Moon

Moon was a much needed antidote to seeing Transformers 2. An excellent piece of Indie sci-fi, Moon evokes the feel of classic cerebral sci-fi like 2001, Solaris, Alien, and Silent Running (I've heard that several Silent Running SFX crew were brought on to help Moon capture that classic style). While its pacing and small scale won't appeal to most post-MTV viewers, I found it quite compelling. Made for only $5million, it's also a testament to the fact that you can make a great film for "hardly any money." If you enjoy thoughtful, slow-paced Sci-Fi, I highly recommend checking out Moon.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Having read a number of reviews, and heard from folks at work who'd seen it before me, I thought I was fully prepared for just how bad this movie is. I was wrong, and I wound up walking out.

My expectations were: a mindless joyride with an incoherent plot and some decent action sequences. A thin, incoherent plot was definitely on offer, but surprisingly so was a hefty dollop of sexism (which I had expected) and racism (which I hadn't expected). I expected characterization to be idiotic, not overtly offensive. The action is more visually coherent than the first Transformers, but (if you can believe it) even less meaningful. There are also some sequences that violate whatever rules of the Transformers world had been established (spoiler examples: a Transformer that can disguise itself as a human rather than a machine, baby Decepticons being born in Aliens-like egg pods, and a dead Optimus Prime being brought back to life with an object other than a shred of the "All Spark").

The audience I saw the film with was audibly appalled at the scene where the two ghetto minstrel Autobots admit that they don't read. Since this was part of a "plot" point in which only ancient Transformers can read Cybertronian, some let it slide, though only those two say they don't read generally (as opposed to not being able to read ancient script). Even more appalling is the scene in which John Turturro's character is reintroduced, mainly because there's no real "plot" point to the stereotyping of Turturro's family and their dark-skinned employee.

It was not long after that scene that I left the theater.

Since the film was showing at work, I went back in to catch the last ten or so minutes. Not only could I pick the "plot" right back up having missed over an hour of the film, but I was also subjected to a "final battle" in which (more spoilers, in case you care) a newly resurrected Optimus Prime kills The Fallen and destroys his sun-destroying machine instantly. No gigantic robot battle of epic proportions. Just a few blasts from Optimus' big gun, and the fallen is killed. Then Megatron runs away. Optimus unceremoniously discards all the newly-integrated parts that another resurrected Transfomer had committed suicide in order to bestown upon him, and gives a speech. So even if you can sit through the whole thing, it's all for nothing.

There's apparently some plot involving humans, as well. Something to do with Megan Fox's breasts, I think. The emotion I felt most strongly about the part of the film that's not about robots (i.e. too much of it) was a confusion over whether to feel sorry for or angry with John Turturro.

It is a shame that Michael Bay uses his obvious skill at staging visually spectacular shots, and managing large casts and crews, to produce such utter rubbish.

The fact that this film is making such huge amounts of much money is a symptom of a number of reasons why my faith in audiences, and the human race generally, has been so shaken for so long.

Slumdog Millionaire

While some people think this year has been a bad year for films, I've seen some really fantastic films this year: Let The Right One In, Death In Love, Ponyo, and now, Slumdog Millionaire -- Danny Boyle's best film, at least equal to and perhaps even better than Trainspotting (which is one of my favorite films), and a great film not just in the "Oscar worthy" sense, but also in the "people will still be watching this film in 100 years" sense.


Part love story and part social commentary, Slumdog Millionaire is a postmodern parable, a fast-paced, relentless story about struggling against seemingly insurmountable odds. Based on the novel Q&A by Vikas Swarup, it traces the tragic life of Jamal Malik as he attempts to explain to a police inspector how he came to know the answers that led him to 10 million rupees and the upcoming final question on the Indian version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" This conceit is a brilliant hook, as it provides a tension line -- will Jamal be exonerated by the police, win the money, and get back the girl of his dreams -- that gives the already poignant flashbacks an added sense of urgency, and allows them to succeed in driving the main plot forward rather than seeming like pointless digressions.

The acting is excellent, especially star Dev Patel (adult Jamal) and child actors Ayush Mahesh Khedekar and Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail (as youngest Jamal and his brother Salim, respectively), and Director Danny Boyle creates a sense of time and place that feels very genuine. Despite the fast pace, the editing is masterful, and there is neither staccato cutting nor excessive shakycam in an attempt to give false urgency to boring scenes. There's no need, since there are no boring scenes, and the urgency seems all too real. Sound and music is also carefully integrated, helping to craft both setting and theme, without turning any of the film into a music video (a potential Bollywood "homage" thanfully avoided by Boyle).

Some have given this film negative reviews based on what appears to me to be the flawed belief that any film which shows poor people managing to (even momentarily) be happy despite their circumstances is unrealistic. This leads to the ridiculous claim that this film which depicts squalor, murder, child mutilation, child prostitution, and a litany of other social ills is somehow soft-pedaling poverty -- presumably because it hasn't utterly destroyed the spirit of Jamal and everyone else in his class, and because no enlightened white saviors arrive to set things right and assuage their historical guilt. Since this film is a parable about the indomitability of the human spirit, there is some degree of the fantastic. But that element is restricted almost entirely to the Millionaire conceit and the endgame of Jamal and Latika's romance, rather than whitewashing the depictions of a life of poverty.

