Medicine for My Melancholy

In the daze that shall be my summer of 2010, I'm thankful for the time i have to catch up on the movies that have been staring me in my face for the last couple months. One of which I am privileged to drop some praise upon entitled Medicine for Melancholy. MFM is a 2008 drama based in San Francisco picking up after the salacious one night stand of two black 20 somethings.



The guy, Micah, (played by the very talented Wyatt Cenac) is a racially conscious or more obsessed indie who loves San Fran, but is conspicuously not in love. The girl, Jo, (played by Tracy Heggins) enjoys the "now" more than she spends time thinking about the "later". But the films is more than the slowly unraveling, dawdling nothing narratives of the current times. MFM provides an underrepresented take on what it means to be black in today's society. Barry Jenkins' film works as a strong exploration of two young souls growing to understand and battle with each others views against a gorgeous urban back drop.



Barry Jenkins visual style is arresting as he favors these close intimate shots with the main characters. Somehow he trades from this intimacy to these epic shots of San Fran giving the film its meditative scope. Also, his purposeful shallow focus aesthetic builds upon the subject matter beautifully as the Micah and Jo attempt delve deeper into their relationship and the sometimes superficiality of society. Some may be turned off by the pervasive aesthetic,calling it heavyhanded, but it creates a unique visual voice for the film that I feel Jenkins and James Lipton (D.P.) capture brilliantly.



The visual style is supported, by the overall feel Jenkins creates. The moments aren't rushed; he allows the conflicts to develop and fester without cutting the scene. At the same time, Micah and Jo are given these moments in which they feel like kids in a playground examining life. Jenkins is successful in creating a frozen moment in time in which neither tomorrow or yesterday exist. Every scene holds together supporting this tryst in which these characters anger, discuss, challenge, and love each other.

I can emphatically suggest this movie for whatever means you use to watch movies. It plays extremely calm and smooth. It just feels good like a glass of juice in the morning.

Most Anticipated of Summer of '10

I lucking fove summer. If you've been reading along, you know how much I love the popcorn season complete with its high concept drudgery, ridiculous comic book heroes, and the talking dog comedies. (actually fuck the last one I hate those talking dog comedies....any talking animal really) But regardless the gems of summer are what I love about cinema. Those big enormous pictures are why I fell in love with film. I'm a simple man I guess. It is with great pleasure that I present my most anticipated movies of summer. (Click the name of the movie for the trailer) Btw sorry about the posters...they got panned and scanned...



5) Babies - Do I want to see it precisely because there are babies? Ok maybe a little, but I do carry a bit of caution with this pick for that reason alone. It's about babies, but I think it'd be an interesting exercise to see the human species and how we raise our young'uns. This pic is based solely on concept...hopefully execution will legitimate (used as verb) it.



4) Salt - Angelina Jolie is badass. 'Nuff said. But since I have some more space I'll tell you about how Salt was supposed to be played by Tom Cruise, but he turned it down because he thought it felt too much like Mission Impossible. Tom Cruise's leftovers? Maybe a tiny bit, but Salt looks like a classy beat 'em up action thriller. It's nice to see a female stepping into this testosterone filled genre. Again, cool concept.



3) Ironman 2 - Ironman was fun. It catches a lot of shit for mid-grade cgi and an underwhelming finale, but Robert Downey Jr's performance more than elevates its shortcomings. Tell me what other superhero film has a main character with that much charisma and presence. Exactly! Though it is getting some lukewarm reviews, I'm on board. Downey's performance is worth the price of admission.



2) Toy Story 3 - I recently went back and saw Toy Story and Toy Story 2. I hadn't seen Toy Story in friggin ages and can only remember tiny bits of Toy Story 2. I can't think of a better adjective to describe their detailed, whimsical, and goregeously plotted opus besides brillant. Pixar is so fuckin on it's ridiculous. I have no idea why they wanted to do a third movie, but I've learned in the last 15 years to not question pixar. Just watch and get ready to have your mind blown.



1) Inception - Leo, Nolan, Juno. What else do you need? I love mindbenders and the idea of having a blockbusting summer picture in which the premise involves a team of idea stealers. The sheer imagery of the trailer with the glass of water and the gravity defying settings just look breathtaking. The only things I'll hate about watching this is the feeling after watching the last frame of it, knowing I can never experience it for the first time again.