Writing Life

This fantastic film out of Hong Kong features two friends with a passion for photography. After witnessing and photographing the tragic aftermath of a traffic accident, Jiney begins seeking out death in life and reflecting it in her art. It’s an almost erotic attraction that frightens her friend and potential lover Jas. The inevitable downward spiral of Jiney’s obsession pulls in those around her and shines light on a past experience of rape and disbelief by the one person Jiney trusted as a child. Making this film even more charged is the fact that Jiney and Jas are real-life sisters, Race Wong (Jiney) and Rosanne Wong (Jas). This film can be hard to watch at times but I have to say it’s one of the best films of this genre I’ve ever seen. It’s up there with Acacia, Dark Water and Wishing Stairs.

I recently caught Croupier, a 1998 film staring Clive Owen, Gina McKee, Alex Kingston (who also played Dr. Elizabeth Corday on ER), Kate Hardie and Paul Reynolds. I stumbled across this film after watching Mr. Owen’s latest flick, Shoot ‘Em Up, which left a lot to be desired. The actor who plays a dark but 2-dimensional character in Shoot ‘Em Up is a fully-sketched, 3-dimensional character in Croupier.

The film focuses on Jack, a struggling writer who picks up a night job as a croupier in a local casino. A croupier is a dealer, not a term I was familiar, nor was Jack’s girlfriend Marion. She wanted to live with a writer not what Jack’s become. Pieces of Jack’s history pop up over the course of the movie as he interacts with his girlfriend, coworkers, “punters” (the gamblers in the casino), and his father in South Africa. Is Jack reinventing himself, coming home, or something entirely different?

The movie feels like a piece of film noir, from its lighting and dark tone, as well as its use of voiceover by the main character Jack. One film that came to mind was The Maltese Falcon. However, Jack’s inner monologue strangely reminded me of the same technique in A Clockwork Orange. This is a film definitely worth watching. I’ve seen it twice and would definitely consider buying it for repeat viewings.

Over the past two nights, we watched Michael Moore’s stark documentary Bowling for Columbine. This film delves into the disastrous results when America’s culture of guns is coupled with its media-and-politically-driven culture of fear. If you haven’t seen this film, give it a chance. The images of NRA poster boy Charlton Heston praising guns in Littleton, Colorado, just over a week after Columbine, and in Flint, Michigan, just days after one six-year-old shot and killed one of his classmates with a gun, will make your blood boil.

The film isn’t all negative and shows how two survivors of Columbine go with Moore to K-Mart headquarters to ask them why they sell ammunition, the same ammunition whose spent bullets are still in their bodies. After staying in the corporate headquarters lobby and demanding to speak to someone with answers, they are poorly handled by a communications hack. The next day, they return with two things: the local media and shopping bags full of all the ammunition they could buy at a local K-Mart store. A VP comes out to talk with the crowd and reads a statement that says K-Mart will eliminate the sale of all ammunition from all its stores within 90 days. Wow! Now that’s activism. And, according to Moore and the two students, they were looking for answers and didn’t expect (though certainly embraced) this corporate policy change.

So, after last night, I was depressed but had a glimmer of hope. This morning, while scanning the wires, I ran across this amazing story. Cincinnati set a record last year in number of homicides. Just recently, a student was shot and killed at an event that was promoting nonviolence. In response, Cincinnati’s Democratic Mayor Mark Mallory has decided to not use a starter pistol to begin a 5K race this weekend. Instead of firing blanks from a pistol, he’ll use a whistle. The mayor said, “I think the symbolism is just bad. It’s just something I don’t do.”

Hats off to you Mayor Mallory. You’ve given this blogger a jolt of hope.

Famed Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman passed away today in his home country of Sweden. This cinematic genius directed more than 50 films, including three of my favorite movies of all time: Persona, Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal.

The Seventh Seal is quite possibly my favorite film, especially with its beautifully shot story of a knight returning home after one of the crusades. Questioning his faith and his actions, he crosses path with various figures as he tries to complete an emotional return trip to match his physical one. Famously remembered for its scenes where the knight plays a game of chess with the devil, this spectacle was parodied most excellently by Bill & Ted in their second movie, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey.

Eerily enough, we just watched one of his films this past weekend, The Hour of the Wolf. The title refers to the hour just before dawn when most people die and most children are born. It is a time of ghosts and demons, where sleep comes fleetingly and the mind spins at top speed. Setting aside the potentially disconcerting timing of watching this film, I thought once again that if Bergman’s talent was shared by all directors, all films could be shot in black & white. Never have I seen a movie or setting look so beautiful. His camera’s eye saw past color and through it; and we are lucky to have been spectators to his vision.

The Associated Press has an article on his passing and the Guardian produced a wonderful section on Bergman’s life.

