Chungking Express

Chungking Experess is a film by director Wong Kar-Wai, one of my personal favorite directors. Wong Kar-Wai is an auteur, and like David Lynch or Tim Burton, all of his films takes place in a similar universe, and touch on similar themes. With a WKW movie, it's not so much the story that's important, it's the characters and visual style. Almost all his movies have the same basic plot, lonely people yearning for love, but it's done in different ways.

Chungking Express was the first film I saw by Wong Kar-Wai, and while it is a lot like his other stuff, it's also something of an anomaly, in that it's by far the most upbeat of his films. The characters may be unhappy at times, but there's a sense of optimism throughout the film, accented perfectly by the music throughout.

The film has two parts. The first one is good, but it's a bit less engaging than what comes later. The best part about the first part is the shooting style. The fabled "Chungking shot" is used brilliantly, and it adds a great sense of atmosphere to things. I love the blonde woman and He Qiwu's meeting in the bar, and the scene with the pager at the end. However, after you watch the film, that's not what sticks with you, it's the second half where the true greatness lies.

The second half is about the interaction between Faye and Officer 633, a customer at the fast food stand where she works. There are two reasons that this sequence is so great. First is Faye Wong, who's amazing. There are certain people who might not even be great actors, but when they're on screen, they're just magnetic and you can't help but love the character. Spike from Buffy is a great example of this, as is Samuel L. Jackson in most of his roles, and even Mary-Louise Parker in Angels in America, and Faye is definitely one of these people. She's got such an infectious energy and optimism, almost single handedly she makes this sequence unique among Wong Kar-Wai's stuff. If you compare her to the female agent from Fallen Angels, they're in basically the same situation, but she handles things very differently. She sees the glass as half full.

Faye is complimented by great use of music. Some say that 'California Dreamin' is used too much in this movie, but I never get sick of it, and it says so much about Faye's state of mind. I love her dance with the ketchup and tongs to the song. It shows how she brings this joy to where she works. I also like the fact that the characters within the movie hear the song too, and it's used as a plot point. The other great musical moment is the montage to the Chinese version of 'Dreams,' where Faye hangs out in 633's house. It's just so full of life and joy, fitting the character and the movie.

Tony Leung is something of the straight man to Faye, but he gets some good material. I like the talking to inanimate objects in his house, notably the towel. I also love when he says, "I'm becoming more perceptive," despite not noticing all of the many changes that Faye has made to his house.

WKW does some of his best stylistic stuff here. I don't think it's as strong visually as Fallen Angels is, but some shots are just gorgeous, notably the two still people/fast motion around them shots, first with Faye looking at Tony, and second with Tony at the jukebox in the California restaurant. I also love the scene where Faye puts the fan on her face, self consciously trying to make herself look cooler.

I love the ending of the movie, it's the most unashamedly upbeat ending of any WKW film. Fallen Angels and Happy Together both have sort of reluctant happy endings, but this one is just completely upbeat.

Faye: "Where do you want to go"
Tony: "Wherever you want to take me."

And then 'Dreams' hits, it's great, and such a perfect ending. WKW knows how to end a movie, as evidenced by the brilliant closing shot of Fallen Angels, which rivals this. Is this his best movie? I'm not sure, Faye is definitely the best character, but Fallen Angels has a lot of great stuff too. Regardless, they're complimentary pieces and both equally great. See them.

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Angels in America

Over the past couple of days, I watched the HBO miniseries Angels in America. It's a six hour thing, that aired earlier this year. The first notable thing about this is the cast, which includes Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson and one of my favorite actresses, Mary-Louise Parker. Also, it's directed by Mike Nichols, who directed the recent film, Closer, and way back in 1966, he directed The Graduate. The man is 73 years old, and he directed a six hour miniseries and a two hour film in the same year, both of which are very much in touch with how young people today behave. They're both based on plays, so he probably didn't have a huge role in setting the story direction, but the fact is, he gets how people interact, and it feels natural. He's still in touch with what's happening with people today, unlike directors like Woody Allen or Martin Scorcese, who no longer attempt to do movies set in the present.

I really liked Closer, but it felt very theatrical, particularly at the beginning. There were a couple of scenes that were filmed in an interesting way, notably the beginning, and the scene with Alice and Larry in the private room, but it was really an actor's showcase. I thought the acting in the movie was phenomenal and it was a strong story, but it didn't feel very filmic.

However, with Angels in America, Nichols makes a very visual film that surpasses Closer, and is just a really impressive piece of filmmaking. The movie's about a bunch of people in 1985, and the way that AIDS affects their lives.

The most interesting character for me was Harper. She's the wife of a closested homosexual Mormon, and spends all her days alone at home taking pills. As a result of the pills, she has these bizarre hallucinations, accompanied by a "travel agent," a mysterious character who turns up to talk with her. She was a semi-crazy character, but she was always played as the sane one. We're present during her hallucinations, so her view of the world, and her frustrations are more relevant to us than Joe's remoteness. I love the sequence in Antarctica, which looks great, and says a lot about her character's state of mind.

Throughout the whole film, I love the mixture of supernatural elements with the mundane. We're never quite sure where the character's hallucinations end and the reaity of the world begin. In the beginning of the movie we see Pryor and Harper wander into each other's hallucinations, which is the first hint that there's some kind of actual supernatural activity going on in the world of the story. Later, when Pryor and Hannah both see the angel, we get the idea that there really is a higher purpose at work behind the scenes of the story. I like the fact that despite the presence of fantasy elements, the story remains emotionally real. Very few works are able to, or even attempt to balance reality and fantasy in the way that this one does. The angel is used symbolically, but without being so obviously symbolic as to make it ridiculous. There's both the literal level and the metaphorical level.

The miniseries reminded me of Preacher in a number of ways, most notably in the fact that the thing that throws everything into action is the fact that God has left heaven. When Pryor speaks before the angels at the end of the movie, and says that if God comes back, they should sue him, it's the equivalent of the saint of killers shooting God at the end of Preacher. Also, the idea that Pryor is imbued with this power, and has a mission to save humanity ties in with what happens in Preacher. Both series have essentially the same theme, which is, you can't rely on God to save you, you have to out and take control of your own life. This is notable in the characters of Hannah and Lewis. Lewis first abandons Pryor, but realizes, it's his duty to stand by him during his illness. For Hannah, it's the fact that morally, she's obligated to save Pryor, even if she disapproves of his lifestyle. Preacher has the same idea, that you must live by your own moral code, and alwyas uphold that.

I really liked the way that the story of Hannah and Pryor came together at the end, and the parallels between the two of them. Their dynamic was really interesting, and I like the theme the movie presents there, the idea that where normally people see only stereotypes, if you look a little deeper, you can find connections. Both Pryor and Hannah would in theory hate each other, but when they actually meet and talk, they realize they have a lot in common, and a lot to learn from each other. This is a counterpoint to Louis, who, even though he clearly has a connection with Joe, is unable to come to terms with the fact that he's dating a Republican and a Mormon. He sees people in terms of labels, rather than seeing the people as they actually are.

It's interesting that Louis is consistently presented as at least an annoying, if not outright dislikable character. He has a lot of liberal guilt, and an inability to see past his principles, to see the people themselves rather than the stereotype he has in his head. That's ultimately his failure, when he sees the disease in Pryor, rather than Pryor himself.

This series brought to mind my favorite TV series of all time, Twin Peaks, a number of times. The obvious way was in the interaction between quasi-mystical figures and ordinary people. The use of the angel and the travel agent recalls the Man from Another Place and the Giant. Also, the angel herself brought to mind the end of Fire Walk With Me. I don't think they pull off the use of the archetypal angel image as well as Lynch did there, but it works well. I love the black angel at the end of the movie.

Are there flaws in the movie? Yeah, I'd say that Roy Cohn isn't really necessary to the plot, and his story doesn't tie in that much with everything else that happens. I suppose thematically there's connections, but so much time is spent with him, and it just sort of ends on its own, when you expect to connect a bit more with the main story. I suppose the medicine is crucial, but was that worth the creation of an entire plot? Everything else seemed so tightly knit, I guess that made the Roy Cohn stuff seem unconnected in comparison. Also, I get that it's a movie about AIDS and the gay community, but it was a bit odd that every single character, with the exception of Harper was gay. There were a lot of hints that Hannah was a lesbian, and I'm glad that wasn't explored. I suppose that also might be connected to the fact that I wanted Harper to get a happy ending, and there was no one there for her to love.

But, I did love Harper's last speech, about the souls rising and filling the hole in the ozone layer. I also liked the way she delivered it directly to the camera. Also, the 1990 coda was really well done, and gave you a sense of hope after all the bad stuff that happened during the movie. There was such a sense of friendship and love, it showed that all the bad stuff really was worth it.

So, a great production, amazing acting, especially from Mary-Louise Parker and Justin Kirk, top notch effects and direction. I think the best testament might be that unlike almost all other TV miniseries, nothing here seemed like filler, and if I could have, I'd have watched the six hours straight through. It was compulsively watchable, and I just kept wanting to go on.

In the Mood for Deleted Scenes: The Coda to Wong Kar-Wai's 60s trilogy

Continuing the journey into blog obscurity, I'm going to take a look at the deleted scenes from a film that very few people saw, in relation to a film that hasn't even been released here in the States. However, it's a great film, and the deleted scens add a lot to the universe of the story, the 60s Wong Kar-Wai verse.

