Tag Archives: film

“The Perks of Being A Wallflower” – Not So Secret Obsession

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Last night, I watched “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” and balled my fucking eyes out.  Audible, nose-running, sobbing, ugly crying.  I spent the morning not being able to shake my melancholy movie hangover and not really wanting to.  Naturally, I am watching it again and have clogged my Kindle up with the book.  It is true, all you need to get through high school is a couple friends that understand you, and a lot of great music.

perksCharlie himself is a mystery.  He has mental problems, gets angry, sees things and then passes out.  Right before he started high school his best friend shot himself, but there is also another, worse reason for his problems…

The adolescent inside me loves “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.”  The adolescent inside me remembers the heart-breaking, bone-crushing importance of everything, even if time and perspective have proven the contrary.

“So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I’m still trying to figure out how that could be.”

The movie confirms one of my convictions: If you are too popular in high school, you may become so fond of the feeling that you never find out who you really are.  The film is based on Stephen Chbosky‘s best-selling young-adult novel, which was published in 1999 and is now on many shelves next to The Catcher in the Rye.

Charlie’s Mixtape

“Asleep” by the Smiths
“Vapour Trail” by Ride
“Scarborough Fair” by Simon & Garfunkel
“A Whiter Shade of Pale” by Procol Harum
“Dear Prudence” by the Beatles
“Gypsy” by Suzanne Vega
“Nights in White Satin” by the Moody Blues
“Daydream” by Smashing Pumpkins
“Dusk” by Genesis (before Phil Collins was even in the band!)
“MLK” by U2″Blackbird” by the Beatles
“Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac
“Asleep” by the Smiths (again!)

The story, set in the early 1990s, tells the story of Charlie, who begins it as a series of letters to a “friend.”  He enters high school tremulously and without confidence, and is faced on his first day by that great universal freshman crisis: Which table in the lunchroom will they let me sit at?  Discouraged at several tables, he’s welcomed by two smart and sympathetic seniors.
They are Sam and Patrick.  Charlie makes the mistake of assuming they are a couple, and Sam’s laughter corrects him; actually, they’re step-siblings. Charlie is on the edge of outgrowing his depression and dorkdom, and is eerily likable in his closed-off way. One of the key players in his life is the dead aunt he often has imaginary meetings with.


Their crowd is artsy, outsider, non-conformist.  We learn a lot about their high school crowd by finding out they’re instrumental in the local midnight showings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” When Charlie is unexpectedly pressed into service playing a key role one night during their performance, it provides him with a turning point that may be contrived but is certainly entertaining.

Film Soundtrack:
“Could It Be Another Change?” by The Samples
“Come On Eileen” by Dexys Midnight Runners
“Tugboat” by Galaxie 500
“Temptation” by New Order
“Evensong” by The Innocence Mission
“Asleep” by The Smiths
“Low” by Cracker
“Teen Age Riot” by Sonic Youth
“Dear God” by XTC
“Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops” by Cocteau Twins
“Heroes” by David Bowie

He’s also guided by his English teacher, who steers him toward seminal books including The Catcher in the Rye. Why is it that English, drama and music teachers are most often recalled as our mentors and inspirations? Maybe because artists are rarely members of the popular crowd.

“Standing on the fringes of life… offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor.”

“I don’t know if you’ve ever felt like that. That you wanted to sleep for a thousand years. Or just not exist. Or just not be aware that you do exist. Or something like that. I think wanting that is very morbid, but I want it when I get like this. That’s why I’m trying not to think. I just want it all to stop spinning.”

perks wallflower

Thelma Ritter – Style Icon

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Thelma Ritter is one of the actors that will make me want to watch the movie if she is in it, no matter how small. She perfected the working class voice of reason character that kept all the other characters from getting too out of touch. And if they did, she had no problem telling them so. Watch her in “Rear Window” and “The Misfits” and you will want to add every movie she is in to your Netflix queue. Ladies and gentlemen, Thelma Ritter. Style Icon.

Born February 14, 1902 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died February 5, 1969 (aged 66) New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation Actress

BEST KNOWN FOR: American actress. She typically played working class characters and was noted for her distinctive voice, with a strong Brooklyn accent.

Ritter did stock theater and radio shows early in her career, without much impact. Ritter’s first movie role was in Miracle on 34th Street (1947). She made a memorable impression in a brief uncredited part, as a frustrated mother unable to find the toy that Kris Kringle has promised to her son. Her second role, in writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz‘s A Letter to Three Wives (1949), also left a mark, although Ritter was again uncredited.

