Films 131 and 132 (and an Exhausting Week)
I went to one of the best rock shows in a very long time last night. Silversun Pickups came to Portland, finally, and put on a great show. I was waiting for them to play my favorite song "Substitution" and they ended up playing it during their longer than usual encore. I couldn't have been happier with their setlist and I can't wait to post it here.
...........................................................................................
Film 131
"Permanent Midnight" (1998)
Starring: Ben Stiller and Elizabeth Hurley
I don't know why, but since I started this project of mine, drug addict movies seem to find me, or maybe because of my relationship history, I've only just begun to recognize the commonalities. Here's the thing I don't understand, all these movies about drug addiction or even alcoholism seem to be the same in that they never glorify the addiction or make it look enticing. Yes, details are different in each case and random story, but ultimately the story remains the same. An addict's days revolve around finding and using the drug of choice to avoid the discomfort of not being high or drunk. Everything else becomes secondary to their next score. Now, I'm not speaking from experience, but rather relating all I've seen in film and conversations that I've had with addicts after they've cleaned up and have had time to process their past.
"Permanent Midnight" is no exception, other than the fact that it's a true story and it's based on someone's memoir. This someone is Jerry Stahl (played with a scary expertise by Ben Stiller, who is actually wonderful in a dramatic role that he sunk his teeth into), who happened to be an up-and-coming, very promising Hollywood writer. He actually started off by writing a few episodes of the television show ALF (which are depicted here in this film with a similar looking character and the viewer can totally see/get the reference). Stahl was making about $5,000 per week as a TV show writer, but his drug habit was costing him about $6,000 (perhaps that's a slight miscalculation to simply drive the point home that addiction costs, literally). He begins stealing from friends (finding drugs in medicine cabinets) and just really fucks up his life and friendships because of his habit. His story follows the same pattern of everyone else's- a downward spiral of desperation and absolute pathetic. Not being familiar with addiction, I was left to wonder why Stahl's story and past is so intriguing and important, other than the fact that addicts seem to make themselves important- everything is about them and they have a complete disregard for the people that care about them.
Stahl's circle consists of TV producers that simply don't care about his addiction as long as he keeps producing TV shows that are worthy of being aired. When he hits a creative wall and shows up to a meeting high on heroin is when they actually put their foot down and fire him. His only "Real" friend is a friendly drug dealer/pusher who wants his client to stay high and happy all the time. He will convince him of anything in order to take his money and get him high. And their relationship works for Jerry, because all he's concerned with his getting drugs and getting high. That becomes his motivation, much like every addict's story.
His circle also consists of Nicky and his wife (Owen Wilson and Lourdes Benedicto, respectively). They coincidentally hook him up with a TV producer named Sandra (British bombshell Elizabeth Hurley, who is actually decent here in a serious role, as well).
The twist here is that Jerry ends up marrying Sandra for money so that Sandra can get her green card and stay in the U.S. Jerry clearly doesn't care for her at first, but somewhere along the way, they end up falling for each other...more Sandra than Jerry...and Sandra has a baby, but Jerry doesn't have anything to do with it after he shows up to the hospital while she's giving birth and is looking for a place to shoot up. But then, one day, in desperation, she asks him to babysit, which you know will only lead to trouble. Once an addict always an addict. And even though he claims to be clean, while he has his baby in the car he goes off in search of drugs, shoots up and gets pulled over and arrested, the child taken away.
This is his one regret in life, apparently. It's the day he keeps remembering, but wishing he could forget.
How do we know this? Because Stahl is actually recounting his experiences with drugs and the downward spiral his life took so rapidly to another rehab survivor named Kitty (Maria Bello) who picks him up at the fast food drive-thru window that Stahl is currently working at after getting out of rehab. Jerry and Kitty are sharing intimacy with each other (both sexually and psychologically) at a nearby motel. They have sex and then he tells her about his life. I enjoyed this change of pace for such a depressing film because it gives Jerry some humanity and it allows us to think he's come out the other side of the tunnel. Their relationship isn't shallow and simply convenient. They are truly lost souls, together, who find comfort in each other.
This film get credit for not glossing up the details of drug addiction. It's not a funny or colorful lifestyle to choose and to have. It's actually quite boring, and in my opinion ridiculous. Drugs simply mask the pain and allow the addict's mind to focus on getting more drugs whenever they can. Here, Jerry doesn't seek drugs because he wants to feel good, but instead, because he wants to stop feeling so bad. With addicts, it isn't the high that makes them who they become, it's the potential withdrawal.
