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A Prairie Home Companion - Maggers - 06-18-2006
I often choose movies based on the time I am passing the theater. If a movie is about to start, and it's one I have an interest in, I'll go. It's an impromptu thing.
That's how I got to "A Prairie Home Campanion." It's playing at the theater closest to my home and, well, the timing was right. I figured with such an interesting cast and directed by Robert Altman, it should be worth seeing.
I left the theater thinking, they made that movie because??? It felt disjointed, with pieces that didn't quite fit, like the narrator, Kevin Kline's character. It was a movie that should have taken place in the '30's or '40's, and I guess that's the point. A live radio variety show is a thing of the past. How can it survive today?
And frankly, Garrision Keillor is CREEPY! I had no idea I'd have that sort of reaction to him. I've seen pictures of him; I'm familiar with who he is. I've never read his books. But on film, yewww. He's got eyebrows that could scratch you from across the room. He's weird looking, and he can't help that. But there is something quintessentially not right about him. Maybe because his ground of being is so foreign to me. He makes Minnesota seem like another country, to me at least.
I enjoyed Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin. Lindsay Lohan was miscast. And I am a sucker for Robert Altman. I keep thinking I'm going to enjoy his movies because he has made some fantastic flicks (think "MASH," "Nashville," "McCabe and Mrs Miller," "The Long Goodbye," and "Three Women"). With the exception of "Gosford Park," I haven't really liked any of his films in years. Those that I named were made years ago.
It's a movie that can wait for cable, if you've a mind to see it. But for whom was this movie made? What audience? I think the mean age of the audience I was in was 75.
A Prairie Home Companion - webby - 06-18-2006
Maggers Wrote:I often choose movies based on the time I am passing the theater. If a movie is about to start, and it's one I have an interest in, I'll go. It's an impromptu thing.
That's how I got to "A Prairie Home Campanion." It's playing at the theater closest to my home and, well, the timing was right. I figured with such an interesting cast and directed by Robert Altman, it should be worth seeing.
I left the theater thinking, they made that movie because??? It felt disjointed, with pieces that didn't quite fit, like the narrator, Kevin Kline's character. It was a movie that should have taken place in the '30's or '40's, and I guess that's the point. A live radio variety show is a thing of the past. How can it survive today?
And frankly, Garrision Keillor is CREEPY! I had no idea I'd have that sort of reaction to him. I've seen pictures of him; I'm familiar with who he is. I've never read his books. But on film, yewww. He's got eyebrows that could scratch you from across the room. He's weird looking, and he can't help that. But there is something quintessentially not right about him. Maybe because his ground of being is so foreign to me. He makes Minnesota seem like another country, to me at least.
I enjoyed Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin. Lindsay Lohan was miscast. And I am a sucker for Robert Altman. I keep thinking I'm going to enjoy his movies because he has made some fantastic flicks (think "MASH," "Nashville," "McCabe and Mrs Miller," "The Long Goodbye," and "Three Women"). With the exception of "Gosford Park," I haven't really liked any of his films in years. Those that I named were made years ago.
It's a movie that can wait for cable, if you've a mind to see it. But for whom was this movie made? What audience? I think the mean age of the audience I was in was 75.
I can't imagine any other audience for the movie than the people who regularly listen to "A Praire Home Companion" on NPR (it really is a regularly running, live radio program to this day). It's such an oddball, goofy program that I doubt it will find a new audience from movie-goers.
Once in a while I catch a bit of the radio show in my car since NPR is my default station. I agree there is something creepy about Garrision Keillor. I get that feeling just from listening to him, much less seeing him.
Oh - ya, hey - Minnesota almost is another country --- Canada.
Personally, for upper Midwest comedy I prefer occaisonal NPR commentator Kevin Kling. Here's a link to one of his best stories ever: The Great Beaver Rescue Effort.
A Prairie Home Companion - Tony H - 06-19-2006
...Creeps me out too. I am currently reading "Good Poems" and I have to take the jacket off because his creepy picture stares at me from the back flap. It's eerie, like one of those "Jesus' Eyes pictures" he seems to follow me anywhere I go in the room.
