Time After Time

I’m really bad at blogging. I should just quit, but I don’t like to give up on things. 

I’ve been neglecting this blog because I haven’t decided what I want to do with it. Though I still like to provide commentary on things happening in film and television, I no longer have time to just be an observer. This summer, I’ve been navigating the waters while working at a boutique talent agency and learning from a producer/professor of mine.

Aside from that, I have a few other projects I’m working on and some of them might actually turn into something big and awesome.

So I’m thinking of re-branding this blog. Actually, I’m going to re-brand this blog… I’m just not sure into what yet.

But stay tuned, a re-branding will occur, and this blog will have purpose again. 

I will not accept defeat. 

 

Welcome to the first day of June!

The month of Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe. Today’s post was a lazy reblog of myself, but as I re-dedicate myself to serious blogging, this month will be a series of posts on two of my favorite actresses, Judy and Marilyn.

Get ready, y’all!

Extremely Behind the Camera

Like most people, I used to believe that Marilyn Monroe was no more than a sex bomb who became an Old Hollywood Starlet. Her image has become highly commercialized and she’s known now more for her face than what she did with it. Like most people, I just didn’t think she was much more than a sexy starlet who rose to fame and died.

But then one day, I actually watched Gentleman Prefer Blondes and my perception changed. She was so much more than just a sex bomb, she was funny and captivating. Next to the fabulous Jane Russell (whom I already loved), Marilyn shined so bright and many times out-performed Russell. I started to realize that this woman was actually talented, and a lot more than just a pretty face and a hot body. She was actually an actress, and the dumb blonde act was really an act, and…

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I stand with the Weinsteins!

For those of you who know me, you know that I’m no vocal proponent of the Weinsteins. I’m not a fan of their overly aggressive Award season campaigning, at all. They’ve been responsible for too many deserving movies losing their Best Picture Oscars (Saving Private Ryan being the one that I’ll probably never get over). Though I complain about the Weinsteins, I have an incredible amount of respect for the way they do business. Time and time again they choose to distribute some of the best independent films made, and they advocate on behalf of a lot of small filmmakers.

The reason I’m making a public declaration of my respect for the Weinsteins is because they have chosen to defy the MPAA and they will release Bully unrated. That’s right. UNRATED. First, the Weinsteins aimed to play by the rules: they submitted the movie for rating, they appealed the unfair R rating, and the MPAA still wouldn’t budge. All over a few “too many” f-bombs.

Bully is a documentary about bullying in this country. Over the past few years, it seems as if bullying has intensified and has becoming a lot more publicized. This film is aimed to send a message to bullied kids that they aren’t alone, and a message to bullies to look at the effects of their behavior. It looks to possibly be a powerful movie that can have a positive effect on kids nationwide, if not worldwide.

The MPAA’s R rating would have stopped many school-aged kids from seeing this film, which is the intended audience for Bully. The MPAA was up in arms over a few too many f-bombs that they demanded be cut out of the film for a lower rating. However, the language of the film (spoken by the film’s stars, victims of bullying) tell a truth about pain. Cutting their language cuts out how these kids choose to express their pain, numbing the possible emotional effect that Bully will potentially have.

The tyrannical MPAA has lost this battle, thank God, and hopefully, cinema will win the war. Censorship has no place in art, and its time for filmmakers to once again stand up and say enough is enough.

Joining in this protest is the president of AMC theaters, who has promised to show this film in his theaters to protest the MPAA’s decision.

I’ll be in line to see  Bully opening weekend to support the protest agains the MPAA. I hope you will be too.

Thoughts on the Oscars:

Next year, I hope that the winners aren’t as predictable and the variety of films honored expands. And while I liked The Artist and Hugo is probably very good, the show isn’t interesting when two films sweep the show. Hey Academy, make us fans sit at the edge of our seats a little bit more, we actually want to be surprised!

I’ll never get over the fact that The Tree of Life didn’t win for Best Cinematography. No one will ever be able to explain that to me.

Fat Tuesday (or how I spent my day watching movies during a mysterious university holiday)

A more dedicated student would have spent their day off doing homework or something. I, however, decided to spend the day with my NetFlix account (and methinks it was the best decision I’ve made in a while).

