Cassel Goes To Work For 'The Crew'
Veteran Actor Joins Contemporaries For Mob Comedy
Veteran actor Seymour Cassel has been in the movie biz for over 40 years, which is certainly a long enough time to witness an interesting evolution of a popular film genre.
The characters in mob films have been so overdone that they have in a sense become caricatures of their former selves: Unless the film is done extraordinarily well ? like "The Godfather" trilogy or "Goodfellas" -- the portrayals of gangsters have become so stereotyped that even serious mafia movies can't help but borderline on parody.
So needless to say, for Cassel to do a movie like "The Crew" (new on video and DVD) ? a mob comedy where the humor is at the fore ? it presents the actor with a tricky balancing act: Essentially, he and his co-stars are faced with the task of playing serious roles with every intention of being funny.
"It all depends on the script," Cassel told me in a recent interview. "There's a film that is being produced this summer called 'Miamiland' -- it's a mob movie but it's quite well written as a comedy, and I thought 'The Crew' was when I first read it.
"I think a mob film is much easier to take if you can find some comedy in it, but then you have to be careful. If you caricaturize it too much, it can be just as grotesque as seeing the violence."
In "The Crew," Cassel plays Tony "Mouth" Donato, one of four "made men" who have retired to the sun-basked shores of Miami Beach. But when an onslaught of younger tenants and rising rent threatens eviction from their already rundown hotel, Donato and the "crew" -- Bobby Bartellemeo (Richard Dreyfus), Joey "Bats" Pistella (Burt Reynolds) and Mike "The Brick" Donatelli (Dan Hedaya) -- decide to come out of retirement to protect their turf.
The plan? To stage a "hit" as a wake-up call to all who want the retirees out on the streets. But when the shenanigan inadvertently gets a drug lord involved, the guys suddenly find themselves on a hit list.
'Mouthing' Off
The reason Cassel's character is nicknamed "Mouth" is not because he talks too much, but because he doesn't talk at all. The reason is simple -- he doesn't need to.
"The guys have been together so long that he knows what they're going to say before it comes out of their mouths," Cassel explained. "It's like a marriage."
Plus, for the lack of lines, there's another benefit: "I get all the girls," he mused.
But as an actor, having sparse dialogue presents an interesting challenge. It might be easy to assume that Cassel's role was a cakewalk because he had very few lines to memorize, but on the flipside, you have to remember that he has convey his character through facial expressions and body language ? subtleties that can be difficult to convey.
"I trust my facial expressions, so it really comes down to the other actors," Cassel said. "You're really more dependent on them and how much they enjoy their part to entertain you. I approach all similar to the way I'm in a conversation with people. If I'm listening to somebody and they are really entertaining me, I'm enjoying it. If someone's boring me, I'm pretty sure they can see it on my face.
"It's fun to watch other actors act, especially when I enjoy what they are doing because it makes my job easier. Sometimes it's better not to have a lot of lines."
Moving On
There's no question that Cassel had a ball working with Dreyfus, Reynolds and Hedaya on "The Crew," and you didn't need the aid of dialogue to see it. They play four aging men who have in real life had the experience of being in the movie business for a long time.
And with that "reel life" comes friendships that come and go in the span of the 10 weeks that the film is shot. For Cassel, those sorts of experiences have come over 100 times, with either roles in films or television.
"You make new friendships and you re-acquaint yourselves with old friendships you've made," said Cassel. One that's lasted the longest is his friendship with Gena Rowlands, the acclaimed actress and wife of late filmmaker John Cassavetes. Cassel, of course, was a Cassavetes stalwart, having starred in eight of his films.
No matter the length of his friendships, Cassel takes nothing with a grain of salt. He takes his time with fellow actors and filmmakers as an opportunity to learn, and always gives something back in return.
"I learn something from other actors all the time, and I'm not reluctant to suggest something to other actors," Cassel said. "I'll tell them not to rush themselves -- that they're more in a scene that what you're getting out of it.