In the Mood For Love is all about the unrequited love between Chow and Su Li-Zhen. They are neighbors, each married, and their spouses are having an affair. This puts them in an awkward position. Clearly, both of their marriages lack passion, with everyone consumed in work and alienated from each other. Chow and Su Li-Zhen grow closer together, as they try to first solve the mystery of whether an affair is going on, and then acting out how they think the affair came about. In the second half of the film, they're brought together writing a martial arts serial, at Chow's secret apartment, apartment 2046. The thing I like about this section of the film is the ambiguity. We're not sure exactly what's up with the two of them, except for the fact that they're clearly in love, and belong with each other, except that neither of them can pull the trigger, which leads to the ending, where Chow goes off to Singapore, having missed SLZ's calls to him, saying that she'd like to go with him. Three years later, Chow is in Cambodia, speaking his secrets into a hole, unable to reconnect with SLZ.

For all I knew, the next chunk of their tale was in the film 2046. Here, we follow Chow, who is living an extreme bachelor lifestyle, a reaction to the opportunities he missed with SLZ. Chow has put SLZ on a pedestal, and can't see past her. He becomes involved with a number of women, but can't allow himself to love them. At the end of the film, we're led to believe that he'll continue on this path for the rest of his life, doomed to a life of unhappiness because he had the chance for love in the past and missed it. He'll forever be trying to get to 2046, where you can find lost memories, and nothing ever changes.

However, that was not the end of the story. I was going through the In the Mood for Love DVD bonus features and found some deleted scenes. Now, WKW shoots a ton of stuff for each of his films, so I was expecting some pretty crazy stuff in the deleted scenes section. What I was not expecting was a coda for the whole story, but that's what I got, about 15 minutes of footage that answers almost all the questions you have left after 2046. Now, is the footage canon in the world of the story? I'm not sure, but I feel like it fits in with what came before, and thematically it's right there with 2046.

The first deleted scene is "Postcards." In this scene, we hear a radio broadcast, in which Chow sends birthday greetings to SLZ. Later, SLZ gets tickets to Singapore from her boss, and goes there. While there, she seeks out Chow, but ends up having dinner with Ah Ping. It's pretty clear that she is still in love with him, and if he was there, she probably would have finally said how she felt, it's just he wasn't, so another moment passes.

The second scene, chronologically is "A Lost Encounter," which occurs directly before what is now the end of In the Mood For Love. While in Cambodia, Chow runs into SLZ, and asks her if she called him before he left for Singapore, which she did. She says she can't remember. Here, we see Chow reaching out to her, but she rejects him, and it probably leads to the lifestyle we see him leading in 2046.

The 70s is my favorite of the deleted scenes, and is a coda for both films. At the beginning, we see a woman looking to rent SLZ's apartment. SLZ has stayed alone in Hong Kong, while her husband and son have gone abroad. She'll stay there until she sells the house. When the woman leaves, we find out that the house has already been sold, but SLZ is staying there anyway. Then, we find out that the woman is actually Chow's current girlfriend, and she wants him to go to the apartment and confront SLZ, because she thinks that he is still obsessed with her. Lulu, the woman here, is the same as Bai Ling in 2046, someone who loves Chow, but he still can't commit to her. She is trying to make him confront the past, but he can't do it. He's too scared. However, eventually we end up back at the noodle bar, where SLZ and Chow first met. She sees him emerge from the smoke, and they stare at each other, but we never hear what they say to each other. The scene cuts, and we find out that SLZ is ready to move on now. She tells her husband she's coming to join him, however, she's clearly profoundly sad.

What happened when they met in the noodle bar? I'd imagine they both desperately wanted to say everything they felt, but ended up just making small talk, or possibly not even talking at all, and just staring at each other. It's clearly not something good, SLZ did not get closure, so much as give up her dream. It clearly still haunts her, and she is far from happy. Tony will continue in the same pattern until he's too old to get girls anymore, at which point, he'll spend the rest of his life alone. Bit of a downer ending, that.

I love these scenes because the one thing I felt 2046 was missing was Maggie Cheung. She's glimpsed, but I needed just a little bit more, and this gave me that, though I still desperately want to see the Maggie Cheung robot scene, which will hopefully turn up on a Criterion release of 2046. I'd love to get another coda, from the 2046 deleted scenes.

Another thing to love about the scenes is we get a glimpse of a new time period, the 70s. I love the look of Mood, but it's something WKW has covered a lot, so it's really cool to see the 70s, as seen by WKW. Tony Leung has some awesome glasses, and Maggie Cheung looks really cool, with an awesome coat. When you see them together, separated by the steam, it's beautiful. I'd love to have seen more 70s stuff, it feels much more now than the 60s stuff, which seemed very removed from today, style wise. Emotionally, it's all timeless stuff.

The other scenes tell you a lot as well. It's painful to watch these two people destroy themselves because they can't tell the truth, but their awkward attempts to broach the subject are all too real.

So, in an ideal world, you'd watch Days of Being Wild, then In the Mood for Love, the n 2046, then the In the Mood For Love deleted scenes, and hopefully one day, the 2046 deleted scenes.

Extra note, there's a deleted scene in which Chow and SLZ meet in 2046 and have sex. I think it was a wise choice not to show this in the film, because that wasn't what their relationship was about there. But, in the context of the whole tale, it makes a lot of sense. It would be logical that they get close enough to let their guard down, at least once, which makes all the more painful when they can't connect later. As Chow says at the end of 2046, in love, timing is everything, and they missed their time, so both of them are going to spend the rest of their lives trying to get back to the place they once were, trying to get back to 2046.

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What's happening now?

Over the past couple of days, we've been doing a lot of filming on the movie. We've been working really quick, because people always have to go, but it works well that way. It cuts out the waiting around and procrastinating time and keeps us on task. I feel like we're definitely making an arty film, in the sense that the shot composition and cutting is unconventional. I'm definitely influenced by Wong Kar-Wai, just because I've been watching so much of his stuff recently, and it's so innovative, it inspires my own stuff in the same vein. Yesterday, I said Mystic River was good, but not great, and I think one of the reasons for that is the fact that it didn't really inspire any creative ideas in me. The best films that I see always have me thinking about new ways to tell stories and make films. Mystic was great on its own, but it wasn't inspiring in that way. WKW, despite the fact that his films are certainly flawed, is so inspiring in creating a new visual language, I just love watching his films. Particularly on Fallen Angels, there's shots that just leave me in awe, and make me want to create things on that level. So, I'm having a lot of fun doing that, it's new filmmaking territory for us, and I'm really enjoying creating new stuff.

Other awesome news is that The Polyphonic Spree are playing two shows in New York in February, so I'm going to make the return to see them. They were incredible live and I'm really psyched to see them again. It's going to be a hassle to make it back during the week, but it's doable, and definitely worth it.

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Mystic River

I watched Mystic River yesterday. I feel like it was a classic example of a movie that's made really well, with a strong plot, solid acting, but just doesn't feel like it's that important to the people making it. Most great movies have a story where it feels like the person had to tell it, a story that is very close to them personally. Tarantino's films are a great example of this, he's clearly in love with what he's doing.

Mystic River is well made, but it doesn't feel inspired. I can forgive a lot of flaws in a movie if you can feel an excitement that went into making it. Mystic River feels almost effortless, which also means it doesn't feel too personal. There always seems to be a distance between the filmmaker and his characters. I'm not saying that every film has to be ripped out of the director's soul, but the best ones usually are ripped from at least the mind of the director. This didn't feel that way.

One thing I did find really interesting was the moral stance of the film's ending. Jimmy has just killed one of his best friends, and his wife tells him to forget about it for the good of their family. I find this repulsive, and it's tough to tell where the film stands on the issue. It's sort of a Rorshach at the end of Watchmen dilemma and that was really interesting. I would have liked to have seen that explored a bit more, but by that point it felt like the film was over, so it would have been tough to keep going on.

Maybe I'm being a bit tough on the film. It was a solid two hours of well made entertainment, certainly not a bad film to watch, but I've been on such an auteur kick lately, it's tough to watch a film that doesn't seem so personal for the director.

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Top 10 Films of 2004

I've been working on filming the movie, and it's going really well. It's definitely an improvement over everything I've done in the past, and as long as each one we do keeps getting better, it's good. It's unfortunate that we're always under time pressure, since I'd love to spend more time working on shots, but it's just not plausible. As is, there's some great shots, but I feel like we could be doing more with each frame, but are sort of limited by the time we can spend on each scene. But, it's a learning experience, and getting the story conveyed is the most important part of the process, and I think we're definitely doing that. Plus, I'm having fun along the way, which is also critical. It's just cool to see stuff I imagined being acted out in reality.

So, I've seen pretty much all the movies I really wanted to see that came out in 2004, which means it's time to drop the year's top ten list.

10. I Heart Huckabee's - The black bag sequences in this movie just owned, and were some of the most original cinema I've ever seen. I love the fact that the movie focuses on an intellectual, philosophical dispute, and the way that the events of the movie lead to an intellectual rather than plot-based resolution. I can relate much better to someone who's got a crisis of thought rather than a real pressing physical crisis. Uniformly great acting, particularly from Mark Wahlberg and Naomi Watts, and the Shania Twain cameo was genius.

