Hungry Hungry Haikus #36

So I found that book
And I read from it some more
Starts good, goes nowhere

Hungry Hungry Haikus #35

Like a creme brulee
Thought under the shell was sweet
Looks like I was wrong

Hungry Hungry Haikus #34

Careless and clueless
Not ways to handle my heart
Just put it down now

Hungry Hungry Haikus #33

If it could be sweet
When you suck out the poison
All I want for X-mas

Hungry Hungry Haikus #32

Aggression is good
It can shake loose all the rust
Move things that are stuck

Hungry Hungry Haikus #31

Suppression is bad
The deeper you hold it down
Sooner it slips away

What Watching Movies Taught Me This Week: Dec 12, 2005

-All of the penises in the galaxy won't fill a heart hole up. (JESUS IS MAGIC)
- I love you more than Gary Busey, and I love you more than dykes love pussy. (JESUS IS MAGIC)
-Sarah Silverman can get away with murder if she really wanted to. (JESUS IS MAGIC)
- There is a difference between British nipples and those from other countries. (MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS)
- 'Sexy' makes the world go 'round. (MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS)
- Bob Hoskins' penis looks just like I thought it would, you know you thought about it too... (MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS)
- Forget about it Jake, it's Chinatown. (CHINATOWN)
- Roman Polanksi can be a sadistic little fuck. (CHINATOWN)
- Sister/ mother relationships are just gonna end in tragedy. (CHINATOWN)
- You know what will really drives the ladies wild? A scabby nose wound! (CHINATOWN)

What Watching Movies Taught Me This Week: Dec 5, 2005

- It has to be you. (KAMIKAZE GIRLS)
- Don't give up your friends just to become a master embroiderer, you'll soon find yourself lonely beyond belief. (KAMIKAZE GIRLS)
- If hipster girls know what's good for them they will adopt the Japanese Lolita and Yanki look tout-suite! (KAMIKAZE GIRLS)
- Though the film noir genre has been re-invented a gajillion times, it excites me everytime someone tries their hand at it. (BRICK)
- Lucas Haas... where have you been? (BRICK)
- Joseph Gordon Levitt has done enough good work post 3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN (MYSTERIOUS SKIN, BRICK)to prompt the removal of that credit from his resume. John Lithgow however... (BRICK)
- Peter Saarsgard, why oh why are you not my boyfriend? (THE DYING GAUL)
- I forgot to add Patricia Clarkson to my holy trinity of good actresses (joining Toni Collette, Catherine Keener and Tilda Swinton) making it now a Holy Quadrangle (THE DYING GAUL)
- Someday someone will film a play and make it not FEEL stilted like a play, or just give up altogether. (THE DYING GAUL)
- Peter Saarsgard, my phone number is 303.947.8634 (THE DYING GAUL)
- Good hair is a REALLY important feature in a futuristic assassin (AEON FLUX)
- Charlize Theron can do a better post oscar win action/comedy movie than Halle Barry, Renee Zellweger and Nicole Kidman (AEON FLUX)
- Though it still has many, many flaws (aside from good hair and costumes) (AEON FLUX)
- Oh yeah! It has Johnny Lee Miller! Johhny, please see phone number listed above... (AEON FLUX)
- Oh! And Frances Macdormand! She can join the Holy Quadrangle and make it a Holy Fist! (AEON FLUX)
- Oh! Oh! And plotholes big enough to drive a car filled with Halle Barry, Renee Zellweger and Nicole Kidman into. Let's test that out before they unite for STEPFORD WIVES 2: WIFESWAP. (AEON FLUX)

Hungry Hungry Haikus #30

If I talk bout it
It unravels all the work
You have yet to do

Hungry Hungry Haikus #29

The bed called me back
On my pillow you can dream
I have things to do

Hungry Hungry Haikus #27

To climb the mountain
Seemed what I was meant to do
But the bridge was out

Hungry Hungry Haikus #26 Side A

Twas over pencils up
Final question I'd not seen
Worth most points of all

Hungry Hungry Haikus #26 Side B

If you store the tears
Like the dust that time gathers
Hurts more when released

Hungry Hungry Haikus #25 Part C

Afraid of greatness
I latched onto the same thing
Took me down before

Hungry Hungry Haikus #25 Part B

The need for a touch
Took me back a dozen years
On my fingertips

Hungry Hungry Haikus #25 Part A

I just can't help it
These important things I want
Big enough to share

Hungry Hungry Haikus #24

It wasn't to annoy
It wasn't to burden even though
It was just because

Hungry Hungry Haikus #23

You're safe from the sun
Smoke settles in the dark places
I'm quiet when unsure

Hungry Hungry Haikus #21

A big slice of cake
You got the best of my love
Oh whoa ooh whoa

Hungry Hungry Haikus #21

In just one fail swoop
Awkwardness overpowered
My heart on my sleeve

Hungry Hungry Haikus #20

To cut off my hands
Would remove all memory
Erase what matters

Hungry Hungry Haikus #19

ME chills bass tears time
snap against fuel heart sound film
coat smoke smile YOU

