This morning, Stella took a very long nap. I had to walk longer than I normally do with the stroller to lull her to sleep but, once she went down, she went waaaay down. She even remained asleep while I put the key in the lock, gave Disco a treat and unpacked the basket that glides along on the bottom of our UppaBaby Vista.
And, it occurred to me that after having watched a screener of a movie that I absolutely couldn't stand (but got amazing reviews) and seen a screening of a movie that I loved (but Roger Ebert loathed) this film season, I had to finish this list.
Most of it was written out by hand...but it's finally done. Some of the films I originally listed in this half-finished blog held their places. Some did not.
This one did so I'm reposting the original from (gulp) almost four years ago.
NUMBER TEN: THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
Putting this list together lead me to realize - as I'm sure it did all of you who finished your lists eight years ago - that the films that made the repeated cuts were ones that moved through my life with a lot of baggage attached. They were all excellent in their own way but something in them seemed to capture a time, a place or even some larger ideas I had about the world at the time. THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION occupies a very specific time, reminds me of a distinct place and repeatedly seems to speak to something personal at once.
I think Andy's hopeful and relentless march towards escape is so satisfying because we've all had our eyes on the arms of a clock at one time or another and silently begged for them to move faster. Maybe it's a shit job. You might even have a boss with a touch of the Warden in him. And I think we've all imagined our destination - the place we'd like to land - after proverbially or literally crawling through shit.
SHAWSHANK also resonates because of the stories my dad used to tell about surviving a concentration camp. He used to say that thinking about trying to make it for months or weeks or even days was too much so he'd focus on living another hour or another morning. Andy's painful and incremental path to escape reminds me of those stories and the hope it takes for anyone in that kind of situation to come out alive on the other end.
One of the real gifts in my biz is the opportunity to have conversations with some incredible people. When I had the chance to speak with Morgan Freeman he was there to talk about one of his many other projects but there was no way I was leaving the room without getting some Shawshank dish. I asked him if while he was working on the movie he had any idea what it would become. The answer was really a lesson about instincts, I think. He told me loved the script but he really just had no idea the movie was going to be that good but that he sensed instantly that Frank Darabont was brilliant and he went with it.
This movie stands on hallowed ground for those of us to who watched it close the run of late shows at The Plaza movie theatre in Westwood just before the digits rolled over to 2000. And now that some time has passed I simply have to put it down to some kind of divine intervention by the Cinema Gods that while we were all mourning the loss of our beloved late shows we were being shown a film about the power of hope for the future.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Twenty Years Later – Looking at “DO THE RIGHT THING” Through Today's Lens
Most things show their relevance and real nature in retrospect. Film is absolutely not an exception. This Summer I’d been thinking about “Do The Right Thing” because it’s on my top ten list and because it has been a nice round number – 20 years – since its theatrical release. I remember thinking at the time the media and public reaction was equally as bizarre at that for “The Last Temptation of Christ,” which came out just a year earlier.
The response that was most odd to me was the assertion that by just exploring the sources of racial and gender bias and misconception, you’d ignite a firestorm that could actually spill over into the physical. There seemed to be this strange consensus that if you just didn’t talk about it, didn’t confront all the messy truth, it would recede and we’d all go to bed safe that night in our conspiratorial silence.
The truth simmering just underneath it all was this: A film about inequality isn’t as likely to provoke violence and unrest as – say – actual prejudice. If there was going to be a riot or a demonstration that didn’t stay peaceful it was going to be because there were actually problems that hadn’t been solved.
So, I was absolutely struck by a statement Spike Lee made in a recent CNN.com article about this film on its twentieth anniversary (http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/07/20/spike.lee.right.thing/index.html?eref=rss_showbiz): "It's not like this thing has disappeared because {President Obama} is in the White House," he said. Some things have improved, particularly the atmosphere in New York itself, he said. But, "We've got a lot of work to do."
