Movie Spoiler THE MASTER (2012) starring Joaquin Phoenix - after review

It has been five years since the release of PT Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. His films, whether you like them or not, are well-crafted and a marvel to observe. After looking at the titles right now on next year’s release schedule, I’ve had an epiphany. I’ve known for some time that Hollywood product is becoming more commercial and profit-driven, with concentrations on known literary properties, as the years have gone on. But, I’ve kind of just ignored it and felt comfortable in my own bubble bitching how crappy films are nowadays, secretly waiting for the next year things would slightly get better, and films that tickle my personal fancy, just so I can fill a Top Ten List at the end of every year. But, I’m realizing that I need to get over myself and open my eyes up to the limited, but bountiful options that are out there.  

Quell ruminates over an abyss

Many, including myself, speculated this film would be a take-down of Scientology.  In fact, Anderson smartly shoots for a more universal approach.  While it's clear he uses founder L. Ron Hubbard's religion as a template, rather than expose the specific group's questionable underbelly, the director focuses on the student/teacher relationship between Freddie Quell (Phoenix) and Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman).  Frankly, Tom Cruise (who scored an Oscar nod for Anderson's Magnolia at the turn-of-the-century), John Travolta, et al, get off scott-free.  Anderson is more concerned with a lost soul's susceptibility to the influence of others who profess to have all the answers, or, in Dodd's case, carries the gravitas as one who appears closer than most others.  Dodd immediately recognizes a kindred virile, youthful, curious spirit in Quell and takes him under his wings as a project of sorts.  His goal is to tame the base animal within his subject as a way of validating his own beliefs to himself.  However, beset with doubts and his own shortcomings, Quell proves to be quite the challenge.

Quell's alcohol-fueled romantic passion

A few years ago, I wrote Phoenix off as a tool. The friends I saw it with were fortunate enough to catch a very special 70mm screening at the Landmark in Los Angeles this past weekend (I highly recommend this if you're lucky enough to be in an area that is doing this). Incidentally, the last film I saw there with one of them was Phoenix’ last film, Two Lovers, released in 2008, over four years ago. That was before he “retired” from acting, grew a bushy beard, acted aloof, and made that mockumentary about him becoming a hip-hop star. I was way too hard on him and he has totally redeemed himself here, proving his mettle as one of the best film actor's of his generation. He strikes me as pretty messed up person, but it’s clear that he has rededicated himself to his profession and channeled his demons into one of cinema’s best performances of the year.  Phoenix brims over with a raw edginess, which Anderson encapsulates and shapes into an involving tale.  Hoffman, the title character, is solid, and Amy Adams, as his dutiful, yet assertive wife proves her versatility in adapting to yet another diverse role on her resume.  

Quell's disdain for being ordinary

The Master is one of those thinking-person’s films that I’m gathering wouldn’t have any problem getting funded in the late 1960s/1970s. Yet, today, the Megan Ellison's Annapurna-funded film stands as an exception. I’m not saying that I’m giving the movie more leeway, because it bucks the system and tells an actual story, regardless of its monetary prospects. I am saying, however, that I’m trying harder now to give films such as these more of my attention, because if I don’t, that’s less of an excuse for someone else to.

Will it end up on my Top Ten List for the year? Probably. Is it something that I can jizz all over? Maybe not ... right now. Or maybe so, and I just haven’t tapped into the part of myself that can (no pun intended). What I know is that PT Anderson tried to tell an original story that hadn’t been done before. His intentions were true, and its execution was nothing short of impressive. Is it great? It quite possibly is and I want to be more flexible to opening myself up to that over time. I’m also hoping that more people go see this film, so they can at least give it a chance and decide for themselves.  If greatness can be achieved these days just by being thought-provoking, then, consider Anderson's latest mission accomplished.

Movie Spoiler Summary 
The film opens up with seaman Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) on a ship in the middle of the ocean and then at the beach in the early 1950s. He and his mates create a woman made out of sand, presumably with no ladies in their immediate proximity, and he copulating with her. Later, they extract a liquid out of some artillery (?) below deck. It becomes very clear over the course of the beginning of the film that Quell has an interest in mixology, particular involving substances not fit for consumption, making him a hard-core alcoholic like few others. He’s a lost soul, hell-bent on destroying himself from the inside. After class instruction on assimilating to the real world, he submits to an inkblot test with a Rorschach doctor (Mike Howard). All Quell can make out of the creations are cocks, vaginas, and coitus. He’s questioned by another doctor (Bruce Goodchild) about a crying episode he recently experienced over reading a letter from a past love, as well as relationships with family members.  By no coincidence, these interactions are eerily similar to a cult he will later join up with.

One of Quell's Portrait Photos

Quell begins to make his living as a photographer at a department store. A bluesy ballad cover of the White Stripes “Blue Orchid” (with the lyric "Get thee behind me satan") plays over the soundtrack. There’s a lovely extended shot of a dressed-up salesgirl Martha (Amy Ferguson) walking through the establishment before connecting with Quell. In the light room, she drinks one of his concoctions not knowing the ingredients and they begin to get intimate, before they go out for dinner, where he loses steam quickly and falls asleep at their table. During a photo shoot the next day with a businessman (W. Earl Brown), Quell provokes a fight which ends in an ugly altercation. Needless to say, his days as a professional photographer are numbered and likely inconsistent, few and far between.

While working on a farm, he offers one of his lethal beverages to his Filipino colleagues, causing one of them to have an incredibly adverse reaction. Quell flees the fields. While passing the docked cruise ship Alethia, he decides to stowaway, while Lancaster Dodd, or as he is known for most of the film as “The Master” (Anderson veteran Philip Seymour Hoffman) dances on the top floor with his wife Peggy (Amy Adams), while the guests encircle them in admiration. As the vessel embarks back on the river towards New York City, in a great shot juxtaposed to the previous frame, Dodd has a private moment below deck with another woman with only the bartender in attendance, everyone else above them.

