Wilfred

So I saw a few really weird commercials for FX's new series Wilfred and I had no idea what to expect.  I knew Elijah Wood was in it and a guy dressed up in a dog costume but that's about it.  I watched the first episode last week, and I still have little idea what's going on.  But damn it was funny.  It follows a depressed, suicidal man, Ryan (Elijah Wood), who seems to be living a life that he has let others choose for him.  No surprise that he is miserable.  Suddenly, a new friend enters his life, the neighbor's dog, Wilfred (Jason Gann).  But the dog is actually a guy dressed in a dog suit.  Is he hallucinating this?  Sure seems like it.  Maybe this will be resolved in future episodes, maybe not.  Is Wilfred someone who can get Ryan to break out of his depression and live life on his own terms?  Maybe.  Is Wilfred setting up Ryan for disaster?  Maybe.  Either way it will be fun to watch.  Watch the trailer below.

Movie Review - Super 8

Coming off of his success re-launching the Star Trek series, J.J. Abrams gives us nostalgia for those early Spielberg classics with his new film Super 8.   And in many ways he pulls it off.   What I think is lacking in many movies these days are films depicting real kids, acting like real kids.  This is what Spielberg perfected in E.T.  It's so refreshing to see kids seen as full realized characters, not just set-pieces to create drama.  For some reason, movies in the 80's were full of movies driven by kids as the main actors, with stories that adults could not only tolerate but really enjoy: E.T, Stand By Me, The Goonies, The Lost Boys, Karate Kid.  Rarely do we see movies involving kids that approach anything worth spending $11 for these days.

But J. J. Abrams takes a play out of Spielberg's playbook here, and puts the story of a mysterious creature running a muck in small-town U.S.A. in the hands of child-actors.  And it pays off big time.  The early scenes when we are meeting the characters and watching this gang of kids make a home movie, is probably the best part of the film for me.  The kids are witty, funny, and emotional, but all with that innocence you can't get with adult characters.  Actually, the kids are so good, it highlights how weak and little developed the few adult characters are.  The adults (the two father-figures) are clearly playing types to set-up the big heartfelt reunion at the end.

But that feel of early Spieberg is for the most part a welcome sight, even if it is pretty heavy-handed in some places - heck, even the setting of late 70's America evokes those films.  And although it was an original score by Michael Giacchino, you would swear John Williams was behind the music.  There are many scenes and shots that are direct homages to E.T.:  the mass of flashlights running through the dark, the mad dash through town by the kids during a climactic scene, and a menacing scene inside a government-run labratory.  But although noticable to any Spielberg fan, I thought all of this hat-tipping rarely took away from the story or the fun of watching a good sci-fi thriller - until the last scene that is.

doing their best E.T. impersonation

Once the screen faded to black, I couldn't help imagine J. J. Abrams struggling with how to the end this film, and after days of getting nowhere he watches the end of E.T. for inspiration.  He thinks, well, it worked in E.T., let's just copy the ending.  Within a couple minutes of the end of the film, all the conflicts in the movie are all neatly wrapped up to set up that perfect E.T. ending, as all the main characters look on with tear-filled embraces and watch the space-ship with the departing alien aboard as he speeds away into the night.  End credits.  And if E.T. was on-board I may have understood the scene repeat, but here's an alien that (yes, deserves sympathy) but just ate half the town!  You can't have an E.T. ending when the heartfelt goodbye is to a mass-murderer.  Plus, the moment of heartbrake as the child symbolically let's go of his missing parent, played out to perfection in E. T., is so deliberately thrown in here for emotional impact as to be laughable.  Did I mention this scene bugged me?

Ok, Ok, despite the ending and the wooden adult characters, the movie was still a lot of fun and a great, family-friendly summer flick.  Enjoy!  3 Stars.

Bernard Herrmann at 100

Check out this great photo essay of one the first masters of film scores.  Bernard Hermann wrote music for a film the way a screenwriter would create drama and intrigue for their characters.  He would write music to suit a character's mood, heighten a scene's tension and turmoil, and bring a bit of the inner phsycology of a character out in the open.  Although par for the course these days, he was the first to work with the filmaker from early shooting through editing, crafting music for the film, and doing all the orchestrations.  He learned his craft in the trenches with Orson Welles, conducting the music for his radio productions in the late thirties.  What he perfected on those radio broadcasts is use of music to transition between scenes and tie dialogue together.  He took those lessons learned from radio and went on to score Citizen Kane, some of Hitchcock's greatests: Vertigo, Psycho, North by Northwest, and many sci-fi classics.  Below is some of his work, including a tribute with a compilation of his scores.

I've thought for a while that there needs to be more symphonies touring and playing film scores.  That would be a fun show!  And if there were scenes of some of those great films playing as a backdrop - even better!

Werner Herzog reads "Go the F**k to Sleep"

I am not a parent, but this book must resonate with all those parents out there. And having Wernor Herzog do the narration is just brilliant. Who wouldn't want to be put to sleep by that guy's voice? That dreamy, wordly voice of his sure sets up that perfect contrast between patiently...whispering...children to sleep...zzzzzz, and saying F**k it! Just Go To Sleep Already!

