My Movstraviganza

Sooo…. between vacation, snow, a trip to Arkansas and a trip to Michigan I don’t really work anymore.  For my clients this is not necessarily a bad thing as I am not messing up their matters but leaving them to my staff.  Coupled with the disjointed work schedule it is my wife’s “busy season” which as near as i can tell goes from November until May.  Bottom line is that I have been left with a large amount of time on my hands.

I like to see movies.  My wife likes to see movies.  But there are a lot of movies which we cannot see together because she does not like anything:

1. Two stressful;

2. Too violent;

3. Too filthy;

4. Too stupid…

You get the idea.  So I like to see movies and they release a lot of movies during the holidays.  Apparently not a lot of good ones.  Over the period I have seen:

Nebraska (with my wife);

The Hobbit Movie (with my adult “sort of” sons);

The Hunger Games Movie (by myself);

Wolf of Wall Street (by myself); and

Inside Llewyn Davis (by myself).

Not a million  movies but a lot of movies.  A lot of people find seeing a movie by yourself to be a weird thing… a creepy thing… a...a…. Mike Becker thing.  But I like it.  I don’t have to worry about whether the other person is having a good time and I can walk out if I want to.  In spite of my stomach difficulties I ate buttered popcorn and drank water.  I only walked out on one.  So here is the short and the short of it:

Nebraska:  Good but not great.  Heartfelt.  Bruce Dern should not win an academy award.  Will Forte surprisingly good.  It was kind of draggy but had nice message sort of… but was overall just relentlessly sad…

The Hobbit:  The Hobbit.  It had great special effects, was better than the first of the three movies and reinforced that they should not have made one book into three movies.

Hunger Games: “Catching Fire” was well done, true to the book and frankly made “Nebraska” look more like a dystopian future.  The movie is saved by Jennifer Lawrence who you can look at forever and who can really act.  If you have the heart for it, rent “Winters Bone”.  It is a better use of your time but I read these books.  I cannot wait to see the third one where if it is like the book I will be cheering shamelessly for Katniss Everdeen to die.

Inside Llewyn Davis:  I saw it for the music and because it was the Coen brothers.  It is a really well done, stupid move.  The main character is just a self involved, dick.  He shits on everyone and everything pursuing a career that is really not a career.  It is well done in that it seems to catch the spirit of the Village and the folk scene, before Dylan came, was brilliant and killed it.  Justin Timberlake who I hate, shows again just how talented he is.  If you saw the trailer, you saw every funny line.  If you're not a fan of the music or the Coen’s miss it and if you love the music, catch the Showtime special with T-Bone Burnett gathering musicians to do music of the similar period.  It is awesome.  

Wolf of Wall Street:  I walked out.  3 hours long.  How many times can you watch someone snort coke off of a strippers breasts?  How many times can a they say fuck in a movie?  506 times according to Rolling Stone:

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/the-wolf-of-wall-street-drops-506-f-bombs-setting-a-new-record-20140103

The movie, reflecting on it had some brilliant scenes but Scorsese was just relentless in remaking “Goodfellas” complete with diCaprio narrating just like Ray Liotta.  It was exhausting and sad and not interesting enough to last three hours.  It was lovingly filmed but I just felt stupid sitting there and it is really hard for me to feel stupid.

Sooo… all of these movies are missable but… all  have some merits.  I think “American Hustle” is next.  Maybe things will get better.

Dallas Buyers Club: The Diner Movie Review

Sooooo…. The Diner Review likes to go to the movies and there has been a reasonable amount of hype for “Dallas Buyers Club” which was released Friday.  It stars Matthew McConaughey and has Jared Leto as a costar and is… not a feel good film.  I have no question that McConaughey will be nominated for Best Actor and the timing is clearly geared towards the Oscars.  He has always been kind of a pretty face, more than a powerful actor and this is his bid and it is a pretty strong one.

People are saying he plays the roll of a red neck but that is really not fair.  He plays the roll of the worst kind of piece of shit, amoral, white trash, Texas bigots and in saying all those things I have mentioned all of the characters moral strengths.  This is not a movie for the morally squeamish and it opens with what appears to be a hazy threesome at the rodeo and although I do not consider myself a prude it is uncomfortable in every aspect.  

