Wednesday, March 04, 2009
On Spring Breaks and Watchmen
This feels like a completely new experience. I don't have any papers or projects hanging over my head. I can sleep in. I can make my own schedule.
Is there anybody out there who will pay me to sit on my butt and watch movies all day? Because I'll totally do it. Just pay me enough to make ends meet, and I'll gladly do nothing but watch hour after hour of movies, no matter how idiotic or in poor taste they may be. I will then happily write a novella offering a detailed critique of each and every one.
***
Haven't been doing much except catching up on television shows, hanging out with Christine (my new ladyfriend for those of you not in the loop), and working a bit on the director's cut of The (Hide And) Seeker. My brief thoughts on what I've been watching:
Synecdoche, New York - The directorial debut of my favorite screenwriter, Charlie Kaufman, who's responsible for some of the most layered and multi-faceted scripts of the past 10 years, including Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The one thing you can expect going into a Kaufman-scribed film is that, no matter the plot, it's going to somehow touch on such timeless themes as the nature of the self, the meaning of life, and the relationship between the artist and his/her subjects. This movie is no different. The reviews I'd read made it seem like this would be an incoherent mess of a film whose only purpose was to turn the viewer's brain into a lump of quivering goo by the end. I'm happy to report that that's not the case. From a storytelling perspective, it does have a linear plot. From a thematic perspective, though... that's where things get tricky. It's definitely the kind of movie that takes multiple viewings to completely digest. There's a lot of interesting stuff going on, and I found it to be a fascinating portrait of what it means to be an artist - how art is ultimately a reflection of the deepest corners of the self, and how each and every person has innumerable threads of influence on everyone else. It's about how existence itself is one giant tapestry of interlocking experiences, and how we're all bound together by a common obstacle: death. Artists are people who through their creation become gods, and even then they're still limited by their own mortality. If you're the kind of person who likes to sit and philosophize about such things, then check out this film, you'll probably enjoy it. I can't really say it's a good film, and I can't really say it's a bad film. It is what it is. It's Charlie Kaufman The Artist musing about what it means to be Charlie Kaufman The Artist and Charlie Kaufman The Person. I hope he directs more in the future.
As a side note: one of this entry's Quotes of Da Moment is a monologue from the film that I found to be very memorable and thought-provoking. Are the last two sentences (not including the "Amen") not about what it essentially means to be a writer, and all the egotism inherently involved in any artistic endeavor?
Dollhouse - We're three episodes in, and so far the new show from Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog) is pretty good. It's not the greatest thing on television, but it's definitely not the worst, and each episode so far has been better than the one before it. It's basically about a young woman named Echo who's an agent for the "Dollhouse" - a secret organization that specializes in personality manipulation. Echo is, essentially, the human version of a blank slate. A client requests the Dollhouse's services (which could be anything, from hostage negotiation to assassin to high-class hooker) and Ecco is implanted with the necessary memories and personality traits to complete the mission. It's like how in The Matrix people could learn any skill in a few seconds just by having it "programmed" in, except in this show it's their entire personality. It also stars Tahmoh Penikett, who plays Helo on Battlestar Galactica, which is cool. Anyways, I'd recommend it if you're looking for something to watch on Fridays at 9. Hopefully FOX will give it a chance and won't cancel it like they did with Firefly.
NOTE: All 3 episodes of Dollhouse can be viewed for free at Hulu, starting with this one right here.
Battlestar Galactica - The second half of Season 4 has been pretty damn good. There are only three episodes left before the series ends... I'm kinda sad. I'm also a bit concerned, because there's still a lot of questions that haven't even begun to get answered. However, I've heard the series finale is going to be 2 hours long, so I trust the producers know what they're doing.
The Office - Still funny, though there hasn't been a lot of character development this season.
30 Rock - Probably the smartest sitcom on television since Arrested Development. Watch it.
Flight of the Conchords - So far this season has been a tad disappointing, but it has enough hits over misses that I'll keep watching.
