Sir, this newspaper looks awfully like a book. What? You mean…Sorry, didn’t realize people still made non e-books.
Rating: 10 out of 10
Every now and again, if you’re lucky, you come across a piece of craftsmanship that lays it all out for you. For architects, it might be walking up to an old gothic cathedral and watching the lines and foundations intersect. For musicians, it might be hearing a song which stirs their hearts, feeling the melodies and meaning intertwine like strands of DNA. For people like me, the writers, it means laying your hands on a book which illustrates so clearly not only the beauty of words, but also how those words can be used to change people. That rush only gets better if those words are pouring forth from a career on a rise to not just stardom, but mythic status. This writer, this moment — this is something to be treasured.
Everyone Loves You When You’re Dead is the latest in a growing list of “must read” books by Neil Strauss. This new tome is a culmination of years of interviews and all those magical moments that fell on the cutting room floor by way of verbal economy, relevance to the time, or the most egregious of reasons, editorial choice by the publisher. These snippets are peephole windows into the real people behind the fame and fortune, showing in possibly the truest form ever that celebrities are indeed normal people too, dealing with the same insecurities and same life choices as we do. That doesn’t mean they are all good people under the glitter, some are just as vain and superficial as we imagine, but at least we can now be sure they aren’t faking that for the creation of their persona.
The cast of characters span the celebrity horizon like a multi-billion dollar rainbow. Everyone is here and no one is spared from the charm and familiarity that Strauss brings into every interview. Snoop Dogg takes him along to get diapers for his kid, Lady Gaga goes to tears by her first question and Jewel snuggles up under the covers like it’s a high school slumber party. This book is filled with astounding moments of clarity from the people who spend most of their days hidden behind a persona, whether it be one of hard-edged aggression (like Marilyn Manson and Slipknot) or unstoppable humor (like Jay Leno or Stephen Colbert). Strauss shows in interview after interview his style of getting the subjects to relax, let down their guard and basically not feel like subjects. From reading these passages you not only learn some amazing factoids about these people, but you can also glean how to interact better with others in your own lives, with a sense of honesty and compassion.
As he did before in The Game and Emergency, Strauss has immersed himself over a period of time into a whole different world and come back with a roadmap to the reality he discovered. His choice of questions and how he allows himself to become part of the moment instead of just someone observing from the outside gives him the access and ability to truly describe and detail where these people are coming from. They are not just subjects or an assignment (although you can tell some he was more personally excited about than others). He gives each interview weight, respect and a sense of purpose often missed by the supermarket tabloid phenomena. You get the distinct impression that each person at one point or another looks over at him and thinks with internal surprise and joy, “Wow, no one has ever asked me that before!” So they get to tell their story in a fresh way and not sound like a broken record on yet another press tour, while we the reader get to see a little more deeply into the lives of these people who inspire, excite and often openly confuse us.
The End of the Page recommendation: Everyone Loves You When You’re Dead is a fantastic read. A true must have for fans of all forms of entertainment and good writing.
What do you think? Fans of Neil Strauss?
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago at 7:52 am. Add a comment
What do you mean, “What is a mix tape?” I feel old.
Rating: 10 out of 10
Memoirs are dangerous and tricky things. They can be selfless and selfish at the same time, an expulsion of emotion and memory that you just needed to get out for your own sanity, while simultaneously inviting everyone through the door, basically begging them to ask for even more probing details than those laid out in the book. A common problem that arises in the development of a memoir is that you have to come off as someone interesting enough to read about, while still remaining human and humble enough that people don’t hate you for having an actual book written about your life. It’s an ambitious undertaking, but as Matthew Good points out so eloquently in his song 21st Century Living:
Ambition, ambition’s a tricky thing
It’s like riding a unicycle on a dental floss tightrope over a wilderness of razor blades (Matthew Good – Avalanche)
How much do you give of yourself before turning back from that line in the sand? How far do you walk away from the past to allow yourself to put it all down on paper, leaving others a breadcrumb path to wander back into those days gone by? Most importantly, how do you wrap it all up into a package interesting enough to make others want to ignore their own lives, step out of their shoes and walk a few hundred pages in yours? All of those questions and more plague the writer of a memoir, but now and again one finds the right combination, or in this case, the right mix, and everything flows in and out with the regularity and rhythm of the tides. It becomes relaxing and thoughtful, peaceful and terrifying, ever-changing yet always familiar. These are the ones that you read and somehow feel we all lived in our own way.
Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield is a musically charged farewell letter to a person we’ve all met at some point in our lives. The one who in normal circumstances we would never have the courage to talk to because the worlds were too far apart, but whether through cosmic destiny or the luck of the draw, that person enters your life and ignites the change you always knew would come. The book follows his relationship with his wife Renee and carves out each section in relation to a mix tape made during those cherished moments in history. This harmonic trip into Rob’s life also reminds us of the true power of music, the passion it can instill, the sorrow it can unfold and the memories it can unearth.
I saw this book a long time ago at the store and was instantly drawn to it because I was in the middle of writing my own memoir. My main reason for not reading it back then was I could already tell it was done well and something I would feverishly enjoy, but I didn’t want to consciously or subconsciously rip-off any of Rob’s devices, so I left it lying on the bookstore display table and hid it away on the shelf in the back of my mind. Years later, with my memoir wrapped up, destiny once again dropped this book in my path while trolling through Borders on the first day of their store closing sale (Everything Must Go!…and I want it all to go home with me.).
Any author of a memoir wants the reader to find something to identify with, one portion of their personality or circumstances that can draw the reader that much farther into their world. While I do enjoy my iPod injected rides to work in the morning, singing my way into the work day, hoping it will hold me through, I definitely do not identify with the level of knowledge or intensity Rob has for music (mine is more on the movie front). But as the pages turned and Rob begins to reveal his loss and how it was to walk through the fog of those weeks and months, the words spoke in an entirely new level of honesty and bravery. Anyone who has come through to the other side of a terrible tragedy will find portions of his story incredibly reminiscent of their own, although probably put in more colorful language and set to a better soundtrack. Even those who might still be lost in the fog of sorrow would benefit from this tiny playlist of memories, almost an attempt at one person’s “Guide to Life after Life”. Die hard music fans, especially those who grew up in the angsty revolution of the 90′s, will constantly chuckle with recognition at each song listed out on the mix tape covers, but even those less musically inclined will find their heartstrings played beautifully by this story of rambunctious love and loss.
The End of the Page recommendation: Read Love is a Mix Tape to remind yourself there is music in everything, pleasure and pain, and to never tune it out.
p.s. Favorite line: “We were just a couple of fallen angels, rolling the dice of our lives.”
Posted 11 months, 2 weeks ago at 4:51 pm. Add a comment
Seriously? Yes, we would like the appetizers first. That’s why they’re called appetizers.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Los Angeles is a mecca for up-and-coming rock bands looking to make their name in the ever changing musical landscape. Many roam these streets from one dive bar to the next, coating the pavement with their sweat, pain and tears, paying dues the industry seemingly demands for any type of future recognition. Then the moment comes when their hooks floats into the ears of one random person, sending a jolt straight into their brain because they know it’s something special, something unique, and most importantly, something completely marketable. One phone call later the ball rolls and those lucky musicians are on their way, granting their early fan base the snooty (but amazingly fun) ability of saying, “I knew them before they were huge.” If you’ve never experienced the sheer joy of holding your musical knowledge above those of other mere mortals, follow along and I’ll give you that opportunity right now.
Some Hear Explosions is a goth/pop/rock fusion outfit that brings the flavor of David Bowie, the angst-y yells of Marylin Manson and the edge of early Garbage all in one extremely fashionable package. Catchy hooks ride on an electronic pulse, bouncing their way through the album, one moment making you crave seeing those fists pumping in the air, then the next moment taking it down a notch, displaying heart and thoughtfulness sometimes lost in modern-day radio play.
