Greatness, blondes, smiles

"If we cannot see the possibility of greatness, how can we dream it?" -Lee Strasberg.

"Cult films, which I'm hoping DONNIE DARKO eventually achieves in status, don't become notorious by recycling material already familiar. It's that one scene in a film you've never experienced, and you'll never see it done again. DONNIE DARKO has these peculiar gems of greatness scattered throughout that makes one forget about the fact that the film they are watching is kind of silly when it comes down to it". Source: www.Davegunn.com

"When Frank makes Donnie flood the school, he allows Donnie to make his major connection with Gretchen, by saving her from getting tormented from the other people from the school. When Frank shows Donnie the nature of time, and the portals and such, he shows Donnie the ultimate nature of the sacrifice he has to make will be, and prepares him for it. [...] He manipulates Donnie to ensure that their world will end, and Donnie can do nothing to manipulate him. When Donnie is hitting at the wall, he is at the barrier between his world, and Frank, who can do whatever he wants". Source: www.Barbelith.com

"On the empty flight back to Elizabethtown, Drew meets Claire: a bored and bouncy flight attendant who engages him in conversation. Claire is what could be referred to as the stereotypical movie female arch-type for the new millennium: a young, cute girl whose life is a mess, but she has the innate ability to look into the souls of the troubled male and see who they really are even if they don’t. I almost blame Crowe for fueling this type, since Kate Hudson’s Penny Lane was one of the founding mothers of this kind of character (see also Natalie Portman in “Garden State”). Source: www.hometheaterforum.com

"Elizabethtown feels like a retread of Almost Famous. A guy (Orlando Bloom, Kingdom of Heaven, Troy) goes on some important life-journey where he meets a free-spirited girl (Kirsten Dunst, Wimbledon, Spider-Man 2) and falls madly in love. This is a huge simplification, but one cannot help notice the similarities between Dunst's Claire Colburn and Kate Hudson's Penny Lane". Source: www.Haro-online.com

"Kate Hudson is wonderful as Penny Lane. She exudes a resilient confidence on the outside, but underneath is a flowing stream of emotion. Hudson does great in releasing that emotion and tucking it back as if it was just a mistake". Source: www.listology.com

Source: www.Thehoya.com"Patrick Fugit’s loyal Paul is a variation of his role as Penny Lane’s good-hearted savior in Almost Famous, and he is equally effective in both roles". "there is a scene where he smiles at Lohman close to the end of the film and that smile says everything you need to know about that character at that moment in the film. It is one of those wordless, crystalized moments in cinematic time that says everything about everything right then, right there". Source: Filethirteen.com

"Donnie stands for finding meaning in the chaos, for creating his own truth in a world without it, for being able to face the unhappy ending with a smile because of the journey to that end. The road of Existentialism--either in the philosophy books or in this film--is a non-rational personal experience that gives hope and meaning to face a reality that is too much to bear and that would ultimately be better off destroyed (either in reality or outside it)". Source: mmsbullpen.blogspot.com

WATCH THIS VIDEO, AN INTERTWINED SEQUENCING OF SCENES OF "ALMOST FAMOUS" AND "ELIZABETHTOWN", PENNY LANE AND CLAIRE COLBURN:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAKE!

HAPPY 27TH BIRTHDAY, JAKE!

What's with the geeks?

"Into this void of potential mates comes a man you may not have considered before, a man of substance, quietude and stability, a cerebral creature with a culture all his own. In short, a geek.

Why Geek Dudes Rule:

They are generally available.
Other women will tend not to steal them.
They can fix things.
Your parents will love them.

Because they have been so abused and ignored by society, many geeks have gone underground. You may actually know some and just haven't noticed them. They often feel resentful, and misunderstood, and it is important to realize this as you grow closer to them. Don't ever try to force the issue, or make crazy demands that he choose between his computer and you. Remember, his computer has been there for him his whole life; you are a new interloper he hasn't quite grasped yet.

Geek dudes thrive on mystery and love challenges and intellectual puzzles. Don't you consider yourself one? Wouldn't you like a little intellectual stimulation or your own? We thought so".

Source: Ifaq.wap.org/sex/geekguide
Jake Gyllenhaal in "Proof".
Joe Gordon-Levitt in "Brick".Patrick Fugit in "Bickford Schmeckler's Cool Ideas".Ryan Gosling in "Half Nelson". Paul Dano in "Little Miss Sunshine". Matt Damon in "The good Will Hunting". Topher Grace in "Win a Date".

Flirting and eating

-Scott Lunke, a visitor from Gettysburg, S.D., saw Stanley Tucci in the Nordstrom shoe department last week. Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal were at A16 on Thursday, where a spy says they were "kissing and eating." Source: Sfgate.com

"Guess who is back in town to tempt us with their cuteness? Yes, Jake and Reese are continuing their SF gourmet tours! They had lunch at Zuni last Thursday, where they sat at my favorite table (on the bridge overlooking the oven below), and ordered the house-cured anchovies and a salad, plus a chicken sandwich and grouper. To drink, they walked on the wild side with some lemongrass tea and apple juice. From my source: “Reese seemed a little aloof, but Jake (still looking nice and buff) was trying to warm her up by playing Mr. Flirty-flirt with her—even smooched with her. So effing cute!”
Source: www.Tablehopper.com

I don't want to live on the moon

Bickford Schmeckler's Cool Ideas (movie review)

