[ThisWeek] Movie review for "Thank You For Smoking" at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre

[thisweek at kenworthy.org]

This week at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre...

Thank You For Smoking (R)
Thursday, Friday & Saturday, June 22, 23, & 24
7:00 PM
Sunday, June 25
4:45 & 7:00 PM
$5/adult
KFS pass accepted for Sunday movies
(See movie review below)
* * *

Next week at the Kenworthy-

Sponsored by BookPeople of Moscow
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (G)
Wednesday, June 28
1:00 PM
$4/adult, $1/child 12 or younger
* * *

Coming in July:
   
Kinky Boots
July 6 - 9

X-Men
July 13 - 16 

DaVinci Code
July 21 ­ 23

Ice Age 2 The Meltdown
July 26 ­ 30

Goal: The Dream Begins
Aug 3 - 6

Regular movie prices:  $5/adult, $3/child 12 or younger
Wednesday matinee prices: $4/adult, $1/child 12 or younger
KFS series pass prices:  $30/10 films, $75/30 films.  KFS pass good only for
Sunday movies.

For more information on movies, events, rental rates, and/or to download a
schedule, visit our website at www.kenworthy.org
* * *
This week¹s movie review-

Thank You For Smoking

Directed by Jason Reitman
Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Katie Holmes, William H. Macy, Maria Bello, Robert
Duvall
Rated R for strong language and simulated sex
Running Time: 1 hour, 32 minutes


As reviewed by Steve Persall writing for the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times

Thank You for Smoking is a breathlessly satirical look at the tobacco
industry and those who would shut it down. Jason Reitman's assured film
debut works hard to reverse everyone's spin on the subject, lobbyists and
busybodies alike. It is that rare scattershot spoof that hits most of its
targets, sometimes fatally so we'll never be bothered by them again.

The story, based on Christopher Buckley's novel, focuses on Nick Naylor
Aaron Eckhart, lead lobbyist for the Academy of Tobacco Studies, established
as a sham of Big Tobacco's concern about dying customers. Of course their
research shows no connection between smoking and cancer. Antismoking forces
protest, and Nick responds with machine-gun baloney.

Nick can turn the tables on a talk show by claiming anti-smokers want to see
children contract cancer in order to justify their own existence. The
tobacco industry, he counters, wouldn't want to lose a customer. He can
debate a fifth-grader's belief in what her mother told her about cigarettes
until she slinks low behind her desk. He can fluster a U.S. senator (William
H. Macy) pushing for skull-and-crossbones symbols on cigarette packs by
arguing the politician's home state clogs more arteries with maple syrup and
cheese. Oh, he's good.

Nick lunches and does happy hour regularly with two other lobbyists forming
the MOD squad, meaning "merchants of death.'' Polly Bailey (Maria Bello)
shills for alcohol, while Bobby Joe Bliss (David Koechner) works for
firearms manufacturers. Whose clients kill more people is their polite table
talk. There's also the Captain (Robert Duvall), the tobacco czar who wants
Nick to keep up the good fight, and a reporter (Katie Holmes) literally in
bed with her expose subject.

Somehow in all this spin-controlling, Nick finds time to raise his son Joey
(Cameron Bright) but not too responsibly. Joey tags along on some of Dad's
lobbying trips, including a visit with a former Marlboro Man-style ad figure
(Sam Elliott) dying of lung cancer. Joey also meets a Hollywood producer
(Rob Lowe) who'll make astronauts smoke in a sci-fi flick if the price is
right. Not exactly Disney World or a ball game, is it?

Reitman's film usually does a good job of capturing Buckley's digressive
style, using flashbacks, literal visions of Nick's narration and animated
annotations. Thank You for Smoking has a lot going on around the edges,
either sight gags or sly remarks begging to be reheard. The movie was almost
over before I realized that nobody had been shown smoking, so deftly does
Reitman handle the subject. Thank You for Smoking is like a perfectly
executed smoke ring: something to marvel at before it dissipates, and a
minor joy to remember.


As reviewed by Sean Axmaker writing for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Tobacco industry lobbyist Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) is a manipulative,
glib, proudly obfuscating "Yuppie Mephistopheles," according to his
detractors. He's also our hero.

