the butterscotch stallion pulls my bandwagon
Don't say I never gave you anything. Courtesy of my updated Complete New Yorker, I bring you the letter Owen Wilson wrote to David Denby. From the February 14 2005 issue of the New Yorker.
"I read David Denby's piece on Ben Stiller with great interest (The Current Cinema, Jan 24th &31st). Not because it was good or fair toward my friend but exactly because it wasn't. I've acted in two hundred and thirty-seven buddy movies and, with that experience, I've developed an almost preternatural feel for the beats that any good budy movie must have. And maybe the most crucial audience-rewarding beats is where one buddy comes to the aid of the other guy to help defeat a villain. Or bully. Or jerk. Someone the audience can really root against. And in Denby I realized excitedly that I had hit on the trifecta. How could an audience not be dying for a real "Billy Jack" moment of reckoning for Denby after he dismisses or diminishes or just plain insults practically everything Stiller has ever worked on? And not letting it rest there, in true bully fashion Denby moves on to take some shots at the way Ben looks and even his Jewishness, describing him as the 'latest, and crudest, version of the urban Jewish male on the make.' The audience is practically howling for blood! I really wish I could deliver for them - but that's Jackie Chan's role.
Owen Wilson
Dallas, Texas" (38)
I first posted on this letter in July, 2005, in my second post ever (now updated) so we can celebrate the one year anniversary of my blog with this lovely, Denby-directed rant.
I've gotten a ton of keyword searches and hits for the 2005 post in the last 48 hours. Will someone please tell me why?
And I do want to be clear on this, this post is in no way an endorsement of You, Me and Dupree. Although if you have to see it, I suspect this this might come in handy.
Just two buddies, out for hack movie critic blood.
Categories: denby, newyorker, film
"I read David Denby's piece on Ben Stiller with great interest (The Current Cinema, Jan 24th &31st). Not because it was good or fair toward my friend but exactly because it wasn't. I've acted in two hundred and thirty-seven buddy movies and, with that experience, I've developed an almost preternatural feel for the beats that any good budy movie must have. And maybe the most crucial audience-rewarding beats is where one buddy comes to the aid of the other guy to help defeat a villain. Or bully. Or jerk. Someone the audience can really root against. And in Denby I realized excitedly that I had hit on the trifecta. How could an audience not be dying for a real "Billy Jack" moment of reckoning for Denby after he dismisses or diminishes or just plain insults practically everything Stiller has ever worked on? And not letting it rest there, in true bully fashion Denby moves on to take some shots at the way Ben looks and even his Jewishness, describing him as the 'latest, and crudest, version of the urban Jewish male on the make.' The audience is practically howling for blood! I really wish I could deliver for them - but that's Jackie Chan's role.
Owen Wilson
Dallas, Texas" (38)
I first posted on this letter in July, 2005, in my second post ever (now updated) so we can celebrate the one year anniversary of my blog with this lovely, Denby-directed rant. I've gotten a ton of keyword searches and hits for the 2005 post in the last 48 hours. Will someone please tell me why?
And I do want to be clear on this, this post is in no way an endorsement of You, Me and Dupree. Although if you have to see it, I suspect this this might come in handy.
Just two buddies, out for hack movie critic blood.
Categories: denby, newyorker, film
posted by zoe p. at 12:15 PM
6 Comments:
Happy blogiversary!
Happy Aniversaty, zp, and many more.
thanks for the anniversary congrats.
the post was honestly in response to the owen wilson hits and then when i looked for my first post on the letter, if found that it was a july 2005 post.
i thought maybe that wilson's appearance on the daily show mentioned the new yorker letter? but in any case,the hits have already subsided . . .
This is a bit late, but I often get a lot of keyword searches for a film the week it hits DVD. This happened recently with "Inside Man," especially when I got a small spike in hits from people Googling the film.
And, oh yeah, I've gotten hits during shows/broadcasts before. Was watching a broadcast of "Shattered Glass" the other day an dgot about 3-4 extra searches from people looking for info on the film.
A Colbert or TDS guest will also have teh same effect.
Denby told us: "If you take a shot at someone as a critic, you have to assume that someone is gonna hit back. I thought the letter was funny and I'm glad he did it. We should all have friends like that."
From the New York Post "Page Six" Feb 5, 2006. Found via the Wilson Brothers Forums. New York Post no longer has the article avail for free, but you can find the abstract there. No Denby quote.
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