SXSW2006–Fuck/A Prairie Home Companion/This Film Is Not Yet Rated

Welcome back, my friends, to the show that, unfortunately, has to end eventually. South By Southwest 2006 is under way and it’s time, once again, to review every movie that I even think about seeing. Of course, this will be up LONG after I actually saw them, so hopefully they’re short reviews. Away we go!

FUCK

Did you ever wonder why the fuck the word ‘fuck’ is such a big deal? Why it curls mothers’ toes? Why it makes the MPAA run for cover?

Steve Anderson decided that it was time to get to the bottom of things. His documentary traces the word back to its fuzzy origins (it’s NOT an acronym) and brings it up to modern times where it’s almost normal to hear it in the streets.

The good thing about this movie is that it takes both sides and puts them right there for everyone to see. He interviews liberals, conservatives, religious leaders, comedians, politicians, journalists…all of them have an opinion. (And, no, Sam Donaldson doesn’t say it. Damn.)

Anderson has Bill Plympton do some animations to, erm, demonstrate some of the ways ‘fuck’ can be used. He also does a lot of transition animations. They’re cool, as always, but they’re more simplistic than usual, as if he was a little rushed. Not a bad thing, though. Just an observation.

This is actually a really good, fun documentary about the uselessness of condemning a useful word. After all, how can a word about love and sex be so evil?

A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION

Just about everyone knows Garrison Keillor’s radio show about the goings-on of Lake Woebegone and it’s crazy characters. At least, we know that it exists. Personally, I’ve never heard the show all the way through, so I don’t know a whole lot about it.

But I do know that, over the past 30 years or so that the show has been on the air, it has amassed a lot of characters and a lot of fans. Who else but Robert Altman could actually tie them all together in one movie?

I think these are actually different characters from the show, except for Garrison himself. In fact, most of the actors have been replaced by known people. I kind of wonder how the original actors feel about that. Oh well. What’s done is done.

But this cast is pretty amazing. Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep play singing sisters who are the last remnants of a Carter Family type group from the 50s. They have hopes that Meryl’s daughter (Lindsey Lohan actually doing an ok job again) will carry on the tradition. But all she can do is write poems about suicide. Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly are a couple of singing cowboys who can’t keep the dirty jokes out of their songs. There’s also the old singing cowboy (Peckinpah alum and director of A Boy And His Dog, LQ Jones) who is having an affair with the set cook (Marylouise Burke).

Of course, there has to be conflict. There’s a mysterious man (Tommy Lee Jones) who is supposed to get everyone ready to shut the show down. The theatre has been sold and it’s coming down to build a parking lot…or something like that. The set security and ex-private dick (Kevin Kline in a very Clouseau-esque role—maybe he should have played the bumbling cop instead of Dreyfuss) is trying to figure out a way to get the guy to change his mind. He has some help from another mysterious person who says that she’s an angel (Virginia Madsen looking better than she has in years).

And, of course, Garrison Kiellor is the eye of the hurricane trying to keep everything calm onstage while everything falls apart backstage.

I seem to be one of the few people who really liked this one. I thought it was Altman’s best film since Short Cuts back in 1993. It’s a lot of fun and is full of awesome performances. (Lily and Meryl showed where their Oscar introduction’s great chemistry came from.) Even though I’ve never really heard the radio show, this is the whimsical feel that I imagine it has. Go check this out if you’re a fan of the show or Altman. You won’t be disappointed.

THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED

How does the MPAA make its decisions on the ratings for movies? Are they really as biased as independent filmmakers say they are? Kirby Dick would certainly have us think so. (And I totally believe him, by the way.)

Kirby has taken a lesson from Michael Moore and is trying to infiltrate the MPAA. They are one of the most secret societies in America. In fact, the only government association that is more secretive is the CIA. (And don’t believe that the government isn’t involved here. President Jack Valenti worked in the government before he worked in Hollywood.) You’re not allowed to know who is rating the movies. And when you go to appeal your rating, you not allowed to ask who the Appeals Board is. And they seem to have different requirements for different films. Sharon Stone can show her entire hamburger bun in Basic Instinct, but Maria Bello can’t show pubic hair in The Cooler. And the director isn’t allowed to bring up precedent! The past has nothing to do with what we’re doing now. Even the Supreme Court allows precedent.

He hires a private eye to find out who the people on the boards are. To me, that was almost the least interesting part of the film. But it was still really good.

I don’t want to give away too much, but let’s just say that some of the members are surprising. Some, however, are not. And it’s not too surprising to find out that there are no psychologists on either board.

I loved this movie. Anything that shows how evil the MPAA truly is and how it’s in the pockets of the studios is fine by me. And it doesn’t hurt that’s it’s an awesome movie. If you’ve ever wondered why The Passion Of The Christ was able to get an R rating, but The Dreamers wasn’t, this will tell you. They say that they’re just reflecting the values of America. But if America was more racist than it already is, would movies with inter-racial sex be NC-17?