birdman!

i'm a big fan of alejandro innaritu because he has such a divine nameand lyrical. one of my favorite films in the history of everything is amores perros (love dogs).

what makes innaritu such a dream is that he is a first-rate storyteller of fantastical realism (a bit like terrance malick, but with more actual talking). his films usually involve many characters, inter-connected in the same place and time; often by a random encounter, accident, or situation as happens in life.  his movies can be super deep and meandering such a biufiful which i bored out of during the first half.  babel was much better and very humanistic in its narrative.

birdman is magical in many ways. it starts out strong, then nose dives a bit near the end, but you want to stick with it like a lover you care desperately about. it's excellently cast with michael keaton
(playing a character that is a brilliant mock on his batman days, even down to the raspy voice he used).  keaton plays riggan thomson, the superstar of the birdman movie franchise. he's written, directed, and stars in a play adaptation based on a collection of short stories by raymond carver.

throw in riggan's daughter, working as his personal assistant, who's fresh out of rehab, his ex-wife, his lover, his colleagues ( the hilarious, neurotic and self-obsessed actors played by naomi watts and ed norton), and his confidant and lawyer, played by zach galifianakis (also a riot). 

riggan's existentialist crisis is exacerbated by his desire to create something with meaning. what is art? what is love? aging, death, and humanity. who is he? all of this plays out as his birdman alter-ego whispers in riggan's ear preying on his self-doubts and anxieties. man, without me you're nothing! 

then there's the technical tour de force of the film which seems like one continuous take as characters zig-zag throughout the theater, onto and off the stage, and the streets. the lighting shifts from desaturated drab browns and beiges of the old theater to luminous blues and and silver on the stage. the production design is full of clues and symbols. on his dressing room mirror, riggan has a note taped to it which reads  a thing is a thing not what is said of a thing. this across from his altar with a buddha head and lotus and his vanity poster of birdman.

it's definitely worth seeing if for nothing else the laughs, the great acting, and following the chaos down the rabbit hole.  it will remind you that most of the time we don't know what the fuck we're doing (like making a good piece of work), but we're doing it really, really well.

beyond the lights

 courtesy BET / Relativity Media

this i love. so much i've seen it twice. 

perhaps it's a bit corny, but it's one of those corny romances that works. it's a good story; full of charm, redemption, love, and transformation. the kind of chocolate dreams are made of. 

written and directed by gina prince-bythewood (love & basketball), beyond the lights tells the story of noni (gugu mbatha-raw), a gifted mixed-race black girl from brixton. her mother is white (played awesomely by minnie driver) and her black father is out of the picture. their relationship is a sort of updated gypsy rose lee and mama rose. 

' mama, i'm gonna be a star!' 'i call the shots now, mama!' 

while noni is a little girl doing talent shows, macy jean realizes noni is their ticket to the big time. it is inconsequential what noni herself may want to create with her artistry. 

fast forward 15 years and noni is teamed up as the hyper-sexualized sidekick to a white rapper named kid culprit. together, they have a string of number 1 hits and ridiculous videos. noni is glammed up in a lavender weave, long nails, and gilded pop gear. 

after the billboard awards she snaps and tries to take a leap off the balcony of her hotel. she's saved by kaz (nate parker), the cop hired as her security detail. (the fact that noni and her mom live in a glass house in LA, it didn't make much sense why they were staying in a hotel in LA?) 

  ultimately, beyond the lights is a fantasy, a fairy tale true love story. kaz is a caring, down to earth cat who is unaffected by the mania and chaos of noni's world. through his support and kindness, noni begins to transform and make changes, but she doesn't give up her music or ambitions for him. in one scene she clips the talons and cuts off the lavender weave in favor of her natural hair. 

it was refreshing to see a film narrative about a black woman and man falling in love and supporting one another as a unit. price-bythewood had to jump through mad hoops to get this film made with two black leads. it is also fantastic see a mainstream film about a black woman's transformation to her authentic self. how many recent hollywood films are released such as that? one for zero. 

brilliant. 

free the nipple

i enjoy indie, under the radar films. i never know what gem of brilliance and good art i may find (knowing that i love the dark and dreary, a friend in malmo, sweden hipped me to 'let the right one in' after she'd read the book).

unfortunately, free the nipple is not one of them gems. it rips off everything from sophia coppola's production and art design, music soundtrack style, to the guerilla girls and pussy riot's pink robber masks. there is brilliant dialogue such as, 'we didn't get the permits. i let everyone down.' 

free the nipple is a film where you don't know what the fuck is going on or what the fuck just happened. the main protagonist is with (yes, with). she's a journalist looking for an amazing story. she happens across liv and her crew of boobs-out,cape wearing protesters. they have no name or a collective purpose other than if it's legal for men to go about shirtless, why can't chicks?

