MetLA

This is Lily, a dog that my friend Tina needed help foster caring for. She was rescued by the pound but then scheduled for the gas chamber. An animal rescue service saved her, then Tina took up her cause, and now, we're her foster home. She's turned my life upside down. We're just not used to having her around, and while she's sweet and adorable, she's high strung and needs lots of attention. Then yesterday I took her to the vet because I noticed she was bleeding like she was in heat, but she's been spayed so that's not supposed to happen. Well, they ended up doing an Xray and an ultrasound and found a big mass of something by her uterus. I had to take her to a hospital for emergency surgery, which is happening today. Oy! In the meantime we're trying to find her a permanent home. She's a pit bull/staff terrier mix. Despite the bad rap on these dogs, she couldn't be more loving and fun. She even responds to commands and looks like she could be trained quite easily. I've given her a bath, taken her to the vet, put her in a crate, etc. and I've never seen anything but total love from her. I wish I could keep her but it's just not possible with our unpredictable lifestyle (and Kyle's not a fan of dogs - boo). So if anyone knows of anyone who's interested, send them my way! We'll have spent all the time and money to make her 100%!
Having a dog is a whole new world of worry and responsibility. I think I take my unattached lifestyle for granted - it's just Kyle and I, no worries. We don't need to be home to feed anyone (except ourselves), we can go on trips and not worry....I guess this is good practice for having a kid!

I just Gizoogled my blog. OMIGOD that shit's funny!

I finally caught some of the Oprah smackdown of James Frey, it was kinda entertaining. By now we're all sick of him and his Million Little Lies, but let me add a little PS to this story - I knew what a tool that guy was years ago. My dear friend and producer Roni produced a film with Jamie (who, btw, went by the annuciation "Hi-May" back in the day), referenced in this recent LA Times article as "Bad Seed". Jamie came with the money, he got an heir to the Motorola fortune to put up a couple million to finance the film. Roni and the director (her good friend from college) were on the "creative" side of things, Jamie and his people were on the "financial" end of things. They got along like oil and water. Roni had horror stories about Jamie bringing pit bulls and strippers to the set in Seattle, yelling at people, hassling her over power and control, and being an all around jerk off. He thought he knew everything and didn't hesitate to treat people poorly.
Did James get what he deserved? It's called Karma, hell yes.

I think the message in this film is going to enter the zietgeist. Check out this article about the film at Sundance and Al Gore. The word needs spreading!

OK - horribly overdue, but here nonetheless - my Sundance wrap! This year, I went with Shawn (the director of "Shakespeare's Henry IV") and her husband Gregory. We went for 9 days (including 2 travel days, we drove), skied for 2 days, and saw 10 films in 5 days. Let me start with a small diatribe on the popularity of the Festival - it is both heaven and hell to be there. Both Todd McCarthy (in Variety, subscription required) and David Ansen (in Newsweek) wrote excellent articles about how difficult Sundance is for anyone looking to see films without all the hoopla and crowds. So here are my complaints: Sundance was a navigational nightmare from Friday to Sunday. After that it mellowed out a bit. But what's the solution? A new mega-complex for the dramatic competition films (if it gets me out of the hellish Racquet Club venue, I'm all for it)? Banning the "swag houses"? Building more roads? Park City hosted the Olympics, for goodness sakes, they did a pretty good job of handling the crowds then. Sundance needs to work even more closely with the City to create real solutions, not somehow thinking by programming more "true indies", less people will show up. Anytime you have the patron saint of aggressive promotion (Paris Hilton) in town, the crowds will follow. 3 years ago I almost got crushed to death outside Harry O's by rabid JLo fans, so this is nothing new. Sundance should truly face the fact that the Festival has created a film, party, and brand destination, and that it will continue to be a logjam until they create a solution.