If you get a chance to see this film, do so immediately. And hopefully you will have the chance. Fox Searchlight, who showed their marketing prowess with Sideways, Napoleon Dynamite, Little Miss Sunshine, and Juno (none of which made under $40M domestic), has inexplicably restricted this film's release to 49 theaters for Thanksgiving Weekend despite the fact that it's pulling in an average of $10,000/weekend night at the theaters it's in. People do want to see this film. It's not a narrow demographic indie film (which I personally like), but a universally appealing, Dickensian story of rags-to-riches fortune, good vs. evil, and true love.

Theater Weekend

This weekend turned out to be theater weekend.

Friday night we went to "The Execution of Precious Memories," a contemporary dance, vocals and music performance by Blixa Bargeld (of Einstuerzende Neubauten), Nanos Operetta, and the Kunst-Stoff dance company at Project Artaud. The hour-long performance featured interpretations, both spoken and sung, of memories submitted by the general public, accompanied by music and dance. Blixa's vocalizations, and the music by Nanos Operetta, were engaging throughout. Especially compelling were the pieces during which Blixa actually sang, making the text feel much more poetic than if it had been read. The other vocalists were not as consistent. Their performances were good, though not as dynamic as Blixa's, and therefore unable to elevate some of the uninteresting and poorly composed memories that were, for reasons unclear to me, included in the piece. Unfortunately, the least successful part of the performance was the integration of the dance with the text and music. While Nanos Operetta did a fine job of providing an exciting, interpretive score, the Kunst-Stoff dancers seemed to be dancing an entirely different piece of work. None of their movements corresponded to either an apparent interpretation of the text, nor the energy of the music. The rhythm and movement patterns of the dancers remained relatively constant throughout, despite changes in tempo and dynamics in the music, and different ideas and emotions being expressed in the text. It was worth going to hear the music, and about half the text, but the dance and remaining text were sufficiently unsuccessful that I felt they made a potentially excellent work merely pretty good.

Saturday night we went to the closing night of Thrillpeddlers' Shocktoberfest 2008 show. Featuring Grand Guignol style theater, and a vaudevillian performance of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody accompanied by a player piano, it was a silly, enjoyable evening that was capped by a very well done black-lit Spook Show, as the closer to the third and final play (which was also the best of the three). While not nearly as polished and intellectual as Project Artaud, the Hypnodrome is another local theater worth supporting, and the Shocktoberfest shows are enjoyable Halloweentime diversions, complete with beer and popcorn. Modernized interpretations of turn-of-the-century French Grand Guignol plays are performed, as are contemporary texts written in a similar style. The Vaudville meets fetish scene stylings of the troupe are, of course, very San Francisco and quite amusing. While you won't get high art from this venue, it is definitely a place to go for a good time.

On Sunday we stayed away from Theater and instead went to see Disney's Bolt in 3D. It was a lot better than I had expected, and I actually enjoyed it (though I would much rather have seen a full 90 minutes of the world presented in the opener). Furthermore, the Disney Digital 3D presented on the Dolby 3D system actually looked good, and didn't give me a splitting headache. The Dolby system is a notch filtering based technology that doesn't require a silvered screen, rather than a polarization based technology that does. It also isn't the traditional headache-inducing red-blue anaglyph technique. I'd seen an R&D demo of notch filtering based 3D at SIGGRAPH a few years ago, and it looked very promising. Now that promise has been fulfilled. And Disney's use of it was not over-the-top. The separations were all motivated, and mostly restrained, making for something I've never had before: a relatively pleasant 3D viewing experience.

Things You Can Learn From James Bond

I saw Quantum of Solace last night, and while it was action packed, it was ultimately not terribly satisfying as a film. While I must agree with Ebert's assessment that "James Bond [should not be] an action hero," the action scenes would have been more exciting had my emotional investment in the characters been greater. Being able to tell what was happening more than half the time also would have helped. It's just not true that fast cutting is a substitute for a tense, psychological duel between a hero and a cunning, materially superior enemy. However, despite not liking it as much as Casino Royale, I did come away from the film with some valuable lessons:

10) MI-6 has adopted Microsoft Surface as their computing platform of choice.

9) People just won't learn the lesson of Inigo Montoya and have some sort of plan for what to do with themselves after they've carried out their vengeance.

8) If your best operative is coerced into revealing information about your operation, you should go to extraordinary lengths to find him and kill him afterwards, because that'll clearly undo the damage done to your plans.

7) Contemporary Opera is a criminal front activity.

6) Only European super-villains know where water comes from.

5) Colonialism, corruption, crony capitalism, moral degradation, and environmental cataclysm is the fault of Green Energy companies.

4) Provided you somehow slow down within the last six inches before hitting ground, you can fall from any height.

3) Don't trust anyone above the rank of Major.

2) It's merely mildly annoying to people when one kills random bad guys, but being out for revenge against someone who has deeply wronged you really pisses folks off.

and

1) Do not hold meetings in any hotel that is made out of bombs.

Final Post-AFF Thoughts: It's About The People

As much fun as it is to see great films, and hear interesting panel discussions, far and away the best part of Austin Film Festival was making new friends.

Sure, a few people were laying-on the used car salesman charm as they schmoozed the most important people they could identify in order to "help their careers," but I also met some genuinely nice people who were just interesting to talk to and fun to hang out with.