"In his debut directorial effort, (although he had already co-written a previous horror movie, "Aberration", in 1997) Scott Lew directs "Bickford Schmeckler's Cool Ideas" (2006), defined by himself as "a labor of love" that took almost a decade to bring to the screen. Presented at the SXSW Film Festival, the film's message is "about rediscovering what's most important in life, expressing yourself and having fun". In 2003, Scott Lew was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), which motivated him even more to direct his story, "dedicated to anyone who has ever had a dark night of the soul and figured out a way to come out smiling".The nerdy protagonist is Bickford Schmeckler (Patrick Fugit, "Almost Famous", "White Oleander", "Wristcutters: A Love Story") and he suffers from paranoia in addition to being a science fiend hidden by a typical college freshman façade. He's written down all the theories that have turned up in his intellectually suffocated mind in a notebook with a steel cover called, in the most generic way, "The Book". His geeky existence, slurping lollipops and wearing ironic t-shirts, is occasionally interrupted by college parties, where everyone has great time drinking, smoking pot, and flirting with girls, except him. He's always absorbed in his studies of a new revolutionary cosmic theory about unifiying chaos and find a meaning in everything, although sometimes his confusing thoughts go something like this: "Nothing can ever be truly, fully understood, not even the most simple idea. Not even this."As crazy as his ideas on paper can seem to the other students, Bickford's nature is undeniably stubborn and persevering and he doesn't mind the stares of incredulity that greet him. In fact, almost every secondary character in the story holds an ambiguous attitude towards Bickford's eccentricity; there is admiration mixed with perplexity, due to the recent popularity of quantum mechanics. Max Planck, considerated the father of quantum mechanics, discovered that light was made up of particles, Schrödinger hypothesized that electrons were waves, Max Born took this wave theory to the next level saying that these waves were just probabilities. Heisenberg stated the uncertainty principle widening the classical Newtonian physics precepts.

Of course, the film doesn't rely so heavily on the discipline of physics, but there are a few hints in the script that will offer more fun to the quantum theory enthusiasts. And not only physics — we will find traces of Marshall McLuhan's manifesto: a postmodern man will exist in a multi-sensory state, previously fragmented with the advent of the phonetic alphabet. Also this weird story will make more sense to those viewers who feel some affinity for geeks or social misfits. The beautiful and colourful cinematography by Lowell Peterson helps us to feel sympathetic toward the characters.One of the main elements that make this indie comedy work is the constant sexual tension between Bickford and Sarah Witt (Olivia Wilde, "The Girl Next Door", "Conversations with Other Women", "Alpha Dog") derived from their initial incompatibility. She is a wild sex-addict, a pot-smoking sorority girl who isn't afraid of Bickford's sharp personality and she becomes progressively more attracted to him after stealing his beloved book from his room, ignoring the warning "All you dare enter here be damned".Sarah uses "The Book" as her personal source of inspiration and she starts a new life as an experimental painter, losing her interest in promiscuity, and jealous of this new stimulation, her buddy Trent (Reid Scott) throws Bickford's book into a garbage can in the presence of an angry Bickford who thinks it's the end of his self-controlled world.Resentful of Sarah and prey to his own mental anguish, Bickford establishes a peculiar friendship with a demented homeless guy named Spaceman (Matthew Lillard), who believes in inter-dimensional beings and temporal loops, while Bickford's best friend Ralph (Fran Kranz) comes out of the closet and declares himself gay.

Bob (John Cho, "Solaris", "American Dreamz", "The Air I Breathe") and Sam (Mageina Tovah, "Failure to Launch", "Spider-Man 2", "Spider-Man 3") are members of a "Dungeons and Dragons" group and they work in a comic store, the Golden Apple. When they find the book in the trash, they discover the "braingasms" (mental orgasms) produced by reading it and feel so enlightened they create "The Reality Isn't Club" and make copies of the book to sell on campus. There is a curious connection between comic superheroes and the geeks, because the circus sideshow was the source of the word "geek", and the superheroes as Superman or Spider-Man used amazing acrobatics.A bitter Bickford takes his anger out on the college administration until Sarah recovers the book and gives it back to him. Ralph is living happily now, and advises Bickford to pursue his own happiness, saying, "There is no need to be so intense about everything". It's obvious at this point that Bickford has suffered some type of childhood trauma that makes him feel threatened by the idea of happiness.
Professor Adams (Cheryl Hines, "Along Came Polly", "Our Very Own", "Waitress") shows up in the third act of the film as an opportunistic sycophant who offers Bickford a deal for a commercial release of his book. But Bickford sticks to his guns and rejects the offer because he has already found a new meaning which cannot even be deciphered from the pages of his unfinished book.Thee film comes to a touching conclusion as Bickford explains his refusal to publish the book, he reconciles with the D&D group at the Golden Apple, and enjoys a happy romantic liaison with Sarah, for whom he writes an Epic Sex Poem".
Published on 11th December in Blogcritics.org.

WATCH "BICKFORD SCHMECKLER'S VIDEO":

Jake and Reese spotted

"Last night in the end of a dark dead end street in San Francisco’s Twin Peaks, Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon were snuggling together in a garage. A very cold garage.

Reese is shooting her movie "Four Christmases" in The City. Jake came to visit. Her two kids were hanging as well".

Source: Theradreport.com
"The reportedly very prickly Reese Witherspoon and rubenesque Vince Vaughn -- whatever, we'd hit it. Hit it hard -- are in town filming their new divorce-themed romcom, "Four Christmases". (According to IMBD, it's about a "couple struggle to visit all four of their divorced parents on Christmas Day." If you're not in tears already, then clearly you have no soul.) And here they are at a....downtown locale of some sort? We can't wait for the film to open next year at this time. Or not. Anyway: laughter, tears". Source: Sfist.com
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