9. Shaun of the Dead - It's not as good as Spaced, the TV show by the same people, but that doesn't mean it wasn't really good. There were some hilarious bits, but throughout the film, there was character development, and actual attention paid to making the characters change, rather than just getting in gags or forwarding the plot. The end gets a bit too much like a conventional zombie film, but particularly in the first half, this is a really entertaining, smart and funny film.

8. Hero - The colors alone made this a phenomenal film, but the looping narrative structure and some great action sequences gave it a real epic feeling, capturing the mythic nature of old American westerns. It doesn't hurt that two of my favorites actors, Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung are in the film either. This is how an action movie should be shot, as a showcase for phenomenal cinematography and production design. The green sequence and the leaf fight were notable highlights.

7. 2046 - Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung appear again here, but this one's most about Tony, who puts in the best performance of his career. Now, technically this film doesn't come out here until 2005, but it was made in 2004, so it's on the list. I talked a lot about this a few days back, but it's one of Wong Kar-Wai's best, and that's saying something. His use of the sci-fi storyline was inspired, and the sadness of the film was profound. Every single frame had something interesting visually, and I love the ties to WKW's previous works. I feel sort of guilty about ranking this so low, since it was a brilliant film, but there was just so much good stuff this year.

6. Oldboy - Damn, Asia, you don't stop making great films. Now, this film was released in 2003 in Asia, and won't be released here in 2005, buut I saw it it this year, so it's on the list. After seeing Kill Bill I, you might think there's nowhere left for the revenge film to go, but Chan Wook-Park disproves that with this incredible film. This is a film that just pops, with brilliant frames and great use of music. The one take tracking shot in which Oh Daeseu fights a whole gang of people is the sort of thing that makes you say "Respect." The prison sequence is another really dazzling piece of filmmaking, and the ending leaves you thinking. This film is just so alive and popping, it's amazing. There's supposedly a remake in the works, but watch this, because other than Kill Bill, it's been a long time since I've seen an action movie this good.

5. Dogville - Yet another foreign film, this one's from Denmark and director Lars Von Trier. Three hours long, taking place on a stage with chalk outlines instead of sets, you may say, "That doesn't sound very entertaining." Well, it is very entertaining, and it's also brutal and thought provoking. This is a slow build film that draws you into a sort of funk and then jolts you out of it with a morally ambiguous ending that makes you wonder just how much Von Trier hates people. Nicole Kidman gives probably her best performance here, and the rest of the cast does a great job of giving the feeling that this stage is not a stage, but in fact, a fully functioning town.

4. Garden State - A film that hit me at exactly the right time, and is pretty personally relatable, so I may be a bit biased in my liking of it, but that doesn't take away from the great direction and writing of Zach Braff. I love the way the beginning of the film uses all sorts of wacky visuals to bring you into the world, and then segues into a more character focused story. I like the fact that this isn't a really plot driven film, the events come out of the characters. I even love the ending, which is consistently knocked. Maybe it's because I'm not jaded enough, but I think it makes sense for him to give it a try with Sam, the one person in his life who he has really connected with. That's more important than getting back to working in a restaurant.

3. Kill Bill Volume 2 - A very different film from Volume 1, so different that I was a bit disappointed on the first viewing, since the film was so completely different from what I was expecting. However, upon seeing it again, I really loved the film. It's Tarantino's most mature film, and also full of incredible pop moments, notably the training sequence and the trailer fight. The buried alive sequence was another highlight, one of the best uses of sound in a film ever. I love how the ending throws everything that's come before into question, and humanizes all the characters involved. Volume 1 is about the gradual cartoonization of the bride, two is about the humanization of all the characters. Rather than fighting mythic yakuza leaders, she's fighting the bouncer at a strip club, and an old man. David Carradine owns in this movie, it's one of the best performances of the year. The ending is a catharsis, and then the credits bring back all the great moments from the duology, a final glimpse at the world that Tarantino created. The two films together are an astonishing piece of work.

2. Before Sunset - From an action packed, pop style spectacular we now move to two people talking for eighty minutes. That's it, but the conversation is riveting, and the suspense in this film is more than you'll get from any horror movie. Linklater perfectly captures the feelings of regret that people have about things that were done or weren't done in the past. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy completely inhabit their characters, slipping back in after a nine year gap. The beginning of the film, you can tell that they feel an awkwardness and want to get deeper, but are stuck on the surface. It's not just the lines, it's the delivery and physical mannerisms. I love the way this film seems to be much more cynical than Sunrise, but is in fact full of the exact same romantic spirit of its predecessor, even more so, as the ending shows. The ending is so simple and yet it left me smiling for a long time after leaving the theater. This film is not only brilliant, it makes its predecessor even better. Richard Linklater is on an unparalleled role in recent years, and these two films, Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, contain everything that's unique and exciting about his filmmaking.

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - It's been a while since this one came out, but it's still brilliant. This film was a perfect fusion of visual technique with story, using the effects to emphasize character emotion rather than replace it. Gondry is a visual master, I love the run down feel of the technology, and the mundaneness of it. The dinky Lacuna Inc. is the most Philip K. Dickian thing ever filmed. This is one of Kaufman's best scripts, so emotionally real. Jim Carrey gives by far his best performance ever, so low key and real. Jon Brion provides another great score, which gives the film a vaguely nostalgic feel throughout. The way that the narrative structure is used to gradually reveal plot developments to us is so brilliant, and the show offy structure never overwhelms the story at the heart of the film.

What a year it was. America got a bit served, with only four films in the top ten, but maybe that means we have to kick up our game a bit.

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Filming and V For Vendetta

In the past couple of days, we've been doing filming on the Ricky Frost movie. It's going really well. We've been a bit rushed, but we're getting enough footage, and more importantly, I feel like we're actually making a film rather than just a series of shots. There's actual character development, and acting, which is sort of a first for one of my projects. We've been working using the script as a guideline, but not neccessarily referring to it for every line, instead using a bunch of improv, which is awesome. I've written on him a bunch of times here, but Wong Kar-Wai has really changed my view of how to construct a film. Rather than writing a script and just filming it, it's much more interesting to actually construct the film during the filming, because then you're actually making a film rather than a script. While I'm not opposed to planning ahead, sometimes it's better to just let your actors mess with stuff, and go with how it feels on the spot. I could definitely see the appeal of working without a script, and just going with what feels right at the time. It would take a lot of time, but in an ideal world, that would be the way to make films.

Hitting up the internet, I saw some really cool news today, and that's that Natalie Portman is going to be playing one of the lead roles in the V For Vendetta movie. This brings together one of my favorite actresses and one of my favorite comics of all time. V is probably the most politically significant comic ever published, and surpasses even 1984 in its depiction of a dystopia. It's written by Alan Moore, and is part of what is generally known as his "holy trinity" of brilliant works: Watchmen, V For Vendetta and From Hell. The comic is incredibly relevant, and I hope there's no shying away from embracing a building destroying terrorist character as a hero. Natalie has been on a bit of a role lately, with great performances in Garden State and Closer, ad hopefully she'll pick it up a bit for Episode III. I think V could have a bit of a Leon dynamic, because she'll be playing the innocent girl being trained by older man whose an expert in violence. The story has a lot more scope than Leon, and if done well should be something on the level of Brazil.

However, considering the track record of Moore adaptations, combined with the quotes from the producers, and the fact that the director is basically a no name, I'm not getting my hopes up too high. From Hell wasn't an awful movie, but it lacked basically everything that made the book one of the greatest literary works of all time. From Hell is a history of civilization from the beginning of time to the present, a work full of magic and loss, all told in a really compelling way. The movie is a murder mystery, and if you've read the book, you already know the murderer. And, the less said about "LXG" the better.



The teaser poster looks pretty good, and is basically the cover of the graphic novel. What bothers me is this quote from producer Joel Silver: "With V for Vendetta, the Wachowski Brothers have created an uncompromising vision of the future driven by a totally original superhero."

First, the Wachowski brothers did not create the uncompromising vision, that would be Alan Moore and David Lloyd. Second, just because it's based on a comic book that doesn't make V a superhero. It's not that inaccurate, he does have a uniform and a mask and cape, but I really hope this isn't a movie that is just about V being a hero, because it's a lot more complex than that. V isn't even a character so much as an idea and I hope that's preserved in the film. Also, considering today's political climate, I hope that the creative team keeps the strong political content of the book, and doesn't turn it into an action movie. Natalie Portman signing on is a good sign, but I'm still not sure how this is going to turn out.

However, regardless of whether the film is good or not, the book will still be there. The good thing about From Hell and LXG is that they're so bad, I practically forget they're based on a book. Also, with comics, you'll always have the original visual intact. When you see a movie based on a prose book, the images of the movie will replace the images you had in your head when you were first reading the book, and you can never get those original images back. But, with V, I'll always have the book right there.

The other good thing about this is it indicates that people are moving beyond strict superhero stories in adapting comics to the screen. Sin City was a big step, and this is another one. Even if the movie's bad, this will provide the outside world with another reference point for comics, so when you say Alan Moore, you can say, the guy who made V For Vendetta and people will get it.