His character is clearly sick but not worried about it as he is an alcoholic drug abusing electrician but… he passes out, goes to the hospital and the beautiful Jenifer Garner as a doctor working with another doctor and they diagnose him with HIV and AIDS and tell him that he has about 30 days to get his affairs in order and do the right thing and die.  Based on what you have seen of his character you are certainly, at that point, hoping he dies quickly.

But he responds with defiance and the story starts to get interesting as he finds the medical community is clueless, money driven, and rather then helping him to get better is actively working against him.  The story tells the shameful back story of the rushed development of the AIDS treatment AZT and how those trials, for cash, distorted the picture for many victims and indeed killed some patients early. Although the movie does not get into South African Aids denial, there is a great article explaining the issues with AZT and reading it will help you to understand part of the horror outlined by this movie.

http://www.virusmyth.com/aids/hiv/abazt.htm

At the hospital he meets Leto’s character Rayon and there is no question Leto is going to be nominated for an award as well.  He was the dark troubled boyfriend in the orgininal MTV series and Claire Danes vehicle “My So Called Life” and I had not seen or heard from him since that time.  He appears in the second hospital scene and his “Butch and Sundance” relationship with Matthew McConaughey is the heart of the movie as Leto’s character is a drug addicted transvestite.  I had no idea, until I wrote this that Leto was also in "Fight Club".

And then as Rayon:

He through research and conversations and lucking into a disreputable American doctor in Mexico develops a treatment regime (you have to suspend your disbelief a little based on what you have seen of  McConaughey’s character) starts importing legal drugs which promote wellness, and treat some of the symptoms of the disease and he lives.  For a long time anyway.  And he keeps developing and refining treatment, with some slip ups on the way as the FDA and the medical establishment battle to stop and discredit him.  The movie gets his name because he sets up a “Buyers Club” because it is of course illegal to sell drugs but he would instead sell memberships and then supply people for 400 bucks a month.

As the movie runs towards it’s inevitable (at that time) conclusions, you are left with a nice portrait of the evil influence of money on the medical establishment as well as a portrait of the beauty and strength of people and how even the most useless, despicable people can lead changed lives.

This will not win the best picture but both Leto and  McConaughey will be nominated for best  supporting actor and actor respectively.  You should go see this movie but dont go planning on feeling good about anything when you leave.

What Is The Big Deal? Huh?

Soooo... Avatar... still have not seen it. Looks like a bunch of really tall, blue versions of Jar Jar Binks. People tell me I am wrong but listening to people is what gets you to pay money to see a movie like "Hot Tub Time Machine". At least three people have told me how "hilarious" the movie is. All I can think every time I see the trailer is:

1. How did THIS happen to John Cusack?
2. I have seen every funny part of the movie when I watch the trailer.

Of these things I am certain.

But I digress.

Avatar and then the "How to Train Your Dragon" movie, then "Alice In Wonderland" and now "Clash of the Titans" (RELEASE THE KRAKEN!) They charge more for these movies. You have to wear queer glasses when you watch them. They charge more for these movies. There is not talk of 3-D TV. 3-D sports broadcasting. It goes on and on and while in the beginning or "at the cusp" as I like to say of this massive trend all I can say is...."milka what!?"

Seriously. Of the above films I only saw one and that was "Alice In Wonderland" which I thought was reasonably great (see earlier review) but it did not seem that great to me. The 3-D part was interesting but only that. I don't know, I just cannot help but think that....MY WHOLE LIFE IS IN 3-D! Why do I need to pay a higher ticket price, put on funny glasses and sit in the dark with 200 people and feel like more of a dork when.... I can just look around, sitting in my chair and literally my whole life is in 3-D. it seems stupud to me.

I mean, my life is kind of boring too. Soon, will I get to pay more and put on some different funny glasses so that I can sit and watch some other over weight, balding middle aged man sitting watching the show "Community" while he pecks away at his computer, maybe with his ugly dog in front of him...IN 3-D! Sounds great. I cannot wait. Wake me when it is over.

I Cry A Lot

Yes, I am a 48 year old man who sobs like a baby. Sometimes at weddings, sometimes at funerals but mostly when I am by myself and watching a movie, or reading a book where the beauty and sadness of it all cannot be expressed by me in any other way. It is always cathartic. It always leads to a little more balance, a little more recognition of what a blessed life I lead and.... well...it improves my general happiness. I cannot draw it out or have it come on at will (which would be great) but it hits at random times probably when I am feeling on the verge of falling apart myself.