Making up the band are Bay Dariz, Ambre Leigh and Joe Herrera. Dariz and Leigh wrote much of the music together and their collaboration has definitely borne tasty fruit for music lovers everywhere. Dariz is all over the instrumental map playing guitar, bass, keys and programming, on top of lending his vocals, which bears a creepy and high-quality resemblance to Marylin Manson (just a touch happier). Leigh takes control of the mic as lead vocalist. Her sound brings images in my head of beautiful femme fatales from the film noir days of the twenties, gangster ladies stepping out of darkened cars wearing black suits and black hats, controlling everyone around them with a simple word from their lips. Herrera keeps it all on track on the drums, knowing internally when to pound down and bring the pain and when to gently tap the skins and bring things back from the rocker’s edge.
Getting down to the track level, there are a number of songs that deserve mention, but the one that I played on repeat when I first got the album was Beep. Insanely catchy, Beep stands out to me as an instant single that should climb almost any radio chart lucky enough to have it listed. It has the hook, the chorus and the rhythmic movement that all make for a great track. Hell A on the other hand delivers solid rock power and a lyrical kick making it not only a stand out on the album, but one to certainly look forward to during live gigs. It could also very well become a mantra for those who have the grand fortune (or misfortune) to actually call this infamous town home.
On the softer side, we have become ever-so-used-to the idea that all rock bands must provide a ballad on their album, something to sweeten those delicate ears who would normally avoid anything on the stereo missing the word “lite”. Those perfunctory tracks, padded in aural downy softness, can often come off as forced and almost trite, but this time we are lucky listeners indeed. Amazing is delicate, relaxed, honest and memorable, making it everything that people love when they’re sitting in their car, stuck in their cubicle or just having that glass of wine in their living room. It instantly makes you think of that person, that time in your life and connects those frayed moments back together, if only for a short period of time. Other notable tracks filling out the album are the marching beat of All Your Gravity, the dark corner romance of Baby Won’t You (kiss my lips) and the slithering sonic smackdown of the album’s moniker, It’s Our Time Now.
If you like what you hear from their site or on iTunes, check their schedule because they just might be swinging through your town soon. Take the opportunity while you have it because next time the tickets won’t be so easy to come by.
The End of the Page Recommendation: From top to bottom, It’s Our Time Now by Some Hear Explosions is a wicked debut album from a band destined and determined to make it.
Both men decided too late that the Ultra-Mega-Burrito was not a good idea right before dance practice.
Rating: 8 out of 10
3D has become the banner of a film industry looking for anything to spark the box office back to its previous high water mark, but many films use it only for the monetary bump, not to enhance the viewing experience. A few rare choices in the last year have actually made the extra dimension worthwhile, like Avatar, Despicable Me and How To Train Your Dragon, with an honorable mention to the short film in front of Toy Story 3. Even going back to the beginning of the recent 3D craze there was My Bloody Valentine, which truly catered to the technology in the way it was originally intended. So, it was with a true touch of skepticism that I entered the theater, high-tech, battery powered 3D glasses strapped to my head and waited to see what the world of hip-hop and dance could do with their extra dimension.
Step Up 3D has very little to do with the previous two films in the franchise. Moose, the lone holdover from Step Up 2 The Streets, has traveled to N.Y.U. to fulfill his parents dream by getting an engineering degree and leaving all that silly dance stuff far behind. He finds that extremely difficult since on his orientation tour he accidentally enters himself into a dance battle and wins, making himself enemy number one on the hip-hop hitlist of a local dance crew known as The Samurai. Luke, the lead hero of the movie, takes Moose under his wing and initiates him into his own crew, The Pirates, as they attempt to win the upcoming World Jam and earn enough cash prizes to buy the building where they all live and train.
Some people might wonder how I could rate a dance movie so high, only one down the totem pole from Inception, which some would think of as a travesty even being mentioned in the same long, run-on sentence, but my ratings are based on what type of movie it is and if it fulfilled its main objective. Dance films have one driving force – to showcase dancers and their incredible talents. If they can pull together a coherent story and make an audience feel something beyond the rhythm in their seats, then they have moved beyond the grade of a common genre flick. Step Up 3D definitely showcased the dancers, and by default the incredible choreography, by really paying attention to the movement of the camera during the various dance sequences. There is nothing more that I despise than quick, unmotivated MTV-style cuts during dance sequences, fight scenes, highly technical action sequences and the like. All you end up seeing is a lot of limbs flying in front of camera with no context or character. Here, they locked the camera center stage numerous times and only moved back to open up the frame even more, truly featuring the talent on display.
