Just Get Here LEGALLY...

From Wikipedia:
"July 1, 2015, a gunman opened fire on Pier 14 in the Embarcadero district in San Francisco, CA, shooting 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle in the chest. She died two hours later at a hospital. An illegal immigrant from Mexico, Francisco Sanchez, was arrested and charged with murder. Authorities suspect that the shooting was random. The shooting sparked controversy and political debate over San Francisco's sanctuary city status."

If this doesn't make the most softest of hearts boil against the system, you are the problem. Kathryn or she is known as Katie, was walking on the pier with her father when she was randomly struck in the chest fired by a man who should not be in the United States. In fact, he should be deep in some Mexican jail. Instead, he's on a pier in California firing bullets into a crowd. Sweet.

This is an awful crime perpetrated by a man who was depoted FIVE times. The feds had to hand him over to the state. The city of San Francisco, being a city that has this status of never revealing the state of the immigration status, allowed Sanchez to walk out. Even though, they could've held them. Whatever the details, a simple check would've found out his past history. The one thing that will make you just sick to your stomach is...

...this is all legal. Yes...the city of San Francisco did everything by the books. But didn't do everything by common sense. This is our government at work. Ineffective piles are steaming shit that don't do jackshit unless you owe them money. But this is completely our fault. We can't judge or we champion guys who want to be girls or vice versa. We say (even though I'm not religious) that Christians are zealots while Muslims are chopping off heads. That the Department of Justice can send representatives to funerals for Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, and Freddie Gray but no one from the White House to attend Katie's funeral. Not even a word about it.

This is total garbage. The criminals have more rights than you now. And hopefully, you don't discover this the hard way, as when you get into their system, and you try to do the right thing. You're in for a surprise.

Twittin' Tweetin' Varmints

Can you imagine if social media was available in during the Wild West?
The very idea that your big mouth could get you shot would be enough for people not to tweet certain things. I mean, even during those days, just a cockeyed look could get you a belly full of lead.
It crack me up about free speech. We don't fully comprehend the consequences because we don't see it. We think sending thoughts into the open air, we're buffered beyond a fist. Or public shaming. I'm sure during those days there was public shaming. They did post notices of cattle rustlers and thieves. And they did have a bounty system. It'd be weird now if we had a system where people can find the complete strangers talking smack about them and get revenge. I guess we do, it's called the government. J. Edgar Hoover use to use every resource he had to find shit-talkers.

But that's not a society we want to live in. It's funnier just to crack wise on each other and fuck with each others' psyche on a daily basis. You do have to consider the effort it would take back in the pioneer days to really find a way to let Ezekiel know you are displeased with him. I think the best public shit-talker was Mark Twain. Few people knew what an asshole he was. His quips were short and stabbed you right in the heart. It's odd he lived as long as he did. But that's another thing, perhaps in his public shit-talking, there were people who could live through his words (if you agreed with him). Which I would consider him, a modern day blogger.

A Lesson From "Fantastic Four"

As I mess with the fine tuning of “Nick’s Van,” there are a lot of doubt as to whether or not the movie plays. I honestly lost perspective as I’ve seen it more times than I care to think about. Yes, even I get burned out. I really can’t imagine what it must be like in the feature world. One thing to consider when putting together a story: with logistical problems, my main focus now is smooth out some really uneven parts.

The movie in total (now that I’ve been away) seems to be a longer movie. In other words, a feature length film crammed into a short film. I’m not sure how it got to this point, or whether or not it’s just me being paranoid, but a movie CAN be ruined by overthinking it. I think once you get a lot of eyes on it, everyone obviously has an opinion. This is why it is imperative to watch with an audience and gauge their reaction. Unfortunately I don’t have the money or time to do so. So I get what I get. Intuitively, something about my first cut always felt like the right pace. I’m not sure why, but I’ve been advised to shorn off the call and response dialogue. In other words, you talk then I talk, then you talk again. For some reason, this seemed to abbreviate the movie to a place I don’t like. The mood suddenly has felt more hurried. Or maybe that’s just in my mind. I’m not sure. Do the characters bond too fast, not fast enough, is it believable, how do we feel about them? Are they flushed out right? These are painful questions that need to be answered for the final. It may also be that I’m hearing too many voices when it comes to the direction of the movie. Not sure.

