Idea’s i’m just giving away #1

A scratchpad for story ideas for movies and such.

 

An woman splits up with her philandering OFW husband. She adjusts to life alone as her kids have also left home, and faces new challenges, living on her own, and the promise of new love.

KC and Richard — whose genius idea was that?

Evidence of Intelligent life… Interesting video of how KC and Richard got together for “For the First Time”.  It seems that they figured it out themselves. Smart Kids…

Edit! — There seems to be a rift between the parents, and the other GMA7 pair (at least their management). Dingdong and Marian. This is unfortunate, because i think this sort of synergy, free trade between the assets of these networks, is wealth creating. Or, it may in fact be fortunate, coz any publicity is good publicity, which in showbusiness is also wealth creating.

An overly serious review of Sex and the City

A fan of the show will enjoy this movie, as i did. Three of the main characters traveled through familiar arcs for 2 hours, with the exception of charlotte, who exists here, as in most of the series, to remind us of the romantic ideal — she’s got her dreams fullfilled by the end of the show, and the movie gives her character icing on the perfect cake that is her life, a ‘deux ex machina’ of miraculous proportions. Other than that, her role is comic, and is lovingly brought down (poop jokes, anyone?) for a good chunk of the movies’ long middle of Carrie’s recovery.
I appreciate Mr. King’s ending for Samantha. The logic of the character dictates that it ends. Presumably, one can imagine a different ending, but i for one am glad they stuck to she stuck to her identity, as a good archetype would.

Samantha’s story is part of the movies’ central theme. As i’ve noted elsewhere, the thematic nature of the show is characteristic of Sex and the City. Many a critic has said that the theme is forgiveness, and they would be right. But to this, something must be added, which i believe is larger and more interesting: the folly of labels. Throughout the movie labels were bandied about, and not just the clothes and the bags, but for relationships and people. From boyfriend to ‘manfriend’, from cheater to wife… the movie is full of labels that we’d love and/or hate to attach to ourselves and to other people. Samantha hated the label of ‘woman who live for a man’, while Big hated the ceremony of a Vogue labelled wedding. By the end, the movie suggests that we get hurt when others reject the labels we force on others. And when other people ask for forgiveness, we ultimately grant it when we see through the labels to glimpse at the real treasure underneath.

I’m surprised many critics hate the superficial nature of Carrie, her selfishness, when it is exactly this point that the movie (and the TV show!) is trying to address. The TV show is extremely conservative, and its asking its viewers to look beneath labels to the good stuff underneath that never changes. This is why i’ve always wondered about the religious/conservative backlash — other than the short sex scenes, this movie is all about commitment and deep friendship.

A final note about time. A part of me felt that, as a comedy, it was a bit too long– i first thought they could have cut out the New Year/Winter sequence. But whats interesting about the Northern hemisphere is that one can SEE time pass through the seasons. That was important as time is a necessary ingredient in forgiveness. So, in a sense the move had to show time pass, that Carrie and Miranda’s could go endure their deepest melancholy in the winter (as this season usually depicts in movies), so they can live again for Fashion week, the movies’ version of new life in the spring.

Sex and the City

NYTimes has a great article on series creator Michael Patrick King.

An interesting excerpt:

Mr. King’s mother is also a practicing Roman Catholic, and his history has left him with a vexed relationship to his own faith. “I’m happiest in an empty church,” he said. “I love the smell of a church.” In the opinion of his closest friend, the novelist Adriana Trigiani (with whom he shares a brownstone in the West Village), his Catholicism is also a constant presence.

“He loves the pageantry and the drama,” Ms. Trigiani said. “He took the structure and holiness of the Mass, and I think it’s informed anything he’s done.” She noted that her friend writes with a sharp eye toward consequence.

Pursuing this meme, if you watch the show, you’ll see how most episodes are built as a parable that conveniently wraps up in less than 30 minutes. This is what i like best about the series. Its also what will surely be lost the movie version. But i’m sure Mr. King knows whats he’s doing.

Maid of Honor

This is surely a sign of the times. The movie Made of Honor features a man as a comic lead, in the kind of role usually alloted for women. The first time i’ve seen such a thing. Its quite revolutionary actually. Women now have shown that they can invade traditionally male roles (action/fantasy/adventure hero). Now its the the men’s turn to take over as a lead in a romantic comedy, typically the bastion of women. In fact, he’s more than the lead, he is tasked to carry this movie as everyone else in this movie has a lesser profile. Basically Patrick Dempsy plays a ‘Julia Roberts’ kind of role; an otherwise successful person driven to desperation by love.

What has made this possible? Well, Grey’s Anatomy is one obvious factor. But this isn’t the first time there has been a breakaway leading man from TV. I think its Judd Apatow — he’s shown more than anyone that the male point of view of relationships is every bit as interesting as the female’s.

My Big Love

I thought that My Big Love is one of the weaker Sam-Toni rom-coms because most of the acting weight here rests squarely on Sam’s well-defined, yet unsure, shoulders. I’m not sure its entirely his fault, and i’ve complained about this before — we need to see a character arc, and we are frequently robbed of it. Instead they substitute a kilig factor. I don’t mind this ‘kilig’ factor, but i think there is a missed opportunity here.