He’s basically saying we’re not living in a post-racial America now that Obama is in the President. And after reading a story about a Harvard professor who was charged with disorderly conduct after police confronted him when he was trying to get into his own house (http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/21/massachusetts.harvard.professor.arrested/index.html?eref=rss_topstories) I can only think how little – despite the election of Obama – has actually been accomplished. The same questions people asked after the first theatrical showing of DO THE RIGHT THING are still the ones we’re asking now:
How long will we deny prejudice based upon race, gender and oodles of other things still exists?
What will it take to address these problems with sensitivity and respect?
And – please, oh please - when will this film be more of historical significance that a current reflection of where we are with how we view race?
The response that was most odd to me was the assertion that by just exploring the sources of racial and gender bias and misconception, you’d ignite a firestorm that could actually spill over into the physical. There seemed to be this strange consensus that if you just didn’t talk about it, didn’t confront all the messy truth, it would recede and we’d all go to bed safe that night in our conspiratorial silence.
The truth simmering just underneath it all was this: A film about inequality isn’t as likely to provoke violence and unrest as – say – actual prejudice. If there was going to be a riot or a demonstration that didn’t stay peaceful it was going to be because there were actually problems that hadn’t been solved.
So, I was absolutely struck by a statement Spike Lee made in a recent CNN.com article about this film on its twentieth anniversary (http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/07/20/spike.lee.right.thing/index.html?eref=rss_showbiz): "It's not like this thing has disappeared because {President Obama} is in the White House," he said. Some things have improved, particularly the atmosphere in New York itself, he said. But, "We've got a lot of work to do."
He’s basically saying we’re not living in a post-racial America now that Obama is in the President. And after reading a story about a Harvard professor who was charged with disorderly conduct after police confronted him when he was trying to get into his own house (http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/21/massachusetts.harvard.professor.arrested/index.html?eref=rss_topstories) I can only think how little – despite the election of Obama – has actually been accomplished. The same questions people asked after the first theatrical showing of DO THE RIGHT THING are still the ones we’re asking now:
How long will we deny prejudice based upon race, gender and oodles of other things still exists?
What will it take to address these problems with sensitivity and respect?
And – please, oh please - when will this film be more of historical significance that a current reflection of where we are with how we view race?
Monday, April 20, 2009
Before there was"Fear Factor" there was just Fear
One of my favorite teachers in high school was my AP Freshman English maven, Mrs. Eberly. She used to say all the time that we’d be the same people we were right then in five years except for the people we met, the books we read and the movies we went to see. I’d add that you almost never know what form the change will take until long after it’s happened.
At some point in 1978 or 1979 I went to see the Michael Crichton thriller COMA with my parents. I remember really wanting to see it because the trailers were simultaneously hypnotic and terrifying and I remember my mom and dad thinking the themes and story might be a bit much. When my ferocious pre-teen whining won out, I’m not so very sure I won in the end. I can tell you – without a doubt – the remnants left by this film, sandwiched between the folds of my cerebellum, are the main reason I was so freaky freakersoned out before having my recent surgery. My residual fears lived on like so many popcorn nubbins left in the folds of the seats at The Village.
In case you haven’t seen this movie, let me issue a huge SPOILER ALERT right now. What follows below pays creepy homage to Crichton’s delightfully macabre and wickedly imaginative storyline. In this film, oodles of perfectly healthy patients (amongst them a young Tom Selleck and Lois Chiles) come in for routine surgeries and mysteriously all fall into comas. They’re then all sent a long-term care facility where only their exterior husks are preserved so their loved ones can visit them from time to time. Unbeknownst the patients’ families, THE ORGANS OF THESE HEALTHY MEN AND WOMEN ARE HARVESTED AND SOLD (holy crap!).
At the time the idea seemed nearly impossible to me. But – because it was just likely enough to happen – my paranoia neurons fired like it was the Fourth of July. Bam! Pow! The world – and the authority figures in it – were never quite the same for me.
Besides upending trust I had in doctors, Crichton was also pretty slick in his choice of main character. The rockstar whistleblower in this film is an unconventionally foxy female doctor (Genevieve Bujold). When her own doctor boyfriend (Michael Douglas) doesn't believe her and the evil, guilty male doctors around her try to paint her concerns and suspicions as “hysterical” it makes them look, well, like the manipulative a-holes they are and in the process makes her passionate outcry look like the noble act that it is.
