Imagine Donald Trump in the waiting room for a medical visit. Imagine him getting bored and playing with the toys for children. At first he pushes those beads with his fat fucking fingers. It's like a slide for the piece of wood. Ha ha. But then he gets bored. He then sees one of those toys where you're supposed to match shapes. And so the president decides to push a square peg into a round hole. Someone from the secret service says "I'm sorry Mr. Trump, I don't believe that fits." But Donald being the Donald, he decides to keep pushing and pushing, thrusting this piece of plastic into a hole its not meant for (I'm sorry if this sounds like rape, but then also our president is a rapist, so that's going to happen) until finally brute strength lodges the piece into the hole, but he has now made the game broken and unplayable.
This is EPISODE IX of STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER.
Writer/Director J.J. Abrams has shown himself to be good at a number of things, specifically television pilots and first episodes of rebootquels - which may be the exact same thing. But as critical as I can be of the man, THE FORCE AWAKENS is near a miracle. It introduces a squad of new characters and most of the old ones, and ingratiates them into a new but familiar narrative. He does so with energy and reminds you why you loved the OT in the first place. The biggest problem with the film is that Abrams sets up mysteries like Rey's Parents, or what's up with Luke? But he does them in such a way that's so vague it could be anything, so it could be anything. It's just we've seen what happens when he plays with his mystery boxes, and when he leans too hard into them, you get SUPER 8.
Rian Johnson, in taking over for THE LAST JEDI, took all of those loose ends, and turned them into something way more interesting than anything Abrams could come up with. The mystery of Rey's parentage is a mystery to her. She wants to believe that her parents are special, that they left for some unknown reason that will make sense of why they abandoned her. It turns out they're just terrible people. Why is Luke hiding out on an island? Because he's abandoned the force due to fucking up the training of his pupil, sorta like what Obi-Wan did. And as much as people want something different, many of these choices seem the only logical ones after what Abrams punted (you can't really make Luke a force for good if he's been hiding out where no one could find him, unless he too is on a quest that is ill defined and at odds with everything that's going on), while also subverting expectations (people wanted Luke to be a badass, but at the end of the day, he's always been this character, someone who sometimes gives up too easily at the wrong things). A number of people did not like this, but when it comes to Star Wars and the internet it's hard to know what percentage is real, and what is propped up by the loudest, most annoying fanbase this side of DC/Marvel and Ghostbusters fanatics (which may all be the same crowd). From my perspective, they seem annoyed that Johnson tried to make the story interesting, relevant, and drawn from all of the source material. Which is why Luke's final act is so perfect, and sets up a way more interesting movie than what we eventually got. Some people seem to think he betrayed THE FORCE AWAKENS, but he didn't, he just didn't approach the narrative with the sort of flippancy that Abrams did, and so when the rebels have claimed their victory, of course shortly thereafter the First order would follow them home in the hopes of destroying their rebellion. Why wouldn't you start shortly after the end of the first film? Sure he could have kicked it down the line some, but that's where I perked up and others I guess tuned out. Rian Johnson approached his sequel as a filmmaker.
Abrams, faced with what Johnson did, decided to start pushing that square peg into a round hole and he basically ruined his Star Wars. Salieri got his revenge on Mozart, but at what cost? Me, I'm fine with never watching TRoS again, but since I saw it last night, let's unpack some shit.
Because Johnson got rid of Snoke, guess who's back? The Emperor. Why? Because Ben Solo needs to redeem himself. And the only way he can do that is by having someone more powerful than him to turn against. What has the Emperor been doing? Building an army for thirty years in secret just as he survived. None of this makes any god damned sense, in terms of the franchise, the previous two films, or in terms of the film at hand. That is a huge problem with this movie. Everything happens because reasons, as if Abrams objected to trying to find motivation.
The next hour is then basically people chasing after objects that will lead them to more objects, and so when people talk about this film is in a rush and doesn't have much time for character, that's objectively Abrams fault because a lot of these side quests could have been eliminated to spend more time on the character dynamics, many of which were introduced by Abrams himself. But because Johnson complicated them, he decides to take his ball and go home, much as Maz Katana is left with nothing to do again. And because he doesn't like what Johnson did with his characters, he decides to avoid character arcs and growth. Other than maybe Kylo getting killed and resurrected and then realizing that he's an asshole? I think that's his arc? His character is woefully under-serviced by this film. Poe and Finn also have nothing, and Rey is afraid of going bad (even though she confronted that in the last film), but this lets Abrams do his Empire homage by having evil Rey face real Rey.
For the most part, new characters serve to realign the fracnhise to make it less interesting and more familiar. A perfect example of this is the character played by Keri Russell. Why is Felicity in this movie? It seems two reasons: To make Poe into more of a Han Solo character (he has a past as a "Spice Runner," which is like a weak way of avoiding calling him a smuggler), and to de-gay his relationship with Finn. Fans have often felt that there was a love/sex triangle with Finn in the middle of Poe and Rey, but this film decides to abandon that, and all of the sexuality of the previous films, outside of a pair of relatively chaste kisses. The film also sets up a new matching color relationship for Finn, but then abandons that female to Lando. I guess Abrams wants Finn's secret that he only wants to share with Rey now to be that he's force sensitive, but it reads in the film like he's afraid to tell her he loves her in front of everyone.And also, Finn developing Force powers fees like such a punt for a story at its conclusion.
Abrams brings back Greg Gunnberg, seemingly as an act of defiance. By what we saw in the last film, he wasn't around and likely killed off screen, but now he's back and he brought Dominic Monaghan with him. Rian obviously cast some of his friends in TLJ, and there's nothing wrong with it, but Johnson also hid Jospeh Gordon-Levitt as an alien, and even if Noah Segan got face time, he didn't get much if any dialogue and is killed. One senses Abrams gloating by bringing back his old buddy, and adding more familiar faces from his previous work (see also: Keri Russell).
And as much as him basically neutering Kelly Marie Tran into a red shirt who doesn't die in this film is a slap in the face of TLJ, I was more offended with what he did to Hux. Johnson decided to make Hux into - not a joke but - a person who is driven by power and is feckless, whcih I find an improvement over his bland loud fascist character in TFA. Because he's been defanged for good reasons, Abrams then makes him a traitor/spy, and then once that's revealed kills him off immediately, and replaces him with Richard E. Grant's character, which could have been interesting... if it wasn't in keeping with every other artistic decision made in this film, which is erring on the side of conservatism. But the very fact that he's made a spy, but then is killed off minutes after that's revealed suggests an annoyance with what that character's become. Or perhaps it's just bad storytelling. Either or.
