Defamer
For all its confectionery imagery, Christina Ricci scene-stealing and the few other things Speed Racer gets right, it still faces a box-office false start that could make Leatherheads look like a hit in comparison. We sketched a few of the hurdles here yesterday (number one being its own studio's resignation to its underachievement), but at this point there's only one that counts: Larry and Andy Wachowski need to climb out of their hole.
It might be self-serving of us to suggest they publicize their films, and in a way, we empathize with their reclusion; Larry Wachowski has been the subject of sex-change and dominatrix-dating speculation since a feminized version of himself — earrings, plucked eyebrows, manicure — showed up on the Matrix Revolutions red carpet in Cannes five years ago with mistress Ilsa Strix (née Karen Winslow) on his arm. The siblings later sneaked into the New York premiere of V For Vendetta (which they wrote and co-produced), and last week in Los Angeles they went positively presidential with subterfuge at the debut of Speed Racer. "They did not do the red-carpet press line at the Nokia Theatre on Saturday, and were well-camouflaged during the after-party," wrote Borys Kit in The Hollywood Reporter. "Photographers were sworn to secrecy as to their whereabouts, and Warner Bros. assigned handlers the mission of keeping journalists off the scent."
Like it matters; the Wachowskis haven't granted an interview in the decade since The Matrix, deferring to mega-producer and de facto representative Joel Silver and their casts to flog their work publicly. Their crews sign non-disclosure agreements. The duo's contracts entitle them to a luxury rarer than final cut — an opt-out provision shielding them from the promotion of their films. It's Stanley Kubrick/Terrence Malick/Eric Rohmer stuff, but with one crucial exception: Their films aren't that good.
Or at least they haven't been in nearly 10 years; Speed Racer is no different. But what is good about it are the things to which only they can speak — the practice of reinventing the source cartoon, the relationship of vision to execution, the extraordinary scene transitions eschewing cuts for something closer to a scrolling-head montage (like "bullet-time," you just have to see it), or, on the most basic of levels, directing a standout cast (and even a goddamned monkey) against one green-screen backdrop after another. Unlike Iron Man or Warners' even more anticipated summer offering The Dark Knight, the brands work in concert with personalities to acquire traction. Emile Hirsch's abstract praises are not enough.
Warner Bros. faced the similar scenario with Kubrick for nearly three decades, covering the director's final five films from A Clockwork Orange through Eyes Wide Shut. Obviously, his death in March 1999 put a pretty irrevocable kibosh on promoting the latter film, but he did speak out from time to time about the intervening work; his daughter Vivian's behind-the-scenes documentary about The Shining was a broadcast TV event in 1980, and he did a few select interviews in 1987 on behalf of Full Metal Jacket. Moreover, he was always involved with people — actors, writers, other filmmakers — and his 15 years of work prior to his British exile in the late '60s had installed him permanently among the world cinema vanguard.
Not so for the Wachowskis, a couple of ex-carpenters from Chicago whose one-two dynamos Bound and The Matrix boosted expectations from 1996 to 1999. Their work since has lapsed into the type of indulgence that further evokes itself in those clauses guaranteeing their immunity to press, and by extension, their audience. That audience has had nothing to latch onto for too long now; no taut narratives, no singular parallel universes and certainly no visual benchmarks that can and/or should speak for themselves. Their self-containment borders on alienating, their aloofness sharing breath with its conjoined twin, arrogance.
As the most public recluses working today (and at the highest budgets), their godfather Silver can only buy the Wachowskis their privacy for so long — especially as another of their putatively visionary summer efforts meets diminishing returns in a culture craving voices with faces and faces with names. If the Viral Era has taught us anything, it's that every mystery needs a payoff, and you have to earn your mystique if you expect to exploit it.
[Photo Credits: Wireimage, Getty]
Comments
Vlad hypothesizes and I concur:
The Wachowskis are the guys who you bring in to do the awesome action sequence.
Otherwise, they can't handle plot or dialog for shit.
This post is bullshit. Nobody gives a fuck about these guys. Wait, amend that. Nobody outside of LA gives a shit.
Even if they were in every paper giving the full court press, their boring movies is the problem, not their reclusive natures.
The Wachowskis should not EVER be mentioned in the same breath as Kubrick. If you look around, you'll see he did quite a few interviews and was not the "weird recluse" people made him out to be. And it's time Eyes Wide Shut get its due. Anyone who followed his work knows it's a great film.
@GoodEmployee: agreed - no one cares about them and Speed Racer looks doomed to fail to Iron Man's 2nd big weekend.
I still don't understand how the Matrix was so good and everything else so terrible. Just a fluke, I guess ...
All comments/perspectives aside, I felt like I was reading a magazine article. Well done.
