Donnie snags Lefty: "I got him--I got my hooks in the guy."

"The danger of this kind of film is having it categorized a mob film, which this film is not. It's a real absurd kind of love story." Johnny Depp

Johnny goes undercover.
Based on the New York Times bestseller, Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia by Joseph D. Pistone, this film gives a realistic account of mafia life. There's no glamour or grandiosity about it: They spend their days meeting on the street corner, waiting for instructions from the boss. They make minor drug deals and steal parking meters. Occasionally, they are unnecessarily violent and kill people (usually within their own organization).

This true story details Joe Pistone's 6-year infiltration into New York's mafia world in the 1970s under the persona "Donnie Brasco." Posing as a jewel thief, Donnie (Johnny Depp) first befriends Lefty (Al Pacino), who takes him under his wing and shows him the ropes of mafia living. Soon, Donnie's loyalty to his work and to Lefty clash, leaving him alone, confused, and in danger.

"Johnny Depp grows up!"

It's the shades.

That's what all the headlines read when Donnie Brasco was released. I suppose, up to this point, most of Johnny's characters were labeled "innocents" or "outsiders." So, signing on for a bio-pic about an undercover FBI agent infiltrating the New York mob scene opposite Al Pacino, may have seemed like a left turn.

I never really saw it that way. This is a different kind of movie, but all of Johnny's movies are different from the last--That's one of the many Joys of Johnny. But, like some of Johnny's other characters, this guy was alienated and lonely. As director Mike Newell notes, he's locked in his own head, saddened and stressed by the pressure.

To prepare for this role, Johnny spent a lot of time with the real "Donnie Brasco," Joe Pistone. "I studied him like he was a science project," Johnny says. "I mean, I really sponged as much as I could from the guy." Mike Newell noticed: "The thing he got out of Joe is this extreme immobility in his face. If you look at him, he almost doesn't move his face at all in the movie. It's like a mask. You can never tell what Joe is thinking." In the end, I think Joe Pistone approved of the performance: "He picked up all the mannerisms, the voice--It's kind of eerie."

"Fuggetaboutit!"
I'm not a big fan of mafia movies--too much glamorized violence--but I had a feeling this one would be different. Every time I see Donnie Brasco, I'm reminded of how brilliantly it's put together. Here's my list of highlights:

1. Mike Newell. I was most eager to see this movie because of its director, Mike Newell, who is best known for his 1994 comedy hit Four Weddings and a Funeral--the movie that made Hugh Grant a star. However, my favorite Mike Newell film, Enchanted April, came two years earlier. That quiet, beautiful movie follows four British women--strangers--who decide to escape the dreariness of London's rainy season and spend a month renting a villa in Italy, where they rekindle romances and find new love. (It will make you think that all you have to do to fix your life is rent an Italian villa with strangers for a month of sunshine and flowers.) "I was sick of charm," Mike Newell says of his decision to direct Donnie Brasco. But I paced the floors waiting to see how he would bring the sensibility of Enchanted April to a movie about the mob.

As I suspected, he brought such a new perspective to Donnie Brasco that it doesn't really fit under the mafia movie label. The story is more about friendship and loyalty than car chases and machine guns. By the end, you feel bad for the "bad guys" and bad for Donnie, who feels bad for them too. Mike Newell said he thought a lot about Arthur Miller's classic play, "A Death of Salesman," while planning to make Donnie Brasco. I totally get it! And, you will too when you see this movie.

2. The script. This is a sad movie, but I love that it has funny moments and how complete and authentic the story is. You'll recognize every character and know what they're about through simple actions or dialogue. Nominated for an Oscar, the screenplay written by Paul Attanasio, captures it all--the language, the differences between Brooklyn and Manhattan, and the conflict between Donnie's undercover life and his real one. Best of all, it's given us great words like "fuggetaboutit" and "fugazi."

Al, in even cooler shades.

3. Al Pacino. I mainly knew of Al Pacino as a mafia movie bad guy until I saw his documentary Looking for Richard, in which he explores the impact of Shakespeare on the arts and analyzes Richard III, acting out various scenes from the play. This fascinating documentary shows what an amazing actor Al Pacino is, how he can play any part, and how enthusiastic he is about his craft. Of course, I've seen a bunch of great Al Pacino movies since then, but Looking for Richard made me pay more attention.

So, hearing that Johnny would be playing "Donnie Brasco" opposite Al Pacino as "Lefty Ruggero" was thrilling. "When you look at all the characters that Al has played, there's something inevitable about him playing Lefty," Paul Attanasio

4. The supporting cast. This movie has some of the best mafia guys in it, including Michael Madsen and Bruno Kirby. But the scenes that were brightest for me were all the domestic ones with Joe's wife Maggie (Anne Heche). Anne Heche is only in a few scenes but she makes the most of them all. I think the marriage counsellor scene is my favorite of the whole movie. Anne Heche won the Best Supporting Actress Award from The National Board of Review for work in Donnie Brasco.

