Sometimes when people say a film is "forgettable" they're being hyperbolic. But when Matt DeCample, who handles the publicity work for the Arkansas Cinema Society (ACS), told me that Richard Linklater was bringing his 1998 film The Newton Boys next month as part of the ACS's Filmland event, I told him I was interested in seeing it because it was the one movie in Linklater's oeuvre I had never seen.
I did remember my wife, Karen, talking about it; I thought I remembered her writing about it. But then I went into our archives to see what was written about it and -- turns out I had not only seen it, but I'd written a quasi-review of it in my old "On Culture" column that eventually evolved into this one.
I can't really run from what I wrote. So here's the gist:
"While I've liked most of Linklater's films, I get the feeling that the story of the four Newton brothers is a lot more compelling than this movie. Between 1919 and 1925, they robbed more than 80 banks and six trains in the Midwest. In one robbery alone they made off with $3 million. They never killed anyone. They were never caught. They were highly professional.
"Although Linklater is able to evoke John Ford's dead camera style and includes a montage that recalls the old Warner Bros. gangster movies, The Newton Boys doesn't really amount to much more than a chance for four hunky stars-in-waiting to dress up in period costume.
"Matthew McConaughey, born in the same small Texas town as the real-life Newtons (he reportedly had an uncle who bought a horse from one of the Newtons) has the best role as Willis, the second-oldest brother who not only masterminds the robberies but is able to, in his own mind, justify the crimes on the grounds that insurance companies, banks and robber barons were bigger crooks than the Newtons could ever aspire to be.
"Willis had been robbing banks for a few years before cutting his older brother, Jess (Ethan Hawke), and younger brothers, Doc (Vincent D'Onofrio) and Joe (Skeet Ulrich), in on the action.
"Unfortunately, the movie never makes much of this premise. We get a few amusing bank robbery scenes before it tries to involve us in the obligatory 'one last job so we can all retire.' It all feels familiar and comforting in the sense that it's nice to see a Western every now and then, but there's a desultory quality to the movie that eventually grows wearying. It doesn't help that the female characters seem inserted primarily to pre-empt criticism about the lack of female characters."
OK, I still don't remember seeing the movie, which maybe isn't all that surprising when you consider that I've watched at least 5,000 movies since then. I've probably written 2,000 reviews since then. (The Rotten Tomatoes website says 1,658 reviews since 2002, and I've slowed down a lot in recent years.) And I'm curious about seeing it again -- it'll be a different movie for me now.
And I think it'll be fascinating to hear Linklater talk about it. In fact, it might be the Linklater movie I'd like most to hear him talk about, since in retrospect, it was one of his few films to click commercially, and most of the reviews were kind of like mine. Critics didn't hate it, but were underwhelmed.
But that was before Linklater had really become Linklater. He'd made a series of interesting films -- Slacker, Dazed and Confused, Before Sunrise and SubUrbia -- but it wasn't until 2001's Waking Life that I think I really caught on to his deep humanism and willingness to confront humane complexity, that I began to understand that he was an artist who was wrestling with some big ideas even when his movies seemed like teen comedies. (Every time I watch Dazed and Confused I come away with something different.)
I suspect I missed something, maybe a lot, in The Newton Boys.
Linklater will be interviewed by ACS founder Jeff Nichols after the screening of The Newton Boys at the Central Arkansas Library System's Ron Robinson Theater, 100 River Market Ave. in Little Rock, on Aug. 23 -- for tickets, schedules, memberships and other details check out the ACS website at arkansascinemasociety.org.
Filmland -- which isn't a festival but a series of events, none of which conflict with one another -- continues on Aug. 24 with screenings of a couple of recent Arkansas-made films: Jennifer Gerber's The Revival and Amman Abbasi's Dayveon, as well as the Arkansas premiere of Daniel Campbell's Antiquities that evening.
Most of the Arkansas cast and crew will attend, including writer/director Campbell, co-writer Graham Gordy and Mary Steenburgen.
Another Steenburgen project will be featured during the day on Saturday, when Last Man on Earth's co-creators Will Forte and John Solomon share episodes of the show. Forte will also screen cult favorite MacGruber, based on his popular Saturday Night Live character. That evening the documentary Survivors Guide to Prison, a look at life behind bars produced by David and Christina Arquette will screen.
Email:
pmartin@arkansasonline.com
www.blooddirtangels.com
MovieStyle on 07/27/2018