Miami Vice

Yup, Miami Vice. It's come to this. Actually, this is a fucking fantastic movie. Surprisingly enough, this is one of Director Michael Mann's most poised, balanced, and compelling brushstrokes, and I'll admit, considering the Chicago native's impressive canon: Thief, Manhunter, Last of the Mohicans, Heat, The Insider, Collateral, this is a bold, valiant, you could even say audacious position. But, something to consider - there is no stronger, more engaging male-female juxtaposition than that of Isabella and Sonny in any Michael Mann picture. Released on 28 July, 2006, Mann's ninth feature to date, Miami Vice, is not only wickedly entertaining, adventurous in scope and translation, it's a fun fucking movie. Now I don't have fun in movies, not anymore...I can't relax, I over think the process, but this picture possesses some tremendous set-pieces, its action sequences are exhilarating, practical, hyper-realistic, its cast first-rate, I mean take a look at Sonny's god damn mustache for fuck's sake. That shit says in no uncertain terms, "playtime is over."

Miami Vice is a high-octane, high-tension, high-impact actioneer, intel-op military-grade drama, and intelligently written, clandestine romance. It is tense, self-assured, yet disorienting with its ambition. It's complex, web-like narrative so elaborate its almost ridiculous; the film is so fucking multi-layered, so self-important, so hysterically macho and contains so much vague, political posturing made even more byzantine when elucidated, the $135 million effort almost collapses under its own weight. But, with all the testosterone-infused gunfire, all the Miami chutzpah-braggadocio, this gonzo outpouring of violence and chauvinist zealotry confidently, effortlessly orbits around A MAN AND A WOMAN. Sure the fucked-up fairy tale of Sonny and Isabella is cursed, we know this from the onset - cue the scene below...

:20-second mark of this clip. We see a car's wheel separate their bodies - foreshadowing the distance that will inevitably come between them and the immediacy of their relationship, rare is love so powerful and urgent. Cuba, still suffering from our decades-old embargo, seems stuck in time, as if to suggest that this doomed love affair is about to suffer a similar fate.

Great scene, but even better is the film's ending. Gong Li and that handsome Irish prick that goes by the name of Colin Farrell are so god damn good together, you are simply hypnotized by their bond. At the film's 2:10:00 mark, Sonny whispers to her...

"A man named Frank is gonna come in a boat, and he will run you to Cios de Habanos. From there you can find a way to Havana, where no one will follow you, including me..."

And then the most inspired moment in the film: Isabella looks at Sonny, heartbroken, but this information is safeguarded within those stoic, serious eyes. Without muttering a fucking word, Sonny Crockett cautiously glances back towards her, hoping, I suspect, that she will ask him to come with her. But this love story is a cautionary tale, isn't it? She keeps her mask on, and why not? It has been used to protect her for so many years. And that facade, so delicate, just a tear away from crumbling. But, she keeps her gaze locked on the sea ahead of her. Crockett's eyes, on the other, shake at their foundation - it's a melancholy and effective scene; strangely poignant, subtle, and touching - odd for such a tumultuous and violent picture.

Isabella then counters..."remember what I told you...time is luck..."

Cautiously, Sonny replies, "Our luck ran out."

Then at 2:10:35 mark, there's a profile two-shot where the two star-crossed lovers become one. Amazing ending. Perfect anti-hipster fodder. For all you hoodlum-romantics, especially those that fancy comfortable silences, there is nothing more erotic than a film that stresses the notion of showing and not telling.

"Bad Idea" scene from Miami Vice 2006

An excellent scene from a great movie Miami Vice... Quote: Sonny: "This is a bad idea." Isabella: "This is past a bad idea." Sonny: "And it has no future."...

