Quotes From the Trip Home This Afternoon

Both coming from the Oct/Nov issue of Interview Magazine:



"The difference between exile and nomadism is probably just your mood."

- Wes Anderson




"...we don’t really know what fear is. Fear is something that we create in our own minds. Fear could be like fire. You can use it to heat you up, keep you warm, cook your food. There are so many things you can use it for. But if you allow it to go out of control, it will destroy you and everything around you."

- Mike Tyson

The Great Debaters

4 out of 6 stars

Great Debaters


Internally satisfying, The Great Debaters is a delightful picture filled with the hope (Denzel) Washington has supplied consistently throughout his career. No overcomplicated shots, and strong performances all around keeps Debaters simple yet solid enough to deeply engage and basely inspire.

Following the 1935 Wiley College debate team, compromised of a few black college students ( a youthful Jurnee Smollett, Henry Lowe, and Jermaine Williams) and teen James Farmer Jr. ( Denzel Whitaker ) as they debate and lap the boundaries of human relationships. Led by Melvin Tolson ( wild haired, always intense Denzel Washington) the debate team struggle, learn, experience trauma, and then realize the ideology of what a winner is in a traditional cinematic manner seen before.
Understudied is the obstacle haunting each member of the debate team personally, where as the obstacle of the whole team ( racism in the south circa 1930’s) was handled with a firm touch. Each member ( one’s too young [this was the most explored], one’s female, one is stubborn and enjoys a sip more often than he should, hell..they may just be led by a communist) uses the effects of obstacle to overcome, yet these very obstacles were only gazed upon and left dry.
In all the film is worth a look, its historical and narrative elements can run deep into an open heart while remaining close to the surface. Inspiration ain’t always profound.

Why Running Scared may just be worth a view

Running Scared


Maybe anything is possible if you hope hard enough. Maybe Wayne Kramer’s idiotic film can mean something. Just maybe, and grab your saltshakers here if I slug it up, maybe it represents the lost cause of regaining past cinema disguised in a rapid, violent race of meaningless thrills a mask of the very thing being argued against. “ I don’t like cowboys,” comments Oleg, the boy next door in the most significant scene not long into the first half of the film. The opinion-less old man living with Paul Walker’s Joey Gazelle representing a distant past. Ansor, the neighbor, representing golden age , his son the new. “ Don’t you walk away from the duke” yells Ansor in this same scene referring to John Wayne. Paul Walker representing cinema itself, chasing after his gun…which can only mean safe haven ( or hope from future dangers of movies). The prostitute, who calls Oleg ‘papa’ would be his guardian, the element of poison that relates or protects the viewer from reality. The chase its self, with overacted antics throughout, representing the traditional poisons nudity, violence, profanity. The gangsters maybe representing the older loud mouths who gang up to rant on and on without giving this new cinema a chance. Most importantly Joey’s son representing the more impressionable youth between him and Oleg. While Armond White’s praise and comparison to DePalma (one of my favorite directors) is a bit extreme (this is just a movie to think about when you’ve passed after the puff), his point of a search for humanism dials in to what I saw. This very well could just be a chase movie….but if what Joey was looking for was hope….why cant I?

Countdown

On the brink of a new year......................