What Would Jesus Buy Review

Mirror, mirror on the wall, what’s the zaniest, most unhinged anti-consumerism documentary of them all? Without a doubt a subject as contemporary and á la mode as this has been tackled by all manner of avante garde subverters; yet the award should go to What Would Jesus Buy: a hilarious and hallucinatory film that follows the shenanigans of Reverend Billy and his all-singing all-dancing “The Church of Life After Shopping” in the last days before Christmas. They travel across the US trying to interfere with the Americans’ frankly compulsive shopping habits, which reach their nadir round Christmas time. What is here at stake is no less than a messianic crusade against the false idols of Christmas, which they carry out through some kick-ass dance and song routines.

http://player.anyclip.com/PlayerEm.swf?v=634134865894887620&mode=prod&sermon from What Would Jesus Buy?

The singularity of this documentary lies in that it’s not a slick piece of cultural criticism courtesy of a hipster with a degree in film and sociology; it is a showcase of a man who harbors a passionate commitment to American values. Equal parts James Brown, Michael Moore and a really funny televangelist (with more than a hint of Elvis thrown in for good measure), Reverend Billy is as American as apple mac and obesity. What Would Jesus Buy doesn’t quote the Frankfurt School theorists on why capitalism is bad; instead it brings to the fore the astronomic numbers of common people led astray by the buy-now-pay-later culture of credit cards, which causes them to be in constant debt.

It’s not an easy pill to swallow, and it takes a while before you realize what the hell is going on – given his gestures, his songs, the adopted Southern accent etc you can be forgiven for taking him for yet another evangelical Southern Baptist preacher douchebag; but once you listen to what he says you realize it’s a wholly different kettle of fish. Rather than pretending to know the answers, he tries to pose the questions about the effect of compulsive shopping on society. Much as one is tempted to call him a spoof preacher, this would be unfairly reductive of the man. The playful visual language of the film contributes to the tension between Billy’s uncontrollable theatricality, and the honesty of his message: yet his passionate earnestness is never in doubt.

http://player.anyclip.com/PlayerEm.swf?v=634134996785642570&mode=prod&confess your shopping sins! from What Would Jesus Buy?

While it is priceless to see common folk flabbergasted by Billy and co’s extravaganza, the point that the American celebration of Christmas has long shed its religious significance and turned into another huge shopfest is hardly new. Their credo is deeper than that –  what The Church of Life After Shopping aim for is transforming the way we think and feel, rather than telling us that Christmas was better in ye olden days before the dotcom and the nintendos. Caring about your fellow man is high on the agenda. Among the big corporations, it is Walmart and Disney that come under the harshest criticism for ruining smaller businesses and exploiting thousands of employees in Asia to produce goods at the lowest possible rates.

While the narrative of What Would Jesus Buy does not boast a happy ending (Spoiler Alert: Reverend Billy is arrested after staging a riot in Disney Land and is forced to spend Christmas in a cell), the message is one of love and affirmation. Billy is careful to emphasize that he’s doing it all for the spirit of “original America”(thankfully, no allusions to the founding father are made): productiveness rather than consumership, spirit of neighborhood rather than the mass anonymity of shopping malls, spontaneity rather than alienation. Christmas, after all, does signify the coming of one who will set all things straight – and while Reverend Billy holds no illusion that his mission can bring about a change of consciousness on a grand scale, his charm, conviction and self awareness make him a profoundly likable messiah.

http://player.anyclip.com/PlayerEmYT.swfCan you see the light? from The Blues Brothers starring James Brown Dan Aykroyd John Belushi

What Would Jesus Buy on DVD

Is Elena Kagan Team Jacob or Team Edward?

At Elana Kagan’s senate confirmation, Sen. Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota was asking the tough questions to the Supreme Court nominee. It wasn’t her opinion on Roe vs. Wade, or even Nixon vs. The United States, but the truly difficult case, the outcome of which no one has ever been able to predict. Her entire career hinges on answering this wedge issue, and there will be no bipartisanship this time.

Jacob or Edward, Kagan? The American public deserves to know!