I don't want to stretch too much, but just as it would have been a lesser movie if Norman Jewison had directed MALCOLM X instead of Spike Lee, J.J. Abrams is a child of wealth, and comes from a successful Hollywood family. I don't think he understands why it was so important, so powerful, to make Rey not special in the familial sense. And the bloodline thing here would be horribly insulting if it had any conviction. The film posits that the Emperor had children. So, what, was he married? Did he knock up a prostitute? Partly because of his role in the OT, but partly because of the antiseptic nature of the PT, the Emperor has no sexual energy for anyone in the franchise other than perhaps Anakin. But then also, his son/daughter already rejected him, so the bloodline aspect is already horribly compromised and rushed. It's as if the only purpose is to make Rey special in a way only someone of a bloodline would understand. And maybe rich people shouldn't be making fantasy stories for proletariats (see also: PRETTY WOMAN). But it also feels like he doesn't know how to tell this story without having that reveal, and that's just like someone with a fetish unable to achieve release without the fourteen things their fetish requires. On top of which, right now in real life we're seeing how bloodlines are part of what's making the world a worse place. It's a bad look.
As we've seen with Abrams before, specifically STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS, he wants to create emotion with big shocking things, and then immediately walks them back. Three characters over the course of the film are killed and resurrected so quickly that it's impossible to mourn or believe the deaths have any meaning or purpose.
Also, as we've seen with Abrams before, he likes to make choices that look cool, but don't follow the rules of the narrative. It makes no sense for the Enterprise to be under water, but it looks cool for the Enterprise to emerge from water, so cool trumps all. The Emperor shoots lightning so powerfully he's able to knock all of the (and just the) rebel ships out of the sky, but that's a heretofore unknown power that probably would have come in handy before, just as setting up some of the new mythology that all comes in a exposition dump right before it happens would have been preferable to whatever the fuck this was. Why would Rey holding two lightsabers, two weapons, defend herself from the Emperor. It doesn't make sense in context of the film, this trilogy or the franchise as a whole. Going by what we know, she shouldn't use a weapon at all.
It's a fucking sloppy ass movie where characters show up where they need to at times the plot calls for it, with no bearing on what's going on,, what they said previously, anything. Part of me thinks the biggest problem with the film is that they wanted it out two years after TLJ, and when Colin Trevorrow was let go they had a time crunch, and Abrams was their only options when Johnson passed. I've long heard that Abrams wanted to make Star Wars his new playground, and perhaps when tasked with closing out the Skywalker saga, his main innovation was to not. Sadly, I think all the loose ends, and pointless narrative choices were partly about keeping the door open to continue this story, so Finn's secret, and Lando's new mission with the former stormtrooper, and all sorts of shit is left dangling because he hopes to make Episode 10-12. Going by Friday's numbers, I don't think that's going to happen. Honestly, I think they need to regroup before they go forward with anything more than the Disney + shows because this is a disaster, and I don't think even the most vocal TLJ haters are going to be happy with this. I think because they were never going to be happy with this.
All of this said, I thought Leia/Carrie Fisher was handled as well as possible, even if the use of deleted footage feels like a mad lib at times. There was no easy solution and though some may complain about the logic of the Han Solo dream, it makes sense in the context of Fisher's death, and I think it works, it's probably the best scene in the movie. Because it has heart, a heart partly because it's so obvious Ford did it knowing Carrie couldn't.
Saturday, December 21, 2019
Saturday, September 07, 2019
Damon's Definitive Rankings of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
So, um, most days at some point I feel an existential dread. As an adult male I would like to have a family and children, but also the world is GD F'd right now that it seems like that's an act of sadism, and we've got a moron at the wheel acting like he's in the midst of a cocaine-fueled commitment to a bad decision. And that moron is lauded by at least a sizeable chunk of America's population and I live in California and it disgusts me that so many states like mine subsidize the lives of the people who are making this country worse. I hope the whole left coast secedes if we get a second term of the noxious terrorist. Republicans are basically evil at this point as there is no policy arguments any more. It's all personal stuff, which should have been left out in the first place, but basically they all seem like bad boys waiting for their spanking, which never comes because we never hold successful white men accountable.
And this is because the Republican party is dying and it knows it and it wants to take everyone down with it. Because Trump is the last electable Republican presidential candidate and they know this. But then also, his election was a fluke and may have been partly caused/helped by Russian interference, but we're not going to look into that.
Here's my pet conspiracy theory: There is a rise of incest porn in pornography. I found this out due to a Mark Ronson podcast about the death of porn star August Ames, which is so weird I wish I knew more about it. Also, I mean, I've been to Pornhub, and it's not exactly subtle how much of it is "hot step-someone f's me." Do we know if this is because of Russian hacking? Do we know why Incest is a super popular porn thing, or maybe it's popular because of bad people trying to make the world worse? Or should we look at how many people have Oedipus complexes? Because we live in a shame-based society, no one is going to talk about this until it's too late. Just in the same way culture is becoming weaponized. Fucking I love RICK AND MORTY and the last thing I want to see is more RICK AND MORTY because of the way culture has turned it into this thing. Similar to DIE HARD. I love that movie, stop the XMAS discussion already, it's "Sylvester Stallone put on 20 pounds to be in COPLAND" level of discourse. But every year, every couple of months it arises again.
23. THOR - This is the film that most shows Marvel's growing pains. They hire Branagh, who's main thing seems to be Dutch Angles, and then split between the immense size of Asgard and the tax rebates of New Mexico. Also, it's a non-origin origin movie. Fuck this.
22. THE INCREDIBLE HULK - Ang Lee's movie is a masterpiece of Freudian discourse. The follow up is like "SMASH." And as such it's perfectly watchable and instantly forgettable.
21. AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON: Joss Whedon is a terrible director. There are good things in this movie, but see the first sentence.
20. AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR: I don't like spending 149 minutes on set ups that aren't paid off.
19. SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME: Jake G is great in this movie, but it - like THOR and IRON MAN 2 - feels like it's too busy servicing things that aren't directly a part of the narrative.
18. IRON MAN 2: For a long time this was the bottom entry, but ENDGAME makes it slightly more interesting. After it Marvel films get pretty watchable. Also, it posits that Bill O'Reilly is a HYDRA agent.