then with takes over. she becomes their primary investor, manager, and coach behind the whole movement. she names them girllrillas or some shit, she magically gets a $5k check and they move from working from liv's basement squat (which looks more like a loft than any squat i've ever seen) to an abandoned indoor pool. 

there's very little character development in this story; spaces and circumstances suddenly change. there's lots of magic in this movie. such as when liv gets arrested trying to save with and is held on a
$ 25k bond. the girls throw a fundraiser at a dive bar, but they come up $ 24,500.00 short! then with's friend, jim black, a cigar smoking public relations father figure, magically writes her a blank check. (for a feminist film about women being self-sufficient and defiant, it sucked that a daddy-figure eventually comes to the rescue anyway). there's no growth here.

i wasn't sure if it was going for comedy, melodrama or a weird mash of docu-dramedy. in a word, it's a mess. there are some nicely framed shots, cool art, good music, and a hilarious cameo by jeane garafalo (who i think was doing an impersonation of the performance artist marina abramovic).  otherwise this film isn't much more than a hipster trip without substance.

this is lina esco's first feature film. how she bankrolled this project is baffling, but she has some very rich friends. maybe someone thought she's the next lena dunham; all that hip, edgy, young girl power type-shit. but dunham is hands down a much more talented writer and director.  i read esco's profile which listed her accomplishments such as modeling in france and then moving to england to work in theater (i thought, coat check or concessions?). she also does stuff to help dolphins.

she had a role on the series 'cane' if you remember that at all. it was a prime time soap in the vein of dallas about a rich cuban-american family in miami. there was lots of rum, scando, and people strolling around the family estate in white linen clothes. it was cancelled after one season.

perhaps that gig gave lina the seed money to save flipper.

i don't recommend this film at all, but definitely root for beyond the lights!

black water dragon

first post of the new year. going into my 45th year on earth. super trip that! this is the year of the black water dragon, a symbol of the emperor of china. i did a very cool illustration of this for art class with 2012 hidden in the dragon's head and body.

what will this year bring? curious. well, i've decided to either go to new orleans or haiti this year, ideally one or the other around my birthday. looking forward to see what new adventures, loves, JOB, and personal growth unfolds.

mslisa

daylight

completely forgot that time change is now. i woke up thinking it was 10am - not bad for a sleeping-in secret agent. it was really after 11am in the black hole of time. fuck! i had some things to get done, which involved driving to other places and it wasn't looking like a sunshiny day outside. damn!

fortunately, mini missions accomplished, even if the dude at the bookstore was giving me a bit of the stank attitude. i had to be compassionate; retail resale sucks. he even re-taped my box for me. so nice!

i get back to my car, hustling to get some things organized in the trunk before i leave and i'm getting hassled for the parking spot. jesus fucking christ! can't one get a break on a sunday? i was irritated. then onto the next and the next, then home. honestly some weekends i have little tolerance for everyone else out doing their thing at the same fucking time. it's like we never get a break from one another. like clown suits in bumper cars on the daily.

really it's my own shit. i haven't been out of town and into the country in months.
either something fell through, or time didn't permit, or i got sick, or i didn't get paid until the monday after or...blah blah - the list goes on. i just need to get out and go somewhere for a few days.

it seems to me daily life has become even harder to manage than when i was younger. it's not just pay the bills + do the dishes, now it's pay the bills online, do the dishes, get to that laundry, check email, dive into the sink hole of facebook. it's ridiculous.

i keep having this inner dialouge to try harder. try harder at what exactly? maintain? keep on keepin on? i'm working with 75 kids a week between teaching spanish and art and trying to hustle on the side as a personal assistant. i can barely save a dime living here, my hometown the place i grew up in. it's become more livable for people from somewhere else who could afford the move and the cost of living. the rest of locals just eek off the scraps.

it's a really fucked cycle. i know of several people who were from back east and went home within the last year. it was either too hard with a kid or futile to find another job. lucky cats really. i'd love to move back east! at least i'd be less bored and possibly more challenged. i can get on my grustle here, but it's become tedious.

i don't want to end up stuck. i want to expatriate and make a life somewhere else for a good long while; working with kids, painting, and exploring. so when i say try harder i mean get the passport renewed, hustle a bit better, once i have my passport, get the paperwork into the italian consulate. just do it, baby! :)

****

i saw battle of los angeles, which sucked. district 9 is much more creative and thought-provoking bad ass sci-fi. battle is hwood rubbish with loads of cliches (cute kids, dying dad, homie bros, the young dude about to get married who has everything to live for! the token tough chick and marine hero worship ad nauseum. honestly, the way hwood depicts marines they're indestructible macho-ines who have a very human freak out, then at a crucial moment sacrifice themselves for a group of strangers, which redeems them of the aforementioned human freak out moment. hoo rah!) there was some cool bang bang and blow stuff up good, but otherwise...zzzzzzz.