Approximately 25 Thoughts of a Twirgin, Watching Twilight

Last night I sat down to watch Twilight, in preparation for a new movie drinking game segment we are unveiling later this week (stay tuned!). Since the new movie came out today, and I work for a movie site, I figured I should probably give it a shot anyway. It’s hard to come at these movies without any knowledge about the film and its characters. I’ve read the tabloids, the feminist interpretations, and the racial critiques – but so have you. You have never read my thoughts though, and I’m a twirgin being twucked for the very first time.

My Personal Twobservations

• Bella and her father just had a conversation about the length of her hair to show how much time had passed since the last time he saw her. She just said she hadn’t been to Forks in years. How exactly does this man think hair grows?
• Why does Edward look like that when Bella walks into science class. The way he covers himself makes him look so guilty, like he has a boner inside of his mouth. I half expect him to cover his face with a text book before he walks into the hall.
• Ugh, Edward, I know you are supposed to be a teenager, but your fangs are apparently permanently hard.
• Why are the Cullens so rich? Is that why they are so beautiful? Oh, their dad is a doctor.
• Oh Bella you are just so clumsy. I wonder in how many ways this is foreshadowing later parts in the movie.  Isn’t ‘clumsy,’ a euphemism (for something that mostly happens to women)? I can’t remember.
• The dad ominously changed the tires on her truck. What is the point of this?
• Bella shakes her head uncontrollably all the time. She looks like a bobble-head or that she has Palsy. I wonder if there actually are Twilight bobble-heads. I’m going to guess yes, since I’m pretty sure there is a life size Edward silhouette that can watch over while you sleep.
• Why does it have to be an African American who almost kills her with the truck? Come on, we aren’t post-race yet.
• The Swans drink bottled water. They should be ashamed of themselves.
• Oh that’s nice – Edward drives a hybrid.
• Why do they show her looking on the Internet? If I wanted to watch a movie about search bars I’d watch The Social Network, (although I will probably watch The Social Network).
• Bella is a terrible friend. She ignores them and then bails on them for guys. And they love it. What is wrong with these people? If she was my friend, I’d cut her loose faster than Edward Scissorhands.
• Edward doesn’t blink. Is that why his eyes look so weird? He looks like he’s permanently high because his eyes are so red. CGEye? CGHigh.
• Bella looks at the vampire symptoms online the way I look at WebMD. Wait, I’m kind of strong, and fast (let me dream). OH MY GOD I THINK I MIGHT BE A VAMPIRE.
• Edward blinked!
• Bella is a stupid lamb? Does that mean she has been bred for her docility? Sheep are so stupid they can’t even give birth without a human pulling the baby lamb. I guess humans can’t do that either. Touché.
• Edward is a vampire. He’s also a jerk.
• The glistening doesn’t make Edward look beautiful, it makes him look really sweaty.
• They both have strangely small noses (I’m Jewish).
• Edward claims because he doesn’t eat people that he’s like a vegetarian who only eats tofu, “never really satisfied.” You think vegetarians aren’t satisfied on tofu Edward? Screw you Edward, I’m team Jacob now.
• Alright, I finally understand why people think Robert Pattenson is attractive. I still think it’s the CGI.
• Edward has so much trouble not killing Bella when sucking the venom out of her arm. He has difficulty pulling away. Oh, I get it – the old withdrawal method.
• Are we supposed to think Edward is abusive?  When Bella is in the hospital because of her injuries gained in the last fight, their excuse for her state is that she “fell down the stairs.” This is farcical. Did you walk into a door too Bella?  I’m calling a hotline. Oh Bella, you are just so “clumsy.”

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There you have it folks, my relatively unedited twoughts. What did you think the first time you saw Twilight?

I never did find out why Bella’s dad changed her tires. I guess it is just another one of the mysteries of this phenomenon.

Cartoons That Changed Cinema

With the upcoming release of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender, I was thinking of other cartoons that were turned into movies. This has been a time old tradition in Hollywood, taking existing properties and making those into movies. To wonder what these animated characters would look like in a live-action world. The fact that some actors look exactly like some cartoon characters, is a big reason why these movies are made. The Last Airbender is the next movie in a long tradition of summer adaptations of cartoons. There are some good and some really, really horrible ones and for what it’s worth, I went to the theater to see most of them. Does an adaptation of these cartoon warrant a trip to the megaplex? In most cases, these movies do make a lot of money. They play off the nostalgia of an older audience and they play to children because, really, they are based on cartoons. Here are my favorites.