Heroes - Blegh. I'm not sure if this is technically Season 4 or the second half of Season 3, but either way, this show is consistently mediocre. After a fantastic first season and a terrible second one, it is now plodding along at a level I would deem "Meh." It's alright, but definitely nothing special.
Still wondering when we can expect to see new seasons of Dexter and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Once BSG finishes, those will probably become my new "favorite shows."
***
If only animal cruelty was always this hilarious:
***
Spring Break Brainteaser of Da Moment:
If you cloned yourself and had sex with your clone, would that be incest, masturbation, or neither?
Yes. That's the kind of thing I dedicate a considerable amount of brainpower to pondering. Right now I'm thinking that meets the definition of incest.
***
The remainder of this post is going to be Watchmen-focused.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Watchmen is one of the greatest works of fiction ever written. Period. If you haven't read it, you should. It doesn't matter if you're not a "comic book" or "graphic novel" person - I don't read graphic novels, but I've read Watchmen multiple times. It's just that good.
I'm going a midnight screening of the movie this Thursday. I am simultaneously very excited and very cynical. Although the source material is some of the richest I've ever read, I doubt Zack Snyder's ability as a director to transfer that to film. I'm very concerned that people who haven't read the novel might see the film, not "get it," and then dismiss it. But I want Watchmen to get more love, so I would encourage all the people reading this to go see the movie this weekend. Just do it. If you like the movie, read the novel. If you hate the movie, read the novel. Just get out and support Alan Moore's masterpiece in any way, shape or form you can.
In fact, I want you all to go see Watchmen so badly, that I'm going to go ahead and do some of the legwork and explain the basics of what it's about. You won't have the experience I did, of starting the graphic novel with absolutely no idea what I was about to experience, but maybe it will help you figure out whether or not Watchmen is something you'll like. At the very least, you'll know a little something if you check out the movie and it turns out to not do a very good job of explaining things.
Here's the deal: Watchmen is a subversion of the typical superhero story, and asks things like: What if people really did dress up and fight crime? What kind of person would do such a thing? What would their motivation be? What would their moral compass consist of? And what if there really was a superhuman, with superpowers? How would that change the course of history? How would that affect human beings' perception of themselves? How would that change politics? What happens when gods live among men?
Watchmen is set in the 1980s in an alternate history. In the 20s and 30s, a group of "costumed heroes" - normal people who dress up and fight crime - known as the Minutemen existed and fought for justice. Nowadays, it's illegal to do so. During the Cold War, a scientific accident led to the creation of Dr. Manhattan, a glowing blue guy who is essentially omnipotent and omniscient. To borrow a rather chilling line from the novel: "God exists, and he's American." Dr. Manhattan worked for the U.S. government and was the key factor that led to the United States' victory in the Vietnam War. Things went so well during the war, in fact, that Nixon has been re-elected president for more than two terms. Watchmen opens with the murder of a former costumed hero named The Comedian. Other former costumed heroes decide to investigate, and this sets events into motion which will impact the entire human race...
Got it? Good. If not, it doesn't matter. Read the book/see the movie anyway. It's a fascinating story that delves into such themes as:
1) Justice - Does the end justify the means?
2) Power and Authority - Who watches the Watchmen?
3) Human Nature - Is it possible to "save" humanity from itself? Are we worth saving?
4) Omniscience - Does this negate free will? Can the course of history be altered?
5) Technology - Does scientific advancement ultimately only lead to suffering?
Though I don't think the movie has a chance of living up the novel (Snyder just isn't that talented of a director), the marketing for this film has been excellent. The two trailers do a great job of communicating the overall look and feel of the movie without going into too many details about the plot, which is good considering the plot is too layered to be properly explained in 2 minutes anyway.
Below you'll find a video primer on the story and characters of Watchmen, followed by the two trailers for the film. Note the choice of music: "The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning" by The Smashing Pumpkins and "Take A Bow" by Muse. The lyrics of both songs touch on a lot of Watchmen's primary themes.
