Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father

This poster is one of my favorites from the last few years as is the documentary itself. I saw it awhile back but recently showed it to my family on a visit home for the holidays, they were as blown away as I was which is saying a lot for them. Aside from the artwork I had not heard anything about it and checked it out on a whim, in the beginning it seems like a sappy story about a guy who died and his best friend interviewing friends and family so that his infant son can "know" him. But that is far from what this movie is really about, we soon learn that baby Zachary's father was murdered by his psychotic ex girlfriend right before she discovers shes pregnant with Zachary. The filmmaker makes his way around the country interviewing but also unfolding a story of murder, a failed justice system and a families love for a child that is so strong they pack up their lives and move to Canada to fight for custody and reform the judicial system.

Dear Zachary: a Letter to a Son About His Father
Released 2008
Directed By Kurt Kuenne

Holy Rollers

Since I was a kid I always had a fascination with Hasidim, now I live in a city and area that serves as a mecca for many hasidic families from around the world. The garb, the germanic sounds of yiddish, the sea of sukkahs perched out from apartment buildings around Williamsburg have me wondering what is happening on the inside of this community. Its very rare that you can catch any sort of glimpse as to what is going on behind closed doors, to my knowledge there is only one documentary, "A Life Apart" which is actually pretty great but very outdated. Throughout the years there's been few well known controversies that have come out of the hasidic community but one of the biggest has to do with the introduction of ecstasy to the United States.

"Holy Rollers" is based on a true story, taking place during the nineties, hasidic jews from Brooklyn were recruited as drug mules to smuggle in ecstasy tablets from Amsterdam. Each person was paid roughly $1,500 and given a free trip to Europe in order to do this job, what young sheltered individual that will soon be providing for a family would want to pass that up? Especially when you are told you are merely transporting medicine or diamonds. The film follows Sam Gold a young hasidic man who is not content with his current life and profession. He is approached by his neighbor who claims to work in pharmaceuticals and offers him the chance to join him in traveling and making money. Even after he finds out what is really going on he goes further down the rabbit hole in a quest for happiness and independence. One of my favorite scenes seen above was did not use extras, instead they shot down a street in a hasidic neighborhood in Brooklyn capturing the true reactions of people walking by which gives a true sense of what it is like to be ostracized amongst this community.

I really enjoyed "Holy Rollers", Jesse Eisenberg sort of plays the same character we know him to be, shy, timid, quiet. But also exhibits desperation and characteristics of being a lost individual. Actress Ari Graynor really won me over as well, I have seen her here and there in a couple of things but she has a charm and realness to her that should be appreciated, but she was also able to give us a glimpse of what it is like to be one of those people who seem to be in control but really are just as lost and looking for something like the rest of us. Joseph Zimmerman does a good job of playing Sam's self absorbed neighbor and douche bag who is quickly spiraling out of control as well. Im a sucker for a movie based on true intense events and this was very satisfying. Click here for more info on the Hasidic Ecstasy Ring

Holy Rollers
Released 2010
Directed By Kevin Asch

"The internets not written in pencil Mark, it's written in ink" - The Social Network

Do you remember when your school got added to "The Facebook"? Remember when it was called "The Facebook"? I do, as will most people my age. The Social Network blew my mind. I was bummed to see it end and going on Facebook after just felt odd to say the least. Some people have expressed to me that they have absolutely no interest in seeing this movie and that they actually hate Facebook (yet still have accounts?). But in my opinion, I dont care if you hate Facebook, you have to admit that its creation is one of the defining moments of our generation and modern times and it cant hurt to go see an extremely good movie about the building of this empire.


The Social Network is the story of Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) a Harvard student struggling to find his place in a school full of over achievers, heirs to excessive amounts of wealth and an overwhelming desire to be "somebody". After a drunken blog rant he creates a site, "Face Smash" (a site allowing you to decide who is hottest between two girls images), in a matter of hours the traffic brings down the schools server landing Mark in hot water with the school board. Hes soon approached by the Winklevoss twins (Both Cameron and Tyler are played by Armie Hammer), identical twin rowing powerhouses who are everything Mark desires to be; good looking, rich, powerful and popular. The twins and their friend Divya Narendra (Max Minghella) proposition Zuckerberg to help them code a site for social networking and dating that is exclusive to Harvard. Zuckerberg takes the boys for a ride for a little while without ever doing any actual work for them and eventually pulls out, at the same time he unveils The Facebook with the help of his only real friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield).

The story is told through scenes of two separate lawsuits that were later filed by the Winklevoss twins/Divya and Eduardo Saverin, the rest of the film is in real time as the events are described by the boys involved. I couldnt imagine The Social Network being any other way, in terms of cast, writing, cinematography, everything fit the film. Eisenbergs performance as Zuckerberg was completely different than any other character he has played in a film before, for once he plays an asshole. As most know the real Zuckerberg declined to take part in the films production (however Natalie Portman has been linked to helping some due to the fact that she dating someone involved in an exclusive final club within Harvard that Eduardo was apart of) so who knows how he really is but its not the best portrayal of him as a person. Hammer as both Winklevoss twins was also brilliant, stitching his face on the second twin was done seamlessly and it was awesome to be able to see the differences in both characters. Since seeing the film I have gotten into numerous discussions over who created Facebook and was Zuckerberg at fault for being sued. I think that he created Facebook and was sued out of jealousy to an extent and like he says in the film, "If they could have created Facebook, they would have". Case and point.