Also, the 3D element did not feel like a last minute add-on for a couple bucks per ticket increase. There were very specific moments in the film where the dancers popped out from the screen and it enhanced the experience of watching their highly technical moves. Even in the non-pop-out moments, the extra depth into the screen really provided a sense of place and character to the dance sequences that I feel would have been lacking otherwise.
As for the acting, where most people don’t expect much, I was shocked by the power and passion displayed by one of the films co-stars, our one man connection to the previous film, Moose, aka Adam G. Sevani. Born into a musical family and dancing since he was a wee toddler, Sevani filled his moments with heart and passion where many others just filled the frame. He stole each and every scene with a touching sense of honesty and a purity towards dance which poured out of the screen. His plotline was technically the ‘B’ story, but he yanked it out of the background and made the entire movie revolve around him. The saddest part of the film ending is wondering whether Sevani will actually keep working on acting, along with his amazing dance skills. Dance as a part of our culture is becoming bigger and bigger every year, with help from numerous TV hits like Dancing With The Stars and So You Think You Can Dance (the latter featuring Adam Shankman as a permanent judge, who also helped produce Step Up 3D). You never know whether another Step Up could be in the future, but if it does find its way onto the big screen, they better bring back Sevani or they can count on my rating being much, much lower.
The End of the Page Recommendation: Best all-around film of the franchise so far, but if you don’t like dance flicks, this will not put the spring in your step.
Thoughts? How’s it compare to other dance flicks?
Posted 1 year, 5 months ago at 8:56 am. Add a comment
Who over there keeps requesting songs from “The Wiz”? Seriously, for the last time, that costume was itchy and I’m not doing it.
Rating: 6 out of 10
Sitting in the screening room, nearly breathless with anticipation, I waited for the lights to drop, the camera to roll and the music of the legendary “King of Pop” to fill the room. With that singular focus in mind, this concert film-cum-documentary fit the bill like a shiny sequined glove. Yet when you look beyond the harmonies and continually catchy beats, This is It fails to really capture much more and didn’t deliver the true experience many people are likely to be hoping for in terms of Michael Jackson’s final words.
This is It chronicles the final rehearsals for Michael’s massive and seemingly impressive last tour. If the level of performance and showmanship hinted at throughout the film was any indication of what the actual full concert experience would have been like, Mr. Jackson would have certainly cemented his place (if there was still any real doubt) as one of the best entertainers of all time. From a 3D movie experience built into “Thriller” to the iconographic dance routines brought back once more in “Beat It”, “The Way You Make Me Feel” and other #1 hit songs, the concert was set to amaze audiences with flashes of the new with blasts from the past.
The main downside of the project is that the footage, according to the opening preface, was commissioned by Michael for his personal archives. This was never really meant for widescreen audiences and in that respect wasn’t shot that way. It is tossed together as a montage of Michael’s greatest hits with a few CGI cutaways showing what things would have looked like if he had made it to the opening night of the tour. What is lacking from this is a real sense of who Michael was. On screen he is detailed as a generous, but strict perfectionist and loved and respected by everyone on the project alongside him, yet there is really no sense of what this tour meant to him and what it was like to get back on the stage again after so many years in relative seclusion. Again, that is not the fault of the director as much as it is a integral problem with why the footage was even shot in the first place.
There is a certain nagging voice in the mass consciousness wondering what the actual reason was for putting the movie together in the first place. Was this to give Michael’s fans one last look into what the King’s final bow would have looked like? Was this an attempt by the tour promoter to recoup some of the millions spent in preparation for this incredibly expensive spectacle? Was it pressure from Joe Jackson, Michael’s father, in an effort to keep himself viable in an industry he is largely shut out of? It’s hard to dig through the statements and actions on all sides and figure out the truth because they are all saying something different, but either way, the film itself proved two things: First, Michael was a consummate performer who at the amazing age of fifty could still move and sing and was prepared to deliver one hell of a final tour, and second, we will never truly know who he was underneath the shine and sparkles.
