Post-college doldrums

Anybody remember that game "The Sims"?

I actually hated the game, because all it really did was simulate life. And frankly, real life is boring. A few hours of "Oh boy, time to take a crap! Uh-oh. I'm hungry! Oh gee...time to sleep!" and I was over it all pretty quickly. The only fun part of the game was cheating to get a lot of money, thus designing your dream house and rigging things so you could sleep with a lot of girls. And that got old quickly too (after all, there's no challenge in God Mode is there?).

I bring the game up only because on occasion I did try to play the game as was intended, working to progress my Sims to a point of happiness and success. Often these challenges were offered through "scenarios" of different types of Sims, each with their own starting salary and income. Without a doubt, the hardest scenario to conquer was the "single just-out-of-college male trying to live in a bachelor pad." Every time I tried this scenario my Sim became lonely, overworked, and depressed, and I would usually quit the game.

Unfortunately, I now find myself confronting the same scenario, and this time it isn't possible to quit the game. I am living on my own now, virtually self-sufficient, working a job at a movie trailer company.

And it's all just OK. I'm still creatively starving, wanting to do something on my own, and yet not having the time or funds to do so. I don't see friends like I used to anymore. I can barely afford the place I'm living in, and I'm not wild about my two slovenly and slothful housemates. If I wanted to just do nothing but ENJOY life right now, I'd move back in with Mom and Dad in Santa Barbara, and get a part-time job. I hate Los Angeles, but I am willing to admit that I'm going to have to stay out here for a while until I am successful.

But that's the tricky part...when I'm SUCCESSFUL. How the hell does one become successful in this business? My movie trailer job will lead to some cool opportunities, and things that will make me a lot of money, but it doesn't exactly lead to an obvious pathway for my ultimate life goals.

I'm positive that my obsessive never-say-die attitude will ultimately get me there. I will find a way to do my own projects. It's just incredibly discouraging at this stage to be doing things well under one's skill level. I don't really have money to afford any sort of equipment, let alone a crew. I'm a filmmaker without money to afford a camera. It's like being castrated.

On the other hand, a lot of film-school people who are just as smart and qualified as me aren't doing ANYTHING film-related these days. And in this economy, I should be thankful I have ANY sort of job, right? For now I just stay patient, keep striving to do my best, and try to continue kindling my creativity in whatever way possible. It may be several years before I finally pop out with something truly displaying my passion and love for what I consider to be the ultimate art form, but I do believe it is going to happen.

Also, a shout-out to all the people who helped me out during this troubling "get-a-job and find-a-place-to-live time." Jon, Brian, Sean, Eli, Alexis, and Dustin, thank you.

While at Sean and Eli's, I did get a chance to see a few good movies. Eli works at the Arclight (unless he's quit by now), so by association I get to see some movies for free. At the Arclight I saw...

1) "Ghost Town": Aside from a terrible title, this was a terrific romantic comedy. Ricky Gervais and Tea Leoni give stellar performances, and the idea about why ghosts exist is charming (they stick around not because they have unfinished business, but because those who love them have yet to let THEM go in their hearts). All in all there isn't really anything too new or interesting being offered. But in an age when so many romantic comedies are just pieces of schlock that put two good-looking Hollywood celebrities and smash them together, hoping they'll have some sort of chemistry, it's refreshing to see a movie where I really did believe somebody could fall in love with Gervais. It's also a lot of fun to see Alan Ruck (Cameron) from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" as one of the ghosts. I only wish I had actually seen this movie with a GIRL instead of three dudes, but c'est la vie.