This made me think of the fiasco which was “Fantastic Four” this weekend. A movie directed by a young guy named Josh Trank. He directed a movie which left a bad taste in my mouth…”Chronicle.” It was well done, but fell apart in the end. That aside, he was hired by 20^th Century Fox to reboot the franchise. If rumors are correct, the studio really did a dance with this guy. Not sure the logistics, but basically it seemed he had ideas of what the movie should be, the studio had THEIR idea of what it should be. Seems he wasn’t present for the re-shoots or the re-edits. In other words, the studio hired this youngster to be just a director by proxy. Man…that’s gotta smart. Personally, I’d like someone to give me feedback, though doubt it’d be that helpful during the actual shoot. What makes this issue much more interesting is that Trask later went on to Tweet (most likely knowing what this could do to his career) a harsh criticism to how awful the movie became when the studio took over. Waaaay too many cooks in the kitchen. Worse…the cooks were in charge. If you were to put two high profile projects together and compare, you could see where one went wrong and one that went right. The example I mean is “Jurassic World.” Colin Travarrow is a hired gun. He has neither the pedigree, nor the experience to helm something this large. BUT, he had the guiding hand of Steven Spielberg. Obviously a filmmaker who is trustworthy. On the other end, Josh Trask had…no one. He as a director thrown to the wolves to fend for himself. Which is the impression I get. A lot has been said of his ego, which I can’t vouch either way. All I can say is that when studio wants you to do it their way, you either go with the machine, take the paycheck and remain quiet. Or fight the uphill battle. If that is arrogance and ego to you, so be it. But we’re not in the wilting lily business. It’s a hard grind. And insecurity breeds bad behavior. I’m in a quandary that doesn’t have Spielberg to bail me out. I deal with what I got. And all I can say is the adage of…if I’ve made a mistake, at least make it big. At least that what my football coach use to say. He didn’t care if I committed a penalty, as long as it’s on a big play and it prevented the other team from scoring, he didn’t care if I de-pants the quarterback. This is the risk of putting your guts into everything you do. Sometimes you will get drawn and quartered. Is it a good product. I can sense it is. But sensibilities are different. As are perspective.  Since it’s my baby, I don’t know if it’s ugly. Just that it’s mine. And not to sound corny, but I am proud of the accomplishment. In the case of Josh Trask, it seems they took was could’ve been his baby and gave it rhinoplasty, fake boobs and hair plugs and called it a baby (it seems from his statements).

I hope I don’t get to that point. It is a constant warning to all those who want to make studio movies, these aren’t YOUR movies. Those who want to buffer themselves from the angry public…would do well to maybe make a studio movie. Those who want their stamp will be facing bigger obstacles. I think the Duplass Brothers navigated it best, by making nickel and dime movies. Staying out of the studio is the surest way to do what you want. But the longer road. I think it’s respectable to suffer for your art. Just not in the way the studio wants. That’s the other adage…if you’re going to suffer, it might as well be something you believe in.

The lesson here is that, if you deal with the Devil, no one blames the Devil.

Anecdote From A Wedding

When one of my best friends got married, she invited me to come up to Seattle. It was the first time I’d ever actually taken a trip and took effort into going to a wedding. She originally wanted me to be “best man” for her. Which, I think there’s a technical term for that. But since I was nowhere in town, I couldn’t make any type of arrangements for her. I loved the trip. Took the ferry across the sound. Seattle is beautiful my Dad wants to retire there for some odd reason. I think he’s only been there twice. Clean air, lotsa’ trees. I love the rain. I recall driving down the coast to the place where she was getting married. By the waterfront. It was spectacular with a view of Mt. Rainer. My ass was fogged with boozy brain, so I stayed further away. I didn’t earn much and didn’t have much money, so it was a little embarrassing to have to drive 30 miles to the outskirts of where everyone else was staying. But, whatever…had to make it.

At the reception, I recall being sat at a “singles table.” This is a place where the people who don’t have mates sat. I’d had stomach issues and was sat next to a girl. Not exactly the hottest girl there but still attractive. I attempted to strike up a conversation with her. To which she shot me down hard. This is at a full table which became uncomfortable. Not to sound harsh, but it seemed this girl seemed to hate men in general. My friend hung out with women like this. Feminist who don’t realize they’re lesbians yet. That’s my ego talking.

Shaking off that uncomfortable exchange, I started in on the other girls there. I didn’t hook up. A total bummer. But some dude piped up “Hey Thom.” I looked at him, couldn’t place the face or the name. “How’s it going? Holy shit, you made it.” I did that thing that most people do. I played along. “Oh hey! Good to see you. How’s it going?” People sense this and adjust.