Ass-kissing the most famous person in the room is par for the course at many film industry events, but at AFF it was refreshingly restrained. As a result most people, even the well known ones, were approachable and willing to engage in actually interesting conversations. And, for the most part, even the neophytes understood that we were all just there to have a good time talking about screenwriting and filmmaking (and politics, philosophy, literature, art, science, sports, and whatever else came up).

Both growing up in one of the playgrounds of the world's rich and famous, East Hampton, NY, and nearly seven years at a hugely successful studio has me accustomed to not giving a damn about status. Such a history sometimes has the opposite effect on people, but in my case it led me to decide that there really are basically two kinds of people: people I can carry on an interesting discussion with and whose company I find pleasant, and those who don't meet that criteria. I don't particularly need to make "contacts" (to use the corporate doublespeak that essentially reduces a person to their profit potential), but it is fun to meet interesting people some of who may become genuine friends.

If sycophants, lunatics, the bitterly belligerent, and the desperate make you as uncomfortable as they do me, AFF is far and away one of the better events out there. Other than the occasional overly aggressive self promoter or bitter defeatist, most of the people at AFF were quite nice and pretty much all were at least well behaved (the at least four different people I observed asking Robert Townsend to read their script because it featured "a black guy" notwithstanding).

Other AFF Films

In addition to Death In Love, I also suggest folks check out the opposite end of the spectrum: the comedies Role Models and Summerhood. David Wain's Role Models is wide release, starring Paul Rudd and Sean William Scott, and will be very easy for you to find at a multiplex near you. On the other hand Jacob Medjuck's summer camp flick Summerhood is, like Boaz Yakin's Death In Love, still on the festival circuit and may require some seeking-out. Please support the little guy and make the effort, for both Death In Love and Summerhood. Indie filmmaking depends on you, the audience.


Another AFF film I liked was Paul Schrader's Adam, Resurrected. For a while, I was completely engrossed by this story of a circus performer concentration camp survivor, and if it weren't for some peculiar (and, I'd say, somewhat unsuccessful) choices made by director Schrader in the last 15-20 minutes of the film, I'd recommend it unreservedly. As it is, it is a very interesting piece that's still really worth watching, and perhaps you won't be popped out of the film at the end like I was.

There were also some really fun short comedies that I wholeheartedly enjoyed: The Miracle Investigators, Below The Law, Easy Pickin$, Richard Cocksmith And The Above Ground Pool, and The Universe Connection. Any of these are worth checking out, though the first three may be funnier to more people than the quirkier humor of the last two. My own experiences trying to simulate a 50's look in Drake Tungsten give me a special fondness for The Miracle Investigators, which is brilliant straight-faced comedy that hits a period look (the 70's) with great success.

Oliver Stone's W was probably his best film since Natural Born Killers, but like NBK, I can't unreservedly recommend W. It is interesting, and both Josh Brolin and James Cromwell do a good job (as do Jeffrey Wright as Powell and Richard Dreyfuss as Cheney). However, the film isn't anything we haven't already heard, and the emotional hooks aren't deep enough. It's still worth a viewing either if you're a Stone fan or you're into biopics, but I'm not convinced it's as important a film as Stone was probably hoping for.

Death In Love

Having recently returned from the Austin Film Festival, I'm not only quite tired (we're also in a crunch time at work), but also thinking about the interesting films and people I encountered there.


If it happens to show up at a festival, arthouse theater, or other venue near you, you should check out writer/director Boaz Yakin's Death In Love. An incredibly challenging film, Death In Love is far from the escapist entertainment so popular in Hollywood these days. The story "depicts the effects of a Jewish woman's love affair with the doctor in charge of human experiments in a Nazi concentration camp on the lives of her sons many years later." It is, at its core, a study of certain forms of evil, power dynamics in relationships, and despair. In the theatrical sense of the term, this film is a tragedy. The protagonist is not lovable. There are no hijinks, no shoot-outs, and no magical redemptions. You won't get a satisfying, typically American happy ending out of this film. But even if you wind up not liking the film like I do, its compelling intensity will grab hold of you and keep you thinking about it for days on end. Given a seemingly endless stream of saccharine cinema down at the multiplex, being confronted with difficult philosophical questions is alone reason enough to give this film a look.

I'm working on arranging a showing and Director's presentation here at work, but if you're not here, take whatever other opportunity you get to check it out.

Let The Right One In

If you get a chance to see "Låt Den Rätte Komma In" ("Let The Right One In") in a theater, do it. If not, at least see it on DVD (when it comes out) before going to see, if you must, the upcoming 2010 remake by Matt Reeves. (He of Cloverfield, a film I couldn't get more than ten minutes into without getting severe motion sickness and turning it off. How that guy is going to remake a film that uses stillness so beautifully is a real mystery to me).


Very Scandinavian in its usage of stillness, and cold, desolate places, to establish both tone and theme, "Låt Den Rätte Komma In" is simultaneously charming and violent. In the vein of some of the best of contemporary Japanese cinema, it takes a naturally transgressive subject and turns it into a twisted love story. That is a trope which I'm a total sucker for, and this film does it wonderfully. Don't go if you happen to not be a fan of transgressive cinema (though it is nowhere even vaguely close to the extremes some current Japanese films reach), or if you require films to be fast-paced.

