Think of the children!

Wake Up.

I have fun writing here, but I've discovered that I need a break from time to time. As a result of this and a few other things, this space has been sleeping for awhile now (around six months, actually). Today I woke up back up and it's largely as a result of catching Ron Paul in tonight's Presidential Debate.

I'm registered Republican and my politics tend to be strongly conservative. That said, I HATE the direction in which the Right has been moving in the time since Reagan and Bush Mk-I. Fringe religious groups and extremists have misappropriated the Republican moniker and systematically transformed what it represents into something that flies in the face of all that conservatism in its most true and classical form has always stood for. These are principles like belief in the power of the individual, small government, and protecting against erosion of privacy and individual freedoms. It's a sad day when the Left often seems more in step with these values. Republican stance on the Patriot Act, gay marriage, separation of church and state, taxation and spending, international affairs and innumerable other issues have signalled the coming death of the party.

What has this done to me? In recent years, I've become increasingly cynical about politics. I'm now generally of the opinion that Republicans and Democrats in the government are essentially the same. They have superficially opposing viewpoints for the sole purpose of maintaining the two-party system. It's in the interest of each party to lock the independent thinkers with the big ideas out of the game and instead keep a single powerful antagonist to galvanize their foot soldiers (the voters). This pretty much ensures an ebb and flow of power in which both major groups will get to control the ball with some regularity. At the highest levels of politics, there is no real distinction between the parties. There are only players and non-players. Without the support and cooperation of the players on both sides of the aisle, you have exactly ZERO chance of getting anywhere in our political system. Like many people, being offered no reasonable candidates to choose from in the past two Presidential elections, I've felt disenfranchised and less engaged in the ongoing political discussion. It's hard to stay enthusiastic when the only choice you're consistently given is between the lesser of two evils. From there, it's a surprisingly short slide from disillusionment to bitterness to apathy.

Today something changed. I watched the GOP Presidential debate on a lark mostly, expecting the same generic posturing and tired rhetoric that you usually get...and there was still plenty of that, of course. But I also got to hear Ron Paul speak for the first time and his ideas and perspective resonated with me in a way that was completely unexpected and I felt myself getting excited again. Here was a guy not overwhelmed with the fear, paranoia and hype of living in a "post-9/11 world" (just typing that term out makes me want to fucking puke), not obsessed with shoving his faith down your throat, not swept up in the new wave of American colonialism and nationalism, and NOT willing to change his mind because all the other guys on the stage disagree with him. He presented as a man who was honest, brave, humble, thoughtful and empathetic...which, not coincidentally, are the qualities that he says our country needs to exemplify. And the ideas he articulated encapsulated the style of classic conservative values that made conservatism relevant in the first place.

Okay, so I'm on board now. This is something I can get behind. Oh, the fit isn't perfect, mind you. I disagree with him in a couple of notable areas, but the most important things are there. The problem now is his electability. Obviously, this guy is a crazy-huge longshot for 2008. Great. Still, get this...In the online world of polls, blogs and forums, Ron Paul has consistently outperformed the rest of the field. Fox News and other media sources have tried to discredit these results and talk him down in their reports, but clearly he has established some elevated mindshare with the more tech-savvy interweb users out there. This is heartening. Why?

BECAUSE I WANT MY PARTY BACK, GODDAMMIT!

I suppose you'd like to know how this all pertains to you, right? Well, I'm awake again and I want you to wake up too, if you weren't already. I'm asking you to read up on Mr. Paul and his track-record. Watch him speak. Listen to what he has to say. If the ideas he discusses resonate with you the same way they did with me, please tell other people about him, as many as possible. If not, then read up on the other candidates and spread the word about the one that strikes a chord with you, but whatever you do, don't just blindly accept whatever two candidates the establishment tries to force down your throat. Can't we do better than Bush versus Gore? Or Bush versus Kerry? Or, for God's sake, Giuliani versus Clinton? The two-party system MUST be destroyed. Our minds and souls and future depend on it.

I believe this is finally becoming attainable. We live in the dawn of the Internet age. Traditional media are becoming less and less relevant. It's getting harder and harder for any individual or group to control the flow of information and ideas. This is a call. Wake up. Wake up the neighbors and the kids too, while you're at it. Now is the time. Kill your TV. Spread the word. The Internet is ON.

Love to all. It's good to be back.



