THE CURIOUS TALE OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME

I just finished this book yesterday. Actually, today, very very early in the morning. Probably around 4.30am. I was up late painting my bedroom, and after finishing my second coat (of the top part of the walls, I'm being naively ambitious and going two-tone), showered and did some workywork and coughed a lot and couldn't get to sleep. I started with the painting at 11pm or so, after getting a load of laundry into the washer and cleaning some of my painting paraphernalia from the night before. This after getting home from the 7.30 show of RENAISSANCE at the Kendall Square cinema, which was only my back-up movie option, the one I had to take when I couldn't rally anyone to go with me to see the *FREE* 7pm advance screening of BORAT in Harvard Square, a movie that I just didn't think I'd enjoy watching by myself, y'know? RENAISSANCE was fine for alone-watching, tho, and when I looked ahead at the Kendall's schedule online, I saw that it would be gone on Friday, so it was my last chance to see it on the big screen. PHANTOM OF THE OPERATOR at the Brattle was the other possible fallback movie option, but I felt getting a big screen experience of RENAISSANCE had more value.

It should've frickin been better.

*sigh*

It had some gorgeous moments, but it suffered from some animator/director/editor conceits, mostly involving soft editing decisions, that is, keeping sequences that were probably difficult and time consuming to animate and render, just because of the work involved, when the film as a whole would've benefited from cutting it. That's me projecting some amateur animation attitude on the creators of the film. Maybe unfairly, but that's my best explanation of what I saw on screen.

Lucas is so guilty of this. Only, I think it's just as much a weakness for gimmicks, gadgets, and cutesy moments and laughs, as it is a desire to show off the technical wizardry at his disposal.

Although the actual production process probably wouldn't jive with this observation, it seemed like the main characters didn't blink in most of the first 15-25 minutes of the film. A simple thing, something you probably never think about, unless perhaps you're an eye doctor, or hunting replicants, but it totally humanizes a face.

The story wasn't awful, but should have been better. Actually, the story could be left alone, but the dialogue needs a lot of improvement.

Hrmm... That's funny. I'm *certain* I didn't see Lucas's name in the credits.

Heh.

And I think pushing the neo-noir visuals would've helped a lot. The hard black and white/ciarascuro look would've done more if I could've seen more long shadows, lurking figures striking a match in the dark alley, streetlamplight illuminating the rain or snow, the headlights of a turning car as spotlights on a fugitive... Some of that *is* there, the movie does it just a bit, and a beautiful environment is built for it to happen in, but the movie should've OVERdone it. Maybe the filmmakers were afraid of doing that? That it would turn visually cliche, somehow? But until animated films are not considered so special and different, and the script is not about getting laughs, I really think you have to play to the strengths of the animation style.

I wonder how a Japanese anime production house would've done with this story. I kept thinking of APPLESEED. *THAT* is the best stylized all-cg animated feature I've seen so far. It benefits from having an existing body of manga to draw on and refer to for its characters, but making them MOVE, there's no reference for that. But they did it right, and they did it beautifully.

I overheard a couple of other patrons after the movie talking about how the style of the animation didn't match the story (and that the story sucked to begin with). I dunno. It's no INCREDIBLES, true, but yhe story actually seems like it could be a decent graphic novel, and with better dialogue, could have been as good as the story in the GHOST IN THE SHELL movie.

As for the style being a match for it. Well, I wouldn't say it was a complete mismatch, rather, it wasn't pushed in all the ways that it could be to support and enhance the mood and atmosphere (I don't think shadows thrown by blinds, or a statue or cross, made an appearance even once, bleah).

The one place where the film breaks the black and white rule is just dumb. Maybe it seems cool to DO it, put a shock of bright color into this black and white world, but, man, do it with some real purpose. Enlighten your audience with it. Another conceit.

APPLESEED. Damn. I'm gonna hafta buy that so that I can watch it whenever I want.

Frack. I'm getting tired-tired and haven't even gotten around to talking about the frickin BOOK, ha!

