Coffee

My first cup
was on a flight to Europe
not because of interest
but as an activity
that would eat up a fraction
of the nine hour travel,
I found it
surprisingly agreeable.

Habitual consumption
came some years later
when I was a supervisor
at a Barns & Noble Cafe
mostly, again, as something
to assuage tedium
as we stood for hours
serving the entitled.

Compulsion came shortly after
my first attempt at abstience
and working as a bank teller
I'd up end cup after cup
chasing I know not what
relishing the bitter black
and the heady, nauseous,
jitter it induced.

Now, I will admit
it is my sober vice
and more necessity with time
a comfortable constant
companion and crutch
heat, clarity and perhaps
dependence
but what a steadfast friend this beverage be.

'Lean on Pete' A Review

Lean on Pete is a coming-of-age drama about Charley(Charlie Plummer), a teen in a low-income Portland suburb who lives with his father Ray(Travis Fimmel). On a run one morning Charley runs into Del(Steve Buscemi) a race horse owner who he begins to work for. Charley connects with one of the horses, Lean on Pete, who's companionship he relies on when his life begins to fall apart.

Plummer gives a remarkably restrained and potent performance. Striking a perfect balance of naivete and morality which could easily come across as immature unintelligence in less capable hands. He draws us in but we are not protected by sentimentality, it's clear early on there may be no happy ending. He has one of the greatest scenes of the year to date, walking through the desert talking about his past to the indifferent Pete. Fimmel's layabout but loving father slowly and surprisingly subverts expectation. Buscemi is always compelling and here is able to play a character a bit harder, a bit more emotionally buttoned up, the Buscemi temper and loquaciousness is put away from a turn more stoic. The other notable cast member is Chloë Sevigny as jockey Bonnie who exudes a physical confidence and pragmatism lending both authenticity and emotional balance to the film. All the cast give grounded, complex performances, numerous scenes layered with meaning and inference.

The film is composed of a series of vivid vignettes that follow Charley as he struggles to make sense of his life, find purpose, and move forward. The lack of sentiment can seem brutal but there is an ember of hope in the film, a celebration of perseverance and endurance. And all the characters that populate it are fully formed, authentic, and gripping despite or perhaps because of the grey, weathered, morality most of them have.

Not sweet but honest, not uplifting but affirming.

See It.

'A Quiet Place' A Review

A Quiet Place is an action/horror movie that takes place in the near future where blind hyber-hearing monsters have wiped out the majority of the human population. The movie opens on a surviving family investigating an abandoned pharmacy. Mom and dad, Evelyn(Emily Blunt) and Lee(John Krasinski), watch over there three children oldest Regan(Millicent Simmonds) who is deaf, middle child Marcus(Noah Jupe), and youngest Beau(Cade Woodward).

Krasinski is servicable but obviously outclassed by Blunt who's solid and formindable presence centers the film in its more flimsy moments. Simmonds is the other stand out with her confident, assured, solid presence. The other two family members are little more then faint sketches, there to jump, run, and yell at the appropriate times which they do.

The conciet of the movie is its most effecting element. It drops us in after society has already crumbled and doesn't waste time or even attempt to explain the monsters. The sparse dialogue along with the ever present score serve to built and built and build the tension over the brief but impactful 90 minute run time. If you stop to think a lot of the characters and many of the logistics of the world in which they inhabit mightily strain credibility but the momentum is such that you mostly don't have that time.

A decent, mainstream, simple-hook, broad-appeal horror movie. Krasinski's most competent directorial endeavour by a mile.

Stream It.

'I Feel Pretty' A Review

I Feel Pretty is a comedy about Renee(Amy Schumer) who struggles with confidence and self image. She manages the website for cosmetics company Lily LeClaire but aspires to work at their 5th Avenue headquarters. When she hits her head because of a SoulCycle accident she magically gets the confidence she always craved, sees herself as the beautiful person she's always wanted to be.

Schumer gives a good turn using her natural charisma and excellent physicality to great effect. Aidy Bryant and Busy Philips, as Renee's best friends, are great and serve to ground the film in a necessary way but aren't utilized to their full potential. Michelle Williams as Avery the Lily LeClaire boss puts in a scene-stealing performance, extremely odd and meticulous and fully fleshed out. Rory Scovel as Ethan, Renee's love interest, is low key and compelling and balances out Schumer well. The support cast are all well cast and put in good performances however it is Schumer's film and she, justly, dominates with her infectious energy.

