the groundhog day project

True Romance is Tarantino by way of Tony Scott. Almost immediately, the dialogue plays like straight Tarantino. And Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) almost feels like a slightly more grown up Mark Hunter from Pump Up the Volume . Almost. (Meanwhile, I’m here because of Brad Pitt. Or, by way of Brad Pitt. The poetry of these many degrees is almost at its inevitable end.) Alabama (Patricia Arquette) gives us some (probably) pointless Exporration... Does that work? Exporration ? Exposition crossed with narration. I wanted to get either introduction or opening into the compound word but neither one really fits with exposition or narration without just sounding like the two words mashed up next to each other instead of into each other. Anyway, it’s the usual bullshit opening stuff, life’s about to change and I didn’t expect it and all that. (Meanwhile, I want to explain. The short version is that it was a suggestion/dare from my friend Lane, current president of our speech team—to...

August: Osage County offers us pseudo-voiceover to start. Bev (Sam Shepard) is talking to, as it turns out, Johna (Misty Upham) who is hiring to help him out--he's getting old. But, she's offscreen until he's stopped talking, until Violet (Meryl Streep) interrupts. It's a cheat. There will, of course, be no voiceover for the rest of the film. Then Bev leaves and the play gets going. And, it is a play, or was. Only a few scenes early on are really staged differently than they would have to be on stage. This is a talky film, the kind of movie that brings a big ol' family together and lets the sparks fly. Give us a family, throw in a funeral or a wedding or a holiday and the drama writes itself. I saw this two years ago, of course, when Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep were nominated for Oscars, but I actually don't remember much of the specifics anymore. In my head, it's filed away with the likes of The Celebration or Rachel Getting Married , or even Home for...

Interesting thing. I'm watching Chaplin the other night and I'm too sick to really get into some preachy, self-help-style rant about being creative, being yourself, and all that jazz. Tonight, I'm watching Dazed and Confused and it occurs to me I could pull the same sort of message out of this film. I mean, that is the point to, say, Pink's (Jason London) throughline, yeah? That's what the freshmen are doing heading out to party with the older kids. That's even what Wooderson (Matthew McConaughey) is doing hanging out with everyone younger than he is. They're all trying to just hold onto some ideal form of self, to enjoy a life full of possibilities and... ("I wanna dance," indeed.) See, it could turn cheesy, easy. And then I get distracted, because cheesy rhymes with easy and I thought maybe I should replace it with corny and then I got to wondering what was the difference between cheesy and corny . And, I'm feeling like Slater (Rory...

(An apology before I get into today's film... Today's official film; I also watched the Oscar-nominated The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared . (Think Forrest Gump by way of Sweden if in the present Forrest inadvertently stole millions from some criminals instead of telling his story to random people at a bus stop.) Today's film is Horrible Bosses --and no, not as some thematic link to yesterday 's Swimming with Sharks . In fact, I've never seen Horrible Bosses so I'm not even sure how related the two might be. Horrible bosses, obviously. But, that's a big part of so many movies. 9 to 5 , for example. And, that is where we get to my apology. For, you see, yesterday was Day 925 of this blog, and I did not plan ahead so that I would be watching 9 to 5 on that day. And, watching 9 to 5 on Day 925 is just... poetry. Like if I had not watched 300 on Day 300... Which is a despicable example because I did not watch 300 on Day 300 ...

You don't know what's going on. We start with pointless voiceover-- In Hollywood, one of the fastest ways to the top is to work for someone who's already there. The system dictates that one must first be a slave before you can become a success. But this can be a very demanding process. Only a few people have the drive to endure the thousands of indignities and hardships that make up the system. Now, this drive is usually motivated by greed, sometimes ambition, sometimes even love. There are stories of love inspiring success over the most insurmountable of odds. This is not one of those stories. --adds nothing to what's coming, doesn't reveal anything unique or particularly intriguing, and you don't know what's going on. The conversation about Shelley Winters, on the other hand, is a fantastic introduction to what's coming. Guy (Frank Whaley) knows his films. It's clear that he is better than his position. Then, we meet his overbearing boss Buddy...

Almost Famous was nominated for four Oscars (Kate Hudson for Lead Actress, Frances McDormand for Supporting Actress, Joe Hutshing and Saar Klein for Editing) and won one (Cameron Crowe for Original Screenplay). It is unfortunate that a film so very much about music could not be nominated for its music. (For example, at this moment, Anita (Zooey Deschanel) is leaving home to become a stewardess and "America" by Simon and Garfunkel is playing. "I've come to look for America" indeed.) She leaves her little brother William a stack of vinyl albums. Their mother (McDormand) does not allow them to listen to Rock and Roll. Cut to 15-year old William (Patrick Fugit) watching his music critic hero Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman) on the radio. William wants to write about music. He already writes about music or his school paper. Lester offers him $35 for 1000 words on Black Sabbath. And, honestly, I'm a little jealous. I know this is fiction but the official l...

The year Shine (today's movie) was nominated for Best Picture was the first year I actively tried to see as many of the Oscar-nominated films as I could. I had been watching the Oscars since as long as I could remember, had been obsessing a bit about them for a few years by then, but the 69th Academy Awards (for films from 1996, nominated and awarded in early 1997) was the first time I really made an effort. In case you weren't around in 1996 or were not then (and maybe are not now) a lover of film, Shine is the (disputed in the details) true story of pianist David Helfgott who suffers a mental breakdown after, as the film seems to play it, getting obsessed with being able to play Rachmaninoff (and dealing with an overbearing father). The film was nominated for Best Actor (Geoffrey Rush), Best Supporting Actor (Armin Mueller-Stahl), Best Film Editing, Best Original Score* (David Hirschfelder), Best Original Screenplay (Jan Sardi and Scott Hicks), Best Director (Scott Hicks),...

Oh, the outrage when Shakespeare in Love beat out Saving Private Ryan for Best Picture... And, damn it, I am old because that does not seem like it was 17 years ago. Just three years ago, Time referred to it as the "ultimate upset" (or, to be fair, Time said that many Oscar watchers thought of it that way). Time credits Harvey Weinstein and his campaign game. Me--I didn't mind Shakespeare in Love winning. I mean, sure, I get the reasoning that the logistics that went into making Saving Private Ryan put it on top but then, I don't think that sort of thing should guarantee a win or, really, something like Transformers should win every year just by costing the most. I like that a movie like Room can be nominated alongside Mad Max Fury Road , The Kids Are All Right alongside Inception , Little Miss Sunshine alongside Letters from Iwo Jima , Lost in Translation alongside The Return of the King , and so on. And, it's not like Shakespeare in Love is a bad ...

One of my family's videotapes when I was a kid, often watched and rewatched, had Footloose , Romancing the Stone and Splash . But, it's been a while. There was a serious paragraph about religion I had going already before I pushed play on Footloose and then the song started and there's close ups on feet dancing and I just don't feel like ranting. Then, Reverend Moore (John Lithgow) starts talking and I'm tempted to rant all over again. Except he's a pretty good preacher. He gets into it. Hits the podium and everything. And, I really like that the film starts with him before we get to really meet Ren (Kevin Bacon) or Ariel (Lori Singer). We even get dialogue from Vi Moore (Dianne Wiest, who we just saw in Snecdoche, New York recently) before Ren's mother (Frances Lee McCain) or Ren get to speak. (The role of Vi Moore, by the way, is played in the recent remake by none other than Groundhog Day 's Andie MacDowell.) Then, we go off with Ariel and he...

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...