Official Ron Paul campaign website:

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/


Video clips from 1st and 2nd GOP debates:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Hfa7vT02lA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8h2oLpzB4I

Jackman² + Angst² = Movie²

So emo, it hurts...

I managed to catch both of Hugh Jackman's recent big releases. Both have things in common, but...wow, talk about different outcomes! Lemme drop some knowledge...

First up, we have The Prestige. This is probably the best movie about stage magicians that I've ever seen. Okay, it's also the ONLY movie I've ever seen about stage magicians, but that's beside the point. It's still really good. Hugh Jackman plays an angst-ridden magician who is deeply obsessed with outdoing and destroying his equally fixated arch-rival, played by Christian Bale. Very often you'll see movie advertisements that throw around the word "obsession" all higglety-pigglety, when the movie really has nothing to do with that. This is a rare movie that could actually lay claim to that term, but doesn't. Jackman and Bale are both pitch perfect and it's a good thing too, because with the constant one-upsmanship and venom spitting going on, things could turn melodramatic and silly very easily. It's a testament to the intensity and focus of these guys that they can sustain this kind of dramatic tension for over two hours and not kill the momentum by the end of things. Jackman plays a character so passionate and single-minded in his pursuit of his personal obsessions that he is willing to cross nearly incomprehensible boundaries to get what he wants. The story (which I'm deliberately avoiding discussing...trust me, you'd rather be surprised) just builds and builds and builds, constantly raising the stakes, until you think it can't really proceed any further, but then makes this insane leap of faith that propels it to an entirely different plane of being. There are a couple of moments along the way that require more than a little suspension of disbelief and it isn't terribly hard to guess at what's coming around the bend, but fortunately I was wrapped up enough that it didn't bother me. Aside from Jackman and Bale, the other force you always feel on-screen is director Chris Nolan, who first gained widespread notoriety with Memento. This film, like that one, is a fiendishly plotted story about men so deeply wounded that they can't heal, being driven to the point of madness by needs they can never truly satisfy. I don't think it's for everyone, but it was definitely for me. Very very good stuff...

Review Scores for The Prestige:

STORYPLOTTING = Insidiously clever
ACTING = Uniformly excellent
VISUALS/ART DIRECTION = Immersive and interesting
ANGST LEVEL = 83% (alone in the arctic circle with a complete collection of Morrissey CD's)
THEMATIC MATERIAL = Provocative and fully-formed
OVERALL RATING: 3.6554 stars out of 4.129
________________

Next is The Fountain. Here, we have another offering from a highly regarded director, full of ideas and rife with opportunities for Hugh Jackman to show off his superior brow-furrowing skills. Unfortunately, where The Prestige was successful as a thoughtful and meticulously crafted drama, The Fountain is a plodding, confused, melodramatic and occasionally masturbatory descent into navel-gazing. Hugh Jackman plays a medical researcher on a desperate and obsessed quest to find a cure for his wife's cancer. Well, that doesn't sound entirely without promise, right? Oh, but of course that isn't all there is to it... He's also a Spanish conquistador on a desperate and obsessed quest to find the mythical The Tree Of Life, which the queen will use to fight The Spanish Inquisition. Aha! No one ever expects The Spanish Inquisition! Ah well, there might be some interesting ideas to mine from this story thread, right? OH! But of course that isn't it either! He's also some sort of futuristic Zen/Yoga/Tae-Bo psychedelic astronaut rocketing through space in a big golden bubble with a dying tree that evidently is the embodiment of his aforementioned dying wife. I'm sorry, but at this point the balance has been irrevocably tipped. Houston, we have too much shit in the movie. And that's the ultimate source of the movie's failing. The subject matter is universal in its interest, the performances are quite good, there is a deeply affecting grandeur and poetry to the visuals and score, and the director and all parties involved in the film obviously share a deep, abiding and sincere care about what they're making...BUT...the story spends so much time jumping around between seemingly unfinished narrative threads and half-baked ideas that it doesn't have time to explore any of them in a satisfactory way. The whole things unravels into a plodding, meandering, overwrought, hand-wringing mess. And about that hand-wringing...I don't know that I've ever seen a movie character more over-the-top and single-minded in his pursuit of consternated moping. Jackman is given more scenes than I could even begin to count just silently crying, scowling, flipping out, and looking generally tormented. His performance, like all the others, is quite good, but so persistent in sounding that same single note over and over that the whole thing inevitably topples into silly melodrama. I think Darren Aronofsky is one of the most talented directors coming up in cinema these days and I really wish he would have spent more time distilling his story and ideas down to a more elemental state. As it is, The Fountain has deep existential questions at its core, the same way as Pi, and creates beautiful poetry with images, the same way as Requiem For A Dream, but the whole thing just totally lacks focus, coherent vision and, finally, a meaningful point. I don't regret seeing it. Yes, at the end of the day it's a failure, but it's a big glorious supernova of a failure. I'd rather this than the safe, color-by-numbers bullshit you usually get at the megaplexes.