Hungry Hungry Haikus #18

A smile a day
Laughter every hour too
Let's give it a go

Hungry Hungry Haikus #17

Wouldn't be so bad
If it just made you happy
Who am I to say?

What Watching Movies Taught Me This Week: Nov 4, 2005

- My holy trinity of good actresses (ones that I know I will always enjoy no matter the flick) are: Toni Colette, Tilda Swinton, and Catherine Keener. (CAPOTE)
- You can have a film be about gay folks and still be pretty gay without turning it into a dreaded "gay film". (CAPOTE)
- Hollywood still hasn't learned how to effectively present the whole "butt sex" issue to straight people (BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN)
- Anne Hathaway (PRINCESS DIARIES) and her boobs are no longer under contract with Disney (BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN)
- Love, love, love the people you want to no matter what the consequence (BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN)
- I'm still not convinced that Elijah Wood has any hair below his eyebrows. That goes for pubes too (EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED)
- Kangol hats are the premium! (EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED)
- Ziploc is the preferred storage method of obsessive compulsive collectors (EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED)

Hungry Hungry Haikus #16

The air at 3 AM
Rain on my face tenderness
sounds sweet in my ears

Hungry Hungry Haikus #15

Just like a lifeguard
I'll do what's in my power
You won't just slip away

Hungry Hungry Haikus #14

May be odd to say
Miserable sounds so good
When it comes from you

Hungry Hungry Haikus #13

Insecurity
Like a blanket like a weed
Will cover it all

What Watching Movies Taught Me This Week: Oct 14, 2005

- There is a difference between "influential" Anime and "good" Anime. (AKIRA)
- Dubbing. When will people learn? (AKIRA)
- Never forget where you came from. It can help keep from being lost like a cow without a cowbell. (THE FLOWER OF MY SECRET)
- Always shred your writing documents, especially if you keep multiple drafts. One man's trash... (THE FLOWER OF MY SECRET)
- Joss Whedon should be given his own ticket to do WHATEVER HE FUCKING WANTS TO. (SERENITY)
- "Betwixt", "Nethers" and "Sundries". Three words I don't know how I've lived without using in everday speech. (SERENITY)
- If you are moving into an orphnage bring cool things (toys, comics) and an ability to swim if you want to fit in. (THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE)
- If a room full of gasoline is on fire, GET THE FUCK OUT. (THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE)
- Ghosts will never hurt you unless you are the target of their rage. Bring them that target and you got it made baby!(THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE)
- Even in a gay slasher movie, my personailty type would still be the first one offed (type being: nerdy, fool-for-love, but hopeful) (HELLBENT)
- Get yourself a glass eye. It just might save your life if you ever get attacked by a scythe wielding madman. (HELLBENT)

What Watching Movies Taught Me This Week: Oct 7, 2005

- Remember what your mother told you. (MIRRORMASK)
- Neil Gaiman can be a horribly boring writer (MIRRORMASK)
- If you throw someone SHADE you better be prepared to be READ, and if you want to fight it out show up at the BALL and be as REAL as you can be. (PARIS IS BURNING)
- My "family" name would most likely be Tito Target (pronounced Tar-jay) (PARIS IS BURNING)
- Whether as a math nerd or a gay rodeo cowboy, a Desert Storm soldier or a doomed nut case I just really really really want Jake Gyllenhaal to be my boyfriend. (PROOF)

A Million MIles of Celluloid

The sunshowers that fall on my troubles are over you my baby
these sunshowers I'll be aiming at you cuz I'm watching you my baby
- M.I.A. -Sunshowers

Freaking hell, there you are. There has to be like a thousand people here at this show. From up on the balcony they all look the same anyways. Bobbing heads, swaying shoulders, arms waving. The regular lights are down and the colored ones up, throwing reds and yellows and blues. Everyone's mixing together like a living Matisse. Of course, you're the one who sticks out by not moving at all. That's probably what drew my eye right to you like a quarter shining on the street. At first I turned away. I was the one who got mad and told you what I felt about the whole situation. My disappointment has been wrapped around me like a scarf since then. I didn't want you to see me looking at you and think I was pining away like a stupid teenager. But goddamit here I am still catching glances at you.