One thing that bothers me is the fact that more and more Alan Moore stuff is being adapted, but still no one's even attempted to make anything based on Grant Morrison's works. Grant is just as good as Alan, and I would kill to see a Flex Mentallo or Kill Your Boyfriend movie. I'd actually love to make a Flex Mentallo movie, it's one of the very few things I would rather make than an original story. Flex is in many ways the ultimate superhero story and it deserves to get wider exposure, as does Grant. Alan is getting there as a household name, but basically no one has heard of Grant Morrison. He's got a lot to choose from, hopefully once they run out of Alan, we'll start seeing Grant movies.

Related Posts
Creative Projects (8/28/2005)
Respect Films (1/10/2006)
V For Vendetta (3/17/2006)

Going to 2046

So, after much anticipation, I finally got my all region DVD copy of Wong Kar-Wai's new film 2046. The film surprised me in a lot of ways. It's got almost everything you'd expect from a WKW film, but also a lot of new elements, and particularly in the ending, this film feels different from most of what he's done before.

First, the film is goregous. Visually, WKW is unparalleled, it's not just the way he shoots, it's the entire mise en scene. The future stuff is phenomenal, but even in the 60s scenes, he creates really stylish environments for the characters to move in. Check it out...




The most interesting element for me was the sci-fi stuff. First, I love sci-fi, second, it's the most unique thing about the film in the context of WKW's career. While the 60s stuff is great, it's much more in tune with the rest of his work, whereas the sci-fi things look completely different from what he's done in the past, and the way he uses the sci-fi story is absolutely genius. The whole 2046 world is so perfectly tied in with the rest of the plot, and the metaphor behind it says everything about Chow.

One thing that surprised me was how much the film was tied in to In the Mood For Love. I'd heard that it was the same characters, but 2046 wasn't really a sequel. That's completely off. This film requires In the Mood For Love to really get it. The motivation for Chow's character comes from the events of In the Mood For Love, and to really understand what he's going through, you need that context. I would not reccomend seeing this film without seeing In the Mood For Love. However, having seen ITMFL, it was awesome to get a followup on the character, and to find out what's happened to him as a result of ITMFL. Another great moment was the return of Lulu from Days of Being Wild. Seeing her, combined with the music from Days brought back a lot of memories and added a history to this film that was really interesting. This film unites those two previous 1960s films into a trilogy that is connected within the story universe. It also gave the film a history that deepened the experience. It made the film fee like it wasn't just a two hour story that began and ended where the film began, it was an entire world that stretches for years, and we only see a little piece of it. It's a subtle distinction, but that this does is give the film so much more meaning. There's no feeling of resolution, or even beginning and ending within the film, it's a piece of lives, some that we've seen before, others that we haven't, it's a peek into another world.

My favorite part of the film was the introduction of 2046 in a rush of images from that world. You're given a tantalizing glimpse of many lives within this world, and a rush of astonishing images, and for a moment, you see Su Li Zhien, from In the Mood for Love, the very reason for the whole world of 2046. One of the coolest things about this sequence is the way it very quickly plays out the story of Chang Chen and Lulu. We see a jealous glance from him in the 60s, then in the 2046 segment, we see him angry as the robot Lulu has sex with some guy, which then leads us to the 60s again, where we see that Lulu has been stabbed. It's a great intertwining of the two stories. Now, I will admit that this sequence bothers me a bit because it's so full of interesting footage, and you get the feeling that there's hours of this stuff cut out of the finished film. This film has now joined Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me as the only film where I really need to see cut scenes from it, because there's clearly a ton of stuff cut out, including some stuff with Maggie Cheung as a robot that I'm really annoyed wasn't in the final film. I feel like in the same way that the FWWM cut scenes could make a nice little coda for Twin Peaks, some additional footage from 2046 could bring that story to a close. Maybe it'll turn up, if Criterion does a DVD, I'd imagine we'll see it.

The other phenomenal sequence was the story of the robot Faye. The return of the telling a secret into a hole motif from ITMFL was great. The whole story of Faye was heartbreaking. She was very convincing as a robot, and I loved the symbolic signifiance of the story. It applies to Faye/Chow in 2046, and also ties into Chow's relationship with Maggie Cheung from ITMFL. My favorite part of this story was when Faye decides to go to Japan in the present, so Tony tries to write a happy ending, in which the robot would presumably meet up with the person that she loved in the past, however, she just rides on the train, in a never changing state. The brilliant device of the intertitles showing how many hours have passed and nothing changed, for both the robot and Tony says so much. Tony is the robot Faye, despite the fact that there is someone who loves him, he cannot commit to her because he's still in love with Maggie, so he'll spend the rest of his live on this train, constantly changing, and yet everything's still the same. He gets together with other women, but he spends his whole life waiting for Maggie, never able to let go of her.

Chow calls 2046 the place you go to recapture lost memories, where nothing ever changes. 2046 is the hotel room where he and Maggie wrote their martial arts serials in ITMFL, and it's the place where the happiest time of his life occurred. However, in this film, he loves in room 2047, but is constantly getting involved with the women who live in 2046. He, like the Japanese man in his story, has left 2046, and can never get back there, though for this entire film, he tries to recapture it. In his story, he creates 2046 as a perfect place, where he could get Maggie back, and recapture that moment, but as it says at the end of ITMFL, that moment has passed and nothing that belongs to it exists anymore. He says love is all about timing, and he missed his time, and he's going to spend the rest of his life on that train just going through the same thing, never letting himself be as happy as he was. 2046 is the last year before change, and he's in 2047, it's impossible to get back to where he was.

This film stood out from WKW's other stuff in its pessimism. I suppose Days of Being Wild ended on a down note, but it had some good times along the way. This film is all about trying to get back to a past that can never be, and as a result, Chow ends up hurting everyone along his way, most notably Bai Ling. This film ends on a really downnote, ITMFL ended pretty low, but there was a sense of a new beginning, that the moment had passed and those people were moving on, but here, we only get the sense that Tony will drift further into depression, and that his life will never get better. There's none of the feeling at the end of Fallen Angels, of finding warmth amidst all the darkness, there's only the cold darkness, and we get the feeling that Chow has been utterly destroyed. He can only dream of a world where nothing changes and he can recapture his memories, because he'll never get back there.

I think it's notable that all of WKW's 60s movies end on a rather down note, whereas his present trilogy (Chungking, Fallen Angels, Happy Together) all end with a great song, and a sense of hope. The world of the 60s really is gone, and it was an era of change for all involved, through the films WKW is trying to return to an era that has been destroyed, something that's echoed in Chow's story.

I love the way this film ties together a lot of WKW's previous work. I feel directors like Tim Burton and David Lynch have a universe that most of their films take place in and WKW goes one step further, by explicitly connecting the films into one larger story.

Like most WKW films, the movie's been growing on me ever since I saw it. I went in expecting a bit more sci-fi, and a bit more Maggie Cheung, so there was a bit of disppointment, so I think I need another viewing to really evaluate it. I know Fallen Angels, on the first viewing I liked it, second viewing, it clicked and I loved it. I really feel like there's a whole other film out there with the footage of 2046, and that's something I'd love to see one day, but most importantly I really want to see that Maggie Cheung footage.

However, the use of the Maggie Cheung footage within the film was expert. WKW puts the audience in Chow's state of mind, by providing us with glimpses of the character, but never the reunion that both we and Chow want. That moment truly is gone, and she exists only in faded, blurry memories. Her story continues somewhere else, she too is probably unhappy, dreaming of what could have been, but she's chosen a family life to distract her, while Chow has chosen a bachelor lifestyle. I've got to give props to Tony Leung for this performance, I'd say his best in any film. You completely get his state of mind, and feel what he feels throughout the film. Considering what he does in the film, it's tough to make him sympathetic, but Tony pulls it off. WKW films work because the actors are so good that he can do whatever he wants with the camera and we still get the emotions.

So, a great film, and a summation of much of WKW's previous work. Rarely has a film been so geared to an "inside crowd," because this one requires a lot of previous WKW knowledge to really appreciate. However, as a part of the inside crowd, I loved it, and would highly reccomend it once you get through In the Mood For Love. The sci-fi stuff is perfectly integrated with the rest of the material, creating a really satisfying whole, with more layers than I could pick up on one viewing.

Related Posts
In the Mood for Love: The Deleted Scenes (1/9/2005)
2046 Screening with Wong Kar-Wai (6/16/2005)
Wong Kar-Wai Day (8/3/2005)

2004's Best Albums

2004 saw the release of some damn fine albums, I've only gotten to a small fraction of what's been released, but there were some good times. Generally speaking, especially with smaller artists, it takes a while after an album has been released for me to actually get to it. But, here's five albums that were released in 2004 that were amazing.

1. The Polyphonic Spree "Together We're Heavy" - The Beginning Stages was an amazing album, but this follow up goes way beyond that, adding so many musical layers to the already great sound of the spree. The album has a great opening, and flows really well. It's tough to isolate standout tracks because every single one has merit. 'Hold Me Now' and 'Two Thousand Places' are probably the best individual tracks, but in the context of the album 'We Sound Amazed' and 'When the Fool Becomes a King' just own.

