Just got off of a fourteen-hour flight from Australia to Los Angeles.  I’m halfway back to my home state of South Carolina.  The flight fell in a really odd time where the fourteen hours were right in the peak of my bodyclock’s daytime, so I snoozed for a generous rounding-up of one hour.  We’re talking the kind of time frame that primed me for bedtime right as we were touching down.  I’m currently in LAX airport with a strong coffee and bags under my eyes.

(I hope I can get through this without falling asleep, I’m starting to get blurred vision.  Though FINALLY a semi-valid excuse for typos)

So, what did I do to occupy my time?  Mostly, peed a lot ¹ and watched movies.  The movie selection wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either.  I ended up seeing a couple semi-new-ish movies that I had been curious about and a couple I didn’t really have an opinion on one way or the other (until now).

My List (in viewing order, may contain spoilers)

1. The Joneses
2. Precious
3. The Bounty Hunter
4. Babies
5. Just Wright

The Joneses

I like clever plays on popular memes and Demi Moore, so this wasn’t a bad pick for my first choice.  If I only knew it was setting the tone for the mediocrity for my following inflight experience.

“Stealth Marketing” is the name of the game where Demi Moore and David Duchonvy along with two teens form a fake family who are paid to move into a neighborhood and advertise various trends by being really really cool.  Look at my sweet Audi and new phone and awesome clothes, you should buy them too, look how happy they make us, we’re the perfect family. Etcetera.

It was a decent premise and a good enough story that was actually a lot more dramatic than I would have pegged, however, it copped out in the end by taking the easy ‘romance triumphs’ subplot.  I have no problems with such subplots, but it wasn’t really the dramatic question of the movie so I felt it inappropriate.  It wasn’t “Will Mulder get with Ashton’s wife” but “can the rookie perform and the fake family achieve the status that they all so desperately want?”  Or something to that effect.   It’s fine that Mr. Jones realizes in the end that this isn’t the life that he wanted to lead, but him wooing the ice cold Missus with him was a bit lame.  But otherwise enjoyable.

I rank this as ’3′ of the night.  Day.  Something.

Precious

Wow, just wow.  It was as heartbreaking and as beautiful as it promised to be.  The supporting cast was brilliant and Monique played a terrific monster.  It hammered away at my soul for two straight hours, but it was well worth it.

All I have to say is, fine, make her a rape/incest victim, give her two children by her own father, one of which has Downs Syndrome, let her mother physically and verbally abuse her and her children, ² make her illiterate, but then to make her HIV positive to boot?  Wow, movie-makers are jerks.

My favorite of the flight, but only by a hair.

The Bounty Hunter

Whoever would have thought that the movie entitled “The Bounty Hunter” would be romance comedy (and I do use the word “comedy” loosely).

Let’s be frank, this movie was shit.

It went exactly where you would expect it to, just the way you guessed it would – which I’m not necessarily opposed to on principle, but it tried so hard to be funny and wasn’t and the characters were downright unlikeable.  Gerard Butler wins the award for being the silver-screen’s largest douchebag.

Two characters who hate each other and have no chemistry end up together, and for what reason?  Hell if I know.  Butler’s character is clearly a moron.  The couple supposedly got married after six months of dating and they fought the whole time and then got divorced.  There was a reason for that last part.  They were terrible together and though I certainly didn’t know it by watching it, apparently they spent the hour and a half growing reluctantly fond of each other.  You could have fooled me, the only reason I know that is because they kissed in the end.

To make things worse they had a slapstick caricature stalker of Jennifer Aniston’s character and they threw in a ‘dirty cop cover-up scandal’ action subplot to pad out the ninety minutes.

This was the most perfunctory writing and storytelling I have witnessed in a long time, and I have a high tolerance for that sort of thing.

Least favorite of the night.  And I’m Team Aniston.

Babies

Babies! What can I say? This was adorable.  A beautiful documentary that I highly recommend.  It follows for infants (one from Mongolia, Africa, Japan and the USA) for the first year (ish) of their lives.  It has no dialogue and focuses entirely on the babies.  We hardly get glimpses of the parents’ faces at all, it’s all about how the infants interact with their surroundings/world/situation.  Brilliant storytelling and really gripping for two hours worth of babies wallering on the ground.  Everyone go rent it.

This came very close to being my favorite for the night.

Just Wright

Another default Rom Com.  Rich basketball player is injured and unwittingly falls for the tomboy, die-hard fan, who is his physical therapist.  Unoffensive and watchable, plus Queen Latifah.   Though, I could only guess that they got together in the end, we landed right in the middle of Prince Charming’s big speech, so I don’t know Latifah’s answer.  Maybe there was a twist that I didn’t see coming.

Side note, this was the second movie during this marathon that co-starred Paula Patton.  In this film she played Queen Latifah’s sexy gets-all-the-boys cousin and in Precious she played the eponymous characters’ role model and teacher.  God she is hot.

This movie slots happily into number ’4.’

I’m not foreseeing the domestic legs having my own personal television sets, so who knows what I’m in store for on the next leg.

