan on the Internet.

MFF2008: Cinemus interruptus

2008-05-04T18:31:31Z

One unwelcome visitor to this afternoon's festival: The Baltimore City Fire Department, responding to a false alarm that emptied The Charles for about 15 minutes around 1 p.m. Theatergoers were forced out into the streets until the all-clear was sounded. Some wandered across Charles to the Tent Village, where a panel discussion of the state of film criticism was underway. Others sampled the used DVDs being offered for sale by Video American. Others took the opportunity to chat with their neighbor about how cool the festival has been so far.

MFF2008: The Sounds of silents...

2008-05-04T18:16:52Z

A few thoughts on this morning's screening of Josef von Sternberg's 1927 Underworld, complete with musical accompaniment by the three-piece Alloy Orchestra.

This marks at least the fifth time Alloy has come to the festival and played its scores for a classic silent (past films have included Harold Lloyd in Speedy, Alfred Hitchcock's Blackmail and F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu). If the festival did nothing more than bring the Alloy to Baltimore every year, it would earn movie lovers' undying gratitude. Alloy's jazz-heavy score for Underworld was a delight, and a perfect way to experience the early days of what has become the world's most dominant art form. Thanks, MFF.

Who says you need sound for snappy dialogue? Underworld, though silent, included some great, gritty language and turns of phrase, no less magnificent for having to be read rather than heard. Two samples: When tough guy Buck decides to impress flapper Feathers (Evelyn Brent), he tosses a $10 bill in a dog food dish. "Watch me show that dame what I think of money," he scowls. And when Feathers decides to impress her newfound mark, the decidedly disintersted Rolls Royce (Clive Brook), she purrs, "How long since you had that body washed and polished?"

Even this early in his career, von Sternberg displayed an impressive feel for lighting his stars' faces to best advantage, a talent that would be showcased even more once he became the director of choice for Marlene Dietrich.

Sun photo of the screening of "Underworld" by Amy Davis.

MFF2008: Waiting for Marilyn

2008-05-03T23:21:44Z

Marilyn Monroe can still draw a crowd.

Hundreds of people lined up to peer through a magnifying glass Billy Pappas' drawing of Monroe after the screening of Waiting for Hockney at the Maryland Institute College of the Art this afternoon.

The film documents Pappas' eight-and-a-half year saga to make an extremely detailed drawing based on a classic Monroe photograph.

"From far away, it looks like a standard drawing," said Stephen Doolittle, a MICA grad student who lives in the city and saw the film. "Close up, it's almost breathtaking. The details are amazing. There was a moment where I said, 'Oh my God.'"

Left: The photo by Richard Avedon that inspired Billy Pappas' work.

MFF2008: Tea time

2008-05-03T22:36:11Z

The award for Most Out of Place Vendor goes to Honest Beverages.

I mean, you had your anarchist book seller, your quirky pop culture/video sellers, food vendors and ... the tea tent.

A couple folks from the organic tea and ale company gave out free samples all afternoon.

As the day wore on and the ice in their coolers started melting, they started giving away whole bottles of the stuff.

"People were drinking tea," said tea rep Matt O'Brien. "People were excited about it!"

Well, as excited as people could be about tea at a film festival.

MFF2008: Red Emma's connection

2008-05-03T22:29:01Z

Anarchist "Red" Emma Goldman is referenced in John Gianvito's film Profit motive and the whispering wind.

Gianvito ran into some members of Baltimore's Red Emma's collective and told them he was planning on walking down to their cafe for a drink.

"I know he was planning on it," said collective member Kate Khatib. "I hope he made it there."

Khatib didn't get a chance to see the film, but wants to reach out to Gianvito in the near future.

"We're hoping we'll be able to bring him back or bring the film back for a screening," she said.

MFF2008: Those aren't my scooters

2008-05-03T22:10:31Z

The Charm City Scooter Rally descended on Club Charles last night, which meant tons of shiny scooters were parked outside.

Atomic Books owner Benn Ray happened to be standing near them when a cluster of old ladies walked up and asked:

"Are these your scooters?"

Ray doesn't own a scooter, so he said, "No."

But either the women didn't hear him or chose to ignore him, because they kept asking him questions about the scooters. So he started making stuff up.

"I was talking to old ladies about scooters, and I don't know anything about scooters," he said. "I'm hoping they were all Vespas because that's what I told them."

Above: Sun photo by Gene Sweeney Jr.