The Christmas weekend is upon us, and African-American Short Films (featuring Lady In My Life) will be showing this weekend in some of my favorite cities to visit:
Louisville Station: WKYI / IND Date: 12/23 Time: 11:00PM
Alexandria, LA Station: KALB / NBC Date: 12/24 Time: 12:00PM
As far as book to film translations go, Moneyball is an entertaining movie that keeps the spirit of the book. ’How does a small market team compete/win in the imbalanced world of modern baseball?’ Brad Pitt produces and stars as Billy Beane, the Oakland A’s GM who ‘revolutionized’ the game by incorporating new math formulas into figuring out how to build a good baseball team for little to no money.
Now, that plot description is not remotely cinematic; what the film does well is frame the story as a forward thinking man (Beane and his mathematical genius sidekick played by a still portly Jonah Hill) who comes up against friction at every turn. The old school scouts whose years of expertise are being thrown out; the players who have been conditioned to believe they’re washed up, Beane’s own self doubt at knowing this is his ‘last chance’ to make something of himself. I’m enough of a sports fan to know (SPOILER ALERT) the Oakland Athletics haven’t won a World Series in this timeframe. I won’t ruin where the film ends, but I thought it was satisfying.
So does that make it a good film? It is. But like making a crime film, the bar is impossibly high for what makes a ‘great sports film’. During the Q&A after the screening I attended, someone asked the filmmakers how they felt their baseball film stacked up against Field of Dreams or 61*. Whether you feel the question was a little rude or not, the filmmakers said they only focused on making the film they were making (good answer). And the film they made was entertaining.
I’ll say this upfront; I won’t be remotely surprised if this wins Best Picture next year. It’s not exactly a genre, but Hollywood loves a well done film about ‘the making of Hollywood’. Sunset Boulevard, Singin in the Rain, and the list goes on. ”The Artist” makes fairly direct references to these and other films. That’s not meant to be a slight at all; this film is probably the most charming movie I’ve seen since Slumdog Millionaire.
Released as a black and white film, and driven by a great sound design, “The Artist” tracks the end of the silent film era and the birth of ‘the talkies’ through its two main characters: the Douglas Fairbanks-esque George Valentin, and up and coming starlet Peppy Miller. The love story of the film is fairly straight forward; the appeal of ‘The Artist’ comes from three great performances (yes, I’m including the scene stealing dog), a good concept, and exceptional execution. The fact that it was made by a French director doesn’t hurt either. Again, not a crack, just saying that it adds to the film’s ‘exotic/outsider’ appeal.
This one was fun to watch, I’m sure we’ll be talking about this one again in a couple of months…
In various interviews, I’ve heard George Clooney say that his attraction to this project was in playing a character who didn’t have all the answers. The main character of ‘The Descendants’ is the anti-Danny Ocean so to speak. It’s a fine line for Clooney to walk on professionally; most actors will get jaded or resentful when they’re asked to play the same type of character over and over again; but being a ‘movie star’ is selling the audience on a ‘brand’, a persona that they know they’re getting no matter what movie you’re in or what story is being told (see Smith, Will).
George Clooney is the acting community’s movie star (see what I did there?) because he makes choices like this. In this case, playing a character who’s borderline unsympathetic. By Matt King’s own admission, he’s the ‘understudy’ parent. His wife has been having an affair and apparently Matt is the only one who is completely in the dark about it. His father in law doesn’t hide his disdain for him, blaming Matt for an accident to his ‘perfect and loyal’ daughter. The strength of Clooney’s performance in this film is in how with all of this thrown at him, you still do root for the guy. This isn’t a revenge or ‘overcoming the odds’ story.
In a film that takes its laid back tone from its Hawaiian backdrop, Matt King has several opportunities to ‘get back’ at those who have wronged him. But with two daughters who he’s now raising on his own, he makes the conscious decision to be the bigger man. Anger is natural, letting go and moving on are difficult, but (ideally) when you’re gone you want people to remember the good things that you did and not the mistakes that you made. And as an audience we get this not in a dramatic third act monologue, but as a progression. Clooney acts it out and we follow.
I was tempted to let this go since the news cycle is winding down, but I do want my feelings on the record on this…
Not all that long ago, I was having a conversation with some friends about the pros and cons of having beef with a laid back person. The pro obviously is the laid back person isn’t looking for a fight, so the odds of landing the first punch are pretty high. Now here are some of the cons in no particular order…
1. No one likes a sneak attack.
While few of us enjoy fighting in general, part of the thrill of sport is when you have two sides who are both planning for battle, and watching each side come up with a strategy to win. But if you turn around and BAM!, you find yourself already in the middle of a fight, strategy takes a back seat to our most basic, primal instinct: survival.
