Wednesday, February 7, 2018
403 - Chasing Amy, United States, 1997. Dir. Kevin Smith.
Holden McNeil inks comic books.
His best friend Banky Edwards draws them.
Together they make Bluntman and Chronic. And they are successful enough to sign autographs for adoring fans at the latest comic con.
Adoring fans who make fun of Holden for inking. Who claim that he is a tracer. Who get into arguments with him about it.
Suckering him into reacting and fighting back. Until security is called.
Oh well, what did that guy know anyway?
Holden and Banky have been best friends forever. So Banky feels a little threatened when Holden meets a girl--fellow comic book artist Alyssa Jones--and falls for her.
No, her name is not Amy. It is Alyssa.
Amy is the girl Silent Bob once loved. But he lost her by feeling intimidated by her prodigious past. Her experience. And then he spent every day since then chasing her. Chasing Amy.
Silent Bob later tells Holden his story.
And Holden remembers it.
And appropriates it.
Because he will need it.
At first Holden loves Alyssa.
But Alyssa bats for the other team.
And has a lot of experience. Which intimidates Holden.
What should Holden do?
His heart is in conflict with itself. And his friend is struggling. He makes a decision that makes sense to him but not to anyone else. And things unravel.
He was trying.
Kevin Smith poured his heart into this, his third movie. In the 1990s, when A View Askew was on top. He wrote an essay in 2000 where he explained his inspiration and humbly expressed his ignorance and Joey Lauren Adams' influence on him.
At the time of its release, the film found an audience among critics and fans who appreciated its sincere efforts to explore sexuality honestly.
In the years since, as society has become more experienced and knowledgeable, some have found the film dated.
What do you think?
Wednesday, February 7, 2018
Tuesday, February 6, 2018
402 - Hoop Dreams, United States, 1994. Dir. Steve James.
Tuesday, February 6, 2018
402 - Hoop Dreams, United States, 1994. Dir. Steve James.
Arthur Agee lives on the Southside in Chicago.
William Gates lives in project called Cabrini-Green.
They both play basketball.
They both play basketball on playgrounds.
They are in Junior High School.
Earl Smith is a scout for St. Joseph High School in Westchester, Illinois.
A scout for a high school.
Scouting playgrounds.
The roots of professional sports run deeply.
Earl Smith stands against the fence at the playground, watching Arthur Agee play. He says Agee has the quickest first step of anyone he has seen in the past five years.
He is hoping to find the next Isiah Thomas.
That is Isiah without the initial a. He played point guard for the Detroit Pistons. A two-time NBA Champion. A twelve-time NBA All-Star. A sports commentator. Drafted second overall from the Indiana Hoosiers. Which means he played for Bobby Knight. And won the 1981 NCAA Tournament.
Do not confuse him with Isaiah Thomas with the initial a. He has played for the Kings, the Suns, and the Celtics, and currently plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Earl Smith wants to find the next Isiah Thomas because Isiah grew up in a neighborhood just like this one. And played basketball on a playground. And was recruited to St. Joseph High School in Westchester. And took the 90-minute train.
Smith makes Agee an offer.
Agee accepts.
Now Arthur Agee at age 14 takes the 90-minute train to St. Joseph. To play basketball. To be the next Isiah Thomas.
Smith makes Gates a similar offer. And Gates also accepts.
Both boys are following their dreams. Their Hoop Dreams. High School Freshmen dreaming of the NBA.
Arthur Agee makes the Freshman team. William Gates makes the Varsity team. Just like Isiah did.
Agee is shy. And much is made of his shyness.
Coach Gene Pingatore, at least as shown in the movie, is not patient. He wants Agee to grow. He wants him to grow now. When Agee does not grow fast enough, Pingatore cuts him.
Now the school wants its tuition money.
And they hold Agee's transcripts hostage until his parents pay it.
Agee has transferred back home to the public school Marshall, where he would have gone anyway had he not been recruited, but he will not graduate on time if he does not get his transcripts.
Wait a second.
Here was a kid who was minding his own business, playing basketball at the playground in his own back yard, and you came and recruited him to a private school, made promises of greatness to him, and offered him a scholarship (which his mother claims she understood to be a full ride), and now you decide to cut him from the team and send him a bill? And hold his transcripts hostage until his family pays it?
Something is rotten in the state of Westchester.
Coach Gene Pingatore, at least as shown in the movie, is also not very discerning. Arthur Agee will grow at Marshall and eventually flourish. And yes, he will lead his team of giant slayers deep into the high school playoffs as Coach Pingatore's team loses early and Coach sits watching Agee play as he himself sits in the stands.
We are not necessarily rooting against Pingatore. We are just sharing in the Agees' frustration. Why did you do that? If you recruit a child, why not believe in the child? Why not have the courage of your own convictions and see it through to the end? Is that not what you claim to be teaching the young men you coach? To finish? Why would you yourself not finish?
We do understand that we are being manipulated by the medium of the documentary. So the facts in real life might not be precisely the same as they are portrayed. But we are responding to the information we are given. And to the way it is portrayed. That is all we have. The characters are one step removed from real life, even though it is a documentary.
William Gates stays at St. Joseph. At first he is a stand-out, but then he is injured. And we watch as he works through the injury to get back on the court. The local commentators cite him publicly as the next big star, and he makes it to the prestigious Nike Camp, where he gets to work with Dick Vitale and Bobby Knight, among others. Spike Lee also shows up at the camp, but he speaks cynically to the boys, undermining the positive energy that the others are trying to instill. It is not clear why he is even there. After listening to him speak, one imagines that he may have talked some of the kids into quitting altogether.
The film follows many people in the lives of these two boys.
Arthur's mother Sheila. His father Bo. His sister Tomika. His brother Joe.
William's mother Emma. His brother Curtis. Himself a former high school star for whom things did not work out. His father Willie.
Arthur's coach at Marshall, Luther Bedford.
One of the heroes is Patricia Weir, the president of Encyclopedia Britannica, who helps them along the way.
We watch as the playground becomes a place for drug deals, and as Arthur's own father Bo makes a transaction in front of him while Arthur is playing ball.
Bo, who had been faithful for twenty years, who himself had been a ballplayer, who had believed in his son and nicknamed him Man, gets hooked on crack cocaine, leaves the family, and spends time in jail. Then he comes back, takes the family to church, and sings his testimony of how God delivered him. You can see the fatigue in Arthur's eyes. He seems past the point of hoping this transformation is real. Later Bo will leave again and return again, just in time to lecture Arthur in front of a college recruiter pressuring Arthur to sign a contract.
William is in a similar situation. In his case his father has always been gone. His father sells used cars and invites William to come to the lot so he can give him one when he is old enough. William wonders if his father is getting involved in his life now that he is showing promise as a basketball player.
One wonders if this is the bottom line. Where are the fathers? The film shows the mothers working their tails off to keep their families together and provide a better life for their children.
Some reviewers have talked about race, economics, the "system," and other abstract concepts as being "at fault" for the protagonist's struggles, but in the context of the film itself race has little to do with anything. Economics does but mostly as a direct consequence of not having a father in the home providing for the family. And "the system," if anything is giving the kids extraordinary opportunities in the first place. Opportunities that all the other kids in the movie--the siblings, the neighbors, the classmates, the cheerleaders, the band members, and the fans--do not even have.
Yesterday we watched Boyhood (2014), a film that followed four people plus others over twelve years to tell a fictional story.
Today we are watching Hoop Dreams (1994), a film that follows two people plus others over five years to tell a true story.
Both are extraordinary achievements.
And of course when they began the project, the filmmakers did not know how it would turn out.
The viewer leaves caring about the people. Arthur and William and their families, their coaches, and the recruiters. Everyone is trying. Trying to make it.
Trying to follow their own dreams.
And in some cases, trying to decide what they are.
402 - Hoop Dreams, United States, 1994. Dir. Steve James.
Arthur Agee lives on the Southside in Chicago.
William Gates lives in project called Cabrini-Green.
They both play basketball.
They both play basketball on playgrounds.
They are in Junior High School.
Earl Smith is a scout for St. Joseph High School in Westchester, Illinois.
A scout for a high school.
Scouting playgrounds.
The roots of professional sports run deeply.
Earl Smith stands against the fence at the playground, watching Arthur Agee play. He says Agee has the quickest first step of anyone he has seen in the past five years.
He is hoping to find the next Isiah Thomas.
That is Isiah without the initial a. He played point guard for the Detroit Pistons. A two-time NBA Champion. A twelve-time NBA All-Star. A sports commentator. Drafted second overall from the Indiana Hoosiers. Which means he played for Bobby Knight. And won the 1981 NCAA Tournament.
