Well, I said I was leaving the movie business but here I am working on another motion picture. This one is called "Powder Blue" and is essentially a "Crash" retread without the on-the-nose racism. What we do have, though, is (after three days of shooting) plenty of non-racist on-the-nose dialogue, a sad stripper, a suicidal Santa Claus, a guy just out of prison trying to redeem himself, a child in a Hollywood coma, hospital jargon and combat photography (whip pans, handheld, etc) to intensify surgery, a dream sequence in heaven?, and a "Magnolia" rip off ending where blue snow falls on everyone and everything. Four depressing stories of losers intertwining on Christmas Eve...no doubt they will redeem themselves...
"Powder Blue" is not exactly subtle, and in many ways it is worse than the last masterpiece, "Midnight Meat Train." Because it actually tries. At first I thought it was pretentious, no, but it's not even that. It's just heavyhanded. Or ham-fisted, as a grip commented. But the best thing of all is that Ray Liotta, Forest Whitaker, and Jessica Biel are turning in good performances (I think Carrie-Anne Moss is in it too), but all of the supporting characters are simply atrocious. Atrocious! So the effect is of having a bunch of A-list actors in a student film. Here you have Forest and Ray in an intense scene... and then a cop comes over and says his lines... Doh! Or the nurse speaks! Ouch! Or maybe these characters are drifitng through a parallel universe where all the bank tellers and barflies an meter maids--all of the support--are incapable of sounding believable. Very surreal.
But here's the real reason for this post:
On the last movie I gained over 20 pounds (eating out of existential boredom) and was such an asshole to be around that the gf basically forbade me to take this movie unless:
1. I wrapped my head around that it was only 7 weeks.
2. I wrapped my head around the fact that I wasn't going to be able to write for 5 hours a day while working 70-hour weeks (seems obvious, sure, but not to me).
3. I understood I was only going to be able to do one thing in my limited downtime, not fifty things.
4. I understood that good physical health leads to good mental health.
So I've abandoned the polyphasic sleep experiment, although I'll go back to it once we finish the movie... I've started the Zone diet and I've started running and doing pilates (which I scoffed at for a long time before actually trying it and having it kick my ass).
We'll see how things develop. Temptation abounds:
Tuesday they had carrot cake, German chocolate cake, homemade white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies, and ice cream with toppings on the dessert table. Yesterday it was the wonderfully crusty mac-and-cheese, corn on the cob, biscuits, and tangy lemonade that came with BBQ at lunch.
Not sure how long I can continue to say no to this stuff...
3 comments:
With age comes maturity and, it appears, a very smart and helpful girlfriend. And with those come the wisdom to limit one's scope. And with that comes greater satisfaction. Pretty soon you will be Yoda. And you might as well eat a little cake. Just a little.
Sorry, but it must be said: I love Ray Liotta. He was another good thing in the very good thing that was Copland, but he was great from the get go--did anyone love Something Wild as I did? One of my favorites of all time.
Yeah, I really loved Something Wild... saw it when it came out. Most people think Liotta came out with Goodfellas, but Something Wild was his tour de force... As a human he's a little kooky, but he's still a good actor..
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