5. Johnny. I love everything about this performance; there are so many layers. "Johnny is one of those actors who performs like a long distance runner. In any film, you stay with him throughout in anticipation of the finale," Mike Newell says. "He tells you a story in his own good time. And, more important, you are willing to wait for it." Joe Pistone agrees, "He brought a sensibility to the part. That's a side of my not many people see." In his review of Donnie Brasco, Gene Siskel called Johnny the film's secret ingredient--a big, big talent to watch. (I say that all the time!)

Can you believe they were filming in a card shop in my neighborhood in Brooklyn while I was living there for my internship? (See the Florida gift shop scene.) I felt the vibes but was never lucky enough to discover anything interesting around town. I guess he was working undercover.

The secret is out!

This is the moment when Donnie's real identity is revealed. (I'm not giving anything away here, am I? You knew they'd all find out eventually, right?) Against his wishes but for his safety, the FBI pulled Joe Pistone out of the undercover operation 6 years after it began. Here, Lefty (B.J.) can't quite believe it, despite the photographic evidence they provided.

Joe Pistone's work led to 200 indictments and 100 convictions. The mob still has a $500,000 contract out on his head.

What's next?
Johnny takes on a tough story that's a tough sell and a tough job--writing, directing, and starring in The Brave.

(Note: Except for my drawing, all images © Tristar Pictures.)

(Illustration Friday: November 4, 2011)

Dead Man begins with pulsating images of Johnny Depp riding a train--looking out the window, reading, observing other passengers, sleeping. It's your typical ride through the Old West in the 1800s. But when the train fireman (Crispin Glover) starts speaking to Johnny's character, William Blake--a timid accountant headed from Cleveland, Ohio, to a town called Machine, where he's been promised a job--you realize that everyone's a bit off: "I wouldn't trust no words writ down on no piece of paper, especially from no Dickinson Metalworks out in the town of Machine," he warns him. "You're just as likely to catch your own grave."

Dead Man is hard to describe. I'll let writer/director Jim Jarmusch explain it instead: "Dead Man is the story of a young man's journey, both physically and spiritually, into very unfamiliar terrain. William Blake travels to the extreme western frontiers of America sometime in the second half of the 19th century. Lost and badly wounded, he encounters a very odd, outcast Native American named Nobody, who believes Blake is actually the dead English poet of the same name. The story, with Nobody's help, leads William Blake through situations that are in turn comical and violent. Contrary to his nature, circumstances transform Blake into a hunted outlaw, a killer, a man whose physical existence is slowly slipping away. Thrown into a world that is cruel and chaotic, his eyes are opened to the fragility that defines the realm of the living. It is as though he passes through the surface of a mirror, and emerges into a previously unknown world that exists on the other side."

It's true: Johnny gets fatally wounded early on in the film and spends the rest of the movie slowly dying. It sounds really depressing, I know, but it's actually very entertaining! He meets so many unique characters on his journey who are at once comic and tragic, scary and violent, and always captivating.

All the while, William Blake is going through a transformation. The timid accountant becomes a fearless outlaw, who is increasingly weak physically but stronger spiritually.

I always think of Dead Man as a poem. Maybe it's because Johnny's character has the same name as the 18th century British poet whose writings are used and referenced throughout the film. Or, maybe it's because every time I see Dead Man, I discover something new in i. Whenever I watch it, I marvel at it.

I don't think I always felt this way. When I first saw it, I probably left in a daze contemplating it's strangeness and meaning. But this one grows on you.

Shot in black and white, the cinematography by Robby Muller is beautifully crisp. The graphic starkness of the images is exciting. While the story is set in the 1800s, the film is layered with a fantastic soundtrack of acoustic and electric guitar by Neil Young. Despite these mix-and-match elements, the film's surrealist, atmospheric tone, and the nature of the story, I always feel like I'm there, experiencing it.

It was fate that I was in New York for an internship when Dead Man was released in 1996. I doubted the film would ever become mainstream enough to make it anywhere near my home in Ohio, so I was lucky to be in a big city where I could find it. I found the one little theater showing Dead Man in New York and joined six other people in the audience at a weekend matinee. One of my bosses at the time also saw the movie that weekend, and we gave our reviews to our coworkers Monday morning.

Me: "Oh, I loved it! I thought it was really great!"

Boss, shaking her head with a scowl: "I hated it."

Critics took a similar stance. Some claim that Dead Man is one of the best movies of the '90s, and maybe even the 20th century, while others say there is no worse way to waste your time watching this thing. I guess I'm part of the first group, along with at least my mom and my uncle. Dead Man didn't make any money, and it was really expensive to make it historically accurate regarding Native American culture and the Old West of the 1800s. This movie is noted as providing one of the best representations of Native Americans by a non-Native American filmmaker.

