Please Give this movie a chance

Summer thus far has been less than exciting for movies. Maybe it's changing tastes, but there is something wrong when I'm more excited for the Joan Rivers documentary, A PIECE OF WORK, than I am for TOY STORY 3, or any of the other "summer blockbusters." That being said, when staring at the movie marquee today I opted out of PRINCE OF PERSIA or SEX AND THE CITY 2 and voted to see the Manhattan based dramedy, PLEASE GIVE - starring Catherine Keener, Oliver Platt, Rebecca Hall and Amanda Peet.

Nicole Holofcener, channeling her best Woody Allen delivers a compelling character study of a woman grappling with guilt. Catherine Keener plays Kate, a wealthy New York furniture dealer and mother. She, along with her husband Alex (Oliver Platt) buy the furniture from the children of their deceased neighbors and resell it in an upscale 5th Avenue furniture store. As their business expands, they make plans to expand their apartment: by buying the apartment of their elderly neighbor, Andra (Ann Morgan Guilbert) and waiting for her to die.

Guilbert is old, senile and cranky, and doesn't look like she's going anywhere anytime soon. She is cared for by her grand-daughter Rebecca (Rebecca Hall, donning a frumpy wardrobe, bad teeth and greasy hair). Amanda Peet plays her other grand-daughter, Mary, who could care less about her ailing grandmother.

Peet's relationship with Guilbert is the most authentic in the piece, and struck close to home, as all I could see in their correspondence was my relationship with my great-grandmother. Both speak their mind, no matter how rude, causing a huge clash and strain on Hall who attempts to make peace. I was Peet (which makes it even more awkward when Peet and Platt find themselves in some sexually uncomfortable positions).

Catherine Keener, fabulous as always, feels tremendous guilt for her success and doesn't seem to understand why her husband doesn't feel it as well. She carries her guilt on her sleeve and makes up for it by volunteering and handing out money to homeless on the street (much to the chagrin of her daughter, played by Sarah Steele). She can't handle it though, and while she feels like she should give back, she has a hard time actually doing so. Holofcener has written a beautiful disaster for Keener and it's entertaining to watch her unravel from the safety of the audience.

The characters have little to no arcs, but this film isn't about change. It is instead about being a fly on the wall and watching the intersecting lives of a handful in New York. The characters are compelling, and while of course we want them to change, it is not so unsatisfying to see them end precisely where they started.

Overall, I recommend seeing it if you're feeling something a bit off beat that will make you think. The performances and production value are strong and at 95 minutes, it's a quick glimpse into a life that isn't your own.

Please give this movie a chance, it might be a better option than the traditional summer fare.

Playing Dress Up: A Blog About Costumes

My current Hollywood excursion has involved a lot less alcohol and a lot more money. What could I possibly be spending money on that isn't booze and rent? Costumes.

Have no fear, it's not MY money, but rather that of the production JEB & JEREMIAH: ALIVE IN 2010.

I wouldn't exactly call myself new to the costume scene, but this is only my second costuming excursion in LA (the others, all being for short films in Orange County). Don't get me wrong, there was certainly a high frequency of trips to LA when we needed things we couldn't find in the thrift stores/costume stores/fabric stores in Orange County - but now... now it's all LA, baby.

Costumes are important to any production because they do a fascinating trick. Acting aside, they take a person you could see on the street and make them someone else. It does this not only for the audience, but also for the actor. Costumes are important to actors to find the character inside themselves. Inside the clothes.

Prepare yourself, this is going to be a long one (you wish that what she said. or he. I don't judge). Items of discussion in the most important costuming blog: Design, Film, Theater, Colors, Stores & Jeb and Jeremiah

Lets get into this then, shall we?

DESIGN

I'll admit to you now, I don't sew. It makes being a costume designer difficult. It's on my list of things to learn. So for now, I design and then find the pieces to match my vision. It's difficult, but it works for now. If I had an arsenal of seamstresses my life would be much easier. Design is important though. You've got to know what you want. Walking into the stores I shop at can be an overwhelming experience and if you don't know what you're looking for- you'll quickly get lost in blazers and trench coats and sweaters. that being said, sometimes you stumble upon a piece that throws your design out the window. Be prepared to let it go. The piece you find is better than the one in your head.

FILM

You can get away with a lot less in film, because sometimes the camera is closer to the outfit than you'd ever want. It's for THIS reason that I find pre-made pieces, as opposed to try and make them myself. For S.S. HUMANITY we needed white jumpsuits that we then ended dying light blue for camera. How I wish we could have simply found light blue tops to begin with. The end result was fine, but I was terrified that my uneven bucket dye job would show on camera.