17. DOCTOR STRANGE So much legwork to set up weird shit that eventually becomes normied. Cinematic gentrification.
16. ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: Pleasant room temperature.
15. ANT-MAN: No Comment.
What do we do? Do we revolt? Are we afraid of dying? On some level I am and on another I'm not. Like, what does it mean that I'm willing to suffer and die for something I believe in while still worrying every god damn day about the fucking rent which seems reasonable for where I live, but then I don't know how long I'll get to stay due to the world being what it is right now. For much of my time in LA I had places where the rent was a thousand bucks or under. Partly due to roommates and whatnot. If I move any time in the near future getting a place for under $1500 seems unlikely. And it's not like there's an equal move to pay me more, so how would I have money to pay for what Fox News would call inessentials like, you know, a nice meal out from time to time.
14. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY - Parental issues mixed with the remix factors of this move make me actively not like it while also enjoying the surface pleasures. Like eating McDonald's it is both filling and garbage.
13. SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING - I wish they made a sequel to this movie. Michael Keaton and Donald Glover are the main reasons why this ranks so high, but Marvel's run on Spidey is best in his guest appearances in other movies.
12. CAPTAIN MARVEL - This movie is perfectly fine.
11. THE AVENGERS - This movie shouldn't work and is actively terrible for at least thirty to forty minutes. Whedon can't direct to save his dick and yet... Fuck me when it works it fucking works.
10. IRON MAN - The basic-est bitch of the MCU, this movie succeeds because of casting and tone. As a story it's fine, but Robert Downey Jr. - who will probably spend the rest of his life trying to walk away from the character that cemented his legacy - is perfect, and created the archetype that the franchise needs to move away from.
9. THOR: THE DARK WORLD - Am I ranking this way too high? Probably, but I think if the film had anything more than a television director, it would be (for everyone else that is) a top ten Marvel movie. The third act is stellar and it turned Thor into "God Jack Burton" a film before RAGNAROK did. (this also points out that most Marvel movies are three star efforts - Sorry not sorry)
8. AVENGERS: ENDGAME - This movie is a failure on so many levels, but only because there was way too much it had to accomplish. So it focuses on some things it can get right and forgets the rest. All the talk about time travel and everything that happens because of it is perfect nonsense because the film is about giving you a boner when the CGI dudes beat up the bigger CGI dude. I spent ten years watching these films and I'm happy they've ended some shit even if it felt like contractual obligation deaths.
7. CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER - If this film had a stronger third act, instead of "Shit we need to happen for THE AVENGERS" it would easily be the best Marvel movie.
6. CAPTAIN AMERICAN: CIVIL WAR - I'm sorry, Giant-Man is better than most things.
5. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 - There are few sequels (outside of THOR) that really up their game by diving into what's there. And if the first film was about family this film is about FAMILY and it fucking nails it on a galaxy brain level. There is the family we have and the family we can choose and I prefer it's Freudian noodlings to the first film, perhaps because it's unintentionally a remake of ANG LEE's MOTHERFUCKING HULK.
4. IRON MAN 3: The Third act is CGI explosion meh (ON A FUCKING SHIPYARD which has been a set piece for at least two recent action movies previous on top of LETHAL WEAPON 2), but as a course correction for the franchise and as a stealth sequel to KISS KISS BANG BANG, it's aces.
3. CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER - Hey, did you know, Republicans are Nazis? Seems crazy, right?
2. THOR: RAGNAROK - This is the DIE HARD of Marvel movies. Perfect popcorn.
1. BLACK PANTHER - I don't think this is a flawless movie, but I don't think the Marvel franchise is anywhere close to being more than "somewhat thoughtful franchise film-making." Mostly they're some basic bitch shit and pretending otherwise is ridiculous (even if I enjoy them). But this is the one that suggests there is a glass ceiling to the MCU and that eventually it will be broken. Because having its final fight on an underground railroad... It's at once subversive and submersive. I want more Wakanda.
I don't know if I care about Marvel going forward. I don't know if I care about Star Wars going forward. We've hit the breaking point. I don't know if I care about Hollywood moving forward. Because we move every day closer to COUPON: THE MOVIE and I like it when art explores things, and currently we're at a point where art doesn't make people want to question anything. STRAW DOGS is a great movie and I want more cinema like that - purposely transgressive, not "I'm a racist in sheep's clothes" transgressive - but I also get that when you have to deal with so much external chaos it's hard to want to examine yourself/society. And I hope we get to some place that allows that level of discourse to return, but as long as we're having active shooting drills instead of banning guns, that's not going to happen.
0. HULK - This movie is better than any MCU film by substantial margins and if you don't agree you're wrong.
And this is because the Republican party is dying and it knows it and it wants to take everyone down with it. Because Trump is the last electable Republican presidential candidate and they know this. But then also, his election was a fluke and may have been partly caused/helped by Russian interference, but we're not going to look into that.
Here's my pet conspiracy theory: There is a rise of incest porn in pornography. I found this out due to a Mark Ronson podcast about the death of porn star August Ames, which is so weird I wish I knew more about it. Also, I mean, I've been to Pornhub, and it's not exactly subtle how much of it is "hot step-someone f's me." Do we know if this is because of Russian hacking? Do we know why Incest is a super popular porn thing, or maybe it's popular because of bad people trying to make the world worse? Or should we look at how many people have Oedipus complexes? Because we live in a shame-based society, no one is going to talk about this until it's too late. Just in the same way culture is becoming weaponized. Fucking I love RICK AND MORTY and the last thing I want to see is more RICK AND MORTY because of the way culture has turned it into this thing. Similar to DIE HARD. I love that movie, stop the XMAS discussion already, it's "Sylvester Stallone put on 20 pounds to be in COPLAND" level of discourse. But every year, every couple of months it arises again.
23. THOR - This is the film that most shows Marvel's growing pains. They hire Branagh, who's main thing seems to be Dutch Angles, and then split between the immense size of Asgard and the tax rebates of New Mexico. Also, it's a non-origin origin movie. Fuck this.
22. THE INCREDIBLE HULK - Ang Lee's movie is a masterpiece of Freudian discourse. The follow up is like "SMASH." And as such it's perfectly watchable and instantly forgettable.
21. AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON: Joss Whedon is a terrible director. There are good things in this movie, but see the first sentence.
20. AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR: I don't like spending 149 minutes on set ups that aren't paid off.
19. SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME: Jake G is great in this movie, but it - like THOR and IRON MAN 2 - feels like it's too busy servicing things that aren't directly a part of the narrative.