Ambyr Childers plays Elizabeth Dodd

The next day, one of the members of “the Cause” (the name of Dodd’s cult) discovers Quell and brings him to Dodd’s attention. The Master has a long conversation with Quell, while familiarizing himself with the young man. It turns out that Quell had partied with the guests the night before who enjoyed his talents as a mixologist. When Dodd asks him about more beverage, Quell responds, “I can make something special for you. How do you like to feel?” He takes a liking to the confused Quell and invites him to his daughter Elizabeth’s (Ambyr Childers) wedding to Clark (Rami Malek), with the patriarch officiating the occasion on deck. At the reception afterwards, Dodd shares a metaphor of taming the dragon within. Later, he exclaims, “We fought against the day and we won.” Quell mingles with the guests and meet’s Dodd’s son Val (Friday Night Light’s sweet-natured Jesse Plemons), who it’s later revealed enjoys living off his father’s fortune, but believes him to be a charlatan quack. Peggy and Quell converse during breakfast the next day and they sit down to dine. She shares that Dodd has many enemies who believes him to be harmful and/or full of shit, but has also taken a shine to Quell. Dodd conducts an audit with one of the members. Peggy informs Quell that “we record everything … through all lifetimes,” which takes on a figurative and literal significance, as we watch Quell walk below deck to a table full of people taking notes of Dodd’s session utilizing audio surveillance equipment. Quell sits down and hits on the women while they work. He writes down the message, “Do you want to fuck?” to one of them.

Rami Malek plays Clark, the possibly
gay husband of Dodd's daughter Elizabeth
(why else would she stray?); Malek will
appear in the final Twilight film in November

Later, he creates a drink cut with paint thinner and shares the beverage with Dodd, who performs an audit on Quell. He asks him several questions, often repeated. In a funny moment, Dodd asks Quell, “Are you unpredictable?” and he farts (I love potty humor). While he laughs, Dodd casually calls him a “silly animal.” Dodd shuts the process down, but Quell insists they proceed. Dodd acquiesces and implores Quell to answer without blinking, sending them back to start all over each time upon failure in what becomes one of the most engrossing scenes in the film. Quell shares some personal details, including having sex with his aunt when he was younger (so he says), as well as the cross he still bears for losing the love of his life, Doris Solstad (Madisen Beaty), in Lynn, Massachusetts. The scene involves flashbacks to the romance he shared with Doris years ago, when she was only sixteen. At one point, she serenades him with “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree.” They end with the last time Quell saw Doris. He stands outside her bedroom window, about to be shipped off to sea; she was also going to make a trip to Norway to visit family. He rips off her screen to kiss her in a memorable shot. After the audit, Dodd and Quell share a smoke (Dodd’s favorite brand is Kool).

The ship docks and Dodd and his entourage attends a party held by the very wealthy Mildred Drummond (Patty McCormack, who was excellent and left quite an impression as the demon child in The Bad Seed way back when). The socially awkward Quell cases the home for valuables. Partygoer John More (Christopher Even Welch) interrupts Dodd’s audit on Margaret O’Brien (Barbara Brownell, who appeared in a film called Mark of the Witch decades ago) after butting in with one too many “excuse me’s.” More challenges Dodd on his methods, as well as his unproven beliefs involving reincarnation and being able to heal the infirm: “Good science by definition allows for more than one opinion … otherwise, you merely have the will of one man, which is the basis of cult.” Dodd ends matters with, “If you already know the answers to your questions, then why even ask, PIG FUCK?!” Later, Peggy dictates an aggressive letter which Dodd transcribes. Quell enlists Clark to mess More up (or worse) in his hotel room. When Quell informs Dodd of his actions, he’s verbally reprimanded. Dodd preaches pacifism in regards to his critics, but he takes no measures to rectify what Quell had endeavored on his behalf.

Elizabeth looking for trouble in Quell's crotch

In Philadelphia, Helen Sullivan (the always welcome, talented, and little used, Laura Dern) puts Dodd and his people up in her home. During a lecture, Elizabeth quite overtly, yet unnoticeably hits on Quell. Dodd dances and sings “Maid of Amsterdam” during a celebration. During a quick cut, suddenly, every woman in the room is nude (hinting at sexism within the cult: the males are fully clothed). Later, in Adams’ best moment, Peggy approaches Dodd from behind in the bathroom. While employing a hand job, she grants him the permission to stray, but is very clear about the rules (anyone as long as she and any of her acquaintances don’t find out). She also offers Quell an ultimatum: he must sober up if he is going to continue to sponge off her husband. Val informs Quell he thinks his father is a crock, “He’s making all this up as he goes along. You don’t see that? I could sleep and wake up and not miss one thing.” Quell begins one of his outbursts when the police arrive to arrest Dodd (this is when the audience first hears the name “Lancaster Dodd”--from an outside, objective source) for operating a medical practice without a license. Quell goes bat-shit crazy and they both end up in cells adjacent to each other. In another great scene from Phoenix, Quell tops himself from earlier and goes even more over the edge, punishing himself for believing in Dodd, violently banging his head on his bed and destroying his toilet). The Master attempts to talk him back down, but then gives up and urinates in his cell commode. In court, Judge Phoenix (Thomas Knickerbocker) orders Dodd to pay a heavy series of fines. (Side note: Anderson favorite Big Love’s Melora Walters is a singer in a band in a scene that may have been cut, or I completely missed her.)

At dinner, everyone gossips about Quell being suppressive and perhaps a spy, and tries to convince Dodd to cut him loose once and for all. Unconvinced, Dodd welcomes Quell back into Sullivan’s home, embracing him and giving him a playful spank. With the assistance of Peggy and Clark, Dodd begins to conduct an intensive audit on Quell, involving a series of activities (voluntarily remaining in a room while pacing, facing his fears; staring into Peggy’s eyes as they turn from blue to black; Clark subjecting repeated lines to challenge Quell while they stare at each other; and Peggy reading pornography to Quell) conveyed through montage. There is another flashback to Quell’s time a sea, including when he read Doris’ heartbreaking letter.

