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LIVE FROM THE HEADLINES
Interview With Elvis Mitchell
Aired July 25, 2003 - 19:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, no, it's not the Amish version of rock-'em-sock-'em robots. It's a scene from the new movie "Seabiscuit." In a summer dominated, as summers are wont to be, by explosions and gunplay, "Seabiscuit" is raising some Oscar-y expectations -- not sure that's a word, Oscar-y. But the expectations aim applies to other movies as well. So we got "New York Times" film critic Elvis Mitchell with us now to tell us what movies are worth seeing.
"Seabiscuit"...
ELVIS MITCHELL, FILM CRITIC, "NEW YORK TIMES": Who knew, who knew Spider Man could ride a horse? This guy is so talented.
COOPER: Yes, he looks very different in this film. But we -- that's another discussion. What -- is this worth it? I mean, I was planning on seeing "Seabiscuit" this weekend. Should I?
MITCHELL: Oh, you know, I'm sure there's a good audio version on cassette.
COOPER: Uh-oh.
MITCHELL: You might want to catch up -- well, it's really interesting, because the movie has so much material that you can see the movie makers are a little lost. They don't know what to pick.
COOPER: The story is extraordinary. I mean, no doubt about it. It's got ups and downs, you laugh, you cry.
MITCHELL: It's got so much you would feel like you're reading a movie literally every chapter of the book. And I think this -- in attempting to try to boil it down and make it a little bit simpler, it feels a little underdramatized, you know, because there's so much going on in that story.
There's this sort of black-and-white, like, Dorothea Lange (ph)- type photographs that contrast the actual story. There are just too many things going on.
COOPER: Too many.
MITCHELL: But it's a beautiful-looking movie, and it's got a great performance by Chris Cooper, who is just spectacular.
COOPER: Well, another movie with too much going on, at least in my opinion, "Pirates of the Caribbean."
MITCHELL: Oh, come on now. Too much going on? First of all...
COOPER: Explosions, mascara, I don't know.
MITCHELL: Just like an Adam Ant show, which is what he's doing. Johnny Depp is kind of doing Adam Ant and either Keith Richardson...
(CROSSTALK)
MITCHELL: ... factory or Mike Myers doing Keith Richards at the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) factory. What's a really smart way to do something like that? Instead of overacting, he plays it very cool, wearing a little bit too much mascara, a little too drunk. But he basically is sort of keeping the movie in control. He's underplaying while everything is going on around him.
You can even listen a little bit more closely, because you can never -- what did he say what I think he said? It's kind of that weird Popeye audio tracking, it's kind of mumbling (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
COOPER: Right. It's...
MITCHELL: It's actually...
COOPER: ... I -- it's often like what I do on this broadcast, just mumble all the time.
MITCHELL: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), what?
COOPER: Yes, exactly, (UNINTELLIGIBLE), ba-dam-pa.
The other big thing we should talk about, I guess, "Capturing the Friedmans," which I actually saw last week on your recommendation. It's fantastic.
MITCHELL: It's one of the best movie of the year, (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
COOPER: And it's doing well.
MITCHELL: Well, it's interesting, because you have all these big movies like, you know, all these sequels we've talk -- been talking about in past weeks, and you got these great little movies like "Capturing the Friedmans," which started off being a documentary about Manhattan's most successful kids' party clown, and turned into something else altogether when the filmmaker found out that this guy's father and brother had been arrested for child molestation.
COOPER: Yes.
MITCHELL: And it's two different movie. It starts off with -- like movies about (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
COOPER: Well, also it's fascinating, as we're seeing now, I mean, they, this family, videotaped themselves while they were going through basically the breakup of their family, the destruction of the family and people being sent off to jail. And at the end, you're kind of left not knowing exactly where things stand (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
MITCHELL: Because of the second half...
COOPER: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
MITCHELL: ... you see the other side of videotape, which is all the TV cameras...
COOPER: Right.
MITCHELL: ... and everybody else talking about it. So you really don't know where you stand at any given point. It's about two different kinds of truths and the fact that basically we define ourselves in always by media. There's, like, one great scene where the police captain goes Well, you know, there are stacks and stacks of pornography. And they come -- you remember seeing this, like, three or four magazines.
COOPER: Yes.
MITCHELL: How is that stacks? But as soon as you hear the word child pornography, these images come up in your head.
COOPER: It is a fascinating documentary.
We should talk about "28 days," the alternate ending, we're out of time, though, but that also opens up tonight, new ending for "28 Days Later."
MITCHELL: It's just as scary, but the other (UNINTELLIGIBLE). It's another little movie made for no money that's making a lot of money. Movie with no expectations...
COOPER: Right.
MITCHELL: ... and doing really well and deserves to do well.
COOPER: All right, thanks very much. Elvis Mitchell.
MITCHELL: Thanks.
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