WISHING EVERYONE A SWELL NEW YEAR!!

Two Lovers (2008)

Oh what a day! I didn't think I was gonna be able to put an entry in today...of course I don't know why I should be concerned. This blog is a pointless endeavor and puts me in a pool of a thousand witty bloggers wanting their blogs to be read. Once again I had to save the world today, so to speak. My time is not treasured by others. No one is considerate of my time it feels like. I almost didn't get to watch my movie last night but somehow managed nonetheless after cooking spaghetti and meeting my sister's neighbors in her building who, for some strange reason, actually like me. What's wrong with them? LOL....In any event I find myself back here in the media room in my sister's building, since she doesn't have an Internet connection, rambling on here. Right, back to saving the world. So I was talking to my favorite person on the phone and my sister calls with an emergency and I'm just like, this always happens to me. Not that I didn't want to help her, it's just that every time I try to do something or I'm on the phone either my mom or my sister always have something that they need done right away. The only one who is considerate of my time is my dad and our relationship sucks. This very thing has caused rifts in many of my relationships. I've got to put a stop to it.

Today's film of the day is "TWO LOVERS" starring Joaquin Phoenix, Gwyneth Paltrow, Vinessa Shaw, Isabella Rosselini, and Elias Koteas. It's directed by James Gray and distributed by Magnolia pictures. The Only other James Gray film I've seen is "We Own The Night" which I thought was pretty good. He also directed "The Yards" with Mark Wahlberg and Charlize Theron, which I didn't see. All three films star Joaquin Phoenix though. I couldn't have watched this film at a better time when I, myself am going through a similar situation. Joaquin plays Leonard a man who moves in with his parents after his fiancee leaves him. His family owns a dry cleaners in Brooklyn and he works there to help them out. He meets a friend of the family's daughter Sandra, played by Vinessa Shaw, and they hit it off until the next day when he meets Michelle, played by Gwyneth Paltrow. The film is basically about how Leonard deals with these two very different women in his life and determining which one he really wants. While at the same time he's dealing with his parents' pressure with the family business. It's a very well acted, well played film with maybe a couple of flaws, but nothing to freak out over. The thing that I find interesting about this film is how restrained the performances are. I can't stress enough that subtle acting speaks volumes about the character. Not to say that there aren't performances that require more from you, but at that point you have to know how to straddle that fine line between acting and overacting. It's very tricky. So many actors have the tendency to overact and to be a character instead of inhabiting a character. There's a big difference. When you watch a lot of movies like I do, you pick up on it, but you should also take a few classes. You can learn a lot by watching other actors and a lot of people don't believe that but it's the truth as you will learn from this blog as time goes one. Of course Joaquin is brilliant blah blah blah but the real surprise here is Vinessa Shaw. She wasn't even supposed to have this part according to Hollywood standards but she holds her own here. Her performance is so beautiful and quiet. She says so much with the look on her face and I love that shit! That's what acting is my friends! Having seen two of James Gray's films, I can see that he likes working with a grey palette which works well in his favor. He has certainly mastered it here and this film almost has sort of a noir feel to it even though it's a romantic film. Joaquin's character moving back in with his parents after being happy is very similar to me. I know that dynamic. When I first moved to New York and didn't make it, I had to move back in with my parents. It's not fun. Even though you're a grown man you can't come and go as you please. They ask you twenty questions about where you're going and who you're going with. It's a very frustrating position to be in. I saw that in this film. They never said how old Leonard was in the film but I can imagine he was at least in his mid thirties. There were even a couple of scenes where he had to sneak out of the house. I know what that's like! Being home for the holidays is exactly that. I'm nearly thirty and I still have to pussyfoot. It's mostly my mom though. My dad doesn't care as much but he has his moments. It's ridiculous for a grown man to endure. Every man deserves his own life and privacy. So I felt his pain. They were also wanting him to date Sandra instead of Michelle which is a little too personal for my taste. You should be with whoever you want to be with.

There were also little moments in this film that spoke volumes about the film. There are two different scenes where Joaquin and Gwyneth's characters look at the camera while they are begin hugged, very subtly with one eye. I'm not going to spoil anything for you but you'll know what I'm talking about when you see it. I think it's magic because of what those looks could possibly mean. There are even instances when Leonard acts like a child around his parents because that's what they bring out of you when they are constantly in your business and at times I saw myself that way. This is a romantic film but also a cautionary tale about the unattainable. People are unattainable for a reason and it usually ends up hurting you in the long run. This is a rather depressing film at times and there were only a few sloppy moments, plot wise, in this film but overall I give it 3 1/2 out of 5 stars. It's definitely worth a netflix or your local video store.

Now time for me to get ready for my New years outing tonight. So much to fucking do! I hope all of you have an awesome night tonight and a killer year ahead! Much success to all!!

