Oscar Flashback – The Rob Reiner Era

I was taken aback when I saw the poster for the Flipped, the new Rob Reiner film out this Friday. ¬†The weird thing about it was that Rob Reiner’s name was nowhere to be found. ¬†The poster just said, “from the director of Stand by Me and When Harry Met Sally.” Granted, this movie isn’t aimed at film critics, adults, or the majority of film bloggers that dominate the chatter on the web (although, knowing some of these guys, a sentimental look at the moment when girls became a big deal seems like an ideal fit). ¬†And granted, it’s main audience is probably tween girls, since they are the ones who most likely read the beloved book. ¬†But still, if you grew up with Rob Reiner as a prominent filmmaker in the ’80s and ’90s, you might find the reference a bit odd. ¬†It’s like saying “From the director of E.T. and Empire of the Sun.”

Perhaps one of the reasons for this is that the critics aren’t exactly taking to it — Rotten Tomatoes has only two reviews from the trades so far and both are negative. But are these critics judging the film based on how they themselves reacted to it, or how its target demographic might relate to it? ¬†This is the same kind of conundrum Eat Pray Love finds itself in: how do you market your movie to its intended audience when film critics and bloggers keep getting in the way?

The LA Times’ Patrick Goldstein, not a film critic, took to Flipped back on July 5. It seems like there would have been some kind of buzz that springboarded off of Goldstein’s love letter:

Much to my surprise, the film (adapted by Reiner and Andrew Scheinman from a popular young adult novel written by Wendelin Van Draanen) represents a real comeback for Reiner, who, working with a stellar cast of character actors including Aidan Quinn, John Mahoney, Anthony Edwards and Penelope Ann Miller, has told the story of an unlikely romance between two mismatched 1950s-era middle-schoolers.

The heroine of the movie is young Juli Baker, played by Madeline Carroll. Part of a family of nonconformists (her father loves to paint and never mows his lawn), Juli raises chickens and loves to sit in the top of the neighborhood sycamore tree, soaking up the view. She also has an unrequited crush on handsome Bryce Loski (Callan McAuliffe), who lives across the street. But everything changes when Juli begins to wonder if Bryce is just another narcissistic dolt while Bryce, who has always tried to stay as far away from Juli as possible, slowly comes to realize that there is much more to the girl next-door than meets the eye.

For me, the most fascinating thing about “Flipped” is that, even though its protagonists are awkward 8th graders, it’s a film that adults will respond to as much as kids. In fact, in an era when Hollywood couples films are either played for laughs (“Date Night”) or for thrills (“Knight and Day”), the two young middle-schoolers have a relationship that is probably more sophisticated and emotionally complex than any romantic relationship we’ve seen in a major studio film all year.

Goldstein was really the only one here in Los Angeles to report on the Reiner project, as far as I could find out. He interviews Reiner and discovers how hard it was to put the project together:

It wasn’t easy putting the project together. The rights to the book were owned by Kelly Gonda, one of the producers of the Broadway show “Grey Gardens.” She already had a draft of a script by Nora Ephron and was hoping to get Kenny Ortega to direct the project. But things didn’t work out and when Gonda decided to leave the movie business, Reiner jumped in and acquired the rights. The book takes place in the present day, but Reiner decided to set the picture in the 1950s.

“I wanted the story to feel timeless and pure, in a time before texting and Facebook,” he told me. “I thought it was important to strip away the technology so we could get at the true emotions and feelings and make it as innocent as possible. I guess you could say I wanted to make it closer to my own childhood.”

I am going to take a wild guess that setting it in the 1950s was the big mistake here. After all, who can really relate to that anymore? Boomers maybe? It would be much more vital if the story were told about today’s youth because they are the ones who need dragging back to the real life happenings that don’t occur online, not the kids from the 1950s. They already had that; our kids today don’t. But that is just pure speculation on my part. After I see the film, and maybe read the book, it will become clearer as to what might have gone wrong here.

By “wrong” I only mean that there is zero internet buzz for the film. The critics, so far, appear to be hating on it. So it only really has the tweens and their precious dollars as its only hope for survival. The truth is that my 12 year-old daughter and her classmates all love the book the film is based on, and that means they would be motivated, theoretically, to see the film. ¬†It’s a win-win for them. ¬†For film critics? ¬†Not so much.

Rob Reiner has directed some landmark films, but has his best run starting with the unparalleled This is Spinal Tap (“This is our freeform jazz exploration. ¬†Hope you like our new direction!”), following with The Sure Thing, Stand By Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Misery, A Few Good Men, North, and The American President. ¬†Things kind of fall apart after that, although I really liked Ghosts of Mississippi.

But films like The Story of Us, The Bucket List – they just kind of, well, deflated his hot streak. ¬†But is that enough to strip his name from the poster? ¬†Was that intended to deflect any pressure from it being a “Rob Reiner film”?

Reiner has only been nominated for an Oscar once, as a producer for A Few Good Men, which earned a total of four nominations, although not Best Director. ¬†The directors honored that year were Clint Eastwood, who won for Unforgiven, James Ivory for Howards End, Martin Brest for Scent of a Woman, Robert Altman for The Player (the best film not nominated for Best Pic that year), and Neil Jordan for The Crying Game.

Reiner was not nominated for any other film, which seems kind of nuts. ¬†But perhaps in the pursuit of Oscar, he derailed the simplicity of his earlier work, if indeed he was on the hunt for Oscar. ¬†At some point in the careers of actors, directors and occasionally writers, the press builds up the pressure to become “Oscar-worthy.” ¬†It is as though they are on a trajectory where the end of it is winning an Oscar for finally being considered good enough to win. ¬†We who watch the Oscar race know this is a ridiculous notion as people rarely win for their best work (Paul Newman, Al Pacino, Martin Scorsese) but rather for the moment when they are most valued and liked.

All the same, I think Rob Reiner is still a worthy “above the title” name. If, for no other reason, he directed so many great films in his long career. ¬†To me, he is one of the most overlooked directors of the past twenty years. ¬†Sadly, it looks like Flipped isn’t going to be the movie that brings it all back.