Get Low (2009)

Sublime. Jack and I had eagerly anticipated this yarn about an eccentric old man (Robert Duvall) planning his funeral party that he will attend, alive, and we saw it on its opening day last Friday. Co-starring Sissy Spacek as Duvall's old friend and Bill Murray as the funeral director, it's a treat from start to finish. Aaron Schneider makes a confident feature directing debut (after winning an Oscar for his live-action short Two Soldiers (2004) and an Emmy plus two awards from his cinematography peers for shooting the excellent 1995 series Murder One) and also edits. Producer Dean Zanuck (son of Richard, grandson of Darryl) worked on the movie, based on a true story about 1930s Tennessee hermit Felix Bush, for 8 years before it found its way to the screen. Here's a fascinating, albeit long, interview with Zanuck and Schneider about how the movie came to be (to avoid spoilers, stop after Schneider's answer to the question that ends "Did you just let them do their thing?"). Some of my favorites of Duvall's 134 credits are MASH (1970) in which he played Major Burns, Network (1976), The Great Santini (1979), Tender Mercies (1983) which won him his Oscar, Something to Talk About (1995), Sling Blade (1996), The Apostle (1997) which he directed and wrote as well as starred, Thank You for Smoking (2005), and Crazy Heart. He was born to play Felix. Sissy Spacek (I loved her in Alan Rudolph's Welcome to L.A. (1976), Robert Altman's 3 Women (1977), Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) which won her her Oscar, 'night Mother and Crimes of the Heart (both 1986), If These Walls Could Talk (1996), In the Bedroom (2001), and North Country (2005)) conveys every emotion necessary to give Mattie her needed depth, and Bill Murray (I listed my faves in Fantastic Mr. Fox) is hilarious even when he's serious as Frank. Lucas Black (who played the little kid in Sling Blade before going on to other projects, including Jarhead (2005)) is also great as Frank's assistant Buddy. Duvall and Spacek played two of the four parents in the fluffy Four Christmases.

The music is fabulous: bluegrass by Jerry Douglas and by The Steel Drivers; old 1930s hits by The Inkspots, Bix Beiderbecke, and more; and a beautiful Alison Krauss tune crooned over the end credits. The playlist blog lists the tunes (with no mention of the score by Jan Kaczmarek) and has two of the old songs streaming on the page. Here's a review of the CD.

And we have a new winner in the Producers Plethora Prize, unseating Battle in Seattle and Grace is Gone. This one has, count 'em, twenty-three producers, including Duvall, Dean Zanuck's brother Harrison, and co-writers Chris Provenzano (2 episodes of Mad Men, which won him an Emmy in 2007, among others) and C. Gaby Mitchell.