Mankiewicz kept Ritter in mind, and cast her as “Birdie” in All About Eve (1950), which earned her an Oscar nomination. A second nomination followed for her work in Mitchell Leisen’s’ classic ensemble screwball comedy The Mating Season (1951) starring Gene Tierney and John Lund. Ritter enjoyed steady film work for the next dozen years. She also appeared in many of the episodic drama TV series of the 1950s, such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, General Electric Theater, and The United States Steel Hour. Other film roles were as James Stewart’s nurse in Rear Window (1954) and as Doris Day‘s housekeeper in Pillow Talk (1959). Although best-known for comedy roles, she played the occasional dramatic role, most notably in Pickup on South Street (1953), Titanic (1953), and The Misfits (1961).

Thelma Ritter – Style Icon.

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Tony Randall – Style Icon

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Watching Tony Randall act is like watching a scientist perform experiments: precise, exact, trained. Watching Tony Randall talk about acting is like sneaking into a Masters Class and learning something you had absolutely no idea even existed. Tony Randall was an actor’s actor, he loved them, he supported them, he was one of them. Ladies and gentlemen, Tony Randall. Style Icon.

NAME: Tony Randall
OCCUPATION: Television Actor
BIRTH DATE: February 26, 1920
DEATH DATE: May 17, 2004
EDUCATION: Northwestern University, Columbia University
PLACE OF BIRTH: Tulsa, Oklahoma
PLACE OF DEATH: New York, New York
ORIGINALLY: Leonard Rosenberg

BEST KNOWN FOR: Tony Randall was an actor who became widely known through his character Felix Unger on TV’s The Odd Couple.

Actor. Born Leonard Rosenberg on February 26, 1920 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After graduating from Northwestern University where he studied drama, Randall moved to New York City to attend Columbia University and train at the Neighborhood Playhouse. He was soon drafted into the Army to serve in the Signal Corps during World War II. When the war was over, Randall resumed his career as a radio actor, most notably in the role of Reggie on the adventure serial I Love a Mystery.

Randall made his name on Broadway in the 1950s, starring in the musical Oh, Captain and Inherit the Wind. He made his film debut in 1957 with Oh, Men, Oh Women, and followed with the comedy Pillow Talk in 1959 and Lover Come Back in 1961. Though he received his share of forgettable starring film roles, including Fluffy in 1964, he received critical acclaim for his work in the film The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao.

Television audiences will likely best remember Randall for his role of buttoned-up Felix Unger in The Odd Couple, which ran from 1969-1974. In addition to appearing on numerous game and panel shows, Randall enjoyed an extensive television career that included Mr. Peepers (1952-1953) and (1969-1974), his own short-lived TV series called The Tony Randall Show (1976) and Love, Sidney (1981-1983).

Active in several liberal and humanitarian causes, Randall has often put his career on the line to let his opinions be known. He delivered an anti-Vietnam speech in the late 1960s and has been known to speak out against the dangers of cigarette smoking. During the summer of 1980, he served as the celebrity host of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra‘s concerts in Central Park, New York City. In 1991, Randall created the National Actors Theater, a New York-based repertory company devoted to American and British classics.

In 1995, after the death of his wife and companion Florence, Randall earned media attention when he married Heather Harlan, a woman 50 years his junior. The couple met while she was an intern at the National Actors Theatre. They have two children.

Randall died in May 2004 in New York. He was 84.

Tony Randall – Style Icon.

Thank you, Mr. Hitchcock

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Today is the birthday of arguably one of the best film directors of all time, Alfred Hitchcock.  His films are perfections the suspense/thriller genre.  Please consider watching one of them the next time you are shopping on movie night.  We have the box set out at the lake and I sometimes just pop one in and catch a bit of it as I come and go throughout the day.  They are like old friends you never tire of seeing.

In March of 1962, Alfred Hitchcock took a break during filming of The Birds in Bodega Bay and visited a local school to greet the pupils. Soon after, the school’s principal wrote the following letter of thanks to the filmmaker, and described the visit’s positive effect on one particular child.

Transcript follows.

(Source: Hitchcock, Piece by Piece; Image: Alfred Hitchcock, via.)

