Our Lifetime Movie is complete! Our amazingly talented group of friends, led by director and editor Michael Civins, wrote and starred in our very own Lifetime-channel inspired movie. It is the story of Rebecca, a girl in an abusive relationship, finding her voice as a stand-up comedian. I play Charles, the wheelchair-bound “sit-down” comedian who spreads the wings of Rebecca’s dreams…

Love Is No Laughing Matter

3D technology is everywhere and I think we can safely say it has proven itself beyond a gimmick. It truly enhances the visual experience even without the original cliched application of sharks and other objects popping into your face. Phish 3D is the best look I’ve ever had at my favorite band, bringing the audience onstage with incredible depth and perspective, allowing visual details that would be invisible to anyone at the show and some that would be unseen even in a 2D format; I saw what their “farewell” show in 2004 simulcast in a theater, and this blew it away. Watching Trey’s fingers rip the guitar from 5 feet; peering over Page’s shoulder as he navigates his keyboard universe; watching Mike’s hair and seeing Fishman smile is such an unbelievably fun way to experience a concert. Of course, something is definitely lost in comfortable cinema seating, and being a part of a crowd’s energy can’t be enhanced or even remotely replicated by wearing magic glasses… which is why I was fortunate to see the Bloody Bloody Band play immediately after.

Post-show on Sundays, the cast and band of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson have been throwing together a comedy and music variety show and, being the amazingly talented group that they are, the nights are brilliant, featuring great stand-up comedy with a sizzling band blowing up the tiny space at Jimmy’s No. 43. It is an hysterical dance-athon and sing-along that reminds me of mankind’s innate love of fun.

Two great movies on war in the past 24 hours. First a My Lai documentary on PBS, which was one of the heaviest pieces I’ve ever seen, bringing us through the events leading up to the worst civilian massacre of the Vietnam war and though its execution. Men who were there and involved with mass slaughter of 500 unarmed villagers explained, almost rationally, why they committed this atrocity, and a photographer presents his magnum opus of War’s Worst. In the heat of battle and under constant fire from invisible enemies, it is reasonable to expect men to lose their heads, and given that they are trained killers, murder would appear to be a perfect outlet for their fear and hate. But why were we asking these soldiers to ravage a village and why were their actions considered acceptable collateral damage for war? Nixon pardoned the only soldier to ever serve any time in prison (4 months) as a way of indicating that no one should be held accountable for this tragedy. There is no doubt that these men feel remorse and in retrospect understand their heinous actions, but they are forever insulated from repercussions by the excuse of war. True, they are not the only ones at fault and were basically just over-enthusiastically following orders, but if we have taught them that morality has no place in war, then we will never accomplish anything in our so-called “liberations”.

Vietnam is now a beautiful and friendly place to visit, as Alaina and I discovered on our honeymoon 5 years ago. It is hard to believe that 40 years ago we were napalming huge tracts of jungle and pillaging small villages. But alas, while peace dominates that country now, we have shifted our aggression to other areas of the world and are still contributing to violent deaths of innocent civilians. The Hurt Locker is an amazing Hollywood exploration of one man’s love of war and his duties on an EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) company in Iraq. He is fearless and slightly reckless in his actions, living on the edge of death precisely because it makes him feel alive in a way that nothing else in his life can. This film, like the My Lai documentary, forces the audience to sympathize with the soldiers and respect them for doing their job like any other. They kill people because it is their duty and in the hierarchy of the army, saying no is not an option. World peace will not be attained from soldiers refusing to kill (although I dream of this scenario…) but needs to be instigated on a policy level from the top down; I am sure that we could find something more peaceful and productive for this massive manpower to engage in if we finally came to terms with the infinite feedback loop of hate and violence that produces war and realized that no matter how powerful an army is, they will never establish true peace.

The End of The Year is always packed with film for me. Free time and good films go so well together. In the past few days I have seen Sherlock Holmes and Invictus, which I thought were both excellent Hollywood efforts. I particularly enjoyed the story of Nelson Mandela and the South African Rugby Team’s triumph in the 1995 World Cup. I love a good sports story and this one occurred at a very important time in the struggle for equality, just after the fall of Apartheid. Sports can be a powerful bond and they create community, providing a single focus for so many different people. Enemies in one context are friends in another.
I also watched two un-Hollywood movies about food production and consumption that have opened my eyes to some invisible realities. Food, Inc. and King Corn both dissect the industry and its players. While Food, Inc. focuses on the negative, unintended consequences of our changing food habits, King Corn specifically examines the telescopic domain of our nation’s corn crop, which we consume on a much larger scale than we are generally aware of. It is a versatile plant that has many uses and it finds its way into our food chain on many sneaky levels. Both movies feature Michael Pollan and his careful explanations of the roots of a obesity epidemic, and King Corn features a local Brooklyn cab driver discussing his family’s battle with diabetes, while driving around a few blocks from my apartment! Not too shocking considering the filmmakers, one of whom is a fellow Milton Academy graduate, live in the neighborhood… Way to really drive it home, film!