18. IRON MAN 2: For a long time this was the bottom entry, but ENDGAME makes it slightly more interesting. After it Marvel films get pretty watchable. Also, it posits that Bill O'Reilly is a HYDRA agent.
17. DOCTOR STRANGE So much legwork to set up weird shit that eventually becomes normied. Cinematic gentrification.
16. ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: Pleasant room temperature.
15. ANT-MAN: No Comment.
What do we do? Do we revolt? Are we afraid of dying? On some level I am and on another I'm not. Like, what does it mean that I'm willing to suffer and die for something I believe in while still worrying every god damn day about the fucking rent which seems reasonable for where I live, but then I don't know how long I'll get to stay due to the world being what it is right now. For much of my time in LA I had places where the rent was a thousand bucks or under. Partly due to roommates and whatnot. If I move any time in the near future getting a place for under $1500 seems unlikely. And it's not like there's an equal move to pay me more, so how would I have money to pay for what Fox News would call inessentials like, you know, a nice meal out from time to time.
14. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY - Parental issues mixed with the remix factors of this move make me actively not like it while also enjoying the surface pleasures. Like eating McDonald's it is both filling and garbage.
13. SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING - I wish they made a sequel to this movie. Michael Keaton and Donald Glover are the main reasons why this ranks so high, but Marvel's run on Spidey is best in his guest appearances in other movies.
12. CAPTAIN MARVEL - This movie is perfectly fine.
11. THE AVENGERS - This movie shouldn't work and is actively terrible for at least thirty to forty minutes. Whedon can't direct to save his dick and yet... Fuck me when it works it fucking works.
10. IRON MAN - The basic-est bitch of the MCU, this movie succeeds because of casting and tone. As a story it's fine, but Robert Downey Jr. - who will probably spend the rest of his life trying to walk away from the character that cemented his legacy - is perfect, and created the archetype that the franchise needs to move away from.
9. THOR: THE DARK WORLD - Am I ranking this way too high? Probably, but I think if the film had anything more than a television director, it would be (for everyone else that is) a top ten Marvel movie. The third act is stellar and it turned Thor into "God Jack Burton" a film before RAGNAROK did. (this also points out that most Marvel movies are three star efforts - Sorry not sorry)
8. AVENGERS: ENDGAME - This movie is a failure on so many levels, but only because there was way too much it had to accomplish. So it focuses on some things it can get right and forgets the rest. All the talk about time travel and everything that happens because of it is perfect nonsense because the film is about giving you a boner when the CGI dudes beat up the bigger CGI dude. I spent ten years watching these films and I'm happy they've ended some shit even if it felt like contractual obligation deaths.
7. CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER - If this film had a stronger third act, instead of "Shit we need to happen for THE AVENGERS" it would easily be the best Marvel movie.
6. CAPTAIN AMERICAN: CIVIL WAR - I'm sorry, Giant-Man is better than most things.
5. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 - There are few sequels (outside of THOR) that really up their game by diving into what's there. And if the first film was about family this film is about FAMILY and it fucking nails it on a galaxy brain level. There is the family we have and the family we can choose and I prefer it's Freudian noodlings to the first film, perhaps because it's unintentionally a remake of ANG LEE's MOTHERFUCKING HULK.
4. IRON MAN 3: The Third act is CGI explosion meh (ON A FUCKING SHIPYARD which has been a set piece for at least two recent action movies previous on top of LETHAL WEAPON 2), but as a course correction for the franchise and as a stealth sequel to KISS KISS BANG BANG, it's aces.
3. CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER - Hey, did you know, Republicans are Nazis? Seems crazy, right?
2. THOR: RAGNAROK - This is the DIE HARD of Marvel movies. Perfect popcorn.
1. BLACK PANTHER - I don't think this is a flawless movie, but I don't think the Marvel franchise is anywhere close to being more than "somewhat thoughtful franchise film-making." Mostly they're some basic bitch shit and pretending otherwise is ridiculous (even if I enjoy them). But this is the one that suggests there is a glass ceiling to the MCU and that eventually it will be broken. Because having its final fight on an underground railroad... It's at once subversive and submersive. I want more Wakanda.
I don't know if I care about Marvel going forward. I don't know if I care about Star Wars going forward. We've hit the breaking point. I don't know if I care about Hollywood moving forward. Because we move every day closer to COUPON: THE MOVIE and I like it when art explores things, and currently we're at a point where art doesn't make people want to question anything. STRAW DOGS is a great movie and I want more cinema like that - purposely transgressive, not "I'm a racist in sheep's clothes" transgressive - but I also get that when you have to deal with so much external chaos it's hard to want to examine yourself/society. And I hope we get to some place that allows that level of discourse to return, but as long as we're having active shooting drills instead of banning guns, that's not going to happen.
0. HULK - This movie is better than any MCU film by substantial margins and if you don't agree you're wrong.
Sunday, August 04, 2019
A Memory of a Summer Drive
I was a theatre kid. All through middle school and (at least) at the beginning of high school I auditioned for every play, and though some I couldn't appear in because of other activities, I often got cast. I got burnt though. I was doing mostly construction toward the end of my sophomore year but put a lot into the department even when I wasn't acting. During the big end of the year party/speech the drama teacher thanked everyone but me, so I stopped doing it. I was too insulted, and that probably led me to pursue writing more than acting. Also, by Junior year, I was on track to spend two months in Russia in the middle of the year, so I had other things to do, and my love of film was growing to the point that I would rather study Criterion editions (on laserdisc, I'm old) than appear in Auntie Mame (not helping - I couldn't sing). By senior year my best friend had graduated and lived less than five minutes from campus and my schedule was such that I could duck out at lunch. So I was done. Nowadays I would never think to act, though as someone who is a nerd, I have certain improv abilities based around the fact that when bullied the best recourse is often "yes and."
Regardless, when my eighth grade was coming to an end I auditioned for an acting troupe called Teens and Company, because an older student - who was obviously awesome - did the exact same thing, and I too got cast. We would go from school to school doing sketches we wrote ourselves about sex and sexuality. I had a killer audition, I could tell. The problem was everyone else in the troupe was sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen. I was fourteen. I had maybe kissed a girl at summer camp at this point, but... I think I got in because they needed more men (mostly women auditioned) and I was snappy, but also there was a sense of intentional diversity NINETIES STYLE. So we had one gay performer, an African American male and female, a fat girl, an Asian lady, a stoner, a super serious actor, and a class clown. But once we found our positions, I was the kid brother. I was a ham. I was that year's Brooks Whelan.We had a pow wow at the end of the year after we did this thing, and one person kinda apologized that I was butt of a lot of jokes. Looking back, I get that I deserved it, but maybe I never should have been in the troupe to begin with. I had nothing to say about sex, my experiences were non existent.