A primer on Watchmen.
The first trailer.
The second trailer.
In case you haven't figured it out yet, what I'm trying to say is: Go to the movies and see Watchmen this weekend. And at the very least read the book. It's not your typical happy-go-luck, good-vs-evil superhero story, and who knows, maybe we could all learn something from it.
Quotes of Da Moment:
"We gaze continually at the world and it grows dull in our perceptions. Yet seen from the another's vantage point, as if new, it may still take our breath away. Come...dry your eyes. For you are life, rarer than a quark and unpredictable beyond the dreams of Heisenberg; the clay in which the forces that shape all things leave their fingerprints most clearly."
--Watchmen
"If I write a crappy comic book, it doesn't cost the budget of an emergent Third World nation. When you've got these kinds of sums involved in creating another two hours of entertainment for Western teenagers, I feel it crosses the line from being merely distasteful to being wrong."
--Watchmen author Alan Moore, on filmmaking
"Everything is more complicated than you think. You only see a tenth of what is true. There are a million little strings attached to every choice you make; you can destroy your life every time you choose. But maybe you won't know for twenty years. And you'll never ever trace it to its source. And you only get one chance to play it out. Just try and figure out your own divorce. And they say there is no fate, but there is: it's what you create. Even though the world goes on for eons and eons, you are here for a fraction of a fraction of a second. Most of your time is spent being dead or not yet born. But while alive, you wait in vain, wasting years, for a phone call or a letter or a look from someone or something to make it all right. And it never comes or it seems to but doesn't really. And so you spend your time in vague regret or vaguer hope for something good to come along. Something to make you feel connected, to make you feel whole, to make you feel loved. And the truth is I'm so angry and the truth is I'm so fucking sad, and the truth is I've been so fucking hurt for so fucking long and for just as long have been pretending I'm OK, just to get along, just for, I don't know why, maybe because no one wants to hear about my misery, because they have their own, and their own is too overwhelming to allow them to listen to or care about mine. Well, fuck everybody. Amen."
--Synecdoche, New York
Is there anybody out there who will pay me to sit on my butt and watch movies all day? Because I'll totally do it. Just pay me enough to make ends meet, and I'll gladly do nothing but watch hour after hour of movies, no matter how idiotic or in poor taste they may be. I will then happily write a novella offering a detailed critique of each and every one.
***
Haven't been doing much except catching up on television shows, hanging out with Christine (my new ladyfriend for those of you not in the loop), and working a bit on the director's cut of The (Hide And) Seeker. My brief thoughts on what I've been watching:
Synecdoche, New York - The directorial debut of my favorite screenwriter, Charlie Kaufman, who's responsible for some of the most layered and multi-faceted scripts of the past 10 years, including Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The one thing you can expect going into a Kaufman-scribed film is that, no matter the plot, it's going to somehow touch on such timeless themes as the nature of the self, the meaning of life, and the relationship between the artist and his/her subjects. This movie is no different. The reviews I'd read made it seem like this would be an incoherent mess of a film whose only purpose was to turn the viewer's brain into a lump of quivering goo by the end. I'm happy to report that that's not the case. From a storytelling perspective, it does have a linear plot. From a thematic perspective, though... that's where things get tricky. It's definitely the kind of movie that takes multiple viewings to completely digest. There's a lot of interesting stuff going on, and I found it to be a fascinating portrait of what it means to be an artist - how art is ultimately a reflection of the deepest corners of the self, and how each and every person has innumerable threads of influence on everyone else. It's about how existence itself is one giant tapestry of interlocking experiences, and how we're all bound together by a common obstacle: death. Artists are people who through their creation become gods, and even then they're still limited by their own mortality. If you're the kind of person who likes to sit and philosophize about such things, then check out this film, you'll probably enjoy it. I can't really say it's a good film, and I can't really say it's a bad film. It is what it is. It's Charlie Kaufman The Artist musing about what it means to be Charlie Kaufman The Artist and Charlie Kaufman The Person. I hope he directs more in the future.
