Freestyle

All day I have been in my room staring at a book my ex-girlfriend gave me and all I can think of is the urge I have to burn it.  It is called The Glass Castle and it is written by Jeannette Walls.  It is a memoir of sorts and is about her life on the streets.  My ex always considered herself an intellectual, which is why she always read the books on Oprah's book club list.  The girl is as shallow as a tide pool.  One good thing she did for me was she started buying me biograpghies and autobiographies.  Of course much of what is said is untrue, fabricated, or exaggerated but it is at least an incite on events that took place in the past.  Anyways, this stupid girl got me thinking about how important our stories are and why I love documentaries so much.  Some documentaries are not very good and they get old fast.  It is really difficult to sit and watch talking heads for a long period of time if the story isn't captivating.  Yesterday I watched the story of Ali vs. Frazier and I was impressed by the story I had heard so often but somehow learned more from this documentary from all the sports shorts I'd seen on ESPN before.  The archive footage was incredible and it went play by play with commentary from some of the sport's most eccentric characters.  Joe Frazier was a big part of the documentary and he is really beaten up.  Of course, Ali can't stop shaking but Frazier still took a lot of punches to grow into a weather skin suit of armor.  Some of my favorite movies are based on real stories.  Raging Bull is one of those films that if it is on tv I have to watch it no matter what my plans were before, things have changed, Raging Bull is on.  Raging Bull is shot in a documentary like style and it really makes the film come off as real and authentic.  Just like when songs are sang in the first person and don't like about we or they and tell someone else story. A film that is playing tonight for free at Lumina is shot in the documentary style as well, the new film The Wrestler, starring Mickey Rourick or however you spell his name.  They shoot most of the scenes handheld and have an arrangements of following shots that make the audience feel like they are witnessing the life of a washed up wrestler not a film that glorifies his failures.  The more documentaries I watched the more I liked films that did not have such an ensemble cast like Robert Altman films.  I still love Robert Altman but my style has drifted from his.  Paul Thomas Anderson takes a huge amount of visual and narrative influence from Altman.  I think all his movies are impressive but his best are his most recent because he starts to move in on the human soul of individuals.  In Punch Drunk Love he focuses on the loneliness, trepidation, and cowardice or Adam Sandler.  His most recent work, There Will Be Blood was nearly a perfect film, maybe it was, I will look at it more as the years go by.  He isolates the greed, abandonment, and sadness for one man that leaves the audience with an insight of a tortured man.  Documentaries focus on the problems inside the bigger problems and I think that is what good film does as well, not always but for 600 words it does.  Thank you very much and I will see you Thursday.