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Somewhere

Posted by Buddy Acker on March 1, 2011 at 8:34 PM

Somewhere
Actors have it tough

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There are going to be people that like Sofia Coppola's Somewhere and there are going to be people that hate it. I liked it a good bit. I could imagine my brother Caleb calling it "boring" as he so often has a habit of doing with many movies (I think that has something to do with his intellectual prowess because he liked Rob Zombie's Halloween II and I found it to be extremely boring). In this case, he would be right in a couple of scenes. As we get a glimpse of Johnny Marco's (Stephen Dorff) wild life, I found myself fading out every now and then. But in the scenes that really matter, especially the ones involving Johnny and his daughter, Cleo (Elle Fanning), I found myself glued to the screen, usually smiling.

I can say one great thing about the movie: it features Stephen Dorff's most impressive performance ever. This has been said many times, but he was born to play this role. I'm surprised he was cast at all. He's been a little under the radar lately (his last two films were Felon and Public Enemies, one of which many people have never even heard of) but he explodes onto the screen in Somewhere. I'm glad Coppola took notice of his considerable talents and let him have his way with the Marco character. It's a shame that the Academy didn't take notice as well.

I fully support any movie that gives us an inside look at how somebody does their job. In this case, Johnny Marco is an actor. We get to see how he deals with that fact. We get to see how an actor handles raising a child. Somewhere may not be all that genuine, but it feels that way, and that's all that one can hope for out of a movie. There are many movies that feel overtly phony in execution and there are many that are so realistic it's unbelievable. Somewhere falls somewhere around the middle.

Score: :D:D:D:D

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2 Comments

Reply Stephen Fox
9:44 PM on April 14, 2011 
Budd: Susan Weaver Morgan of Habitat told me about your Review blog last night. And I saw Caleb at Jack's and he said your Chapter of the Collinsville Film Society had seen Never Let Me Go and Get Low recently.
two Good choices. We must have all chapters of the Film Society together for a viewing when John and Susan come in some weekend; just like old times with Southern Culture on the Skids at Isle of Palms.
Reply Stephen Fox
9:57 PM on April 14, 2011 
Buddy, cut and paste this link. Would love to see you spotlight this opinion piece, not in the comment line here, but in a featured blog. I will bring Parnell's notice of your effort here.

http://www.ethicsdaily.com/hollywood-sacrifices-good-stories-for-
quick-profits-cms-17747