Transformers (2007)
This is technically the second Transformers movie made after the cartoon and toy line has hit the U.S. shores. The first was an animated feature that actually followed the storyline of the TV series and was a bridge between season 2 and season 3.

Now what I’m talking about here is Michael Bay’s 2007 adaptation of Transformers starring Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox. Although it garnered a horrible sequel, the first movie does have some merit, if not in storytelling than in visual effects. Michael Bay is by no means a great storyteller, he himself has admitted that. He is, though, a great visual effects artist and a great spectacle ringleader since P.T. Barnum. If you were to show a person from the 20s this movie, they wouldn’t say, “Oh you have movies in color and sound now?”, they would say, “You have giant robots in the future!?”. That’s how good this movie looks. For all it’s flaws, it is worth watching for the spectacle of it all.

The Flintstones (1994)
This was one of the first summer movies I can remember. I remember the build up and hype around this movie. I remember the product placement and advertising that went along with it too. I remember Happy Meals and Value Meals at McDonalds. This was definitely marketed towards the nostalgia of adult and the wonder of children. Starring John Goodman as Fred Flintstone and Elizabeth Perkins as his wife Wilma, Rick Moranis as his best friend Barney Rubble and his wife Betty Rubble played by (odd casting choice here but I guess she was on the “A-List” at the time) Rosie O’Donnell. This adaptation of the cartoon series was pretty serviceable. It didn’t take the source material too seriously, it was as fun as the original. Where is my Jetsons movie?

Dick Tracy (1990)
This kicked off the first summer to a wonderful decade. It also sparked a trend in movies afterwards. It seemed like almost every big studio movie released after Dick Tracy, played off the nostalgia of the 1940s. Movies like The Rocketeer, The Shadow, The Phantom and A League of Their Own took the 40s style and culture and transformed them into a venture on the big screen with a 90s sensibility. Warren Beatty played the super cool detective and Madonna his muse, Breathless Mahoney (I’d like to think her parents named her after the Jean-Luc Godard film but somehow I doubt it). Dick Tracy was the quintessential fun summer movie of the 90s. Full of guys in trench coats and fedora using walkie-talkies on their wristwatches while chasing down bad guys and saving the girl at the end. Things blew up, sex was teased and young teen aged boys were happy.

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
To this day, I have never seen a single episode of South Park. For some reason or another, I have never managed to sit down and watch it. It’s not that I don’t want to watch it (well, maybe it is) but I just never found or made time for it. In saying that, I have seen the movie. I actually saw this opening weekend in the theater. I think my cousin and I snuck into this movie after seeing Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace. It was one of those 2 for 1 things. So never seeing the TV series I had no context of this world and afterwards I was really surprised that I actually liked it. You can attribute that to the quality of writing. Making my experience of the movie just as rewarding as a hardcore fan is a feat to behold. This film is clever, biting, delightfully irreverent and wonderful. Any film with a musical number that involve Satan and Saddam Hussein gets a thumbs up from me.

The Simpsons Movie (2007)
18 years after the seminal animated series started, The Simpsons finally hit the big screen. It wasn’t a question of popularity, the series has been on the air for now 21 seasons. It was a question of a proper story that would be worth telling on the silver screen. Some would say, could the quality of said story be strong enough. Some say the quality of the series itself was in decline after its impressive 10th season. So on July 27th 2007, The Simpsons Movie hit theaters and grossed a $527 Million worldwide. It was a hit! I felt the quality was there and the animation was stellar. The Simpsons followed the story of Springfield’s notorious family indirectly causing the isolation of the small mid-western town. The Simpsons escape and must find a way to free the residents from bureaucratic EPA agent, Russ Cargil. This is a witty and brilliant satire on government official, red tape and the greater good of the people. Also it was broad enough for the whole family to enjoy.

Hulu Plus Thoughts

Editor’s note: This post first appeared on Andrew Parker’s blog, The Gong Show, and has been republished here with his permission.

