2011: A Random (Thoughts) Odyssey

You might've noticed I didn't blog for over two months. There was no real reason. Well, nothing concrete, anyways. I just didn't have anything to say and would've felt like an egomaniac blogging for the sake of blogging. Granted, you've got to have a bit of egomania in you to blog in the first place, but I'm talking about Lex Luthor-type egomania. Anyways, here's what's on my mind:

—As of this morning (1/26), I'm three months and a day into my diet/health kick. I'm down to 181 lbs., for a total of 35.5 lbs. lost. The last time I weighed 181 lbs.? Sometime in 2004 or 2005. That was my senior year of high school. I'm in better shape now and healthier, too—45 minutes of cardio a day and eating with my head instead of my stomach. I feel good and I plan to drop an additional 11 lbs., if only to see 170 again. Those V-lines (or hump-lines or sex-lines or whatever you kids call them), too.

—The 83rd Academy Awards nominations were just announced. At this point, I don't care. I'll watch them, sure. But do I have a vested interest? Nah. They gave Alice in Wonderland a visual effects nomination, a movie with atrocious effects, but couldn't find room to nominate Scott Pilgrim VS the World for visual, sound, or editing. Shenanigans!

—Speaking of movies, lists, awards, etc., some friends and I have spent the last monthish talking about the best movies of the year. Here's my revised list, with brief snippets of reason:

1) The Social Network: Could it be anything else? Aaron Sorkin's writing is bloody captivating and makes me greener than the Hulk. I never thought watching someone type away on a computer would be fascinating, but I was proven wrong. Jesse Eisenberg was amazing, with more than just his delivery. His body language was phenomenal and by Zeus, did you see his eyes? They could've murdered the sun. Andrew Garfield made the movie though, by being the one completely likable fellow. He was the beating heart. David Fincher made it work, and Trent Reznor's score was great in its subtlety.

2) Scott Pilgrim VS the World: Easily my favorite movie of the year. I prefer this version of Scott Pilgrim's tale to Bryan Lee O'Malley's graphic novels, which is usually blasphemy in the nerd world. I know the movie has some issues (just read my review!), but it did so much so well. The editing was, as my pal Chase said, revolutionary. Edgar Wright assembled a stunning ensemble that worked together like old friends. The visuals, the sounds, it all clicks. And the bonuses make me wish I had been a part of the production.

3) Toy Story 3: If you've seen this movie, you cried. At least twice. I think I did three times. Looking back, I don't believe I was manipulated through the score, or by blatant attempts at sentimentalism. The trash disposal scene rests soundly as one of my favorite movie moments ever. We witnessed characters facing the worst possible situation, and instead of wasting that moment with panic or desperation, they reached out to one another. It was tragically heroic and I applaud Pixar for giving us something as real as that scene.

4) The Town: Ben Affleck, though the (former) butt of a lot of jokes, has a serious future in directing. He can handle action, knows how to build tension, and can get the best out of his actors (as evident by Jeremy Renner's Oscar nod). The crime movie has been done to death, but this felt fresh and invigorated. I appreciated the homages to Heat, too. At this point, it's hard not to take cues from Michael Mann's opus; even The Dark Knight's prologue was a love letter of sorts to Heat. I'd say Affleck and co. did a hell of a job keeping the standard high.

5) Black Swan: This spot was a tough race with True Grit and Inception right there. In fact, for a while Inception was in, but after a second viewing of Black Swan it won out. Haunted and disturbing, this movie stays right in your face and really doesn't let go. I love following an unreliable narrator around, especially when it's Natalie Portman at her best. She played this part so well, which is thanks to her skill and director Darren Aronofsky. The man cannot make a bad movie and each one will stick with you long after you've watched. Nina's trip throughout the film is horrifying and we feel as frightened as she does.

—I'd like to thank FOX broadcasting for canceling the excellent Firefly after all of 14 episodes. Now what the hell am I supposed to elliptical to? Arrested Development? Oh. Right.

—Just in case you haven't been visited by the Obvious Fairy, fallen out of the Obvious Tree and hit every branch on the way down, or been beaten with the Obvious Stick, read this.

—Before training ended at my job, we were told that in the last seven or so years, we'd only ever closed for snow three or four times. So far this year? Twice. We've gotten out early twice, too. Best part? I don't have to make it up during spring break or summer vacation. Of course, I don't have a spring break or summer vacation, but that's the price of adult(ish)hood.

—Over the summer, during the height of the Park 51 Muslim Community Center mania, no one seemed to notice that Republicans shot down a health care bill for 9/11 first responders. It came to a vote again in December, and the Republicans voted against genuine heroes one more time. But this time, a few people had enough. Shepherd Smith, over on FOX News, went off on a rant about it. Jon Stewart and all of The Daily Show took it up as a personal cause. They dedicated an entire show to it and invited a panel of 9/11 first responders onto the show to tell the truth about their situations. It was heartbreaking and disgusting how these men were treated. After that episode, the corporate media finally picked it up. Then the bill went to vote again and passed. So when people say that Jon Stewart isn't in the news business, you can agree. He's in the getting-shit-done business.

