Fave Film Scene Friday: All About Eve

What makes you a woman?

Margo is being driven back to the theater in the city after having spent the weekend upstate with friends Karen and Llyod Richards who unbeknown to her have emptied the gas tank just enough run out of fuel on the way back. They've had it with Margot's bratty bad temper and feel it's about time she learn a lesson by making her miss the first show of a play she's starring in written by Lloyd.

The scene in which Lloyd leaves Margo in the car with Karen to see about getting some gas a few miles ahead is a scene which is perhaps the most somber and lacking in high drama and theatrics of any in the film but it is one of my favorites because it expresses a universal and modern theme of career woman all over America which is that somehow, no matter how much you achieve in this society professionally as a woman, you're still not perceived as being whole or complete without a man. In this particular case of course, Margo totally buys into this idea and longs to have the completion she feels a husband would provide despite the own great personal success. The role of Margo Channing actually mirrors Bette Davis' own life very similarly. As a huge hollywood star she lived to regret the compromise she surely made in her commitment to career over her commitment to her children and failed marriages. But she wanted it all. And like a good friend of mine always says, as a woman you can have it all, just not all at the same time.

Next Friday: Before Sunrise

Favorite Film Scene Friday

 Someone drained the gas tank

Hi film goers! It's been a while. And I've seen some films I love like "Skyfall" and some I'd rather not talk about such as "Django." But I haven't seen any I'd like to go on about at length about for the purpose of a review in quite a while. However, like most avid film lovers I am always watching new films and old favorites  at home; on Netflix streaming mostly. I'm one of those who watches my favorite movies repeatedly and find new things in films I love all the time or just appreciate the ability of a beloved film to repeatedly have the same genuine effect it's had on me from first viewing. Aside from the list of favorite films I have listed in the left sidebar of this blog, there are probably tons of others in my personal collection that I've not even included there.

So that's given me an idea. Every Friday I will post a small entry on one favorite scene from one of my favorite movies. For the sake of order and a little rigor, I will begin with the first film in my fave list and work my way down. I will still review the occasional film if I am moved but this way I will actually be motivated to drop a line here at least once a week.

Film is such a large part of my life but it's a busy life so as much as I think about it I don't always have the time to share my thoughts. I will actually be taking a film studies class this Spring and I am super excited about it to say the least.

So stay tuned to my very first "Favorite Film Scene Friday" this week starting with "All About Eve!" EEEEEEEEE!!!! How will I ever choose one scene?

Middle of Nowhere

Even though "Middle of Nowhere" is only the second feature film I have seen by Duvernay, I have grown very accustomed and fond not only of her signature directorial and cinematic pacimg since "I Will Follow" but also of the quality of compelling emotion and depiction of reality that she is able to get from her actors and actresses. She gets performances from actors that are subtle, complex, personal, intelligent and never alienating. In fact they pull you in deep to very familiar places in a way that makes you feel there is an understanding about this particular journey which is not merely a way to create sensation but that is a very personal endeavor to connect mainstream audiences with cinematic experiences they might generally shy away from.

I also really enjoy "Middle of Nowhere's" film scoring. Duvernay's use of music is so spot on. It never feels heavy handed or intrusive.  For the most part it avoids feeling like a mere device and feels more like an integral piece of the films story and pacing, an indelible emotional link.

I will be seeing this film again next week and maybe even once more. The extended length of it's play in NYC depends primarily on the amount of people who go and see it everyday so I highly recommend that you plan to go see it immediately. Take your friends, family and partners. You will not be disappointed.

Trailer Fan

One of my favorite things to do at night in bed or sometimes even early in the morning before I get up is watch movie trailers on the Trailers app on my iphone. It gives me the illusion that I'm on the inside track of new upcoming movies, and I love that feeling!

For me, a good movie trailer can tell you all you need to know about whether the film is going to be good and whether it's worth seeing. I've been wrong about that before but I'm not usually. There are a couple of trailers I saw last night for movies I definitely plan on seeing.

First up is "Loopers" starring Joseph Gordon Levitt, a young man whom no one ever expected to survive past his childhood role in "3rd Rock from the Sun." But somehow he has resurfaced in the last couple of years in a range of films and has been kicking some serious ass while no one was looking. He is a man of many talents and I mean many. I find him intriguing to watch because I can't really pin him down.

"Loopers" also stars Bruce Willis doing what he does best, being the stereotypical, macho, tough guy, with enigmatic vulnerability, which is what I believe has kept Willis in the game for so long. I can't be objective about Willis though. I have loved him since "Moonlighting" (yeah I said it) and despite what I believe are some seriously odd choices in his personal life as well as some annoying rumors of vague right wing activity, I just have never really stopped watching him ever. He's one of a kind.

Anyway, "Loopers" is right up my alley. Time travel, action, violence,  identity conundrum, Bruce.  Plus Emily Blunt is in it. I love her. Check it out.



