Finding Neverland

Several people have told me that I should see this one and since I recently spent some time in Hyde Park, I figured I’d give it a go. Turns out, it’s a super movie and I really enjoyed it. It’s easily one of the best films written about writing. It really seems to capture the writing process and, of course, it’s interesting to see how Peter Pan may have come to be.

Jazz in the Park

Last night, some friends and I went to see a jazz concert in Addison. It was pretty cool and I was glad to get out. I haven’t listened to much jazz and I was reminded that I should definitely go out and get some. It’s great music and it’s refreshing to hear something so different from most of the music I typically listen to. I also think listening to some jazz would give me a little more to work with when I’m trying to write.

Reading, but nothing exciting

I’ve been reading through some poker books lately, but that’s about all. I need to get ahold of some good fiction, but I just haven’t gotten around to it. I started reading One Hundred Years of Solitude on my way to Europe, but I just couldn’t get into it. That’s probably because I’m very shallow and not very cultured.

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Spanglish

What a super movie. I really enjoyed it and my appreciation for Adam Sandler grew quite a bit as the movie went on. I already liked his work, but I think this may be his best all-around performance yet. Though this isn’t exactly the kind of thing I’d like to write, it’s pretty close. I mean, I wouldn’t be at all disappointed if I was capable of writing this screenplay. Unfortunately, I’m not even really capable of writing about writing this screenplay, so I’ll stop now.

Mignon

So, a friend and I went to a fancy restaurant tonight and it was good eatin’. A little on the pricey side, but nothing outrageous. The steak was so good, I was savoring every bite. It was really nice to get out and enjoy myself for a change since I usually spend Friday night on the couch, watching TV and playing poker. If I’m feeling really frisky, I’ll sometimes go to Starbucks and read.

Basketball on the rebound (yes, I’m very clever)

Today, I ran full-court (well, short-court and four-on-four) for the first time in several months. Overall, I played pretty well, but the competition wasn’t all that great. It’s not that I was super good, just that most of the guys I ran with didn’t really know how to play too well. Simple concepts like switching on a screen and boxing out weren’t being used at all. I made some good shots, passed the ball well, got up and down the floor better than I thought I would and got away with only a few minor injuries (a sore elbow and a sprained wrist). By the time the league starts up in June, I’ll be ready to go.

I’m looking forward to the weekend.

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Million Dollar Baby

Heartbreaking.

I don’t throw sappy words like that around lightly. The thing that struck me most was how quietly everyone left the theatre. The theatre wasn’t packed, but it only takes one person to make a sound and no one did. We were all thinking Would I have done that? I don’t think so. But I might have. I don’t know.

I really don’t even know what to say. I’m almost afraid anything I’d write would just be superficial and hokey. I’ll say this: Movies like this are the reason I first considered acting and screenwriting. Movies like these are the ones that count, they’re the ones that affect people. What I just saw wasn’t entertainment, it was something else. Something more.

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Back from L.A.

I’ve been back for a few days, but I’ve been too lazy to post. Go figure.

Anyway, my time in L.A. was great. I went to the Santa Monica Pier, hung out with a good friend, met a VP at Sony Pictures and got a free lunch, got a free tour of Sony Picture Studios, got hooked up with a free copy of Angels & Demons (I hear it’s good), got my headshots done, and saw Garden State.

Now, let’s get right to Garden State, shall we? I remember a teaser a long time ago where the announcer guy said, “Rolling Stone calls it the seminal movie of this generation” Obviously, I was interested because I wouldn’t want to miss something so important to my generation. I knew Zach Braff (”Scrubs guy”) was in it and I heard Natalie Portman co-starred, but that’s about all I knew. Turns out it’s a fantastic movie. I’ve been seeing a lot of those lately, but this one took the cake.

The plot is solid and poignant, the soundtrack is awesome, the acting is perfect and the movie comes together nicely to tell a great story that I can largely sympathize with (I chose “with” as the preposition to end that sentence with). I don’t want to spoil anything, but the movie just hits so many things right on the head; relationships first among those things. The movie explores many different types of relationships and seems to understand each type completely.

I need to stop rambling because I’m not even beginning to do this film justice. I’ll be buying it when it comes out on DVD in December.

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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Wow.

Yeah, that gets its own sentence, its own paragraph. What a fantastic film. Charlie Kaufman simply has a knack for writing unusual but wonderful screenplays and in Eternal Sunshine, just as in Adaptation, his writing is complimented with fantastic acting.

This film defies those who would insist on pigeon-holing it into either a plot-driven or a character-driven piece. It’s both and it’s neither; it’s really about something that is written so well between the lines that it is the lines. I sound like I’m trying to be profound, but I’m not. It is profound and I’m simply having trouble processing everything.