Review Scores for The Fountain:

STORYPLOTTING = Ambitious, but seriously all over the place
ACTING = Sincere and believable in the face of silliness
VISUALS/ART DIRECTION = Poetic and deeply arresting
ANGST LEVEL = 2,349,672% (deliberate, self-inflicted ball torture)
THEMATIC MATERIAL = Interesting, but simultaneously ham-fisted and half-baked
OVERALL RATING: 2.1118 stars out of 4.036

Oh November, We Hardly Knew Ye...

Whoops! This page has slipped my mind for a bit. Been busy and all that. Here's a quick update of recent things and things to come:

1. Mexico was awesome, in case anyone hasn't heard. It seems like forever ago now... Come to think of it, it's been two months, so I suppose that shouldn't be surprising. in any case, I highly recommend Cabo to anyone. Furthermore, I highly recommend an all-inclusive to people who really want to lounge around and take it easy...or people who drink like fish. Both types will go home happy.

2. We just had a blizzard this past Friday. Yes, a freakin' BLIZZARD! We had around ten inches of snow in twelve hours. Needless to say, work was shut down for the day, along with the majority of the city...So, I won't complain too much. It's hard to stay upset about something that gives you a day off. I'm still fairly new to the area, but I've seen snow in the past year. So, this wouldn't have been that big of a shocker, except that we had a sixty degree day two days before this thing hit! WTF!

3. Holiday plans have just been sorted out. We're planning on making the trip back south the Saturday before X-mas and staying around five days. Hopefully, this will be enough time to see everyone and get quality visiting time in. Everyone, give me the scoop on your travel plans, so we can get on the same page. The GF will be making the trek and I'd certainly like to introduce her to everybody.

I could probably fill in the gaps more than that, but maybe I should leave some stuff for everyone to discover when we get back to BR. Drop me the 411 when you get a chance, folks.

Stay tuned for a couple of short reviews!

Stupid Gringo Tourists

We rode out to Cabo San Lucas from the resort where we're staying yesterday. One of the passengers was a stupid older man from the States, along with his stupid older wife. The man was sitting shotgun and subjecting our poor driver to a never-ending barrage of stupid questions. There were so many good ones to choose from but this one takes the cake:

"How many lanes was this road in 1994?"

Most...Stupid...Question...EVER! Who fucking cares how many lanes the road was twelve years ago? Is that really all you can think of to ask, aside from the other 100 equally stupid questions you entertained yourself with?

When we were finally dropped off, the driver looked as through he had been punched in the solar plexus for 30 straight minutes. This is why tourists from the United States have such a bad reputation. It wouldn't have even been so bad if there had been some real conversation to put the questions into a more appropriate context, but NO... These puppies were coming fast and furious from out of nowhere. Tactless, socially inept, generally clueless. This man was a national embarrassment.

Sigh...

Other than that, the trip is going well. We're having loads of fun and enjoying some beautiful sights. More details to come. Love to all!

Let's Went!

Just jumping on real quick while I have a minute. We're leaving for a week long vacation in Mexico in the morning. We're on a CRAZY tight schedule. I worked a 12-hour shift prepping everything for next week and Maryam is still in Pennsylvania! I'm trying to throw my bags together real quick before I have to get her from the airport late tonight. Then we'll wrap up at the apartment and head to the airport around 4:00 to make our 6:00 am flight. Yech... At least we'll be arriving fairly early, so we can enjoy a real first day.

Should be a good trip. We were thinking about going to Thailand, but it turns out that this is the rainy season...Plus there's that recent overthrow of the government to consider. :) Maybe next time. After that we thought about doing Cancun, but later settled on another Cabo trip. Turns out to be a good call there too. Seems that Cancun is set for a week of thunderstorms...Oh yeah, there's also a freakin' plague of locusts!!! WTF?!!??? Hopefully there won't be any unpleasant surprises, because the only thing that could top our previously considered destinations would be if the earth cracked open and swallowed the entire Baja Peninsula whole.