Incidentally, I hate that he puts together a compilation of other peoples works and gets paid for it. It has HIS name splashed across the cover of poets who were barely acknowledged when they were living.
He writes a three page introduction about poems and then cashes a check. Must be nice.
And calling it Good Poems is troubling because aside from a select few some are just okay. Giving it a title such as he did kind of gives the reader false hope. Sort of like "Great Expectations", though that novel is one of my all time favorites, it isn't so for everyone.
Still, the man is scary.
A Prairie Home Companion - Dave - 06-19-2006
AsMoral Wrote:Sort of like "Great Expectations", though that novel is one of my all time favorites, it isn't so for everyone.And I had such high hopes...
Dave
A Prairie Home Companion - Marc - 06-19-2006
Dave Wrote:And I had such high hopes...
Me too. The previews made it look really good. Oh well... I guess I can scratch that one of my summer movie list.
A Prairie Home Companion - Dave - 06-19-2006
Marc B. Wrote:Me too. The previews made it look really good. Oh well... I guess I can scratch that one of my summer movie list.Not sure if you got the jest (and they're never as funny when you have to explain them
), I wasn't talking about the film.Dave
A Prairie Home Companion - APhew - 06-19-2006
webby Wrote:I can't imagine any other audience for the movie than the people who regularly listen to "A Praire Home Companion" on NPR (it really is a regularly running, live radio program to this day). It's such an oddball, goofy program that I doubt it will find a new audience from movie-goers.
I have NPR programmed in my work vehicle and will turn it on for "All Things Considered" when I drive to and from work. That is, when I'm not listening to a book on tape. Anyway, I do catch "A Prairie Home Companion" once in a while and for the longest time thought that they were playing reruns from a show that no longer existed. It is just such a wild show, I'm amazed every time I hear it. The amount of planning and coordination it would take to pull it off would have to be extroidinary. There is never a missed beat or flub or anything, just constant entertainment from start to finish. It's the kind of show that works over radio, but I feel would work even better to see when they perform it in the theater. I do get up to Minneapolis twice a year, so it's always been something I've considered trying to get tickets to.
I'm exited to see the film, and your right Webby, it's probably only for the people who are fans of the show already.
A Prairie Home Companion - Marc - 06-19-2006
Now that you mention it I get it. You have to understand I cut caffeine out of my diet starting on Saturday so I'm really slow at waking up right now. It's 12:30 and I'm still tired.
A Prairie Home Companion - saynomore - 06-19-2006
This was not your usual Altman. I enjoyed all the movies Maggers mentioned but must throw in "The Player" with Tim Robbins and a gangle of stars: Great movie, great ending. But APHC was not a coherent whole. Altman may have been trying for a "radio character cast" (the gumshoe, the Angel on Earth--a theme popular in the forties and fifties--, the singing siblings--Andrews Sisters,-- et al), but it didn't transfer to celluloid well. And it was confusing when only certain people could see the Angel; I couldn't decipher any pattern there about why the Angel was visible only to some. But having grown up on radio (Bob and Ray, Jack Benny, The Shadow, Amos and Andy, etc.), I enjoyed the repartee between the characters and the humorous tongue in cheek comercials (duct tape, powermilk bisquits). C- grade from me.
AC
P.S. I think GK has had too much cosmetic surgery. It's a toss-up between him and Kenny Rogers who's the scariest.
A Prairie Home Companion - Maggers - 06-19-2006
saynomore Wrote:This was not your usual Altman. I enjoyed all the movies Maggers mentioned but must throw in "The Player" with Tim Robbins and a gangle of stars: Great movie, great ending.
Dang, forgot that one. It's a great Altman.
Quote:P.S. I think GK has had too much cosmetic surgery. It's a toss-up between him and Kenny Rogers who's the scariest.Mother of God, Keillor's had plastic surgery and he STILL looks like that! That's truly horrifying.