Draft Day: Wheeling and Dealing

Nobody wants to draft the next Ryan Leaf or JaMarcus Russell, but they often look like sure things at the time. Of course, nobody ever understood the Knicks’ Frédéric Weis debacle, especially when Artest was still available. Granted, that is a basketball digression, from 1999, but the point is we still are not ready to forgive and forget. The stakes are consequently high for Cleveland’s GM when he makes a costly trade for the number one pick. He had better choose wisely, but the clock is ticking throughout Ivan Reitman’s Draft Day (trailer here), which opens today pretty much everywhere.

Sonny Weaver basically has one season left to turn things around. He largely inherited the current team, but he did little to endear himself to fans when he fired their legendary head coach, who also happened to be his father, now deceased. With the owner pressuring him to make a big move, he reluctantly agrees to a deal, trading away their next three years of first round drafts for the upcoming number one pick. (Ironically, it is your 2014 Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks who have that coveted #1 spot.)

Weaver quickly develops buyer’s remorse, but the trade is done. Everyone assumes he will opt for the presumptive number pick, Bo Callahan, the Heisman winning quarterback from Wisconsin. His owner is delighted with the prospects of a marquee player like Callahan, but Weaver cannot shake the Leafy vibe he gets from him. Further complicating matters, Weaver’s front office colleague and not so secret lover has just informed him she is pregnant.

You really have to hand it to Kevin Costner. After some pretty lean years, he has clawed his way back to leading man status in major Hollywood releases. Going back to the sports well obviously makes sense in theory and it works ably enough again in practice. Since it is all about wheeling and dealing, Draft Day is bound to be compared to Moneyball and not unfairly so. The truth is there is something oddly cinematic about watching the respective GMs’ hard bargaining, firing off lines like: “that offer already expired, it’s a different world than it was thirty seconds ago.”

Frankly, the only sports action we see are the teams’ research tapes and there are no surprises there, because Weaver will explicitly tell them to show the footage of Callahan getting sacked. Still, there is something very sporting about Draft Day’s persistent faith in next season.

Without question, Costner is the film’s lynchpin and he still has what it takes. He convincingly gives Weaver darker shades than his Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, and Tin Cup characters, but he remains undeniably charismatic. While they do not burn down the joint with their passion, he and Jennifer Garner develop some relatively likable and believable romantic chemistry together. Denis Leary and Frank Langella both do their shtick as the Browns’ head coach and owner, respectively, but it is the latter veteran thesp who really gives the film some sly zip. Football fanatics will also dig the scores of real life NFL cameos, mostly notably including Jim Brown (as far as old school cineastes are concerned).

Reitman keeps it all moving along briskly, capitalizing on the draft’s constantly ticking clock. While it ends up somewhere not wholly unexpected, getting there is a surprisingly satisfying trip. A well conceived and nicely executed comeback star vehicle, Draft Day is easily recommended for fans of football or Costner rom-dramedies. It opens today (4/11) across the country, including the AMC Loews Lincoln Square in New York.

The Time Being: A Portrait of the Artist Struggling

It is quite a coup for the de Young Museum to lend its walls to a film production, but it was not to display the work of our POV struggling artist.  Instead, the put-upon Daniel is merely running another strange errand there for his potential benefactor in Nenad Cicin-Sain’s The Time Being (trailer here), which opens tomorrow in New York.

For Daniel, the bad news is he only sold one piece during his last show.  The good news is it was bought by wealthy collector Warner Dax, who could become the source of many lucrative commissions.  At least, that is how his gallerist spins it.  Unfortunately, meeting Dax proves to be a deflating experience.

Instead of his patronage, Dax only offers a series of odd jobs requiring minimal artistic talent, such as video-taping sunsets.  Daniel proceeds to upend his life catering to the strange collector, severely fraying his relationship with his wife Olivia.  Yet, he perseveres in the hope it will lead to something on the back-end.

