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Rob Thomas Closes the Matchbox and Strikes with Fire

Roger Friedman
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rob thomas263x300Rob Thomas (left), who leads superstar rock band matchbox twenty, isn’t considered edgy because he’s been married for ten years, doesn’t get into the tabloids, is a sober, eminently likeable, dedicated musician and gifted songwriter. He hasn’t sniffed up a relative’s ashes, or fallen out of a tree, or run off with a girl half his age. What can you do?

Still, Thomas hit the Beacon Theater in New York for the first of three sold out shows, and the result was pop and rock craftmanship of the highest order. To be edgy, he added the virtuoso pedal steel guitarist Robert Randolph‘(below right) on two numbers, and notched up the pop sensibilities of his tight band to sizzling Hendrix level wah wah. I hope a clip of them attacking Jimi H’s “Voodoo Child” winds up on YouTube soon.

Thomas’s new solo album, “Cradlesong,” was on display fully, with his gorgeously melodic “Someday” and rockers like “Fire on the Mountain” and “Give Me the Meltdown” designed to show that he’s not just another pretty face in pop.

But pop is what Thomas does best. His songs are three minute confections, they are complex and yet full of hooks that fall somewhere between Elvis Costello and Squeeze when he’s on the money. For an American songwriter, that’s saying a lot. He eschews bombast, and looks for wordplay and economy. When the songs are in your head, they’re not coming out so easily.Robert Randolph262x300

“Someday” is at once personal and public, an anthem and a secret promise. It follows a matchbox twenty song from last year that was not in last night’s show called “These Hard Times.” I fell in love with a song from the new album last night called “Getting Late” that’s so simple and effective you wonder why someone didn’t write it before. Another “CradleSong” track, “Still Ain’t Over You,” also surprised me ‘ it’s kind of hidden on an album full of hits. Back in the day, when you constantly said about an artist, “He sings that, too?” it was a good sign. Rob Thomas is like that, full of good signs. If you’re in New York this weekend, good luck trying to get tickets, but try ‘ these shows are the end of a tour before Thomas goes back to write some new matchbox songs.

Here’s a clip of Rob Thomas and Alicia Keys covering Bill Withers’ “Use Me” on an awards show.

Robert DeNiro: “Everybody’s Fine” and So Is He In New Film

Roger Friedman
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You may recall I reported some weeks ago that there was positive buzz about Robert DeNiro in “Everybody’s Fine.” There was even some talk after years of making comedies and formula police dramas that DeNiro could be nominated for an Oscar.

And now, I am happy to say, I was right.

You should have been in the Dolby 24 screening room yesterday to hear the sniffles and tears from a bunch of hardened movie critics. But there it is: DeNiro is so moving in “Everybody’s Fine,” a family drama from the now lame duck Miramax, that he will most certainly be in the mix for Academy Award nomination and awards from other groups as well. You’ll need a nice little packet of Kleenex tissues or a good sleeve for this one.

“Everybody’s Fine” could have devolved into absolute shmaltz. At its worst, I feared “About Schmidt” mashed up with “The Family Stone.” But British director Kirk Jones, who has “Nanny McPhee” and “Waking Ned Devine” on his resume, has managed to rein in the the potentially worst aspects of his own story, based on an Italian movie. Luckily, no one dies or gets cancer in this film ‘ I was so glad when DeNiro’s Frank, the widowed father of four adult children, announces that early on.

So what’s up with Frank? Recently widowed, he’s trying to connect with his children after letting his late wife be the liaison between parents and kids. And Jones has set up a nice metaphor: lack of communication and the fact that Frank worked encasing millions of miles of phone wire with copper.

Sam Rockwell, Kate Beckinsale, and Drew Barrymore play three of the four children, and each is well cast and perfectly matched with DeNiro. They are all “fine,” professionals whose lives seem good on the surface but are nuanced with normal problems ‘ only they’ve been afraid to confide these real issues to their father. None of the problems is earthshaking. Rather it’s the way they interact with their dad that stands out.

