Bad ponies, long cons and David Mamet's House of Games

Sometime in high school, I discovered David Mamet's House of Games. It was playing regularly on Bravo at the time, and I remember being sucked in to this dark world, where nice, smiling men wanted to take your money -- and make you want to give it to them. That was the trick. It's a good trick.

Really, it's the only trick, the one all storytellers play. It's a game, and you're the gamepiece. They move you around on a board, teasing you with fantasies, promising you the world--and then the movie's over. And at the end, you thank them for it. Why shouldn't you? You had a great time.

I don't mean to be glib about what con artists do. Obviously, at heart, these are some callous, petty, self-serving people. Some of them are more than just petty. Know them well enough, and you'll pick up the scent of brimstone and smoke in their wake. But they're just so damned interesting.

House of Games eventually led me to read The Big Con, a much drier and somewhat dubious history of con artists in America. As with all confidence men, you shouldn't believe everything the book tells you. The same principle holds true for the characters in Mamet's film, though if you decide to play along with them, you're guaranteed to be taken on a pretty good ride. Check out my review of it on The Parallax Review, a new film site that just launched.

Cockney cops in Gorky Park

 

Maybe I've contracted arthouse disease. I hope not. I've never been a multiplex man, but I like to consider myself down to earth enough that I can watch a movie without subtitles and still enjoy it. Hell, I love a big, dumb Cannon film once in a while, something you can kick back and play "count the squibs" with.

But Gorky Park, about a Soviet cop tracing a brutal murder to the top of the KGB, was a struggle for me--a trip to the gulag, if you will. It was probably the first time I ever hungered for sub-titles, and started pulling my hair out because everything was in a language I could actually understand.

Here's the problem: Not one word of Russian is spoken in this film, despite all the characters being, you know, Russian. Most of the characters are Soviets, but not one of them could be described in the least as "Putinesque" (William Hurt, who plays the lead and bears at least passing resemblance to the Russian leader, comes off as tough but kind of fey and wispy, honestly. And is he wearing eyeliner in some scenes?)

Review: Exit Through the Gift Shop

Banksy's name attracts instant buzz--and it should. Few artists are as sharp, cheeky and elusive as the Robin Hood of graffiti, who has given British police plenty of headaches over the past decade. Now the film industry has to worry as he pushes in on their turf with Exit Through the Gift Shop.

The film is one of two satirical takes coming from British figures that I've been looking forward to for a while (the other would be Chris Morris' Four Lions, which has received some disappointingly mixed reviews so far). I'm happy to say it's completely worth your time, though I would recommend everyone take the film's story with a grain of salt. Like his graffiti, Banksy's directorial debut takes a few liberties with the truth in an effort to illuminate the hypocrisy of the art world--both the establishment and underground. Partly he does this to stir debate, and partly, I feel, he's having a laugh at everyone's expense. Even his own.


I have a review up for Verbicide Magazine that talks about the film a little more. Check it out here.

Ladislaw Starewicz gives me more reason to love Eastern European art

I've never seen an episode of "American Idol" or "Jersey Shore," but I'm getting to be an authority on obscure Eastern European pop-culture--if pre-war animation and surreal art films count as "pop," I guess. I'm not sure what it is that's been attracting me to the art of Polish animators like Ladislaw Starewicz or Czech surrealist Jan Švankmajer, but I find their work infinitely more interesting than the lifestyles of the tanned and self-important. Why the fascination with Eastern Europe? With these two artists, it's sheer coincidence--though based on what I've seen of Starewicz' shorts, I think it's safe to guess Švankmajer was heavily influenced by the weirdness and wonder in the former's work.

Review: Prime Cut is bloody but meaty

There's something quintessentially American about the gangster picture. The American melting pot is messy, with cultures butting heads and rubbing shoulders more often than they merge. Gangster pictures are basically stories about tribal conflict, and directors in the '70s found plenty of simmering tension underneath the American dream. Think of Scorsese's Mean Streets and Coppola's Godfather movies, or even The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, where city anxieties about the wild, degenerate country run amok.

Now imagine fusing the ethnic gang movie to that fear of the hinterlands, then toss in a solid badass like Lee Fucking Marvin, and you've got 1972's Prime Cut.

Review: A Prophet predicts the future of the crime drama

Consider me scared straight. There is no way I would ever step foot in prison after watching A Prophet —even a French prison, where you get a baguette with your meal. That’s the one luxury inmates are afforded, and the deeper into the film’s savage world you go, the more you come to appreciate things like, oh, laws and human decency.

Even Malik El Djebena, the teenage delinquent who serves as the film’s hero—or anti-hero, you may decide—seems ready to crack as he finds himself thrown in way over his head. Though you can imagine Djebena is a neighborhood nuisance in the projects, he’s not a murderer. Rather, he's not until the Corsican gang running the jail picks him out for a job. Kill an inmate who’s turned state’s witness, he's told, or you won’t survive here. He tries to squeal to the warden, but two guards wrap a plastic bag over his head, warning him that they’re not screwing around. By the time we see him practice hiding a razor blade in his mouth, his gums bleeding, it’s clear this isn’t your typical Gallic arthouse picture.

Welcome!

This blog is a portal to my past, linking to various writings from throughout my working career.

I grew up in San Diego, CA, and graduated with a B.A. in Journalism from San Diego State University. I learned a lot about writing while working at the school paper, The Daily Aztec. While there, I served as the assistant editor of the arts section, Tempo.

Journalism

After graduation, I covered a variety of news stories for The Orange County Register. I have a passion for features, and published a few on the Register's front cover, including a story about Leonid Stadnik, one of the contenders for the title of "tallest man in the world." (part two is here)

Other subjects I covered included:

Crime                          Education                           Business                      Features

Marketing

I left journalism in 2008 to work for Nobis Interactive, a SEO marketing company. Our clients included StubHub.com, Playphone.com, and Appitalism.com. I've helped enhance their SEO rankings with blogs, articles and online content.

Read some examples of marketing copy I've written for smart phone apps:

Fruit Ninja

The stealthy arts of the ninja include assassination, deception, and making one heck of a fruit salad.

FatBooth

You! With the taco! Put that down and check out what you might look like if you eat five hundred more of those.

Bubble Wrap Wallpaper

It’s the most addictive substance known to man. Once you start poppin’ these, you’ll be hooked. 


Veggie Samurai HD

The produce department hates you. Benihana won’t take you back. Unleash your skills in the only place left where you can make your mark: Veggie Samurai HD, the long-awaited follow-up to the popular Fruit Ninja app.

Arts and Entertainment

I've written music reviews for Treblezine and Verbicide, and film reviews for The Parallax Review.

Music reviews:

The Dead Weather, Sea of Cowards                         Zola Jesus, Stridulum

David Bowie's Scary Monsters                                  Lou Reed's Transformer

Film reviews:

House of Games                                                         Exit Through the Gift Shop                                      

More film reviews can be found here.