C is for Check it Out: My Review of 'Jane Eyre'

Hey Everyone -- Check out my latest post to FirstShowing.Net here.

I've reviewed Cary Fukunaga's latest version of the literary classic Jane Eyre starring Mia Wosikowska and Michael Fassbender.  It's a thrilling (near scary) Gothic romance and worth every penny.  A 9/10. Enjoy!

Good Read: Josh Radnor Talks Optimisim in Film

Several weeks ago I came across an editorial written by actor (now writer/director/producer/editor) Josh Radnor, most famously known for his starring role as Ted on CBS's How I Met Your Mother.  

Radnor juggled all the aforementioned jobs to see his script "happythankyoumoreplease" become an independent feature that screened at last year's Sundance Film Festival.  In his article, Radnor describes his confusion over why "feel-good" movies these days are considered not "sophisticated."
 Read Below!

"Why I Chose happythankyoumoreplease Over sadscrewyougetlost." 

by Josh Radnor 

(couresty of HuffingtonPost)

It's probably not spoiling anything to say that "happythankyoumoreplease," the first movie I wrote and directed, does not end tragically. The title pretty much gives that away. At Sundance, where the movie premiered in 2010, one journalist asked me, given that the theme of the festival that year was 'revolution,' what was revolutionary about my 'feel-good, crowd pleasing movie.' What his question revealed, I think, was the strange bias that many critics and cultural tastemakers share when it comes to optimism in film: that which posits a more hopeful vision of things is somehow dismissed as less real or true than a darker tale which ends on a discordant note. In other words, feel-good movies are less sophisticated than feel-bad movies.

My response to his question was that given the cynicism in which much of indie film traffics, the movie is revolutionary in that it's about love and gratitude, and that it's hopeful not bleak. ("Crowd-pleasing" is a curious designation, if you think about it -- shouldn't every movie be "crowd-pleasing?" Who are movies for, after all?) No matter how dark things may get in a story, I feel it's the responsibility of the storyteller to leave the audience with at least a shred of hope. Jonathan Franzen's Freedom recently provided a great example of this for me. For 500 pages, his characters made ever more terrible decisions that brought them nothing but misery. But Franzen, fulfilling his contract with the readers, pulls us out of the nose-dive at the end and gives us something that feels like grace.

When I was writing "happythankyoumoreplease" I was constantly looking to have the characters screw up in bigger and more bone-headed ways. But half the fun of the tangling is the untangling, watching characters grow up and persevere, and all my favorite movies seem to recognize this. A movie can and should have some real dissonance throughout -- rage, heartache, tears, conflict, catharsis and all the other elements Aristotle demanded of a good story -- but the chord has to be resolved. Swelling strings aren't necessary, but by the end there should, I think, be some acknowledgment and evidence that we're not wretched and doomed creatures. Just let me know, in the simplest way, that everything is going to be okay.

Joan Acocella wrote a piece a few years back in The New Yorker about the continuing popularity of Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet. She writes of the book being "comforting" (not entirely a compliment) and that Gibran had said that "the whole meaning of the book was 'You are far far greater than you know--and All is well.' To people in doubt or in trouble," Acocella writes, "that is good news." But wait, isn't that good news to everyone?

Apparently not, and here's where we get to the basic fault line of what it means to be a human being. Because we're each, as David Foster Wallace wrote, "marooned in our own skulls," interpreting thoughts, feelings, and incidents through our own specially programmed nervous systems, it's difficult to budge someone from their view of "reality" since all the evidence they need is right there in front of them. One man's uplift is another man's sentimental hooey. And no one is right because -- get this: -- everyone is right. All the time. By that I mean one's thoughts about the world are correct. If you believe the world is dark and frightening and people are not to be trusted, you will seek out evidence to confirm this and that will be what you call 'reality.' If you believe the world to be forgiving and ordered and shot through with grace, you will seek out evidence to confirm this and that will be what you call 'reality.'

The acknowledgment of this basic fact tends to unsettle people, and leads culture warriors to lob accusations of "moral relativism." We want to believe there is such a thing as a right or correct worldview. But how can there be with so many nervous systems wired and conditioned in such vastly different manners? This is not to say we don't need laws and standards of behavior, but we have to acknowledge that the world is endlessly varied and complex. Absolutely everything is available to us -- sorrow and joy, grievance and forgiveness, horror and transcendence -- it's all on the menu. It's up to us where we put our attention because (forgive my dip into metaphysics here) we grow whatever it is we put our attention upon. We're like a gardener with a hose and our attention is water -- we can water flowers or we can water weeds.
The dark and fearful stuff is no less 'true' than its opposite, it just announces itself in a louder, more insistent manner. Joy speaks in more of a whisper and you sometimes have to lean in a bit to hear it. But it's always there for those who can get quiet enough to hear it. I'm not a pollyanna -- I get that the world is rife with horrors. But I also know the world is rife with everything else. There's this great Carlos Castaneda quote: "We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same." I really believe that. Negativity is so reflexive in our society that it takes great vigilance to train yourself anew. But to me it feels worth it.