2. U2 "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" - Their best album since Zooropa, it's an album without a single bad song, and 'City of Blinding Lights' and 'Miracle Drug' are some of the best songs they've ever recorded. U2 has a way of producing musical moments that are just unparalleled, the use of the guitar and the vocal combined in such a way that they perfectly compliment each other, and soar together.

3. Handsome Boy Modeling School "White People" - Mulholland Drive is to David Lynch as this album is to Dan the Automator, it combines elements of everything he's done in the past into one of his strongest works. It's got a ton of guest stars, a bunch of genres and it all works. It's astonishing that one album features Mike Patton, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Julee Cruise and Cat Power. The best tracks are 'Class System,' 'I've Been Thinking' and 'Breakdown.' Never before has an album so nimbly hopped across genres.

4. Phoenix "Alphabetical" - Difficult to place in a genre, they've got both dance and rock elements, but end up sounding like a rock version of Daft Punk. The album is great, and they're my favorite new artist discovery of 2004. 'If Not With You' and 'Everything is Everything' are the best.

5. Air "Talkie Walkie" - Air's first album was brilliant and this one is also. It's very similar to the first album, but that's not neccessarily a bad thing. I love the feeling of the music, it always conjures up pink clouds in a perfectly serene sky. 'Cherry Blossom Girl' and 'Venus' are two standout tracks.

Good bunch of albums, those. Check 'em out.

Related Posts
Across the Narrows Festival (10/3/2005)
U2 Live @ MSG (10/15/2005)
Top Ten Albums of 2005 (12/31/2005)

So, This is the New Year (And I Don't Feel Any Different)

Thanks Death Cab, for providing with a cliched emo type intro for this year of blogging. I find my relationship with cliche really interesting. I will always point out if something is cliche, and frequently I'll use that as an excuse to ridicule it, perhaps rightly. I could drop the cliche livejournal right here, because I've read a bunch of them, y'know, a lot of whining about how I have no purpose and need to make a change, it's a classic, but even as I ridicule it for the cliche, I can really relate to what is being said. I think we're all searching for the same things, it's just whether you express that in a cliche way or in a unique way.

I'm reminded of a scene from the end of Six Feet Under's second season. Nate and Brenda are breaking off their engagement and having a big fight about it, and she's yelling at him, saying, "Don't throw the ring at me, that is so cliche," which says so much about the character. Despite the fact that she is breaking off an engagement, she's still concerned about not being cliche, which makes it great when Nate just throws the ring at her.

I look at some people, and I just see a cliche, I feel like I can break down everything about them, but the thing is, they all seem to be really happy. At college, I can see stereotypical Frat guy and he seems to be having a great time. Should he feel guilty that he's just a stereotype, or is he beyond worrying about being original, and instead just worries about having fun while he's here in the moment.

Lately, Jordan's been on about the breakthrough he made to live in the now, as discussed in the book, The Power of Now and other places. I'm sort of ambivalent on it, because at once he does seem happier, but the very idea of living just for the now seems to imply neglecting plans for the future. I have a lot of big things that I want to do, and while they frequently get thwarted, I do have goals and a mission in life. I think you can enjoy the ride that is life, but the ride should have some destinations, rather than just being an aimless procession forward through space, living purely for the moment.

I think an essential question is, would I rather be happy and unaccomplished or accomplished and miserable? I feel like being a filmmaker would make me happy, but you look at someone like Kurt Cobain, he achieved a popularity beyond his wildest dreams, and yet he still commits suicide. What more could he want, what is it that he couldn't have? To some extent, it feels like the best art comes out of desperate feelings, and unhappiness. So much of Buffy clearly comes out of Joss Whedon and the other writers' personal problems. If they were happy, would there be a series? Probably not, in fact the series began largely as a way for Joss to come to terms with high school and basically rewrite his experience back then. It's not a stretch to compare playing D&D to the slaying that the nerdy Buffy characters do. As he became more successful the issues under discussion changed radically. Buffy and co. became more powerful and in control of their lives, and, most notably on Angel, had to deal with vast power infastructures that they struggled to co-exist with. You can see the issues that mattered to Joss change as he became more successful.

That's why I think it would be hard for someone like Morrissey to remain relevant. Happiness and success would ruin his image, and reduce his ability to connect with unhappy, unsuccessful people. It astonishes me that Wong Kar-Wai has been married for 17 years, just because his films are about an emotional longing that can never be filled, yet he seems to have filled it in his own life. I guess part of writing is to create characters, and use them to explore aspects of your personality that you might have filed away and left in the past.

So, I know that my theoretical movies or TV shows would probably contain a lot of emoitonal angst and longing, and if I was happy, would I be able to create? I think I would, but it would be a different type of work. I know this is a vast generalization, but you can tell there are certain filmmaers who clearly own life, and have never had any problems. People like Michael Bay, it doesn't seem like they've went through a lot of problems in their personal life, whereas Alan Ball or Whedon clearly have been through a lot of stuff, or they're just really good at faking it.

But, in the end, I think that I would take unhappiness if it meant accomplishment. Making films, making art, is more important to me than simply going through life happy, because out of that creation, even if I have to go through some bad stuff to get it, would come a deeper happiness. Kids are happy because they don't have deep desires, they are content with very little. The older you get, the more it takes to be happy. In Dogma, there's a speech about how faith is like a glass of water. When you're little, the glass is small, so it's easy to fill, but the older you get, the bigger the glass gets, and you need more water to fill it. While this may apply to faith, it also applies to happiness, and I know I need a lot more to be really fulfilled and deeply happy than I did when I was younger. But, this might actually be a good thing because it forces me to do things I wouldn't have done before, and it expands my world.

That's why it's worth it to be a little bit unhappy, because in the long run, if you're content with things as they are, you're not going to make them better. Life has to give you little nudges of unhappiness to get you to change things up. Eventually, you can't ignore the problems, you confront them, and hopefully you resolve them. A lot of the time, it's just recognizing the problem that's tough. Once you do, it's not as tough to find a solution.

Ammendum

Yesterday, I did a post on 2004 and I forgot what may have been the event of the year, meeting and talking with Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy! He went to Wesleyan, so he returned to screen the musical and do a Q&A. He did about an hour of discussion in the cinema, then went to this reception, so I stood near him, and he talked for two more hours, by the end it was about ten people and him, and he just kept answering any question people shouted out. I've met a bunch of celebrity type people, but no one was ever as cool as he was. To be able to meet the guy who created 256 episodes of brilliant television was an honor, and the fact that he was so cool made it even better.

So, despite forgetting it yesterday, this was one of the best events of the year, right up there with the Spree.

Related Posts
Reflecting on 2004 (12/31/2004)
So This is the New Year (And I Don't Feel Any Different (1/1/2005)

Reflecting on 2004, the year that is almost gone.

So, technically it's New Year's Eve right now, and that prompts me for some reflection on 2004. It's been an astonishingly quick year, by far the fastest of my life. I feel almost like time is breaking down, because I can remember so many moments from this year like they just happened. This year, I feel like not that much actually happened. A bunch of issues from earlier sort of came to head, and were discussed this year, but overall, it's been more of a year of reflection than a year of creation. I don't remember too many really big events from this year that were great, more moments and feelings from times.

If I had to pick out one event from this year as my favorite, it would probably be seeing The Polyphonic Spree live. Who are The Polyphonic Spree, you ask? Well, here's a couple thousand words:





They are a 25 piece rock band, with trumpets, harp, flute, timpani, nine part chorus, keyboard, sax, trombone, guitar and more. Both their albums are brilliant, especially their most recent, Together We're Heavy, but nothing can prepare you for the wall of sound coming from 25 musicians all wearing robes and all completely into the music. It was so loud you could actually feel the music moving through you, and it was just overwhelming to hear not only the 25 people in the band singing, but also the couple hundred people in the audience singing the lyrics back at them. Seriously, check out their music. They do the sort of stuff that can make even the most cynial person break out into a smile upon observing the sheer joy of their music. I'm hoping they'll be back in New York soon, because it seriously is the best concert I've ever been to.

I went to a couple of other concerts that were pretty awesome as well. I saw Aimee Mann and Morrissey. Obviously, they were not quite as joyous about life as The Spree, but both were great live, and they were really good shows. Next year, I'm hoping to get to U2, Doves and maybe some other people. I'd really like to see something that isn't a rock band, but is more techno club stuff, like Daft Punk, Air or Moby. I like to go to a bunch of different type of concerts. Back in high school, I only went to Ska punk concerts, and while they were good, it gets boring after a while. Like, I'd love to see a rap show, or a hard techno type thing, just to mix things up. I guess if you really like the music, it's no problem going to similar things, but if I'm only a casual fan, I like to mix it up. Like, I bet there's not that many people who went to both The Spree and Morrissey.

What else happend in '04? I saw the Buffy musical, which is one of the greatest things ever made. The whole sixth season is brilliant, and this is really the center of it. The songs are great, but more importantly, it fits perfectly into the whole. I've seen it eight times or so, all this year. I've probably seen that more than any other piece of fiction this year.

