Posts tagged Steve Witting
“Bad Words” A Joy to Watch
Apr 9th
“A Joy to Watch”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
BAD WORDS is an edgy comedy starring Jason Bateman as Guy Trilby, a man who is competing in the national Spelling Bee competition even though he is 40 years old.
Bateman also directed this movie, which has been called an “instant hit.”
You see, Guy discovered a loophole in the rules which allows him to compete against youngsters and be able to spell obscure words correctly, which doesn’t please the directors of the competition, much less the parents of the other kids on whom the parents have spent money for tutors.
At the beginning of the movie, Guy says, “I’m not that good at a lot of stuff,” but his job as a proofreader allows him to be good at spelling a lot of words.
So, we see Guy compete at the 15th annual regional Spelling Bee in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio, where he shows that he has no remorse in intimidating fellow competitors to get them too flustered to even stand up and try to spell the next word.
One of the rules is that contestants have to be sponsored by a nationally recognized news service, and Guy’s sponsor is an Internet organization whose writer, Jenny Widgeon, is accompanying Guy in order to write a story about him.
However, Guy is very reticent with Jenny, and he won’t talk about himself, which causes Jenny to call in some favors and get a background check on him, which reveals some interesting information.
So, Guy and Jenny move on to the national competition in California, where his reputation has preceded him, and the director, Dr. Bernice Deagan, played by Allison Janey, tries to thwart Guy in every way she can.
She arranges for Guy’s hotel accommodation to be a supply closet, and even though the words given to the competitors are supposed to be random and fair, she manages to secretly circumvent that and tells the angry parents and her subordinates that she will step down as director if Guy makes it to the final round.
Meanwhile, Guy has taken an interest in an Indian boy in the competition, mainly because the kid has a hotel room with a minibar, the kid is eager to become friends with Guy, maybe too eager, and Guy teaches the kid some lessons about life.
BAD WORDS is a joy to watch.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Bad Words – Movie Trailer
Apr 8th
Jason Bateman makes his feature directorial debut with the subversive comedy Bad Words. Mr. Bateman stars as Guy Trilby, a 40-year-old who finds a loophole in the rules of The Golden Quill national spelling bee and decides to cause trouble by hijacking the competition. Contest officials, outraged parents, and overly ambitious 8th graders are no match for Guy, as he ruthlessly crushes their dreams of victory and fame. As a reporter (Kathryn Hahn of We’re the Millers) attempts to discover his true motivation, Guy finds himself forging an unlikely alliance with a competitor: awkward 10-year-old Chaitanya (Rohan Chand of Homeland), who is completely unfazed by Guy’s take-no-prisoners approach to life.
“The Wolf of Wall Street” an Exercise in Excessive Excess
Jan 13th
“Exercise in Excessive Excess”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Wolf of Wall Street was directed by Martin Scorsese and stars Leonardo DiCaprio based on a 2007 memoir of the same name written by Jordan Belfort.
DiCaprio plays Belfort himself.
Right at the beginning of the movie Jordan says, “I always wanted to be rich,” and we see him at the start of his career as a licensed stockbroker for a big firm on Wall Street.
Matthew McConaughey plays his mentor at the firm, and he tells Jordan, “The name of the game is to move the money from your clients’ pockets into your pocket.”
Unfortunately, Jordan’s first day as a broker was October 19, 1987, the biggest plummet of the stock market since the 1929 crash, and Jordan was out of a job before he even got started.
Jordan believes that Wall Street swallowed him up, but he finds a job with a tiny firm that sells penny stocks and is surprised to learn that he receives a 50% commission on his sales whereas his previous job would have paid him only 1%.
So, Jordan is selling garbage to garbagemen, as he puts it, and he begins making money hand over fist, so much so that one day in a restaurant he attracts the attention of Donnie Azoff, played by Jonah Hill, and Donnie tells Jordan that if Jordan can prove how much money he is making, Donnie will quit his job right there over the phone and come work for Jordan.
Donnie does, they start their own company with some misfit salesmen, and Jordan teaches them how to sell penny stocks to rich people.
The firm becomes highly successful from practices that are not always entirely legal, Jordan meets and marries a beautiful woman named Naomi, and drugs, wild parties, prostitutes, and naked women become a large part of everyone’s lives in and away from the firm.
And, of course, they attract the attention of the FBI, which starts investigating Jordan, Donnie, and their brokerage firm.
So, the merry band of brokers go through the intricate and illegal process of moving their money into Swiss bank accounts, but of course everything doesn’t go according to plan.
Nothing ever does in the movies, does it?
The Wolf of Wall Street might be too rough for many people’s taste and is just an exercise in excessive excess.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