The key idea of a fat guy romantic comedy is that there is a huge correlation between being fat and being insecure. According to the model in our heads, being insecure is the factor that prevents us from enjoying unalloyed happiness; yet insecurity is an unobserved variable. Being fat is easily observable (to say the least!). The movie is then a social science experiment — change the fat dummy, and find out what happens to the romantic success variable. Usually, most movies show that it is the unobserved, excluded variable that makes the difference. The lead character figures this out in time, of course.

There is another missed opportunity here — cooking and exercise as opposing yet ultimately complementary forces. Cooking is entwined with eating, the abuse of which leads to obesity (at least in the model of ourselves where its behavior and lack of effort that leads to obesity, not genetic/deterministic factors).  They could’ve used cooking as another character in the movie — i.e. its something that gives sam’s character passion, and individuality – critical elements in the process of falling in love. Its never clear why she does fall for him; except of course for the inerrant law of kilig that makes their pairing predetermined. [For this, see Kerri Russel in "Waitress"]. 

Last, there is a tightrope that fat guy movies must walk. On the one hand, they acknowledge that physical differences matter. On the other, it don’t matter enough to distort romantic outcomes (i.e. if you are really in love, physical differences don’t matter to a committed relationship). There is a contradiction in here somewhere, and a good movie tosses much of this aside — but a GREAT movie puts this tension front and center.

On an barely related point, my high school classmate edited the movie. I expect to see more of this sort of thing; people that i know will eventually start being famous in their own right as my generation gets older. My friend told me last night that most of her friends’ disposable income has risen fast — we can only expect that to continue indefinitely as our diverse eduation and career choices start to exhibit ever increasing income wedges. But still, it pleases me to know end that good people become good at what they do. More selfishly, mik (the editor) has always been kind to me.

Why can’t we have more movies like Juno?

I saw Juno today and it was very good. The writing was fun and easy. The direction, acting  and music were all great. Its not a movie that costs much. We should have more movies like this. Specifically: 1) an straightforward plot, 2) an engaging hero/heroine, 3) smart writing, 4) an actual character arc. It made me think about the Juno’s journey in understanding what love is between a guy and a girl, and how sex and pregnancy is this complicated thing that makes things better and/or ruins things. The funny scenes are too numerous to mention, but i have two favorite heartwarming scenes. The first is when Vanessa touches Juno’s stomach and says thank you. It teaches Juno that being a mom is this wonderful thing, that while she’s not ready now, one day she might want it for herself. Second is when Juno asks her dad, whether its possible for two people to be happy together forever, and her dad tells her what to look for in a guy. On the face of it, its standard love story stuff. But here, it exists in a context (which i won’t share here for fear of ruining the movie to the three people who read this blog!).

Also, somewhat beside the point i’m making here, they kept using what now is my word of the month -shenanigans. Such a funny word!

I think that the vast majority of Filipino movies rely on fantastic scenarios (i’m looking at you GMA films!), complicated-stereotypical relationships between family, and by-the-numbers romances.

Let me talk about romances a bit more. The movies are only vehicles for love teams, so the story is basically maximizes the romantic interactions between the pair (one might call this: mining the ‘kilig factor’). The Plot is basically variations on the same theme: a couple, then something happens, they drift apart, then they end up together. the end.

A recent example is One more Chance. The premise was a promising one — a couple that has been together for ages splits up to ‘find themselves’. Even the first scene was golden — john lloyd’s character is so insecure, that it takes a gastric event (wink!) from Bea Alonzo to allay his fears.

Great start — but the characters don’t grow. At the end of the movie, we just know that they MUST: 1) be different somehow, 2) split up from their respective partners, 3) get back together. But we don’t know HOW they get to this point. The film makers don’t want to tell a STORY. All they want, is a beginning/premise, and then an ending. The most interesting part (potentially) of the movie — the middle — is never shown on film!

Not all pinoy movies are like this. I recall, Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo wanted/tried to tell a middle part. Alot of the movie is how real couples get their act together and make mistakes along  the way. Indeed, i came out of that movie thinking: when is it okay to forgive your husband for his infidelity? Ultimately, how they resolved this issue was unsatisfying to me;  but at least it made me think.  

No Big Loss

Rose Byrne doesn’t win this year’s Golden Globes. No big deal; the award lost much of its bite this year because of the continuing writer’s strike. On the other hand, they rewarded what the show i thought deserved to win — Mad Men, which i referenced in a previous post on microeconomics.

At least the DVD of Sunshine, her very interesting sci-fi movie, is finally out.

Why They Write

One of the great things to come out of the writer’s strike… “Why we write”

Freedom to Watch

What does an X rating mean? It can’t be shown in public theaters?

A number of movies critical of government and the Arroyo adminstration have been coming out. The MTRCB has laid an X rating on them.

MTRCB says it’s one-sided and black propaganda (is there any other color?). One the one hand, I think people need to make decisions about things as they see fit. In this light, I don’t think political censorship can ever be justified. On the other hand, a small part of me is saying that films like this take advantage of people’s ignorance.

I just beat up that small part of me. The MTRCB out not be involved in political censorship at all (other kinds of censorship, i’m still mulling over).