DeNiro is in nearly every frame, and he’s just outstanding. There’s none of the “Fockers” nonsense, even when he’s working in scenes with a baby or a teenager. Maybe he found something in his relationship to his own late father, the artist whose name he carries, but DeNiro feels more invested in “Everybody’s Fine” than he has in any film since maybe “Marvin’s Room” or before. He almost reminded me of Spencer Tracy: refined, elegant, wise. Now new generations will want to reconsider DeNiro, and see why we have considered him one of the handful of great actors of his generation. Whatever qualms there might be about the conventional nature of the film, it’s DeNiro’s command of it that turns Jones’s film into something of a greater mission.

So add Robert DeNiro to that list of formidable potential Best Actor nominees. It’s getting mighty crowded!

P.S. Just one observation about the house Kate Beckinsale lives in in this movie: this is real estate porn, that’s all I can say. No one can be unhappy living in this house. I am moving right in!

One more thing: it will be wild in the DeNiro household this winter. His wife, Grace Hightower, one of our favorite people , not only has a small role in “Precious,” but a great song ont that movie’s soundtrack as well!

“Hurt Locker”� Number 6 of 10 Best Picture Nominees

Roger Friedman
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Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker” is this year’s worst nightmare for advocates of the 10 Best Picture nominee program.

Those people probably hoped “Star Trek,” “Up,” and “Harry Potter Does More Tricks” would make the balance of a list composed of indie films.

Instead, the one film everyone agrees is number 6 automatically is “The Hurt Locker,” a searing, sensational piece of filmmaking about a fictitious American bomb squad in Iraq, with starmaking performances by Anthony Mackie and Jeremy Renner.

(1 through 5? Just a guess: “Precious,” “Nine,” “Invictus,” “Up in the Air,” “An Education“).

Yesterday at lunch, “The Hurt Locker” got a Veterans Day salute at the 21 Club. It was supposed to be just an average celebration, with Bigelow and Mackie in attendance as well as screenwriter Mark Boal. A great group was in attendance too: Buck Henry, making a rare appearance in New York; plus Oliver Stone, producer Ed Pressman, Bob Balaban, Tovah Feldshuh, writer Eric Alterman, producer Fred Zollo, actor Bob Dishy, Dan Abrams, legendary WNBC newsman Gabe Pressman, the effervescent Toni Goodale, and so on.

There was a moving surprise though: our own Gerry Byrne, of the Nielsen Company, a former US Marine, introduced a Marine who’d been dining downstairs with some buddies. The Marine, a vet, spoke poignantly ‘ in his content and manner, because of many reconstructive surgeries ‘ about his harrowing tour of duty in this war. It was one of those revelatory moments. The Marine got a standing ovation, and “The Hurt Locker” felt all the more real because of it.

No, there will be no “Star Trek” or “District 9,” much as I loved them. More slots for Best Picture means more movies like “The Hurt Locker.” Wait, and see.

And by the way: another former US Marine, Harvey Keitel, was not in town for Veterans Day observances. Word is he’s filming secret scenes with Robert DeNiro for “Little Fockers.” It’s going to give the comedy a Scorsese kick.

Goodbye, Lou Dobbs, and Good Riddance

Roger Friedman
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So Lou Dobbs is gone from CNN. Goodbye, and good riddance. I freelanced on a show called “Biz Buzz” at CNNfn in the late 90s. Dobbs was abusive and totalitarian to everyone around him. When he left in 1999 for Space.com, no one cried. He was impossibly rude. When he left that time, no one cried.

More recently, Dobbs has lost his mind on CNN. He belongs squarely on Fox News or their little watched Business Network. His right wing opinions about immigration and just about everything else have helped him “jump the shark.” Like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Michael Savage, Dobbs foments hate. He has no connection to objective journalism. CNN scarcely has viewers now. The remaining ones won’t miss him.

The negative vibe of right wing broadcasting and print is taking a big hit these days, and why not? This week a fired New York Post editor sued the paper for sexual harrassment and wrongful termination. She alleges in her lawsuit that the editors at the Post told her they were going to “get” President Barack Obama. I am certain she is correct in this. In mid-March, in the same building, Fox News editors were told the exact same thing. It was relayed to me at lunch right after it happened, just before I was canned in April.

