In the spirit of (Bill) Simmons vs. (Chuck) Klosterman and Simmons vs. (Malcolm) Gladwell, Al-Jay and I decided to come up with our own discussion about random topics. What started out as a discussion about Michael Bay quickly digressed to hip-hop tracks of our youth. So on to our inaugural discussion.

D(elfino) – If you could compare Michael Bay to a director from another era, who would it be and why?

M(angay) – See, you already started off on the wrong foot. You were supposed to ask the questions and then deliver YOUR answer. You would tell us who that person is and why, then I’d hit back with who I think; etc. Basically you’re setting me up with a softball and I reply in kind. ha!

D – Yeah, I was tired. I’m already bored of that question. I’ll think of something a little bit better.

M – But since you asked, I’d compare Sir Bay to one Steven Spielberg. I know, I know, I can hear the hater groans from miles away but stay with me for a sec…or don’t.

D – Weezer has a song from their Red Album titled “Heart Songs” which is pretty much an homage to some of the memorable songs of Rivers’ childhood. The chorus goes like this:

These are my heart songs.

They never feel wrong.

And when I wake for goodness sake,

These are the songs I keep singing.

So let’s go one heart song at a time. Amongst the top:

The Pharcyde – “Passin’ Me By”

By far the quintessential hip-hop joint of my adolescence. It’s insane how complete this track is. That first 4-count, then probably one of the freshest samples EVER comes in. Then the bassline and drums start hitting. And you top it off by Fatlip w/ arguably the best opening lines of all time, “Now in my younger days I used to sport a saaaaaaaag…”

And you know, I realize now another reason I like this song so much – the topic. It’s a freakin’ song about unrequited love! For years before AND after this song came out, MCs have always rapped about the girls they can get. While the Dogg Pound just wanted to Fu-u-u-uck You and 50 was into having sex, not into makin’ love, but not these guys. I mean, c’mon, check out these lyrics right here:

Then I signed sincerely the one who loves you dearly, ps love me tender

The letter came back three days later: return to sender

I would raise my hand to make her stagger to my desk and

Help me with my problem, it was never much

Just a trick, to smell her scent and try to sneak a touch

Oh, how I wish I could hold her hand and give her a hug

For all the hip-hop fans, especially in our generation, it would shock me if this song does not have a spot in the top 10, if not top 5.

Your thoughts?

M – Methinks you have Bootie Brown mistaken for Fatlip, who coincidentally I hear is a cousin or distant some such to Ice Cube who was instrumental in them getting signed. So there’s your six degrees of Hip Hop…without “No Vaseline” there’d be no “Passin’ Me By” which I think you should now withdraw from your Top Five since well, you mistook Bootie Brown from Fat Lip.

As for me, I’m actually more partial to Slim Kid Tre’s opus for unrequited love. It hit home more to me since he played that guy that would admire the girl from afar and never have the gumption to approach honeydip. What can I say? My wasted youth identifies more inline with those lonely stalker attributes in his stanza’s soliloquy.

It’d be hard for me to pin down a Top 5 without a month’s worth of soul searching and extensive eardrum abuse, but I can assure you that “Passin’ Me By” would be in the vicinity since it was widely used in my wedding’s picture montage. Even though I did get the girl in the end unlike our 4 heros, it still resonates to this day…

But what about a track like “Drink The Pain Away” by Mobb Deep? I’ll submit that while it’s a bit cruder, the sentiments of love and love loss hit home harder. i.e;

Now me and Dany, we been together ever since

Our love combines to form a science, what is this

Prodigy just intimated that his love for someone created a whole system of knowledge that could be studied infinitely by countless individuals who ultimately could never ever come to a conclusive answer to: “what is this?”

That’s some deep shit.

Or just gangster.

D – Doh! Busted! So here’s my first disclaimer: My hip-hop knowledge is not as comprehensive as yours. But I like what I like.

So I got the wrong MC, but no way I’m withdrawing it. There aren’t many songs that bring back such fond memories of breakdance practice, so I need this one. You know, we never really practiced to this song, but it’s what we’d always play it afterwards, sitting Indian-style around the edge of the linoleum drinking Tang or Nestea.