"It can't come quickly enough and now you spend your life
waiting for this moment and when you find it's already come and passed you by it left you so defeated" - Scissor Sisters - It Can't Come Quickly Enough

I literally felt better after telling you what was on my mind. I'd been waking up with the most horrible lower back pain ever since you were last at my place. I passed it off as too much time spent at work, tossing film cans around with no regard to my body, staying up till 4 in the morning...doing absolutely nothing. But the morning after we talked, after I left the party because you seemed to have better things to do than pay attention to my feelings, after I finally shed a tear for never standing up for myself, after I wrote that letter because I knew that you still didn't get it, well I woke up the next morning feeling better than I ever have. But seeing you again, just looking at you from across a room, I have no idea why I still have a question in my head. Ever since that night that you finally looked me in the eye, a free man, and your attention was on me, not the wall behind me or some other distraction in your gaze, I felt like I had won the lottery. Hours later when I kissed you I meant it, and though I know better than to let my guard down I did, and believed every word you said. I've been in plenty of ingenuous situations and that night wasn't like that. Your body language was excited, your lips were sweet, your hands slow. After all of that, things changed. I disappeared in a vacuum of your own design. It was as if that night had never existed and when you came over again a few weeks later, there was no trace of what there was before. There were a few odd placed sentences that pointed to some struggle in your own mind. A direction you wanted to go with me but couldn't, or wouldn't, and it bothered me to no end.

"I don't know where I am but I know I don't like it/ I open my mouth and out pops something spiteful/ Words are cheap but they can turn out expensive/ words like conviction can turn into a sentence" General Public - Tenderness

Now here I stand, looking at you again. All of your actions have caused me to see that you are hardly a candidate for a healthy connection. Yet I always look ahead at the future, one exemplified by the movies, but a future nonetheless. In the movies these things usually go in two directions.
One, the reaction causes an epiphany in the confused party and after a few nights of drinking, a musical montage to awkward sightings of the other person and then a climactic "bottom of the barrel" moment, that person's eyes light up and they race across town, broken car be damned, to tell the other, in the rain, that they're sorry and that they've never been so clear about anything in their whole stupid life. Pull back shot as they kiss over a yet to be picked future hit song.
Two, the rift causes the two to veer wildly away from each other, across the country even, and years go by. The two bump into each other in a bizarre fit of circumstance having to do with something teasingly pointed to between them in the first reel. Chit chat leads to the inevitable "Have you met my husband ___?" Awkward congrats as the knowledge seeps in that that person was better off not messing with the fool and that the fool missed his chance years before.
It's no use continuing that explanation as it's always the way a bummer movie ends and I don't like those ones. But I feel like I'm in a bummer movie but the less interesting part that never gets shown in the actual film. The part where the non-fool tries to quit the other person like smoking. Where they still ask "I wonder what ___ is doing tonight?" when they have so many other things to do. When I walk down Broadway late at night, my ears filled with a playlist of comforting songs, I enjoy the cool air, the music, my feet stepping on the sidewalk. But in the back of my head I always expect to run into you. I don't know what I'd say anymore if I did. Part of me is hoping that you're okay and aware of how much you complicated things, and just on the verge of an official "I'm sorry" for your actions. The other part is wishing that you had always remained that person of mystery who I would never in a million years be entagled with. You weren't careless and confused in that version of the story.
I hate any missed opportunity where things could turn out like I've always imagined them to. Only the problem is I have to imagine it. After the show that night, after I saw you move to another area, after I walked by acting unaware that you were even there, after I stood 20 feet closer to you in the lobby and the people you and I both know interacted with the both of us but we never acknowledged the other, I stood alone and imagined that second ending of the movie I've seen a thousand times. And it's still a bummer.

