As my good buddy Conan O'Brien says ... so much to talk about. It's almost Halloween, the NBA is back, the Presidential election is now only days away, and it's raining here in LA for, seemingly, the first time in many months.
- First of all ... I'm excited that Halloween is almost here. It's been a great couple of weeks of Halloween-related craziness - from the annual Horror Movie Marathon to Knott's Scary Farm, and, finally, tomorrow night is the main event, (the-event-formerly-known-as) Page-O-Ween. I've got my costume pretty much ready to go ... let's just say that I'll be having an Appetite for Destruction come Friday night.
- By the way ... as many know, I love Halloween-related music. From Thriller to the Time Warp to Werewolf Bar-Mitzvah. For some reason though, the awesomely cheesy yet clasically-creepy song that's been in my head of late: Alice Cooper's MAN BEHIND THE MASK. Yes, 80's (or early 90's?) synth-rock horror-schlock at it's best! Check it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqqLMgbtrB8
POLITICS:
- Nothing too specific to rant on today, other than the fact that, yes, like many Dems who painfully recall the debacles that were the 2000 and 2004 elections, I am still somewhat nervous for Obama, despite his substantial lead in the polls. Unfortunately, there are just so many backwater hicks out there who still think Obama is some kind of Islamo-fascist, or who simply won't vote for him because of his race. On the other hand, this is also a nation that has made African Americans like Oprah, Michael Jordan, and Tiger Words some of the biggest and most popular stars in the world. So, sure, I have a few worries about the so-called Bradley effect, but overall, I am pretty confident that America in 2008 is, really, more than ready to elect a non-white president.
But, secondly, I am once again hoping that all of my peers in Gen Y GET OFF THEIR @$$es and vote! I guess I probably get a bit of a skewed view on this issue since between living in Boston and New York and now LA I've been in big cities with lots of smart, driven, politically-engaged young people. Almost all of my friends are very much engaged in this election and have either already voted or will be there at the polls on Tuesday. But ... will this happen across the country? I really hope so, because, look, we're not so young anymore, people. If this was the 1950's we'd all be married with a kid and a dog and living in a house in suburbia with a white picket fence. Sure, here in 2008 most of us 20-somethings are still trying to figure it all out and can barely pay rent, etc. But geez, don't you think it's time we at least pried ourselves free from YouTube and Facebook long enough to vote? I will be really disappointed if our age-group is not a huge factor in this election, that's for sure. But, again, despite some concerns, overall I am optimistic. Like I said, at least anecdotally, people my age are more geared up than ever for this election, and I think that the reality that this presidential election WILL AFFECT US deeply has really taken hold.
Because look, the fact is that right now, politicians don't really give a crap about us. There is still a huge 70 and 80 and 90-something elderly population that desperately needs care. There is still a gigantic Baby Boomer population that is worried about their retirement and health care. There's still a ton of 30 and 40-somethings (Gen X'er's, I suppose), who have been living the yuppie lifestyle since the dotcom boom and wonder about their fading stock market portfolios.
So ... what about us? Sure, most of us have no money, are facing a tough job market, student loans, etc., etc., - but who cares? The country's got more pressing problems to deal with. Well, here is where we need to elect Barack Obama. Because let's face it, the Democratic party is the party that actually gives a crap about the big picture, that actually has a platform to address the problems that are building NOW which will seriously damage us in 20 or 30 years.
I mean, with Obama, we will hopefully move toward environmental policies that ensure that in 20 years we don't have to all don gasmasks to walk outside. With Obama, we will move towards a foreign policy that actually builds towards world peace rather than an Us versus Them divide and conquer strategy that has been the hallmark of the Bush Doctrine. With Obama, perhaps we can actually implement universal health care, so that those of us who find ourselves jobless at some point can still go to the dentist.
It's funny, because McCain has been playing the "fear" card so much in his campaign, but so much of what we're supposed to be afraid of is ultimately so trivial. We should be afraid of Obama's tangential associations, of "socialist" tax policy, of the guy's middle freaking name. Yet all of the big stuff, the stuff that we really SHOULD be sort of scared to death about - global warming, a diminished America on the world stage, economic collapse -- all of that, according to McCain, is imaginary. Sarah Palin still doesn't know or care what the cause of climate change is. McCain believed the fundamentals of the economy were strong up until the moment of crisis, and still supports all of Bush's tax policies that got us into this mess in the first place. He was on the frontlines of the politics of fear when he supported the War In Iraq as if it were Vietnam: Part II, and in denial when it came to the reality that Saddam Hussein was not, in fact, Osama Bin Laden. McCain and Bush were so busy fear-mongering about WMD's that didn't exist, that they forgot to consider that our actions might actually create a new haven for terrorists, and did a shoddy job securing our ports and our internal security and, oh yeah, catching Bin Laden.