—The Superbowl is set! The Pittsburgh Steelers vs the Green Bay Packers. I'm rooting for Steelers even though they beat my (newly) beloved Jets. You can't argue against their defense and even if Big Ben is a sketchy/creepy/downright horrible person off the field, on it, he gets work done. But really, I love Troy Polamalu. It's hard not to. Even if he's not integral to the stop, he's there at the end of every play. There's that hair, too.

—Far too often, hosts at awards shows take the event deadly serious. Not Ricky Gervais. He recognizes the absurdity of a bunch of overpaid entertainers patting themselves on the back. I loved every joke, every line, every awkward moment. Everyone ever should take a cue from Gervais and not take themselves too seriously.

—Losing My Religion will be 20 years old on February 19. This song cannot get old. It's as powerful a listening experience now as it was when it was first released. I got to see Peter Buck (R.E.M.'s guitarist and writer of the classic riff) play the song live with Hootie and the Blowfish in 2006. Pretty awesome moment.

—I got my first gray hair. Two days after my 24th birthday, one of my fellow trainees, Maureen, looked over in my direction and gave me the wonderful news. Two others confirmed it. I'll take gray over bald any day. Gray has a certain prestige to it.

That's it for now, amigos! I'm (still) working on a blog about the greatest comedy currently on TV, Community, so that may or may not be next. So until next time, remember that only you can prevent forest fires.

It Happened On a Dark Knight

For those unaware, Batman was my first superhero. My dad, older sister, Cindy, and I used to watch the old Adam West re-runs in the den when I was little. How could I not be captivated? I fondly remember my Batmobile toy from Burton's 1989 movie, and the Batman action figure with the belt that acted like a grappling hook. I've been sporting Batman t-shirts for nearly two decades. I'm proud to say I've never seen all of Batman and Robin.  I saw Batman Begins after graduating high school and loved it. The Caped Crusader is in my blood. I'm actually writing this blog draped in my Batman blanket. So, by January 2008, I had binders and notebooks covered in Joker smiley faces, Bat-Symbols, and "Why So Serious?". I think I might've even been working on a Joker voice because yes, I am that kind of person. Once we started seeing footage from the movie, I was nerding out hardcore. The entire summer before the release, all we talked about at work was The Dark Knight. I saw it at midnight in Joker facepaint and green hair because, once again, yes, I am that kind of person. What Heath Ledger did with the role blew me away. I immediately planned a trip to Raleigh for an IMAX screening. I saw it again when I went to Greensboro to visit friends. I may or may not have acquired it to watch while waiting for the DVD/Blu-Ray release. And you bet your ass I was there the day of the release to get the Blu-Ray. I love it and count it among my favorite films.

Yes, it has problems. Chris Nolan has trouble figuring out how to film Batman's fighting style. In Batman Begins it was fast and blurred and tight. We were supposed to feel like one of the guys getting pummeled. A lot of folks complained about that style, claiming the action was hard to follow. I agree and disagree with that; it was hard to follow every single hit, but I don't think Batman's fights are about individual moves. What they did in The Dark Knight, though, was a bad call. They pulled the camera back and didn't have much in the way of quick cuts. Sounds good in principle, but the choreography for the fights made Batman look slow. Really slow. It didn't feel right. That Batman-voice was bad news, too. Yeesh. Harvey Dent's arc was rushed, no two ways about it. Whether or not Nolan had any plans to do a third movie, killing off Dent after a rushed descent into madness and climax was not the right call. That's one of those threads you could leave open-ended and still have it feel satisfying. In that same vein, Nolan seems to struggle with the third acts in his Batman films. The first saw a main villain tased and a fight on a train. The second was drawn out. The idea was good, but the execution just felt off. And that shot of Batman running from the cops looked silly, like a kid in a Halloween costume. There's slight series inconsistencies, too. Wayne Enterprises is in a different building and the old one is completely ignored, despite the truck flip occurring right in front of it. There's not a single mention of the Narrows, or its current condition. And what about the train? We see it in one, maybe two shots. These latter two things were such huge, huge parts of the first film that it was odd to just completely move on from them. But I let myself look past all of that. Here's why:

—The story continues in a logical way. As Batman Begins ends, Gordon talks to Bats about escalation. We have Batman copycats, trying to fight crime with guns and hockey pads. The mob's getting desperate and dangerous. And of course, there's the Joker. He pushes Gotham to the brink, to what he sees as the next step. One of the few times he speaks honestly is in the interrogation room with Batman. There's no normal anymore in Gotham. Only freaks.

