Humble Pie: Review

It’s not an odd thing for a film to affect me emotionally.  Anyone who knows me knows that it happens all the time.  But there’s something exceptionally affecting for me about Humble Pie.  As I mentioned in my Facebook impression, I so wish I couldn’t relate to the events in this movie.

Humble Pie is a completely fresh and uplifting look at a life considered by many to be ordinary.  Hubbel Palmer wrote and starred in the lead role.  Hubble plays Tracy Orbison – an early 30s supermarket worker living in a somewhat quiet midwest town who happens to be overweight.  The reason why Humble Pie struck such a chord with me is that it deals with being overweight in the accurate way that I and others knew and have known life to be and not in a fictional “Hollywood” sort-of way.  The “Hollywood” way would be to poke fun at his weight in a Nutty Professor or even Shallow Hal kinda way – then justify it with a moral at the close to remind people that it isn’t important ‘that these people don’t look like us – the key is what’s inside!’.  Sadly, little is ever done in these films to convince the viewer that their lives are remarkable.  I love Tracy’s character.  He lives amidst a mother who makes him feel as if he’s the biggest liability she has in life.  Tracy finds comfort in the relationship that he has with his sister, but being that she isn’t overweight (and, in fact, almost no other characters in the film are overweight), it’s very difficult for him to find anyone who can relate to his situation.

Tracy finds hope in life through his job at the supermarket.  And this is the beginning of what makes his spirit kinda awesome.  There’s nothing particularly exciting about his job.  But for eleven years, he works consistently and comes across as a pretty dependable person.  When he finds out that he’s being promoted, his reaction to the glimpse of sunshine in life has to make you smile.  Tracy really begins to find hope when he discovers an actor (William Baldwin) in a local performance of a play and identifies with the way in which he commands the stage.  Tracy discovers that the actor teaches a local acting class and decides to sign up and follow what he feels is his new purpose in life.

If you watch this film and are or have ever been overweight, there will be more than a few moments that I would imagine have drawn a laugh from some crowds, but will draw upon some pretty dark moments.  This film inspires hope for those who persevere.  No, there’s no montage where Tracy gets a workout tape and changes his eating habits and begins to exercise.  And no, there isn’t aren’t any makeover scenes or other significant life changing events happening here.  But the film did leave me with this: that despite how cruel some of his family, his friends, his co-workers and just random people he encountered were to him, his attitude remained even.  There were so many opportunities for him to just flip a table or punch a wall (or a person).  And theatrically, he would have been completely justified.  But through it all, he just plays this overweight, gentle six-foot beautiful spirit who’s trying to make the best of a situation that he doesn’t find particularly limiting.  It’s the behavior of the people around Tracy that makes life uncomfortable.

As mentioned, there were a lot of situations in the film that I truly wish I could not identify with.  I watched with incredibly mixed emotions.  There’s a script that I have been slowly writing that was trying to get to the heart of some of the things that I would imagine that Hubbel experienced and successfully wrote about in Humble Pie.  And there are a bunch of things in my yet-unfinished script that weren’t explored in this film.  But this film deserved more attention and I hope it finds new life on home video.  Having lived through some of the things that are in the film, it was painful but therapeutic to witness them onscreen.  But it’s all worthwhile if you watch this slightly over one hour and a half film.  There’s a poem that Tracy reads that was so moving, I had to listen to it twice.  If you’ve never experienced disappointment, this probably won’t resonate with you.  But for those who live lives that are less than ideal, persevere and endure, holding on until (as my Bishop would say), ‘they feel their help coming’, this poem is a beautiful way to end the film.

Humble Pie isn’t the story of every heavier person’s battle to live in a world where they are constantly reminded of their physical differences.  But this is a great film to watch and get a glimpse of some of the difficulties that life can impress upon you and the pain you can endure when you try to camouflage yourself among the masses, hiding under dark, loose fitting clothes.

Paper Heart: Review

Netflix thinks he knows me.  He’s always making these recommendations based on other films he’s known I’ve seen.  “If you liked Gone With the Wind and you also liked One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest… well, heck, you’re gonna love this one!”  There’s something inherently mechanical and artificial about any system that tries to guess whether or not you’ll like a film.  Well, whatever the reason, somehow Paper Heart landed in my recommendations list.  And I’m starting to think Netflix knows me better than I know myself.