THEATER

Much more freedom, and much more room for fun. It might just be a misguided notion in my head, but I feel like you can get away with so much more on stage because it doesn't need to look as real. You can be extravagant. You can play with color. You can be surreal. I know you can do this in film, but in my opinion you can get away with stylization so much more in theater. Unless you work for Tim Burton. The thing about theater costumes, more than film, is that they need to look like they belong together. Lots of characters on stage need to look like they're from the same world. That's why, when it came to costuming DOG SEES GOD, Anna and I used American Apparel for all our base colors.

Well that... and the fact that we fucking love American Apparel.

COLORS

I love playing with color more than anything else. Sure, you can learn things from fabric and cut, but COLOR, my goodness. I really love colors. All of them. It's my high school background in art, I think, that makes color so important to me. Never just put someone in a color. Every color means something. Every color means multiple things. And what about color combinations? And what about when there's a change in color for an actress? What internal change does it represent? There is a simpler character in JEB AND JEREMIAH who I am costuming in primary colors to illustrate her simple nature. Things like that... things that NO ONE will EVER notice- those are the types of things I love in costuming. In THE SPRINKLER we transitioned the old man from Velcro shoes to lace up to illustrate his gained mobility. Do I think anyone caught it? No. But they registered it subconsciously. (That last bit.... not about color. Sorry!)

Jumping back to the primary colors real quick - if you ever work with me you will quickly learn that primary colors are my signature. It's how I leave my mark on things. I try and incorporate them somewhere in everything artistic I do.

STORES

Squaresville- I first came across Squaresville when costuming A VISIT OF CHARITY. It's a vintage store tucked away on Vermont Avenue. It's phenomenal and I make trips out there often (especially since Ozzie Dots it right over there). Most of the stores I hit up are vintage stores, since most of the things I end up costuming are vintagey feeling, if not set in the past completely.

Ozzie Dots- Part costume store, part vintage store. What more could you ask for? Props? Okay, it's got them too. It's amazing and I could spend HOURS in there. Lesley and I have. Mikey and I have. Alison and I have. It's terrific.

American Vintage- It's on Melrose. It's great and the cheapest of all the vintage stores mentioned here.

Jet Rag- It's huge. The biggest of all of these by far. Two stories of excellence. Sundays they have a 1$ sidewalk sale. Check it out. Also vintage.

American Apparel- I swear I'm not endorsed by them. The plain colors and standard pieces are great building blocks to costumes.

JEB AND JEREMIAH

One of my most daunting challenges yet. A play that starts in the 1920's and then time travels to the present. I needed to be able to create not just one world with costumes - but two.

Here's a look at the two most opposite costumes in the show: Jeb and Jeremiah's and the sexy dancers. If that doesn't make you want to see the show, I don't know what will. Check it out. I had a lot of fun with this one. Hitting all the aforementioned stores. It's gonna be a good one.

The reason I end on Jeb and Jeremiah is so that I can urge you all to see it, as its coming soon. There will be more on Jeb and Jeremiah in the weeks to come. Stay tuned.

Tommy Curry @ The Pig n' Whistle and the Great Apartment Hunt of 2010

This weekend started out at 8PM at the Pig n' Whistle on Hollywood Blvd. My friend Tommy Curry (check him out here).

After a wonderfully folksy set, a few drinks and plenty of back and forth with the enthusiastic audience of about 25, Tommy played his last song (which was featured in his sister's short film) and called it a night.

Mikey and I, however, did not.

To Fiesta we went where we ran into a friend of Mikey's and his friends.

Cut to it being 4 in the morning and I'm finally pulling myself into bed. It was an epic night of too many drinks (I blame you, Jeremy! Sweet Tea Vodka is the death of me).

And then there was the pizza, networking, and hanging out in an apartment talking.

I'd be remiss if I didn't share this story though: Jeremy and I are walking to my car and are stopped by two teenagers (1 male, 1 female). The conversation went something like this:

Teenage Boy: Can we ask you kind of a weird question?

Jeremy: Sure.

Teenage Boy: How much would you pay my friend or I to blow you?

Marcus: Nothing.

Teenage Girl: Okay, what if it wasn't us. How much would you pay someone?

Marcus: Nothing.

Jeremy: I don't know.

Teenage Girl: We asked that other guy over there and he said 60 bucks.

Jeremy: We wouldn't.

And with that we walked away. Did we just get solicited by prostitutes? Because I think we did....

I pulled myself out of bed Saturday morning to begin

The Great Apartment Hunt of 2010.

Here's some pictures of what we found.

Notable highlights:

-Mr. Bess, an elderly landlord who lectured Denny and I on the trouble with America today (it was credit cards)

-A landlord who described the tenants of her building as "kids that belong on a TV show"

-Denny starving

-Passing the Fat Burger on Santa Monica 17 times

-Running around LA with Denny

-The apartment that smelt like cat pee

And this gem, the potential future home of Denny and I....

and that was just Friday and Saturday....

