Movie thoughts - The Ice Harvest

Full disclosure -- I didn't see this movie, but my friend Suzanne (gradgirl) did and she confirmed my suspicions about it -- that it is unremitingly grim and not all that funny. Hmmm. I love John Cusack and I thought Gross Pointe Blank managed the perfect balance between charm and satire. So why is he making this movie? I read an interesting interview with Cusack and Harold Ramis on Salon.com, where they wax eloquent about the creative process and how fulfilling it is when artists like themselves get to collaborate and create without the burden of big budget Hollywood expectations. People like me love to complain about how empty and commercial and formulaic movies have gotten. But when performers we admire get a little creative freedom they seem to so often produce something that no one actually wants to see. Why is that? I want to be supportive of these performers, I really do. And I want to see movies that break out of the commercial mold. But I notice that these actors often choose to produce movies that are especially grim and violent. (I'm thinking of, for example, Edward James Olmos, who I totally adore, who, when he had a chance to make a movie, made a really nasty Mexican gang movie called American Me, and Bill Paxton, who I also adore, who, when he had the chance to make a movie, made a really nasty family murder drama called Frailty). Maybe it's the desire to break out of the happily-ever-after straight jacket that studio movies entail. Or maybe these stars are a bunch of crazies whose artistic vision is really dark. I guess it's impossible to know, but in the meantime, I'll wait for Cusack's next film.