Inside Llewyn Davis

Inside Llewyn Davis is a story about a folk singer in 1961.  He's talented and soulful, but he has not reached a level of fame or fortune.  There could be lots of reasons for this:  maybe, talent doesn't necessarily get recognized by the masses; he doesn't sell out his personality and trade it in for a sweet one to make himself appealing to everyone. Whatever the reason, this guy isn't making it big, and I never necessarily felt sorry for him--which actually made this an appealing movie for me.

This is the kind of movie where nothing significant really happens, but we, as the audience, are allowed a glimpse into this guy's life.  He is a writer and a singer.  He's real.  Consequently, he has a lyrical soul.  Lewynn has a presence about him that's both humble and arrogant.  Humble because he basically is broke and living on people's couches.  Arrogant because he knows he should be successful.  He knows his only fit in life is to be singing live on a spotlight-soaked stage.  It's frustrating when the world doesn't agree.

I found myself relating to Llewyn and all of his insecurities and expectations of not only his career but also of his personal life.  I want action and movement and close calls and big rewards.  Mostly, I want to live out my lofty dreams.  I want to come close to the edge.  I want to live a scrappy life.  I'm tired of the suburb and family dreams everyone pushes.  They're not for me; they're not for the folk singers.

With the gritty existence comes some trials.  Joel and Ethan Coen, when creating this movie, celebrate the humor and revulsion within each human spirit, much in the same vein as when they wrote and directed Raising Arizona and Fargo.  Trashy characters you can't help but root for because, for better or worse, they reflect the best parts of you.

P.S. T Bone Burnett does the music.  He is my homeboy.

The "Hart of Dixie" Effect

Hart of Dixie is a CW show in it's third season. It's about Zoe Hart, a New Yorker, a surgeon, a lover of designer fashion, who somehow lands in backwater Alabama working as a small-town doctor. It's a classic fish out of water story. Rachel Bilson plays Zoe Hart, and while I am truly in awe of her low BMI, she can't act her way out of a paper bag.

The show has a very Hollywood-esque portrayal of the South:

 

Everyone is gorgeous, thin and well dressed. It's a post-racial society where everyone eats fatty, greasy foods and still has washboard abs. Jamie King's Southern accent is atrocious. The writing is sub-par...
But good Lord I will watch that show anytime there is a new episode on Hulu. Just stream it, let it be white noise, let my brain unfurl and devolve as I listen to the show's mindless patter. There's some good sexual tension between Zoe and Wade (far left) but the show has very little going for it. But I've watched THREE SEASONS!

And this is because of what I'm going to term "the Hart of Dixie Effect." That is, when given the choice of watching something critically acclaimed or something mindless and entertaining on Netflix/Hulu/bit torrent I will always choose the latter. Like, if you said I had the choice of watching "Ten Things I Hate About You" or "Casablanca" on my laptop, I would pick Julia Stiles in a second. But if I were presented with those two options at a movie theater, I would pick some artsy fartsy movie and rant about the under-representation of female directors in Hollywood.

But when I am at home, when my laptop screen glows bright, when I am in my elastic stretchy pants...my brain SHUTS off and there is nothing I can do to resist the spell of Rachel Bilson. I think it's because once I've decided to stream something on Netflix I've already given up a little bit on life. I am not leaving this couch. I am not going to comb my hair and I am not going to change out of this shirt that I've been wearing all weekend. Then I take it one step further and give myself permission to allow my mind to atrophy, as well.

Oh Zoe...

The other day I was hunting for something to watch on Netflix or Hulu but I couldn't find anything appropriate so I just started watching movie trailers. And I realized that I was FAST FORWARDING through the trailers. Like, I am incapable of even focusing on the most condensed/exciting version of a movie. Forget long form writing, or the great American novel, I can't even watch trailers all the way through. This is what the internet has done to my brain.

I guess the moral of the story is, Hart of Dixie is not a bad show.

Roger Ebert

I don’t miss Roger Ebert.  I don’t miss him because I feel that he is so much a part of who I am as a writer and as a movie viewer that he will never be gone for me.  His passing gives me an opportunity to reflect on the trajectory of his career that has influenced my life.  This sounds egotistical, but it is the highest and only compliment I can give a person I do not personally know, but who has given me so much. 

