Posts Tagged ‘Taissa Farmiga’

Rules Don’t Apply

Director: Warren Beatty

Cast: Lily Collins, Warren Beatty, Alden Ehrenreich, Matthew Broderick, Candice Bergen, Annette Bening, Haley Bennett, Hart Bochner, Martin Sheen, Ed Harris, Alec Baldwin, Taissa Farmiga, Oliver Platt

Legendary actor Warren Beatty returns after an almost fifteen year screen absence with his Hollywood film Rules Don’t Apply as he deftly deconstructs the later years of Howard Hughes in Hollywood in the mid-1960’s.

If Martin Scorsese’s Oscar winning film The Aviator about reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes is the starting point then Rules Don’t Apply should be the bookmark on an extraordinary man whose legendary eccentricity almost exceeded his insurmountable wealth.

Unfortunately despite a handsome production design, Rules Don’t Apply should have garnered more critical acclaim than it got. The Warren Beatty film got released in the midst of Hollywood’s diversity debate and then to add to unwarranted attention Beatty and Bonnie and Clyde co-star Faye Dunaway got caught in one of the biggest live Television mix-up’s in Oscar history – the mistaken announcement of Best Picture at the 2017 Oscar Awards when they incorrectly announced that Damien Chazelle’s La La Land had won Best Picture when in fact Barry Jenkins’s film Moonlight walked away with the coveted trophy much to the world’s astonishment.

Personally I loved Rules Don’t Apply and have always been a fan of Warren Beatty’s work from his Robert Altman film McCabe and Mrs Miller opposite Julie Christie to his later work opposite his wife Annette Bening in Bugsy.

What really shines through in Rules Don’t Apply are the outstanding performances of the two young stars Lily Collins and Alden Ehrenreich who was so brilliant in the Coen brothers skit film Hail, Caesar!

Beatty’s performance as Howard Hughes is superb and he captures the idiosyncratic obsessive compulsive nature of the truly eccentric billionaire who invested his inherited Texan oil drilling wealth in films and aviation, even becoming acquiring a majority share in Trans World Airlines TWA. However, Hughes developed a severely debilitating obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) so aptly portrayed by both Beatty in Rules Don’t Apply and by Leonardo diCaprio in The Aviator. Howard Hughes’s OCD  caused his lifestyle to become increasingly erratic and reclusive.

Hughes’s continuous occupation with flying around the world, his bizarre womanizing and his globetrotting adventures are all perfectly captured in Rules Don’t Apply as the film’s action moves from California to Acapulco to Nicaragua and to London then back to Washington D. C.

With his immense wealth, Hughes hired dozens of would be starlets to come to L. A. and be in one of his films, all expenses paid including accommodation at lavish Hollywood Hills homes. Lily Collins plays Marla Mabry a pampered and conservative young girl who comes to Hollywood to be wooed by Hughes and star in one of his pictures. Her natural attraction for her dashing young chauffeur is clearly evident upon their first meeting. Alden Ehrenreich plays Frank Forbes, the young entrepreneurial chauffeur who immediately takes a fancy to the naive star-struck Marla.  Although both of these young people are living in the shadow of an eccentric billionaire who is supporting their stay in Los Angeles.

A bizarre love triangle develops between Marla, Frank and Howard Hughes, the latter being three times the age of the naïve young starlet who is seduced in a bungalow at the Beverley Hills Hilton after imbibing copious amounts of champagne.

Rules Don’t Apply has a fabulous and glamorous old fashioned charm which is conveyed throughout the film ably assisted with smooth direction by Beatty who also casts some veteran supporting actors including Martin Sheen (Apocalypse Now), Candice Bergen (Gandhi) and an excellent performance by Matthew Broderick (The Producers).

This Hollywood biopic which deconstructs the eccentric Howard Hughes gets a rating of 9 out of 10.

Essentially, Rules Don’t Apply about an extraordinarily bizarre billionaire makes for fascinating viewing. Highly recommended especially if viewers have seen The Aviator.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Hughes

The Bling Ring

Director: Sofia Coppola

Cast: Emma Watson, Leslie Mann, Katie Chang, Israel Broussard, Carlos Miranda, Georgia Rock, Taissa Farmiga, Gavin Rossdale

Italian American director Sofia Coppola’s latest film The Bling Ring explores the vacuous obsession with Hollywood celebrities by a group of Los Angeles teenagers whose desire for a trophy of their favourite star leads them to a string of audacious house burglaries of such celebrities as Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Victoria Secret model Miranda Kerr and boyfriend actor Orlando Bloom along with Megan Fox and The Hills TV star Audrina Partridge.

The Bling Ring based on real events that occurred in Los Angeles from 2008 to 2009 follows the drug fuelled gang of privileged teens as they literally raid the glorious closets of these hugely affluent stars, stealing designer purses, jewellery, clothing and accessories worth millions of dollars. These audacious closet raids were documented in an article by Vanity Fair entitled “The Suspects Wore Louboutins” by Nancy Jo Sales.

This is the selfie generation who boast of their daring exploits by taking selfie pictures on their Smartphone’s with the stolen bling at swish Hollywood nightclubs frequented by the real stars including Kirsten Dunst and Paris Hilton. They take drugs, seem immune to any form of parental guidance and post their fabulous exploits on all social media, which in the digital age leads eventually to their own downfall. In their pursuit of following these celebrities, the Bling Ring spearheaded by the cross dressing Marc played by Israel Broussard and Rebecca played by Katie Chang along with Nicki Moore played by Harry Potter star Emma Watson. Leslie Mann also stars as The Secret inspired home schooling Hollywood mom.

Coppola encapsulates the vanity of their exploits in a perfect shot of the group posing at a nightclub, with fist full of dollars, drugs and champagne, showing a generation that is not only materialistic but completely out of touch with the intrinsic value of money.

Naturally the victimized celebrities including Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton press charges and the Bling Ring are all eventually caught by the LAPD, with the loot discovered in their possession and they too like Lindsay’s glamorous and numerous court appearances have their time in the spotlight where all the main culprits are convicted of residential house burglary.

As in Coppola’s glorious examination of the excess of wealth in her Oscar winning film Marie Antoinette, as a director she holds a mirror to a celebrity obsessed society which seems destined to crumble, but never does. Even the prison sentences  in The Bling Ring make the juvenile offenders in to minor TMZ stars, showing that the pursuit of celebrity is relentless and is in itself a form of youth culture which will always thrive in an internet driven 21^st century Hollywood, where every Award show and contemporary film star is besieged by eager paparazzi both publicly and online.

The Bling Ring is frothy, vacuous and fabulous and audiences shouldn’t expect some sort of moral justification but a nuanced commentary on a celebrity culture that perpetuates its own obsessive and voyeuristic existence. A world that Coppola as daughter of famous film director Francis Ford Coppola (Apocalypse Now) must be so used to and has certainly influenced her impressive if slightly nonchalant recent films from Somewhere to The Bling Ring.

Naturally it helps that Sofia Coppola established her credibility early in Hollywood as a film director with the critically acclaimed film Lost in Translation. The Bling Ring does not match up to the initial high standard Coppola set for herself, but is equally relevant in 21^st century media frenzied Hollywood where such stars as Lohan and Hilton have become famous for being famous. The Bling Ring is recommended viewing for fashionistas and those who appreciate gorgeous closet raids!