The End of the Page Recommendation: If you are one of the millions who enjoyed his music, this is entertaining just to hear those songs one more time from the man himself. Yet if you are looking for a deeper look beyond the legend and into the real person, this remains unfulfilling and nothing more than a concert film.
Posted 2 years, 2 months ago at 2:37 pm. Add a comment
“Didn’t you kill tons of Nazi’s and go crazy in your last film?”
“Yep, I’ve got what film people refer to as “range”.”
Rating: 4 out of 10
Anytime you step into the world of “based on true events” or choosing to fictionalize a story set inside a real life moment in time, you had better be ready to defend your choices. Real life moments mean real people lived them, maybe not the exact ones being portrayed on screen, but close facsimiles and they love nothing more than relating how many details you got wrong when trying to recreate the feelings and nostalgia from way back when. A great number of movies that fall into this category are saved by the sheer amount of years between now and then, thereby eliminating their detractors, but choosing anything that took place from the 1920s onward and you will likely find someone spinning a tale in direct opposition to your own. And how can you dismiss it? They were there! The danger gets exponentially bigger when you choose something the size of Woodstock, where over one-and-a-half million people descended on this small town to bear witness to the musical representation of peace, love and the new generation in America. It was something parents screamed and railed to keep their kids from going to, yet those kids grew up to tell and retell their own children about why they went and the magic they experienced at one of the greatest music festivals of all time. Many movies have tried to capture the emotional content of Woodstock and no one seemed primed to do it better than the master of mood and emotion, Ang Lee.
Taking Woodstock tells a small story inside of an extremely large moment. Elliot Tiber is the dutiful son, living in the big city, but sending all his money home to his parents and their dilapidated motel. Year after year he returns in the summer to help bring in the meager amount of tourist business, but this particular summer, while on the verge of bankruptcy, Elliot hears of a music festival in desperate need of a location to land. On the run from town after town of narrow minded and fearful locals, the hippie festival known as Woodstock needed a new home and Elliot saw a flower-powered flashlight dancing at the end of his lifelong tunnel.
Ang Lee said in an interview he wanted to tell this story because he was tired and drained by the emotionally heavy subjects he tackled in his recent films, like Brokeback Mountain and Lust, Caution. Lee wanted something happy, full of hope and felt the need to remind us how over a million people came together in overwhelmingly terrible conditions and lived together for three days without a single instance of violence reported. There was an aura over the crowd, a group connection which connected and combined the hearts and minds of those in attendance. Yet he made very clear that this was not a documentary about the music, since those have been done before. This was solely about the people and the effect the concert had on them.
With that intention in mind Lee pulled together a wide swatch of personal storylines, beginning with Tiber, but radiating outwards to include his parents, the locals, old semi-acquaintances from his youth, a politically radical theatre troupe living in his barn, and just to top it all off, a cross dressing ex-marine-cum-personal security officer. Many, but not all, of these were intensely interesting characters and situations, but Lee’s failure was trying to include all in one film. Any of these alone could have been enough to give breadth and emotional focus to Woodstock and the effect it had on that one person, but all together it dragged the film down and created a tangled web of people with no real conclusion or specific journey.
[Minor SPOILER below. And even though it sounds major, it plays out as minor]
In one example where Lee made things overcomplicated is with the main character, Elliot Tiber, where he not only had to deal with his parents odd personalities, their failing motel and the overwhelming stress brought on by trying to host Woodstock, it turns out he was also trying to hide his homosexuality. Something as large as this should have been explored more and brought to the forefront of who Tiber was, but it ended up just another unfinished element in an increasingly congested landscape of characters.
[SPOILER over. Continue reading unafraid.]