2) "Appaloosa" This was a so-so, very by-the-books western. The main problem, as much as I hate to say it, is the directing style. Ed Harris is a fine actor, and as an actor, he also knows a lot about performance. Indeed, the performances are the reason to see "Appaloosa" if for no other reason (plus a small part by Lance Henrikson...awesome!). Viggo Mortensen again proves that I don't have to love the movie he's in to be more and more convinced that he is one of the best "he-man" actors out there today (when are he and Christian Bale going to face off?).
Unfortunately, though Harris may know how to get great performances out of people, he isn't a very FILMIC director. For a western to really explode and engage us, you need to know how to have a bit a flash and pizazz. There were moments in "Appaloosa" where I was expecting some cool dynamic camerawork or clever editing, but instead the scene just played out in master shots and close-ups. It's a WESTERN! If any genre existed that was made to showcase filmmaking choices, this is the one (OK...and maybe real good horror movies). Last year's "3:10 to Yuma" may have had a few story issues if you thought too hard about things, but it was a dynamic, exciting, edge-of-your seat movie that ALSO had some great acting from Crowe and Bale. "Appaloosa" has standard shot selection, standard editing choices, standard lighting design. It even has a standard plot. A standard plot in a western is fine, but only if you're then able to do something new with the other elements at work. Here, Ed Harris dropped the ball. I'm not saying you're a BAD director, Ed. You're great with actors. You just need to study up on the other techniques that make me want to see a movie instead of a play.
Jeremy Irons is also generally underused, and Rene Zellweger is flat-out awful.

While at Sean and Eli's, I also raided the DVD collection and saw a few good films. Aside from a whole mess of classic Charlie Chaplin films, I saw a few others too...

1) "A Shot in the Dark" I had never seen a Pink Panther film until now. I got to say, I found this one pretty enjoyable, and I'd like to see more of these movies. I was worried the humor would be juvenile and stupid, and it is, but it's also got many very clever scenes. The best sequence is the final scene when the "murderer" is revealed, but I would be giving everything away if I said what happens. So I'm just going to instead tell you to check this movie out if you never did when you were younger.

2) "Freaks" In the spirit of Halloween I made an effort to watch a number of horror movies. I finally got around to seeing this "classic," and I think it deserves the term. Even though I already knew the story, it's quite an effective little movie, and the first reveal of the freaks is still pretty shocking.

2) "I Walked With a Zombie" It's fascinating how old black-and-white movies can sometimes deliver chills better than all of today's new-fangled special-effects wizardry can. This was a simple movie about a nurse who travels to Africa to cure someone's wife, only to discover that the wife is in fact a zombie. And I mean "zombie" in the old-school re-animation way, not the flesh-eating way. Even so, there are several very eerie moments in this film.

3) "The Body Snatcher" This was an EXCELLENT movie based on an old Robert Louis Stevenson story. It's a movie based more on psychological horror than ghosts, monsters, or zombies, but it is incredibly effective. Boris Karloff delivers a fantastically spooky performance, and it's especially cool to see him and Bela Lugosi face off and confront each other in one chilling scene. Again, I'm not going to spoil the ending, but of all the movies written about in this post, this is the one that has stuck with me the most; this is excellent storytelling.

4) "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" I was intrigued by this movie, since the concept was one that I've wanted to write a screenplay about for a while now. What would happen if a ghost and a human found out they were perfect for each other? It brings a whole new meaning to the term soul mates (ha!). The movie starts out interestingly enough, but it gets more and more boring as it wears on. Instead of dealing with such an interesting core premise, it generally dodges the issue. The girl and ghost develop a bond. Then the girl gets in a relationship with George Sanders, making the ghost jealous. But...surprise! George Sanders was cheating on her. So problem solved. Ho-hum.
At the end, the woman just gets old and dies, allowing her to be with the ghost. Again, not very interesting. A cool, potentially complex idea ruined by stupid predictable plotting. I'm surprised this movie is held in such high regard among film scholars (from what I can tell, anyway).

Also, at home with Mom and Dad, I caught...

5) "The Visitor" Richard Jenkins, one of my favorite character actors (he was also stellar in "Burn After Reading"), gives the performance of his life as the lead character here. I would LOVE to see Jenkins get an Oscar nomination for this film, but it's a long shot. For one thing, the movie came out at the beginning of the year, meaning many people will have forgotten it by now. Additionally, the performance is not very flashy or showy. It's just that I've rarely seen anyone inhabit a character so perfectly as Richard Jenkins does here. His performance exudes such a sense of reality that I never once questioned for a moment that anyone in this movie was "acting."
And as a movie, it's pretty good too. Great performances all across the board. By humanizing and getting-to-know the illegal immigrants, we really feel for their plight when they are carted away for no apparent reason. The movie manages to make a very strong political point without ever really feeling too political or preachy.
Please, PLEASE, at Oscar season...give Ledger a best supporting actor nom, and give a best lead actor nom to Richard Jenkins for this movie. He deserves it.

OK, that's enough for now.