Diatribes by Joah

I'm having nightmares re: Aurora

I was awakened in fear this morning. I'd had a dream that I was being pursued ruthlessly by armed killers.

I hardly ever remember my dreams. Either I don't dream much, or my waking brain isn't typically alert enough to process what just happened. But I will remember the dream I had last night/this morning. 

Last night, a Friday night, I decided to stay in and get some extra sleep - I'm typically a 6-hour guy, so weekends help me catch up. I got in bed at 10:30 and didn't end up falling asleep until closer to 12:30, which is typical for nights when I consciously try to sleep early. Without waking up fully, I realized probably a few hours into my sleep that I was having a series of very vivid and violent dreams. 

The good news is that I was just dreaming. I became aware of this, and continued to sleep. After what felt like a full hour of tossing and turn (running and driving in my dream perhaps in avoidance of those aforementioned killers), I woke up in fear. I knew it was a dream/series of dreams, but the last 10 seconds of that last dream felt real. I actually felt like my death was imminent. I felt I could no longer outrun the killer's intent.

This is not me trying to become part of the Aurora shooting. This is just me saying how afraid I was when I woke up this morning, and that I think it has something to do with how many times I replayed the Aurora scenario in my head yesterday. 

I almost never remember my dreams. I'll remember last night/this morning's nightmare. I woke up at 6:14 a.m. after less than 6 hours of sleep on the Friday night I stayed in to get an extra couple of hours. 

One of the last time's I had a nightmare this vivid was when I was 8 or 9 years old and accidentally stayed up too late and found myself watching Batman (with Jack Nicholson as The Joker) on TV. That night, I had the scariest, most realistic nightmare I've ever had. 

That nearly 20 years later, The Joker - I mean James Holmes - has impacted my sleeping in this way must not be a coincidence. 

Like Batman conquering his fear of bats, I will conquer any fear lingering from yesterday's Aurora shooting. I have tickets to see Dark Knight this weekend, and I intend to use them.

More importantly, I will sleep comfortably again. 

Tupac Was a Hell of an Actor

Sure, he was a dynamic rapper with lots of poetry and personality, but his acting skills were always superior to what we've come to expect from most rapper-actors. Here are some examples:

 

 

Did it take 127 Hours for me to realize I need help?

I saw the Danny Boyle-directed, James Franco-starred film last night with Ash and I was not disappointed. Sure, it wasn't as eventful and engaging and moving and visually stunning as Boyle's Oscar darling Slumdog Millionaire...but that's a high bar to get over. I didn't expect 127 Hours to be as good as Slumdog, but I did expect it to have that scene.

You know, that scene...the one every great movie has. Sometimes it's when the plot comes together like when we realize Bruce Willis is already dead in The Sixth Sense, or in Shawshank Redemption (my all-time fav) when Tim Robbins finishes crawling through all that shit in the prison walls to be cleansed by the rain shower outside. Other times, it's the final scene when the theatre lights come on and everyone is crying. The final scene in Philadelphia definitely captures what I'm talking about here. There's no way you finish that movie without some tears coming out.

Well to say that I liked 127 Hours is to say that I absolutely loved that scene. It was actually a combination of both types...part because we know that the story is about Aron Ralston cutting his arm off and partially because we don't know what the meaning it all has in his life is. And to hear Ralston himself say that this wasn't just "based on a true story" in a Hollywood kind of way, but that it actually was a near-spoton depiction of the events and his feelings, really makes the final scene that much more effective.

I don't want to give away what specifically happens or what Ralston, played wonderfully by Franco, goes through, but I will say that I found myself identifying with his desire to go it alone (in the beginning of the film) followed by his realization that he can't do it all by himself (in the end). It's amazing how often people who have big imaginations and great ambitions are found to be the solo, I'll be fine by myself types. I think that's part of the reason why LeBron got so much flack for going to Miami, too...he didn't fit the mold of the John Wayne, Michael Jordan...

I myself struggle with coming to terms with my constant struggle to balance my independent willpower and drive to succeed and my true desire to be part of a team, a family. I really connected to 127 Hours because that scene jolted me (nearly to the point of breaking down) to introspection like few movies have or can.

The Social Network from the Catbird's Seat?

I saw The Social Network last night and it’s only fitting that I use my blog to write about a movie about Facebook, the company that Mark Zuckerberg supposedly started while he was at home, drunk and blogging.

