NaBloPoMo: A long time ago, in a bookcase far, far way

Sometimes I am amazed by the cool things I find online. Then I am usually sad that I can never afford such awesome things. Such as this ridiculously awesome Star Wars bookend set. Unfortunately it also costs a cool $59.99. Just teeny but out of my price range.

But hey, I can still dream about having wall to floor bookcases filled with books that are held up by these beauties. That's what daydreaming is for, right?

Movie review: "Wendy and Lucy"

For Christmas, my dad bought me "Wendy and Lucy." Little did he know I had been eyeing this film for months after seeing a trailer and reading a fairly positive review. His reason for purchasing it: "It's a girl and a dog on the cover. I figured, Beth will like this, right?"

I must admit, I decided to write a review of the film for today's post without watching it first, thinking it'd be a cinch. I've spent the last several hours trying to come up with the best way to adequately describe the film.

Overview

A gritty portrayal of a young person down on her luck, "Wendy and Lucy" is an independent film from Kelly Reichardt, starring Michelle Williams as Wendy and a gorgeous mutt as Lucy. But this movie was so much more than a film about hard times. It was a portrayal of life in small-town Oregon, as well as how humans react in the face of poverty. It is also, at it's very core, about a girl and her dog.

The film opens as train clacks by in the seeming wilderness. Our introduction to Wendy and Lucy is one of them at play, Wendy throwing a stick and Lucy romping around after it. It seems very innocent, until Lucy wanders off into a bunch of rough, outsiders around a bonfire. That's when you get your first close-up glimpse at the dirty face and worn clothes that Wendy is wearing. And so, in the first five minutes, Reichardt is able to easily and poetically put Wendy and Lucy's life of general poverty into a visual nutshell.

Wandering from town to town in search of work, the two have only each other when confronted by strangers and meager times.

Gut reactions

This, to me, seemed like the essence of the story: As Wendy and Lucy fall asleep in Wendy's broken down car, Wendy whispers, "Night, baby girl."

As I said, the film is first and foremost a poignant look at the love between a girl and her dog. Reichardt then steers it toward darker landscapes, as we are confronted with a grocery store clerk so set on doing right and following rules that he breaks the best friends apart, setting the real story in motion. You also glimpse the townfolk's reaction to this rough young woman sleeping in her car, the car repairman who is woefully ignorant of Wendy's troubles, the shifty homeless population that accosts the newcomer and (thankfully for the redemption of the human race) the congenial night guard who aids Wendy in her time of need.

In the end, if you're anything like me, you'll cry at the heartbreak, rage at the hypocrisy and smile at the small token of friendship that gives you the tiniest glimpse of the goodness we wish all people were capable of.

I think the beauty of the film lies in the grittiness of Reichardt's videography and lighting and in the gentle lesson that she lays out for the viewer, without shoving it down your throat. There's also a lovely circularity to the progression of the story, where the beginning is darkly mirrored by the events of the ending.

Bottom line

Watch it, but be prepared that it is not a happy-go-lucky film. And that is what's great about it, I think, that it's not the same old movie fodder we've been force-fed recently. But please soak up and enjoy the beginning. Because, even if you're nothing like me, I bet that when the film ends, you'll wish you could actually go back to the first five minutes of the movie, where a content Wendy is humming softly to her happy-go-lucky dog as they play fetch in the woods.

Forgive me for my absence

Sorry for my prolonged absence. Things got a little crazy the last few weeks. But not to worry: I am still here and ready to blog. I have never been a fan of music videos. I think most of them lack creativity. A lot of them are just the singer walking around singing while members of the opposite sex run around them. But lately, especially with relatively unknown musicians, there seems to be an uptick in creativity.
After browsing Buzz Sugar's latest updates, I found a post on Oren Lavie, an Israeli composer/singer. His beautiful music video utilizes stop motion techniques with a camera hung over a bed to show the hidden adventures of a young woman. Stop motion (think The Nightmare Before Christmas) uses thousands of still frames of methodically placed scenes and edited together to create a beautiful masterpeice. Look for the twirling dance scene created while they are still laying down. His music also has a beautiful ethereal quality to it. It's actually really hard to describe so just watch the video below.