_____

Hello readers.  I notice that it’s been a while since I wrote anything… anything at all.  So, to make up for it, today’s post is going to be about two entirely unrelated topics.  Basically, two days worth of blogging in one thrilling adventure…  Here we go.

The age old debate continues.  Superman, or Batman?

I have read more than one article/blog now saying big movie execs are worried about the future of a squeaky clean Superman in the dark realm of heroes such as Batman and Hellboy.  In a way, I guess I can understand the panic.  In a world of self-professed cynics we relish the the flawed hero, or even the anti-hero, which I guess is fairly interchangeable at this point. For Pete’s sake, even the Harry Potter movies fight for that dark and broody, angst filled atmosphere… and they’re based on children’s books. (Go back and read the first four novels… Not broody or cynical.  Children’s books.)  You know what, that’s fine.  Largely those movies work and for various reasons, and are hugely popular, but just because a couple movies work one way, doesn’t mean they all have to.

Superman has always been a much lighter hero, right up to the bright blue spandex.  He is the squeaky clean, super human, bringer of hope.  To change that for box office purposes would completely change who that entire character is.  Where Batman sees the flaws and warts of humanity,  Superman sees the strength and good-will of it.  What’s wrong with that?  In today’s world, where bombs are being dropped on various countries by various enemies, children are shooting their peers, and politicians play bloody knuckle boxing with tax-payers, why can’t we go to a movie to see someone actually be able to save the world, just because he wants to?

Superman is an idealist.  He does not seek revenge or have too many inner-demons to battle, and though he may not represent the ever-popular downfalls of humanity, he does represent the hope that we have all seem to have forgotten these days.  He doesn’t need to be the same as Batman to succeed.  He’s Superman for Heaven’s sake.  Use what you have on the table in front of you, don’t go stealing off of other people’s tables.  With the USA being ripped apart by this year’s election over issues that there seems to be no Right or Wrong answers for, and when the people are doing nothing but screaming for a savior,  ¹ why not just give them one?  Superman does not play in the grey areas, he’s so Black and White, so good vs evil and he wins everytime.  Don’t underestimate people’s need for that.

Superman and Batman are different heroes, that’s why there’s two of them.  Let Superman stay Superman.  Batman gets to come into his own being Batman.  So, let Superman come into his own by being Superman.

That being that, onto Topic #2, and I wouldn’t mind someone swooping in and saving the day.

Today I will finish Draft Two of one of my screenplays  – that is, if I will get off the internet and finish it’s last sequence.  It’s a decent draft, much better than the first, but it is still facing a lot issues, a lot of which I created for it with the premise.  Six redheaded women are forced to stay under the same roof after the death of the patriarch.   Adding to the claustrophobia, two of the women are former wives of the man while the other four of the offspring of the respective unions.  The fact that the action takes place under one roof where little happens in terms of plot stimulus, the women are forced to continually rehash their past with one another.  Anyone who has taken Screenwriting 101, or even has just SEEN a movie, knows that the last thing that any audience wants to sit through is a bunch of people sitting around talking about the past… except, for some reason, in The Big Chill, that was a huge success. ²  I am completely stuck on how to bring about keeping the story in the present as well as bringing a bit more action³ to it.  So yeah, that’s where I am with that.

I feel as though until I can work out some of the big flaws, as well as a title⁴, it would be pointless to pursue another draft.  And to be honest, I don’t think I could do that right now.  It has worn me out, and I need a break.  So where do I go from here?   I have a few options,  I suppose:

1. I have another screenplay that I have draft 1 already out there for.  It needs a lot of plot work, as well, in order for another draft to be attempted.  It’s difficult but not impossible.  I like this project, it’s a bit lighter in tone and not quite as soapy  – though I never intended my Redheads project to fall under the “soapy” category, for the record.
2. I also have a TV Show that I am trying to develop.  If I had to choose, this would probably be my “passion project.”  It’s something that I have been swirling around with for a few years now.  I’ve written scraps that could eventually wind up as a bible and a draft of the pilot episode.  Both need considerable work before they have the ZAP and PUNCH that I think is completely achievable with the idea and that’s fine.  I can work with that.  It’s my favorite idea so far, but honestly, probably the one that’s least likely to get me any work at the moment.
3. This last week or so I have been itching to get started on this new idea that’s been brewing in my head.  It’s the idea that the more I think about the project I’m working on, the more I think about starting this idea. It is called Finding Geraldine and it is to be a feature film.  I have deliberately suppressed working on it because I would get swallowed by it and never finish Redheads. I’d love to start now, but I fear taking on yet another project would just cause me to neglect my existing ones and they would never get any further.
4. Hopefully next year, I will be applying for the ABC Disney Writer’s Fellowship. Hopefully.  It is an intensive (and very competitive) program where they throw you into the TV writing business and help you hone some skills with on the job training.  It is how many TV writers in L.A. get their start.  In the application you must submit a TV Spec episode (essentially a glorified Fan Fic ep) of a series in production.  This will probably take me months to do because of all the research  – which I promise involves slightly more than just watching the series over and over — and planning involved.  I have a little less than year to get this underway.

So there you have it.  How do I spend my days now?

And also I would much appreciate your advice on how I can get out of the house in the process.  I’m tired of being here all day alone with my body image.