Philly & Family

Drove back to Philly yesterday and spent the last day of our trip with Aunt Julie and Uncle Mike. Went to Valley Forge, got Jim's cheesesteaks(a must, incredible as always), went downtown and toured Betsy Ross's house and saw the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. My family use to go out to Philly every year for Thanksgiving and we would always stop off to visit whenever we were on the east coast so it was nice to revisit all the sights and share that experience with Nicole for the first time. Really wonderful to connect with family on the trip and a very satisfying and affirming way to end the trip.

The Coast

In the face of the immutable granite
and the persistence of the waves incessance
it is easy to understand the impermanence of Man
and further, the justice in that reality.

Acadia 2

Yesterday did some costal hikes. Lots of jutting granite and crashing waves, really powerful.

In the afternoon went out to a kind of annex part of the park, Schoodic Point, flatter than the main part of the park but the coast was this stunning, huge slabs jutting out into the ocean. Today we got up early for a sunrise hike up Cadillac Mountain, really fun to do part of it in the dark with flashlights, climbing rocks and picking our way up the trail. Foggy but gorgeous once the sun broke. 

Lobster Roll

When traveling

it is always best

to partake in the local cuisine

there is no dish

that synthesis this

(at least in the US)

like the sandwich

which brings us to

Charlotte's Legendary Lobster Pound

and this soft bun grilled to perfection

piled generously with fresh lobster meat

slick with hot butter

and after the first bite

all restraint dissipates

and I dedicate

my considerable focus

to eating.

Acadia

Got to Maine yesterday and will be in Acadia NP the next couple days. A little confusing to navigate because the park is all interconnected with local towns and residences but really beautiful. Mountains and woods and rocky cliff ocean fronts. Really incredible. Big hiking day today, hiked up to Bald and Portman peaks, pretty foggy in the morning which gave the whole hike a solitary otherworldly quality.

In the afternoon we did one of Acadia's famous 'iron wrung' trails where its really steep, lot of rock scrambling, and there are sections with ladders bolted into the cliffs. Pretty intense but really gratifying.

New England

Traveling the land
Frost and Oliver tread

you can sense the history

but more  

you can feel the poetry,

the place

bubbles with it.

Bear Witness

One thing I like to do
is visit friends who have moved away

and just live their lives with them

activities too

don't get me wrong, I'm on vaca

but also

get up when they normally get up

go to sleep when they normally go to sleep

get a sandwich at their sandwich place

drink their favored brand of coffee

help put the dishes away

ask them where they all go

I do this because I want to know my friends

but also because I want them to know

they are seen.

East Coast Trip

Road tripping out east, stopped in Philly and stayed with our Aunt Julie and Uncle Mike then headed up to Boston to stay with our friend's Mark and Sarah. Toured Fenway, a dream come true for Nicole.

Also got to watch Mark coach his son's soccer game, a real treat.

The Urban Conundrum

You could say
the height

the density of the City

is suffocating

claustrophobic

You could say

the limited ability

to see the horizon

or wide open sky

engenders a state

of sustained alienation

or

You could say

the architectural apogees

the lattice of avenues

is a constant

stationary

enfolding

You could say

in its closeness

there arises a subconscious

fellowship

an intermingling

of the animate denizens

as well as the quiescent environment

in this reciprocity

there is a singular identity, the City

and being a part

of that colossal whole

is not isolating

or minimizing

but a great

Belonging.

'Do Revenge' A Review

Do Revenge is a teen comedy loosely based on Hitchcock's Strangers On A Train. Drea(Camila Mendes) a middle class teen has spent her life infiltrating and integrating into upper class social circles and institutions. At the end of her junior year at private high school Rosehill a topless video she sent to her boyfriend is leaked, she blames him, he denies it, and she becomes a social outcast. At tennis camp she meets the mousy Eleanor(Maya Hawke) who's also been betrayed by the Rosehill elite. The two hatch a plan to 'do revenge'.