Describing Paper Heart is a difficult task.  The Netflix description had some word in it like “faux” or “mockumentary” that tipped me off to the fact that this wouldn’t be a completely sincere account of what was to come.  It starts Charlyne Yi as herself.  Who the hell is Charlyne Yi?  Well, she plays this musician/comedian who doubts the sincerity of ‘love’ as a true feeling and decides to couple with a crew to shoot footage in search of a deeper definition.  The real draw for most people is the presence of Michael Cera.  Cera is an immediately recognizable actor for anyone who has been paying attention to the young semi-independent movie scene for the past three years.  He’s probably best known for his work in Superbad and Juno and strangely here he plays… well, himself.

The film opens with Yi holding a microphone in Las Vegas and asking passers by about their definition and idea of love.  While this may not have been the intent, the insincere reactions that the passers by give to Yi sets her up to be a sympathetic character.  As you see her attempts to be taken seriously, you’d have to be heartless not to sympathize with.  She’s a 19-year old female of Asian decent, but let’s just say that she doesn’t possess ‘conventional beauty’.  After you spend a few moments with her, you sense that her mannerisms are quite odd – leaning heavily towards geeky or nerdy.  The fact that she identifies herself as either a comedian or a musician is strange considering that she didn’t seem to take the music that seriously and her comedy even less so.  All this said, I really grew to like Charlyne Yi.  Her beauty manifested itself in her freeness of spirit.  For me (as is the case with most people) a beautiful or ugly spirit drastically either enhances or detracts from your physical beauty anyway.  I liked Yi’s personality so much that I’m hoping her role in the movie was close to her real life persona.  It would be nice to think of how the world would be if there were more Charlyne Yi’s in it.

(It’s difficult to review this film without giving details about how it unfolds – so if you’ll trust me, I’ll try to give you a flavor for what hooked me without revealing the heart of the film.  However, if you just want to see this thing, stop here and check it out.)

The film develops with Charlyne subtlety and repeatedly (but not begrudgingly) expressing how she probably won’t ever experience true love.  To say she’s pessimistic about her love life is an understatement.  There’s even a shot of her parents on film trying to uncover the mystery of her love life.  To the viewer, it should be pretty obvious why she isn’t with a beau.  She has a strange and almost ‘performance-actor’-ish kinda personality.  As if she’s just kinda making it up as she’s going along in life.  What makes her likeable in the film is the genuine feeling she gives when she smiles.  Throughout the film, she finds small opportunities to create fun for herself.  She’s not overly concerned with her appearance.  (In fact, she’s not concerned with it in the least.)  She strikes me as a person who would randomly utter the most unpredictable and strange comments.  And it’s with this free-spirited approach that she and fellow filmmaker Nick Jasenovec set out to interview people about their definitions and ideas of love.  The feeling that the mockumentary seems to give us initially is that there really isn’t any script or even a storyboard for how the film will build or conclude.  They’re just kinda making it up.  That is, until Michael Cera steps on the scene.

Here’s what’s going on at the Microsoft Store!!

Early Droid Impressions…

I’ve been dying to get my hands on the Motorola Droid and recently I spent some time with it and wanted to share some early (as early as 20 mins of use can buy me) impressions:

• The shape is rather uninspired.  I passed right by the phone… In a way, it’s an unfair assessment.  The iPhone is recognizable, but for the most part it’s a big screen and a curved shiny back.  At the same time, other touch screen devices appear to have some personality.  (The new HTC HD2 comes to mind.  That seems to be the kind of sleek, slightly wider screen device that geeks lust over.)  The overall feel of the Droid, however, seems to be a bit… well, the word ‘uninspired’ keeps coming to mind.
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• The phone definitely has a heavy feel to it… very study.  When I held the Pre for the first time, it felt kinda cheap.  This isn’t cheap.  This is a big metal slab.  But not too heavy.  Just heavy enough.
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• The most disappointing thing about the phone (and I was really surprised) is the keyboard.  It’s really bad.  It’s the opposite of ergonomic.  Keys have almost no feedback.  The placement is kinda weird (this seems to be due to the shift of the keys over to the left to compensate for the directional pad.)  I was really amped about this device, largely due in part to the fact that I’m excited about Android.  But I was hoping this would give me an iPhone like experience, only with a physical keyboard.  My early experience with it really left a lot to be desired.
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• It’s really snappy once you get into Android.  It”s as responsive as my iPhone and the interface feels like a whole different world.  I can get used to this!
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  Really that’s it.  Just wanted to get out some early feelings after touching the phone that is depicted in ads as being shot out of bomber into a midwestern city, disturbing all of the common folk.  But now that I had the chance to play with the phone it’s been brought down to earth a bit.  I am pretty sure in 2010 that I will own an Android at some point.  But the Droid will not be my gateway drug.

DJ Hero: A Hip Hop Historian’s Review (Xbox 360 Standard Edition)

Just like many other kids who were alive in the 70s/80s, I remember watching the Grammys where Herbie Hancock did a live performance of ‘Rock It’ (which at that time had the most visually eclectic music video to date.)  There was a lot going on in the performance – mannequins were moving around and other Rube Goldberg-esque contraptions swung in the background.  But what I remember most was the DJ in the background, where for the first time ever I saw someone scratching.  After that, I fell in love with the art and later with the skills of so many accomplished DJs, including Grand Wizard Theodore, Grandmaster Flash, Jazzy Jay, Jam Master Jay, Chuck Chillout, Marley Marl, Red Alert and Premier to name just a few. 

Very late into the craze, I decided to save up my money and get DJ equipment myself.  With immeasurable hope, I turned the pages to the back of a Source magazine advertisement and bought two of the most inexpensive Gemini turntables and a mixer that money would buy.  (They even threw in ten albums which I desperately needed, as buying two of each record wasn’t something that my 12-year-old budget was ready to handle.)

When my box and turntables arrived, within about 3 hours I realized a few things.  First, I learned that you pretty much get what you pay for.  But most importantly I learned that even the most expensive gear and dedication wouldn’t buy the years of practice and perfecting of the art it takes to be a true Hip-Hop DJ.  Watching DJs as a kid, all I saw was the scratching and crossfading.  But only when I used the turntables myself did I see just how much skill was involved.  I had to try to remember the positioning of the song, so that when I went from one turntable to the other, I would be at the correct position.  I had to remember to discern between what I was hearing in my headphones versus what was coming out of the speaker.  All in all, I developed more respect for the art of DJing that day than I ever had watching it alone.

Over the years, the art has been mastered and taken to new levels, as evidenced by watching movies like Scratch and guys like Mix Master Mike, Cut Chemist and many others.  DJing is such an iconic art that in Japan (where arcade gaming, although on the decline, is much more popular than it is here) there are more than a few games that feature turntables and simulate DJing.  I always wondered if one of those games would make it stateside and, more importantly, if they would be worth playing.

A bit over a year ago, I remember hearing that Activision reserved the name “DJ Hero”, (among many other Hero-based game names they reserved).  Ideas began to circulate in my mind about how a game like this might play out.  Exactly how would they translate the art of DJing to a video game?

About six months ago, I had my first look at the DJ Hero controller, and I was pretty impressed.  It looked like the iconic Technics 1200 model turntable that every Hip-Hop aficionado is familiar with.  (And actually I’m pretty surprised that Technics hasn’t attempted to sue Activision – the resemblance is more than minor.)  However, when I saw the screenshot, I thought I was seeing only part of the peripheral.  Where was the other turntable?  Well, Activision aired on the side of simplicity for the controller rather than authenticity.  Initially I thought this was sacrilegious to only have one turntable.  But after having played the game, I think – for now, at least – that they made the right decision.  So, does this game bring me closer to the experience of actually simulating the art of DJing?  Read on to find out.

Paranormal Activity: Review

From the moment that I first saw the marketing around the movie Paranormal Activity, I knew I was in for a unique experience.  A wise man once told me that you should be careful what you let into your sight, because some things you can’t erase from your mind.  It’s been the case with a few events in my life.  And it’s certainly should have been a quote that entered my mind before watching Paranormal Activity.