So, lots of love to all. I'll give everyone the heads up when we get back.

Now let's went before we end up dancing at the end of a rope with no music playing!

Oh My God! A New Post!

Wow, I haven't updated this page in forever!

I've been thinking of plenty of things I want to write about over the past several weeks, but my available time has been SORELY lacking. One of the things I wanted to toss up here is a quick run down of several movies I've seen in the last few months. I'm going to write a more in-depth analysis of a couple in particular at some point, but I'll whet your appetite with some bite-sized reviews for now. I'll try to avoid giving anything significant away, but just in case...


...SPOILERS AHOY!!!


The Last Kiss

We saw this last night. It stars Zack Braff and is being marketed as a sort of 30-something follow-up to Garden State, which couldn't be further from the truth. Ultimately, I severely disliked the film, mostly because it begins by asking interesting questions that the movie finally isn't interested in wrestling with. This is deeply frustrating. Instead, it slips into VERY familiar territory dealing with the aftermath of infidelity. Yawn... I might have wondered what the hell went wrong here, except that I noticed during the credits that Paul Haggis, writer of both Crash and Million Dollar Baby, is responsible for the screenplay. That tells the whole tale. Haggis is a guy who writes scripts that are flawless in a mechanical sense. Every character and every scene is set up in such a way that there is always a motivation and prior on-screen occurrence that lends some weight and believability to what you're watching. In short, he understands how to tell a story very very well. The problem is that he doesn't understand how to tell GOOD stories well. The Last Kiss ends up being undone by some of the same problems that ruined Crash for me. Haggis creates stories about ethical ambiguities and then simultaneously makes sweeping generalizations that are moral absolutes. What message am I supposed to come away with from this stupid-ass movie? Here's what I get: We're all too stupid and selfish to know when we've got something good right in front of us. And even if we do figure it out, we're all too weak to do the right thing anyway, but that's okay because really everyone does it and everything will work out okay for you anyway as long as you're willing to make yourself suffer conspicuously for long enough to prove you're really really really sorry for what you did. What? Am I really supposed to feel sorry for some dipshit who just spent the movie screwing his girlfriend, screwing his friends, and metaphorically screwing the other girl that he's also literally screwed? For Christ's sake, spare me the pretentious moral posturing about learning and growing from past mistakes that involve acting like an asshole. Pardon me, but just because you and everyone you know is a philandering piece of shit, don't try to tell me that I am too.

Fuck this movie. End of rant...


Brick

Okay, this is more like it. I liked this one a lot. If you haven't heard about it, Brick is a modern take on the hard-boiled detective stories of the 1930's, but recast in a high-school setting. That's right, a high-school setting! If you know anything about me, you'll know that I hate high-school movies. I mean really HATE them with deep and abiding loathing... So that should tell you something about Brick. The movie works a far cry better than it has any right to. It has awesome performances, wicked plotting and the dialogue is spot perfect. This is a movie that could have sounded silly very easily, but it turns out that listening to these characters speak is an absolute pleasure. Even the two-bit players have interesting things to say. Volumes are spoken with such economy as to give the words an incredible weight. This is a movie that Kevin Smith and Quentin Tarantino should take a cue from. It's better than anything either has done, in my humble opinion, and without a tidal wave of exhausting and pointless verbage bogging it down. I won't go into story details because I don't want to spoil the fun, but it's very very clever and well realized. Highly recommended!


Firecracker

From the beginning, this had the look of a movie that was custom built for me. It's a small town murder story with a surrealist bent. The reviews that I've seen have been largely positive, including many from well known and respected critics, and have described it as "Lynchian" and "Hitchcockian" and a slew of other great sounding "-ian's." It also features genius singer/musician Mike Patton in duel roles. Sounds like a can't miss, right? Wrong! It's a colossal disappointment. The premise is interesting, but the story goes beyond being quirky and disjointed and heads straight to weird-for-the-sake-of-being-weird and totally unhinged. I'm all for non-traditional and ambiguous storytelling, but this thing is just a big confused mess. Some of the performances are decent, but others are outright laughable. Finally, the production quality is plain atrocious. The more forgiving reviews have described the editing style as being "jarring" or "in-your-face", but I would tend to favor "amateurish" and "poorly conceived" instead. Some of the color work is interesting, but overall the whole thing looks like it was made on the cheap. I appreciate a filmmaker taking chances, but it still has to add up to a watchable movie. Overlong. Badly executed. Boring. Avoid...