NINE (2009)

In May of this year the teaser trailer for "NINE" premiered and I nearly had a stroke. Being a fan of Rob Marshall ever since "Chicago", I was very excited. I had heard about Nine way before this though on IMDB and now that I had images to go along with it just made my day! To be honest I was really interested in Kate Hudson's sequence and what it would be like. Then in late October early November I got a peek at that very sequence and it got me even more excited. So excited that I watched the clip over 100 times probably! When I get excited about a film, I get obsessed you see. So I got the soundtrack and everything and told myself that Christmas Day I was going to see it! I didn't see it that day but I did see it the following Sunday. The film was great but the theater experience not so much. I'm disappointed in Cinemark for putting it in a small theater and for the projection of the film. It was fucking slanted on the screen and the sound sucked! I have to see it again the right way. This is why I don't go to Cinemark theaters unless they're new.

So the film was great! Not your typical happy go lucky musical but handled the material well in my opinion. Of course I anticipated Kate Hudson's performance the most because I loved how it was staged and choreographed, but everyone did a fantastic job. The friends I went to see it with hated it. Why? Maybe because it wasn't what they expected and there lies the problem with American audiences today. Our expectations are too fucking high ALL the time. They told me that they were bored and that it put them to sleep. What?!!! Did we see the same film? Maybe I'm just more aware, I don't know. Fuck it, I was intrigued! Maybe it was the subject. Not everyone relates to what it takes to make a film and that's what the film was about. There's probably a lot of people who don't understand that concept and maybe that's why it's considered a flop now. That saddens me. It really does. It's a great movie with a great cast and people shit on it. It struck a chord with me because I know what's it like to not have inspiration or motivation for a film or something or other. At the same time, I connected with the film on another level. A level of reality vs. fantasy. I find that a lot of the time as creative people, we live in our own heads and we live in a fantasy world. I get that and that is the very thing that this film conveyed to me. You have Guido Contini, a famous Italian film director who is trying to do a new film and basically forgetting what matters to him the most. He is really torturing himself throughout the film and that may be a turn off for some people. The performances are oscar worthy in their own right. You can tell Daniel Day Lewis is literally "IN" that role. Penelope Cruz is wonderfully desperate as his mistress and has a very seductive number that made me blush a couple of times. Fergie surprised me with her gut wrenching rendition of "Be Italian" and the physicality that she presented was strong. Nicole Kidman was subtle and brilliant as Claudia and Judi Dench was great as well. Marion Cotillard does a fine job of playing the longing wife. I have to say that I literally felt her sadness and I really felt for her. Sophia Loren was LUMINOUS. I was so happy to see her in a film after all these years. Kate Hudson was fantastic in her performance of "Cinema Italiano". The thing about Kate Hudson's character, Stephanie, is that she wants Guido and loves his films for all the wrong reasons. Even though it was a short part, the thing I liked most about her performance is that she knew what her character wanted and played it up very well in very subtle ways. She didn't overplay it and that's acting in my book! The Cinematography in this film is beyond stellar and I always said that Rob Marshall knows lighting very well. The lighting in his films are always top notch and beautiful and lighting is not an easy thing to do. He's a master of lighting. The flashes between black and white are seamless and the whole style of the film embodies 1960's Italy perfectly. A film student could learn a lot technically from this film.

Considering that the musical sequences in the film were the only "light" thing about the film, most audiences shied away from it. A couple walked out of my theater but that was it. There was an applause at the end though which gave me some hope. This leads me to believe that Nine is one of those films that will merely survive on word of mouth and if that's the case then we might be fucked. Don't pay attention to the reviews people, those fuckers don't know what they're talking about. This isn't Moulin Rouge or Hairspray or even Chicago, this is NINE and it's a fantastic film.

A Cry In The Dark?

I'm sitting here at my computer looking at this blog that I just created and I'm wondering what the fuck I'm doing. Do I know what I'm doing? I'm an out of work actor, writer, singer, and possibly director just putting out words into cyberspace that may or may not be read. Then I remember I'm doing this for myself. I'm doing this because I've been working for dead end jobs that I don't love. Sitting in a cubicle of nothingness while people speak to me as if they have no respect for another person. I love film. I've loved film since I was a child and my mom would rent videos from Blockbuster for me almost every day after school. As a matter of fact I've learned most of my film knowledge from watching film and somehow seeing past what an ordinary moviegoer would see. That's what this blog is. Not just movie reviews but film observations and what they mean to me and what they should mean to people who watch them but totally miss the message because they go into a movie looking for the wrong things. I have a massive DVD & Blu Ray collection and there's still a shit load of films that I need to see. So I'm going to challenge myself to watch at least one film everyday and write about it and what I think about it. To start up a discussion if you will. No opinion is a wrong one. All opinions will be respected no matter how spitefully hateful they are. So why am I doing this? Maybe it's because I want to do something I love even if I don't get paid for it. Maybe I'm just bored as hell and am doing this to pass the bloody time. Who knows. I'm not looking to get anything out of this but sheer satisfaction in analyzing films from the past and the present. So whether I'm on this journey alone or not, I'm going to enjoy it :-)