As a side note: one of this entry's Quotes of Da Moment is a monologue from the film that I found to be very memorable and thought-provoking. Are the last two sentences (not including the "Amen") not about what it essentially means to be a writer, and all the egotism inherently involved in any artistic endeavor?
Dollhouse - We're three episodes in, and so far the new show from Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog) is pretty good. It's not the greatest thing on television, but it's definitely not the worst, and each episode so far has been better than the one before it. It's basically about a young woman named Echo who's an agent for the "Dollhouse" - a secret organization that specializes in personality manipulation. Echo is, essentially, the human version of a blank slate. A client requests the Dollhouse's services (which could be anything, from hostage negotiation to assassin to high-class hooker) and Ecco is implanted with the necessary memories and personality traits to complete the mission. It's like how in The Matrix people could learn any skill in a few seconds just by having it "programmed" in, except in this show it's their entire personality. It also stars Tahmoh Penikett, who plays Helo on Battlestar Galactica, which is cool. Anyways, I'd recommend it if you're looking for something to watch on Fridays at 9. Hopefully FOX will give it a chance and won't cancel it like they did with Firefly.
NOTE: All 3 episodes of Dollhouse can be viewed for free at Hulu, starting with this one right here.
Battlestar Galactica - The second half of Season 4 has been pretty damn good. There are only three episodes left before the series ends... I'm kinda sad. I'm also a bit concerned, because there's still a lot of questions that haven't even begun to get answered. However, I've heard the series finale is going to be 2 hours long, so I trust the producers know what they're doing.
The Office - Still funny, though there hasn't been a lot of character development this season.
30 Rock - Probably the smartest sitcom on television since Arrested Development. Watch it.
Flight of the Conchords - So far this season has been a tad disappointing, but it has enough hits over misses that I'll keep watching.
Heroes - Blegh. I'm not sure if this is technically Season 4 or the second half of Season 3, but either way, this show is consistently mediocre. After a fantastic first season and a terrible second one, it is now plodding along at a level I would deem "Meh." It's alright, but definitely nothing special.
Still wondering when we can expect to see new seasons of Dexter and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Once BSG finishes, those will probably become my new "favorite shows."
***
If only animal cruelty was always this hilarious:
***
Spring Break Brainteaser of Da Moment:
If you cloned yourself and had sex with your clone, would that be incest, masturbation, or neither?
Yes. That's the kind of thing I dedicate a considerable amount of brainpower to pondering. Right now I'm thinking that meets the definition of incest.
***
The remainder of this post is going to be Watchmen-focused.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Watchmen is one of the greatest works of fiction ever written. Period. If you haven't read it, you should. It doesn't matter if you're not a "comic book" or "graphic novel" person - I don't read graphic novels, but I've read Watchmen multiple times. It's just that good.
I'm going a midnight screening of the movie this Thursday. I am simultaneously very excited and very cynical. Although the source material is some of the richest I've ever read, I doubt Zack Snyder's ability as a director to transfer that to film. I'm very concerned that people who haven't read the novel might see the film, not "get it," and then dismiss it. But I want Watchmen to get more love, so I would encourage all the people reading this to go see the movie this weekend. Just do it. If you like the movie, read the novel. If you hate the movie, read the novel. Just get out and support Alan Moore's masterpiece in any way, shape or form you can.
In fact, I want you all to go see Watchmen so badly, that I'm going to go ahead and do some of the legwork and explain the basics of what it's about. You won't have the experience I did, of starting the graphic novel with absolutely no idea what I was about to experience, but maybe it will help you figure out whether or not Watchmen is something you'll like. At the very least, you'll know a little something if you check out the movie and it turns out to not do a very good job of explaining things.
Here's the deal: Watchmen is a subversion of the typical superhero story, and asks things like: What if people really did dress up and fight crime? What kind of person would do such a thing? What would their motivation be? What would their moral compass consist of? And what if there really was a superhuman, with superpowers? How would that change the course of history? How would that affect human beings' perception of themselves? How would that change politics? What happens when gods live among men?