I can appreciate the rawness in that Mobb Deep track, but submitting to vices on the path to self-destruction is so cliché. Yeah, the beat is tight and the flow is dope, but not likely to the first track I’d put on when Tess leaves me for Jensen Ackles.

Oh, and your point about the whole science thing…yeah, I got nothing, man. Haha. If it is indeed what you’re saying it is, then yes…it’s deep AND gangster.

So we’ve covered loving from afar and loving when it’s gone. But how about love that’s right in front of you. A song that came up was Jurassic 5’s “Thin Line” (featuring pre-Loose Nelly Furtado).

But to me girl, you’re still off limits

No matter all the times that I hinted.

Infatuation was authentic, but yo I just pretended

So I wouldn’t lose the friendship

It’s not quite waxing poetic about love and science and the cosmos (or any other gangster things for that matter), but I don’t think it’s a topic that a group like Mobb Deep would touch with a 10-ft pole. Can you think of any other tracks out there that explore this issue – preferably something “cruder” like in you previous example?

Oh and real quick…pick one: Mary J. Blige (feat. Smif n Wessun) “I Love You” or Method Man & Mary J. “All I Need“? And a bonus question: Do you think the Method Man track would be different if it was Total on the vocals instead?

M - Off the top of my head, “Me & My Girlfriend” by the immortal 2Pacalypse. While the simile may put off most because of the thug content; dude was a poet of the highest caliber and he knew what he was doing there. Jay Z’s lazy ass attempt to capitalize on his shine is NO FUCKING comparison to the original.

Okay, so lets deconstruct the two choices you give me. I can see why you might have lumped those two songs together because it can be construed that they’re both thematically “love songs” and that’s what this discourse has been so far. But I argue that “I Love You” isn’t a typical love song per se, but more of a reflection on a state of mind. “I Love You” is good even in that sense, but I would go with “Wreckonize” over “I Love You” anytime. Peep the script:

Situations

Got me thinking about my life seriously

Keep it real continuously

Before I slip into blackness I prepare for combat

Protect my dome cause that’s where my home’s at

Those introspections trump the sliver of track they were allowed on “I Love You” tenfold.

And while “I Love You” and “Wreckonize” are bangers, I gots to go with Meth and Mary. To this day I dedicate lines from that song to my Wife on greeting cards…that’s lasting power that even Hallmark couldn’t monetize. With that track, Meth locked down that sensitive thug persona until Common jacked it and pissed it all over the place and now we have Kanye. I don’t think anyone really won in the end. Us or them, ha!

No way that track is anything though without Mary. If Total, or Xscape for that matter, were slotted in the world as we know it would have been denied a classic. Yeah, I just did that. I threw out that hyperbolic word: classic. Deal with it.

Also, the romantic dexterity of my youth would have been that much lamer without that song.

But back to my point: Michael Bay is this generation’s Steven Spielberg. I’m not even gonna try to defend that statement; I’m just gonna let it fester for a few years and eventually watch the fruition of my predication unfold for all to see…

D – God, just listened to Xscape again – they don’t sing very well. But I guess that was the vocal stylings of the time.

i’m laying in a velvet coffin…got a job. that’s it, not really a career. i could probably excel at this job and make middle management in a couple of years. it pays well. most money i’ve earned in my life. but it’s like a dead man laying in a nice fancy velvet coffin. can the guy really appreciate his fancy schmancy coffin when he’s dead…i don’t like being dead at 23.

- an excerpt from Al-Jay’s blog circa 2001

Albert eloquently described himself at 23, which mirrors exactly where I was at 29. By the following May I rose from my velvet coffin moved to Manhattan, where I experienced life as a New Yorker making a living as a maker of films. Granted, not my own, but it sounds more glamorous that way.

Luckily, my New York story has a happy ending. It could’ve been disastrous. But I left with all I could ever ask for: good friends and even better memories to share. (Although, I wouldn’t mind if I left with a wee bit more savings!) New York makes you broke and runs up your debt, but how many people can say they lived in New York?

And now for the next chapter. I’m in LA, 7 months removed from my life as New Yorker. The freelance lifestyle seems so far behind me. And you know, I can’t say I miss it all that much. With the economy the way it is and the dire production situation here, I’d rather not deal with the stress. I’d gladly trade scouring the same craigslist and mandy ads on my couch for getting underpaid in an air-conditioned office.

