A Disturbing Dream 13

I walk in to a concrete basement or warehouse type structure. There are two men walking behind me who I don't look at. They are hulking and faceless. They are watching to make sure I do what I am suppose to do.

In the middle of the bare room there is a black trunk. Inside the black trunk there is a man. He has been inside the trunk for 2 days. I am expected to kill this man, it is my friend Eli.

I undo the catches on the trunk and Eli tumbles out. He is dirty, his beard is long, and he is skeletal. He looks at me with vacate eyes, resigned and unafraid.

The two men behind me get closer. Crowd me from behind but I don't look back. The room gets thick with sweat and the concrete warms.

I am suppose to kill my friend, that's what is expected, to beat him to death.

I reach down and grab him and shove him back in the trunk, the only thing I can think of to delay what seems to be inevitable.

My two shadows escort me out, down a hall, to my own much smaller concrete room lit by a sallow fluorescent. I sit on the floor. The door is shut and locked. I have bought myself another day.

Some Love For Ben Foster

I've liked Ben Foster since I saw him on the Disney TV show Flash Forward, the precursor to the similar and far less entertaining Even Stevens with Shia Labeouf. From his more comedic roles at the beginning of his career to the more dramatic in the last couple years I've always found him inherently watchable. He's had eclectic supporting roles in all kinds of films and TV shows from The Punisher to Freaks & Geeks to Alpha Dog. 

A lot of the films he's been in have been underrated and a lot of his performances go unnoticed in films that aren't that good. Pandorum one of the best scifi films in the past couple years starred Ben Foster but didn't get much exposure. He grounds the film with an everyman quality that is a great conduit to enjoy this wonderful dark scifi horror flick.

30 Days Of Night was a terrible adaptation of the graphic novel of same name starring Josh Hartnett. Foster played The Stranger the only interesting part of the film and the only performance that reflected any reality. Worth sitting through 90 minutes of confusing mediocrity just to watch his turn.

The somewhat predictable teen rom-com Get Over It has some life because of Foster. He brings some unexpected menace to the Bruce Willis clunker Hostage. Bang Bang You're Dead a potentially hokey movie about school shootings carries much needed weight with Foster's performance as the troubled potentially homicidal teen.

In all his performances he brings a commitment and reality that jump off the screen and make you want to keep watching. Good movies, bad movies it doesn't matter. I'll watch Ben Foster do what he does because he believes it.

Most recently Foster's 3:10 To Yuma and The Messenger have brought him some much deserved exposure but I still think he's underrated. A working actor creating interesting roles and moving forward deserves some attention.

Check out his past films or keep an out for future ones. He is worth watching.

Sunsets #1

7/16/13

8/2/13

9/3/13

'Austenland' & 'Ain't Them Bodies Saints' Reviews

Austenland is a light rom-com especially geared for Jane Austen fanatics. The film follows Jane, Keri Russel, a thirty something perpetually single woman obsessed with the works of Jane Austen. She cashes in her savings and goes on a trip to a week long immersive retreat to Austenland where the guests get to become part of an Austenesk story line.

The story is fun and all the actors are engaging. The comedy and romance are delicately balanced neither one overpowering the fanciful pleasant mood of the film. The jokes weaving in well with moments of flirtation. The cast plays their roles to perfection most notably in Russel's two love interests- JJ Field as the Mr. Darcey surrogate and Bret McKenzie as the more down to earth normal guy. Jane Seymour as the proprietress of Austenland is funny but under utilized.

Russel carries the film with an honest, grounded, empathetic, slightly quirky performance that makes you route for her and want to see where she ends up. The end of the film becomes somewhat formulaic but it is excusable because of the fun that is had with the genre proceeding the end. Nothing surprising but entertaining and heartwarming without getting into the vicinity of cliche or sap.

Rent It.

Ain't Them Bodies Saints is a faux concept drama borrowing heavily and badly from Terrence Malick in general and Badlands in specific. The movie follows what could be loosely described as the story of a rural Texas couple and the efforts of the man to break out of prison and get back to his wife.

