Your Sister’s Sister (2012)

Posted on by
Reply

I have not been writing as often lately due to a new job. A new job that got me a pass to the opening night of SIFF (the LARGEST Film Festival in the World?). Anyhoo… Seattle hosts. This year there are over 400 movies. The opening night film was a tribute to local and “independent” film Lynn Shelton’s Your Sister’s Sister.

I was excited. Lynn is a local hero. A somewhat successful (if you can even call it that) filmmaker that has at least from the little I know forged her way ahead the long way, as dreams are made… one challenge at a time. I know her from her last film Humpday (2009) in which two straight dudes agree to bone backwards style in order to prove they’re cool with the whole gay thing. It’s awkward. And I loved it.

So what the hell will the follow up be like? Your Sister’s Sister?? What the hell does that even mean? So, I didn’t know. I arrived at the Gala, and everybody was dressed fancy and being very smiley because everyone was dressed really fancy. We got seats in the back row of a 3 story balcony agaisnt the wall. And I ate my vegetable pie during the pre-movie speeches. (Next time SIFF… I tell you what. Go rent Humpday, it’s absolutely worth watching if you make it through it or not. And if you want more of Lynn, I highly recommend Your Sister’s Sister. I can’t tell you much about it because it would ruin it, and that’s not a cop out, so your welcome. This movie is funnnny! It had people laughing aloud. Great acting. And it showed off Seattle well, in a very candid way. No kissing on rainy street corners, just still shots of the islands at dusk. Keep going Lynn.

and if you’re in Seattle, go support SIFF!

http://www.siff.net/

Event Horizons

Posted on by
Reply

Here’s what they are… this is as real as you are.  Doesn’t sound like we quite understand it yet but here’s our best guess.

The event horizon is the spherical surface that marks the boundary of a black hole.  THis is the region where the gravitational force overcomes the speed of light.  Its size is the radius to which a given spherical mass must be compressed in order to transform it into a black hole — the radius at which time and space switch functionally.  whaaaaa?

Once inside the event horizon, it is impossible to escape (disagree).  Nothing can prevent an object from hitting the singularity, or center, of a black hole, once that object has entered the horizon.  The event horizon is a “point of no return”.

Smoking

Posted on by
Reply

Smoking. What are those tiny particles? Gas. ? Smoke. If we weren’t supposed to smoke would the body be so adaptable to it? Maybe. The body is the toughest most delicate thing right? Tough enough to survive 20 years of heroin (in some cases), and soft enough to be punctured. Some live beings aren’t really like that. But they gave human’s the benefit of the doubt physically. Made them able to smoke.

So what are we smokin? Weed? Tobakee? Crack. Meth. Can you smoke anything that’s not a drug? Just think about it for a second that’s all i’m asking. You put fire to this solid substance, intake, it’s swirls inside you… the little pieces escape their buddies and intermix with the interstates of your body. They ride the best waterslide ever up to your brain. You take another drag.

 

Barton Fink (1991)

Posted on by
Reply

Barton Fink. Barton… Fink.? Barton. Fink. Kind of a Finkle and Einhorn thing going on there. Barton Finkle and Einhorn. John Goodman. Turturro. Good man John Turturro. John Goodman.

It’s funny that I was this close to moving to LA just a few months ago to work in the film industry and find a wife. Pay attention watching Barton Fink and you won’t ever make that decision. From the looks of it, there are a lot of morons in charge down there. You gotta feed Jabba his spaghetti and meatballs in order to make your art.

The opening shot is cool. Thought! Thought went into that. The opening dialogue is even cooler. It ain’t what you think it is.  Don’t go get the pop corn.  Get the pop corn before the movie starts.  Produced by Ethan Coen.  Directed by Joel Coen.  Written by Ethan and Joel Coen. And that’s always the way it is.  What is reeeeallly going on there?

Watch Barton Fink and you’ll see the Coen’s are not afraid to shove Hollywood’s heavy load of filth right back in it’s own pie hole.   Eww.  They have managed to become millionaires making art that critiques the very investors giving them millions of dollars.  ha Ha!   Right?        Well, they’re also making those bastards more millions.   Who cares!

I want to talk about John Turturro’s acting skills. How he should’ve won the two academy awards for his performance in this movie. Seriously.  He’s amazing.  Acting is hard!  He nails it in every scene.  He is Barton Fink.  Why isn’t he in more movies? More recognized?

John Goodman also. UNDERATED. I know, he’s John Goodman. He’s fat.  Jesus Christ watch this movie. The man is dedicated and mostly just a big overflowing mug of talent.  Hat’s off to you sir and thank you.

It’s Coen brothers… so aside from the well thought out camera movement, and the art direction… you get dialogue that is delivered with straight faces and cracks you in half with laughter.  At least it does me.  “Sex?  He was a man!  We wrestled!”   That’s brilliant.  Also, a Coen trait that I’ve always appreciated whether it be Bunny in the Big Lebowski or the dentist in True Grit… no screen time character is ever wasted.  in a Coen brothers movie, if you’ve got dialogue… you are a character.  You are not a “normal” person in the wallflower sense. You are not trying to “act natural”.  You are acting.  You’re hamming it up.  Judy Davis as Audrey Taylor is a Southern Belle.  What’s she doing in Hollywood??  Being a character in a Coen brothers movie that’s what.  They never explain it.  And life doesn’t either.  Lerner as Lipnick.  Turturro as Fink.  He just wants to help people.

Writing can do that. For those of us who sit in our basement, talking to you, we just want people to relate.  Me to you.  You to you.  Some folks kill themselves, boredom in an office… boredom at home.  Old decisions still lingering.  Artists try and kill themselves everyday, so that close to death they can find some eye opening gold nugget.  And then they can share it.  That’s what Barton Fink and I are trying to do.  ANd he shouldn’t have gone to Hollywood to do it.