Hulu Plus launched today which is a combo ad-supported and recurring subscription product to get access to more archived shows via more devices (like iPhone and internet-enabled TVs). I have 3 comments:

1. It’s a Netflix competitor more than anything else.  The future (perhaps for some users, the present) value of Netflix is on-demand streaming movies and TV shows. I never previously thought of Hulu and Netflix as competitive until I saw this release today.  I’m not sure why this didn’t hit me sooner. I can see myself subscribing to Netflix, or Hulu Plus, but probably not both… (I was a long time Netflix customer, but recently quit because I simply didn’t have the free time for it and saw my Netflix mailing envelopes lying around for months).

2. It shouldn’t cost more to access Hulu via other devices. Hulu is probably thinking “access via more devices is more convenient, thus, more valueable, thus we should charge more for the incremental value we’re creating.”  This is backwards.  They should want as many people using their service as possible, and should reduce any friction (ie monetary cost) on all channels of distribution. The player that will win in this space will do so in part by aggregating the largest audience of viewers.  Making it harder to access Hulu by reducing accessible end devices is counter to this goal. This is especially true because they still offer an ad-supported model, which is dependent on having an audience of sufficient scale.

3. Hulu’s private beta had a poor price anchoring effect on me.  Hulu started off as a service to watch the entire archived catalog of all the major TV shows that NBC and FOX had between the two of them, for free.  Then as it launched publicly and got more popular, it trimmed back to just a couple trailing episodes of select shows.  No Hulu Plus brings the product back to the original level of content offered, but with a price tag.  I’ve already been anchored to the price of Free, so any price tag looks a bit high to me.

All that said, sign me up Jason.

Does The Twilight Franchise Do The Books Justice?

Twilight. A phenomenon. Especially for girls, and even some grown women. So much so that Isabella which is Bella’s full name (but you already knew that Twihard) and Jacob hold the top spot on social security’s Most Popular Baby Names List. Say what? Yes. Now, to be fair Jacob has had the top spot for a bit, Bella? Oh, she kicked Emma right off that throne.

The Twilight franchise is something that most people either love or hate. Women adore the sensitive yet alpha male that is Edward: protective and sexy, he even watches Bella as she sleeps. Bella is desperate without him, giving herself in the most earnest ways possible; she doesn’t care about the consequences or what others say. Obsessive? True love? Depends on who you ask. What we do know is that the cult following that this couple has is real. Then Jacob popped into the picture and people had to pick sides. Who should she really be with? Who can love our Bella better? Well, if you read the books you know the answer.

I read the books. All of them. Were they classics in the making? No. Were they entertaining and full of young love? Yes. The great thing about Twilight is that you get what you want. You wanted a true love story and that is what you got. They fight for love, they sacrifice, but in the end, Bella gets her rightful partner.

Because the books have such a loyal fan base, making a movie was tricky. When making a film based on a novel, ideally the adaptation is to be consonant with the book. In choosing actors, they definitely did well. Kristen Stewart as Bella and Robert Pattinson as Edward were perfect. The chemistry between them seemed natural and they looked precisely as we envisioned having read the novel. Jacob (flawlessly portrayed by Taylor Lautner) completed the main cast. The movie itself did stay as true to the book as possible. However, some changes were evident. In the novel there was never a mention of Wylon Forge, who is an important character in the movie, if only for a moment- he is killed off by the evil vampires. This small change showcases the studio’s decision to make Twilight appeal to a larger audience. The book is targeted towards young adult, specifically women. In order to reach the masses, they needed to include more suspense, since the book itself is essentially a love story.

New Moon is known to be the weakest of the series. The book opens with a devastating blow: Edward is gone. He leaves our beloved Bella claiming that he no longer wants to burden her. The love story blossoms into a love triangle when we learn that Jacob has in fact fallen for Bella. Most movie goers that did not appreciate the film claimed it was due to the fact that it was too slow moving. But, that is exactly how the book was. It was about a girl whose true love has gone, leaving her hearbroken. Realizing that the book did not have much of Edward the studio had to find a way to keep in Robert Pattinson who at this point had become a world wide infatuation. In the book Bella can hear Edward. In the movie to keep Pattison’s fans interested, they decided that Bella in fact not only hears him – she can see him as well. They also incorporate a fight sequence that did not happen in the book, giving the film an opportunity to appeal to a wider audience.