2. You have no idea what you’re getting into.
As Tyler Durden prophetically asked, “How much do you really know about yourself if you’ve never been in a fight?” If someone goes on a five hour poutfest when they accidentally spill coffee at their desk, that’s a pretty good sneak preview of what you’ll see when they get angry in another situation. But what about the vast majority of people who (wisely) try to restrain or politic when they reveal their anger? Do you really know how they’ll react? How do you plan or come up with a plan when you really don’t know what the counter will be? Which leads to…
3. Grudges
Everybody remembers when they’ve been crossed. The resolution of the conversation I had with friends about fighting a laid back person is that’s it’s a double jeopardy type of situation. Even after the the conflict has been resolved one way or another, you’ve placed a new note on the permanent record of your reputation: “This person/group put forth the necessary effort to create a problem where one didn’t exist.” We’re all adults here, we know everyone isn’t going to like or respect everyone else. If you’re not trying to be about someone, generally speaking you just deal with them only when you have to and keep it moving. And stay in your lane.
Which brings us to Lowe’s and ‘All-American Muslim’. In a comical PR blunder that made David Stern blush, Lowe’s basically went from ‘quietly having ad time on a progressive reality show,’ to being seen as the company whose CEO said, “Wait, what?!? You’re telling me we’re advertising our company on a show that promotes religious tolerance? During the Christmas season?!? FUCK. THAT.”
For the sake of this post, I’ll skip over explaining how logistically, it’s impossible for any company to have advertising on prime time cable television and have NO idea on what block of programming their ads might play on. It’s just too expensive. What’s appalling to me in this fiasco isn’t even the revelation that there’s still a barely hidden Islamophobia running wild in this country. That’s the exact reason this show exists, it’s the exact reason I write this series and my allies in various outlets speak out against blatant ‘boogeyman-ism’ (for lack of a better term). It’s the exact reason (thankfully) Congressmen, celebs, other corporations have caught on to this story and said, “Waiiiiiiiit a minute…”
What is appalling to me in this situation, is that for every corporation and bank that turned a blind eye to their customers and the ‘Occupy’ movement, THIS is the situation where a small group of protestors forces the hands of the Giant? Ugh…
Well Lowe’s, make sure you send a nice Christmas card to the Florida Family Association. You notice no one is protesting them, they’re protesting YOU.
Seriously, every time I get lulled into thinking people are going to let us be…
Milwaukee Station: WITI FOX Date: 12/18 Time: 5:00PM
Macon Station: WPGA/IND Date: 12/19 Time: 2:00PM
Columbus-Tupelo-W Pnt-Hstn Station: WCBI CBS Date: 12/21 Time: 1:05AM
Baton Rouge Station: KWBJ-TV IND Date: 12/21 Time: 8:00AM
Looking ahead next week is the last ‘official’ work week for many of us, and as it falls in the same time frame as ‘All the Oscar bait movies coming out”, I’ll probably have some content every day starting Monday morning. Let’s end the year with a bang folks! Until then have a good weekend!
Fight Club, Se7en, Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network. When you think of good, intellectual filmmaking, David Fincher may (or may not) have peers, but there isn’t anyone better. Now let’s add The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to that already extremely impressive directing career.
Before I go on, let me say I haven’t read the books or watched the original films, so I went into this one as John Q. Public. If John Q. Public saw Daniel Craig in the trailer, and ‘A Film by David Fincher’ and said “Say nothing else, sold!”
So how do I pitch this? OK, a disgraced journalist (Daniel Craig) is hired by a semi-retired magnate (the always great Christopher Plummer) to solve the oldest mystery of his family. Along the way, the journalist needs help and he hears about the researcher who investigated him: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Rooney Mara).
If that’s not much to go on, good! One of Fincher’s strengths if you’re somehow not familiar with his filmography, is taking the audience along for the ride as the main characters come up with their own theories and try to solve the mystery of the plot. Not to sound like too much of an old fogey, but while I can’t say this is my favorite Fincher film (almost unfair to compare the man to his own work), I can say that as always, Fincher treats his audience like adults, and you get a quality adult film out of it. Is this story for everybody? No I don’t think it is. But if you’re a fan of the works of David Fincher, I highly doubt you’ll be disappointed. Daniel Craig anchors a solid cast, and Rooney Mara brings the right amount of creepiness/intelligence/sexuality to the title character.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo opens next Wednesday.
