Screen Grabs: Institutions

If you work in the entertainment industry long enough, there's a good chance you'll either become an institution or belong in one. Oliver Stone, who could fit into either category, is rushing to finish a movie about George W. Bush, about whom you could say the same, before the current President loses his job next January. According to Stone, the film, which may reach theaters by fall, will seek to answer the question, "How did Bush go from being an alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world?" (But, like FOX News, it will also be fair and balanced.) Considering that Stone has already made films called JFK and Nixon, it comes as little surprise that this one will be called W—though "The Decider" might have been a snappy alternative. In an article entitled "Daddy Issues and War Lust", ABC News claimed an exclusive script review, but some of the plot details—for instance, "Axis of Unbearably Odious" as one proposed alternative to "Axis of Evil"—as well as the April 1 publication date had some people calling bullshit, while others were delighted by the possibility that Stone might be making an absurdist cartoon. However, another script review, which appeared to be referring to the same source, played it straight. If legs are not being pulled however, perhaps Stone is one institution truly in need of institutionalization.

Another filmmaking institution who has come perilously close to being put in an institution was in the news this week—that would be the great director Roman Polanski, whose 30-year-long end-run around the American prison system is the subject of the new documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, which made a strong impression on many people at Sundance. The story wasn't so much the film, as it was the sneaky way HBO released it, as an end-run around the new Oscar eligibility rules for nonfiction films. As one observer predicted would happen when the cable network acquired the film at Sundance, Wanted and Desired received a token one-week theatrical release on two obscure screens in Manhattan and Pasadena, with zero publicity, qualifying it for Oscar consideration while protecting its cable broadcast premiere in June. Rants ensued, and many were pleased to see Manohla Dargis call HBO's bluff and review the film anyway in the New York Times.

Speaking of film reviewing, the critic who became an institution, Roger Ebert, announced plans to return to full-time movie reviewing despite his ongoing battle with cancer which has left him unable to speak. First, though, he'll mount his annual film festival—formerly Overlooked Films, now simply Ebertfest—featuring a wide of array of noteworthy films both new and old, including the just-opened Shotgun Stories (TFF '07). Unfortunately, Ebert's musings nearly 20 years ago about the purpose of film criticism also seemed very relevant last week, as the much-discussed firing of Village Voice film critic Nathan Lee—and Lee's own ensuing remark that he is looking for work, "though presumably not as a staff film critic as such jobs no longer appear to exist"—led others to ponder once again the state of contemporary film criticism.

Finally, what happens when institutions collide? Two of the biggest in music and film do so tomorrow, when Martin Scorcese's Rolling Stones documentary, Shine a Light, will open in theaters and set a record for number of IMAX screens showing a movie. The Stones were on hand for the film's London premiere earlier in the week, where Mick Jagger, in a bout of institutional humility, remarked, "When you see it on a big screen, it's a bit strange!" Does that mean he missed Gimme Shelter, Cocksucker Blues, Performance, and Freejack, and has he never caught a glimpse of himself prancing around on the Jumbotron at a giant sports stadium? Reviews have been very positive, though the film has sparked some moralizing finger-wagging, not to mention some lamentations about the Stones' choice to self-censor their lyrics to earn a PG rating. As the presence of Bill Clinton in the audience of the performance documented in the film makes clear, these certainly aren't the danger-courting Stones of yore, but they haven't been in quite some time—Keith Richards is even settling in to write an autobiography. Anyway, as history shows, institutions that don't evolve tend not to stick around.