Dodd celebrates the printing of his second book

In Sullivan’s home, Peggy announces the debut of Dodd’s second book in Phoenix, Arizona. Out in the desert, Dodd and Quell dig up a container holding Dodd’s unpublished work. After self-publishing The Second Saber (“as a gift to homo sapiens” is inscribed on the title page) with his own printing press, Quell and Clark take to the radio and streets to push Dodd’s latest tome. Quell uses his talents as a photographer to take a professional picture of Dodd for the book jacket. The release is held at the 1st Phoenix Congress. There, a nervous Quell beats the heck out of a critic who reduces the book’s content worthy of a “three page pamphlet.” While a song-version of “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” plays, an astute Helen approaches Dodd about a important adjustment he made in his beliefs reflected in his new book, which may have happened unconsciously or was deliberate and conducted conspicuously (probably the former, as Val asserted, “He’s making all this up as he goes along”). He reacts unfavorably to her for bringing it to his attention. Out in the desert, Dodd enlists Quell, Elizabeth, and Clark, to play a game of “Pick a Point.” The rules are simple, as Dodd demonstrates by picking a point and riding his motorcycle to the point and back again. When it’s Quell’s turn, he hops on the vehicle, picks his point, drives past it, and leaves everyone behind. The song “No Other Love” plays.

Two men traveling separate directions

Quell visits Doris’ mother (Lena Endre, a Swedish actress who appeared as Mikael’s girlfriend in the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo films) and learns that she remarried four years ago to an unattractive kid he used to know (making her married name Doris Day). While watching a Casper feature in a beautiful, empty movie theatre, an attendant hands Quell a telephone (!). Somehow, inexplicably, Dodd learned the location of Quell's whereabouts and implores him to visit him at his new school in England. Quells travels via ship and meets Dodd in his grandiose office. Peggy is there and cuts to the chase, asking him rhetorically, “You can't take this life straight, can you?"  She earnestly displays how much her religion means to her and how disgusted she is at Quell's disrespect.  It's revealed that their daughter Elizabeth is a DCF (a possible acronym signifying a suppressive person).  In a vulnerable, sympathetic moment, Dodd muses, "Free winds and no tyranny for you.  Freddie, sailor of the seas; you pay no rent, free to go where you please.  Then go, go to that landless latitude and good luck.  [If it forces] you a way to live without serving a master, any master, then let the rest of us know, will you?  For you will be the first person in the history of the world."  Dodd believes what he does, because he knows nothing else that works better for him.  Anyone who doubts him, stands in his way towards enlightenment (as any person devoted to their religion).  He cannot tolerate such beings in his life, well-intentioned or otherwise.  Dodd gives him one more chance to remain or leave his cult forever, in this world and otherwise.  "If we meet again in the next life, you will be my sworn enemy and I will show you no mercy."  Dodd sings, "Slow Boat to China," a song made popular only a few years before.  Quell leaves and picks up a woman, Winn Manchester (Jennifer Neala Page), at a bar. After they have sex, they chat and Quell humorously requests in regards to his member, "Now stick it back in, it fell out."  Later, he falls asleep on the beach during the daytime. Role credits.

Oscar Predictions 
Right now, I’m calling Actor (Phoenix), Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor (Hoffman), Supporting Actress (Adams), Editing, Art Direction (in that order from likely to least likely). As the box-office definitely is showing some weak signs early on in interest, and therefore prospects could wane. However, while I could see someone stepping ahead of him in the Best Actor race, Phoenix is a lock and I imagine he’s the one to beat right now.

Box Office 
I’m a little confused by the quick rollout, especially after the film set an all-time record (surpassing the recent feat of Moonrise Kingdom) on per-theater average. It opened in five cinemas and, instead of gradually rolling out (to, say 50, then, say 150, etc), it shot its load the second weekend and its average plummeted more rapidly then perhaps it might have with a more cautious approach. Miramax waited until the fifth weekend to expand to 800-some-odd screens with There Will Be Blood, three weeks later than TWC's The Master. I’m not saying to read the final rites, as it’s still to early, I just found the decision to be rather unusual and shocking for a film as pensive as this one. Even Black Swan waited until the third weekend before such a leap, yet that film was a psychological thriller set in modern time with hot, young actresses. There was a major difference in variables and this indeed was a tougher sell. I guess we shall see.

Shot from the trailer I don't recall in the film

Another shot I don't remember 

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Tina Fey Covers Entertainment Weekly

I've been receiving Entertainment Weekly for something like most of this year. I got it for free somehow. I remember buying it when it first came out and subscribing for years. EW was the shit! Now, not so much. I usually do a standard thumb through and toss. Don't ask me why I look at that stupid weekly target piece they do in the back of every issue. This week, however, there's a pretty extensive and enjoyable article on Tina Fey, as she closes out a shortened final season of one of the best shows on television, 30 Rock. She channels her inner Audrey Hepburn a la Breakfast at Tiffany's for the cover (photos by Ruven Afanador). While it's mostly a puff piece, interviewer Kristen Baldwin manages to extract some involved material and Fey's natural humor, covering various points of her career and time on the series. She's in the middle of filming the third episode of the season, which happens to involve a monkey. She mentions not having read the rules regarding dealing with the animal and her response: "It's the same rider that J. LO has." She pauses and corrects herself (unfortunately), asking Baldwin to keep her from getting into trouble. She's predictably humble (success will never spoil her, thankfully) and alludes to how she felt it was part of her job on SNL to write women into the skits (I wish there were more like her!). She points out the sexism in the MPAA, as well as pondering how easy it is to fall into the pitfalls of being sexually objectified. She also touches on her predisposition to go to the 'humiliation place,' and the effect it had on her Liz Lemon becoming too infantile for some fans. Incidentally, Lemon will be slightly more sexual in these final episodes. She talks about the Tracy Morgan/gay joke debacle from last year. Fey agrees with everyone that the bit was horrific and distasteful, but points out how harder it is for standup comics to fail today, because of technology and the internet in a sea of political correctness.  While I thought the Morgan stint was a huge unfunny misfire, I never thought that he was evil to the core for going to the place he did, as she reiterates. The gay outrage aimed at Morgan was completely warranted, I just wish it could have led to a more constructive outcome.  As it was, gays got mad, Morgan apologized a couple times, and that was the end of it.  I'd be curious to know how Fey would feel about Louis C.K.'s take on the matter (he wisely proposed that perhaps GLAAD and the like missed an opportunity to delve towards the source of Morgan's misstep and turn it into a teachable moment). She acknowledges that the attention she received from her Sarah Palin impersonation didn't hurt her chances of landing a starring role in Date Night. All in all, it was a good read, and makes me hope that we don't have to wait too long before Fey reinvents herself and gives us something equally brilliant to her current body of work.