So yes, I’m back in a velvet coffin. Well, more like velour. And not the J-Lo kind…more like hood rat kind you find at Wal-Mart. Truthfully, it’s really a pine box in a shallow grave.

What happened? As Zooey Deschanel puts it in 500 Days of Summer, “what always happens…life.”

It does pull you in funny directions. Sometimes it’s underwater where it’s cold and dark. And though that sounds super melodramatic, even for me, it’s in these spots that really make you ask the tough questions – a particular one I’ve resisted asking myself for the past 2 years:

“What do you want to do with your life, Anton?”

After all, I did ask myself that only a few years ago. Could it be possible that the answer you initially gave was wrong?

I don’t think so. I know that I want to write and make movies at some point in my life. But I’m not quite sure I want to make a living doing it. The reasons deserve another post, so I’ll save it for that.

Think on this for a minute. They say making a living doing what you love is the ideal. But that statement is flawed. Whenever money is involved, doing what you love will always turn into a job. And the attitude towards a job will always manifest itself over time. I don’t want to ruin my love of the craft of filmmaking by working in the industry. [NOTE: A recent experience had confirmed my feelings toward this subject and it shall be expounded upon in a later post]

So really, I’ve been asking myself the wrong question all along. The question should be:

“What kind of job would be fulfilling enough to pursue as a career , but not enough of a passion for it to be ruined when it actually turns into a ‘job,’ Anton?”

Of course, I don’t have an answer for it…yet.

And about that pine box…maybe I can get all Beatrix Kiddo on it when I do come up with an answer.

Every now and again, you watch a movie and it speaks directly to you. From the first frame to the last, you’re drawn in, completely connected with the characters and the journeys they go through. In the 90’s that movie for me was Swingers, and in the early 00’s, the film was Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Now that we’re in the tail end of the decade, 500 Days of Summer is what’s up.

I’ll be the first to admit that I like the sissy relationship stuff, but it has to be intelligent and sincere. I’ll pass on Serendipity, The Notebook, and anything with Matthew McCogaughey. Eternal Sunshine was brilliant in so many ways – visually and in its storytelling. And Swingers, while nowhere near as stylistic, has an honesty about the it that makes it loveable. These are the types of stories I like to write. I’m captivated by how relationships evolve and devolve, how the characters navigate through such events.

Now I’m not a HUGE Woody Allen guy, but I appreciate how influential Annie Hall was to the relationship genre. And as this movie was influential to the younger filmmakers of that era, 500 Days of Summer has the chops to have that kind of impact with the younger filmmakers of this generation – the way Swingers and Eternal Sunshine impacted me.

So go watch it this weekend and let’s get the discourse going!

I read this post from The Bitter Script Reader today about character introductions and couldn’t agree more.

From the moment your protagonist shows up on the screen, the audience expects to see the character evolve (or devolve) throughout the course of the story. If the protagonist continually makes decisions that match the audience’s expectations, you run the risk of being cliche, predictable, and even unbelievable. Conversely, if the character always makes decisions against audience expectations, you run the risk of disconnecting your audience.

And as I gradually learn more and more about storytelling and the craft of screenwriting – via books, TV, and movies, I’ve come to understand it’s really about managing the audience’s expectations – finding the right blend of expected and unexpected character choices.

MOON

I actually saw Moon before I watched Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which was so bad it deserved its own post. So I’m tracking back a bit to talk about this sci-fi anti-summer flick. Simply put, I enjoyed it. It’s not perfect by any stretch, but it was a nice contrast to the visual fluff that you’re accustomed to seeing this time of year.

Story
I liked the fact that the story unfoled for the audience the way it did for the protagonist Sam, played by Sam Rockwell. We learned what was going on as he did. Many films tend to “set the table” with expository scenes before getting on with the story. With Moon, you’re thrown right into Sam’s world and you understand really quickly what the situation is. The script does a good job of showing us the scenario instead of having some character (human or otherwise) tell us.