Before I elaborate on all the ways in which this experience etched a spot on my brain that I hope will dissolve some time soon, I need to preface this by describing the type of person who would NOT enjoy this film.  And it’s nothing personal — everything isn’t for everybody.  But I’m a bit disturbed to see in this day and age the number of people who consume media and don’t allow themselves to be entertained.  When you see Peter Pan live on Broadway, sure it’s easy to spot the wires hanging from Sandy Duncan’s waist.  But it’s a lot more fun to allow yourself the pleasure of the enjoying experience.  Folks tend to be taken aback a bit to learn that, although I barely watch it anymore, pro wrestling is something that I enjoy and have enjoyed watching since I was young.  “Uh…don’t you know it’s….um….fake??” Yes, I understand that it’s scripted.  I also understand a lot more about the art of coordinating and timing each sequence to tell the audience a story.  It’s an art.  And that doesn’t mean everyone has to appreciate it.  But you have a much better chance of appreciating it if you don’tover analyze and instead try to find something to appreciate about what you’re consuming.

Usually this is the place where I guess I’m supposed to say, “But, I digress….”  And I realize that I’m belaboring the point.  But the key to appreciating a film like Paranormal Activity is to forget the fact that the people onscreen all have profiles on iMDB.com and several have other film credits.  The key is to simply watch the experience without any expectations and with as little prior knowledge as possible.

I often hear mention of The Blair Witch Project in the same conversations about this film.  And the comparisons are to be expected.  Both were filmed in a sort of ‘mockumentary’ style and, in my opinion, this strengthens the authenticity of both films.  But what carries these films (ironically) are the strong “acting performances”.  I don’t know that you can even call them “acting performances”.  I’m sure that there are large portions of all of these folks in the people they portray.  And while these actors aren’t going to be walking away with any Golden Globes in January, from a horror film standpoint, these are some class-A performances.  To say much more would possibly ruin the experience.  Just trust me when I say that, if you’re watching this the right way, you will find yourself feeling that you’re just watching a young couple and not actors in a film.
So what’s the real hook with this film?  Well, without spoiling any of the experience, for me it comes down to three things (besides the authenticity of the acting performances.)  First, this movie works more effectively for horror film aficionados because it abandons all modern horror film conventions.  There are no musical cues.  There are no professionally done cuts.  You are trusting the very vulnerable people holding the camera – and you feel very alone.  This film has a formula allits own and it is quite impressive.

The second aspect that makes this different from any other horror film are the setting and the effects.  We spend virtually the entire time in one location.  The film was only an hour and half and I can probably map out every room in the house.  The image it left in my mind was just that strong.  The illusion also holds up because, as much as I tried, I didn’t see any evidence that there was some off-screen crew.  The scenes are so dynamic and mobile that it’s hard to imagine where a crew might have been located.  And simply put, the effects are subtle and the effect is chilling.

Technical details like effects, camera work and sound engineering along with a good script and good acting are components that any solid big budget film could posses.  But, for me, there’s something intangible that ties this experience all together.  And for me it seems to be this fact: the film plays upon every fear that you’ve ever had about that seemingly random noise you might have heard.  Or the fact that you think you remember seeing something move in that shadow near your bed.  Somehow this film taps into a place deep in my mind when I resisted sleep as a child and would lie away and let my imagination running wild.  Maybe it’s just me.  But I think there’s an intrinsic value that permeates through the screen and starts gnawing at your fears.

I cannot stress enough — if you are the least bit antsy about being alone in the dark or fear of things dealing with the occult, stay away.  However, if you DO  decide to take this challenge on, ironically the theater isn’t the best place to experience it.  At least not in a full theater.  There are subtle sounds…. that can be most fully be appreciated if you are in limited company.  This film is going to really hit it’s stride when people see it at home with a high def television and a 5.1 or 7.1 sound system.  And the sound, as is the case with most suspense/horror films, is a huge part of the experience.

Stupidly, I watched this film alone and it’s alone that I’ll take myself to bed tonight… all the while singing “Rockin Robin” and “Happy People” as I do my best to forget some of these scenes until the morning.  Yes, if you let yourself get immersed in this one, it’s that serious.

