ghostlifeghostlife.

Another Earth is another good movie I would like to recommend this weekend to all my fans. HA! But yes this movie is pretty good, but I recommend it highly simply because I can see others possibly finding a level of greatness in this, and even if not it’s just a unique film and worth checking out for something a bit different.  It’s about a woman who as a minor causes a drunk driving accident that puts a man in a coma, and kills his wife, son and his unborn daughter.  Four years later she is out of jail and having trouble with the guilt, but ends up trying to find a way of making things right for the man who’s life she changed so drastically. She does so by cleaning his home on a weekly basis, cleaning up the 4 year mess of a lonely man trying to cope with his loss. Meanwhile the world’s biggest metaphor has appeared floating in the sky in the form of … another Earth, or Earth 2 as they call it. It’s identical to our Earth, right down to what seems to be carbon copies of ourselves living the exact same lives as us at the exact same moment.  Or is it? Is it a planet where things are better, where second chances exist? A place to see how things would have become if your life had taken a different direction?

It’s not the greatest movie, but it’s very well done and the concept of this duplicate planet – stretching the odds of probability & physics to it’s limit – was fun to explore, despite the heavy subject matter.  It’s beautifully shot, mostly bathed in an earthly blue throughout, while maintaining a slight gritty feel, which along with it’s timeless setting, it pulls you into a world where such an event somehow actually feels possible. Even the film itself feels like its from a different time – or perhaps another Earth – ooooooooo! It’s tone reminded of the 80′s Kiwi film called The Quiet Earth where overnight a man awakens to a world where everyone disappears.  It’s obviously not plausible that such an event would happen, but the grittiness of the film and the performances somehow pull you into it a place where you actually ask yourself how you would react to such an event.

So yeah, a highly unique film.  A bit heavy at times considering the plot (the duplicate Earth takes a back seat to the main story), but it’s an original 90 minute experience.  Check it out, fellow Earthlings.

SITE | http://www.foxsearchlight.com/anotherearth/ 
TRAILER | http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/fox/anotherearth/

This debut feature from writer/director David Robert Mitchell is a wonderful and calming experience of a film, and one I highly recommend. It’s now playing in Los Angeles and New York, but is also available via onDemand on most cable networks.  The reviews that say its a modern day teenage version of American Graffiti pretty much have it right.  When watching that movie to this day the thing that always struck me about it was, while of course portraying the rebellious naive side of teenagers, it showed more the maturity of kids who are on the edge becoming adults all their own.  Most films about the high school years lose sight of that, usually on purpose in the pursuit of big box office dollars, but every once in a while some films break past that.  John Hughes of course did that brilliantly while still pulling in mainstream audiences back in the 80′s, with The Breakfast Club being a prime example.  This new film I don’t see appealing to audiences on that same mainstream level, but it’s bit of a treasure in that sense, it being something that is appreciated on a smaller scale.

Like American Graffiti, the plot is simple enough, showing an array of small town Michigan high school students and how they are spending the last night of summer before school begins.  Plot however takes a background, as it’s really all about the kids, and that’s where this film shines.  These are kids you know. More than likely they were you at this age. They act like kids we remember, and they look like kids we remember.  These aren’t Hollywood actors who are portrating high school kids.  These are high school kids portraying high school kids. The good type of kids you knew that you and your friends were, but had to convince your suspicious parents of.  Kids that are so normal, but also as quirky as high school kids are when they are growing up, but not in a Hollywood forced quirky style.  They are just good, with real emotions, with actual morals, the kind of kids you would be proud to call your own. There is just such a sweetness to all of them, the kind of teenager you don’t see presented in cinema anymore. Gentle. Quiet. Reserved.

