SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
Write what you know is probably the most time-honored advice you can give a storyteller. Maybe these days, it should be film what you know.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "I PLAY ROCKY")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Cut. All right, we're moving in.
PFEIFFER: Critic Bob Mondello says that's what moviemakers are doing in two new films about filmmaking, "Bitter Christmas" and "I Play Rocky."
BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: At the beginning of "Bitter Christmas," we hear the sound of typing on a keyboard as the words - a film by Almodóvar - appear on the screen, and that clickety-click keeps returning because the folks we're watching, a filmmaker named Elsa and her firefighter boyfriend Bo, are fictional characters in a movie that's being written by Raúl, a real filmmaker. Well, real being relative, of course, since Raúl is himself a fictional character created by Almodóvar. The plot turns on how moviemakers inevitably use what they see around them and maybe shouldn't. The fictional Elsa, for instance, models her new script on the failing marriage of a friend, which of course, infuriates the friend.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BITTER CHRISTMAS")
VICTORIA LUENGO: (As Patricia, speaking Spanish).
BÁRBARA LENNIE: (As Elsa, speaking Spanish).
MONDELLO: And since Elsa is herself modeled on Raúl's assistant, Mónica, Mónica's just as ticked off at Raúl.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BITTER CHRISTMAS")
AITANA SÁNCHEZ-GIJÓN: (As Mónica, speaking Spanish).
LEONARDO SBARAGLIA: (As Raúl Rossetti, speaking Spanish).
SÁNCHEZ-GIJÓN: (As Mónica, speaking Spanish).
SBARAGLIA: (As Raúl Rossetti, speaking Spanish).
MONDELLO: Happily, all this introspection is augmented by campy melodrama. Elsa's fictional boyfriend isn't just a firefighter. He moonlights as a stripper. And Raúl's assistant Mónica gets to critique not just the film within a film that's ticked her off, but all of Raúl's career and, by extension, Almodóvar's. Though, of course, since he's calling the shots, that means Almodóvar is doing the critiquing. The effect would be dizzying even without the black sand beaches and blazing scarlet and gold wardrobe, visual notes that keep "Bitter Christmas" firmly in the Almodóvar canon.
(SOUNDBITE OF BILL CONTI SONG, "GONNA FLY NOW (THEME FROM ROCKY)")
MONDELLO: A few notes of Bill Conti's musical theme is all it takes to remind whole generations of moviegoers how they felt about the story of boxer Rocky Balboa back in 1976, and a few words in "I Play Rocky" is all it takes Anthony Ippolito to conjure the guy who came up with that story.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "I PLAY ROCKY")
ANTHONY IPPOLITO: (As Sylvester Stallone/Rocky) Acting's what I live and breathe for.
MONDELLO: Ippolito is the film's knockout right hook, a 20-something actor who so inhabits the wannabe 1970s movie star he's playing that you may find yourself forgetting he's not actually Sylvester Stallone.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "I PLAY ROCKY")
IPPOLITO: (As Sylvester Stallone/Rocky) All anyone ever sees is this - like, a thug or a cop. But I got a brain. Like, I swear, the only way I'm ever going to get to show people is I'm going to have to write a script for myself or something 'cause they're never going to give one to me.
MONDELLO: Sly's (ph) talking here to the girl who'll soon be his wife and who at this moment is pretty much...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "I PLAY ROCKY")
ANNASOPHIA ROBB: (As Sasha) OK.
MONDELLO: ...His only fan.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "I PLAY ROCKY")
ROBB: (As Sasha) Yeah, so do that.
IPPOLITO: (As Sylvester Stallone/Rocky) Do what?
ROBB: (As Sasha) Write a script and give yourself the best part.
IPPOLITO: (As Sylvester Stallone/Rocky) Yeah, I would if I was a writer.
MONDELLO: But he starts writing and gets one script about a boxer read by a couple of producers. At which point, director Peter Farrelly turns "I Play Rocky" into a punch-drunk tribute to a whole era of indie filmmaking. The real Stallone's been telling his tale for ages, and we know how it ends. But as Farrelly bobs and weaves, it feels as if there's actual suspense.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "I PLAY ROCKY")
P J BYRNE: (As Irwin Winkler) You wrote this in 3 1/2 days?
TOBY KEBBELL: (As Robert Chartoff) This is fricking good.
BYRNE: (As Irwin Winkler) Get (ph) someone like Chuck Bronson, or we could do Eastwood?
IPPOLITO: (As Sylvester Stallone/Rocky) Guys, guys, I play Rocky.
BYRNE: (As Irwin Winkler) I have no idea what that means.
MONDELLO: A lot of this stuff actually happens.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "I PLAY ROCKY")
KEBBELL: (As Robert Chartoff) So the writer wants to be in it as the lead.
TRACY LETTS: (As Sandy Maddox) No, absolutely not. Throw some money at him - 25k.
IPPOLITO: (As Sylvester Stallone/Rocky) No.
LETTS: (As Sandy Maddox) Go to 200.
BYRNE: (As Irwin Winkler) No?
IPPOLITO: (As Sylvester Stallone/Rocky) I'm not giving this up - not for a million bucks, not for 10.
MONDELLO: And this is all before the filmmaker starts sliding insider details into scenes you were sure you knew - the meat rocky punch that turned out to be frozen solid...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "I PLAY ROCKY")
ROBB: (As Sasha) You broke your hand.
MONDELLO: ...A few surprises during the shoot...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "I PLAY ROCKY")
IPPOLITO: (As Sylvester Stallone/Rocky) I thought you said you could box.
STEPHAN JAMES: (As Carl Weathers/Apollo Creed) I lied. I'm an actor.
MONDELLO: ...The freshly invented steady cam that allowed that run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "I PLAY ROCKY")
IPPOLITO: (As Sylvester Stallone/Rocky) It's about going the distance.
MONDELLO: ...Moment after moment of film lore and Rocky lore jabbing at your defenses until "I Play Rocky," a crowd-pleaser about the making of a crowd-pleaser, feels roughly as inspiring as the film that inspired it. I'm Bob Mondello.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GONNA FLY NOW (THEME FROM ROCKY)")
DEETTA WEST AND NELSON PIGFORD: (Singing) Getting strong now. Won't be long now. Getting strong now. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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