Do not confuse him with Isaiah Thomas with the initial a. He has played for the Kings, the Suns, and the Celtics, and currently plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Earl Smith wants to find the next Isiah Thomas because Isiah grew up in a neighborhood just like this one. And played basketball on a playground. And was recruited to St. Joseph High School in Westchester. And took the 90-minute train.
Smith makes Agee an offer.
Agee accepts.
Now Arthur Agee at age 14 takes the 90-minute train to St. Joseph. To play basketball. To be the next Isiah Thomas.
Smith makes Gates a similar offer. And Gates also accepts.
Both boys are following their dreams. Their Hoop Dreams. High School Freshmen dreaming of the NBA.
Arthur Agee makes the Freshman team. William Gates makes the Varsity team. Just like Isiah did.
Agee is shy. And much is made of his shyness.
Coach Gene Pingatore, at least as shown in the movie, is not patient. He wants Agee to grow. He wants him to grow now. When Agee does not grow fast enough, Pingatore cuts him.
Now the school wants its tuition money.
And they hold Agee's transcripts hostage until his parents pay it.
Agee has transferred back home to the public school Marshall, where he would have gone anyway had he not been recruited, but he will not graduate on time if he does not get his transcripts.
Wait a second.
Here was a kid who was minding his own business, playing basketball at the playground in his own back yard, and you came and recruited him to a private school, made promises of greatness to him, and offered him a scholarship (which his mother claims she understood to be a full ride), and now you decide to cut him from the team and send him a bill? And hold his transcripts hostage until his family pays it?
Something is rotten in the state of Westchester.
Coach Gene Pingatore, at least as shown in the movie, is also not very discerning. Arthur Agee will grow at Marshall and eventually flourish. And yes, he will lead his team of giant slayers deep into the high school playoffs as Coach Pingatore's team loses early and Coach sits watching Agee play as he himself sits in the stands.
We are not necessarily rooting against Pingatore. We are just sharing in the Agees' frustration. Why did you do that? If you recruit a child, why not believe in the child? Why not have the courage of your own convictions and see it through to the end? Is that not what you claim to be teaching the young men you coach? To finish? Why would you yourself not finish?
We do understand that we are being manipulated by the medium of the documentary. So the facts in real life might not be precisely the same as they are portrayed. But we are responding to the information we are given. And to the way it is portrayed. That is all we have. The characters are one step removed from real life, even though it is a documentary.
William Gates stays at St. Joseph. At first he is a stand-out, but then he is injured. And we watch as he works through the injury to get back on the court. The local commentators cite him publicly as the next big star, and he makes it to the prestigious Nike Camp, where he gets to work with Dick Vitale and Bobby Knight, among others. Spike Lee also shows up at the camp, but he speaks cynically to the boys, undermining the positive energy that the others are trying to instill. It is not clear why he is even there. After listening to him speak, one imagines that he may have talked some of the kids into quitting altogether.
The film follows many people in the lives of these two boys.
Arthur's mother Sheila. His father Bo. His sister Tomika. His brother Joe.
William's mother Emma. His brother Curtis. Himself a former high school star for whom things did not work out. His father Willie.
Arthur's coach at Marshall, Luther Bedford.
One of the heroes is Patricia Weir, the president of Encyclopedia Britannica, who helps them along the way.
We watch as the playground becomes a place for drug deals, and as Arthur's own father Bo makes a transaction in front of him while Arthur is playing ball.
Bo, who had been faithful for twenty years, who himself had been a ballplayer, who had believed in his son and nicknamed him Man, gets hooked on crack cocaine, leaves the family, and spends time in jail. Then he comes back, takes the family to church, and sings his testimony of how God delivered him. You can see the fatigue in Arthur's eyes. He seems past the point of hoping this transformation is real. Later Bo will leave again and return again, just in time to lecture Arthur in front of a college recruiter pressuring Arthur to sign a contract.
William is in a similar situation. In his case his father has always been gone. His father sells used cars and invites William to come to the lot so he can give him one when he is old enough. William wonders if his father is getting involved in his life now that he is showing promise as a basketball player.
One wonders if this is the bottom line. Where are the fathers? The film shows the mothers working their tails off to keep their families together and provide a better life for their children.
Some reviewers have talked about race, economics, the "system," and other abstract concepts as being "at fault" for the protagonist's struggles, but in the context of the film itself race has little to do with anything. Economics does but mostly as a direct consequence of not having a father in the home providing for the family. And "the system," if anything is giving the kids extraordinary opportunities in the first place. Opportunities that all the other kids in the movie--the siblings, the neighbors, the classmates, the cheerleaders, the band members, and the fans--do not even have.
Yesterday we watched Boyhood (2014), a film that followed four people plus others over twelve years to tell a fictional story.
Today we are watching Hoop Dreams (1994), a film that follows two people plus others over five years to tell a true story.
Both are extraordinary achievements.
And of course when they began the project, the filmmakers did not know how it would turn out.
The viewer leaves caring about the people. Arthur and William and their families, their coaches, and the recruiters. Everyone is trying. Trying to make it.
Trying to follow their own dreams.
And in some cases, trying to decide what they are.
Monday, February 5, 2018
401 - Boyhood, United States, 2014. Dir. Richard Linklater.
Monday, February 5, 2018
401 - Boyhood, United States, 2014. Dir. Richard Linklater.
Blessed are those who can believe without seeing.
So says the Pastor of the nameless country church somewhere outside of Houston. Richard Linklater has him add the word can. As if to say some people cannot. An honest expression of self-doubt. Perhaps even an admiration of those who do. But Jesus in John 20:29 states it without the word can. Suggesting it is an act of the will. That anyone can. Even Mason. Even you.
Mason sits in the church looking uncomfortable. Not only from being in church but also for wearing the suit he has on. And holding a Bible his new step-grandparents have given him for his birthday.
What is he doing here?
He does not fit in.
And to be brought here by his father, of all people. The man who once disappeared to Alaska. Who gave him a mixtape CD of Beatles solo songs. Who promised him the GTO when he turned 16. Who has entered his life off and on throughout his life with presents and good times and a philosophy born of experience and music lyrics.
Richard Linklater loves his Texas weirdos.
So the Pastor with the gut protruding through his too-tight cheap dress shirt fits in his world just as naturally as the UT Professor with Tenure sitting in the booth at 3:00 am pontificating about celestial star maps charting the procession of the pole star 14,000 years into the future.
The misfits who fit in.
And as Mason navigates his way through this messy, complicated life, you cannot help but believe that through it all he is somehow going to be OK.
Mason's parents came together young. His father, Mason Sr., explains this to him and his sister Samantha one day when they are on one of their lifelong bowling outings. He is giving Samantha a talk about contraception, overlooking the fact that he is embarrassing her, because he wants her life to turn out better than his.
"I was 23 when your mom had you, all right? So was she. All right, and we didn't put ourselves in the best position to be great parents. And I wish that . . . and I wish that I were a better parent to you guys, all right? And I hope that you can learn from my mistakes, okay? All right. So wear a condom, okay?"
Somehow he never comes across as implying that they were a mistake or a burden or a regret. On the contrary, it is at this moment that you realize how deeply he loves his children. And how deeply he has loved them over the years, despite starting off as an absent father. Despite leaving their mother to do all the heavy lifting of raising them. Despite exposing them prematurely to things that might not be in their best interest.
And perhaps trying a little too hard to make his son the man that he himself was not.
When he was 6, Mason asked his dad if he could use the bumpers when they went bowling. Samantha could bowl strikes, but Mason got gutter balls.
Mason Sr. refused. Attempting to teach his son a lesson. "Bumpers are for kids! What are you, two years old?"
"Life doesn't give you bumpers."
"You bowl a strike with bumpers and it doesn't mean anything."
But now he apologizes. "I'm sorry about that bumper business. I'm gonna get better at stuff like that, okay?"
He too is growing up. He too is leaving boyhood. So it is appropriate that they are both named Mason. This movie is about both of them.
This movie is about all of them.
Their mother Olivia has worked hard to raise them. She has gone from house to house, town to town, and man to man to try to survive. It is hard to appreciate the struggle when you are a child and in need of stability. Mason and Samantha feel like pinballs in the pinball machine of the adult world.
Linklater continues his running theme of how young people feel oppressed by adult rules. They have creativity and ideas and longings, but they have no freedom. And what do you do when the adults are less responsible than you are, but you still have to mind them?
For example, the next two men in Olivia's life, her teacher Bill Wellbrook and later her student, the Iraqi veteran with PTSD, Jim.
Bill Wellbrook, is an overbearing rulemaker. He also has a son and daughter, Randy and Mindy, and he makes the blended family do chores like there is no tomorrow. He belittles the boys for not finishing their leaf raking and the girls for not finishing their dusting before Samantha and Mason go off with their biological father. Yes, you read that correctly. Dusting!
