Not Necessarily Laziness

I know, I have ignored this space for months. Chalk up my absence to responsibilities at my real job and that I seem capable of only one creative project at a time. I have not been out with the camera, for example, for over a year.

But I have been writing for Trade It in for Twinkies, where I have composed three new movie reviews:

• Just Looking
• Black Day Blue Night
• Escape from L. A.

And I have done four labor-intensive TV series:

• Guiding Light
• Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 5
• Seinfeld, Season 6
• The Outer Limits: Time Travel & Infinity

But I miss writing here. Summer break is around the corner, and I hope to divide my energies between this blog and the other.

Swimming with Sharks

I just posted my review of Swimming with Sharks. Because this project is training to write reviews, I did what the professionals do and did not give away the ending.

This post, however, is not the review, so I want to talk about Guy's decision here.

>> Spoiler Alert << I believe that Buddy offers power while Dawn champions art [Michelle Forbes makes a kick-ass muse]. Guy snaps at the end of the movie because Buddy is about to fire him [= loss of power], not because he learns that Dawn has agreed to a midnight rendezvous with Buddy. Guy has already picked power over art. He breaks up with Dawn because he wants to please Buddy more than her. And we have seen him imitating Buddy's style: once on the phone in Buddy's office chair and then in the restaurant regaling the wannabes with insider stories.

For me, Guy's murder of Dawn is logical and consistent. During the evening of torture, Guy learns that Buddy lost his wife in a senseless, horrifying gang rape/murder. When Guy shoots Dawn, he is trying to prove to Buddy that he can suffer that same loss. Buddy must like the homage because he is complicit in the story he and Guy concoct to explain Dawn's death.

You can read the review here.

The Road Killers

Of the three Michelle Forbes movies I've watched and reviewed, The Road Killers is my least favorite. I wouldn't have finished the DVD if I wasn't committed to this project. I felt bad trashing a movie with my favorite celebrity in it. Everything I know about movie making I learned while watching Entourage, so I could have gotten wrong all the reasons why this movie failed.

You can read the review here.

Kalifornia

I just posted the review for Kalifornia. I remember seeing this movie in the theater when it first came out. I went for David Duchovny as I was a big X-Files fan. I remember that I found it very disturbing, but I don't recall if what bothered me was the violence or Brian Kessler not being Fox Mulder enough.

I was not looking forward to seeing the film again, but 16 years later—this time studying a different character as the action unfolded—I really enjoyed it. I like movies that show we are not affixed to one place on a continuum like violence. Sure, Early is at one extreme end, but he moves more to the center when he pistol whips Brian instead of shooting him and then handcuffs Carrie to the bed instead of killing her after she embeds that shard of glass in his side. Brian and Carrie—both at the opposite end of the continuum since they have never held guns, let alone used them—have to slide over to violence if they hope to survive. The movie is an interesting study in adaptability—Early who tries to adapt to friendship, Brian and Carrie who have to accept their animal instincts.

You can read the review here.

Love Bites: The Reluctant Vampire

I have begun a new project which, at this early stage, seems intimidating and impossible: I am going to review all of the work of the actress Michelle Forbes. [I will berate myself less for the silliness of a celebrity crush if I can point to the hard work of analysis and writing that these reviews will require.]

After much difficulty, I finally tracked down a copy of Love Bites: The Reluctant Vampire and composed my first movie review. I think this one is too heavy on summary; I'll try to be more careful of that problem with the next film.

You can read the review here.