A Nice Picture to Brighten Your Day

Happy Saturday, everyone. 

There's no journalistic purpose to this, but I figure there's nothing like seeing George W. Bush bite into a kitten to make your weekend just a little more entertaining. 

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This is What Happens When You're Smoking, Texting, and Walking Near Cliffs

There are already a number of ads about the dangers of texting and driving. Well, they're not really ads. They're not advertisements, and I doubt they've ever changed the way anyone has ever approached their lives. In fact, the stupidity of these propagandist commercials almost makes me want to text and drive just to show it's possible. Anyway, prepare for a whole new slew of propagandist commercials about not texting, smoking, and walking around cliffs.

That seems awfully specific, doesn't it? Well, there's a reason. In Alaska on September 17, Maria Pestrikoff (pictured right) was doing all of these naughty things at once. As it turns out, she lives near a 60 foot cliff. Of course, you know how it goes when you're comfortable in your neighborhood. Demonstrating what she found to be successful multitasking, Maria popped a cigarette into her mouth, lit it, and began to text while she walked to her house.

A problem showed its ugly head, however, when she wasn't watching where she was going and her natural sense of direction led her astray. Rather than walk directly to her house by the time she was finished with sending her text message, she ended up falling off the 60 foot cliff. She ended up stuck between the rocks and the tide at the bottom of the cliff, injured. Of course, the plus side to perpetually keeping a kung fu grip on your phone is that, when you plummet 60 feet to a rock bed when the tide is coming in, you've got a handy dandy way to communicated with 911.

The tide was just at her toes when the authorities arrived and brought Maria to the hospital, where she is now in a stable condition. So, there's the true story with a big moral. Don't text, smoke, and walk near cliffs at the same time.

It almost sounds like one of those DirecTV commercials, doesn't it? When cable goes out, you start smoking. When you start smoking, you start multitasking more. When you start multitasking more, you text and smoke at the same time. When you smoke and text at the same time, you fall off a cliff. Don't fall off a cliff. Get rid of cable and get DirecTV.

The Master: A Mesmerizing Drama

Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson is considered about the cream of the crop of modern filmmakers. He's often referred to as The Next Stanley Kubrick even, which is, as far as I'm concerned, a silly statement. PT Anderson is one of the freshest, most talented voices in cinema, but he has certainly developed his own voice. He's not the next anyone, he's PT Anderson. As a cinematic master, he last graced cinemas with his magnum opus, There Will Be Blood five years ago. Now, he's back with a film that has a similar intensity not present in his earlier work. PT Anderson returns with The Master, and period drama shot on 65mm film that is every bit as captivating as its predecessor, if not quite as satisfying.

That's not how a film should be reviewed, though, is it? On so many sites, I see this film getting downgraded simply because it's not There Will Be Blood 2. The simple truth of the matter is The Master is a very, very different film from Blood. They share a few stylistic things in common, but in the end, here we have a much more intimate and smaller story about troubled people. It's not about huge character arcs or a complicated story; it's a glimpse into the lives of these flawed individuals.

Our protagonist is Freddy Quell (Joaquin Phoenix), a man returning from WWII with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder who is attempting to have a normal life, only that's not as easy as it seems. His mind is very messed up now, presumably a result of his devotion to the nation by serving in the war. Now, he cannot hold a job, has a major drinking problem, and has no direction in his life. One drunken night, he wanders aboard a yacht where he meets Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seamour Hoffman), the founder and head of a new religion known as The Cause. Dodd and Quell are opposites - a driven man who has devoted his life to leading others, and a seemingly hopeless drunk with no prospects or friends. The two become dependent off of each other, which leads to unexpected outcomes for the both of them.

It's best to leave the plot description vague because the plot itself is rather vague, not in an ambiguous sense, but rather because this is no more than a character study about complicated characters. What's perhaps the most fascinating decision behind the scenes here is how PT Anderson scaled back his filmmaking style quite a bit, moving the camera infrequently and avoiding the huge tracking shots he's known for. This is not to say that the cinematography was anything less than stunning, however. There is a strong style, but a much more subtle one than we've come to expect from the man. This subtlety also extends to the development of our two main characters.

From the script alone, these characters are developed to a point, without revealing their full complexities, which is where the absolutely flawless performances of Phoenix and Hoffman add considerable complexity to the characters. Anderson made an interesting choice; he let the performances create the complexity, and he just let his direction serve what was necessary to watch these two completely believable actors do what they needed to do. In a smaller role, it's also necessary to point out the amount of power Amy Adams brought to her role as Dodd's wife Mary. Unlike the other two, she has no scenes where she loses her calm or gets to be completely unhinged, but the subtleties of fantastic acting tell us quite a lot about who this woman is and why she's here.