*sigh*

I'll try to pick this up in another post soon...

Keep on keepin on~

colors

I like the beach...


That's what I was thinking about when I finally got around to picking colors for my bedroom. Also, there are some colors that show up every few days in my stuff, clothes and whatnot, that I catch myself liking when they happen to show up together. Makeshift palettes, donchaknow.

I also kept flashing to this (now) old book cover image for THE SHELTERING SKY. I never once picked up the book, but I dunno, it must've been alphabetically close to some author or authors I was in the habit of scanning when at the bookstore. Or perhaps it wasn't repeated exposure, but just the striking colors. I could only find this one image online, but it's not very true to the original hues, at least, not the ones burned into my brain. But I think you'll see the trend...

The color swatches are combos I came up with using Behr's online color coordinator. They run more towards the book cover and my stuff than the real and true sandy and blue beach and sky. The darker blue, "Evening Symphony," was what I started with, but when I saw the first coat dry down darker than I expected on the actual walls, I decided to change it up and go with the lighter, brighter "Provence." The "beach" color is called "Pumpkin Butter."

I'll get some pictures of the actual painting up soon. I'm hoping to get it all done by Monday or Tuesday. I started with the taping—which took WAY longer than I imagined, covering the moldings and two-tone and all—on Sunday night, then a first coat of blue paint late Tuesday night, which didn't get done until 2am or so. I was unable to get any shuteye until about 4.30am. Was getting hit with hacking coughing fits so that I couldn't fall asleep. Not liking THAT, bleah. I think the flip-floppin weather and temperature has suckered my system into a cold.

I'm back home from a movie now, and settling in. I'm gonna go for coat number two of (the new) blue tonight, probably around the same time.

Hohum.

Keep on keepin on~

THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA (and a large popcorn and lemonade)

Saw the 1964 film, THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA, last night at the Brattle. Part of the John Huston centennial tribute going on thru next Tuesday—with a couple of programming breaks for the Wednesday guaranteed request raffle winner's double feature of PHANTOM OF THE OPERATOR, which looks *very* intriguing, and THE CONFORMIST, a visually tantalizing film that I thought ran a bit long; the Thursday All-Ages Spelling Bee benefit, featuring A BOY NAMED CHARLIE BROWN (sing it with me: No Dogs Al-Lowed! =); and the gorgeous martial arts fantasy adventure of AZUMI as the Friday and Saturday late shows.

I bought a few raffle tickets myself, carnsarnit! My double feature choices were not so... sophisticated. Perhaps better off for the theater that I didn't win. Heh. My favorite double bill is XANADU and FLASH GORDON. How awesome is that? =) SHAWN OF THE DEAD and NAPOLEON DYNAMITE or KUNG-FU HUSTLE could've been another, I forget now what others I submitted...

Back to IGUANA... The movie is adapted from the play based on the short story of the same name by Tennessee Williams. I heard at the theater that there's a new film in the works, with Jeremy Irons cast. When I went in for IGUANA, I *was* pondering doing a double feature of John Huston flicks—the other film was REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE, about in-the-closet military man Brando tormented by his promiscuous and abusive wife, played by Elizabeth Taylor—but after IGUANA, I was too emotionally and mentally drained to tackle the second. The movie wraps a substantial and tasty dark chocolate metaphysical center in a THREE'S COMPANY-ish situation comedy candy shell.

