About Schmidt

[Pedro]

A sort of spoiler

My alltime favorite part is at the end of his first letter to Ndugu where he says something like..."I seem to have rambled on there, Ndugu and I think that you would like to cash that check and get yourself something to eat..."

[Duck Sauce]

Another thing I liked was when he wakes up at 7:59 (might of been 6:59), a minute before the alarm goes off. I always wake up everyday right before it goes off. [/quote]

[Gold Trumpet]

This is a very good movie, but falters in the American Beauty aspect by telling of how every scene is important and in what way it is important without it just being able to ride off everything that is smart about it. For some reason, filmmakers feel the intense paranoia of getting across what they mean. Old Hollywood at least didn't care about that, because 1.) the job of directing was considered just a job, and not an art foremost and 2.) most of the movies were straightforward movies that just told their stories, and maybe giving some big meaning to the end. There is a hardly known movie, but a great comedy, in The Fireman's Ball, which was just about the happenings at a fireman's ball of people in a very small little town. Nothing more to it. I wish About Schmidt could have taken a lesson from that is calming itself down in trying to show the meanings and just simply telling a smart and funny story and letting the meanings evolve from that. Directors need to learn to mix artiface and straight face directing better than a lot of examples out now.

There is much to praise, and mostly for Nicholson who achieves absolute greatness in his role. Nicholson has a character that dominates so much, that even when little happens, you are just watching for the pleasure of seeing any little muscle in his face move. Nicholson has prolly the greatest presence of any actor working now and his performance here is a landmark for his career in him not just giving another great performance, but evolving to higher levels.

Funniest scene was a minor one. When Nicholson is at Kathy Bate's house and sitting on the couch and looks outside and sees a house with a bunch of garbage bags lying next to the porch and then some guy in underwear walking out, throwing another garbage bag on the pile and walking back inside. I fell over laughing at it and it was done so simply that it was even better.

~rougerum

[Pedro]

Funniest scene was a minor one. When Nicholson is at Kathy Bate's house and sitting on the couch and looks outside and sees a house with a bunch of garbage bags lying next to the porch and then some guy in underwear walking out, throwing another garbage bag on the pile and walking back inside. I fell over laughing at it and it was done so simply that it was even better.

~rougerum

Another minor and funny scene to me was when after the wedding speech Nicholson gives and the bathroom break after that he comes out and the whole party is dancing almost barbarically to "Taking Care of Business"...I liked that.

[MacGuffin]

Alexander Payne Takes A Sideways Road Out Of Nebraska

It was only a matter of time before the talented director Alexander Payne and his writing partner Jim Taylor left the confines of the Midwest and started making movies in the blazing Hollywood sun. But despite having a Hollywood blockbuster on their CV, having worked on "Jurrasic Park 3," Payne and Taylor will be going back to their roots as they move to the Left Coast, taking the indie approach with their latest film, "Sideways."

Working with hot new producer Michael London ("The Guru," Sundance hit "Thirteen" and the upcoming Dreamworks Oscar hopeful "House Of Sand And Fog"), Payne and Taylor have crafted a character study concerning two friends on a week long trip through the California wine country. just before one of them is to be married. Jack Pitcairn is in his late 30s, a failed actor who is barely earning a living doing voice-over work. While he very much loves his soon-to-be bride, he is panicking about the loss of his long standing bacherlorhood, and the pressures he will be under to join his new father-in-law's real estate firm. It is through the suggestion of his best friend and best man, Miles Raymond, that the two go on this trip. Miles is a failed author currently teaching English at a private middle school who fancies himself an amateur wine connoisseur, when he's really nothing more than an alcoholic. Miles went through a nasty divorce two years previous, unwilling and unable to move on, who spends most of his evenings drinking and writing while trying to find a way to get published.

Along their journey, the pair will spend time with Miles' mother Phyllis, who moved from San Diego to Santa Barbara after the passing of her husband, and is an alcoholic herself. Jack and Miles will also a waitress named Maya, who is trying to get a new start on life after her own divorce by working as a waitress at a high-end in Buellton, while pursuing her Master's degree in Education at neighboring Cal State San Luis Obispo.

The film, which has just began the casting process, is scheduled to begin production throughout Southern California beginning September 1. As of this writing, no distribution deal is pending.

[sphinx]

Jack and Miles will also a waitress named Maya

verrrrb

meet?
fuck?
kill?

what could it possibly be!

[Pubrick]

what could it possibly be!

Jack and Miles will also bore the crap out of a waitress named Maya with their synopsis of a film called Sideways. Maya realises character studies can be compelling, and is just sayin' tho.