The beats of the film are well worn rom-com territory but having a female lead and addressing insecurity and beauty along with that make it fresh. It's lighthearted without feeling trite, the humor never stops, and it has a message. There is nothing terribly innovative about it's story or humor but its solidly entertaining and delivers laughs. In a world where Adam Sandler seems to have multi-picture multi-million dollar movie deals in perpetuity the amount of criticism leveled at this film seems at best odd and at worst unjust, a double standard.

Rent It.

The Scottish Play

I was drawn to the stage

from an early age

the major arbiter of this

my mother, who shared my bliss

the architect of theatrical adventures

which lead to countless pleasures

and a burgeoning vocation 

that will last my life's duration.

Out of the numerous productions

Macbeth caused the most disruption

as I was an immature eleven

the dark ambition hard to reckon

the bloodlust fueled machinations

ignited unknown sensations

cruelty, seduction, deciet

beguiling to my naive belief.

The theater was always magic

but this was something drastic

a glimpse of vast possibility

my mind opened to artistic industry

it shaped the man I came to be

lite the flame of creativity

all because of mom's determination

to ensure her son's foundation.

(Thank you Ma)

'Super Troopers 2' A Review

Super Troopers 2 is a broad comedy, the long-gestating crowd-funded sequel to the 2001 cult classic. The movies opens on a chase scene and then ends up checking in with the former officers, fired from the local police after an unnamed Fred Savage incident, working construction. Due to a boarder reassignment part of Canada is being taken in to Vermont and the crew is reactivated as State Police as part of the transition team. They are faced with aggression from the locals and the Mounties they are replacing and when they stumble upon a mysterious cash of various drugs suspicions peak.

It's nice to see the cast again but some of the old magic is simply out of reach. Kevin Heffernan as Farva steals every scene he's in and is the only one who's able to recapture, even top, his previous performance. Steve Lemme as Mac also gets close to his original frenetic magnetism. But the other core cast members aren't as successful. Paul Soter as Jeff doesn't have much of a presence, Brian Cox as the chief is having fun but not doing much, Erik Stolhanske as Rabbit is unable to capture his original naivete, and Jay Chandrasekhar as Ramathorn the backbone of the first one is derailed by an ill conceived and narrative spanning estrogen gag.

Certainly entertaining enough but almost exclusively as a nostalgia piece and antiquated "non-PC" humor which at times works and at times comes across as stupid and clueless. The biggest issue is that it seems like the guys of Broken Lizard don't necessarily know why the first one was so successful. The sequel seems to focus more on the machinations of the absurd plot as oppose to build to protracted comedic set pieces. The characters are also less likable, less charming. Some of the reasons why the first one worked so well was that the "narrative" was secondary to long lovingly crafted comedic sequences as well as the inherent goodness, although prone to pranks, of the squad. The sequel is just a little more confused, a little flatter. There are still jokes aplenty and it is nice to revisit these characters but some of the shine has been lost.

Stream It.

The Enduring Nature of Cold

It would be nice to live in warmth
to give in to heat and all its comfort
but temperateness can breed lethargy
tends to cultivate habitual ease
the cold requires constant confrontation
movement to combat the creeping chill
the steady, dogged, application of will
not motivation to socialize but survive
bundled bodies fortified against the freeze
with nothing save courage and drive
as unpleasant, even despairing as it can be
Winter tempers spirit and ability
the anvil- life, the pounding hammer- frost
and we the heated glowing steel
turned, folded, beaten, pummeled,
broken and reformed- sharper, stronger, adaptable
fortitude is never free, suffering a seasonal reality.

'You Were Never Really Here' A Review

You Were Never Really Here is a thriller about Joe(Joaquin Phoenix) a vigilante for hire who rescues traffiked girls. The film opens on Joe at the completion of a job then follows him back to his home in New York where he struggles to go about his life. He is crippled by PTSD from combat, field work and his own childhood trauma. He lovingly takes care of his aging mother(Judith Roberts) and goes through the motions of his covert work seemingly seeking, each day, a reason to continue. After the rescue of a State Senators daughter Nina(Ekaterina Samsonov) goes awry Joe's life begins to be dismantled by an unknown adversary.