The movie only hauled in $23 million in its opening weekend which suggests the Oscar buzz didn’t significantly enhance the box office success of the film, but I think the slightly-lower-than-expectations opening has more to do with the fact that when good movies go up against good sports, sports win. This past weekend saw the Yankees and Rays in a tight AL East race while the Braves, Giants and Padres battled it out for the final two playoff spots in the NL. Also, Texas and Oklahoma played (sorry, I didn’t forget), as did Florida-Alabama and Stanford-Oregon. Oh, and Donovan McNabb’s Redskins played in Philadelphia. In other words, it was a big week for sports.

Regardless of the opening numbers, The Social Network is a really good movie. It will likely remain strong in the theatres because the writing and directing were top notch, the music was by Trent Reznor and the casting was pretty much spot-on, even with the Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker (Napster founder) selection. Oh, and Facebook has half a billion users if that’s good for anything.

So what is it that I’m here to say about the film? Well, I should first put out the SPOILER ALERT. Secondly, I’ll tell you that the things that stood out for me weren’t so much what I learned from the movie that I didn’t already know or what I think about Mark Zuckerberg after seeing it. What really resonated with me were the questions I left Alamo thinking about as I walked out:

What does it say about the structure of exclusivity within the private school system if Mark Zuckerberg, a kid who scored a 1600 on his SATs and attended the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy, feels like an outsider at Harvard?

I am a huge public school advocate. I grew up going to poorly-ranked public schools with oversized class sizes and too few capable teachers, but that didn’t stop me from becoming the first person in my immediate family to graduate from college. When I was 12, I decided I wanted to go to either UT or UNC and never deviated from that plan largely because private schools, with their tokenism and privileged black students, didn’t interest me. This is part of the reason why, to this day, I wrote Real Role Models and why I spend so much of my time speaking to AISD students and Teach for America classes all over the country; these students – and not the ones at Phillips Exeter – need my help.

Sure, the argument is that if you could afford to go to or send your kids to a private school you would do it, but I don’t agree. I think there are important social lessons that can only be learned in public schools. If you’ve read anything and watched The Social Network, regardless of how much you believe is true, you realize that Zuckerberg isn’t exactly a social butterfly and I bet transferring to Phillips Exeter and later attending Harvard did more to hinder his social abilities than if he had continued in public institutions. You may suggest that Facebook never would have been created without the exclusivity rampant at those establishments, which is true, but if you consider the societal costs our country (and eventually the world) is paying because of what that exclusivity encouraged Zuckerberg to create, I’d argue that Zuckerberg would have been better off creating something that served the conscious public like Sean Parker’s Napster or Craig Newmark’s Craigslist, rather than our subconscious egos and need for acceptance like what Facebook does.

The largely-fictitious theory that writer Aaron Sorkin worked with in making the screenplay for The Social Network is that Zuckerberg’s desire for notoriety and acceptance (in finals clubs) pushed him to extract just enough from other people (ideas, money) in order to push his original idea (facemash.com) to the next level (Facebook). This is fine and dandy, but the truth is that we all have our reasons for doing what we do. I’m sure someone could tie much of my ambition and accomplishments, as minute as they may be, to not having grown up with my father. They’d probably be half accurate. But, to me, that’s going directly to the effect and complicating or possibly skipping the cause. The cause may be rooted in the basic structure of private schools. While private schools think they create more focused, enhanced environments for learning, they also breed fiercely over-competitive and cliquish environments socially (note: the Winkelvoss twins played this role perfectly).

Which leads me to my second and final question: What does The Social Network say about our generation? I know movies are works of fiction more often than not, but that doesn’t mean they’re not rooted in society. I just saw Wall Street 2 and it was basically a regurgitation of the 2008 economic crisis with Lehman Brothers (and their bankruptcy just over two years ago) and Goldman Sachs being the two featured firms. That said, what does this film say about our society and the role Facebook plays in it. I’m not just talking about the breakups I’m sure Facebook is responsible for or the decreased value of friendships with various people who you never really intended to keep in touch with, I’m talking about our age with the creative class and the powers that be.

Did Zuckerberg break intellectual property law by using parts of different ideas to improve his own or is that just where we’re headed with easier ways to communicate and share technology? Is Zuckerberg doing the right thing to be the CEO instead of letting some grey-hair take over as Sean Parker tells him in the movie? Is Zuckerberg one of us – the creative class – or is he just a new type of businessman? Now that Zuckerberg has “made it”, will he be in the catbird’s seat like former Harvard president, US Treasurer and recently-former National Economic Council director Larry Summers and be as dismissive and unable to see the potential in some young kids’ ideas?

