Wolverine

I went to see "The Day The Earth Stood Still" today but it was hard to concentrate after I saw this trailer. I was so excited my heart was pounding afterwards! This cast is a fucking dream! Omigod! I AM GOING TO SEE THE SHIT OUT OF THIS MOVIE! Almost twenty minutes into "The Day The Earth Stood Still" I was still thinking about it! This two minute trailer was better than that entire movie! I had to watch this again on youtube just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating in the theater! Liev Schrieber as Sabertooh. Oh lord!I may pass out.



It better be good.

Somewhere in Time

Imagine that someone from the past could suddenly appear in your life and draw you into a drama that you never imagined could exist for you but is as much apart of you as things which you believe you have a handle on. Imagine loving the image of someone long gone so much so that you find a way to cross the boundaries of time to reach them. The theme of obsession and love of people through their images in paintings and photographs is very common in film. “Vertigo” and “Laura” and god knows how many movies feature characters falling in love with people in this way. But there is only one that I know of where a character travels back in time to meet the woman he falls in love with in a photograph only to discover through the process of his journey that she has been with him all along.

“Somewhere in Time” is one of only two movies I know starring Christopher Reeve where he’s not flying around in blue tights and a red cape. The other is “Street Smart.” The wonder that he conveys, the innocence, the love and desire for Jane Seymour’s character in "Somewhere in Time" gives me goose bumps every time I watch it.
Time travel and the strength of love are among some of my favorite movie themes. To me, Dracula is in part a story of time travel for love. “Somewhere in Time” achieves this in a wonderfully genuine and magical way. And the entire process of making the movie for the cast, the crew, producers, everyone was a labor of love straight through. And you can see that in the finished product.

Something about the way Reeve's character dies (sorry, but this won’t spoil it for those who have never seen the movie) and Christopher Reeves accident and his eventual death in real life seems inextricably linked to me when I watch it now. In the special features, when he does commentary he is already in the wheel chair that his accident confined him to. He relates an actual near death experience that he had due to a bad drug interaction. He literally flat lined for 50 seconds. This validated the scene in the movie for him, which he had some doubt about when he was filming it. So essentially he died before he died before he died. The exploration of death is one of my favorite movie themes as well.

I look at Christopher Reeve now and I wonder more about him, about who he was behind all that Superman stuff, who he was as an actor. We will never know what he was truly capable of as a performer but I suspect that as an actor his achievements only scratched the surface of his potential.

Choked Up (SCENE SPOILER)

Where else you would find a scene in which Colonial Williams burg Historical interpreters, sex addiction and a hand job coincide so succinctly but in a movie based on a Chuck Palahniuk book? "Choke" is by no means a great movie but I usually jump at anything Sam Rockwell is in and I really missed his grungy face and smarmy little smile. I haven't seen him in anything good since "Confessions of Dangerous Mind" which is a fucking great movie. In the "Choke" scene to which I'm referring, which I realize now is one of my favorites, Hank, whom Sam Rockwell plays calls in a favor of Ursula one of his prettier co-workers to give him a hand job in a barn, not because he has any romantic feelings for her but because he's been having some erectile dysfunction issues. In fact, while she's wacking him off, they talk very casually like friends about her deep affection for Charlie, one their other co-workers played by actor and director Clark Gregg. Shortly after she falls asleep on Hank mid wank, Charlie walks in on them. Clearly angry, he admits that he is in love with Ursula but states that his utter disappointment in finding her in this position has ruined all his previous notions about her. Sitting in the hay, penis in Ursula's sleeping hand, Hank actually talks Charlie down from his rage and in so many words convinces him to walk out and forget he ever saw them because the situation is not what he thinks. It's a masterful and at the same time hilarious scene. It would never happen in real life but because it's played so well, you almost believe that it could happen.

RUN!