I'm trying to think of something I did that doesn't involve just watching something else, but it's tough. We made the movie, Tabula Rasa, which I really liked. It was fun to make, and came out well. Was it up to what I originally imagined? Not quite, but nothing's ever going to be, and now, with some distance, I can enjoy it for what it is.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again, this year felt like the Amnesiac to 2003's Kid A, or the Zooropa to 2003's Achtung Baby. It had its merits, but it feels more like what came before than a complete reinvention. It was more a remix than a new song. I really need to do some new stuff, I'm not sure what, but something.

I feel like I've got the routine of college down, in the same way that around junior year, I got the routine of high school down, and this is comforting, because I know what to expect, but it's also distressing because out of chaos can come redefinition. But, when you're in the chaos, it's not good. People always choose the stable, safe route, rather than taking a risk that could pay off, but could also lead to disaster.

Related Posts
Reflecting on 2004: Ammendum (12/31/2004)
So This is the New Year (And I Don't Feel Any Different (1/1/2005)

Looking to '05

So, a couple more days and 2003 will join years 1-2003 in the been there, done that catergory, which means we've got a new year to look forward to. Many major events will happen in 2005, most notably I'll start up my third decade of life, as I turn the big two-oh. What other major event happens on that day, May 19, 2005? Why, it's the release of Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, the final Star Wars movie ever. Talk about the end of an era, as my teen years draw to a close, so does the saga that has shaped me more than any other piece of fiction I've ever run in to. When I was a young lad of three or four, I saw Star Wars, and was hooked on films from then on. I made it through the dark era of the early 90s, the boom time of the Special Editions and the backlash of the prequels. It's been a great run, and I'm not happy to see it come to a close, but I am really excited about seeing the film itself. In fact, it ranks number one on my most anticipated films of 2005:

1. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith - As I said, this one's very close to my heart. It probably won't be the best film of the year, but I'm still psyched to see it more than any other, and it probably will be one of the best theatrical experiences. I think the prequel trilogy so far has been good, but it can't compare to the original trilogy, nothing can. However, this is the story I've been waiting for since the 80s, and to finally connect the two will be quite something. It's the end of an era here.

2. Sin City - The trailer is a thing of beauty, it perfectly captures the look and the feel of the books, which are brilliant. The Yellow Bastard left me in shock staring at the final pages, and I want to see that done in film. The cast is great, the look is completely unique, and the movie feels totally differnet from anything else ever released. Even if this fails on some levels, it's going to look so good, it'll at least be entertaining to watch.

3. The Fountain - Darren Aronofsky's long rumored "post Matrix" sci-fi project seems to finally be filming, and may actually be released in 2005, here's hoping. I'm not really sure what the plot is, but it has something to do with the fountain of youth, and seems very Philip K. Dick/Grant Morrison. Aronofsky's already one of my favorite directors, so combining that with a story that's like one of my favorite writers, awesomeness potential is off the charts. I think this is going to be the film that elevates Darren from an already high level to celluloid God. We shall see.

4. 2046 - I'll actually be seeing this one in the next couple of weeks, on a Chinese all region DVD, but it'll also be released in the theater, and I'm hoping to get there as well. This is by the great director, Wong Kar-Wai. I've now seen all his other films, and this one looks like it's got the potential to be his best. Extremely stylish, a great cast, and his always great direction should put this over the top. I'd like to see it crossover and make it to the mainstream, in addition to the art cinemas, becuase Wong's style is something that needs to get out there into the cultural consciousness.

5. A Scanner Darkly - Richard Linklater's next, an adaptation of the Philip K. Dick book, done in the animation style of Waking Life. I liked the book a lot, and based on Waking Life, Linklater is clearly a PKD fan. Linklater has done a lot of movies talking about odd stuff, but he's never really done a sci-fi movie, so this should be interesting to see. It'll almost certainly be better than the recent string of awful PKD adaptations that have bombed theaters. Linklater is one of the best filmmakers working today, and he's coming off his best work yet, Before Sunset, so this will be crucial in seeing if he can do more than just talk.

6. Serenity - Joss Whedon writes and directs a film based on his cancelled series, Firefly. I've only seen three eps of Firefly, but it's got a lot of potential, and it's going to be really interesting to see Joss step things up to a feature film after so many years in TV. I'm hoping for a really arty film, rather than a mainstream action type movie, but we'll see. If this is a success, maybe we'll see another Buffyverse project.

7. Charlie and the Chocalate Factory - Tim Burton's next. I was a bit hesitant about this, but the trailer is so over the top, I've got a better feeling. It's definitely a return to classic Burton in terms of ridiculous visual style, after the toned down Planet of the Apes and Big Fish. This'll probably turn out to be his best film since Mars Attacks.

So, those seven should be pretty solid, and hopefully some other stuff will turn up as well. Still no sign of new David Lynch or Paul Thomas Anderson, but maybe by 2005, they'll have started up a new project, and maybe we'll even see some new filmmakers dropping great films, or existing ones stepping up their game. So much potential in a new year of stuff. It is good.

Related Posts
My 2005 Oscar Nominations (1/31/2005)
Looking to '06 (12/27/2005)
Top 10 Films of 2005 (1/1/2006)

The Office: The Christmas Special

So, throughout the run of The Office, it's been a notably downbeat series. The characters have been forced to compromise their ideals, gone through lots of embaressment, rejection, and sadness. Calling the first two series comedy is really inaccurate, it's more of a tragedy, the rise and fall of David Brent, as well as the gradual destruction of Tim and Dawn. So, after these two seasons of awful tragedy, where's left to go, further down, or perhaps, life isn't that bad after all.

For most of the Christmas special, we see a David resigned to his fate. He's been fired, but he still clings to his friends in the office, and relies on them for his social interaction. He tries to make himself into a hero, and is constantly forcing Neil to be a heavy. However, despite his front, he is getting gradually destroyed inside. His public appearances are degrading, and leave him depressed. Things get worse when Neil bans him from the office, and he asks his co-workers to have a drink with him, but no one responds, prompting Alice to tell him that none of them really like him. In the series, it would probably end there, in an awful awkward moment, but here, Tim steps in and offers to have a drink with David. Tim has always been a good guy, and that gesture clearly means a lot to David. Rather than having his self confidence destroyed, Tim steps in, and is a friend for someone in need.

Most of the Christmas special is just build up, and catching you up on what's happened with the characters in the time since the series. It's not as tight as your average episode of the series, which isn't to say that it's bad, it's just not designed to be as funny.

In the Florida scenes, we see the effects of Dawn's choice in the second series. She chose Lee because he could provide for her, but here, they end up sitting around Lee's sister's house, caring for her baby. Dawn looks desperately unhappy, and Lee has become lazy and content to just sit there and mooch off his sister. Also, she has given up her dream of being an artist. This is crucial because the dream was what kept her going, and now she has no hope for the future, things will be the same as they are forever.

So, when she goes back to see Tim, she's reminded of what she's lost. He is sad that she's given up her dream of being an illustrator, a dream that he supported. This is emphasized the most during the party when Tim says it's a shame that Dawn gave up the illustrating, and Lee says she could only make money at it if she was good, thus destroying both her self confidence in her art, and her hope of being an artist.

Tim in the special seems to have found a kind of equilibrium, and despite still being annoyed by Gareth, he is almost content in his position at the office. He still is clearly in love with Dawn, but doesn't let the fact that he doesn't have her get to him.

So, the special, and the entire series build to the Christmas party sequence at the end of the special. This sequence is massively important for both Brent and Tim and Dawn. For Brent, it is a critical turning point. He's said that he was going to bring a woman to the party, and Neil reveled in questioning about this, pointing out the obvious fact that he has no one. So, as the party begins, we see Brent waiting for his blind date to arrive. His two previous dates had gone awfully, so he's not expecting much. However, when his date does arrive, she's nice, and we finally see Brent let down his guard. He walks by Finch and Neil, but rather than trying to impress them, he spends the entire party alone talking with her. Rather than trying to be the center of attention, he's content to just talk with her. He's no longer putting on a show, he's just being himself. Things go well for Brent, and we don't know if their relationship will go anywhere, but the thing is, he had a good night, and for the first time in the entire run of the series, he's really connected with someone.

This is followed up by a critical moment for Brent. He passes by Chris Finch, who makes a joke about David's date, and rather than laughing along with it, as he would have before, David tells Chris to "fuck off." Here, David is faced with a choice between his past and his future. Finch was his idol, and represents the old Brent, in that he is always concerned with having a laugh, and being the center of attention, rather than considering people's feelings. In rejecting Chris Finch, he rejects the old version of himself, and thus, we're left with the feeling that he has changed, and has gotten a new set of priorities.

While this is good, the real highlight of the party sequence is Tim and Dawn. At the beginning of the party, they're hanging out together, and having fun, but there is clearly a lot being left unsaid. One of the most notable scenes is when they are winding up Gareth, and Lee comes in and explains that they're making fun of him. Lee has come in and destroyed one of their favorite activities. Eventuallly, Lee and Dawn leave, and Tim is left at the party alone.

Probably the best scene in the entire series is when Dawn opens the secret santa gift and sees that it's a set of paints from Tim. In giving her the paints, Tim is giving Dawn back her dreams, and as his note says, telling her she should never give up, because just the act of having the dream will keep her going when things are bad. Seeing the paints overwhelms her because it makes the differences between Tim and Lee so clear. For Lee, the painting is a waste of time and impractical, but Tim recognizes that it makes her happy, and thus is important.