With the issues inherent in the script, I found it hard for the actors to really reach their full potential inside these roles. Demetri Martin, someone I think is single-handedly pushing the forefront of comedy, gave a decent performance, resting comfortably in his inherent awkwardness, but he didn’t grow with the character and failed to end the movie a believably stronger person than when he began. Emile Hirsch, one of the strongest actors in his age range, also portrayed a nice mixture of pain and longing from the vantage point of someone only recently returning from the Vietnam war. Unfortunately he also suffered from never truly being explored and remained only a tertiary character on the sidelines of the story. The one person able to actually break through the haze of character cross-pollination was Liev Schreiber, who actually got one of the most odd and at first seemingly insignificant characters in the film, Vilma, the cross dressing ex-marine. Schreiber became the voice of reason, the old wise man/woman inside this drug-induced wonderland of freaks and flower children. He also seemed to pull through because he was the only person who had a real sense of self and a solid belief in what they wanted out of life. Understandably you can’t have the main character like that because there would be no drama, no conflict, no confusion, but it was a welcome relief to have at least one person on a clear path through the wilderness of the Sixties.
The last thing I want to mention is Elliot’s parents: An old world couple which originally played nicely against his modern-sixties lifestyle in the big city and the commonplace fear of the oncoming hippie generation. While the father gets a small arc and gains some much needed perspective on the world, the mother not only fails to learn any type of lesson throughout the film, but remains an irredeemably negative influence on Elliot. Both actors, Henry Goodman (dad) and Imelda Staunton (mom), play their parts quite well, but the failure to allow them to amount to anything holds back any true appreciation.
The End of the Page recommendation: I still remain a fan of Ang Lee and feel he is a master at creating mood and environment, but here he proves that those elements become moot without a compelling and satisfying story to pull it all together. For those looking for a feel-good movie about the effects of a generation of music, try Almost Famous or Velvet Goldmine.
Posted 2 years, 4 months ago at 7:25 am. Add a comment
Big greetings to all the readers out there. You might have been a little troubled and possibly emotionally scarred by the disruption in service yesterday, so for that I humbly apologize. I’ve been working on a new blog design over the past couple months and it finally reached the point where I needed to turn it all on and see it work in action. There were a few bumps in the road along the way, but everything seems to be in place now. There will be more design changes to come, but hopefully they will not interrupt service at all.
Thanks as always for reading and please feel free to leave comments on the posts, share them using the new cool “Share This” widget and keep coming on back! In the coming months you will see some new voices, new topics and an expansion on where this whole project is going. If you have any interest in writing for The End of the Page or maybe just a suggestion on the blog itself, leave me a comment or send an e-mail.
Posted 2 years, 8 months ago at 2:53 pm. Add a comment
Taking the ordinary and introducing it to the out-of-the-ordinary. That’s what Thomas McCarthy said about his films and their underlying stories. Actually, he probably put it a little more eloquently, but you catch the drift. This is indeed the core of nearly all filmmaking and good storytelling. It brings out the eternal question; What happens when the normal world is shifted, knocked askew by any number of forces and how will the people of that world react? Will they run? Will they freeze? Most importantly of all, what would we do in their shoes? Now before you apply these new questions to such deep and powerful films like Beerfest and Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo, let’s start out with something a bit clearer.
The Visitor tells the story of Walter Vale, an economy professor listlessly wandering through his days pretending to be busy so he can negate any chance for human contact since the loss of his wife. He reluctantly makes a trip to New York for a conference and finds a young couple illegally renting his apartment in the city. Being a decent person, he allows them to stay while they look for a new place, but in return he gets much more than new roommates, he finds the doorway to a life which has been passing him by.
