speaking of slow summers

Maybe it's time for Iggy to take a little break.

Once the Quest starts rolling again, I'll be back here with something to say, but for now the blog is on hiatus until further notice. I'm going to work hard on a few different little projects, keep incubating some other ideas. If anything develops you'll be the first to hear about it. Otherwise, there's not much to talk about here.

Until next time...

big pink fleshy things

This is an honest question I've been asking myself. What kind of person actually succeeds in a career of directing movies?

I used to think it didn't matter what kind of person you are -- as long as you're able to consistently make creative and interesting choices. If you make enough good choices, people will enjoy your movies, and zip, bang, pow, you've got a career.

But there's another side to Hollywood, particularly for a director. The people side. No kidding -- a great director is the type of person who can unify hundreds of people on a crew under his-or-her "vision", and then, further, can actually sell his-or-her "vision" to the suits. That's really the first step, because no matter how creative or interesting your choices, you've gotta get shit done, and to do that, you've gotta get ears. Lots and lots of ears, all tuned and in agreement with every word that drops out your mouth. Without ears, you don't make a movie.

And remember, always remember, there are thousands of other kids waiting in line right behind you, waiting for you to fail so they can whip out the big grin and lay on the charisma and get all the ears YOU wanted to get, and then they're getting shit done and making movies and you're laid out in your apartment stoned watching Whose Line reruns at two in the afternoon on a motherfuckin' Wednesday.

So maybe it doesn't matter how talented or smart or creative you are, if you can't get ears. People have gotta listen to you. Respect you. Take you seriously. And you gotta win those ears and win them over fast, or you're Farrah Fawcett.

But hey, at least I can write. Right?


In other news I just won "most morbid blog post reference" for the second month in a row! Score.

don't live here

Another night in Orange County, land of the rich and the bored, where the climate never changes and all the bars close at 11PM sharp.

This place is a prison, and these people aren't your friends.

We've built a pretty damned comfortable existence for ourselves in this little enclave of the world. Consider the length of life's evolution, from boiling sludge in a primordial ooze, through all manners of beasts and filthy creatures, ranged across a brutal world trapped in the terrible grip of entropy, time, death and decay. Now here we are, little pink fleshy creatures with baseball caps and pay phones and space programs. Humans. The pinnacle of all Creation. And we're so terrified of the rest of the world that we build places like Orange County, where people can go to pretend they're dead and in Heaven, to hide far, far away from all the nastier aspects of existence on Earth.

If you've ever been here, it's quite amazing. They might as well play theme music from hidden speakers in the rocks. It's Disneyland for grownups -- except nobody who lives here realizes it's not real, it's a sham, it's just a shiny happy bubble filled with shiny happy people. No one here could tell you that. They show you the theme parks and the beaches and the strip malls, they show you the million-dollar houses, the bright white sidewalks and rolling green grass. It's all really very impressive, actually. I should know -- I lived here for eighteen years.

Then you leave here and the bubble pops. And you realize, now you're in the Real World, you're fucked.

But that's okay too, because in the long run, everybody's fucked! We're all just fleshy organisms -- we eat, we sleep, we die.

All the nifty little plastic things you bought for yourself are going to be melted down for fuel someday. All the complexities of your social hierarchies and the rules you've invented are houses of cards, and a simple breath of wind will blow it all away. None of it matters. You just didn't know it before you left Orange County.

The illusion of permanence. Perhaps that's the greatest sin of this place.

LOL

This is so perfect it's disgusting.

what a weird pic

Ahhh... Nice, slow summer!


It's a slow summer nationwide, actually. We're all a bit stuck in the mud these days. The economy is a goddamned mess, and all the smartest people know it's going to get worse before it gets better. Personally... I blame Enron.

So, is it just me -- or are a lot of the movies this summer pretty much awful?

I mean last year we had Dark Knight, Iron Man, Wall-E, Tropic Thunder... hell, even Kung Fu Panda and Get Smart (which was CRIMINALLY underrated!!)

This year we've got The Ugly Truth... Ice Age 3... Bruno... I Love You Beth Cooper... Year One... and of course "Julie & Julia". Not to mention the three movies linked above.

Pretty dire.

To be fair here -- 2008 had its share of crap -- and 2009 has produced a few solid flicks.

But my point stands, I think. I'm just not extremely impressed with the current state of affairs in Hollywoodland. It's all a little too brain-dead for my taste, and I think America would agree with me.