Is that the goal today? To be in the position to help people up as Sean Parker did or is it to be able to reject people as Larry Summers did rather than being rejected as Zuckerberg was made to feel by the finals clubs? I guess we’ll never quite know the social ramifications of The Social Network, but I think it’s good to wonder.

Best Movies of This Decade that Paste Magazine Missed

Listen, I know that making a list of the best movies for an entire decade can be difficult. Hell, making a list of the best anything, be it boxes of cereal or sexual partners, can be really hard. That's why I'm going to cut Paste Magazine some slack for some really obvious and troubling omissions from their list of the Best 50 Movies from 2000 - 2010. That being said, I had initially planned on putting together a list of my favorite movies of the past decade, but since Paste captured so many movies I love (from High Fidelity at #49 to City of God at the top spot), I'm going to focus on the ones they missed. So here is my list of the 15 Best Movies from 2000-2010 that aren't included in Paste Magazine's Best Movies of the Decade list.

#15. The Prestige - In 2006, Christopher Nolan took a break from Batman and Inception to direct this picture starring Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale. The story navigates an intense rivalry between two magicians and was written by Nolan and his brother, Jonathan, was based on the Christopher Priest novel and also stars Scarlett Johansson, David Bowie (as Nikola Tesla) and Michael Caine, who seems to be in all of Nolan's films.

#14. Million Dollar Baby - It didn't clean up at the 2004 Academy Awards for no reason, winning Best Picture, Best Director (Clint Eastwood), Best Actress (Hilary Swank) and Best Supporting Actor (Morgan Freeman). Paul Haggis put his special touch on the script and the film perfectly displays a young woman's quest to become the best female boxer in the world alongside a man's quest to embrace a fatherly role.

#13. The Hangover - Possibly the best funny movie of the decade not simply on laughs, but because the cast wasn't led by over-paid stars who made their names known in the '90s (unless you count Mike Tyson). Instead, Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms made this one of the most successful comedies of all time with nearly $280 million in domestic receipts. The sequel slated for May 2011 can't possibly live up to the original..or can it?

#12. Avatar - Yeah, it raked in most of it's money in 2010, but it came out during the Holiday season in 2009 and amazingly surpassed James Cameron's other epic, not to be named here, in box office grosses around the world. The biggest accomplishment for this film, however, is beyond the billions...it's the 3-D. Story aside, watching this film was a superior movie-going experience.

#11. Fade to Black - Whether you're a Jay-Z fan or not, this documentary - spanning the making of The Black Album and his sellout show at Madison Square Garden in 2004 - is one for the hip-hop ages.

#10. Closer - Mike Nichols directed one sensational movie when he did this one in '04 starring Julia Roberts, Clive Owen, Jude Law and Natalie Portman (my favorite). The story follows two London-based couples who become intertwined in the other's relationships. Natalie Portman plays a stripper.

#9. Ray - Possibly the single-best acting job of the decade with Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles (winning the Oscar for best actor). Taylor Hackford did the music legend a public service with this one in '04.

#8. American Psycho - Christian Bale again and this may be his best acting job yet albeit at the start of the decade. Sure, he's making tons more money as Bruce Wayne, but this is where he turns the Bret Easton Ellis novel into something we can all consume and digest in a couple of hours as Patrick Bateman.

#7. Wall-E - Wall-E (2008) is a gem of a movie. Sure, Up is better because it features (animated) humans and a talking dog and a touching love story, but this one made us all realize that Pixar can produce a best picture contender without relying on a Disney creation.

#6. Children of Men - Clive Owen is on the list again because this 2006 film made us think about the end of the world in a whole new light. Writer/Director Alfonso Cuaron has put his hands on some good scripts, but this is his best work for an American audience in my opinion.

#5. Crash - This is probably the biggest snub from the Paste list, even though it's not #1 on my list, because of its award creds (Best Picture), cast (Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, etc.) and because it was written and directed by Paul Haggis who's name you should know by now.