Transcript

WILMAR UNION SCHOOL DISTRICT

3775 Bodega Highway

PETALUMA, CALIFORNIA

April 3, 1962

Mr. Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock Productions

Bodega Bay, California

Dear Mr. Hitchcock:

I wanted to take the time to say that your stopping one morning on your way to Bodega Bay to give a group of children a drawing and autograph of you was certainly a deed of thoughtfulness. It is realized that taking the time from your busy schedule is not an easy thing to do.

The real purpose of this letter is to inform you what your deed of kindness did for a boy to whom you gave your drawing and autograph. This boy is quite shy and does not participate readily in class activities, such as sharing his experiences before others during sharing time. He was so thrilled and moved by his experience that he proudly shared his experience and autograph not only with his own class, but in every classroom in the school. The boy never before has done such a thing. Many times it takes such a spark as this to help a youngster out of his shell and on the road to confidence. You don’t realize what your act of kindness has done for this child.

I realize that many other people since then have tried to take advantage of the same opportunity and this has made it difficult and impossible for you to fulfill. None the less, your thoughtful act will not be forgotten by youngsters and teachers alike.

Sincerely,

(Signed)

Duncan Coleman

Principal

via Letters of Note: Thank you, Mr. Hitchcock.

Myrna Loy – Style Icon

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Today is the birthday of classic film actress Myrna Loy.  He rapid-fire line delivery, unequaled beauty, and dedication to humanitarian causes all add up to make her one the most amazing actresses of her era.  I think it is because she lacked a scandal and/or didn’t behave poorly that she is not as widely remembered as Davis, Hepburn, et al.  Do yourselves a favor and watch one of her films soon. I suggest the Thin Man series but also, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream Home is so great.  You won’t be disappointed.

NAME: Myrna Loy
OCCUPATION: Actress
BIRTH DATE: August 02, 1905
DEATH DATE: December 14, 1993
PLACE OF BIRTH: Radersburg, Montana
PLACE OF DEATH: New York, New York
ORIGINALLY: Myrna Williams

BEST KNOWN FOR: Movie star Myrna Loy made over 120 pictures, including all six of the Thin Man movies, in which she played Nora Charles opposite actor William Powell.

Myrna Loy (August 2, 1905 – December 14, 1993) was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles in The Thin Man (1934). Her successful pairing with William Powell resulted in 14 films together, including five subsequent Thin Man films. In 1937, she was crowned the “Queen of Hollywood” by a nationwide poll.

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The Best of SPA 2001

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I sifted through my journal from 2001 and pulled out the best of the best, or what I felt was the best. A lot happened in 2001. It appears that I spent quite a while that year with a stiff neck, or at least complaining about a stiff neck.  But first, let’s drop it into history.  I was 31, working at Amazon.com, living on Portage Bay, and driving a VW Golf.

I didn’t write anything interesting until April, so we will start there:

[Apr. 27th, 2001|11:21 am] 

I had a dream last night where my mother was trying to talk me into going to a baseball game with her. We were stopping off to visit a friend of hers that lived in a brick tower. To get up to her friend’s place, we had to walk up a staircase that wrapped around the outside of the tower, passing everyone else’s place along the way up. When we finally got up to the top we were tired and I sat down on a sofa to rest. Then about a minute later, a neighbor from down below came up to check on us, he said “I just wanted to make sure everything was ok, a man in a green turban and robe walked up here and didn’t wave at me.” I thought how strange, I hadn’t seen anyone, then I looked down and wouldn’t you know it, I was wearing a green robe and turban. I said “oh, I guess that was me.” Everyone looked at me and just nodded as to say “yes, we know”. Then I woke up.

[Aug. 14th, 2001|02:05 pm]

Mullet Haikus

My hair is slammin’
like Stone Cold. Can I get a Hell
yeah? Hell yeah. Hell yeah.

This super cool hair
and a bucket of chicken:
What more could I want?

Lynnrd Skynnrd didn’t
win no spelling bees. Who cares?
They rock the trailer.

Short for dad. Long for
the daughter mom always wanted.
Everyone’s happy.

[Aug. 25th, 2001|02:06 pm]

My new hobby is going to weddings. It is really good. I wish I could write a review column for weddings, but the fact that I would be a little harsh about their ‘special day’ has captured my better judgment and has not let go. ah well. Last night’s was totally lovely, except that the bride threw the bouquet over the entire crowd of eager single ladies, directly onto the kiddy table, where I was sitting with all the other misfits. The person who actually caught it was Stevie, a gender-bending girl-boy with red chunky steaks in her short cropped haircut.