Wherever Michael Crichton is now I’d like to invite him to suck it for making me so afraid of my own routine surgery…and say thank you for creating a female character so dynamic she’d still be a trailblazer if her kind appeared in a film thirty years after COMA.
At some point in 1978 or 1979 I went to see the Michael Crichton thriller COMA with my parents. I remember really wanting to see it because the trailers were simultaneously hypnotic and terrifying and I remember my mom and dad thinking the themes and story might be a bit much. When my ferocious pre-teen whining won out, I’m not so very sure I won in the end. I can tell you – without a doubt – the remnants left by this film, sandwiched between the folds of my cerebellum, are the main reason I was so freaky freakersoned out before having my recent surgery. My residual fears lived on like so many popcorn nubbins left in the folds of the seats at The Village.
In case you haven’t seen this movie, let me issue a huge SPOILER ALERT right now. What follows below pays creepy homage to Crichton’s delightfully macabre and wickedly imaginative storyline. In this film, oodles of perfectly healthy patients (amongst them a young Tom Selleck and Lois Chiles) come in for routine surgeries and mysteriously all fall into comas. They’re then all sent a long-term care facility where only their exterior husks are preserved so their loved ones can visit them from time to time. Unbeknownst the patients’ families, THE ORGANS OF THESE HEALTHY MEN AND WOMEN ARE HARVESTED AND SOLD (holy crap!).
At the time the idea seemed nearly impossible to me. But – because it was just likely enough to happen – my paranoia neurons fired like it was the Fourth of July. Bam! Pow! The world – and the authority figures in it – were never quite the same for me.
Besides upending trust I had in doctors, Crichton was also pretty slick in his choice of main character. The rockstar whistleblower in this film is an unconventionally foxy female doctor (Genevieve Bujold). When her own doctor boyfriend (Michael Douglas) doesn't believe her and the evil, guilty male doctors around her try to paint her concerns and suspicions as “hysterical” it makes them look, well, like the manipulative a-holes they are and in the process makes her passionate outcry look like the noble act that it is.
Wherever Michael Crichton is now I’d like to invite him to suck it for making me so afraid of my own routine surgery…and say thank you for creating a female character so dynamic she’d still be a trailblazer if her kind appeared in a film thirty years after COMA.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
My Oscar Predictions...
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE - SEAN PENN
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE - HEATH LEDGER
ACTRESS IN A LEAD ROLE - KATE WINSLET
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE - VIOLA DAVIS
ANIMATED FEATURE - WALL - E
ART DIRECTION - THE DARK KNIGHT
CINEMATOGRAPHY - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
COSTUME DESIGN - THE DUCHESS
DIRECTING - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE - TROUBLE THE WATER
DOCUMENTARY SHORT - THE CONSCIENCE OF NHEM EN
FILM EDITING - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM - WALTZ WITH BASHIR
MAKEUP- THE DARK KNIGHT
MUSIC (SCORE) - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
MUSIC (SONG) "Jai Ho" SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
BEST PICTURE - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
SHORT FILM (ANIMATED) - OKTAPODI
SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION) - SPIELZEUGLAND (TOYLAND)
SOUND EDITING - IRON MAN
SOUND MIXING - THE DARK KNIGHT
VISUAL EFFECTS - THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY) - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY) - IN BRUGES
SHOW ENDS AT 8:29 PM PST
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE - HEATH LEDGER
ACTRESS IN A LEAD ROLE - KATE WINSLET
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE - VIOLA DAVIS
ANIMATED FEATURE - WALL - E
ART DIRECTION - THE DARK KNIGHT
CINEMATOGRAPHY - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
COSTUME DESIGN - THE DUCHESS
DIRECTING - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE - TROUBLE THE WATER
DOCUMENTARY SHORT - THE CONSCIENCE OF NHEM EN
FILM EDITING - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM - WALTZ WITH BASHIR
MAKEUP- THE DARK KNIGHT
MUSIC (SCORE) - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
MUSIC (SONG) "Jai Ho" SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
BEST PICTURE - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
SHORT FILM (ANIMATED) - OKTAPODI
SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION) - SPIELZEUGLAND (TOYLAND)
SOUND EDITING - IRON MAN
SOUND MIXING - THE DARK KNIGHT
VISUAL EFFECTS - THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY) - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY) - IN BRUGES
