By DONALD PORTER
Standard-Examiner staff
For a first-time feature film director, Phil Joanou has been getting more than his share of attention. His "Three O'Clock High" is being released today, but already the 25-year-old has been called one of the "hottest" young directors in the business by magazines like American Film and Premiere.
So, why- all the hubbub? Well, first off, Joanou was "discovered" by Steven Spielberg, the hottest of the hot directors in a town where everything is measured in terms of heat -- hot directors, hot pictures, hot actors, hot scripts, hot, hot, hot.
It all started with a phone call. The day after Joanou's student film "Last Chance Dance" was shown at the annual University of Southern California film-school screening -- where student films are screened for industry professionals -- Spielberg phoned Joanou at home, asking if he'd like to direct an episode of "Amazing Stories."
"Outtakes" movie column
Last summer I packed up my wife and daughter, dragged them to the Davis Drive-In and left them sitting in the car while I walked around the parking lot asking people why they see movies on outdoor screens. I realize that makes me sound like a neglectful husband and father, but I was there to get a firsthand look at the decline of an American entertainment
tradition, and my family came along for the ride.
I had gone with the preconceived notion that there would be only a handful of people to speak with, as national publications have been trumpeting the death of drive-ins for years. But 'I was wrong. By the time the sun went down the drive-in was packed, I had plenty of good quotes for my story and my mind had been changed.
(Little did I know when I saw "Raising Arizona" what affection I would develop for the films of Joel and Ethan Coen over the coming decades. They are amazing talents. I don't much care for the writing in this review, but it is what it is -- and kind of fun for me to notice the talents of actors who went on to even greater prominence.)
April 10, 1987
By DONALD PORTER
Standard-Examiner staff
"Raising Arizona" is a very odd movie. But it's an extremely funny one, too, a quality that's directly related to its endearing weirdness.
A point also worth noting is that many of the laughs are snatched from the clutches of a decidedly somber topic: child kidnapping. It's all done with oodles of irreverence and a great deal of skill, though; so much so, that you rarely consider the darker side of the action. This is flat-out entertainment, and tromps on things American society holds dear, like the importance of the family unit and a system based on law and order.
Written, directed and produced by Joel and Ethan Coen ("Blood Simple"), "Raising Arizona" turns the world upside down and shakes it to see what comes loose.
H.I. (pronounced "Hi") McDonnough is a recidivist holdup man who used to knock-off convenience stores with unloaded guns. His wife, Ed (short for Edwina), is a former cop. H.I. first met her as he passed through the booking process at a county jail.
