Temper Temper!

I don't know why I've been so lazy about posting lately, but there's nothing like a blogosphere pissing contest to churn up some easy content.... Pissing contest isn't quite the term - inexplicable meltdown is more like it. I refer, of course (well, of course if you read the kind of political blogs who care about this sort of thing), to Ann Althouse going all Klaus Kinski on an episode of bloggingheads with Garance Franke-Ruta. It's pretty ridiculous, but fortunately, I can relate it to movies, my preferred blogging topic - I can compare it to David O. Russell and Lily Tomlin, having it out on the set of I Heart Huckabees!

I didn't have a lot to say about those clips when they came out - it's a fascinating train wreck, but I couldn't come up with a coherent opinion about it all. But reading Tomlin's comments on the clips, and watching Althouse's performance, brings it into a bit more clarity. A lot of the commentary seemed to center on the idea that Russell is an asshole - but I think that's a bit simplistic. Tomlin basically says, yeah, it's over the top, buit it was a tense shoot, and it cleared the air - shit happens. And that Althouse rant - I noticed a couple things.

1) The Huckabees fights are, indeed, fights - the bad behavior is reciprocal. It's interesting that two clips were making the rounds - the one of Tomlin raving in a car, the one of Russell trashing a set. Even in that clip, Tomlin needles him before it goes off - and keeps giving it back all through the tirade. But Althouse vs. Franke-Ruta is nothing like that: Franke-Ruta's remarks that set Althouse off are completely innocuous, a neutral reference to an old controversy. (And probably the simple truth - as Ezra Klein says, Althouse's comments about Jessica Valenti were the root of his disdain for her. He's probably not alone.) Althouse starts raving, and Franke-Ruta is completely taken aback, tries to talk her down, and when that doesn't work, sits and waits for it to end. (You can almost read her mind, though - she had to be thinking something like, "my god, she's an idiot; will she ever shut her yap?") It's all Althouse, the raving, and completely unprovoked.

2) Maybe it's because I've been watching a lot of Columbo lately, but there are a couple little moments in these clips that set off alarms. You know how in every episode, there's something, some little detail - where Columbo notices the killer? May not have anything to do with the crime itself - but there's something, a tell.... There's something of that in these clips. In the Huckabees clip, it's when Russell comes back into the room after trashing the set, and almost doubles over, screaming at Tomlin to act like an adult. It's a brilliant moment - the unintended comedy is beautiful - a grown man, screaming like a 3 year old at a grown woman to act like an adult... it's so brilliant, and so funny, it undermined the "un" in unintentional. That's the place where, in the backstage movie, someone tells him to stop acting - or makes a crack about being sure the camera is still running. You expect someone to yell "cut" at the end. It's worth noting - Huckabees feels like that little scene - it's full of blow ups and tantrums and confrontations, with that same tone - tense and jittery, full of fast mood shifts, and contrasting reactions - one person raving, someone else sitting with their feet up waiting for the nonsense to end. So really - how much of the backstage shenanigans are intended almost as rehearsals for the shooting itself? Maybe not consciously, but at some level - it's certainly notable that Russell really never breaks character as a filmmaker - that's a very cinematic fit he throws - his entrances and exits work. And Tomlin, sitting or standing there, sarcastic and defiant through the lot of it, balances him. The clip works as a scene.

Ditto Ann Althouse. What struck me there probably wasn't relevant - the fact that she lost her temper, throwing a fit, and (unlike those Hollywood types) never slipped and used any bad words. I don't know if she is in the habit of using bad words - maybe not; maybe there's a perfectly good explanation for it. But it occurred to me - she is a professional talker (like Russell and Tomlin), a lawyer and professor - and she never breaks character. The second time I looked at it, it occurred to me - she does a lot of whining about the "progressive blogosphere" but she doesn't name any names. Some allusions to Tapped - no details. The rant, then, is strange and unprovoked and extreme - but almost completely contentless - and mostly clean, both in the language and in her general ability to keep to the topic (or away from any real topic.) It is, I mean, a performance - quite deliberate, and probably planned ahead of time. Now in her case - there's more evidence. Take this post on her blog - bragging about her previous pissing contests; saying she like the theater of it. (She doesn't use words like theater, but hey...) Which all brings the episode into some focus - the reason she jumps on Franke-Ruta's tame comments, the reason, once she does get going, that she doesn't mention any of her distracters by name - is that it's all about her. The word "narcissistic" has been thrown around a lot here - but it's about right. That's one of the most narcissistic things I've seen - and her reactions on her blog, all proud and preening and trivial, just confirms it.

So - this brings us back to Russell and Tomlin - because by god it makes them look a hell of a lot better. They act like idiots - but they both act like idiots. They are very probably egging each other on. They are making a film that is trying to achieve something like the tone those fights have. And when you get down to it - they are a whole lot better at it than Althouse is. They are funnier, especially Tomlin, they have a far better sense of stagecraft, those entrances and exits, the timing of their rants. And they have none of the sense of preening self-regard Althouse has - they commit to their raving.... I was unfair up at the top, comparing Althouse to Klaus Kinski - Kinski - there was a man who knew how to throw a temper tantrum!