Many of our shows (to which I would have one, sometimes two bit parts) involved traveling around Oregon. And one time we went to the middle of nowhere so our advisors had to rent a van and drive us to - I believe - Corvallis. Bruce, who as cliche would lead you to believe was in fact the gay one, was our defacto leader, and he had a couple of the girls as his partners in crime (and since we all came from difference schools and groups, three was enough to be the deciding voice in a troupe of ten), as such, much of the music on the trip was Depeche Mode. Violator had just come out, and so I probably heard it eight times on that trip alone. As a fourteen year old boy in 1990, I wouldn't say I was homophobic - I liked Bruce, we were friends - but I wasn't a dancer yet. I was an insecure, sexually inexperienced boy who wasn't comfortable enough in my sexuality (which at that point was just kinda coming into the fore, I had recently figured out how to masturbate) to enjoy it. But because of AIDS, pop culture was knee deep in exploiting gay panic, and I was consuming all of it. It wasn't a fear of the other, it was a fear of self. I wasn't ready to accept Depeche Mode into my heart, because at the time Depeche Mode was known for being a gay band (for more background: https://gawker.com/5951419/the-stigma-of-synth-my-secret-life-with-depeche-mode), and I was a little more Public Enemy. That said, as much as it may have been gay panic, it could have been also that that was all they ever wanted to listen to, and as the younger kid brother, I felt sat on.
The funny thing is, I actually got one of my tapes played at one point I think because they recognized their monopoly. And my choice was a tape that contained the first two albums by The B-52's. They HATED it. Because it wasn't cool. I wasn't cool. But it makes me chuckle to think about. Because the band I loved was probably more gay than the band that every straight white male in 1990 would call gay. The eighties were weird. If you missed it, you missed nothing (except some great art, but that happens in all decades). Still, it was pretty awesome trolling. And The B-52's are the fucking best.
Regardless, when my eighth grade was coming to an end I auditioned for an acting troupe called Teens and Company, because an older student - who was obviously awesome - did the exact same thing, and I too got cast. We would go from school to school doing sketches we wrote ourselves about sex and sexuality. I had a killer audition, I could tell. The problem was everyone else in the troupe was sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen. I was fourteen. I had maybe kissed a girl at summer camp at this point, but... I think I got in because they needed more men (mostly women auditioned) and I was snappy, but also there was a sense of intentional diversity NINETIES STYLE. So we had one gay performer, an African American male and female, a fat girl, an Asian lady, a stoner, a super serious actor, and a class clown. But once we found our positions, I was the kid brother. I was a ham. I was that year's Brooks Whelan.We had a pow wow at the end of the year after we did this thing, and one person kinda apologized that I was butt of a lot of jokes. Looking back, I get that I deserved it, but maybe I never should have been in the troupe to begin with. I had nothing to say about sex, my experiences were non existent.
Many of our shows (to which I would have one, sometimes two bit parts) involved traveling around Oregon. And one time we went to the middle of nowhere so our advisors had to rent a van and drive us to - I believe - Corvallis. Bruce, who as cliche would lead you to believe was in fact the gay one, was our defacto leader, and he had a couple of the girls as his partners in crime (and since we all came from difference schools and groups, three was enough to be the deciding voice in a troupe of ten), as such, much of the music on the trip was Depeche Mode. Violator had just come out, and so I probably heard it eight times on that trip alone. As a fourteen year old boy in 1990, I wouldn't say I was homophobic - I liked Bruce, we were friends - but I wasn't a dancer yet. I was an insecure, sexually inexperienced boy who wasn't comfortable enough in my sexuality (which at that point was just kinda coming into the fore, I had recently figured out how to masturbate) to enjoy it. But because of AIDS, pop culture was knee deep in exploiting gay panic, and I was consuming all of it. It wasn't a fear of the other, it was a fear of self. I wasn't ready to accept Depeche Mode into my heart, because at the time Depeche Mode was known for being a gay band (for more background: https://gawker.com/5951419/the-stigma-of-synth-my-secret-life-with-depeche-mode), and I was a little more Public Enemy. That said, as much as it may have been gay panic, it could have been also that that was all they ever wanted to listen to, and as the younger kid brother, I felt sat on.
The funny thing is, I actually got one of my tapes played at one point I think because they recognized their monopoly. And my choice was a tape that contained the first two albums by The B-52's. They HATED it. Because it wasn't cool. I wasn't cool. But it makes me chuckle to think about. Because the band I loved was probably more gay than the band that every straight white male in 1990 would call gay. The eighties were weird. If you missed it, you missed nothing (except some great art, but that happens in all decades). Still, it was pretty awesome trolling. And The B-52's are the fucking best.
Monday, July 29, 2019
On ONCE UPON A TIME... IN HOLLYWOOD and The One R
Around the time when I was graduating from college my father was having problems finding a job. He had worked for one company most of my life, but when he didn't take a promotion, he was made redundant. The main reason why he didn't take the job was because he/we would have to move to Seattle (as I have been told, much of this is second hand information that I remember from twenty + years ago). As a man who didn't grow up with computers, the world was passing him by. My mom and I noticed that his behavior had gotten a little off, and one night when I think my mom asked him what he wanted to do, his answer was that he wanted to die. Then he had a stroke in front of us. It was, to say the very least, theatrical (like I said, the very least).
My father then spent the next ten years living up to his wish, albeit slowly. He had multiple miniature strokes, which ruined his short term memory, and the longer it went on the "simpler" he got. Sadly, he was in care for years in Portland as my mom could no longer live with him or take of him because there was a persistent and real fear that he might accidentally do something terrible (like leave the gas on) if he was left alone. Eventually he lost the ability to speak, and in one of the last conversations I had with him, he told me that he recently watched THREE FUGITIVES and loved it. I moved to Los Angeles in 2004, he died in 2007. I didn't see him for most of those three years, but by the end he was in a wheelchair, out of Portland in a Veteran's home, unable to speak, and toothless due to a root canal. There are so many layers of horrible to this story. One of the worst is that he sort of wished it on himself.
