Whatever Works

Sadly, not this.

I think the charm of the misanthropy has finally worn off--at least on me. I saw Woody Allen's latest, Whatever Works, tonight at the Angelika. I fell asleep about a half hour in and stayed drifting off for another 20-30 minutes.

Sidenote, I see a lot of movies. I'm not ashamed to admit that I fall asleep here and there, and depending on what else I'm doing, often. For instance, somebody asked me what I thought of Cold Souls, a film I saw on the second to last day of Sundance. I don't really know what I thought of it because it was slow and I don't remember anything that happened past about the 40 minute mark. I don't fall asleep when I really love it though.

Anyway, I saw the unavoidable Woody Allen-Larry David collabo tonight and was very disappointed. It reminded me more of Anything Else and Melinda and Melinda much more than any of his early works. I had heard that this was a call back to old school Woody, but I don't think so. I guess one could argue that the whole talking to the camera post-modern thing is there from Annie Hall, in addition to the general structure of the story of a relationship bound neither by classical narrative structure nor even linear storytelling. The other similarities I can think of might go into his more satirical and slapstick work like Bananas and Love and Death, however, I really think that any similarities to those films are by accident i.e. when the acting is at its worst, really misinterpreting what the scenes should have been.

Storytelling

This is another article I wrote for KiptonART as well as Moviehatch, I've since made some minor changes.

I’ve written a few articles for KiptonArt’s website, but given that this is the first that will appear in the magazine, I feel I should introduce myself once more. I’m a 24-year-old filmmaker from New York. Well, I’d say aspiring. I believe that one should not call oneself something like “filmmaker” unless one is both making a solid living doing so, and other successful filmmakers acknowledge you as an equal, not necessarily in that order. I think I’m on my way there, but not quite ready to be on the level of those who I admire.

On the same topic, people do ask me what I do though, and I find I do not like to say I write, or direct, or produce specifically. I think of each of those tasks, and the others I perform, as all part of the creative filmmaking process.

Moon by Walker Griffy

So today I'm going to post an article written by a friend of mine, Walker Griffy. Walker's mainly going to be writing here because he's handsome, but hopefully literate as well. I met Walker originally during a screenwriting course at UCLA when we were 16 or so. It was magic. Walker's still in LA and currently working on his first novel. He's totally looking for some help from people in the publishing world, so if you're on or you know one, hit one of us up or comment. When Walker discusses my optimism in this introduction below, I think he refers to my liking Transformers, for which I'll post an article this coming week.