Christ, that bottom picture. They look just like very Matrix superfan I've ever met.
@Brock: Bound was good. I figure the success of the Matrix went to their heads.
@Mel Gibstein: I agree, and I said as much in the piece. At least up to the part about EWS, which I still can't decide on 10 years after seeing it.
In life's rich pageant I think it's refreshing that these guys shun media attention.
Let'em do their thing I say.
Speed Racer is going to get stomped so bad the Wachowski's grandchildren (if any) will be feeling the pain.
I hope that the stomping giant Iron Downey Robot will spare Christina Ricci, however.
Have her oiled and brought to my tent.
@Mel Gibstein: If it's a great film, shouldn't you be able to tell that without looking at the credits? Or without watching 12 other great movies?
@GoodEmployee: You're exactly right. If you need press action to open your movie, then hire someone bigger than Emile Hirsch. (Plus, your movie probably stinks.)
@Mel Gibstein: He was a weird recluse and Eyes Wide Shut remains the same failure it was when it was release. At best time will allow it to be seen as the comedy it was originally intended to be.
But no one really gives a shit if the director promotes a film or not. The biggest problem with this promotion is THEY DON'T USE THE FUCKING SPEED RACER THEME SONG! You're mining memories and you're not using, the easiest, biggest trigger you have. Sigh. Morons.
Nice work, STV.
The only thing I can think of to add is that if I had a film, let alone a big-budget major release, I would do every single interview and red carpet I could to talk about it. That's living the dream, man.
Scenario: Pretty boy sub-par actor in a special effects-driven summer "cross-your-fingers" blockbuster that looks rather flat from the previews besides potentially breathtaking visuals.
Movie: Keanu ("Whoa") Reeves as Neo in the original Matrix. Which knocked everybody's socks off.
No me gusta.
Kubrick is a hit or a miss with me. EWS was a big miss.
The Wachowskis are fine. V was awesome and I don't expect to have to see the directors/producers/writers schilling their work. They can be as reclusive as they like and it's not going to affect my wanting to see their movies. I don't understand the hate unless you're a fanboy of Speed Racer (which excuses your hate because from what I understand, it'd *never* have lived up to your expectations).
What I'd like to see next is an original idea by those two.
This piece is great. I'm still suprised by everyone's predicitions that Speed Racer is going to tank, though. I've always been under the impression that it had a budget somewhere around 100 million (not huge, for a huge summer movie), and even if it's no Iron Man in the U.S. , it has insane international appeal.
Wait. That's a GUY?
This is well written. But I find a major flaw in your argument. You're suggesting that Speed Racer is doomed to fail because its directors won't publicize it. Yet, Warners is pitching this as a family film... so wouldn't it be better for business to keep a possible tranny as far from it as possible?
@TurdBlossom: Whatever, Turd. Gotta problem with that?
@extracrispy: The thesis I get is "Everyone is saying that this movie is going to bomb but the directors can actually help that from happening so they should."
If I were making a movie from a cartoon I would want to, at the very least, begin with a good cartoon. Is that an oxymoron? Maybe not.
Cashing in on Boomer Nostalgia is easy money when it works. Unfortunately for the Wachowskis Speed Racer does not look like it's going to work.
I disagree. I don't think most people really care if directors hawk a film or not. They see a trailer and decide whether they will see the movie or not.
Speed Racer and Iron Man are the only two movies I plan on seeing this summer. Batman has been done to death. I have no interest in the Hulk. Indiana Jones is 20 years too late. Wall-e might get seen on video. I'm not even sure what the rest of the movies coming out are.
Then again, I thought Hudson Hawk was a great movie, so what do I know.
I don't care what any director or producer has to say about any film. It's the song, not the singers.
Who gives a crap? They're all so phony anyways...if they were truthful, it might be more interesting: "well, I came up with the idea for this scene when I was in Malibu doing blow with some lesbian dwarf strippers..."
Speed Racer will probably be a stinker on its own merits.
@extracrispy: I see what you're saying. It is very kid-friendly, but it's not a "kids movie" the way, say, Beverly Hills Chihuahua is a kids movie. There's a level of sophistication in their approach that demands public reckoning, and that discussion starts in the press. Or if they wanted to do it themselves and control the whole thing online, that could work. Their silence is not enough support for a film -- their film -- that doesn't sell itself. At least not at these prices.
The Wachowskis have somehow managed to turn themselves into a brand, despite doing not a single thing in the public eye in 10 years. As they continue to refuse to do a single thing to acknowledge their fans, they will lose that brand identity. And as they continue to make terrible movies, they will lose all their audience.
Speed Racer is a shiny mess. Iron Man will clobber it.
Maybe they're concentrating on their new post-production studio in Chicago.
