After being turned down by Sundance, The Canyons can now add the SXSW to the list of film festivals that won’t take a chance on it, referring to it as having an “ugliness and a deadness to it.” [source] While the easiest scapegoat here would be Lohan – particularly since most publications are now referring to this film as Lohan’s The Canyons, perhaps another culprit of its ultimate failure is Bret Easton Ellis.
I don’t want to seem as if I’m sticking up for Lohan here. In truth, I don’t really have a vested interest on whether or not she succeeds. I’m not on her payroll; I haven’t seen her in anything since Mean Girls, and she – or more accurately a picture of her – was never taped to my wall, so there’s also no feeding on nostalgia here.
However, she is – in no small part to a recent New York Times article – taking the brunt of the blame here while the screenwriter should certainly be looked at for the ugliness and deadness of the film.
While, in the past, I’ve supported Ellis’ look at LA in the 80’s in Less than Zero and Rules of Attraction – the books more so than the lamely adapted movies – his investigations are no longer profound. They are redundant. They are outplayed, which is impressive considering he’s doing most of the outplaying.
Cold and disjointed can work well. It does in Rules of Attraction – again, the book, not the stylized James Vanderbeek flick. It’s, in part, an homage to Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, and, taken in that context, shows the abject need for mobility and the fungibility of human life as a vehicle for selfish endeavors.
It also works when concentrated in American Psycho – this time the movie more so than the book that alienates its audience about 300 pages in.
But this is his peak. His next few books were barely sold. Lunar Park was an egotistic endeavor built on a Stephen King trope. Imperial Bedrooms was called a sequel to Less Than Zero but became more of a cynical progression that failed to lure those unfamiliar with Ellis and exposed to his former fans the juvenility of the narrative. The Informers, a collection of short stories published in 1994, but made into a movie a few years ago, was disjointed even when it tried to be cohesive.
And the reviews were little more scathing vitriol all around. Regardless, Ellis is happy to explain where everything went wrong, despite the fact that “he actually served as a producer and co-writer on the film.” [source] He’s also happy to point out the flaw in American Psycho – despite the fact that it’s a very faithful adaptation of the book, just without as much oozing narcissism.
So perhaps The Canyons, his tale of sex, violence, and deception is nothing that we haven’t seen before. And perhaps this celluloid mortuary died for a variety of reasons and not simply Lohan’s presence. And, just to add a touch of irony (with no offense meant to Paul Schrader), perhaps The Canyons would have been picked up more readily had it been helmed by Katherine Bigelow or Mary Harron.