—The camera work and cinematography. Holy crap did this movie look amazing. Wally Pfister deserved an Oscar for his work, especially with the use of IMAX. Honestly, I have no idea why Hollywood hasn't jumped on that bandwagon. Yes, the cameras are heavier, harder to work with. Bigger, too. And louder. But if James Cameron can develop new technology to film 3D, why not IMAX, too? Why spend tons of cash to convert movies to crappy 3D in post when that money could go towards improving IMAX cameras?

—Harvey Dent. While Two-Face gets the shaft, Aaron Eckhart does a great job as Gotham's White Knight. He balanced the good, lawful man on a mission with a violence and anger just under the skin. Watching him fall was a pleasure, as bad as that sounds.

—The subtlety. In the opening heist, Joker gets himself a sawed-off shotgun. He also leaves in a school bus. He uses that shotgun at the fundraiser and again in the tractor-trailer. He leaves the hospital aboard a school bus, which is probably how he got there in the first place. There's also Scarecrow showing up again. Even if Nolan relegated him to a drug dealer (stupidstupidstupid), it's nice to see that these characters are still in Gotham, and not disappearing after the credits roll.

—Heath Ledger's Joker. Plenty has been said about this performance. Heath ate up scenery like it was edible underwear. If he was on the screen, he's all you watched. The Oscar was more than earned. Heath transformed himself into this character. He's completely unrecognizable, and it's not just the voice and make-up. Even when we see him sans facepaint, that's not Heath Ledger. It's the Joker, through and through.

Comic aficionados have also said plenty about this interpretation of the character. No, this it's not the playful but morbid Joker from Batman: The Animated Series. It's also not the insane Clown Prince of Crime from the comics. It's not Nichelson's Joker, or any other Joker. As it turns out, there is no THE Joker, no definitive take on the character. Alan Moore has a version. So do Grant Morrison, Tim Burton, Jeph Loeb, Chris Nolan, and so on for seventy-one years. He changes based on the medium and the writer. He changes based on the context of the story. Maybe Heath's Joker wasn't so playful. He didn't laugh as much as some might've wanted. He used facepaint instead of being scarred. But so what? This Joker was as charismatic and engaging and thoughtful and destructive as any we've seen. He was Batman's foil. And those, I think, are keys to the character.

Central to this version was manipulation and planning. This plays out beautifully in a bedside chat in a hospital, between Dent and the Joker. Every sentence is there to serve a purpose, to take Dent on a very specific journey down, down, down into madness. He masterfully shifts the blame of Rachel's death from his own shoulders to Gordon's and the mob's. Joker claims he's not a schemer, when in truth, no one schemes more, or better, than him. From the top of the movie, the bank heist was thoroughly planned. His meeting his the mobsters? Watch how he carries himself. He's reciting a practiced speech. When Gambol interrupts and calls him a freak, we see Joker go off-the-cuff. He planned out killing Gambol. He planned out the murders of two public officials, attempted the assassination of two, and one of those was in plain sight. And of course, there's the tractor-trailer/SWAT chase. Now, I read a lot of people complaining about this. How could Joker have planned all of that to work out that way? Well, readers, he didn't. Unless he had a crystal ball, there's no way he could've predicted the Batmobile's destruction or Gordon being alive and well. No, I think he just planned for lots of scenarios. There's also the meeting with the Russian mobster. Again, a rehearsed speech and act. He even had a cue for his goons to come in and douse the money in gas. I love it. I love that he lied to everyone except Batman.

I've waited to post about The Dark Knight for a while now. I meant to over the summer, but there's a ton of things I meant to do over the summer I never got around to. When January rolled around and I realized I still hadn't blogged about anything in over a month (now over two months), I got to work. And I waited to post this today. Three years ago today, Heath Ledger died. I remember coming home from my screenwriting class, heading into my room, and getting a call from my friend, Chad. He told me Heath Ledger was just pronounced dead. I called bullshit. It just seemed so far-fetched. The timing felt wrong. If you remember, the first teaser for The Dark Knight had just been released ahead of I Am Legend in early December 2007. It was a true teaser, too: no images from the film, just dialogue and a chilling laugh. The seven minute bank heist had also been attached to the IMAX screenings of I Am Legend, and the viral marketing, which had started in May 2007 (revealing the first image of the Joker), was in fifth gear. Word was starting to spread about his performance, even before we got to see a trailer. And then his death. Selfishly, the first thing I wondered was whether Chris Nolan and co. had everything they needed, or if reshoots were necessary. I was worried about whether or not The Dark Knight would be finished and released. Later that day, I read about Heath's little girl, Matilda, his relationship with her, and some anecdotes from their Brooklyn neighbors. Then it became about a person, a father, not a character or a movie. Here was a kid who would never get to know her dad but from the movies he made and the stories she's told. And the thing is, this happens all the time. Children lose parents every day. This isn't uncommon, but we're all taken by surprise when it happens to a celebrity. We hold them to some odd, immortal-esque standard, when really, they're just as fucked up as you and me.

Author's Note: Why so serious, Joey? That ending's a bit morbid. I should lighten up. Next blog will end on a happier note. Funnier too, maybe. I promise.