Next up is a film with several unknown black performers in it, which I'm always excited about. Plus I'm proud to say that my girl, the talented producer/director/film maker Ava Duvernay is behind it. I really enjoyed her directorial debut film "I Will Follow". I think I remember hearing about this new film coming up the pipeline on her FB page. It's called "The Middle of Nowhere."



The only actor in "The Middle of Nowhere" I'm familiar with is Omari who also starred in "I Will Follow."
The lead actress, Emayatzy Corinealdi and other supporting actors including David Oyelowo are new to me but their work looks substantially compelling so far. There is something in the pacing of the trailer that draws me to it. There is a mood and a lighting to it that I'm unaccustomed to in the promotion of the usual studio packaged "Black" movies, and what seems to me to be a unique telling of a story audiences may be familiar with but from a slightly different angle. I can see Ava Duvernay's signature touches all over it, which may make all the difference in ushering in new genres of Black Films. I'm excited about it.

Somthing from Nothing: The Art of Rap

My favorite of all the answers to Ice-T's question about why rappers felt rap was not respected as an art form the way jazz is came from Nas. I've never really gotten into his music but I consider him to be one of the most intelligent rappers around and his answer was basically that "they" don't like "you." Rap is a revolution. It's something that I don't think was supposed to happen and as it was said in the very beginning of Ice T's documentary (forgive me for not remembering the name of the rapper) rap really was something that came from nothing. But as we know, there's never really nothing. I guess it just all depends on how you look at it and who is looking at it.

If we continually look to people who don't look to us for honors, rap will never be given it's due respect. As Nas says, "they" want to know why rappers getting away with looking and talking and being how they are and get famous from it. Young white males make up a larger percentage of consumers of rap music than anyone.  Many white adults have never been happy about that. They remain fearful of the raw, powerful, unstoppable force of truth, art and nature that comes from Black males in particular through rap. It still presents to them what they perceive to be such an enormous threat to their system that there is no way they would ever honor rap as an art form. And it most indisputably is.

I really enjoyed the format Ice set up where he asked each of the rappers he interviewed to either kick a free style off their heads or to recite one that has stayed with them over the years. Grand Master Caz was one of my favorites. I liked watching him work, hearing what he had to say and I was in awe of his free style skill. Mouth wide open. He is an OG. For him it's from the heart. I was also amazed by Eminem, Kanye and Mos Def. I wouldn't want to be alone in an elevator with Eminem but he is technically sick. I really appreciate the way his mind works. He's all about deconstructing and reinventing and I really love that.

Kanye is one of the few rappers I know who can be both deeply offensive, clearly pro Black, totally superficial, genuinely concerned, insecure and lyrically dope all at the same time. So much of his drive seems to come from a ferocious need to both prove himself and at the same time prove himself just enough to say FUCK YOU! I DON'T GOTTA PROVE SHIT! I guess that's a Gemini for you.

Mod Def just hypnotizes me. He can come from a hard place, a soft place, a ignorant place, a funny place and a very conscious and informative place. He wears a lot of hats but what I love the most is how seemingly effortless he rhymes. It just seems to pour out of him. Plus I personally just love his style. He's got Brooklyn Boy written all over him. I can feel Brooklyn in his voice, see it is his beautiful face. Brooklyn will always live in my heart and when I hear Mos, I hear that Brooklyn that I love.

Drive and the Art of Pop Noir

  

Well first lets talk about the fact that I have never heard of Nicolas Winding Refn before in my life. The whole time I was watching Drive I was trying to figure out from the way in which it was shot, whose signature directing style this was but I could never pinpoint any one director. When I Googled the movie I felt sure someone familiar would pop up but this is the first I’ve ever heard of the Danish director. I look forward to seeing what else he can do because if “Drive” is any hint of what’s to come, he’s destined for big things. 

Shot in L.A. in a style owing much to film noir style “Drive” announced itself with a dark and emotional type of cool. It's particular brand of sexiness, and graphic violence along with moments of intense vulnerability never loses continuity. It is at the focal point of this film which is framed with great regard and homage by driving and cars. It is played expertly by everyone, not to say the least by it’s star Ryan Gosling who is just mesmerizing as a nameless character known only as “The Kid”, in how much he can get across the screen by appearing to do so little. The thing I was struck by immediately was the way his eyes can so from an unquestionably dead and defensive coldness to an exposed rawness that evokes both fear and protectiveness on equally convincing levels. The juxtaposition of romantic love and violence in one unforgettable elevator scene was produced at an operatic level. In every shot, in just about every frame of the film, there was a detail that contributed to the building of the story. Nothing was wasted.

The storytelling use of light alone in this movie was done to near perfection. There is a clearly intended although not heavy-handed use of lighting on Gosling in particular from windows and lamps. It is the kind of light that sets up romantic and introspective notions of the "Hero" when in fact there is much about the character still in question well after the story’s end not to say the least of which is his name. It is film with moments of deceptively deep silence with understated and contemplative segues which are pushed and deepened with well composed musical scoring, spare, economical dialogue and explosive but strategic bursts of unsettling violence and rage. 