These differences are small in view of how films change endings, main characters’ past, and even in some cases even their race. With the huge following that Twilight has, you can never really please the masses. But generally speaking, the movies hold true to the books. Making small changes to attract a wider audience, while maintaining credibility with the original fans, ensured the success of the books’ transition into a movie and later into a major franchise. The appeal of Twilight is here to stay. It has become a sensation that is only growing each coming year. On June 30, when the third installment is released, we will see just what modifications are made in the name of the all-mighty dollar.

"Recast It": Reefer Madness

The infamous cautionary tale about the dangers of marijuana, Reefer Madness, exploits the worries of parents regarding their teen-aged children, greatly exaggerating the effects of the illegal narcotic in the process. It would be interesting to see if this film was made for modern times for a modern audience. It has be made into an Off Broadway musical and the next logical progression would be to the silver screen. But as exploitative as the original 1938 film is, it is highly (see what I did there) engaging albeit somewhat comical through my modern eyes. It does overly portray the effects of marijuana on teens. From murder to sex to suicide, the sentiment is clear on what this film hopes to accomplish, marijuana will ruin your life.

First off, the only way to go with this remake is to make it a stoner comedy. You can’t take a film like Reefer Madness seriously this day and age. Making it a tongue and cheek parody is the only way a modern audience can take a movie like this seriously. Casting known potheads and smokers seems to be the way to go, otherwise why would anyone remake this movie. In fact, it is comical as a piece of propaganda to say the least.

http://player.anyclip.com/PlayerEm.swf?v=634134308685243127&mode=prod&Bring me Reefers from Reefer Madness starring Dave O’Brien Thelma White

The movie starts off with the narration of Dr. Carroll explaining to a PTA meeting why marijuana is so dangerous. This is a plea to the audience. For him to make the case, is for us to agree with him in the end. During his plea, he recounts the story which got him to this point. I think a very funny way to introduce this film is to have Snoop Dogg cast in the role of Dr. Carroll. This is an obvious choice, Snoop Dogg is today’s godfather of weed.

Mae and Jack are the local drug dealers. They run a fun house of sorts where local teenagers smoke marijuana, drink alcohol and have sex. And really these characters are so one dimensional, having anyone play this role wouldn’t be so out of the question. In say that, having a known pothead actor play this role could garner some cheap laughs. I say, Juliette Lewis as Mae and Jack Black as Jack, their appearance on screen would be epic. Especially when you show them putting on these parties for teens.

http://player.anyclip.com/PlayerEm.swf?v=634134305286558864&mode=prod&Bad influence from Reefer Madness starring Lillian Miles Carleton Young Thelma White

Mary is a local teenager caught up in the horrors of the marijuana house. She goes there looking for her brother, Jimmy, and while waiting for her, someone offers her a smoke. She mistakes the joint as a normal cigarette and begins to smoke it. While high, someone tries to rape her. Her boyfriend stops this from happening and gets into a fist fight with the molester, Ralph. During the fight, a gun goes off and accidentally kills Mary. Who shoots her you may ask, why if it wasn’t her boyfriend, Bill. See the irony? Actually it was Ralph who kills Mary and blames it on Bill. He was too high to figure out what happened.

Casting someone who can play a victim (and corpse) is easy. Why not take advantage of the boyfriend/girlfriend celebrity situation here. How about Vanessa Hudgens as Mary and Zac Efron as Bill. I’m sure an audience can get behind seeing Vanessa Hudgens high and I’m sure they’d love it if Zac Efron killed her.

Blanche was a witness to what really happened to Mary. After being arrested, Bill admits to using marijuana while the crime was being committed. If Blanche testifies for Bill, she’d have to testify against her boyfriend, Ralph, who was the real shooter. So instead of doing either, Blanche jumps out of a window to her death. All because of marijuana.

So what we need here is an actor we’d like to see jump to her death. How about Paris Hilton. I’m sure an audience would like to see her jump out of a window.

