One pause in Jake Weird

By now I feel a bit tired and also I am very busy these days, so Jake Weird is going to the "Pause" button, I cannot say how long this pause will take, but I hope the trip has been funny and intense for you so far. Enjoy your movies, embrace your weird inner voice.

Movie Review: "Wristcutters: A Love Story"

"Zia (Patrick Fugit) is a lonely young man who, saddened by his recent breakup with his blonde girlfriend Desiree (Leslie Bibb), decides in a fit of depression after listening to a depressing song, to cut his wrists in the bathroom. As the tile becomes covered with blood, he falls unconscious to the floor, his last moment a flash of a dust bunny in a corner he had missed while cleaning.

"Wristcutters: A Love Story" is the directorial debut of Croatian Goran Dukic, who developed the script at the Sundance Screenwriters Lab in 2004, based on a short story by Israeli writer/actor Etgar Keret titled "Kneller’s Happy Campers". Dukic studied cinema in Zagreb and later at the American Film Institute, specializing in shorts. One of them, "Mirta uci statistiku" (1991), was critically well received, heralded as one of the best Croatian films. Dealing with the controversial subject of suicide, Wristcutters, after being a nominee at Sundance 2006 for the Grand Jury Award, won the best feature award in the Gen Art Film Festival and nominations for best first feature and best script in the Independent Spirit Awards (2007).

Going back to the plot: "I think she cried at my funeral. I don't mean to brag", Zia tell us after dying and being buried, supposing Desiree would have attended his burial throwing flowers on his coffin and crying over his loss. The next morning Zia presents to us the new reality he has to face now in the afterlife, where he works as an employee in the grime "Pizzeria Kamikaze" in the suburbs; every morning he contemplates his unhappy face in a distorting mirror while he's dressing in a dull uniform.

In this somber afterworld, where things are really the same as they were in the living world, only slightly worse, the conversations among the deceased citizens are about the method they chose to "off" themselves. The jukeboxes play Joy Division songs in the bars, as one night a girl named Tania (Azura Skye) confesses to Zia she opted for sticking her head in an oven and writing a suicide note. When Zia sits down with her friend Rachel (Sarah Roemer), a funny Russian ex-rocker approaches Zia and he tells him how he electrocuted himself at a concert by pouring beer over his guitar, angered by an ungrateful audience.

"I was missing Desiree" is the obsessive theme in Zia's mind as he embarks on a trip in the company of this caustic new buddyEugene (Shea Whigham), who is based on the real life rocker Russian-Ukranian Eugene Hütz, leader of the Gypsy punk band "Gogol Bordello", which contributed to the soundtrack with three songs, "Occurances at the Border", "Through the Roof and Underground", and "Huliganjetta". The reason for searching for Desiree is obviously because she has killed herself too and Zia needs to find her at any cost.

As they travel in a tacky orange car through a drab landscape, the men initiate a friendship and a no-return escapist adventure en route to the Eastish zone - hinting at a "de-westernization" - forming a male bond until a young female hitchhiker named Mikal (Shannyn Sossamon) joins them in pursuit of a mistrial. She wants her case to be rejudged by the PIC (People In Charge), which would bring her back to the living land, since she claims she didn't intent to die, she just got a heroin overdose by accident and she hates wandering around this parched monotonous limbo: "Everybody is an asshole", "Who the hell wants to be stuck in a place where you can't even smile?" she whines while both men listen to her rants, progressively seduced by her beauty and her non-comforming spirit.Tom Waits turns up as Kneller, the mysterious angel-prophet of a desert camp where people can learn to perform miracles and he shows great sympathy toward Zia when he gives the insightful warning to him that small miracles are possible if you don't force them. "As long as you want it so bad, it's not going to happen", he says in his usual raspy voice.Zia, the impressionable slacker, and Mikal, the gothic nymph, begin a strange relationship that neither seems to be able to articulate appropriately, although deep down they know they were meant to be, as in the beach scene when Zia tells Mikal he feels happy with her and he'd like to go back to his past life and start anew.The most symbolic shot for me (and which the film's poster is based on), out of all of the symbolic imagery used by Dukic, like flying lit matches, withered flowers or black loopy holes, is when Zia and Mikal wake up surrounded by a sea of condoms and needles, a saturated reminder of an upcoming world inbred by our own societal depression and promiscuity.

