Sam Elliott proves heroic in Brett Haley's pretty-good aging-actor drama, THE HERO

When isn't Sam Elliott good? Just about never, so far as TrustMovies can recall. This guy reliably turns in a relaxed, believable performance -- from the old days of Lifeguard and Mask to the new ones of I'll See You in My Dreams, Netflix's Grace and Frankie and the movie now opening around the country, THE HERO. Elliott may not be particularly versatile nor able/willing (or ever given the chance) to tackle heavy-duty dramatic roles, yet he is always a pleasure to view and listen to, given that deep, dark, delicious, can't-get-enough-of-it voice. In the new film from director and co-writer (with Marc Basch), Brett Haley -- the duo also collaborated on the above "Dreams" -- Mr. Elliott gets perhaps the role of his career so far: that of an aging actor facing the end of the road, career-wise and, considering his recent diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, living-wise, as well.

Haley (pictured at right) and Elliott (shown above and below, right) make good, smart fun of that voice, too -- from the opening scene as the actor does vocal take after unnecessary vocal take for a barbecue-sauce commercial right through to the finale. And yet, this role also allows the actor to stretch in new and unusual ways. Note the wonderful scene in which he and his drug-dealer/ex-actor pal, played with all sorts of fond, funny/sad notes by Nick Offerman (shown below, left) run lines for our hero's upcoming audition. You'll suddenly see, hear and be amazed at what that voice can actually achieve.

The movie itself, though perfectly entertaining and reasonably moving, is not quite up to the level of I'll See You in My Dreams, however. It bites off more than it can properly chew within its short time frame. The Hero gives Elliott's characters not just an ex-wife (Katherine Ross) and a new girlfriend (Laura Prepon, shown below, left) to deal with, as well as his dimming career and his newly discovered death sentence, but it also saddles him with an estranged daughter (played by the always capable Krysten Ritter). This last bit of baggage is simply too much.

The daughter character manages to get simultaneously too much time in the film and yet not enough to bring the character and situation to anything approaching real, non-clichéd importance. This is too bad because, with a little less, the movie might have been much more. (Another misstep is the manner in which Prepon's character excuses herself for using Elliott as fodder for her stand-up comedy routine: The use itself is certainly believable, but its too-easy aftermath is awfully "iffy.")

Still, along the way there are plenty of small but very juicy bits that build Elliott's character into someone real and troubled and certainly worth empathizing with. The actor inhabits this role with such easy-going relish and authority that he doesn't miss a trick. Nor is he -- not for a single moment -- unbelievable.

The filmmakers' use of the internet as a smart plot device works well, too, as does the character Mr. Offerman portrays. Despite some missteps, in all The Hero offers us intelligent entertainment while giving Mr. Elliott a role and a character, the likes of which he and we may not see soon, maybe ever, again.

From The Orchard and running just 96 minutes, after opening on both coasts last week the film will hit other markets this Friday, June 23. Here in South Florida, look for it to screen in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale at Regal's South Beach 18, CMX Brickell City Centre and the Cinepolis Grove 14 (with AMC's Aventura 24 and Sunset Place adding on the following Friday, June 30); in Broward County it will play The Classic Gateway on 6/23, with with Regal's Oakwood 18 adding on June 30; in Palm Beach County on 6/23 at the Regal Shadowood, Cinemark Palace 20 and Cinepolis Jupiter 14, with AMC's CityPlace 20, Movies of Delray, Movies of Lake Worth, Regal Royal Palm, Indian River 24 and Regal Treasure Coast Mall 16 adding on June 30. Wherever you live throughout the USA, to find the theater nearest you, simply click here.

Discover America's pre-eminent character actor in Sophie Huber's fine documentary HARRY DEAN STANTON: PARTLY FICTION

 

Seems like we've seen him a million times (though, according to the IMDB, the guy's made only 215 film and TV appear-ances). Yet Harry Dean Stanton -- who worked the first 16 years of his career as Dean Stanton, switched in 1971 to H.D. Stanton for a couple of films, and from 1972 onward graduated to the name we all know -- has become (with no particular ambition, I would suspect, to achieve this goal) the pre-eminent character actor in all of Hollywood. He's someone who is now known worldwide and whose appearance in a movie, while it cannot force that film to be good (The Mini-Skirt Mob, anyone?) almost guarantees it'll be worth seeing -- if only to discover what Mr. Stanton will do with his role in it.

In her new film (one that's almost indispensable, I think, for anyone who wants to know how to make an interes-ting documentary about an actor), HARRY DEAN STANTON: PARTLY FICTION, the actress/filmmaker Sophie Huber (shown at right) spends quite a bit of time with Mr. Stanton (below). The actor starts out the film by telling her that "I don't give anything away" and then soon asks, "How about silence?" But slowly, quietly, perhaps by beginning to trust, he starts to talk as she films. Before we know it we're neck-deep in Stanton-land, which turns out to be a pretty fascinating place, full of both buried sadness and overt strength, the reason for which we derive only hints -- from childhood, mostly failed female relationships, close male friends and an integrity regarding his profession that has consistently seen him through.

As expected, Huber has larded her film with some archival footage, mostly from various of his films, plus interviews with important directors -- Wim Wenders, David Lynch (below, left) -- who have worked with and clearly admire him immensely.

One of the things the movie makes clear, and that I either did not know or had totally forgotten, is how much music means to the actor, who turns out to be a fine singer, even now (he's in his 80s). Song has dotted his career throughout; remember Cisco Pike?