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Los Angeles Theatre Review: By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (At the Geffen Playhouse)

The Geffen Playhouse has opened their new season with a bang. Their opening play Lynn Nottage’s By the Way, Meet Vera Stark reaches back to the 1930s to dig up a few fictional relics of Pre-Code Hollywood. Gloria Mitchell (Amanda Detmer) is an actress looking for a comeback role and Vera Stark (Sanaa Lathan) is struggling for just a part to get her foot in the door. The difference? The platinum blond Caucasian Gloria enjoys resting on the privileges of her white laurels, while black Vera is willing to take any crumbs that will come her way to fulfill her burning desire to perform on celluloid. The latter lives in a boarding house with actress friends of hers sailing in the same African-American boat. There’s a new production about to go up called the Belle of New Orleans which details the relationship between a maid and a southern woman, who discovers she’s (gasp!) an octoroon.

The first act of Stark is a mad-cap send-up of black cliques, satirizing Tinsel Town and its continued quest to sell audiences on its primitive reality. The second act provides a Clybourne Park twist, going full-on meta, complete with crafty technical choices while mixing mediums in a presentation of how time and society have regarded both Gloria and Vera.  While the success of the change-over is mixed, its merits are extremely high. The versatile group of actors return mostly recast in new roles in a deconstruction of race and gender, specifically black women. There’s even a secret revealed that isn’t so much a surprise, but adds thematic support. 

The cast plays off each other musically, as their spoken words are more like songs. Merle Dandridge as Anna Mae’s social-climber is a firecracker and Kimberly Hébert Gregory’s Lottie, a heavyset actress who has been in the business long enough to have tired of all the games, is dynamite. Detmer as the temperamental, lazy, struggling starlet hoping to regain her mantle of “America’s “sweetie pie” is a card. The men are given a chance to have some fun of their own, offering technically diverse characterizations from Spencer Garrett and Mather Zickel, accents and all. The chemistry, especially between Lathan and Kevin T. Carroll (who plays Vera’s love interest Leroy) is palpable. And it’s film and TV actress Lathan who holds the whole venture together with her tough and hungry Vera. The grand set pieces including a soundstage and Gloria’s setting room adorned with a chandelier and full ornate bar are interchanged inventively between the carefully orchestrated scene changes with an eye for the visual. ESosa’s costumes are exquisite including some eye-popping gowns. 

Sanaa Lathan reprises her role of Vera Stark

Some of the second act roles are talking-head cartoons presenting matters of import. Yet, the play encourages the viewer to look passed their one-dimensional surfaces, and examine their baggage, not ignoring that the whole circus is quite cyclical.  The present-day nuances aren’t always discernible.  Stark is all about the double edged sword of pushing the envelope while subscribing to the rules: getting your truth out in the open in an albeit limited and predesignated capacity in a world where the ruling race self-satisfyingly appropriates style and art from the groups it oppresses. How even a “progressed” society that has self-congratulatingly moved beyond the ills of its past, unknowingly discloses its shortcomings and bloated perceptions of its gains by over-romanticizing bygone (and current) eras. One second act panel member asserts that “Vera breathed life into aged stereotypes”; the actress herself shares that her work was both her “shame and my glory.” We all pay a price for success, but we can still choose how we color in the details on the way up. One character comments that Vera’s eventual choices and contributions to society were both “problematic and indelible.”

Hollywood, in general, especially today, has limited its interests to straight white males and very little has changed over the years, with the exception of examples like Will Smith and Denzel Washington, bringing to light the state of black women in Hollywood 2013. Angela Bassett has come and gone, and even Halle Berry is left working on the fumes of her Best Actress get from a decade ago, bringing to the forefront Viola Davis. Last year’s The Help begs the question just how far have we come when in the 2010s, the best we can do is an actress injecting all the humanity she can muster into the role of a maid in 1960s so mainstream America can self-righteously pat itself on the back for doing nothing. In Stark’s Hollywood, one character may refer to the recent movie’s Civil Right’s backdrop as “wallpaper.” The juxtaposition is ironic and Jo Bonney’s smart direction brings it all home. The play confesses that we’re all products of our time, but we have the choice not only with how we deal with our present, but what lens we use to judge the past. Please, by all mean, do yourself a favor and Meet Vera Stark.  You can start by going here.  

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An Evening with Svatý Václav

The Society of Arts & Sciences Los Angeles and Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Westwood hosted a screening of Svatý Václav (Saint Wenceslas) earlier this week to commemorate Czech Statehood Day (today, September 28, in recognition of Svatý Václav’s assassination).  The country has been celebrating the holiday since 2000.  The silent film was produced in 1930 to lasso together the Czech people and cultivate a sense of national pride.  The production had a huge budget of two to four million koruna via state grant, with Jan S. Kolár directing, starring Zdeněk Štěpánek (who birthed two actor sons).  The Czech film industry was in the big leagues in the late 1920/early 1930s and one can see the quality of the film holds up to anything American produced at that time and is reported to be the largest production brought to the screen anywhere at that point.  Unfortunately, it missed its original release date and studios postponed its premiere a year later in 1930.  By then, talkies had taken over and mainstream audiences were largely disinterested.  However, the film would become important a few years later when Hitler came to power and the country needed to unite as a whole to the rising fascist. 

Michael presented the film on Wednesday evening and shared a nice little introduction to prepare the audience.  Saint Wenceslas (who inspired the Christmas standard “Good King Wenceslas”), whom I share a first name with, is considered the patron saint of the Czechs and carries the additional title of Duke of Bohemia.  The print we saw appeared to have a remastered soundtrack with pristine quality. 

