RAINY, HAPPY DAY

The anomaly that is a grey sky is pouring rain down on Los Angeles...

I'm watching Eric Rohmer's CLAIRE'S KNEE, while packing my bags for Portland...

Headed up for my first Thanksgiving back home in three years, and I'm insanely excited.

I think the rain is LA trying to copy Portland in a last ditch attempt to convince me to stick around, but it's not happenin.

I'm pretty sure the last time this happened here was on a teen soap opera...



See you in the 503!

WILD TIGERS I HAVE KNOWN

There was a lot I really liked about this film. There were some aspects I didn't like so much.

WILD TIGERS I HAVE KNOWN is director Cam Archer's 2006 feature debut. The film is a coming of age story, following a 13 year old boy named Logan as he deals with his unrequited love for an older boy at school, and self-realizations about his own sexuality. Junior High School is the cruel and oppressive backdrop, which ironically happens to be superficially pushing the concept of "tolerance" on its students while torment bubbles under the surface.

Guided by subdued, melodrama-free performances and epically beautiful cinematography, the film is lyrical and true. It leaves a haunting impression on you and lame or cliche as it may sound, struck me as having a similar experience to reading a poem. The film succeeds in nailing the confusion and heartbreak of youth, as well as capturing teen sexuality in an intimate and unrestrained way.

The down side is that I teetered back and forth between feeling like moments were a bit exploitive, when they could have been treated more subtly. Nothing in the film ever resorted to unnecessary shock value, but some imagery unfortunately felt self indulgent. Although in the end these moments are few in comparison to the success of Archer's juxtapositions as whole.

I also felt like some aspects of the story were more heavy handed than they could have been. When Logan's drops the groceries and his mother yells at him, telling him something to the effect that everything he touches he messes up, that felt like something I had seen too many times. It felt a little bit like the typical conversation a parent has to their troubled kid in the movies. However, the relationship between Logan and his mother is far from one dimensional, and a few scenes later they share a great moment and a great conversation together about whether they would haunt each other as ghosts if one of them were to die.

A film worth your attention.

THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD

Saw Guy Maddin's THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD tonight. Its the first film I've seen by Maddin, and I wasn't too familiar with his work going into it. All I knew was that his most recent film MY WINNIPEG came out last summer while we were shooting THE MOUNTAIN CRUMBLES and my cast and I all wanted to go see it.

Anyhow, I was particularly interested in checking out THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD because it was shot entirely on Super-8, which is something I've been planning to try with a feature project of my own. The movie is set in Winnipeg during the Great Depression, and tells the outlandish story of a musical competition to find the saddest piece of music in the world. A variety of musicians from all over the world compete, but the competition eventually pits two brothers against each other in the finale.

The film was made in 2003, but I swear if you blindly walked into a theater and sat down to watch it, you would think that you were watching something from the 1930s. The grainy super-8 in conjunction with the expressionistic sets and art design was like a time machine.

As a whole, the film was not particularly my cup of tea, but it undoubtedly was a fantastic achievement and a strikingly original piece of work. It was a smartly crafted story as well. I was struck by the idea that the premise of the competition was public entertainment by way of individual misery... and that as a comedic film, we are laughing at the ridiculousness of what is going on, but there is actually a great deal of sadness in what we are seeing.

Oh and by the way, the great Isabella Rossalini is in it, and she plays a double amputee paraplegic with glass legs full of beer HAHA.

RACHEL GETTING MARRIED

I've never really been a fan of Jonathan Demme, his films (the narrative ones at least) typically have not been my taste. But with his latest work, Demme scales back to craft a more simplistic film about family emotions, and it was for this reason that RACHEL GETTING MARRIED immediately piqued my interest.

The film begins with Kym (Anne Hathaway) as she is released and picked up by her father and step-mother from rehab. Her sister Rachel (Rosemarie Dewitt) is getting married that weekend, and her arrival becomes the catalyst for long brewing family tensions to rise over the course of the next two days.

In some ways the film is like a chamber (comedy) drama, with a majority of the time spent in or around the family house- conversations and interactions weaving through doorways going from room to room. Demme submits to some conventions, but manages to subvert a lot more. Particularly the structure of the film, which refreshingly flows as it pleases to its own relatively unmapped rhythm. At its best, the film plays out more like a tapestry of moments from the wedding weekend, interspersed with family collisions that occur as the dysfunction rears its head.

One of the best scenes in the film is the long dinner/speech ceremony, which allows the film to savor the joy of simply observing the characters and tasting their personalities without having to worry about how any of it is advancing the drama.

Fresh off of a string of documentaries, the other aspect that drew me in was Demme's decision to employ a handheld verite style. This is a commercial film that is dressed up like a D.I.Y indie, and it helps cut to an ultimately effective naturalistic core. The result we're left with is the feeling that we've either obtained access to home footage or attended the wedding ourselves, either way eavesdropping on some very personal arguments between partying and barbecuing.

