The story really wasn’t worth telling at the time.
It was spring of this year and I wanted to be able and cover the Phoenix Film Festival for what was then Movie Poop Shoot. It was a festival that was peppered with some solid films, LA MUJER DE MI HERMANO and HARD CANDY, and some that will go without mention and have since been shown for the turkeys they are. It was an exciting time for me, personally, because, as some of you know, I am a bit of a misanthrope. I don’t “get it” when it comes to needless schmoozing with those who would otherwise not even make it on my cell phone list of people I’d like to spend more time with if given the chance. I have an actual day job that is so remote from what I live to do, writing, that it would be damn near embarassing to confess what brings in the real money. It follows, then, that I don’t have the oppulent lifestyle that is so romanticized in movies where writers are always dressed like hip, yet sloven, nomads who are in a constant need of a shave and are usually brooding about their work.
I don’t brood.
I like what I am able to do and if that means being happiest when I can focus on my own work and not worry about getting the greatest exclusives all the time then so be it. Josh Holloway, Robert Patrick and even the latest Andy Dick pieces mean a lot to me because I was the one who accepted the opportunity and, here’s the kicker, there is nothing in my mind about how many issues the piece will sell. There’s no money involved yet, when I think about it hard enough, I know that there are brick and mortar office jockeys, of which I am one, that will never be able to ensconse themselves in their passion and I realize I’m lucky. I’m one of the few but, the other edge to that Ginsu knife is that…I don’t get paid.
Fast forward to last spring during the Phoenix Film Festival when I catch wind that Moving Pictures Magazine, a publication that’s closer to a Film Comment than it is a Premiere, not only has a presence here in Scottsdale, my city, but that they’re having a party to celebrate their involvement at the PFF.
I needed to be at that party.
I don’t know why I felt a surge, an urge, a desire to make a play at trying to make this game of rochambeau come out in my favor for once. There was a lot of drivel being spilled within the pages of modern film magazines and I knew that over two years of slugging it out within the confines of Internet journalism, where I learned interviewing by doing, where I learned how to exact information without attributing, where I hit every single deadline without exception and where I made sure every single letter, note, comment, complaint, inquiry and even churned out some good pieces every now and then. I wanted to be paid for something. I wanted to prove that I could run with those who did this for a living and even do it better. I had to convince someone and when, like manna from heaven, I not only was given the date and place of the party by a representative of the magazine who was at opening night but they gave me the name of the person in charge who could help me break through to the other side.
I can’t go through all the reasons why I didn’t make it to that party until roughly 10 minutes before the party was set to break up or how I managed to finally find that same represntative from Moving Pictures magazine after wandering around the restaurant looking for someone, anyone to talk to but I did. I found the rep and without so much as thinking twice I asked about who I needed to talk to for freelance work. This woman, this kind, kind woman literally planted me in front of the end-all, be-all for this magazine’s opportunites and I made my pitch. Fast.
I don’t remember much anything about it but I do recall being very open, honest, smiling a lot, eager, I may have begged a bit but I’m not too sure, confident, name dropped like I was a waiter delivering ball bearings while standing on a paint shaker, and it ended with me, I think, sending her a note to express once more my interest. While I know she told me about the limited range of writing about trailers, the magazine is a lot more than just a glib mo-fo like myself talking about flicks through their marketing and I understood that, I know that my work on Poop Shoot and now Quick Stop is akin to having a dude on a paper writing obitiuaries until his opportunity comes; except, with me, my obituaries sometimes help to make a movie seem more alive or assist with putting the nails on the pine box in which the flick should take a permanent dirt nap.
And that was it for a little while. A long while.
I was checking my e-mail after finally coming down off a rather obnoxious afternoon at the San Diego Comic-Con in July when I noticed my contact’s name. The e-mail, very matter-of-factly, stated that if I was interested Moving Pictures wanted me to write a small blurb about the CASINO ROYALE trailer.
After a lot of back and forth with paperwork, suggestions, some uncertainty on my part and the nagging feeling that I would be smited by some diety should I publicly announce that I have 75 words appearing in print I decided to sit on the information. It wasn’t until I stood in front of a magazine kiosk at the Borders across the street from where I work when it really came home that I had finally done it. I bought all five copies there and when I took them out in that plastic bag there was an internal satisfaction that I don’t think could be expressed in words; those who can understand what it means to be someone devoted to the printed word, would.
So, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone out there, every reader who has helped to make a small comment here, a small high-five there, in making this possible. I wrote it, sure, but it wouldn’t have happened unless a guy like Chris Ryall saw something in me and let me run with whatever was in my head week after week. Certainly I also have to give thanks to my wife, Sherry who, while she has always been cool with me doing this column every damn week, is really the reason why I am able to take time out of my life every week to just give you people something to read. For her, I am eternitally grateful.
So, please, if it’s not too much to ask, go and get the magazine. Read the glory that is 75 words on page 17. Send the editor a message and tell them what you really think of this weasel’s ability to inspire so many rip-offs in other, lesser, publications like Entertainment Weekly. Or, if you’re just lazy, just check it out when you’re out and about inside a Barnes and Noble, Borders or even Blockbuster; it would be very meta for me to know someone from across the country was able to read my name in print. I’m even in the Contributing Writers section which just thrills me to no end even though most would just shrug and say, “whatever.”
And just to show you how the enduring positivity keeps on going, I decided to give you all out there the chance to enter into a contest where you could make a real dream come true for yourself….Peep the press release from Sony:
“INTERNSHIP CONTEST”
— Eight Winners To Be Offered Once-In-A-Lifetime Career Opportunity With Gap Inc., The Hollywood Reporter, Morgan Stanley, NBC, the National Football League (NFL), PEOPLE Magazine, Playstation & Yahoo
— Contest Winners to Attend Hollywood Premiere of Will Smith’s The Pursuit of HappynessÂ
CULVER CITY, CA – October 19, 2006 – Columbia Pictures announced today it is partnering with eight of the world’s leading companies to offer The Pursuit of Happyness ‘Pursue It’ The Ultimate Internship Contest, in which contestants will compete for dream internships at Gap Inc., The Hollywood Reporter, Morgan Stanley, NBC, the National Football League (NFL), PEOPLE Magazine, PlayStation and Yahoo! In addition to the internship position, each winner also will win a trip to the Hollywood premiere of Columbia Pictures’ inspiring drama The Pursuit of Happyness, starring Will Smith, Thandie Newton and Jaden Christopher Syre Smith. Winners will have the opportunity to meet Smith and enjoy the gala evening with the film’s cast.Based on a true story, The Pursuit of Happyness stars Will Smith as Chris Gardner, a marginally employed salesman who finds himself with nowhere to go after he and his five-year-old son (Jaden Christopher Syre Smith) are evicted from their San Francisco apartment. When Gardner lands an internship at a prestigious brokerage firm, he and his son endure numerous hardships as he struggles to create a better life for the two of them. The Pursuit of Happyness is the story of one father’s inspiring love for his son and his determination and drive to improve their future. “Chris Gardner, the person I portray in The Pursuit of Happyness is a bright, talented guy who’s barely making ends meet until he gets an internship that enables him to pursue his dreams,” said star and producer Will Smith.
Steve Tisch, one of the film’s producers and a co-owner of the NFL’s New York Giants football team added: “America is the land of opportunity, but to succeed in the corporate world everyone needs that first break, that foot in the door. The winners of this contest will get a unique chance both to learn about how great companies work and to demonstrate their own creativity, energy and determination.”
From October 18, 2006 through October 30, 2006 contestants can visit the contest Web site www.sony.com/Pursue-It and choose the company at which they would like to intern. As part of the online application process, entrants will need to create a video of themselves, in which they share, in five minutes or less, their own personal motto or “words to live by” giving examples of how this philosophy makes them uniquely qualified to work at the company they have chosen.
The leading candidates’ videos for each internship as determined by a leading human resource specialist will be posted on the contest website. The public will then be invited to vote for the applicant they believe is best suited for each position. Officials at each of the eight companies will interview the top two finalists applying for their respective internships and select the ultimate winners.
Contestants are encouraged to learn as much as possible about the company for whose program they are applying and to tailor their video presentation accordingly. Each of the internship programs has its own eligibility requirements which are posted, along with complete contest rules, at [www.sony.com/Pursue-It]
THE BRIDGE (2006)
Director: Eric Steel
Cast: Kevin Hines, Pat Hines, Carolyn Pressley, Dave Williams, Matt Rossi
Release: October 27, 2006
Synopsis: MAY CONTAIN DISTURBING SUBJECT MATTER. More people choose to end their lives at the Golden Gate Bridge than anywhere else in the world. THE BRIDGE offers glimpses into the darkest, and possibly most impenetrable corners of the human mind. The fates of the 24 people who died at the Golden Gate Bridge in 2004 are linked together by a 4 second fall.
View Trailer:
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Prognosis: Positive. “MAY CONTAIN DISTURBING SUBJECT MATTER.â€
I mean, really, how do you not click on the link after you see a disclaimer like this. It’s like seeing blinking lights that say “Danger!†“Warning!†in the middle of a black night that leads you right to the porno parlor you never knew existed until someone went out of their way to point it out to you.