However, if you enjoy contemplative films with a twisted story, this is a must see. It has two more dates in San Francisco: tomorrow and Oct 10, 2008. Check your own city for listings if you're not in the Bay Area, and jump at the chance to see this film if you get one.

Ponyo

One of the great things about my workplace is that Japan's fabulous Studio Ghibli has their U.S. premier showings of their films at our studio. Not only do we get to be the first outside of Japan to see the films, but we get to see them subtitled rather than dubbed (the general releases of their films here are dubbed).

Miyazaki's latest, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, is a very charming love story between a boy and a goldfish. I don't want to give away all the twists and turns of the story, but suffice it to say it has all the requisite unusual, magical elements that people expect from a Miyazaki film. This film skews younger than several of Miyazaki's recent films, and that is reflected both in the storytelling and the artistic styles used in the film. However, that does not mean it isn't highly enjoyable for older audiences as well.

Ponyo manages to mix in an environmental message, without beating you over the head with it, and some philosophical reflections on love and life as well. However, given the younger intended audience, there is not the depth of probing and degree of conflict found in a film like Princess Mononoke. I think this led to a third act with some unfulfilled potential, especially with regards to the adventure and element of the story and challenging the main character, but it still manages to be at least satisfying.

That one criticism aside, I still highly recommend seeing Ponyo (and, if possible, to see it subtitled so you can hear the original voice acting).

The Greighties

I love the 1980s.


Not ironically, either.


To me, the 1980s were full of all sorts of great things. Video games, D&D, great music, awesome movies, and all manner of pop culture phenomena. Though full of personal trials and tribulations (my father died, and I became a teenager, in the 1980s), I still look back on the 80s with fondness. Lofted multi-colored hair, too much oddly colored make-up, leg warmers over colored tights, and the layered look still turn me on. I was forged in the fires of the 1980s -- the fake-fur-lined, lopsided-haired, candy-colored fires, that is.


People with any sense whatsoever consider the 1980s to be the pinnacle of pop music. Synthpop, New Wave, Punk, Industrial, Goth, Glam Metal, and Rap were all ascendant in the 1980s. It was a glorious mess of new sounds, new looks, and new technology in music. Many of my absolute favorite bands -- Kraftwerk, Front 242, Ministry, Big Black / Rapeman / Shellac, Foetus, Skinny Puppy, Public Image Limited, Joy Division / New Order, Laibach, Einstuerzende Neubauten, Cabaret Voltaire, Devo, Severed Heads, Frontline Assembly, KMFDM, Depeche Mode, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Swans, Sonic Youth, Dead Kennedys, Circle Jerks, Subhumans, False Prophets, Misfits, Black Flag, The Adicts, Adolescents, Rudimentary Peni, Youth of Today, Warzone, Les Garcons Bouchers, Public Enemy, Run-DMC, The Beastie Boys, TKK, a;Grumh, Borghesia, Le Syndicat, The Haters, Merzbow, M.B., etc. (the list could go on and on) -- were in their heydays during the 1980s. Nothing about contemporary pop, punk, goth, industrial or hip hop is as compelling as the 1980s and early 90s apex of these genres. In part, it was that the cold war gave the arts more of a sense of urgency, and in part it was that people hadn't yet become so jaded by overexposure to the slick, soulless product of continually expanding global media empires.


I have quite fond memories of even the most commercial New Wave pop music of the day -- Blondie, Cyndi Lauper, The Cars, Human League, O.M.D., A Flock Of Seagulls, The Eurythmics, Yaz, etc. -- even the one-hit wonders like Animotion, Wang Chung, and A-ha were enjoyable. Madonna, Prince, Michael Jackson -- three of the biggest names in pop music of the 20th century -- were all defined by their 1980s music, all of which at least dabbled with New Wave (Madonna emerged entirely from that movement). The 1980s were the last hurrah for pop music before, in the 1990s, the major labels consumed the last vestiges of punk and new wave (the "alternative and college" labels) and all music became product. It was also a time when the suits were confused about the market, and a lot of strange music came out of even the majors that wouldn't have at any other time. It was as chaotic as the 1960s, but it smelled a little better, and it wasn't as monocultural (there was more going on that was weird than just the Hippies, so there was more diversity of odd music). I'm far from the only person who conisders the 1980s to be the most active, creative time in the history of popular music.


While the 1970s are often remembered as a great era of film, the 1980s get downplayed. This does the decade a huge disservice. A number of my all-time favorite films are films of the 1980s. Some of the greats of the era include The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, Amadeus, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Tootsie, Raging Bull, Platoon, E.T., and the incomparable Blade Runner (which I happen to think should be #3 on the AFI top 100 list, after Citizen Kane and Lawrence of Arabia -- yes, above Casablanca and The Godfather, in my opinion). But there are many other classics that don't necessarily make the film snob lists.

