Man in the Chair (2007)

I was constantly beaten about the head and body with the motivations for this film and it wasn't to shine a light on old people.It was to shine a light on the director and his apparently feeble career, to somehow prop it up and hide it behind the resolve of art or perseverance.Now this a double-edged sword. Anybody who wants to be in the film business wants the jobs this director had. But I've reviewed his resume and they are all very poor films.Which brings me to this film (which was his first after an 11-year gap and nothing after '07). Some very good acting talent but then it stopped there. The director himself is competent but the "flash" effect was WAY overused. The script was ham-fisted and unrealistic, even if you apply dramatic license. It was clear to me that the director had messages and intentions but no story. He then grabbed the first devices he could find and tried to cram those circles into square holes. He wanted us to have respect for old people but I wasn't buying it. I didn't hear the sincerity in it all. I did hear the bitterness. It was just a vehicle for this hallow and familiar film. If there still was afterschool specials, then this would have a place. As it is, I don't know where it would go.I don't think it's right but especially in the movie business they err on the side of the young. I don't see the surprise in it all.

I want to say this is a fantastic film. If you care about people you will like this film. If you've ever been a teenager so passionate about a contest that you will steal a car to win: you will love this film. If you've ever been the BEST at what you do only to get pushed aside you will totally understand this film. A kind of buddy picture - two fellows with brains and a way of getting on each other's nerves that keeps pushing them forward until they finally reach their goal. They are both from the edges of California society where the real people live. The filming takes your right into the world of a California high school boy and his family even when he ends up a waiting cell and even when he makes friends with a whole group of heroes he never imagined were still alive. He figures having the best living movie makers on your team can only help. And they are amazing.

Spoilers.Films like this are so well-meaning and full of enthusiasm for their subject matter that you almost feel guilty for not liking them as much as you know the makers want you to. Writer and director Michael Schroeder hits on a really neat idea about a bunch of retired below-the-line filmmakers having their lives enriched by the opportunity to help a high school student called Cameron make his 10-minute student film, but diminishes its impact with a little too much sentimentality, some plot strands that go nowhere and no small amount of predictability.Christopher Plummer, looking not unlike an ageing John Huston, plays 'Flash' Madden, a former gaffer now reduced to drunkenly yelling at the screen and arguing with other customers at a run-down revival cinema. Madden was given his nickname by no less a legend than Orson Welles, but he represents the unglamorous side of the industry: the underpaid, overworked and unappreciated crew members nobody knows – not even movie buffs – whose countless movie credits count for nothing as they languish in an industry retirement home, forgotten or abandoned by their families. Madden's date of birth is shown as 1920, and the film is set in the present day, meaning he and his buddies are all approaching 90 when the action takes place, which is stretching credibility a little, but Plummer is very good in the role of the irascible old-timer, who hides his fear of ageing and death behind an angry mask, and tries to keep it at bay with copious amounts of Wild Turkey.Once Cameron's managed to enlist the aid of Flash, they visit Mickey Hopkins (M. Emmett Walsh, who looks like one of those big old cuddly muppets these days), a washed-up writer living in a dilapidated retirement home. Seeing the conditions he lives in, Cameron drops his original idea of a man who builds a car out of vacuum cleaner parts in favour of an expose of retirement home abuse and neglect. This is the director's cue to inject a little social commentary about our throwaway society into what is essentially a fantasy tale, and a laboured sub-plot-cum-metaphor about Flash's dream of releasing captive dogs into a park to enjoy one last moment of freedom before they're rounded up and put to sleep.The film is OK, and it's packed with movie references which should keep the buffs interested, but it feels a little disjointed at times. There are some surprisingly effective scenes, but characters drift in and out, and Flash's big hissy fit seems manufactured for dramatic effect rather than part of a realistic character arc. That he will die before the little film is screened is never in doubt, as is the fact that he will die a better man for helping Cameron.

I fell in love with film again last night when I saw this film. Reborn faith in humanity and that a ending can be all things like in life, sad, happy, anticlimactic; probing one to start their own personal inventory of what life is really about. This done so effortlessly all wrapped up in one film with out feeling preachy or like an old cliché. A must for any future film maker and anyone still making film. The back story was also nicely done with just a few scenes of trouble youth and a old mans call to say hello to his estranged daughter only to be put on ice as she tells him she will have to call him back later(we know will never come.) How easy it is to discard people, things, animals(dogs)when they are not right in front of you. They lose their importance and we forget their worth which might be as simple as sharing a cigar(Cuban of course) or a bone. Great use of Los Angeles and reminds us why it is the City of Angels. Oscars watch out! Original Screenplay, editing and performance from Christopher Plummer.