frost/nixon notes

Against my better judgment, I was beyond impressed with Ron Howard's venture into play-adapted territory in Frost/Nixon. 2008 brought us a lot of big-name biopics, but for some reason it was his semi-documentary style and willingness not to get too involved that really sealed it for me.

I was going to write a full-out review of this movie and if I can shake off my laziness I just might get to it, but at this moment I just wanted to post my notes. They're not very good and very of-the-moment, but sometimes sentence fragments can describe how I feel about a movie better than a paragraph ever could.

Call it spontaneous film-poetry, if you will.

set in the style of a Western duel, boxing is was good analogy
stretched in a balletic tightrope
everyone but McFayden fairly disappears into his role
mixes of passion and apathy
Nixon has the compulsive need to name-drop
Kevin Bacon is used so often but he's forever the character actor, never himself
flashes of wit - Nixon's scene of finding out his strategy
foreshadows of conflict btwn performance and politics...but are they really that different?
when messy hair guy refused to shake hand for a second showed diff btwn showmanship and nerdiness
parallels btwn frost and nixon, but Howard doesn't hit our heads with it
Charlotte is a breath of fresh air
"delusions" of grandeur as Nixon's limo pulls up
someone who had to learn to be a performer
you remember nixon is living under delusions of grndeur and you feel polarized again
mind games, condescension
call when really late, find out how much want
Frost's nervousness is patent
this has nothing to do with Nixon's lies, this is a character study at its finest
first you as the audience have the same frustration and self-flagellation of Tricky Dick, but then you realize the anecdotes that Nixon listed at the beginning were interesting too
dutifully crowded around the Nixon's piano vs. Frost's bday festivites
Howard is a bit heavyhanded but no more than others in play adaptations
this is his territory
Frost is the universally loved one
but then fame is ephemeral
you can't help but admire Nixon no matter how sorry you feel for him
it's good that they made this movie at this time when extenuating politicalism isn't as much of a factor
that speech about performing is true but Frost is undoutably the better performer
I thought it was going to be an amicable set of interviews but it ended in a duel as Nixon suspected
efforts to mask a man's morality are unveiled
I thought the showdown would be a little more gradual but hey, it's a movie
television simplifies dude
remarks upon its own downfalls
you forget how brilliant Michael Sheen was at the beginning because Langella steals the show, but this is no There Will Be Blood where Dano can't keep up
when he returns to the sheen of Hollywood it's a little fake and you miss the rawness and bated breath you wait for in the interviews
at root he is someone that wants to be liked
last scene with the shoes says it all
this is honestly the kind of movie that I enjoy most, just two people talking and verbally sparring
notice how I don't say Langella, i say Nixon