At the movies (and on TV) Sat, Feb 12, 2005

20 years ago, pick-up artist culture had become so mainstream it inspired a Will Smith rom-com!

At the Movies: Hitch

This movie is a total mess. For more on its muddled messages about circa-2005 dating, gender politics, and pick-up artist culture, read Caroline Siede's excellent When Romance Met Comedy column.

But all I could think about as I watched this was how expensive it looked. They filmed in the Delacorte Theater! There are multiple complex street scenes with people running after cars and other such nonsense. There are so many extras! There are tons of big needle drops AND a (very bad, to be fair) original score. This movie was made at the tail end of the rom-com boom, and it starred the biggest movie star in the world. So the budget was $7o million (in 2005 money!). And all that money is on the screen. It paid off too: this movie made over $350 million worldwide and is one of the highest-grossing rom-coms of all time.

This movie reminds me so powerfully of the genre's decline. Especially since it was directed by Andy Tennant. Tennant was a total rom-com journeyman, and his career tells a story of the genres decline. He got his start directing the very solid Fools Rush In, the excellent Ever After, and the fun Sweet Home Alabama. Then came the flawed but vibrant Hitch. And he demonstrates true skill in this movie. The film opens with a complex sequence in which we see Will Smith guide three different men as they court a beautiful woman. We get meet-cutes, dates, dogs, taxis, dates, kisses, and more. All through it Will Smith offers voiceover. In Tennant's hands, it works, it was my favorite part of the movie.

Tennant had something to offer Hollywood, but after Hitch all Hollywood had to offer him was The Bounty Hunter and Fool's Gold, two of the most hated rom-coms of all time. It's a sad story.

Also in Theaters

• Things were not going well at the House of Mouse. Pooh's Heffalump Movie debuted at #7.
• Martial arts classic Ong-Bak: the Thai Warrior and Bride and Prejudice premiered in limited release and did quite well.

11:30 Saturday Night Live

with host Jason Bateman and musical guest Kelly Clarkson

The opening sketch of this episode, set at a North Korean press conference, is truly dire. Probably the most offensive sketch of the season to date. And it has real competition. The nest sketch is a monkeys throwing poop at celebrities thing. Also bad. And we get a very disturbing moment in Weekend Update when Tina mentions the Cosby allegations and Kenan (who'd just appeared in a Fat Albert movie) comes out to say that he likes working and won's say anything.

However, the rest of the episode is a lot of fun. There's the debut of the cult classic sketch "Gays in Space," which was recently referenced by future SNL castmember Bowen Yang in Fire Island. Maya Rudolph's performance of the theme song is the highlight of that sketch, and this episode proves to be a pretty good showcase for the show's Black cast-members in general. There's a recurring bit of History Channel parodies about Kenny Wilkins, a black pioneer and the "first Black man to say no to direct deposit," among other things. Kenan and Maya are spectacular as '70s funk duo T.T. and Mario. The sketches feel specific and all the more hilarious for that.

There's also a parody of true crime shows in which Darrell Hammond as true crime host Bill Kurtis records narration ("he then inserted a 45 caliber pistol into the man's rectum") while making small talk with producers Jason Bateman and Maya Rudolph. John Mulaney and Bill Hader definitely loved this sketch.

This episode also marks an important milestone in musical guest Kelly Clarkson's career. Kelly Clarkson was part of a group of girls trying to follow the Avril Lavigne model: a rock-coded popstar who presented an alternative to the Britneys and Christinas of the world. You know who else was part of that group? Ashlee Simpson. And she looked like she was going to be the next Avril until it all came crashing down on SNL.

Kelly and Ashlee had already met at the Orange Bowl just a month earlier. There were serious technical difficulties at that event. No one could say Ashlee was lip-syncing in that performance. But it was bad, so bad, and she was booed for her troubled. But Kelly handled the technical challenges with aplomb and turned in a solid set.

Now here, at the site of Ashlee's fall, Kelly Clarkson proved herself as a bona-fide popstar. I don't even think she was having a good day, her vocals were a little shaky. But she was solid and passionate, and she was definitely singing live. Where she really distinguished herself was in the sketches.

She appeared in two. In the first, she sang "One Moment in Time," and killed it, reminding everyone of her time on American Idol and her vocal chops (again, presented a notable contrast to Ashlee Simpson). In the second, she played a recurring sketch about fat MTV VJ Horatio Saenz. She plays a popstar and sings a song about celebrating her love for food. There are fat jokes, farting, it's bad. But Kelly is committed and funny and she does a great impression of a teen pop idol in the Britney and Christina mold. This emphasizes that she could be Britney, but she's decided to be the "alternative" girl instead. It makes her image as a rebellious-coded popstar even more convincing and appealing.

Kelly would surpass Ashlee and all the wannabe rocker-chick popstars, including Avril, becoming one of the defining popstars of her generation. This night on SNL was an important part of that.

There were two intriguing TV movies tonight: the Spike Lee-directed (!) Sucka Free City on Showtime and the HBO stage adaptation Lackawanna Blues starring S. Epatha Merkerson. I record them both.

What Was On TV

• BBC America aired the BAFTAs. They broke with awards season trends and awarded Vera Drake in major categories including Best Director and Best Actress. But the most interesting part of the BAFTAS this year is this amazing promo starring Natasha McElhone. It straddles the line between bad taste and dark humor in a very British way, and I love it. And Natasha McElhone really serves, honestly.
• The Sci-Fi Channel Saturday movie was the time travel tale Slipstream, starring Sean Astin. Two weeks ago, the Sci-Fi movie was Chupacabra: Dark Terror, starring John Rhys-Davies and Giancarlo Esposito.

TiVo Status

The Masterpiece Theater miniseries The Lost Prince, the Frontline documentary House of Saud, the TV-movies Sucker Free City and Lackawanna Blues, and one episode each of Monk, and Without a Trace. 12 hours total.

And a song

One of my favorite album tracks from Kelly's classic sophomore album. The restraint on the verses contrasted with the typical huge chorus really shows off Kelly's vocal chops.