Movies – ddileo

Nope and Animals

I saw the recently released film ‘Nope’ twice in the past week. While I am a self confessed UFO person, I found myself thinking less and less about the “alien” aspect of ‘Nope’, and way more so on the animal / human relationship angle. It s fascinating when a movie brings you in for one thing and you leave heavily thinking about a totally different aspect of the film.

Anyways, I wanted to get some concrete thoughts on the record. After thinking about the relationship between animals and humans for a few days, here are some thoughts that make sense to me regarding ‘Nope’.

Spoilers below…

The control of animals for entertainment was a consistent theme throughout this movie. OJ and Jupe were each shaped by formative experiences with animals, but in very different ways that led them to take different approaches when dealing with the alien.

OJ understands that you don’t ultimately control the animal, you make an agreement with it, and you have to respect its rules. On the movie set at the beginning, none of the other cast or crew took OJ seriously when he tried getting them to respect the horse–they just wanted it to perform for them, and when they didn’t treat the animal with respect, it kicked.

Jupe, on the other hand, had his experience with Gordy’s Home, where the chimp was not respected, there was no attempt to make any sort of agreement with it. They put it in uncomfortable clothes and stuck it on a set with lights and applause and popping balloons, and demanded that it perform for them, and foolishly expected everything to be fine. Obviously that didn’t work out, but Jupe took the wrong lesson from the tragedy.

He went on to make a bunch of money off of the ordeal, and all these years later, he still can only see Gordy as a vehicle for entertainment. When Emerald asks him what happened on set, Jupe just tells her to watch an SNL sketch. For him, Gordy might as well have been a guy in a chimpanzee costume performing a part. Its media. Part of his failure to learn the proper lesson might be because the chimp, even after its rampage, was still affectionate towards him–and what he takes from that is a feeling that he is uniquely capable of getting animals to perform as he intends. What he doesn’t realize is that Gordy approached him calmly because he was not a threat–he was hiding, making himself small, the tablecloth was covering his eyes. Gordy didn’t attack him because he was, inadvertently, respecting Gordy’s rules. But Jupe doesn’t understand that–he thinks it’s just because Gordy likes him. He’s attributing the agency of a performer to Gordy again, as though Gordy were an actor in a suit and not a wild animal.

So, the alien. The reveal that it’s an alien creature and not a UFO is important–its not intelligent beings piloting a ship, just like Gordy isn’t a guy in a chimpanzee costume. It’s an animal. Ascribing human logic or reasoning to it is a mistake, its a creature with its own rules and we can learn to roughly understand those rules, but we can’t project OUR rules onto it.

Jupe never understands this. He doesn’t care to learn the creature’s rules, he wants it to follow his, and he wants it to perform for him. The creature doesn’t like to he looked at, and Jupe fills rows of bleachers with people to stare directly at it. It’s putting a chimpanzee on a TV set all over again. Something is bound to go wrong, you can’t force a wild animal to follow a script it doesn’t even understand.

OJ, on the other hand, understands this. Once he learns that the “UFO” is actually an animal, he knows that he can learn it’s rules, and form a set of rough agreements with it. OJ isn’t trying to project human agency onto the creature, he knows he can’t make it play a part or follow a script. He has to figure out how the creature operates, and then work backwards from there.

There’s a lot going on with this movie, but that’s what resonated with me the most. Jupe is a really good foil to OJ in this regard.

‘Nope’ is very different than I think most expect. It has many popcorn movie moments a summer blockbuster should, but there is a much deeper movie here than an alien flick. And that’s a good thing.

Family, Life, Movies, Videos

Leo – AGE 2

What a year 2020 has been. Leo is 3 now which is crazy to think. I remember Lindsey and I eating at longhorn when she told me she was pregnant. Time flies for sure.

Leo has grown so much this year. He is talking a bunch and is truly turning into his own little man.

Happy Birthday Leo!

Movies

Joker & Mental Illness

I understand Joker is a divisive film. I also understand its a hard film to watch. But no one is talking about what Joker does so right; accurately depicting mental health. I saw Joker about a week ago. Though deeply disturbed within a few minutes, it was pretty evident the film had layers upon layers of commentary on how current societies treatment of mental illness is lacking.

