thoughts on Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut

dark, brooding, magnificent. the character anguish is so deep. you can see the anguish and torment, the jealousy and break heartedness on Tom Cruise's face. And Nicole Kidman to. She puts on such an innocent veneer that those salacious shots of her with the sailor are so tawdry. It's too bad this film wasn't so well received when it was released. I remember renting it from Blockbuster video. They were still around then. And, of course, being a 19 year old, I was so taken with the sex scenes. I had never seen anything like it. This was the days before internet porn when you can google anything and get a video in return. I read somewhere that Republicans are trying to resurrect the debate about porn. That's another topic. But the question does raise itself about what Kubrick really wanted to say with this film? Is it nothing more the voyeuristic pleasure? Seeing Nicole Kidman nude many times? Or Tom Cruise in his underwear? Or the occult orgy? What was the point? Just to take pleasure in watching nudity or sexual intercourse? I didn't see much of a theme to the film. Certainly not as deep as some other Kubrick films like Barry Lyndon.

Yet, perhaps, there is some similarity to Lolita. The film Kubrick made based on a Nabokov novel. It to delves into forbidden sexual desire.

I can't say enough about the acting. I was totally taken in by Cruise and Kidman. They were both such high profile actors and husband and wife to take on such a project like Eyes Wide Such. At the time of release they were criticized for doing such a film. In hindsight I think they need to be commended for putting aside projects that might be more enriching commercially, but, perhaps, not as rewarding artistically. The film is a triumph. And I do believe it was Kubrick's last film that he worked on from start to finish.

I suppose some of the context could lend itself to the harsh criticism when the film was released. This was around the same time when the Lewinsky scandal was dominating headlines. So, perhaps, films that were provocative attracted more attention than if the media wasn't so focused on sex scandals, particularly in the Clinton White House. I guess they fed on each other. Would the film have garnered much attention if it had just been AI? Or a military film like Full Metal? Perhaps, perhaps not.

Anyway it was a great effort by all those involved. I'll have to catch it again sometime.

thoughts about Stone's JFK

this film was a tour de force. So evocative of the late 60's and 70's when it seemed like another assassination would happen every other day. I found myself days after I had seen the film mimicking Kevin Costner in his role as Jim Garrison. The scene I think I liked best was when he was talking to the former black ops guy Donald Sutherland. When he starts talking about the government conspiracies and the covert operations of this country it almost makes me want to give up screenwriting and work in the CIA or the State department. It even creates the emotion of regret; maybe I should have majored in political science and done something with that. You practically need a degree in government to comprehend what Sutherland is saying. But it seems on the level.

The best thing about JFK might be it's editing. There are so many cuts to the imagined past that one starts to think how much liberty Oliver Stone took in depicting some of the events of the film. For example, how did the bullet get on the gurney? Or who was the general in the operating room? These are questions that don't get answered and were criticized when the film was releases as being too hard to prove and too much poetic license exercised by Stone. Yet the editing is incredibly good. Fast cuts, slow cuts, flashbacks, jump cuts, the entirety of the film editors weaponry is unleashed in JFK.

Stone has said that JFK was when he was at the top of his game. He might be right. It is an excellent film. Full of intrigue, action, and drama. I couldn't tear my self away the first time I watched, and the second time went by very quickly, but it lost none of it's intensity. I enjoyed every minute.

Thoughts on The Lobster, facebook, and being proud to be single

I thought this film was very unique and funny and dramatic. Some of the dialogue was just hilarious. In fact I tried to see it twice but the Art house theater near where I live hasn't gotten the film and I fear it won't get it. That's too bad. It's such a good film. It has good shots and is well written. And the music is great too. The use of the French cafe music, sounded a lot like Edith Piaf, really adds another dimension to watching the film. That's to say nothing of the acting which is very well done. Colin Farrell is just great as the restrained single man who wants to be a lobster as an animal if he has the choice.

The film's premise of society gone mad against single people was an enjoyable one. It was unlike I've seen before. Perhaps Brazil by Terry Gilliam has as loony as a theme. The alienation of man now being policed and sequestered by authorities. In the film it was illegal to go in public as single which I found so unsettling. I'm a single guy and I go to a lot of films by myself. Sometimes I feel odd at doing so. Other times it's not such a big deal because I'm the only one in the theater. Or there are a few other singles or just a couple.

I was watching a talk show on HBO and the host Bill Maher said that the US has become a majority single country. With facebook becoming so much a part of social activity it does seem that being single is a disease or some kind of disorder. So many people I know are married and have children and they post pictures of their kids online. I guess it's good to some degree, but, like someone at my creative writing residency said "it's like Christmas cards everyday" something that I found exhausting. I can't keep up with everyone. I can't like every single thing someone posts. It's just not going to happen. I don't even like people for their birthdays, unless it's someone of the immediate family. I guess it brings people closer to together. I also guess that I'm a loner. I'd rather sit in a dark room and watch films than go out to bar where there's people. I don't think I'm missing much. The bars seemed more like boxing rings than social gatherings when I was living downtown. Every night I went out there was some kind of violence. Someone got punched in the face. Another jumped by several people. Is it really worth it? Am I just overreacting? Perhaps that's why there are so many lawyers. All of the court cases need defense attorneys. It seems that that is a distant life to the one I live now.

That was years ago in the second Bush administration. The war with Iraq was going full blown and I was working as a stockbroker in downtown Binghamton. I had a small two bedroom apartment. It had an upstairs and downstairs. I lived there for about six months before I left for China to teach English as a Second Language in mainland China. I guess I missed out on a lot of things I took for granted. After I went to China, two of my closest friends acted funny to me. We were still friendly, but never quite the same. The had come over to the apartment a few times. We partied a little. Then I fell to in between jobs. I didn't make it in financial sales. My family, particularly my Father and Brother, told me it wasn't for me. I was so confused and lost at the time. I didn't know what to do for a living. It seemed like I never had any money and all I did was study. But I wasn't studying for a degree of any kind. I just read for pleasure, mostly. Then my friends got married and I hardly see them. One moved to Maryland. We got into a row over gay people. He said he hated faggots. I said in retort that I hated crack heads. Everything got real silent after that. Since that time he has never returned my phone calls. I guess we're not as close as we once were.

In those days I would get so upset about not getting the job I wanted. It was like I was a little kid again and couldn't have the toy I wanted. I couldn't cry anymore. I just had to work hard and hope for the best. Graduate school was tough too. All those Bs and B+s. It was hard for me to accept that I wasn't going to get an A. I wasn't as smart or gifted as I had once been told. So reeling from those setbacks I had to find something to pay the bills. All the more I kept thinking how alone I was. How I never seemed to connect with anyone deeply since High School. For some reason I thought that High school was the place which meant the most to me socially. I guess that's true of most Americans. As much as I read and wrote I still had the same feeling that I was terribly alone, melancholic, different, standing on the outside. It's getting to the point where I don't think I'll find what I'm looking for. It seems like when I go out to get some dinner or see a film I'm always alone. I don't find people with similar interests. I am sorely out of the mainstream. I hadn't watched Game of Thrones since last month. I don't know who the anchor is on CNN. And I'm losing touch with the NYTimes. I used to read it more. Now it's always go to the films. See whats playing, read the reviews, watch the film in Binghamton, or Ithaca, maybe NYC,

I guess it's better, but it's also more of the same. I don't know if I want change, because I'm afraid to lose. Life seems to be an endless struggle which, thankfully, has an end.