So here's the deal. Under George W. Bush we were on an eight-year downward spiral that culminated in where we are today, aka royally #%$*'ed. We've screwed up the economy, placated the oil companies thus making zero progress towards getting off of foreign oil, fought a misguided war, and done a crap job of dealing with internal crises such as Katrina. Some of that is Bush, some of that is Republican policy to which McCain also subscribes.
But I don't want to just bash McCain. Obama has, in a short time, demonstrated that he's a man with incredibly strong leadership skills, vast knowledge about the issues we face at home and abroad. He's the kind of guy who takes advice from all manner of people, who tackles problems with intelligence and deliberation. I have no doubt that with Obama as prez we will move towards a better environmental policy, a better foreign policy, and a better economic policy - as well as social policies that reflect a more liberal mainstream - finally, we can break away from a social policy dictated by the religious right.
And hey, if we all get out there and vote, and the numbers reflect that, then you know what? Obama may have a new special-interest group to contend with. So really it doesn't matter if you're in a swing state or not - we need the Gen Y vote to mean something this year, or we're screwing ourselves for another 4 years and beyond.
TV STUFF:
- Nothing too substantial to talk about today, as I've mostly spent the last couple of days trying to catch up on CHUCK and PUSHING DAISIES. I continue to really get a kick out of Chuck, and I think it's great that they are finally starting to flesh out some of the backstories of characters like Sarah (or is that Jenny?). It's funny, because while people think of Heroes as a comic-book TV show, CHUCK to me is really the TV show that captures the sensibilities of modern comic book hits like Y: The Last Man, with a mix of geeky-cool humor, compelling characters, and fun action. Chuck is always awesomely entertaining to watch, and I would love to see it find a bigger audience. If only we had done a better job advertising the fact that Ben Savage guest-starred on last week's ep - I guarantee at least a few guys and girls raised on heaping helpings of Boy Meets World would have tuned in out of curiosity, if only to see what had become of the man formerly known as Cory Matthews. As for PUSHING DAISIES, I remain a huge fan, and completely admire the show for its visual splendor and awesomely crafty dialogue. I do think that the plotting has gotten a bit too convoluted so far this season, with a bit too much interpersonal family drama diluting the core message of the show at times. I also think that Ned, while he's always been fairly emotastic, has been a bit too mopey lately. At least in Season 1 we saw him engage in a couple of sword fights. In Season 2 he is too often a complete girly-man, to quote my fair state's governator. It's time that Ned grows a pair and stops worrying so much, and gets back to being a bit more of a hero. But, don't get me wrong - I still love Pushing Daisies, and would urge anyone to watch it who likes their TV a little more on the whimsical side. With so many grim n' gritty shows on the air (or just plain idiotic reality shows ...), it's awesome to see one that dares to be different (and intelligent!). Another case where I can onlyhope the show gains a larger audience so that it can continue.
- And now, a movie review for you, this time of Clint Eastwood's latest drama ...
CHANGELING Review:
- Changeling, the latest from the legendary Clint Eastwood, is one of those prestige Oscar-bait movies that has all the pieces in place to be a classic, but for some reason or other never quite comes together to deliver on its promise. The cast is universally great, the direction by Eastwood is reliably sure and steady, and the true story behind the script is both bizarre and fascinating.
However, based-on-a-true-story or not, what happens with Changeling is that the script presents some of the events in such a way that they seem wholly unbelievable. Maybe it's because some of the characters are too broadly-drawn, or maybe it's a mismatch between the down-to-earth direction and the melodramatic acting ... but for whatever reason much of the first half of the film is simply frustrating. There were too many times where I just couldn't grasp why the characters behaved or reacted the way they did.