Two in the Wave

A friend of mine has recently got extremely into French New Wave cinema, so I’ve been compelled to revisit the movement again. Typically, I’m not a fan of French cinema in general, I generally find it too pretentious for my taste, but I like to be proved wrong often, so I’m never closed to revisiting things I don’t like. Two in the Wave is a pretty good look at two French New Wave masters, Jean-Luc Goddard and Francois Truffaut. I prefer Truffaut over Goddard, due to Jules et Jim being one of my favorite films ever (the exception to my anti-French Cinema rule). However, I appreciate that Goddard takes a stylistic approach to telling a visual story rather than a realistic one. There were definitely points in Two in the Wave that fell flat and I felt that end ending was just satisfactory instead of enjoyable. I recommend this film only to those who have a genuine interest in Goddard and Truffaut, not to just the casual documentary watcher.
Let’s Make it Legal

In my quest to watch every film Marilyn Monroe was ever in, I watched this film on NetFlix. I’ll start by saying that Marilyn is only in the film for three scenes even though she is prominently on the poster of the film. The marketers of that film need to stop the false advertising so that Marilyn fans don’t face the disappointment of her not being in the film. That being said, it was a lovely little film to watch. Let’s Make it Legal definitely doesn’t make it onto any of my top film lists, but it was entertaining. The storyline was forgettable and most of the acting was just average, but luckily the great Claudette Colbert carried the film from beginning to end. She was definitely the most interesting thing about the film, but I wouldn’t even recommend that Claudette Colbert fans watch that film… its just too average.

Tiny Furniture

Lena Dunham is now one of my favorite contemporary filmmakers. Tiny Furniture is about a young woman, fresh out of college who’s in the limbo between graduation and real life. In telling this story, Dunham embraces a hyper-realistic style to her story. The characters look like real people and act like them too; there is no glamour and no movie magic. This film seems like a documentary on someone’s life, though it is a film. I think that ‘slice of life’ films are the hardest to make, which is why Hollywood in general goes with a glamorized version of life instead of a real one. By embracing the style of realism, Dunham holds up a mirror to young America and forces us to look at ourselves in a way. Independent Cinema generally resonates with me more on a personal level because indie filmmakers generally care more about turning their films into mirrors of society, thus making their films a lot more interactive than the normal film. Tiny Furniture is a captivating film because its such an emotionally interactive story. I completely enjoyed watching it, and I highly recommend this film to all.

A Woman is a Woman

Going along with a French theme, I watched the Godard masterpiece, A Woman is a Woman staring Anna Karina. Most French Directors tell their stories through dialogue, which is quite alright except for the fact that I like to watch a film more than I like to hear it. What I like about Jean-Luc Godard’s A Woman is a Woman is that it’s told in such a pleasing visual manner. Godard’s visual style is so cool and interesting, and shows off the beauty of Anna Karina in many flattering ways. This film is definitely high on my list of favorite foreign films now and I highly recommend to all. My mom pointed out that Anna Karina’s character in this film is a lot like Audrey Hepburn’s in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, which is an interesting and fairly accurate comparison. A Woman is a Woman is ridiculously cute and very entertaining, and I definitely recommend it to anyone willing to watch a film with subtitles.

—

Now that I’ve effectively evaded all of my academic responsibilities (though it can be argued that spending a day with cinema is an academic responsibility), it’s time to spend the rest of the night doing homework and such.

So Spoke Godard:

The cinema is not an art which films life: the cinema is something between art and life. Unlike painting and literature, the cinema both gives to life and takes from it, and I try to render this concept in my films. Literature and painting both exist as art from the very start; the cinema doesn’t.

I have a different respect for Jean-Luc Godard after watching Two in the Wave. Now to go watch A Woman is a Woman and sulk about not being apart of a cool film movement yet.

Dear Showtime, I’ll never forget.

Showtime, Showtime, Showtime… we were once friends and I mean, really good friends. You had good shows and had a decent catalogue of films available on your OnDemand library. Dexter and The United States of Tara quickly became my first choices in Premium Television. I dedicated time out of my busy schedule to watch those shows when they premiered to ensure they got my necessary ratings points. I was a dedicated fan!

Then you pulled the rug out from under me bit by bit.