We get a clip of that film (above) -- one of those in which our guy was billed as H.D. Stanton and in which he co-starred with Kris Kristofferson -- as well as a nice duet between these two in more current times. It was Stanton, notes Kristoffwerson (below), "who got me my first part."

The leap an actor takes when he moves from character work to leading man can be frightening, and so it was with Paris, Texas, which catapulted Stanton -- not to "stardom" (that was never in the cards) but to greater prominence. One of the more interesting segments concerns all this. We see clips from this odd, rich movie and hear from Wenders, who directed it; Sam Shepard, who wrote it; and Stanton, who acted it. (That's Nastassja Kinski, below, who also starred in the film.)

The only other major and starring role I remember with Stanton is that in Repo Man (which arrived in the same year as Paris,Texas), which we also see here. His co-star in it was Emilio Estevez, who was riding high at the time and continued so for maybe a decade. I have nothing against Mr Estevez, but which man's work is now (and probably will be in perpetuity) remembered most?

We also see and hear from Deborah Harry, who looks fabulous and charms us as she probably did Stanton (and clearly, he her) and later from a young man named Logan Sparks, the actor's assistant who helps him practice lines for memory. Toward the end Stanton talks a bit about people like Nicholson and Brando, and we learn some more interesting stuff.

Style-wise, Ms Huber moves from present to past and from color to black-and-white (for some of the more current interviews) and back again, and she finds some impressionistic visuals to accompany Stanton's words and thoughts. Mostly though it's that face, craggy and deep, together with what the actor has to say, that holds us. Was H.D. ever a young man? Younger, of course, but even in the clips we see here, he always seems middle aged.

By its finale, the film has becomes something akin to spending quality time with a new friend who, in 77 minutes, you have gotten to know well enough to want to know better. Who, as Ethel Merman used to wonder, could ask for anything more?

Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction-- from Adopt Films -- opens this Wednesday, September 11, in New York City at City Cinemas Village East and in Los Angeles at Landmark's NuArt on Friday September 13. To view all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters, click here (and then click on the film itself).

Henry Jaglom's best? JUST 45 MINUTES FROM BROADWAY is waaaaay up there!

Families. Theater folk. Families full of theater folk (plus an outsider or two). Jews around a table. Quirkiness squared. These are often the ingredients of a Henry Jaglom movie, but I don't recall another piece of Jaglometry in quite a few years being this much fun, this well-made, and especially this well-written. Maybe ever.

Is it because JUST 45 MINUTES FROM BROADWAY is based (and pretty closely, I'd suspect) on Jaglom's own play produced for the legitimate stage that the screenplay is so clever and straight-forward (gheesh: you could practically call this a "well-made play")? I'd say so. Dialog is much more important in legitimate theater than it often is in film, and the dialog here -- compared to what we sometimes get from this creative but maybe not-terribly-disciplined filmmaker, shown above right -- is authentic, smart, funny and moving, and then made real by his well-chosen actors, who tear into his script with everything they've got.

They're got a lot. This is by far the best cast I've seen in a Jaglom movie in a long time, and even though many of them are more-or-less regulars in his stable -- from David Proval to Diane Salinger, Harriet Schock, Michael Emil and his latest muse, Tanna Frederick -- each actor absolutely owns the role. Their intentions are clear, their charisma is in full swing, and perhaps because many of them must have also performed the role on stage (projecting their voices well), we barely miss a single word of dialog.

In fact, the film -- a kind of Royal Family, low-end version -- is an ode to actors (it begins with a dedication to them, and to the families who have not abandoned them), but it doesn't gloss over their faults or make them seem like god's gift to the rest of us suckers. Further, the outsider here (Betsy, one of the family's two daughters) is no piker in the mix. As played by the wonderful Julie Davis (above, left, and herself a noted film director), Betsy is given an abundance of smarts, feeling and caring -- even if all this often comes out the wrong way. Jaglom is wise to let us sympathize with Betsy, just as he does with the family into which she doesn't fit.

Mom and Dad (Ms Salinger and the very fine Jack Heller, above, right, with Mr. Proval), mom's brother (Mr. Proval), and a boarder in the house (Ms Schock) are all brought to lovely life. But it's the two sisters, Betsy and Pandora (played by Ms Frederick) and Betsy's fiance James (Judd Nelson, below), doing a more-than-creditable job among all these Jaglomites) who are the focus of the film.

Ms Frederick (below, right) is relatively low-key here -- except in her late entrance to the Seder, which almost-but-not-quite goes over the top. She puts her usual my-emotions-are-all-on-the surface to good use; she's odd but always believable.

As it proceeds with its paean to actors, the movie also considers certain current quandaries in which some of us find ourselves, such as what to do with aging parents and how to treat the Jewish tradition as important -- even if you're an atheist at heart. I may be over-praising the film a bit, due to my shock at seeing Jaglom functioning so well in what looks suspiciously like a near-standard genre piece. But if it is that, the movie's still got those indelible Jaglom fingerprints all over it.

Furthermore, the filmmaker, in bringing his stage play to movie life, does a number of funny and charming things to remind us of its stage-struck roots. The movie often looks like a stage set, and in the end, the director makes sure we get the point. For folk who have long resisted Mr. Jaglom's work, this might be the movie to change their mind. For the rest of us, it's a don't miss.

Just 45 Minutes from Broadway (the title is taken from an old George M. Cohan song), from Breaking Glass Pictures, made its DVD debut this past week, after a limited theatrical release in late 2012 and a VOD debut this past June.