Wowing the world.

I've already written about my favorite silent film comedian, the always amazing Charlie Chaplin. But there is another actor who has similar chops. You've probabaly heard of the guy to the left. He's considered one of the most athletic silent film comedians. While Chaplin may have wooed the world with his Tramp, Buster Keaton wowed the world with the physicality of his comedic stunts. He truly was a great.
While he has many hilarious films (including one called College where he plays a hapless geek who can't quite by the athlete he wants to be to win the girl), there is one that stands above the rest for his subtle humor and beautiful vision.
For a wonderful review of the movie (since I haven't seen it in a few years), please see what Slate magazine's Gary Giddins has to say on The General, a spoof of a real historical event that occurred during the Civil War. The link also includes some sample clips of the movie, which has been rereleased in crystal clear quality (generally the only downside of silent comedies is that they are poor quality since they were made in the 1920s).

"Every one has a wild side. Even a legend."

It started my Sophomore year in college. I stumbled across a class simply entitled 'The History of Film: 1900-1954.' In that class I found an obsession for most silent movies. I love them, to be honest. My favorites? Well if it isn't obvious by now, I suppose I'll have to smack you over the head with it: silent comedies! It's as if we lost something in translation when we introduced talkies. I'm not sure what it is, but now we rely way too much on the spoken word and not enough of the media worth a thousand words (pictures).
My favorite, all-time silent film comedian is of course the late, great Charlie Chaplin (pictured above). I've written several papers analyzing his work. More than that, though, is that whenever I'm down, I can always count on a good Chaplin short to cheer me up.

But let's be honest. The quality of the films is generally not the best. They are all over fifty years old, many more than that, so such a thing is to be expected. So, how do you get the beauty and simplicity of good old fashioned Chaplin, and yet the satisfication of watching something longer and meatier than 5 minutes? You watch a biopic, of course.

Ah, the biopic has jumped back into mainstream movie-making recently, though these new movies have focused more on the life and times of musical stars like Ray Charles (Ray) or Bob Dylan (I'm Not There). The biopic, Chaplin, left, that I recently stumbled upon is from 1992 and stars Robert Downey, Jr. (of Iron Man fame).

It was actually quite hard for me to picture the loud, obnoxious and arrogant Tony Stark in such a quiet role. And yet Downey somehow pulls it off perfectly, capturing both the ethereal hilarity of Chaplin's The Tramp and his off-putting obsession with the next cute, usually much younger, girl.

Boasting the tagline that is also the title of this post, Chaplin begins in black and white. You watch as The Tramp goes from being the doorway-framed sillohuette of the world-famous character (see movie poster below) to a man wiping his stage makeup off. In this opening scene the creators of the film offer you the knowledge that this is not a movie about The Tramp (his most famous character who many thought was the way Chaplin was in real life), but about Chaplin ... the man. What strikes me is how much like The Tramp Downey is in his portrayal throughout the film. It makes for a wonderful beginning to an interesting movie. And later, you see Downey as Chaplin the man, and its obvious why making this movie was so off-putting for his daugher (who starred as Chaplin's mother) at times.

For the rest of the film, told from the viewpoint of an elderly Chaplin working with his editor to nail down the final touches to his biography, the movie recalls Chaplin's life in his own words. With guest appearances from Anthony Hopkins (his editor), Kevin Kline (the comedian Douglas Fairbanks, who was Chaplin's best friend) and Geraldine Chaplin (Chaplin's real-life daughter who plays his mother in the film), the movie is actually a stark representation of how Chaplin became who he was. He, of course, is not without his problems, and yet the movie still holds his art to be the most important topic, as I believe obsessive-compulsive Chaplin would consider it to be.

My favorite scene: Chaplin's description of the birth of The Tramp.

Most poignant scene: His fight with his brother over why Chaplin must make "The Great Dictator."

Bottom line

From the opening scene to the final credits, it's a great movie. Watch it, if you can find it. If not, find some Chaplin movies to watch in the meantime. I recommend "The Gold Rush," "The Kid," "Modern Times," and (if you want to see him talking) "The Great Dictator."