"But the thoughts we try to deny take a toll upon our lives
We struggle on in depths of pride tangled up in single minds"
Portishead - It Could Be Sweet

Hungry Hungry Haikus #12

Patsy Cline walkin'
After midnight, crazy too
Guess we feel the same

Film: Wong Kar-Wai's 2046

Ahhh memories. Those misty, water colored boxes that we stack endlessly in the warehouse of our mind. Rows upon rows, each labeled and cross catalogued: '1995- Summer- Love- First Kiss- Joy', '1998- Winter- Love- Break-up letter- Sadness'. We take the time to store these elements everyday.The fresh smell of rain, the sweet taste of a peach, the wonderful touch of silk. Countless memories end up used and dumped; not relevant enough to make it to the archives. Others get the full treatment. Labled in big letters and put on a low shelf for easy access later; these are the ones that we return to like a novel we keep re-reading. Opening up these boxes produces more than just a faint image. These boxes have sight, sound and smell. Colors, a wafty song heard on the radio, cigarette smoke on the curtains. These memories transport us back in time for however long we want. Be careful or you might just want to stay there forever.
No filmmaker can visualize (and even fetishize) the power of memory like Wong Kar Wai. From Days Of Being Wild to Chungking Express, Fallen Angels to Happy Together, his vision (and to be fair that of his celebrated cinematographer Christopher Doyle) is one of people stuck living in a year that no longer exists. These folks float around like bored fish in an aquarium, content on being stuck forever in the world they used to inhabit, afraid of living in a world they know nothing about.
In his new film 2046, Wong Kar Wai reaquaints us with dapper journalist-cum-socialite Chow Mo Wan (played again with stark Clark Gable coolness by Tony Leung) who we first met in Wong's In The Mood For Love. Still smarting from the rejection of Su Li Zhen (played by Maggie Cheung) Chow now passes the time doing pulp fiction work and living in a flophouse called the Oriental Hotel. It is here that the vast majority of 2046's story unfolds.When moving into the flophouse Chow requests room 2046 only to have it not finished. He takes room 2047 and gets used to it. He then watches as a series of beautiful women (a virtual who's who of Asia's finest actresses) all move into and inhabit room 2046 over time. Chow meets Lulu (Carina Lau) an aging callgirl stuck loving the memory of a deceased man. Chow woos Bai Ling (Ziyi Zhang proving herself again as a fine new actress) a callgirl herself but one looking ahead and directly at Chow himself. Chow talks to Wang Jing Wen (Faye Wong), the daughter of the flophouse manager, who is carrying on an affair with a man in Japan despite her father's wishes. Finally, Chow reminisces about another Su Li Zhen (Gong Li) a mysterious gambler who reveals next to nothing about herself but fills him with familiarity . Chow's relationships to these women is tinged like a perfume by the haunting memory of the first Su Li Zhen. But where most memories pull us back into the past like anchors, Chow's does something interesting for him; it creates a past, present and future all revolving around the number 2046.
That number was the hotel room that Chow and Su carried on their clandestine meetings years before. While spending time with Wang he begins to work on a sci-fi pulp novel with her. The novel's time period? The year 2046, of course. More than just a clever plot device the presence of 2046 creates a bizarre quandry: Chow's actions in the present are affected by the memories of his past which has given birth to the future where everyone goes to forget the past and never returns (wrap your head around that one!). Every one of the women in Chow's life has a role in the future as designed- for- pleasure androids that cross the path of CC1966 (Chang Chen) a character devised after Chow himself who is trying to leave 2046 and everything it encapsulates. Through this character Chow can take a step back and view his relationship to all of the women around him, past and present.
It is within this vision of the future that we truly meet the character of Chow. As a writer his work asks that he plug into his past experiences to create new ones. We see that he is not just haunted by the memory of Su but of every woman that crosses his path. Will this opportunity to move ahead change his pattern of behaviour or will Chow choose to live in the world of 2046; past, present and future? The joy in the film is coming along for Wong Kar Wai's vivid ride.
Wong creates a simple canvas out of his vision of the future that doesn't distract from the stunning visuals that fill the central time period (late 1960's to be exact) but is instead a companion piece to all of the romantic action and a home for us all to imagine our problems and wishes ending up later. The film stays with you because Wong shows us aspects of our own memories, different as they are, that we rarely admit to others we noticed ourselves. The devil is in the details and Wong doesn't mind reminding us that obsession can stunt and diminish our own ability to enter the future awaiting us. We all have someone to get over. We all have someone we don't want to forget. 2046 reminds us that memories only have as much power as we give them but that that same power can be enough to take us into amazing uncharted territory but only if we can be brave enough to take the first step out of the past.

Directed by Wong Kar-Wai
(China/Hong Kong, 2005, 127min)
English Subtitles

Hungry Hungry Haikus #11

!!!!!
...!!!.
!!...