Obviously, Joker is a departure from the current superhero fanfare. Absent is glitter, large explosions and action sequences. Instead, Joker is focused on the psychosis of Arthur Fleck and how a seemingly ordinary man can descend into madness amidst a society that seriously struggles to protect its most vulnerable.

The concept of evil has always been portrayed and propagated as something impenetrable and unknowable. It is a common understanding that evil exists as something separate to us, that our moral resolve is capable of fending it away. Joker battles against this misconception through its realistic portrayal of the circumstances that can push someone to become evil.

Question: is to understand where evil comes from the same as condoning it? There is a distinct line between empathy and approval that the film treads carefully. Todd Philips’ direction only allows our empathy for Arthur to extend to the point to which he kills someone. We can understand where Arthur is coming from, but the film isn’t celebrating nor condoning his actions. This is done in large part due to Joaquin Phoenix’s nuanced performance of a pathetic yet sympathetic man who, in a domino of unfortunate events, becomes a performance artist of violence and a sign of chaos.

The thing that separates Arthur from the others he is unfairly compared to is his early intentions to be good in spite of his circumstances. All he wants is acceptance and love even when it is clear no one wants him. It is this desperation for recognition that makes Phoenix’s performance sympathetic and ever more tragic as Arthur inevitably and unfortunately devolves into evil.

I think most of the outrage and hysteria surrounding the film speak to the realism of Arthur’s world; it is far closer to reality than comic book films typically depict. Similarly to M. Night’s Unbreakable, Joker’s tone is muted and its real world environment really plays to the gritty, everyday atmosphere. Arthur is representative of a form of suffering and alienation that has become increasingly common in our current society. Arthur is poverty-stricken, mentally-ill and suffers from a neurological condition that makes him laugh uncontrollably. He lives with his ailing mother Penny in a dimly-lit apartment building with faulty elevators. It is not difficult to see how someone like Arthur elicits abuse and contempt on a daily basis in a society that is overbearingly cruel towards its weak and powerless.

In this version of Gotham, there are clear divisional lines between the wealthy and the poor, the latter Thomas Wayne deems “clowns”. After Arthur kills in self-defense, he inadvertently starts a bizarre social movement that pits Gotham’s downtrodden against its wealthy. This movement speaks to the idea of recognition, an overt theme throughout the film. Gotham’s residents feel as though they aren’t being heard, that they are forced to live a miserable silence as the wealthy hide behind gated mansions, ignorant to their suffering. Arthur similarly has a yearning to be recognized but of a different form. He isn’t interested in the political movement he ignited, but rather, he wants recognition that affirms his existence. Thats an important distinction to make when experiencing this film.

Philips and Phoenix have crafted a chilling and disturbing picture of society that carefully treads the line between empathy for Arthur and holding him accountable for his actions. The film contends that in a society that fails to recognize and protect its most vulnerable, people in desperation will turn to someone they don’t fully understand and this can lead to chaos and anarchy. The film is dangerous in its commentary but is careful not to be in agreement with it.

Maybe as humans we could start treating people who are a little different than us more equal, better or at the very least, fair. These humans are not outcasts, they are just like you and I. They have feelings like me and you, except they constantly are being put down, pushed aside, laughed at and not taken seriously. There is an entire world present everyday that has limitations and mental health issues and its so easy to just look the other way. I completely am aware Joker is just a film, but its the best kind of film. Joker should awake a part of you that cares for people who are struggling everyday. People who’s limitation they themselves are unable to exceed.

Joker isn’t “a toxic rallying cry for self-pitying outcasts”, it is an appeal for compassion and empathy for those suffering with mental illness.

Life, Movies

Won’t You Be My Neighbor (2018)

“Love is at the root of everything, all learning, all relationships. Love — or the lack of it.”

-Fred Rogers

I blind bought this. If you know me, then you’re aware how safe of a purchase it was. But to be honest, I was expecting a documentary that would reveal to me what I already knew — that Mr. Rogers was a kind, empathetic person both onscreen and off. Which is true, obviously.