Peter Ostroushko - Heart of the Heartland

This song, originally written by Peter Ostroushko for his album of the same name, was first imprinted on my brain about 12 years ago when watching Ken Burn's great documentary about Lewis and Clark.  Heart of the Heartland being one of many originals and traditional folk tunes that are on that soundtrack that I've been addicted to ever since.  I actually just ordered a dirt-cheap mandolin, in part just so I can learn to play this song - oh and other tunes I guess...

Movie Review - The Cave of Forgotten Dreams

 

32,000 year-old cave paintings, all perfectly preserved as if sketched yesterday, surrounded by bones and footprints of animals long since extinct.  I don't think Werner Herzog could have picked a more awe-inspiring topic for his latest documentary, The Cave of Forgotten Dreams.  The title refers to the dreams of prehistoric man, and the unknown motivations they had for creating their artwork.  Werner investigates this theme throughout the documentary, all the while interviewing quirky researchers, and devoted caretakers of the Chauvet Cave in Southern France where the paintings are found.

As expected from a Herzog documentary, he intermixes serious philosophical questions with his characteristic off-beat, dry humor, all in his Bavarian accent, which makes everything seem more profound and worldly.  For instance, after talking to an archeologist about ongoing research at the cave, he will talk to a perfumist that puts his keen nose to use by sniffing rocks to try and find new cave systems.  But among the odd interviewees he also finds truly insightful, humble folks that are never short of interesting observations and different perspectives, bringing depth to the story.

But the movie really shines when Herzog remains quiet and lets the paintings do the talking for themselves.  Herzog made a conscious decision to film the paintings so movie-goers would see them as closely as early man would have viewed them.  He uses moving electric lights to mimic flickering torchlight, and in the best use of the technology I have seen, uses 3D to show how the texture of the walls themselves played a critical role in the composition of the paintings.  There are long stretches of the film where the camera pans across the paintings with only aboriginal chanting to accompany the images.  These sequences are worth the price of admission alone.  Herzog allows the viewer to contemplate these ancient sketches in solitude.  It's as if prehistoric man is trying to reach out to us, to share a piece of themselves, those dreams long forgotten.  It's as close to a spiritual experience as you can come in a movie theater.  3.5 stars.

Master of Play - New Yorker Article

 
"When you play his games, you feel like you’re a kid and you’re out in the back yard playing in the dirt." 

- from Master of Play by Nick Paumgarten, The New Yorker

I think we all have different memories of play as a kid, and remember many of those times as some of the best of our lives.  Everything we experienced, like playing Nerf football on the street, or trading baseball cards, or catching tadpoles, today will put a smile on our face and often make us wish we still had that same wonder and excitement today.  And for those of us from the Nintendo Generation, we all have a similar memory that immediately brings us that smile and gives us those warm fuzzy feelings.  The names are legendary in our minds: Super Mario Brothers, The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong.  These were more than just video games, and it wasn't just because they were the first games we played.  They were also the best video games we would ever see in our lives.  And they were all created by Shigeru Miyamoto.  Miyamoto created what every artist dreams of: unique, unrivaled masterpieces of their medium that forever are the benchmarks that everything that comes after is compared to.

"Miyamoto has designed or overseen the development of many other blockbusters, among them the Legend of Zelda series, Star Fox, and Pikmin. Their success, in both commercial and cultural terms, suggests that he has a peerless feel for the pull, that he is a master of play—of its components and poetics—in the way that Walt Disney, to whom he is often compared, was of sentiment and wonder. Certainly, in Mario, the squat Italian plumber who bops around the Mushroom Kingdom in a quest to rescue Princess Toadstool, Miyamoto created a folk hero—gaming’s first—with as great a reach as Mickey Mouse’s."

Miyamoto's greatness comes from a source of wonder and curiosity he experienced growing up in rural Japan that he constantly draws from during his creative process.  He seems to have devoted his life to creating games that bring the same joy and happiness that he had as a kid exploring the forests and caves near his home.  Definetely ironic that his love of nature inspired his love of video game development, but somehow that makes sense.  When you play Mario Brothers or Zelda, undertaking a quest through a magical world, you can definitely see the connection.

As author Nick Paumgarten discusses, what sets Miyamotos' games apart from the rest are their perfect combination of joy and challenge.  I think this balance is what Miyamoto perfected in those early Nintendo games, and when we look back now we see that no video game since then has struck that same balance.

"His games strike this magical balance between the excitement that comes from facing new problems and the swagger from facing down old ones. The consequent sensation of confidence is useful, in dealing with a game’s more challenging stages, but also a worthy aim in itself. 'A lot of the so-called ‘action games’ are not made that way,' Miyamoto told me. 'All the time, players are forced to do their utmost. If they are challenged to the limit, is it really fun for them?' In his own games, Miyamoto said, 'You are constantly providing the players with a new challenge, but at the same time providing them with some stages or some occasions where they can simply, repeatedly, do something again and again. And that itself can be a joy.'"