Hungry Hungry Haikus #10

Red Vines NOT Twizzlers
Sweet as a meteor's dust
Soft as the night sky

Hungry Hungry Haikus #9

Can't stop this feeling
Putting my pillow to head
Wish I didn't care

Hungry Hungry Haikus #8

I'm just a nice boy
A change of pace, someone new
I'm still a nice boy

Hungry Hungry Haikus #7

Where did the time go
It seems like just yesterday
What page was I on

Hungry Hungry Haikus #6

All that I wanted
Your hand softly on my arm
A hand shake instead...

Hungry Hungry Haikus #5

Haikus take alot
Five Seven Five easy to count
But hard to contain

Hungry Hungry Haikus #4

Twenty - Eight nearby
Would I dare change anything?
On second thought : NO

Hungry Hungry Haikus #3

Lubba dub lub dub
Your heart has one beat too many
It sounds fine to me

Hungry Hungry Haikus #2

Words like allergens
Can bother and irritate
Seems you're allergic

Hungry Hungry Haikus #1

Out of anyone
At my window at 3am
Wish it had been you

Should A Body Meet A Body: Pat Benetar, Neil Geraldo and Bruce Campbell

So, alright, today began brisk and busy, I've been covering my vacationing friend at the Film Center so I was immersed in building showtimes and answering messages and blah de blah. So I went for a walk for a bit and walked across Auraria Parkway to the Conoco for a late afternoon snack. While waiting in line to purchase some pretzels and a Cherry Coke I am surprised to see Pat "freakin" Benetar and her beau and muse Neil Geraldo come in for lord knows what. I just, oddly, raise a hand and say "Hello there.." to which they both reply "Hi!". I paid for my stuff and quickly left (I can be shy 'round famous people especially ones I used to jump around on my bed singing into a spoon to). Then, while leaving the Film Center around 5pm I was serenaded by Mrs. Benetar and Mr. Geraldo doing a soundcheck of LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD over at Invesco Field or whatever outdoor venue is across the way there. Sweet.
THEN! I trucked over to the Mayan Theatre where I had promised to help out with the Bruce Campbell book signing/ film in-person. Now, I knew I was going to eventually meet him but couldn't believe how charismatic and genial he is up close (especially after he had to sign 649 copies of his new book in 4 hours). The rest of the staff and I got to say hello after the book signing and I think he may have been appreciative that all I wanted was a handshake (a pal took a photo which maybe I will someday post. maybe I'll just press it in my memory book...). I tried not to geek out too much but I may have cracked, I dunno. My favorite moment from this evening:

Bruce Campbell is packing up and getting ready to call it a night on the mezzanine of the Mayan Theatre. Two young men (bout 19 tops) come up to him.
Boy..1: Hey Bruce, we were just going to go and get a burrito if you want to join us...
Bruce: (amused) Thanks guys, but I'm good.
Boy..2: (to Boy ..1) Burrito!? Dude, couldn't you come up with anything classier?!

