Jeff Kanew favours outsiders and knows how to keep a film moving. We find his editing of Ordinary People more rewarding than his direction of Revenge of the Nerds, whose comic sympathy excuses too much.
Fi1m perspective
The family in Ordinary People (1980) wants to remain composed, and the film’s patient stretches let us see the strain. Jeff Kanew’s editing works best when it stays with the performances instead of pressing towards the next explanation. Robert Redford’s drama does explain more than it needs to, but Mary Tyler Moore makes its troubled mother impossible to dismiss. Here we value Kanew for knowing when the actors have already done enough.
His earlier work cutting hundreds of trailers helps explain his instinct to keep a film moving. Yet his feature directing began with the documentary Black Rodeo (1972), followed by the bleak psychological drama Natural Enemies (1979). He wrote and edited the latter as well as directing it, and it led to his editing job on Ordinary People. The turn towards studio features came with Eddie Macon’s Run (1983), which also began his working relationship with Kirk Douglas.
With Revenge of the Nerds (1984), his attraction to outsiders became the basis of a poor college comedy. Robert Carradine and Anthony Edwards give its mocked students warmth, but the film keeps treating their humiliation as permission for ugly jokes. We were irritated by the racial stereotypes and voyeuristic humour because they made that warmth harder to respond to. Screenwriters Jeff Buhai and Steve Zacharias ask for more affection than the jokes earn. Kanew keeps things moving when the characters need more time between gags.
Alan Balsam’s editing helps maintain that briskness. King Baggot’s cinematography and James L. Schoppe’s production design leave room for the performers, so the comedy’s shortcomings cannot simply be blamed on clumsy presentation. Thomas Newman’s music suits the eagerness to entertain without making the nastier material harmless. There is competence here, but little sense that Kanew has questioned what the film wants us to laugh at.
The studio run continued with Tough Guys (1986), pairing Douglas with Burt Lancaster, and Troop Beverly Hills (1989), built around Shelley Long. Babij Jar (2003) took him back towards serious drama. That change of subject is reason enough not to judge all his work by the college comedy most closely associated with him. Start with Ordinary People, and pay attention to how often the actors need no help.
Biography
Jeff Kanew is an American film director, screenwriter, editor and producer. Born Jeffrey Roger Kanew on 16 December 1944 in New York City, he began his career editing trailers for numerous films in the 1970s. He directed the documentary Black Rodeo (1972) and his first narrative feature, Natural Enemies (1979).
Kanew edited Ordinary People (1980), directed by Robert Redford. He went on to direct Revenge of the Nerds (1984), Eddie Macon's Run (1983), Gotcha! (1985), Tough Guys (1986), Troop Beverly Hills (1989) and V.I. Warshawski (1991), among other films and television episodes. He also directed stage and video versions of Kirk Douglas's one-man show Before I Forget (2009). His son is Justin Kanew.