But I had been thinking of him as a character for so long that I never stopped to consider Fred Rogers the human being — a man who constantly struggled with self-doubt over his work and who fought so tirelessly for the goodness of humanity because he was tired of living in a senseless, violent world. Seeing Mr. Rogers worried made me terrified, because deep down I assumed he always knew everything. I had this unspoken idea that once I became successful, or put-together, or smart enough, I would finally feel like I knew what I was doing too.

But if someone I think of as a hero also struggled with anxiety and self-doubt, and managed to change lives anyway, then maybe i’d be okay. Mr. Rogers’ most important lesson is that you don’t have to be perfect to be worthy of love — and it’s simple, he likes you just the way you are and you should too.

This documentary should be screened in schools across the world and pretty much every where in the universe. Nothing bad could come out of this amazing 2 hours.

Movies

Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot (2018)

On the rocky path to sobriety after a life-changing accident, John Callahan discovers the healing power of art, willing his injured hands into drawing hilarious, often controversial cartoons, which bring him a new lease on life.

Inherent Vice now has an alcoholic little brother. ‘Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot‘ is Gus Van Sant’s first decent movie in a decade, and it’s not in the least bit because of poor casting. Joaquin Phoenix plays cartoonist John Callahan, a quadriplegic struggling with alcoholism before and after the accident that resigned him to a wheelchair. He’s aided in his 12 Step program by a very slim Jonah Hill, a rich hippie. By late seventies period piece law, Hill’s character, of course, has AIDS. Also, we know it’s the seventies because Jimmy Carter is on the TV, and everyone has long hair.

With the presence of Rooney Mara as a Swedish physical therapist/flight attendant and then Jack Black, you’d think it was a comedy. The contrast between Phoenix’ wheelchair-bound slapstick, the gallows humor, and the horrid struggle of quadriplegia brought about by years of depression and alcohol abuse makes for a lot of tonal dysphoria. Yet somehow the beauty of life wins out in the end. I’m not really sure what the clunky time jumping in the first hour was about, maybe a botched framing device, but it does confuse you into being intrigued about what comes next. Granted, I knew nothing about the film going in, so even if it weren’t based on the true life of Callahan I still found it a very effective exploration of what drives a person to drink, struggle and fight.

This film ultimately accomplishes what it sets out to do. From what I’ve read, Robin Williams had tapped Van Sant to direct this with, I’m assuming, the intent to play the role of Callahan. I know that this is all before and outside what we are presented, but it certainly feels like the movie was intended as a light in the darkness for anyone who is struggling with addiction and depression. We are living in a world that beats us down on a regular basis. Even those we love don’t always know what we’re going through, and with the ubiquity and normalization of the alcohol culture in America, it’s easier to treat the symptoms and not the disease.

Through discipline, hardship and pure grit, we can all still learn to forgive and work towards finding a greater purpose. John Callahan did and his journey was inspiring. Great movie.

Life, Movies

Lady Bird (2017)

Lady Bird is about growing up & growing up is hard. Then, we don’t think about it because it’s over. We don’t think about the people who helped raise us, we don’t think about the places that defined us. Ultimately, we don’t reflect on our past enough because we are trained to look forward. Looking back, we are told, is not productive.

Lady Bird, if nothing else, is a unique, smart and genuine look into a young girl discovering who she is. So intelligently crafted, this movie forces you to look into a time forgotten perhaps. Your childhood and upbringing.

The places, the people, the sights, sounds and smells. Your experiences. Lady Bird confronts the ugly of family life and pressures of expectation, but so sweetly morphs it into something beautiful. Sometimes, the people who smother you, and the people that encourage you to spread your wings, are doing it for the same reason – because they care.

About mid way through, this film asks a great question: “Is attention and love the same thing?”

In Lady Bird’s case, she loved what she was trying to escape. She learned this a little late. But she still learned. And that’s what growing up is all about.

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Movies

Manchester By The Sea (2016)

As an extremely private person, I can confirm this is one of the more realistic, true to emotion films I’ve seen lately.

Grief is a part of life. But there’s no script on how someone grieves anything. We all uniquely experience things and we all uniquely react to things. This film, if nothing else, shows a real honest and raw application of that. And to be quite honest it’s a breath of fresh air.

Casey Affleck does nothing flashy here and that’s exactly the point. He just exists. And that’s ok. He doesn’t “have” to do anything. Us, the audience would like him too. But that’s not how people are in real life. People live with an level expectations pushed on others. A lot of how we view the world is based on these expectations.