Whenever I see how someone else's life got permanently screwed up by drugs, it makes me proud that I never went down that dark road.
.........................................................................
Film 132
"Insidious"
Starring: Rose Bryne and Patrick Wilson
"Insidious" is another Haunted House movie that has moments of being legitimately scary. It shares elements of Amityville Horror and Children of the Corn and the Omen, as well as Paranormal Activity. It shares more in common with the last than the others, perhaps because it's another film from James Wan and Leigh Whannell (the director and writer, respectively of the original Saw franchise movies as well as Paranormal Activity, which is also becoming an over-exposed franchise).
It definitely looks like Paranormal Activity, except this is supposed to be a made-up story (where P.A. banks on the idea of it being a "true story" complete with the shaky camera antics and first person P.O.V. and narrative). But, here is a movie that depends on the characters, the atmosphere, sneaky happenings throughout the house, and the mounting (thanks to creepy horror music) fear. Oh, and the house. The house needs to seem alive. Filled with spirits.
The Lambert's are the family is question. Renai (Rose Bryne, looking wonderful even without makeup and completely distraught over what's happening to her and her family) is a musician staying at home. She's the one who feels the presence of "Evil" in the house. And what's great about this is that we get to see what she thinks she sees, which legitimizes her concern. Her husband, played by Patrick Wilson, is a school teacher, who doesn't believe in the ghostly presence or in his wife.
All the weird, creepiness starts happening when one of their son's, Dalton, falls off a ladder in the attic of their spooky house and ends up in a coma. This is the part that is not believable, at all. It's borderline ridiculous, but the filmmakers cling to it.
Renai and her husband decide to bring in a psychic and her team of ghostbusters to finally rid the house of this evil that has been haunting them from house to house (because apparently this isn't the first time it's happened). This is when the film sort of derails and loses focus. It becomes a bit more of a horror/comedy than anything else. I really started to dislike the last half of the film because of its lack of attention to the spookiness the original story had going. I mean, Rose Bryne is terrified for good reasons and then all the reasons go out the window when the truth is revealed about why everything's happening (which I won't tell you, instead, I'll let you watch and find out for yourself).
...........................................................................................
Film 131
"Permanent Midnight" (1998)
Starring: Ben Stiller and Elizabeth Hurley
I don't know why, but since I started this project of mine, drug addict movies seem to find me, or maybe because of my relationship history, I've only just begun to recognize the commonalities. Here's the thing I don't understand, all these movies about drug addiction or even alcoholism seem to be the same in that they never glorify the addiction or make it look enticing. Yes, details are different in each case and random story, but ultimately the story remains the same. An addict's days revolve around finding and using the drug of choice to avoid the discomfort of not being high or drunk. Everything else becomes secondary to their next score. Now, I'm not speaking from experience, but rather relating all I've seen in film and conversations that I've had with addicts after they've cleaned up and have had time to process their past.
"Permanent Midnight" is no exception, other than the fact that it's a true story and it's based on someone's memoir. This someone is Jerry Stahl (played with a scary expertise by Ben Stiller, who is actually wonderful in a dramatic role that he sunk his teeth into), who happened to be an up-and-coming, very promising Hollywood writer. He actually started off by writing a few episodes of the television show ALF (which are depicted here in this film with a similar looking character and the viewer can totally see/get the reference). Stahl was making about $5,000 per week as a TV show writer, but his drug habit was costing him about $6,000 (perhaps that's a slight miscalculation to simply drive the point home that addiction costs, literally). He begins stealing from friends (finding drugs in medicine cabinets) and just really fucks up his life and friendships because of his habit. His story follows the same pattern of everyone else's- a downward spiral of desperation and absolute pathetic. Not being familiar with addiction, I was left to wonder why Stahl's story and past is so intriguing and important, other than the fact that addicts seem to make themselves important- everything is about them and they have a complete disregard for the people that care about them.
Stahl's circle consists of TV producers that simply don't care about his addiction as long as he keeps producing TV shows that are worthy of being aired. When he hits a creative wall and shows up to a meeting high on heroin is when they actually put their foot down and fire him. His only "Real" friend is a friendly drug dealer/pusher who wants his client to stay high and happy all the time. He will convince him of anything in order to take his money and get him high. And their relationship works for Jerry, because all he's concerned with his getting drugs and getting high. That becomes his motivation, much like every addict's story.
