"Beeswax": My Favorite Film of 2009

I started writing a top ten list and found that while certain films were great and definitely worth seeing, you've probably seen something similar to anything I'd recommend that was just as good. I mean SEE whatever you're going to see. And check out the Best of '09 lists by Christopher Bell and Alex Megaro for some great titles to add to your Netflix queue.

I didn't see as many movies as I should have this past year, but the one that I liked best was BEESWAX, Andrew Bujalski's third feature film about... I'm not sure any description would make you want to run out and see it (I don't know if you could find it if you tried - at the bottom of this page I've posted theatres its opening at throughout February, none in the North East - maybe download it, it comes out on DVD in April).

What I LIKED about the film were the performances Mr. Bujalski got out of his actors. Just to use an example, a film like BROKEN EMBRACES is great, but the performance that one gets out of a trained actor will nearly always be less authentic than one out of a non-actor. For the most part, Mr. Bujalski works with non-actors. And if the people have acted before, it's been in films LIKE his own.

"Beeswax" is subtle like a Raymond Carver short story, except more fun. You watch each scene, studying the speech, looking for clues, trying to determine WHAT the people on screen are thinking. You often have no IDEA what these characters are up to - the miracle is that Mr. Bujalski is always determined to let everyone on screen act like a human being.

The film is about a pair of twin sisters. One is thinking about teaching English as a 2nd Language abroad, and the other owns a vintage clothing store and is on the verge of being sued by her co-owner. Mr. Bujalski has said in interviews that this film was difficult to write as it required a great deal of exposition, but his films are always just about people talking anyway, so it was kind of funny to read that.

The secret to BEESWAX's success, and the reason that it is difficult from every other film released this year (that I've seen), is that Mr. Bujalski's agenda is known to no one and yet simultaneously everything seems so mundane, so ordinary, so everyday. When Mr. Bujalski refuses to explain what the title BEESWAX means, he says that he thought the meaning was obvious, but when people started asking, he decided it was more interesting to not explain it.

Mr. Bujalski's previous film, the excellent MUTUAL APPRECIATION, seemed equally mysterious upon first viewing - but upon second viewing became a great indictment of human nature and went from being a fairly light comedy to a rather bleak view of humanity, or at least a foreboding one.

I don't know if additional analysis of BEESWAX will yield such answers. I think that Mr. Bujalski has learned his lesson and nothing will slip through the cracks this time. It's worth mentioning that I laughed harder during BEESWAX than I did any film this year. Naively, I thought BEESWAX would be Mr. Bujalski's first film to really expand and get a big audience - but it's been doing the usual roadshow through the country. I know it must be frustrating for him, but as long as he keeps getting just enough money to make these small, subtle, interesting films, the cinema is better for it. Many a great filmmaker has been ruined by success. I don't think success could ruin Andrew Bujalski, but if he stopped making these types of films, I think my heart would break (just a little bit).

Here's where it's playing in the future if you're near these places:

JANUARY 2010
January 26, 2010 - Real Pizza Cinerama, Bar Harbor, ME
January 26, 2010 - Tropic Cinema, Key West, FL

(That's Andrew Bujalski on the RIGHT ---->)

FEBRUARY 2010
February 5, 2009 - Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago, IL
February 5, 2009 - Capital Theater, Olympia, WA
February 12, 2009 - The Screen, Santa Fe, NM
February 12, 2009 - Angelika Film Center, Dallas, TX
February 19, 2009 - UW-M Union Theatre, Milwaukee, WI
February 26, 2009 - Zinema Two, Duluth, MN

NBC Never Wanted Conan to Succeed

The whole late night debacle going on with Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno and NBC is really interesting. Firstly, I am amazed that all of this is being discussed so publicly. The argument that affiliates would have gone public with complaints about The Jay Leno Show doesn't hold water. If that were true, then NBC could have let the affiliates speak out, and then the public would have had some sympathy for them when they announced that they had to cancel The Jay Leno Show. Either way, the cancellation of The Jay Leno Show should not have affected The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.

One could argue that they never should have forced Leno to leave The Tonight Show in the first place, but the fact that they did shows that the NBC executives realized how terribly unfunny Leno has always been, and wanted to get someone exciting like Conan O'Brien to host The Tonight Show.

They announced the cancellation fo The Jay Leno Show, and that Jay would host a show at 11:30, because they wanted to piss off Conan O'Brien and force him to quit. From the exiling of Friday Night Lights to DirecTV, to the bogus cancellation of Southland, NBC has only made money-based decisions in the past year.

Which brings us to Dick Ebersol. Why the chairman of NBC Sports has an opinion on late night is beyond me, but Ebersol is very upset at Conan O'Brien for speaking out publicly against Leno, calling it “chicken-hearted and gutless to blame a guy you couldn’t beat in the ratings.”

Okay, Mr. Ebersol, let's look at the facts: people watch shows at 10 o'clock, and then keep the television on through the local news, and then watch whatever late night program is on. The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien debuted on June 1st. No one is watching prime time television in June, because there's no new programming on the big four aside from reality competitions based on Japanese game shows. So, there was nothing to draw people into Conan's Tonight Show and build an audience. This was deliberate. NBC was scared and wanted to keep Leno at this point, but knew if they backed out of their deal with O'Brien, they would have had to pay him $45 million.

So then they wait until September to debut The Jay Leno Show, a non-starter program that no one watched. It sucked up guests that Conan would have gotten and its presence showed a general lack of confidence in Mr. O'Brien's ability to hold down late night TV on NBC. If they really believed in Conan, they would have told Jay that he could take his business elsewhere, but they didn't.

Mr. Ebersol is claiming that “what this is really all about is an astounding failure by Conan.” How could Conan have ever succeeded, Mr. Ebersol? Who is going to tune into NBC at 11:30 to watch a guy talk to celebrities, do a monologue when that previously happened in nearly the exact same fashion, minus the laughs, at 10 p.m.?

“I like Conan enormously personally,” Mr. Ebersol said. “He was just stubborn about not being willing to broaden the appeal of his show.”

If by "broadening the appeal of his show" he means putting on a show like Leno's, then he's an idiot. Conan O'Brien has always been funny, and Jay Leno has always been a moron. Everyone knows this except the money men, and idiots who live in the Midwest.

Here's the Times piece on Ebersol.