Sci-fi and Horror were booming in the 80s. The Empire Strikes Back, in my opinion the best of the six films (so far) in the Star Wars franchise, came out in 1980, and 1982's The Wrath of Khan is the most unequivocably enjoyable of the many Star Trek films. But John Carpenter's 80s output alone is enough to enshrine the decade: Escape From New York, The Thing, Big Trouble In Little China, and They Live are all true classics of their era. As is the Davids' output, Cronenberg with Scanners, Videodrome, The Dead Zone, The Fly and Dead Ringers, and Lynch with The Elephant Man, Dune and Blue Velvet. James Cameron's fabulous, franchise-building classics Aliens and The Terminator are true 80s gems, as is Paul Verhoeven's inspired Robocop. W.D. Richter's peculiar The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai is a wonderful bit of craziness that is often overlooked or underrated, as is Tron, a famous film that seems quaint to some because of its graphics and primitive computing technology, but which was not equalled in terms of a unique vision of a digital future until the first Matrix film. Halloween sequels were in full-swing (most sucked, though), but George Romero's Day of the Dead follow-up to 78's Dawn of the Dead, and the first Friday the 13th, are the 80s stand-outs for the three big horror franchises. And Japanese mindbenders Akira (animated) and Tetsuo: The Iron Man (live action) remain alongside Eraserhead as some of the most original, bizarre films of all time.

Punk broke into film in the 80s, as well. Alex Cox made the two most important punk films of all time during the 80s: Sid & Nancy and Repo Man, and even Penelope Spheeris' lesser punk fare The Decline of Western Civilization and Suburbia are still worth a viewing. Postpunk auteur Jim Jarmusch emerged in the 80s, with Permanent Vacation, Coffee and Cigarettes, Mystery Train, and the pure genius of Down By Law, as did Gus Van Sant, with Mala Noche and Drugstore Cowboy.


Meanwhile, John Hughes was busy reinventing the teen comedy genre, steering it away from Gidget-type dreck and creating classics like The Breakfast Club, Pretty In Pink, Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Savage Steve Holland kicked in with Better Off Dead and One Crazy Summer, and Cameron Crowe with Fast Times At Ridgemont High and Say Anything. Teen Angst films of the 80s included such classics as River's Edge, The Outsiders, Rumble Fish, Tex, and the underrated The Legend of Billie Jean.


Even some of Hughes' mainstream 80s comedies, like Vacation, Planes, Trains & Automobiles and Uncle Buck, are genius. Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder had a career defining moment with Stir Crazy, while Caddyshack and The Blues Brothers created new stars. Eddie Murphy was actually funny in films like 48 Hrs., Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop, and Coming To America, and the mockumentary was born with the hilarious This Is Spinal Tap -- but the real comic gems of the 80s come in the form of three of the best comedies of all time: Airplane!, Ghostbusters and The Princess Bride (in my opinion, a strong contender for best comedy of all time).


Genre-redifining action films, in particular Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, and The Road Warrior (which got more attention than its predecessor, 79's Mad Max) also appeared in the 80s. Across the Pacific, John Woo was making equally important action films like A Better Tomorrow and The Killer. Tim Burton's first Batman film brought postmodern comics to cinema, replacing the feel-good camp of the Christopher Reeves Superman films (Superman II being another good 80s film) with darker, somewhat more character-driven fare.

In Japan Miyazaki was helping bring anime to the world at large with beautiful films like Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Castle In The Sky, My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service. However, I feel the most brilliant Japanese animated film of all time also came out in the 80s: Takahata's bittersweet drama, Grave of the Fireflies. And on TV, the Robotech / Macross saga brought the Japanese space-soap-opera to a generation of Americans. It remains one of the best animated TV series of all time, with much more sophisticated writing than the more popular Transformers, which also spawned its first feature film in the 80s.


Role playing gaming also came into its own in the 80s. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson's Dungeons and Dragons (most gamers actually played Advanced Dungeons and Dragons -- the two systems are not fully compatible) was the most well known, but there were many other great 80s RPGs. Twilight 2000 was the best WWIII game ever made, and sci-fi titles Cyberpunk and Shadowrun helped break the Cyberpunk and Steampunk genres as legitimate subcategories of Sci-Fi amongst the nerderati (neither system was perfect, so some gamers like the two groups I played with in high school and college just merged the two games despite their being from different publishers and having very different systems). The true Steampunk game, Space 1889, was fun but not sufficiently popular. Traveller / 2300 AD was the best of the Sci-Fi systems (although lamented by some as too complex, its skills system redefined gaming rules, and I say for the better), and had many fun modules. The hilarious Paranoia Sci-Fi parody is hands-down the best humorous RPG, and though Teenagers From Outer Space was a close second, both are overshadowed by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (a good game, but the other two are much better). Strategy / board games whose worlds led to hybridization with role playing (often borrowing or creating a new system to fill in the gaps) included SJG's Car Wars and FASA's Battletech. RPG playing really helped hone my writing and storytelling skills, and led me to become a better writer, game developer, and storyteller in general. The social aspect of RPG playing is something I dearly miss. Video gaming is just not the same, even LAN parties, because human-machine, and not human-human, interaction is the core element of the gaming equation. Also, video games rarely allow the players to truly influence the design and outcome of the narrative adventure. Still, video games were a key part of my 80s childhood.

August 1982 changed the world forever. Few moments in popular history can compare with the release of the Commodore 64, which began a 12-year run unequalled in the history of computing. The machine racked-up over 30 million sold, and did at least as much to bring video games into the mainstream as the Atari 2600 (which also sold about 30 million units, but since you couldn't program it, did not do nearly as much to create a new generation of game developers). During this time, games were the brainchildren of dedicated gamers, not marketing teams. The market hadn't solidified into four genres (sports, fps, rpg and rts) with each running off one or two popular gaming engines. Since computing in general was just breaking big, games still had much more variety. While the graphics and sound were primitive, in some cases the gameplay has yet to be surpassed.