the other craptastic crap movie was tron: legacy. again with the cliches (a boy and his dog?) someone who was 12 must have written the script because really that's the only age group that could sit through it. maybe this movie could be saved by a blunt and geek out on the visuals, but *yawn* - why waste a good blunt?

dulces suenos

get low

i'm always digging for independent and interesting movies; save the awesome sci-fi or bang bang action movie. i'm cool with the drivel hwood cranks out. dime o dozen, my friend. i'm such a movie nerd that i've finessed my sense of a good movie within 5 minutes. that's right, 5 minutes to take me by the hand and show me the way.

to me, things that are on the radar without incessant promotion and all that usually turn out to be excellent works of art. sure there's the guilty pleasure of movies just for fun (twilight: total eclipse for example was awesome. my favorite in the series).

i came across get low and it had two things i enjoy in movie narratives; hillbilly gothic set in the past and robert duvall. i love it when he plays old southern coots. he get so into it; very naturalistic, witty, and has this brilliant ability to convey a ravaged tormented soul underneath an abrasive exterior. he seems to mix method with subtle improvisations.

the movie is so awesome if for him alone. he plays this old hermit felix bush who's retreated into the woods alone, long hair and beard, with his shotgun, a horse, and mixtures of medicinal herbs. news of an old acquaintance passing sets the story in motion as felix realizes his own death is nigh. so begins his journey of redemption.

a tragic incident in his life is what made him retreat from humanity and god. he never asked forgiveness from god, and his heart was forever broken. he goes to the church pastor and offers a wad of cash for his funeral. he wants people to come and share the stories they've heard about him; this is all hogwash of course, because he doesn't have the balls to tell his own story. in isolating himself what did he become in the eyes of the people in the county?

he connects with quinn and buddy who run a funeral parlor and they become his only friends; driving him around, getting him groomed and tailored, and invariably companions on his path to

salvation.

the production design, location, and costumes are beautiful. it is though worth watching alone for duvall's exquisite acting in this story. i myself got choked up at one point, my heart breaking at felix's sense of hopelessness and anguish.

lovely little gem, my friends. see it.

mslisa

calvin face thoughts

fB is generally fun and a cool way to link to friends abroad. sometimes a weird form of passive voyeurism (knowing what's going on in a person's life or their interactions with others without being directly involved). you can also connect with people from the past, which is sadly hit or miss.

i friended a dude i had a massive crush on in 10th grade in high school. he doesn't remember me specifically of course because i was the geeky punk girl lingering in the background pining for the (to me) john hughes type dreamboat who was in a band and....well you get the picture.

teenage wasteland-type shit.

he lives up north and every now and then pops back down to earth to reconnect with friends. over the weekend there was a reunion show with his old ska bandmates. i ended up not going since i was beat and it's not 1982. i mean, honestly the thought of us middle-aged berkeley high kids collectively reliving the past seemed a tad depressing.

we connected this afternoon and i gave him a ride to the airport. he is a sweet and charming dude, but also utterly fucked up. he has mental issues (which he's honest about) on meds to maintain his well being and essentially adrift; keeping himself in tact through and with the kindness and support of others. for a dude of 45 this is odd to me.

his stories are amusing, but something doesn't sound right. either he's embellishing or has the time lines of his life mixed up or is (worst case senario) dellusional. something is just off.

so the teenage fantasy and adult reality collide in my own mind. we didn't really know one another then or have any sort of relationship / friendship. he was the cat i admired from afar. he's a sweet dude though and i am a compassionate woman. we all need to connect to someone even through many degrees of separation from our adolescence. you exist friend, you're okay. i made him laugh and listened to his stories, but it made me a bit sad too to hear him talking about how being a 'mod' is his true self. mod? that was nothing more than a pop culture revival when we were kids in the early 80s.

it's like an elephant in the room. dude is sweet, but deeply wounded and not right in the head.

*sigh* illusions shattered! you really can't go back, ya know.

*****

then he walks in. dinner party at a co-worker's over his excellent cooking and even more nutritional conversation. i meet his classmate james who he referred to lil t's parents for a piano tutor. *blam* exactly the kind of cat i asked the universe to reveal to me. tattoo love boy geek. of course the universe plays cruel ironic jokes on chicks like me: he's 25 years younger, 

But that's cool. I am happy to admire from afar and just resign myself to a 'that just don't make no kind of sense' state of mind. shit. cotdamn. :(

i am however being focused on by said colleague and co-worker who is 5 years younger. okay, reasonable right? but i'm not that into him. he's tripped out, high-octane, and i'm not attracted to him in that way. but he is awesome and i really enjoy our conversations.

tattoo love boy! he even plays chopin.....*sigh*

mslisa