I’ll be the first to admit that my attention span doesn’t allow for movies made before the late 1960s, especially silent movies, unless I really make an effort to try.  Even then, it’s easy for me to get lost.  I remained engrossed in the historical document, never-the-less.  While touching on historical facts, director Kolár engages in myth-making, as the task dictated. The advent of Christianity indoctrinating pagan Bohemian farmers plays as a prologue to Václav’s life from birth to death during the tenth century (he died in his late 20s).  He’s treated as the second-coming in a story filled with love subplots, an epic war, and some political intrigue.  A series of battle scenes involving invading tribes climaxes with pacifist Wenceslas brokering peace.  The negotiation leads to a huge gluttonous feast for the royalty, ending with an elderly blind man playing a harp while regaling the company with a foreshadowing tale of family tragedy.  Consequently, his jealous brother, Boleslav the Cruel, hungry for power, plots the death of his sibling and backstabs him a la Julius Cesar.  After the Duke is assassinated for not being a warmonger, a huge wind whips through the kingdom as a final word before the film finishes. 

The acting is sometimes melodramatic, other times surprisingly authentic.  There are some well choreographed scenes involving thousands of extras and horses.  The title cards aren't frequent and it's challenging for the viewing-impaired to suss out all of the main identities and allegiances, especially without an informed religious context.  While it was easy for me to lose my attention not quite being able to follow who was who and what was happening in every moment, the general gist was there and it was fascinating to watch life in the 900s for the elite in their log cabin and stone castles with animal skins hanging from the doorways.  

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I *Hope* SNL Isn't Asleep at the Wheel on This ...

They *must* do a skit pitting Lindsay Lohan against Amanda Bynes on the streets of New York, no?  That just seems TOO RICH an opportunity.  In one corner, you have the crazy crackhead "living her dream" (when she's not busy knocking out people with an automobile) and, in the other, you have certified bat-shit loco talking to herself at clothing stores and stripping down in spin class.  And, now, both of these former child-star cautionary tales have fled L.A. for The Big Apple!  Lohan has already thrown down on Twitter.  And Bynes has supposedly fired back.  This is comic opportunity served on a silver platter.  Something good must come out of this tragic mess.  You can get more poop on them from Celebitchy.

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Meet Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Future Oscar Nominee/Winner?

I had Mary Elizabeth Winstead on my short list earlier this year for Best Actress. She was one of three actresses from Sundance who got most of the buzz for Best Actress. Quvenzhané Wallis seems like a sure bet, and Helen Hunt is also looking strong, but in the supporting category. I did a rundown in April on the critical praise Smashed and Winstead received (her costar is recent Emmy award winner Aaron Paul for Breaking Bad).  For a while, there didn't seem to be anything happening distribution-wise with the movie, which Sony Pictures Classics bought after the festival finished. However, the release date was set in early August for October 12th. The film has now shown at the Deauville Film Festival and TIFF.  She plays an alcoholic trying to walk the straight and narrow, so her role is Oscar-bait.  She is also young and beautiful, which the AMPAS love.  There is a lot going in her favor.  And, if the movie builds an audience, a nod is inevitable.  There's little that I'm familiar with about her other than the dubious remake The Thing she played lead on last year (not a good thing), as well as her part in Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World (a very good thing).

She did a lot of TV early on as a teenager.  As an adult, she graduated to film sequels like The Ring and Final Destination, the latter of which she was the main character.  She had roles in Bobby, Factory Girl, and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof.  She scored another lead as an aspiring dancer in Make It Happen and, in perhaps her biggest get, she landed the Die Hard franchise as Bruce Willis' daughter in the fourth installment.  One of her best turns was in 2010's Scott Pilgrim as the memorable ass-kicking Ramona Flowers with the ever-changing-hair-color.  There was, of course, that smelly Thing from last year, and she also appeared in the Abraham Lincoln film with the vampires, as his wife Mary Todd.  Currently, she has three other films in the can: A.C.O.D, A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, and a reunion with her Smashed director James Ponsoldt, The Spectacular Now.  She started producing shorts and appeared on Broadway with Donny Osmond in Joseph, and can sing and dance.  She married writer/director Riley Stearns two years ago, with whom she has been with for ten years (since she was 18 when they met).  Looking at her picture and her body of action work, I have to ask: has Hollywood finally found its Wonder Woman?  Right look, right age, right resume.  Check back with me if it ever gets made.  

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Anne Dreamed She Won an Oscar (for Lead)

Jennifer Lawrence has been in the industry for
less years than Anne Hathaway has on her in age and it is
Lawrence who is the odds-on favorite to win Best Actress and
Hathaway for Supporting Actress

I get chills watching the Les Misérables trailers. Do you?  The marketing team is truly superb. I don't know if this is old, or they've tinkered with it--the young Cosette blends into the musical's logo, which I thought was a recently added gimmick.  At any rate, Anne Hathaway kills it every time.  Haters are gonna hate, but this ho is taking the golden man home in February. Isn't that obvious at this point? I'm sure Amy Adams will put up a fight, but, bitch please, you can't stop the inevitable. However, I can't say that I'm *entirely* convinced she will be marketed as supporting. There is still like 2% doubt.  She has it in the bag in the "lesser" category, but what if we're looking at a truly weak leading field? I *know* her character is not lead and is missing from half the story, but ... never say never, right? I mean, come on! The way they've sold this movie so far is that it was made to crown Hathaway Hollywood's latest princess (or queen). I know, I know, I'm embarrassing myself. I need to let it go. I'm sure if I knew the musical, we wouldn't even be having this conversation (or monologue). It's just such a crazy year in the Best Actress race, I believe anything could happen. I'm almost convinced a BP nod is a done deal, ALMOST.  But, what if this film turns out to be as amazing as the trailers we've been barraged with?  But, I'll shut up about that (for now).  If you asked me who do I think, at this moment, the eventual nominees will be, I would say Silver Linings' Jennifer Lawrence is a given (her onscreen sibling casting opposite Julia Stiles is brilliant, no?).  Quevenzhané Wallis is also up there.  My views are Marion Cotillard's chances are thawing.  Keira Knightley is still holding on in fourth position.  I'd like to leave one slot for "surprise nominee/winner," but I'll go with Emmanuelle Riva, even if that means two French-speaking nominated performances.  There, that's my five (until probably tomorrow), though I don't really see Riva happening.  And the other four to support Anne during her coronation this 2013, along with Adams, will be Helen Hunt and two British ladies (as an homage to Hunt's 1997 win).  Let's say Maggie Smith and Hathaway's costar Samantha Barks.  Still, having Lawrence as the odds on favorite for lead and Hathaway's Oscar-grab for supporting is like if 1987 and 2008 crashed and the AMPAS told Kate Winslet's The Reader that she has to campaign for supporting while Cher took home the gold for Moonstruck.  Is it not?  Just a teensy little?  Okay, I'm done.

