Eat, Pray, Gag (with one honorable mention)

This is not about how badly EPL sucked. It sucked pretty bad.I don’t feel the need to expand on that since I suspected with regret that it would be lame after seeing the trailer the first few times. All the signs were there. I’m a pretty avid moviegoer. The signs are rarely ever wrong.Especially when it comes to movies based on amazing books like this one by Liz Gilbert was, which is probably why I went to see it anyway with a friend of mine who made me read the book in the first place. Man, they fucked up everything! Jeez! Although I have to say that the one thing they got right was the character of “Richard from Texas” played by Richard Jenkins.

When you se a horrible movie with one elevated scene, you can learn a lot about what a good actor does. And after years of movie going and obsessive home movie watching, I have learned what veteran actors know that these young, Zac (ECCHHH!!$%$&@!) Efron types don’t and probably never will. It’s why the actors I trust on the screen to deliver often end up being the older ones. Actors from the old school, often with a substantial amount of theater background (and I know this from reading so many old school actors bios) understand that in order to carry off a moment, to make a story real to the viewer, it has to be real for them. They have to draw from a real moment for them. And it takes craft and discipline to give that moment to a camera and yet not give so much that you’re falling apart in your personal life because you cannot close that up again when the director yells cut. You also have to know how to protect yourself.

I was so relieved to see Richard Jenkins’ face in my favorite part of Liz’s journey, the “Pray” part. I saw him for the first in “Six Feet Under”one of my favorite televisions shows of all time. Talk about a cast of actors being vulnerable! That whole show was a big open wound. I was heart broken at the finale and vowed only to watch it one more time with my fiancée who had never seen it before.

The other thing I understand now and which, I have read over and over in actor’s bios is that the best actors know how to listen, and to react. It sounds overly simple but seeing an actor’s face express a reaction is like seeing an invisible collision made manifest in their face and it makes things “real.” When an actor is listening, they’re not sitting around waiting to say their next line. They are working. They are invisibly building an interior world that will hopefully make the viewer believe that yes, this person is suffering, happy, vulnerable, troubled, complicated, mysterious, confused, smart, smug, helpless, guilty, dangerous, layered…

And silences. Silences, pauses, they can be filled with tension, filled with anxiety, with choked regret, with beauty. They can put you on the edge. An actor who can allow those silences to come through in a scene, candidly but with intent, those are masters. One of my favorite lines from “I’m Not There” Todd Haynes’ pseudo Dylan biopic is “Silence, experience shows, is what terrifies people the most.”In pauses between conversations, in silences with oneself, often that’s where real things are happening or where the building blocks are created for the next word, which will complete a fragmented picture and the silence that remains to await action is what brings the scene home. That’s what happened for me in the scene where Richard tells Liz to forgive herself by sharing his story with her. I was open because he was clearly open. It might have been about three or four minutes. It felt like time stopped and opened up a wormhole. That’s what a good actor can do.

That being said, I would never recommend seeing this movie just for those three minutes. Go rent season one of “Six Feet Under” instead, where bad adaptation, bad directing and shitty unimaginative cinematography don’t sabotage a good story and where each actor is used to their fullest potential.

It's a Complicated Mess

See anything familiar? Hm...


I think Nancy Meyers has hit upon a formula here. Smart, rich white female divorcees in their late fifties walk around in their bathrobes eating leftovers and comfort food in the middle of the night, scare their children, the unfortunate and to be pitied products of divorce by having affairs with unlikely men, namely their childrens senior citizen boyfriends or men half their age or both all to a musical score that sounds like Lite FM. And lets never forget a little French music and internet mishaps.

I can accept that many people may have been just as disappointed or disapproving of “Something’s Gotta Give” as I was in “It’s Complicated.” But there was chemistry and believability all over the place in SGG. I could watch that movie all day and have thoroughly enjoyed watching it many times. Diane and Jack breathed life, humor, talent, even romance into every scene of that vanilla set. “Its Complicated” was like a sputtering clunker that never really got started and with two or three of film’s most incredible actors. Well at least one. How does that happen?

I think I was relieved whenever I saw John Krasinski from “The Office” because I then I could laugh genuinely for a second instead of sighing. It was tough. Meryl seemed to be visibly struggling with how to treat the part. Never in my life did I ever think I would see her psychotically waffling in any part unless of course that’s what it called for. In “The Holiday” a movie that is not worth ever seeing unless your into that, I was blown away by how seriously Kate Winslet took a part that she could have easily phoned in for all the script was worth. She raised the bar on a piece of light, mindless fluff and really made me look forward to her scenes in a movie I would never think to see if it hadn't been a free, star studded opening premiere at the Zigfeld. I never dreamed that Meryl couldn’t blow this thing out of the water!

And Alec! He was doing Jack Donoghy from "30 Rock" 89% of the time! The other 21% he was just beef caking and bulldogging. The poor man! I felt terrible for him. If he could get it together for a second I believe he could actually be formidable for more than just his drop-dead good looks and butter melting voice. He’s happened upon a hit role in a hit television series and can’t seem to step away from it! It’s like a safety net and that’s the kiss of death!