#4. Requiem for a Dream - Sure, it gives me nightmares if I watch it after 9pm, but it almost never stops me from watching. With Pi, The Fountain and The Wrestler, director Darren Aronofsky has proven himself full of range and the ability to delve into characters intensely and this one is his masterpiece. It's no surprise Angelina Jolie is anxious to work with him on his next film. Let's hope it's not about how drugs can ruin your life like Requiem though...I already learned how to say "NO!"

#3. Michael Clayton - Jamie Foxx has the decade's best Oscar-winning acting job, but George Clooney has the best runner up with this 2007 flick written and directed by Tony Gilroy (best known for his penmanship on the Bourne series), having lost out to Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood. This film has extremely high replay value...like J.J. Abrams' Star Trek, only better acting and less special effects.

#2. Garden State - A lot of good movies came out in 2004 if you can't tell by this list, but my personal favorite from that year and the entire decade for that matter is this one about a guy trying to find himself after years away from family and close to waking-comatose thanks to prescription drugs. I can't tell you how many times I've watched this movie. Sure, part of the reason is because I love Natalie Portman. But mostly it's because Zach Braff's work as the writer, producer, director, soundtrack maestro and star of this movie is stuff for the ages in the off-the-beaten paths of filmmaking.

#1. I Heart Huckabees - I speak to dozens if not hundreds of students every month about my life and what I've come to believe and this movie gets a lot of it. Everything is connected and nothing matters once something else matters more. Gets extra points because it is one of the best casting jobs of the decade known for casting jobs to the extreme (think: Ocean's 13). Sure, David O. Russell is a tough director to deal with by the looks of this clip, but it's still the top movies of the last 10 years of my life.

Best Movies of 2010...So Far

Here it is mid-July and I figured it was just about the perfect time to unveil my favorite movies of the year thus far. I actually thought it was going to be a weak year for movies, but this summer has been a boon for Hollywood with new Shrek and Toy Story installments, The Karate Kid, Twilight: Eclipse and, most recently, Inception.

Fittingly, these all make my list of favorites this year. And a look ahead shows a slew of movies sure to make audiences feel good about the way 2010’s movie year ended (Gulliver’s Travels, The Coen Brothers’ True Grit, Little Fockers, Everything You’ve Got, which is already being described as a younger version of It’s Complicated, and Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg’s Boston flick The Fighter.) Oh, and there’s another Harry Potter film coming out.

After a slow start to the year in movies, considering Avatar came out in late ’09, we’re in for a real treat for the last five months of the year. Here are some movies that I’m particularly excited about:

Updates of film classics: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and Tron: Legacy

My favorite actors: Hilary Swank (Conviction), Julia Roberts (Eat, Pray, Love), Robert DeNiro (Machete) and George Clooney (The American). Due Date, the comedy starring Robert Downey, Jr., and Zach Galifianakis should be a winner too.

Buzz builders: The Social Network and the animated MegaMind voiced by Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill.

Movies by directors I love: The Next Three Days, a Paul Haggis helmed pic starring Russell Crowe, Unstoppable, another Tony Scott-Denzel Washington collabo, Hearafter which is directed by Clint Eastwood and stars Matt Damon who is also set for The Adjustment Bureau, a mega-hit in the making for early 2011.

And now for my best movies of ’10 so far list:

Inception – Maybe it’s the fact that I’m about halfway through a week-long juice cleanse, but this Chris Nolan movie is my favorite of his. Sure, I love Dark Knight and Memento, but I felt like the acting was what stood out for me in those films. In this one, I really loved Nolan’s way of telling this story – a very energetic, don’t-stop-thinking-for-a-second one – that trumps brilliant acting by Leo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ken Watanabe, Marion Cotillard, and especially Ellen Page.

Twilight: Eclipse – This is the first one I’ve caught at the theatres, IMAX to be exact, and what a treat. I was a late-bloomer to the Saga, but now I’m all about it and don’t mind admitting as much. This one had the most action which made it the easiest one for me to digest.

The Karate Kid – Did you really think Will Smith’s son would fail? God knows I didn’t. Jaden Smith is a star in the making if you consider a $170-million US gross “in the making”.

Get Him to the Greek – The best comedy since The Hangover and I’ve officially become a Russell Brand fan.  And, yes, Diddy does his (comedic) thing.

Iron Man 2 – Getting Don Cheadle involved was a good decision, but it was also an easy one since this franchise is a can’t-miss thanks to Downey, Jr.’s, star turn in the original.

Book of Eli – This is definitely a movie that I can see myself re-watching on HBO or Showtime for the next few years.