... but, I didn't want to leave.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
This was more a sad picture than a comedy, but, there is always that truth with comedy there is usually sadness behind the laughter.
It was a first time film as a director for Jeff Garlin. Mr. Garlin is the producer and co-star of HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (click on)
If the word "Fat" could be used as a title this movie needed to be renamed. It is about a man whom has a chronic issue of obesity due to failed romatic endeavors in his life primarily because he is in a self defeating cycle of depression after disappointment. Needing to find love he enters into a realtionship with a nymphomaniac whom seeks more and more satiation of sexual nuances to satisfy her empty life. The relationship ends in disappointment when he realizes the woman of his dreams simply wanted to experience a sexual encounter with a 'fat man.' That reality again returns him to depression and the ice cream parlor. He is in a huge social cycle of failure exchanging immediate gradification for long term social satisfaction. It's one of the saddest films I have ever seen. Even his professional life as an actor takes a down turn and I expected him to look for the edge of a bridge someplace. The film exploits the concept of loser. I mean this man probably didn't have a voting card as a source of hope in his helplessness. He needs a friend to go to the health club with as his mother is an anchor to his social liberation.
The 'journey' he takes through the film has many funny twists and turns and for that it is worth seeing. There is no moral to this story simply a good laugh at some quirky realities too many Americans will find commonality.
I thought it was interesting and funny but the dialogue Mr. Garlin brought before and after the film in his director's debut was as enjoyable as the film.
It was a first time film as a director for Jeff Garlin. Mr. Garlin is the producer and co-star of HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (click on)
If the word "Fat" could be used as a title this movie needed to be renamed. It is about a man whom has a chronic issue of obesity due to failed romatic endeavors in his life primarily because he is in a self defeating cycle of depression after disappointment. Needing to find love he enters into a realtionship with a nymphomaniac whom seeks more and more satiation of sexual nuances to satisfy her empty life. The relationship ends in disappointment when he realizes the woman of his dreams simply wanted to experience a sexual encounter with a 'fat man.' That reality again returns him to depression and the ice cream parlor. He is in a huge social cycle of failure exchanging immediate gradification for long term social satisfaction. It's one of the saddest films I have ever seen. Even his professional life as an actor takes a down turn and I expected him to look for the edge of a bridge someplace. The film exploits the concept of loser. I mean this man probably didn't have a voting card as a source of hope in his helplessness. He needs a friend to go to the health club with as his mother is an anchor to his social liberation.
The 'journey' he takes through the film has many funny twists and turns and for that it is worth seeing. There is no moral to this story simply a good laugh at some quirky realities too many Americans will find commonality.
I thought it was interesting and funny but the dialogue Mr. Garlin brought before and after the film in his director's debut was as enjoyable as the film.
Minerva's
I didn't set out to find a five star hotel restaurant to test the best cuisine in Traverse City, Michigan, it just worked out that way.
I was not disappointed. Minerva's served some of the best Michigan has to offer with a special 'local' menu of the day including a 'Cherry Torte' for dessert. The cuisine was fantastic, the chef deserved a standing ovation, the service was great. I made a good choice and never once did I believe I was in a hotel restaurant. It was a place I had researched locally and they were right. Minerva's proved to 'Do Traverse City Proud' for all the care it took to find the pride of the area and create a menu to enhance it. I enjoyed myself a great deal and took home a bottle of a local wine (Not cheap - $28.00) as a soveigner and gift to my son who likes to exercise his 'chef' side from time to time.
I was not disappointed. Minerva's served some of the best Michigan has to offer with a special 'local' menu of the day including a 'Cherry Torte' for dessert. The cuisine was fantastic, the chef deserved a standing ovation, the service was great. I made a good choice and never once did I believe I was in a hotel restaurant. It was a place I had researched locally and they were right. Minerva's proved to 'Do Traverse City Proud' for all the care it took to find the pride of the area and create a menu to enhance it. I enjoyed myself a great deal and took home a bottle of a local wine (Not cheap - $28.00) as a soveigner and gift to my son who likes to exercise his 'chef' side from time to time.
Tsotsi was the final film I viewed, but, was not the last I wanted to see.
This may sound ludicrous but there wasn't much about "Tsotsi" one cannot find in the ghettos of the USA with the exception of the 'child community' where this young South African survived to adulthood. It was that 'child community' that brought him away from complete demise of himself.
The film is very violent but it is also very starkly real. An introduction of the film was made regarding the reality of these young men of South Africa and their continued existance in an economy of violence and crime. To counter that the South Africans that are victimized by these young men are 'self-protected' by iron fences and alarms. Not very different from the USA in many ways. There is a police force but they are twarted in their prevention of crime so much as responding to it after the fact. There are absolutely no social programs providing hope for these young South Africans.
