Where have you been?!

I’m just kidding, I know you’ve been highly anticipating my return to the blog and click back here 5 or 6 times a day. Nonsense aside, I’ve been trying to graduate. May 18th is the big day and right after that I’m going to commit myself fully to the FilmADay project and see how long I can keep the streak going. I do have some news for all of you who do check back here once in a while. I’ve been accepted to film school starting in August at Loyola Marymount University in LA. From GWU to LMU my life is one big abbreviation. I’ll be here in DC for the summer interning for National Geographic until the big move in August. I’m coming back, I promise. I wish I had time to see a film right now (Iron Man, MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS) so maybe I’ll get to the theater this weekend against my better judgment.

Until later - Jesse

Young @ Heart

Avid readers of FilmADay will recognize my coverage and involvement with Young @ Heart, a true feel good documentary about octogenarians singing their hearts out.  I was fortunate enough to meet Stephen Walker, the film’s director, Bob Cilman, the Chorus director, and talk with members of the chorus.  If you are in need (and I know you are) of a good film, this has my highest recommendation.

Visit www.foxsearchlight.com/youngatheart

To find a theater near you.  ENJOY

State of the Blog

There would usually be a review here but you know what?  I’m busy.  Really busy.  I have to graduate college and apparently that takes all of my time.  I’d also like to mention how awful the movie selection is right now.  Is anyone really going to see Leatherheads?  Please don’t.  If you do and want to bash it send me the review I’ll put it up.  I saw The Bank Job but I really don’t think it was worth a review.  It goes exactly how you would think it would go with a few clever twists that aren’t as clever as you wish they were.  That’s the movie.  So looking out on the month I can effectively say I’m excited for very few theatrical releases.  One in particular I’m going to plug is Young @ Heart, a film I saw a few weeks ago and was privileged enough to meet the director, chorus director, and cast.  If you don’t know what this film is you will, it might be the only thing worth seeing for the rest of the month.  (www.youngatheartchorus.com for details).  Seriously though, I’d love to see My Blueberry Nights which IS getting a limited release so keep your fingers crossed for me.  I’m going to check out Street Kings mostly because I like obscure rappers and the city of Los Angeles.  Other than that I think we can all hope for may to come FAST.  Just a heads up, we have Iron Man, Son of Rambo, Speed Racer, INDIANA JONES, Bigger, Stronger, Faster (Sundance Doc about steroids, my friends who saw it while I was there loved it) and for you ladies (if any read the blog) we’ve got SEX AND THE CITY!  Woo!  I can barely contain myself.

So to recap, my interview was amazing of the Young @ Heart crew.  I’m going to have a full expose next week in my school newspaper and of course right here on FAD for all you die hards.  If you see anything during the week that is worth seeing drop me a line and I’ll try and get away from my books.

Best,

Jess

Showtime!

No really, it is. I’ve been working on my school’s play “The Falling Man” which is world premiering at my university (GWU). It’s about the famous “jumpers” who leaped to their death after being stranded on top of the World Trade Center. I made a neat little trailer you guys and gals can watch until the weekend when I will have more reviews.

Enjoy! Falling Man Trailer and other Musings

Drillbit Taylor - B

There is crazy, and then there is seeing Drillbit Taylor at 12:35am on a Saturday in the middle of DC’s famed “Chinatown”. This movie should be a guaranteed crap fest, but it’s not. Apatow Ho! (That will be the new war cry when I approve of an Apatow project) He’s back with the goods that makes it so damn hard for me to boycott this guy. Judd produces while Steven Brill, the writer/director of Heavy Weights and writer of all three Mighty Duck movies brings his craft to sweet, sweet fruition.

Stories revolving around high school usually get too complicated, but here, Brill keeps it real. Wade (Nate Hartley) and Ryan (Troy Gentile…not kidding) are about to enter high school. They want to make a good impression but accidentally make total asshats of themselves and end up being beaten up by a bully. Enter Drillbit, aka Owen Wilson. He’s a homeless veteran of some war everyone including him forgets, and just happens to respond to a craig’s list ad posted by the kids (the kid from The Ring tags along and they become a triad of dorkiness) seeking a bully beater upper. Taylor lies and says he was ex special ops and here we are with a movie.

Wilson as I’m sure movie watchers like yourselves are aware, recently had a bout with suicide. Ironically, I was giving blood when I heard this news and remarked wittily to the friend leaking fluid next to me how ironic an occurrence this was. Back to the review…

Taylor is a great lead character. I am completely serious. He walks the line between likable big brother character and abominable, lying homeless man out to only save his own skin. The screenplay by Brill is nothing short of challenging. Yes, I’m still talking about the movie Drillbit Taylor. Somehow some way Brill makes it about confronting the lies homeless people probably tell us all the time. When do homeless people lose track of what is real and what is fabricated? How on Earth did they go from being a baby, like all of us were at one point in our lives, to being a sidewalk drawing, obscenity muttering, kung fu practicing iconoclast?

This is/will turn into a rant quite fast but hear me out. The suicide of Wilson could be something along the lines of a complete questioning of self. In the film, Drillbit must fight through the web of lies he himself has created. Well, don’t actors do the same thing? Characters aren’t people, they evoke emotional responses from audiences but that’s because we allow them to. What if that was the crisis that made Wilson turn in on himself? Let me know what you think about this one, I’m really quite interested.

So Wade and Ryan do everything to fit in possible and the bully Filkins (Alex Frost) just keeps the pain a comin’. Drillbit teaches the kids everything from hiding techniques to WWF moves until the climactic finish we were all expecting to happen goes down at Filkin’s house. He’s an emancipated youngster so all bets are off when the forces of good and evil collide. Fans of Dewey Cox might be disappointed because there is real wit and clever dialogue in these lines. You won’t find the pooch kicking absurdity but you will find the appropriately casted high school filled with kids who LOOK LIKE HIGH SCHOOLERS. I can give Apatow all the smack in the world, but his contribution to movies for me rests solely in the brilliance of 40 Year Old Virgin, Heavy Weights, and casting kids rather than adults that look like kids. Kudos.