The Palm Pre and Me – Where did love go wrong?

Earlier this year in March – just five short months ago – I was about as excited as I’ve ever been for a new gadget.  After writing Palm off as a ‘has been’ for years, I found my attitude changing after watching the keynote for the Palm Pre in January at CES.  And like any lusting affair, the more I read about it the more I wanted it.  Gadgets are an obsession for me to begin with. However, my obsession with the Pre was starting to become unhealthy.  I recall thinking to myself before the final pricing was set, “I’m sure Palm will price this competitively, but I’ll go as high as, say…five…no, six hundred.  But that’s my final offer!”

But unlike many other situations of longing desire, I knew why I wanted the Pre.  And even after having left it for another phone, I still know.  The Pre promised something that my iPhone never gave and as far as I knew, never planned on giving.  At the top of the list was a physical keyboard – something that the writer in me had been missing ever since I stood on the iPhone launch line.  But it was more than the keyboard.  It was the promise of an untethered experience where I didn’t sync to a desktop but wirelessly with the cloud.  One where I didn’t have to worry about going home to plug in and sync my music and where I’d have a replica of my home digital life in my mobile device.

I didn’t sleep at all on the night before it launched.  I was too afraid of ‘falling asleep and missing the launch line’.  And so, like a love struck fool, I stood on line for four hours at the Sprint Store in Valley Stream and traded text messages with my sister (who had the Pre bug too).  And when I first held the phone in my hands, I can’t deny how happy I was… the phone felt so incredible.  Some areas were lacking, but I knew it would take some time before I got accustomed to it.

The scene now is not very different from many other breakups.  There seem to be regrets on both sides of the table.  Here I sit in one room while the Pre sits in another (probably making calls to it’s girlfriends remarking at how much of a liar I was and how full of it I am.)

What’s worse, my new girl…uh…phone… well, it’s a lot like my old phone.  The iPhone 3GS sits at my side.  Yes, that iPhone 3GS.  The one I laughed at Apple for releasing with few additional features than the previous version.  The one that was playing it safe.  Well, in the end, it turns out that ‘safe’ is probably what I need at this point.

But the question that I’ve been getting from everyone who knew how in love I appeared with the Pre remains the same… where did love go wrong?!

Well, let me explain…

Don’t Expect Much From the “New iPhone” – Apple has to ‘Play it Safe’

Now that I’m less than a week away from, excluding any unforeseen product shortages, adopting a Palm Pre as my primary mobile device, my peers keep prodding me with questions.  Many of my tech friends haven’t really been following the Pre and WebOS that closely.  Actually, it’s surprising how many haven’t been following it.  Even Leo Laporte (whom I consider to be kinda close to the cutting edge when talking about tech) is only now starting to pay attention to the Pre.  And he seems to be doing it in a very apologetic way.  (‘You know what, I think I’m gonna check out the Palm Pre…’).  The truth is that he’s probably following the Pre because he has to – as a tech correspondent, he has to stay on top of what the current focus is, and right now that’s the Pre.

Having read message boards and talked to other tech fans, what is most surprising to me are the number of people who are anxiously anticipating the announcement of the next iteration of the iPhone.  Okay, so it’s not that surprising – any Apple announcement these days (and particularly one where Steve Jobs might take the stage – and it’s about a 75% lock that it will happen in my book) will get tech journalists pens moving.  But this time around, I’m much more interested in the other stuff that Apple might talk about.  For people who know their tech, there should be almost no excitement for the iPhone this go round.  And there are a few reasons for it.

About two plus months ago, I was buzzing around my office at work.  Apple had announced that they would be previewing some of the features of the forthcoming iPhone OS 3.0.  While I thought the Pre was intriguing, innovative and sorta tempting, I have a tremendous amount of confidence in the folks at the Apple Campus at Cupertino.  I knew (or, at least, I thought I knew) that whatever they announced would make me forget about the multi-tasking, cloud synching, synergetic phone that Palm revealed two months earlier.  Upon reflection, had I been able to take a trip up to the ‘wisdom mountain’ and really clear my head, I would have seen the obvious. 

