browngeek

The best 20 minutes I have spent in a long time.

Watched “The Story of Stuff”.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Buying “stuff” will never be the same again.

Its been a while since I wrote about a film. Not because I haven’t seen any for a long time. Its because there has not been once that has been worthwhile. Recently, I saw Gone Baby Gone. Its very unique and I had to write about it.

“Gone Baby Gone” is the maiden venture of Ben Affleck (of Bennifer fame) as a director. And I have to tell you he is good at it. GBG is about a private detective (Casey Affleck, brother of Ben) who help solve the case of a missing 4-year old girl. The story revolves around the detective’s relationship with his girlfriend, the missing girl’s mom and uncle, a police detective (Ed Harris) and the police chief (Morgan Freeman). It it set in the city of Boston where the Afflecks grew up. And that fact massively helps with the story telling. Being a “local”, Affleck simply knows what a neighbourhood looks like and how its people interact. Additionally, the cinematography (John Toll, Oscar-award winner for BraveHeart) fits so well into the neighbourhood that the film “just works”.

Example Scene: Tense situation in a bar. Its all dark inside. Casey Affleck starts to walk out of the bar, backwards, while pointing a gun at the bartender. He then opens the bar door with his back. Sunlight fills the screen - almost blinding, as Affleck turns around and walks into the street . A fantastic transition. All in one sequence.

There are many scenes like the above that keeps the film brilliant. Casey Affleck is not the best actor, but he is definitely a good fit here. Ed Harris shines as the police detective that hates pedophiles. Morgan Freeman plays his usual self (I do wish it had been Freeman narrating GBG instead of Casey Affleck’s sleepy voice).

After a couple of expected twists in the story, the final twist left me satisfied. In fact, I even found myself asking “What would I have done in that situation?”. Not many films make me ask that question.

GBG is a terrific film and I expect screenplay and cinematography nominations from the Academy.

I recently watched the Tamil movie “Sivaji: The Boss” . It stars the superstar Rajini. It has been a few years since I had seen one of Rajini’s films, and going in to “Sivaji”, I was a little non-chalant. Perhaps it was because I’m “americanized” or maybe it was because the screening time was past midnight and my old eyes were ready to shut. Whatever it was, I approached the large gathering of the (mostly Tamilian) Indians, waiting outside the theater, with amusement.

It was the first day of screening. In fact, the movie was released worldwide that same day. In India, the average movie’s first day is a pretty big deal. Throngs of crowds, craving for anything to take them to a fantasy world, devour even the most run-of-the-mill movie. Rajini’s movies are a different league, however. They run sold-out for months. While it helps that he makes movies just once every other year or so, there is something else about him, and his movies, that make the experience a lot different.

As we piled into the theater, that “something else” quickly engulfed me. The non-chalance disappeared. Adrenalin kicked in. And I found myself leading the war cry - “Thalaivar, Vaalzgha” (Leader, Long Live). I felt ridiculously nostalgic of my days back in India.

Over the next 3 hours, the scenery inside the theatre was unreal. Its not every day that you see grown men and women, who are otherwise demure in their daily lives as high-paid professionals at reputable MNCs, jump up and down in dazed frenzy when watching an actor on a movie screen. Only Rajini has that impact on people. Whether he flips a gravity-defying one-rupee coin around his body or jumps a reverse-triple-somersault, people, otherwise logically normal, loudly ooh-and-aah. No, there is nothing cheesy about Rajini’s antics. In fact, you cannot classify them as antics. They are simply attributes of his charismatic personality - its like the saltiness in salt. They go together.

I cannot think of a single person in the entertainment industry, be it Hollywood or Bollywood, command such an awe from the masses. Rajini is leagues above your Brad Pitts and Amitabh Bacchans. People don’t just cheer and admire him, they worship him. Literally.

Rajini is a demi-god. A superstar. The Boss.

PS - The movie itself sucked. But who cares!

The first time I saw Muse live was in the 2006 Download Festival. Beck headlined. But Muse stole the show with their short 30-min set. Ever since, I’ve been looking forward the see them live, in their own show.

It happened last week. Muse was in town. And they killed the sold-out Bill Graham civic center crowd with their 2-hour double-encore set. The energy from the band was incredible. These guys are so talented and know how to thrill a crowd. Just check out the video - its an impromptu riff-jam introducing the hit Stockholm Syndrome. You will agree they are the best band to watch live.

Two down, three to go..

Is Hollywood showing mainstream America the real world - something other than this?

The 79th Academy Awards was the most “international” ceremony yet. Not just for the fact that more than a billion people watched, but it was *represented* by more non-American artists than ever before.