His circle also consists of Nicky and his wife (Owen Wilson and Lourdes Benedicto, respectively). They coincidentally hook him up with a TV producer named Sandra (British bombshell Elizabeth Hurley, who is actually decent here in a serious role, as well).
The twist here is that Jerry ends up marrying Sandra for money so that Sandra can get her green card and stay in the U.S. Jerry clearly doesn't care for her at first, but somewhere along the way, they end up falling for each other...more Sandra than Jerry...and Sandra has a baby, but Jerry doesn't have anything to do with it after he shows up to the hospital while she's giving birth and is looking for a place to shoot up. But then, one day, in desperation, she asks him to babysit, which you know will only lead to trouble. Once an addict always an addict. And even though he claims to be clean, while he has his baby in the car he goes off in search of drugs, shoots up and gets pulled over and arrested, the child taken away.
This is his one regret in life, apparently. It's the day he keeps remembering, but wishing he could forget.
How do we know this? Because Stahl is actually recounting his experiences with drugs and the downward spiral his life took so rapidly to another rehab survivor named Kitty (Maria Bello) who picks him up at the fast food drive-thru window that Stahl is currently working at after getting out of rehab. Jerry and Kitty are sharing intimacy with each other (both sexually and psychologically) at a nearby motel. They have sex and then he tells her about his life. I enjoyed this change of pace for such a depressing film because it gives Jerry some humanity and it allows us to think he's come out the other side of the tunnel. Their relationship isn't shallow and simply convenient. They are truly lost souls, together, who find comfort in each other.
This film get credit for not glossing up the details of drug addiction. It's not a funny or colorful lifestyle to choose and to have. It's actually quite boring, and in my opinion ridiculous. Drugs simply mask the pain and allow the addict's mind to focus on getting more drugs whenever they can. Here, Jerry doesn't seek drugs because he wants to feel good, but instead, because he wants to stop feeling so bad. With addicts, it isn't the high that makes them who they become, it's the potential withdrawal.
Whenever I see how someone else's life got permanently screwed up by drugs, it makes me proud that I never went down that dark road.
.........................................................................
Film 132
"Insidious"
Starring: Rose Bryne and Patrick Wilson
"Insidious" is another Haunted House movie that has moments of being legitimately scary. It shares elements of Amityville Horror and Children of the Corn and the Omen, as well as Paranormal Activity. It shares more in common with the last than the others, perhaps because it's another film from James Wan and Leigh Whannell (the director and writer, respectively of the original Saw franchise movies as well as Paranormal Activity, which is also becoming an over-exposed franchise).
It definitely looks like Paranormal Activity, except this is supposed to be a made-up story (where P.A. banks on the idea of it being a "true story" complete with the shaky camera antics and first person P.O.V. and narrative). But, here is a movie that depends on the characters, the atmosphere, sneaky happenings throughout the house, and the mounting (thanks to creepy horror music) fear. Oh, and the house. The house needs to seem alive. Filled with spirits.
The Lambert's are the family is question. Renai (Rose Bryne, looking wonderful even without makeup and completely distraught over what's happening to her and her family) is a musician staying at home. She's the one who feels the presence of "Evil" in the house. And what's great about this is that we get to see what she thinks she sees, which legitimizes her concern. Her husband, played by Patrick Wilson, is a school teacher, who doesn't believe in the ghostly presence or in his wife.
All the weird, creepiness starts happening when one of their son's, Dalton, falls off a ladder in the attic of their spooky house and ends up in a coma. This is the part that is not believable, at all. It's borderline ridiculous, but the filmmakers cling to it.
Renai and her husband decide to bring in a psychic and her team of ghostbusters to finally rid the house of this evil that has been haunting them from house to house (because apparently this isn't the first time it's happened). This is when the film sort of derails and loses focus. It becomes a bit more of a horror/comedy than anything else. I really started to dislike the last half of the film because of its lack of attention to the spookiness the original story had going. I mean, Rose Bryne is terrified for good reasons and then all the reasons go out the window when the truth is revealed about why everything's happening (which I won't tell you, instead, I'll let you watch and find out for yourself).
Comments
Post a Comment