With brazen righteousness, Naylor zealously defends the right of
"defenseless" corporate giants to market products that, when used as
directed, likely will kill their clientele. His nemesis is a social nanny of
an anti-tobacco senator (William H. Macy), an amateur in the art of spin
compared to spinmaster Naylor.

It's hard not to admire the sheer gall of his medicine-show patter and
con-man guile. Under his chummy but compassionless smile, Eckhart radiates
charm and Naylor's true joys: manipulating arguments, steering debate,
cooking words. As he explains to his enamored son (Cameron Bright), being a
lobbyist "requires a moral flexibility that is beyond most people."

Reitman's witty adaptation keeps the satirical jabs coming fast and furious,
from an inspired assassination attempt by anti-smoking guerrillas to
Naylor's monthly meetings with the M.O.D. squad ("Merchants of Death" -- he
vies with fellow lobbyists over bragging rights to the biggest killer: guns,
alcohol or tobacco). But it also allows Naylor to see himself reflected in
his son's eyes.

The moral of the film turns the issue of cigarettes and cancer and corporate
responsibility into a cry for freedom of choice, fine on its face as long as
we don't wade into the murkier waters of big-tobacco influence and its
impact.

"Thank You" is a sly, smart and very funny caricature of corporate politics
and image culture. Reitman neither takes sides nor holds anyone accountable,
a frustration to be sure, but he skewers the spin machine with such wicked
wit that you can't help but laugh at the whole perverse, corrupt culture.


As reviewed by Mark Kermode writing for The Observer (London)

There's been much critical puffing of Thank You for Smoking, a sly
adaptation of Christopher Buckley's 1994 novel about the rise of spin
culture. Aaron Eckhart is perfectly cast as smug slug Nick Naylor who
lobbies for people's right to give themselves cancer, and who encourages
kids at St Euthanasias high school to decide for themselves whether
cigarettes are really as bad as mum and dad say.

In his lunch breaks Nick trades body counts with his 'Merchants of Death'
cohorts in the booze and firearms business, beautifully sketched by the
boisterous David Koechner and the magnificently mercurial Maria Bello.
Nick's newest mission is to seal a deal putting cigs back into cinema, with
plans for Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta-Jones to blow zero-gravity smoke
rings around their naked bodies in some seven-figure sci-fi product
placement. Only a senator (William H Macy), a tumour-ridden cowboy (Sam
Elliott) and a death threat stand between Naylor and his mortgage payments.
While the set-up is a scorcher, Jason Reitman's sassy feature debut loses
some steam as we get closer to the narrative butt. The one-liners still
sting but, in the wake of a kidnapping and some father-son bonding, the
story starts to drag.

As an attack on the smoking lobby, it has none of the fire of Michael Mann's
The Insider, while Wag the Dog walked a similarly poisonous PR line. Still,
there's enough bite in the dialogue and performances to provoke a hacking
cough of approval, and the laugh-out-loud moments are many, not least in
scenes featuring Rob Lowe's unctuous Hollywood agent


Film reviews researched and edited by Peter Haggart
* * *

Take a seat!  We mean that literally.  The Kenworthy is offering you the
opportunity to purchase one of a limited number of theater chairs in the
main auditorium.  Your gift will entitle you to an engraved, brass name
plate mounted on the back of the seat of your choice (based upon
availability).  One individual or business name per seat, please.

This naming opportunity, back by popular demand, is available for a donation
of $500 per chair.  You may purchase a chair in two installments of $250
over two years, or in three installments of $200 over three years.

Your gift will assist with the ongoing operation and renovation of the
Kenworthy Theater and fulfillment of our mission to be Moscow's premiere,
historic, downtown, community performing arts venue and cinematic art house.

For information about the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre, call Julie
Ketchum, Executive Director, at 208-882-4127.
* * *

Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre
508 S. Main Street, Moscow, Idaho
208-882-4127
Sign up for this weekly email on events and movies at the Kenworthy by
logging onto our website
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PAMELA PALMER, Volunteer
Mailto:ppalmer at moscow.com
Film and Events Committee
Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre

http://www.kenworthy.org
To speak with a KPAC staff member,
call (208) 882-4127
Mailto:kpac at moscow.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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