All in all, it seems like all (or most) of the women die in this movie and all the men go to jail. The film ends with Dr. Carroll preaching the dangers of marijuana to the PTA meeting (IE the audience). It ends with him that no one is safe from the dangers, “even you!” He does this while pointing into the camera directly to the audience. Get it? I love subtlety in movies.

What are you thoughts on the “recasting” of the propaganda classic Reefer Madness?

Hot Times, Summer in the City, Summer in Film

It is 88 degrees outside in New York, and if you are like me (without air conditioning in a cramped apartment), you are very tired from a night of tossing and turning, and from trying to breath through the heavy air in your bedroom. As much as you looked forward to summertime during the winter, you are probably now being faced with the harsh realization that sometimes higher temperatures can result in fatigue, sweaty bodies, and short fuses. Who ever says summer is sexy time, certainly said it while standing out in the snow.

Since this sweltering summer officially took over our lives this month, we at Spliced thought we would do an overview of some movies where the heat is the driving force behind the plot and characters presented. Through taking apart 5 New York Summer movies, we found that hot days can often be the most ripe for a fiery film.

Rear Window (1954)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

James Stewart plays photographer L.B. Jeffries who, being home-bound due to a broken leg, thinks he witnesses a murder while spying on his neighbors through his window that looks onto the courtyard of a large apartment complex in Greenwich Village. It is a summer heatwave so windows and blinds are kept open throughout the apartment complex, giving him a clear view to investigate others through the lens of his camera.

Bound to a wheelchair in his apartment, L.B. Jeffries can still be likened as an immobile desert wanderer. His experience is similar to the seeing of a mirage in the distance. He thinks he has seen a murder, but he isn’t sure and he realizes his perception (and the lens of his camera)  is not as infallible as he once believed. The desert wanderer, so certain they have seen water in the distance is always surprised and terrified to find out it was their own desire that produced this mirage. L.B. Jeffries is equally as unsure of what he has seen.

Summer of Sam (1999)

Directed by Spike Lee

The movie takes place in the summer of 1977. New York is full of prosperity which is violently punctuated by a series of murders. Based around the Son of Sam serial murders, otherwise known as the 44 caliber killer David Berkowitz, the film demonstrates how easily relationships, friendships and trust can break down when pressure is high. Even those who are sane (a relative term) are broken down as everyone begins to suspect one another in a frantic search for a killer who won’t quit.

Amongst the first few scenes is a man screaming incessantly to stop a barking dog. His anger and desperation is visible, sweat pours off him, as his fury builds higher and higher. It is a hot summer, which is at the center of primary set-up of the script. Initially everyone is shown to be having fun, elated  like a child exiting the school building on the final day of class. Things quickly turn awry as news of a series of murders begins to circulate, and the heat of summertime begins to transform the film’s central characters. The outside world is now fraught with danger, and they become trapped in their sweltering apartments while suspicion, fear and anger rise along with the temperature. The weather mimics the feelings of insanity of the murderer, David Burkowitz, and those affected by his actions. No one can think straight, they are stuck in the haze of this violent heat unable to gain any respite and cool down their emotions.

Do the Right Thing (1989)

Directed by Spike Lee

Set in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, this movie is perhaps the most explicit in its undertaking of the consequences of the sweltering summertime heat. For the first twenty minutes of the film, the rising temperature is mentioned ad nauseam (Lee makes even the viewer even feel as if they have gotten some heat stroke). Drawn outside of their apartments due to the heat, the movie’s main conflict is between individuals on stoops, outside windows, and out on the street. Lee unveils the problems and benefits associated with a quickly diversifying area, but it is the heat that ensures that bridges between communities will constantly burn. Koreans, African Americans, Italian-Americans, Hispanics, young, old (the list could go on) are faced to confront each other now that the walls of apartments no longer separate their communities. The movie ends with an eruption of violence, of fire, showing the torrid relationships have reached boiling point.

After Hours (1985)

Directed by Martin Scorcese

An American black comedy film in which a New Yorker is caught in a series of misadventures coming home from Soho. The main character, Paul Hackett (Griffin Dunne) is a word processor, who is taken on a journey worthy of Homer, which gets progressively more and more absurd as the film continues. Taking place in New York, the heat is a central element of the film, and the movie could be seen as mimicking that uncomfortable semi-somnambulant state experienced when trying to sleep when it is too damn hot. Thoughts get stranger as sleep becomes harder to maintain – slipping in and out, never sure what is dream, nightmare or reality.

