You must embrace the thing that hurts you: "The New Age"

Here's a flick that, for me, came completely out of left field. Generally I'm familiar with the movies that are presented here at ebertfest to some degree, but here's one that apparently flew completely under my radar. Made in 1993,when Peter Weller was still a pretty big name; I was 20 years old at the time and movies like "Wall Street" and "Less Than Zero" were still visible in the rearview mirror. Makes me wonder - did this make any money at the box office, or was the movie-going public under the impression that they'd seen this movie before? They had not; nor had I.

As things got underway, I predicted a distant west-coast-cousin to Oliver Stone's Wall Street somehow. (Stone's fingerprints are here; he has a producer credit.) At the 20 minute marker, I incorrectly assumed that the director intended this to be a portrait of what the typical Mr. and Mrs. L.A. Power Couple might look like. ( "See, they have problems just like anyone else, only they live on a planet called Hollywood.")

Reagan-era excess lead to the world portrayed in this movie, and spawned the Peter Weller character. If the guy had a son, he'd have grown up to be Bernie Madoff. Adam West is perfectly cast as Peter's father, whose apple fell mere centimeters from the tree. What a fun performance. During the Q&A afterwards, director Michael Tolkin mentioned West's casting and commented that he wanted Batman to be Robocop's father. Talk about inspired casting! How could West have turned down an opportunity to be present for this screening?

Through a very specific lens, I could actually relate to these people a little bit. Seems strange saying that but it's true. And their descent is epic. (We've all been there on some level, I suppose.)

I'm glad Roger picked this film Ebertfest 12. Thought-provoking and thoroughly entertaining, "The New Age" was an unexpected surprise.