Mendes and Hawke have great chemistry and their play between the comedy and genuine emotion is confident but the script never really allows them to take off. The supporting cast is uneven, Sarah Michelle Geller as the headmistress and Sophie Turner as a rich girl ruined by Drea's quest for revenge, are wonderful, have presence, and bring a vitality to their characters. The same can't be said for the(might as well be) nameless Rosehill 'villains', they're too generic on the page and the actors aren't seasoned enough to differentiate them.

Visually pleasing, clearly filmed on location in Miami, there is a sense of place but competing with that is a bizarre kind of nostalgia, even though Gen Z has fully embraced 90's culture and fashion it doesn't quite translate here as true in terms of narrative. Instead of being a riff on or inspired by this type of 90's, early ought's mean girls flick this simply feels like it is trying to do exactly that, the only thing updated is the technology. It doesn't have enough edge, doesn't have enough to say, which is fine, it doesn't need to have higher ambitions but taken as a straight forward comedy it is simply not funny enough. 

Casually diverting in the way 80% of Netflix movie offerings are. A laundry watch.

Currently streaming on Netflix.

Stream It.

'The Woman King' A Review

 The Woman King is a historical action/drama set in 1823 about the Agojie, the all-female warrior unit that protected the West African kingdom of Dahomey. With the increasing influence of the slave trade and the Oyo Empire encroaching on their lands the Dahomey prepare for war. The film opens on the Agojie, lead by General Nanisca(Viola Davis), attacking an Oyo village and liberating Dahomey who were captured for the slave trade. The increasing political tensions, both within Dahomey and without, are laid out concurrently with the training of the newest recruits of the Agojie.

Davis, as one of if not the greatest actor of her generation, puts in another colossal performance. She's buff, tough, and ferocious but also has incredible emotional complexity. Not only is there rage but there is a mournful weariness about her performance, a search for purpose and redemption. Complicated and soulful. Davis is able to operate on many different levels concurrently and when the film occasionally veers into Hollywood epic territory she always brings it back to the personal, the human. The other stand out is Lashana Lynch as Izogie, an Agojie lieutenant, she was decent in Captain Marvel and No Time To Die but in neither had much to work with. Here she soars. She is physically imposing, strong but fluid, her perhaps most of all is able to capture the lethal grace of the warrior. She also broadcasts this potent infectious humor that is not only very much needed but undeniably magnetic. The rest of the cast are all dynamic and effective with several great turns(notably Shelia Atim as Nanisca's second in command), all in all superb casting.

Visually crisp with a lush production design, it's transportive with an epic scope but a focus on character as seen by the vivid, intricate costuming. An inspiring, thrilling score that pairs both traditional non-diegetic underscoring with diegetic chanting/singing/drumming by the cast, really effective. The film does have some of the modern shakey cam style that at-times obscure some of the(impeccable) fight choreography and there is a not-quite-necessary romantic subplot but those criticisms are minor(perhaps inserted to increase mass appeal) and don't detract from the overall experience.

Potent, immersive, and inspiring.

Currently in theaters coming soon to VOD.

Don't Miss It.

Vestiges

I woke up
predawn

shivering

teeth chattering

a result

of my covid booster

and I felt a perverse

nostalgia

for my drinking days

this sick feeling

like a visit

from an estranged friend

the ghost

of withdrawals past

'Barbarian' A Review

 Barbarian is a horror movie about Tess(Georgina Campbell) who books an Airbnb in Detroit as she's there for a job interview. To her surprise the house is in a rundown/mostly abandoned neighborhood and is double booked. After some trepidation she and Keith(Bill Skarsgård) decide to share it for the night. But the house holds more secrets than meets the eye!

Campbell puts in commendable effort, giving a good performance with a role that frequently strains credulity. Skarsgård is always nice to see, his equally natural and unsettling screen presence is a nice addition to any movie, but it feels a bit like stunt casting(particularly coming off his turn as Pennywise), really kind of hammering home the creepy v. sincere dynamic that the first of many turns hinges on. It is great to see Justin Long who not only maintains his comedic bonafides but gives the role surprising, topical dimension. And he's a huge asshole, not something we typically see from him.