What I loved most about Manchester By The Sea is its simple, yet strict delivery of making you care for someone who doesn’t follow any usual forms of a hero. He’s just a normal man who had major tragedies happen. He’s not doing anything to win you over.

If nothing else, ‘MBTS’ will grind you down until your comfortable with the uncomfortable notion that hero’s don’t wear capes or have an ‘S’ on their chest. They are sometimes unlikable people who do awful things, yet push through everyday and win the daily battle of struggle vs. survival.

This is one the best films I’ve seen in a very long time.

True, raw and honest.

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Life, Movies

How The Blair Witch Project changed horror for ever

I remember seeing The Blair Witch Project in theaters quite vividly. While vacationing in New Hampshire, My father took me to a rundown movie theatre in North Conway. The theater’s ambiance fit the film like a glove; old, historic and equally creepy and creaky. Leaving the theater I was in a daze. Still to this day I’ve never been so affected by a movie. We drove home through the mountains in the black of night, the wind whistling through the trees, and my imagination creating endless possibilities.

I know it that sounds spooky, but in my mind that memory is so special.

Anyways, great reminder from The Guardian speaking on The Blair Witch Project and how unique the film’s roll out was…

And it worked: many early cinemagoers thought the film was a documentary. It is still one of the most delectably scary movies out there, and its ingenious premise required it to break all the rules: no script, no jump scares, no music, no professional crew, no special effects, not even any witches. What it did have, which often goes unremarked upon, was totally convincing actors. Horror is traditionally about confronting our darkest fears but Blair Witch doesn’t really do that; instead, it shows us other people confronting theirs. The hysteria is contagious.

Movies, THE FICTION BOOK

The Fiction Revisited

It’s been 8 years to the date since I released my movie.

8 years.

Dec 9, 2010

The stage was set: a frigid winter night in Hartford, CT. Hosted by the gracious people of CineStudio Theater at Trinity College. There was a sense of magic in the air, at least for me. Magic and nerves. I remember those emotions like yesterday. Driving there I was so nervous, I couldn’t keep my car in one lane. My excitement equaled my level of anxiety, though. Working on something for years and years, and people finally would get to see it. Good or bad, my film was finished.

I have been thinking a lot about my experience. And even writing a book documented my filmmaking journey, which I hope to be out and available for the 10 year anniversary. But I wanted to expound on some thoughts in my head, and here is a great place to do it.

I don’t talk or write about my movie much and I often ask myself why. Writing, filming, post-production, etc. Honestly, it’s difficult to list everything I was responsible for before my mind gets exhausted. Making ‘The Fiction‘ was one of the highlights of my life and If I die tomorrow, to have been able to make a movie from start to finish would be one of my favorite, most cherished experiences of my existence.

Truth be told, the finished product just didn’t end up the way I envisioned it. What I didn’t realize before filming was how immensely hard making a feature film is. Especially when you have extremely little experience. I think anyone who read the script before shooting knew there was something special, but most people politely instructed me to not film it. To sell the script and move on. The ever repeating phrase of first time filmmakers hardly ever work, just never faded from consciousness.

I look back now and of course see mistakes I made. From inexperience, to just being entirely exhausted by the time we got to filming. I had that odd combination of being completely driven where no one, and I mean no one, could have stopped me from making that movie and combine that with not really knowing how to execute on a level this script deserved. In hindsight, I should have sold the script and starting work on something else. But that’s a lot easier said then done, especially now.

I often forget that when you believe in something so much, it takes a lot more than sense to sway you. Honestly though, I’m proud of that. I’m proud I had that characteristic in me at such a young age. I had a no tolerance, take no prisoners approach to getting the film done. I was stubborn, but in a good way. In a way you would want your kid to put his head down and dig hard for a goal. Show some mental toughness. Unable to be swayed by the world. I had that for sure back then. I don’t so much now. I’ve lost a lot of that energy as of late.

A few nights ago I did something I was dreading for a long time. Almost 10 years after wrapping on The Fiction, I watched it. I was nervous about this for so many reasons. I mean, I was nervous about being nervous. But I went to Amazon, rented a copy of my own film and watched.

