Hi everybody! It's been awhile since I posted but I've been quite busy with my second full-length screenplay, which I have just finished last week! Congrats to me, I know.
On the subject of screenwriting, one of my favorite film writers has a new movie coming out in October, The Master. Have you seen the trailer? Here it is!
Joaquin. Philip. Paul Thomas Anderson. WWII-era. This is such a treat for me, as I didn't think the year of film could get more promising with the release of Django Unchained.
Paul Thomas Anderson is one of only several great narrative filmmakers working today. Ask me what my favorite movie is, or which one I would chose to send in some time capsule to aliens or what have you, and I would say Boogie Nights alongside Breaking Bad, if there is room in there for a series.
Like Breaking Bad, Boogie Nights has every necessary element required for a spot in the apex of narrative drama. It has a perfectly defined protagonist with a definite dream, Dirk, played by Mark Wahlberg, who is perfectly likable and engaging because he is innocent and child-like in his pursuits of being a star, even when he is fucking up and hitting rock bottom on his journey to self-acceptance. It has the wise seer mentor Jack (Burt Reynolds) who takes our young hero under his wing, and who represents an artist with a passion for his film and the family of benevolent outcasts he has cultivated. We have the unfortunate mother-figure, Amber (Julianne Moore) who has a large heart and a painful history, and who's single flaw is that she has too much love to give and nowhere to place it. Then there is the cacophony of terrific characters played with keen sensitivity by our current 21st acting titans: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Don Cheadle, John C. Reilly, Alfred Molina, William H. Macy.
We like these people because they are good people, and it is surprising to consider that they are all porn stars and some are drug addicts and the world Anderson has created is not filthy or dirty by any means, because its characters are childish and kind and love one another, and the tragedy that happens to them is tragic because we care about them. Likewise, the finale of Dirk reconciling with father-figure Jack, who immediately forgives him and welcomes him back into his home, is the kind of beauty and parable simplicity only found in the best literary works. Did I mention that the film is really about the history of film? How Jack'sprinciples regarding the making of genuine art on 35mm are compromised by the advent of digital reproduction and subsequently, the shallowness of cinema in the 80's and 90's?
Boogie Nights doesn't belong to any decade. It doesn't belong to the 90's anymore than it belongs to the 70's. Instead, it is a universal tale set to the music of a decade notoriously rife with pain, loss, hopes, mistakes, love, and of course, forgiveness. It's a great precursor for the films of our current century, and its boy-meets-world tale belongs to all of us.
So here's to The Master! May it be everything we've hoped for 2012.
Dim the lights.
