FILM REVIEW
“I don’t appear in public very
often, but I think I should go out
more.”
So
says
Howard
Hughes,
the legendary and mysterious
industrialist,
to
an
impressionable
young child at the
conclusion of “Rules
Don’t Apply.” The
same can be said
for Warren Beatty,
the
notoriously
reclusive
and
quiet
actor
(and
director, writer and
producer) who portrays Hughes
in the film. This is Beatty’s first
directorial effort since 1998’s
“Bulworth,” and his first acting
role
since
2001’s
“Town
&
Country.” In other words, it has
been a long time coming for fans of
the mid-to-late-century icon. The
film, too, has been gestating for a
long time — Beatty allegedly began
developing it after an encounter
with Hughes in the early 1970s.
But
development
hell
can,
appropriately, be damning, and
the film’s disjointed screenplay
sometimes infringes on its time-
tested material (see “The Aviator”
for Hughes, “Hail, Caesar!” for
1950s Hollywood).
It’s 1958. Dwight Eisenhower is
the country’s president, Marilyn
Monroe its biggest star. Church
membership soars as businesses
rapidly expand. The U.S. is fighting
the Soviet Union, with nuclear
fears abounding. In Hollywood
the studio system reins, firmly
controlling its stars, both fresh-
faced and weathered.
Marla Mabrey (Lily Collins,
“Mirror Mirror”), an aspiring
young
actress,
arrives
in
Hollywood from a strict Baptist
upbringing in Virginia. Mabrey
is under contract at RKO, which
itself is run by Hughes (though
the film gets the timeline wrong:
Hughes in fact sold the studio in
1955). She and her mother, lovingly
played by Annette Bening (“The
Kids Are All Right”), are driven
by Frank Forbes (the absolutely
wonderful
Alden
Ehrenreich,
“Hail,
Caesar!”),
another
new
Hughes hire and
a relatively devout
Methodist.
Though
forbidden
by
Hughes’s
bans
on
hanky-panky
between
drivers
and stars, as well
as their respective religiosity
(Forbes is, in fact, engaged), the
two quickly develop a passionate
relationship, bonding over shared
professional shame over their
distance from their boss, the
illustrious Hughes. But as the two
continue to establish themselves
in the business, and grow closer
to Hughes in unexpected ways,
their
lives
grow
increasingly
complicated.
They
begin
to
question social mores and their
place at RKO.
Much like the two’s time in
Hollywood, “Rules Don’t Apply”
itself can be sliced into two halves.
The first is one of enchantment;
tightly edited and beautifully
shot, Hollywood is a land of
expansive opportunity and one
of its titans, Hughes, is reserved
to mysteriously dark spaces. The
second is one of disillusionment,
or perhaps the erraticism that
plagues Hughes. The bonds among
Hughes,
Forbes
and
Mabrey
are strained and tested, and an
intoxicating high of an all-too-
rare encounter with a legend in
front of the camera fizzles into a
throbbing hangover. Scenes drag
on for far longer than necessary,
or they only add more material to
the convoluted plot. The laughs
(which are relatively consistent
towards the beginning) come far
too infrequently. And throughout
the film, overwrought drama, both
in dialogue and cliché imagery,
can suffocate the screenplay’s
lightness.
But “Rules Don’t Apply” has
an undeniable charm. There’s
a
scintillating
dynamism
and
confidence
about
1950s
Hollywood, and its extravagant
offices, studios, houses and cars
are beautifully brought to life in
the film. Establishing shots seem
to have been filmed with an old
camera, rendering Los Angeles,
Washington, D.C. and Acapulco
like
the
faraway
postcard
destinations they had been at the
time. The size and quality of the
cast is astounding. Legendary
actors appear in relatively small
roles, like Ed Harris (“Pollock”),
Martin Sheen (“Badlands”), Paul
Sorvino
(“Goodfellas”),
Alec
Baldwin (“Still Alice”) and Candice
Bergen (“Gandhi”), to name a
few. A scene with Steve Coogan
(“The Trip”) is riotously funny.
Ehrenreich and Collins, both
up-and-coming stars, are the true
highlights. Arguments between
the two explode with timeless
passion and sexual urgency.
“Rules Don’t Apply” is stuffed
with the thematic material —
religiosity,
capitalism,
gender,
psychology, wealth — that could
make the film truly special, but
Beatty doesn’t go all the way.
