Dan Mecca's Consciousness

The Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Yours, Mine and Ours

This comes from a very recent listen to the most recent Filmspotting podcast, co-starring Nathan Rabin, the author of ‘My Year Of Flops’ and helmer of the now film-famous ‘Manic Pixie Dream Girl.’ For some background, Manic Pixie Dream Girls are, in Rabin’s words, characters who “are a joy-rendered-flash, who sort of swoop into the lives of these sad sacks [male counterparts in the film], these depressed, very passive men, and they reignite their lust for life…”

Natalie Portman in Garden State, Kate Hudson in Almost Famous, Diane Keaton in Annie Hall (for more, go here.) They’re dangerous, sexy, cute, wild and inspiring. They make their potential lovers want to live their life. Or relive it, for better and worse.

The last year of my life has been a bit of a whirlwind: I graduated college, made my first feature, sent my first script out for inevitable rejection, lost a girl I cared about deeply, made that feature about another one.

It’s a vulnerable, free time, full of 3-day stints on sets and 1-day stints driving cargo vans around New York City. The other days are spent editing docs and writing potential features, taking meetings with people who might be able to give me money to make something of myself. There’s little time for a girlfriend, but more than enough time for a Manic Pixie Dream Girl. They are, after all, timeless. With them, time stands still. Just another obstacle that fall away for that brief encounter with Heaven.

In the middle of a recent “man talk” with a friend of mine, he said something regarding the subject: “It’s attractive, you know, dangerous girls. I don’t know why. I guess it’s the same way with girls who like bad boys. Maybe it’s goes away when you get older.”

Don’t bet on it. 

Why is Almost Famous one of the most re-watchable films of all time? Why is Elizabethtown one of my guiltiest pleasures? Why?

It would seem the answer is pretty simple: the girl. Who doesn’t want to find the Manic Pixie Dream Girl? No matter how young or old, rich or poor, we constantly look for reasons to keep living. Not breathing, but living. With purpose. For pleasure. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl is the promise of a neverending Honeymoon period. Of course, they only exist in feature films, but pay that no nevermind.

If I choose to make my life a film, surely she will reveal herself to me. I’ve met many in my life. They reinvigorate, lift you up, then, inevitably, bring you down. It’s appropriately manic. 

Blame Cameron Crowe. Blame Zach Braff. But, in the end, blame no one. Because where would be without the Manic Pixie Dream Girls? That’s right, the 1950s, and nobody wants that.

Who’s your Manic Pixie Dream Girl?

A Reaction To ‘Public Speaking’

Watching Fran Lebowitz talk about life in America for 83 minutes will make you want to change life in America. But, very soon after she puts this notion in your head, you’ll realize why Lebowitz herself is so cynical. Changing America is quite impossible.

Sh talks about how every generation of New Yorkers recall how much better New York used to be. Lebowitz is just as guilty as the rest. But few make their point better and with more sting or more compassion.

Directed by Martin Scorsese, Public Speaking is an interview with the writer, complimented by a whole lot of New York B-roll and Lebowitz archive footage. It’s lean and all it seems to want to do is expose another group of people (i.e. people with HBO subscriptions) to the writer/speaker/woman of opinions.

When asked if she believes people can be lucky, Lebowitz responds: “Gender. Here’s how lucky that is: any white, gentile male who didn’t become president, failed. Okay?”

“I think it’s mostly important that we have a black president because we got it over with…it shouldn’t be our present, it should be our past,” she also says, during a conversation with fellow writer Toni Morrison.

Lebowitz says things that, once heard, feel kind of obvious in some way. Perhaps it’s the way she says it. Or perhaps it’s because most of what she says makes sense. She’s not a zealot, she’s not a politician, she’s just mostly right, as Morrison so astutely points out. She’s also never fair. Lebowitz claims that’s why she’s always right, because she’s never fair.

One thing’s for sure, she’s funny as hell. If you have HBO, watch this. Laugh and get educated. Maybe even read a book after or something.

Teeny Tiny Review: Fair Game

Yes, I’m stealing the title from fellow TFS’r Jon Sullivan (jon.thefilmstage.com), so be it. Just caught Doug Liman’s ‘Fair Game’ in NYC. It’s an information machine somewhat robotically written by John-Henry and Jez Butterworth, but passionately brought to life by Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, who play Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson, respectively. Plame was outed as a C.I.A. operative in the New York Times via a government source. This all happened after her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson, wrote an Op-Ed column discounting the White House’s claim to intel that a large uranium sale in Niger had made it’s way to Iraq. Wilson was one of the people sent to Niger to research this exact hunch, and came back with information claiming the exact opposite. 

Liman directs with less flair than usual, and it’s appropriate here. His frames are commonly obstructed and his direction forces jump cuts in the editing room. All of it works and we see that the man’s determined to make an important movie that’s about more than people jumping from New York to Paris.

And for those who believe films about politics succeed only in their objectiveness (a ridiculous notion that has only recently made its way into the critical rationale), this is not your cup of tea. Liman and company are clearly mad at the government for betraying one of their trusted employees in a move so blatantly illegal Andrew Johnson would’ve been offended.

See it, be reminded of how ignorant this institution of ours has been to its people and go home and read some columns by Wilson and listen to testimony by Plame. Educate yourself. Do something.

8 out of 10

Have you seen Fair Game? Will you?

Love This:

(Source: thefilmstage.com)

Mickey Rourke’s Finest Moments

We all love the Rourke. Need a few reasons to remember why? Here you go:

The Popcorn Scene:

The Thumb Scene (even though Eric Roberts is the balls in this scene above all):

The Torture Scene:

The Tortured Scene:

The Heartbreaker:

And, last but not least, how the man started, as the smooth rider:

What about the Rourke do you enjoy the most? Hate the most?

Tron: Lost and Found?

I know it came out a few days back, but what do we think about this little L.A Times conspiracy theory?

“Flynn lives, all right, but he’s awfully elusive. One of the toughest movies to get your hands on right now is “Tron.” Not “Tron: Legacy,” the breathlessly promoted movie due in theaters Dec. 17, but the original 1982 saga starring Jeff Bridges as hacker Kevin Flynn, which has gone out of print on DVD.

Director Steven Lisberger recently remastered the film, color correcting it and reframing certain shots for a planned Blu-ray edition. But Disney hasn’t yet set a release date for Lisberger’s new version, and as the studio’s marketing for ‘Tron: Legacy” has become ubiquitous, interest in the original is outstripping supply.” [Hero Complex, Rebecca Keegan]

I attempted to reserve a copy of Tron on Netflix about a week ago and saw the same “Long Wait”/”Unknown” under the Availability tab.

Is Disney worried the extremely-dated original film will more hurt than help the next film’s legacy?

Fuck

Fuck