Thomas McCarthy creates a wonderfully simple and beautifully timeless world for us so we can bear witness to one of the great abilities in human nature, love. You can break almost any story down into a love story, but The Visitor is one dealing with numerous types of love in one tale. There is the love of music, shown when Tarek, the young man living in William’s apartment, teaches William about the African drum. Through this new musical outlet, William grows not only as a drummer, but as a person as well, allowing himself to open up to the world walking by him and becoming a participant instead of an invisible observer. There is the love of a young couple, shown by Tarek and Zainab, his girlfriend. They are both living in the country under constant fear of deportation, ignorant retaliation and learning to do what they can to get by, but their love for each other keeps them together and puts smiles onto their faces in even the darkest of moments. There is also the love of a mother for her son, shown through the brave journey of Mouna, Tarek’s mother who travels to New York after five days of not being able to reach her son on his cell phone. Sure, that could sound a touch paranoid, but it was the reality this family was living in which made her so concerned. Lastly, just to top off the love-fest, this also tells the story of love coming again to those who have closed themselves off to the idea. No matter what the circumstances, no matter how long it has been, love can always breach those defenses and wake up the heart once more. All these different versions of love are delicately woven together and paired up with a powerful political sentiment around our broken immigration policies and treatment of illegals. Coming off heavy handed is dangerous when dealing with these themes, so subtlety is the name of the game here and McCarthy handles it with the same skill and honesty he showed us before in The Station Agent. As a writer/director his record is incredibly strong, so I recommend keeping an eye out for anything bearing his name.
As with most small stories like this one, much of the weight and success falls on the shoulders of the actors and their ability to deliver realistic, believable and truthful performances. Casting becomes a type of “make-or-break” decision for the project and Thomas McCarthy came well prepared to the table. He had Richard Jenkins in mind for Walter Vale from nearly the beginning and stuck with him even after Richard told him that he would love to play the character, but the movie would most likely never get made with him as the lead. Richard wasn’t saying this out of any type of martyr complex, but he has been a character actor for a great many years without a starring role and he knew his name would not carry much weight on the playbill, yet even with that fact staring him in the face, Thomas stuck to his guns and fought for Richard. After winning all necessary battles, Richard walked into the role with such amazing depth and sensitivity garnering him incredible buzz and murmurs of Academy nominations. If he doesn’t reach the heights of the golden statue this time, he shouldn’t be too heartbroken because I have no doubt a number of the independent awards and smaller organizations are going to give notice and heap praise. There were such small and nuanced details to every moment he portrayed, it was impossible not to feel for him during this journey. From platonic caring to romantic longing, Richard proved once and for all he is a lead actor and one to be learned from. Also involved from near the inception of the story was Hiam Abbass, who played Tarek’s mother, Mouna Khalil. She really fit perfectly with the style and grace of Jenkin’s performance, showing a quiet, reserved, yet insurmountable strength which propelled her character to do absolutely anything to be there for her son. As for the young couple, Haaz Sleiman played Tarek and Danai Jekesai Gurira played Zainab. Both were quite good and held up the incredible level of commitment and quality already being displayed in the film. Haaz boldly followed his ark of being hopeful and optimistic about life in America to barely contained rage over his mistreatment from ignorance and fear. Danai displayed the other side of being a foreigner in this country, the side where they try as best as they can to keep to themselves and not interfere or be noticed for fear of being deported. Her struggle displays one of the true tragedies of the story, where the yellow brick road leading many immigrants to our shores and streets ends on cracked pavement and broken promises.
Recommendation: The Visitor is an amazing film which really brings out the depth of feeling we yearn for from independent cinema. It has had a long and slow burn on the film circuit and at this time can already be found on DVD, so do yourself a favor and buy, rent or borrow this movie as soon as you get the chance. If you’re lucky, the story of Walter Vale might even inspire you to continue on your own journey, wherever it may lead.
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Posted 3 years, 3 months ago at 9:13 pm. 1 comment
Someone told us playing in this tunnel would be “avant-garde”. What a bastard.
Every now and again you are pointed towards something which will shift your day, your mood, maybe your whole life, in a whole new direction. It would be a little presumptuous of me to say this band from Brighton in the UK will do all those things, but I feel safe saying they will at least catch you smiling without knowing it, maybe even reminiscing about another feeling lost so long ago. Either way, there’ll be an affect.
