A to Z Challenge 2020 - Films That Begin With “P”

The Pink Panther (2006)
Director: Shawn Levy
Starring: Steve Martin, Kevin Kline, Jean Reno, Emily Mortimer, Beyoncé
Brief Thoughts: Growing up, there were two kinds of movies my dad obsessively promoted: westerns (which is to say, John Wayne) and Pink Panther. Of course, these are still among his favorites, but he added in Grumpy Old Men in later years. The Pink Panther movies starred  Peter Sellers as the comically bungling French Inspector Clousseau. Looking back I wonder if his nationality was one of the few “cultural links” my dad shared (it’s tough being French, much less French-Canadian, much less Franco-American, these days, insofar as there doesn’t seem to be a defined shape to it). Sellers portrays Clousseau as French mostly through a ridiculous accent. The Pink Panther movies outlived Sellers through a series of fairly painful pivoting maneuvers (here’s one with archive footage! here’s another! here’s his long-lost son!), until finally a real reboot happened. Steve Martin’s Clousseau isn’t really Sellers’, but they sync up beautifully with: a ridiculous French accent. And that, folks, is why I love this film.

The Producers (2005)
Director: Susan Stroman
Starring: Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Uma Thurman, Will Ferrell
Brief Thoughts: Mel Brooks couldn’t possibly have timed his Broadway version of his own film The Producers better. In the wake of 9/11 New Yorkers needed a communal release valve, and by all accounts that’s what The Producers became. (I suspect something similar awaits on the other side of the pandemic.) By the time the movie version of the play version of the movie version was made, it kind of became clear that the whole phenomenon was probably more limited in scope than it had appeared. But I still love it. Lane & Broderick get to be immortalized, but perhaps more significantly you also get Uma Thurman to ramp up the movie star appeal, and Will Ferrell in his last great supporting role before he became a full-fledged leading man.

The Proposal (2009)
Director: Anne Fletcher
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds, Betty White
Brief Thoughts: Famously part of the Sandra Bullock Renaissance, but also underrated as arguably the impetus for the later Ryan Reynolds Renaissance. And, the Betty White Is Really Old & Still Funny! Renaissance. So an historically important movie. Also, a good movie.

The Proposition (2005)
Director: John Hillcoat
Starring: Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston
Brief Thoughts: Arguably the movie No Country for Old Men was chasing, The Proposition is the Australian western that comes up when aficionados of the western talk about later classics, and with good reason. Guy Pearce wasn’t able to sustain the popular momentum he got from this and the earlier Memento, but his career remains interesting. Features Ray Winstone’s defining role as the lawman who pits Pearce against his own brother, Danny Huston.

Bonus!

A Theory Concerning Al Pacino
(“Pacino,” so relevant for today’s letter)

I was wondering if part of the reason Godfather Part III was received so poorly actually had a subconscious explanation. It’s the only entry in the trilogy where Al Pacino is essentially unchallenged as lead actor, has no real counterpoint. In the original, he not only has Marlon Brando in his unexpected comeback role, but Robert Duvall and James Caan as well. Part II has Robert De Niro, as well as the returning Duvall. The closest Part III comes is Andy García, but at this point the trilogy is leaning toward actors you’d maybe expect to be in a mobster movie, in mobster roles (tellingly, it’s also the one that features Joe Montegna, who would later voice Fat Tony in The Simpsons). The original appeal, I think, was watching movies stars meet grizzly endings, sort of like recapturing Bonnie & Clyde (the ending of which I was watching last night when I had this thought). And chances are, you’ll conclude that people don’t like Part III because they agree with the consensus, that it’s a bad movie (agreeing with a consensus never in itself being a valid argument), but it’s worth a thought.