The Fountain

Lisa and I watched "The Fountain" on DVD over the weekend. We wanted to see it when it was in theaters, but couldn't manage to work out baby-sitting, and then the film bombed and vanished as quickly as it'd come. Unlike most of the SF fandom community, we were underwhelmed by Darren Aronofsky's earlier film, "Pi." I thought it stylish but incoherent, discordant to the point of distraction. Still, "The Fountain" looked interesting, and I'd heard all about its tortured history with Brad Pitt dropping out and budget problems and whatnot.

First of all, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand why this film flopped. It's difficult to follow--skipping among three different story lines--and doesn't spoon-feed the viewer anything. I'm not even certain Aronofsky knows the "why" of most of the film, but instead chose to craft his narrative around an irrational mystery. That's cool by me. In a simple world, the three storylines set in different eras would tell different episodes in the life of a man and a woman who'd drunk from the Tree of Life, aka the Fountain of Youth. Which is, in essence, what the film is. Except that in each life (or at least some of them) the protagonists' lives are finite, and there's no indication that reincarnation is a reality in this film. Essentially, the far future era shares a great deal of continuity with the earlier eras, but each of the earlier eras share progressively less continuity with those that come after. The film screws with your mind that way. I was probably as well-prepared for this film as anyone could be, since I'd read so much Moorcock in my younger days where continuity is pretty much irrelevant. This could pass as a Moorcock film in many ways, except I've never seen Moorcock write anything so sentimental.

All in all, a beautiful, trippy, surreal cinematic effort that desperately wants to be this century's 2001: A Space Odyssey. It compares favorably to the Russian version of Solaris and is more accessible than either of those films from way back when, so ultimately I have to say the film succeeds on its own terms. Recommended, just don't expect a popcorn flick.

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Shrek 3

Took the kids to see Shrek the Third today. Eh. You can tell that Dreamworks Animation is looking it as "product" now than "art." I mean, it was cute and funny--plenty of jokes and slapstick to keep both parents and kids yukking it up--but it was sloppy. The big plot motivator is that Shrek is trying to convince a young Arthur Pendragon, aka "Artie", to become king of Far Far Away so Shrek won't have to do it himself. Only there are no funny riffs on Arthurian mythos. Merlin's there for a bit, voiced by Eric Idle, but his character draws laughs from being a burned-out new-age hippie rather than Camelot. One of the reasons the first Shrek was so good is that it took fairy tales and ran all the classic elements through the wringer. The second one got away from this approach, lampooning Hollywood narcissism instead. It wasn't inspired, but it was coherent and funny. This third one doesn't even manage that--Artie's big speech at the end is so cliche that I kept waiting for the punch line. Except that there wasn't one.

Don't fight the crowds to see this one in theaters. Add it to your NetFlix queue and watch the original instead.

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Friday Night Videos

It's Friday. The weather is beautiful and we're on the cusp of summer. I don't know what your plans are, but I expect I'll be spending a good chunk of the weekend getting very wet at Schlitterbahn. In consideration of this, our video this week comes to us courtesy of the talented Sheryl Crow:



Previously on Friday Night Videos... Mike + the Mechanics.

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Less of a vaccuum today

The saying that writers exist in a vacuum, in isolation, practicing their craft with sparse--if any--feedback is pretty much a truism as far as I'm concerned. A writer's path is generally a solo one, with the obvious exceptions of occasional collaborations. This persists even after publication, because the only thing worse than negative reviews and comments is deafening silence. So it was with great joy that I stumbled upon this thoughtful blog entry from Gerard Houarner, inspired by my recently-published Peter S. Beagle interview in Brutarian.

This train of thought was inspired in part by an interview with Peter S. Beagle in Brutarian 48/49, in which he's asked by the interviewer, Jayme Lynn Blaschke, what can he do now he couldn't at 19 when writing his first novel.

In his enthusiastic response, he points out technical skills he’s developed, as well a willingness to handle scenes he couldn’t when he was younger. In short, his approach to writing has evolved, to the point where he says he finds himself less clever now than when he was 19.

He also talks about a writing internship he had at age 22 with Larry McMurty and Ken Kesey, in which he felt out of his depth. What particularly struck me there was his reaction to writers who were "very much from somewhere and could tap that, where I have the perspective of an immigrant's child. I could never be from the Bronx..."