[9/26 UPDATE: Rope of Silicon just helped put the final nail in my obstinate coffin.  They also reminded me that Smashed was actually coming out this year, and yes, Mary Winstead is a player.  So perhaps bye-bye Riva.  I hadn't considered Helen Mirren and not sure if I will, though.]

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Life Imitating Blair

Growing up, I watched a lion’s share of TV, specifically NBC sit-com’s.  I'm not bragging here; I’m sure it shows. Of course, being a gay kid in the 1980s, The Facts of Life was a given (along with Silver Spoons, Punky Brewster, The Cosby Show, Cheers, Family Ties, The Golden Girls, etc, the list is quite long).  The Peacock Network chief of programing Brandon Tartikoff (who is no longer with us, tragically dying of Hodgkin's disease at age 48, leaving behind a wife and two kids) was a genius, because he knew exactly the kind of crap my demographic would eat up, sometimes with the rest of our family.  Facts detailed the lives of a few teenagers at an all girl’s school who lived with the wise house marm Mrs. (Edna) Garrett (played by Charlotte Rae). Her shrill catch phrase was, “Girls, GIRLS!” One of the main characters, Blair Warner (played by Lisa Whelchel) was a rich, entitled bitch who spent her time talking about how much all the boys loved her like she was Snow White or something, while she combed her cascading blonde tresses. She spent the rest of her time judging people.  Needless to say, I worshipped her. She kind of reminded me of a girl I had a “crush” on in elementary/junior/high school (Take that for what you will.)  One of Blair's few redeeming qualities is how she stood by her cousin (played by Geri Jewell, who would, ironically, later come out as a lesbian; ironic, because, as I will explain later in this post), who dealt with having cerebral palsy.  Like most TV shows, it ended after exhausting its premise and most of the principal actors continued in the profession and got together for the occasional TV-reunion. However, Whelchel left the limelight, got married, settled down, and had children. She’s also a devout Christian and has vocally expressed her opinions when it comes to such topics as gay marriage (she's against it), often on her personal blog.

While she has remained out of the spotlight for most of these years since the end of her show, she recently chose to become one of the latest additions to the Survivor series. She is one of two (?) inconspicuous “celebrities” in a cast full of non-celebrities (incidentally, she, along with the other, baseballer Jeff Kent are both anti-gay). The gimmick is that some people have figured it out, and others (often too young to know The Facts of Life) haven’t. A self-professed fan of the series (she confesses that she has seen every season), it is quite apparent that Whelchel is tickled pink that she got on the show.  Having to deal with the assumption that fame always equals money, she says in a confessional that in the late 80s she made a lot of investments that turned up short. While it hadn’t been revealed in the first episode, word hit last week on the internets that she has also been going through a divorce after twenty-some-odd years. (Making sense that she would end up on this show: not only does she need the money, but she probably wouldn't have ever considered it an option unless her life changed drastically)  So, considering that she hasn’t made her living as an actor (outside of residuals, whatever they add up to), and she has mostly been a stay-at-home mom for over the last two decades, it’s not inconceivable that she is telling the truth and has seriously fallen on some hard times.

I don’t usually watch Survivor, but, given my familiarity with her popular character, I was curious about her presence on the show. I also rewatched the first five episodes of her old series in anticipation. Before the show proper--which most people are familiar with--where the four girls (Blair, Jo, Natalie, Tootie) attended Eastland Academy starting in the second season, it had actually been retooled from the first year. The setting was originally East Lake Academy. Instead of four girls, there were seven: Blair, Natalie, Tootie, Molly (played by one young Molly Ringwald four years before she was immortalized in John Hughes movies), Sue Ann, Nancy, and Cindy. The last one, Cindy, was, for all intents and purposes, a prototype for the second-season addition Jo. They were both extremely tomboyish in nature and had trouble integrating with the rest of the students, the only difference was their hair-color (Jo was a brunette) and Cindy was a bit softer in nature.  (Oddly enough, the first season had three very blonde characters, and it was as if there was only room for one and Blair took them out.)

If you’re familiar with Whelchel’s religious beliefs and how it informs her world vision, there is a scene in the pilot episode that is a bit self-fulfilling and a tad (just a smidge) chilling (IMO). The plot focuses on Cindy more or less and her inability to assimilate. Her interests are oriented more to a typical boy her age; however, on the contrary, she is very touchy-feely with the other girls. There’s nothing unnatural or wrong about it; she’s not molesting anyone or violating their space. It’s just how she expresses herself. She’s different from the norm, which makes her insecure. As a consequence, she has a greater need for intimacy and validation.

Well, don’t expect Blair to understand. In fact, when she witnesses Cindy (Julie Anne Haddock) embracing Sue Ann (Julie Piekarski) and telling her how much it meant to her for her friend to nominate her for Harvest Queen at the inter-school dance, Blair snidely busts in after Sue Ann trails off with, “Cindy, what’s wrong with you? ... All this touching and hugging girls and ‘I love you.’ *Boy*, are you *strange* … [Blair threatens] you better THINK about what you mean [by it]."  In Blair's distorted mind, 1) Cindy is a lesbian and 2) There would be something wrong and disgusting about that if she were.  The judgmental cunt then walks off shaking her head, leaving poor, confused Cindy to get down on herself even more than she already has been.  Of course, Whelchel is just playing a character, but she’s a little too convincing in retrospect, no? It’s perhaps meaningless, but interesting to note.  On a personal note, it reminds me of an incident in junior high, that probably wasn't that uncommon for gay teens in the 1980s (and before, and, sadly, after).

