Den of Sin

Next week's schedule is available here.

Foods for Thoughts

Interesting article on Ridley Scott & urban theory. A little short, but good reading none the less.

Also, apparently Doug Liman likes to watch two movies and read at the same time. And he's a bit of a spaz.

Revenge of the D.o.S.

This week's schedule for the D.o.S. is now up.

Also, a great link to a new DVD distribution house with a special focus on Japanese girl gang movies.

A Few Thoughts On Star Wars

So on Sunday, Beej had the bright idea of hosting a screening of Episodes I & II as a way of hyping ourselves up for Episode III. Like a good wife I kept my mouth shut as to the logic of this particular plan. He was just so excited & I certainly wasn't going to be the one to rain on his parade. But alas, although he tried to place a ban on "haters", by the time I finally showed up (most of the way through Ep I) I had to launch right in to the explicative filled directions:
"Why are there no fucking close ups?"
"What moron edited this piece of shit?"
"There should have been a cut there. And an insert there. Fuckers."
"God this is so fucking slow."
"This looks like a goddamn video game."
"The writing and acting I can forgive. You can work around that. If you know what the fuck you're doing."
And so on and so forth until I found the stack of comic books Beej had just picked up from RX and decided to read those and stop torturing my retinas.

I know it is easy to pick on Episodes I & II. With so much riding on them there was bound to be a backlash. But beyond that, the fact remains that they just aren't very good movies. Although they were meant to be cutting edge, and probably were for about 15 minutes, the bar for special effects is now so far above what was delivered as to be extremely embarrassing. All of the dialogue in Episode II, ALL OF IT, takes place in two shots. Poorly framed two shots. Even with flat dialogue and wooden acting, you can fake some drama by letting us SEE PEOPLE'S FACES! You know, show people ACTING! Or trying to. That would have been fine too. But neglecting your "talent" so blatantly just gives people another reason to buy into the image of you as a distant sociophobe incapable of relating to people, or anything outside of your compound.

As for the usual complaints about Hayden Christensen and his acting, let me come to his defense once and for all. Hayden Christensen is a fine actor, and like the rest of the cast (except for Natalie Portman), most of the inconsistencies in his preformance can be chalked up to lazy directing. The fact of the matter is, Anakin is not a good guy. He's not really that heroic. He's a spoiled whinny bitch, which is why it makes sense that he becomes Darth Vader (a.k.a. the Emperor's Bitch). Luckily Mr. Christensen comes through in the end (like I knew he would) which leads me to an analysis of Episode III:

Pretty much what I expected. I wouldn't go as far as Kevin Smith and call it my favourite film of all time or anything, but it is far enough above Episodes I & II in overall quality (general film making) and impact on the overall story (get this folks: actual DRAMA. ::gasp::) There were moments that gave me goosebumps and it was emotionally satisfying. In fact, Episodes I & II never happened and I am happy. Sure, the "love" dialogue all sucked ass, but what do you expect from a bitter divorce whose marriage was crushed in whole or in part by the empire that this film is a part of?

Movies I Watched Instead of Writing: Part 4

Blade Trinity [2004] -- HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Best comedy of 2004! I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard. Beej & I were both in tears. Within 1 minute I was able to proclaim, "This movie is ass." After about 5 minutes I declared that Ryan Reynolds had better be shirtless the whole movie for this to be worth it. Beej declared that Ryan Reynolds had better suck his own cock on screen for this movie to be worth it. Sadly neither of those things happened, but Mr. Reynolds was pretty ab-tastic none the less. My favourite part was when it turned into an i-pod commercial. Twice. David S. Goyer is probably one of the most incompetant directors I have ever seen. It makes "The Punisher" look good. I wasn't really the biggest fan of the first two, but I will watch this again. Preferably with (lots of) booze and popcorn to throw at the screen everytime Parker Posey tries to chew scenery. A new classic of T.A. cinema.

DiG! [2004] -- Awesome, inspiring & fascinating documentary that follows two bands: The Dandy Warhols & The Brian Jonestown Massacre on their quests to make it big in the world of rock. Director Ondi Timoner followed them around for 7 years and the footage she got is revealing & frightening. Unlike any music documentary you've seen.

Perspective

So, a couple weeks ago while in the midst of full on Wedding Madness I ended up talking my way into writing a film review. I felt kinda stupid about this considering I am so behind on my Den of Sin columns and had pretty much blown off any other writing assignments that had come up, but I was restless and knew that by writing this review I would be helping a local filmmaker. Because I had been mostly writing mainstream film reviews for my "paying" gig, I think I'd kinda lost the spark of what I was doing, and more importantly, why I was doing it. So I watched the film and managed to stake-out some time to actually write the review. I whined and moaned: I had so much to do, why had a I agreed to do a review 1 week before the wedding? The filmmaker was emailing me to check up. I buckled down and finished my review and sent a copy to the filmmaker.

This was his response:

These are the type of reviews we can only dream about. Thank you for a thought provoking accolade. You do us a great honour with your writing. It inspires me to be a better filmmaker, so we may maintain a higher level of storytelling that the viewing audience will enjoy.

I don't think it is really just a coincidence that I got this email at this time in my life. With all the stress of the wedding and the whole new film editor at Terminal City thing, I was really starting to question why I even bothered. Especially when it was often so hard for me to bother in the first place. Was I really that stressed, or was I just lazy? If I really wanted to succeed, wouldn't I have done so already? But now I remember. I love film. I love the people who make films. I love the whole process and I love to examine it and pick apart how things work and why things appeal to me.

Although many people talk about the let-down after putting on a big(ish) wedding, whether it be a subconcious response to that level of commitment or simply withdrawl from all the excitement, Beej & I just feel filed with energy to move forward. We have been itching to get back to our lives and really push forward. Beej has "The Undead" to edit. I have a pile of writing to get behind. And for one of the first times in my life I really feel like we can do it, because of the support from our friends, family and larger communities.

First Things First

I know I have a lot of catching up to do, but I figured some of you might actually care how things went on The Big Day. In a word: Awesome. But, for those for whom a picture is worth a thousand words, I provide an essay. In non-linear/experimental form.

And a brief dissertation.

Should have more up by the end of the week.