But at the same time there is nothing really normal cinematically in how they are presented. Their world is a kind one, and it’s ethereal at times, shot so beautifully and the pacing so calming that it helps hit just the right nostalgic tone, even though it takes place today.  That feeling of being up in the middle of night, walking the empty streets of your small town world on a quiet summer night with the yearning feeling of that age to see what else is out there – who else is out there – it’s all captured so gently and with such charm by this cast of unknowns.  This film, a proud snapshot of the kids of today, is one that will only most definitely get better with age.  It’s reserved, it doesn’t need to shout to be heard, but it’s a beautiful and atmospheric observation of a chapter in the life of today’s American teenager.

SITE | http://americansleepover.com/
TRAILER | http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/themythoftheamericansleepover/

2010 was another good year for movies in my opinion.  Four in particular really stood out for me as “the cream of the crop”, but all of the movies below I highly recommend (and just click on the poster for each one to view the trailer!).  As the years have gone by I’ve basically become 100% convinced the only true way to experience a movie the first time (or any time really) – to fully see it as it’s meant to be seen – is to see it in the environment it was created for – on a massive screen, in a darkened theater.  It’s not only fair to the artists that created the films specifically for that venue, but to yourself! Did George Lucas intend for you to see Star Wars on your iPhone? Did James Cameron intend for you to see Avatar on your netbook? Not at home on your 50″ television, not on your 13″ computer and especially not on your 3″ telephone.  That is just pure cinematic blasphemy!  This goes especially for my top 4 of the year – Somewhere, The Town, The Exploding Girl, and Black Swan.  The latter is without a doubt the best of the year – a total “triumph” in film-making.  Basically if you don’t see Black Swan in the theater, (or if you’re home and you happen to have a theater sized screen and a theater quality sound system), you simply aren’t seeing it, experiencing it.  It is as perfect as you can get as an example of what a piece of pure 100% movie entertainment should be.  Beautiful, scary, fascinating, excellent performances, perfect classic storytelling.  Simply fantastic.  But all these are great, check them out one way or another.

love ALLways,

Andrew W. Bush
43rd President of the United States of America

TWINPEAKS IMAGEOFTHEDAY

ANSWER! – They both starred in movies with incredibly underrated and unrecognized film scores!  See? That wasn’t so hard!  Not that anyone should pay too much attention to the Oscars, as fun as it CAN be predicting the winners & getting “upset” at who won and lost & watching all the fashion & all that gooey stuff.  But one of my pet peeves about the Oscars is how narrow-minded they can be even in who they nominate – across all categories.  Granted that at the latest ceremony they took one giant leap by expanding the number of movies nominated for Best Picture, which I thought was a great move (more movies get recognition for their achievements, and more competition makes the final winner more “legit” in a sense).  But still, they are narrow minded.  So many movies and actors and directors and cinematographers and writers go unrecognized year after year (Quentin Tarantino has still not received an award for Best Screenplay?!), and one category that is insanely and outrageously guilty of this is Original Score.  I’m probably just saying all this because of two film scores that I’ve always thought were vastly underrated, but who’s counting? Those film scores would happen to be for Supergirl and Ghostbusters.  Maybe the Academy was asleep at the wheel that year (both of these films were released in 1984)? Anyway, I’ll let the music speak for itself, so click on the poster for each to link up to the movie’s theme song.

Feel free to post a comment and call me crazy!

SUPERGIRL: Who are you?
SELENA: I am Selena, Diodenes of Catania, Priestess of Sekhnet. I am the Ultimate Siren of Endor. And you, little lady, are trespassing on private property.

RAY: Everyone can relax I found the car…. it needs some suspension work, and shocks, brakes, brake pads, steering box, transmission, rear end
PETER: How much?
RAY: Only $4,800!

love ALLways,

Andrew W. Bush
43rd President of the United States of America

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TWINPEAKS IMAGEOFTHEDAY

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This Week’s Box Office Top Ten (circa 25 years ago)
Weekend of October 25-27, 1985

1| Jagged Edge
2| Krush Groove
3| Commando
4| Back to the Future
5| Remo Williams : The Adventure Begins
6| Agnes of God
7| Silver Bullett
8| Better Off Dead
9| After Hours
10| Sweet Dreams