OMG! Trust the Man is at 36%!
OK... so... I spoke too soon. Trust the Man is apparently not so good.
And I watched the trailer, and Julianne Moore looks the same as she usually does in light romantic comedies: awkward and a little out of place, not quite in the universe of the humor. So that is sad. BUT it just got me thinking as to why she's so great in "dark comedy" like with her characters in Boogie Nights and Safe... she inhabits those people brilliantly in the same way she awkwardly fails to inhabit characters in light comedy, i.e. characters who are aware of their own humor and its context. That is the key, I think. The reason Juli is brilliant as Carol White and Amber Waves is that they are unaware of their own funniness. They are lost in the world. Whereas Juli in Trust the Man and Laws of Attraction for example plays women aware of their own humor, who are apparently calling their own shots and making it up on the spot, and she fails at that because she still registers as the Amber Waves or Carol White who is lost in her own environment. She can't play characters who are "funny people" and know they are. She CAN brilliantly portray people whose humor stems from their utter obliviousness and deep sense of existential pain.
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(forgive my lack of photoshop skills)
For the record, I believe this thinking also applies to Naomi Watts; she is brilliant as Betty in Mulholland Dr., but not so much as "light n' funny" types... which is why I was so thoroughly impressed with her King Kong turn (I totally bought her as a vaudeville star even though I KNOW she's not).
Now I hesitate to say that this means Watts and Moore are not funny in real life, or that they are actually as oblivious as their richly mined oblivious characters/personas. I don't think that's really the case, although I wouldn't ask either to write me a comedy. I just think they are unable to register humor physically and visually, as actresses. Intellectually I'm sure they have a sense of humor. In fact I've heard Julianne in commentaries and she was quite funny in an intellectual way. But I don't think that she and Watts are "naturally funny" people. They are both great as directors' muses, but I wouldn't trust them to do improv comedy.
And that's all I have to say about that.
p.s. I still love you, Juli! As my post at the Trust the Man blog would indicate.
posted by adam k. @ 3:15 PM
10 Comments:
you should see naomi watts in the indie ellie parker. the film is primitive & not universally appreciated, but naomi's comedic talents are. variety compared her comedic talents to lucille ball &
carole lombard--quite high standards i think. the problem is that naomi has looked for comedies but has not found good scripts. as someone recently mentioned (some who surprisingly hated her in 21grams), she was brilliant in i heart huckabees, but it was a supporting role.
I have been told I should see Ellie Parker. Maybe it's unfair to lump Watts and Moore together like that. They do seem to have the same kind of stiff-ish thing going on with regards to comedy, though. Good for auteurs, bad for light comedy.
I do think Watts was great in Huckabee's. But it was also the same kind of comedy from the outside, not the inside, if that makes sense. You know, the character was not funny to herself, as I recall.
But I should give Ellie Parker a chance.
it makes some sense, although you probably should have elaborated more. i did not see the julianne moore film. for years naomi was told she was not funny or pretty so she does not think she is funny. ellie probably does not know she is funny because she is insecure, but the humor is, on the other hand, from the inside out if there ever has been. btw, i thought she was hilarious in the mirror & misplaced recognition scene on the venture, etc. but unfortunately, most people only remember acts 2/3 (skull island/
return to ny). there was also humor in 21grams, but unlike lynch,
inarritu-arriaga took it out. she also played a different type of funny in undertaking betty, but the film fell apart at the end (no thanks to her small but cute part).
i just think until she is given a script & developed film which make her a lucille ball or carole lombard that it is unfair to have us prove a negative.
Well... yes, Naomi Watts and Julianne Moore are too totally different actresses. What I said I think applies more to Julianne, but then I impulsively through Naomi in there cause I sensed a pattern there. But what you're saying makes sense.
You seem to have some insider-type knowledge/insight about Naomi and her career. Is that true? If so, that is cool. I'd be happy to see her be funny again with a good script. And who told her she's not pretty? She's definitely pretty. As for funny... depends on the situation.
My main point was that both of them have a kind of over overly intense persona that works well for certain types of comedy but not well at all in others, and I think that relates to what kind of character it is, i.e. Woody Allen "witty commentary" funny, or funny because of their situation funny. Does that make sense? I was kind of proud of that little revelation that I made.
Also, you give good comments, I like you. Do you read my blog often?
i saw a clip and david just didn't look like he could pull off a role like this and it looked, well, lack luster.
moore is great, so she's aloud a lousy film now again.
--RC of strangeculture.blogspot.com
Sigh. Unfortunately for Moore, she's allowed herself ONLY lousy films for like 4 years now. At least she's finally filming Savage Grace.
I still say Naomi Watt's pulling up her bonnet and saying "Don't look at me! LOOK AT ME!" is one of the most comically inspired moments of the last few years. That and the "it's quantity not quality" moment. The look on Lily and Dustin's faces are priceless.
(can you see I'm avoiding the subject of Juli and comedy. eep)
I still say auteur comedy like that in Huckabee's in different from that in light romantic comedies, but I should probably give Naomi a break.
Yes, she IS better at comedy than Julianne. So there.
How many times did she fall over in Evolution? I know it was a lot. And it wasn't funny. Any of the time.
Whoa, Glenn breaks his vow of silence regarding Julianne and comedy.
I must confess that I've never actually seen Evolutuon... or Laws of Attraction. I'm not that much of a masochist. The trailers are enough to keep me away.
I do intend to see Trust the Man on video, though... it at least looks sort of interesting.
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