Miami Vice

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated this, but it's been a hectic summer. Now that things are leaning toward the fall side of summer it's time to get back and hack away at the keyboard a little more often. First off I am in LA again and am looking forward to spending much of the fall here catching the occaisional film in the best theaters in the nation at 'The Bridge : Cinema de lux." It's within walking distance of my hotel so I have absolutely no excuse not to catch a film or two each trip out here. The rest of the time I tend to work late anyway.

Tonight in an effort to celebrate the capture of Jon Benet Ramseys alledged killer in Thailand I thought I would try to see "Little Miss Sunshine" a little film that got some great publicity at Sundance this past January. Unfortunately the addage that everything in LA is 45 minutes away bit me yet again as I had to only go about 3 miles or so to another Southern California culinary institution, Tico's Tacos. Now I'm a bit weird about my tacos, I know where the best in this country are and I'm not telling, but this place easily comes in number two on my list. Homemade, cheap, and tasty real meat and refried beans. Real lettuce and real cheese to boot. Add a tasty hot sauce that isn't too hot and you've got a winner. I heard about this place from my eye doctor's technician, and though the lines were long to get the food, they moved quickly. Unfortunately though, it put me late at The Bridge so I couldn't see Sunshine.

What I did decide to see though was "Miami Vice". Now when the TV show came out in the 80's it was a trend setter and being a part of that era, the thought of going back to the stylish fun of Miami held great promise. Add to that the director of the TV series was the director of the film and I thought this would be a fun evening. Unfortunately, someone is apparently masquerading as Michael Mann, the director, because this movie didn't have an ounce of the atmosphere that the TV series carried. For that matter the music supervisor must have come from a 3rd world country because even the music that was so much a part of the TV series was just a bust in the film. That's a shame because I know Jan Hammer still is around, and I know that the budget for the film was sufficient given the exotic locales. And the casting.....I just don't get Colin Farrell, it was if he was mumbling through his lines again in The New World. The original Sonny Crockett made me want to grow a day old beard and buy pastel t-shirts to wear under white sport coats. This Sonny Crockett made me want to buy some new blades for my razor. It was so bad I swear that Gong Li and Colin Farrells speach coaches switched places. And what about the story? Well nothing original there, bad guys, guns, a dope deal gone bad, the good guys sleeping with the bad girls, and revenge on everyones mind. You've seen it before and you've seen it executed better. Even the dancing sequences were poor, see the second Thomas Crown Affair for good dancing, Li and Farrell would be the first ones gone on a reality TV show. The worst thing about the film though, is that it didn't even make the exotic locations look like places I would want to visit. In the TV series, Miami comes across beautifully, with it's neon, and pastels and the turqoise waters. In this film version, for long stretches you could have set this in the 9th Ward of New Orleans and not known the difference. Miami comes across looking depressed and just one trailer park away from your hometown. And as much as I love home, I just don't want to be reminded that I need to take out the trash when I'm there. Leave this film down on your Netflix Queue.

SAP Scores
Story: 3
Acting:3
Production:4
Enjoyment Factor: - (minus)
Overall: 1 1/2 Stars

The Break Up

The Break Up is the eagerly anticipated film starring Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn. In our movie stars are more important than the people around us world, I have found that interest in the stars off screen romance has just as much or more interest to most of us as the interest in their movie does. Sadly, the real life romance may be more interesting to watch. The on screen couple get together for no readily apparent reason, and have gone together in purchasing a condo that neither could afford on their own. The film shows us a lot of what bad things can happen when two people just aren't compatible with one another. Jennifer Aniston's character wants to manipulate her man into being something he is probably not capable of being. She doesn't listen to her best friend whom she confides in at nearly every turn, then wonders why things don't turn out the way she wants them. Vince Vaughn's character doesn't have a lot going for him either. Instead of 'chasing the girl' when they first have the big fight, he runs to the bar to whine to his best friend played wonderfully by Jon Favreau. I thought the better couple would have been Vince and Jon since they know each other almost too well. In the end, it's just pretty obvious that these two shouldn't be together and though you want a happy ending (this was supposed to be a romantic comedy wasn't it?), just as Vince Vaughn is left holding the bag at the end, you know the only good thing about the relationship was the condo. My SAP score.....

