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Sundance Film A Win Win And More

Editor’s Note: This article was originally printed as an April Fool’s joke. It is purely satire.

By Chauncey Telese

Hello, everyone the time is 2:20 a.m. and tonight’s ‘keep me awake’ album is Morrissey’s “Vauxhall and I.” The reason for that is something unpredictable but in the end is right, meaning that this is my last review column.

It’s not my choice but I emailed my editor Carol Rock about why she didn’t post my review for “Paul” and she told me that it is getting harder and harder to edit my material because I don’t do my best work at two in the morning and according to her it’s not her job to both keep up with her work and the work of some kid who works from home. I felt that was harsh and a round of emails were exchanged and before I knew it she told me that she had considered letting me go for sometime because I’ve been receiving negative feedback.


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She told me that people don’t want to hear about TV shows that no one watches, my feeble attempt at sounding like I know about sports, dumb awards columns that are just meant to placate my ego, ComicCon, my friends, and are especially tired of the fact that I’m not objective at all when reviewing movies. She said that one email asked that I go to my school and demand a refund because clearly I haven’t learned anything.

To all of the people, I’ve disappointed or annoyed, I’m sorry. I was never meant to last more then a few months at KHTS and it’s been two years only because Carol and at the time Jon Dell were being nice. Oh well, I guess welcomes can be worn out after all. I promised I wouldn’t submit a bitter column and that she could have it all, my empire of dirt, I let her down, and I made her hurt. Before I begin I would like to leave you with some words that have inspired me when times were tough.

APRIL FOOOOOOOOOOLS!

Yeah, Carol may get those emails (I wouldn’t know I never see them) but she’s not getting rid of me (you can all let out a collective groan, its ok). I had to do something in honor of April Fool’s Day and this seemed the most plausible. Since I’m not going anywhere let’s look back at the week that was. By the way tonight’s actual ‘keep me awake’ album is The White Stripes “Icky Thump” album.

Congratulations are in order to Virginia Commonwealth for making the Final Four. I didn’t have them (or Butler and Kentucky) in my bracket (I did get UCONN so that’s something right?) nor did all but two people out of the 5.9 million who entered ESPN’s Bracket Challenge. I can’t wait to see both games and I’m predicting UCONN over Butler in the championship. The Lakers are finally who we thought they all were. Not only did they beat down the Mavericks but proved something I always knew about the Mavs. If you hit them in the mouth (in tonight’s game almost literally) they will back down. Carol’s Giants didn’t exactly announce to the world that they were ready to defend their title but really who cares there’s 161 games left so it’s not like there’s any real urgency.

Some major stuff is about to go down in Harlan Kentucky, Raylan has proven yet again he can’t fight hung over, Margo Martindale is all but guaranteed an Emmy for playing Mags Bennett, and in the wake of “Lights Out” getting cancelled, “Justified” was renewed for a third season.

Norm McDonald proved he’s still got it with his stand up special. I’m glad Norm appears to have gotten himself straightened out and I hope his new show on Comedy Central is a success. “Shameless” ended with Fiona standing Steve up at the airport, Lip getting pissed off (and later pissing on) Frank, and “Californication” wrapped up it’s fourth season by hinting that perhaps things may be different after all for Hank Moody.

The biggest news, however, was that the national nightmare has ended. No, not Libya, not Wisconsin, but “Mad Men” has been renewed for two years (and possibly a third) –  way to go AMC! True, I have to wait until early 2012 to see the gang from Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce but oh well it beats the alternative. Alright, on to the show, our first movie is one of the better sports movies I’ve seen in a long time.

“Win Win”: Will Pin Your Heart Down and Not Let Up

Sports movies are always picked on for being formulaic; we know that the team can only win or lose so that limits the drama, at least for those who aren’t into the sport themselves. But what if the sport only acted as a front (and in a way a metaphor) for the real story? Well, Tom McCarthy (of “The Station Agent” and “The Visitor”) does just that with “Win Win,” a relatively simple but powerful story about two people coming to each other’s rescue. This was one of the stand outs from this year’s Sundance film festival and I hope that it is able to find a wide audience either in theaters or on DVD because not only is it a fantastic film but also features an impressive breakout performance from rookie actor Alex Schaffer.

Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti) is a struggling attorney that also moonlights as a high school wrestling coach. His practice is failing and the team hasn’t won a match in god knows how long. To keep his family afloat, he pretends to take in one of his senior clients in order to collect the $1,500 a month that the state pays for elder care. He checks his dementia-suffering client into a nursing home. He gets a call saying someone tried to break into the old man’s house and discovers it was his grandson Kyle (Alex Schaffer).

Kyle is taken in by Mike, much to the objection of his wife Jackie (Amy Ryan) because Kyle’s mom is in a rehab facility and he is far from home. Kyle doesn’t speak much but the family starts to love him and Mike really loves him after discovering he was an all star wrestler at his old school. Once Kyle joins the team, he inspires Mike and all of the other kids to become better versions of themselves. Things get complicated when Kyle’s mother Karen (Melanie Lynskey from “Detroit Rock City” and “Up in the Air”) comes back into the picture.

