Musings from SAG screenings (Pt 1): The Farewell, The Irishman, Marriage Story
Thursday, November 7, 2019 at 1:00PM Special Secret Guest Post!
This New-York-based performer (and Emmy-nominated writer) has been a SAG member for 19 years, though this is his first time on the SAG Awards Nominating Committee. He works primarily in television -- most famously, playing a role on a series that has been seen in over 100 countries. We've invited him to share impressions from SAG Nominating Committee screenings which are happening left and right of late. Here we go...
THE FAREWELL: For what it’s worth, this is the only screening I’ve been to where the movie itself—not the panelist, but the movie itself—got a standing ovation. I, frankly, wasn’t bowled over by it (I thought, for such a dramatic subject, the emotions were curiously muted—I didn’t feel much during the movie, but maybe that’s me)…But anyway, the crowd loved it. When Awkwafina came out for the Q&A, the comments were positively effusive. One guy called it a “perfect” movie. Everything was perfect, he said: the acting, the writing, the directing, the editing. (The editing?) With a celebrity in the room, it’s hard to know when people are really being honest with themselves. But Awkwafina seemed super cool.
Side note: SAG members ask the dumbest questions. One person asked Awkwafina how she got her start in the business—which is fine, but I’m thinking, really? You’re in a room full of peers, you’ve just spent two hours watching something that’s ripe for discussion, and this is what you ask? Look it up online. At least it gave her an entree to talk about her youtube video “My Vag,” which, amusingly, caught a few people off-guard.
The Irishman and Marriage Story after the jump...
MARRIAGE STORY: The drama was okay, the comedy was gold. (It’s too bad there isn’t an acting award for someone who shows up in one scene and doesn’t say much, because Martha Kelly would totally win it.) The panel was Noah Baumbach, Laura Dern, Alan Alda (my hero), Ray Liotta, Azhy Robertson (all of nine years old), Julie Hagerty, Wallace Shawn and Kelly—who was so sweetly amazed that she was even a part of the panel. I have to say, I was a little turned off by Baumbach—who kept patting himself on the back about how balanced the story is. It’s not. It’s clearly from the male point of view—just like the other movie it keeps getting compared to, Kramer vs. Kramer (great movie, though). Most of it is told from the perspective of Adam Driver’s character, who is struggling to deal with curveballs thrown by his wife. (They created a life for themselves, for their son, in New York. Then she decides she wants to upend it all and go to L.A. to what—be in some ridiculous television show? You can sense Baumbach trying to be fair, but the characters’ actions speak for themselves.) It didn’t help that I’ve always found Scarlett Johansson to be kind of a wooden actress. Fun panel, though. In this one—and bear in mind, they try to keep the audience Q&A very short—someone asked each of the eight people to name their favorite line from the movie and their favorite line from any other movie they’ve been in. The only person who indulged in the second part was Ray Liotta, who barked “Fuck you, pay me.” (Fun fact: Ray Liotta’s cousin tutored me for the SATs! Okay, moving on…)
THE IRISHMAN: Physically, you feel the three and a half hours (boy, did my butt hurt)—but, emotionally, you don’t. It’s kind of miraculous, actually. He’s quite the storyteller, that Scorsese—even though this is less kinetic than his other gangster movies, you’re swept away nonetheless. I got a little tripped up by the young De Niro stuff—maybe because we all know what De Niro looked like in his 30s, and that ain’t it. The face stuff is okay, but he still has the body of a 76-year-old man. De Niro has some wonderful moments in the film (including a phone call scene that will probably get him the Oscar nomination), but might it have made more sense to cast a younger actor and then age him up? Because the old-age stuff they do on De Niro and Pesci—I don’t know if it’s digital or makeup, that’s how good it is—is amazing.