Yet he takes them all with him when he stops by the liquor store to sneak home a few bottles. "Just in case we have guests this weekend." Mindy knows better. "He always says that, but we never have guests."
When he starts drinking out in the open and taunting Mason at dinner, climaxing with his throwing and breaking of glassware, Olivia knows she needs to leave him. She takes the kids without stopping to let them pack, and they abandon everything they own, all their possessions, including their step siblings, including all their friends, to move to a new town with only the clothes on their backs.
Later, when she herself becomes a teacher and begins dating her student Jim, things do not get better. Jim the veteran now works for the Department of Corrections. He ought to be an upstanding citizen. But he too drinks. And he is struggling with his war memories. He too is overbearing and gives Mason a hard time.
When Mason complains about it and protests, "You know Jim, you're not my Dad," Jim responds by stinging him.
"No, I'm not your dad. You know how I know that? 'Cause I'm actually here. I'm the guy with the job, paying the bills, taking care of you, your mom, your sister. Huh? Huh? I'm that guy!"
Her fourth man will be Ted, a wearer of pink polo shirts. We know little about him other than that he shows up at Mason's graduation party.
Olivia finally breaks down when the kids head off to college. As she prepares to sell yet another house and her daughter asks her why--because the kids long to have a home to come home to--she says because it is too expensive. So Samantha asks her why she bought it in the first place.
"Because I really enjoy making poor life decisions, keeping us on the brink of poverty."
Patricia Arquette's acting is extraordinary. You cannot help but feel compassion for these folks.
"I've spent the first half of my life acquiring all this crap, and now I'm gonna spend the second half getting rid of all this stuff."
"I got rid of a couple husbands. Now I'm gonna get rid of a mortgage, some maintenance, the tchotchskes, the homeowner's insurance, the property tax, the plumbing."
Mason will discover photography, and it is through his art that he feels as though he has a place in the world and a way to contribute.
As he begins college he still does not understand a lot of things and neither does his father, yet they are working through it all together.
Back when Samantha got angry over the new step-father, she complained to her mother about it.
"Why did you even marry him? He's such a jerk!"
And Olivia responded, "Well, Bill has his good qualities. You know, nobody's perfect. And now we have a family."
Samantha asserted in return, "We already had a family."
And as the years go by you realize that Samantha was right. They already had a family. The men come and go. The step-siblings come and go. Mason Sr. starts his own new life.
But they will always have each other.
They will always be a family.
* * * * *
In 2001 I was sitting in a movie theater watching Training Day. At some point in the movie Denzel Washington's character Alonzo drops off Ethan Hawke's character Jake at the home of Smiley (Cliff Curtis). He leaves Jake stuck there at the poker game. Jake is now in a situation that is beyond uncomfortable. And might be lethal. And as I watched Ethan Hawke's performance, something resonated on the inside of me that continues to resonate. Here was a major actor. A monster talent. I had to see everything he was in. Of course I already felt that way about Denzel,
It turned out I had already seen Ethan Hawke a lot. In Dead Poets Society (1989), Waterland (1992), Alive (1993), Quiz Show (1994), Gattaca (1997), Great Expectations (1998), and Snow Falling on Cedars (1999). (Even still you can see I had missed him in plenty of others.) But it was at that moment that he leapt into my consciousness and I became a fan for life. His work here as Mason Sr. is strong. His work with Richard Linklater as a whole is special. We will watch the Before movies sometime later.
I have always loved the Arquette family and I have always admired Patricia. I appreciate that Quentin Tarantino gave her the name Alabama in True Romance (1993). She won the Oscar for her performance here. The movie could have won for Best Picture but lost to Birdman. It was a strong year.
I had the pleasure of meeting Ellar Coltrane at a film festival where he was screening his movie By the River (2016). I think it is extraordinary that he got to work on a character through those pivotal years of his life. It is something that few people will ever experience, and it is something to appreciate.
Richard Linklater's daughter Lorelei Linklater plays Samantha, and she is terrific.
Linklater's movies are grounded in reality and feel true to life. That is why they are so enjoyable. And will stand the test of time.
401 - Boyhood, United States, 2014. Dir. Richard Linklater.
Blessed are those who can believe without seeing.
So says the Pastor of the nameless country church somewhere outside of Houston. Richard Linklater has him add the word can. As if to say some people cannot. An honest expression of self-doubt. Perhaps even an admiration of those who do. But Jesus in John 20:29 states it without the word can. Suggesting it is an act of the will. That anyone can. Even Mason. Even you.
Mason sits in the church looking uncomfortable. Not only from being in church but also for wearing the suit he has on. And holding a Bible his new step-grandparents have given him for his birthday.
What is he doing here?
He does not fit in.
And to be brought here by his father, of all people. The man who once disappeared to Alaska. Who gave him a mixtape CD of Beatles solo songs. Who promised him the GTO when he turned 16. Who has entered his life off and on throughout his life with presents and good times and a philosophy born of experience and music lyrics.
Richard Linklater loves his Texas weirdos.
So the Pastor with the gut protruding through his too-tight cheap dress shirt fits in his world just as naturally as the UT Professor with Tenure sitting in the booth at 3:00 am pontificating about celestial star maps charting the procession of the pole star 14,000 years into the future.
The misfits who fit in.
And as Mason navigates his way through this messy, complicated life, you cannot help but believe that through it all he is somehow going to be OK.
Mason's parents came together young. His father, Mason Sr., explains this to him and his sister Samantha one day when they are on one of their lifelong bowling outings. He is giving Samantha a talk about contraception, overlooking the fact that he is embarrassing her, because he wants her life to turn out better than his.
"I was 23 when your mom had you, all right? So was she. All right, and we didn't put ourselves in the best position to be great parents. And I wish that . . . and I wish that I were a better parent to you guys, all right? And I hope that you can learn from my mistakes, okay? All right. So wear a condom, okay?"
Somehow he never comes across as implying that they were a mistake or a burden or a regret. On the contrary, it is at this moment that you realize how deeply he loves his children. And how deeply he has loved them over the years, despite starting off as an absent father. Despite leaving their mother to do all the heavy lifting of raising them. Despite exposing them prematurely to things that might not be in their best interest.
And perhaps trying a little too hard to make his son the man that he himself was not.
When he was 6, Mason asked his dad if he could use the bumpers when they went bowling. Samantha could bowl strikes, but Mason got gutter balls.
Mason Sr. refused. Attempting to teach his son a lesson. "Bumpers are for kids! What are you, two years old?"
"Life doesn't give you bumpers."
"You bowl a strike with bumpers and it doesn't mean anything."
But now he apologizes. "I'm sorry about that bumper business. I'm gonna get better at stuff like that, okay?"
He too is growing up. He too is leaving boyhood. So it is appropriate that they are both named Mason. This movie is about both of them.
This movie is about all of them.
Their mother Olivia has worked hard to raise them. She has gone from house to house, town to town, and man to man to try to survive. It is hard to appreciate the struggle when you are a child and in need of stability. Mason and Samantha feel like pinballs in the pinball machine of the adult world.
Linklater continues his running theme of how young people feel oppressed by adult rules. They have creativity and ideas and longings, but they have no freedom. And what do you do when the adults are less responsible than you are, but you still have to mind them?
For example, the next two men in Olivia's life, her teacher Bill Wellbrook and later her student, the Iraqi veteran with PTSD, Jim.
Bill Wellbrook, is an overbearing rulemaker. He also has a son and daughter, Randy and Mindy, and he makes the blended family do chores like there is no tomorrow. He belittles the boys for not finishing their leaf raking and the girls for not finishing their dusting before Samantha and Mason go off with their biological father. Yes, you read that correctly. Dusting!
Yet he takes them all with him when he stops by the liquor store to sneak home a few bottles. "Just in case we have guests this weekend." Mindy knows better. "He always says that, but we never have guests."
When he starts drinking out in the open and taunting Mason at dinner, climaxing with his throwing and breaking of glassware, Olivia knows she needs to leave him. She takes the kids without stopping to let them pack, and they abandon everything they own, all their possessions, including their step siblings, including all their friends, to move to a new town with only the clothes on their backs.
Later, when she herself becomes a teacher and begins dating her student Jim, things do not get better. Jim the veteran now works for the Department of Corrections. He ought to be an upstanding citizen. But he too drinks. And he is struggling with his war memories. He too is overbearing and gives Mason a hard time.
When Mason complains about it and protests, "You know Jim, you're not my Dad," Jim responds by stinging him.
"No, I'm not your dad. You know how I know that? 'Cause I'm actually here. I'm the guy with the job, paying the bills, taking care of you, your mom, your sister. Huh? Huh? I'm that guy!"
Her fourth man will be Ted, a wearer of pink polo shirts. We know little about him other than that he shows up at Mason's graduation party.
