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.'"

Herman Wouk is Still Alive - Stephen King

Stephen King published a new short story in the Atlantic and can be read here for free.  As always, Stephen King's strength is developing characters.  He has this amazing knack for writing characters so believable and clearly realized that you swear he is modeling them after real people in his life.  Not only that, but he can do it with only a few paragraphs.  In this new story, King introduces two characters you would likely see on a website like People of Walmart, a couple of women you couldn't help stare at in disbelief (and probably disgust).  Of course being a King story, they are set on a tragic path that we follow to the bitter end.

The Last Post of Blogger Derek Miller

Derek Miller, blogger from Vancouver, CA, died this past week and left a final message that his family posted after his death.  He was 41 and lost a long fight with colorectal cancer.  He seems to have found peace in the end, and shares this in his message.  Read his last post here.

Solomon Burke - Greatest Hits

I just recently was introduced to Solomon Burke's music.  I have never really gotten into classic R&B, just kind of admired it from afar.  But that was a mistake.  Hearing one of the kings of soul music at the top of his game is like a breath of fresh air.  This is the kind of music that will put a smile on your face, just good old-fashioned rythym and blues.  Take a listen to some of his most well-known songs below, and then go and get his greatest hits album.

This first one you will recognize from the Blues Brothers cover...

The Hobbit - Behind the Scenes (Part 1)

I must admit that when I heard a few weeks back that Peter Jackson chose to film The Hobbit using 3D for dramatic effect, in order to "give a point of view" I got a pretty bad feeling about these movies.  Did anyone who saw the Lord of the Rings trilogy think, yeah this is good but if only it was shot in 3D... How does adding a third dimension add to the great storytelling of Middle Earth?  I could go on, but I think this recent surge in the third dimension in films will die all by itself life just like all the past incarnations.

So coming in with this skepticism I saw Jackson's first installment of the behind the scenes filming of the Hobbit.  Needless to say, just getting a glimpse of the care and detail that Jackson puts into filming these epic stories reminded me of the miracle he put together to get the trilogy filmed.  So, I will put my skepticism aside and be optimistic that he will do an amazing job just as we have come to expect.  Just hearing the Hobbiton theme song and seeing the sets in this video got my nerd-side excited.

The Civil War and Lincoln Assasination From Both Sides

Recently I've been reading Gore Vidal's Lincoln and was reminded of a book I read a few years ago, American Brutus, by Michael Kauffman.  Both tell the story of the Civil war years and the events leading up to and following the assassination of Lincoln, with American Brutus from the viewpoint of the assassin Booth and his fellow conspirators, and Lincoln primarily from the viewpoint of Lincoln and his administration.  What makes them so much more than a dry recitation of historical events is they both are written as pieces of fiction, detailing all the events large and small in a cohesive story.

Instead of leaving out key events and conversations that are not documented in the written histories, both authors attempt to fill in those gaps with dialogue and actions of the main characters that can only be guessed on.  This way the characters become more fully formed and believable than you might see from history books, experiencing real human emotions.  You might think that the creative license taken by these authors may take away from their credibility, and you may have been right if these stories were left to less capable hands.  But clearly these authors have done their homework, and their historical guesswork mixes in flawlessly with historical facts.  It's fascinating to see those small moments of laughter, humilation, anger, and fear being experienced by these (until now) very set-in-stone and unknowable characters in history.  So these books give you the best of both worlds, great insight into events that laid the foundation for this country, and a top-notch story full of characters to keep you turning the pages.

Marwencol - Independent Lens

I was watching tv the other night and stumbled upon this documentary on PBS Independent Lens and it sucked me in.  It told the story of a man finding his way while  recovering from a brutal attack after a night at the bar.  He was targeted by a group of guys just because they overheard he liked to cross-dress.  The attack left him in a coma, and emotionally and physically scarred almost beyond repair.

The story of his recovery would have been interesting in itself, but his choice of self-therapy is what really blew my mind.  To escape the torture of the memories, he buried himself in a make-believe world of his creation.  He created a miniature town in his yard, Marwencal, and filled it with characters from his life.  He dressed up dolls to represent the townspeople and played out imagined story-lines.

But his creation would have gone unknown to everyone but a few people close to him, if not for his photography skills.  It turns out he had an instinctive knack for photography that he would use to capture scenes of his dolls in his imaginary town.  The documentary shows how by chance his photos were seen by a professional photographer, which lead to his very private collection of photos being exposed to the art-world.

At the core of this amazing film is the story of this genuine underdog.  A man with his world torn to shreds, and in the aftermath finds a way to channel his pain and anger into works of art that transcend his private experience and go on to inspire others.  It's a must-see.  You can check out re-runs on PBS.  Below are some of his amazing photos and the trailer for the documentary.  Here's the website for the film.