Roger Ebert died.  There have been tributes and articles about him from many news publications and blogs.  I had no idea that he influenced so many people—and that his effect was not only on film criticism, but also on writing style.  I have felt a certain amount of comfort from the outpouring of love for Mr. Ebert.  I feel connected to these people because they recognized genius in the same place I did.  I now know that what I feel for Roger Ebert is not special because so many others feel and felt the same way as I.  I take solace in the idea that I am part of the group.  Roger appealed to me (and probably everyone) because he was such a personal and honest writer, and I take comfort in the idea that so many people appreciated a mantra that Ebert stood for, which is that the more personal something is, the more universally felt it is. 

Roger Ebert has been a societal staple since before I was born.  I watched him on the review show, Siskel and Ebert, most Sunday mornings and I was always vaguely familiar with his influence on movies.  For most of my life, however, I did not realize how much he championed independent films.  My favorite movie is Hoop Dreams—a documentary about two high school basketball players and their families.  Really, though, it is an exploration of class and race.  When I was a child, I was not exposed to inner city life, which included drugs and poverty.  Hoop Dreams allowed a white girl from suburbia to open her eyes to not only a different American existence but also to the power of exposing such truth.  I only found out many years later that Roger Ebert was a person who pushed to have Hoop Dreams be released widely.  That is the brilliance of a visionary.

If Roger had only been a writer, if he had only been a reviewer of movies, I would have liked him, but I probably would not have loved him.  However, I began to respect him when, after he got cancer, he began to write about disabilities and society’s reaction to illness.  Roger said in articles that, even though his face was deformed from the way it normally looked, he would not hide from public.  He would continue to attend events and his annual Ebertfest.  Roger insisted that the American public was far too removed and not accepting of people with deformities and disabilities, and he would work to challenge the discrimination. 

I was impressed with how he confronted perceptions of disability and beauty.  Further, Roger never seemed defeated by his illness.  When he lost his ability to speak and then eat, he managed to find joy and purpose in his life.  He communicated via his computer; he wrote; he took long walks.  Roger embraced the life and vitality he still possessed.  I had to ask myself if I could do the same.  I was healthy and able, and, yet, I often lacked the ability to embrace the shape of my body and the potential influence of my words.  Just by continuing to live his everyday life, he showed me how valuable and rich my own life was.  My job was to have enough guts to embrace myself. 

Whenever I write or otherwise communicate, Roger’s influence is my companion.  I strive to hear my own truth and have the courage to display my ideas, my voice, and my vision.  Roger Ebert influenced me and millions more just by sharing his point of view and not being afraid to embrace all sides of himself.  His showcasing of his vulnerabilities—both in his life and in his creative works—has taught me that the bravest people live the most raw lives.  How can I thank him?  He is gone.  I will never meet him.  I probably never would have met him in life.  I believe, though, that it is not important to put flowers on a grave.  The most vital way to pay tribute to a life respected is to embrace the influence that person had on my life everyday.  I forever stay in pursuit of honesty in memory of Roger Ebert, a person who was brave enough to show the world his truth.   That is my most precious memorial to my most precious role model.

Art.

We take turns nursing this blog, usually after months of ignoring it. I'm guilty of this, so is Aileen. Kathleen is better but she's been absent, too. Images Move Me has become this feral cat that has worms and an unsteady gait, that understands it needs to get fed where it can. Suspicious of people but a girl's gotta eat. Kathleen is the most constant feeder, giving it hearty food - tuna maybe. But I'm feeding it now so I get to choose what it eats...

Just a very long winded way of saying sorry for what you are about to read. But I don't think I need to apologize because no one reads this blog! Okay, around 800 people staggered here looking for Biggest Loser results (according to the stats that was our most popular post by about...800 times). We also have a surprising number of visitors from Germany. Guten Tag!

That is to say, I'm feeding this feral cat some rambling rants about comedy. And that's that.

Certain types of art are more liable to become victims of their own success. Art that is lo-fi, anti-establishment, that chafes against the system. What happens when it becomes the truth? This can happen with so many things. Rap went from being f*ck the police to bragging about designer clothes. And the moment when that happens, in any genre, becomes the moment when I can't love that piece/song/show like I loved it before. This wouldn't happen to I dunno, Britney Spears or anything because it's not like she was promoting some authentic version of herself or some hidden anti-consumer message. But artists who pounce on others for selling out then start hawking Nokia phones...that leaves a bad taste. But it's not just about "selling out" because that's a tired term and it's used so much that it's empty.

