the groundhog day project

The heart of Swingers is Mike, especially what I've been calling that scene . If you're with this somewhat depressed guy and can make it through that scene--my daughter was in the room the other day when that scene was on, and her "Oh, sweetie, no," was exactly the kind of response we should have--you're rooting for him, rooting for his life to get better. And, that's easy. Mike is not a jerk like Trent or Sue. He's not there to pad the rat pack esque group at the center of this movie, like Charles--though his "this place is dead, anyway" is amazing--or Rob--whose useful advice about life for Mike could have come from Trent and maybe worked a little better dramatically, structurally. Instead of the latter, we're barely offered up much that is positive about Trent. Sure, he's trying to get Mike out of his apartment but it's hard most of the time to really see Trent doing that for Mike, rather he's taking advantage--or so it seems...

The one who frowned and the lady. (And, if you get that reference, bully to you.) But, who gives a damn about closure? Every story ends in death if you keep telling it--and, if there is a fourth film in this series, rather than the phrasing-appropriate Before Noon , I hope it's called Afternoon and someone's dead. That would be the appropriate thematic end to this story... Hell, already in this driving and talking sequence, there's talk of death--Celine's Cleopatra kitty story is horrible. But, I don't really want to fabricate a fourth story. I've already written recently about how I don't like people thinking the movie needs to match up to their ideals for it. Wood (1998) would agree with me, I think. He writes--in a piece entitled "Rethinking Romantic Love: "Before Sunrise" by the way: I believe in the possibility of a "definitive" reading of a work only in the sense that is is definitive for myself at a certain stage of my e...

"Can we get back to politics?" - Thomas Jefferson, Hamilton If we do take Mrs. Doubtfire seriously, it stops being cute. Sure, it's still got, as Saer put it yesterday, watching the movie for the first time, "the feelz" but just because Daniel (Robin Williams) is hurting doesn't mean he should get what he wants. In fact, we're shown the troubling version of Daniel in the opening scene. He's doing voices for a cartoon and he's too concerned with "I've got to do what I've got to do" to realize that what he's got to do is his damn job so he can, you know, make money, and help Miranda (Sally Field) out with their kids. That's the real world. Instead, Daniel lives in a world where he feels just fine quitting that job (and note Lydia's (Lisa Jakub) familiarity with the idea of him getting fired) then spending however many hundreds of dollars it costs to rent a mobile petting zoo for his son's birthday party (which ...

"One person is not just one person." -Father Lantom, Daredevil * Right away, in Mrs. Doubtfire , it's pretty clear that this movie wants to tell us something. Daniel (Robin Williams) is a voice actor and he adds lines to comment the presence of smoking in the cartoon he's working on, then walks out when his producer(?) gets mad at him. It's been a long time since I've seen this film and I get the impression from Daniel's preachiness that the movie might get a bit preachy, too. If it can refrain from just sitting back and letting Robin Williams get carried away with jokes and impressions (many ad libbed). (* Because that was most of my day, today--watching the second season of Daredevil . It's spring break and, while I hope to get another section of my thesis written before school is back, I've got to waste a little time, too.) I think the film is going to end up favoring the comedy over the potential drama--like these deleted scenes --and whe...

Collective of wedges in your hand Bounce together, their tips joined as one Circle created, their joining done Break it Middle mangled, broken Stripped away to the wrong owners, pieces like tokens Wedges damaged, misshapen, alone           Today's reason to talk about divorce again: because fuck you all, sometimes I'm still dealing with it.

I wrote this movie. You'll get that later. I saw the trailer for Richard Linklater's Everybody Wants Some!! this past weekend. It was in front of 10 Cloverfield Lane (which was awesome), and the trailer kinda of made me less interested in seeing the film. Dazed and Confused was so effortlessly set in the 70s and Everybody Wants Some!! looks like it's trying a little hard to be set in the 80s. (To be fair, I don't remember ever watching the trailer for Dazed and Confused ; maybe it didn't seem so effortless cut down to a couple minutes.) The Squid and the Whale is quite effortlessly set in the 80s. Specifically, 1986. There's no Wedding Singer -style ridiculousness, no definitively 80s soundtrack more reminiscent of a VH1 special than the actual 80s. It's just set in that time, that place (Park Slope, Brooklyn).) A couple scenes in, dinner, the family dynamic is set. Frank (Owen Kline), the younger brother, randomly sticks a cashew up his nose and mo...

Scroll down past the parenthetical if you want to get to the movie. (Author's note: I have not committed to doing this film (and its versions) for the entire month, but I have excluded my original plan for the month because I realized that the next movie ( Blade Runner ) I was going to spend a whole bunch of days on wasn't going to leave as much room for discussion because its versions are just alternate cuts, not deliberately separate versions of the story. The movie ( Brazil ) I was going to end the month with fits a little closer to this, but its variations are all about meddling after the fact, not planning. And, both films have been written about so much I don't know if I could offer much in the way of original insight... Oh, I'd give you something. And, it would, at least at some point, be amazing. But, a lot of it would be repeating other sources' takes on the films in question, especially Blade Runner . (The most original thing I could do there is not act...