Of course, if you've read any other reviews for this film, you're probably wondering why I'm not going off about how amazingly complex and hard to understand this film is. Honestly, I'm not sure if I'm dull but The Master doesn't come off like a terribly cryptic epic at all to me. There is symbolism and great thematic work, but none of it is terribly complicated. There are a few things that leave room for interpretation, but this is not a puzzling watch. One thing I've certainly taken away from it is how little respect Paul Thomas Anderson seems to have for religious institutions. Between this and his previous film, we see despicable men running religious groups to serve their own egotistical purposes, because they want to rule, spirituality in both cases is not even present. Here, we see this very blatantly, and even get the metaphor of a dog and his master through Freddy and Dodd as their relationship develops.

Paul Thomas Anderson has described this film as a love story between two men, but I really think it's just a tragic tale of a man who does not have the function of being normal who wants to fit in. We see the characters in The Cause partaking in their makeshift family because it makes them feel good to fit into something that's bigger than themselves. Characters see (or invent) meaning in the universe for a sense of belonging, but Freddy's mental state makes him stick out even from this basic opportunity. This is a tragic, intimate tale that's remarkably well put together and something that will no doubt improve with age. 

9/10

Sleepwalk With Me: Mike Birbiglia's Film Is Hilarious and Sincere

I can't recommend this little film enough; it's one of the best of the year and a truly great experience. Sleepwalk With Me is currently playing on limited screens in the US, so get to it if you have a chance. Unfortunately for this site, my official review has been published over at WhatCulture!, but thanks to the handy dandy links here on the internet, I can bring it right to you!

Click here for my 4.5 star review. 

Go see this movie.

Guilty Pleasures Podcast Episode 1 is Here!

Tom Knoblauch and Matthew Wurstner have recorded the very first episode of the Guilty Pleasures Podcast. We're still working out a few kinks, so the audio isn't perfect, but that should be perfected in the future episodes.

Click on the links to download an MP3 and enjoy! Each link is 30 minutes long, courtesy of Spreaker Online Radio.
Download Part One: We discuss upcoming films and what IMDB considers the worst film of all time.
Download Part Two: Should we legalize marijuana? How religion affects societies. Oh, and Jesus may have been married.
Download Part Three: The 2012 election - what's wrong with politics today?

 Come back and check every Tuesday evening for the brand new podcast. 

A Director's Cut of The Dark Knight Rises May Be Released After All (UPDATED)

UPDATED: Okay, sorry. False alarm. The party is over. The party pooper here is none other than writer/director Christopher Nolan who has confirmed that he has no plans to assemble a longer cut, regardless of how much better the film would be as a result of it. So, don't bother reading this article. There are better things to do (and better posts to read).

People and Politics

Mark Twain once said, "Politicians are like dirty diapers; the need to be changed often and for the same reason," although seemingly childish, the man might have a solid point. For so many years, politics have been a battle of the right and the left, Democrats and Republicans, Liberals and conservatives, but honestly putting all the media has told us aside, what do the essentials of politics boil down to?

So many people in America often times never take the time to study politics themselves and become familiar with the issues at hand. According to Peoplepress.org approximately 25% of Americans believe that what happens in Washington does personally affect them. That's 1 in 4 Americans.

Another ironic fact is that, while about 90% of Americans are registered to vote, only 53% consider themselves well versed on the relevant political topics. That means that almost 38% of registered voters are at the polls to fill in the boxes, slap on a "I Voted Today" sticker, and walk out the door. So you might ask yourself: what could they possibly be doing at the polls? They are simply voting with their party's choice, many Americans will simply vote with whatever party they have always voted for. Its gotten to the point where Politicians can count on certain states voting for them; for example, the south has always been called the solid south for their solid history of voting Democrat, thus the Democrats can count on solid votes from that region.

Before Midnight Secretly Finishes Filming: Is This Good News?

If you want to know an example of what I consider to be a perfect series, look no further than the dynamic duo of Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. I seriously adore these two films about love. Perhaps that's part of their genius. They are very much about love, though not exactly love stories. It's the tale of Celine and Jesse, who spend one night together in Vienna after making a rash decision as strangers to see how things went. Both young, they spend the night and fall for each other, but still don't know if things can last. The sequel picks up nine years later when they happen to meet again in Paris at a book signing. They spend a couple of hours reexamining their flame and what it might mean now.

In the end, the two were brilliant companion pieces following these characters in two days over the course of a decade. By the end of Before Sunset, I was amazingly happy and completely satisfied. As far as I'm concerned, that's one of the best endings to any film, especially any series. Did I want more? No. Hell no. There are some stories that are too perfect to be tampered with; this is very much one of them. The original mystique of a sequel to Before Sunrise provided a tricky but ultimately intriguing idea - what happened to these two? Are they together? Are they strangers? Did their brief love last? The sequel answered these questions magnificently while also provided a very telling look into Celine and Jesse's more mature, older selves.