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.