Kids (1995)

Director Larry Clark

A film known for its explicit nature, Kids is a movie all about the recklessness of teens (played by Chloe Sevigny and Justin Pierce, among others) faced with the boredom and  of summertime. Taking place during the HIV era of New York in the mid-1990s, the children are shown consumed by substance abuse, hormones and the violence of the streets of New York.  The heat of summer is what propels many of the main dramatic elements in this film. Being too hot inside, the kids are left to wander the streets of New York. Heat is what charges these teenagers. The feeling of being overheated, is similar to the state of the hazy, drug-addled brain of these teenagers who become focused on that which can guarantee relief from this state of mind. Wandering through the streets with the sun beating down upon your face,  often makes one feel constrained. For these kids, the only thing that frees them from this trance is alternatively pleasure and violence.

New York is known for its sweltering summers, and there is little to look forward to in the next few months aside from open hydrants, and free moments to try and get away from the city, into a pool, lake, or sprinkler. However, keep in mind in the coming months, that even though the heat makes you feel too lethargic to move, it plays an important role in drama occurring elsewhere.

Joan Rivers The Entrepreneur

Editor’s Note: This story was first published on the personal blog of Howard Lindzon.

I loved the Joan Rivers documentary.

I remember watching Johnny Carson for years as a kid, at least 35 years ago and I would especially like first time comics.

Gary Shandling probably gave the best opening performance I ever saw as a kid. I was not a fan of Joan Rivers. At 18 I was doing a little comedy (inspired by all the people showing up on Carson) myself at Yuk Yuk’s in Toronto but did not last long. It was boring doing my thing and having every other comic just kill making fun of me. I sucked.

Joan Rivers has gotten funnier with age if not impossible to look at for long stretches. She has poured her soul into performing and the movie does not try to hide it or the messed up relationships it has caused. It was pretty honest.

Joan wants to be considered an actress, but in my eye she is a fantastic entrepreneur. She may seem unorganized, but she knows what she wants…to be working… More importantly, she wants the work coming TO HER. While she waits for ‘the calls’ she makes sure she’s working. Still at 75, doing the redeyes and cruises and small towns to perfect her craft and go where her customers are until they come for her. She believes they will.

That’s an entrepreneur.

Carriers movie review

Carriers, a debut for directors Alex & David Pastor, is not your common-or-garden horror flick. One might say it’s not a horror flick at all. It is true that there are a lot of elements from the genre but it feels much more like a coming of age/road trip fable that’s been wrapped inside a world we are quick to relate to horror.

In what looks like Hollywood’s first reaction to the swine flu pandemic, two brothers find themselves in a journey to their childhood beach house while the entire world around them suffers from a particularly lethal air-carried plague. It’s not a zombie flick in the sense that those who are infected terrorize the streets. Nothing of the kind. The essence of the film has more to do with the survival capacity of men and the moral choices they are faced with.

However, as we look past the plot outline, we encounter one the most mature and depressing coming of age tales recently made in the USA. The two brothers are seeking their refugee place, somewhere which is part of their childhood.

The brothers arrive at the realization that their parents can no longer protect them from the world and they have to face it with what they got. They yearn to return to the state of innocence lost. And in common with many of us, they learn that much as you try to go back, the farther you get from the people around you, and are faced with the knowledge everyone arrives at eventually – whatever happens, you are alone.

Its high standard in cinematography and editing aside, the film impressed me a lot – mainly because it’s not horribly violent and most of the gore stays outside the frame; but when it reaches into the darkness of its themes and characters, it goes pretty deep.

P.S.
Whatever you do, don’t watch the trailer, or should I say the 2:30 minutes’ worth of spoilers. It’s literally reveals every plot twist and turning point of the film.

Carriers on DVD
Written and directed by: Alex & David Pastor
Cast: Lou Taylor Pucci, Chris Pine, Piper Perabo, Emily VanCamp
Cinematography: Benoit Debie
Editing: Craig McKay