The Man in Black – Johnny Cash

Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,
Why you never see bright colors on my back,
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.
Well, there’s a reason for the things that I have on.

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin’ in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he’s a victim of the times.

I wear the black for those who never read,
Or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity,
Why, you’d think He’s talking straight to you and me.

Well, we’re doin’ mighty fine, I do suppose,
In our streak of lightning cars and fancy clothes,
But just so we’re reminded of the ones who are held back,
Up front there ought ‘a be a man in black.

I wear it for the sick and lonely old,
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold,
I wear the black in mourning for the lives that could have been,
Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.

And, I wear it for the thousands who have died,
Believing that the Lord was on their side,
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,
Believing that we all were on their side.

Well, there’s things that never will be right I know,
And things need changing everywhere you go,
But ’til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You’ll never see me wear a suit of white.

Oh, I’d love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything’s o.k.,
But I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
‘Till things are brighter, I’m the man in black.

Thoughts on Grey’s Finale (Season 5)

It would be easy to roll up my sleeves and pontificate about all of the reasons why I feel this season of Grey’s Anatomy was disappointing.  (And had I started writing the minute after the credits rolled, that’s precisely what I would have done).  But reflecting on the show (for all of, let’s see….two hours), my thoughts turn to T.R. Knight’s character, George O’Malley.

When people think of Grey’s, the character that they usually reflect upon is Meredith.  After all, the show bears her name and she narrates most of the episodes.  But in a strange way, I always saw the show through George’s eyes.  During the early episodes when Grey’s was just this show that came on after Desperate Housewives, I kinda looked at George and laughed.  He was every nerdy, ‘wish-i-could-hang-with-the-cool-kids’ dude I ever knew.  And while he was annoying, he was also the character that seemed to be the most humbled by the opportunity that was set before him.

As the show moved on, out of all of the characters on the show, I saw him as the character who evolved and matured the most.  One of the things that I loved about the show was the relationship that he and Isaiah Washington had as student and teacher.  It was one of mutual respect and it was wonderfully written.  (Which was part of the reason that I was so crushed to find out that in reality their relationship was less than cordial, the true reasons behind which we may never fully know.)  But even without ‘Burke’, George found a way always give us something interesting to chew on.  The guilt that he carried and emitted without words during the season where he cheated on Callie.  The pain of explaining his father’s sickness to his family, playing the ‘bad news-bringing doctor’ role in a way that he probably never figured he’d have to do.

By now it’s pretty clear to anyone that watched the finale that George was the victim of an accident and that T.R. Knight is no longer on the show.  I don’t profess to understand the complexities of running an award-winning primetime drama.  And I feel that for all of the good moments Grey’s writers have given us, we should all give them the benefit of the doubt when they make the decision that for whatever off-screen reasons that they need to somewhat abruptly end a character’s term on the program.  I just feel like there had to be a way…hell, there had to be a hundred ways… to give this character, whom you’ve invested so much time and energy and show-hours helping us to get to know… a proper good-bye.

Yes, I know by now that the theme of this entire season is that “life is precious” and that it should be cherished every minute that you breathe.  I get that.  But a tragic, quick death is one that is befitting a character who isn’t a staple of your program.  I don’t read TMZ and I don’t have a subscription to Us Weekly, but just like everyone else, I heard that both T.R. Knight and Katherine Heigl were leaving the show.  And it’s really none of my business why either the actors or the writers felt that they needed to part ways.  But if the Grey’s writers are fans of the show as much as they claim to be and are really concerned about what the fans want, then there had to have been a better way to “kill these characters off”.

I never really liked “Alex and Izzie” even though it kept being forced down our throats.  The funny thing to me about Alex and Izzie’s relationship this go ‘round was that the relationship that Izzie had with George made Alex (and thus the relationship) seem even more shallow than it did to being with.  Perhaps George and Izzie weren’t right for each other, but when they were together, for a moment you (or should I say, “I”) felt like love between two friends was possible.  Regardless of why they split (and yeah, I thought they were better as pals) it made Karev look more and more like a neanderthal.  After all, it was George – who wasn’t even with Izzie – who noticed that she wasn’t feeling well before anyone else did.