The are innumerable problems with the movie. The score is overpowering at almost every point, the filmmaker seemed to want to make a T-Bone Burnett sound track but didn't have the money to get T-Bone or the finese to make a passable imitation.

The casting of the leads is all wrong. Casey Affleck is all wrong as the stoic-romantic outlaw. His performance has no charm, no finesse, and it's a relief when he is not on screen. It makes no sense why his friends help him out or why his wife loves him. He reveals no likable characteristics only selfishness and narcissism. Rooney Mara, somewhat better, suffers from a lack of direction. Her southern accent is so jarringly terrible it's difficult to believe any scene she's in. Ben Foster is the only bright spot of the film, moving through scenes with a gentleness and a silence that seem to belong in a different film. Foster seems to be the only actor confident enough to make something out of a script that is significantly lacking.

The story meanders but goes no where, implies meaning but says nothing, most likely has nothing to say. The story itself, the way the film is shot and scored stinks so heavily of Malick it would be wrong to say the filmmaker was "influenced" by him.

Ain't Them Bodies Saints comes off as a naive film-school-boy attempt to make some art by copying an idol.

Don't See It.

Goodbye Yolo

Yolo and her fiance Pat are moving to Seattle. Yolo is one of those people who I've traveled in the same circles as over the past couple years, developed a great deal of affection for, but never got to know that well. She was added to Schwa last spring and I was fortunate enough to do a handful of shows with her before her emanate exodus.

She has a sweet, playful, contagious energy which I will miss very much. She probably only played in half a dozen shows during her brief schtint on Schwa but in each one we did a scene together. Her last show and our last scene is the most memorable for me. Craig and I played brothers and Yolo was our prim, refined, tightly-wound, dignified mother. The scene consisted of her telling us to sit up straight, speak clearly, and be gentlemen while we pathetically tried to ask for a later curfew. It was effortless to do scenes with her and always fun. It's a shame she is leaving when we just started to get to know each other and get to play together but I'm grateful for the time however brief.

I wish her and Pat safe travels, happy trails, and a joyous new life.

(pause)

Much is said in silence,

in the space between.





Large, unwieldy affections-

find a voiceless sound.

When It's Good, It Feels Good

I was never an athlete or musician, I have always been a performer. I think I latched onto it at an early age because it was the only thing, out of the many things I tried, that I was good at. Every once in a while you find yourself in the those moments on stage where you hit a groove. Where things start happening without effort. You find yourself in an effortless type of flow. Athlete's call it the zone. I don't know what musicians call it. For me it's like being totally in the moment but also detached from it, floating above it, in actuality doing nothing and just being a conduit for something other. You can see every move, you can anticipate and feel every laugh, groan, and gasp.

My parents were in town tonight to see Deep Schwa and Prime. Schwa had a good show, the past couple weeks it feels like we've been on something of a streak, getting back in the rhythm of things, the cast fitting together. The show ended a little early before we could tie everything together but all in all a good show.

Craig was out of town in Austin and I asked Vince and Sabine to sit in with Prime. It's odd to perform on Sunday's without Craig because I always identify Sunday night shows as his shows. He is always a constant, stabilizing, joyful presence. I was nervous for the first time in a while. Excited to play with my friends who I don't get to play with and to perform for my folks in a show they had never seen before but nervous because I wasn't sure it would go well, without Craig I wasn't confident.

I've found though that nerves more often than not give you an edge- makes you present and sharp. The suggestion was Mississippi River and we were four southern boys heading down the river to get some revenge. The show was great. It was such a joy to have Sabine and Vince play with Brett and I. Sabine has great timing and is always good for a one liner or a seemingly effortless joke. Vince plays big characters and has the most phenomenal reactions. I caught myself a couple times just watching and appreciating Vince reacting to things. Brett was open and welcoming and was a great facilitator and instigator of fun in the show in addition to his normal quickness. The show came together in a very organic way and I think all four of us lost ourselves in it and had a blast. As the show progressed the audience got caught up in the infectious energy. Because of the holiday tomorrow it was a packed crowd and I think we all ended on a high.

It was a great show. One of the rare ones where you derive a great deal of pleasure from very little effort. It was the perfect show for my parents to see and I am grateful for the entire evening.