Before I moved to Los Angeles, I started dating a girl named Sara. We had gone to college together and she worked in the computer center, so I saw her all the time. I was painfully shy then (while also being loud, such is my lot), and we may have flirted a little, but when I ran into her at a Liz Phair concert - around the time I was let go from working as a film buyer for a theater chain - we connected through Friendster and set up a date (which happened after I was let go). Around that time I came to LA to see if I could live there, and as I had a number of good friends already in the city, it seemed like the right thing to do. So, here I was dating Sara and we had an amazing first date. One where you talk all night until you get in the car and then make out for so long (but because it's a first date you don't push it) you go home sore and exhausted. But the longer we dated the more I had to think about my future. LA was calling, but could this woman I went to college with be "the one?" Eventually our clothes came off, but by the time we got around to having sex, I was twisted to the point where I couldn't perform because there was too much pressure, and if we had I might have felt locked in. She dumped me shortly thereafter. I think I'm legally required to tell you that that hasn't happened to me again, but it's one of those things where I know that what was going on in my head made it a non-starter (which is a form of decision-making). I moved. And a couple years later, maybe even a decade or so after, I checked in on her - for whatever reason - on Facebook. As I can best make out from what's available there, she had a brain tumor and died a couple years ago.
I don't talk about this ever (out of respect for her), but I dated a supermodel. She lived in my apartment complex and we ended up hanging out for a week and a half before she moved back to Europe. It was perfect. We went out dancing, we watched the World Cup, we were clicking, I could make her laugh. And after she left I ended up sending her an email a couple weeks later just saying that I missed her. She then said she was going to a party in Somerset, and needed a date. I told her that I didn't think I could afford it, and she said she had frequent flier miles. Two days later I was on a plane bound for England. Oh, also, around this time I was fired from one of my writing gigs, just as another place I was writing for folded. My trip to England to see her (and my brother and his family) was fucking magical. Ask to see the pictures some time.
Two years later she got in touch and we had lunch. It was going okay, no BEFORE SUNSET, and then I joked that if Trump got elected, we should get married, because I wouldn't want to live in America any more. She then said, "but what about kids" and said something along the lines of "would it be real?" And I was like "yeah, I'd love to have kids, I would totally marry you for real" and she said "then why didn't you ask me two years ago?" I just assumed I was good company. That she liked me, but that also I was in her life because she wanted someone. I never thought she wanted me. I went home after she basically said "I don't like you any more" and I put on STOP MAKING SENSE because it was all I could do to stay sane. (she invited me to her birthday party this year, so I think we're good, though that could have been an automatic thing).
Should I have proposed back then, or tried to stay in Europe? I remember that moment (one of our last together) where she was on the fence about going home or coming to meet my brother and maybe staying a while, but as we had just left Somerset after sleeping for maybe four hours in a tent in the middle of a party, I was exhausted and wasn't up for twisting her arm even if she wanted me to do so. But then also, everything to that point had been perfect, and I didn't see a future for us, so why ruin perfect? Maybe I just wasn't looking hard enough. But then also, that would have been insane. Like, what am I going to do in Europe. Also, we never watched a movie together. If I put on something like RIO BRAVO is she going to dig it? I mean, not that it's that important, but still. I've fallen in love with people and moved fast, but I don't know how that with her would have worked. Would I have found a job in Europe, or would we come back to the states, but if the... None of it made sense to me.
I went out drinking with a friend a couple years back, and he was having a rough time because he had just broken up with someone, and asked if I had regrets. I said no. I said something after that like "are there things I regret, yes." and he told me I blew it. When I think about the things where I feel like I failed, where there was a moment to choose path A or path B, I don't always feel good. Well, some of them I feel good because they were awesome. But at the same time, I can't dwell on them. I lost my father before I lost him, and as the situation worsened I was talking to another friend about it, and his father died when he was three. And when I was opining that I wish I got to know my father as a man, he was like "well, you're talking to the wrong person about that, at least you had one." And though I wish I had known my father better, and I wish I didn't remember the sick version of him more than the non-sick version, my father was essentially a good egg, all things, and though I might have some qualms about how he raised me, and questions about who he was, I don't have any control over it. I know my father's life was probably miserable in his final years, but I also know that if I spent more time with him, it would have destroyed most of the best memories (of which there are less than I would like), and would have been at a certain point more for me than him. Did I abandon him? Maybe. What would my life been like if I stayed in Portland and married Sara? Would I have gotten a job at a place like Powells (or more likely retreated back to Movie Madness, even if there would have been zero money in it), would we have been happy, had kids? Would the European have my kids and maybe we get divorced, or we compromise and live in England, where I might have been able to find work and would have been closer to my family? These are all paths that could have been.
I don't know. But I also don't think about these things except when I think about these things, because it's wanking. And I've got nothing against jerking off, but I don't like dwelling on whatever happened that I cannot change because A) that's not how time works and B) I believe I am made of my decisions, good and bad. This is the path that got me to where I am now. And that may not be the best path, but I don't hate my life, or the various and numerous highs and lows that have come from it. Is it possible the best me has an Oscar/mansion/children by now? Of course. I could also be dead. I could also be blind. I could also be in a plane wreck. If you're really going to start rolling some twenty sided dice, go all the way.
The things that I have done that I feel like may have hurt people I don't feel good about, but I think a lot of them - if I were to apologize - might net blank stares. Mostly because I don't know if they always feel the same way I do, just as probably the most embarrassing moments of my life may not be a blip on theirs. Maybe I feel this way because often when people quote me back to me I generally don't remember that bit of cleverness. Things stick to people in different ways. There's very few people I would want to apologies from- but I'm also willing to admit that is partly white privilege talking. I've lived my life trying not to hurt people almost to a fault. I feel like Frankenstein at times while my inner soul is Bill Haverchuck. I'm this super large skinny nerd.
Speaking of. ONCE UPON A TIME... IN HOLLYWOOD, let's dive into spoilers.
SERIOUSLY, SPOILERS
SPOILERS BITCH
SPOIL
SPOIL
At the end of the film, our heroes kill the three people who would have killed Sharon Tate and those who were staying with her at the time. This is something that once the film screened was kind of spoiled immediately because no matter how you dance around the subject, you can't talk about the movie for great lengths without talking about the ending and by talking about Tate, by including Tate, one suspected Quentin Tarantino would pull another INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS situation by reworking what happened. Honestly, I was hoping for something more clever, like that the Manson clan killed Cliff and Rick instead. Not because I hated them, but because their deaths would be a transference like what happens in DEATH PROOF.