Passenger is a five piece band led by Mike Rosenberg and they slide into the pop/rock scene with a slightly different take on things. The melodies are sweet and the sound is earnest, but if you were to read the lyrics all on their own, you might think something wicked this way comes. The most notable track for the switch hit off their upcoming album, Wicked Man’s Rest, is “Walk You Home”, a upbeat diddy beginning in the world of puppy love and office crushes and ending deep in the shadows and high in the trees of stalkers and obsession. It actually took me a couple listens before I stopped bopping my head to the music and heard the lyric, “I’m the boy with restraining orders”. Can’t say that line pops up a lot in the love songs I usually listen to. Moving forward to a more straight forward track about loneliness and separation, there is “Table for One”, a beautiful ballad which paints not only a simple visual picture, but also an audio landscape to sweep the listener up into its arms. Then, just so we don’t leave out the other side of love affairs, the angry and angst ridden one, there’s “Do What You Like”, a song about letting yourself be played time and time again in the endless hope of winning in the end.
Each of the tracks mentioned above, plus all the others featured on their MySpace page and Official site, have a wonderful sense of purpose, a truth and honesty about feelings and emotions which we often don’t talk about openly. Adding an important extra touch is the humor and levity covering the songs and keeping them from becoming too heavy or melodramatic. Passenger achieves emo-pop power without the black nail polish, eyeliner and social morays.
For those people living in the LA area, Passenger is playing on 8/11 at the Hotel Cafe in downtown Hollywood. It’s a great venue, which I’ve been lucky enough to see them play at once before, and I can think of few better ways to spend a Monday night. Start your work week off right with some happy/sad/clever/infectious live music!
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Posted 3 years, 6 months ago at 12:41 pm. Add a comment
1 – As much as I hate the what has become of the Star Wars franchise and also for what it did to my childhood (listen people, you will never, ever be original or humourous when you say, “You’re name is Luke? He He…I am your father. Ha hahaha get it? Like in the movie with that muppet dude?”), I still have to throw some love out there to the creators of this post from College Humor. This is actually all in the films themselves, but it’s played in the subtext. Just read between the lines and you’ll see it.
2 – The thickness of one’s skin is only truly dependent on the sharpness of the barb.
3 – Have you ever thought to yourself you wanted your PC to be more musical, more tonally impressive? Maybe the real fact is you have never really listened to it correctly. Try it again after watching this video of a musical jam made out of only Windows 98 and XP sounds, I think you’ll hear a distinct difference. [via College Humor]
5 – Leave it to the fanatics to find something a way to turn the upcoming animated Horton Hears a Who! into a protest piece. Pro-Life rallies sprung up at the premier because they latched onto the moral of the story, “A person is a person, no matter how small.” and are using it as an anti-abortion catch phrase. I’m a Pro-Choice person myself, but if someone can bring me proof that at the very moment of conception the cluster of DNA and cells becomes a furry accountant with a penchant for rhyme, that’s when I make the switch. [via Starpulse]
6 – As if there was a role I wouldn’t be happy to see Johnny Depp play, now he is on the lookout for screenwriters who can create a worthwhile story about Salvador Dali. When this film gets made I am only going to be truly happy if Depp plays through a whole scene while it virtually melts around him. [via Starpulse]
7 – I was going to post up the first trailer for Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder, but it was so unimpressive that I decided this other trailer for Zombie Strippers was more valuable to your day. Your welcome. [via FilmDrunk]
8 – There will always be a time when certain things need to be updated, evidently the Catholic Church thinks that time is now and they are planning an overhaul to the seven deadly sins. It seems we as a society have found new and improved ways to offend the almighty and the Church wants to make sure that we are appropriately covered for all our hell-bound needs. [via CNN]
10 – There are a handful of new photos from the upcoming Dark Knight flick. Here is my favorite from the bunch. My personal caption would be, “Do you ever get that feeling like someone is watching you?” [via ComingSoon]
Posted 3 years, 11 months ago at 10:56 am. 1 comment
Who over there keeps requesting songs from “The Wiz”? Seriously, for the last time, that costume was itchy and I’m not doing it.
“Didn’t you kill tons of Nazi’s and go crazy in your last film?”
Conquering is fun!
[via 
DandyID
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