Let me back up for a second - the plot of Changeling deals with a strange case of kidnapping in 1920's Los Angeles. Angelina Jolie plays a single mother who's beloved son is snatched from their home one day while Jolie is stuck working late. Almost immediately, the police bungle the case - they don't immediately look for the boy, citing a law that says that a child doesn't officially qualify as "missing" for 24 hours. Then, as the press begins to heavily cover the missing-child story, the police rush to find the kid in order to get a PR win. Unbelievably, however, the police find a child who somewhat matches the missing kid's description, but who, clearly, isn't actually Jolie's son. They present the kid to Jolie, who immediately asserts that he isn't her son. And yet, the police are so determined to get that moment of great PR, that they practically force her to take the kid home and act as if he is in fact hers. Quickly, things spiral further and further out of control. The corrupt police captain makes it his mission to cover up the whole debacle despite Jolie's public outcry. He goes so far as to have her committed to an asylum, claiming she's insane. And soon, there's a full-blown, X-Files-esque conspiracy at work, with everyone from the police to the doctors in on it. And meanwhile, there's this random kid under Jolie's custody, who all these people keep telling her is her son.
For this entire segment (which I guess covers at least the first half ...) of the movie, to me Changeling veered from head-slapping frustration to unintentional comedy. One of the biggest problems is the performance of Jeffrey Donovan, who plays the corrupt police captain who helps engineer the anti-Jolie conspiracy. It's a problematic character, because in many ways he is the villain of the movie, and yet we never really understand why he's doing such horrible things. The script paints him not necessarilly as evil, but as an ambitious opportunist. Yet Donovan (who I really thought was Guy Pierce for a while during the film ...), plays the part like a mustache-twirling comic-book villain.
I'm not sure how much of that can be attributed to the dense script of J. Michael Straczynski, who many know from his work in comic books and sci-fi. It's always cool to see a popular genre-fiction figure spread their wings, and generally, I'm a fan of JMS. His work on the comic Supreme Power, for example, was absolutely stellar, and his book Rising Stars has often been cited as essentially Heroes before Heroes became a hit TV show. But his script for Changeling is uneven - as mentioned, it has too many moments of comic book melodrama mixed in with Eastwood's more typically sober style. Since this is a real-world story with its feet firmly planted in actual history and events, I found it pretty frustrating whenever random characters - Donovan's along with several others - acted so sinister and conspiratorial without any real indication to us the audience as to their motivation. Meanwhile, Jolie's Christine Collins is at times a strong protagonist, but at times seems to just go along with all of the crap thrown her way. I mean, this kid who isn't hers is thrust into her home - you'd think that immediately she would ask him all kinds of questions to prove that he wasn't her son. But it takes her seeing him in the bathtub, and realizing that he's circumcised (which her son apparently wasn't) to have that "oh my god, this definitely isn't my son!" moment.
However, the movie REALLY picks up in its second half. Once the police conspiracy gets blown open, the movie goes from being an ineffective and somewhat hokey thriller into a very compelling courtroom drama. John Malkovich is good as always as a crusading radio host who fights for Jolie's cause. Malkovich is definitely on a role, although his work here isn't quite as dynamite as his memorable turn in Burn After Reading. Also notable though is Jason Butler Harner as the psychotic convict who was responsible for the kidnapping of Jolie's son along with dozens of other kids, many of whom he brutally murdered. Harner delivers a scary and riveting performance - at times maybe even too over the top, but ultimately his disturbing turn may be the movie's most memorable and lasting image. Also absolutely great is Geoffrey Pierson, as a lawyer who comes in to represent Jolie pro-bono when she goes to court to fight the LAPD's cover-up campaign. Pierson, once a president on 24, delivers in a few short minutes an absolutely amazing courtroom speech that sent chills up my spine. It was the kind of performance that almost reminded me of, say, William Hurt in A History of Violence, where a gravitas-infused actor just comes in for a few minutes and tears the house down.
Also notable is Amy Ryan (of late of The Office), who is superb in her role as a fellow unfairly-institutionalized mental patient to Jolie. Ryan delivers a knockout performance in a segment of the movie that is otherwise pretty hamfisted.
As you can see, so many of the ingredients are there for CHANGELING to be one of those really special, instant-Oscar-fodder movies. But despite a couple of amazing turns from a universally talented cast, the movie just never fully comes together to form a compelling whole. Too much of the setup feels contrived and heavy-handed, so that when the payoff comes, as well-done as it is, it's too little too late - we as an audience have already been taken out of the movie to some extent. I think this is a film worth checking out, but I am already thinking that this will be only the second best Eastwood film this year - all of the excitement and fire that this movie lacked seems to instead have been reserved for GRAN TURINO. I can only hope that that one shows that Eastwood can still provide the whole package and deliver one more effortless classic. This one tries hard to be that movie, but never quite works as it should.
My Grade: B
- Alright - I'll be back soon with more - including a special HALLOWEEN edition of the blog. Until then, go watch 30 ROCK tonight!
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