"I truly respect actors ? it's the toughest job there is. It's the most vulnerable job. It's not easy to make a fool of yourself, and you've got to be able to do that and trust that the director will protect you. Once you get an actor afraid that they're going to look bad, they tighten up and you don't get anything from them. And that's not good for the other actor that has to perform with them."
By the looks of his upcoming film schedule, having uptight co-stars won't be a problem. He's currently filming with Gene Hackman, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelica Houston, Danny Glover and Owen and Luke Wilson in "The Royal Tenenbaums" ? a film directed by his "Rushmore" director, Wes Anderson. After that, he'll start on "A Cold Day in August," co-starring with Chris O'Donnell and Bill Pullman.
"15 Minutes" takes a disturbing, yet fascinating look at the price our world pays when people are willing to do anything to be on television. It is a particularly chilling tale when you think about our current infatuation with reality television.
DeNiro is Eddie Fleming, a publicity-mad decorated officer who takes a tabloid journalist (Kelsey Grammer) along with him on his busts to feed his ego for fame. One night, he and arson investigator Jordy Warsaw (Edward Burns) are called to the scene of a particularly grisly murder that was consumed in flames.
They must join forces to track a pair of European serial killers who leave a string of bodies in their wake and take particular delight in videotaping each of their crimes.
Director John Herzfeld has fashioned a film that uses MTV-style editing and special video camera effects to heighten the horror and show things we normally wouldn't be able to stomach. --Debra Scott
'Get Over It' (PG-13)
"Get Over It" is a desperate-to-please, do-anything movie package that doesn't so much evolve as explode into a series of manic, mostly unfunny set pieces aimed at a faltering 14-year-old intelligence.
What I mean to say is: It, like, so bites...
Ben Foster plays a high-school guy dumped by his girlfriend, who finds true love with a sympathetic friend (Kirsten Dunst) while trying to... yeah, you got it, Get Over It. Foster worms his way into a school play in which his erstwhile girlfriend is starring along with her new beau, to try to win her back or, like, whatever.
The play is a wacky musical remake of Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream," directed by an over-the-top, but at least comedic Martin Short. Of course the play-in-the-movie is an attempt at satirical cheesiness, but there are so many ways in which it is rendered unintentionally cheesy that the humor is drowned out in groans.
Short has the film's few funny moments, but even he grows tiresome as a preening, catty washed-up dramatiste. Everyone else, though, bites even harder. Foster is a nearly comatose presence, kind of like watching Giovanni Ribisi on Ritalin. Kirsten Dunst is placed in shiny lip gloss in close-up singing sappy love songs she wrote herself -- like Jewel, only semi-precious.
Then there's Sisqó. Oh, poor, poor Sisqó. You can actually see the hip-hop Thong-ster concentrating hard on the shocking fact that "Oh my God, I'm supposed to be acting now," even though he has to do so very little of it -- and does that little bit very badly. His shining moment ? doing some surprising dance moves during a musical number while wearing fairy's wings -- indicates that he's a good sport . . .But let's just say his street cred takes a savage beating.
The whole flimsy film is by turns sappy and groaningly coarse. It bounces haphazardly between starry-eyed, saccharine love scenes with Dunst and Foster and scenes of humping dogs, accident-prone babes and blatant gross-out bits that really make you weary that "There's Something About Movies" these days.
Presumably, the fantastical, wacky set of events in the characters' struggles with each other are supposed to evoke something like those screwball comedies of the '30s with a youthful, modern twist. In reality, it just sucks.
Still think there may be a few gems that could make this a silly but fun night at the movies? All I can say is, if that feeling strikes, get over it. --Joseph Ruttle
Catch up with Tim Lammers on these recent @ The Movies interviews:
New In Theaters
15 Minutes' (R)
Andy Warhol once said, "In the future, everybody will be world famous for 15 minutes." But what would you do to become famous?
I confess that car trouble kept me stranded outside the theater for the opening portion of this "madcap new teen comedy," so my impression might be understandably muddled. Still, those lost (gained?) 15 minutes couldn't possibly justify the hugely muddled, strained identity crisis of a movie that ensued.