For instance, take Louis C.K. I've loved him for years. I remember watching Chewed Up a few years ago and committing the whole thing to memory. Then I forced people to listen to me do his bits. I guess I know why I don't have that many friends, but you get the point. He's contrarian. He tells it like it is. He points out human foibles, magnifies them then rails on them. But I recently tried to watch one of his more recent specials, "Live at the Beacon Theater" and I couldn't even get through it. It was funny, it was good. But it was off. Because his observations of human foibles morphed into something else -- into proclamations. He's universally loved and people write all these laudatory things about him, which he totally deserves, but his old line of humor just doesn't feel the same to me. It's not an outsider harping, it's an insider yelling. After I watched the special I looked up some old interviews of his on Youtube and I found one where he's talking to Howard Stern. It was right around the time he got green lit for Lucky Louie on HBO. He was excited but cautious. And in hindsight he had a right to be cautious because his show got canceled after one season...the audience didn't get that he was trying to play with form and re-invent the sitcom. But he spoke so differently back then. Maybe he was even saying the same things, but they didn't have the weight of truth behind them...so his words were lighter.  And for that reason, they had more impact. To me, at least.

I know you're probably thinking that that's such a stupid mindset to have. Fangirl until others find the light. That I'm setting myself up for failure. That's not it. I want art, not dogma. I'm going to end with a story that might be more confusing than illuminating. Bon Iver won best new artist (weird since they've been around for a while) at the 2012 Grammys. When he gave a speech, it was this rambling thing about how he didn't really believe in the Grammy's...he was grateful for the award, but saddened that so much talent was not recognized. It was not very gracious. It was not very practiced. But it was the truth.  That's where his music comes from. It comes from the outside and to have the ultimate insiders recognize it is a weird, wrist slapping commendation.

Fly on the Wall

There are few things better to me than going to my local library, picking up a few young adult books and graphic novels and spending a good few hours just feeling it. Because no one can feel the way teenagers can feel. The power of the crowd, the power of your own doubts and thoughts, it's so beautiful, but mostly ugly of course.

I picked up one book the other day, Fly on the Wall. It's Sweet Valley High meets the Metamorphosis. It's about Gretchen Yee, a sixteen year old at an Arts High School in Manhattan. Whereas in other high schools students struggle to fit in, in her high school, students struggle to stand out. Mohawks, bohemian garb, thrift store finds, no one is normal except Gretchen. Well, at least this is what E. Lockhart, the author, keeps telling us. Gretchen is half Chinese, half White, she has dyed her hair fire engine red, and she enjoys drawing comic book characters. Nothing about her sounds ordinary or boring. Or am I missing something here? In Gretchen's "different is the new black" high school, I have a hard time believing that she wouldn't be massively popular. But Gretchen likes a boy, has a troubled home life, and turns into a fly on the wall in the boys' locker room. No biggie.

While in the boys locker room, she becomes a voyeur, a truly perverted peeping tom. She sees all the high school boys and their junk. I'm serious. It's pretty graphic and awesome. But mainly, she listens to them talk to each other, bully each other, and open up to each other. One boy comes out to his friend, her crush tells his friends that his dad is gay...You get the picture. It's a learning experience for her. I mainly wondered why she didn't ever try to fly somewhere else and how she wasn't starving. She stayed in the locker room for 3 or 4 days.

Actually, you know, the parallels between Gretchen and the Metamorphosis' Gregor stop there. They both turned into bugs but Gregor also felt his being shift - his inside become roach-like as well. And the thrust of the story was about how others reacted to him, in horror, in confusion. Also, he was a huge, gross cockroach. But Gretchen is a tiny fly on the wall and she never, ever loses her human consciousness. Also, no one knows that she's transformed, as her mom and dad are conveniently on some sort of trip. I don't know, I feel like if you're going to be using the "I'm turning into a bug" trope you better damn well USE it. Make the character reckon with herself as vermin. That's what I wanted. So much of teenage life is about feeling weird, gross and uncomfortable in your own skin. Puberty, acne, weird hair cuts -- that's just perfect fodder for becoming a fly. But Lockhart never went there.