“Yeah, made it out all the way from Bowling Green.”

Said two things to me, we went to college together, he is from the hometown of the groom. “Great man, great” I continued. “Good to be at this wedding, wouldn’ta’ missed it.”  I could tell he was getting annoyed at this transparent fishing tactic. To which he finally told me his name (to which I still forget to this day). He did say we were in the art department program together and that we knew the same people.

It got really uncomfortable. And I was getting both light headed and a little nauseous. I needed booze. It was bad that I was going through withdrawals at my friend’s wedding. “Oh right, I hung out with Matt, Erina, Debbie, Rebecca, all those people”

“Rebecca Davis?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“Oh yeah, I knew her” he said.

This really perked me up…she was the girl in college I was going to marry.

“Yeah real pretty girl” he seemed to have fond memories of her. He knew her from around school.

“I dated her for a while.”

“You did?” he seemed…almost…embarrassed.

“yeah, for over three years. Off and on for seven. It didn’t work out.”

“Holy shit. Really?” No I’m fucking lying.

He then dropped the subject. I didn’t see him again throughout the rest of the wedding. Which was odd, considering it wasn’t that big.

To this day, I’m not sure if I imagined this exchange. There were others there that remembered me from college. But my boozed up brain couldn’t put any of it together.

I spent the next few hours outside of the hotel next to the fire nursing a Bud Light as the rest of the guests started to tap into their rooms. I knew I had a 30 mile drive ahead of me. And was around complete strangers by that outdoor fireplace. I love my friend so much. She’s been such a presence in my life from afar. And been sweet to me even through TERRIBLE behavior. And I showed up…mental.

Years later, as I was in our office in Hollywood, California, a girl in scheduling and I were talking in the kitchen. She was new to the town and mentioned she was from Seattle. To which I told her about this wedding. I told her the name of the hotel. To which she said…she worked her entire high school at the same hotel and off and on during the summer.  Recalled that wedding.

"Day Of The Dead" (1985)

No, it’s not a Mexican celebration, this is George Romero’s final in the trilogy, beginning with “Night Of The Living Dead.” We’re now over a decade since the first one came out and unlike real trilogies, this doesn’t follow the storyline of the other movies, just a stand alone entry in the Dead movies.

This movie starts with Sarah (Lori Cardille) who awakes from a nightmare only to be flung into a darker reality: that zombies are still after them, and the rule the Earth.

She and her team are just returning from a scout trip to get provisions for their underground compound. We discover as they go deep into the Earth, that they’ve made living quarters and have three camps…a military group determined to eradicate the zombies, a survival group hoping to regain society, and a research group. It’s obvious these groups will butt heads. What I can’t stand is stupid people doing stupid things to supplement the plot.

Unfortunately, in order for anything to happen, the moral dispute between what would be the questions people raise living in cramped quarters. What is absolutely impressive is that “The Walking Dead” clearly borrows these themes from this movie. And the trilogy really. To that effort, it’s before its time, and is pretty amazing that it does hold up (trivia: they even have Greg Nicotero doing FX for “The Walking Dead.”). There is also a moment when the discussion turns more philosophical. Terry Alexander completely knocks it out of the park, with part pragmatism and mostly spiritual. It is a heartbreaking speech about what we are and what we deserve. This is expert exposition delivered spot on. It's a cruel indictment on our society and to (whatever God you believe's) testing us with bringing Hell to us. This is somewhat prescient considering how we are to each other in 2015.

The other thing, is that this movie had ZERO stars. At this time, and the successes of the other two, I’m sure Romero could’ve gotten himself a named actor. He does something brilliant in that he casts people he can tolerate in (what was mentioned in the commentary) as a limestone mine. There was no way a star would think of spending hours in a hole in the Earth for countless hours with blood FX.

I was fascinated by the commentary. Especially since it had Lori Cardille on it. Surprised to discover her father was in the original “Night Of The Living Dead” decades earlier. Also, that her memories of the limestone mine were actually fond. That’s a woman! As a movie though…it has a LOT of lag. What “Dawn Of The Dead” had going for it, was it was a comment on the eve of consumer culture. That type of political observation in a zombie movie is the backbone of what makes “Walking Dead” so successful (and may I remind you again, decades ahead of its time). The violence also stands the test of time. When the mandatory gore and splatter occur at the end inevitably happens, it’s gruesome even in today’s standards.