Film: Gregg Araki's MYSTERIOUS SKIN

Looking at the career path of director Gregg Araki I can only be reminded of the very personal path of my own sexuality. That may sound a bit forward, but follow me for a second. In 1992, a 15 year old Keith Jerome Garcia bought a ticket at the Mayan Theatre for some random art film in an effort to then sneak into The Living End. I was attracted to the poster for the film that showed two (hot) men, faces intimately close, fighting over a gun. I was just now learning to decipher what the word 'homoeroticism' meant and darned if the ad campaign didn't promise a film ripe with that meaning. Araki's amateur style and visual abilty made a huge impression on me. I was just beginning to untangle, what seemed to me, a long thread of sexual identity and direction and, after the film, I felt like I had at least found one end to start pulling on. Araki presented me with two strong gay men, neither one the stereotype I was used to seeing up to that point. These men were not defined by their sexuality, in fact, their sexuality was the emotional torrent that caused so much trouble for them in the first place. Suddenly my eyes were open.
I followed Araki's films from that point on and seemed to grow up twisted arm in arm with him. I came out at school in 1993 weeks after viewing Totally Fucked Up, following the reaction a gay character who kills himself, after living in fear of his gay secret, leaves on his friends. In 1995 I entered college with The Doom Generation and its nihilistic, sexual curiousity made me view life away from home with both excitement and suspicion. I had my first set of 'anonymous' sexual encounters during that period but knew that I wanted something more than their empty thrills. 1997's Nowhere met me trying to make adult decisions when all I wanted was a boy who would sleepover and make out with me. James Duval's exploding alien-cockroach-boyfriend at that film's end said it all: Grow up. Preparing to move to L.A.as a 'grown-up' in 2000 (and reeling from a boy who broke my heart only the way an adult could), I caught Araki's Splendor and was caught off guard by him again. His 'Teenage Apocalypse' trilogy behind him, he had presented a shiny box wrapped in all of his usual touches: over the top set design, pop culture in a blender, young, attractive individuals swimming upstream in a chaotic world. Most people ignored the box, tired of Araki's same old tricks and empty flash, but when I opened it I found a slightly focused, lightly muted, adult screwball comedy, with something that had been long absent from the Araki ouevre: Hope.
In the six years since his last film and his new one, Mysterious Skin, it appears that Mr. Araki and myself have grown up quite a bit. The film is based on a novel, by Scott Heim, which I had read in high school but perhaps like the filmmaker, needed a take a few years afterwards to truly experience. In the film we meet two boys, Brian Lackey (Brady Corbet) and Neil McCormick (Joseph Gordon Levitt, here showing range light years beyond his sitcom training) who at the age of eight shared an experience that sends them on two very different paths. Brian is plagued by nightmares that remind him of that summer when five hours disappeared from his life and he emerged damaged and numb. The only 'logical' explanation to Brian is that he was abducted by aliens, shadowy, feel-y forms that color the edges of his memories. 10 years later Brian is still trying to find the pieces that form the truth to his private puzzle.
Those same ten years have laid a different road for Neil, an angry teenage hustler, he's willing to sacrifice himself in the pursuit of emotions he felt the same summer that Brian was 'abducted'. His misunderstanding of a horrible act has led him to seek love and adoration in the cold hands and mouths of older men more than happy to spend some time with the 'rough trade' Neil has become. Only his best friend Wendy (Michelle Trachtenberg) knows that Neil's behaviour is due to something much bigger than he is and she can only steer him in the right lane for brief moments. But while Neil's need to fill an empty void leads him to New York City, Brian's investigation to his own void leads him to Neil and the elluisve key that unlocks the dark secret that haunts them both.
A drama with adult themes and emotions sounds like a bad fit for the filmmaker who once coined the term 'EAT FUCK KILL' in one of his movies, but Mysterious Skin shows us a director that has grown up by simply taking some time to look at his path and see that his vivid experiences could breathe life in new and exciting ways. In his past films, Araki tells a story like it was happening that very second. 'Hurry up or you'll miss something, oh see you missed it! Wait here's something else!' Barely leaving time to breathe. He never took the time to stop and reflect on the world he was commenting on. He had all of the visual details right but you couldn't see what it was all supposed to mean. Skin presents a world full of vivid details: an 8 year old's Halloween, the sugary sweetness of Froot Loops, the cliche Goth posters that say more than the mascara wearing boy they belong to, the slight dread of what really lies in the sky above. Only now time has let Araki fill every pop culture detail in his frames with an actual, potent feeling. He's always let the scenery do the talking only now, there's actually something to say. The fragile landscape that, as children, shapes our sexuality and identity is the vivid bull charging through this delicate china shop of a film.
Only the bull never disturbs the foundation. Araki doesn't ignore the seriousness of this subject matter but doesn't let the film get bogged down by it either. He pulls back the right amount and only gives us the details that matter. Those same details are the important ones lost for the boys in the film and when they find them, we do too. Araki does an incredible job by slowly unwrapping the past, never spelling things out for us, and lets us put our own experience into the situation. Much is said about innocence and what supposedly deviates things from a set road, but Mysterious Skin leads us to see a different side of things for ourselves.
The road to self discovery is truly a very long and arduous one. We start at one point, sure of our directions but can often go to places we never thought we would, good and bad, it's only when we emerge from the path and can look around do we really see the way things are. I've taken my own path in life and so has Gregg Araki, I'm lucky to have had his films as a reference point on my map over the years and to discover with him that growing up really is a place to begin things anew. Skin ends with the promise of finally knowing that bridging your past and your present is the best way to move forward. And now comes the next step.

