Instead of manning-up and actually going the emotionally hard route of being outrightly rejected by publishers, I’m rejecting them first and allowing you to give my entire book a preview, let you read the whole thing or, if you like, download the whole damn thing at no cost. Download and read my first book “Thank You, Goodnight†for FREE.
What a summer.
Between not letting the INDIANA JONES story die a quiet death (it was picked up by the New York Post’s infamous Page 6) and busting out two interviews in one week I am damn near done with everything in my written arsenal.
I think, if you were to have talked to me prior to the Comic-Con, I felt better about this year’s Con than I did in year’s past. One of the reasons why I had a little more confidence wasn’t that I had scored any earth shattering celebrutard, although I was really trying to get Robert Downey Jr. and/or Jon Favreau who both would have been excellent people to get for the 5 or 10 minutes I would’ve been given, but I had enough to get me through the weekend. I had a few things here, a party there, some screenings down the street and a host of other little things that made one big haul. As I put the finishing touches on the video interview last week with Missy Peregrym (I can still do it without even consulting my dictionary) I was struck by the solid response from studios that actually worked with me. It’s been a slow process to actually get to the point that I have now, at the end of every day though I realize what I do here has little with how the earth revolves but that’s another tirade for another day, but it’s been nice progression. Doing this, believe it or not, requires a lot of work from a lot of people but these past weeks of interviews that I’ve been posting have been extremely satisfying from a professional standpoint insofar that I hope at least one of them have been interesting for one of my three fans out there to actually read/watch. The interviews, though, are something people keep asking me to do. People are taking notice and, like Oliver, asking for more. The downside though, as many of you can probably tell, is that they’re incredibly labor intensive. I’ve sought solace in a helper who was eager to do the heavy lifting, and for that I’m grateful, but these things keep coming.
I’m a trailer park, not some Entertainment Tonight wannabe. That’s why, though, I think keep important people coming back. I’m not interested in what a lot of other frou frou reporters like to talk about and it’s really my eternal quest to be different (Oh, how punk of me to say…) that keeps drawing me back into talking to someone. Again, I hope this is something that works for the lot of you out there and are enjoying both sides of what I’m doing with this space. Since none of you write in to tell me otherwise I’m going to keep doing what I damn well please.
However, that part is done with for this week and I am on to planning bigger things. This fall will bring you more unique fireside chats from an amalgam of varying personalities. For example, in preparation for 30 DAYS OF NIGHT I have talked with Editor-In-Chief/Poop Shoot slave driver, Chris Ryall, about his work with this summer’s breakout hit, TRANSFORMERS (I loved it) to IFC’s own Henry Rollins as he talks with me 1:1 about what to make of the Republican administration’s stance on homosexuality when you have all these closeted cases of men who prefer the ol’ Hickory Farms Genoa salami than to the cavernous pleasure of the bearded clam to a rather interesting interview with one of the professionals on DANCING WITH THE STARS on why I can’t look away when it’s on.
There is a lot going on here when I’m not looking at trailers and thank the Lord that these interviews hit in the late summer. We’ve had nothing really of any note come through these parts worth watching but with the hotness that is the IRON MAN trailer (Which I’ll get to later) and the comedic (See example at the bottom of the column) there have been smatterings here and there of greatness. I hope to keep punctuating the weeks of interviews with more trailer goodness but whatever happens know that I am constantly trying to keep your ADD at bay by not doing the same old thing, week after week.
That all said, I did want to make mention of a DVD that should be on everyone’s Netflix queue or in every hand when you go into a Blockbuster: AWAY FROM HER. Directed and written by Sarah Polley, which was based on a short story by the wickedly sharp Alice Munro, for those who have an appreciation for novels should pick up Munro’s Lives of Girls and Women, the movie is unlike anything you’ve seen this year.
In a period of time when most movie going experiences allow you to surrender to the technical wizardry of the high-tech and sensory overloading this is movie that forces you to slow down, to listen and to pay attention to how real drama can be presented without it feeling contrived or false. Because the subject matter is so heady, the film deals with one couple’s quiet heartbreak as one of them succumbs to the effects of Alzheimer’s in a wrenchingly tragic way. When you could consider all the ways that this film could go be it saccharine sweet, slightly affective, completely tear jerking or oddly distant, this is one of the most harmonious blends of everything. Where Polley excels in this film isn’t in her presentation of a story that seems so painful and wrenching but it’s her awareness and ability to communicate the story in a way that brings you closer to feeling like you’re listening in to something you shouldn’t.
Who would have thought that the woman who singlehandedly made a difference in making GO more than it was and DAWN OF THE DEAD wickedly compelling (Try and tell me that her escape from the zombie child and subsequent hoards wasn’t the best way to kick off that flick)? Polley has had one of the more unconventional careers in Hollywood with the way she’s navigated and picked her projects but that’s what makes this movie so great: it’s coming from a place and a woman who immerses herself in everything she does and the material couldn’t be more dense than it already is.