A real solid movie for a slow night. Brought back memories too. As I saw this movie in my teens when I couldn’t get dates with girls at school. It actually makes you feel better when you’re really lonely. I think it has to do with isolation of the characters.

It's Your Life

I was talking to a co-worker about his ambition to do things in life. He’s a data ingest guy. Basically he takes what people want him to store and categorizes it into a machine, and into the ether somewhere. Hardly the glamorous position of someone who wanted to do much more in the movie business.

I told him that people come out to L.A. for two reasons. 1) to do something they can’t do in their hometown 2) to work in the movie industry in some way.

There might be a few here and there that are sent here for corporate or whatever but you run into more people wanting to work in movies than anywhere else. Duh!

The one thing people do forget, if they’re here long enough, is…they stop doing that. I would say over half of the people who started wanting to do it, realize they DON’T want to return to their hometowns and prefer to find some existence somewhere here. That means doing whatever it is to stay here. The weather is nice. The dream still within eye shot.

Those who do opt out by opportunity (or lack of) linger a lot of time. Falling what typically becomes the same schedule they would have had had they lived in their hometown. Making a living to…live. For some, after a while, that tinge of boredom slips in again. I tell my co-worker what I do to keep that feeling at bay. He vamps openly about wanting to do something creative. I think he’s like a girl in the sense that if you gave him a solution, he gets excited about the potential, drives up his interest, but the reality of it would stifle him. He doesn’t want answers. He wants someone to bitch to. The nuts and bolts to do anything usually stops many people dead in their tracks. Because it IS boring. And stupid, most of the time. With a shitload of odd stress. If you put yourself in that place. See, that’s the quandary…in order to have some stake in working in movies, you HAVE to dive into it deep. And that pool is full and pissed in repeatedly.

This is not to sway anyone from wanting to make movies. It’s just that the normal brain finds it much more…oh, let’s say non-glamorous as portrayed. The reality is that it is work. And walls to which most aren’t accustomed to. While the rest of the population struggles to raise a family, build onto their home or whatever, the one who wants to make it in movie is sitting in a lonely dark room trying to piece together their story. And most of the time, they lose track of pretty much…what the real world deals with. This is not a simple thing for anyone to deal with (if you so happen to be connected to this person in any way). Making movies is a needy co-dependent bitch. When you’re young, energy is limitless, when you’re older…limited.

I do say one thing though…as he frequently reminds me the football season is about to begin, that time watching this sport or any sport where you’re invested deeply in, takes time away from pursuing the “dream.” If working so you can supplement watching football and drinking is the fun you look forward to, then by all means, this is a life worth living. I rabidly follow pro football, but I realize that I don’t want those hours to eat into the time I have left to do anything creative. I remind myself that win or lose, the team goes back to their homes unaware of my time wasted watching it. And I’m left with a bill for all the wings I eat, and a memory I can’t really share with the people I meet in L.A. We can recount stats and drama on the field, but does that push you forward in why we got into the movie business? No it doesn’t. That is the tradeoff these days. I also tell him, and I’m sure this is true of everyone who is successful in making movies, there is no substitute for commitment. The bitch of it is that you have to get nauseous with movie making. Learn new things since movies are malleable. Why things work, how things work, how to do things, everything. You can’t simply sit on your hands and wait for things to come to you. It won’t.

The simple thing in life is treating life like a stream for which you can take an inner tube town and watch lazily as you pass things. Unfortunately, if you are ambitious, life can’t move like that. You have to start paddling like the devil is chasing you. Push past the current, move with the current, force yourself to the end, because nothing propels you forward without effort. Most of us love sitting in that inner tube. I don’t blame you. Less stress, less pain, less inner turmoil. Because if you have passengers, now you have added risk to make sure everyone gets there in one piece. The oddest part about it all, and not to sound completely like an old fart, is that this ride is available to all and made easier through technology.