The Malik Aziz Foundation was created last night with the mission statement of promoting the unifying ideals of the human race through arts and entertainment. For the first time, the Board of Directors have decided to present awards (‘the Zeezys’) to those who have best embodied the Foundations ideals for the past calendar year. Without further adieu, the 1st Annual Zeezy Awards…
The John Cena Award (given to the individual who is by all accounts a nice guy but who I just can’t stand):
The first Zeezy was a unanimous decision; congratulations Tim Tebow! In all fairness, I have to confess that I do believe ‘winning’ is an attitude that can be contagious (with all due respect to Charlie Sheen). And my distaste really has nothing to do with his religion (sincerely). It comes down to this: he’s the star quarterback of the team that caused me more ulcers than any other in my childhood. I’ve seen improvement over the past few weeks but the overhypeness of this cat turns my stomach. You know why every sports analyst save for Skip Bayless chuckles after Broncos highlights? CAUSE EVERY FOOTBALL FAN WORTH A DAMN CAN SEE THIS IS A TEAM WITH A GOOD DEFENSE AND AVERAGE RUNNING GAME WHO KEEPS GETTING AN ABSURD AMOUNT OF BREAKS!!! Like I said, at least the kid is genuinely humble. If he was more Favre-like I would have thrown a TV by now…
While we’re throwing our wrestling references…
The Rock Award (given to the wrestler who grabs a hold of the zeitgeist)
goes to C.M. Punk. The storyline was (bad guy) C.M. Punk was tired of being looked over in favor of (good guy/poster boy) John Cena. Punk’s argument was that everyone could clearly see he was a better wrestler, but the reason Cena kept getting breaks was because he was such a kiss ass. (And as I typed that statement out, I just realized why so many people gravitated toward it.) Anyway this led to a title match in Punk’s hometown of Chicago. Now I grew up in Arrowhead on Monday nights, I’ve been in Allen Field House and the Coliseum when they’re rocking. I’ll tell you what, I’ll put this ‘home field advantage’ up there with the best of em:
He’s not just the ‘Best in the World’ folks; he just won his first Zeezy!
Favorite Book of the Year:
At times sad and painful to read, Manning Marable’s thoroughly researched book on brother Malcolm reminded all of us, those who idolize him and those who use him as a symbol of hate, that in the end, he was a man, a human being who made mistakes and had flaws like the rest of us.
Craziest Blog of the Year:
On the other end of the literary spectrum is what’s affectionately known as ‘the Ghostface Blog.’ I’ll let you find the exact link if you’re curious due to the strong language of the writer; just know this was another landslide Zeezy award winner. I’ve definitely reached the age where I feel the hip hop I grew up on has come and gone; this blog takes the sentiment and runs buck f##kin wild with it. Whether it was the widely circulated ’10 Softest N###as in the Game’ post, or the ongoing, unabashed hatred and disdain for a certain young light skinned MC from Canada, this blog is just…crazy!
Video Game of the Year:
Sure I’m biased as I’m an adult who if I’m lucky only has time for one game a year at this point (if I’m lucky), but THIS was the one game I had to play. The story wasn’t as ‘groundbreaking’ as Arkham Asylum, but the open gameworld and the side missions put this game on the ‘must play’ list for any Batman fan.
Movie I Most Look Forward to Rewatching on Cable 10,000 Times:
One of the oldest but best hypotheticals is “How much of our lives do we really control and how much of what happens to us is ‘destiny’?” The Adjustment Bureau gave us a really nice spin on this question, changing it to ‘What if you met ‘The One’ but you weren’t supposed to meet them?’ Props on this movie working goes to the casting director too, Matt Damon and Emily Blunt were great together.
The Jessica Alba Award
Every man I know appreciates Rhianna, Paula Patton, even a Kim Kardashian. But part of that appreciation is in knowing that unless your name is “LeBron” or “Kanye”, you have NO chance of ever pulling a woman like that.
The Jessica Alba Award goes to the starlet who cleans up nice, but also maintains a persona, either on screen or off (ideally both), that hypothetically if you had to make an emergency run to the Whole Foods on Fairfax because you ran out of that organic toothpaste that you like, and you got stuck in the wrong line, so you casually start chatting up the cutie in front of you, and SHE was the cutie in front of you, and you recognize her but don’t make a big thing out of it (which she appreciates), and she compliments you on your Lakers hoodie and what you think of this whole Chris Paul fiasco, and you say it’s a mess but the Lakers always seem to come out alright, and you ask her if she goes to the games and you discover she’s a sports fan too, and she asks if you go to any games, and you say you go when you can, and the line’s not moving so she asks about the bandage on your finger, and the truth is you’ve been practicing twice a day on your guitar for this bluesman role you were going for, but even to another actor saying you’re an actor comes off pretentious, and you don’t want to put all your cards on the table right away anyway, so you make up this story about how you were making stuffed peppers and you read in GQ that you can do it with red bell peppers so you tried it, but the red peppers don’t cut as easily and there you go, and maybe she believes that story and maybe she doesn’t, but either way you went full Dimple and she sees you’re a little self deprecating which she likes. So after you both check out you exchange info and you think “Man I really have a shot!”