Watchmen is set in the 1980s in an alternate history. In the 20s and 30s, a group of "costumed heroes" - normal people who dress up and fight crime - known as the Minutemen existed and fought for justice. Nowadays, it's illegal to do so. During the Cold War, a scientific accident led to the creation of Dr. Manhattan, a glowing blue guy who is essentially omnipotent and omniscient. To borrow a rather chilling line from the novel: "God exists, and he's American." Dr. Manhattan worked for the U.S. government and was the key factor that led to the United States' victory in the Vietnam War. Things went so well during the war, in fact, that Nixon has been re-elected president for more than two terms. Watchmen opens with the murder of a former costumed hero named The Comedian. Other former costumed heroes decide to investigate, and this sets events into motion which will impact the entire human race...
Got it? Good. If not, it doesn't matter. Read the book/see the movie anyway. It's a fascinating story that delves into such themes as:
1) Justice - Does the end justify the means?
2) Power and Authority - Who watches the Watchmen?
3) Human Nature - Is it possible to "save" humanity from itself? Are we worth saving?
4) Omniscience - Does this negate free will? Can the course of history be altered?
5) Technology - Does scientific advancement ultimately only lead to suffering?
Though I don't think the movie has a chance of living up the novel (Snyder just isn't that talented of a director), the marketing for this film has been excellent. The two trailers do a great job of communicating the overall look and feel of the movie without going into too many details about the plot, which is good considering the plot is too layered to be properly explained in 2 minutes anyway.
Below you'll find a video primer on the story and characters of Watchmen, followed by the two trailers for the film. Note the choice of music: "The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning" by The Smashing Pumpkins and "Take A Bow" by Muse. The lyrics of both songs touch on a lot of Watchmen's primary themes.
A primer on Watchmen.
The first trailer.
The second trailer.
In case you haven't figured it out yet, what I'm trying to say is: Go to the movies and see Watchmen this weekend. And at the very least read the book. It's not your typical happy-go-luck, good-vs-evil superhero story, and who knows, maybe we could all learn something from it.
Quotes of Da Moment:
"We gaze continually at the world and it grows dull in our perceptions. Yet seen from the another's vantage point, as if new, it may still take our breath away. Come...dry your eyes. For you are life, rarer than a quark and unpredictable beyond the dreams of Heisenberg; the clay in which the forces that shape all things leave their fingerprints most clearly."
--Watchmen
"If I write a crappy comic book, it doesn't cost the budget of an emergent Third World nation. When you've got these kinds of sums involved in creating another two hours of entertainment for Western teenagers, I feel it crosses the line from being merely distasteful to being wrong."
--Watchmen author Alan Moore, on filmmaking
"Everything is more complicated than you think. You only see a tenth of what is true. There are a million little strings attached to every choice you make; you can destroy your life every time you choose. But maybe you won't know for twenty years. And you'll never ever trace it to its source. And you only get one chance to play it out. Just try and figure out your own divorce. And they say there is no fate, but there is: it's what you create. Even though the world goes on for eons and eons, you are here for a fraction of a fraction of a second. Most of your time is spent being dead or not yet born. But while alive, you wait in vain, wasting years, for a phone call or a letter or a look from someone or something to make it all right. And it never comes or it seems to but doesn't really. And so you spend your time in vague regret or vaguer hope for something good to come along. Something to make you feel connected, to make you feel whole, to make you feel loved. And the truth is I'm so angry and the truth is I'm so fucking sad, and the truth is I've been so fucking hurt for so fucking long and for just as long have been pretending I'm OK, just to get along, just for, I don't know why, maybe because no one wants to hear about my misery, because they have their own, and their own is too overwhelming to allow them to listen to or care about mine. Well, fuck everybody. Amen."
--Synecdoche, New York
# posted by Andrew Johnson : 3/04/2009 02:30:00 AM 