Olivia finally breaks down when the kids head off to college. As she prepares to sell yet another house and her daughter asks her why--because the kids long to have a home to come home to--she says because it is too expensive. So Samantha asks her why she bought it in the first place.
"Because I really enjoy making poor life decisions, keeping us on the brink of poverty."
Patricia Arquette's acting is extraordinary. You cannot help but feel compassion for these folks.
"I've spent the first half of my life acquiring all this crap, and now I'm gonna spend the second half getting rid of all this stuff."
"I got rid of a couple husbands. Now I'm gonna get rid of a mortgage, some maintenance, the tchotchskes, the homeowner's insurance, the property tax, the plumbing."
Mason will discover photography, and it is through his art that he feels as though he has a place in the world and a way to contribute.
As he begins college he still does not understand a lot of things and neither does his father, yet they are working through it all together.
Back when Samantha got angry over the new step-father, she complained to her mother about it.
"Why did you even marry him? He's such a jerk!"
And Olivia responded, "Well, Bill has his good qualities. You know, nobody's perfect. And now we have a family."
Samantha asserted in return, "We already had a family."
And as the years go by you realize that Samantha was right. They already had a family. The men come and go. The step-siblings come and go. Mason Sr. starts his own new life.
But they will always have each other.
They will always be a family.
* * * * *
In 2001 I was sitting in a movie theater watching Training Day. At some point in the movie Denzel Washington's character Alonzo drops off Ethan Hawke's character Jake at the home of Smiley (Cliff Curtis). He leaves Jake stuck there at the poker game. Jake is now in a situation that is beyond uncomfortable. And might be lethal. And as I watched Ethan Hawke's performance, something resonated on the inside of me that continues to resonate. Here was a major actor. A monster talent. I had to see everything he was in. Of course I already felt that way about Denzel,
It turned out I had already seen Ethan Hawke a lot. In Dead Poets Society (1989), Waterland (1992), Alive (1993), Quiz Show (1994), Gattaca (1997), Great Expectations (1998), and Snow Falling on Cedars (1999). (Even still you can see I had missed him in plenty of others.) But it was at that moment that he leapt into my consciousness and I became a fan for life. His work here as Mason Sr. is strong. His work with Richard Linklater as a whole is special. We will watch the Before movies sometime later.
I have always loved the Arquette family and I have always admired Patricia. I appreciate that Quentin Tarantino gave her the name Alabama in True Romance (1993). She won the Oscar for her performance here. The movie could have won for Best Picture but lost to Birdman. It was a strong year.
I had the pleasure of meeting Ellar Coltrane at a film festival where he was screening his movie By the River (2016). I think it is extraordinary that he got to work on a character through those pivotal years of his life. It is something that few people will ever experience, and it is something to appreciate.
Richard Linklater's daughter Lorelei Linklater plays Samantha, and she is terrific.
Linklater's movies are grounded in reality and feel true to life. That is why they are so enjoyable. And will stand the test of time.
Sunday, February 4, 2018
400 - Dazed and Confused, United States, 1993. Dir. Richard Linklater.
Sunday, February 4, 2018
400 - Dazed and Confused, United States, 1993. Dir. Richard Linklater.
School's out.
Time for Summer.
Time for the incoming Seniors to initiate the incoming Freshmen.
Randall Floyd is the star Senior. He is the quarterback of the football team. His coach has asked the players to sign a pledge that they will not abuse their bodies or get into trouble over the Summer. But to focus on winning State this Fall.
Randall goes by Randy to the adults. He goes by Pink to his peers. Pink as in Pink Floyd.
Pink does not want to sign the pledge. He intends to party. And he wants to tell the truth about it. The rest of the team have signed the pledge. They are practical about it. Sign the pledge and then do what you want. But Pink has convictions about it. He will not sign as a matter of principle.
Mitch Kramer is the star Freshman. He is the pitcher of the baseball team.
He has been targeted by a group of Seniors--led by Fred O'Bannion--for a hazing by way of paddle. The Seniors have made their own paddles during shop class. They intend for them to hurt.
O'Bannion should be graduating. But has has flunked his senior year. So he will be coming back next year. The Freshmen believe he is coming back just to be a jerk again. A two-time jerk.
Mitch has an older sister named Jodi. A Senior. She approaches O'Bannion and his gang. Please be gentle with my brother Mitch. She has good intentions. But her intervention only serves to make things worse. O'Bannion intends to bust Mitch.
Mitch has a baseball game tonight. O'Bannion will show up and taunt him throughout the game. Mitch is a good pitcher. They are leading 6-1 in the top of the ninth, and he is throwing strikes. But it is hard for him to concentrate with O'Bannion's gang shouting at him through the fence. Waving their paddles at him. Promising what will happen after the game.
Where are the adults? The adults of Dazed and Confused are like the adults of Peanuts. This is a young person's world.
Mitch's friends are practical. Carl Burns plays shortstop. Tommy Lawson plays catcher. They go to the mound. They reason with him. Please do not allow those jerks to distract you. Concentrate on the game. Get the strike. Put the game away. Oh, and would you mind please to exit out the right-field gate so that the jerks will follow you and not get us? They are going to get you anyway, so you might as well steer them away from us.
Thanks, friends.
Yet Mitch is a friend too. And he agrees with their logic. He throws a strike. He wins the game. He exits out the right-field gate and takes a beating.
Pink gets along with everybody. He is popular with every group.
He hangs out with the jocks. He hangs out with the gangs. He hangs out with the nerds. He hangs out with the stoners.
So when they decide to have a party at Pickford's house--because his parents are going out of town--Pink invites the writers of the school newspaper just as freely as he does anyone else. They are his friends too. And they are there for him, to talk about his dilemma, the signing or not signing of Coach's note.
The newspaper staff includes Tony Olsen, the editor, Cynthia Dunn, a redheaded writer, who has a secret crush on him, and Mike Newhouse, a staff member who is into poker and speaks philosophically. He will later take action at the beer bust.
Pink arrives at O'Bannion's gang as they are busting Mitch. And pretends to take a turn with O'Bannion. But after O'Bannion leaves, Pink is kind to Mitch. Good to him. He takes him under his wing. He gives him a ride home. He tells him how to heal his bum. He invites him to the party tonight.
Pink will be Mitch's big brother. His friend.
Darla is like the female O'Bannion with a dose of the female Pink. She is in charge of the hazing of the girls. She makes them suck pacifiers. She makes them drop whenever she shouts Air Raid! She, with the help of Simone and, yes, Jodi, pours flour on the Freshmen, along with ketchup and mustard and raw eggs. The Seniors put dogs collars on the Freshmen and make them kneel at the feet of the boys and propose to them.
Darla will shout Air Raid! again at a beer bust, but otherwise, after one rough day, the Senior girls befriend the Freshmen. And they spend the rest of the Summer as friends.
As the gang gets ready for the party, Bobby Wooderson joins them. Wooderson has already graduated. He too was a star football player. And he still enjoys the glories of high school. And the girls. He is thinking of going to junior college, but in the mean time he has more partying to do.
All the kids converge on this one epic evening.
The last day of school. Into the night. Into the morning. Everything happens in under 24 hours. Aristotle's unity of time.
They begin with Pickford's. The house of the party.
But the keg man arrives before the parents leave. The parents bust him and decide to stay at home. No more party at Pickford's. Change of venue.
They go the Top Notch Restaurant, a hamburger drive-in joint.
They go to the Emporium Club.
They go to the Moontower at West Enfield Park.
They go to the football stadium of the Lee High Rebels.
They drive their cars.
People hang. People fight. People hook up. People talk.
And with this rite of passage they launch the next phase of their lives.
Dazed and Confused is noted for its monster soundtrack. Its muscle cars. For capturing a time and place. And for launching the careers of many of today's actors.
Jason London. Joey Lauren Adams. Rory Cochrane. Adam Goldberg. Anthony Rapp. Marissa Ribisi. Cole Hauser.
Parker Posey. Milla Jovovich. Ben Affleck. Matthew McConaughey.
McConaughey had gone to UT for film school to be a director. He had made a short film. He was still an Austin local. On a Thursday night he went to the bar at the top of the Hyatt. The bartender had been his classmate in film school, so he gave him free drinks.
While there he ran into a man named Don Phillips and they started talking about golf. They had played the same course and were talking about a particular hole. They got drunk. They got kicked out.
Don Phillips just happened to be a Casting Director. He was casting Dazed and Confused. He asked McConaughey to stop by the office the next day. And to improvise his opening lines.
McConaughey was listening to The Doors. A live album. Where Jim Morrison shouts out between two songs. So he went to the office the next day and repeated what Jim Morrison said.
And got the role.
A small role.