I don’t envy Whelchel's current life as she knew it coming apart and I am in no way mocking her predicament (things happen, and while some people mean ‘till death do us part,’ others simply don’t; and there is that nasty grey area of life and people changing, etc). For all I know, she was in it for the long haul (that’s what my instinct suggests). I just hope that, with the dissolution of her union, the irony of her views on marriage equality won’t be lost on her. And, I hope she goes a long way on Survivor. I’m strangely rooting for her, as most on her team have conspired against her and she has turned out to be an underdog.  Damn, she's still a bitch!  (But, this time, for making me empathize with her, even a little bit.)

Thank you to my friend (another) Cindy for alerting me to the news of her divorce.  

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Interview: Ronnie Marmo & Chiara Montalto, A Brooklyn Love Story

Ronnie Marmo is on stage channeling Lenny Bruce while he tests the mic for an upcoming variety show fundraiser. The set from the previous night’s performance of A Brooklyn Love Story is nowhere to be seen, except for a random furnace peaking out from behind a wall. He spots me from afar and affably invites me to sit in the house to soak in the air-conditioning, not enjoyed by the rest of the theatre building. I come bearing a message for him to meet a gentleman named Francisco I met in the secret parking lot on the roof. A performer named Julia serenades her fellow talent with an Amy Winehouse song while channeling Lily Allen and playing the mandolin. Then, two other singers Chad Addison and Dave Cancel perform an original song called “Waited So Long” about lost love, with Addison on guitar. After speaking with Francisco, Ronnie walks over and excitedly tells me about possibly blowing out a wall and tentative plans to create a blackbox within the theatre. He’s not sure if he wants to make that choice, but likes considering a series of options and always being busy. “It’s great, but constant. Every hour is booked up.”

Outside of the main-stage, he introduces me to Chiara Montalto (first name is pronounced Key-ah-rah really quickly, lightly rolling the ‘r’), which means clarity or light. While the name is beautiful and unique, she tells me it’s pretty standard in Italy (she’s third-generation American). She’s pretty salt-of-earth: what you see is what you get. Marmo’s directing Chiara in her one-woman show A Brooklyn Love Story (formerly titled Emergency Used Candles). They have much in common. Both of them proud of their Italian-Americans identities, they have roots in both Brooklyn (Prospect Park for Marmo) and New Jersey. For their ancestors, those were basically the two choices opted by for immigrants. Marmo observed, “You either stopped in Staten Island and settled in Brooklyn, or you kept going over the outer bridge and ended up in New Jersey.” He muses over the transformation of his old neighborhood. As it was once a place where families tried to escape, it’s now beautified with enviable real estate value.

Chiara Montalto in
A Brooklyn Love Story

Chiara saw the literary potential in life with her grandfather and began documenting her observations. She wrote the play after being prodded by close friend and associate Theresa Gambacorta, who took note of the rich mine of material. As it came together, she was inspired by “the dichotomy of this clueless young girl and old guy.” “I wanted to evoke a time and place … It’s special to me.” She grew up listening to Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, 1950s New York doo-wop. “I really love that stuff. It has informed me,” along with more contemporary influences like early rock, punk, and alternative music. They successfully submitted the play to the Emerging Artists (TADA) festival and held a reading at the Kraine Theatre in New York. Since its inception, it has been in a constant state of evolution. With every new stage, “the lens get a little bit clearer and sharper. It has been changing a lot.”

After New York, she wasn’t sure how to go forward. Enter Marmo as a mentor. They first met at the Garden State Film Festival. Marmo read the play less than two years ago, liked it, and knew it had good reviews; it could also feed his agenda to produce plays where audiences go home with something. "There’s nothing worse than a one-person show being a big inside joke in someone’s life and you don’t get it.” There’s also a universality in the themes: the cycle of love and death. “It’s a slice of life,” shares Marmo. In rehearsal, he called scenes, ‘moments in time.’ The grandfather isn’t a character, but a ‘person.’ “We just wanted to tell the truth. I’m a simple guy. My life is complicated, so I want to watch things that are nice and simple. That’s why I’m attracted to these kinds of stories. My wife was balling her eyes out and she’s a tough critic. I got a few directing notes later that night,” he jokes, “but she loved it.”

Ronnie Marmo

Marmo shared that the theatre recently lost a company member a couple of weeks ago. He was only sixty years old. “Watching his girlfriend going through this whirlwind, selling and giving away his stuff,” helping tell Chiara’s story just became more imperative and carried with it an enhanced poignancy. “That was my intention when I wrote it,” Chiara says. “My grandfather was important to me, but, in the grand scheme of things, we were no different from the next set of people. Everybody grieves. It’s universal. And everybody loves. That’s universal. My hope for the world is that everyone has someone in their life who represents what my grandfather represented to me. That kind of love.”

Initially, Marmo and Chiara talked cross-country on the phone and via Skype, before she spent an entire week in L.A. working on the text with him. But, when it actually came time to producing the play, they had a mere five days to get it up on its feet. She got into town about a week ago.  Marmo is a self-described perfectionist who prefers a long rehearsal process. But, without that luxury came an uncertainty that kept him on his toes. He’s quite proud of the end result, which they continue to refine. Chiara: “You take as much direction as you can, and just throw it all the way, rely on instincts, and hope for the best.”

