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beastyeel
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Name: Brian
Country: United States
State: California
Metro: Los Angeles
Birthday: 12/9/1982
Gender: Male
Interests: Film and filmmaking, photography, music, and an occasional book reading. A few of my favorite films -- Once, the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, anything directed by Christopher Guest, Magnolia, Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, Rushmore, Amelie, and The Graduate. Favorite photographer -- the late Henri Cartier-Bresson, check him out sometime. Music -- a few favorites right now are Iron & Wine, Radiohead, Wolf Parade, Damien Rice, Bright Eyes, Sufjan Stevens, Nick Drake, and Spoon. I also love waterskiing and learning about God--sometimes simultaneously.
Expertise: Showing up late.
Occupation: Other
Industry: Entertainment
Message: message me
AIM:  beastyeel
Member Since:
5/23/2005
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| Anyone want to buy my car?
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/car/593567279.html
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| The show that I currently work for, Hollywood Uncensored, might be starting a website, and the supervising producer wants our team to start a blog about the entertainment in which we’re interested. So my test blog was an informal film review of Lars and the Real Girl because I thought the movie was profound. I just thought I’d post it here for some constructive criticism. I could have gone much more in depth, but it couldn’t be too long since I wrote it for work. After having three phone conversations about this movie this weekend, I thought posting this would be pertinent.
What’s the first thought that comes to mind when I say the words blowup doll, delusion, baby blue blanket, and “two cakes” Gosling? I’m not talking about a transvestite’s birthday party on acid, I am describing pieces of a recent film I saw called Lars and the Real Girl staring Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider, and Patricia Clarkson.
I saw this film with a friend who had no idea what it was about going into it, someone outside the entertainment advertising bombardment world of Los Angeles who hadn’t seen a poster or a trailer yet. So when Gosling’s character Lars brings out his new girlfriend, or a voluptuous blowup doll named Bianca, to show his brother, played by Schneider, and his sister in law, earnestly played by Mortimer, my friend looked over at me and said, “what the hell are we watching?”
Lars and the Real Girl is the story of a young eccentric man named Lars (Gosling) living in the furnished garage of his brother and his brother’s wife. Karin (Mortimer), the wife, is worried about Lars spending so much time in the garage by himself. Her suspicions are hastily confirmed when Lars brings his new girlfriend he met on the Internet, Bianca (aka sexy blowup doll), to have dinner with her and his brother, Gus (Schneider). WTF, right? That’s also how Gus reacts to his brother’s suddenly obvious case of the crazies.
When they take sweet Bianca to get a faux doctor’s check up, Doc Dagmar (Clarkson) educates them with the news that their Lars has a delusion and the only way they can help him is to act like everything is normal. People at Lars’ office and church are informed about said delusion and (despite initial hesitation) choose to help any way they can.
Mr. Gosling has earned the nickname “two cakes” Gosling in my circle of friends because we got caught behind him in line at the Miracle Mile Ralph’s grocery store while he was buying two birthday cakes. “These aren’t both for me,” he told us with a sheepish smile. You don’t have to make excuses; we don’t mind your pastry obsession “two cakes.”
For me, Ryan Gosling has truly solidified his informal title as the best actor of my younger generation in this film. Not only does he make it interesting to watch a film where the primary conflict lies internally in the protagonist, but he gives the viewers a chance to walk with his character and care about him every step of the way. His performance is so subtle and nuanced that it makes Tom Hank’s performance in Castaway look like a juggling act. Wilson, the bloodied soccer ball friend of Hank’s character in Castaway, feels like a writing gimmick, while Bianca becomes as real to the audience as she is to Lars.
The director, Craig Gillespie, told the story precisely and beautifully. Lars carries a baby blue knitted scarf around with him, and it shows up in almost every scene in the movie. Lars grasps it in the opening shot of the film, so right away one gets the sense that this object is important. Gillespie and writer Nancy Oliver (who also wrote for HBO’s Six Feet Under) make it clearer and clearer throughout the film that this blue blanket is a physical manifestation of what troubles Lars deep down.
Casting Kelli Garner as Margo, Lars’ flesh ‘n blood alternative to Bianca, is perfect. She plays awkward enough that her crush on a strange bird like Lars is completely believable and even endearing. I haven’t rooted for two people to get together so strongly since the Jim and Pam saga from NBC’s The Office.