As for the visual aspect of the film, there really was not a thing I wanted to complain about. I felt the saturation and dark color palette was appropriate and fit the tone. One of the most talked about scenes being the rowing competition the Winklevoss twins take part in which is one of the first times the "tilt shift" technique has been used in a film. I will say anytime I see this technique I am immediately taken back to my days of sophomore year in college where as a photography major one is required to take view camera and learn the ways of tilting and swinging. In photographs this has been overdone a bit at this point, mainly because you can easily apply this look in photoshop, however seeing it on film in a major motion picture is very new and done nicely in this scene.



The Social Network
Released 2010
Directed by David Fincher

Funny People Not So Funny

Im sure that title has already been used to describee Judd Apatow's Funny People, but its really all I could think of. I have taken a serious liking to Apatow over the last few years, the best thing about his movies are that they are smart comedies dealing with real issues in peoples lives not like comedies of the past. This one just fell short for me and it took way too long to get there.

Funny People stars Adam Sandler and Seth Rogan. Seth as a starving comedian and Sandler as a rich and famous comedian who has recently been diagnosed with leukemia. The two meet and for a bond as Rogan tries to help him write as he returns to stand up. Eventually we meet the lost love of the story and we think "ok great the woman is going to take him back and everythings gonna be alright". But no, sure turns out Sandler is going to get better but things arent going to wrap up nicely. The movie is almost two and a half hours long which is way too long for any comedy in my opinion, and once its almost over the ending is disappointing and makes you think about all the women that led you on and did you wrong.

The best part of this movie is the character Daisy, played by Aubrey Plaza. She is best known recently as the intern on NBC's Parks and Recreation. Her dry sense of humor is pretty great, check out her stand up scene where she gives her take on hip hop:

"My favorite color is fluorescent beige"

I used to think that the screenwriters for "Million Dollar Baby" sat down and decided "lets make the most depressing movie ever about a single person." Precious easily cancelled out whatever meeting those people had. Anything that could happen to this girl in 1980's Harlem happened on the most grand of scales.

Precious is a 16 year old repeat middle school-er who is overweight and pregnant with her second child by her own father, the first born suffers from down syndrome and has been banished from their home by Precious's mother. Precious lives at home in a small apartment in Harlem with her mother (Mo'nique) where they consume massive amounts of soul food for what seems like every single meal. Her mother is unemployed and scamming the welfare system (by claiming Precious and Precious's first born daughter) to sustain herself while she watches tv all day alone. Precious attends school during the day where she is tormented by students for her size and then goes home to be verbally, physically and sexually abused by her mother and a father that has left the household but is seen briefly in graphic abuse scenes. Her life takes a turn for the "better" when she is sent to an alternative school and begins to learn to read and write. For once in her life she meets a teacher and peers who are her true friends and love her, all of which is nice and heartwarming but as a viewer we are quickly jolted out of that and thrown back into her home where in one scene she is almost decapitated practically by her mother wielding a frying pan. To say that this is not the feel good movie of the year is an understatement. There is never a point during this film that I felt I could breath a sigh of relief for Precious, because in the back of your mind you know this girl is totally screwed. Granted, there are some funny moments caught in Precious's classmates especially Joanna who I quoted for the title of this post. Hilarious.

The performance by newcomer Gabourey "Gabby" Sidibe was great, I saw her in interviews a few weeks ago and to see the transformation between her and her character is pretty amazing. Mo'nique is seen as we have never seen her before, she has always been a graphic loud mouthed comedian, in this case she is loud, angry, disgruntled, and abusive in every way possible. She was terrifying to be honest. I would not be surprised if both or at least one of them is nominated for this years Oscar's, seeing how Mo'nique will react to that will be interesting considering her bad attitude and demands for money could be jeopardizing such prestigious nominations. According to her she was only in this movie for money and didnt care about "no Oscars". She has also opted out of all promotional duties for the film because Lionsgate and the films producers Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey will not go along with her $100,000 appearance fees.

The film is more graphic than I originally anticipated, I went into the movie knowing what was contained in the book but a New York Times article led me to believe that the sexual abuse scenes would not be shown in their entirety. They werent but more was seen than expected.

*SPOILERS* We learn that Precious is pregnant by her absent father for a second time, the first child has down syndrome and is forced to live with a relative away from Precious and her mother. We never learn the girls real name, only that they refer to her as an animal or "Mongol" short for mongoloid. On top of being raped by her father and having spawned two children from incest, she is also forced to perform sexual acts on her mother. I was not prepared to see this as I had thought I read earlier that this aspect was not in the film. With all of this on her plate, she eventually comes to find out that her father has AIDS and that she now does as well, luckily her baby does not.

Overall the performances are great from two new and unsuspecting actresses, but proceed with caution, this will no doubt bring anyone's mood down.