NIGHT OF THE IGUANA tells the tale of Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon (Richard Burton, of RIVERWORLD, if I remember correctly =), a fallen minister struggling to keep himself sane and functional in what passes for the real world. Driven from his congregation by a scandalous transgression, he flees to Mexico, and gets by working at what he considers to be the lowest of the low stations possible for an educated man of the cloth—as a tour guide for Church groups visiting Mexico's missions and vacation spots. On his latest tour he's been accused of carrying on with the youngest, under age, member of the baptist church party, and threatened with the loss of his job. In a desperate attempt to win back the respect of the women's group, he hijacks the tour bus and takes them to a past refuge of his in Mexico, the House of the Iguana hotel. In the hammock on its veranda overlooking the ocean is the only place that he's known any semblance of peace in the year since he lost his church. He doesn't find much rest here, tho, as the young nymphet of the party, Charlotte (LOLITA's Sye Lyon), continues to pursue him, the recently widowed owner of the hotel, Maxine (Ava Gardner), has a history with the good reverend, and he finds himself drawn to another guest at the hotel, a globe-trotting sketch artist named Hannah (Deborah Kerr).

The phrase/Douglas Adams title THE LONG DARK TEA-TIME OF THE SOUL came to mind during the unfolding of this story. There comes a point in the story when the Reverend's lowly job has apparently been lost, and he's ready to leave the realistic for the fantastic (the two levels that he believes humanity can live in, with different degrees of success). The women overpower him for his own good and when he comes to, he finds himself tied to a hammock. Hannah is at his side, attempting to soothe his madness with the help of some "poppy" tea. As his keel evens out, they share a pretty heavy conversation about the demons they face and have faced. His is "The Spook." Hers, "The Blue Devil." In the course of this discussion the topic of relationships and sexual relations comes up...

Hannah: There are worse things than chastity...
Shannon: Yes. Insanity and death.

Some absolutely wicked turns of phrases in here—I wish I could remember more—and every one of them spoken with a purpose.

The big names (at least the ones I recognize—Burton, Gardner, Kerr) are all assigned to the major players, and rightly so, but I have to say, the woman who plays the fascist leader of the Baptist tour group, chaperone to the little minx, and hobgoblin of the Reverend, she is an absolute scene stealer with her haughty propriety and severe manner.

Heh. Maxine's native boytoys are a real hoot, in both dancing and fighting mode.

Another thread in the plot...Hannah is travelling with her nonagenerian grandfather, a poet. It seems that he has one last great work in him, and this voyage to this hotel, perched on a hillside before the ocean, is just the inspiration he needs to complete it.

The poem is quite beautiful and moving, and seems to fit the movie moment quite perfectly.

I don't have the know-how to properly discuss the film. It goes deep, but uses some scandalous and comedic situations to get you there. Damn entertaining and thoughtful. See it when you're in a mood to really listen as well as laugh.

Keep on keepin on~

What the Fluff?

Ayep. Fluff trumped Bogart and Huston. Crazy, no?

Crazy, yes.

Check out the pics from Saturday's visit to the... errr... birthplace? cradle? crash site? of Fluff. Thanks to Glen for not having anything else to do that afternoon. =)

I ended up hitting the fest with Glen around 3.30. We toured the scene, listened to one of the bands, sampled some Fluffy Toscanini's ice cream, watched the Flufferettes strut their Fluff, and visited the art gallery. We were heading back to Harvard Square at about 5.15 when my sister called to tell me she was headed over with Dan to check it out, too. So, I doubled back to meet up with her, just in time to catch the tug-of-war! And thanks to Dan and In, I sampled my first Fluffernutter sandwich, and y'know what? It didn't suck. I'm not gonna start putting it on my hot dogs (like I do with peanut butter and jelly), but it'll be another acceptable option in the post-apocolypse.

Keep on keepin on~

MUCH funnier than a screen door on a battleship...

Yes, BUTTheads, it's ME.... — Tom Wilson, aka Biff Tannen!

Thanks to Jessie for taking me back to BACK TO THE FUTURE with a Tannen for all seasons... =)

Now, make like a tree and get outta here~

HALF NELSON rambling

Finally got around to seeing HALF NELSON Saturday night, and with a cool posse—my sister, Rowan, Heather, and Patricia. Not the feel good hit of the fall, but a damn good movie with some gifted performances that'll take you on a helluva safari through the grey areas. I was very glad to have the company, I must say. I'd been wanting to see it since it premiered opening night at the IFFB those many moons ago, but since it recently opened in wide/indie release, I hadn't been able to drum up any partners to hit it, and with it playing at the Kendall and the Kendall's scheduling being what it is, it was getting to the point where I was gonna have to see it on my own.