United 93

Better than I'd hoped. I know it's been said over and over again, but it was very tasteful and not at all exploitive. It's a simple story that's told quietly and effectively. It would have been easy to make this same movie as an emotionally overwrought shlock-fest. The fact is, there's enough real drama here that you don't need to artificially manufacture it with cheap emotional manipulations. Overall, this is well worth checking out, but it won't be one to hold any particularly long lasting mind-share with me, the way that many other films do.


The Wicker Man

Okay, this is an interesting one. First off, it is NOT a good movie. Second, even though it isn't a good movie, you will probably have fun watching it. Third, the movie is deeply misunderstood by the masses and the critics who have reviewed it.

In nearly all reviews I've seen, The Wicker Man is incorrectly treated as a straight horror/thriller hybrid. This movie is satire. The director and co-writer is Neil LaBute, famous for scorching black comedies like In The Company Of Men and Your Friends And Neighbors. Put this film into the context of his other work and it suddenly makes a lot more sense. This film, like those, is about gender wars...NOT the absurd mystery or the heroic flatfoot. The trappings of the plot are almost incidental. The important message to get from this movie is that, when it comes to conflicts between the sexes, all women are evil (even baby women) and all men are clumsy, stupid, easily manipulated and totally outmatched. There's a scene that comes soon after Edward Malus, played with a rapturous lack of subtlety by Nicolas Cage, arrives on the island. Here he confronts a group of locals hauling off a big, bloody, twitching burlap sack. He wants to know what's in the bag. Go ahead and have a look say the ladies, full of smug assurance, but he can't force himself to look inside. They laugh at him and walk off. This scene is the key to the whole movie. Edward is willfully ignorant. He isn't interested in learning about the mysteries of the island or achieving some deeper understanding of what's going on around him; he's too scared and too dense for that. He's there because his big, dumb male ego requires him to come to the rescue and take control of the situation. If he was really willing to look into dark scary places, he'd know what we all find out in a later scene mirroring this earlier one...He's the one in the sack. For the length of the movie, we've got Mr. Ed storming around the island on his stolen bicycle, screaming his lines at the locals and bumbling around like a bull in a china shop. It's absurd, deliberately so. And it's really funny too. This film is drawing criticism for being unintentionally hilarious. Again, you have to look a little harder. LaBute has always been masterful with dialogue. The man is quite literally a playwright. Words are his trade. It is beyond unlikely that someone with this background and experience wouldn't have realized what the dialogue sounds like. Of course the dialogue is funny...the Edward character is funny! In fact, he's patently ridiculous. His motivations and actions and reactions and whole manner of being are absurd! The guy is an object for derision and laughter, as is everything that he represents. Then there's the matter of the bear suit, just in case it wasn't obvious enough for you. This is a director trying to let everyone in on the joke, even the slower audience members who haven't got it figured out yet. Come on, people. This is a rubber chicken moment in what is being marketed as a horror film. And as if this wasn't silly enough, when Edward takes the bear suit off again, HE LEAVES THE FEET ON! Oh my God, I laughed so hard! What do you need, people? A neon sign?

Ultimately, there's some stuff to like here and the movie is undeniably fun and humorous. Why then is it not a good movie? The fact of the matter is, The Wicker Man doesn't go far enough with the absurdist comedic elements and keeps too many of the trappings of the horror and suspense genres that it mines for material. It isn't enough of one thing or the other to really function fully as either. It strikes me as LaBute trying to secretly slide one of his own movies in under the noses of financiers that are expecting a traditional horror remake. In this way, it strikes me as something of a masturbatory effort. It has all the standard LaBute tropes, but without any of the more thoughtful content of previous efforts to it elevate beyond a fairly juvenile point of view. I don't think LaBute is a misogynist, but this movie won't help him shake that perception...Not that he looks on men more kindly here either.


Lemming

I've had some good luck with French films lately and this was no exception. Like Firecracker, which I mentioned earlier, Lemming has been cited as having elements of Lynch and Hitchcock, but this one actually deserves and lives up to those comparisons. Some will say it's derivative, but I couldn't disagree more...and I'm a huge Lynch fan. I'd like to get into the details of the story and how it unfolds, but the movie will be that much better if you don't know anything about it in advance. All I'll say is that Lemming sneaks up slowly and takes turns that will knock you on your ass. There are some great performances too. If you like stuff that's a little out of left field, do yourself a favor and check this one out, but try to avoid having any details given away before you see it. Highly recommended!