Instead, the Manson clan are taken out by a "good guy with a gun" as played by Brad Pitt's wife killer Cliff Booth. And as much as it is satisfying to watch the three die a grizzly death, the violence towards women is more pronounced (perhaps because there are two of them), and over the top. I am not defending the Manson people in any way shape or form, but the images of a woman set on fire, and having their brains beaten out register stronger than what happens to Tex, who gets chomped hard by a pitbull, which - using that kind of dog - seems a conscious choice. And though I felt catharsis in this moment, it's a deeply conservative movie in the sense that it validates the viewpoint that competent but terrible people may be the solution to abjectly terrible people. (As for the narrative beat of Pitt's character being a wife killer, I suspect as much as this is a point Tarantino makes to give him a greater redemption arc, but could also be that Hal Needham told him a story about Robert Vaughn's stunt double that he had to include because it was too out there not to.)
This is a movie about regret. But what regrets? For a movie about 1969, Tarantino removes race, sex, and war mostly out of his equation, relegating all three to a trunk ride. Yes, Sharon and Roman Polanski go to the Playboy Mansion, but it's to dance around clothed people. Bill Cosby isn't there even if he was. Polanski, who - going by what I know of the situation - was an all around shit husband who wanted an open marriage, is not much of a character, nor are many of the Hollywood icons featured in the film (Damian Lewis must have had most of his role cut out, right?) This is about two middle aged white guys who need affirmation and support and redemption. Because they know they need it.
Ever since DEATH PROOF, Tarantino has been making period films. I wouldn't say he's retreating to the past, but he has - at least in 3/4 - been righting historical wrongs. You can get away with that easy in DJANGO because of genre. But the brilliance of BASTERDS - which was apparent from reading the script - was that his changing of history was also about playing against our expectations. "They're going to try and kill Hitler, but they will fail because history." "but what if they did succeed?" That's a great narrative gimmick, but it's also an atomic bomb. Christopher Nolan must have felt the same way with MEMENTO and INCEPTION and DUNKIRK. There are certain narrative devices that can only be used once, or only used once people forget about them. That QT goes to that well again is unfortunate even if he does an incredible job of making his alternate timeline a rock solid case. But once he introduces the alt timeline, the ending is boring. Sure, it's fun, but we know where it's going.
My problem, on a DNA level, is that this isn't useful. It's fun in IB because it's about sticking it to Nazis and giving Hitler the death he deserved, but this is more personal - even if Tarantino elides the underbelly of the real people and the time and place. I love Tarantino, and outside of THE HATEFUL EIGHT (which as politically on point as it is, is self indulgent wankery) I like to love all his movies. But at the end of the day, even though I think the ending is saved by Rick being shy and awed by Jay and Sharon liking his work, Tarantino wants to change the past. I don't.
But also, I get it, I didn't spend twenty years working with and for Harvey Weinstein.
My father then spent the next ten years living up to his wish, albeit slowly. He had multiple miniature strokes, which ruined his short term memory, and the longer it went on the "simpler" he got. Sadly, he was in care for years in Portland as my mom could no longer live with him or take of him because there was a persistent and real fear that he might accidentally do something terrible (like leave the gas on) if he was left alone. Eventually he lost the ability to speak, and in one of the last conversations I had with him, he told me that he recently watched THREE FUGITIVES and loved it. I moved to Los Angeles in 2004, he died in 2007. I didn't see him for most of those three years, but by the end he was in a wheelchair, out of Portland in a Veteran's home, unable to speak, and toothless due to a root canal. There are so many layers of horrible to this story. One of the worst is that he sort of wished it on himself.
Before I moved to Los Angeles, I started dating a girl named Sara. We had gone to college together and she worked in the computer center, so I saw her all the time. I was painfully shy then (while also being loud, such is my lot), and we may have flirted a little, but when I ran into her at a Liz Phair concert - around the time I was let go from working as a film buyer for a theater chain - we connected through Friendster and set up a date (which happened after I was let go). Around that time I came to LA to see if I could live there, and as I had a number of good friends already in the city, it seemed like the right thing to do. So, here I was dating Sara and we had an amazing first date. One where you talk all night until you get in the car and then make out for so long (but because it's a first date you don't push it) you go home sore and exhausted. But the longer we dated the more I had to think about my future. LA was calling, but could this woman I went to college with be "the one?" Eventually our clothes came off, but by the time we got around to having sex, I was twisted to the point where I couldn't perform because there was too much pressure, and if we had I might have felt locked in. She dumped me shortly thereafter. I think I'm legally required to tell you that that hasn't happened to me again, but it's one of those things where I know that what was going on in my head made it a non-starter (which is a form of decision-making). I moved. And a couple years later, maybe even a decade or so after, I checked in on her - for whatever reason - on Facebook. As I can best make out from what's available there, she had a brain tumor and died a couple years ago.
I don't talk about this ever (out of respect for her), but I dated a supermodel. She lived in my apartment complex and we ended up hanging out for a week and a half before she moved back to Europe. It was perfect. We went out dancing, we watched the World Cup, we were clicking, I could make her laugh. And after she left I ended up sending her an email a couple weeks later just saying that I missed her. She then said she was going to a party in Somerset, and needed a date. I told her that I didn't think I could afford it, and she said she had frequent flier miles. Two days later I was on a plane bound for England. Oh, also, around this time I was fired from one of my writing gigs, just as another place I was writing for folded. My trip to England to see her (and my brother and his family) was fucking magical. Ask to see the pictures some time.
Two years later she got in touch and we had lunch. It was going okay, no BEFORE SUNSET, and then I joked that if Trump got elected, we should get married, because I wouldn't want to live in America any more. She then said, "but what about kids" and said something along the lines of "would it be real?" And I was like "yeah, I'd love to have kids, I would totally marry you for real" and she said "then why didn't you ask me two years ago?" I just assumed I was good company. That she liked me, but that also I was in her life because she wanted someone. I never thought she wanted me. I went home after she basically said "I don't like you any more" and I put on STOP MAKING SENSE because it was all I could do to stay sane. (she invited me to her birthday party this year, so I think we're good, though that could have been an automatic thing).