I came to watch "The Loneliness of The Long Distance Runner" because the main character in one of my favorite young adult books of all time, "The Handsome Man" by Elissa Haden Guest, mentions it as one of her favorite movies. I looked it up on Netflix recently and decided to see it. I already knew what would happen in the end as the character in the book describes in great detail Colin's ultimate defiance against the headmaster of his reformatory school but that was exactly what made me want to see it.
Tom Courtenay plays Colin Smith, the oldest son of four in a working class British family whose father has just passed away slowly and in great pain. Colin, like many fatherless young men in working class families can't seem to settle down quietly and assimilate himself into the drones of society. Along with his pal, he participates in petty theft like stealing money and cars for joy rides but can't stand the thought of getting a job. This not because he can't handle responsibility but because of how he sees what laboring work has done to his father. These crimes land him in a reformatory where the headmaster, seeing his exceptional talent in sports and in particular running, starts to favor him and train him to win the medal in long distance running against a fancy boys private school.
After his father's death Colin's mother collects his life insurance and goes out and spends it on all kinds of fancy new things for the house and her children. Colin won't take any of it and when his mother finally forces him to take a few quid which she stuffs in his shirt pocket while they watch their brand new television set, he goes into his father's old room and silently burns the money. This is one of the most powerful, most defiant scenes in the film.
Later on you see him spending money on one of the only things which really does matter to him when he and his friend take their girlfriends up to the country and to the beach. They experience that very familiar childlike freedom that comes from vacationing not not only from the usual oppressive surroundings of poor working class life but also from the oppressive thoughts of aimlessness and the inevitable death of the imagination to be traded in for low wages and never enough to go around. There's an obvious dark cloud that looms over them when they have to get ready to return to such a bleak reality.
I won't give away what happens in the end but I will say that watching it and observing the split reactions within myself, I can see why society is the way it is. Not that I was clueless before watching this but film gives us such a great opportunity to be exposed to different perspectives and interpretations of working classes, middle classes and royalty alike. "The Loneliness of The Long Distance Runner" in it's stark grey palette and Tom Courtenay's very human portrayal achieve this to a compelling degree.

Memento

Never watch this movie high. Just don't do it.

Pineapple Express

So maybe I was on a little "Pineapple Express" when I saw it but believe me, that did not alter my viewing eperience whatsoever. This cast was amazing. I have loved everything Seth Rogen has done since "Knocked Up." P.E. was frigging hilarious! It was smart and ridiculous and silly and sweet. If you've seen all Seth Rogen's movies before this one, you can appreciate the sense of range that this team of actors really has. The Asian guy who was Catherine Heigel's gyn in "Knocked Up" is an assassin for the rival drug lords in "Pineapple Express." Same for the black guy who keeps her and her sister out of the club. In this he plays the hired muscle for the Ted the drug dealer played by Gary Cole. Seth Rogen and Franco are great. I think their real life relationship informs there on screen chemistry very effectively. Sometimes you almost feel like you're just watching them hang out on camera, I mean minus all the car chases and shooting and stuff. And the soundtrack is awesome. I mean I haven't heard "Wanted Dread and Alive" by Peter Tosh in years! Now I absolutely need that album! White people always score movies with the good ass reggae man. They really do. I am gonnna be all over the DVD when it comes out. Next: "Tropic Thunder".

Chicago

The first thing I thought of when I watched it was "Natural Born Killers" and the depiction of the way media can sensationalize murderers to the point of celebrity. I think Oliver Stone did amazing job at showing the way media does this and I was fascinated to see a story that was created as early as the 40s (I think) depict these same themes. I've always known the Chicago story but I only just watched it for the first time this weekend. I really feel that Catherine Zeta Jones, John C. Reilly and Queen Latifah gave the strongest performances in this large cast. Gere was embarrassingly wonky to start but this winded down fortunately as the movie went on. Everyone seemed to have their own interpretation, style wise as well as accent wise and it seemed to range from the modern to the retro which made for a weird inconsistent feel at times but the numbers were spot on. They were amazing and I can only imagine how grueling rehearsals were.

"How do we keep the experience?"