Frankly, Time Being is the sort of film that might have been better realized as a short rather than a feature. Cicin-Sain clearly has a good feel for the rarified gallery world and he stages some nifty sequences of his artists at work on large scale canvases.  In contrast, the scenes of domestic strife quickly grow tiresome.  Time and again, Daniel seems to reassure his wife: “I promise things will get better—um, it was Olivia, right?”  The film’s big pivot also feels like it comes prematurely, giving most of the third act an extended endgame vibe.

Perhaps the most distinctive aspect of Time Being is the manner in which Cicin-Sain prominently incorporates the work of contemporary artists into the film.  Eric Zener provides Daniel’s work and the exhibit he reluctantly visits at the de Young, while Stephen Wright provides the dramatic paintings in Dax’s mansion, whose significance will be revealed down the stretch.

Frank Langella has the right imposing presence for Dax and he duly delivers in his big climatic scene (of a spoilery nature).  Arguably, Wes Bentley keeps up with him relatively well as Daniel, considering the flatness of his character.  Essentially a two-hander, Sarah Paulson makes the most of her small but consequential supporting role.

There are intriguing moments in The Time Being, but the actual on-screen drama is pretty middling stuff.  Aspiring artists and collectors will probably find a visit to the museum or gallery of their choice appreciably more rewarding.  For committed Langella admirers, it opens tomorrow (7/26) in New York at the Quad Cinema.

Robot & Frank: Aging in the Age of AI

Humans anthropomorphize.  It is a very human thing to do, especially for objects that move on their own accord.  One retired burglar will find himself doing just that with his assisted living droid in Jake Schreier’s very near future Robot & Frank (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Frank Weld did not exactly get away scot free, but he is still living out his golden years in complete liberty.  Unfortunately, his memory lapses are getting progressively worse.  His establishment son Hunter is worried, because concern is what he does best.  In contrast, New Age daughter Madison sees no evil when she calls in from exotic backwaters like Turkmenistan.  Hoping to reverse his father’s slide, Hunter brings him a robot to help with the household chores and keep the difficult senior on a regular schedule.

Of course, Old Man Weld initially thinks little of his robot helper, nor does his kneejerk Luddite daughter.  However, when the former burglar realizes the robot has a knack for things like lock-picking, he has a dramatic change of heart.  He also has a perfect target: the oily hipster overseeing the conversion of his beloved library into some sort holographic monstrosity.  Having a purpose seems to do wonders for his mental state.  He even starts seriously putting the moves on Jennifer, the librarian he always tentatively flirted with.  Needless to say though, the caper turns out to be a bit more complicated than expected.

Essentially, R&F is an intimate character study with some decidedly gentle SF elements (despite winning the Alfred P. Sloan Award for addressing themes of science and technology in indie film at this year’s Sundance).  Neither Frank the character (who is quite well read) nor Schreier is interested in exploring the implications of the singularity, at least not in this film.  Though Schreier’s style is never all that showy, his restraint serves the material rather well.  In fact, a late revelation packs considerable punch precisely because of its understated treatment.

Likewise, Frank Langella never overplays his hand, conveying his namesake’s vulnerabilities and self-doubt in quiet but effective moments.  James Marsden does his best work perhaps ever (which is not saying much with Lurie's Straw Dogs remake relatively fresh in mind) as the understandably exasperated son.  As Jennifer the librarian, Susan Sarandon makes the most of what initially appears to be little more than an extended cameo, but unfolds into something much more significant.  Even Liv Tyler is not totally awful as daughter Madison (though “good” would still be pushing it).

Smartly written by Christopher D. Ford, R&F leaves viewers without complete closure, in a way that will ring true for families that have gone through similar experiences as the Welds.  A sensitive, only slightly speculative film, Robot & Frank is easily recommended for general audiences (particularly librarians, robotics engineers, and thieves) when it opens this Friday (8/17) in New York at the Angelika Film Center downtown and the Paris Theatre uptown.