This leads to the brilliant payoff, where we see Dawn walk into the party and her and Tim finally kiss. This is such a perfect scene, the music, the way it's shot and the moment itself. The characters have been through so much bad stuff, it makes their embrace even more powerful. This is the feeling that practically every filmmaker who's ever made a romance film is going for, and I don't think it's ever been achieved as well as here. The fact that Dawn and Tim make it together gives hope to both characters, and changes the office from something of a prison to a place that might not be great, but it's not important, because they have each other now.

At its heart, the series is about coming to terms with your situation in life. Tim at first is almost angry about being in the office, and wants to get out, but by the end, he realizes that his job might not be great, but that doesn't mean his life isn't great either. Dawn may never make an artist, but the fact that she has someone who will support her through whatever she does makes the bad stuff she has to face insignificant. And Brent may not be an entertainer, but in the end, he has people who apperciate him, and he realizes that there's more to life than having a laugh.

When they take the picture at the end, I get the feeling that this is the last time Brent will be at the office. There's a sense of closure, like he doesn't need to impress them anymore, and when he's not trying as hard, he actually gets a laugh. Similarly, Tim no longer wants to leave so desperately. He's content where he is, and while there may not be great things in his future, there will be happiness. It's all about realizing that life may not always be great, but there's always some good to be had, some fun along the way, and by the end, each of the characters have found peace.

I'll just say that the first time I watched the special I liked it, but didn't really get it I guess. On the second viewing, I was really affected by everything that happened. The Tim/Dawn and the change of Brent at the end hit me on a more emotional level than they had on the first viewing. I loved the darkness of the show on the first go, and the second time through, it was more the light at the ending that really hit me.

There's so much depth and many layers in the series, all developed in such a short period of time. The series isn't exactly a comedy, or a drama, or a romance, it's all three, and none at all. It's just a story that's really well told.

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The Office

Yesterday, I finished rewatching the brilliant British series, The Office. The Office is about a bunch of people who work at an office. It's a brutally realistic show, reveling in the awkward moments that people have when interacting in everyday life. It's similar to Curb Your Enthusiasm, in both shooting style and level of humor, but it has another element, which elevates above mere comedy. The show transcends genre, it's just a story, the story of four people, and what happens to them over a period of time. I can't reccomend it highly enough, it truly is one of the greatest stories ever told.

The series has a ton of stuff to analyze, and I'm going to cover a little bit of it here. The central character for most of the series is David Brent. Throughout the series, we are made aware of the way that Brent's image of himself contrasts with both the reality of who he is, and the way that he is perceieved by the people who work with him. Brent considers himself the best boss that people will ever have. He's a "chilled out entertainer" in the work place, and considers "having a laugh" the great compliment he can receive. He considers himself one of the funniest people in the world, and feels like the office is a stage for his comedy. He never seems concerned about actual productivity, he is concerned with keeping morale up, but this is really just an excuse for him to make jokes.

Throughout the first series, the myth of David Brent is built up. We get to know the character and the way he perceives himself. He thinks he's hilarious, but the people in the office generally view him either negatively or with complete apathy. For them, it's just a job, and they don't understand the fact that they're supposed to be David's audience. David also has major problems understanding his people. In the first episode, he tells Dawn she's fired as a practical joke, but she doesn't realize this, and ends up in tears, leaving him sitting there, just staring at her very real emotion. He's supposed to be an entertainer, but he's reduced her to tears.

During the first season, Brent has some successes. When he plays guitar for his co-workers, they seem to actually enjoy it. In the first season, most of the workers tolerate Brent's schtick. They may not find him hilarious, but no one really calls him on his behavior either.

Running parallel with this over the course of the first season is the story of Tim and Dawn. Throughout the series, they're treated as parallel characters, simultaneously pushing each other forward and holding each other back. Tim clearly is in love with Dawn from the start of the series, but she has a fiancee, Lee. They're both different from Brent and Gareth in that they don't like their jobs, and consider it only a stopover on their way, rather than an end in itself. Both see the office as something of a prison, and feel that the longer they stay there, the less likely they are to ever leave. Tim asks Dawn out in episode four, and she rejects him, so, from then on, there's a slight awkwardness in their relationship.

As season one ends, Brent is promoted, and is given Jennifer's job. He promptly rejects all his workers in favor of taking the promotion himself. Thus, all his rhetoric about caring about his employees, and treating them as a family is gone when it comes time to help himself personally. One of the best scenes of season one is when Brent presents the "good news and the bad news" to his workers, namely that they all may be fired, and will have to relocate, but he's got a promotion. The party scene at the end of the season is also brilliant. Brent says that he's decided not to take the promotion, to help them out, but later, he's confronted by Malcolm, who says that Brent couldn't get the promotion because of a medical problem. This is the first example of Brent's image being broken down. He's at his high point in their esteem, and when his lie is brought to the surface, he doesn't know what to do.

The other major event at the party sequence is when Tim tells Dawn that he's accepted a promotion, and is staying on, rather than going to university. For Dawn, this represents the vicarious destruction of her dream. If Tim could get out, it gave her hope that she could also, so his choice to stay there destroys a part of her also. The season ends with Tim and Brent having sold out, Dawn is distraught, and things generally look bleaker than they did at the beginning of the season.

The entire second season is devoted to destroying the myth of David Brent. Over the course of the first season, he builds up this idea that he's the greatest boss, and a hilarious entertainer. In the second season, we see this illusion smashed, and reality hits Brent.

Neil comes into the show to serve as a double for Brent, basically being the person Brent wants to be/thinks he actually is. At the meeting with the workers, Neil is witty, kind, and clearly liked by the people he is working with. Then, Brent goes on, tries to get huge laughs, and completely bombs. Later in the episode, Brent is brought to task by his bosses twice for making racist jokes. In the second season, Brent is constantly under watch, and as a result, his failures are much more apparent. He cannot get away with doing whatever he wants.

In the second episode of the season, we see Brent's facade crack for the first time. He takes the Swindon lot out for a drink, and attempts to win them over, but completely fails, and even admits that he has failed. He comes back and gets yelled at by Neil, which leads to his confession to Dawn that he's unhappy. This is the first time we see David at loose ends, unsure of himself.

This downfall continues when he bombs at a motivational speaking session, culminating in the dance scene. For comic relief day, Neil and Rachael do a dance, with Brent dismisses, claiming he could do a better one, and proceeds to perform an incredibly awful dance that leaves the workers flabbergasted. His showboating, combined with lack of doing any actual work leads to him getting fired. The scene in which he's fired sees all his negligence catch up with him. He never does any actual work, and it becomes a problem. It's perfect that he's fired on comic relief day, which should be the ultimate showcase for him, and ends up being the sight of his downfall.

In the final episode of the season, things go worse for him, he's fired from the motivational speaking job, and forced to beg Neil for his job back. This scene sees the myth of David Brent completely destroyed. He's no longer in control, he's not trying to be funny, he just wants his job, because without it, he has nothing. The office is his stage, and his purpose in life. He doesn't have any friends outside the office, and being fired is the equivalent of death for him. I love the way the season ends on such a down note. There's no attempt to make him feel better, there's just the reality, this guy is bad at his job, and has to be fired, and his feelings on the matter don't really come into play.

At the same time, over the course of the second season, we discover Dawn's dream of being an illustrator. Dawn is watching herself drift towards a life she doesn't really want. In marrying Lee and keeping the job as a receptionist, she's doing the safe thing, the thing that will keep her from being poor, but she's also destroying her passion. The most important speech for her is when she talks about how she used to say she was an illustrator, who did some work as a receptionist, but now she's just a receptionist. She has given up the dream, and basically accepted her role in the office. There's a divide between people who consider the job their ultimate goal, like Gareth, and those who just consider it a stopover. In saying this, Dawn has basically given up the hope that it's just a stopover, and consigned herself to an unfulfilling life.

While this is going on, she's seeing Tim drifting away from her. At the beginning of the season, he's a stickler for work, and discourages frivolity in The Office, but later, it's when he is going out with Rachel that we see Dawn at her lowest ebb. Tim had been the hope that she had that she could get out of the office and do something with her life, and to see him not only drifting into a permanent position, but also a permanent relationship is to see all her dreams destroyed.

For Tim himself, there is also an element of accepting his fate. He hopes to be in David's chair one day, and at the beginning of season two is clearly on the way up within the company. He's put his dreams on hold, but indefinitely. Gareth talks about the fact that having pipe dreams is good, even though you're never going to get to them, and Tim still has the dream of leaving to become a psychologist, but with each year, it becomes less and less likely.

As season two ends, Dawn is ready to leave for Florida with Lee, which is basically her deciding that being practical and having someone who can pay the bills is more important than persuing your dream. Despite pining for Tim the entire season, when he finally does ask her out, she rejects him, and leaves the country. The sequence in which he asks her out, done with no sound, is absoultely phenomenal, the silence is suffocating.

So, the end of series two leaves Tim and Dawn with their dreams shattered, and Brent with his world destroyed, but there is hope, in the special.