[Sep. 1st, 2001|08:42 am]

I had a dream last night that I was lying on a bed with Skeet Ulrich, sort of running my fingers through his hair and casually mentioned that we had the same birthday, he being a year older. well, he thought that was creepy that I knew when his birthday was, got up and left.

[Sep. 14th, 2001|11:13 am]

My dreams of terrorism continued last night, although, it seems that I am starting to take a little more control of the situation and starting to stick up for myself and others. Last night, I drove a luggage cart full of luggage directly into one of the propellers of a plane that was taking off after being hijacked.

[Sep. 22nd, 2001|01:21 pm]

He had one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced, or seemed to face, the whole external world for an instant and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself.

[Sep. 28th, 2001|10:16 am]

Someone told me today that my hair looks like all the colors that no one wants. He was trying to compliment me, but it just sounded odd.

[Sep. 28th, 2001|11:38 am]

David Rakoff: “The woman reading through her lines right now is walking universal perfection. She is lung collapsingly, jaw achingly, fall down on the sidewalk teeth first, take a bottle of pills, and throw yourself out a window beautiful. The planes and angles of her face are a mathematical equation adding up to a great cosmic YES.”

[Oct. 4th, 2001|09:43 am]

My neighbor was evicted yesterday, all of her stuff put out on the sidewalk, stretching down the street. She had a lot of stuff, it was a mess. There was a nativity scene piled upon itself, most of the pieces looked to be there, except the three foot tall Virgin Mary was missing her head! I thought long and hard about slipping it into my house and giving it as a gift sometime, but I figured that a new deeper, darker Hell would be invented just for me. Stealing a headless Virgin Mary from someone that has been evicted?

[Nov. 17th, 2001|08:21 am]

This morning on my way to work, I drove over what I originally thought was a rolled up newspaper in the street, but right before it disappeared under my car, I realized that it was a prosthetic leg! Oh My God! I ran over someone’s fake leg. Can you believe that? How does that happen?

[Dec. 14th, 2001|07:46 am]

I can only find the “Hate” glove of my “Love and Hate” pair of gloves, is that a sign?

Weekly Photo Challenge: Create

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I do enjoy getting the photo challenge and then looking through my “stock photos” on my phone and/or computer to see if any of them match what is required.  Luckily, I had three that I thought matched “create.”

20120622-121049.jpg

This photo is well known to my family, it is a handprint in wet cement created by a very young Reed Anderson some 50 or so years ago.  It is below the hand rail on the steps leading down to the Minnesota “Minnie” Building on the waterfront at Interlochen Center For The Arts.  This photo was taken last summer when we were all gathered for Reed’s father’s (my Grand Uncle’s) memorial service.  The Anderson family has a strong connection with Interlochen, three generations deep.  I love it.  I miss it.  It changed my life and possibly saved my life.

 These two photos are macramé wall hangings done by my grandparent’s friend and neighbor, Mrs. Richmond.  They must have been created in the 1970′s some time, at the height of the craft-craze.  The Richmonds passed away quite a few years ago and the house has been sold, but to their credit, the new owners have kept Mrs. Richmond’s handy work hanging, even after painting the house.  I love these guys, in a way they remind me of my grandparents.

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David Lynch – Style Icon

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David Lynch is the only living director that I will see anything he does.  He makes films that are so achingly beautiful and moderately disturbing that compel me to watch and rewatch them, every time, I see something new.  Ladies and gentlemen, David Lynch.  Style Icon.

NAME: David Lynch
OCCUPATION: Director
BIRTH DATE: January 20, 1946 (Age: 66)
PLACE OF BIRTH: Missoula, Montana

BEST KNOWN FOR:  David Lynch is a film director and screenwriter known for his dark, offbeat films, notable Blue Velvet and Eraserhead.

David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed “Lynchian“, and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound design. The surreal, and in many cases violent, elements to his films have earned them the reputation that they “disturb, offend or mystify” their audiences.

Born to a middle class family in Missoula, Montana, Lynch spent his childhood traveling around the United States, before going on to study painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he first made the transition to producing short films. Deciding to devote himself more fully to this medium, he moved to Los Angeles, where he produced his first motion picture, the surrealist horror Eraserhead (1977). After Eraserhead became a cult classic on the midnight movie circuit, Lynch was employed to direct The Elephant Man (1980), from which he gained mainstream success. Then being employed by the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, he proceeded to make two films: the science-fiction epic Dune (1984), which proved to be a critical and commercial failure, and then a neo-noir crime film, Blue Velvet (1986), which was highly critically acclaimed.