Story: 4
Acting: 6
Production: 5
Enjoyment Factor: 0
Overall: 2 1/2 Stars

Damah Day 3

Though this post is coming to you a full two weeks after the festival ended, the last day is still fresh in my mind. In fact I think that the most fun and best film from the festival was the last one that I saw. Christopher Brennan Saves the World is a great little teenage comedy where sage advice with soda and ice is the mantra. Christopher Brennan is a high school geek that gives his advice at the drive through of the local burger joint. His 'clients' talk to him through the plastic hamburger that contains the speaker and microphone for ordering their burgers as well has how to get a girl to like you, whether to get married or not, just about everything but math tutoring. The film is fun, and heartwarming and I at least identified with Christopher's geekiness and troubles dealing with his own issues with girls. If you have the chance to see this one at a film festival near you, go see it. It is well worth the price of admission. This was a great way to end the festival, and places it on my list of festivals I HAVE to attend each year. I'd love to share the experience with you so let me know and maybe we'll have to find a way to get a group together for next year. The only bit of advice for the festival organizers I had was to put the film makers information into the program itself (if they wanted it there of course) so that those of us who are fans of their films can contact them and see where they might be playing at next, or whether or not their film is available for purchase. There were several films at the festival that I had to do some rather extensive research on before I found the filmmakers web site. Sadly, Christopher Brennan Saves the World I haven't been able to find yet. Anyway, the festival was in my opinion a great success and worth seeing and sharing with all of you. I will now be stuck reviewing films that have distribution for better or worse. Until next time, which should be in about 20 minutes.....,..

Damah Film Festival First Night

It was a great first night for the Damah Film Festival. The event is small enough that I felt like someone special which is something I can't say about most festivals I attend. Katherine Makinney greeted me and helped me along the registration process and had personally called the night before answering my question about parking. This is Katherine's first year as Executive Director of the festival, and so far shes done a very nice job with excellent screening facilities and resturaunts and coffee shops within a five minute walk from the venues and the hotel. The Culver Hotel is the center of the festival where registration is, I especially liked the free t-shirt for all attendees. The hotel was built in 1924 and was the hotel where the actors who played the munchkins from the Wizard of OZ stayed. At one point the hotel was owned by John Wayne, and the bar in the hotel is now appropriately named Dukes. I met several filmmakers at the meet and greet and the afterparty including a full time filmmaker from Littleton named Tom who's made several documentaries and is currently working on his first feature. As for the films, the evening programs are the showcase films from the festival and it's clear why, all were polished films that spanned genres from animation to a quirky love story, and to my favorite, a samurai film entitled "A Monks Awakening" where a monk learns to deal with his fear of death. My next favorite was Wentworth, the story about a man who has an imaginary girlfriend and must decide, with the help of his pet pig (I kid you not about the pig), whether to choose the girl OF his dreams and the girl IN his dreams. This was the only film presented in 35mm with all the other shown on DVD. Other notable films were "Emelia", a an animated story about a 5 year old goth girl and the world as seen through her eyes. "Incident at Alma" based on a true story where a preacher has only 10 minutes to save a condemned black man's soul, and "Wood Diary" , an unusual film where wooden statuettes take on new meaning in a man's life. Though the festival is small, the atmosphere is great and the intimate time spent with other filmmakers and actors both accomplished and emerging is very encouraging. I look forward to sharing more with you tomorrow, so until then.....

Damah Film Festival

Damah (dù mah’)[1] noun. 1. a metaphor that transforms. 2. an art form that starts with a commonly accepted way of looking at the world and adds a surprise or unexpected twist that results in a new perspective that inspires and transforms the viewer. 3. the merging of the known, the unknown and the transcendent. 4. similar to the storytelling form known as the parable.

Imagine 79 films 5 parties 8 workshops all on films which challenge the way we look at the world. I found out about The Damah Film Festival from someone at Urban Skye a couple of years ago who thought I would be interested. Since then I've picked up each of the videos from the past festivals and found myself in LA starting my new job this week. As far as locations, the Festival will kick off tonight at The Culver Studios near downtown Culver City. You may have never heard of the studios before, but it is the home of Citizen Kane, King Kong (the original), Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock's first American film), and a little film called Gone With The Wind. If you aren't impressed with historical films, Armageddon, Contact, Stuart Little, Crazy in Alabama, and The Rock were also made at the site. If you still aren't impressed, Sony Pictures Entertainment is across the street with their studios and back lot stretching down the street with huge 30 foot tall posters for their big new movie "The Da Vinci Code" screaming down at you. Trust me, this is an impressive place for those of us who are into film.

The festival centers around 10 "Reels" each with it's own lineup of some of the 79 films in the festival. Each reel will be presented twice during the 2 days of the festival and the 8 workshops are scheduled to occur simultaneously in different areas. I hope to see at least 6 of the reels and participate in 4 of the workshops. With the Cannes festival also going on this weekend I doubt I'll see any real major studio executives, but you never know who's decided to stay closer to home. Tonight starts with Reel 9 at 7:00 and it's slate of 9 "Best of Fest" films. I'll let you know what I think once I get back to my hotel after the opening night party. Until later tonight.....

