It might be nice to write a quick little blurb about screenwriting, or storytelling, and my views and ideas on how to do it well and all that fun helpful interesting stuff...but no, this entry is about something much different. Because I'm like that.
I had cable installed in my new apartment yesterday. Not because I feel I need a hundred channels, but I do feel I need to be able to see and hear whatever channel I do happen to be watching, and the reception here was so shitty that I opened my checkbook and signed up for digital cable...during a promotion, of course; I'm no spendthrift. Anyway, this particular promotion includes On Demand (is that trademarked?) programming and 11 HBO channels. None of which I feel I really need, but they show SO MANY MOVIES. And it's all included. Granted, much of it is not widescreen, and I hate the idea of fullscreen/cropped images/pan & scan SO FUCKING MUCH that it's certainly worth a rant on these pages at some point, but still...it's all free.
Okay, yes, I realize I am actually paying for it, but I'm paying for the cable and its regular programming; the HBO & On Demand are included, therefore, free, by certain definition. And how could I possibly pass up free movies? I can't, really, but there are only so many hours in a day and night, some of which simply have to be taken up by things like sleeping, working, and other aspects of modern existence. So I've got about a hundred movies at my fingertips, plus there's a branch of the good 'ol Chicago Public Library RIGHT around the corner where I can borrow all kinds of DVD's for a week at absolutely no cost to me...whatever shall I do?
What I'd like to do is somehow absorb an entire movie experience instantaneously instead of sitting there for 90-150 minutes, actually watching the darn things. Now, don't get me wrong, ha ha, I'm not saying the experience of sitting and watching a movie is too drawn out to be enjoyable and I'm nothing but an impatient lunatic...I may very well be one, but I would not trade a movie-watching experience for anything in the world. I live for it. But this sudden plethora of ready-entertainment is a bit overwhelming, and I'm simply saying it'd be nice to have a time-saving option such as downloading a digital format directly into my brain which would still give me the full experience of having seen the movie but also allow me to do all the other things I need to do with myself such as go to the grocery store like I did this morning.
Would that be so wrong?
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Sunday, August 19, 2007
The World of Craig Brewer
Last week I rented Black Snake Moan, because it's been on my list of movies to see since I first heard of it, and when I walked into the video store it was the first title I saw that I could rent for a week. (I have so many movies I want to see, I spend very little time choosing one.) I don't think it's a great movie, but I liked it, mainly because the performances are so strong, and because the story tries to be different. I like movies that are a little bit off, a little bit strange, but not completely crazy impossible to get a handle on. Movies like this usually don't end up having a wide appeal, and often don't do well at the box office, and I don't think this was an exception. But it appeals to me, and I thought I might become a fan and supporter of writer/director Craig Brewer.
I'd heard nothing but great things about Hustle & Flow, so, after renting and liking Black Snake Moan, I figured I might as well see the guy's other movie, which I had at one point intended to see first, for the sake of being chronological, but it just didn't happen that way. And I didn't really like it. There's nothing bad to say about it, it's a strong film, decent storytelling, but I just didn't feel like it was anything new the way Black Snake is. It was all right, but I knew every beat of the story before it happened, I felt exactly where it was going every step of the way, and I just didn't care.
So the end result of this: I can see a lot of love and talent and hard hard work went into both movies, probably a lot more into Hustle & Flow, just because it's his first major film and it's always more difficult to establish oneself the first time, but after all of that work has been done and the movie is in place and it exists on its own, what separates the two? Story. How is it told, what does it show us, what do we experience in the telling? That's really what everything comes down to. The older I get, and the more I write, and the greater number of movies I see, the truer this maxim proves itself to be: story above all.
I don't care if you're a complete nobody with a mini dv and a bunch of friends and no money; you can make a great movie if you tell a great story. You can be a superbigshot badass with two hundred million dollars and a three hundred person crew and the greatest equipment in the galaxy, and if your story is pedestrian, the viewer's interest will walk out on you; heh heh. Story story story story story. Art painted on the sidewalk is still art. Beauty is beauty, truth is truth, in all its forms and incarnations.
Okay, so I titled this The World of Craig Brewer and went off topic a bit, not saying much about his movies, but I said what I feel and that's all I'm trying to do. The guy knows how to make a film, and if he keeps it new and interesting, I'm on board for the next one.
I'd heard nothing but great things about Hustle & Flow, so, after renting and liking Black Snake Moan, I figured I might as well see the guy's other movie, which I had at one point intended to see first, for the sake of being chronological, but it just didn't happen that way. And I didn't really like it. There's nothing bad to say about it, it's a strong film, decent storytelling, but I just didn't feel like it was anything new the way Black Snake is. It was all right, but I knew every beat of the story before it happened, I felt exactly where it was going every step of the way, and I just didn't care.
So the end result of this: I can see a lot of love and talent and hard hard work went into both movies, probably a lot more into Hustle & Flow, just because it's his first major film and it's always more difficult to establish oneself the first time, but after all of that work has been done and the movie is in place and it exists on its own, what separates the two? Story. How is it told, what does it show us, what do we experience in the telling? That's really what everything comes down to. The older I get, and the more I write, and the greater number of movies I see, the truer this maxim proves itself to be: story above all.
I don't care if you're a complete nobody with a mini dv and a bunch of friends and no money; you can make a great movie if you tell a great story. You can be a superbigshot badass with two hundred million dollars and a three hundred person crew and the greatest equipment in the galaxy, and if your story is pedestrian, the viewer's interest will walk out on you; heh heh. Story story story story story. Art painted on the sidewalk is still art. Beauty is beauty, truth is truth, in all its forms and incarnations.
Okay, so I titled this The World of Craig Brewer and went off topic a bit, not saying much about his movies, but I said what I feel and that's all I'm trying to do. The guy knows how to make a film, and if he keeps it new and interesting, I'm on board for the next one.
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