Albert Brooks who has always been a favorite actor of mine gave an incredible performance as my favorite kind of villain: the kind you almost understand cannot go against his nature. He prides himself on speaking in realistic terms and you might almost believe him except that his bottom-line: power, is immovable. There is nothing he will not do in its name.  I feel that Brooks’ dramatic talent has been passed over so many times by the Academy perhaps because he got his start as a comic actor but for me, it has always been his own unique dramatic information of his characters that makes his comedic performances unforgettable. He has been and is an actor of high caliber.  Veteran actors, Ron Perlman and Bryan Cranston were equally amazing in holding this story to all its promise of suspense, violence betrayal and humanity. I’ve never been a fan of Carey Mulligan but she was fine as the love interest to the driver and mother to the son of her jailed husband also played exceptionally well by Oscar Issac.

The score of the movie was yet another character. The hypnotic, synth based tracks by Kavinsky & Lovefoxxx and College as well as the wonderfully paced score by Cliff Martinez places your imagination somewhere in the mid to late 80s between “Pretty in Pink” and “The Breakfast Club” but this is no John Hughes flick. Drive never makes any overtly clear dedication to nostalgia. In fact there a bit of a perverse irony in watching a movie like this to the sentimental and idyllic sounds of 80’s inspired pop music which I feel may have been intentional. While I feel that Drive is deeply sentimental, it is also unflinchingly dark, drawing you ever closer to some decidedly disturbing element that you never quite understand before setting you adrift again.

"Never ever ever can we fake moves"

My favorite Tribe Called Quest Album: Midnight Marauders

For me, coming of age around the same time that the Native Tongues rose to fame, was like someone coming to me and being like, here's a handful of artists that are as weird and out there as you but they're funky and cool and intellectual, humorous, creative and proud of their culture, the way you were raised to be. 

How the heck does something like that even happen? But it it did! My bff, Vanessa introduced me to the Jungle Brothers "Done by the Forces of Nature" album in the early 90s, probably the summer of '89 and it changed my life! Meeting someone like her, someone who was so open to different modes of expression, someone who wrote poetry and journaled like me and who just liked to hang out and feel the breeze was already huge, but music like this came forth as such a binding extension of our relationship. She was one of the only people I knew who was listening to Teddy Riley and Led Zepplin you know? We just loved a lot of the same things about how music made us feel. When I first heard "Potholes in My Lawn" by De La Soul I was like what-the-hell? But I could appreciate that is was something I had never heard the like of before and I could also appreciate that they were reaching back in their parents album bins to sample music I had been raised with for years like Hall and Oates and Steely Dan. A Tribe Called Quest did the same and I mean as much I loved them, watching this documentary only made me love them more for taking that post Civil Rights era music and realizing it in a new way, and essentially paying homage to it through sampling and transforming it to create that amazing time when for a minute, it felt cool to be who I was at that time, to start my locks with pride, wrap  them in Mud Cloth, rock cowrie shell jewelry, wear a blazer and a neck tie to school just to be contrary, write poetry and share my journal entries with a tight circle of diverse friends. I loved that time of my life.

They other thing I will say about what I saw in Michael Rapports doc is that it seemed pretty easy for these guys, in spite of their intense struggles and disagreements to express love for one another. TBQ was not about the traditional sort of super macho aspects of rap that has become very typified in the definition of it's present culture. They were almost like black male nerds. LOL!! But they could still kill it on the mic! They had such a range of abilities and they didn't seem to limit themselves to one way of expressing manhood. It was just really beautiful to see how Jarobi and Phife talked about their relationship. They have a bond that's just beyond and that I hadn't even been aware of. Ali Shaheed Muhammad seemed to be the quiet, serious one who was caught in the middle of Tip and Phife's bickering since Jarobi quit the group pretty early on. 

I don't want to give too much away but the doc covers not only how the Tribe came together and rose to fame but also about really personal things that are going on in their every day lives. I give a lot of credit to Rappaport for staying out of the film himself, allowing his own clear sentiment to show itself through the way he documents, the way he edits. It was well done, a light handed but focused touch. You know where he comes from. He's not an outsider. There's trust and honesty. 

That being said, I don't know if I feel there needs to be a TBQ reunion album. Maybe they had their time and that time seems to be definitely done. It served it's purpose for me, and those like me who witnessed the Native Tongues emerge at that time. But it was great to be transported to that feeling again and to learn things about it's creation that I hadn't known before. It made me love it that much more and maybe wish that that time could have lasted a little longer. The fact is though, and this fact is clearly made in the film, that if the Tribe wanted to get back together again, to do anything, even just appear together, people are ready to be there to watch and listen. That's how dope they were. That's how much love they put out.