SAP Score

OK, now that I've confused you with my scoring system, I'd better go ahead and explain myself. SAP is simply an accronym for the 3 critical components of any film. Story, Acting, and Production. I rate these 3 components on a 1 to 10 point scale with 10 being the highest score possible. The enjoyment factor is a measure of the guilty pleasure I derived from the film regardless of it's merits as a good film and is rated "-" (minus) indicating that I didn't enjoy myself, "0" indicating that the film was OK, "+" indicating that I enjoyed myself, and "++" indicating that I REALLY enjoyed myself. The overall score is a nod to the fact that I am pretty much an outlier when it comes to rating movies this way, and this gives you a way to compare my rating to any other reviewer, like Lisa Kennedy and Michael Booth at the Denver Post, who use the time honored star method. You know, 0 to 5 stars with lots of half stars thrown in. It's easy to read, but doesn't really tell you anything. I'll get into why a film gets higher ratings in the 3 categories in a future posting, but for now, just be assured that I want you to get a better appreciation of what makes a good film good, and what makes a bad one bad without necessarily having to read a full account of the film. But enough of mainstream film review, I need to move on to Damah!

United 93

Do you remember where you were on September 11th, 2001? I do. It was Tuesday, the day after the Denver Broncos beat the New York Giants at Invesco Field at mile high, where Ed McCaffrey broke his leg and would be out for the rest of the season. That should have been the news in Denver on the 11th. My in laws were visiting and I was staying home from work and sleeping in when my wife came into the bedroom and said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center in New York. I came downstairs just in time to see the second plane hit. I remember clearly the feeling that the world as I knew it had changed. It's been almost 5 years since then and I remember that day clearly. In the film United 93, a film based on what was known about the hijackers and what the filmmakers supposed happened on that fateful United flight, takes us back to that day and trys to fill in some of the blanks that have haunted me, and I suppose many others, about what actually happened that day. Such questions as How come the FAA didn't know which flights were hijacked? Where was the military and why didn't they stop the other planes' attacks? How was this able to happen? United 93 attempts to fill in those blanks and does so with some of the very people who were there. The film not only doesn't use recognizable actors, they used the very person who was in charge of the skys that day at the FAA, the man who had to make the call to clear the skys of all planes. They also used the very people in the military who had to try to find the hijacked planes and determine if the rules of engagement would allow them to shoot down a civilian airliner over US airspace. From that stand point the film is a real depiction of the actual events. Onboard flight 93, the filmmakers didn't have anyone to tell them what happened other than the families of those who talked to their loved ones aboard the flight prior to it's nosedive into a Pennsylvania field. The film makes extensive use of handheld camera work adding to the surrealistic feeling that you are aboard the plane. Given that we know what happens, you would think that tension leading up to the end of the film would be reduced, you would be wrong. I was sitting on the edge of my seat throughout, and when it was all over I felt exactly the same as I did nearly 5 years ago. If you are still deeply troubled by what happened on 9/11, then don't see this film. If however, you are searching for perspective on the events of that day, then by all means see the film. I would think this film would hold some powerful abilities to help us heal, if, by seeing it, we could talk about it and the way we feel as a community about the events of that day. I saw this film by myself and wish I had some of you to bounce what I was feeling off of. I can't wait for this film to come out on DVD so that I can continue my own healing process, and I encourage those of you who are ready to experience it to join me. I'll keep you posted about events at "The Steele Street Screening Room".

United 93

SAP score: 7,6,6
Enjoyment Factor 0
Overall: ***

I'll explain the SAP score in my next column. Be aware, I am in Los Angeles this week and have been since the first of May. I will be attending the Damah Film Festival this coming weekend where I will see films and attending workshops on Film and Spirituality. I hope to post each evening while I am there. Until next time...

Hello World

Welcome to the Urban Skye Cinema Blog. I'll be discussing film and it's impact on me as well as the world in the upcoming months. I'm starting this because I believe that film is a communal experience. All too often we will go to a movie (I hate that word) and come away with a miriad of emotions and thoughts and we have no one to share them with, or the one person we do share them with isn't interested in either discussing the film to the same extent as you or just didn't see the same points that you do. So here, you are free to have your own opinion and know that even if we "didn't get it" we respect that you are not us, and that your opinion matters in the whole scheme of things. We will practice the neglected art of respect for others here. We will look at film as art, it's impact on our individual and collective soul, it's window on our collective experience, and how it shapes and describes the world we live in. My own personal preference would be to share with you my thoughts on present day independent films, but I am the father of twin 17 month old daughters and that has kept me from seeing the inside of theater on a regular basis. So at least for myself, I will be limited in the amount of new product I will be discussing. This should not, however, be a long term problem. So bring on your thoughts on Film. Tell me what you like and don't like about what is playing at the Art House, the Cineplex, or your DVD player. I welcome you all to Urban Skye Cinema.

David C. Cleveland