Dear Mick LaSalle:I was struck by the prescient casting of “The Help” and was wondering if any other picture, ever, cast four women in one film who went on to win Oscars? “The Help” managed that with Octavia Spencer,Viola Davis,Emma Stone, and Allison Janney. Is this a record?
大卫•金旧金山
Dear David King:“好莱坞再保险vue of 1929” hadJoan Crawford, Marie Dressler,Norma ShearerandLionel Barrymore, who went on to win Oscars in competition, and Buster Keaton, who won an honorary Oscar. But not all of them are women, and that’s cheating, anyway, because all of MGM appeared in that movie. “The Help” is bound to get even more interesting, because sooner or later,Jessica Chastainwill win an Oscar, too, so that will make five.
Hi There Mick:I see reviews of “The Upside,” which complain that it doesn’t measure up to the source material. If a movie is good as a self-contained piece of entertainment, what difference does it make whether it’s true to its source?
Richard Levitt, Oakland
Hi There Richard:None at all. In the case of “The Upside,” it’s much better than the originalFrench film, “Intouchables,”and you’re hearing this from someone who likes French cinema more than most French people do. The only time to bring up the original source is when the movie seems to be lacking in some big way that’s getting lost in the translation. That’s how I felt about “If Beale Street Could Talk.”
Hi Mick:What say you about Eddie Murphy’s body of work?
John Ferguson, Dublin
Hi John:It’s good,and he’s funny. He’s still funny, but the world got too politically correct for him. I fear we are entering one of those ghastly puritanical periods where the easiest way to win an argument is to act offended and say, “That’s not funny.” Prepare for a bleak 20 years.
Dear Mick:Is it harder for an actor to portray an actual person or a fictional character? My thought is that if you portray an actual person and you miss the mark, the film will be lambasted. Husband believes that it’s harder to develop and maintain a character that was developed in the mind of the director and actor. What say you?
Aileen Hayes, Knightsen
Dear Aileen:It’s true that if you’re playing a real person and you blow it, you’ll be severely criticized. But that doesn’t mean that the riskiness makes it harder, just more risky. All acting is difficult. Different roles are harder than others, and one variety of role isn’t easier than another. However, if we’re talking about which kind of roles are the better measure of an actor’s ability, I think we put too much emphasis on performances in which actors play real people. After all, they have the blueprint right there, and, anyway, acting isn’t imitation; otherwise, Frank Gorshin would have won Academy Awards just for going on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” (How’s that for a Pleistocene Age reference?) Still, there are great performances of all kinds, and I loved what Daniel Day-Lewis did with Lincoln and what Gary Oldman did with Winston Churchill (“Darkest Hour”). However, I just can’t get excited about Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury, orChristian Bale in “Vice.”They were exactly what they needed to be, and it’s nice that Halloween came 10 months early, but that’s not the kind of acting that moves me.
Dear Mick LaSalle:A major motion picture (“The Mule”) by an Academy Award-winning director and nobody at The Chronicle bothers to review it. Politics involved?
John McNamee, Alameda
Dear John McNamee:I’ve reviewed every Clint Eastwood movie of the past 20 years. The only reason I didn’t review “The Mule” is the same reason I didn’t review his previous movie, “The 15:17 to Paris” — it wasn’t screened for critics. That means that the distributors determined that they did not want critics to see it. Why not? Well, it could be because they thought the movie was so entertaining, so dazzling and so utterly wonderful that they were afraid critics might love it too much. But I have a feeling that’s not the reason.
Have a question? Ask Mick LaSalle atmlasalle@sfchronicle.com. Include your name and city for publication, and a phone number for verification. Letters may be edited for clarity and length.