IMAX 3D is a pretty amazing experience. I used to go to The Omnimax at The Museum of Science in Boston, which was always exciting, but the movie fare was limited to one hour documentaries. Although the screen does not actually wrap around the audience as in Omnimax, the glasses and 3D effects of Avatar make it seem so; it is a truly unique viewing experience. A virtual reality movie about virtual reality, the story revolves around a soldier remotely operating an alien replicant on a distant moon in the distant future. Said moon contains vast deposits of a rock valued at $20 million/kilo, so naturally the US Army wants it and will not be stopped by indigenous people empowered by their connection to the natural world. With many parallels to current wars, the movie clearly casts our armed forces as the enemy and promotes awareness and respect for life at every level. It is a stunning film in every way and I hope that it will be seen by the masses and appreciated for its achievements and values.

I am lucky to have friends whose media recommendations I can always trust… I had never seen a Wong Kar Wai film before “Internet Poster Person/Stringer Bell” introduced me at BAM and it was quite an experience. Happy Together tells the story of the dissolving gay relationship of two Hong Kong expatriates living in Buenos Aires; it is chaotic and disorienting in the same mostly great way that foreign travel is and the cinematography captures it perfectly, using different speeds and color techniques to make it one of the most visually remarkable movies I’ve ever seen. There is a beautiful birds eye view of Iguazu Falls that appears twice in the film, each time simply a few minutes of the stunning visual with gorgeous and sensual music. It does not develop the plot in any way, yet serves a greater purpose of establishing mood and emotion. It is a unique and beautiful style and I have already added Chungking Express to our Netflix queue, continuing my new quest to familiarize myself with this artist’s work.

From start to finish, this film emotionally abused me. I have never felt so consistently sad watching a movie; The World presented here is bleak and life seems to lack any purpose beyond simple survival. Through flashbacks and dreams of the life before, we become aware of the contrast and how much has been lost — not just in terms of human life, but in terms of human values. Aside from anything that sustains life, which includes food, shelter and love, everything precious is now worthless. I found one of the most devastating scenes to be a flashback sequence of the man’s wife teaching him to play piano, followed by him breaking down the instrument for firewood… a life without music seems almost unlivable. When all that matters is existing for the next empty day, what is the point?
The beauty in watching this depressing vision is gaining a better appreciation for all that we do have; to realize just how much humanity has created in separating ourselves from animals and to understand that it could all be lost in an instant. The father and son are “carrying the fire”, keeping the human spirit alive in the face of extinction, and while we (hopefully) may not ever see such an apocalypse, we should all do our part to stoke that fire every day.

Who doesn’t have a fascination with the Wild West? I hate murder more than anything in the world but justice can be sweet… This movie (2007 remake) tells the story of an outlaw captured and taken to prison while his henchmen attempt a violent rescue. At once a villain and a hero, he is confronted by an Everyman, a broke rancher playing a mercenary guard for morality. It is a head-to-head, psychological chess match between two great actors, Russell Crowe as corrupted Ben Wade and Christian Bale as family man Dan Evans. Westerns are about Honor more than anything else, and both characters carry that burden in their own way, albeit with different ideas of right and wrong. “Every way of man is right in his own eyes”, says the outlaw. True, but couldn’t we at least all agree that murder, the one action that intentionally and permanently terminates another person’s life, is wrong? Can you imagine how beautiful life would be if people would stop making up exceptions to this fundamental rule?
“Be Good To Everyone” is the only law that matters.

Last night we went to see a great production of Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones at The Irish Rep. It is primarily one man’s descent from “Emperor” into a voodoo-induced nightmare and John Douglas Thompson is awesome and terrifying in his psychosis. The scenery dances and puppets play ghosts as the audience journeys inside a head of madness.
We then came home and watched Shaun of The Dead. I have never seen a movie that combines comedy, tragedy, love and horror in the same way. How scary would life be if the undead wandered the streets consuming human flesh? How hilarious would it be if you didn’t even notice they were zombies because they acted that way when they were alive? The film actually succeeds in communicating the desperation of life in the face of undeath through humor.