But while on set the actor playing Pickford did not get along with Jason London, the ostensible star of the ensemble film. He fought. So Richard Linklater shifted lines from him to Matthew McConaughey. And McConaughey's small role started growing. And getting bigger. And he ended up in the final scenes at the football stadium and in the car driving down the highway.
Into stardom.
He began his acting career with the first words he ever uttered on film. Words not in the script but which he made up. After listening to The Doors.
All right. All right. All right.
400 - Dazed and Confused, United States, 1993. Dir. Richard Linklater.
School's out.
Time for Summer.
Time for the incoming Seniors to initiate the incoming Freshmen.
Randall Floyd is the star Senior. He is the quarterback of the football team. His coach has asked the players to sign a pledge that they will not abuse their bodies or get into trouble over the Summer. But to focus on winning State this Fall.
Randall goes by Randy to the adults. He goes by Pink to his peers. Pink as in Pink Floyd.
Pink does not want to sign the pledge. He intends to party. And he wants to tell the truth about it. The rest of the team have signed the pledge. They are practical about it. Sign the pledge and then do what you want. But Pink has convictions about it. He will not sign as a matter of principle.
Mitch Kramer is the star Freshman. He is the pitcher of the baseball team.
He has been targeted by a group of Seniors--led by Fred O'Bannion--for a hazing by way of paddle. The Seniors have made their own paddles during shop class. They intend for them to hurt.
O'Bannion should be graduating. But has has flunked his senior year. So he will be coming back next year. The Freshmen believe he is coming back just to be a jerk again. A two-time jerk.
Mitch has an older sister named Jodi. A Senior. She approaches O'Bannion and his gang. Please be gentle with my brother Mitch. She has good intentions. But her intervention only serves to make things worse. O'Bannion intends to bust Mitch.
Mitch has a baseball game tonight. O'Bannion will show up and taunt him throughout the game. Mitch is a good pitcher. They are leading 6-1 in the top of the ninth, and he is throwing strikes. But it is hard for him to concentrate with O'Bannion's gang shouting at him through the fence. Waving their paddles at him. Promising what will happen after the game.
Where are the adults? The adults of Dazed and Confused are like the adults of Peanuts. This is a young person's world.
Mitch's friends are practical. Carl Burns plays shortstop. Tommy Lawson plays catcher. They go to the mound. They reason with him. Please do not allow those jerks to distract you. Concentrate on the game. Get the strike. Put the game away. Oh, and would you mind please to exit out the right-field gate so that the jerks will follow you and not get us? They are going to get you anyway, so you might as well steer them away from us.
Thanks, friends.
Yet Mitch is a friend too. And he agrees with their logic. He throws a strike. He wins the game. He exits out the right-field gate and takes a beating.
Pink gets along with everybody. He is popular with every group.
He hangs out with the jocks. He hangs out with the gangs. He hangs out with the nerds. He hangs out with the stoners.
So when they decide to have a party at Pickford's house--because his parents are going out of town--Pink invites the writers of the school newspaper just as freely as he does anyone else. They are his friends too. And they are there for him, to talk about his dilemma, the signing or not signing of Coach's note.
The newspaper staff includes Tony Olsen, the editor, Cynthia Dunn, a redheaded writer, who has a secret crush on him, and Mike Newhouse, a staff member who is into poker and speaks philosophically. He will later take action at the beer bust.
Pink arrives at O'Bannion's gang as they are busting Mitch. And pretends to take a turn with O'Bannion. But after O'Bannion leaves, Pink is kind to Mitch. Good to him. He takes him under his wing. He gives him a ride home. He tells him how to heal his bum. He invites him to the party tonight.
Pink will be Mitch's big brother. His friend.
Darla is like the female O'Bannion with a dose of the female Pink. She is in charge of the hazing of the girls. She makes them suck pacifiers. She makes them drop whenever she shouts Air Raid! She, with the help of Simone and, yes, Jodi, pours flour on the Freshmen, along with ketchup and mustard and raw eggs. The Seniors put dogs collars on the Freshmen and make them kneel at the feet of the boys and propose to them.
Darla will shout Air Raid! again at a beer bust, but otherwise, after one rough day, the Senior girls befriend the Freshmen. And they spend the rest of the Summer as friends.
As the gang gets ready for the party, Bobby Wooderson joins them. Wooderson has already graduated. He too was a star football player. And he still enjoys the glories of high school. And the girls. He is thinking of going to junior college, but in the mean time he has more partying to do.
All the kids converge on this one epic evening.
The last day of school. Into the night. Into the morning. Everything happens in under 24 hours. Aristotle's unity of time.
They begin with Pickford's. The house of the party.
But the keg man arrives before the parents leave. The parents bust him and decide to stay at home. No more party at Pickford's. Change of venue.
They go the Top Notch Restaurant, a hamburger drive-in joint.
They go to the Emporium Club.
They go to the Moontower at West Enfield Park.
They go to the football stadium of the Lee High Rebels.
They drive their cars.
People hang. People fight. People hook up. People talk.
And with this rite of passage they launch the next phase of their lives.
Dazed and Confused is noted for its monster soundtrack. Its muscle cars. For capturing a time and place. And for launching the careers of many of today's actors.
Jason London. Joey Lauren Adams. Rory Cochrane. Adam Goldberg. Anthony Rapp. Marissa Ribisi. Cole Hauser.
Parker Posey. Milla Jovovich. Ben Affleck. Matthew McConaughey.
McConaughey had gone to UT for film school to be a director. He had made a short film. He was still an Austin local. On a Thursday night he went to the bar at the top of the Hyatt. The bartender had been his classmate in film school, so he gave him free drinks.
While there he ran into a man named Don Phillips and they started talking about golf. They had played the same course and were talking about a particular hole. They got drunk. They got kicked out.
Don Phillips just happened to be a Casting Director. He was casting Dazed and Confused. He asked McConaughey to stop by the office the next day. And to improvise his opening lines.
McConaughey was listening to The Doors. A live album. Where Jim Morrison shouts out between two songs. So he went to the office the next day and repeated what Jim Morrison said.
And got the role.
A small role.
But while on set the actor playing Pickford did not get along with Jason London, the ostensible star of the ensemble film. He fought. So Richard Linklater shifted lines from him to Matthew McConaughey. And McConaughey's small role started growing. And getting bigger. And he ended up in the final scenes at the football stadium and in the car driving down the highway.
Into stardom.
He began his acting career with the first words he ever uttered on film. Words not in the script but which he made up. After listening to The Doors.
All right. All right. All right.
Saturday, February 3, 2018
399 - Slacker, United States, 1990. Dir. Richard Linklater.
Saturday, February 3, 2018
399 - Slacker, United States, 1990. Dir. Richard Linklater.
Sometimes you tap into the zeitgeist.
Consider 1989. Polish Solidarity. The Fall of the Berlin Wall. Tiananmen Square. Havel in in Czechoslovakia. Ceausecu out in Romania. The Collapse of the Soviet Union. The Birth of Al Qaeda. The Dalai Lama wins the Peace Prize. The Heidi Chronicles (Wendy Wasserstein). The Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan). The Satanic Verses (Salman Rushdie). A Brief History of Time (Stephen Hawking).
James L. Brooks and Matt Groening debut an animated series entitled The Simpsons. Nancy Cartwright does the voice of the boy Bart Simpson (a role which she continues to this day, along with half a dozen fellow voice actors, logging 28 years, 635 episodes, and counting), and the character Bart becomes a national sensation and popularizes the term underachiever.
In a little over a year Douglas Coupland is going to publish Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, giving a generation a name they did not ask for and which they do not want.
In a couple years Cameron Crowe will come out with the film Singles, which looks at the Seattle grunge scene.
Louis Black has recently co-founded South By Southwest in Austin, Texas.
Austin, Texas.
An American mid-sized town with a university. Smart people in coffee shops. People with low-paying jobs, or no jobs, who read books and play in bands. Or write books and listen to bands. Or both.
Richard Linklater lives in Austin. He has grown up around here. Dreamed of playing football here. Dreamed of being a novelist here. Now he is going to make movies.
Slacker is technically his second film. His first was the 8mm It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books (1989).
Now he is up to 16mm. He has amassed $23,000 and a small crew. He asks Austin residents, mostly members of bands and a few academics, to join him. Swing by if you want. You can play the role. If not, we will get a grip to do it. People swing by on the way to work. They say some lines on camera and go on about their day. Louis Black joins them.
The finished product looks like an amateur film.
At the 25:18 mark the boom mic dips into the frame. This may be the only Criterion movie with a boom mic in the frame.
The sound has problems. You can hear when the voices shift from live to ADR (recorded in a studio) and back, and you can hear the changes in ambient sound (room tone).
The non-actors used in the film often do not fit their casting and are prone to give unconvincing performances.