The Civil War - A film by Ken Burns

I am a huge Ken Burns fan. It's funny, when you watch a Ken Burns documentary, you think yep, this is exactly the way a documentary should be.   But then you realize no one made documentaries quite like this until he came along.  We all know it when we see it, that now-famous Ken Burns style: 1) telling a story from the perspective of a range of characters (from presidents to housekeepers) that we'll follow through the whole unfolding drama, 2) a 3rd person narration throughout the film with voice actors filling in quotations from characters in the story, 3) photographs depicting scenes from the subject matter that are zoomed in on and panned to mimic a moving image and provide better context, and 4) a musical soundtrack with a mix of era-specific tunes and modern-day originals to highlight story events.

Of course, these are the technical details of the Ken Burns style that wouldn't matter much if Ken Burn's story telling skills were not on the same level.   Luckily, Burns is up to the task.  He can take on a topic as focused as Lewis and Clark's expedition or as broad as Baseball or our National Parks, and tie together a compelling narrative that he can hold together for a 10-part, 10-hour miniseries, just as easily as an hour-long episode.

So I had seen just about every Burns documentary, except for his first and maybe his most famous, The Civil War.  Recently I started reading Gore Vidal's book Lincoln and decided I could watch the Civil War documentary sort of simultaneously (recently getting Netflix streaming on my blu-ray player also helped).  So I'm watching it, and it's awesome.  And you might think that 11 hours is a little more time than you'd like to spend watching a documentary.  But I find it's just like the WWII drama Band of Brothers. Once you finish the last episode, 10 hours in, you are easily ready for 10 hours more.

Below is the trailer for the series.  And just because I can... below that is Bob Dylan's video for "Cross the Green Mountain," which is a great song (shortened for the video) from the perspective of a confederate soldier from the soundtrack for the film Gods and Generals.  Dylan loves to play dress-up.

THE CIVIL WAR SERIES: Movie TrailerJason Robards, Ken Burns

Time out of Mind - Bob Dylan

 

So in yesterday's post I talked about my favorite movie of all time, and it got me thinking that I have never talked about my favorite musician, or my favorite album for that matter.  So it's Bob Dylan, and the album is Time out of Mind, hands down.  Some Dylan fans, when they think Dylan they think the classic 60's acoustic stuff.  They think Freewheeling Bob Dylan, or his self titled debut, or the many bootlegs from that era and stop there.  Of course, most also love his early electric albums (definitely some of his best) like Blonde on Blonde, Blood on the Tracks, Highway 61.  But many fans see his religious albums (a post for another time) in the late 70's early 80's and his later drought in that decade and go no further.  But my interest in Dylan really begins with 90's Dylan.  There is something so perfect about an aged Dylan.  Because he spent his entire youth trying to sound old, trying to be that weathered, beaten down drifter that he sang about in all those early folk tunes.  But how could he really reach his potential until he truly became that old man, with most of his life in the rear-view?

His very best in my mind, yes better than those 60's classics is Time Out of Mind from 97'.  I'm not gonna try and describe how good it is, or why I love it so much, that may be nauseating.  Basically, it combines some of Dylan's best poetry of his career with the swamp beat rhythm of sound inspired by producer Daniel Lanois.  It's dark: like death is on his doorstep and he is letting out all the pain and regret and heartache that he has accumulated his entire life.  So, it's not a cheery album.  If there ever was the perfect rainy day album this is definitely it.

And after listening to the album countless times over a decade I thought the story was written on Time out of Mind until Dylan's 8th bootleg recording came out, Tell Tale Signs, in 2008.   Amazingly, 2 songs which could easily have been considered the album's best, Dylan axed for the final album cut.  One of them, Mississippi (My favorite song of all time), he included in his 2001 album Love and Theft and different cuts are also included in the bootleg album, and Red River Shore (worth the price of the album alone) are included in the bootleg release.  So, he makes an album (in my opinion his best) that went on to win album of the year at the Grammy's, and he didn't even include arguably the 2 best songs.  Crazy.

I wish I could post every song here but the copyright police would come calling.  Below are a couple of videos with songs from the album.  Forget the videos, just listen to the songs.  These are probably the most well known songs from the album (and it's probably why they are on youtube).  The first one you may have heard in a number of different movies, and the second one Dylan let Victoria Secret famously use in an ad.  If you are interested at all after listening just go buy the album.  Then dim the lights, put on the headphones and enjoy, maybe with a dark beer to drink (but that's just me).

The Tree of Life

Just saw the trailer for Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, and I must say I'm pretty stoked.  I come into it a little biased since I hold his previous film The Thin Red Line above all others.  Yes, it is my favorite movie, and yes, it even surpasses The Goonies ;) (Although that movie wins the most viewed award for me).  I know for many people, his film The Thin Red Line was a failure.  Maybe what was most unfortunate was that it was released the same year as the hugely popular Saving Private Ryan, and though both films are about WWII, they couldn't be more different.   I guess I could try and explain how The Thin Red Line was much more than a war film, how it was a film about the human experience that used WWII as a backdrop to try and explain the underlying truths of  human nature.  But in reality my description would come up short because Terrence Malick is the only one that really could describe his vision.  And even then, the movie can mean something very specific to Malick, yet say something completely different to a viewer.