There were the so-called Three Amigos - Mexican directors Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and Guillermo Del Toro - whose films combined for 16 nominations! There were Japanese and Mexican and Spanish women with actress nominations, a Nigerian getting an actor nomination, a Chinese producer winning the Oscar for the documentary short. An Italian musician (the genius Ennio Morricone) getting honorary award. The best animated short is Canadian, the live short winner is a musical about Israel-Palestine conflict, the documentary short winner is about AIDS in rural China. The documentary feature winner, the eye-opening “An Inconvenient Truth“, is about *global* warming. The absolutely brilliant Mexican film “Pan’s Labyrinth” winning, among others, the coveted cinematography and art direction awards. There were acceptance speeches in Chinese, Italian and Spanish. There was even a montage of 50 award-winning foreign language films. Truly, an international flavor.

Is America finally going global starting from Hollywood? Are we acknowledging there are people living in countries outside our borders? Real people, people that matter.

Perhaps its fitting that the winner of the Best Foreign Language Film award is a film titled - “The Lives of Others”.

Take a look at this revealing, and sometimes violent, short about what it takes to market music.

Via - YouTube

I was expecting “This Film is Not Yet Rated” to be a scathing review of the pathetic right-wing radical fundamentalist evangelical covert organisation know as the MPAA. It was a review alright. Not a critical one though. Far from it. Almost comical. 

The director Kirby Dick takes a look at the MPAA group. This is the group that decides the rating of every single film that is being screened across America. All films! One would expect the groups to consist of hundreds of reviewers to watch the plethora of films that Hollywood and other indie studios churn out. Surprisingly, it consists of only a handful. But the real kicker is that these identity of these members are not public, except for their head Jack Valenti (who just retired). Nobody knows who they are. Until now.

Kirby Dick hires a couple of private investigators to find their identities. After days of following the people coming out of the MPAA’s HQ building, going thru their garbage etc, the director finally reveals the names of the members.

There is also plenty of footage of a few directors whose films were rated NC-17 by the MPAA. The problem with an NC-17 rating is, of course, no child allowed and big theatres will not screen it etc. But more importantly, it is the conundrum for the director - to cut the offending scenes or to leave the art as is it supposed to be but risk screening in limited theatres. The documentary also convincingly lays out the double standards of the MPAA. If a film is produced by a major studio, the MPAA list the specific scenes need to be cut to receive a R rating. OTOH, if the film is indie, the MPAA simply says that the “overall tone of the film” is too sexual. Thats it! (Note that sex is a big NO-NO but extreme violence is OK. Exact opposite stance of the European MPAA counterpart).

The documentary switches back and forth between the private investigators and the directors of the NC-17 films. The later is  well put-together and convincing. The former is extremely childish. The investigators are incredibly amateurish. It is almost like they had no idea what in the hell they were doing (Going to a spy shop to get a camera, Kirby telling *them* how to follow a car!). I am not sure why the director picked these specific investigators. Maybe because they are lesbians. Perhaps to provide a funny angle to the documentary. Whatever the reason, it did not work for me.

Overall, “This Film is Not Yet Rated” is a good presentation. It does a wonderful job of laying down the issues with the current MPAA and their cult-like behaviour. I just wish that the “overall tone of the film” was a bit more serious.

brownGEEK’s rating 3 on 5.

Ever struggled to start on an idea? Starting Trouble? And once you get past that initial hump you feel the creativity juices flow. And then seemingly stop. Only to flow again full throttle until you are done? F yeah?

Check out the awesome short ‘Idea Development’ about the emotions described above. The animation and the music tandem make this 4-min short a gem!

(The site is a collection of short films and requires a login. Trust me, its worth your time. While you are there also checkout the great editing in ‘In Absentia‘.)

With the arrival of my MBP, came the sweet revival of my love for making movies. Here is my first attempt at using the amazing iMovie.

The footage is from my first marathon - The 10th Pacific Shoreline Marathon. I ran a sub-4hr marathon. It was the culmination of 16 weeks of iterations…I mean training And I am quite proud of it.

The SanFrancisco Intl film festival is playing this week. In addition to all the cool films playing, there is also a remixer that anyone can mashup. There are about 15 film-clips, each about 2 mins, to choose from. Also choose from a list of songs for the bkgnd track (cannot mashup the songs though). With these limited choices and a slick (but basic) editor, create a 1-min remix. The best remixes will be played as part of the festival. Cool!

They say constraints force creativity. Here is my remix, titled “the surprise ending” (also known as “open your conscience”). Check it out.