Oh and Gretchen gets the boy.

All young adult roads lead to Katherine Paterson, the Queen of Young Adult. Please, please don't bring up Twilight  around me. Jacob Have I Loved is one of my favorite books of all time. Because Paterson understands that someone's normal looking outside can mask a really weird and convoluted inside. Because Paterson always respects her reader and allows the story to flow into strange territory. Because the main character wanted to be a doctor but ends up being a midwife. God why do I even bother reading anything new? Fly on the Wall can't compete with Jacob (nothing can, really) but it's a mostly light-hearted read with some pretty strong currents of emotion.

It was good, not great.

The Biggest Loser

I finally hopped on the Biggest Loser train. Watched my first full episode this week and I just kept going.

I can't really decide if I love this show or hate it. On one hand, it purports to promote a healthy lifestyle and it sort of does and let's be honest, it's nice or at least refreshing, to see non-plastic surgeried people on the screen. This is how much of America looks. On the other hand, it's called "the Biggest Loser" and I really can't stand shows that exploit more than they help. I'll admit that I get a sort of sick fascination from watching "Hoarders," and I'm on the fence about whether it does anyone any good but this is an elimination show that pits morbidly obese contestants against each other. They'll say things like "If I get sent home this week I'm dead. I'm just going to eat myself to the grave." while the opposing team cheers for their failure. It's disturbing, right? It's a show and it's obviously about the viewers, the bottom line. Product placement is rammed down your throat - wait a second, just need to sign up for 24 hour fitness real quick - and it's clear that this method of losing weight, working out 5 hours a day and restricting calories, is not healthy. Also, in the first season (I know it's different now) you win by winning the MOST WEIGHT. This obviously doesn't make sense because a 300 pound person has more weight to lose than a 200 pound person. So, it's highly flawed but no one makes much of a fuss about it because Americans don't understand mathematics.

I googled some of the past contestants and apparently the winner of season 1 said that the contestants would do really unhealthy things like fast and dehydrate themselves before the weigh-in. He said that he would regularly urinate blood. Ugh. It's hard to watch a show when the fourth wall has been decimated in that way, but I kept watching anyway. Because I have faith. I want to believe.

Another refreshing aspect of the show is the way the female participants have bonded. There's no preening, no fighting over male attention (everyone's married, anyway) and they are sisters in the FIGHT. The men are actually the ones picking at each other and breaking each other down. I think this is a more accurate portrayal of female friendships as I know them. If you were to believe other reality shows, women exist only to side eye each other and hide each other's yogurts. That's not how is! The women I know are constantly lifting each other up and rooting for each other.

Something that does make me scream at my laptop screen (watching on Hulu) is the way that NO ONE understands nutrition. They're all really confused about what to eat because I guess they've only ever cooked with velveeta and a ton of mayonnaise? I don't get it. There are ways to make healthy, delicious food. Spices, vinegars, tons of greens and whole grains. It's a simple equation. But the women keep restricting their calories and picking at carb-y things. If the food is featured in a commercial you probably shouldn't be eating it. Eat more good stuff. Eat less bad stuff. Liberal west coast rant ends now.

But the single greatest mystery of Season 1 is Dave. Dave, who is fat, who has no hair, who has no discernible sense of humor. I dunno, maybe he's really rich?

Sorry for the text. This is a screen shot. So that's Dave. That's not an unflattering shot of him, that's just how he looks.


This is Dave's wife. More blurry photography to follow.

Yes. She is hot. She is a hot Asian woman. She is married to Dave. I know you guys are probably thinking that I am cruel, that true love is blind. Or maybe you're thinking she married him for money or he used to be handsome in another life. I ran through all of those options. I also thought she might have married him for a green card? She said about 3 words in this scene but her English did sound pretty good. And she looks American! She looks Asian-American. Not Asian. There's a huge difference and I know because I'm Asian-American and I swear to God I'm so good at this it hurts. I was at a Sees candy with my friend the other day and there were three Asian women in front of us in line. I whispered to her: "Those Asian girls are not from here." She was confused because we live in a very densely Asian populated area and seeing three Asian women is commonplace. But something was off. They were, I dunno, too classy? Definitely not SoCal girls, definitely not from our area, their bags were too expensive and their hair was too un-dyed. She didn't believe me but then they started a friendly chat with the cashier and said that they "weren't from here" and wouldn't be needing the frequent customer card. They were "getting on a plane tomorrow." Oh God. That was the happiest and most vindicated I've felt in days. Months. Maybe years. It's moments like those that make life worth living. But back to Dave's wife. Who is she? Is she an actress that Dave hired to play his wife? Is she his beard?

