Ah, fuck. I just spent an entire morning working on this review, and then I got distracted by a comment in the trailer for Anora about Letterboxd, "the Social Media Site" for movie fans. And then I couldn't stand the ads so I subscribed for a huge $19/per year. I feel like I went to Vegas and married myself and I can't get out of the sloppiness and lack of details. 

At any rate, pictured above is NOT Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan but a scene from Anora with Mark Eidel. And now I'm going to rewrite my painstaking review from memory, and move on with my day. So I'm starting now. NO, now. No really, now. And maybe next time work off line first, huh?  

******

This movie came out of nowhere and blew my mind. It won the Palm d'Or, which is French for "Good Movie." It's the story of a young woman who works at a strip club, a sort of dancer/escort–in other words, she's what we used to call an exotic dancer but she will go further if she likes you and you have the cash–she'll even walk with you to the ATM. She's a down to earth working girl - cue the lap dance scenes, as greazey redlight as you want it, with some charming and spicey backstage banter as well. And then one night in walks the son of a Russian Oligarch, and there's a request for a girl that speaks Russian. Now Anora, aka she prefers to be called Ani? is very American, VERY Brooklyn and her grandmother is from Russia, so she's knows a little bit of Russian. So Ani and Ivan, aka Vanya is his pet name meet, and sparks fly and condoms are unwrapped. And they proceed to party all over town, all over the bed, all over the couch at the gated compound overlooking the Bay, and then they're off to Vegas. And this time, what happens in Vegas does NOT stay in Vegas. They get married, and I gotta say, you want to believe. I want to believe. We all just want to believe, because Ani and Ivan are just so damn likable and cute together. But here's where our expectations get undermined and the movie stops being a "movie" and becomes something else. I've seen it described as "Sean Bakers take on Pretty Woman" which is fair.  He's the Florida Project guy.But what's great about this movie is that it takes our expectations and archetypes and twists them sideways, while the characters still remain strong and compelling. As you're watching, you forget you're watching. It's like you're following along, not in the self-conscious filmed-like-social-media way, but really there. The film-makers craft becomes tranparent and. you're another passenger on the car and plane on this breathless binge/hangover/repeat week of debauchery. The drugs feel real (someone did their research). The sex is just a little too real. And the scenes around Coney Island are super real. The burgers at 4 a.m. are real. The getting-your-car unhooked from the tow truck is real. The people feel real. They are all familiar and sympathetic and not Hollywood. And when the toughs that work for Dad show up, shit gets really real, but they're just doofs and not like movie toughs. You want the happy ending, and I don't mean the massage euphemism. You want Ivan to grow up and straighten out and be the archtype of the bad-boy-turned-good-by-the-Hooker-with-the-heart-of-God. You WANT Hal from Shakespeare's Henry IV ... come on, this is just a phase, and he's going to stay in America and work it out with his parents and do right by Ani. Because she deserves it. But it starts to dawn on all of us and finally Anora, that we've all been taken. Ivan is charming and generous of spirit and maybe he even means well, but he's just another bratty boy/man–as if the world didn't have enough of those–and we're all just emotional, /financial roadkill when we let these guys take the wheel, because they are absolutely untrustable. And in the end, it's not even his story-it's Anora's story, and Igor, one of the enforcers that takes a protective interest in her. Because he alone sees things as they are and appreciates her for who she is–a tough girl who's no Cinderella, and they're alike; they're both caught up in a rags-to-rags story, getting used up and thrown away by the rich. The ending is perfect. That's all I'll say. And yeah, you should see it if you haven't. 

Went down to Jersey City to see Born Innocent last night. Finally. It was fun to finally see, though bittersweet. One thing that Steven said really stuck with me. "It's hard when you're very up front about wanting to be an arena band, and then you never make it." In their minds, in our minds, they were true rock stars in the way the carried themselves. In their look, their songwriting, everything. So what held them back? There seemed to be a different take from the different brothers - I think that Steven just wanted to be a Rock Star, and Jeff - he just couldn't help himself - he intentionally did the wrong thing at exactly the right time. He couldn't help himself. Steve didn't actually say this on camera, but the narrator asked Jeff - did you choke? And Jeff was clearly hurt. I don't think they exactly "choked" - but they had some really nice at bats, and they didn't hit home runs. Being on the late night shows. Etc. 

On the other hand, the New York Dolls never played stadiums. So. 