Yesterday I slept in till about 7 and then went to work. It was Saturday which tends to always be good. Got a little breakfast and worked all morning but upon getting home found out my wife has gotten the flu. So I am sitting downstairs and doing my normal male hunter gatherer thing (surfing through all the channels) when I discovered that two of my favorite movies were on today. Almost Famous is an awesome film with Kate Hudson based on the early triumphs (mythologized) of the great Cameron Crowe and "A River Runs Through It" which is great on a 100 different levels.

I have seen "A River Runs Through It" almost as many times as "The Godfather" which means at least 30 times and probably more. And that is not my usual self aggrandizing over estimate. I would guess it is an under estimate as to River and the Godfather flicks. "Almost Famous" has only been viewed about a dozen times, so in comparison I really do not know the movie at all. But both of them strike to the heart on totally different levels and they both delight and cause more then a little soul searching.

Almost Famous is so good because I love pop music (or loved pop music) so much when I was growing up. Crowe was a genius with a hyper engaged mother that pushed him to graduate from high school at fifteen. He did go on tour with a band as a kid and did have a relationship with lester Bangs which then led to Ben Fong Torres of Rolling Stone. Crowe Wrote the most brilliant interview I have ever read and it just happened to be of Neil Young, the Zeus of my musical pantheon. I urge you to read it:

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/profile/story/9102786/neil_young_the_rs_interview

Anyway, there is so much sad and trite and beautiful and stupid about the movie. The way he develop[s a relationship and the pretentious idiots in the band who are dwarfed by the genius in their presence..."Russell". Russell like every rock star is a parody of conflicts but the movie pulls together beautifully with perfectly drawn characters and pitch perfect dialogue. It mirrors several great, iconic rock and roll moments such as:

A scene with the band in a small plane (what could go wrong) and it hurts turbulence over Mississippi (like Skynard) and Russell starts to sing Buddy Holly and Big Bopper songs.

At the party, when he is on acid, Russell Hammond cries out, "I am a golden god!" This is a reference to Robert Plant of the band Led Zeppelin, who is purported to have said the same thing (sober) while looking over the Sunset Strip from a balcony at the Continental Hyatt "Riot" House.

At the beginning of the movie one of the groupies wanders into the party saying "Does anyone remember laughter?" channeling her Led Zeppelin.

The movie is heartbreaking and after every heartbreak there is a moment of Karmic healing...to a soundtrack. The cheesiest and best moment is on the bus where no one is speaking and they start to sing "Tiny Dancer". Priceless. The fact that the actor playing Crowe looks like a young Jeff Tweedy is also sadly moving for this St. Louisan.

***

"A River Runs Through It" is just a beautiful movie. Beautifully shot. Beautifully casted. Beautifully scripted. I think that eventually we look back on this as one of the great films of our time. The movie, released in 1992 was I think one of Robert redfords directing debuts.... can you have more then one? I am certain he can. Starring Brad Pitt, Craig Sheffer, Tom Skerritt, Brenda Blethyn, and Emily Lloyd there is not a mis step and you really get your first taste that Brad Pitt can act. Walking two brothers through growing up as the sons of a Presbyterian minister in Montana. Fly Fishing and communing with nature is the metaphor for everything.

The movie is a perfect echo of the brilliant book by Norman Maclean. They can (and should) be enjoyed in tandem. They are both heartbreaking in asking the hard question. When Skeritt, after losing his son is preaching in his small church he asks.... or tells:

"Each one of here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing help, Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don't know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them - we can love completely without complete understanding."

And at the end you hear Redford narrating as we see the aged Norman Maclean fishing: Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of those rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.

The whole perfect movie is a set up for those two scenes at the end. And I tear up like a baby.

Sometimes life in movies is beautiful. Real men do not cry at shit like this, so I assume I have a problem. Rent them, buy them.

***

Boston Globe ran a nice review of the laye Johnny Cash's new release, The American Recordings VI. I do not need to tell you how important it might be to buy this CD, first thing on Tuesday. To quote the great philosopher Larry The Cable Guy.... "Git her done!"

http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2010/02/21/johnny_cashs_final_chapter_is_the_most_compelling/