Wow, that would've been rough.

"Get some SHEETS, man!" Heh.

Ryan Gosling as Dan Dunne, aka "Teach," and Shareeka Epps as his eighth grade student, Drey, are Always On in this movie. Real and focused (or totallly fried and tweaked, if that's what's called for) and living and breathing their roles. Epps is just AWEsome. She's not just an old soul, but an old soul who's seen some Serious $hit. I'm looking forward to her future work. Hopefully she'll be able to dodge any truly schlocky teen flicks on her way to her first film by the Coen Brothers or the SCIENCE OF SLEEP's Gondry or maybe the director of LITTLE CHILDREN and IN THE BEDROOM.

Random, but, like, five seconds into the trailer for LITTLE CHILDREN, I just *knew* I was looking at the next film by Todd Field. I only saw IN THE BEDROOM once, and very much appreciated the performances given for these agonized characters in their tragic situation, but I would never have thought that I'd be able to recognize a style or texture to the guy's work, the way I could instantly read Michael Mann-ness in the first seconds of the MIAMI VICE trailer...

I've only seen Gosling in a few things besides YOUNG HERCULES, heh. And he's been solid, with hints of real goodness. What you see in HALF NELSON is *damn* impressive, tho. Way above and beyond THE NOTEBOOK (and POO BY NUMBERS! ha =). After seeing this, I'm finding myself casting him as the undercover cop in a parallel universe's DEPARTED.

Not that Leo won't do the role justice, but maybe just so that I won't hafta look at those Damon and DiCaprio heads in the same film...? Heh. No, I'm really looking forward to the Scorscese take on Hong Kong's INFERNAL AFFAIRS (which I first saw at the Boston Fantastic Film Festival at the Brattle—the fourth one is coming soon!). The only weakness I'm sort of anticipating out of the top notch cast is actually Nicholson. I'm not sure about him as a Boston Irish crime boss. Well, hopefully he'll blow away those doubts this coming weekend. THE DEPARTED - See it!

Back to HALF NELSON...

Mr. Dunne is a great motivator in the classroom. He puts aside a binder of standard lesson plans on the civil rights movement and attacks the subject sideways, introducing his students to the subject in a dialectical manner, questioning them about motivations, philosophies, society as a machine, and the idea of history being all about change.

Pretty heavy $hit for frickin eighth grade, no? But the way he delivers it, the kids eat it up.

He also coaches the girls' basketball team, and after a game one evening, one of his students and players, Drey, wandering the gym while waiting for a ride, discovers him in the locker room, in... pretty bad shape. She helps him out as patiently and as best as she is able, and he gives her a ride home. What does "pretty bad shape" mean? Well, I'll just say that the next day, in the faculty lounge, the teachers are gossipping about a crack vial discovered in the locker room.

There's no moral high ground for anyone to hold here. There's just this man, this teacher, and this student, an already world-weary 13 year old girl, reaching out to one another to help each other out of seemingly impossible situations, and in that reaching, get help for themselves. They see in each other what the person can be and want to protect him or her so that he or she can be that.

Does that make sense?

He sees her situation. That she's a latchkey kid in a rough neighborhood, and he feels okay, right, even, about offering to drive her home from school to make sure she arrives safely. And when she asks him for that ride later, he feels like she understands that he's helping her, and he gets confirmation that he's doing the Right Thing.

Or, on the other hand, is it that she Has Something On Him? Is he acting out of genuine concern and altruism, or because it's in his best interest to protect her and help her because then she has no reason to turn on him...? You might see how the term "user" applies to so much more than a drug. You may not think you have to wonder, but when you see how he treats others in his life, friends, colleagues, family, I think you may. I think that's a choice you make as the viewer, as the reader. Me, I was WITH him almost all the way through the movie, and always believed Drey to be acting out of genuine curiosity and concern when it came to Dunne. Only after the fact, away from the live influence of Gosling's performance/Dunne's character and his dynamic maverick manner, did I even consider the flip side.