Kaufman floats the idea of a true love, but he contradicts that idea with a persistent lust of a kind that manifests itself almost identically. Even as I’m writing, other contrasts and comparisons are coming to mind. The entire movie is about points of view, perspectives and human nature.

Gaudry does a fantastic job of capturing things so etherreal as the mind and memory, and does an even better job of showing us what it might look like to have one’s memories erased. I was also impressed with the overlapping sets that are frequently utilized and the use of light as a sort of character in itself.

I expect Oscar nods for Kaufman, Carey, Winslet and possibly Michel Gondry and I look forward to Kaufman’s next screenplay.

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Perfectly good 3-day weekend totally wasted

That about sums up my weekend, but I’ll go ahead and hit the highlights: Friday, I did nothing but watch a couple movies. Saturday, I went to Outback Steakhouse for the first time in over six months and then watched Dodge Ball: A True Underdog story. Sunday, more sitting around and watching movies. Today, more of the same along with some grocery shopping and a good workout. Also, I’m pretty close to finishing Mario Kart: Double Dash as I’ve only got Star and Special Cups left for Gold at the 150cc level.

I need to start scrounging around eBay and lookin’ for a life.

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Rough week, great weekend

This was a tough week, mostly because I seemed to be constantly doing something. The worst day was Thursday, when I had my acting lesson. It was a great lesson and I learned a lot, but I was totally exhausted and the lesson lasted about two hours. Also, the scene we were working on was about 7 minutes of intense emotion–specifically, my character was angry and distraught–and that’s just a lot of work.

The good news is I’ve had a great weekend so far. I’m playing in a basketball league that begins next week and we had our first team practice today. There are seven guys on our team and I’d only played with two of them before, so I didn’t really know what to expect. Turns out we have a well-rounded, solid team and I expect we’ll be very competitive in our league. This evening, a buddy and I grilled some burgers and watched Master and Commander at my place. It was relaxing and we had a good time just chillin’ and chattin’.

Tomorrow evening, some people are comin’ down to my place so we can all cheer for Detroit in the NBA Finals together. This is a “must win” for both teams, but L.A. seems to have a lot more on the line right now. Of course, based on my previous comments, if Detroit loses either of the next two games, I think they’re going to lose the championship, so maybe this game is just as big for them. Regardless, I hope they stomp the Lakers again… The Lakers are good at winning, but horrible at losing and I take great pleasure in watching them tank a game.

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Need to rest up

As usual, I played basketball on Saturday morning. I played pretty well–I had several good plays on offense, some good passes, nice shots, some good defensive plays and such–but I also played “flat”. It’s hard to describe, but I basically just felt like I never really got out of second gear. I could do everything I wanted and everything I did do felt slow and forced. As I thought about it, I realized I may be pushing my body too hard with conditioning, weight lifting and playing basketball. I think I just haven’t given my body enough time to recover lately. So, this week, I’m going to seriously limit how hard I work out. Mostly, I’ll cut the shootarounds from my pre-workout routine and I won’t do any specific cardio. I’ll just go in, warm up on the bike for ten minutes or so and then hit the weights. It’s not exactly taking a week off, but it’s definitely toning things down a bit. I’ll try that and see how I feel next Saturday. I’m guessing I’ll feel looser and more energetic.

Watched 4 movies this week

I only saw one in the theatre and the other three were on DVD:

Troy

I had been careful not to get my hopes up because I’m not a big fan of epic war films and I’d also heard some mediocre reviews. Turns out the reviews were a reflection of the movie itself and I was better off not having gotten my hopes up. It was a good movie, but that’s about it. I certainly didn’t feel that the producers were justified in spending hundreds of millions on dollars producing it. Mostly, I just felt it was pretty lackluster in most aspects. Two scenes that stood out were Achilles’ fight with Hector and the Trojan king’s conversation with Achilles in his tent. These scenes were well written, shot and directed, but the rest of the movie felt pretty ho hum.

Chasing Liberty

Yeah, got this one by accident. Apparently, Netflix mistook Lawrence of Arabia for a 2003 chick flick. I figured I had it, so why not give it a shot. I got about half through and just couldn’t take it any more. I thought the acting was fine–a little over the top, but I got the sense that the actors were directed that way–but the writing just wasn’t holding my attention. Suspension of disbelief is one thing, but this movie was asking way too much of me in that department.