Fun, unusual games abounded in the 80s. Crush Crumble and Chomp, Mail Order Monsters and Rampage were great monster games, a dead genre. Geopolitique 1990 was a political strategy game, another dead genre. Pirates was a fun tall ship game, another dead genre. Racing Destruction Set let you create your own cars and tracks and destroy them, which is far more fun than driving around some pre-built world. Qix, Bubble Bobble, Dig Dug, Lode Runner, Warriors of Zypar, Archon, Archon II, Marble Madness, Night Shift, Pinball Construction Set, and Hovver Bovver (a lawnmowing game!) were all odd, but fun (puzzle, maze and action hybrids mostly). Simple, odd, but fun is just barely coming back with the likes of Geometry Wars (really an updated Asteroids more than an OBF). Karateka and Bruce Lee paved the way for the likes of Street Fighter which broke-big the once-popular martial arts genre, and Donkey Kong and Jumpman invented the platformer. Beachhead and Beachhead II were very primitive, but fun, predecessors to the likes of Battlefield 2. Zeppelin, a combined side-top scroller, seems simple but is one of the most fun games ever, and other great shooters/scrollers abounded, like Killerwatt and Defender. Tron was one of the best of the multiple technique games.


But, on the C64, what put things over the top was adventure (and related) games. Not all was swords and sorcery with C64 adventure and strategy gaming, such as great space strategy games like the Psi-5 Trading Company, M.U.L.E., Argos Expedition, Galactic Empire, Andromeda Conquest, Reach for the Stars, Starflight, and Impeirum Galacticum. (Now all we have is Starcraft sequels, but fortunately also emerging franchises like Galactic Civilizations / Sins of a Solar Empire, Ferion and Horizon). And some of the best games had no graphics at all, those being the classic Infocom text adventures like the Zork trilogy, Enchanter trilogy, Plantefall and Stationfall, A Mind Forever Voyaging, Deadline, Starcross, Suspended, Infidel, Wishbringer, Suspect, Jourey, Leather Goddesses of Phobos, and the still popular Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy.

The big daddies of adventure and strategy games were once Origin Systems, Inc., Sierra On-Line, and Strategic Simulations, Inc. (who I had the pleasure to work for briefly during the period of acquisitions that led to the imprint's unfortunate demise). Richard Garriott and OSI dedicated most of the 80s to the Ultima series, perhaps the greatest adventure game series of all time. Ogre, Autoduel and Omega also managed to come out during the 80s and redefine their own genres. Ken and Roberta Williams' Sierra had the very popular Kings' Quest and Leisure Suit Larry franchises. Lucasfilm Games, considered by many to be most directly competitive with Sierra, squeezed out Maniac Mansion and Zak Mccracken and the Alien Mindbenders, both good fun. However, SSI was really a force to be reckoned with once. SSI produced both great adventure games like Phantasie, Wizard's Crown, Questron, Pool of Radiance, and several official AD&D games, as well as classic turn-based strategy games like Kampfgruppe, Germany 1985, Mech Brigade, Roadwar, Gettysburg, and Storm Across Europe. Electronic Arts, still under Trip Hawkins and not yet considered greedy industry villains, chimed in with Seven Cities of Gold and the brilliant, genre redefining, franchise-spawning The Bard's Tale. Really, there are too many good games from this era to list them all. Maybe someday I'll try, but let this abbreviated list suffice for now.


The first comic book done on a computer also came out in the 80s: Saenz and Gillis' Shatter, a well done cyberpunk story that was steeped in the emerging digital culture. But that wasn't the most exciting thing going on in comics in the 80s. Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore's The Killing Joke brought back Batman as a conflicted vigilante. Moore's The Watchmen and Art Spiegelman's Maus turned once lowly comics into genuine literature. And in 89, Neil Gaiman's seminal The Sandman arrived on the scene.

Philip K. Dick's last novels also came out in the 80s: Radio Free Albemuth, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, The Divine Invasion, and the brilliant VALIS, as did Stanislaw Lem's Fiasco. William Gibson burst onto the scene with his best works: Burning Chrome, Neuromancer, Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive. Salman Rushdie published Midnight's Children and the fatwa-inspiring Satanic Verses, Gabriel García Márquez published the brilliant Love in the Time of Cholera, Milan Kundera published The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Gore Vidal published Empire, J.G. Ballard published The Empire of the Sun, and Don DeLillo broke out with White Noise (and Rudy Rucker arrived on the fiction scene with White Light).


I am a child of the 1980s. I was 6 going into 1980, so most of my formative years were spent absorbing the wonders of the 1980s. Computers and science, video games, music, movies, art, and books were my whole life. There are great films, music, games, art and books of the 90s and beyond, but the debt they owe to the 80s is often overlooked, downplayed, or scoffed-at. Before people laugh at the 80s, they ought to look at the impact of the 80s on today's culture. New Wave fashion (the most canonically derided element of the 80s) looks a lot like contemporary hip hop fashion. Both synth-and-sampler laden genres like hip hop and future pop, and guitar-laden ones like Modern Rock, owe at least as huge a debt to the 80s as to the 70s and 90s. This often forgotten, or mocked, decade really produced some of the best popular culture of all time.