As Anomalisa gets underway again, I reflect on the days that were full of life. And I reflect on today. I think of full days like some speech tournament days--good and bad--or when I met my first girlfriend in Salt Lake City, or my second in Memphis, or my third in Burbank. It is not that many things need to happen. It is just that something needs to happen. I've written before in this blog--so very long, it seems--about the moments worth repeating. But, it could just be about the moments... the mundane moments. Today, for example, I awoke just before my 6:11am alarm. I actually have several alarms set, most of them on my old phone which is now just a glorified alarm clock. The 6:11am is louder and on my iPhone. I was awake early enough that I did not have to rush. I fed the cats and headed out, stopped at Starbucks on the way to work. Taught class at 8:00am and at 9:50am. I got a good impression of both set so students. I've got a good feeling about this quarter. It was the...

But , Into the Wild doesn't really romanticize Chris McCandless. At least no more than it detracts from that same romanticism. We begin with a mother in pain. Billie (Marcia Gay Harden) sits up from sleeping because she has heard her son's voice. Of course, he is not there. He's been gone for two years, with no contact. The film even reduces his contact; in reality, Chris sent his grades home from Atlanta before leaving. There was a note attached: Here is a copy of my final transcript. Gradewise things went pretty well and I ended up with a high cumulative average. Thank you for the pictures, the shaving gear, and the postcard from Paris. It seems that you really enjoyed your trip there. It must have been a lot of fun. I gave Lloyd [Chris's closest friend at Emory] his picture, and he was very grateful; he did not have a shot of his diploma getting handed to him. Not much else happening, but it's starting to get real hot and humid down her. Say Hi to everyon...

When you are in the middle of a story, it's isn't a story at all, but only a confusion; a dark roaring, a blindness, a wreckage of shattered glass and splintered wood; like a house in a whirlwind, or else a boat crushed by the icebergs or swept over the rapids, and all aboard are powerless to stop it. It's only afterwards that it becomes anything like a story at all, when you're telling it to yourself or to someone else. --Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace With this quotation, Stories We Tell begins, Michael Polley reading it even before his "narration" begins. think of the story we are telling a twisted, amalgamated beast that eventually becomes history a history written by the winners the privileged hooks' "white supremacist capitalist patriarchy" perhaps most of us knowing only a small piece of the whole many of us lack the capacity or power to substantially alter our place in the larger story some of us but for the grace of god or gods ...

So, SPOILERS right off. How weird would it be to wake up in pajamas you don't even remember owning? On the one hand, I don't know why Joel would have bought new pajamas knowing he was about to have his memory erased. On the other hand, he should have been seriously freaking out when he woke up. I would have been. The only time I ever had too much to drink and did not actually remember going to bed, just waking up in bed normally the next morning freaked me out. Had I also been wearing brand new pajamas... Let us get into Day 1 with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with the personal bit right out of the way. This is one of my favorite movies. Depending on my mood when asked, I might list this as my favorite movie. If pressed anyway. I don't usually go for favorite s. I realize right away watching it this time that I probably can relate a bit too much to Joel. His line about falling in love with any woman who gives him the least bit of attention--I get that. Not being...

(637) (That's the number for this blog entry. It will be consistent neither with the personal numbers or any film references below.) I don't remember what day I "met" my wife, or "met" either of the girlfriends before her. Since I met them online, they were just names on a screen for a while before they became someone important to me. I know Katie mattered to me sometime in July, Miranda in June, Sarah in August. That last one--who I would later marry and from which I will soon be divorced--August 15th, 2001, what I would later call "Arrow Day." (And, not for some cheesy, Cupid-related reason, and that only even occurred to me now because I saw Avengers: Age of Ultron tonight and watched the latest episode of Arrow earlier today and the bow-and-arrow thing was in my head... No, Arrow Day took its name from a particular message board post of mine that got us talking. I posted an arrow pointing to the link to my website after mention of writing...

I want to get into talking about Deborah Tannen’s Genderlect Styles , but it’s hard to map it onto The Mirror Has Two Faces . Gregory is hardly the stereotypical male that Tannen talks about, nor really is Rose the stereotypical female that Tannen talks about. Tannen’s male wants status—meaning he wants the score that comes from having bedded a woman. Gregory is far from that, wanting anything but the score. Tannen’s female wants connection, but Rose gets the connection and wants more... Arguably. The question is—and this may just be a reiteration of my attempt to define the successful relationship the other day —does a connection include or preclude sex? Personally, I think it’s inclusive, and The Mirror Has Two Faces seems to support that idea even if Gregory and Rose have still not consummated their relationship at the end of the film. When Harry Met Sally... comes to the same conclusion (including the sex) thought it approaches it from a more stereotypical direction; that i...