I also heard about this movie based on the real intriguing fact that of those who have tried to jump to their deaths via the Golden Gate Bridge, and lived to tell about it, they all knew they wanted to end their miserable little existences going up to the bridge’s precipice, they all were sick of dealing with their own psychoses when they pushed off, they all wanted to die as they let go and they all knew they made a big, fucking mistake as soon as there was nothing to grab onto.
How do you not make a documentary about that?
The answer is “you do†and I couldn’t be more enraptured by the beginning of the trailer when you know, going in, that you’re a) going to be presented with “disturbing subject matter†and b) we are slowly let into what this movie is about.
The opening of the trailer is creepy. No question. You have a pretty simple sound bed but there is tension in that score. You can sense it.
Some kids are playing soccer, oblivious, right in view of this structure that has sent out the siren’s song to many who are afflicted by mental illness.
“People come here from all over the world.â€
The simple piano suite, the shots from various places all over San Francisco with the Golden Gate somewhere in the shot and the absence of any hard narrative structure is killing me. It’s perhaps one of the best ways you can make a trailer say nothing, not incite my ire, and make me feel that I cannot look away from this thing.
Next, we get a woman’s voiceover. She tells us what kind of day it was without us really knowing why she’s recounting a singular moment when all seems to have been right with the world. That’s when we see video of someone starting to step over the railing and put their foot at the literal edge of the only thing standing between life and splat.
After that, another voiceover. This one comes from a guy who was doing some shooting of video when he sees, and we see, a dude hoisting himself over the railing.
You cannot look away. There is no way you can direct your eye off the screen.
“Is this a rare occurrence or does this happen often?â€
What’s so compelling that after we hear that the Golden Gate is not only the San Francisco treat but it is the meal of choice for many, many people who think suicide is their only way out.
With that we see a wide shot of the bridge, completely still, the soft words of someone who has asked the question about the frequency of jumpers as we catch the “sploosh†of someone who let go of it all.
There’s something to subjects like this but the trailer not only sells the idea but it draws you in with enough scintillation to establish why this is a story worth telling and seeing.
Director: David Ayer
Cast: Christian Bale, Freddy Rodriguez, Eva Longoria
Release: November 10, 2006 (Limited)
Synopsis: From the creator of TRAINING DAY comes HARSH TIMES, a gritty look at friendship, loyalty and ambition set on the extremely rough streets of south central Los Angeles. Jim Davis (Christian Bale) is an ex-Army Ranger recently discharged from the military, yet still haunted by nightmares of his former occupation. While seeking a position with the LAPD that will allow him to marry his Mexican girlfriend and bring her to the United States, Jim kills time chilling with his best friend, Mike (Freddy Rodriguez).
Mike is feeling the heat from his longtime girlfriend, Sylvia (Eva Longoria): either get a job or get out. But the love of a beautiful woman can’t compare to the bonds of friendship, and Jim and Mike are soon cruising the streets of South Central, slipping back into a deceitful life of drugs, violence and petty crime, just like when they were kids.
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* Large (QuickTime)
Prognosis: Negative. The problem here is that I feel like we’ve been here before.
I don’t want to seem like someone’s not entitled to retread the same theme but this film’s not breaking any new territory, at least it’s not being sold that way, as it’s trying to dip its fingers into my pocket.
One of the things that first piqued my interest in this film is Christian Bale, a man who has really heralded his presence in a major way in the last few years, but you almost feel let down here when Freddy Rodriguez and he are talking inside a car about what it’s like to “straight up†kill someone. The physicality of the shot, the frenetic vibe you feel as Bale gets into a bombastic moment that feels packaged, not honest, is a Cut and Paste from TRAINING DAY and I’m not so sure if that’s such a good thing. Rodriguez’ question to Bale about whether he enjoyed the killing just doesn’t seem like a hook that sells. It’s damn near comedic.
I’ll give praise for the choice of music that rides the bed of what’s presented, as we’re flooded with images of scantily clothed chicas and the voice that this is coming to us via the creator of TRAINING DAY, but that’s as far as I’m going because what’s really at issue here isn’t the shot of a lady’s swaggering ass that’s needlessly given up for no reason, but it’s the story that’s not being put out.
What the hell is the point?