I live a mile away & it's taking forever to finish this thing, some parts still have plywood covering the doors & windows. The signs make no mention of what it's going to be, but have green building designations on it.
[www.suntimes.com]
@STV: Gotcha. The kids pitch for this movie has always confused me. Maybe that unclear audience is what ultimately may doom it.
Personally, I'd be more excited for it if was rated R and full of trannies.
It's very sad to think people who just RAPE the anime universe and pretend they invented it all are given any respect or privileges.
They are not directors in my book and produced nothing original at all really.
Having said that, the only admiration for them I have is they are pushing boundries in terms of anime effects in real life films.
But then only because Silver gives them the time of day.
Ever seen the film SOCIETY?
I can see Silver and them in full orgy sucking each other's juices.
At least have the vision to hire some damn decent writers for god's sake. It's about emotion in the end not effects.
I can't believe people are comparing these nutjobs to KUBRICK. That is herecy.
I've read four reviews of Speed Racer so far, all liked it(and all not just the look, but emotion as well). So i'm definitely going to have to give it a shot.
I like the idea of directors not being too public. Good for them. Although, one turned into a chick, so maybe that was the studio/publicists idea.
Big box office or not, Speed Racer looks like nothing but fun times at the theatre.
Sorry guys, I like their movies. Matrix knocked my socks off and I enjoyed V greatly. Everything I've seen about Speed Racer looks amazing and I don't care if the Wachowskis want to promote it or not. So far my only question is whether to see it on Friday after work or Saturday.
It will probably come in second, behind Iron Man, but I see no stigma to that. Coming in second to a great movie should be praised, not looked at as a failure.
@Macloserboy: BTW I remember one of the trailers having the music from the Speed Racer intro. It was updated and modernized, because the original sucked balls, but it was recognizable.
maybe they just dont like the press. and at least they're taking chances with their movies and doing something strange and exciting-- even if they stumble once in a while, i'd prefer they continue to push genre and style limits instead of just phoning in standard blockbuster crap. at least their crap can still offer audience members a unique experience.
@TurdBlossom: Yes, still. Technically.
This is a kids movie. Remember that. It doesn't need beat Iron Man this weekend. It needs to open well and have legs. As with most films, the real profit is going to be worldwide.
@Rey: No, I thought it was Mrs Chokesondik from SouthPark.
@brechtgirl:
indeed, BOUND is an underrated gem. with extra points for Jennifer Tilly
i wonder what a Quentin Tarantino SPEED RACER would be like
@wolfsunfire: Yeah, I've seen that commerical too. Once. All the other, not a trace of one of the most recognizable aspects. And isn't Matthew Fox on one of the hottest TV shows on the planet? No mention of him and obviously his face is hidden.
But I think it will be fine. Doesn't every new blockbuster knock the previous week's blockbuster out of number one? The real problem here is Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher pulling a female audience that most likely saw Iron Man last week.
Joel is giving these guys the life and levity that Troy Duffy wanted from Harvey, but was too stupid to maintain.
If I was the brothers, I'd have fresh cut flowers and chocolate chip muffins on Silver's desk every morning.
While I know it's been "disproven" I still believe they stole the first Matrix script from Sophia Stewart, or whomever.
It's the only explanation that rationalizes the disparity between how great the first one is, and how shitty the other two turned out.
Oh man; what I wouldn't give to hear Kubrick's read on Tommy "Wrestler" Cruise, now that we know what we know..
I see a few reasons for this being a success in the range of $50-60 mil opening weekend:
1) It's the Wachamacallem Brothers. They have a following.
2) Iron Man has set it off in a big way and I think people are in the mood to go back to the theater to see big movies. Speed Racer is definitely one of them.
3) The Speed Racer cartoon is well known.
4) It's getting good/decent reviews.
5) It looks fun and it's aimed at a broad demographic IMO. Kids, teens, adults can all get down with this.
6) No one cares whether the Wachamacallem Brothers do publicity or are ever seen for that matter, and I think a large part of their audience likes it that way.
@Benovite: Hold the phones. Where is this getting good reviews?
Metacritic has a 38 score.
RT has it at 35%.
And even the fresh reviews have quotes like:
"You might admire it as a Warholian blur of pop art, gawp and gasp at its Hot Wheels-for-real dynamism, or get a headache."
"Reminds me of Mario Kart."
"... The Wachowskis have created a blast of pure pop family fun; Speed Racer's a bright, bold visual spectacle designed for kids."
Not exactly enticing.
The Wachowski Bros. have a cult following (my cousin is a member) that will last long despite their media-shyness. I agree that they can't be compared to Kubrick - they lack a signature style on-screen and could you imagine the Matrix movies being studied and admired three decades from now?
@sicksteanein: I would go see "Mario Kart: The Movie", but that's just me...
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