The Skeleton Twins

Last fall I ventured to Cinemapolis to see The Skeleton Twins (directed by a film starring former SNL cast members Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader. Before entering the theater, I knew very little about the film except that Kristen and Bill were the two main characters (that was reason enough for me). It was a truly powerful performance; I left the theater in a stunned silence.

The premise of the film is about a set of twins reunited after having near death experiences on the same day. Maggie (Kristen Wiig) and Milo (Bill Hader) were estranged for ten years, but Milo's attempted suicide forced Maggie to take him in. There is a lot of back and forth between them that uncovers some of why they became estranged in the first place. The film ends on a very postive note, but I don't want to spoil the ending!

Skeleton Twins tackles a myriad of social issues that are relevant today, such as homosexuality, cross-dressing, and suicide. At times the darker parts of movie were upsetting but I think they tackled the issues with proper sensitivity.
Everything about this movie was stunning. The acting was superb, which does not surprise me one bit since these two are obviously great.

Everything felt very real, which is the most important thing. It was actually very refreshing to see them in serious roles such as these ones--I'm used to seeing them in ridiculous SNL sketches so it was very cool to see them be so serious.


Overall, it was a truly lovely film and I would highly recommend it to anyone.

Here is the trailer for anyone interested!

Marvel, The Punisher

"The Dead Can't Be Distracted" is a fan-made film based off of Marvel's character, The Punisher. Unfortunately, we'll never see this film because Marvel recently sent them a letter demanding that they cease all production and distribution:

“While we appreciate your affection for the character, we must demand that you immediately stop your unauthorized use, advertising, sale and/or distribution of any production of The Punisher or any other Marvel character-based films therefor, and any other use of the images, likenesses, artwork or other intellectual property owned by Marvel.”

“Your actions confuse consumers into believing that they are viewing an authentic Marvel production or one sponsored or licensed by Marvel, when they are not.”

“Marvel reserves the right to take whatever remedies are available to it at law and in equity, and shall do whatever best protects its interests.”

(Taken from this blog)

The creator of this film, Mike Pecci, was taken aback by this letter... many fan-made films have be released before. Wonder Woman and Judge Minty (based off of Judge Dredd), to name a couple prominent ones. Like these short films, "The Dead Can't Be Distracted"looks like an incredibly well done independent film. I mean check out this short teaser trailer:

This is no teenager-made film in a basement with a JVC 100 and flashlights. It's clear that he put a lot of time and effort into this. Mike Pecci is a big fan of Marvel and enjoys everything they've released. This made it that much harder when he received a letter from them to halt all production of the film.

On top of this he received full support from Marco Checchetto, the artist of The Punisher comic books, who said quote:

“HOLY SH$T!!!  I'm very impressed!!! I don't know how you did it, but you hit the full atmosphere of my pages!”

(taken from Mike Pecci's blog post)

So why now? 

Fan-based films have been released before, so why did Marvel choose to tackle this one? Marvel said it would confuse their audience, but Pecci clearly states in the film that it's a fan-made piece. It's possible that Marvel has it's eyes on making another Punisher movie soon and wouldn't want it to mesh with their creation. After all, the Avenger series will dry out in another 5 years or so and it seems logical they would then move on to the Marvel's Knights (which includes The Punisher). Regardless of the reason though, this brings light to a bigger issue... 

Greed.

I'm not here to go on a boo-corporate rant. That's not what this is. But recently we have seen an immense increase in audience-made content. Cameras a cheaper, and special effects programs are easier to learn. YouTube and other sites enable videos to be shared with anyone. It's inevitable that the remaking and remixing of ideas will not only continue, but increase. Why? Because people like to see content they're already familiar with. 

Everyone loves the Harry Potter Puppet Pals video because of their familiarity with the world of Harry Potter. The creators of this video didn't come up with Harry Potter but they wrote the song and created the video. Do they deserve recognition for it? I would say so. If they made a revenue, would J.K. Rowling deserve a piece of it? I would say not. I love the woman dearly, but she put in no work for the creation of this video besides providing a stigma of an idea. She wrote her books, and made money off them that she deserved. She also assisted in the creation of all the Harry Potter films produced by Warner Brothers, and I would say she deserved a piece of that revenue too. But what about a Harry Potter board game that she didn't help out with at all? Yes, she provided the idea. But I believe people deserve money for the work they do. And the creation of that board game required no extra effect on her part. 