The film, I promise, will linger on long after you’re done watching it. If you’re attuned to the nuances of how people who are in love deal with one another then I think this story about how one of them slowly has the memory of that love slowly dissolve like a frame of film in front of a projector is just the right thing to get in touch with your inner softie.
Like I said, this needs to be in your Netflix queue as of yesterday.
DEDICATION (2007)
Director: Justin Theroux
Cast: Billy Crudup, Mandy Moore, Tom Wilkinson, Martin Freeman, Dianne Wiestn
Release: Now out at a penny saver near you.
Synopsis: Henry Roth is messed up. A New York children’s book author who tells kids that Santa doesn’t exist, he hates sleeping with – and next to – anyone, including his girlfriend and must lay on the floor, usually with heavy objects on top of him just to feel safe. His motto is Life is nothing but the occasional burst of laughter rising above the interminable wail of grief. “Dedication,†a modern love story in which a misanthropic, emotionally complex author of a hit children’s book series (Billy Crudup) is forced to team with a beautiful illustrator (Mandy Moore) after his best friend and creative collaborator (Tom Wilkinson) passes away marks the directorial debut of Justin Theroux. As Henry struggles with letting go of the ghosts of love and life, he discovers that sometimes you have to take a gamble at life to find love.
View Trailer:
* Medium (QuickTime)
Prognosis: Negative. First of all, lose the porkpie hat and stick your barely conceivable contempt for Intertube users right up your pretentiously laser engraved MacBook Pro’s ass.
Really, you’re happy to be introducing your bumwad trailer on Apple and you’re so happy that a few monkeys with opposable thumbs can operate a keyboard to behold your cinematic achievement? Wow, bud, you’re big time.
Of course, Justin may not have wanted to do this. Maybe he was forced to do it by some well-meaning PR flunky but it’s damn gauche and it only serves to rankle me even before seeing the thing.
That said, though, I am utterly taken by the first few moments of this trailer. As Billy rattles off some of the more bizarre ADD quirks and superstitions he carries in his own head, the sequence edited quite nicely in capturing that herky-jerky style of psychosis that is really indicative of writers in modern film; it’s a hackneyed trope, to be sure, but Billy makes me believe it. And, to boot, one of the more shocking things to ever be hammered out by my fingers, I like Mandy Moore’s blankness.
The musical score that cues in is reminiscent of ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND but that’s OK. It’s mood lighting on an already nicely prepared moment.
What’s better, and what can be applauded, is this movie’s marketing campaign that decided to throw a little caution into the face of what a trailer should be. The voiceless moments of Billy wandering around by himself, looking all dejected like every good movie portrayal of a writer should be, reinforces the character. The moment where Billy lets some little girl know that Santa Claus doesn’t exist is a nice cherry on a turd sundae which he is most certainly is. The issue here, then, is how you humanize a turd. Ahh, yes, you enlist Mandy Moore to help.
Mandy does add a certain kind of beauty to the mix, regardless of how they’re trying to uglify the girl, and as Crudup and her share some time in a diner wherein Moore tries to throttle Billy’s obvious misanthropic (Again, nice move when trying to capture the essence of writers. All writers hate people. Remember that.)
When Martin Freeman comes into the mix there’s the sense that there could be a triangle worth getting invested in but, really, even as the soothing sounds of the techno track beat on you kind of get the sense that things will work out with everyone finally showing a smile as Billy and Mandy end up together.
Director: Craig Gillespie
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider, Kelli Garner, Patricia Clarkson Release: October 12th, 2007
Synopsis: Written by Six Feet Under scribe Nancy Oliver, Lars and the Real Girl is a heartfelt comedy starring Academy-Award nominated Ryan Gosling as Lars Lindstrom a loveable introvert whose emotional baggage has kept him from fully embracing life. After years of what is almost solitude, he invites Bianca, a friend he met on the internet to visit him. He introduces Bianca to his Brother Gus (Paul Schneider) and his wife Karen (Emily Mortimer) and they are stunned. They don’t know what to say to Lars or Bianca — because she is a life-size doll, not a real person and he is treating her as though she is alive. They consult the family doctor Dagmar (Patricia Clarkson) who explains this is a delusion he’s created — for what reason she doesn’t yet know but they should all go along with it. What follows is an emotional journey for Lars and the people around him.
View Trailer:
* Large (QuickTime)
Prognosis: Negative. I hope this film serves as a cautionary tale to those people who want to affect the trappings of “indie†but have no desire to actually be indie.
When you come right out of the chute with Gosling and some random old hag striking up a conversation right outside a church, a church for God’s sake, and she asks the question about whether Ryan has a girlfriend to which he says he doesn’t have one the question right back to him about whether he likes gay love seems a whole lot of out of place to me, to say nothing of its un-funnyness.
What happens next, we get the quirky mannerisms of someone who seems to fall somewhere between Corky from LIFE GOES ON and Napoleon Dynamite. There’s definitely the feeling that they’re trying too hard, real hard, to make Ryan this caricature of a man who we’re supposed to either sympathize with or feel sorry for. I feel like we’re being sold pretty hard to believe the character.