And speaking of Pesci, the crowd was absolutely rapturous (they clearly missed him). They cheered when he came on screen, when his name came up at the end, and every time the panel mentioned him. (He was not there. But almost everyone else was: De Niro, Pacino, Ray Romano, Bobby Cannavale, Anna Paquin, Jesse Plemons.) This was certainly one of the looser, more enjoyable panels I have been to; De Niro was his usual taciturn self, but Pacino was a hoot (he’s clearly enjoying himself these days…have you seen him on Inside the Actors Studio, interviewed by Ellen Burstyn?) and Romano was practically doing stand-up. (While referring to the fact that Scorsese had been trying to get the film made since 2007: “I’m glad it took that long. Otherwise, I’d never have been cast in it. In 2007, I was working at a Bed Bath & Beyond.” No, Ray, in 2007, you were a multi-millionaire whose super-successful sitcom had already been off the air for two years. But okay.) Oh…and stupid SAG question alert: Someone got up and asked De Niro which movie of his is his favorite. What is this, 'Entertainment Tonight'? Anyway, he said Raging Bull…and this one.
Reader Comments (28)
Yes more please,this was very fascinating to know what goes on behind the scenes and how well things are received in the room.
I never knew Pesci was so beloved.
Joe Pesci was quietly dignified but also kind of scary in "The Irishman." His was my favorite performance in the film. "The Irishman" felt very restrained but I have thought of it often since seeing it, so it really does stick with you.
We need more about this. Maybe about Bombshell movie. Please and Thank you.
A fascinating article.
I too have missed Pesci - it's lovely to see him in The Irishman, and I thought he was absolutely terrific in it. He has some facial reactions that speak volumes without a word of dialogue. Movie acting at its finest.
One curious comment, though: "It’s too bad there isn’t an acting award for someone who shows up in one scene and doesn’t say much, because Martha Kelly would totally win it." There is. It's called Best Supporting Actress!
mark -i was also surprised to hear about these feelings for Pesci. I never quite understood his career/fandom
Me neither Nat I know he has 1 iconic role and a few other performances like Raging Bull but it his filmography is quite patchy.
Love this, though I disagree on a few things!
Sorry to hear that the writer generally finds Johansson wooden, because I found her to be absolutely luminous in Marriage Story.
Also, I'm Asian and The Farewell wrecked me, so I don't agree with the writer's comment regarding emotions being "curiously muted." At least in regards to my own family (immediate and extended) and my own upbringing - we were taught to internalize and not to wear our emotions on our sleeves. So I think that The Farewell's impact lies within that push/pull of emotion maintainance and tragic life event. Very fundamental to the film, imo!
Pesci was fantastic in The Irishman - the love is so very deserved!
Maybe the "Home Alone" effect with Pesci?
I also felt that "The Farewell" was muted, and I work with a lot of Asians, who are all about Family. Can't someone have an emotion bigger than "smothered"?!?!?
More, more, more please!
Allen - completely agree. The muted aspect of the emotions (dialogue, tone, acting) are what made it so real, lived-in, and powerful. I 100% don't understand that critique.
I'm definitely interested in more of these. This was a fun read, it's nice to have some insight to these screenings.
Oh okay, this is like an offshoot of those "Brutally Honesf" ballots for the Emmys and Oscars. Interesting read. Don't agree with much of it, but interesting all the same. Scarlett is not a "wooden actress" and was positively luminous in "Marriage Story," BTW.
I never knew Pesci was so beloved.
Home Alone and his contribution to the Lethal Weapon franchise is definitely a legacy that induces nostalgia. And I for one appreciated his 90s headlining gigs.
Hmmm.... now we know why Marisa Tomei REALLY won the Oscar for My Cousin Vinny....
JOE PESCI!! lol
I agree with /3rtful (and I hope it's the real one!):
I think it's that Pesci had a succession of roles in the late 80s and early 90s that made a large impact: Lethal Weapon 2, Home Alone, GoodFellas, JFK and My Cousin Vinny - they were all in the space of four years. I think that given he's been retired, his reapparancce reawakens some nostalgic fondness for those earlier films.
Plus he is a veteran now - and his performance in The Irishman is all the more surprising for being low-key; if he was swearing and killing the way he did in GoodFellas and Casino I don't think the love would be as strong.
So I think it's a mixture of his return after an absence from the screen, his performance in the new film...and some 90s nostalgia coming through (and there's going to be a lot more of that over the next few years!).
