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.
Two things and then we can get on with it:
1. Can I get an amen for Scott Speedman?
2. Is anyone else grooving on the HDNet experience like me?
I think I would be totally in the clear by saying that my DirectTV service has been a lot like dealing with DMV and that their crap ass set top HD digital recorder sucks harder than a ho who’s been aching for some crack rock (True, that whole ho/crack thing is an analogy that should have died somewhere in the 90s after meth hit the scene but that’s neither here nor there). The long and short of it is that DirecTV has been jerking me around for quite some time in getting their proprietary HD unit to work. I’ve had to send back, no joke, no less than four boxes which invariably found a way to melt itself down. After begging and pleading for their headquarters to make nice with the TiVo people, not only am I a small shareholder but DirecTV’s original non-HD TiVo boxes rock so very hard, and me being unsure what could have driven DirecTV to spurn the digital dukes of all that’s splendid in the world I was nearly at the point with their customer no-service of canceling my programming altogether.
That is until I was made whole again and found a little channel called HDNet. I’m still not quite sure who is creating the playlist over there at that channel, whether those of you with Dish can see it as well, but apart from the visually gripping selections they have been rolling out some excellent movies. Not that these are any run-of-the-mill cable flicks. No, these are first run films that get their bow in movie theaters and then get played on HDNet, prior to the movie coming out on DVD shortly thereafter.
From FAY GRIM, DIGGERS, CLOSING ESCROW, CASHBACK and now WEIRDSVILLE the amount of good quality fare has extended beyond the much more publicized and hyped experiment of Steven Soderbergh’s BUBBLE. The model of offering the opportunity to not have to pay one penny extra to experience theater entertainment without me having to do anything more than pushing that big red R button on my remote so I can watch it later.
I have to be honest and say that the experiment works. Not so much in the regard that I need to now go and buy the DVD (I have a DVD recorder hooked up to ye ol’ digital HD unit) but now I feel like now there’s a conduit between me and those making some really quality films where once there wasn’t one. I live fairly far from my local art house, and Lord only knows that for me to get my ass in the car and haul down to ASU, a good 40 minutes, to see a movie like DAY WATCH is a bit of a hassle, and to be able and see quality goods every now and then only emboldens my opinion that, yes, there needs to be a new distribution model in place to accommodate picky buttheads like me who don’t want to physically go somewhere to see a movie.
1st run flicks are taking a beating from the home video market from those who simply shrug off every new weekend of entertainment choices because they already have it in their cranium that they can stave off the hunger for the theater by sitting on their hands 3 or 4 months, weeks in some cases, to see the same movie in the comfort of their home. I honestly don’t think that the dialog in people’s minds is that specific but I believe the reports that DVD sales are doing great business only because individuals have figured out that the ever shrinking window between theatrical and rental is worth waiting out. I also don’t believe people necessarily have grown to hate the experience of going to a film, I like being able to physically go out and make time to see one, but you now in the 21st century have to weigh convenience or comfort. People are increasingly being in favor of convenience a whole lot more, regardless of how many times you really want to be able and see TRANSFORMERS on the big screen. Your set up at home could probably beat the piss out of some weeks old print that has been through the projector a few times over; even if it’s digital, my friend, your HD-DVD or Blu-Ray impresses beyond comprehension if you consider picture quality.
I’d like to think that my extra dollars spent on HD programming is helping to finance and support the efforts of WEIRDSVILLE after seeing it this weekend. The movie is spectacularly well done, Scott Speedman, despite my best efforts to really break bad on the dude, is a delight and the story is crazy enough to make any night at home a more enjoyable one. Would I have felt this way if I caught the movie in the theater? I honestly don’t know but I will say that not paying for something definitely makes me critique an effort a lot more than if I spent a ten spot on it; makes me wonder what would happen to many movie reviews if the reviewer had to pay for the films that he or she commented on without the prospect of being reimbursed for it. Too many variables but I will say this: regardless of how many people actually read this screed I have to recommend that anyone with an ounce of interest in film look and see what is coming down the pike from HDNet. The first run films that are now available to everyone could really help get the word out of these small independent pictures that were wise enough to embrace the new model for exhibiting their wares. The brave new digital world needs to come in contact with other films like this and make them available to people who have evolved with the way they consume their media. I know I feel differently about how I want to be served as a consumer of films but the old way of there being only one option to me just cannot sustain itself when you consider how many other ways are given to people with regard to music, books and the like.