So long story short the Jessica Alba goes to the starlet who masters the ‘girl next door’ persona. This year’s winner is…
(What? No that didn’t really happen I was just saying. What do you mean that was way too detailed and specific?!? GET OUT OF MY BUSINESS!!!)
Anyway the winner this year is Emmanuelle Chriqui. I won’t miss Entourage ending, but I’m one of many guys who will miss seeing Sloane on a regular basis.
(What? Mannnn, I was just telling stories!!!! Let’s move on!!!!)
Hip Hop Album of the Year
Undun. The Roots. As I tweeted to questlove in mock disbelief on twitter, I said ‘This…this is an album!!!!” Nuff said. As good as that album was, it was no match for…
Concert of the Year
I haven’t been to a concert since the night Prince tore the damn roof off the Great Western Forum, and months later if I don’t do another concert again I wouldn’t be remotely upset. One of the great showmen, guitarists, and entertainers of my lifetime giving us something we’d always remember for 20 freaking dollars. Un-real!!!
And finally since we like to look toward the future, the final Zeezy for 2011 is Best Teaser Trailer, given to the trailer that has us most hype for 2012. I wonder who will win this one…
And on that note, we’ll see you for the 2nd Annual Zeezys next year!
It’s the weekend which means the episode of African-American Short Films featuring my short is hitting new markets. This week it’s pretty long, see below:
I can’t pick out one city on that list to tell a story about, so instead I’ll show some love to my production team. My DP on this project was Jeremy Osbern, a very talented fellow Jayhawk alum like myself. I really can’t say enough good things about the gang at Through A Glass, in time the fates will align and we’ll work together again.
So everyone knows I’m a Brando guy, and I’ve talked about how ‘Last Tango in Paris’ was a major influence on how I built the character I used in “Lady In My Life.” So when one of the first things I heard about ‘Shame’ was that it was on some ‘Last Tango’ type ish, I was instantly like “Oh Really?!?” I wasn’t going to hold any film to that standard but I was intrigued. And, as fate would have it, when I literally went from the Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood to the Arclight only a few blocks away to catch a screening, I was really in a “Method” mood.
So let’s start there. By own scale of 1 to 10 for commitment to a role, Michael Fassbender went for the 10 here; all in surrender of his body and spirit for the character. Full salute from me for that. For those unfamiliar, ‘Shame’ is about a young bachelor in his 30s, not a bad looking dude, stable in his job and living situation, who, for reasons never explained, is both unable and frankly uninterested in building and sustaining an emotional relationship with a woman.
(Let me pause this review here because I can here a certain peanut gallery picking up their phones to text me. To you I say, shut it.)
What the main character of this film does have a passion for is sex. But as the title implies, his passion for sex is…off. He doesn’t do it for social status, for pleasure, for procreation, or as noted, for emotional connection. He just…does it. As often as possible and in plenty of inappropriate ways and places. One of the things that director Steve McQueen (a brother from across the pond) gets right in this film is showing you in the first 20 minutes, there is nothing glamorous in this sexual perversion.
Casey Mulligan shows up as the sister of our protagonist. Not as one of the ‘normal sweet, girl next door’ types she’s played in other films, but as a desperate, really desperate for attention seeking little sister. It was certainly an interesting choice for the audience to get no backstory on these two siblings, one emotionally vacant and one in constant need for approval, but in my opinion at least, it kept the film from maybe reaching its true potential. If “Last Tango” is the standard, in that film there are little moments here and there where, if you don’t know, you (as the audience) can at least infer “Oh that’s why he’s an asshole.” The audience of “Shame” doesn’t get that luxury. For shame. (See what I did there?)
All that said, I think it’s a good film. And the performances by the two leads are really good. The film is rated NC-17, which I guess is its own reference to the high degree of sexuality in the film. But to me all that NC-17 does is remind me how with the US ratings boards you can blow off all the heads and chop off all the arms you want and get an R, but you have one too many penis shots in your film and it’s immediately X-rated. Another debate for another day…