Brooklyn being a new show, he hopes audiences will see it with fresh eyes. Marmo and I make a joke about how often Danny and the Deep Blue Sea gets produced in Los Angeles.  The city gets a bad rep for theatre and it’s really third fiddle in this town. He changed the title to attract recycled New Yorkers, but they both felt like it fit. It really was a love story, just not the one people may expect when they hear “love story” in the title. Marmo enjoys the misleading aspect. “I like when I go to a movie and get something I didn’t expect.” He mentions his stint playing Lenny Bruce in a one-man show. He didn’t have the rights to do his material, so was forced to create his own version. One critic smashed him to pieces. It’s water under the bridge, but, at the time, he called him up and told him, “‘I wish you saw the play we were presenting, rather than the play you wanted it to be.’”

Ronnie Marmo as Lennie Bruce

One of Marmo’s associates walks through to relay a bit of info. Without missing a beat, the sassy director tries to play matchmaker. She laughs him off and shuffles on. Then, unexpectedly and randomly, an unidentified woman asks from down the hallway around the corner, “Is somebody here?” The stage manager George gets up and tells her that there wasn’t; she believes him and leaves.

I bring up the set, which includes this massive net plastered with legal pad pages. The image is striking: it looks like a papier-mâché spiral with an armchair at its base, evoking a literary tornado. Chiara shares, “I walked in and it took my breath away. I had tears in my eyes. It was the set I dreamed about.” Marmo approach was “it’s the night before the funeral and you’ve been asked to say something.” There are other pieces that signify reaching in from the past like a jukebox, a bar sign, and some lamps. “The play’s not abstract, which is why I wanted to play against it. I liked the idea of things coming to life.” He admits that he wishes he could imbue his shows with more production value, but to keep a theatre afloat, he has to be keep cranking out the shows.

His director for Theatre 68’s upcoming musical Standing the Line pops in. When he shares that it’s about a suicide prevention hotline, I mention the recent productions of The Late Harry Moss and Our Lady of 121st Street. “I’m like a mental case with death,” the coincidence in themes hit him all at once. “Growing up, I thought I’d be the one who would beat dying. Then, Sinatra died. If anyone could beat death, it would have been him. When he passed, I actually looked at my brother and went, ‘We’re screwed.’” He’s very excited about the world premiere of And Where You Are Going written by Sam Henry Kass (Seinfeld). It’s a dark and funny play and when I ask him what it’s about, he slaps his forehead and responds, “Oh my, I think I must be only accepting death scripts.”

Chiaro Montalto in A Brooklyn Love Story

Crystal Craft who has directed Bent, Boys Next Door, and even a production of Danny and the Deep Blue Sea shows up and Marmo leaves for a meeting. I spend some one-on-one time with Chiara. She has been enjoying the Los Angeles weather. As well, working with Ronnie has been a dream come true. “He’s brilliant … he found layers in my own work that I did not know were there.”

We discuss her entire family, who she describes as being so tight, her four grandparents socialized with each other. She has countless memories of her grandfather, which didn’t make it into her show. They lived with each other for ten years. He was full of energy and wasn’t above drinking wine and bowling with a mini home-set in their apartment with friends even until the break of dawn on New Year’s Day. “He was always open like that.” Part of his vigor would lead to mishaps like falling on the ice at 6 AM while trying to move furniture. “In the moment, it was stressful.” But, in retrospect, it was funny in a nostalgic way for Chiara. She was late to getting a cell phone, so she relied on him to take messages on their landline. With so many acquaintances named Anthony, he’d have to distinguish them by their last names. When he died, his wake and funeral was full of those Anthony’s and a ton more of her friends. He was loved. Even though he wanted to make age 100 more than anything, he died at 96. During a routine pacemaker change, the doctors diagnosed him with an advanced and sudden stage of leukemia. It was swift and brutal, and he was gone. She reminisced about how they’d sometimes spend Saturdays driving through their neighborhood. She’d point out possible dating material, but, having had one great love in his life, he’d never be interested.

Chiara Montalto

And Chiara was close to her grandmother, whom she describes as lovely. She got her name from her and has her black hair as well. Her elder dyed hers when she started going grey. After Chiara’s grew in as a child, her grandmother stopped coloring hers when she saw she had the same dark locks. Like any young woman, Chiara dealt with body image issues. When she worried about not being thin enough, her grandmother reassured her that, “A man likes a woman with a little meat on her bones.” Little details like these shaped Chiara’s perspective on the world and develop a healthy self-esteem.

Her grandmother had a nice life with her grandfather (“she married a prince”), but was never afforded the opportunity to have an education. She was a talented seamstress who had gotten into a prestigious fashion school. But, at that time, an educated woman was viewed as less marriageable, for lack of a better term. Opportunities improved for her mother, who grew up in the 50s and 60s. However, the choices were still limited. “You could be a teacher or secretary. She chose the former and she’s amazing.” Chiara is the tail-end of her generation and identifies with everything the women in her family have passed onto her. “I felt I was the first woman in my line who has had the choice in her life to say, ‘this is what I love, what I want to do, and this is how I’m going to go about doing it.’” Everything she has been taught has resonated with her and she feels responsible to represent, considering what she is now allowed to do that wasn’t offered to her predecessors.

Chiara’s grandmother passed while she was a student in Spain. She was the first person she lost with whom she had a huge emotional bond. She found the nearest church and sat for hours before she began to prepare to permanently return to the states to live with her grandfather in his rowhouse. He had two children with her grandmother: her mother and her uncle who grew up to be a priest. Her Catholic faith is integral to her spiritual existence. “I don’t make an apology for that.” She acknowledged that the Catholic Church has taken a huge hit from the behaviors of those who have brought on a series of scandals, but, “I’ve always been able to separate the faith from the institution.” She has a live and let live approach to other’s beliefs and is open to whatever any religion can do to bring anyone peace. But, “the lens through which I see things is a Catholic,” albeit in a progressive form (i.e. pro-marriage equality, birth control). She finds comfort in the rituals, but loves “walking into a church where the priest challenges, rather than berates me.”

Chiara Montalto with her grandfather

Chiara is grateful to have the experience she has had with Theatre 68 and Marmo. She’s not certain what the future holds, but it’s clear that she is taking full advantage of the life she has been given and giving life to the world around her. You can catch a glimpse of her contributions as Montalto finishes up the last few weeks of her show at Theatre 68. A Brooklyn Love Story closes October 6th.

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