Characters
Well, there are only two – Sam Rockwell and Kevin Spacey (who is the voice of the computer GERTY) But when Sam discovers his own body after an accident, suddenly there are three. Rockwell does a good job playing the two versions of Sam – and how he plays each persona – it’s pretty clear how different they are – supports the story overall.

After watching the trailer, I thought GERTY would have a larger role. But I think the writer/director did an excellent job playing against the standard convention of sci-fi computers/robots, which was clearly defined by Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey and Bishop in Alien.

Style
What sticks out most for me is the mood/tone of the piece. It’s pace is much slower and more deliberate – which I tend to like anyway. The film gives you the time to take in the imagery. Colors (or lack thereof, really) were muted and desaturated. The story was a psychological mystery, so it really benefited from the simplicity. The production design was great, but did not call attention to itself. Same with the camera work.

Again, not genius, but solid filmmaking. I wonder, though, how I would compare Moon to the films that get released toward the end of the year – the ones primed for critical acclaim. It’s been winning some awards here and there so I feel it would hold up pretty well.

PUBLIC ENEMIES

I’ve been looking forward to this one for a LONG time. Look at the names attached to this thing: Michael Mann, Johnny Depp, Marion Cotillard, and Christian Bale. Plus, it’s about Depression-era gangsters! This period is probably one of my faves. I loved films like The Untouchables and Road to Perdition. And I think that is why I was initially underwhelmed by this film. As I’m now almost a week removed, I’m liking it even more.

Story
If I’m not mistaken, this film was adapted from a non-fiction book about the crime wave in the early 30s. I think this is what caused the story to feel a bit scattered. Like The Good Shepherd (the DeNiro-directed birth of the C.I.A. film starring Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie), it suffered from trying to tell TOO many stories. Was Public Enemies an cops-and-robbers chase, anti-hero tale, a love story, or a depiction of the evolution of organized crime and the emerging FBI. I felt like it’s all of these receiving equal weight. Surely, some of these subplots could have been omitted, or at the very least shrunken down a bit. But I think that when you tackle a such a rich historical period and an American cultural icon, you can’t help but infuse all these elements because it would be a shame to leave some integral parts out. A co-worker said it was boring, but I wouldn’t take it that far. He also said he already knew how Dillinger died. I didn’t, so it was easy for me to get hooked into the story.

Characters
I thought performances were solid all around. Depp was enigmatic, Cotillard was awesome (also because I’m in love with her) and Bale was good too. I felt it did lack some Dillinger vs. Purvis punch. And I know Mann can do that sort of thing – see Pacino vs. DeNiro in Heat. And because of my expectations, I wanted more of that dynamic.

Tess mentioned she didn’t feel like there was an electric chemistry between Depp and Cotillard, which is really essential to selling the love story. While I agree with this comment, the connection between the characters grew stronger as the film progressed, when much more was at stake. I agree with a review I read claiming Cotillard and Depp were stronger when they weren’t in the same scene together. Cotillard had a brilliant scene in the interrogation room – insanely intense. I think my heart is still racing, actually.

Imagery
There’s a lot of discussion among film technicians about the “look” of the movie – it being shot digitally and all. Without getting into details, video and film just look different. With the advances of HD these days, video can be made to look like film. And since it’s cheaper, some productions choose to go that route – save money without sacrificing too much of the look. But in this case, it was a conscious choice to shoot HD to avoid that filmic look. At times it looks like it was shot with a pro-sumer level camcorder (I’ve seen pictures to prove it). It is certainly an aesthetic decsion to do it this way – and you’ll read opinions about the visceral effects from film critics. But going back to my initial expectations of The Untouchables and Road to Perdition (which was clearly one of the most beautiful films I’ve seen shot by the legendary Conrad Hall), the cinematography lent itself to the story and the time period. With Public Enemies, I felt the cinematography took me out of the period a bit. I will say that I appreciate the intent of going with this look, but it would probably take a second viewing to appreciate the camera work.

So I didn’t dislike Public Enemies, but I am a ways away from loving it. I feel Michael Mann has made better films. Heat was a better cops-and-robbers flick with great conflict and tension. The Last of the Mohicans was a great love story that took place at a time in the country’s history where things were changing. It’s worth watching – even if only to engage in discourse afterward.