The Debate

The video I couldn't mention by name in a previous post is now able to be seen. It's called The Debate, and it was absolutely hilarious to me and the folks who helped me make it (well, at least a couple of them) when it was made. However, it's already outdated. I've therefore put it to use as the first substantial "war stories" posting over at The Indie Auteur.

The Must-See Film of 2008

Is it WALL-E?
Well, yes, do go see that. And The Dark Knight, too. Definitely see WALL-E and The Dark Knight. And, if you haven't already seen Iron Man, that's worth a gander, also. I'm sure there will be some excellent dramas and Indie films coming down the transom as well, and perhaps a few interesting documentaries. Yes, all that is great stuff.

But what is the hidden gem must see film of the year?

The title alone is worth the admission. It is the Russian action comedy called:

Hitler Kaput!

This trailer is hilarious even if you have no idea what anyone is saying:

The mixture of stupid comedy and the offensive made ridiculous through absurdity has worked well in the past with films like Top Secret! (an obvious precedent for Hitler Kaput!) and Blazing Saddles (and, of course, The Producers), so here's hoping that Hitler Kaput! manages to be as good as the best of its predecessors.

Cool (I hope) New Blog, Stupid Old Hosting Company

I've just launched my new filmmaking blog.

I had always intended to have how-to and craft sort of stuff separate from this blog, and now that site is launched.

However, Yahoo! is just about the worst hosting situation I've encountered. I've submitted three help requests and received zero answers (including one request using their suggested candy-colored, headache-inducing community help system).

If you go to www.indieauteur.com you get a different version of the page than if you go to www.indieauteur.com/blog (they're supposed to be the same). At first I thought it was always older than the /blog one, but actually they alternate between which is older and which is current. There is no apparent way to fix this (I tried deleting and recreating the site -- entirely from scratch -- three times, and it persists).

Despite my utter lack of enthusiasm for system administration tasks these days, my current plan is to try to install Word Press myself on the colocated host that bugaj.com lives on. But, if you know of a better pre-installed Word Press host, feel free to mention it in the comments.

Busy as a Bee

I've been quite busy. In addition to my day job I was busy rewriting and sending a feature script called "Welcome To Akron" to a wide variety of contests, fellowships, agents and managers. I've also been taking an advanced cinematography class, working on a new feature script, brainstorming ideas and writing treatments for a pitches to an interested producing partner, doing some event photography (which I don't really like doing, but it was a favor), and working on two short films. One of the shorts is a "making of" documentary for another short film (this weekend I think I finally re-focused on the idea that "cracked" the making of project in terms of making it not be as boring as most other making of docs), and the other is the next installment of a Noir comedy serial that I've developed with my friends Bill Zahn and Jason Topolski (and am creating with help from a whole bunch of friends). Here are a couple production stills:

Me and Bill Zahn, my directing and writing partner, on location trying to figure out
what the heck to do about the zillion production problems that cropped-up
in that grove of trees (the smiles came after we accepted compromise).

Jason Topolski, our star, looking noir as all get-out.

However, we won't be setting-up the site and releasing the first webisode until some time later this year. The plan is to have at least 3 (I'd prefer 4) in the can before we start releasing them. Thanks to a fantastic crew, we managed to get through some really rough patches and get most of our shooting done. We will do a pick-up day, but given the ambition of some of our set-ups, that was probably to be expected.

I've also been preparing for a trip to Poland next week. To cap it all off Sim, one of our cats, got very sick with Pyothorax (a potentially fatal condition). $4000 in vet bills later he is on the road to recovery, but Anu has now been laid off by yet another non-profit arts institution going down the path to destitution and cultural irrelevance (the timing of which, coming on the heels of such a large and unexpected expense, was doubly inauspicious).

I did have a couple minutes to "write" this review of Denon's absurd $500 ethernet cable (which some of you will recognizes as a riff on the Turbo Encabulator meme, with a few changes to fit the application), so I guess the chaos is subsiding a wee bit.

Derivatives Derived

Here is my submission to John August's latest challenge, in which participants must write a scene in which someone explains (financial) derivatives. The version here fixes a subtle malapropism which, if John is on the ball, should cause him to go "that doesn't quite make sense, he meant xxx" for one of the lines. However, I'm not going to point out which word it is -- I'll let you find it. It actually makes some sense in the erroneous version -- it just makes sensible sense in the corrected version.

If some of the dialog seems familiar, but you don't get the reference -- it's an homage to an awesome scene from Sidney Lumet's Network (script by Paddy Chayefsky). I also make mention the other meaning of derivative, which is often used when doing analysis to decide what derivative positions to take. And, by being an homage, the scene itself is derivative. Perhaps John will award extra points for scoring a triple entendre.

---

JENKINS, a stuffed suit executive munching a Cuban cigar, leans forward. He bellows out a cloud of smoke from his yellow grin. It engulfs the thin, bookish MAX. Jenkins gesticulates with his cigar like an orchestra conductor, pushing Max farther back into his chair with each sweeping gesture.

JENKINS
Your pointless pontifications on pricing parameters and rates of change and rates of change of rates of change are boring me, Max. Buy low, sell high. It's simple, Max. Even a genius like you can see that, no?

MAX
But, Mr. Jenkins, we can't just --

JENKINS
Come now, Max. It's like the man once said. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multi-variate, multi-national dominion of dollars. It is the international system of currency that determines the totality of life on this planet! The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the by-laws of business. That is the natural order of things today! Am I getting through --

Max's chair crashes to the ground as he jumps up. He grabs Jenkins' arm in mid-swing. Plucks the cigar from his hand.

