Methland by nick reding is chronicle of the wages of both drug abuse and the war on drugs, but even more than that it is a story of america in the 21st century and the wages of big business on the heartland. reding tells of the rise of meth as a result of the intrusion of big agriculture, big pharmaceutical and special interests into the lives of middle americans. an intrusion that has lead to the poverty, hopelessness and desperation that so often fosters rampant drug addiction. told with compassion and detail this is reporting that tugs at the heartstrings and makes the reader think. there can be no doubt of meth's profound impact on rural areas of the united states. areas that were once considered ideal places to raise families and are now increasingly becoming ghost towns. this is a book that explains why with a gentle but firm hand.
if anything green hornet was a mixed bag. the best way to comment on it is to do a simple pro and con list..
what worked:
michel gondry's direction style - as a fan of michel's directing style i was pleased to see that his quirky style translates into a more straight forward narrative and mainstream action film. he even managed to use techniques from his music videos to pretty good effect.
Christoph Waltz - once again a fun villain performance form unglorious basterds star Waltz. i've always said that a superhero movie is only as strong as it's villain. and christoph was both funny and sinister as chudnofsky.
the black beauty - yeah i'm a sucker for the green hornet's car.. as the center for most of the action the car held its own and almost became a character.
what didn't work.
seth rogan - normally i like him and green hornet is an old enough character that most geeks won't have a problem with a complete reimagining of the character, what bothered me though is he was a little too eager in this one. i liked his enthusiasm for the project and i know he was looking for this to make him an even bigger star than he already is, but his performance came across to me as hyperactive slightly annoying.
the script - not to rag on seth rogan more than i have to, but he co-wrote the script and i found the dialogue a bit dated and tired.
the 3D - this is really more of a question of technology than poor movie making. the new 3D technology is just not as good for live action films as it is for animated ones. i found it unnecessary and at times distracting. It didn't really add to my experience at all and i feel that in a few years time the 3d effects will not hold up.
i may not have been thrilled with michel cera's portrayal of title character scott pilgrim, but that didn't stop this movie from being a blast of hyperactivity and harmless fun. a pretty faithful adaption of the hit comic book (up to the end that is), this movie succeeds because edgar wright is a fan of the source material and it shows.
9)
machete
this is not a movie that will show up on many top 10 lists, but i loved it. It was silly and over the top with violence cheesy one liners and gratuitous nudity. but that's not what got me. what got me is that the script was complex enough not to make feel like an idiot watching it. "high brow" and low brow at the same time.
8)
kick ass
another comic adaption. this was a smart but nasty piece of work that knew exactly what use what to discard and what to add to make the book come to life on the big screen. as a fan of the source material i was pleased to see that this movie was just as hard hitting as the comic.
7)
true grit
coen bros latest film is the rare case when the remake is better than the original, mainly due to pitch perfect performances by josh brolin, jeff bridges and especially newcomer Hailee Steinfeld. westerns aren't usually my cup of tea, but i was immediately taken in by the first frame and didn't want it to end.
6)
black swan
this psycho-sexual thriller is the topic of a lot of conversation lately. sadly a lot of folks don't get it. in the end this is a surprisingly honest depiction of mental illness, from the point of view of the sufferer. to all those who didn't get it, put yourself in the shoes of natalie portman's character.
5)
blue valentine
perhaps the most honest and brutal portrayal of a dying marriage ever done in any art form, blue valentine is not easy to watch. heartbreaking, touching and poignant, you root for the characters even if you know what will happen. this film could go down as the performance of both ryan gosling's and michelle williams' career.
4)
the fighter
i'm no fan of sports, but i have no problem with sports movies and the fighter is one of the best sports movies since the wrestler. christian bale gives one of his best performances as a drug addicted fighter trying to train his brother. a slice of life story with characters you like despite their flaws.
3)
winters bone is a mystery, poverty and the meth trade, but at heart it is a tale of family and the lengths one girl will go to save hers. most hollywood films that exam poverty and middle america do so through big city eyes. this film feels like it was made by characters that are similar to the ones on screen and that makes all the difference.