Should I have proposed back then, or tried to stay in Europe? I remember that moment (one of our last together) where she was on the fence about going home or coming to meet my brother and maybe staying a while, but as we had just left Somerset after sleeping for maybe four hours in a tent in the middle of a party, I was exhausted and wasn't up for twisting her arm even if she wanted me to do so. But then also, everything to that point had been perfect, and I didn't see a future for us, so why ruin perfect? Maybe I just wasn't looking hard enough. But then also, that would have been insane. Like, what am I going to do in Europe. Also, we never watched a movie together. If I put on something like RIO BRAVO is she going to dig it? I mean, not that it's that important, but still. I've fallen in love with people and moved fast, but I don't know how that with her would have worked. Would I have found a job in Europe, or would we come back to the states, but if the... None of it made sense to me.
I went out drinking with a friend a couple years back, and he was having a rough time because he had just broken up with someone, and asked if I had regrets. I said no. I said something after that like "are there things I regret, yes." and he told me I blew it. When I think about the things where I feel like I failed, where there was a moment to choose path A or path B, I don't always feel good. Well, some of them I feel good because they were awesome. But at the same time, I can't dwell on them. I lost my father before I lost him, and as the situation worsened I was talking to another friend about it, and his father died when he was three. And when I was opining that I wish I got to know my father as a man, he was like "well, you're talking to the wrong person about that, at least you had one." And though I wish I had known my father better, and I wish I didn't remember the sick version of him more than the non-sick version, my father was essentially a good egg, all things, and though I might have some qualms about how he raised me, and questions about who he was, I don't have any control over it. I know my father's life was probably miserable in his final years, but I also know that if I spent more time with him, it would have destroyed most of the best memories (of which there are less than I would like), and would have been at a certain point more for me than him. Did I abandon him? Maybe. What would my life been like if I stayed in Portland and married Sara? Would I have gotten a job at a place like Powells (or more likely retreated back to Movie Madness, even if there would have been zero money in it), would we have been happy, had kids? Would the European have my kids and maybe we get divorced, or we compromise and live in England, where I might have been able to find work and would have been closer to my family? These are all paths that could have been.
I don't know. But I also don't think about these things except when I think about these things, because it's wanking. And I've got nothing against jerking off, but I don't like dwelling on whatever happened that I cannot change because A) that's not how time works and B) I believe I am made of my decisions, good and bad. This is the path that got me to where I am now. And that may not be the best path, but I don't hate my life, or the various and numerous highs and lows that have come from it. Is it possible the best me has an Oscar/mansion/children by now? Of course. I could also be dead. I could also be blind. I could also be in a plane wreck. If you're really going to start rolling some twenty sided dice, go all the way.
The things that I have done that I feel like may have hurt people I don't feel good about, but I think a lot of them - if I were to apologize - might net blank stares. Mostly because I don't know if they always feel the same way I do, just as probably the most embarrassing moments of my life may not be a blip on theirs. Maybe I feel this way because often when people quote me back to me I generally don't remember that bit of cleverness. Things stick to people in different ways. There's very few people I would want to apologies from- but I'm also willing to admit that is partly white privilege talking. I've lived my life trying not to hurt people almost to a fault. I feel like Frankenstein at times while my inner soul is Bill Haverchuck. I'm this super large skinny nerd.
Speaking of. ONCE UPON A TIME... IN HOLLYWOOD, let's dive into spoilers.
SERIOUSLY, SPOILERS
SPOILERS BITCH
SPOIL
SPOIL
At the end of the film, our heroes kill the three people who would have killed Sharon Tate and those who were staying with her at the time. This is something that once the film screened was kind of spoiled immediately because no matter how you dance around the subject, you can't talk about the movie for great lengths without talking about the ending and by talking about Tate, by including Tate, one suspected Quentin Tarantino would pull another INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS situation by reworking what happened. Honestly, I was hoping for something more clever, like that the Manson clan killed Cliff and Rick instead. Not because I hated them, but because their deaths would be a transference like what happens in DEATH PROOF.
Instead, the Manson clan are taken out by a "good guy with a gun" as played by Brad Pitt's wife killer Cliff Booth. And as much as it is satisfying to watch the three die a grizzly death, the violence towards women is more pronounced (perhaps because there are two of them), and over the top. I am not defending the Manson people in any way shape or form, but the images of a woman set on fire, and having their brains beaten out register stronger than what happens to Tex, who gets chomped hard by a pitbull, which - using that kind of dog - seems a conscious choice. And though I felt catharsis in this moment, it's a deeply conservative movie in the sense that it validates the viewpoint that competent but terrible people may be the solution to abjectly terrible people. (As for the narrative beat of Pitt's character being a wife killer, I suspect as much as this is a point Tarantino makes to give him a greater redemption arc, but could also be that Hal Needham told him a story about Robert Vaughn's stunt double that he had to include because it was too out there not to.)
This is a movie about regret. But what regrets? For a movie about 1969, Tarantino removes race, sex, and war mostly out of his equation, relegating all three to a trunk ride. Yes, Sharon and Roman Polanski go to the Playboy Mansion, but it's to dance around clothed people. Bill Cosby isn't there even if he was. Polanski, who - going by what I know of the situation - was an all around shit husband who wanted an open marriage, is not much of a character, nor are many of the Hollywood icons featured in the film (Damian Lewis must have had most of his role cut out, right?) This is about two middle aged white guys who need affirmation and support and redemption. Because they know they need it.
Ever since DEATH PROOF, Tarantino has been making period films. I wouldn't say he's retreating to the past, but he has - at least in 3/4 - been righting historical wrongs. You can get away with that easy in DJANGO because of genre. But the brilliance of BASTERDS - which was apparent from reading the script - was that his changing of history was also about playing against our expectations. "They're going to try and kill Hitler, but they will fail because history." "but what if they did succeed?" That's a great narrative gimmick, but it's also an atomic bomb. Christopher Nolan must have felt the same way with MEMENTO and INCEPTION and DUNKIRK. There are certain narrative devices that can only be used once, or only used once people forget about them. That QT goes to that well again is unfortunate even if he does an incredible job of making his alternate timeline a rock solid case. But once he introduces the alt timeline, the ending is boring. Sure, it's fun, but we know where it's going.
My problem, on a DNA level, is that this isn't useful. It's fun in IB because it's about sticking it to Nazis and giving Hitler the death he deserved, but this is more personal - even if Tarantino elides the underbelly of the real people and the time and place. I love Tarantino, and outside of THE HATEFUL EIGHT (which as politically on point as it is, is self indulgent wankery) I like to love all his movies. But at the end of the day, even though I think the ending is saved by Rick being shy and awed by Jay and Sharon liking his work, Tarantino wants to change the past. I don't.
But also, I get it, I didn't spend twenty years working with and for Harvey Weinstein.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