It's always an eye-opening experience to find yourself identifying with and rooting for the guy who can do so much wrong.

There's also all of Life going on around them. That change that Dunne talks about when he's teaching history, it's happening all the time, on a personal scale, and the film lets it in, the neighborhoods, the families, the peers, their treatment of our Dunne and Drey, and they help bring their characters, their strengths, weaknesses, and beliefs, into sharper relief. Dunne's a child of children of the 60s. You can see their effect on him in the books on his shelves (the titles and authors prompt a fellow teacher to ask if he's a Communist). In an exchange with his mother, he praises her generation for having to courage to stop a war. Looking back, bleary and blotto eyed, she seems to see it differently... a generation later, and where did it get them? It's just after this that a very painful moment in the movie punches you in the heart...

I think Heather picked this out after the movie as a, well, "turning point" in the film... although, I don't know that that's quite the phrase we should use, as there's not much turning involved, besides the "away" kind...

*SPOILERISH* powerful harsh little moment from the film...

Dan and his mother are in the kitchen at the parents' place. This is some kind of semi-regular dinner and get-together for the family, and weighty glasses of liquor are always within arm's reach of all involved. They're playing small talk catch-up while mom's putting dishes in the sink or something, and she turns to her son to ask him if he's happy. He gives her a b.s. smile and a matching answer, and she takes it in stride, pleased to hear him cheerful, even if it's not the truth. A second later, she's taking a drink. A second after that, Dan calls to her, "Mom..." And she doesn't seem to hear him...

*END SPOILER*

The teaching segments are pretty inspired. There's one lesson in particular that seems to resonate with the themes of the film. They all do, actually, but this one, along w the "machine" one, really takes it home.

*SPOILERISH* description of a scene/lesson not featured in the trailer...

Dunne is pretty near bottom at this point, but he's still just barely holding it together in the classroom for the kids, his saving grace, so he believes. And he's put together a lesson on the philosophies of the East, and how they embrace the notion of the world, the cosmos, being composed of opposites, and that any thing, and person, any entity, could be one AND the other at any time. That a tree can be both crooked and straight, for instance. Physics loves this sort of thing, as it is perfectly in sync with the dual behavior of light, as both a particle and a wave.

Okay, that's not in the movie, but just came to the armchair nerdly surface as I was writing.

Anyhow, Dunne goes on to explain how the West would have none of that. That all things in the universe are creations of God, and thusly, must be perfect, and a perfect thing cannot be both whole and broken, cannot be more than one thing at a time, or it is by definition, imperfect. Of course, the only exception to this rule is human beings. They get to be all kinds of things that make them imperfect, sinners, and all that they can do is try to live a good life.

*END SPOILER*

Pretty heavy poop for eighth grade, no? Regardless, an excellent lesson for all. I wonder where in the story's writer's life these lesson plans came from.

*SPOILERISH* wondering out loud...

What happened when Teach and Frank sat down for a drink at Frank's place? Did Frank "buy" his "cooperation?" It was after that encounter that Mr. Dunne tries to distance himself from Drey, right? When she approaches him in his car at the school, and he points out, "You don't see other kids coming up to their teachers' cars, do you?" And the exchange finishes wonderfully. When a kid tells an adult he's a bad word, it's really Something. When an adult says it to a kid, it's kind of laughable. Well, especially when he says it when the kid is walking away and no one hears him, heh.

*END SPOILER*

There was one particular scene that caused some sustained goosebumpery, but I can't quite pinpoint-recall it. There were actually a lot of key turning points and realizations in those two hours for a movie with a pretty tight cast of characters.

There was a surprising moviegoer moment for me, too. Sort of a backhanded testament to how well the movie sucked me in.