The lighting is whatever is available--the sun or lights in the room. People's faces are splotchy and blotchy with light and shadow.
It violates many of the rules required to get a film accepted into a film festival.
And yet . . .
It made it into Sundance.
And was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize - Dramatic.
And got a nationwide theatrical release by Orion on a 35mm transfer print.
And grossed $1.2 million.
And the critics loved it.
And it helped launch the independent film renaissance of the 1990s. Just ask Kevin Smith.
And it launched Linklater's career.
Linklater captures conversations in one take without much intercutting.
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/04/091-la-ronde-1950-france-dir-max-ophuls.html
Richard Linklater carries the first baton in the relay as he plays the opening character Should Have Stayed at Bus Station.
He gets into a taxi and tells the driver his theory that each choice you ever make creates an alternate reality of the choices that you did not make. When Dorothy and the Scarecrow take one yellow brick road at the intersection, they create an alternate reality of the other yellow brick road they did not take, and an alternate movie.
In that spirit each character expresses his own personal philosophy about something.
And one of the most delightful things about the film is the list of character names in the closing credits.
Richard Linklater states that a Slacker is not a lazy person. A Slacker is someone full of energy, full of enthusiasm. He is just pouring that energy and enthusiasm into things that interest him rather than into a traditional job. Such as playing in a band or writing a book or working on a car or making a documentary or collecting video footage or any of the many arts and hobbies that people in the film have.
Linklater states, "We are always quick to categorize and judge others. We give ourselves a lot of latitude."
This is a slice of life. Of a time and place. Of real people. And real kinds of people. In Austin, Texas. In America.
A snapshot.
The spirit of the age.
399 - Slacker, United States, 1990. Dir. Richard Linklater.
Sometimes you tap into the zeitgeist.
Consider 1989. Polish Solidarity. The Fall of the Berlin Wall. Tiananmen Square. Havel in in Czechoslovakia. Ceausecu out in Romania. The Collapse of the Soviet Union. The Birth of Al Qaeda. The Dalai Lama wins the Peace Prize. The Heidi Chronicles (Wendy Wasserstein). The Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan). The Satanic Verses (Salman Rushdie). A Brief History of Time (Stephen Hawking).
James L. Brooks and Matt Groening debut an animated series entitled The Simpsons. Nancy Cartwright does the voice of the boy Bart Simpson (a role which she continues to this day, along with half a dozen fellow voice actors, logging 28 years, 635 episodes, and counting), and the character Bart becomes a national sensation and popularizes the term underachiever.
In a little over a year Douglas Coupland is going to publish Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, giving a generation a name they did not ask for and which they do not want.
In a couple years Cameron Crowe will come out with the film Singles, which looks at the Seattle grunge scene.
Louis Black has recently co-founded South By Southwest in Austin, Texas.
Austin, Texas.
An American mid-sized town with a university. Smart people in coffee shops. People with low-paying jobs, or no jobs, who read books and play in bands. Or write books and listen to bands. Or both.
Richard Linklater lives in Austin. He has grown up around here. Dreamed of playing football here. Dreamed of being a novelist here. Now he is going to make movies.
Slacker is technically his second film. His first was the 8mm It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books (1989).
Now he is up to 16mm. He has amassed $23,000 and a small crew. He asks Austin residents, mostly members of bands and a few academics, to join him. Swing by if you want. You can play the role. If not, we will get a grip to do it. People swing by on the way to work. They say some lines on camera and go on about their day. Louis Black joins them.
The finished product looks like an amateur film.
At the 25:18 mark the boom mic dips into the frame. This may be the only Criterion movie with a boom mic in the frame.
The sound has problems. You can hear when the voices shift from live to ADR (recorded in a studio) and back, and you can hear the changes in ambient sound (room tone).
The non-actors used in the film often do not fit their casting and are prone to give unconvincing performances.
The lighting is whatever is available--the sun or lights in the room. People's faces are splotchy and blotchy with light and shadow.
It violates many of the rules required to get a film accepted into a film festival.
And yet . . .
It made it into Sundance.
And was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize - Dramatic.
And got a nationwide theatrical release by Orion on a 35mm transfer print.
And grossed $1.2 million.
And the critics loved it.
And it helped launch the independent film renaissance of the 1990s. Just ask Kevin Smith.
And it launched Linklater's career.
Linklater captures conversations in one take without much intercutting.
He follows a character and lets that character speak. Then he follows the next character and then the next in a perpetual relay.
Roger Ebert compares this structure to Luis Bunuel's The Phantom of Liberty (1974). We have seen it before in Max Ophuls' La Ronde (1950).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/04/091-la-ronde-1950-france-dir-max-ophuls.html
Richard Linklater carries the first baton in the relay as he plays the opening character Should Have Stayed at Bus Station.
He gets into a taxi and tells the driver his theory that each choice you ever make creates an alternate reality of the choices that you did not make. When Dorothy and the Scarecrow take one yellow brick road at the intersection, they create an alternate reality of the other yellow brick road they did not take, and an alternate movie.
In that spirit each character expresses his own personal philosophy about something.
And one of the most delightful things about the film is the list of character names in the closing credits.
Richard Linklater states that a Slacker is not a lazy person. A Slacker is someone full of energy, full of enthusiasm. He is just pouring that energy and enthusiasm into things that interest him rather than into a traditional job. Such as playing in a band or writing a book or working on a car or making a documentary or collecting video footage or any of the many arts and hobbies that people in the film have.
Linklater states, "We are always quick to categorize and judge others. We give ourselves a lot of latitude."
A snapshot.
The spirit of the age.
Friday, February 2, 2018
398 - Homicide, United States, 1991. Dir. David Mamet.
Friday, February 2, 2018
398 - Homicide, United States, 1991. Dir. David Mamet.
Bobby Gold and Tim Sullivan are partners in Homicide. Detectives. Bobby is the Negotiator.
They had been told to stand down on the Randolph case. The FBI was taking over. So they stood down.
Now the Mayor is angry. Embarrassed. And he wants his man. Somebody get Randolph.
The FBI goes in. SWAT goes in. They break in. They kill a woman in bed. They kill a man. Collateral damage. Oh, well.
Randolph gets away.
Back at the station heads are gonna roll. Somebody get Randolph. The Mayor is angry.
Gold and Sullivan can get Randolph. They could have gotten him any time you wanted. They know where he works. They know the gym where he trains. They know his brother. If Randolph is ever not where they expect him, they can find him through his brother. Willie Sims. Willie Sims hates police stations. Willie Sims will squeal.
Mr. Patterson, the man from the Mayor's office, screams at them.
Why did you not get Randolph?
Because you told us to stand down.
The Mayor is angry.
You told us to stand down.
Why have you not worked this case?
There was no case. The Lieu passed it down to us. You told us to stand down.
Patterson makes it personal. Then he makes it racial.
He is a politician, after all. Facts are not important to him. Emotions are. Perceptions are. The Mayor's anger is.
So he uses whatever tools are at his immediate disposal to manipulate others to get what he wants.
And to punish capaciously those that defy him.
Like the FBI SWAT team that just sprayed the room with machine gun fire. And left the woman and the man dead.
Collateral damage.
Oh well.
Bobby Gold does not particularly wish to be collateral damage. He is a good man. And a good cop. With a good partner. And a good team. In a good department. On a good force.
Mr. Patterson is black. Bobby is Jewish. Bobby has said nothing about race. The department is composed of mixed race. Of brothers of mixed races. Brothers who will die for each other.
But Patterson uses a racial slur against Bobby. It is a tool at his disposal to manipulate others. To get what he wants. Like a machine gun.
Sully--Bobby's partner Tim Sullivan, that is--defends Bobby. All the members of the department defend Bobby. Lieu--Lieutenant Senna, that is--defends Bobby.
Let us go get Randolph. We can do it any day of the week. We know where he is. And if we do not, then we can get his brother. Willie Sims hates police stations. Willie Sims will squeal.
But just before Bobby leaves he has an encounter with a suicidal suspect just brought in for killing his family. Who lunges at Bobby to get his gun to commit suicide. He bruises Bobby's head and breaks his holster. And that just might be a problem later in the movie.
On the way to get Randolph, Bobby and Sully stumble upon a brand-new crime scene. A Rookie is standing crouched behind his car ready to fire. His Partner is trapped inside. Trapped by an angry dog. Bobby takes care of it. He takes care of the Partner. He guides the Rookie. He finds the body of the dead woman just shot in the back in the candy store.
We are in a black ghetto.
The woman is Jewish.
Or was.
Why was she there? Why would she stay?
Maybe they killed her for the fortune she kept hidden in her basement.
Or so the neighborhood kids say.
Sully has taken the car and gone on to get Randolph. Bobby is trying desperately to contain the scene and turn it over to the Sergeant when he arrives. So that Bobby can go join Sully and get Randolph. Bobby is the Negotiator. They need him.