Of course, lots of the suicides in the afterlife are now regretful of their actions and wish to escape the bureaucracy in "Offland", some of them using bizarre methods, as trying to separate body and soul which a famous cult leader self-proclaimed the Messiah (Arrested Development's Will Arnot) is preaching to his crowd of desperate followers. His soulmate happens to be Zia's ex-girlfriend Desiree, who lives with him in a fairy tale castle.

There are funny cameos with Eugene's mother (Mary Pat Gleason), Little Kostya (Chase Ellison), Brian (Jake Busey), and Erik (Abraham Benrubi from Parker Lewis series) and the tone is alternately dark and warm, bittersweetness on the road, good-natured antiheroes who deserve a second chance, and the atmosphere of sincere dottiness avoids falling into the trap of excessive "trendy quirks" that plague some low-budget films. "Quirk is odd, but not too odd. That would take us all the way to weird, and there someone might get hurt," is Michael Hirschorn's opinion in his article "Quirked Around".

If that is the case, Wristcutters: A Love Story is definitely located in a fictional Weirdland, where we are mostly shown a real, hurtful, personal aspect to this timeless story".
Published on 6th January in Blogcritics.org.

Watch "Wristcutters: A Love Story" video. Song "Ashes of American Flags" by Wilco.

Maggie in good company

Maggie with Julianne Moore and Kate Winslet.Posing with a puppy for the "Agent Provocateur" campaign.With her fianceé Peter Sarsgaard.With the young actress (the promising star of "Juno") Ellen Page.

Jake and Tobey on the set of "Brothers"

"Check out friends Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal chatting it up outside of Votre Sante, a restaurant in Brentwood today. Jake spotted Tobey and his wife Jennifer Meyer with their beautiful daughter, Ruby, while they were waiting for a table and stopped to say hello. Jennifer's dad, Ron Meyer, who is the head of Universal Studios, also came over to say hello to Jake. Wait, the head of Universal has to wait for table? Crazy.

Jake and Tobey are starring in an upcoming flick entitled Brothers which they are shooting New Mexico. Remember when Jake almost became Spiderman after Tobey hurt his back? They do share some similar facial characteristics so a movie where they play brothers makes sense. I guess we'll have to wait until it's release in 2009 to see if it works! Source: Flynetonline.com
See more pictures in: Socialitelife.buzznet.com

Jake, Reese and Kirsten

From past flame Kirsten to today's new companion Reese:"Check out Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon enjoying a nice stroll through the Los Angeles Park yesterday with Reese's two children, Deacon and Ava. Say what you will about their relationship, but it looks to me like Jake is stepping in fairly well as the guy who carries the kids on his shoulders. I also like Daddy Darko's combination of beard and flannel! Lumber-Jake!"
Source: www.Flynetonline.com
ENJOY THIS VIDEO FOR MY ROYAL GIRL-CRUSH, KIRSTEN DUNST:

Sweet Happy New Year 2008!!

It's been a while since Jake and Reese made their big "breakthrough" in Rome. Now they seem having created a sort of family with Reese's kids. Jake has a daddy face these days, HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008 to all my readers!
"It’s all in the family for Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal!

The on-again pair, who met while filming their CIA thriller Rendition, spent an afternoon hiking around a Malibu, California, park December 30.

Witherspoon, 31, took turns holding hands with her children, Ava, 8, and Deacon, 3, and Gyllenhaal, 27.

And her kids are bonding well with mommy’s new man: At one point, Gyllenhaal even carried Deacon on his shoulders as they tackled the trails!

It’s not the first time the Brokeback Mountain star has spent time with Witherspoon’s kids. They all went trick-or-treating on Halloween.

Deacon and Ava have also recently spent time with dad Ryan Phillippe’s girlfriend, actress Abbie Cornish, whom he’s been seeing off and on since his October 2006 split from Witherspoon". Source: www.Usmagazine.com

French poster of "Rendition"