And when Redd Kross did play big festivals, what did they do? Played Yoko Ono songs at Beatlefest. Played the Who at Redding or whatever. Played the Beatles when all the A&R guys showed up. Basically, treated it all like a joke. At a certain point it works - particularly with all of us that have an deep and abiding need to be insiders. But that's what I think Steven was talking about. It's self-sabotaging. And Steven, maybe, was a bit more guileless and just wanted to be a rock star. Heck, he WAS a rockstar. But he didn't get a chance because of his loyalty to his big brother. 

One thing that was an important part of the story that I had no idea about, was Steven getting abducted by this weird older woman that was supposedly pregnant with his child at 12 - they ran away to Vegas. It was like the kid in Creation Lake that gets his teacher pregnant. His parents and Jeff seriously did not know where he was. And then Neurotica came after that - is that right? Teen babes from Monsanto was actually before Neurotica - which I was had backwards. I always thought that the cover album happened because they had an issue with a major label and composition rights, and therefore couldn't do an album of originals. Maybe it was with Posh Boy. Anyway - don't know. 

It was cool to see so many people I was connected with, interviewed. Kim and the Fastbacks. Jennifer from L7. Mark and Steve from Mudhoney. Etc. Even Roman Coppola. 

But I agree with the guy that wrote the companion book - Having Steve and Jeff on camera was 1000 times more interesting than anyone else, particularly Thurston Moore. 

I'm going to re-listen to some of the catalogue through the eyes and ears of the movie - also looking forward to reading the book. I'll keep ya posted. 

On a lark I signed us up to go see this movie called the Monk and the Gun at the Asian Society on Park here in NY. I don't actually remember where I actually heard about it - maybe email because I subscribe. Here's the trailer. It doesn't give too much away. The director is Pawo Choyning Dorji. He did a little setup before and then did a Q&A after. The movie has been making the festival circuit, premiered and maybe Telluride, and was long-listed for a foreign Oscar. It was the first ever entry from Bhutan. Pawo had done one movie before, the Lunana, the Yak in the Classroom, which I would like to see. 

So now that I've got all of the trailers out of the way. The experience of the movie was great. It was Friday night and I had to go into the city, and I don't like going out too much nowadays, with the severe sound sensitivity, etc. And I don't like spending too much money. Concerts are all like 100+ a ticket which I can afford, but why. Really, why. And then my hearing was so destroyed after seeing Redd Kross a few weeks ago. I've never had that happen before, but my ears were messed up something fierce afterwards. My wife sounded like a squeaky robot, and since then she's pointed out that I say "what" a lot and she has to repeat herself. So next time I see the doctor, I will mention this and see a specialist. In the meantime, I will reduce my exposure to noise - possibly by moving to Bhutan, and meditating in a monastery in the foothills of the Himalayas, far away from people that think consumerism, sports and fashion are "cool" and say "like" all the time 

After hearing about the movie, the first thing I did was look up Bhutan. And that's pretty much the first thing people have asked me when I've talked about the movie. Where is Bhutan? Bhutan reminds me a little bit of Andorra. It's this country that managed to retain it's sovereignity, despite - as Pawo pointed out - it's sandwiched between the world's most populous democracy (India) and the world's biggest communist nation. (China.) If you want to get to Bhutan, you head north from India until you hit the Himalayas. It's to the right of Nepal, and Bangladesh, straight north from the Bay of Bengal.  

Some interesting facts about Bhutan - they are famous for having a GHI - a Happiness Index, rather than a GNP. They were the last nation on earth to have internet and to open up to outside influence. They still don't have a lot of tourism and they don't let anyone climb their mountains and leave their parks garbage-strewn. Thus they are home to a few of the last unclimbed Himalayan peaks in the world. 72% of the country is covered in forest, and by law that needs to remain above 62%. They are the only carbon negative country in the world. They have universal free healthcare and education - which is taught in English. And they only transitioned from being a hereditary monarchy to being a democracy in 2008 – and that's what this movie is about. 

The movie begins with a slow burn. Many wide shots of the gorgeous rural landscape, and the movie moves as slow as the Bhutanese, before picking up. We see the locals getting a TV for the first time. We hear over the radio that they are going to try "mock elections" first, so that the Bhutanese citizens can learn how to vote. We see them having to learn to register (why would I know my birthday? Why would someone have such useless information?) and how the choices of democracy starting creating divisions where there was none before. And in the midst of all this, a Lama, or senior monk, asks for a gun. All the changes that are going on, call for it. Ominously. (I think that an Bhutanese citizen would know what he wants the gun for, but for us, it's a mystery.) To thicken the plot, a foreigner is introduced - an American gun collector. We see the American gun collector travel across country to meet with someone who has a collectible - an old civil war rifle. He wants to buy it for a ALOT of money but before he can get the cash, the old guy gives it away to a monk who takes it to the old Lama - what's he going to use it for? 

