the groundhog day project

The working title for this movie was simply Summer Camp . Jim McLarty, who plays the Camp Mohawk camper Horse, told his family he was in a movie called Summer Camp . So, a movie called Summer Camp opens at a drive-in in Burlington, Ontario, where he lives. His brother and sister go to see it and, well, it's a softcore porn film. "McLarty tells Vanity Fair , And it had a character named Horse! This really confused them. I'd told them my character in the movie was named Horse, so they're watching this flick and a guy called Horse shows up and he's clearly not me. They were really peeved at me. As for the final title, in that same Vanity Fair piece, producer Daniel Goldberg explains: We were going with the name Summer Camp for a long time. I don't remember when we changed it to Meatballs , or why. I know there's a scene where Fink called Spaz a meatball, but that's not why we changed the title. This is just this past summer, 2017. But, director ...

For me, the problem isn't singular. Not my problem with Sing Street , by the way. I'm not sure I've got any real problems with the movie. That's why I watched it a gain today, delaying jumping off points for things more unpleasant... Except, I can make anything unpleasant. Anxiety and depression will do that. The opening lines to "Waving through a Window" from Dear Evan Hansen occur to me, now: I've learned to slam on the brake Before I even turn the key Before I make the mistake Before I lead with the worst of me I get that. I get that a little too much. It's like that rehearsing conversations thing I was talking about the other day ; I can plan my interactions and my attempts to accomplish certain things ahead just enough that I can convince myself that success isn't an option. Don't have to fail if you don't have to try. Also, I figure I had my shot. That's a troubling thought. Like no one really deserves a second chance at...

The reality behind Lean on Me , the truth in Dead Poets Society , the story of Stand and Deliver --truth and fiction twist together. If we take something meaningful from a film, the reality behind it doesn’t matter so much. Truth comes in the experience. And, truth is subjective. For example, one reviewer on IMDb asks, “What is the theme of this rubbish movie?” Follows that up with: “Those five Black narcissistic individuals do not respect themselves, nor [sic] they respect others and they shamelessly act (swearing, acting like horny sex maniacs and perverts).” Don’t forget the guns and the drugs. I mean, if you’re going to be dismissive in such broadstrokes, go all out. If you’re going to conclude, as that reviewer does, “This was the worst move I have ever seen!” maybe you should put a little more thought into your critique than some reactionary, presumably (but not overtly) racist bullshit. To counter that review, another reviewer on IMDb says, All five members were uncompromi...

(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...

Sample lyrics from America from West Side Story : STAGE: SCREEN: Puerto Rico You ugly island My heart's devotion Island of tropical diseases Let it slip back in the ocean Always the hurricanes blowing Always the population growing And the money owing And the babies crying And the sunlight streaming And the bullets flying And the natives steaming I like the island Manhattan Smoke on your pipe and put that in I like to be in America OK by me in America Ev'rything free in America For a small fee in America Only minor changes, but it makes the movie version just a little nicer to Puerto Rico. Sandoval-Sanchez (1999) is not as kind as I am; he writes, "In the film version, this scene, which, in the original text is a racist and defamatory articulation toward Puerto Rico, was revised in order to soften the negative attitude toward Puerto Rico and Puerto Rican immigrants" (p. 72). Elsewhere, Sandoval-Sanchez seems to be arguing that the film, like the play, makes q...

Then put your little hand in mine There ain't no hill or mountain we can't climb Babe, I got you babe I got you babe Sonny and Cher were living in their manager’s house when Sonny, late one night, according to Rolling Stone , woke Cher up to get her to listen to the song he’d just written on a piece of shirt cardboard. She thought it was OK but really wanted a song that modulated. So he changed the key at the bridge and woke Cher up again hours later to hear it; she was delighted. I’m not a musician, so I’m not entirely sure I understand that bit about “a song that modulated” but we all know the song. It’s simple, it’s cute and cheesy. And, it was in Groundhog Day from the beginning. Rubin put it in the screenplay, he says in How to Write Groundhog Day , …because of the way the recording ends. The song winds down with a long, soft, definitive “I – got – you – babe,” but then instead of ending, the song comes back: “I got you, babe!. I got you, babe! I got you, babe!” dri...