I was watching “Six Degrees of Separation” this morning, a movie I’ve seen so many times, I know practically every line by heart. The one scene that still gives me goose bumps is Ouisa’s moment of clarity in the last scene when her and Flanders are relaying the last chapter of their encounter with Paul to a gathering of rich business associates in a dining room at some fancy Park Ave address. Flanders is doing his seductive razzle dazzle segueing into references about art so that he can drum up some business. Oiusa goes into temporary hysterics, exclaiming how worried she is about Paul since he was arrested and they have no way to contact him. Then she says that line expressing her frustration with how everyday human experience is always reduced to an anecdote no matter how profound or life changing. “And we become these human jukeboxes!” That metaphor bowls me over every time! It’s so fucking accurate on so many levels.

As someone who has enjoyed writing for a long time, I struggle constantly with that question myself. The line in any medium of expression between raising and diminishing the human experience can be very fine and in the media, well I don’t think there’s anything I can say to qualify the level to which media has sunk the human experience.

Watching Stockard Channing wake up in that (see link in my fave movies list) scene is revelatory. I mean her performance in the entire film is flawless. But in those last moments as she walks away from Donald Sutherland’s character after presenting him more or less with an ultimatum and struts down the block I get chills because it feels so real. You can sense her liberation soaring as she gains momentum. And I always wonder what happens to her after that. I try to imagine all kinds of alternate conclusions to her life. Whatever happens though, I feel like she’s found herself, and can never go back to her old life again. She’s had an experience that she will not allow to become just a mere story. She will allow it to propel the new course of her life. A scary prospect seeing as she seemed to be living very comfortably, but clearly, it wasn’t enough.

One More Reason to Love Paul Newman

I can’t say enough about how much I like Paul Newman, both as a performer and as a person who has managed to remain incredibly private in his personal life despite being one of the most famous people in the world. But reading an article about him by Patricia Bosworth in Vanity Fair this evening, my regard for him just sky rocketed. Among all his philanthropic acts, such as putting all, not a percentage but all proceeds from his salad dressing to charity and creating the Hole is the Wall Camp for kids with AIDS and HIV, he also retained the respectability of the Actors Studio in the 80s by keeping the “Material Girl” out of it.

“In the late 80s, Newman who served as president until 1994, also clashed with Ellen Burstyn, then the Studio’s artistic director over admitting Madonna, according to insiders. Burstyn had invited the singer, who was appearing on Broadway in the David Mamet play Speed The Plow, to become a member. Newman objected, saying in effect, that nobody, star or unknown, should get preferential treatment—everyone should audition. Madonna was never admitted.”

I love Madonna’s music and I think she’s a genius at what she does best but she should never try to act again. And God knows she has no business being in the Actor’s Studio just because she’s Madonna. While the world has benefited greatly from Gaultier's pointy bras, stage humping and an exploitation of Gay underground dance moves, I think we would survive without it. We need more Paul Newman. There will never be another like him.

Dark Knight

I have say to start that I never really cared about "Batman Begins." I had hoped that C. Bale would have brought a quieter more silently powerful intensity to the movie but it seemed that all the noise and explosions overwhelmed him. I realize I'm in the minority in this opinion. It's only my opinion. I was in and out of sleep for first hour or so of "Dark Knight." Heath Ledger of course was incredible but he was so good it was almost an insult that he be in a movie about Batman who, let's face it is essentially a guy in a Bat suit right? I mean personally I was not gripped by the whole "Poor little rich boy watched his parents get murdered falls into a pit of bats and decides to dress like one" story. The guy is nuts and that's fine. I think they should focus on that. The "Dark Knight" graphic novel, which I am only familiar with because my brother collected them when we were young, did not depict Batman so much a superhero but someone who had lost his way. It was the study of his decidedly violent psychological breakdown, a downward spiral. In any case, I guess I'm just not a huge fan of Christopher Nolan's style. I'm a Burton fan and his treatment of Batman is my favorite. He allowed it to be the dark camp that it was but you also got the feeling with his direction that each character mirrored the other in some way. There was a clever perversity and a sense of humor in unexpected places. Nothing about C. Nolan's Batman was unexpected. Not to me anyway. In this installment, Heath was the only thing in a class by itself. He could have been in an entirely separate movie, he was that good, that improvisational and surprising. He was fearless and performing at the top of his game, outside the box. The rest of the movie was fine I suppose, just not anything I would look forward to seeing again.


Another less than satisfied reviewer.