There’s nothing really to be said about the rest of the cast, which wasn’t really utilized well at all except as a way to be played off of and “played” by the two major stars although John Krasinski was a welcome little stand out.

Overall the whole thing, which I was looking forward to, just flopped for me. It’s not even a guilty pleasure like “Sex in The City” movies, which I know have their problems but are no different (I don’t care what anybody says) from the television series. I will watch “Sex in the City” and it’s geriatric sexual shenanigan movies for decades. “Its Complicated” was really not that complicated, just a forgettable attempt at another Nancy Meyers formula. I will never see it again.
Oh Alec!

Robin Hood (The Silver Years?)

Okay, with all due respect from someone who used to harmlessly stalk Mr. Crowe (I can't get into it here)isn't he a bit old for this role? Or have we begun to accept a 40 and up Robin Hood since that awful mess Kevin Costner was in?

My favorite Robin Hood will always be Errol Flynn, young, light, handsome, wiry, quick and wise cracking. Of course he was the Robin Hood of my childhood so it's hard to let that image go. I'm not against reinvention of cinematic icons if that's what they are (I love what Ritchie did with Sherlock Holmes this year!) but on first look, this trailer simply feels like Ridley Scott's Maximus from "Gladiator" plopped into the story of Robin Hood and that's just scary.

Russell has the ability to really transform in his roles and I have marveled over his talents in the past but this just sort of feels like the old Grazer, Crowe, Scott, safe reunion. Boooring. I hope I'm proven wrong. I really do. But where movies are concerned, that doesn't happen often. For the most part I've been watching too long and too often, too closely at least at this genre and certainly at this particular teaming.

R.I.P. Patrick Swayze

My top three favorite Patrick Swayze movies

1.Ghost
2.Point Break
3.Dirty Dancing


My heart goes out to his wife.

Snow Cake

Why isn't Alan Rickman in more movies? Maybe that's not quite the point. Perhaps it's a good thing that his projects are so carefully chosen and independent rather than mainstream. It's just that whenever I see him give an incredible performance like this I always have to wonder why I haven't been watching him more.

I've loved him from the day I first saw him play Hans in "Diehard." Right up until he fell to his death from over a hundred stories up, Alan Rickman was giving the kind of solid performance rarely seen in a big budget action movie. And it didn't end there. There was his role as a ghost coming back to haunt his grieving widowed wife in "Truly Madly Deeply" and as Sinclair, a well to do British business man who suspects that his wife maybe be cheating on him with her brother in "Close My Eyes." And then of course there are the Harry Potter movies where he plays what I can only guess is a warlock? I wouldn't know. I've never seen or read anything about Harry Potter. Maybe I should.

Subtle, dry humored, intense, clever, irreverent and compassionate: Rickman has always been interesting to watch. I feel that being typecast as a villain has always given Alan's performances an air of nefariousness not entirely his own. Yet, ironically, he is also able to evoke some of the most genuinely tender moments in film I have ever seen.

In "Snow Cake" he plays a man running away from his past only to slam right into it again by way of a terrible car accident on his way to Winnipeg to meet a friend. Sigourney Weaver gives a brilliant performance as the autistic mother of the young girl he meets and knows briefly before she is killed in the car accident.

It's hard to peg Alan Rickman. Not super masculine or even speculatively effeminate, but somehow his comfort in his own skin as he gets older, his ease with awkwardness and his choice to take roles that challenge rather than merely entertain the viewer has always made him one of my favorite actors.

I saw him once at a taping of "Def Poetry Jam." He was filming the HBO movie "Something The Lord Made" with Mos Def who was hosting at the time. He was sitting in the upper tier right behind me so I had to turn and crane my neck to get a look when Mos introduced him. That was over five years ago. His hair was already graying and it looked fabulous. I would have been looking at him the whole time if I could have. : )

I've Loved You For So Long

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a movie I wanted t write about, hence the length of time that has passed since my last entry.

I haven’t always loved Kristen Scott Thomas, but I do love her. The first movie I ever saw her in was that silly lovable farce that Prince directed, “Under The Cherry Moon.” I thought her performance as a spoiled rich man’s daughter was really irritating and I only tolerated her on screen presence so that I could watch my idol, Prince. But now I realize that many of her faults in that movie can be attributed to having to perform opposite an insane, selfish, paranoid and egotistical asshole, my idol, Prince. I still love the guy. But I love Kristen even more. She is beautiful and gets even more beautiful as she grows older. She makes me think of a bird, a librarian, a school teacher, a bookish hermit and a lady of statuesque high class, a woman in a painting all in one. I believe one of her greatest assets is the wordless and mercurial expression she conveys through her pensive eyes. Her performance in “I’ve Loved You for So Long” is absolutely stunning.

It is a movie in French which I wanted so much to see in theaters, but it had such small distribution and I was never able to find an accessible theater, so I was thrilled when it finally went to DVD. I rented it on Netflix and watched it last night.