Tsotsi finds himself alone in a hostile world of crime with piers his own age in order to survive. As a result a paradox of events happens. He ends up taking an infant from it's home after the mother was shot. She didn't die, but, the young vandals didn't know that. There is no ransom note or kidnapping per se, just a lonely young man in search of some meaning to his life. The infant required food and diaper changes and all the things infants require including amusing 'mobiles' to enhance their curiosity and as amusement.
The story unfolds in a severely poverty stricken area of an urban environment where Tsotsi is forced to seek help in taking care of the infant. He forces an already lactating mother to take on another infant. In time and through more crime he returns to her with powdered formula and a bottle. He no longer needs her help and takes the infant on himself. He seeks out his old 'child-in-the-hood' territory. It is a series of large unused sewer pipes where children seek shelter and protection from storms and sun alike while looking out for each other. Tsotsi hopes these children will be able to give care to the infant and raise him as he once was raised. They were overwhelmed at the thought so he leaves them and then sets out to return the infant to his home.
The young South African finds himself when he tries to compassionately care for an infant. He projects love and receives it in return though satisfying the infants needs in accomplishment and the smiles the baby occassionally expresses as infants will. The movie ends on a positive note with the infant returned to the parents in a very upscale neighborhood voluntarily by Tsotsi through a tense moment with police. The father, a successful South African, is magnificent with his now paralyzed wife at his side in the final scene of the film. It is he that perceives Tsotsi's life although remanding him to the police and most likely a trial. The outcome past that is anyone's guess, but, more than likely a jail cell for some length of time will make this young African's return from violence resulting in compassion toward an infant, a return to it.
The film is poignant. It needed to be made and the production is flawless. It is a statement about not just South Africa and it's social difficulties but poverty in general. Where there is no outreach there is no hope and the people that are borne into poverty frequently live in it's dynamics including crime and punishment endlessly, while the society that tries to protect itself from it provides no real incentive for an alternative to it.
It's a difficult film to watch. More difficult than Hotel Rwanda. I have a feeling many Rap Artists would find commonality in some of the realities Tsotsi lived.
The film is very violent but it is also very starkly real. An introduction of the film was made regarding the reality of these young men of South Africa and their continued existance in an economy of violence and crime. To counter that the South Africans that are victimized by these young men are 'self-protected' by iron fences and alarms. Not very different from the USA in many ways. There is a police force but they are twarted in their prevention of crime so much as responding to it after the fact. There are absolutely no social programs providing hope for these young South Africans.
Tsotsi finds himself alone in a hostile world of crime with piers his own age in order to survive. As a result a paradox of events happens. He ends up taking an infant from it's home after the mother was shot. She didn't die, but, the young vandals didn't know that. There is no ransom note or kidnapping per se, just a lonely young man in search of some meaning to his life. The infant required food and diaper changes and all the things infants require including amusing 'mobiles' to enhance their curiosity and as amusement.
The story unfolds in a severely poverty stricken area of an urban environment where Tsotsi is forced to seek help in taking care of the infant. He forces an already lactating mother to take on another infant. In time and through more crime he returns to her with powdered formula and a bottle. He no longer needs her help and takes the infant on himself. He seeks out his old 'child-in-the-hood' territory. It is a series of large unused sewer pipes where children seek shelter and protection from storms and sun alike while looking out for each other. Tsotsi hopes these children will be able to give care to the infant and raise him as he once was raised. They were overwhelmed at the thought so he leaves them and then sets out to return the infant to his home.
The young South African finds himself when he tries to compassionately care for an infant. He projects love and receives it in return though satisfying the infants needs in accomplishment and the smiles the baby occassionally expresses as infants will. The movie ends on a positive note with the infant returned to the parents in a very upscale neighborhood voluntarily by Tsotsi through a tense moment with police. The father, a successful South African, is magnificent with his now paralyzed wife at his side in the final scene of the film. It is he that perceives Tsotsi's life although remanding him to the police and most likely a trial. The outcome past that is anyone's guess, but, more than likely a jail cell for some length of time will make this young African's return from violence resulting in compassion toward an infant, a return to it.
The film is poignant. It needed to be made and the production is flawless. It is a statement about not just South Africa and it's social difficulties but poverty in general. Where there is no outreach there is no hope and the people that are borne into poverty frequently live in it's dynamics including crime and punishment endlessly, while the society that tries to protect itself from it provides no real incentive for an alternative to it.
It's a difficult film to watch. More difficult than Hotel Rwanda. I have a feeling many Rap Artists would find commonality in some of the realities Tsotsi lived.
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