What’s missing is some unifying
theory, some answer, to the
eternal question of Hughes: what
really made him so crazy? Hughes
fascinates Beatty, like the rest of
us, but “Rules Don’t Apply” doesn’t
resolve any confusion. That’s not
to say every good film has to have
a
well-constructed
argument,
but when a modern master takes
nearly 20 years between his films,
it’s reasonable to expect better.
Beatty is back with ‘Rules’
DANIEL HENSEL
Daily Arts Writer
1950s-set Hollywood dramedy squanders star-studded cast
B-
“Rules Don’t Apply”
Rave & Quality 16
20th Century Fox
TNT
That bone structure thooooough.
There was a time when we
thought
Miley
Cyrus
would
forever
be
remembered
as
Hannah Montana and Emma
Watson inescapably
as
Hermione
Granger.
Today,
it’s almost comical
to recall Miley as
a Disney star and
unfair
to
limit
Emma’s
success
to
the
Harry
Potter
franchise.
Sometimes,
drastic
changes
are necessary to paint an actor
in a different light and give
them the room to explore a new
character. Maybe that’s what
“Downton Abbey” ’s Michelle
Dockery thought she needed
when she signed on for TNT’s
“Good Behavior,” because there’s
nothing quite like seeing Lady
Mary smoke out of a DIY crack
pipe to send the message that she’s
done with the 20th century.
Dockery’s
performance
as
Lady Mary in “Downton Abbey”
is iconic: with her icy beauty,
witty remarks and effortless sex
appeal, she elevates a character
separated by an entire century
to someone acutely relevant to
the modern viewer. She can do
more with a perfectly manicured
raise of an eyebrow than some
can with an entire monologue.
As the British actress steps into a
drastically different role as junkie
ex-con Letty Raines, exchanging
corsets for plunging jumpsuits
and pointed upper-class English
snobbery
for
a
meandering
Southern drawl, something goes
missing. It’s more
than
just
the
initial shock of
watching
Lady
Mary — I mean,
Letty Raines —
puke in someone’s
driveway
with
a bad hangover.
The
biggest
disappointment
of Dockery’s new
role is not in her performance —
which is emotional and believable
and touching — but rather the
show’s inherent structure, or
rather lack thereof.
As Letty, Dockery steps into a
role of a broken women, separated
from her eight-year-old son by
a restraining order, addicted to
drugs and back to her old ways
of stealing booze and designer
clothes from expensive hotel
rooms. She’s the “bad-ass with
baggage,” but this isn’t enough
to create a complex and enticing
female lead. Letty is unstable
and emotional, characteristics
that lend well to establishing
an immediate sympathy to her
and her situation. However, it’s
ultimately her flexible moral
compass and often unmotivated
decisions
that
alienate
her
character. The story has striking
loopholes:
Letty
knowingly
seduces a contracted assassin
Javier (Juan Diego Botto, “Zorro”)
only to decide to warn the target
the next morning, then retreats
again after shakily pointing a
shotgun at the assassin/one-
night-stand.
Her
emotional
trajectory is manic, illuminating
jarring inconsistencies in plot and
character.
As a result of her unpredictable
inclinations to occasionally do the
right thing, Letty is sucked into a
dangerous relationship with Javier.
For some unexplained reason,
Javier decides that he needs Letty
to help with his assassinations and
now “owns” her with the promise
of getting her son back. Their love
affair is supposed to be hot and
steamy, but falls flat with the lack
of genuine connection.
“Good
Behavior,”
however,
is cinematically engaging. The
camera doesn’t shy away from
moving into distorted images,
going out of focus as Letty falls
off the wagon, and successfully
builds suspense with extended
shots scored in complete silence.
Without thinking too hard or too
long on its inconsistencies, the
series is objectively entertaining;
the fast-paced action translates
well on screen and the camera
naturally loves Dockery. But only
time will tell whether “Good
Behavior” is able to stick around
for the long haul.
DANIELLE YACOBSON
Daily Arts Writer
‘Behavior’ lacks the extra punch
Michelle Dockery is strong in otherwise lackluster TNT drama
B-
“Good Behavior”
Series Premiere
Tuesdays at 9 p.m.
TNT
TV REVIEW
6A — Monday, November 28, 2016
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com