I loved WEIRDSVILLE and I plan on watching it again whenever I get a free moment around the house.
RESERVATION ROAD (2007)
Director: Terry George
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Connelly, Mira Sorvino, Elle Fanning
Release: October 19th, 2007
Synopsis: Based on the critically acclaimed novel of the same name by John Burnham Schwartz, this is the compelling new dramatic thriller from two-time Academy Award-nominated writer/director Terry George (“Hotel Rwanda”). A tale of anger, revenge, and great courage, the film follows two fathers as their families and lives converge. On a warm September evening, college professor Ethan Learner (two-time Academy Award nominee Joaquin Phoenix), his wife Grace (Academy Award winner Jennifer Connelly), and their daughter Emma (Elle Fanning) are attending a recital. Their 10-year-old son Josh (Sean Curley) is playing cello – beautifully, as usual. His younger sister looks up to him, and his parents are proud of their son. On the way home, they all stop at a gas station on Reservation Road. There, in one terrible instant, he is taken from them forever. On a warm September evening, law associate Dwight Arno (Mark Ruffalo) and his 11-year-old son Lucas (Eddie Alderson) are attending a baseball game. Their favorite team, the Red Sox, is playing – and, hopefully, heading for the World Series. Dwight cherishes his time spent with Lucas. Driving his son back to his ex-wife, Lucas’ mother Ruth Wheldon (Academy Award winner Mira Sorvino), Dwight heads towards his fateful encounter at Reservation Road. The accident happens so fast that Lucas is all but unaware, while Ethan – the only witness – is all too aware, as a panicked Dwight speeds away. The police are called, and an investigation begins. Haunted by the tragedy, both fathers react in unexpected ways, as do Grace and Emma. As a reckoning looms, the two fathers are forced to make the hardest choices of their lives.
View Trailer:
* Medium (QuickTime)
Prognosis: Positive. It’s a matter of perspective.
It’s films like this when you can make the distinction between what tent pole pictures are capable of and what good storytelling can do.
When you launch into a trailer like this, and you’re just ignorant of what you’re about to see, there is the wondering of whether it’ll grab you and whether it will be another in a string of trailers that just come and go out of your mind.
This one had me thinking about what was happening and how all these parts fit together in a cohesive whole. I damn near lost interest in the beginning when you hear the canned giggles and fake smiles of happy people. Inexorably all these things have a way of turning dark and things do rather quickly.
After of a day of frivolity you’ve got a father and son doing a little hit-n-run action. Rather than stopping to check what suburban kid they’ve turned into human ground chuck the dad speeds away (We wouldn’t have a movie if he did. We might have a Lifetime made-for-TV-drama but that’s neither here nor there.) and then feels bad about it after he is back in the safe throngs of his home.
The real drama here starts to pique my interest and I’m trying to peg exactly where I’ve seen other traffic accident movies before but I come up short only to see that the story takes on a sublime quality. There is more to the tale than just the killing of a kid and the father who would stop at nothing (in movie parlance) to bring the killer to justice and I think it’s Ruffalo’s inner guilt that manifests itself that’s the real attraction here; it’s an adage of good writing wherein you try and think about whose perspective could be the one everyone would want to read.
In this movie, though, there is a real thoughtful thing at play here with the struggle of the man who killed a kid and can’t bring himself to confess and the father who is driven to madness to try and find the man who is so close to him.
The gun that eventually gets put into the mix of it all is a nice touch, I will say that, but the obligatory gunshot that goes off against a black screen is a little lame if not completely stupid.
I’m a sucker for films like IN THE BEDROOM and LITTLE CHILDREN and I am hopeful this movie takes a down-to-earth premise and keeps it couched within the boundaries of a real “What If†moment.
BEE MOVIE (2007)
Director: Steve Hickner, Simon Smith Cast: (voices) Jerry Seinfeld, Renée Zellweger, Matthew Broderick, John Goodman, Chris Rock, Megan Mullally, Kathy Bates, Alan Arkin, Patrick Warburton
Release: November 2nd, 2007
Synopsis: BEE MOVIE is a comedy that will change everything you think you know about bees. Having just graduated from college, a bee by the name of Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld) finds himself disillusioned with the prospect of having only one career choice – honey. As he ventures outside of the hive for the first time, he breaks one of the cardinal rules of the bee world and talks to a human, a New York City florist named Vanessa (Renée Zellweger). He is shocked to discover that the humans have been stealing and eating the bees’ honey for centuries, and ultimately realizes that his true calling in life is to set the world right by suing the human race for stealing their precious honey.