Directed by Gregg Araki
(USA, 2005, 107min)

Film: Christopher Nolan's BATMAN BEGINS

Since his creation at Bob Kane's pen decades ago, Batman has become one of our culture's most schizophrenic icons. The Dark Knight has gone from a tortured comics vigilante to 60's television's acid tripping pop clown crimefighter back to being broody (but stylized) in Tim Burton's film incarnation and an animated series, and then (woefully) back to a fizzy joke courtesy of Joel Schumacher's gay sensibilities and batsuit nipples. It's no wonder then that for the past few years fans have wondered how to bring back their beloved hero from such a mixed up fate. It seems the icon was prescribed uppers when things seemed too dark and downers when things got too giddy. But how else do you fix such a complicated and deep-rooted identity complex? According to Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins, with a good dose of therapy.

Nolan and co-screenwriter David S. Goyer, like any good therapist, truly start at the beginning. We see the childhood of Bruce Wayne and exactly what could become of a young man who watches the murder of his parents and becomes imprisoned by the anger and fear of being too helpless to have done anything about it. Christian Bale deftly tackles the shell of a man who seeks to fill his empty spaces with justice. This Batman begins with a clean canvas and gives us fresh paint to work with. Our own missing links, how Bruce trained to fight, his introduction to vengeance at the hands of a deadly stealth team (led by the impressive Liam Neeson and Ken Watanabe) to his return home, development of his weapons cache and plan for righting the wrongs of a decaying Gotham city, are given straight focus and explanation. I was impressed by the film's ultimate position of realism in the world of Batman. There's a solid lead up of scientific explanation for how Batman and his many tools can exist in the first place. The film doesn't try to make a comic book come to life, it succeeds at bringing real-life to a comic book idea. Gotham City actually seems to exist in this film rather than feel like a painted set CGI landscape. Don't fear that this neuters Batman in any way. The Dark Knight has always been human after all and, unlike other comic heros, has always dealt with real flesh-and-blood issues.

Overcoming panic and fear drive the heart of Batman Begins and that is evident in the film's upfront villan Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy) otherwise known as Scarecrow. Crane, who dusts his victims with a hallucinogen that, after spooking them with a haunting burlap sack on his head thus bringing out their deepest fears, runs the legendary Arkham Asylum. The notion that Bruce Wayne himself is just one step away from being put in a straight jacket is an interesting angle to bring into the Batman world. It is this falliabilty that the film juggles nicely. We have a hero that that fights because he has some problems to work out, but does so using double identities and violent intimidation. As complicated as it seems to bring these issues to life I'm grateful that this once waning series has returned to the dark, mental world that it has. This Batman is lying on the couch talking about his problems, and I think we're ready for another few sessions.

PS- look for good performances from Michael Caine (trusted butler Alfred), Morgan Freeman as weapons expert Lucius Fox, the usually intense Gary Oldman doing his best nebbish as a young Lt. (and future Commishoner) Gordon and Katie Holmes as childhood pal/ love interest Rachel Dawes. Though she's hard to bite as the DA of Gotham City, she fits into the world ultimately and even Dawson couldn't resist that sideways smile....

Directed by Christopher Nolan
(USA, 2005, 140 min)

Film: Johnnie To's YESTERDAY ONCE MORE

Love can be a cat-and-mouse game, especially when the two involved are jewelry thieves like the couple in Yesterday Once More.
The best part of a good relationship is the playful cat-and-mouse game that comes out of one person trying to one-up the other in expressions of love. You see the flowers they’ve given you and raise them a dinner and nice bauble. I’m reminded of a Precious Moments figurine that I saw once that showed a little boy with his arms outstretched. On the base was written “I love you this much!”
It’s how we fill up that imaginary space between the hands, whether it be with gifts or actual events, that sometimes expresses what every word in the human language cannot.
In Johnnie To’s Yesterday Once More, we meet Mr. and Mrs. T, (House of Flying Daggers' Andy Lau and Infernal Affairs’ Sammi Cheng) who are wealthy, married jewel thieves who have just completed another successful heist. On a yacht they playfully quarrel as the diamonds are split between them. But Mrs. T’s reaction to ‘an even split’ changes the game to Mr. T and he bluntly suggests a divorce, climbs to another yacht and drives away, the loot forgotten.
Jump ahead two years, and we find an ex- Mrs. T being wooed by a powerful playboy (Carl Ng) who even dances atop a table in an effort to give her happiness. He offers her his hand in marriage, but she prefers one of his mother’s expensive family heirlooms and plans to steal it, love not being the true object of this expected union. But Mr. T has read of his ex’s engagement and steals the heirloom out from under her. This was not an act of jealousy, however. The theft was for purposes that appear to be far greater than Mrs. T imagines they are.
What unfolds is a delicious romantic crime caper that crosses the taught passion of The Thomas Crown Affair with the bubbly, socialite fun of an episode of Hart to Hart.
Jaunty saxophone and tinkling pianos keys fill the soundtrack with a fun vibe that matches the relationship at hand. When the T’s (that letter is the only allusion the film gives us to their real name, by the way) meet up again, we see a spark that can’t be denied. Lau and Cheng show us a couple that have no reason to be apart especially since their shared kleptomania is one more common interest than most married couples can claim.
Lau is all smiles and smart charm, playing a delicate game with Cheng that’s as attractive as a lover hiding a surprise behind his back. Cheng herself is beautiful, smart and obnoxious, which is just right for a woman whose child-like pouts reveal a smile that sparkles like the jewels she swoons over. She knows her relationship is more precious than the necklace but has so many doubts about being in love that the heirloom seems like an easier deal than a husband.
As they say, diamonds are forever.
The things we do for love and how we fill that immeasurable void between our arms are what give Yesterday a resonance that exceeds the yachts, diamonds, flowing wines and fast cars that cover the screen. Sometimes objects are the only way people know how to say “I love you,” and this film is one big gift with a quiet declaration of love hidden inside the box.
Take a loved one to see it if you get a chance, as I fear a U.S. remake is on the horizon — seeing that instead would feel like buying a lover a second-hand necklace to apologize for forgetting a grand anniversary.