The film is about a woman, Juliette, coming to live temporarily with her younger sister her husband and two daughters after having been released from jail where she spent fifteen years for killing her son. Kristen gives a compelling heartbreakingly reserved and passionate portrayal of this woman struggling to start over, to trust again and to let herself feel anything at all. Elsa Zylberstein, an actress I’m not familiar with is also spectacular as Juliette’s sister Lea. Against her husband’s paranoia and society’s judgment, Lea is unswerving in her love for her older sister and in a faith that her crime involved much more than what is perceived.

There is one beautifully shot scene that I love of the two sisters in a public pool talking. It is one in a series which goes along with a threaded reference throughout the movie to water and its renewing power. But the most incredible scene is pure genius, something layered with discovery and revelation mixed with childhood fantasy and the tradition of storytelling. It’s riveting and pulls you in two different directions only to realize that the duality of the moment is really unified in one path.

I was also so charmed buy the two little Asian girls who played the Lea’s adopted daughters that I’m convinced when I have children I want them to learn French. Their language was like music! And Kristen’s French was superb for a non-native!
It’s a wrenching movie, with light and humorous moments but by no means a delightful romp. But I really appreciate directors who make movies which recognize the beauty in our everyday realities, in the tough issues and the awkward situations. “Once” was another movie which achieved this incredibly well and on a pittance of a budget. But that’s what I feel good movies are about; creativity, giving voice to the voiceless, and challenging our ideas about life as we think we know it.

I Watched The Watchmen

Just saw “The Watchmen” which I think was great by the way and noticed in a few of the preceding film previews the following categories: Gangster Violence and Pervasive Language. I couldn't imagine for the life of me what these categories meant. What happened to just plain old Violence or Swearing? I mean are there people who are not offended by all violence in particular and need to know exactly what kind of violence they will be viewing? MPAA is such a fucking crock of shit organization. I don’t even know where to begin. They really bug me. Maybe these categories have been around for a while and I just haven’t noticed them. If that’s the case then I apologize for my lateness it expressing how ridiculous I think it is.

As for the Watchmen, I will try to be simple in my review. I never did finish the graphic novel but I did read enough of it to see that that the movie followed it almost to the letter and I am really proud of that. I have to admit that while reading it I was hyper aware of the total lack of any Watchmen of color but what can you expect from characters who outwardly admit to having virtually Nazi like mentalities? I find that the movie dodged these issues way more overtly than the novel did. The novel, I am told, included a larger narrative of one of the only characters of color in the story, the shrink who sees Rorschach as a patient. But naturally that story was completely omitted from the movie. That pisses me off but rather than go on a tangent I will stick to what I really loved about the movie. Mostly that I felt it did not compromise (until the end of course) the novel’s sense of ironic darkness and pervasive global doom for easy, fluffy resolutions. Again I did not finish the novel and understand as an avid reader that a book, graphic novel or more traditional literature has a life of it’s own which cannot be replicated cinematically at least not often.

What you get from books, the ability to imagine, re-imagine and live within a story is almost always compromised when adapted for the screen. The part of your brain used to simulate actions, feeling, emotions and intellectual and emotional struggle is given over to what a director and cinematographer install for the viewer. The studio replaces your imagination with their own vision, which is fine, as long you still have your own imagination in tact. That takes a daily exercising of your own imagination though. I fear new generations may not be encouraged to do this very often if at all. But more on that later.

Let talk about Dr. Manhattan’s penis. No really, I’m gonna go there and say that I am really proud at how well they pulled that off. I mean I watched the movie in my favorite theater in Chelsea, Manhattan’s great gay Mecca and not one oooh or awe whenever the blue phallus was exposed. Dr. Manhattan was that well rounded, that classy, and with a character so grounded in intellect and logic that he drew virtually no attention to his dick when he was naked which was about 80% of the movie. Was that Billy Cruddup's actual penis? One may never know. Maybe it's entirely CGI. Technology has come so far. No pun intended. Okay lemme get off the dick.

The opening credits alone were amazing, disturbing and beautiful. The fact that they opened with Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are a Changing” didn’t hurt at all. I was delighted to hear, Simon & Garfunkel, Jimi Hendrix and Leonard Cohen as well although the use of “Hallelujah” during the obligatory sex scene was the least subtle segue of all the musical score use throughout the movie. Listening to “Unforgettable” sung by Nat King Cole while watching “The Comedian” get his ass handed to him was in a word, unforgettable. I will save the rest for those who wish to see the movie themselves. The moral and political discussions were satisfyingly handled although I don’t wish to discuss at length here what I feel might have been glossed over, simplified or omitted entirely.

It is unfortunate that we have come to accept the usual pattern in movies over the years that require exceptional scripts to wrap themselves up in the last thirty or so minutes like some 80’s episode of a “Murder She Wrote” mystery and “The Watchmen” is no exception to that. But I think there is more to “The Watchmen” to see than can be gathered in one viewing. And I will say this, and I haven’t it about a movie in a long time: I can’t wait to watch it again and again. The writing, the cinematography and the performance were compelling and held me really tightly. It was poetically brutal. That’s hard to pull off.