First, you declined to put Season 4 and 5 of Dexter on NetFlix Instant Play. This was, of course, incredibly inconvenient at first, but then I learned that you would be moving your content to the OnDemand library at the end of certain time period. So I waited… and waited.. and waited… and the show never appeared on the library. After the cliffhanger that was Season 3 of Dexter, I simply couldn’t wait around for you to tell me when I could see your show. I had to watch the show by other means, and I really didn’t want to, but Showtime forced me into it by denying me access to their content. HBO does that to me, but Showtime, you’re supposed to be different! (At least HBO has their HBOGo service that actually has their content online.)

And then the monstrosity that is the Season 4 finale of Dexter happened… and I’m not going to detail it out in this post, but I’m just going to say that I’m still not over it. It was an unnecessary plot twist. Completely. I’m still a fan of Dexter (despite last season’s awkwardness), but I will never find a justification for the Season 4 finale. I guess some people would consider that “good TV”, but really, it was just being over dramatic for the sake of being over dramatic. That character didn’t deserve what happened to her and I will never stop being upset about it.

But Season 5 of Dexter was decent. And season 6 was good despite the seriously awkward situation they’ve set up for season 7. So I’ve mostly forgiven Showtime for the season 4 finale. Not all the way, but mostly.

During the time I got into Dexter, I got into another Showtime show, The United States of Tara. For those of you who have never seen Tara (shame on you), its a half hour dramedy about a family who has to deal with the mother’s multiple personality disorder. The concept is unique, and the execution was beautiful. Every character was well constructed and the show stayed interesting from first episode to last. Before Tara, sitcom Moms were just “crazy”, as in being labeled a crazy woman instead of being clinically mentally unstable. Tara was the first sitcom of its time to put a mentally ill character in a starring role. The beauty of the show was that the title character Tara was treated with so much dignity and was always portrayed as a normal person with an abnormal disease, instead of becoming a caricature of a person. Her alter personalities were definitely extremes of certain personalities, but they were never caricatures either; they were all well constructed people inside of an already well constructed person. The entire Gregson family, including Max, Kate, and Marshall, were all well constructed characters as well as instantly relatable people and they all gelled like a normal, middle class family.

The United States of Tara ran for just three seasons, and left us fans with a cliffhanger. We’ll never know what happened to Tara, and if she ever got better. Or if Kate’s relationship with her new boyfriend would turn into something more serious. Or if Marshall ever came to terms with his ex-boyfriend’s death. Or if Max and Tara ever got to just have a normal relationship. Showtime allowed Diablo Cody to create these magnificent characters and then they killed them. Showtime killed my favorite TV family and I’ll never know what the future held for them. Never.

There’s a certain cruelty in canceling a good show, actually; when storytelling is done correctly, the viewer tends to forget that they are watching a story, the story just becomes a slice of life, even if those lives aren’t real. And we viewers get emotionally involved in these stories in ways we don’t even realize at first, these stories and characters and situations become real. TV families like the Gregsons of United States of Tara become a familiar family that you become to know and love, and they just become apart of your life. And for at least 30 minutes a week, we viewers willingly take time out of our lives to peek into the life of another, and during that time, those people are completely real. Completely. We viewers grow to know and love these characters, to hope with them and become sad with them, revel in their triumphs and become disappointed when they are, and then all of a sudden, some network executive decides to kill your characters. They just disappear without a trace, and we viewers are left feeling like our dog has ran away with our hearts. While its socially acceptable to mourn for the loss of a pet, its not to mourn for the loss of your favorite fictional television characters, so we viewers go through our mild depression in private. Stories are just that involving, especially the great ones that touch you on some level. I’m not ashamed to say that I was extremely sad with The United States of Tara was cancelled, because I believed in that show and in those characters. I had felt like I’d known that family for a long time and that they moved away all of a sudden without saying goodbye.

Cancelled shows leave without saying goodbye, and it sucks. I’d much prefer for a show to just run its course and end with a bunch of resolutions, even if they aren’t resolutions I like (I’m looking at you Will and Grace series finale). I just want to feel like my favorite characters had some type of a full life and had their life problems resolved. I guess that’s why one can say that I prefer movies over TV shows: movies end with resolutions.