View Trailer:
* Large (QuickTime)
Prognosis: Positive. 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.
IRON MAN (2008)
Director: Jon Favreau
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow Release: May 2nd, 2007
Synopsis: Based upon Marvel’s iconic Super Hero, IRON MAN tells the story of Tony Stark, a billionaire industrialist and genius inventor who is kidnapped and forced to build a devastating weapon. Instead, using his intelligence and ingenuity, Tony builds a high-tech suit of armor and escapes captivity. Upon his return to America, Tony must come to terms with his past. When he uncovers a nefarious plot with global implications, he dons his powerful armor and vows to protect the world as Iron Man.
View Trailer:
* Large (QuickTime)
Prognosis: Positive. This is why Robert Downey Jr. was placed on this earth.
Too many times you can get caught up in the wrong argument about why something is just going to rock hard or why something looks like it’s going to be the second coming of Christ’s hate against mankind but for the discussion regarding IRON MAN nothing but the raw footage here should be the thrust of any back and forth between fanboys.
Musical cues aside, and we’ll get into this in a moment, you’ve got something that is radically different than the previews we were given for SPIDER-MAN 3 plus, and more to the point, the same reservations I had regarding the trailers for the web-crawler’s third installment proved the reason why the whole flick just sank under its own weight.
For starters, and ironically enough, we get “Hell Above Waterâ€, the first musical number that shares the same lineage and pedigree with the trailer for the original SPIDER-MAN, a film that sold a good number of us based on some of the dollars it made during its opening weekend, and just like its web buddy the song helps to push along the narrative. It’s brash, cocky and it seamlessly fits in with Robert’s introduction as the smarmy Tony Stark. I’ve never really read Iron Man with any great frequency but reading what I have and knowing what kind of issues he deals with internally seeing Downey Jr. play with the character without a drip of irony; he’s funny for the simple reason that he’s so shielded from everything external.
And who can take away from the much quoted moment in the trailer where Downey Jr. talks about war in a manner that would make beatniks blush and pacifists punchy at the idea that fighting is an inevitability so why not be ready? Additionally, it’s the exchange with the grunt in the back of the Hummer that should just ally any concern that Robert might not be the right man for the job; hell, he is the job incarnate. It’s, perhaps, one of the best extended moments we’ve been given this year in a trailer and it exemplifies everything that the character can be if he continues down this path.
Now, cue Filter’s “Hey Man, Nice Shot.†After the ambush, and I don’t know if I can take the trailer maker to task for this, I am unclear as to what’s happening. You get some dirty freedom fighter, in all his ceremonial terrorist regalia, telling Downey he has 24 hours to help build his missile but I’m confused: how did he get from ambush to glowing implant on his chest to blacksmithing missile parts? This part of the trailer is dramatic, to be sure, but it’s slightly murky with the details.
Then, if you’re paying attention to the 24-hour time table, he emerges as Series 1 Iron Man? I man it is pretty sweet, fucking awesome, to see the man-robot emerge from the cave and get all practical effect on a bunch of prototypical “bad guys†to the sounds of “Iron Butterfly,†which is a bold choice for those keeping score at home, but it’s incredibly hard to follow.
He goes from blasting in the desert to coming back and getting all seriously pimp with his cadre of best friends who no doubt are going to be playing parts in this story. What parts to the story are they playing? Again, this is all in the air but you do have to give special attention to Series 2 Iron Man that illuminates its blue hue in the shadows as it looks to get buck wild on some other robo threat.
The flying sequence at the end? Three words: In-Cred-Ible. If Fareau is to be believed, and he most definitely is, the way they pulled off the extended moment here is seamless. You can be a bitch ass and point out how you can tell it’s fake but it just feels so real in its nuance that when it breaks the sound barrier there is nothing more you can do than be amazed and slack jawed that this could be the newest SPIDER-MAN blockbuster that will deliver what it’s advertising.
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