It's Ypsilanti, By The Way

I just read Rebels On The Backlot by Sharon Waxman. She concentrates on six young directors--Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, David Fincher, Paul Thomas Anderson, David O. Russell and Spike Jonze--and how they got away with making unusual big budget films in the 90s.

It's not a bad book. Behind-the-scenes stories about the dealmaking and the shoots are fascinating. Unfortunately, there are a number of small factual errors (for example, she says Eastern Michigan University is in Ann Arbor, and What's Up, Doc? and The Owl And The Pussycat are from the 1960s) and quite a bit of questionable artistic judgments.

Also, though the tales are interesting enough, Waxman, like so many authors, feels the need to justify her subject in the introduction. She claims that the studios were more open to different kinds of films in the 80s than in the 90s. You could have fooled me. Worse, her examples of pictures only possible in the 80s are Amadeus and Out Of Africa. Huh? Along with action films and broad comedies, these sorts of prestige projects are a studio mainstay. Amadeus is an adaptation of a Tony award-winning Broadway hit, directed by an Oscar winner. Out Of Africa is an adaptation of a respected book by an Oscar-nominated director featuring two major stars.

Then she says by the mid-1990s, "movies were stale, insipid retreads aimed at the lowest common denominator." Two of her examples? Dumb and Dumber and Speed, which she claims "aren't worth watching today." I think Dumb And Dumber is a pretty good comedy by new voices that breaks a lot of rules, and Speed is a one of the better actions films of the past few decades. Both still hold up. I'd certainly choose that double feature over Amadeus and Out Of Africa.