We’re nearly a quarter of the way through this trailer and all I know about what this movie’s about is that Freddy Rodriguez calls out to one of his friends “What up dawg?â€, I get an additional shot of Eva Longoria’s ass in her thong underwear while Bale and Rodriguez sip beers inside their car as they’re driving to hell knows where. I would be a fan of all this if someone would just let me in on what’s going on. Unfortunately, not a shred of plot is revealed. It’s all parlor tricks up to this point.
Now, at about the half-way point of this trailer, I won’t even bother you all with the extraneous mish-mash of sliced scenes that are piled on in an effort to make everything look cool and hip, and let’s not forget edgy, can’t forget edgy in an effort to take hold of that key demo to get young men into the theater, but from what I can cobble together like some Da Vinci code clue hunt I think Bale has some temper issues and he’s being scrutinized for something or another. Ah, yes, here it is, the fat guy on the couch who is barely in focus let’s us know the crux of the whole fucking movie: Bale’s wanted for a task force that’s going to Columbia to bust some heads. And that’s it. End of explanation.
It’s when we get this information that the movie moves from a TRAINING DAY type of film to one more like 25TH HOUR. These two dudes, Rodriguez and Bale are homies and they just have a little time left with one another before one of them gets shipped south. I don’t see why this was such a production to get this information but from seeing Bale and Freddie get into a whole lot of fisticuffs with strange people to Bale having flashbacks like no one’s business I am at a loss to feel whether this is really even worth
seeing. All this movie seems to be about by the end is boozing, shootin’, lootin’ and Christian doing a whole lot of demonic laughing.
This film doesn’t seem to have a point and I’m inclined to make one for it by saying that this flick looks like it would do well going straight to DVD.
CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER (2006)
Director: Yimou Zhang
Cast: Jay Chou, Yun-Fat Chow, Li Gong, Qin Junjie, Man Lir
Release: December 22, 2006 (Limited)
Synopsis: The plot concerns the volatile balance of power between the King (Chow Yun Fat) and the Queen (Gong Li) and his three sons, which entails betrayal, deceit and passion, pitting the King against Queen and father against sons. The glorious canvas includes many of the creative team behind HERO and HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS.
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Prognosis: Positive Donkey Punch to the Gooch. The majority of you, I know, have already seen HERO and HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS.
These movies represent, really, the result of what happens when you have a satchel full of ideas and the means to execute them on a grand scale. Yimou Zhang is not a household name here in the States, for reasons that are all too obvious, but this man has bought more than his share of goodwill for those of us with money to spend. His direction isn’t flawless but for as many times as international directors are talked about with glowing regards it’s an anomaly as to why Zhang isn’t more well-covered.
Everyone else’s loss, our gain.
In fact, I would go so far as to posit that if Zhang were put through the same treatment as Ang Lee or even John Woo there would be a clunker in there somewhere and I’m not sure I would be ready to see what the result would be.
This trailer, as sparse as it is, just explodes with the kind of flavor that is lacking in so many other previews that have the opportunity to let their production value do its speaking for it. The first element that helps to shape the message of this movie is its melodic opening. While, yes, Virginia, there are going to be some hardcore ass whupings coming down the pike but before we get there it’s a very quiet opening.
The yellow just bursts against the grey skies in the palace courtyard with the guards and peasants that are at the ready to serve the needs for the King, Chow Yun-Fat. Yun-Fat, by the way, did get the same kind of Woo/Lee-ization much to the detriment for those of us who really did want the man to become accepted in the mainstream, but, thankfully, here there are nearly no remnants of the education that he do doubt got with Marky Mark on the set of THE CORRUPTOR.
I am pleased to see that, quite economically, the cards employed here to establish who Yimou Zhang is to everyone else in attendance are done with great tact and swiftness. No matter if they did run long because it’s about this time when Yun-Fat is about to be put upon by a cadre of 10 mo-fos with swords. But, boo-yaa, 6 mo-fos on Yun-Fat’s security detail slip down from the ceiling, all wearing ninja black, no less, and it looks like some serious sword play is about to go down. The colors, as well, are just gorgeous; from the red and gold all around the palace hallway to the lavish costuming of those in the moment it all just makes you forget that no one’s saying a damn word.
We get more of the same, stoicism from Yun-Fat and demureness from Gong Li, but what’s important to note here is that the full-on fighting that takes place with palace guards and those who are no doubt trying to usurp the King’s power base looks just as enthralling as it did in DAGGERS and HERO.
The armies fighting, the grand battles between individuals and the thick plot that underlies it all seem to be Zhang’s suit and it doesn’t look like there is any slacking on his part. While there isn’t any indication of any true direction of how the story is supposed to go but Zhang’s attraction here is the attention to the grandiose and mystical. Both are executed with great zealousness.
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