The Limits of Control

What if I told you that a film existed that comingled the fluid, melancholy precision of Tarkovsky's Solaris with David Lynch's penchant for the obscure and the bewildered? Only Lovers Left Alive Director Jim Jarmusch's puzzling espionage and ecstasy thriller, Limits of Control (2009), is that outlandish concoction. There's a scene early on in this picture that is straight out of the 1972 science fiction epic, where Isaach De Bankolé can be seen driving through the tunnels of Madrid (accompanied by the bold, steady rock-rhythm attached below) - a dazzling re-creation (although its unclear if this is intentional, either way its a brilliant homage) of the scene in Tarkovsky's Magnum Opus where Kris Kelvin (Donatas Banionis) drives through eerily similar structures in Moscow. The film then uses more binary Lynchian tropes where gonzo surrealism is utilized simply to underscore tension, not to provide a narrative fulcrum. It's an insane, borderline personality disorder synthesis but the film contains so much calculated hubris and possesses such a strong supporting cast (Tilda Swinton, John Hurt, Bill Murray, Paz de la Huerta, Gael García Bernal, and Hiam Abbass), we glide through the proceedings effortlessly. It doesn't hurt that the appropriately atmospheric score and soundtrack are spellbinding; before Jarmusch hooked up with Jozef van Wissem (the duo known as Squrl), his Bad Rabbit quartet provided the film's slick, symphonic undercurrent.

Bad Rabbit-Sea Green Sea (The Limits of Control)

A sort of chronological sequence of Jarmusch images against one of the tracks from his latest film "The Limits of Control". The track is actually made by...

A Return to Screenwriting

      I started working on my first original screenplay in four years. I am going to try to get this ready for a Fall shoot. It is a very small movie, limited budget, modest scope but ambitious in metaphor and idea. I'm not certain why I don't enjoy screenwriting as much as I should since the process comes second nature to me, but I have never really embraced it. Oddly enough, I possess the pedigree to label myself as a professional film critic; I write poetry and movie outlines on a daily basis, but I do not consider myself a writer. I suspect film editing is my writing and this is why screenwriting has taken a backseat for so many years. Anyway, I'll update the new projects' progress here. Original work can take upwards of a year, but I don't have that kind of time - I'm looking at completing a first draft within 4 weeks. The goal is a completed third or fourth final draft by the end of July. This is a very time-sensitive and time-specific project and my window started collapsing weeks ago. Additionally, I have two films nearing the end of a lengthy, post-pro process to consider and to complicate matters, I am also involved in 9 short and feature film projects, and from my chair, it looks like all of them should be in some stage of pre, post, or principal by June. Could be a busy, busy Summer. Returning to the Director's chair this year was inevitable, but I will admit, working on a new script is a surprise.

On-Location Production Stills from ASHLEY

On a cold, surreal day in March 2011, Ashley star Tony Lee Gratz and I drove to the Motor City for some relatively inexpensive, apocalypse-esque production design, courtesy of capitalism and the death of the American Union. Suffice to say, the location is perfect for an End-Of-The-World feel; depressing as it may be. The middle building in the B/W picture directly below this text was used by us a shooting site for two reasons: One, it was adjacent to the abandoned, but picturesque Michigan Central Train Depot (one of the primary set pieces in the film) and Two, it was absolutely bizarre. Apparently made out of cork and hand painted by a pastel-crazed schizophrenic, this was only one in a long series of breathtakingly strange images provided to us, free of charge, by Motown.T he Hotel on the left still stands but these two homes were demolished in July, 2013. This serves as a fitting tribute to one of the many Ashley shooting sites that have since been destroyed. 

Favorite Scenes: I Love Frances Ha

One of the great intangibles about being a devoted and sometimes obsessive movie connoisseur is that you are usually able to identify with ease your favorite scene from a new film immediately upon its conclusion. And sometimes, when the stars are perfectly aligned, this scene makes you fall in love with the film long before it ends. So regardless of the denouement, regardless of the 3rd act, regardless of the resolution, the scene is so strong, and says so much about you and the Universe or reality in which you inhabit, the conclusion doesn't matter, because the scene itself was enough. Fortunately, Greenberg Director Noah Baumbach's (The Squid and the Whale) second effort with the uniquely charming Greta Gerwig, Frances Ha, is so good that the film that surrounds this core scene has several near-perfect moments, some are fantastically whimsical, poignant, and at times melancholy  but none have the feeling, the emotion, truth as this one. Off the record, I love Greta Gerwig; she is an odd mash-up of all of the great and former lovers in my life - she possesses all of their bizarre bravado, delicate wit, savvy intellect, and contempt for conformity. Here she perfectly describes what it is TO BE IN LOVE - perfectly articulated by a woman who is not motivateed by a man. This is refreshing as fuck. I fucking love this movie for it represents everything that is missing in the vast majority of American films, women that are both strong, confused, intelligent, happy, sad, uncertain, brave, scared, the gamut. Frances is not identified through her sexuality and this film is not about her trying to find a man to further complete this identification. In fact, this film is almost androgynous in this respect. Most films take the position that a woman only has one if we understand her through the eyes of a relationship-status. Her sexuality must be understood, it must be apparent. Frances Ha takes an almost groundbreaking approach  to this issue by keeping it squarely on the backburner because sexual status doesn't really matter when we are trying to understand who she is. The bullshit pressure many women or films in general feel to complete the standard courtship to coupling ritual is ridiculous. It is persistently misogynistic and dull and creates this impression that a woman's place is to complete this tired, conventional coupling cycle and not grow as an individual. Watch this scene, fall in love with it as I did, and I guarantee you'll fall in love with the movie. It's a beautifully made take on the rites-of-passage and coming-of- age woes of a late-20s dreamer. 

