Bryce Zabel's MOVIE SMACKDOWN!

Revolutionary Road (2008) -vs- American Beauty (1999)

Lives of Not-So-Quiet Desperation

The Smackdown.  The hype around "Revolutionary Road," of course, will center around the fact that it re-unites Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet) for the first time since the mega-super blockbuster "Titanic."  But smacking "Revolutionary Road" against "Titanic" would be like comparing apples and sailboats.  The real competition is between the family dysfunction of the 1999 Oscar winning "American Beauty" and the latest "Revolutionary Road" portrayal, both filmed by British director Sam Mendes.  If Jack had survived and he and Rose had gone on to settle into the suburbs, they might have ended up like Frank and April Wheeler.  Whether that couple would be as compelling to view as Lester and Carolyn Burnam, there's the battle ahead.

The Challenger.  "Revolutionary Road" tells the story of Frank and April Wheeler, a couple of once-free spirits who have moved into the suburbs of 1950s America and are slowly dying inside.  The problem appears to be that neither one of them are the people they once were and neither one of them likes who they've become or who their partner has become.  This is a tough spot for any couple with two children but in the America of that time where sexism is rampant, everybody smokes and drinks, and nobody says what they mean, it can be deadly.  The film is not full of event, it's full of small details of daily life and decaying marriage, realized with a spot-on intensity.  It feels so true to human nature than whenever you see anything that even remotely reminds you of yourself or your own marriage, all you can do is cringe.

Revolutionary Road (2008) -vs- American Beauty (1999)

Lives of Not-So-Quiet Desperation

The Smackdown.  The hype around "Revolutionary Road," of course, will center around the fact that it re-unites Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet) for the first time since the mega-super blockbuster "Titanic."  But smacking "Revolutionary Road" against "Titanic" would be like comparing apples and sailboats.  The real competition is between the family dysfunction of the 1999 Oscar winning "American Beauty" and the latest "Revolutionary Road" portrayal, both filmed by British director Sam Mendes.  If Jack had survived and he and Rose had gone on to settle into the suburbs, they might have ended up like Frank and April Wheeler.  Whether that couple would be as compelling to view as Lester and Carolyn Burnam, there's the battle ahead.

2008 Emmys Demand a "Recount"

With the 2008 election showing signs of being as close as the 2000 and 2004 near-ties, Sunday night's Emmy success for "Recount" seems like a perfect moment to re-visit our Smackdown between that film and another HBO "ripped from the headlines" film with winners and losers. Here's how we saw it when "Recount" bowed on HBO earlier in the year and the Battle for Florida wnet up against the Battle for Latenight...

Recount (2008) -vs- The Late Shift (1995)

The Smackdown.  Only HBO had the courage to give us the behind-the-scenes truth about the two greatest contests affecting our civilization in recent memory: the battle to decide the election between George Bush and Al Gore and, perhaps more importantly, the NBC decision about whether Jay Leno or David Letterman would get to host the Tonight Show and, thus, change life as we know it. The question is: if you're just watching these films as films and not metaphors or cautionary tales, which one's the best investment of a couple of hours?

The Challenger. The PR buzz for "Recount" is only just now building on the sides of buses, premiere parties, ET mentions and in interstitial spots on HBO itself. "Recount" came into my life last month, as a TV academy member, in the form of a "For Your Consideration" DVD. I've already written about this millenial political period on the "Instant History" site and remember, vividly, how transfixed we all were for that month of misery in 2000. Now, of course, we have the Clinton/Obama tie to bring us together on cable news channels and we may start to forget how many twists and turns there were in the Florida recount. HBO turned director Jay Roach ("Meet the Parents") loose on the project after Sidney Pollack turned them down, and Roach has done a fine job here making us re-live the headlines. I remember most vividly that the entire campaign was a debate about what to do with a budget surplus that disappeared after 9/11 never to be seen again and that both Gore and Bush were universally loathed by the electorate, accounting for their dead heat as much as the blue state-red state divide.

Towelhead (2008) -vs- American Beauty (1999)

Taboo Sex in the Suburbs

The Smackdown.  The suburbs of Alan Ball's imagination are places that so stifle people from living reasonable lives that they go berserk looking for meaning.  That can include quitting your job, blackmailing your boss and going to work at a fast food restaurant or it can mean underage kids pulled into sexually confusing or predatory relations.  So far as I can tell, it never means anything normal.  "American Beauty" got the Oscar almost a decade ago after taking us on a joy ride into the curdled family dynamics of the Burnam household and now "Towelhead" takes us into the outer regions of Houston where coming to America looks like something that immigrants should hardly wish for.

The Challenger.  "Towelhead" begins with a 13-year-old girl Jasira (Summer Bishil) calmly letting someone completely inappropriate shave her pubic hair.  I'm not joking: do not take your kids to see this picture.  In any case, Jasira gets shipped off to live with her father Rifat (Peter Macdissi) who works for NASA in a bland tract house in a cul-de-sac of weirdness.  There's the racist and obnoxious 11-year-old next door who turns her onto sex magazines and the kid's father Mr. Vuoso (Aaron Eckhart) who actually manages to do worse things to her than force her to endure the act that started the picture.  Along the way and in between this sadness, the film, based on a 2005 novel by Alicia Erian, wants to tell a story of "sexual awakening" of this young girl.  Written and directed by Alan Ball, it's his directorial debut.

Bottle Shock (2008) -vs- Sideways (2004)

The Wrath of Grapes

The Smackdown.  With this year's "Bottle Shock" and 2004's indie darling "Sideways," we have two films that put their respective audiences smack into the middle of the California wine growing scene.  One is more about making wine and the other is more about drinking wine and it's not a small difference.  Obviously, making wine requires more commitment and a great deal more knowledge than actually pouring yourself a glass and kicking back.  But to those who are serious about it, drinking wine forces its own commitments in time and knowledge.  Picking a winner here may be like forcing a decision on whether red or white wine is best.  On the other hand, maybe we still can decide which one is a full-bodied experience with clarity and a spicy aroma and which one may be too hollow or flabby to spend time with.  Let's pop the cork and get to work...

The Challenger.  Cultivating grapes and making wine involves the hard work and honest tilling of the earth that makes farming such emotionally satisfying work.  It has the added bonus of creating an end product that isn't considered a staple but is to many people the epitome of sophistication.  It exerts a real pull or otherwise Francis Ford Coppola wouldn't have decided he liked that job as much as directing movies. 

"Bottle Shock" takes us back over three decades to the year of the American bicentennial of 1976 when California's Napa Valley put the world on notice that it was a force to be recognized by beating the best French wines in a blind taste test conducted with French judges.  The whole idea was the brainchild of a British wine seller living in Paris by the name of Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman) who needs to do something to actually drive some business into his "Academie du Vin."