There are such deep enigmas that surround us. Consciousness -- the brain attempting to understand itself. The Big Bang theory. How a cat could travel 200 miles to find its owners in a different state. And    most mysteriously, the asymmetry of attractiveness of Dave and Dave's wife. This was only about 30 seconds in the show but I wished the show would continue to film Dave and his wife. I would watch a spin-off show about them.

I'm sorry that this post was hi-jacked by Dave and his wife. I can't take responsibility for that. There are just moments that compel you to write, you know?

But yeah, back to the Biggest Loser -- it's deeply flawed. It's everything that's wrong with America. Let's take a bunch of morbidly obese people and have them do degrading things to win prizes! Let's film it! Let's finance it with heavy handed product placement! But after I finish this I will watch a few more hours till my bedtime.

Cheap Chic

Can you tell people you have a movie blog when you haven't written in it in about a year and the last time you did write you wrote about music and this time you're gonna write about fashion? That's just a rhetorical question...


This post will be a bit like a college English paper - lots of block quotes and some plagiarism. (Am I outing myself?) Apologies!

I bought Cheap Chic a few years ago. It was the most expensive book I ever purchased, pretty funny for a book called Cheap Chic. But it was worth it because it's out of print and it dishes out some of the best fashion advice I've ever read. Mind you, this is all from 1975 (or earlier, at time of writing)

"The basic concept of Cheap Chic for both men and women is to have a few clothes that make you feel good rather than a closetful of mismatched fashions....We've become spoiled in America. Surrounded by mass manufacturing and mass marketing, we stuff our closets with masses of mistakes...Find the clothes that suit you best, that make you feel comfortable, confident, sexy, good looking and happy...and then hang onto them like old friends."

God this is so good. And there's this:

"The most basic element of Cheap Chic is the body you hang your clothes on...Take a look at your body -- front, side and back. Are you content with what you see? Is your skin clear and healthy?... It isn't important if you breasts, hips, or legs aren't those you would see in a fashion magazine...What matters is that you get acquainted with them as they are and treat them with care and respect."

Most days I just avoid the mirror. And when I do look in it, I say something along the lines of "this is as good as it's gonna get, S!" But maybe 2013 will be different...

Here's how some of the Table of Contents reads:
First Layers, Classics (Interviews with Diana Vreeland and Yves St. Laurent)
Second String Classics (Interview with Fran Leibowitz, among others)
Antiques: Shopping the Thrift Store

There's also an interview with Betsy Johnson and a score of other civilians and fashion insiders.  Some of the advice is dated, but the spirit, the spirit is spot on.

Caption reads: Cher, wearing a pair of jeans that fit the way jeans should fit.

She looks so modern. So beach ready.

Studio 54 what up

 This outfit is perfect. From the square toe boots, to the OJ gloves. I love it all.

Fran says: "It comes down to the idea that I don't like my clothes to make me stand out. "
 I love anonymous dressing. The idea of a uniform.

In case you can't see; "Ching dresses down his black cashmere sweater with suspendered jeans while Sibao looks traditionally discreet." Um, Sibao does not look traditionally discreet at all. Sibao looks like a BABE!

This picture is in the "office wear" section. "Uniform chic -- the black T shirt and pants with classic pearls and a Guatemalan bag."

 My favorite quote from this interview with Yves St. Laurent : "A woman can feel very sexy in a chemise, as she can feel very sexy in jeans. It depends on the person. If she thinks she isn't sexy she will not be sexy."

Sorry for picture quality. Had to use the iPhone.

I love this book. It came at a really pivotal time for me, when I was contemplating quality, quantity, uniformity, and craving a uniform. 5/5 Stars. A+. Whatever rating system we're using these days. I love it, like an old friend.