Visually the movie is crisp, switching from hand-held to POV to static shots, it gives it a nice fluidity and immersive quality. There's also a brashness to the editing which is exciting, at times drastically pulling us away from the action only to inexorably pull us back(like the protagonist herself). 

There are some problems, there are multiple actions taken by Tess which are huge asks to believe that eclipse the horror trope of the person going into the place they shouldn't. The way the character is presented, she is too smart and savvy to get into the situation which really kicks off the plot, but once she's there(if you can get past that) the story really starts rolling. There's also a focus on making some socio-political commentary which doesn't exactly work, there's simply too many balls in the air for that one to really land. It's an interesting effort, ambitious, but the already good movie would be better if some of that was streamlined.

An exciting, engaging, if not flawless genre flick.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

See It.

A Void

My friend is gone
not dead, moved
but the space he left-

only in his absence

do I realize it's vastness

the uncertainty

he left behind

not anything acute

nothing drastic

but a persistent ache

a phantom limb

'Morbius' A Review

Morbius is a superhero movie about a doctor who splices his DNA with vampire bats to cure his blood illness only to turn himself into a kind-of vampire.

Jared Leto plays the titular hero and he's not bad but he's not particularly interesting either, he's bland as is the paint-by-numbers story in which he's in. Matt Smith the villain goes a little more ham which is fun but he too doesn't have that much to do. The supporting cast boasts some talent but the narrative in general is so thin its difficult to care about anyone.

Visually the movie is pretty impressive, the action sequences and the way Morbius's powers are displayed are pretty cool. It's really the only reason to watch this, at home, streaming for free, while you're doing something else. It's just diverting enough to half-watch while chores get done. It doesn't have enough of a personality to take much issue with.

At it's best, decent background noise.

Currently streaming on Netflix.

Stream It.

Words Have Power

During the 5k
the camp director Mike

pulled up along side me

in a golf cart

shooting footage

(for the next season's promo vid)

and said "hey theater-guy,

what have you got, give us a line"

because by then

he knew I was a drunk

and that I hated his

dog shit rich kid camp

(he was fucking with me)

panting a bit but still clear I said

"Bid me run, and I will strive with things impossible"

(Shakespeare - Julius Caesar)

he was shocked

just nodded

as if it hadn't been rhetorical

hadn't been an attempt at shame

and drove away.

I kept running.

'Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul.' A Review

Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul. is a dramedy/mocumentary about the attempted comeback of megachruch pastor Lee-Curtis(Sterling K. Brown) and first lady Trinitie(Regina Hall) after a sexual abuse scandal.

Brown is full of electricity here, he's absolutely effervescent, channeling both the true believer and equally the absolute huckster. He builds the character with complexity and energy but ultimately the script's interrogation of the character doesn't meet his portrayal. Hall in the less flashy roll is equally magnetic, with all this conflict, struggle, rage, and sorrow bubbling always below the service, clamped down by the mask of appearances, she's heartbreaking. And there is a fair amount of levity, which Brown and Hall can execute effortlessly, but the film careens from idea to idea, tone to tone in such a way that it feels more like a patch work than a cohesive whole.

Visually crisp if conceptually flawed. The mocumentary angle is used occasionally and not throughout and with very little explanation or transition. Scenes go from interview, to camera-crew observing scenes, to "normal" movie scenes without any rhyme or reason and without enough clarity for the audience to know at any given point which it is. Tonally it's confused too, with broad comedy mixed into some incredibly serious themes which are never particularly clear or delved into.

The film has a lot of ideas, a lot of ambition, and it shows incredible promise for first time writer/director Adamma Ebo but there is simply too much going on here.

Some great scenes and a great cast fail to coalesce into a great film.

Currently in theaters and streaming on Peacock.

Rent It.

Restless, Irritable, Discontent

The big three
for the recovering drunk

normal folks

just call it depression

When your breath goes sour

in your mouth

When the smallest slight

(and not even a slight)

causes a wave, a Tsunami

of reaction

When wherever you are

you'd rather be anywhere

else

The big three

roll in, make a spectacle

then slink off

into the dawn