When I was living in Johannesburg, I spent about four months dating a woman who worked as a professional editor for film and television commercials. She put together a video of surfing clips for me to help me promote “Groundswell,” and while I was thrilled with what she did, I never had a full appreciation of just how much work video editing is until I tried my own hand at the task. As you might have seen three weeks ago, my own project was ridiculously simple. It consisted of a single image, a few simple fades, a sequence of white text scrolling over a black background, and a single splice of video pilfered from the end of a movie to include the final few logos that are standard issue for every credit reel. Getting these few things done kept me up until 4 AM during one evening and 2 AM on another.

I think editing is, from the audience’s perspective, the most underrated aspect of filmmaking. A film cannot be great without great editing. Lousy editing can ruin what would otherwise be a great film. And while clever editing will never be enough to save 90 minutes’ worth of crummy material, if you’re willing to claim that you’ve never in your lifetime been hoodwinked into seeing an awful movie simply on the strength of a well-edited preview, then I’m willing to call you a liar.

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Popularity: 7% [?]

It’s the end of the road for Hillary Clinton’s campaign. A few signs lately have pointed towards Hillary finally packing it in, and after Barack Obama sweeps up enough of the black vote in the urban strongholds of Montana and South Dakota today to claim victory in these final two primary states, it’s likely that Clinton’s campaign will offer a formal concession. Hillary’s last-ditch effort to convince the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee to seat Michigan and Florida’s entire slates of delegates with full voting status (and award all of said delegates to her) failed, and her pitch to undecided superdelegates over the last month has mostly been falling on deaf ears. By the end, her surrogates’ statements about the which states “mattered” and specific, irrelevant ways the popular vote could be tallied to produce a slim lead for Hillary were beginning to insult everyone’s intelligence.

The nomination is decided by delegates. In the primary process, the total popular vote is no more critical to the outcome of the contest than passing yardage is to the outcome of a football game. Having Hillary attract superdelegates based on an absurdly subjective interpretation of which votes to count would be like seeing Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy persuade the NFL that his team should represent their conference in the Superbowl because, even though his team had a lower number of points than the Giants in the NFC championship game, they forced more fumbles and had a higher field goal kicking percentage and would be a stronger matchup against the Patriots.

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Popularity: 15% [?]

In the final few moments of Tony Scott’s True Romance (1993) Alabama, accompanied by an injured Clarence, drives past a sign that reads “Last U.S. Exit, Mexican Border 5 miles.” It’s at this very moment that the music shifts from the ominous strains that accompanied the chaotic final shootout in the Beverly Ambassador, to the light and playful leitmotif that has been present throughout the rest of the film. The film’s score was written by Hans Zimmer and the familiar theme was drawn from an original composition by Carl Orff, who was most famous for composing another film score favorite, the Carmina Burana.

Once Clarence and Alabama have reached their final destination a sandy beach in Baja, the end credits roll, accompanied by Chris Isaak’s “Two Hearts” from his 1993 album San Francisco Days. It’s a song that’s reminiscent of the works of Elvis Presley, who serves as an imaginary mentor for Clarence during his criminal escapades. For the longest time I thought that it was Elvis Presley himself singing “Two Hearts,” and once I learned otherwise, I still continued to assume that it had originally been recorded by the King until just moments ago.

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Popularity: 10% [?]

Playing a disabled or mentally ill character seems like it would be one of the most demanding roles for an actor to portray. It’s probably just as tough for an actress, although few films seem to be centered around handicapped women. It also seems to be something of an initiation rite – although it’s not universal , a large number of the finest actors, particularly in more recent years, have distinguished themselves by portraying characters that are either on the lower end of the intelligence scale, or suffering from a psychiatric disorder that makes coping with the surrounding world into a daily ordeal. In the final few moments of Billy Bob Thornton’s breakthrough performance as both an actor and a director in Sling Blade (1996), a fellow inmate in the mental institution he’s returned to asks him, “What it was like out there, in the world?” Thornton’s character Karl responds with the memorably simple pronouncement, “It was too big.”

The Film: Sling Blade

The Song: “The Maker”

The Artist: Daniel Lanois

Although the immense praise Billy Bob Thornton received for his performance as Karl Childers was well-deserved, it’s actually hard to pin down what handicap or illness Karl suffers from. When he is interviewed by a student reporter at the beginning of the film, the elaborate preparations and preconditions suggest that he suffers from autism and won’t react well to a deviation from routine. His tendency to rub his hands together suggests stereotypy, another common autistic trait. And Karl’s savant-like talent for fixing small engines coupled with his rudimentary social skills add even further to this impression.

