Confession #9

I have two nephews. We will call them Steven and Wade. Steven is on the verge of turning 14. Wade is 12. They're stuck in a time warp I think from a bygone time when children were still children at that age. They still play with lightsabers and wear cowboy hats and don't care about being cool and sex is the farthest thing from their minds. They're refreshing after a year in NYC where a 10 year old solicited my girlfriend for sex on the street.

They recently discovered my huge DVD folder book whatever you call it. Its fun to watch them flip through it. They really wanted to watch "Big Fish" and I couldn't figure out how to explain to them it isn't about fishing. They really want to watch "Titanic", but they're parents won't let them yet. Which is silly because I saw it at 14 and my cousin saw it at 11 and we didn't become raging sex maniacs over Kate Winslet's breasts. They want to watch all six Star Wars movies in a row in one incredibly long sitting. I told them we would without thinking, but now I'm like 'Yikes!!!!' and keep finding other things to do. Tonight I distracted them with "Jurassic Park" which they have never before seen.

It was then that I discovered one of the ways in which a movie can makes it mark as a truly great one: you can share it and the act of sharing it expands your own love for the movie. I watched "Jurassis Park" for the first time at my younger cousin's "Jurassic Park" video release party. He dressed up like Dr. Grant and the house was decorated in lots of plants and there was a tent we all sat under to watch the movie. And it scared the crap out of me, and it was FUN.

Tonight it was even more fun to watch it scare the crap out of them. They couldn't sit still. They were screaming at the characters and laughing out loud and repeating lines and they freaked out when they thought Tim was going to get electrocuted. They were on their knees screaming at him and when he fell off the fence they both fell back and went "OHHH!!!!!"

And suddenly I didn't think so poorly of that teenage boy demographic that magically controls so much of what we get to see in the theaters. If I could make somebody react that passionately about something I think that'd be pretty rewarding. Emotionally and monetarily, lol.

Confession #8

Why do I hate "Chinatown", etc.?

1.) I have only one real criteria for whether I like a movie or not. It has to make me FEEL. This means my collection of DVDs is incredibly varied and includes some acclaimed films and some that I'm too embarassed to name. A film can make me think about something deep or make me laugh at something stupid, but still not make me FEEL. Technically, it could be perfect as most would argue that "Chinatown", "Citizen Kane", and "Pulp Fiction" are. And I don't argue with that. I don't think they're bad films by any means. They just don't do anything for me. And that is why I simply dislike them. No harm done.

2.) What I hate isn't really the films themselves. Its people who always turn to the same old movies to teach in film school. Sure these movies have their place in the classroom. But there are other movies. Thousands of other movies. Hundreds of great examples of filmmaking and screenwriting. When you obsess over a few "perfect films", you just end up with a bunch of film snobs who try and copy these movies instead of writing from their own hearts. Kids in film school are usually young and dumb and haven't seen much of the world yet. I can say this because I am one, lol. Chances are you're not going to get another "Chinatown" out of them, and by showing it you're encouraging them to try to write something like that instead of something they might actually know about. In a screenwriting class especially, the technical aspects of the film don't have to be mindblowing. Show them a film with a really great story that lands some kind of strong emotional punch they can relate to. Show them books, show them great TV shows, show them plays, show them movies. Teach them how to tell their own story in a meaningful way, not regurgitate a few "perfect" movies back to you in seriously substandard ways.

So in conclusion, I don't honestly HATE those movies. I just say that for the shock value. I don't care for them and many others because they just don't to do it for me. A good movie is a matter of personal taste in my book, not a matter of living up to some sort of standards of technically good filmmaking. So I harbor no hatred for people who do genuinely enjoy those movies. If they mean something to you, then its a good movie. I do harbor a hatred for people who SAY they do just to sound like smart film people, when in reality their favorite movie probably stars Will Ferrell. I don't hate the movies, I hate the pretension that often surrounds them.

Confession #7

I am a Hollywood cliche.

I am an uptight guy in love with a free spirit girl.

Its not that people never write about uptight girls being changed by free spirit boys. I can think of a few examples. "Titanic" being the most obvious. "The African Queen" is one of my favorites, and I think half of that if from watching Kate Hepburn play the prudish woman who gets set free by a charming rogue instead of the woman who sets some charming dork free. But it doesn't compared with the number of stories that come to mind about a lovable nerd being transformed by a woman who is borderline insane.

There's a song called "I Love You Because" from an off-Broadway musical of the same name. You could change the character names and insert this song into anything from "Bringing Up Baby" to "Stranger Than Fiction." If my own life were a musical, this is the song we'd sing to each other.

But the interesting thing - to me anyways - is that its the romantic theme of almost every story idea I've had, many of them long before I was with my girlfriend (or not-girlfriend since she's demanding the cliched break that all free spirits demand at some point or another in modern romances.) In fact, one of them started out based on an entirely different girl I liked at an entirely different time in my life, and yet the end result came out a lot more like the girl I ended up with then the girl it was meant to be about. I'm not sure I even follow that sentence, so don't worry if you don't, lol.

I've assumed for some time that I write girls like this because that's the kind of girl I fell in love with. But now I wonder if I fell for her because I was destined by my own subconscious needs to want a girl just like her. Do I like movies with this sort of coupling because it mirrors my own? Or did I couple myself in such a way so as to mirror my favorite movies? Is it really such a common theme in the world at large, or is it just a shared common theme in the lives of the the dorky guys who write the majority of Hollywood screenplays?

Or maybe its just the rule of magnetic opposites hard-wired into our own souls to keep us from intellectually sensible relationships that would assuredly result in disaster (and boring movies). Two free spirits end up dead like Bonnie and Clyde. Two nerds end up... well, I can't even think of a movie that tried this because its so boring just to think about. Its why we love Buffy with Spike or Angel, but never Riley.

And... well, that's all. I feel compelled to wrap up blog posts like their articles in a magazine that need to make perfect sense. But most of what I think about is just musings. This often keeps me from blogging because I feel I have no real point. But I guess that's ok.