Proceeding to create his own television series with Mark Frost, the highly popular murder mystery Twin Peaks (1990–1992), he also created a cinematic prequel, Fire Walk With Me (1992); a road movie, Wild at Heart (1990) and a family film, The Straight Story (1999), in the same period. Turning further towards surrealist filmmaking, three of his following films worked on “dream logic” non-linear narrative structures, Lost Highway (1997), Mulholland Drive (2001) and Inland Empire (2006). Meanwhile, Lynch proceeded to embrace the internet as a medium, producing several web-based shows, such as the animation Dumbland (2002) and the surreal sitcom Rabbits (2002).

In the course of his career, Lynch has received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, and a nomination for best screenplay. Lynch has twice won France’s César Award for Best Foreign Film, as well as the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and a Golden Lion award for lifetime achievement at the Venice Film Festival. The French government awarded him the Legion of Honor, the country’s top civilian honor, as a Chevalier in 2002 and then an Officier in 2007, while that same year, The Guardian described Lynch as “the most important director of this era”. Allmovie called him “the Renaissance man of modern American filmmaking”, whilst the success of his films have led to him being labelled “the first popular Surrealist.”

Lynch is an avid coffee drinker and even has his own line of special organic blends available for purchase on his website. Called “David Lynch Signature Cup”, the coffee has been advertised via flyers included with several recent Lynch-related DVD releases, including Inland Empire and the Gold Box edition of Twin Peaks. The possibly self-mocking tag-line for the brand is “It’s all in the beans … and I’m just full of beans.” This is also a quote of a line said by Justin Theroux’s character in Inland Empire.

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11 Scariest Horror Movies of All Time

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Click on the link to see clips of each movie.

11 Scariest Horror Movies of All Time – Page 1 – The Daily Beast 

Just in time for Halloween and exclusively for The Daily Beast, the man who brought you Taxi Driver and The Departed shares his favorite horror movies of all time. Plus, watch clips of the scariest scenes.

1. THE HAUNTING
“You may not believe in ghosts but you cannot deny terror!” was the tagline for this absolutely terrifying 1963 Robert Wise picture about the investigation of a house plagued by violently assaultive spirits.

2. ISLE OF THE DEAD
There’s a moment in this Val Lewton picture, about plague victims trapped on an island during the Greek civil war, that never fails to scare me. let’s just say that it involves premature burial.

3. THE UNINVITED
Another, more benign haunted house picture, set in England, no less atmospheric than The Haunting—the tone is very delicate, and the sense of fear is woven into the setting, the gentility of the characters.

4. THE ENTITY
Barbara Hershey plays a woman who is brutally raped and ravished by an invisible force in this truly terrifying picture. The banal settings, the California-modern house, accentuate the unnerving quality.

5. DEAD OF NIGHT
A British classic: four tales told by four strangers mysteriously gathered in a country house, each one extremely disquieting, climaxing with a montage in which elements from all the stories converge into a crescendo of madness. Like The Uninvited, it’s very playful…and then it gets under your skin.

6. THE CHANGELING
Another haunted house movie, filled with sadness and dread. George C. Scott, recovering from the death of his wife and child, discovers the angry ghost of another dead child in the mansion where he’s staying.

7. THE SHINING
I never read the Stephen King novel, I have no idea how faithful it is or isn’t, but Kubrick made a majestically terrifying movie, where what you don’t see or comprehend shadows every move the characters make.

8. THE EXORCIST
A classic, endlessly parodied, very familiar— and it’s as utterly horrifying as it was the day it came out. That room—the cold, the purple light, the demonic transformations: it really haunts you.

9. NIGHT OF THE DEMON
Jacques Tourneur made this picture about ancient curses near the end of his career, but it’s as potent as his films for Val Lewton. Forget the demon itself—again, it’s what you don’t see that’s so powerful.

10. THE INNOCENTS
This Jack Clayton adaptation of The Turn of the Screw is one of the rare pictures that does justice to Henry James. It’s beautifully crafted and acted, immaculately shot (by Freddie Francis), and very scary.

11. PSYCHO
Again, it’s so familiar that you think: great movie, but it’s not so scary anymore. Then you watch it…and quickly start thinking again. The shower…the swamp…the relationship between mother and son—it’s extremely disturbing on so many levels. It’s also a great work of art.