The casting plays a large part in the film's success. Demme rounds out the cast with many non-actors including TV On The Radio's Tunde Adebimpe, who plays Rachel's groom, Sidney. Then there is the legendary Fab 5 Freddy and spoken word artist Beau Sia. The guests of the wedding are a diverse and realistic group that make for a fantastic atmosphere of personalities.

There is a section toward the middle of the film where there were a bit too many tears and too much yelling for my liking, but the melodrama never became horrid enough to turn me off. Though the sense of loss is evident through out, the emotional landscape of the film is complex, messy, and alive. The best dramatic moments are when nothing is said at all, when the camera lingers on Kym from across the room exposing all of the awkwardness and unsung hurt on her face.

All in all, I really really enjoyed RACHEL GETTING MARRIED, and it will for sure be somewhere on my year end top 10 list.

LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD

Depending on who you talk to, Alain Resnais' LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD (1961) is either a masterpiece or a completely tedious experience.

For me, I agree with the latter... as evidence of the former.

LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD was like unlike anything I've ever seen before. And in cinema that is a pretty damn rare experience. Especially if you subscribe to the train of thought that nothing is truly original, and that originality can only come now from altering the established ideas. Although this was the 60's. Quite a revolutionary time.

The (non) plot can only be described as the repetitive, dreamlike interactions of three nameless social elites in a French country house. The first male protagonist is trying to convince the female protagonist that they had met a year ago, and had planned to run away together. The third character is the female's husband, who continually interrupts their exchange. This single event repeats itself over and over through changing locations and circumstances, and a clear idea of the relationships and sequence of events never materializes.

Though out the film, the camera moves through seemingly frozen moments in time- gorgeous tracking shots that navigate through scenes of frozen action. The characters are not completely still, it is not a still frame... an earring will gently sway back and forth, bodies will shift slightly. But the effect is really, really stunning. Its like stepping inside of a photograph or a painting and getting to explore that moment. The film as a whole has a painterly quality to it that seems to be influenced from surrealism, especially the scenes in the chateau courtyard with all its geometric shapes and meticulously positioned figures.

I also just recently watched Godard's WEEKEND, and I love that infamous 10 minute tracking shot of the traffic jam. To me that scene represented an interpretation of the modern man's hell, continuous and inescapable. LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD is perhaps a film entirely about this. The circular, tediously repetitive structure suggested for me some kind of hellish limbo.

It'll either drive you crazy or fascinate you, but I guarantee its a pretty unforgettable work of cinema.



PS. If you haven't seen Resnais' HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR, that film knocked my socks off freshman year of college. You know what to do.

NEW METRIC

I am OBSESSED at the moment with this new Metric song "Joyride" that they have been playing at shows on tour. I've probably watched/listened to this video 50 times in the last two days. The video is from a "Live on Myspace" set they did a while ago where they performed a handful of other songs from their upcoming early '09 album. All of the other new songs are awesome too, but "Joyride" is my shit.

I fucking love Emily Haines, I think she is so interesting. Ever since I saw the "Doctor Blind" video I've wondered what it would take to convince her to act. I would love to make a film with her.

Oh and the first official single from the album is "Help I'm Alive" and its fantastic.

OLBERMANN ON PROP 8

This is extremely moving.

"In 1967, the parents of the President-elect of the United States could not have married in nearly one third of the states of the country their son grew up to lead...

With so much hate in the world, with so much meaningless division and people pitted against each other for no good reason... This is what your religion tells you to do? With your experiences of life and this world and all its sadnesses, this is what your conscience tells you to do? With your knowledge that life, with endless vigor, seems to tilt the playing field in which we all live in favor of unhappiness and hate, this is what your heart tells you to do?"

STRANGER THAN PARADISE

I FINALLY saw Jim Jarmusch's 1984 classic absurdist comedy STRANGER THAN PARADISE tonight.

I can't imagine what the hell would have been going through my mind walking out of the theater had I seen this in 1984. At that time it was triumphantly defiant of typical American cinema, and is perhaps an even more unique and visionary piece of work amongst today's climate. The poster for the film even featured the tag line "A NEW AMERICAN FILM".

Jarmush's breakout feature introduces his signature dry, deadpan style with incredible wit and precise vision. I haven't seen his official debut PERMANENT VACATION, but by this time Jarmusch had fully developed his artistic identity and to display such originality at the beginning of his career is remarkable. Also the fact that this film is 25 years old is completely masked by the incredible timeless quality of it. Maybe the fact that they use telephones still plugged into the wall is the only giveaway haha.

The grainy black and white cinematography, the static compositions, the slow pace, long takes, the monotone performances, deadpan humor, the anti-narrative, the rhythmic editing structure... Jarmusch is an American minimalist champion and having been a fan since I saw GHOST DOG in middle school, it was fun to finally see where he began.

STRANGER THAN PARADISE is oddly hysterical in spite of it's detached bleakness. And it's really goddamn funny in a way that American movies just aren't these days. The drawn out comic timing and visual humor are spot on, and of course Aunt Lottie is priceless ("I am zee win-n-er!"). The playful camaraderie of the three lead (non) actors creates compassionate relationships without ever having to devolve into Hollywood syrup, and thus allows Jarmusch to achieve a careful subtext balance of natural warmth and bleak alienation.