More Proof Only Streep and Clooney Are Working

Roger Friedman
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Here’s the rest of the proof that only Meryl Streep and George Clooney are working. Everyone else in Hollywood is just hoping to get a part in their movies.

To wit: Wes Anderson’s fabulous “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” a wonderful, charming, stop-action animated film in which Streep and Clooney play Mr. and Mrs. Fox. (Her name is Felicia) It’s the third film this season for Clooney, who also has “Up in the Air” and “The Men Who Stare at Goats.” It’s also the third for Streep, who already turned in “Julie and Julia” and has “It’s Complicated” coming up in December.

streep anderson 250x3001 More Proof Only Streep and Clooney Are WorkingStreep is so confused at this point that she went on and on about working with Stanley Tucci, from “Julie and Julia” when someone asked her a question at the party at Rouge Tomate on East 60th St. “What about Alec Baldwin?” I asked. Her eyes narrowed for a minute. “Oh yes, of course, Alec!” Who can keep all these films straight?

Meryl, by the way, said she wanted one thing at the party: a Tanqueray gin martini, dry. It was produced for her by yours truly. She really took two sips because she was so busy listening to everyone tell her how wonderful she is. At the actual screening, earlier, Wes Anderson announced, “The No. 1 ranked actress,” as if she were Martina Navratilova.

“Did you know you were ranked No. 1?” I asked her. “Oh, that’s just Wes,” she said. But come on, we all know better. A total stranger came up to her and started chewing Streep’s ear off about a play her daughter was doing that Meryl once did, yada yada yada. “I know that play,” Streep said. She listens patiently to each new’ person’s saga. “It was ‘The Idiots Karamazov.’ ”

“That’s right!” said the woman, who then extended her hand in friendship and said, “I’m Linda.”

“I’m Meryl,” replied Streep.

Elsewhere at the party, Bill Murray ‘ who plays a badger ‘ looked perturbed as he approached Anderson, co-writer Noah Baumbach, and Jennifer Jason Leigh. What was wrong? “Someone is bothering me,” he said mysteriously, then lightened up. Chef Mario Batali, Willem Dafoe and Jason Schwarzman, also voices in the film, were there, as was Rosie Perez, and a lot of nervous looking people associated with it.

Click here for an image gallery of the premiere.

Patricia Neal, the great actress and widow of Roald Dahl, who wrote the original book, told me she loved the movie, “Loved it,” she said. She’s 83 and a movie and theatre grande dame.

And she’s right. Somehow Wes Anderson’s knack for quirky characters just mixed perfectly with Dahl’s magical foxes. The whimsy of Anderson’s usual gang just meshes with Dahl’s creatures and tone. There is a plot ‘ and a villian (voiced by Michael Gambon, and the character of Mr. Bean seems a lot like Rupert Murdoch). But mostly it’s a story about family with a lot of zany characters. Of course Mr. Fox runs what is really a crime family, foxes on the run who occasionally knock over supermarkets. In between they have the same problems as humans ‘ in fact, they don’t seem to realize they aren’t humans.

Streep gets one of the best lines in the movie as she fends off a rat. Clooney is almost doing a parody of himself from an “Oceans” movie. Keep a close ear for Wally Wolodarsky, as Kylie, and Eric Anderson (Wes’s real life brother) as Kristofferson, Mr. Fox’s nephew.

“Fantastic Mr. Fox” is one of those kids’ movies that’s really for adults on many levels. Anderson has made sort of his “Wallace and Gromit,” a film that will really lift your spirits and engage you. It’s a shoo in for a nomination in Best Animated Feature, and may wind up besting Disney’s “Up.” I can’t wait to see it again.

P.S. Great soundtrack, usual, put together by Randall Poster. Lots of Beach Boys songs, and the usual rare gem ‘ this time, “Let Her Dance” by the Bobby Fuller Four.

Cirque du Soleil Wants Michael Jackson; “This Is It” Goes Gold After Two Weeks

Roger Friedman
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Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” companion album ‘ really just an album of hits ‘ sold a little over 200,000 copies last week and went gold. That means it’s sold over 500,000 copies in two weeks.