I’m currently re-watching The United States of Tara on Netflix Instant right now (Showtime apparently never got around to moving all of their content to a permanent OnDemand database) and my anger towards Showtime has only deepened. The only reasons I still subscribe to Showtime are because of Dexter and The Borgious (and the fact that it’s only $10 extra a month, compared to HBO’s $25 dollar monthly fee). Even Showtime’s movie library has become considerably worse over the past two years. I blame it on the fact that they spent so much money for the rights to air The Twilight Saga, and they didn’t have anything spend much on any other movies to exploit.

Showtime, you need to get your life together. The next time you have an amazing show on your hands, don’t get rid of it in the midst of “rebranding”.

The Spring.

My brain is a total clutter at the moment. There are lists on top of lists of things I desperately need to get done, and the more I look around my room and at my planner, the more lists I continue to make. There just aren’t enough hours in the day. Even as I write this now, I don’t really have time to write it. (I’m waiting on my laundry to dry, and I don’t want to start doing something else, only to stop to pick up my laundry and then fold it.)

So in the time I’m waiting for my dryer to stop, here are a few blog posts condensed into bullet points:

• The Golden Globes were uneventful. This entire Awards season is uneventful, actually. The best films of the year were independents; the Studios put out lackluster profit this year and Award shows are reflecting that.
• Taking 18 units of mostly major courses is extremely stressful. The stress comes from having to master a balancing act that is increasingly harder each day. Individually, my classes aren’t too stressful, but together, I don’t know how I’m living right now. Going into week three of classes, I’m already pulling near-all-nighters and getting stress headaches. But as much as I do (and will continue to) complain about it, this is the lifestyle I really do love. I love being overly busy; I love working all day and night to produce great work; I love stressing over something that ultimately turns out to be a great project. Film School is a lot of stress and work, but its worth it. I couldn’t see myself doing anything else.
• I’ve officially given up on trying to write any type of commentary on Martha Marcy May Marlene. I need to see it 30 more times before I can actually formulate any type of worthy comments on it. MMMM is a fantastic film, and I believe that Elizabeth Olsen will become a big, big star (if not that, then just a great actress). This film has directly influenced the screenplay I’m currently writing, and should actually be working on right now.
• Everyone should go see Pariah. Now. The lead actress, Adepero Oduye, is amazing and was just signed by ICM. I’m going to be rooting for her for the rest of my life. Dee Ree’s definitely earned a huge chunk of my respect for making that film, and its definitely one of the few films I’ve seen about homosexuality in the black community that will actually have the power to make people think.
• The amount of time one needs to shoot a 30 second short is ridiculous.
• I would like an extra 2 hours a day to dedicate to nap time. Is that too much to ask?

Winter Break

My last post was on September 12th, right before the complete madness of school completely took over my life. I wish I would have had more time to blog, but all of my “extra” time went to sleeping and eating (you know, the basics of life). While I don’t think that every film school can claim to keep it’s student’s sleepless and working for 4 months straight, I know for a fact that mine can. I have never pulled so many all-nighters in my entire life, the worst of which involving the finishing of my first feature screenplay this past Sunday night.

But now I am finally done with this semester, and I am blissfully looking forward to the next month off of school. While at first I was overwhelmed with all of the extra time I would have during the month of December, I realized that I get to do everything  I couldn’t do while school was in session:

• blog
• read books I like
• watch movies (in a theater!!!)
• re-watch everything Queen Judy Garland has ever made
• finally watch Olympia which was loaned to me by the Chair of my film department who probably thinks I’ve lost the DVD or something (just for the record, the DVD has been chillin’ in my DVD player for a couple of months… consistently going un-watched every, single night)
•  blog
• re-read the A Song of Fire and Ice series that I became addicted to back in August

Since I can’t promise that I’ll have much time to blog during Spring Semester (I’m taking 18 units because I love to torture myself, apparently), I’m going to commit to blogging a lot this month. I won’t be covering award season this year as closely as I did last year, primarily because I haven’t seen enough movies this year (yet) to make educated commentary, nor have I had time to get in tune with what the industry thinks are the award hopefuls this year. I will, of course, be watching every single award show and keeping up with the nominations and winners, so I won’t completely devoid my blog of award coverage.

At some point, I want to do a large post  of all of the great books on film that I already own, and a wishlist of things I need to own. One of my favorite parts of being in film school is that I’m required to buy books that I would have bought on my own already (two from this semester being Filmmaking: Shot by  Shot and Film Genre Reader 3. 

But anyways, I am alive and I have not abandoned this blog. I promise.