Hi, I wrote this piece...Glad you guys enjoyed it. Thought I'd jump into the conversation.
Allen, Sean - It's certainly very possible to get emotional from watching characters who are not emotional (there's something very sad about not being able to,or not feeling free to, express emotion). Look at The Remains of the Day (written, perhaps not coincidentally, by a Japanese author). But that's a huge bar to clear as an actor, and I'm not sure Awkwafina (as likable as she is) did it. But obviously you guys saw something in it that resonated with you. Makes me want to see it again!
This insider perspective is fascinating. Perhaps it's Pesci v. Pacino at the end, with Pitt on the outside looking in.
I really wanted to love Marriage Story but I think it's a movie that's hard to. Definitely appreciate the performances - they're aces all around. Maybe I just need some feel good. Hopefully it's A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood to the rescue.
I asssumed from the 1st reviews Marriage Story was winning a lot of awards but i'm seeing more and more people calling it out on some aspects Johansson's acting,the bias with the story siding with Driver and the sitcomy on the nose comedy.
I love this sort of inside reports. It helps me understand the shitty awards we usually get.
I already know I'm going to be contrarian with this year's awards if Marriage Story takes up a lot of real estate, because I'm in the minority who hated it, who hated how unfair the movie was to Johansson's character, who grows to hate it more when I hear Baumbach constantly pat himself on the back for making it "balanced." In what universe is a divorce story written from the male character's perspective balanced? Not this one, and certainly not this movie.
And while Johansson's acting has grown on me, I also don't see the big deal here with her performance. She has had huge wooden patches in her career -- she could have built 1000 houses post Lost in Translation with her woodenness. Then she had that brilliant patch of Her, Under the Skin, and Don Jon and I began to look forward to some of her movies. Marriage Story is certainly in her higher of performances, though not to the level of the 3 mentioned above. I would like to see the rest of the candidates before she makes my top 5.
Loved this, although it made me worried that THE FAREWELL will - unsurprisingly - get left behind by the newer, shinier objects this season.
The Writer -- i totally get what you're saying. That does take an actor with intensely precise abilities and I agree that Awkwafina is maybe not quite that kind of actor... but I do love the movie!
The Coda to The Farewell is a copout and destroys whatever point it was trying to make, but oh how crowd-pleasing.
I loved this piece, thank you!
For me, Marriage Story is a solid 3.5 out of 5. I think Frances Ha is one of the best films of the decade and The Meyerowitz Stories should have been an Oscar player two years ago, so I had very high expectations for this movie, which I thought was a middling entry in the Baumbach filmography. I agree that Scarlett is often wooden. Driver is terrific and would be a great Best Actor winner, but the film is definitely biased toward his character (imagine how the film would feel if the father left for LA to star in a sitcom and the mother remained in NY, with all of Driver's scenes... there would be so little story there because the father would be so unsympathetic).
I have posted this before but with each passing day I feel Scarlett is not getting nominated for Marriage Story. Thoughts?
Somewhat horrified to hear that Anna Paquin only speaks 6 words in this entire 3 1/2 hour Scorsese ‘epic.’ Somehow I thought that having the plum Supporting Actress role would return her to an adult nomination. The reality seems to be that extras in the film probably have more speaking time...
Sounds like Nathaniel and Guest Contributor are well acquainted. All those awards dinners and showings are paying off. Get it girl!!!
http://thefilmexperience.net/blog/2019/10/31/101-days-til-oscar-how-will-disneys-fare-fare.html
I think she's very good in it, and the film is really good. But I can't see it as anything akin to a great film. I'm surprised that it's lasting this deep into the awards season.
Either there is more to come, or it's a week year. I don't think there's anything else that can keep her in the hunt. Even if the film -and her in particular- have admirers, I don't see it having the love or the hype or the support in general to carry it that far.
I will say that the film's emotional impact is cumulative. It does get to a point where the pent up emotions start to weigh, and it is a very good performance by Akwafina. I just don't see it as reaching those levels.