For sure joins the ranks of NIGHT ON EARTH, DOWN BY LAW and COFFEE AND CIGARETTES for me.

MASTER OF NONE

Beach House.

So good.

BITTERSWEET

As we celebrated such a tremendous moment in Obama's victory two nights ago, we also suffered a crushing defeat in the very same night. California Proposition 8 passed, effectively stealing back rights already given to gay people, and setting us back decades in civil rights progress. All of this anti-gay marriage bullshit echos the miscegenation laws exactly and it is jaw droppingly insane that there is even a debate over it. It was only 40 years ago that blacks and whites could not marry - today that concept is ludicrous, only because we have slowly peeled and chipped away at the ignorance of those who are hostile toward our differences and cannot see past their bullshit traditions. One day this gay marriage issue will be looked back upon as a similar travesty.

As I type this, outside the streets of Los Angeles are at a standstill as thousands of anti-Prop 8 protesters march and rally. Who knows what good it will do, but at least it will be heard loud and clear that this measure will not pass without a fight.

I believe the events that transpired on tuesday are a very real indication of the general state of the country - yes, we are forward thinking enough to elect Barack Obama, but at the same time we continue to be painfully crippled by conservative views that are slicing the arteries to progress and equality. A damn shame.

P.S. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are responsible for 40% of the funding that went into anti Prop-8 advertising...

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

I am still in utter shock over the events that have transpired tonight.

It has been more of an emotional night for me than I could have expected, even though all signs had been pointing to victory for a long time now I think.

Although none of the guys I was with while watching Obama's acceptance speech probably noticed, I have to admit to letting a few tears go as I experienced something completely foreign to me - a sudden genuine sense of pride in this country, and for the first time, an eagerness to claim it as my own. I have never felt a connection of any sort to this country before, but tonight I was finally given a reason to. It was an experience simultaneously overwhelming, joyous, and extremely, extremely humbling for me.

The lump in my throat lingers as I sit here now contemplating the reality of it all. We have elected a new President that I ACTUALLY believe in, that ACTUALLY inspires me, that ACTUALLY has convinced me that it is possible to begin to transform this country into something I could be proud of more often. Not only this, but our new President is a BLACK MAN. I was once skeptical that America would see that happen ever, let alone in my life time. I am still attempting to wrap my head around it.

One of the most important points for me that Obama has made is his acknowledgment that he is a flawed man, and will be a flawed President. However his vow to never stop listening to and being honest with us, shows me that he has the outlook necessary to really lead us in a new positive direction.

Anyhow, what an epic night. I am very excited. I think that we've got a great 4 years ahead of us.

VOTING/PROP 8

So today is the day.

Growing up I've had wavering views on voting, how much it actually mattered, whether it made a difference who was in office, etc. I feel like I've never been given a reason to actually have any faith in our political system, and all of the bullshit that happened in 2004 certainly did not help with that.

But somewhere along the way I guess I realized that whether the politician we elect ends up being any different or not, there is really no reason to not participate. It can't do any harm to vote for the more formidable candidate. Especially for those of us who are not really working to affect our society socially/politically. Not everyone is built to be the man with the megaphone, but if you are complaining about the state of this country and not AT LEAST casting a ballot I think you shouldn't be complaining at all.

I suppose the main thing that convinced me this year though is the fact that there is a presidential candidate that I actually believe in. For all my lack of trust in politicians and the government as a whole, for many reasons this guy has me thinking that some sort of change is possible.

There is no way around the fact that this election is history in the making, and I could never have brought myself to not take part of that.

On another note, but still related, Sunday night Bryan, Cameron and I had a little encounter with some "yes on proposition 8" demonstrators out on the street corner. I filmed it all, and if you are unfamiliar with California's prop 8 don't worry, my video explains...



It was pretty glorious hahahaha.

THE 503 - "THE SUMMER BEGINS"

Took a while for this one to get thrown together, but at last here is episode 4.

The beginning of summer 2008, Bon visiting from NYC!


Part 1


Part 2

LYING

M.Blash is a filmmaker from Portland who I've never actually met, but know of through some other friends.

I first heard about his film LYING through my friend Hazel back in July and have really been eager to see it ever since.

LYING stars Chloe Sevigny, Jena Malone (who I am big fan of) and Leelee Sobieski, and played at the Director's Fortnight at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Despite that, it currently has only gotten distribution in Europe through MK2, so we have yet to get our chance to see it here in the U.S.

EVERY DAY, EVERY NIGHT

Every Day, Every Night


This is a few months old, but EVERY DAY, EVERY NIGHT is a 15 minute improvised film I shot in Manzanita and Canon Beach, Oregon.

It was too long for YouTube so I haven't posted it anywhere until now.

EVERY DAY, EVERY NIGHT follows two young outcast dreamers through their mundane routines as they imagine what is beyond their small beach town life.