And now we have the dilemma.
We have the first case. The Randolph case. The kind of case for which Bobby got into police work. The one that will get him awarded. Promoted. Commended. The one at which he excels. About which he feels so passionately. About which he feels so personally.
Because of Mr. Patterson from the Mayor's office. And maybe Commissioner Walker as well.
This is his chance to settle the score.
Bobby needs to settle scores. There is something from his past. From his childhood. From the way he was treated growing up. That causes him to need to get to a scene first. To go into a building first. To go into a room first. To prove something.
Then we have the second case. The Jewish woman at the candy store case. And her family. her family who keeps Bobby on a tight leash. They pay a lot in taxes. They have influence. They know Bobby is Jewish too. They know he does not desire to help them. They are going to make sure he does.
And somewhere along the way, down in that woman's basement, and up on the family's roof, he is going to have to face himself. To find himself. To deal with questions left unsettled for years.
About being Jewish. And about people that do not want them. And a history that is still being played out on the streets of this city.
Whichever city it is. When it is Mamet you think Chicago. But the film was filmed in Baltimore. I believe they made it neutral. So that it could be Everycity.
But regardless of where we are, we are playing out History in the streets still today.
Bobby will be ordered to stay on the second case. Yet he will quietly keep working the first case. And then he will start working a kind of third case. The historical-personal case.
And all of these threads will intertwine and unravel together.
And things just might get pretty messy.
The film is led by Joe Montegna and William H. Macy. And filled with Mamet's stable of actors from The Atlantic Theater Company.
It was written by Mamet and filmed by Roger Deakins. The man now known as the Coen Brother's DP (meaning William H. Macy worked with Deakins again on Fargo). And for The Shawshank Redemption (1994). And Dead Man Walking (1995). And Courage Under Fire (1996). And The Siege (1998). And The Hurricane (1999). And A Beautiful Mind (2001). And House of Sand and Fog (2003). Well, it keeps going. The list is long. He has been nominated for 14 Oscars. Let us just say the point I am making is that Mamet is working with a major cinematographer on this movie.
Movies are made of words and pictures. Logos and Ikon. The writer sees pictures and then writes words. The director and actors and crew read words and then make pictures.
David Mamet the word man and Roger Deakins the picture man come together to make a movie.
And they choreograph it like a symphony.
David Mamet published A Life in the Theater in 1977. A play about two men in the theatre and all the different experiences they have had. Mamet culled it from his own experience in the theatre. He then founded The Atlantic Theater Company in 1985. After having taught for years at New York University. In other words, he was already a veteran of the stage in the 1970s.
So imagine what he brought to the table by way of choreographing the actors in 1991.
And imagine what Deakins brought to the table by way of choreographing the camera.
And then have Production Designer Michael Merritt build a police station in an old school building. And fill it with the theatre actors who have been working together with David and/or at The Atlantic Theatre for years.
And you have a scene where two people--or three or five or eight or ten--move around the room as naturally as a finely tuned cello with the camera following them as naturally as a finely played bow.
Mamet writes the dialogue for the specific actors, as he knows their personalities from working with them for years. And the actors understand Mamet's style of writing.
He has a unique voice. And it demands that the actor spend time with it and understand it before speaking the speech trippingly on the tongue.
The words matter.
The images matter.
The two together make the movie.
Joe Montagna is a beautiful actor to watch. He has been working with Mamet at least as far back as 1974, when he performed in the world premiere of Sexual Perversity in Chicago, the play that formed the basis of the movie About Last Night (1986).
William H. Macy might go back even further with Mamet. He studied with him at Goddard College, from which he graduated in 1972. He originated several roles from Mamet plays.
So by 1991 these men have been working together a long time. And their ease with each other shines on the screen.
Mamet lists some of the directors he admires. Then he says, "Most of these guys had their own rep companies, and they always worked with the same actors."
To have a company.
A company of actors. Writers. And directors.
The gestating place.
Soil for the seed.
This is a good thing.
And this is a good movie. A complex movie. A movie that goes where you do not expect it. And leaves you wanting to know more.
And leaves you feeling for Bobby.
And for a family.
And for a people.
And for a mother.
I believe people's awareness of this movie will grow over time.
398 - Homicide, United States, 1991. Dir. David Mamet.
Bobby Gold and Tim Sullivan are partners in Homicide. Detectives. Bobby is the Negotiator.
They had been told to stand down on the Randolph case. The FBI was taking over. So they stood down.
Now the Mayor is angry. Embarrassed. And he wants his man. Somebody get Randolph.
The FBI goes in. SWAT goes in. They break in. They kill a woman in bed. They kill a man. Collateral damage. Oh, well.
Randolph gets away.
Back at the station heads are gonna roll. Somebody get Randolph. The Mayor is angry.
Gold and Sullivan can get Randolph. They could have gotten him any time you wanted. They know where he works. They know the gym where he trains. They know his brother. If Randolph is ever not where they expect him, they can find him through his brother. Willie Sims. Willie Sims hates police stations. Willie Sims will squeal.
Mr. Patterson, the man from the Mayor's office, screams at them.
Why did you not get Randolph?
Because you told us to stand down.
The Mayor is angry.
You told us to stand down.
Why have you not worked this case?
There was no case. The Lieu passed it down to us. You told us to stand down.
Patterson makes it personal. Then he makes it racial.
He is a politician, after all. Facts are not important to him. Emotions are. Perceptions are. The Mayor's anger is.
So he uses whatever tools are at his immediate disposal to manipulate others to get what he wants.
And to punish capaciously those that defy him.
Like the FBI SWAT team that just sprayed the room with machine gun fire. And left the woman and the man dead.
Collateral damage.
Oh well.
Bobby Gold does not particularly wish to be collateral damage. He is a good man. And a good cop. With a good partner. And a good team. In a good department. On a good force.
Mr. Patterson is black. Bobby is Jewish. Bobby has said nothing about race. The department is composed of mixed race. Of brothers of mixed races. Brothers who will die for each other.
But Patterson uses a racial slur against Bobby. It is a tool at his disposal to manipulate others. To get what he wants. Like a machine gun.
Sully--Bobby's partner Tim Sullivan, that is--defends Bobby. All the members of the department defend Bobby. Lieu--Lieutenant Senna, that is--defends Bobby.
Let us go get Randolph. We can do it any day of the week. We know where he is. And if we do not, then we can get his brother. Willie Sims hates police stations. Willie Sims will squeal.
But just before Bobby leaves he has an encounter with a suicidal suspect just brought in for killing his family. Who lunges at Bobby to get his gun to commit suicide. He bruises Bobby's head and breaks his holster. And that just might be a problem later in the movie.
On the way to get Randolph, Bobby and Sully stumble upon a brand-new crime scene. A Rookie is standing crouched behind his car ready to fire. His Partner is trapped inside. Trapped by an angry dog. Bobby takes care of it. He takes care of the Partner. He guides the Rookie. He finds the body of the dead woman just shot in the back in the candy store.
We are in a black ghetto.
The woman is Jewish.
Or was.
Why was she there? Why would she stay?
Maybe they killed her for the fortune she kept hidden in her basement.
Or so the neighborhood kids say.
Sully has taken the car and gone on to get Randolph. Bobby is trying desperately to contain the scene and turn it over to the Sergeant when he arrives. So that Bobby can go join Sully and get Randolph. Bobby is the Negotiator. They need him.
And now we have the dilemma.
We have the first case. The Randolph case. The kind of case for which Bobby got into police work. The one that will get him awarded. Promoted. Commended. The one at which he excels. About which he feels so passionately. About which he feels so personally.
Because of Mr. Patterson from the Mayor's office. And maybe Commissioner Walker as well.
This is his chance to settle the score.
Bobby needs to settle scores. There is something from his past. From his childhood. From the way he was treated growing up. That causes him to need to get to a scene first. To go into a building first. To go into a room first. To prove something.
Then we have the second case. The Jewish woman at the candy store case. And her family. her family who keeps Bobby on a tight leash. They pay a lot in taxes. They have influence. They know Bobby is Jewish too. They know he does not desire to help them. They are going to make sure he does.
And somewhere along the way, down in that woman's basement, and up on the family's roof, he is going to have to face himself. To find himself. To deal with questions left unsettled for years.
About being Jewish. And about people that do not want them. And a history that is still being played out on the streets of this city.
Whichever city it is. When it is Mamet you think Chicago. But the film was filmed in Baltimore. I believe they made it neutral. So that it could be Everycity.
But regardless of where we are, we are playing out History in the streets still today.
Bobby will be ordered to stay on the second case. Yet he will quietly keep working the first case. And then he will start working a kind of third case. The historical-personal case.
And all of these threads will intertwine and unravel together.