The same comment as above applies to the actual introduction to the rubber woman we’re supposed to find outrageously amusing but there isn’t anything, I think, to laugh at here. You’ve got a mildly retarded dude who wants the world to believe this is a real woman. In case you miss the point of the entire movie, here it is again: we’re supposed to believe that this guy believes his love doll has meaning beyond being a sperm receptacle.
Aaaaaand, to wit, the little “moment†where Emily Mortimer has it out with Gosling about his love doll is complete bullshit beyond any realm of acceptable reality when she says that the entire small town in which they all live (Yeah, I’m sure the townsfolk would be real accommodating for a sex toy being carted into the local Denny’s on Grand Slam Sunday and not hang the poor ‘tard right at the entrance) has been, and I quote “bending over backward†to accommodate his whacked out fetish.
I’d sooner believe that one day all the clients of Ford Modeling Agency suddenly wake up and have the collective urge to satisfy every young pre-pubescent in America than I do for this contrived tripe.
Oh, and the love doll clip of her holding a book “reading†to a classroom of kids? Let me go on record as saying that if I ever found out that some sex mannequin was a stand-in for book time I would hang the ‘tard myself with a rope. To make it seem like a funny joke just misses the mark of what a quirky comedy should be.
Maybe it’s just me but I don’t understand what could possibly be redeeming about this farce of a flick. Gosling, I was with him with HALF NELSON and I was happy to give the man his due in that trailer, but there is absolutely nothing redeeming in this one. Nothing.
FINISHING THE GAME (2007)
Director: Justin Lin
Cast: Roger Fan, Sun Kang, Bonnie Hunt, Dustin Nguyen, Mousa Kraish
Release: October 5th, 2007
Synopsis: The unexpected death of Bruce Lee, a worldwide phenomenon and established movie star, came at the zenith of his popularity. Having already shot scenes for his upcoming movie GAME OF DEATH, studio heads decided to complete the film by launching a search for his replacement attracting hopefuls from all around the world. FINISHING THE GAME is an uproarious, poignant, unpredictable and action-packed re-imagining of that casting process for Lee’s replacement and examines the leaps and bounds Asians have taken in media representation – or have they?
View Trailer:
* Medium (QuickTime)
Prognosis: Positive. Absolutely funny. It’s genuinely a good reason to watch a trailer.
One of the things about growing up when I did was that when THE CROW came out in 1994 it was damn near my CITIZEN KANE. Although, and obviously, I grew out of that phase of thinking it was better than it really is there was something really intriguing about knowing more about the son of Bruce. The kid’s life and eventual demise on a movie set took on a mythic quality and it was something that eventually led me to discovering ENTER THE DRAGON and then other Asian films that led me to appreciate other movies from around the world. It was a curious thing, though, to watch a biography on Bruce Lee that included moments from a movie that I wish would have been made under Bruce’s watch: GAME OF DEATH.
Here, then, was a movie that I initially thought was something serious; something that was going to hopefully honor Bruce’s first intention and dismiss the cinematic garbage that was GAME OF DEATH as it eventually was filmed. Lo and behold, though, there was something else afoot.
This movie has nothing to do with the reality of GAME OF DEATH but that’s quite all right when you see the opening moments of this trailer. It does an excellent job, much better than when a comedy tries too hard to let you know that it’s a comedy with its gimpy goofiness, as it presents itself. You think that you really are watching how some filmmakers wanted to finish GAME OF DEATH but it’s not until after the Sundance mention of its acceptance as an official selection that you realize you’ve been duped. From a room full of Bruce Lee wannabes, one chain smoking as he furiously whips around some nunchucas and as another is taking a pencil and re-creating the android knife trick from ALIENS, to a sleazy producer who says that GAME OF DEATH of Bruce’s GONE WITH THE WIND it starts things on the right foot.
Fast forward to being introduced to Breeze Loo, a good looking martial artist who has more than enough ego to make this character worth watching simply for the amusement factor, to Cole, another actor who just is simply an ignorant sap who wants in a movie no matter the cost, to Poon, a character actor who doesn’t realize his limitations or stereotype as an Asian in television in the 70’s, you’ve got a mix of interesting people to stick a finger at and have a good laugh mocking.
As you watch our hopefuls vie for the role of Bruce, their auditions going about as well as anything you see on American Idol in any given season, there is the requisite sense that this isn’t going to go well on purpose. There is the feeling, though, that the filmmakers have captured a certain time period with their production and how everything looks and feels. I’m giving points here for keeping everything, even the music, specific to the moment. It’s immersive.
I am absolutely going on record, though, as saying that nothing has made me laugh harder than when the Caucasian wild-card who is trying for Bruce’s role (a goof in itself, obviously) gets into it with another hopeful as they spar with one another during training. The punch to the nuts that white boy lands and the relentless twist and grab of his opponent’s man’s sack is excellent. Truly one that elevates any staged nut shot this season.
And, to expend the joke a little further, the absolutely unnecessarily long web site: http://www.youoffendmeyouoffendmyfamily.com/ is just one more part to this twisted, comedic puzzle. I couldn’t recommend this trailer enough for a good quick laugh.
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