SHOW ENDS AT 8:29 PM PST
Monday, February 2, 2009
Well, Sh*t
As it turns out - while thinking about this year's Oscars - I decided to look up the actual day Eric Stormoen sent out his top ten list near the close of the last century and it turns out it was May Freaking 6. The ten year anniversary of that date is LESS THAN 100 DAYS AWAY. Now it may sound to you like that's more than enough time to get through the second half of a top ten list but you must understand that for me this means working at a ferocious pace. I have - after all - taken roughly nine years and two hundred and sixty some odd days to get this far. I'm starting to think all those years writing on deadline make it easier to do it that way and nearly impossible to do it without one breathing down my neck. So I'll be seeing all of you *very* soon with some new posts post-haste.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
THE CANDIDATE wants to be your eleventh choice
After taking a few months off from the blog/list, I've found another film to compete for eleventh place. But first, I've got the tell you about something. The other night something happened on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." I can't stop thinking about it because it goes to the heart of how I feel about politics right now.Everywhere I go people seem to be talking about the elections. They're full of hope. They're full of dread. They want things to change. They're afraid things will change too much. They're all trying to figure out how to make it work between $5.00/gallon gas and what's happening to basic costs like food and health care.
As we say in Arizona, this isn't my first rodeo. I've seen a crappy economy (late 80s/early 90s) and I've seen someone ride into town and promise to fix it all (you know who) and then make a few miscalculations (I don't have to say it, do I?) in how to handle some issues both personal and professional. So the street cred and the policy wonk status of some key players dipped and something huge - health care - was never worked out before we reached the critical mass of now.
So that thing I mentioned at the beginning - that moment on The Daily Show that stays with me - happened a few weeks ago after Jon Stewart had done an interview with Barack Obama. The answers Obama gave were stellar and even Stewart made fun himself and how much awe he felt during the interview. And then the interview ended and Stewart went to commercial. When he came back Barack was gone and Stewart looked into the camera and asked impishly, "I wonder, how *will* he break our hearts?"
As much I love the philosophical focus of Obama's campaign and even though I voted for Obama in the California primary, I can't help but wonder if there's something waiting around the corner for those of us who want to believe. Turning myself in these mental knots reminded me of another political film favorite, "The Candidate." It's pure 1970s Redford - Idealistic guy looks to change the system and he does...but he also walks away from the fight with the goo of the system all over him.
Before I go further I have to issue a spoiler alert for the coming paragraphs. If you haven't seen the movie and plan to catch it, you may want to stop here.
The best part of this film for me was watching the campaign itself spin out of control. Robert Redford's character quickly loses control of the message and content of his platform as more and more political pr types show up when his candidacy begins to look real and feel solid. In short, when he looks like a possible, everyone wants what they believe to be their own piece of him.
Redford's character stumbles along the way, too. He's not without a dalliance here and there and in the end he's not sure why he ran or what he'll do next. It's sort of shocking to think of how prescient this film was at the time. And the irony of why I watched this film at such a young age - my mom had a huge crush on Redford - is not lost on me. I imagine there were all sorts of people who paid $2.75 to see Redford's hotness and came away with a deep and maybe even unwanted reflection on the U.S. political process.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
As It Turns Out, I Like To Watch
Today while I was working I found myself looking out of the window of our upstairs guest bedroom/office. The window faces the upstairs windows of half a dozen townhomes near us and overlooks the walkways that slither between them.
During the late morning, I overheard two arguments, one declaration of love, someone's toddler fall down while trying to pet a local stray cat and someone on the HOA order the groundskeepers to pay closer attention to the newly planted Magnolia trees. If only I could have witnessed or overheard a murder. Instead, I'll have to tell you all about how this reminds me of another favorite film that *also* ranks eleventh - the classic Alfred Hitchcock film REAR WINDOW.