Going into the plot and characters much more could give away too much, so all I will say is go see this film. It’s one of those slice of life films that deals with what it means to be human and how our choices will affect those around us. Maybe I just miss the gray skies and the simple folk of the Midwest, or maybe I identify with Lars in a somewhat strange way, but Lars and the Real Girl is a genuine, true, and rare piece of art and one of my favorite films of this year by far. Will someone please give “two cakes” Gosling an Oscar? | | |
| Last weekend, I was privileged to see your friend and mine, Joe Hartzler, up on the big screen at the Mann’s theater in Hollywood where Grauman's Chinese Theatre happens to be. It was for a film fest called Screamfest. Joe has a pretty large role in the film called Headless Horseman, which was shot last year in Romania. For a good time, watch the film tomorrow night (Saturday, Oct. 27) at 9pm on the Sci-Fi channel. Joe’s on TV… it’s pretty unreal.
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| Currently Listening
It’s part of my new job to do research on the goings on of Hollywood and the entertainment world, and it would be a big ole lie to say that I’m that interested in the gossipings of this town. But now and then I’ll come across a site on the World Wide Web that is worth while. It is my desire to share with you. I know that may get you as excited as oh, say, chain mail, but please take some time. You may already know about some of these sites, but if you don’t, you won’t be disappointed.
1. The Hood Internet mixes big names in hip hop and rap with some lesser known indie rockers. I recommend this site for any indie kids that would like to incorporate the words “jiggy” and/or “shizzle” into their vocab.
2. I’m not quite sure how I feel about this next site, tv-links, ethically speaking. I’m mostly not sure if streaming is the same as illegal downloading, but this site makes me hope that it’s not. You may already know about this site because I know you like to get your shizzle for free, but if you like free distractions like me, you’ll enjoy this site’s thousands of shows and movies. (or maybe we should just pay for our media art like good boys and girls).
3. Sorry middle America, Gridskipper is for my friends in LA, NY, San Fran, Paris, Berlin, and Sydney. This urban travel guide lists and reviews everything from the best raw food restaurants to “Funky-Ass LA gift shopping.” I just checked out some of the topics for LA, and there’s an article listing the best dine out dives to take your drug dealer to keep him/her happy. Who does that? Better yet, who writes about that? Gridskipper does friends.
4. Forget Current.tv, there’s a superior site out there called vbs.tv. If you’re a hipster or a hipster hopeful like myself, I think you’ll really like what you see. They’ve got short video series (aka webisodes) on everything from current music, news, travel and art. The creative director of vbs is Spike Jonze, so the ethos is overflowing off the screen. One of my favorite shows is “Balls Deep” with the series “Sewers of Bogota” where a dude goes down into the sewers of the capital city of Columbia and investigates and converses with the marginalized homeless living in the dark tunnels and examines their daily struggle to escape “social cleansing.” It’s horrifying/important/humbling. I also just started watching a series called “Thumbs Up!” where a guy and his nephew plan to travel across the US via free transportation such as train hopping and hitchhiking.
5. If you know me, you know I’m not the most politically minded person, but there’s a place to go that pokes at the politicos. It’s like the Onion, but for the D.C. crowd. It’s wonkette.com, and it’s a hoot.
6. From phones, to flying saucers, to robots, Gizmodo showcases all the gadgets the geeks are talking about. Plus you can see what doohickeys geeks are piddling with all around the world. Click the Japan link; a big nerd invented a robot.
7. This next one doesn’t exactly make my list because it’s a great site. The only reason I’m linking this one is because you can see what I’ve been up to for the past few months. I currently work for a celebrity clip show called Hollywood Uncensored that airs all over the world, but not yet in the US. You can now go to celebrities.com to watch the show; just scroll down to where it says “Hollywood Uncensored” and it lists all the episodes so far. But just to warn you, it’s a celebrity clip show called Hollywood Uncensored.
8. You probably already know about listening to music on Pandora, but I’m finding that Slacker is a better site for creating your own music stations. It just plain gives you better music and more options. Check ‘er out.
9. Are there any of you that don’t know about CMG yet? I thought it needed a mention on this list since I’m always on there reading music reviews and garnering info about new artists and bands. So much music, so little time.
10. Last but not least, I’d like to take this time to introduce you to photographer, artist, media making machine--my roommate. | | |
| Foley artists really ARE artists. This video proves it:
Fionn Regan -- "Be Good or Be Gone"
ps
(say a little prayer for Owen)
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