And things just might get pretty messy.
The film is led by Joe Montegna and William H. Macy. And filled with Mamet's stable of actors from The Atlantic Theater Company.
It was written by Mamet and filmed by Roger Deakins. The man now known as the Coen Brother's DP (meaning William H. Macy worked with Deakins again on Fargo). And for The Shawshank Redemption (1994). And Dead Man Walking (1995). And Courage Under Fire (1996). And The Siege (1998). And The Hurricane (1999). And A Beautiful Mind (2001). And House of Sand and Fog (2003). Well, it keeps going. The list is long. He has been nominated for 14 Oscars. Let us just say the point I am making is that Mamet is working with a major cinematographer on this movie.
Movies are made of words and pictures. Logos and Ikon. The writer sees pictures and then writes words. The director and actors and crew read words and then make pictures.
David Mamet the word man and Roger Deakins the picture man come together to make a movie.
And they choreograph it like a symphony.
David Mamet published A Life in the Theater in 1977. A play about two men in the theatre and all the different experiences they have had. Mamet culled it from his own experience in the theatre. He then founded The Atlantic Theater Company in 1985. After having taught for years at New York University. In other words, he was already a veteran of the stage in the 1970s.
So imagine what he brought to the table by way of choreographing the actors in 1991.
And imagine what Deakins brought to the table by way of choreographing the camera.
And then have Production Designer Michael Merritt build a police station in an old school building. And fill it with the theatre actors who have been working together with David and/or at The Atlantic Theatre for years.
And you have a scene where two people--or three or five or eight or ten--move around the room as naturally as a finely tuned cello with the camera following them as naturally as a finely played bow.
Mamet writes the dialogue for the specific actors, as he knows their personalities from working with them for years. And the actors understand Mamet's style of writing.
He has a unique voice. And it demands that the actor spend time with it and understand it before speaking the speech trippingly on the tongue.
The words matter.
The images matter.
The two together make the movie.
Joe Montagna is a beautiful actor to watch. He has been working with Mamet at least as far back as 1974, when he performed in the world premiere of Sexual Perversity in Chicago, the play that formed the basis of the movie About Last Night (1986).
William H. Macy might go back even further with Mamet. He studied with him at Goddard College, from which he graduated in 1972. He originated several roles from Mamet plays.
So by 1991 these men have been working together a long time. And their ease with each other shines on the screen.
Mamet lists some of the directors he admires. Then he says, "Most of these guys had their own rep companies, and they always worked with the same actors."
To have a company.
A company of actors. Writers. And directors.
The gestating place.
Soil for the seed.
This is a good thing.
And this is a good movie. A complex movie. A movie that goes where you do not expect it. And leaves you wanting to know more.
And leaves you feeling for Bobby.
And for a family.
And for a people.
And for a mother.
I believe people's awareness of this movie will grow over time.
Thursday, February 1, 2018
397 - House of Games, United States, 1987. Dir. David Mamet.
Thursday, February 1, 2018
397 - House of Games, United States, 1987. Dir. David Mamet.
No, this is not House of Cards. It is House of Games.
It is not a web series about a South Carolina Congressman who becomes Vice President and then President.
It is a feature film about confidence.
Confidence?
Yes. Confidence.
You mean confidence as in conviction, trust, faith, or belief in oneself or someone or something else?
No, not that kind of confidence at all.
And yet, yes, exactly that kind of confidence.
As in The Con. As in Con Man. As in Con Games.
Because that is exactly where those phrases come from. From confidence.
You are the Mark. He is the Con.
He gains your confidence. You trust him. He takes advantage of you.
The Short Con. The Send. The Big Store.
Ricky Jay is a magician who became a technical adviser to Hollywood directors, beginning with Caleb Deschanel's 1982 film The Escape Artist.
He grew up in Chicago at the same time as David Mamet, and they met early in their careers and became friends.
So David Mamet gave Ricky Jay his first acting role in Mamet's first-directed feature film. He asked Jay to show him a Money Exchange short con that he could use in the movie. Jay did not want to reveal real schemes that his friends used on the streets, so he invented a new one just for the movie.
Ricky Jay plays George. A small-time poker player.
But the film is driven by two people. Lindsay Crouse and Joe Montegna.
Crouse plays psychiatrist Margaret Ford, a woman who has just published a best-selling book, Driven, about psychotherapy. Her star and her income are on the rise.
Joe Montegna plays Mike, a man to whom Ford's patient Billy Hahn owes money. Billy is suicidal, and Margaret wants to help him. She goes above and beyond the call of duty.
She goes to visit Mike.
This is a psychiatrist with chutzpah.
Or a lack of boundaries.
And for that we get a clever movie.
Perhaps she can write another book. Perhaps Mike can be a useful source of research.
David Mamet is one of our most prolific writers. He has written so much that the odds are pretty good that you have seen something of his work, whatever your taste or preferred genre. He has written plays, screenplays, and books.
His screenplays written for other directors are often more mainstream, popular films, while his screenplays that he directs himself are often quirkier independent films--several times involving con games.
House of Games was his first film to direct.
In his commentary on the film he references quite a few classic films, demonstrating his knowledge of film history.
He also states that he used the Poverty Row films of the 1940s as prototypes--as the lower budgets yielded more artistic choices, such as simple sets, confined spaces, dark shadows, and tighter and more complex plot lines to make up for the lack of stars.
This film clearly follows that line.
Cinematographer Juan Ruiz Anchia captures just that sort of feeling.
If you like clever plots and intrigue featuring intelligent characters, then you may enjoy this one.
You will enjoy the two leads. Joe Montegna shows why he has been so successful, You know him not only from his many movies but also from the television series Joan of Arcadia, The Simpsons, and Criminal Minds.
And you will see a couple other great actors early in their careers: The late J. T. Walsh and Mamet's artistic partner William H. Macy.
Now . . .
Can you please give me change for a twnety?
397 - House of Games, United States, 1987. Dir. David Mamet.
No, this is not House of Cards. It is House of Games.
It is not a web series about a South Carolina Congressman who becomes Vice President and then President.
It is a feature film about confidence.
Confidence?
Yes. Confidence.
You mean confidence as in conviction, trust, faith, or belief in oneself or someone or something else?
No, not that kind of confidence at all.
And yet, yes, exactly that kind of confidence.
As in The Con. As in Con Man. As in Con Games.
Because that is exactly where those phrases come from. From confidence.
You are the Mark. He is the Con.
He gains your confidence. You trust him. He takes advantage of you.
The Short Con. The Send. The Big Store.
Ricky Jay is a magician who became a technical adviser to Hollywood directors, beginning with Caleb Deschanel's 1982 film The Escape Artist.
He grew up in Chicago at the same time as David Mamet, and they met early in their careers and became friends.
So David Mamet gave Ricky Jay his first acting role in Mamet's first-directed feature film. He asked Jay to show him a Money Exchange short con that he could use in the movie. Jay did not want to reveal real schemes that his friends used on the streets, so he invented a new one just for the movie.
Ricky Jay plays George. A small-time poker player.
But the film is driven by two people. Lindsay Crouse and Joe Montegna.
Crouse plays psychiatrist Margaret Ford, a woman who has just published a best-selling book, Driven, about psychotherapy. Her star and her income are on the rise.
Joe Montegna plays Mike, a man to whom Ford's patient Billy Hahn owes money. Billy is suicidal, and Margaret wants to help him. She goes above and beyond the call of duty.
She goes to visit Mike.
This is a psychiatrist with chutzpah.
Or a lack of boundaries.
And for that we get a clever movie.
Perhaps she can write another book. Perhaps Mike can be a useful source of research.
David Mamet is one of our most prolific writers. He has written so much that the odds are pretty good that you have seen something of his work, whatever your taste or preferred genre. He has written plays, screenplays, and books.
His screenplays written for other directors are often more mainstream, popular films, while his screenplays that he directs himself are often quirkier independent films--several times involving con games.
House of Games was his first film to direct.
In his commentary on the film he references quite a few classic films, demonstrating his knowledge of film history.
He also states that he used the Poverty Row films of the 1940s as prototypes--as the lower budgets yielded more artistic choices, such as simple sets, confined spaces, dark shadows, and tighter and more complex plot lines to make up for the lack of stars.
This film clearly follows that line.
Cinematographer Juan Ruiz Anchia captures just that sort of feeling.
If you like clever plots and intrigue featuring intelligent characters, then you may enjoy this one.
You will enjoy the two leads. Joe Montegna shows why he has been so successful, You know him not only from his many movies but also from the television series Joan of Arcadia, The Simpsons, and Criminal Minds.
And you will see a couple other great actors early in their careers: The late J. T. Walsh and Mamet's artistic partner William H. Macy.
Now . . .
Can you please give me change for a twnety?
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