2)
inception
christopher nolan once again made a film that was both a commercial hit and genuinely good piece of art. visually stunning and narratively complex, inception isn't as hard to follow as some said. watch it again, you'll see. i wav expecting a small little science fiction film, instead we got this mind bending block buster. well played chris, now go make batman 3.
1)
the social network
many critics have dubbed this film the film of a generation. a film that defines where we are in 2010 as people. perhaps, but what really got me about this film is how david fincher managed to maintain his dark mise en sin while dealing with a subject that could be typical and unchallenging. instead he shows the creepiness the can sometimes come with the facebook experience.
Recently i was introduced to an independent comic publisher called Com.x. I was very impressed with their material and felt it was worthy of a write up here.
45
The idea of examining the archetype of the superhero in the context of real world society has been done since Allan Moore's Watchmen with varying degrees of success. 45 is a book that can definitely be considered a success. The premise is that a journalist who is about to have his first child and is concerned that his newborn will have the super-s gene decides to interview 45 superheroes of all ages, genders, races. What emerges from these interviews is a human tapestry as varied and complex as most novels, with the interviewee's struggles and triumphs transcending the limits of the genre. It's nothing new for comics to be considered complex reading for adults and to be taken seriously as literature. It's books like 45 that make this possible. This is a perfect graphic novel for people in their 30s who grew up reading comics and know that there is no limits to the medium.
Path
Path is an all-ages parable about friendship, life, courage, death and the sacrifices we are willing to make to feel accepted. And it involves rabbits and elephants. As heartwarming, and at times, heartbreaking as the bond between Doppler (the rabbit) and Dodge (the elephant) can be, it is really the art here that gives the story weight and grace. The artwork is so textured and dense it almost feels tangible and screams with personality. It begs to be an animated feature. if i was a Hollywood producer I'd snag up this property post haste. Buy this, read it with your kids and fall in love with it.
Music speaks for me, and not just my own that I write. That's why it is just so damn good and crucial. It says what you want when you can't quite express it in words or maybe didn't even think about it that way. It's incendiary - haha...mixing rock music and movies here-(Almost Famous if you somehow don't already know & Brad this is for you). That's why I HAVE to live my life with music- listening to it, creating it, bonding with it, going into the depths of/with it = I. Couldn't. Live. Without. It. Music's nostalgic to me always because my emotions get drenched in what I am listening to at the time of what I'm saturated with and vice versa. I wake up listening to it, I fall asleep doing the same. I play it (literally) over coffee and I play it over drink. And I would never change a thing. I know I'm not the only one.
Right now I am listening to a bunch of stuff but I just downloaded Hole's (not the orig obviously -which I kinda think should be named something different without Eric Erlandson and Melissa Auf Der Maur) album Nobody's Daughter. Nevertheless, I Love Courtney. I just do. She is freaking honest, has huge balls and she is an underrated songwriter. We all know she can perform and has her very own persona- after watching a doc on her last night and seeing her closet I really want to raid it- she also has an impeccable, majestic style that is underrated. I dig Nobody's Daughter, not unlike Marianne Faithfull's (another of my favorite rockdolls) weathered voice you can hear the hardness C Love had to endure in hers. Listen to it. Listen to it loud as it says at the bottom of the preface and for fuck's sake get the Explicit version.
Some lyrics that stick out to me and what's really cool of course is that what she wrote and what I take from it are from two completely different beings with two completely different experiences, but who can take something from the words and have it completely mean something just the same :
"People like you fuck people like me fuck people like you fuck people like me.." in Samantha
"Sunday morning when the rain begins to fall I believe I've seen the end of it all ... I've got the cure for it all" Someone Else's Bed
"Oh I've been cheated covered in diamonds covered in filth" For Once in Your Life
"You are beautiful, you are glorious Now you're covered in loser dust" "Your youth is gone, it's turned to rust" Loser Dust
"And the rain it came down And the wind it moaned And she wrapped her legs around him" How Dirty Girls Get Clean
"It's a long ride home, and my head is bowed" Never Go Hungry
"Hey I burn better in the dark" Happy Ending Story
Plus....included is the visual Digital Booklet which I adore because it's the closest thing to a tangible album or CD cover of yesteryear that I so miss. Fittingly this one is prefaced with a poetic heavy but beautiful paragraph about light, love, birth, death, stars etc. titled with Per Incendia ut Astrum /Through the Fire to the Stars and it starts with .."Nobody's Daughter is dedicated to all the motherless children...." I unfortunately relate to that too in a way ..or should I say fortunately. Fortunate that I have something to relate to and someone who relates. For that, for the artists (or people) that aren't afraid to be real and for their music that bares it I will do the same and am forever grateful. **
[Author's Note: The following is an unfinished blog post. I just couldn't figure out how to wrap words around these films. I took notes; I have plenty more to say. If you watch them/it, let me know.]