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The Life Aquatic

So, I just saw The Life Aquatic, the new movie from Wes Anderson. I completely loved The Royal Tenenbaums, the opening sequence, with 'Hey Jude,' is similar in scope and genius to the 'One' sequence in Magnolia. It tells the whole story of the family, and introduces all the characters in five or so minutes, with astonishingly inventive visual tropes. The end where the falcon flies off just left me in awe. But, I'm not as big a fan of Rushmore and Bottle Rocket. They were definitely quirky, but sometimes too self consciously so.

Where does Life Aquatic fall? It's not as good as Tenenbaums, but it's definitely better than his first two films. Bill Murray is so relaxed in his performance, he's almost catatonic and it works perfectly for the character. He is Steve Zissou, and serves as the anchor of the movie, no pun intended. The visual style of the movie is really interesting. The sea creatures are CG, and are incorporated seamlessly with the live action stuff. The underwater photography is great, and the pastiche documentaries are hilarious.

I love the relationship between Jane and Ned, it develops naturally and is really sweet. Klaus is a great character, and was interesting to watch whenever he was on. The way the movie moved between mostly light comedy, and some heavy drama was really interesting to watch, and the death at the end is completely unexpected, and seems almost unbelievable. It doesn't belong in the world of the film.

Some of the stuff in the film strays into the overly quirky. Also, Steve's whole situation is rather muddled, and what he wants and where he's going isn't exactly clear. This isn't necessarily a negative, but it makes it tough to really get involved with the characters. He sort of drifts through the film, and as a result, the film doesn't have a real feeling of forward momentum. This doesn't stop it from being a good film, but it may prevent it from being a great film.

However, there is one incredible sequence that pretty much makes up for any of the problems, and that's when they go undersea in the submarine and confront the jaguar shark. Sigur Ros' Starl Fur is the soundtrack, and the jaguar shark is an astonishing thing. It's a perfect combination of music and image, and a transcendent movie moment. See the movie for that alone.

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What's going on with me?

This break so far has been really intense, a lot of really deep, challenging discussion. I feel like our years of repression of emotions has led to an era in which everyone is depressed and I do nothing, but talk about my problems, and whine about how screwed up we all are. Everyone is screwed up, but that doesn’t mean that the future isn’t going to be different, for better or worse. All we can do is try to move forward, lose the things we don’t like about ourselves and build up the parts we do. That sounds really easy, but it's tough to do, and just the act of whining gives you this feeling that that alone is going to do something.

One thing I feel like is it might be our attempts to make films and such that give us this feeling that we were all so holed up. I don't get the impression that a lot of people I know from college go back to their friends at home and have three hour discussions about the things they failed at in high school. But, then again, I doubt that people there would think that I would do that. To quote one of my favorite movie quotes, "We all wear masks, metaphorically speaking." And, I feel like what I'm doing here is letting down the mask and you see all the screwups, but the other people I know have the same problems, and we all covered them with these masks. Is that common behavior? I'm not sure, I don't think it's only us, but it's not everyone by any means.

I've actually been rather happy lately, it is Christmas, but it's not just that, I feel like a confluence of events is happening that will make 2005 a year of massive change, or rather, some opportunities have been presented to me that will allow me to change my situations in 2005, and make them better. Active rather than reactive, that's the goal.

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What makes an action movie work?

I'm going home tomorrow. It's been a really quick semester, seems like it just started and now it's half way over. Or perhaps half full. So, break the big push is to make a movie. Hopefully, this'll be the best thing I've ever done, and will be a big step up. I'm really psyched to see what we can do, and hopefully, will have some fun along the way. It's always good to have some kind or project keeping you moving forward. I feel like if I'm just going along, with no real goal in sight, I get more easily annoyed at things and am just less happy, but when I'm working towards something, things are better.

What else am I up to over break? I ordered 2046, the Wong Kar-Wai movie, yesterday, and I'm really looking forward to watching that. Once I see that, I'll have seen all of his movies. He's already one of my favorite directors, but with that film, he'll become one of about five or so people who I've seen everything they've done. He'll join Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, David Lynch, and Quentin Tarantino among the people who've made a lot of movies, and I've seen every one. It's good company, and of those, Wong is definitely one of the most interesting directors. This past year, I've been watching a lot more foreign movies, and "art films," and Wong is probably the best producer of the pop-art film. His movies are always compulsively entertaining, and visually brilliant, while keeping the unclear, wandering plots of art cinema. However, the plot isn't the show in his movies, it's really the craft adn the emotion. Chungking Express, not that much happens, but the in between moments are so perfectly produced, it doesn't matter. That movie is also the best example of him creating characters you really care about, notably Faye and Officer 633.

I guess the most significant thing about Wong Kar-Wai's movies is the rambling nature of their narrative. Most Hollywood movies are so tightly constructed that there's no room for artistic tangents. This isn't always a bad thing, but it can restrict the artist's choices. Plot comes first, and character development comes second, something that's not always a good thing. The best plots come out of character choices. Recent action movies seem to be reducing any sort of character development, and instead become really long chase sequences that stretch over the movie's entire length. See Terminator 3 or The Transporter for examples of this. If you compare Terminator 2, where you really care about the characters, to Terminator 3, where the characters are barely established before we go off on a movie-long chase, you can see how action movies have changed. Wong's Fallen Angels or Ashes of Time are two movies that value character development and artistic expression over the action. Another example of a great action movie from recent times is Hero, which had great characters, incredible artistic flourishes and awesome action. The two are not mutually exclusive. The Matrix: Reloaded, despite being hated by people, worked because it was a director's showcase. They were going to make the coolest movie they possibly could, and to some extent, succeeded. Kill Bill was another example of that, and was even more successful. But, even in Volume 1, there are enough character moments that you actually care about who's involved in the action. And Volume 2 transcends that, to the point where the action is periphary, the real drama is in the characters interacting with each other.

Notably, what I'd consider to be probably the best action film of all time, Leon: The Professional, works solely because of the character development. What would be the main focus of any other movie, the rivalry between Leon and the Gary Oldman character, is pushed to the side, and instead we focus on the relationship between Leon and Mathilda, which is absolutely riveting to watch. Their relationship is one of the most interesting between two characters in any film, and that's what makes the movie work, not the guns or violence.

I wouldn't be particularly interested in making an action movie, because most action movies ignore the more interesting issues that surround the violence. I could see myself doing something like The Invisibles Volume II, which features incredible action, but is more about deconstructing the action, and using it as a way of making both King Mob and the audience reassess their attitudes towards violence. The total over the topness of the scene in Counting to None where he busts in on Takashi being tortured and guns down some Japanese business men in an over the top way is basically distilling the action movie to its bloody essence. The Invisibles is a commentary on filmic and comic book presentations of violence. I'd be interested in exploring that, juxtaposing the fact that we think those scenes are so incredibly cool with the fact that they're about killing people, which is inherently wrong. I'd also love to do an action movie that looks at violence in the way Irreversible does.

Irreversible takes the emotional justification out of the revenge film, and in the opening scene, it presents the brutality of revenge for what it is, just more violence. It makes the audience at first repulsed by what the characters are doing, but then, during the rape sequence later, puts the audience in the same mindset. I'd much rather play with audience expectations and emotions towards violence than just present violence as an end in itself.

And in talking about quality action stuff, I can't neglect to mention Buffy. Sure, it's a series about fighting vampires and preventing the apocalypse, but what matters much more is the personal interaction. Very few people who really like the show watch it for the fighting. Buffy the character is much more interesting than Buffy the action figure.

If you want to make a good action, make good characters first, then whatever you have happen will be interesting to watch.

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The Filth: Issue 3

I don't think issue three of The Filth is one of its strongest issues. It goes over a lot of classic Morrison concepts and doesn't bring that much new to them. It's difficult to place this into the overall narrative of the piece, and a lot of its significance doesn't become apparent later. That said, it's not like there isn't good stuff.

The opening sequence is classic Morrison, revisiting stuff previously discussed in Animal Man and Flex Mentallo. The idea that Hand agents can enter a superhero comic and affect it on the page ties in with his ideas of different layers of reality. The Filth is a comic that exists in our reality. It appears in two dimensions in our reality. The tale of Secret Original exists in two dimensions within the reality of The Filth, a comic within a comic. The idea that the hand agents can leave the page gives them the 5D power over space and time that John a Dreams has in The Invisibles. The most interesting thing to me about this sequence is seeing the 2D characters' reaction to the changes in their universe. I also love the idea of these people using the "paperverse" as a farm for technology. The fact that they can go in, grab the scorpion gun, and then return to three dimensional reality is very cool. It's using fiction as a farm for reality, and the interplay between the two there is really interesting. It's almost a literal representation of the way invention turns idea into reality.

Secret Original himself is a character whose been drawn out of his fictional universe into the "real" world. I love the idea that, upon realizing the fictionality of his universe, he is subjected to all kinds of twisted versions, notably the slash style tales of him and Eve.

What I find most interesting here is Greg's emotional journey. In burying the cat, we see him feeling very real emotions, and in the world he exists in, that's his only anchor. Emotion is his reality. That's why Greg sticks where Ned doesn't. However, he can never return to the world he had before. For one thing, he's got another version of himself tied up in the closet, for another, Dmitri has turned up to try to get him back to the hand.

It's notable that Greg has lost the combover. His transformation to Ned Slade has stuck a little bit, the new Greg is much cooler than Greg circa issue one.

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