The really weird thing is that another greatest hits album from Jackson, “Number Ones,” sold about 33,000 copies, too. Are people just buying and rebuying the same songs? Hey, why not?

Meanwhile, some interesting news from the live performance front: Cirque du Soleil is heavily courting the Jackson estate for a Las Vegas-style show featuring Michael’s music. The Canadian-based company is said to be working hard to convince all the parties that they can do for Michael what they did for the Beatles with the “Love” show at the Mirage Hotel.

The money involved is said to be astronomical.

Right now, Cirque du Soleil is prepping an Elvis Presley show, “Viva Elvis,” which will start performances next month at the ARIA Hotel in Las Vegas. Once that show is off the ground, the Jackson estate will confer with the Cirque folks. Meantime, AEG Live is also hoping to get its “This Is It” show, featured in the movie, on tour in some way as well.

David Lloyd, “Perfect TV Comedy Writer,” Passes Away

Roger Friedman
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David Lloyd, the great TV comedy writer whose scripts included “Chuckles Bites the Dust,” has passed away. According to the Internet Movie Data Base, Lloyd worked on 33 episodes of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” as either the sole writer or executive story editor. His many solo installments included one of my favorites, in which Mary tries to throw a surprise birthday party for Lou Grant in her apartment.

Some of his other “MTM” classics included the shows with Eileen Heckart as Mary’s Aunt Flo, a career journalist who was Lou Grant’s match, and ones in which Lou helps Mary overcome sleeping pills to get some rest, Lou’s affair with Sue Anne Nivens and one in which Murray thinks he’s in love with Mary.’ I can remember as a teenager always waiting to see David Lloyd’s name on the MTM show credit because you knew it would be a good one.

Altogether, Lloyd seemed to carry the MTM stable of shows. He wrote for all of them: “Lou Grant,” “Rhoda” and “Phyllis.” He also wrote for “The Betty White Show.” He also wrote for “Cheers,” “Taxi” and “Frasier,” the latter where his son Christopher Lloyd was bylined. The result was 3 Emmy Awards. He also wrote one of the best “Cheers” episodes, in which the bar gang has to cater Woody’s wedding.

James L. Brooks, the co-creator of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Taxi” told me on Wednesday: “David was the perfect TV comedy writer. He wrote so much. You knew if he agreed to do your show, you had half the season.” Brooks said Lloyd especially liked writing for Betty White, who played Sue Anne, the nymphomaniac precursor to Rachel Ray. “He had a great laugh,” Brooks recalled. “But he also didn’t use an agent. He did his own negotiating, which unnerved everyone.” Lloyd, he said, often also did warm-ups for the shows.

Before he got into sitcoms Lloyd wrote hundreds of shows for Jack Paar, Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett, honing his comedy talents. By far, though, “Chuckles Bites the Dust“ is Lloyd’s most famous TV episode, and is still considered the benchmark for writing of any kind. Lloyd won many awards for the script which included two recitations of Chuckles’ signature line: “A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants.”

Brooks says that when the episode was played at Cannes at a TV convention, no one — especially the French — understood it. “We were all there. No one laughed. The only people laughing were us. We were on the floor laughing.”

For more on David Lloyd, see his friend and colleague Ken Levine’s posting.

Oscar Update: Jeff Bridges Joins the List for “Crazy Heart”

Roger Friedman
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Jeff Bridges doesn’t have an Oscar, which is without a doubt a terrible oversight. He’s been so good in so many films, from “Starman” to “The Big Lebowski” to “Winter Kills” and “The Fisher King”– and, of course, “The Fabulous Baker Boys.” Let’s just give him one already! (He’d be a good honoree for the National Board of Review, er, fans.)

Anyway, Bridges will be nominated for a film I saw yesterday called “Crazy Heart.” It’s Best Actor stuff, and he will now join a list I think will likely include Daniel Day-Lewis, Colin Firth, George Clooney and one other, maybe Morgan Freeman.

As usual Bridges is phenomenal as a broken down country singer-songwriter somewhere between Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash. His Bad Blake (that’s the character’s name) is one of those talented losers you have to love, and Bridges throws himself into the part with relish. Not only that, he sings and plays his own songs.

