Breakfast on Pluto (2005) You have to have been to Pluto to know Pluto. I welcome you to BREAKFAST ON PLUTO, and my DVD review, albeit twisted to some degree. This remarkable movie will affectyou to the degree that you can accept what is. I liked this movie a great deal. I am very curious, and I had heard this was a curiosity. We are all curiosities of a sort. If you concede this you may just find this movie interesting. I suspect most of you will find it educational. I forewarn you, liberal or conservative you must be the open minded sort of either or just don’t bother, please. And for pity sakes don’t blame it on Herald-that’s me. Let us first get something straight. We are none of us one hundred per cent straight. Everyone is somewhere on a scale moving to left or right or exactly in the middle. We are all of us filtered in different degrees, and some of us in self defense don sunglasses as well. Who has not dealt with a lie, deliberately told or not? Did you really believe Pluto was a planet? Get over it. It’s not. It was only a planet before it was not a planet. Straight talk? Believe what you will. But please don’t live an act for it’s a fact that whatever you are, you are, and that’s, by far, far better than deception or worse still a delusion. Honesty is hardest when confessed to the mirror. I’m not talking about sex, how much a man you are or how much a woman. I’m talking about being the real you. There is nothing quite as sexy as someone who is exactly exact about it no matter where that might be along the scale. A number nine can dress hair and a number two can wield a bat and vice versa. Some are comfortable, but some are not. The character in the movie is hardly comfortable at first, but very, very, honest and because of this the journey’s end was in my opinion a good one. I like the way the movie ends. There is a sense of closure that has a future after a past of much self disclosure and searching. This character finds himself or herself: or does it really matter? Now, you know, I never write about what has already been written about, so let’s not bother with all the bother. What is Google for but for the bother of it all? No, let’s cut to the chase. We’ve talked about the sex; now let’s talk about something much more. What was all this bother for? What aside from a beautiful score, music quite good, was this edgy story for? Was it to reminisce? Most today are not that old. Did the movie solicit approval for a life style? I think not. This is hardly the era of approval seeking, each of us on our own iPods, or talking in the air with something robotic hanging out the ear. Are any of us ever completely here or there? Everybody’s got a planet in tow, or at least it seems so. The movie is about “seeking”; the searching that is the journey to the fulfillment of us all. Whether it’s the lost mother, a sorted sexual identity, or the one true God, each of us is the same in this way. Life is sometimes a series of very, very, awful things we must survive, with good moments in-between, but if we can survive and in the end we find a truth we can live comfortably with, we will have lived life well. This is what in my opinion the movie was about; arriving at that special place where, when all is said and done, you feel you were not wasted upon yourself or anyone else, and your unique journey, no matter what it is you are searching for--has come home to rest. The movie is about being at peace with you. And when you arrive there, well the journey has really just begun. But don’t mind me. I am growing old and very little shocks me anymore. It hasn’t been easy but somewhere on the journey, Earth turned into Pluto, and vice versa. But, you see, I’ve seen BREAKFAST ON PLUTO, and I can assure you I was not as shocked as I was kept from being bored. Nothing is as boring as more of the same. Straight to a ten or somewhere along the scale, I think you’ll like this movie; a trifle long but surely you can’ be bored…oh well, never mind. You’ll probably be shocked by it! Wait till you’re a little older. © 2005 E.D. Ridgell	A Review: Atonement [2007] Atonement [2007] an adaptation for film by screenwriter Christopher Hampton of Ian McEwen’s prize winning novel has received mixed reviews. I do not pretend to give the normal kind of review. I let you do the work in regards to names of stars, director, cinematographer, etc. If the movie is good you’ll be interested enough to take note of these, and if not you’ll hardly care. I am reviewing the movie from the eyes of the artist. Film is art on myriad levels. My business has been art in divers and sundry disciplines. I have the credentials. Whether or not you like my reviews waits to be seen. The critic’s lot is often a thankless one. This film is at one moment a delicious visual experience and at another a graphic and realistic look at war in all its horror. I like the juxtaposition. The photography thought overdone by some critics was superb in my opinion. I think the set pieces done in different periods at different places are marvelous; English countryside set in the thirties, the expected manor house, London just before