Jeff Scott Townsend's Blind

   One of the benefits of shooting a massive art film that requires a great deal of non-diegetic insert work, aka "B-roll" or 2nd Unit work, is that you are left with large amounts of supplemental material. Make no mistake, I have tried extremely hard to keep everything I have shot (not necessarily for but with Ashley in mind) in the film (over 6,000 distinct shots and counting), but sometimes there is redundancy (for example, I have footage at this same location with several actresses for reasons all my own). But, when you have an exquisite, picturesque location (such as the Kenosha harbor at sunrise or sundown) coupled with a vibrant, charming actress there is no such thing as footage left on the cutting room floor.
   The footage you are about to see was taken in early 2012 (this further illustrates my point on how long this film has been in production) and was shot as background/flashback footage; "memory gospels" for the main character - and this is how the narrative is delivered throughout the film. This footage was going to end up as gorgeous "filler" for my complex, byzantine web of an End Titles sequence; a sprawling, 14-minute montage comprised of over 4 hours of completely unused 2nd Unit work. But, the images were so beautiful, I thought they deserved a second life beyond playing second fiddle to credits. I started thinking about a short film with music as its primary narrative drive or what some call a music video (I loathe this term, it seems so antiquated now, and seems to short-change both the music, and the musician, not to mention the film-making apparatus of the entire process). And then I thought to myself, what piece of music? I needed something that was also in dire need of a second chance; a harmonic, whimsical, and tranquil tune that invokes such feelings as love, passion, melancholy, and most of all, hope. Where can I find another artist similar to myself with a library of previously unreleased work? Hmmmmmm?
   Director David Lynch (Elephant Man, Dune, Blue Velvet, Lost Highway) famously said that image and music were "married" when the symbiosis worked in such a fashion where you could not imagine one without the other. Dove composer Jeff Scott Townsend's song Blind was amazingly subjected to what I like to call the "Lost Works" category; it had not found a home, but that does not mean that it did not deserve one. Quite the opposite actually. I knew the footage below required a strong piece of emotional support via music; something melodic but impactful, catchy yet poignant, emotional and playful. I first heard Blind months ago and immediately said that I would find the images to articulate the songwriter's specific emotions (knowing true genesis and inspiration is not impossible), although it could take some time to identify such specific beauty. On Thursday, I realized this footage could represent the nucleus of such an endeavor - 72 hours later, low and behold, we have the most efficient inspiration possible.
   The video below represents the pairing of a very gifted musician and a filmmaker with an eye for the natural world. Blind was photographed on-location in the marina district of downtown Kenosha, Wisconsin. This short film represents the end result of about 2 hours worth of shooting - exactly 184 setups over the course of two different days at the exact same beach. The footage with Annie Walaszek was completed on a cold, windy day - January 27th, 2012, to be exact; while the sunrise footage was shot on the chilly morning of March 27th, 2011. Once again, this should demonstrate how long I have been collecting footage for Ashley and should also underscore why you should never, ever delete or discard anything. Metaphors abound. Enjoy!

Doll suicide: The End of an Era

Turns out Marlene was haunted after all - sometime after the conclusion of Halloween, she unlocked my office door, snuck out onto the porch, re-locked the door from my the inside with her weird powers and then waited until I woke this morning to do the unthinkable: doll suicide. Yup, Marlene knows that every morning I open the rear door, check the temperature outside, and then start my day. So she waited patiently all night so I could see her do the unthinkable. Turns out my sister was right. And now sadly, this tragic tale of  irksome plastic possession is over. Until next time readers.