Seven Samurai

This here was quite an experience. An old Japanese film, black and white, subtitles and three and a half hours of character development with the occasional battle scene to change things up a bit. Yes, it was a good movie. Yes, there were some great ideas and pieces of philosophy. Yes, I thought it was well written, directed, shot and acted. No, my American attention span would not ever allow me to try and watch it again. As it was, I had to watch it in four separate sittings, each one spent mostly watching the timer on my DVD player count closer to “03:28:00″, when I knew it would end. This was a good movie and I could see why it’s critically acclaimed, but it just ain’t for the regular person wanting to see a good movie. It should definitely be watched more as an intellectual pursuit than as entertainment.

Stuck on You

Another one I just couldn’t quite finish. I thought the premise was kind of funny, but it just didn’t play out very well on screen. I could see this story being written well by somebody like John Irving who has a knack for writing strange characters in strange situations, but this movie just didn’t get my attention. I tried and tried to finish watching it, but I didn’t even make it an hour into the movie before I had to call it quits. The jokes got old after the fifth telling and the gags were worn out just a few minutes into the movie. Thumbs down.

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Coming right along…

The song/progression I mentioned in my last post is coming along nicely. I’ve finished writing it, but I’m having trouble physically playing it because there are a lot of strange chord formations and transitions. Basically, I’m just having to get used to it and use repetition to burn it into my brain and hands. It’s probably the most intense chord progression I’ve used because it involves more than ten chords and moves over seven or eight frets. Many of those chords are changed in transition as well (one note will drop a step or something), so there’s a lot of movement throughout the individual chords.

Anyway, it’s fun to play and my hands are slowly working up the calluses they need to get through it. I played some Taylors at Guitar Center today and they made me think of hanging up the Takamine and dropping some change on a Taylor, but I thought better of it. Eventually that’ll happen, just not yet.

Short day tomorrow

I only have to work about five hours tomorrow, so I’ll be splitting around 1 o’clock. Hopefully, I’ll use my afternoon wisely, but I have a hunch I’ll end up sitting on the couch, watching movies. Netflix made its first goof and sent me Chasing Liberty instead of Lawrence of Arabia. How that happened, I have no idea, but I figure I’ll give Mandy Moore a chance and see if it’s not a decent movie. I will also hopefully finish Seven Samurai this weekend… I’ve been working on it for about six weeks now. It’s a decent film, just old and it has subtitles. It would never make it in American cinema today because the plot is developed far too slowly. I think it could seriously be condensed down from just about three and a half hours to two hours without much trouble. But then, the art and philosophy would be lost. Of course, it’s probably lost on me anyway.

I’m out.

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Crazy week in Texas

Monday was my last night house-/dog-sitting for a friend. Although I didn’t mind helping him out while he was vacationing, it was really nice to get home where I could sleep in my own bed. I didn’t realize how much I like my apartment until I was displaced from it for a week. I really have made a home here and I’m very comfortable in the environment that I’ve created. It’s cozy and it’s home.

My first movie premier

Tuesday evening, I attended the premier for a local indie film. I have to say it was pretty bad and I was really surprised at the attention that such a low-budget, low-quality film received. I think a lot of it was pure hype by promoters and moneymakers, but in the end, it just wasn’t a good movie. I would give details but it’d be easier to say this: the only redeeming part of the film was the lead actress, but even her performance wasn’t enough to save this movie. It was so bad that, at the end, they were giving away prizes–copies of the DVD, T-shirts, movie posters–but when they called the winning ticket numbers, no one claimed the prizes. There were three or four unclaimed prizes before an older woman and a child claimed some stuff. It was sad and funny at the same time.

Another great session for the acting

Tonight, I was given a cold-read–it was a scene from a local Dallas indie–and I had a reading partner. It was a great experience because I was able to learn a lot about myself, my natural ability, the ability that I’ve gained through my work so far and my ability to interact–listen and react–with another actor. All in all, I was very pleased with my work tonight, but I definitely see much room for improvement. While I’m learning more and more about breaking down a scene and making it into a workable, believable piece, I’m still having some trouble digging into the scene to find the proper motivations for myself and my character. This will come with time, I know, but at least I’m aware of my shortcomings and that’ll give me something to work on.

I just e-mailed my instructor a copy of (what I guess one would call) a treatment that I wrote back in the Summer of ‘02. He’s going to look over it and we’ll decide whether there’s anything worth turning into a short film. If there is, we’ll probably start working on it and eventually lay it down on tape. I’m half expecting him to hate it and pan it, but I’m half expecting he’ll find something worth working with. I’ll just have to wait and see.

Busy tomorrow, too

Tomorrow night, I’m going to a friend’s belated birthday party (he and his wife are actually sharing a party and it’s closer to her birthday than his), so I’ll probably be good and exhausted by tomorrow night. I’m not really sure who’s going to be there, but at least I’ll know the happy birthday couple and maybe a few other kids. It should be fun.

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