*SPOILER* description of a scene near the end of the movie...

It happens near the end of the sequence with all the cutting between Gosling/Dunne doing that quality time with his family (and then looking to party/escape/score afterward), and Epps/Drey "going to work" with Frank. When Drey, playing delivery girl, is sent to that motel room... I'm not sure what the exact clue or cue is, but we just KNOW it's Dunne in that motel room, and Drey is there to deliver to him.

See, in my head, I think that that moment is almost a no-brainer when you look at the setup for the film. Gifted maverick teacher Dunne adopts Drey, an enigma of a student, as a part-time personal project and friend. Drey is in a situation where drug dealer Frank is supposedly looking out for her, in an uncle/mentor-of-the-streets sort of way. She *is* smart enough to recognize trouble, but still, she is young, and wants things, and growing up in an environment where nothing comes easy.

Outside the classroom, Teach is a user (but has it "under control"), and knows Frank as an associate of his own dealer. While Teach fights a losing battle against his demons, he tries to keep his student from being tainted by them, and even by himself. But the dealer has influence and home court advantage on several levels, and uses them to draw Drey into the business...

So, how would you answer if someone gave you that set-up for an unfolding story, and asked you—what should happen next? It doesn't take TOO much thought to connect the dots and figure out that it all points to Drey and Teach ending up face-to-face in a drug deal, just as the movie shows. The amazing thing is that the filmmaking and the performances and the roles are so perfect that you don't anticipate that while you're watching. You don't even think about it until she's at the door.

Well, I didn't, at least. =)

The movie dips grey into the grey in one exchange between Drey and Frank when they're talking about Teach, and Frank, the drug dealer, sees something unusual and unwise in trying to build a relationship that goes beyond student-teacher with Mr. Dunne. Whether Frank is motivated by genuine concern for the well-being of his adopted niece, or maintaining the allegiance of an underage drug courier in training, the man does have a point.

How does it end? Hopeful? Perhaps. I think you'll at least crack a smile. Given the badness and sadness that goes down in the previous two hours, that's pretty frickin masterful. A definition of bittersweet. Also, a demonstration of the power of a good knock-knock joke... poorly delivered. Heh.

(If you get a chance, ask me about the best knock-knock joke I ever heard.)

I remember the closing shot is of Dunne and Drey sitting down to watch some TV in Dunne's apartment. They're on opposite ends of the couch, facing the TV (which may or may not have been on, with a very low volume), and looking forward, past the camera, which seems to be on top of the TV pointed at the middle of the couch.

Seeing this, the two of them together and quiet, I was reminded of a song by the Mountain Goats, "No Children." It's a guy singing to and about his partner, and how everything about their relationship is $hit and he hopes it all ends soon, but what's important is that they're together when it all goes kablooey...

I hope that our few remaining friends give up on trying to save us. I hope we come out with a fail-safe plot to piss off the dumb few that forgave us. I hope the fences we mended fall down beneath their own weight. And I hope we hang on past the last exit, I hope it's already too late. And I hope the junkyard a few blocks from here someday burns down. And I hope the rising black smoke carries me far away, and I never come back to this town again. In my life, I hope I lie, and tell everyone you were a good wife. And I hope you die, I hope we both die. I hope I cut myself shaving tomorrow; I hope it bleeds all day long. Our friends say it's darkest before the sun rises; we're pretty sure they're all wrong. I hope it stays dark forever, I hope the worst isn't over. And I hope you blink before I do, and I hope I never get sober. And I hope when you think of me years down the line, you can't find one good thing to say. And I'd hope that if I found the strength to walk out, you'd stay the hell out of my way. I am drowning. There is no sign of land. You are coming down with me, hand in unlovable hand. And I hope you die, I hope we both die.

He's singing the unspoken thoughts in a relationship built on lies and omissions and codependency.

Hey, but it's a relationship, right?

*END SPOILER*

You, go see it. Me, I go sleep now.

Keep on keepin on~