Paul Schrader's THE CANYONS (2013)

Trailers edited by CASINOROYALE.

Don't know about this one. The first trailer is kind of interesting, if you can get around the kooky, amateur editing and shit typeface. The second trailer just seems to highlight some awful acting. It looks like Paul Schrader meets MTV meets porn.

The acting is woeful.

Maybe the acting is intentionally flat and wonky? The trailers are both parody trailers, so I don't know. I don't know anything about THE CANYONS or what it's going for. It sure looks unappealing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/magazine/here-is-what-happens-when-you-cast-lindsay-lohan-in-your-movie.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all&

Python wrote:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/magazine/here-is-what-happens-when-you-cast-lindsay-lohan-in-your-movie.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all&

I came over to BOND AND BEYOND just now expressly to provide a link to this story...and I see you beat me to it. Damn this was fascinating! They should actually make a movie about making this movie (just not sure who would play Lindsay Lohan).

If this film can get a decent release, in any platform, they may end up making their money back and then some. Certainly can't make any less than THE OOGIE LOVES.

Control wrote:

Trailers edited by CASINOROYALE.

Just chuck in a couple of explosions drawn in Microsoft Paint.

CJB wrote:

Control wrote:

Trailers edited by CASINOROYALE.

Just chuck in a couple of explosions drawn in Microsoft Paint.

As I said, the article was a fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at a low-budget movie. And clearly there *WAS* some major talent involved behind making this movie: Schraeder, Ellis, Lohan...but they're all way past their prime. The movie looks so, so, so horribly horrible that I can only believe that, in post, they decided to just embrace the awfulness and play up the camp angle. I'm actually kind of wanting to see it. I'm a connoisseur of bad films. If the film makers play their cards right and go full-on NC-17, it could only help the box office prospects of what would otherwise be a huge dud.

Lohan is clearly slumming it. Taking a film for only $100 dollars a day? The overall budget for this film is Lohan's yearly coke budget. It's embarrassing. It's a disgrace for her that she's had to lower herself to working in what is essentially a porno film. In fact, she's starring opposite a porn actor, and doing a 4-way with him and two other porn stars. I've felt for a while porn would be Lindsay's last stop before the grave, so she's right on schedule as far as I'm concerned.

"Introducing a POTENT new screen personality... JAMES DEEN"

Is the "canyon" in question located between Lindsay Lohan's legs?

CJB wrote:

Is the "canyon" in question located between Lindsay Lohan's legs?

'Yodel up the canyon' is a euphemism for cunnilingus, so I'd say you're right.

Have no idea what to make of the movie from the deliberately 'grindhouse B-movie' style trailers.

CJB wrote:

Is the "canyon" in question located between Lindsay Lohan's legs?

It's a metaphor. It represents the space between where her career used to be and where it is now.

Schrader's THE CANYONS got a hammering from Lord Armond.

Quote :

Hard luck Lindsay Lohan couldn’t have made a worse movie than The Canyons had she directed it herself. As the film’s producer, she made the poor decision to hire Paul Schrader as director, putting herself in the hands of a filmmaker who reduces her to a T&A show. Schrader appears to know less than Lohan about dissipated living–if one goes by Schrader’s low-life trilogy Hard Core, his pseudo-porno-snuff film; Auto-Focus, his pervy Bob Crane biography; and The Walker, about an escort who caters to fag-hags. Throw in the totally factitious American Gigolo, which couldn’t settle on whether its protagonist was gay or straight, a prostitute or a saint, and you have an unimpeachable case against the fatuous Schrader. He’s incapable of translating Lohan’s moral, sexual and professional confusion.

http://cityarts.info/2013/07/31/not-schlong-on-talent-2/

White doesn't get Schrader. It's precisely his lack of moral certainty that makes Schrader interesting - there are no black and white characters in his work.

Besides, Lohan didn't hire Schrader. Her producers credit is a way of increasing her backend on a shoestring production and I'm not referring to her arse. Though I would be happy to discuss it.

What draws me off Schrader is his penchant for moralising (which could be said about White) and the amateurishness of his direction. For a guy so cinematically literate, his film school laziness is bewildering

Tried to watch this last night. A promising beginning with shots of closed-down cinemas, but the photography, music and direction are awful, and I turned off halfway through. The script is an absolute disgrace.

Lohan is by far the best thing in Canyons though that's not saying much - I like dissolute women.

Was it Paul Schrader who went through a phase where he was so depressed, he could not sleep without a gun underneath his pillow (so he could end it all in the blink of an eye if he felt too overwhelmed)?

This had disaster written all over it from day one. You need a bit more than stunt casting to make a good movie.

Yeah, that was Schrader though it was 40 years ago. And I disagree that Schrader, Ellis and Lohan spelled disaster. It should 've been interesting at the very least.

Salomé wrote:

Was it Paul Schrader who went through a phase where he was so depressed, he could not sleep without a gun underneath his pillow (so he could end it all in the blink of an eye if he felt too overwhelmed)?

According to Schrader:

Quote :

I was frightened. I was walking around, carrying a gun. I could only sleep with a gun in my mouth.

http://thehollywoodinterview.blogspot.com/2008/01/paul-schrader-hollywood-interview.html

Horrible, but that turmoil lead to some brilliant stories and characters. Especially Travis Bickle.

Schrader lost whatever talent he had years ago. It's a shame.

Erica Ambler wrote:

Yeah, that was Schrader though it was 40 years ago. And I disagree that Schrader, Ellis and Lohan spelled disaster. It should 've been interesting at the very least.

Not necessarily the combination of those three, but the early articles about the production itself suggested it was going to be a struggle to end up with something worthwhile.

Harmsway wrote:

Schrader lost whatever talent he had years ago. It's a shame.

I suppose most writers only have so many stories in them?

Salomé wrote:

Harmsway wrote:

Schrader lost whatever talent he had years ago. It's a shame.

I suppose most writers only have so many stories in them?

Maybe so, though I think Schrader was always a bit mad. He just finally went over the deep end.

I'd say Schrader's talent disappeared when he married. Not an uncommon story.

Erica Ambler wrote:

I'd say Schrader's talent disappeared when he married. Not an uncommon story.

Although the counter-argument would be how Bogdanovich never made another good movie after stopping his collaboration with his wife (then already ex-wife).

I always rated Polly, especially since she preferred Hawks to Ford (her husband had the opposite idea).

I'm not necessarily dissing marriage here.

A lot of artists are troubled and unhappy, and their creativity dries up when they find happiness. For some that's when they marry, and maybe that's what happened to Schrader. He found some kind of peace, but his work suffered. Of course, there are examples of creative couples whether it's the Hitchcocks or Eric Ambler and Joan Harrison.