Writing is Rewriting

Many of you know about it, but the Internet has not been graced with my tales of rewriting this script for RKO. The title and premise shall at this time remain nameless but let's just say the original was something like this....

and we want to make it more like this...

It was at first an exciting endeavor. I quickly got over that. Shit, rewriting is hard. Like really hard. Luckily, I'm not personally invested in any of the previous material. My own feature, sits untouched after the first draft because of this challenge. It is a challenge all writers face. So I quickly got over my excitement to make a gem and stared at 100 daunting pages of terrible dialogue and action blocks. The only thing this script had was a premise... and even that needed work. How on Earth was I going to do this?

What works for me:

DEADLINE: If I don't have a deadline it will never get done. My boss said "as fast as possible." Those words literally meant nothing to me. It wasn't until I told myself that I needed to be done June 1 that I actually got my ass in gear and started working.

SPACE: If it's my own work, I've got to put it down and separate myself from it for a while. If my story as-is is what's running through my brain, I'll never be able to look at it in a new light.

PLACE: I will never, ever, ever be able to write something in my apartment. I have to go somewhere else, with the simple purpose of writing. Solar de Cahuenga usually serves that purpose, but every now and then I'll change it up.

MUSIC: I currently have a playlist for the project I'm working on. Things that fit thematically, or tonally to whatever it is I'm writing at the time. Things on this project's playlist-

"Before He Cheats" - Carrie Underwood

"Irreplaceable" - Beyonce (spellcheck doesn't recognize her name as a word. How dare they!)

"Love Kills" - Little Boots

COFFEE: Must have it to write. If it's late I'll drink decaf. It's a "setting" thing.

DELETE: I took the original. Read a scene. Deleted it and then rewrote it. It's much easier for me to do it that way then to try and change things in the document. It's slightly more work, but the work feels more like my own AND I'm less likely to let things slide, or just leave certain things that aren't working but I don't know how to get around sitting their on the page.

Now I just need to finish this. I'll be at Solar de Cahuenga tonight. And tomorrow night. And This weekend. And so on and so forth.

See you in the credits.

I Have Savage Love

Without even turning down the house lights, she comes onto the stage and begins adjusting her tits. Lady Gaga's Telephone has just faded away and I'm sitting in Chapman University's Waltmar Theater about to watch Savage Love by Sam Shepard and Joseph Chaikin and directed by Brian Drummy.

The play, traditionally presented as slam poetry by one actor, has had new life, young life, my life breathed into it by Brian Drummy who delivers a sexy and moving version of "Love." A relatable version, as Drummy points out "I took it as a challenge to interpret the play and bring to it some kind of relatable-ness for our generation (aka the people who would see it). We have to work from a playing of showing what we KNOW."

Set to thumping club beats, we are thrust into a dim lit bar, not unlike the bar down the street. The attractive cast takes the stage and begins primping for a night on the town. The dialogue of the play is interrupted by dance breaks, drunken ad-libbing and general merriment. Drummy seamlessly blends the abstract dialogue of the play with the party atmosphere.

Each of our good-looking twenty-something cast members is on the lookout for love, or at least - what they think is love. Bumping and grinding, alcohol and flirting. It all leads to sex, and as Drummy and his cast will have you believe, heartbreak.

Drummy cleverly breaks it up though. They've all got motives and it doesn't stay in the bar. With simple lighting tricks, Drummy takes us from the bar to the bathroom to a one-night stands apartment. The set is sparse, decorated with the players, as opposed to a bulky set.

The design is cool and vibrant. It's a place I want to go, I have been. The nameless actors are me. All of them. Their relationship is my relationship. It hit home, which was scary. Rarely does theater put me on the stage. I sit back as a third party observer, but Drummy tapped into my psyche - and based on the rest of the audience's reaction, their psyche too.

The cast is, with one exception, perfect. They were, after all, playing extended versions of themselves. Drummy on his directing process, "I told them to come from more of a place of what experiences they've had in love." Liza Dealey-Thomason is a stand out, capturing the voluptuous and wounded lover in such a way that I couldn't take my eyes off of her. According to director Drummy, she received a Kennedy nomination for her work. No one is more deserving. Drummy commended her on being uninhibited physically, which opened her up emotionally.

Overall its an absolutely phenomenal piece of theater. The best thing I've seen on the Chapman main stage. The choices by both director and cast were commendable and I wish I could watch it again. It's the type of play you could watch a hundred times and see something new each and every one. It's the type that changes depending on your mood, age and relationship status. It ends on a sour emotional note, suggesting we never learn, but if we watch this version enough, we just might.