Here’s a clip from You Tube from the shoot, with Colin Farrell, yes Colin Farrell, as his co-star:

The thing about Bridges is that he makes it all look too easy. His Bad Blake actually seems real, and Bridges makes you feel every nuance of his being. It’s just great, great work.

“Crazy Heart” will likely also garner Best Song and Best Score nominations, and the Golden Globes can throw it into their Best Comedy/Musical category. I’m not sure that the Academy will give it a Best Picture nod though. “Crazy Heart” reads overall like “The Wrestler” with country music. This isn’t to say it isn’t good — it is — but it’s hampered by all-too-familiar story elements of a lovable disaster of a guy who can’t make relationships work, etc.

This doesn’t take away from Bridges or the rest of the cast. They are eminently watchable and the movie is one you will recommend over and over to friends. Farrell is just fine, albeit young, as the big hit singer for whom Bad Blake writes hits. Maggie Gyllenhaal is luminous as the put upon girlfriend. Among the supporting cast, though, Robert Duvall steals the show. There’s one lovely scene not to be missed of Bridges and Duvall in a rowboat. Duvall could get some attention for that. He rocks.

As for Jeff Bridges, give him some award already. He’s such a nice guy, a great actor (just like his brother and father) and he has a funny Web site worth checking out.

P.S. There’s a really good actor in “Crazy Heart” named Tom Bower. He’s also in “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans.” Like most journeyman actors, he has hundreds of credits and no one knows his name. He’s very good in both movies. I looked up his name because I was tired of saying, “Oh that guy!”

“2012″: Roland Emmerich Disaster Film Called “Ludicrous”

Roger Friedman
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I was not at the big all-media screening last night of Sony/Columbia’s “2012,” directed by Roland Emmerich. But my sources who saw it on both coasts had this to say, in unison: “It’s ludicrous.”

Surprise! A $200million-plus movie about the end of the world in which John Cusack is able to drive successfully through earthquakes and tsunamis ‘ what did we expect?

According to people who were at last night’s screenings, there is a lot of laughter where there shouldn’t be in “2012.” While the special effects and CGI look like lots of fun from the trailers and clips, you can tell that the story is inane. Now actual witnesses swear to it.

I won’t give away the ending, because, obviously, the characters have survived “the end of the world” so they can start anew ‘ and maybe work in a sequel. The word is that Danny Glover makes an unimpressive president, and the rest of the cast is unconvincing. An L.A. insider told me: “I can’t believe this movie will have ‘legs.’ Just one big weekend, and it’s over.”

Lucky for Sony, “This Is It” has turned out to be a good sized hit. That should soothe the pain of having to swallow millions if “2012″ turns out to be a bust. It does sound like a hoot, though, and I will definitely see it on Saturday afternoon. If ever a movie sounded like a good candidate for “talk back,” this is it, as they say.

Hey Jude: Hamlet Star “Finally Knows His Lines”

Roger Friedman
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Jude Law got a night off last night, and headed to the Waverly Inn for dinner with a couple of pals.

The star of “Hamlet” just missed the eatery’s owner, Graydon Carter, who’d been in earlier with his family. He also just missed the New York Post’s Cindy Adams and a gaggle of other media types who’d turned up for a cocktail engagement party for p.r. powerhouse Norah Lawlor and her fiancee, Jeffrey Bradford.

Jude dined with Simon Hammerstein, the flamboyant owner of New York’s hottest club, The Box, and a new theater district venture called Purgatario.

When Jude asked if I’d seen “Hamlet.” and I responded yes, he said, “Now that we’re here, I’ve finally learned my lines!” It was a joke.

He told me the play, which started in London, has now “recouped” its expenses. The actors are more relaxed. They still have performances through December 6th of “the Danish play.”

Law, who appears as Dr. Watson in “Sherlock Holmes” on screen next month, has no movies set up for shooitng once “Hamlet” takes his bow. “I’ll just take some time off and be with my kids.” he said.

Speaking of those kids ‘ they’ve seen Dad in “Hamlet” a couple of times. “My youngest son can quote the play,” said a proud Jude.

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