Pump up the Volume is a thought-provoking film from 1990. Premised as teenage angst channeled through pirate radio and ever rising stakes, this film explores the fundamental rights of freedom of speech and a right to education. It effortless melds a love story, political commentary and a killer soundtrack full of late 80s (real) alternative and punk music, including Concrete Blonde, the Pixies, Bad Brains, Above the Law, Sound Garden, Sonic Youth, and Cowboy Junkies.

The chemistry between the two lead actors, Christian Slater and Samantha Mathis, burns up the celluloid. Their first kiss actually looks like a first kiss. Some of the dialogue of the rest of the cast is a bit corny, but more due to acting ability rather than only poor writing.

This movie particularly resonates today with the impeding sale of large swaths of the broadcast spectrum from the government to private industry. These bands are ours. We should not be selling them to private bidders who then will exploit them and wring every drop of capital out of them. Some of the spectrum will be for first responders, and that’s a good thing. But, not all of it. And why should the government continue to auction off what belongs to the people not to the board rooms. As Harry says, talk hard!

Remember that urban legend about getting drugged in a bar and then waking up in a tub of ice with one of your kidneys missing? Well, Hong Kong’s Lo Chi-Leung has made it into an intense, twisted horror film. Ching, the lead woman character, has a bum kidney, she’s in renal failure which causes her to be underweight and frequently and unexpectedly throw up (and often on someone). Her boyfriend Wai appears to be having an affair with the other woman character, Ling. Tying all three together, besides the affair, is a spooky guy who appears to be the one stealing kidneys from unsuspecting women.

While at times the tension is stressed and obvious, the creepiness of the symbiotic and parasitic psychological ménage à trois is well worth the price of entry, especially if it comes back on the Sundance Channel and you can just tape it. It’s part of the Asia Extreme series that airs late Sunday evening (12 AM Monday morning).

Forest Whitaker starred as Ida Amin in one of my absolute favorite films, The Last King of Scotland. And tonight, he won his first Oscar (I think it’s his first). I’m so happy! Here’s what I wrote about that film back in December.

Hip-hop is everywhere, in commercials, TV shows, the movies, on the dance floor, and online among other places. This week, the series Independent Lens (on PBS, WETA in DC) showed an episode entitled “Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes.” This documentary explores America’s culture of violence as reflected by the hyper-masculinity of contemporary hip-hop. It’s a really good commentary on what it means to be a man and how that’s fronted or twisted by some performers and viewers. It starts with gun violence and death, in lyrics and in real life then turns to the sexist lyrics and objectification of woman in videos and at various gatherings.

One factoid that caught me by surprise was that 70% of mainstream hip-hop is consumed by young white men. This was followed by a clip of a redneck white guy from Columbus, Ohio. Playing hip-hop on his dad’s SUV radio while in Florida, the filmmaker approached him to talk. In the ensuing interview, the Ohio guy says about hip-hop that “it’s my style, i mean, you guys, colored people, can say that it’s their music but I can get down to it just as much as they can.” WTF! When asked if he actually said “colored people” he responds “I don’t know, what term do you want me to use, I mean, I’m trying to be, I’m not a racist at all.” Where the hell did they dig this guy up? Then again, maybe he’s the mainstream and me, a white kid born in Philly, educated in Western NY and living b/w Baltimore & DC, is the outlier. That point was pretty much driven home by the next segment.

Cut to four white kids sitting around a table in Moline, Illinois. A young woman wearing a Ramones t-shirt says she likes hip-hop since it allows her to explore other cultures. “I’ve never had to worry about drive-by shootings… [hip-hop] appeals to our sense of learning about other cultures and wanting to know more about something that we’ll probably never experience.” Okay, how many African Americans experience drive-by shootings?!?

Her comment is surprising since the whole group replies affirmatively when asked if hip-hop reinforces stereotypes. Obviously they missed the fact that they’ve bought into the stereotypes that they say they don’t think are good. They start off saying hip-hop is their window into black culture, that’s how they learn about other cultures and peoples, then say that hip-hop reinforces stereotypes. So, who’s interpretation of culture are they getting a look at through this music?

One thing that’s missing, especially for me, is what about other types of hip-hop? The documentary at times conflates all forms of hip-hop into the one genre of misogynistic gangster rap. Groups like Public Enemy that started out talking about structural violence in the forms of economic and racist policies are mostly absent from this discussion. With the rise of politically-aware hip-hop traditions in Palestine, France, and other countries, the music hopefully will grow out of the gangster tradition. But, as the narrator/director says at the end of the film, he’s “thinking about an American culture that mythologies and mass produces hyper-masculinity… hip-hop, in that regard, is pure Americana.”