Late night musings from Facebook about Station Eleven, a limited series on HBO MAX. It was based on the novel of the same name by Emily St. John Mandel. Also notes about throwing a party for Danielle Deadwyler’s THE PIANO LESSON.

This is a review I wrote about the film, A WRINKLE IN TIME, directed by Ava Duvernay that was posted on Facebook on March 15th, 2018. I wanted to post it here to keep for posterity. Thanks to MoviePass, I went and checked out A Wrinkle In Time tonight at the movies. The books were my favorites as a young boy. I remember actually getting detention in the 7th grade for getting caught reading one of them in Science class, a class I tried to purposely fail for some 7th Grade reason. Watching the movie, I remembered being that awkward shy fat kid who didn’t really have any friends, who was picked on and beat up in school every day. Watching this movie, I remembered that boy and tapped into him and I could see what this movie was reaching for and I think that’s why it held so much over me. I remembered getting the shit kicked out of me for wearing Rustlers or having a lunch box instead of a brown paper bag… I remember what it was like to be an outsider, yearning for something more and I remembered what brought me to those books in the first place. Because of my love of the source material, I didn’t hate the movie. I actually rather enjoyed it for the most part. The end was clunky and I felt like somewhere down the road they took a machete to the source materials and cut massive amounts of the heart and story from the books. I like some of the ideas of what they have left, and some of the new things they made up, but It felt like they cut oh so much meat off the bone that all you were left with was the scraps of a much better meal and I know what that meal tastes like so I can imagine it why I’m eating the scraps of how good it could have been and I think I just answered why I liked it. What I remember from the books, which is a little bit foggy. I own them, but probably have not read the first on in about 8 years… The original novel is about the inter connectivity between ourselves and the universe. How we and the Universe and everything in it are all a part of each other. These children are on a mission to save their missing father and save the universe. The book had a message that was much more about how only the power of LOVE could defeat the darkness that is advancing on our universe. Whereas in the newest film, it’s lessons are to LOVE YOURSELF and find your strength from within to defeat the darkness. I like the idea and I like the lessons of that idea, but by making that the core concept of the film, it took away a lot from other ideas from the book left in the film. So characters like Calvin had much less to do in the new film and much less a role to play in the new story than the old. PLUS WHERE WERE THE BROTHERS? You left in boring old Calvin, but got rid of the brothers?!?!? What the hell. The bad guy at the end of the universe. The darkness coming to over take us all was much more scarier in the book. Oh and Charles Wallace is a psychic child who knows things and is “creepy” and the kid who played him in the film was OKAY, but more annoying and less Creepy. I kept wanting, this character, which is suppose to be one of the most impressive minds in the universe to be a little more otherworldly like he is in the books. I kept thinking I wanted him to be more GAGE from Pet Semetery. haha Also, and why make this extraordinary mind adopted in the film?! In the book he’s the son of two of the most brilliant minds on earth, so it makes sense he’s so…. Otherworldly, but in the book he’s just a psychic adopted kid. But seriously, we felt no menace at the end of the film towards this Ultimate big bad…. So it felt flat. Okay. I’m nitpicking and I’m probably still buzzing off that edible… OH AND WHY DID THEY CHANGE THE CREATURE MRS WHATSIT CHANGED INTO FROM THE CENTAR THAT WAS ON EVERY COVER OF EVERY BOOK THE THE LEAF CREATURE!?!?! What the hell! But still. With all that said, I enjoyed the film. I think it will be great for young children and I really hope it opens them up to the book series. The books gave me strength and hopefully it will continue to do so for generations. Adults who are not fond of the source materials… Stay away. I don’t think there will be much for you here beyond some cool looking popcorn scenes. And the movie right now has an IMDB score of 4.2, but I would give this something like a 6.2. Not horrible and worth to watch on Netflix on a dark and stormy night…. (As I get down here to the end of this I realize I’m probably definitely still buzzing on this edible and probably shouldn’t post this. Did I even say anything worth a damn at all? Oh well. I spent all this time on it, so why let it go to waste.)

When I was working at a Mom and Pop video store in 2000, the trailer for BRINGING OUT THE DEAD would come on at least once an hour on the trailer tape. The soundtrack for the trailer was “Janie Jones” by The Clash. I was a burgeoning punk rock fan, and it was that trailer that turned me into a CLASH fan. I remember finally taking the VHS home with me to watch, thinking the whole movie must be some kind of punk rock ambulance driver masterpiece! Scorsese and Schrader back again! I loved Taxi Driver! But it’s not Taxi Driver. My 18 year old brain didn’t know enough about film and the movies that inspired this film to get it. I just didn’t think it was that great and thought Ebert, who gave it 4 stars, was a fool. I hit play on it this evening, inspired by Cage’s admission that he thinks this is one of his top 3 films he’s made. It’s always held a special place in my heart thanks to its association with THE CLASH. It looks cool as hell. Maybe, just maybe I’ll like it this time. And damn! It was rad. It’s about Nic Cage, an EMT who hasn’t had a win in months. He’s lost every call he’s taken, and with his his sleep has gone with him. He needs a win desperately, but with each call he goes deeper and darker into the depths of madness in the boroughs of a very stylized NYC. DEAD is a film that rides the shimmer between reality and dream. The film is jarring compared to todays hyper realistic films. The film is often overexposed, or blurry. Nothing feels real. It creates this world that feels very much like those early morning moments, when you’re not quite awake yet. Things still feel like a dream. Instead in Cage’s place, a nightmare. As I watched, I tried to think of the films I could compare this one too, for those who might want to watch it. For some damned reason, I thought of Jim Henson’s Labyrinth first! quickly making the connection that DEAD feels much more like a “modern day” retelling of Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 masterpiece THE SEVENTH SEAL! The Seventh Seal already has a most excellent re-imagining with Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, which was my honest to goodness introduction to the work of Bergmen! The tale of the Seventh Seal finds Max Von Sydnow as a knight in the times of the plague, who is running from Death. Literally. To slow Death down, the Knight challenges Death to a game of Chess. The game takes days, weeks, months, minutes or maybe seconds. The knight tries to stump and outwit Death at every turn… And as they journey through the countryside and see the ravages of the Plague, we meet those people most need saving. Bringing Out the Dead covers similar ground, but instead of Death taking on physical form, it’s very much alive in the work that Cage does as an EMT in the film. In the Seventh Seal, it’s made ambiguous if the Knight is even alive as he begins his journey and it made for a more enjoyable viewing experience to watch and wonder if this was all just the DMT being released in Cage’s characters brain and him trying to put to rest those he could not save. Really cool movie. Not great, but a lot of really cool ideas and shapes put to real honest to goodness film (this was 99 so that makes sense, but it’s nice to see in the days of over saturated digitalness. The film feels photographed. If you’re into out of your mind psychedelic rides that take on the meaning of life and death, I think you should check out, or at least re-check out Bringing out the Dead soon. It’s currently streaming on HBO Max.