Phoenix gives one of the best performances of his career, devoid of much of his usual mincing tics and explosive emotional panorama writer/director Lynne Ramsay is able to focus him to give a concentrated, staggering, haunting performance. He's able to convey the physical brutality of an action star but with the most complicated and broken history that is constantly creeping into his present. He's able to infer and imply so much feeling and history and is easily the most layered performance of the year-to-date. The other cast members do well, especially Roberts who shares an incredible, magnetic, heartbreaking chemistry with Phoenix, but they are all given little to no time on screen, the entire cast is a distant supporting characters to the lead's psychology.

On paper the film is very much in the vein of the revenge thriller that has become increasingly popular over the past decade since 2008's Taken. But You Were Never Really Here approaches it from such an odd, oblique angle, focusing on all the elements the more cookie-cutter genre fare always ignores and because of that it has a remarkable, palpable freshness. Richly shot, a pounding ominous score, and sharp time-bending editing elevate it beyond the classification of pulp.

Brutal, honest, and captivating.

See It.

'Gemini' A Review

Gemini is a contemplative neo-noir about starlet Heather(Zoë Kravitz), her assistant Jill(Lola Kirke) and a mystery they get involved in. The film opens on Jill waiting for Heather to get done with a meeting. She get's a call from Heather's ex who casually threatens to kill her, Heather then returns and sends Jill into her meeting for her, reluctant to back out of a movie she already committed to but desperately wanting some time off. After Jill blows off director Greg(Nelson Franklin), who is furious and threatens to kill her, Heather takes a call from her agent Jamie(Michelle Forbes) who threatens to kill her, after the call Heather and Jill are accosted by a manic look-a-like super fan. Heather asks to borrow Jill's gun and she consents. A decision she comes to regret.

Kirke is a compelling lead, driven and competent in her job and her pursuit of the mystery but also vulnerable with an element of meditative reserve that she kind of glides through the film with interrupted by higher stakes scenes that almost but never really culminate in action. Kravitz is nice as the magnetic but somewhat out-of-touch movie star, the chemistry between the two is familiar and intimate the friendship/work dynamic they create is complex, intriguing, with an impenetrable vague mystique. Above and beyond the central puzzle this relationship is what the story is really about and it doesn't disappoint. The supporting cast are all surprisingly layered. Franklin as the truculent nerdy director is funny and engaging. Frobes as the high powered icey but concerned agent gets a pop out of her one brief scene. James Ransone, always wonderful, as paparazzi Stan fills out the world. John Cho as the unexpectedly compassionate and communicative detective provides dimension. All in all an exceptional cast.

Shadow and saturated neon pair well with the deliberate camera to create a modern, nocturnal LA that doesn't seem to throwback or reference but is of the now. The techno jazz score also serves to heighten the sleepy danger of the story but also it's contemporary feel. The film gets some interesting ideas of celebrity, fame, social media, friendship, position and perception but all obliquely. There's a lot inferred, a lot implied, but as the story raps up there isn't a ton of clarity.

Writer/Director Aaron Katz puts forth the first really captivating noir by and for Generation Y but doesn't quite stick the landing.

See It.

Mennonite Donuts

The glaze glistens
and drips
off the donuts
on the drying rack
they're delivered steaming
into my mouth
sugar and fried dough
dissolving
in hot ecstasy
warm pleasure trickling
from mouth to stomach
along nerves to all
extremities.

Odd to think
the sourdough
from which they're made
may be older
than television.

Hiking Poem

piston legs,
loping,
pumping,
reaching,
eating(up the ground)

muscles squishing
and popping
into warmth
then a hot
productivity.

slick and fluid
slurping up the terrain-
my body
lubricated and energized,
moments where I feel
I can walk forever
through the rocks, dirt, and trees
as if I belong
another animal
on the move.

Vacation

In Virginia visiting my buddy Matt. It's great to get out of Chicago and away from work. A must needed break. We went for a beautiful and somewhat strenuous hike today in Shenandoah NP, had a great meal after, and are doing a couple shows tonight and tomorrow at Matt's theater. Wonderful to get some sun too after the bleak pseudo spring in Chicago.

Old Rag Haiku

The hawk glides on wind,

serenity, and hunger.

Then she dives for blood.

The Ghost

I woke up
and through the crack
in the door
I saw the ghost
moving
as if through water
slow and fluid
it wasn't fear I felt
but strangeness
wrongness
as I shut my eyes
and hid in the dark
beneath the blankets.