The Best Actor in the Vase of Meiyu

Chapter 1089 Focus on Actors
Regarding "Sing Along", does Anson think it is a classic masterpiece?

No, he doesn't think so; but he thinks the movie is still worth seeing.

"Walk-The-Line", the original name can be understood as moving forward all the way. With the help of June Carter, Johnny Cash regained his spirits, climbed out of the darkness and found his own life.

At the same time, it can also be understood as teetering on the dangerous edge of a high-altitude tightrope, showing how Johnny Cash struggled in the shadow of his family and the whirlpool of fame and fortune, and finally achieved redemption.

Unfortunately, the translated name failed to capture the artistic conception behind the words.

The film is very ambitious and the narrative is a bit scattered. As Edgar said, because the script was completed when Johnny Cash was still alive, it is inevitable that we can see him trying to show his own redemption process, which largely prevents the director from bringing the fragments together.

A truly excellent biographical film often captures an accurate core, which may be an individual, an era, the struggle of human nature, or philosophical thinking, and builds the character around this core. Otherwise, it would be useless to use a mere movie to tell the story of a character's magnificent life.

Too difficult.

The core of "Sing Along" is good, but the script really lets it down.

Still, Anson thinks the film is worth seeing for two reasons.

First, music.

As the two James said, they wanted to use the movie to show how Johnny Cash drew inspiration from his terrible life and evolved into music. Mangold really grasped the key to this.

To this end, Mangold required both actors to sing in person -

In their previous lives, Joaquin and Reese each received professional vocal training. When lip-syncing was popular in other Hollywood biographical films, they performed all the singing in the film themselves.

And these musical performances really give the film its soul.

Second, performance.

Both actors have their own strengths, but Anson thinks Reese is the better one.

Joaquin is an excellent actor, there is no doubt about that; but he relies more on emotional outbursts and speculations, and in this respect he is really eye-catching.

However, the establishment of the character's emotional context and performance framework is a bit weak. It's not bad, but it's not outstanding either. Therefore, Joaquin's impressive roles are often the type with an emotional pull or outburst, such as "The Master", "Gladiator", "Joker" and so on.

In "Walk the Walk", Joaquin's struggle and pull in the darkness of Johnny Cash is still first-rate, and one can even see the prototype of the performance tension that he later had when he was walking on the edge of danger in "Joker"; but Joaquin's musical performance is... disappointing.

It can be seen that he tried his best, but his understanding of the emotional context of the music and his control of live performance never grasped the essence.

And Reese provides a small contrast.

Throughout the entire movie, Reese's character June Carter has almost no emotional outbursts or scenes where her acting is released. She is more like a ray of sunshine shining into Johnny Cash's life.

Reese brings the character to life with her light and cheerful performance. Such a performance seems simple and effortless, which is why she is criticized as the "Water Queen". It is effortless, but in fact, she needs to find a good balance. Any less will make her seem powerless, and any more will seem artificial.

The most direct comparison is "Glee" or "High School Musical", the whole performance seems like fake Barbie with three hundred layers of filters.

Reese's grasp of the situation is just right, and her skill is admirable.

In addition, the real highlight of Reese's performance is her singing, where she demonstrates her power over music, her control over performance, and her rare musical talent. The essence of the singing part in the movie should be Johnny Cash, but Reese makes June Carter's performance shine with superstar charm.

There is no harm without comparison. Reese still makes Joaquin look a little embarrassed.

Of course, this is not to say that Joaquin is not good, he is just striving for perfection.

Unfortunately, for the general public, the most common criterion for judging the quality of acting is often explosive power.

The most intuitive example is that if a person can get emotional and cry within 30 seconds anytime and anywhere, people will exclaim and applaud, believing that this is a sign of superb acting skills.

Of course, actors who need eye drops during crying scenes are worth complaining about; but being able to cry at will is definitely not a sign of good acting skills.

It can be even more difficult to recreate the charm of a character like Reese does and pull it off with such ease.

The point is that Mangold once again demonstrated his sensitivity as a screenwriter. In the past, he used words to figure out and imagine the edges and colors of the characters; now he interacts with the actors through the camera.

Mangold always knows how to capture the emotions exuded by his actors.

This point was also vividly demonstrated in the later "Logan 3". Even though it was a superhero comic movie, Mangold also captured the vicissitudes and tragedy of the old age of the hero in the western movie.

Maybe Mangold is not a gifted director, and he has never won any mainstream award nominations for directing; but he is undoubtedly a director who respects and loves actors and knows how to discover actors.

From this perspective, Mangold and Kitcher at least grasped the core of the film. Their judgment and conception of the film were correct, and the musical performance was the soul, so they went around and around to find Anson -

And this is after having contact with Joaquin.

At least, they were honest about that.

As a viewer, Anson will not be so ecstatic and excited about "Sing Along" that he cannot sleep, but he will still recommend it to his friends.

As an actor, Anson believes that "Singing with the Song" is a challenge.

If you think about it carefully, maybe this is Anson's best chance to break free of the shackles of the vase label, because the essence of the movie is all focused on the musical performance, which has some similarities with pure acting but is not exactly the same. Instead, it can become Anson's entry point to carefully consider the role.

After all, so far, there has not been a single film that really gave Anson room to perform and delve into the role.

The commercial attributes of "Cat and Mouse Game" and "Butterfly Effect" prevail. Anson wins the opportunity to show his acting skills in a few specific scenes, but does not have the opportunity to construct his own performance framework and character context.

"Eternal Love" does have such an opportunity, but the shadow of Charlie Kaufman's screenwriting completely shrouds the entire film, swallowing up the actor's own performance space, and he is still trapped in Charlie Kaufman's script.

The script of "Songs with Me" is a bit fragmented and cumbersome. All the focus is on Johnny Cash, but the character is not given a clear framework and context, which may become an opportunity -

Just like Reese Witherspoon, complete your own understanding in the space of imagination.

Fortunately, this script gives the actors enough space to perform and improve.

So, Anson told Edgar that he thought this might be an opportunity:
He means it.

(End of this chapter)