Rian Johnson hurls another brick at a genre that needs busting up

By Steven Zeitchik

Writing about a con-man movie just as Wall Street collapses feels either too neat or too eerie, so we won't underline the obvious conclusion (well, not too much) as we get to one of our favorite pics from the recent Toronto goings-on: "The Brothers Bloom," the follow-up effort from reinvention specialist Rian Johnson.

Johnson, you may recall, was the writer-director behind the Sundance and subsequent cult hit "Brick," the Joseph Gordon-Levitt/Lukas Haas genre-bender in which the conventions of noir are transplanted to a contemporary Southern California high school -- darkness and shadows become resplendent white light, and fraught Marlowe-esue dialogue like "She knows what bar I drink at " turns into lines like "She knows what cafeteria table I sit at."

The director was passed over/spared some of the fest hype with his latest pic because he and producer Ram Bergman decided to sell the title last year to Summit off  a short promo reel instead of taking it to Sundance and having it bathe in the attention (and high expectations) of Park City. But with Summit planning a December release, the movie had its fest moment in the sun as it world premiered in Toronto. And because it entered with distribution in hand, the pic slipped in a little more quietly even though it's still worthy of all the attention any breakouts with rights available would get.

The Endgame-financed and -produced movie, in which Johnson funnels a buoyant tone and offbeat sensibility into the con-man genre, is just as original (if also more disciplined) than his rookie entry. Little is as it appears in Johnson's filmmaking, which kind of makes the con-man genre, entirely based on sleight-of-hand, a perfect fit.  

There are plenty of twists and turns in this globetrotter, but the basic idea is that as veteran swindlers Mark Ruffalo and Adrian Brody plan their last hurrah, they sucker in Rachel Weisz's wide-eyed eccentric, and the question of who's zooming who quickly becomes enjoyably ambiguous. There's also another payoff, since with the family relationships (as well as Brody and Weisz's gentle romance) the cons are as much emotional as material. And the tone of stylish irony is nothing like we typically see in the narrative-driven iterations of the genre; "Bloom" is "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" by way of Wes Anderson.

That we've seen movies in this category before and are thus anticipating, sometimes too keenly, every bit of duplicity also lets us become  active participants in the brothers' plot (and sometimes our own worst enemy). As Johnson succinctly put it in an interview: "The nice thing about doing a (con-man) movie like this is that you can use the audience's expectations as part of the storytelling."

Johnson has a new script he's working on now that will become his next directorial project. It's called "Looper,' and this time it cross-pollinates two genres -- time travel and the hit-man drama -- to create another one of his worlds that's just a little different than our own. (The idea is that a criminal syndicate in the future has figured out the perfect way to kill and dispose of victims -- they send them back in time to be assassinated, because the cops in the present-day don't really notice or care that someone who doesn't exist yet is being offed.)

Johnson will likely go the indie route again with the pic, probably also with Endgame, and unlike other indie darlings like Jonathan Levine or the Duplass Brothers, he will probably continue working solely on indies instead of taking a studio gig. "It's less about integrity than it it what I'd enjoy about making films," Johnson said. "If I took (a for-hire job) I'd probably get bored and do a really bad job."

Speaking of Endgame, the Jim Stern indie banner is on a bit of a roll lately. Besides "Bloom" and the endearing, if quirky, "Easy Virtue," their doc "Every Little Step" was a sleeper hit at Toronto; we know people who were certainly not the target audience for a story of the revival of "A Chorus Line" but who were nonetheless drawn to its aspirational aspects.

The movie inspired some of the more fierce bidding we've seen on a doc since the boomlet in Park City a few years ago. Put together by William Morris Independent stalwart Rena Ronson (also behind the underrated crowd-pleaser "Young@Heart" from Searchlight earlier in this year), the movie is shaping up to be one of the refreshing and unexpected acquisition stories in a category that needs it -- the Rian Johnson of fest sales.

Comments

[soozi]

Good genre

[rickey]

Good work Johnson! Rain Johnson is really good director and producer. He always gave good movies to the viewers. Now these days, he is directing a movie which is name ‘con-man’. Keep it up john!

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rickey

[Max]

Hi
Johnson will likely go the indie route again with the pic, probably also with Endgame, and unlike other indie darlings like Jonathan Levine or the Duplass Brothers, he will probably continue working solely on indies instead of taking a studio gig. "It's less about integrity than it it what I'd enjoy about making films," Johnson said. "If I took (a for-hire job) I'd probably get bored and do a really bad job."

Max

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[Danny Bloom]

Question sir: why does the BLOOM character played by Brody NOT have a first name in the movie? Can you answer me that?

See here for backstory and new name contest for Brody's character.....

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[Betty]

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Betty

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