the blitz, the war torn and dreary fogginess of France during the initial blitzkrieg, and especially a surrealistic and fanciful look at the phenomenon that was Dunkirk, all work for me. The scenes shot at Dunkirk are ‘risk taking’ on the part of many people concerned, and I applaud them for it. I was captivated. This is a British film so the acting is excellent with modulations on that level. The British unlike the Americans don’t churn their artists as much so their actors whom you tend to see over and over again in varied roles can hone their craft. That said the few American stars that do become icons deserve it. Costume is to the period and I saw no mistakes. I personally liked the dress both female and male. The directing by Joe Wright is certainly different from his direction of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”, and you are either going to like it or you are not. I don’t want to tell too much but there are flash backs but not of the usual vein. They are integral to understanding the characters involved and the pivotal accusation made that must be atoned for. I think Mr. Wight has used this technique well. The adaptation of McEwen’s work takes very much artistic license especially in the story so let me forewarn you. You are going to either find the ending believable or not. It does give pause which is why I waited at least twenty four hours before writing the review. Partly because of the actor involved, I swallowed it as I thought she delivered it with the aplomb that only an actor of her skills could. It’s audacious but I lean towards the audacious in art at times. Life can be so very audacious. I’ve left the score till last. It’s not necessarily novel. Things like this have been done before but perhaps not exactly with such a poetic effect. The sound of a typewriter and the subtle, single, note of the piano are used to great effect to add tension, emphasis, and dramatic effect, whatever. These results are not pretty but anxious, uneasy and at time stressful. Even the banging of an umbrella on a car hood speaks words for the script and screenplay. The overall score along with this unifying kind of poetic refrain in my opinion make for a good soundtrack. More importantly, for the poet it will make you muse on the use of the refrain for purposes other than just repetition of feeling or message. Atonement is a cut above most and in many respects is about artistic license which for this artist and critic are always valued. I rate the film four stars or an eight and I hope if you should see it, that you will like it. Cheers, Ed © 2008 by E.D. Ridgell
pic-copyrightstarpulse.com Factotum: A Review [2006] I saw this movie on my birthday, that dreaded day none of us can avoid but most of us would like to, relenting to that inevitable question, “what would you like to do?”, with a decision to see “Factotum”, an independent and interpretive movie of the poet and writer Charles Bukowski’s novel of the same name. This movie is about obsession. This movie is not about choices, but about surrender. Bukowski, played by Matt Dillon, in perhaps one of his better performances, playing Henry Chinaski, a down and almost out drunk and near derelict, has certainly surrendered to his unapologetic desires to drink and get laid. But anyone who knows of the life and works of Charles Bukowski, or may have seen “Bar Fly” (1987), years ago, in an autobiographical screenplay of Bukowski’s, already knows of this, dare I say romantic, reputation of Bukowshi’s. It is a reputation for honesty regardless of what anyone thinks or says. This is interesting because all obsessive behavior is a kind of co-dependency, a pattern of painful dependence on a compulsive behavior and on approval seeking in an attempt to gain, safety, identity, and self worth. Charles would seem, especially in his early works and life, to have wanted us to believe that he didn’t give a damn, that he didn’t seek the approval of anyone or anybody. But as the movie shows, and as his later works and poems attest to, he was so “busted” from the very first submission that went into the mail! Many more artists than not are social at least to this degree. I’d venture to say most of us. We create it. We “get off” in doing it in a sort of “high”, but then there comes that need to, “show and tell”. If you believe like me that life and art are intertwined and that all human beings are social creatures to some degree, then you will understand this need to be seen and to be heard, and to not just make your mud pies for yourself alone. It is not always about fame so much as the period at the end of a sentence; a final stroke of the brush on the signature upon the canvas. We want and need something more. There are two songs set to poems of Bukowski’s in this flic, and it is in one in particular that sums the movie up. So as not to let the “cat out of the bag”, I will merely tell you to, “wait for it”. It is Charles Bukowski telling you of a bigger obsession than to drink or screw; the thing he had no choice but to do. And, I’ll give you this, as well, as it is not his alone to give, but, the universal message