The entire post is worth reading. He has some interesting angles on the give-and-take between myself and Beagle.

It probably goes without saying, but I find it gratifying that someone found my questions (and Beagle's answers) so thought-provoking and meaningful.

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That-Ken-I-Hate

Ding dong! The witch is dead! Sorry that I'm running late on posting this, but Ken Valentine--the asswipe of a New Braunfels city councilman who spent the last several years trying his damndest to turn the Comal River into the personal waterfront sanctuary for him and his cronies--has been run out of office by a 70-vote margin, 54 to 46 percent:

The recall effort was failing by 50 votes when the early votes were tallied. But the voters in favor of the recall turned out in force on Saturday, carrying the election day vote by a margin of more than 2-to-1.

"I was really kind of surprised, since I was ahead by 50 on early voting," Valentine said. "It was a phenomenal switch."

Valentine was the council's leading proponent of controversial rules aimed at taming the rowdy, drunken behavior that has bothered riverfront residents for years.

He helped persuade a majority of the council to ban Jell-O shots and beer bongs, adopt one of the country's strictest noise ordinances and prohibit alcohol in riverfront parks.

But the measure that caused the biggest backlash limited the size of coolers allowed on the rivers.

That-Ken-I-Hate and his supporters are boo-hooing about this, and he hasn't ruled out running again for his now-vacant seat. The media is fixated on the banning-alcohol-on-the-river angle, and Ken's playing it up, but that's smoke and mirrors. The restrictions he championed were so draconian that families couldn't take soft drinks with them in little Igloo coolers. He pushed a lot of stuff that discouraged people of all walks of life from tubing the river--not just rowdy drunkards. And he was confrontational, arrogant and dismissive in council sessions, rejecting popular sentiment out of hand because "he knew best." He absolutely refused to compromise on any issue. He was a jerk who tried really hard to screw up New Braunfels for all residents, not just those in his district. Boy, I'm glad he's gone. Now all we have to do is knock out the remaining three compadres of his on the council and life will be so much the better.

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HEROES: The Hard Part

Okay, I finally caught up with last week's Heroes episode, "The Hard Part." Overall, I found it an okay episode, but nothing great. It's another of those where nothing much happens other than shuffle the playing pieces around to get them in place for the final act. Which is fine as far as that goes, except for the fact that there have been several of those already this season. It gets kind of old after a while.

Several things stood out as good about this one. Sylar's visit to his flighty mother was a nice touch, humanizing the villain. The super chick holding Micah prison having reality-warping abilities beyond just being able to change her appearance was nice, too. Mohinder's interactions with the shadowy government conspiracy folks worked fairly well, too, as did his discovery of the cure for the little girl's affliction. And the fact that the shadowy government conspiracy wants New York to go boom as much as Linderman does is a curious development, even if this episode once again veered closer to inviting Watchmen comparisons.

Other things didn't work so well. The cliche'd struggle between Sylar and his mom, leaving the injured party in "doubt" struck such a false chord I laughed out loud. Hiro's confrontation with Sylar was poorly executed even if the buildup was anything but. And the show really needs to hire writers who can script children's dialog, because every time the sick little girl said something to Mohinder, it was like fingers on the chalk board. Little kids--even those with super powers--simply don't talk that way. Ugh.

Anyhoo, I'm looking forward to tonight's episode. Since there's only two left, I figure something's got to happen this time around.

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Friday Night Videos

I was a big fan of Mike + the Mechanics back in the day--being a big Genesis fan at the time, it was only natural--and Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground) was a big reason for that. The video is strangely engrossing, and I (as well as some friends) desperately wanted to see the movie it was supposedly from--video credits indicated it was from soundtrack of the forthcoming motion picture "On Dangerous Ground." The science fictional imagery in the video, coupled with the dystopian lyrics of the song sold me completely. Unfortunately, the promised movie never came out. Two decades later, I learned that some of the scenes from the video were from the 1986 movie "Choke Canyon," which the IMDB lists as having the alternate title of "On Dangerous Ground." So that must be it. I've never seen the movie after all these years, but I still like Mike + the Mechanics.



Previously on Friday Night Videos... Paula Abdul.

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