Magic doesn’t work through time, the film still has many shortcomings as I remembered. Like I mentioned earlier, there were many technical issues as well as experience issues that plagued me throughout production. So watching through the other night couldn’t hide any of that. Those emotions rushed through me. I remember those feelings well. Being in our dark editing room months after shooting only to realize there is no way this scene is going to work as planned. Thats a scary feeling. At one point I remember driving home from an editing session and looking at the script sitting on my passenger seat, almost like it was staring back at me in disappointment.

The rewatch didn’t spawn all bad feelings, though. Actually, most of the viewing really comforted me. It comforted me to know that that was me. I know that sounds stupid. But its been 10 years now. It feels like another life ago. But it wasn’t, it was me. Still in the same skin just 10 years removed.

I loved seeing the cast. Eric, Andrus and all the heavy lifting they had to do to make up for my inexperience. They were sweet and gracious at every point of the production. I admired seeing Jeff play his multiple roles. I loved seeing young Allie play a role she was so committed to. Watching also made me recollect on the crew. Mike and Spike immediately come to mind. I have never and certainly now don’t mind saying this; The Fiction would have been half the quality it was without those guys. They did an amazing job with cinematography and Mike with editing. I am forever indebted to them. Of course I remembered Chris, my sound guy and long time school friend, who dropped everything so he could help me. He wasn’t completely comfortable with all the responsibility of a full sound team squeezed into one person, but he did it because he cared. I will always be appreciative of that.

Speaking honestly, watching The Fiction felt like a breath of fresh air. I know its a movie and to strangers, thats all it will ever be. But, to me it’s a time capsule for my life. Good or bad, I achieved this. Success or failure, no one could take it away from me. It was a tremendous learning experience about filmmaking, team work and most importantly, friendship. I would like to think everyone else on set felt this way, but I felt an extreme closeness to them while filming and anytime I saw them afterwords. Even when I rewatched, that feeling came back. The memories of jokes in-between takes and script revisions, prop placements and plot discussions. To me now, all that stuff feels so special.

After the rewatch I really wish I could hit the rewind button and go back. Not to fix little sound problems or acting quirks. Not to rewrite a scene to make it work a little better. Not to make different choices on set or off. I know it sounds crazy but I wouldn’t change a thing. I want to hit that rewind button so I could feel the warmth and camaraderie that the filming experience induced. I know I’ve tried to explain in words what I mean, but its just impossible.

Everyone involved in ‘The Fiction’ holds a very dear, special place in my heart. Who would have known the most important result of filming my own movie wouldn’t have been a completed film, but friendships and experiences that I never deserved and could have never achieved on my own.

Without a doubt, creating The Fiction was the biggest challenge of my life. But undisputedly, without question the most rewarding.

This is in no way a shameless plug, I promise. That was never my intention. But, if you read this post and are genuinely interested in seeing the film here are some links:

‘The Fiction’ Trailer

Rent or buy ‘The Fiction’ on Amazon

*Most Importantly: If you cannot afford to rent or buy, please get in touch via my contact page and I will gladly find a way to get you a copy.

Life, Movies

40th Anniversary of Close Encounters

Today marks the 40th anniversary of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” Spielberg’s masterwork about UFO’s, obsession, and conspiracy. One of my favorite movies ever released. A theatrical release is also slated to start today through Wednesday, Sept 6!

So many interesting tidbits are coming to surface today regarding production, etc.

Here is one my favs from sci-fi

“In the movie, the mothership lands, and then the little aliens start coming out. But as it was originally planned, they were supposed to come out and then sort of float around,” Alves says, still a bit bummed he couldn’t make the creatures fly around his massive set. “Flying all those kids would have been very, very difficult. And as it was, to begin with, the set was so big that we had 48 arcs up on that terrace and all these photo floodlights. It was just really, really complicated.”

The next idea was to have “little cuboids of light” fly all over the place. “The little cube things we had on wires, so there were little square lights flying by,” he recalls. “That became too much, so we killed that, too. Today we could do it with CGI. We would have flown the kids and gotten a green screen, put them in a layer and the same thing with the cubes.”

Unbelievable stuff. Please read the whole article though. If your interested in Close Encounters, its fantastic.