Notes on "There Will Be Blood"

There Will Be Blood is a 2007 Paul Thomas Anderson film about the early days of the oil business in California. It is loosely based on an Upton Sinclair novel, Oil. It felt like an Upton Sinclair novel. It has a plot arc of the naturalistic fiction of Frank Norris and Emile Zola or of the Italian films of the '50s. That is to say, the plot arc steadily in relentlessly downhill.

This is a geek film. Most films about the oil business would show a derrick and gray men working around it, but here we see the evolution of the technology from a man with a pick and shovel at the bottom of a hole to men with buckets slopping oil out, to primitive pumps. We see primitive braces and pulleys turning into 80 foot derricks. We see barrels rolled onto trains evolve into pipelines. It is fascinating to witness. Often, the details of the mechanics are exposed as a setup to some dramatic catastrophe. One becomes conscious that, if the camera spends time showing the course of a belt, then soon that belt will break and someone will be harmed. We do not see the mechanics simply for the interest of the mechanics, but that's okay.

A theme this movie has in common with Paul Thomas Anderson's earlier Boogie Nights is family, specifically rejection of family. Both, Daniel Plainview, the protagonist of this film, and the subject of Boogie Nights have turned away from family, and spend much of their respective films trying to reconstruct a version of it. In Boogie Nights, the family is the porn movie production company. Both lose their bearings when their pseudo-families fall apart.

- J

Notes on "Boogie Nights"

Boogie Nights is a 1999 film by Paul Thomas Anderson. Nashville in the San Fernando Valley.

- J

Notes on "The Tale of Sweeney Todd"

The Tale of Sweeney Todd is a 1998 version of the London horror tale, not the Stephen Sondheim/Tim Burton/Johnny Depp musical currently contending for an Oscar. It turns out that the Fleet Street barber's story has been rendered to film quite often, going back to 1926. The version we saw was a made for TV movie, but it the title character was played by Ben Kingsley and the remaining cast was quite respectable. In this version the homicidal haircare specialist has a blood lust that grew from war experiences in Africa. There is, of course a vendor of meat pies. An American agent inquiring after jewels in the care of one of Sweeney's victims accidentally uncovers the whole nasty enterprise. London is portrayed as a grim, dark, damp, muddy place filled with nasty brutish crude louts with bad teeth and frayed whigs. All except the principals, who have good teeth and their own hair. Having gone to the expense of hiring first rate actors, decorating and peopling a dispiriting early nineteenth century world, that the movie would hinge on a melodramatic plot device out of Sergeant Preston and the Mounted Police or a Bond movie. What was the point of getting everybody mucked up for a deus ex machina?

- J

Notes on "Knocked Up"

Knocked Up is a romantic comedy that starts out with an accidental pregnancy between a successful entertainment reporter and a slacker. It is weighted down so much by the ballast needed to make the premise somewhat credible that it plods along. By contrast, 40 Year Old Virgin, also written and produced by Judd Apatow and featuring a number of the same team, made its premise believable in the first minutes that Steve Carell was on the screen and the movie floated on air.

- J

Notes on "Wishful Drinking"

Wishful Drinking, at the Berkeley Repertory Theater, is a one woman performance written and performed by Carrie Fisher. Fisher, of course, was Princess Leia in Star Wars, was the child of Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, and was briefly married to Paul Simon. She has a clever, biting humor that she directs principally at the other celebraties in her life. The performance had the feel of a tell-all celebrity memoir dramatized. This was a narrative that started from the assumption that celebrities are the American royal class, and their doings have inherent interest. The events described might have weight and meaning for a dedicated fan of her or her parents, but meant not a thing to me.

- J

Notes on "Ratatouille"

The animated comedy "Ratatouille" concerns a rat who cooks in a fancy French restaurant. It felt like a plot designed to get to certain set pieces, like a bus that has to make certain stops.

- J

Image is reduced resolution version from the film's promotional material, and as such, I believe, constitutes a fair use.

Notes on "Casanova"

"Casanova" was a light romantic comedy based loosely on the life of Giacomo Casanova, and starring Heath Ledger. It is set in Venice and looks like it may have been partly filmed there, but it is a prettied up Venice. It follows what has become a pretty standard formula since the Hepburn/Tracy movies about the amusing things that happen when a man confident in himself encounters a strong modern woman.

- J

Image is reduced resolution version from the film's promotional material, and as such, I believe, constitutes a fair use.

Notes on "Natural History of the Chicken"

The documentary "The Natural History of the Chicken" is apparently what PBS has been reduced to. It is a humorless reenactment a la Cops of several news-of-the-weird stories that involve chickens.

- J

Image is reduced resolution version from the film's promotional material, and as such, I believe, constitutes a fair use.

"Self Employed" by Harvey Shapiro

I really like this poem by Harvey Shapiro. Its images are sure and painted with economy. You can read it, or listen to it here.

- J

Notes on "Taking Over"

The one man show, Taking Over, at the Berkeley Rep was written and performed by Danny Hoch is about the gentrification of the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn from the perspective of the gentrifiers and of the gentrified. There are young neighborhood men, a black woman, and naive and cynical interlopers. It is an interesting subject entertainingly and movingly presented. The humor is sharp and cutting, and the audience laughed heartily even when we were the target.

There is an odd thing that happens when a neighborhood moves up economically. Residents become nostalgic for the poorer times. Some of Hoch's characters reminisce fondly about the crack dominated days of the eighties.

It got me thinking that K and I have been on both sides, in our time in Niles. We moved into our narrow little working class street. Our neighbors were retired steel workers, bikers, bar patrons, drug dealers, Viet Nam vets, and fishermen. The old time residents were suspicious and we knew it. We were "resident tourists", as a Hoch character calls the new Williamsburg buyers. We were attracted by the "character" of the place. The long time residents were the character.

A few years later a new wave of young professionals and tech workers moved into our part of Niles. They had money. They were different and strange. We felt they did not understand us. We missed the old days with the drug busts at 2:00AM across the street.

Californians are a people built to surf in other people's culture. We eat their food. We acquire and mispronounce their patois. We adopt their architecture. We think we understand. We think we see ourselves in them, while we are pushing them to the margins. That's because, following in the footsteps of Richard Henry Dana, we are a vigorous and energetic people. It is interesting to see how we are seen.

- J

Image is scaled down version from the show's promotional image, and as such, constitutes a fair use.