Indie Watch
Dear Mr. Watterson
By Dan Krovich
November 14, 2013
BoxOfficeProphets.com
VOD Pick of the Week
Dear Mr. Watterson
From experience and the title alone, I approached Dear Mr. Watterson with a bit of trepidation. I was worried that it would be one of “those” documentaries - one of those documentaries that purports to be about some figure that the director idolized, but turns out to be more about the director himself, about whom I don’t really feel like watching a film. While director Joel Allen Schroeder’s love for the comic strip Calvin & Hobbes obviously inspired him to make a documentary about the strip’s creator, Bill Watterson, he largely keeps himself out of the film and places the focus on the art and artist.
Schroeder accepts up front that there is not going to be much from the famously publicity shy Watterson and instead relies on others to paint a picture of the impact Calvin & Hobbes had and continues to have. He starts with his own experience discovering the strip and his identification with Calvin and then lets other fans chime in. This gets a tad bit redundant as people generally express similar reactions, which largely focus on the fact that Watterson was able to concisely explore bigger philosophical ideas concisely in a comic about a boy and his stuffed tiger. Things get more interesting as he turns the film over to a more scholarly approach.
When other comic strip artists and scholars take over, the film provides insight beyond just the “isn’t this a great comic strip,” as Calvin & Hobbes is used to examine the art form and industry as a whole. An exploration of Watterson’s influences provides a bit of historical context. From the very beginning, comic strips were stuck in the high art versus low art debate. While some of the artwork was as detailed and intricate as paintings hung in museums and some of the stories told were as profound as great literature, comic strips have usually been looked down on as lower art.
The commercial aspect of comics partly played a role their status as art. This was something that Watterson and all comic artists had to deal with. Obviously to make a living at it, you have to sell the strip, but beyond that Watterson vigorously eschewed licensing and merchandizing with Calvin & Hobbes as he wanted the work to stand on its own. There has been practically no official merchandise, though that hasn’t stopped a veritable panoply of unofficial merchandise. Profit versus purity is an issue that all artists must deal with and where to draw the line becomes sometimes a difficult question to answer.
More than one person in the film makes the point that Calvin & Hobbes will probably be the last great comic strip. The “great” part of that is due to Watterson’s talent, but the “last” part of that has a lot to do with a changing society that has affected not only comics, but music, film, and books. Comics have been greatly affected by the disappearance of their most common delivery medium, the newspaper. From glorious full page spreads, comics were shrunk to fit into an increasingly small area, and now printed newspapers are endangered altogether.
If you’re of a certain age, you probably have fond vivid memories of Calvin & Hobbes, and it has continued to endure for future generations. Dear Mr. Watterson provides a nostalgic look back for both casual and super fans while also providing an appreciation for the art of comic strips in general.
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New releases for November 15th
Charlie Countryman: Shia LaBeouf plays Charlie Countryman, a young man distraught by the recent passing of his mother. When she appears to him in a vision and tells him to go to Bucharest, off he goes. There he meets Gabi, an attractive musician whom he immediately begins to fall in love with. Standing in his way is Gabi’s ex-husband, a menacing figure with ties to the mob. Charlie’s pursuit of Gabi leads him deeper into the world of the Romanian underground.
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The Great Beauty: Jep Gambardella (played by Toni Servillo) is a journalist who has traded on the success of his one and only novel. A fixture in Rome’s literary circle, he has used his celebrity to enjoy the party lifestyle of the city’s nightlife. On the occasion of his 65th birthday, Jep is confronted with his past and he must take stock of his squandered talent. The Great Beauty is Italy’s official entry for the Best Foreign Film Oscar.
Nebraska: Two-time Academy Award winning writer-director Alexander Payne returns with this black and white road movie about a crotchety old man (played by Bruce Dern, who won the Best Actor award at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival for his portrayal) who is convinced that he has won a million dollar sweepstakes. His dubious estranged son (Will Forte) begrudgingly agrees to accompany him on the trip to Nebraska to collect the prize.
Sunlight Jr.: In a plot description that seems to suggest the idea of life sucks and then it gets worse, Naomi Watts plays Melissa, a woman who works as a convenience store clerk to support herself and her disabled boyfriend Richie (Matt Dillon). When Melissa learns that she is pregnant, the couple hopes for a happy future until Melissa loses her job and they get evicted and the couple is left with only each other.
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Available at iTunes
Available at Vudu