If you're the sort of person who just thinks it's just too rude to listen in on the conversation at the booth next to you, please run from this blog entry now. I'm listening to everyone I can - Pee Wee Herman style with a giant plastic ear. There are millions of little and big dramas happening all around, us all the time. It's my belief that in every life there are moments grand love, heartbreaking devastation, magical hope and grinding angst. And if you're lucky enough you're able to catch a glimpse of a few of them happening around you.
REAR WINDOW is one of my favorites for both its lurid, tawdry minx side and for its compassionate, human depth. Jimmy Stewart flies a freak flag with his binoculars as he peeps his neighbors. His motivations are floating just above illegal for some time. Then he crosses over and finds himself compelled to become involved when something goes terribly wrong for one unlucky lady.
When I first caught REAR WINDOW at a revival screening in Tucson, the decency of Stewart's character really struck me because I'd just read about that horrible Kitty Genovese murder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty_Genovese) in a Sociology class. Fundamentally Genovese's murder has become a case study in why people do not become involved when a crime or murder is committed in front of them.
In addition to broad Sociological concepts, this movie reminds me of handbags. Not just any handbags. Fabulous damn handbags. Ones that are not just for a wallet and keys but ones that can become overnight cases and hide all kinds of treasures.
Grace Kelly makes a sublime Hitchcock blond if you ask me. She holds the line between fire and ice better than any of the others and manages to reveal a rich intelligence in the way she plays the part of a spoiled socialite.
And of course there's Hitch. Few directors can handle their subject matter with such deceptive ease. Every single time I watch this movie I marvel at his ability to glide between sexual tension, voyeuristic obsession and the good old fashioned creeps. He was a technical master and one of my favorite dark humorists.
Care for a kiss from Ms. Kelly?
During the late morning, I overheard two arguments, one declaration of love, someone's toddler fall down while trying to pet a local stray cat and someone on the HOA order the groundskeepers to pay closer attention to the newly planted Magnolia trees. If only I could have witnessed or overheard a murder. Instead, I'll have to tell you all about how this reminds me of another favorite film that *also* ranks eleventh - the classic Alfred Hitchcock film REAR WINDOW.
If you're the sort of person who just thinks it's just too rude to listen in on the conversation at the booth next to you, please run from this blog entry now. I'm listening to everyone I can - Pee Wee Herman style with a giant plastic ear. There are millions of little and big dramas happening all around, us all the time. It's my belief that in every life there are moments grand love, heartbreaking devastation, magical hope and grinding angst. And if you're lucky enough you're able to catch a glimpse of a few of them happening around you.
REAR WINDOW is one of my favorites for both its lurid, tawdry minx side and for its compassionate, human depth. Jimmy Stewart flies a freak flag with his binoculars as he peeps his neighbors. His motivations are floating just above illegal for some time. Then he crosses over and finds himself compelled to become involved when something goes terribly wrong for one unlucky lady.
When I first caught REAR WINDOW at a revival screening in Tucson, the decency of Stewart's character really struck me because I'd just read about that horrible Kitty Genovese murder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty_Genovese) in a Sociology class. Fundamentally Genovese's murder has become a case study in why people do not become involved when a crime or murder is committed in front of them.
In addition to broad Sociological concepts, this movie reminds me of handbags. Not just any handbags. Fabulous damn handbags. Ones that are not just for a wallet and keys but ones that can become overnight cases and hide all kinds of treasures.
Grace Kelly makes a sublime Hitchcock blond if you ask me. She holds the line between fire and ice better than any of the others and manages to reveal a rich intelligence in the way she plays the part of a spoiled socialite.
And of course there's Hitch. Few directors can handle their subject matter with such deceptive ease. Every single time I watch this movie I marvel at his ability to glide between sexual tension, voyeuristic obsession and the good old fashioned creeps. He was a technical master and one of my favorite dark humorists.
Care for a kiss from Ms. Kelly?
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