Directed by
Johnnie To Kei-Fung
2004/Hong Kong/99 min.
English subtitles

Film: Daniel Gordon's A STATE OF MIND

Thousands gather to practice routines for the massive North Korean celebration Mass Games. The film A State of Mind chronicles the festival.
Over the last 50 years, the communist state of North Korea has been putting together an eye-popping, people-filled spectacular called the Mass Games.
Utilizing more than 80,000 gymnasts and countless others with technical verve and ability, the Mass Games is as extravagant as a Super Bowl halftime show. But it is filled with participants who bring dedication, class, honor and a little spilled blood to the set.
The gymnasts and mosaic board-flippers spin, leap, kick and explode in a series of colorful, human controlled moving seas, waving flags, synchronized patterns and, most importantly, living examples of loyalty and devotion to North Korea, communism and their great leader Kim Jon Il.
While watching Daniel Gordon’s BBC documentary, A State of Mind, I was reminded of how little I actually knew about North Korea. Two fingers on my hand represent the knowledge of the country— Kim Jon Il and frightening nuclear capabilities — I carried into the film.
It is perhaps this blind spot that made the film intriguing and frightening to me in equal measures. Gordon’s cameras were allowed unprecedented access to film in North Korea.
The crew included translators and access to sacred public areas.
Gordon focuses his lens on the story of two young gymnasts, Pak Hyon Sun and Kim Song Yon. Both are devoted schoolgirls who seem to exhibit the perfect adolescent life under the General’s reign. At school they learn about the predicted assault by the United States on their soil, hone their English (as both a tool and as a weapon), and spend 80 percent of their time in the Mass Games club where they, and just about every other nimble student, perfect their gymnastic skills in the hopes that they will be good enough to be asked to perform in the “socialist realism extravaganza.”
We watch both girls through multiple practices (all done on concrete and with no regard to aches and pains) where the smiling girls learn that they succeed “as individualism disappears and group power develops.” Every synchronized leap and flip is another link in the chain of self-reliance.
These movements are also another step away from the unwanted imperialism of the United States and those who oppose the perfect communist state.
These lessons spill over into the girls’ home life as well. We watch as family time becomes a time to help each other, learn about each other and build a unit so tight that it can be used as a defense for their state. When electricity goes out nightly for hours at a time (North Korea, despite seeming like a show-off still struggles economically), curses toward the United States are heard as excuses for the way things remain and a reason for everyone to work harder to overcome them. The previous actions of the United Stares are what drive North Koreans toward beautiful perfection and love for their leader and home.
It was this sudden lesson that tinged the wonder of watching thousands of people coming together for one amazing artistic expression.
It was a bitter pill full of fear for what a million united minds could be capable of, especially when anger and resentment are the bubbling at the core.
A State of Mind shows us a place changed by the past, happy with their present time, and prepared for the negative expectations of what is to come.
The Mass Games put an exquisite mask on to a face that has been long awaiting a proper unveiling.
Yet it remains to be seen if the scars that the mask has been hiding are being worn with pride or with reflection to those who may have caused them.

Directed by Daniel Gordon
2004/N. Korea/93 min.
Korean with English Subtitles