If you consider the ones who wrote classics did it on typewriters with ribbon or on a yellow legal pad, we’re fucking morons for not doing better…or more. Words are cheap, but we still find reasons not to produce them. For what reason? I’ve no clue. Only that we’ve conditioned our brains to believe that numbing it to stimulus is good enough. That we have a lot of life to do this. And time in front of us. Bullshit. We have to live life like tomorrow is no longer there. What if it weren’t? Would you waste it watching the newest Netflix original? We really don’t have as much time as you think. Even if you’re in your 20’s…think back to the moments you heard a song, and what feeling that elicits. From your days standing next to a keg somewhere wondering what your future held. How long ago was that? Seemed like a lifetime ago. Would be a blink. In the years I’ve come out here in 1998, the landscape of the world had changed so much. Now consider that life that didn’t have Twitter or Facebook or Instagram or SnapChat or whatever. It’s ridiculous to some that we even functioned. How did we do it? We moved on. Whilst I don’t criticize these things (as they are only invented to make us feel better about ourselves) it does hinder the reality that people will die around us. We will die. And we hadn’t made a mark. Does it matter when you’re young? Probably not. As you’re older, it seems to be the experiences that we value over money. Shit, I think back on small moments (if I can remember them) and painfully dissect where I could’ve done better. We’ve been conditioned to move on rather quickly instead of get introspective about it.

Maybe we will look back on these days, and just remember them based on timeline. I think there’s something pretty insidious about allowing machines to log in your memories and regurgitate them to you. But before I’m called out for being a hypocrite, as I work on projects that rely on your viewership, I just want to make projects that make us better people. Maybe it makes a statement on how we can function better. Whether or not you feel the message is worthwhile, I think the effort is worth it. Am I a crusader? No. Quite honestly, I could care less what my co-worker does. But I do feel when you do take the first step in a marathon, there are people lined up on the streets with support and cheers wanting you to just finish the race. And that is pretty cool.

"Spy" (2015)

It must be pretty cool to be Melissa McCarthy. Chubby but fun. She has deep seeded self-loathing that women who do own a lot of cats must feel. But being inadequate in Hollywood standards also has its heroine. It’s not a bad thing that McCarthy is that person.

She plays a basement dwelling  C.I.A. operative that assist with real spies. In this case, it’s a man she has a crush on. Super spy Bradley Fine (Jude Law). Things go from odd to weird when she is placed into active field duty when he is assassinated. This is where the viewer either plays along or just hates the movie. And it’s going to suck if you hate the movie, because it goes really long from here. I went along with it. Hell, I paid the $3.00 at the cheap theater to see it with a band of chatty Latinas behind me. Fuck them.

Anyway, I did enjoy this movie. Although I hated “Bridesmaids” directed by the same guy Paul Feig. Here he also brings back Rose Byrne. Since she’s so beautiful, why not let her be the villain again? She is the light of the movie actually. Ripping McCarthy apart with her East Euro candor. They just don’t have a filter for rude. She’s the spoiled heiress to a very bad man. Unfortunately, if you stop to think about the twists and turns, you will hurt yourself with how much you hate Feig for how ridiculous it becomes. For instance, though they all work for the C.I.A. (USA) everyone speaks with a British accent. As if the script was written by a child who had no clue as to who the C.I.A. was. If you think this is funny (which I did) then you’ll go along with it. If you think this is infantile, it’ll drive you nuts from this point on.

HOWEVER, the laughs still do come quick. You can tell where they loop lines to fix dead air, or let things run long for the humor to really stick. This may be annoying to a lot of people.

The one thing though…in regards to McCarthy…her schtick is fairly standard for her now. It’s a mix between sarcasm and babbling idiot. She calls it like it is, but what she calls it like is to diffuse the terrible thing for which is about to happen. Or to mask uncomfortable banter. I think a lot of people may find this absolutely shitty for the upcoming “Ghostbusters.” Or it could work. I think Bill Murray has a similar delivery. Speak whatever comes to mind, regardless of who is within earshot. This is silly, no doubt. It was fun for this movie. May fizzle if overdone.

My friend told me one time about something he read where they now include a character in movies that are more in the know of the silliness of the plot. This is simply to address the audiences’ sophistication of movie logic. For instance in “Jurassic World” you have the gen-Xer who was a teen when the first “Jurassic Park” was released. He wears the t-shirt and warns of the imminent danger from the first movie. In McCarthy’s case, she IS that person. And she’s also the lead. Do with that information as you wish.

I do believe Feig is the master now of modern woman empowerment. I like that he doesn’t hammer it into your head. There are small moments that make women not hate each other. This is really wise and nice. Is it honest in the real world? Probably not if all the spy women were in love with the same guy. But, he does a great job in both criticizing women hating on other women, and women working together for a cause. To his credit, he’s pretty much dodged the “feminist” label while still making that type of movie. I enjoyed “Spy” but I doubt it will linger a that long. Which, I felt the same about “The Heat.”