But then again, box office business is booming.

fair and unbiased journalism

Alright, alright, fine, fine... so here's the straight dope on 500 Days of Summer.

Now keep in mind, I've been cursed by the screenwriter gods to look at every film as basically a moving script. Every line that rolls off a character's tongue, I see it written down in 12 point Courier. I don't know why, but I do. It's an extremely useful way to learn how to write movies... and I can't possibly understate that fact. Especially not when I use words like "extremely".

From that perspective, you can see why I was a little nervous at first when I sat down to watch 500 Days of Summer -- as it was written by Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber, the "ingenues" behind only one other movie in their careers -- Pink Panther 2. I never saw it, but admit it, neither did you. It flopped harder than New Coke.

We start off 500 Days with a fairly bitter written disclaimer. Already I can sense where this thing is headed: it's a pure revenge piece. Some girl broke poor Scott Neustadter's heart, and in retaliation, he and his wingman Michael Weber decided to turn her into cinema. Luckily this isn't an alien concept to most of us -- heartbreak -- we've all been there, so it's refreshing to see some honesty up on the screen right off the bat.

We meet Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a 25-something college dropout working at a greeting card company, the type of guy who doesn't lack for brains or ability, but simple motivation. He dreams of being an architect, but never took any classes. We're also introduced to several characters who have no bearing on the plot whatsoever -- two generic friends, a wise little sister, and Tom's boss -- four people without any kind of dramatic arc or anything of substance to say. It's a shame, really, because a sharp re-write could have excised a lot of the dead air from the movie.

But guess what: most of the bad parts of my review are already out of the way. Because once we're introduced to Tom's new co-worker Summer (Zooey Deschanel) the frequently uninspired dialogue takes a back seat, and the love story that "isn't a love story" is quickly set free, bursting with whimsy and sincerity. That's an odd combination, but oddly enough, it works.


Much of the success of 500 Days of Summer has to be credited to the director, Marc Webb. His keen eye for detail is very effective in painting a portrait of a Mysterious Beauty, through snapshots, moments, bits and pieces of reality. This style of filmmaking evokes an overall "sense" of a relationship as well as some of the very best romantic comedies (Annie Hall, Eternal Sunshine, Say Anything).

And it's the sequences without dialogue in this film that truly shine -- such as a split-screen of expectations vs. reality, a wordless scene referencing The Graduate, an intimate train ride at sunset, and yes, a showstopping infectious dance number set to Hall & Oates. We feel these moments just as the writers probably once did, at times commiserating with Tom, at others, high-fiving him.

Now I'm not a professional actor by any means (and if you saw the movie, you can attest to that as well), so I always feel awkward critiquing an actor's performance. That being said -- both leads impressed me. Joseph Gordon-Levitt has come a long way from seeing invisible Christopher Lloyds behind every dugout. His character was shockingly understated, considering he was the Male Lead in a Romantic Comedy. You just don't see that these days. Refreshing. Yet there was a deceptive amount of craft in his mannerisms. Much props to him, for sure. Much props.


Meanwhile, Zooey was Zooey -- the same "spaced-out-pin-up girl" thing she always does. Her role may have been a little underwritten by the Pink Panther duo. But she definitely brought a certain kind of honesty to the part, an honesty that made Summer seem almost (but not quite) sympathetic. Trust me: you're rooting for Tom the whole way. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

(And from my point of view, her and Tom could have been the only two people in the entire film. It's their story. The TV-sitcom sidekick characters didn't bother me too much, and they were well enough acted, but they just never had much of a reason to exist.)

Maybe I've been too harsh on the screenwriters. The script had several terrific ideas that were clearly on the page from Day One. The dialogue wasn't bad at all for a modern indie, all things considered. And hey -- they make a hell of a lot more money than I do... that's for sure! I only think with a little more polish, 500 Days could've been a new genre-defining movie for not only a new generation, but for all generations. The music, cinematography, acting, and direction were all great -- and the writing was simply "good".

But in the final analysis, what's remarkable about this movie -- and why you should support it, and spend money to see it in theaters -- is its bleeding, beating heart. 500 Days of Summer is a film about love that actually aspires to Greatness. It's earnest and hopeful, as well as entertaining and easily relatable. While the movie doesn't quite get where it wants to go, it contains many moments of sneaky brilliance.


In a way, it's like Annie Hall's much younger, ADD-fueled little brother. If that doesn't get your butt in a seat, I don't know what else to tell you. Oh, and I'm in it.

8.5/10