Film For Thought

Remote access blows; luckily instead of scavenging the NYT.com again, I guess I'll take a second stab with blogging. My first post served as an introduction - hopefully understandable, and bizarrely entertaining. You'll notice slight idiosyncracies - my inability to complete full thoughts, expressions -inference is key - I'm the Walrus. See what I mean. Obviously intentional, but if you get the reference mark two points for yourself. What I won't leave to you are the binding concepts (or any leftovers as I just raided the pantry and devoured my roommates poptarts, yum), the links holding this loose narrative together - note title's play on food for thought. Oops, forgot the possessive, better go fix that for my MLA-fans (yes still thinking of you) - better yet, I'll leave it in so this sentence still makes sense (oh cyclicality).

My lack of work in the morning - investment banking is all about waiting for the higher ups sliding 10 hours of Powerpoint changes your way at around 4:30 - allows me to read the New York Times obsessively. My latest find is A.O. Scott and the "film" section - woah deep, so artsy, I know. To read the arts section at business is like eating a butterfinger at the gym. Savor the moment, hide and deny it 100%. Better yet, like checking your cellphone during a movie. Optimally timing the flip to coincide with an outdoor scene successfully hiding the bright background light from fellow viewers. The article which caught my eye was "Exploring New Routes to the Indies" discussing the death of independent films, asking the question: where do indie films go in this era of nano-tech? Answer: I don't know, read Felipe's posts. But c'mon! I can't begin to tell you how discouraging it is to join a film blog and one day later read about the inevitable downfall of low-budget films, the staple of our blog-diet.

Why fight it, just give up. If NYT, my holy grail, decrees it, it must be so. Sinking into depression . . . my one outlet closing before my first true post. Wait a minute, I'm not trying to compete with GI Joe:Rise of the Cobra. Denis Quaid can suck a fat one. Actually, he's probably a nice guy - I take it back Denis. Fyi - you made me cry in The Rookie. Back on point, told you about the broken dialogue problem, it seems NYT has it that low-budget "indie" films compete against big budget, independent films like "Good Night, and Good Luck" and "There Will be Blood". How can a movie like "Sugar" reach general audiences (if you don't know this movie, "I double thumb up it"). In my opinion, it becomes the audience's job to find and promote these "smaller" movies. We do it on occasion, "Once" comes to mind, and yes I include myself in this systemic problem. The large budget, independent films, or "freedom films" as I have now dubbed them are on most occasions great. But sometimes we let make-up cover dull, contrived story-telling.. A film, no matter how short, is only as big as the ideas it conveys and emotions it evokes. On that note, I leave you all with a great "small" video that was meant to compliment 500 days of Summer. Probably unknown to most, this video is just fun, and it made my morning. Hope you like it.