It goes something like this:

"Hey! They're making money off my idea! I deserve some of that money too!"

It makes sense on the surface, but compared to the work the "idea stealers" put in, did you really DO anything besides come up the idea? Some might say you deserve money for that, but I say you should stop being so greedy and just let the real workers get their pay check. 

Obviously there's a big grey area. It goes on a case by case basis because some "idea stealers" are just in it for the money too. In fact, most probably are. So what we have to bank on is the work they put in for it. The creative, physical, and intellectual work. It's a rough system and it would need a lot of clarification. But the clarification is necessary because this is an issue that is not going away. Yes we are stopping the stealing of ideas with the current system, but we are also stopping a lot of genuine creative talent. That means there's room for improvement. 

Let me bring is back to Marvel real quick. Harry Potter Puppet pals was created with no problem and gained all the attention it deserved. "The Dead Can't Be Distracted", however, will not. And this film is not some cheap viral YouTube video.... there was a cast, crew, and excessive hard work. 

Of course we all understand the value of copyright. Without that protection, there could be no industry. But we're not talking about stealing someone else's property. We're talking about a cooperate machine that owns thousands of characters, most of which were bought from the original artists. This isn't necessarily a bad thing... love it or hate it, Marvel has been keeping us entertained for over 70 years. 

But fan films are important. They're important for the fans to feel like they're apart of the story and for the company's brand (in this case Marvel) to grow stronger with the audience. I would love to see "The Dead Can't Be Distracted", and if you would too then please send @Marvel a tweet and voice your support of fan-made material. 

Jeff, Who Lives At Home

This week I watched the film Jeff, Who Lives at Home starring Jason Segel, Ed Helms, and Susan Sarandon. Jeff (Segel) is a 30-year old stoner currently living in the basement of his mother's (Sarandon) house. With his life lacking direction, Jeff receives an angry phone call from a man asking for a someone by the name of "Kevin". Rather than ignoring the phone call, Jeff decides to spend that day chasing all things related to the name "Kevin".

Pat, (Helms) Jeff's older brother, is a overzealous businessman who is having a troublesome relationship with his wife. Jeff coincidentally runs into Pat and decides that destiny brought them together in order to solve each others life problems. Pat however is much more skeptical to his brother's mindset and insists that he is just high and not thinking correctly. 

The film does a very good job at viewing life in a different sort of perspectives. The opposition between Jeff, who views life in a mystical perspective and his brother Pat, who treats life much more seriously creates a great parallel for the audience. 

I think it's important to always stop and live in the moment and I believe this film did a great job conveying that message. I would recommend the film to all.

Productions

Productions aren’t always fun, nor are they easy. This is fully hitting me during this one. Aside from going to bed at 1:30AM, waking up at 3:30, and going into the city at 5AM there have been some challenges along the way. The biggest one was getting into character. Forcing myself to get depressed is harder than I think, it’s pretty easy to do naturally, but when it’s needed, it doesn’t come. For two days I listened to the most hope sapping song I knew and tried to be in the dark as much as possible, and eat little, but I was so over joyed and excited about this project. So I probably wont be acting much anymore. Not that I can’t, but chances are I’d be acting my own projects and regardless I’d be overcritical of my work.

Day 2. Today finished the toughest part of the piece, I’m emotionally drained and can’t wait to get back to school and sleep late on Monday, if I sleep through class I’m sorry. While it was initially tough getting into character, it was rather easy getting into another one. I wasn’t too great at getting into depressed, but I was able to pull off annoyed/having a lot on the mind I’m sure. At least I know that is what I was feeling. This has been the roughest production on my body, mind and spirit yet and I would not be able to do this multiple times. Anyways I haven’t looked at the footage yet since we are still shooting, but I’m fairly confident that this will turn out to be a great piece. “Happy Birthday”