SXSW 1999–The Adventures Of Sebastian Cole/EdTV

The first of these two flicks I saw yesterday, so it’s not really fresh on my mind.

Sebastian Cole is a high school kid in 1983 who just wants to be a writer. His parents are divorced, his dad is rich and remarried, his mom is a dysfunctional English woman and his ex-step father is a man who wants to be a woman. He meets a girl just before he leaves with his mom for England when she comes up to him while he’s lying on the ground one night. She jumps on him and kisses him claiming that she thought he was someone else. Well, maybe…maybe not.

He comes back to America to live with his step-father, er, mother, but things aren’t easy. You see, he’s a punk kid (back when punk was cool) and his step-dad doesn’t like that. He puts all kind of rules on him and generally wants him to be a useful member of society.

The whole movie basically boils down to Sebastian having a bunch of adventures that he wants to write about. These adventures involve relationships, family, school, sex, drugs and rock and roll. It doesn’t matter what they are just so they make a life. It’s a really good movie that shows the 80s in a different light than most of the movies that have come out lately. It takes place just when new wave was really hitting it big, so the music they use is a mixture of Blondie, Flock Of Seagulls and punk bands.

Adrian Grenier (Hurricane Streets and Next To You) plays Sebastian with a mixture of dark loneliness and light humor. I can’t wait to see where this kid’s career goes. He was awesome. Clark Gregg (Usual Suspects, Clear And Present Danger, Spanish Prisoner) has mainly had small parts up until now, but the role of Hank/Henrietta, the transsexual, is his and his alone. I don’t think a transsexual has been played this well since John Lithgow in The World According To Garp (which this movie reminds me a lot of). He was harsh but compassionate, and that’s not easy to pull off.

If this one makes it to theatres (which I’m thinking it will) go see it. It’s got a little of everything: comedy, drama, sex…what more could you want?

Maybe some good facts. The only problem I had with it was the errors with the transsexual surgery. At one point Henrietta tells Sebastian to get some tampons. Why does he need them? He hasn’t gotten the final surgery yet, but even if he had he wouldn’t need tampons. Transsexuals can’t have babies, nonetheless have periods.

Besides that, it’s a great movie. One of the best I’ve seen at SXSW.

I just saw EdTV today at the world premiere. Yeah, I know. When I first saw the previews I thought that it was just another Truman Show. I really didn’t see much point in it, but I knew I would see it because it’s a Ron Howard film and it’s got Matthew McConaughey, and you gotta support the local boys.

Boy was I surprised! This is one of the funniest movies I’ve seen in a few months, new or old. Matthew is Ed, a guy who gets his life put on tv 24 hrs a day by a small cable station called True TV. Ellen DeGeneres is Cynthia, the producer of the show, but, of course, the owner of the station, Dr. Whitaker (Rob Reiner in his best role in years) takes all the credit. He’s a self-proclaimed genius. Clint Howard (in his biggest role for his brother since Grand Theft Auto) is the director of the show who eats three meals a day in a truck. He’s got some monster hair plugs, too.

Meanwhile there’s Ed’s family. Ray (Woody Harrelson), Ed’s brother, is not exactly the nicest of guys, but he’s got heart somewhere down there. You just have to dig. He’s planning on using Ed’s celebrity to open up a gym. His girlfriend, Shari (Jenna Elfman) seems to want to pay more attention to Ed. Ed and Ray’s mom, Jeanette (Sally Kirkland of Private Benjamin and The Sting) seems to be a little bit insane, but generally ok. She’s living with Al (Martin Landau), a crippled man who loves the boys as if they were his own. When asked about his real father, Ed just says, “He ran out on us when I was twelve. I haven’t seen him since. That’s my dad. Next question.” His dad does show up for a couple of scenes (of course after Ed gets famous) and is played by Dennis Hopper! So, they’re just a normal, everyday family. They just look crazy when they’re on screen.

Elizabeth Hurley shows up as a short term fling of Ed’s (almost playing herself with the sluttish tendencies turned WAY up–she’s an exhibitionist!!) and the two of them have an awesome table scene! One viewer is even shown on the toilet trying to face his tv so that he can watch the scene while in the bathroom. Hmmm.

All of the characters were well drawn and believable. The cast was awesome and perfectly matched. After Ransom (which I actually liked–is that so wrong?!) it’s good to see Ron back in the right saddle again.

It’s interesting to see a movie like this. It deals with fame and the pressures it brings on in a way that really cuts close to home, but stays really funny. We can all relate to it, but we still kind of see it through a filter. How would we feel if we were Ed? Would we revel in it or crush under the weight of it all? I think we would do both, just like Ed.

The comparisons to Truman Show aren’t really fair, either. Truman Show was about a man who didn’t know that he was on tv. He was blissfully unaware of a world outside his own. To Truman, he’s just another guy in a world built for one. Ed, however, is being paid for his time and knows exactly what’s going on. He can even watch himself on tv. (It’s pretty funny when he checks out his own butt. Who wouldn’t do that when faced with the opportunity?) This film deals more with the fame/fishbowel aspect of the whole thing whereas Truman deals with the escape of the subject.

As I said, I saw one of the premieres here in Austin. This was made possible because of a new sound system in the Paramount theatre. Ron didn’t really want to premiere it here because of the ancient system we had in the old theatre. But Matthew and Harry Knowles got him to do it if they could get a good one. They usually have to truck a whole system in for premieres (like they did for The Faculty), but Matthew asked Richard Linklater why they did this and how much it would cost if they bought a new permenant one. He said that he would put up a starter donation so that other people would match it. He put in part, Universal Pictures put in part and Ron Howard himself put in part. That’s pretty amazing. A director as bit as Ron Howard decided that it was worth his money to renovate the sound system in an old theatre like the Paramount. I already had respect for Ron, but this made it quadruple. This guy really loves film and its history. I hope to see him in Austin again.

Ron and almost all of the cast were here to see the movie and talk to us afterwards. We had Matthew (of course), Woody, Ellen, Sally, Martin, Elizabeth (yes! yes! yes!–and she looked awesome…no Hugh, either. What happened?), Clint and Viveka Davis who played Ed’s sister. This was one of the best Q&A sessions I’ve ever been to. They all seemed to be having a lot of fun, even with some of the stupid questions. One lady asked if Ron could tell her what the last line of Backdraft was because she couldn’t understand the tape. Lady, look on the internet! I’m sure the script is there somewhere! Then, another lady asked if there was any way that she could find out if Matthew was as good of a kisser as she had heard. She got to find out when Woody motioned for her to come on stage. Then, of course, some guy started his question out with, “I heard that Elizabeth was a really good kisser…” Matthew picked up his mike and said, “She is. She is. She is. She is.”

The high point of the session, though, was the Chicken Dance. In the movie Ed and Ray have a dance that they do when they’re happy about something. It’s called the Chicken Dance because, well, they look like chickens. Woody and Matthew actually did it onstage. How awesome is that? These guys have no reservations about making themselves look like idiots in front of a real audience. I love that!

Ron talked about the casting (he read the script and immediately thought of Martin Landau for Al) and how he puts his brother in all of his movies. He’s not in all of them, though, and apparently he took a lot of crap (his words) for not putting him in Ransom. Maybe that’s why everyone hated it. No Clint bit. Clint’s one of those guys who, no matter how bad the movie is, he’s still cool. Why, I bet he’s even cool in The Ice Cream Man.

Well, I guess that’s all the gloating I’ll do. The movie was awesome. The Q&A was fun. It was a good time had by all. Go see EdTV when it comes out on the 19th.