But regardless of what the movie was supposed to be saying, it has always spoken to me. The singing of the aboriginal peoples, the score of Hans Zimmer, the cadence of the nature images, and the raw emotion from the characters have all worked for me at a level so much deeper than any other film I have ever watched. Ebert describes this sort of feeling we can experience while watching a film as "Elevation."  He writes about it here.  He explains that for years when people asked him "how do you know a movie is great?"  He always replied "I feel a tingling in my spine.  People look at me blankly.  I explain that I feel an actual physical sensation that does not depend on the abstract quality of the movie, but on--well, my visceral feelings."  That's exactly right. The movies I hold higher than all others, are the ones that literally make my spine tingle.  And The Thin Red Line does this for me more than any other.  Ebert goes on to say "I have observed before that we live in a box of space and time, and movies can open a window in the box. One human life, closely observed, is everyone's life.  In the particular is the universal.  Empathy is the feeling that most makes us human.  Elevation may be the emotion caused when we see people giving themselves up, if only for a moment, to caring about others."

Just think about the movies that have really stuck with you.  I bet those films have brought you "elevation" moments.  For me, how about when Elliot hugs E.T. at the end, or in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, when Steve Martin brings John Candy home with him, or in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind when (after both having their memories erased) the couple meet each other a second time and can't help but fall in love again.  Everyone has their own favorites.

So, my expectations are high for The Tree of Life.  Maybe too high...we'll see.

Game of Thrones - HBO

Just watched the first episode of HBO's Game of a Thrones, a medieval drama that follows a struggle for power in a mythical world.  All you Tolkien fans are getting excited, right?

Roughly from what I remember the show went like this:

• dreamy winter setting 
• an ambush and bloody feast by a (magical?) mythical beast (Think the movie The Village, if the beasts were real and it took place a few hundred years earlier)
• A cool title screen that introduces the different regions like a board game
• introduction of the main players all vying for power in this imaginary realm
• A secret plot to overthrow the king
• tits and screwing
• a dwarf
• a fat lecherous king
• the boy prince that watches his father behead a deserter
• more tits 
• a weird incestuous brother selling his sister to gain an army
• a beach-side wedding
• many more tits
• ceremonial killing
• a beach-side raping
• an underdog hero who will protect the king from plotting rivals
• more screwing (more incest?)
• and the possible death of the boy prince

Sounds like another winner from HBO!  And a dream come true for every guy who ever played role playing games as a kid.  Now with a chance to see boobs!

Roger Ebert's talk at TED

Great Stuff.  Ebert says, through his wife Chaz, "If I were in this condition at any point before a few cosmological instances ago I would be isolated as a hermit.  I would be trapped within my head.  Because of the rush of human knowledge, because of the digital revolution, I have a voice, and I do not need to scream."  Makes you question the whole Idea that the internet is a place for people to avoid real human interaction.  For some, the internet can be an outlet for expression that they cannot have anywhere else.

The Power of Lonely - Boston Globe article

A recent article in the Boston Globe, written by Leon Neyfakh, discusses the benefits of alone time.  The topic interests me because I've always liked spending time by myself either reading a book, watching a movie, or spending time outdoors.  But there seems to be this social stigma attached to being alone, that somehow it's not natural, and must be a result of some social disorder.  Certainly having a balance between being social and having alone time is ideal and likely varies for each person.  But it's great to see an article that recognizes the benefits of spending time away from social interaction from time to time. I can really relate to the author's discussion of the enjoyment one can have when seeing a movie alone rather than with others, where "Sitting there in the theater with nobody next to you, you’re not wondering what anyone else thinks of it; you’re not anticipating the discussion that you’ll be having about it on the way home. All your mental energy can be directed at what’s happening on the screen."  And that idea can be applied to anything we do alone.  When we are alone we are not wondering what others think, and can better focus on the world around us.  That can be kind of liberating.

Movie Review - Rango

Think Pixar on an acid trip and you get Rango.  Rango may be in the category of "kids" movie but really it's just a great adventure/comedy that will appeal to everybody.  I haven't had that much fun in the theater since The Hangover.  Rango (Johnny Depp) is a fish...or ahem...lizard out of water that is thrown out of his aquarium home (quite literally) and left to fend for himself in the wild west.  Rango is not your average underdog hero, he is a quirky self-proclaimed thespian that is lonlier than he knows - since he is too busy living in his head to notice.

I guess it's a typical "kids" movie plot where an unexpected downtrodden character finds adventure everywhere he turns, and ultimately finds friendship and love along the way.  But unlike your average kids movie the laughs are bigger.  Kinda like Shrek they really push the adult humor - just out of reach of a child's comprehension.  Plus, the characters are fully-formed and not just your stereotypical plot fillers, which makes this much more engaging than you'd expect.

The whole movie takes on a sort of surreal look, starting off with the wierd-featured Rango, and all the supporting cast of misfit animals.  Plus, there are some really trippy moments when Rango is wandering through the desert, hallucinating, and asking that age-old question "who am I."  Does the "man with no-name" have the answer?  You'll have to watch and see.  4 stars.