See? Not a simple sports movie huh? While this sounds like a depressing affair (and it does go there) it is also downright funny. The writing is quite witty and features some great comedic work from Bobby Cannavale as Mike’s recently divorced friend Terry, and Jeffrey Tambor as Mike’s assistant coach, Stephen. In fact, everyone in this movie (except for Karen) gets a moment or two to get a well-earned laugh out of the audience. As funny as the movie is, it is equally dramatic and it does it in a way that feels so authentic. All of the serious places this movie goes to are well earned especially the relationships between Kyle and his mom (or lack thereof) and Paul’s relationship with both his wife and Kyle.

Giamatti is one of the best actors out there today and his performance in this movie validates that statement. He shows us a lonely man who so desperately tries to do the right thing but never quite gets it down. Amy Ryan also proves she’s highly underrated because she doesn’t simply play the wife or the mom. She creates a real character and with her chemistry with Giamatti, makes them feel like a real couple. As mentioned earlier the standout is Schaffer because, while he isn’t asked to speak a whole lot, when he does it’s awesome. He really finds the pain and sadness in his character as well as the brief moments where he is at peace with the world.

I loved that they picked wrestling because I grew up watching pro wrestling which, for the most part, found talent in the world of amateur wrestling. Guys like Kurt Angle, Brock Lesnar, and Shelton Benjamin came out of this sport so I know what it’s supposed to look like and for the most part, they nail the matches.

Also what works is that wrestling really only makes up the middle of the movie. You’d think that they’d have the big climax during the state championship or something like that but really that moment happens earlier and everything around it matters not the sport itself. It also reveals to us who the characters are by their behavior before, during or after the matches, which was pretty neat to me. All in all, I highly recommend this movie. Either track it down in theaters or wait until it’s on Netflix.

Our next movie is the sophomore movie from what could be our next big visionary filmmaker.

“The Source Code”: An Illogical but Ultimately Fun SciFi Adventure

Back in 2009, I kept hearing about this little movie called “Moon.” I heard that it was this really cool scifi story that pretty much just features Sam Rockwell, and that it was directed by rookie Duncan Jones whose dad happened to be Ziggy Stardust (David Bowie to those of you unfamiliar with “The Man Who Sold the World”). I was intrigued and so I gave it a spin and, while it was a low budget movie, its set design, acting, and writing made it truly unique. I was dying to know what the little Spider from Mars signed on to do next. His sophomore project (this time with studio money) is called “The Source Code” and has big name stars in Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan and a “Groundhog Day” type premise except lives are at stake and Jake Gyllenhaal never learns to play the piano.

Gyllenhaal plays Capt. Colten Stevens and wakes up on a Chicago commuter train in front of Christine (Michelle Monaghan), a woman who calls him by a different name and he realizes he’s not himself. The train all of a sudden explodes and he wakes up in a chamber and is talked to through a monitor by Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) who vaguely tells him that he is in Source Code, a government program that is designed to put him in the last eight minutes of a train bombing victim in order to find out who bombed the train and what they plan to do next. Stevens is confused (as well he should be) and tries to figure out why he’s there but is sent back into the train.

He starts to try and figure out what is going on while simultaneously beginning to care about Christine. His attempts keep failing and he tries to find out why he can’t remember anything before the bombing. With each attempt he comes closer to the truth (which is actually kind of brutal) and tries to figure out a way to save Christine as well as the other passengers on the train.

The story seems complicated and weird (especially with the liberties taken with quantum physics) but it is a very simple story and one that I was invested in. Gyllenhaal is a polarizing actor and while most people don’t like him, I kind of (like my friend Grant)  do. He knows how to find the emotion in his performances and the more he cares about finding the truth, the more we do.

Monaghan doesn’t do much to develop a character but she also does a good job making us believe that Stevens cares about her (given the time constraints of the universe, that’s okay). The best acting job is Farmiga because she knows the truth and the more Stevens figures things out the more we see that she is guilty about the nature of Source Code. Her work is somewhat subtle but while she tries to maintain a professional façade, she slowly peels back the armor.

Jones also does a great job directing this movie because even though the science is a little far fetched (okay very farfetched) he injects some of the same ideas about humanity, individuality, and survival that he did in “Moon”. He also proves he can operate quite well within the confines of the studio system which in this day and age is a tough gig for filmmakers to do. I hope he continues to grow as a director and will definitely be looking forward to any and all future projects of his.

If this does not sound like your cup of tea, there is the family movie “Hop” and the horror movie “Insidious” (which Grant calls The Movie Where The Kid Is Possessed By Darth Maul) there is also the dark comedy “Super” which I intend to track down and see tomorrow. The time is now 3:35 a.m. and I am now listening to Green Day’s “Nimrod” album and must sleep.

Thank You for reading and stay tuned as I go on a quest with “Your Highness”, party with “Arthur”, and get super with “Super.” Remember you can see these and other fine movies at your local Edwards.

Sundance Film A Win Win And More

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