For his role, Johnny skipped sleeping some nights so that he'd look weary and worn on screen. "He really is one of the most precise and focused people I've ever worked with," Jim Jarmusch said. "The whole crew is kind of amazed by that. That's a side of him that I'm not really familiar with--I'm more familiar with him falling asleep on the couch with the TV on all night. In real life, it's sometimes hard for him to decide where to eat or what to do, but as an actor, he's very precise."

As usual, Johnny was excited for the experience of working on this project. "I did Dead Man so I could work with Jim Jarmusch. I trust Jim as a director, and a friend, and a genius." Watching Jim Jarmusch's movies are always an experience too--good or bad. While I haven't seen them all, my other favorite of his films is called Night on Earth. Comprised of vignettes about cab drivers and their passengers, it takes you around the world and introduces you to some interesting people doing interesting things--all during the same evening. (Rent it too and have a double-feature!)

When I first thought of starting Johnny Kitties last year, Dead Man was one of the movies that sparked an immediate idea for an illustration. I was sure I'd draw Johnny's meeting with Robert Mitchum and that I had to get the bear in there. But while Mitchum's role is great, it's more of a cameo appearance, and his scene with Johnny is pretty abrupt. Watching Dead Man again recently, I realized that the real star and scene-stealer in this movie is Gary Farmer as Nobody.

Here, Nobody (Norman) leads William Blake through the forest, on their journey to the spiritual world. In this scene, William Blake doesn't say anything but observes his surroundings. I always imagine he's looking at these gigantic ancient trees that were here before him and will remain here after him. There will always be things out there bigger and wiser than we are.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it's that kind of movie.

At the Cannes Film Festival where Dead Man premiered, Johnny and Jim Jarmush participated in another film called Cannes Man, a satire about a producer, Sy Lerner (Seymour Cassel, who--on a bet with a friend--picks a random guy off the street to promote and cons stars at the festival into signing on for his next project. Forget that there's no script, he tells them. It's going to be written by his latest discovery, Frank Rhino (Francesco Quinn), who he claims is the hottest young writer since Hemingway and Faulkner. Johnny plays it up as the typical Hollywood star with his temperamental director. Surrounded by bodyguards, they share drinks, cigarettes, and a bit of meditation amid the madness.

This film is full of cameos, but I think theirs is the best one. My favorite moment? Frank being instantly chummy with Johnny, putting his arm around him while Sy pitches their possible involvement in the project. (So inappropriate, right???) Johnny eventually acknowledges Frank during the discussion: "Hey, you know what? You're touching me. You're invading my personal space."

(Happy birthday, Sting!) 

"Fall on Me" R.E.M.

© 1991 MTV Unplugged

So long, R.E.M. Thanks for the music!

I've been a fan of Steve Martin forever. Aside from seeming effortlessly funny and starring in some really good movies (e.g., All of Me, L.A. Story, Roxanne, Parenthood, on and on and on....), The Jerk is also a great writer. I've read and loved all of Steve Martin's books--his novellas, his autobiography, and his collection of essays from The New Yorker. 

© Grand Central Publishing

His latest book, An Object of Beauty, is about Lacey Yeager, an ambitious young woman aiming to climb the social and professional ladders of the New York art scene. From her first job as cataloguer at Sotheby's to her rise as an independent gallery owner, this story is like a time capsule. From the 1990s onward, it accurately captures the volatile state of the art scene and the city itself. I know nothing about the art world, its peaks and troughs, and its obsessive collectors, but I found it all pretty fascinating combined with what was actually happening in New York during those years.

I caught Steve Martin being interviewed by Charlie Rose on PBS recently, and he described this story as, "Just, look at what happens here," and Lacey as "tricky." I like Lacey least of all the literary characters he's introduced so far, mainly because I found her ruthlessly ambitious and calculating. I related to her most on those rare occasions when she felt lost or confused, but that's not who she is. 

An Object of Beauty is more than a great novel: It includes color images of artworks and snippets about the artists referenced in the story. I wondered how much research Steve Martin, a long-time art collector, had to do for this novel and how much of it he already knew. 

So, read this book: You'll get little art history lessons throughout an entertaining story. Then, you might find yourself looking at things differently just because the characters in the book are looking at art that way. By the end of it, you'll probably want to shop for new artwork to cover the walls of your home. (I'm still considering it.)

Now, I swear I'm not an obsessive fan who is always seeking Steve Martin out. It's just my luck that, aside from the Charlie Rose interview, I also happened to catch him on Austin City Limits with the Steel Canyon Rangers. (This probably just means I watch too much late-night TV.) And, it's lucky for you because--while completely unrelated to this book--here's a highlight for your enjoyment. I think this song may be almost as good as "King Tut."Almost.

Best,

"Atheists Don't Have No Songs" Steve Martin and the Steel Canyon Rangers

© 2011 The Late Show with David Letterman

Two types of headlines dominated the reviews for Nick of Time: Johnny Depp can't open a movie on his own, and Johnny Depp can't play "normal."

Watch the full episode. See more PBS NewsHour. (© PBS Newshour)