They are no longer running separately at the IFC Center in NYC, and I don't know if all three films ("1974," "1980," and "1983") making up the Channel Four trilogy Red Riding are still available "On Demand" from Time Warner Cable. Eventually you should be able to rent them through Netflix.com and other venues. And, of course, one is always welcome to purchase such things on DVD (or in their original 4-book form).
However you are able to do it, I highly recommend you experience Red Riding, but be warned -- it's hard stuff.
On Super Bowl Sunday 2010, I braved the first weekend of The IFC Road Show tour and watched all three parts in one 5 1/2 hour sitting. Since then, I have felt a bit paralyzed by the experience -- unable to say much or write on the subject, studiously avoiding all the reviews piling up around me. I just couldn't process the totality of what I'd seen.
How can I describe what happened, to me or onscreen, in an intelligible way for those who haven't experienced it? I still feel in danger of failure. My marathon viewing is partly the culprit. Wannabe cinemaniac that I am, I'd never before sat for so long in one theater (two 15-minute breaks notwithstanding). The closest I'd come was watching the overlong Inland Empire in that same theater (during which, frankly, I wished to take a nap so that it would be over a little sooner). But it's the films themselves that really cripple me. I would both watch all three again immediately in a quest for a deeper understanding, at the same time that I never want to go back to their world.
Watching Red Riding the night I did was my chosen alternative to several Super Bowl parties, and it felt freeing to choose a wide parcel of film over that nearly compulsory (in this country, anyway) day of sport. That Sunday evening, at the movies, I felt like myself -- asserting my own identity, thrilled to be sinking deeper into the soft chair of the theater as I became immersed in the brutal, velvet world of the R.R. trilogy. I felt like myself, as I just wrote, yet accosted, and perilously close to despair. So it progressed.
I've seen many films (and television shows) with story lines revolving around serial killers. But Red Riding is different. It's a horse of a bloodier color, with a relentless gait. At moments I could stand apart as a viewer "watching a film." And then, if I may be so bold, there were moments I would feel a sensation that something desperately important was happening.
Occasionally I was central and centered, a bit like Roger Ebert is described in Esquire'snow infamous article. Though, dear me, I'm not really comparing myself to Ebert, I did find myself feeling crucial and powerful, scribbling notes into a ringed pad in the dark, surrounded by the films, but held apart. And then I felt, at other times, like a lost child or faceless stranger in their world. My persona slipped away and I lost myself in the spectacle. It was "just a movie" (three movies), but it felt like more.
So, it was/they were (each and together) a singular experience and singular experiences. I was surrounded and enveloped at once by beauty, intelligence, talent, and horror. I was no one and the world was impossibly angry and raw. How could there be any good left in it?
As I mentioned above, the presentation I attended included two fifteen-minute breaks. These breaks came between films one and two. During each intermission, I found myself in the IFC's lovely, lonesome women's bathroom, dug deep along one edge of the theater's mouse-maze of a basement (yes, perhaps this description is a bit dramatic, but that's how it felt).
Anyway, watching films often makes me feel vulnerable, but this was a special night. Each time I took my stretch-my-legs-buy-a-snack-breathe-again break, I found myself in that bathroom, looking introspectively into the mirror, my eyes slightly red from strain -- and, each time, I felt compelled to apply a coat of the lipstick that just happened to be rolling around the bottom of my bag. I twice found I needed to put lipstick on before I could return to my seat and begin the next film in the trilogy. Why? It didn't feel like vanity. It felt like necessity. I think it was armor. I applied the color so I might feel more human, more tied to something outside the off-kilter, too familiar, wrong and punishing world of Red Riding.