That said, I really can't complain too much. The press attention, celebrity presence, and all-around carnival atmosphere makes Sundance a lot of fun. And the Festival becomes accessible to middle America courtesy of People magazine. That in turn helps increase the eventual box office of independent films. So if it means slogging through crowds for a few days, oh well. And ps - I got a very sweet gift bag from Kiehls, stocked full of beauty products, and let me tell you that made my month.

On to the films.....
My favorite Dramatic Competition films was Half Nelson. Ryan Gosling plays an idealistic history teacher in Brooklyn with a crack problem. That guy is a Movie Star. You literally can't take your eyes off him during the film. The other main actors, newcomer Shareeka Epps and "Million Dollar Baby"s Anthony Mackie, are terrific too. The director allowed humor to run through the piece (something sorely missing in other Competition films), and it wasn't too long. ThinkFilm picked it up, so it should be coming to a theater near you. I've loved Ryan ever since I worked for casting director Howard Fuer and we cast him in "Murder By Numbers". It's nice to see him continuing to take risks with indies like "Half Nelson".
The other competition films I saw were Sherrybaby, The Hawk is Dying, and Forgiven. Don't get me started with "Sherrybaby" - despite a brave performance by Maggie Gyllenhaal, the film had fatal flaws. Maggie's character was completely unlikeable, and not in a loveable loser kind of way. The story never really took off, but still managed to stretch on and on and on....the director was clearly in love with the performance given by little girl playing Maggie's daughter. Those scenes lasted beyond even the cute "oh look, that 4 year old can act" part, to where the girl was glancing into the camera to make sure it was still rolling. Painful.
"The Hawk is Dying" featured a tremendous performance by Paul Giamatti, but not too much else. My main beef with the film was how dark it looked - during one of Paul's most dramatic scenes, we literally CANNOT SEE HIM AT ALL. That's not right. I hope they do some further color correction with the negative before it hits theaters (although I don't think it's gotten distribution yet).
"Forgiven".....hmmmm. The film tackled the very intense subjects of wrongful imprisonment, justice, and vengeance. That alone is praiseworthy, but I kept feeling like I was watching a procedural rerun on the USA Network. The acting was good but the director shouldn't have cast himself as the lead, he was the weakest of the cast.

I loved Friends With Money. The film takes on class issues between longtime LA friends. The cast is pitch perfect, with Francis McDormand stealing the show. Some of the issues hit home, like who has money and who is successful and who is a basket case amongst a group of friends. Many scenes took place in Los Feliz, which was fun to watch.

The documentaries really hit me hard this year. Who Killed the Electric Car describes the demise of GM's EV1 program, and how big business and the government conspired to kill the only electric car program in the United States. It also makes the case for how utterly foolish Bush's backing of fuel cells really is - the technology is years away and prohibitively expensive. The film made me want to rush out and get a biodiesel car asap.
A companion piece to "Who Killed..." is An Inconvenient Truth, a documentary on Al Gore's effort to educate the world about Global Warming. He's distilled the data into a highly informative and effective presentation that he's been taking all over the US and abroad. The film is essentially that presentation plus some interviews and background. The message is frightening - we're polluting ourselves to death. No other period in recorded Earth's history has been more damaging to the planet. We are screwed unless drastic measures are taken. And for a country who refused to ratify the Kyoto Treaty, we are hosed until we get Bush out of office and elect someone willing to take the problem seriously. Go to the Climate Crisis website for more information.
An Unreasonable Man was also a standout doc - I now know more about Ralph Nader than I ever thought possible. I'm sure the film will make it to a theater or TV near you, check it out, especially if they trim it down (2.5 hours was a bit much!).
The rest: The Night Listener and Off the Black. The former was surprisingly dull for a thriller with Robin Willims and Toni Colette, the latter was a decent first effort with a standout performance by Nick Nolte.

Whew! It was a great trip.....Shawn and I met some great people and made new contacts for our "Henry IV" project. I may bitch about the crowds and the subpar films, but I'll be back next year - my ninth visit!