of all artists who are self-fulfilled: Follow your bliss! Surrender to the better of your obsessions and don’t look back. Substitute this, less the others unfruitful, kill you. Death has taken its toll down through the ages of artists who did not do this; follow the better bliss, of the many obsessions that would and did unfold. Factorum is about obsession. I recommend it to you, and I give it an eight. See it if you like an independent and interpretive kind of thing, if you like Matt Dillon, or, needless to say, if you are a Bukowski fan. It does drag a little, especially after mid-way. It is not for everyone. You must decide. Google the details. I am not about working for you. I am about working for me, and then forwarding that to you, simply because I must write, that being my obsession, and for my pain, I would garner your applause. Not all artists are vain, and in this case certainly not Bukowski, but most do bow some little way for applause. Charles Bukowski would understand. Do you? © 2006 by E.D. Ridgell	Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby- A Review! In a country where ever since 9/11 we have slowly learned to live daily with a heightened state of anxiety; where we are watched by cameras everywhere; drive under lighted billboards telling us to report any suspicious activities; meander past a half dozen police cars, marked and unmarked, on a short drive to the grocery store at four dollars a gallon and rising, to buy groceries more expensive this week than the last; and must guard our very identity from “an intruder” lurking in the wires or pillaging in the mailbox-- it tends to make us tense. Everyone is worried about or worrying someone else. We are a nation adrift in a sea of worries, amidst stock market fluctuations, worldwide surrealism, and a media addicted to its own bad news. Those of us who are poets must take care less we despair. Well, this is America and when the going gets this rough, there is only one thing to do; screw it and rent a movie. And, in particular, be sure you rent something funny, anything to lift you up and out of this seeming cesspool, this swamp of seriousness. And so that’s what millions of Americans will do this weekend. They repeat a cycle. They duly worry all week and then take a few hours every weekend to laugh at it all and in particular to laugh at themselves. “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby”, has been out awhile but if you missed it, why not put your poetic pens and computer keyboards down and have some laughs. The poet who forgets to laugh is loosing both subject matter and vocabulary. This film is a wonderfully uplifting experience for anyone and in particular the poet who forgets sometimes to experience life and spends far too much time in his own head. Seriously, IMO your poetry will improve as soon as you take it just a little less seriously. In my experience, others will then tend to take your poetry just a little more seriously. It’s one those opposites that gives life an evenness. Ask any Smith Islander. All the “stuff” in this movie is good; direction, script, acting, photography, yada, yada, yahoo!!!! It usually is when the box office was so good. ‘As usual, I’ll leave you to google the director, actors, screenwriters, yada, yada, yada. I’m stereotypically lazy about these things. This movie is an all American “Roast”. Everybody gets roasted; the Right winger, the Left swinger, the Holy Roller, the Advertising Busynessman [typo deliberate]with his bored alcoholic wife in toe, and yes, even you, the perhaps too serious artist. The main set, just another one of those Great American Coliseums, with a capacity of 200,000 or more; The Talladega Super Raceway, is worth the rental price to see in all its color and excessive glory. If there is one thing history confirms is that Americans love their “wheels” and are all about speed. It isn’t about the wonderful ability of this nation to laugh at itself. It’s not really anything about what’s hap’ in on the screen. It is about the audience; that irreverent American who will light heartedly laugh at everyone including himself until he enters his house of worship or that voting booth. Can you laugh at you? Do you habitually vote for yourself? This movie is about democracy. Democracy defined by this man is the right of the minority to be safe, so that even though it ain’t go’ in to happen, each and everyone of us has the right to one day feel, if they follow their bliss, they too can be in the majority. It is about that feeling of being a people who will applaud their idiosyncrasies and yours and respect the rights of everyone to give it a go, to follow their bliss, without too much constraint. The viewer is what this country, bottom line, is all about; not winning the race but racing, following that mad bliss. And if you think the storyline too ridiculous and far fetched, well visit Times Square and speak to the Naked Cowboy. He’s real and he’s freely, following his bliss. I for one am proud of that. Aim for the sun. If you miss you can rest on a star. This movie gets four of ‘em and its viewers five. © 2008 by E.D. Ridgell