I've decided that if I'm going to spend years writing, prepping, casting, shooting, editing, sound mixing, color correcting, and publicizing a movie, I'm going to want it to be the kind of movie I would love, where people grow up and get out of their own ways and open up to something bigger than their own egoic needs. Not because this is a truer version of reality, but because it's the reality I wish to grow, the kind of world in which I would most like to live. When so much else is calling attention to the dark and dysfunctional, I just don't feel it's my job to contribute. Too many people are already on the case.

Here is the trailer for happythankyoumoreplease in case you are interested, and the script is also available for download at mypdfscripts. Enjoy!

Rest in Peace Ms. Elizabeth Taylor

Academy Award winning actress Elizabeth Taylor has passed away at the age of 79.

Ms. Taylor began her career as a child actress and appeared in films such as Little Woman and Father of the Bride before performing alongside James Dean in Giant.  Her most famous roles, perhaps even today, are as Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and as the titular Cleopatra.  Elizabeth Taylor was awarded two Oscars for her roles in Butterfield 8 and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? but she is often remembered for her glamorous Hollywood sex appeal and the scandals of her eight marriages.

Taylor's manager confirmed that Elizabeth succumbed to congestive heart failure at Cedar Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles earlier this morning.  The starlet's son released this statement:

"My Mother was an extraordinary woman who lived life to the fullest, with great passion, humor, and love. Though her loss is devastating to those of us who held her so close and so dear, we will always be inspired by her enduring contribution to our world. Her remarkable body of work in film, her ongoing success as a businesswoman, and her brave and relentless advocacy in the fight against HIV/AIDS, all make us all incredibly proud of what she accomplished. We know, quite simply, that the world is a better place for Mom having lived in it. Her legacy will never fade, her spirit will always be with us, and her love will live forever in our hearts."

Turner Classic Movies's Twitter is filled with exclusive photographs of Taylor and the channel will be airing a 24-hour marathon of her films on April 10th.

Rest in Peace.

C is for 'Check it Out': My Latest Editorial for First Showing

Hey Everyone -- Head on over to Firstshowing.net to read my latest editorial titled:

"Why Documentaries Can and Should be Considered Cool"

Good Read: "The Day The Movies Died"

Mark Harris, over at GQ.com's Entertianment page, has written a fascinating article about how 2011 is already set to be a year of endless sequels, with 2012 following closely in it's footsteps.  Where has all the creativity gone?  As Harris puts it: Hollywood has become an institution that is more interested in launching the next rubberized action figure than in making the next interesting movie.

Check out his article here.

Perhaps the most interesting (or horrifying) note is that Harris missed quite a few movies in his article.  In fact, the amount of sequels (and third and fourth and fifth and even beyond) will break the record for most in a single year.  For a compiled list of the uncreative mass of Hollywood flicks to be released in 2011, look below:

So in the end, the world will see 27 sequels total next year.  Nine second movies (that's up from eight in 2010), five third movies, five fourth movies, five fifth movies, two seventh movies and one eighth movie.

The Sequels: Cars 2, Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules, The Hangover Part II, Harrpy Feet 2, Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil, Johnny English Reborn, Kung Fu Panda 2, Piranha 3DD, and Sherlock Holmes: The Book of Shadows.

The Thirds: Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son, Madea's Big Happy family, Paranormal Activity 3, and Transformers: Dark of the Moon. 

The Fourths: Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Scream 4: All the Time in the World and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (Part One.)

The Fifths: Fast Five, Final Destination 5, Puss in Boots, X-Men: First Class, and Winnie the Pooh. 

The Sevenths: The Muppets and Rise of the Apes. 

And Finally, the Eights: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two. 

This list doesn't include New Year's Eve (which is sort of a sequel) and The Thing (a prequel.)

*The List above is courtesy of SlashFilm.

Very Cool Find: hitRECord.org

Ever heard of this?  Today I discovered actor Joseph Gordon Levitt's website www.hitrecord.org.

HitRECord started five years ago as an online community for artists from around the world to collaborate on homemade projects; different individuals provide the writing, the visuals, and the audio which are combined in various ways including to make short films.

 
As of 2010, Joe's website evolved into a full fledged professional production company which has since screened at the Sundance Film Festival and South by Southwest.  Profits of any successful project are distributed among it's online collaborators!  How cool is this?  Below is a video with Joe explaining the concept of the site in his own words:

You can follow Joseph Gordon Levitt on twitter @hitRECordJoe and click here to see the company's site!

Mashup: The Best Inspirational Speeches on Film

I'm not sure if any of you have seen this video before but I think it is hilarious and actually really well edited.  It combines the inspirational speeches from films like Braveheart, King Henry V, Miracle, Animal House, Old School, Newsies, Bring It On, Network, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington just to name a few!

It's a celebration of movies and makes me feel like a giddy kid!  Enjoy!

Find it on YouTube.