MAX
You foolish old fossil!

As Max rants he shoves the cigar an inch closer to Jenkins' nose with each outburst.

MAX
Don't you understand? There is no IBM or ITT or AT&T, no DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide or Exxon. There are only equities and commodoties, rates and trends, arbitrage and triage, speculation and hedging, OTCs and ETCs. The future is forwards, the forwards, our future! You think your cozy little world of petro-dollars and electro-dollars and multi-dollars is what George Soros talks about in his board meetings? You stand here and howl about dollars and cents. There are no dollars and cents. Dollars and cents are but a dot on a chart, a moment in time, the input to the next output, the second when the future becomes the present, before it becomes the future again! And with leverage, we always live in the future. You're reading a dysfunctional function. Look deeper. Can't you see it, Jenkins? The future? -- Is knowing the future! The almighty dollar is dead. There are only arbitrage positions and speculation markets, equity swaps and back-to-backs, forward rate agreements and interest rate caps, swaptions and options and futures and turbo warrants. Long-term positions? Profitability? And, for Heaven's sake -- dividends? Yesterday's news, Jenkins. There are no more straight bets, no more original positions. No, Jenkins. Everything is derivative now.

The cigar is almost touching Jenkins' nose. He nervously pushes it aside.

JENKINS
(uncertain)
What does it mean, Max?

MAX
Your future has no options, Jenkins. I'm shorting you.

Max stuffs the cigar into Jenkins' suit pocket. Struts out the door.

Ollie Johnston: Another Great Gone

The last of Disney's legendary "Nine Old Men" of animation, Ollie Johnston, has passed away. This is another "truly, the end of an era" moment. Of course, those are inevitable (especially coming out of a century where so much amazing work in art, science, technology and politics happened in so little time), but they are always sad nonetheless.

For those of you who may not know, Johnston was one of the prime movers at Disney behind American animation. He was a master animator who was instrumental in the making of Snow White, Fantasia, Bambi, Pinnochio, Cinderella, and a whole slew of other classic Disney films. He was also the author, with long-time cohort Frank Thomas, of several books including The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation, the classic book on animation.

I promise I'll blog again about something other than obituaries and illnesses soon, but right now I'm really busy working on a script rewrite (which happens to center around death and illness) so these are the only events catching enough my attention lately to bother blogging about.

Cinema vs. Movies

Q: What is the difference between "cinema" and "movies" (other than that in a cinema you can sometimes buy beer, but in a movie theater you can always buy a twelve dollar soda)?

Here is my answer:

Movies are about two giant, nuclear-powered spaceships filled with robotic alien ninjas crashing into each other over a New York City that's filled with pretty women pushing baby strollers.

Cinema is about people.

A Must See Film: Young@Heart

I just saw a preview screening at work of a documentary called "Young @ Heart." Titled after the chorus of the same name, this film perfectly personifies the catchphrase of "Down By Law," the one uttered over and over by Roberto: "It is a sad and beautiful world."

The Young @ Heart chorus is comprised entirely of people over 73 years of age, but focuses on singing contemporary (often quite contemporary) music. Taking a six week rehearsal period as its back drop, the film tells the story of the chorus through the lives of several chorus members and the observations of their Director, Bob Cilman. There is a bit of talk about how music performance is good for keeping people active, challenging their minds and bodies, ad so on -- but this isn't a music therapy promotional piece. This is a beautiful film about wonderful people making inspiring (and yes, amusing) music. You will immediately get drawn into the stories of these extraordinary people, and only the stone hearted can leave the theater not caring about them.




Director Stephen Walker does a great job of keeping things honest, with very little vamping for the camera by the participants, or "knowing" asides by the filmmakers. At first blush, I expected the film to be hip and ironic -- perhaps even sarcastic. After all, what about the elderly singing Sonic Youth and The Ramones isn't some kind of trendy, retro-kitsch parody ripe for a moment of cynical embrace by the legions of cool -- only to be discarded during the next moment's fad? Well, the film gives you that answer in copious quantities. This is a film about people, not pop culture, and it is quite an emotional ride. I don't want to give away too much because you absolutely must see this film. If the story of the Young @ Heart choir doesn't empower you to say, without a hint of irony: "I laughed, I cried, I danced in the aisles" -- well, then, you probably should just adjust your horn-rimmed glasses and calmly, aloofly hurry back to the oxygen bar next door so you won't miss your live-blogging gossip about Project Runway session (soulless freak).



Young @ Heart opens April 9th in limited, phased roll-out release. If it comes to your area, see it. If not, see it on DVD. And if the Young @ Heart choir comes to your area sprint, don't run, to get ticket before they nearly instantly sell out (as they are sure to do).

More Sad News: Anthony Minghella has also died

Too many interesting folks passing away lately, and I'm starting to suffer from tribute exhaustion. Anthony Minghella, the writer-director responsible for such fine films as "The English Patient" and "The Talented Mr. Ripley" died from surgical complications.

Minghella's work was very poetic, both textually and visually, and yet at the same time accessible to a wider audience. His films were very emotionally engaging, and he was able to coax amazing performances from his actors. I never had an opportunity to meet him, but his reputation as a nice guy is confirmed by folks at work who had. He died much too young, and he will be missed.