The movie crescendos with the voting, and the gathering of the full moon called for by the Lama, and we find out why he needs the gun. 

An expertly constructed screenplay, with some timely and pointed commentary on guns and modernity– it achieves it's intention. It's a perfect little vacation, that leaves you feeling refreshed and wondering - why are we in such a hurry to destroy ourselves in the pursuit of (the American version of) Happiness? 

So many good movies are up for awards it's really amazing. Hollywood, and the movie industry looked in the mirror and said, if we don't get our shit together we're going the way of radio, books written by white guys, and that Blockbuster that Quentin Tarantino used to work at. There are probably 3-5 movies that are worthy of Best Picture. Oppenheimer for sure, and Maestro - both of a type, labors of love by powerful Hollywood craftspeople with the charm and craft to pull off something of world-tilting scale and caliber. Barbie of course which gets an A for cultural phenomena, spectacle and and social commentary. And then there are the less well-endowed entries, that we are working our way through now. The Holdovers - seen, and liked. Can't believe I'm old enough to know when someone is knocking off the '60s and giving it a millennial bent, for cool's sake. It's like back in the 70's when they did The Sting and all of the guys supposedly from the 30's had wide 70's collars. All the kids the Holdovers looked like cool gen Z kids. Everyone sees other times through the lens of their time. We can't help it. We see other people through the lens of our own experience. Wbich was pretty much the theme of the movie, now that I think about it. The movie was solid, and touching - with a human question at its core – when we make assumptions about other people, well, again, maybe we're justing seeing them through our own inescapable lens. Compassion is the most noble of all human emotions and this holds true for all time and all peeps. 

We watched Anatomy of a Fall over the last two nights. It's nice that it got a nomination and it's a good story but is it a great movie? It's so intimate, in a way, that I can't believe anyone likes it but me. After hearing the premise, I wasn't sure that even I would find it interesting. But it had it's own procedural momentum and the narrative had it's own Columbia-paced irresistible force.We watched it over two nights. With the subject being a writer, and how a biographical-based writer might create their reality as if they were writing a book, the writerly-ness of the narrative made sense. I loved how the arc of the story brought it back to the blind son, because he was the only person equipped and knowledgeable enough to know both of the people involved, and to make a decision. It had to be him. In the end, it was his story, he was the writer. And justice really was really partially blind. As a personal side note, I really related to the Dad, and why he killed himself. Frustrated writer and suicidal codependent that I am. Took a few days to get over that. It was also interesting to see 

Too much information? 
I gotta step out and get a colonoscopy. 

So the colonoscopy went like shit. I didn't start the clean out early enough and the results were inconclusive. If I thought the movie was making me neurotic, I was absolutely losing it after I realized that I'd taken a day off, shit-canned a work meeting that I should be rights be the lead on, done all of this effort eating the SuTab, spent $1500 of money we don't have right now, etc. And all for nothing. I could blame it on the people - everything is really not-human right now and no one spoke to me in person about the procedure, but nowadays we really need to advocate for ourselves. That is, if we can get anyone on the phone. Otherwise, idk kids, maybe we do give our kids the hint that they'll have to get by without us and take a little walk out the 4th story window. 

Tried to go to see American Fiction last night, but I was having a tough time staying in the theatre. I really wish I could be a normal person, but literally what the fuck is wrong with people? I'm sitting in front of some weird boomer couple, kicking my chair like a 12 year old, stuffing her face with popcorn and then talking. Why do people go to the theatre to eat? Are we all children? What is going on? 

So we came home and watched Fremont - a cute little movie about an Afgan emigre, a former interpreter who works at a Chinese Fortune Cookie factory and ends up writing the future cookie messages. Shot in black and white, there's a bit of a deadpan Wes Anderson "we're-making-a-movie-here" sensibility to the framing and delivery. Really fun. Jeremy Allen White makes an appearance. It's not revealed which brand of underwear he has on.  

And last night we watched Past Lives. Again, a nice little movie. Again, with it's subject being a writer, there's a writerly-ness to it all. It's good that the Korean vibe has moved past John Woo style action to creating actually story. A nice movie. Not Best Picture material, but a I'll remember it for at least a month to 6 weeks. 

​