Here’s One Way Howard’s Puckish ‘Paper’ Aged Badly

September 24, 2024 admin Celebrity Gossip, Fashion 0

Ron Howard’s “The Paper” (1994) opens with the image of a giant clock, visually indicating how the characters we’re about to meet are caught in the unending tilt of the giant hands that keep time working mostly against us.

We meet Henry Hackett (Michael Keaton) the Metro editor of the Daily News. Bernie, Hackett’s boss (Robert Duvall) shares Hackett’s need for academic integrity but is having an existential crisis and longs to connect with his estranged daughter.

Hackett’s colleague McDougal (Randy Quaid) is sleeping on his couch and fearful of the death threats his column has inspired.

Then there’s Alicia (Glenn Close), a former colleague and now perceived nemesis of everyone at the Daily Sun for showing ambition and exuding authority. The final key figure in Hackett’s world is his wife and colleague Martha (Marisa Tomei), who is very pregnant but refuses to be left out of the news beat.

A pre-credits sequence portrays two young teens walking past a grisly crime scene that they are arrested for and accused of causing. Hackett smells a rat immediately and sets off to shape an article that will not only absolve the two arrested teens but will give him the sort of great story that his competitors seem to claim on a weekly basis.

Maverick cinematographer John Seale captures the film’s restless spirit and makes an uncommonly good-looking comedy (note the visual grandeur in the scene when Keaton and Duvall walk on the rooftop outside during a quick break).

Filmed entirely in New York, “The Paper” has the city’s pulse.

For a character-driven comedy, it’s paced like an action movie and among the most exciting Howard has ever made. Howard has always been an actor’s director and brings out the best in his ensemble. Keaton has always infused dramatic tension with his comic prowess. He’s on fire here.

The scene where he finally confesses to Gray exactly how he feels about him, and The Sentinel, is a major highlight (and likely the reason why this film is rated R).

No one is playing a caricature, as every character is devoted to their profession in life and deeply flawed. I love Close’s character in particular – Alicia is not a villain, but that’s how she’s perceived at work. There are times when she’s hurt by that, but also times when she uses it to her advantage.

The screenplay by David Koepp and Stephen Koepp shapes this as a tight, fast screwball comedy, with the patter being decidedly ’90s but having the kind of banter one would expect from Preston Sturges. There are scenes where the journalists have a writer’s meeting that struck a chord with me – both in my early days writing for my college paper and my current experiences writing for print.

I’ve been in rooms with writers I adored, as we all competed to make each other laugh and envious of our choice of an article topic. We’d be competing for ideas, envious of any “scoops” and excited of any “leads” that pop up.

I recognized these characters and what drives them.

Randy Newman’s terrific, roaring score is another reason this is so enthralling (though I still wonder why his middling end credits song “You’ve got to Make Up Your Mind” was Oscar nominated and his score wasn’t).

For a film set in the early 1990s, it’s funny how much sticks, like Keaton’s tossed off fake sensational headline: “Donald Trump jumped off a building, landed on Madonna.” Hackett’s manner of journalism is recognizable – he wakes up in his clothes from the day before, came home at 4 a.m. and, with the sun now up, he must start all over again.

 

The screenplay dips into some heavy issues and has some strong scenes. “The Paper” is colorful but not cute. It’s never slow, either, but does stop for choice character moments, like the story Duvall tells Close about a fateful night at dinner. It’s always a pleasure to hear these characters talk.

Three scenes (one involving a fist fight, another a gun going off in an office and the other a scuffle in a bar) have been noted as being over the top, which is true. They’re also as bang on funny as everything else here.

Look, not every movie about newsprint journalism needs to be “All the President’s Men” (1976).

This features a collection of great character actors, like Catherine O’Hara killing her one scene and a hilarious Spalding Gray as the gatekeeper of the rival paper, The Sentinel, which Hackett is tempted to join. There’s also cameos from William Kuntsler, Jason Robards, Jason Alexander and Jill Hennessy (it took me years before I could spot the cameos from Kurt Loder and Bob Costas).

“The Paper” is sublime, suspenseful and hysterically funny. There are so many scenes here that crackle, like the one with Keaton and Quaid, where they have to sweat a quote out of a skittish source. Howard and his cast earn the big moments.

It’s easy to be cynical, if not entirely defeated, by the proclamation that the media only creates “fake news” and cannot be trusted. I get it, as does any writer, but that hasn’t diffused my fire to write and the desire to be published, nor any of my colleagues who live to see their work in print.

“The Paper” gets that.

There is an idealism here about journalism that may be out of touch with the cynicism of contemporary times, the true manner in which the film is dated.

Yes, the era is different but that yearning to “get it right” and write something that reflects accuracy isn’t lost entirely. At least, I hope it isn’t.

The thrill of seeing one’s name attached to an article that succinctly reflects the truth and, who knows, could even add to someone’s day, is worth all the trouble. The ending of “The Paper” is amusing because, in addition to being a victory, it’s also a kind of punishment- the sun is up, you’re still dressed in yesterday’s clothes, and it’s time to start all over again. The giant hands on the clock never stop turning.

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