The Descent

I usually dislike horror movies, but this was something different. On the surface, The Descent is your standard "hot chicks trapped with scary monsters" flick. The things that set it apart are compelling characters with real back-stories, clever cinematography and visuals that conjure up images and feelings from other great films, and some fresh new action and thrills that really get under your skin. It's odd to find a movie that quotes from other movies so often, but manages to avoid all the cliches usually associated with the genre it occupies. So, this is well worth checking out. It's smart and thoughtful and intense. Just make sure to find the original European ending if you get stuck watching the American cut. It's much better.


A Scanner Darkly

This is a Richard Linklater film and, as such, you should pretty much know what you're getting into ahead of time. It's a fairly cerebral and melancholy exploration of the paranoia and existential conflicts that come with life in drug culture and police states. Like other Linklater films, A Scanner Darkly tells its story largely through dialogue. This will be a problem for some people. As is becoming more and more common these days, trailers and previews have generally misrepresented what the film is. Those viewers coming in expecting an action film or something akin to Minority Report or The Matrix will be sorely disappointed, but the rest of us will find a lot to like. The animation fits perfectly with the subject matter of the movie and the performances convey a desperation and hopelessness that absolutely ring true. Good stuff. Check it out if you're up for something a little more heady than your average Hollywood fare. That goes double if you're a fan of Philip K. Dick.


---

Okay, that's it for now. Everything else is good here. We're working on some fun plans for the last part of the year. I'll try to keep to a more regular posting schedule in coming weeks. Check back often. More is on the way soon. Best wishes and lots of love to all...

Hidden In Plain View

I just finished watching Michael Haneke's Cache a little while ago and wanted to post something about it really quick. Before I get going, it's very good and I recommend it to anyone looking for something a little challenging. That aside...

If you haven't seen this movie and are at all interested, I'd advise you to not go further without checking it out first. I'm going to try not to reveal anything important about the movie, but what seems unimportant to me isn't always to everyone else, so just in case...SPOILER WARNING!!!

Now, one reason that I think this movie resonated with me so much is because it reminded me of my screenplay in the way it handles secrets and mystery. There are many secrets and mysteries in this film, but the one at the center of it all is the matter of the videotapes. Cache begins, like David Lynch's Lost Highway (also, notice that the main character's last name was Laurent...Coincidence???), with a couple being terrorized by an unknown individual or individuals who sends them videotapes of their house. Over time the content on the tapes becomes more alarming and the threat escalates. Likewise, in my script there is a mystery/secret at the center of the story that propels it forward through the second act.

So, why is this significant? The thing is, anyone half-awake while watching this thing unfold will realize that they aren't dealing with a traditional narrative or film structure and they won't likely be handed a very concrete and unambiguous resolution to satisfy their curiosity. So, I'm watching and I know that very likely all my questions won't be answered, but damnit...It's all too interesting to put out of mind that easily! This is a big problem with a story like this, or like the one I try to tell in my screenplay. As a viewer, some part of you, no matter how much you're interested in the ideas the film is trying to impart to you, wishes that the film would just abandon all the heady subtext and worry about the secret exclusively, because the secret is just that fascinating. It's quite agonizing at moments.

Here's the lesson you have to understand to enjoy this movie, or my screenplay: There's a difference between what happens in a story and what a story is about, and sometimes they may be totally unrelated on the surface.

Every once in a while you find a movie that's about things that you never see on-screen and that no one ever mentions aloud. Cache is about guilt, trust and the things that are kept hidden. It's not about the tapes. The tapes are there because they create a situation that reveals character and a truth that is far more profound than just a question of "whodunit???" This film cannot be approached in the same way as your typical Hollywood thriller.

The other thing is that, as a writer, it makes no sense to box yourself in to one simple answer. Once you've built up an insane sense of suspense and mystery, there's hardly ever any solution you could give that would live up to the hype. As soon as you say aloud the secret, something that is very big suddenly becomes small. This creates a paradoxical problem. These huge secrets are the things that create the most interest in your story, but they also threaten to overwhelm the subtext that ultimately will make the film work. If you let it, the secret will swallow the story whole.

So, I understand the course this film takes. It's one quite like I've tried using in my own writing. Viewed on its own terms, the film more than stands on its own merits. It is deep, insightful and true and I heartily endorse it.


...But I still wanna know what the hell was going on!!! AAAAARGH!!! :)