However, Karl complacent acceptance of his imminent departure from the mental institution and his ability to adapt to new situations seem to refute this. Furthermore, the instantaneous empathy that Karl begins to show for his newfound friend Frank Wheatley is very uncharacteristic of autistics. Karl’s grasp of the implications of Doyle’s return to the household suggest that he can conceptualize complicated situations, and although Karl’s solution to the problem is very straightforward and simple, it’s a course of action that he contemplates thoroughly before following it through. In both writing and portraying Karl, Billy Bob Thornton managed to create a character that either suffers from a very unique disability or illness, or otherwise suffers from no disability at all other than a need to process information very slowly and a certain lack of initiative. (more…)

Popularity: 9% [?]

When The Breakfast Club begins, we’re presented with the five characters as easily defined stereotypes – “a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal.” In the film’s closing moments, against the backdrop of the Simple Minds classic “Don’t You (Forget About Me),” Anthony Michael Hall iterates the fundamental message of the film – that although it is much simpler to perceive the characters as members of discrete categories, it’s just plain wrong, and it’s an insult to each of them to do so. The members of the Breakfast Club don’t believe that Principal Vernon’s assessment of any of them is going to change in the slightest beyond the stereotypes he has already assigned them to, and therefore feel there is no point in attempting to explain themselves to him. It would all go in one ear and out the other.

The Film: The Breakfast Club

The Song: “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”

The Artist: Simple Minds

Ever since this endless presidential race began – and let’s be honest, the Democratic primary has effectively been underway since Barack Obama’s speech at the 2004 convention and the Republican primary hasn’t been much shorter – the traditional media has been struggling to characterize the candidates in terms of their high school equivalents. Anyone who has actually been to their high school reunion has a pretty good idea that people change a great deal in college and thereafter. Relying on a perception of a candidate’s stereotypical high school persona to make judgments about their current character and competence is an activity you might expect from someone who needs a bib to eat, has mittens pinned to their jackets, and isn’t allowed to play with matches, but certainly not from a professional journalist. (more…)

Popularity: 13% [?]

Like many suburban teenagers, I was first introduced to world of ska by the plaid-clad, Boston-based, masters of merchandising the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. It was the first time I ever became part of a subculture, and even then it was only in a limited sense. I went to just about every show that I found out about, but I never started dressing like a mod or riding a scooter (an image so brilliant realized by Phil Daniels in Quadrophenia), and while I dreamily entertained the idea of starting my own band called “Boss Tweed,” I was never part of the scene as anything more than just another kid in the crowd.

But I learned the history as well as anyone literate enough to read the FAQs hosted at the Usenet group alt.music.ska, and it dawned on me pretty quickly that the Bosstones weren’t a pure ska band – they were “ska-core” and happily described themselves as such on their EP album Ska-core, the Devil, and More (1993). I was surprised to learn that ska originally emerged from Jamaica in the sixties, and was actually a predecessor to reggae. The genre went through three distinct generations, and the music I was swinging my elbows to was actually part of the third wave.

Even though I was never fully immersed in the ska scene, it never failed to infuriate me to see the media get hopelessly confused over what ska actually was. Bands were often described as “ska” simply because they included a brass instrument or two, or followed ska’s distinctive musical structure of emphasizing the “up” phase of a beat. Bands like Goldfinger (pop/punk) and Sublime (reggae/dub) were haphazardly thrown into the category without recognizing that all true ska bands a) had horn players and b) consisted of at least five people, and usually more. I remember flaming the hell out of Christopher John Farley when he wrote up a brief article on ska for Time, and actually getting a direct response. But nothing upon nothing fueled my ninety-pound keyboard commando rages more than hearing the Southern California rock band No Doubt described as a “ska band.”

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Popularity: 12% [?]

Like many students, I was assigned to read Tom Stoppard’s existential classic Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead during my junior year of high school. I’ve always hated reading plays – in my opinion the only people who should be reading a play are the actors and the scarf-wearing, latte-sipping, pretentious jerk that is directing it (I’m kidding, of course). The magic of a good play is in its performance, not its text. But something about the conceit of taking two minor characters from Shakespeare’s masterpiece Hamlet and giving them their own story to tell really struck a chord with me, and I enjoyed it immensely. To a certain degree, Gus Van Sant’s 1991 film My Own Private Idaho follows the same path.

The Film: My Own Private Idaho

The Song: “The Old Main Drag”

The Artist: The Pogues

Countless adaptations of William Shakespeare’s stories have been turned into teenage dramas and committed to the screen. 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) took The Taming of the Shrew and brought it to Seattle, featuring a ruggedly charming Heath Ledger as Petruchio and a young Julia Stiles as Katherine. “O” (filmed in 1999 but not released until 2001 due to similarities between events in the film and the Columbine massacre) was based on Othello but set at a private school in South Carolina, featuring Mekhi Phifer as Othello and a slightly older Julia Stiles as Desdemona. And Scotland, PA(2001) took the story of Macbeth and moved it to rural Pennsylvania, using James LeGros and Julia Stiles as Joe and Pat McBeth, and substituting a fast food restaurant called Duncan’s Café for Dunsinane Castle. (more…)

Popularity: 11% [?]

Even though I live in Los Angeles, I’ve never been an actor, a writer, a director, a writer-director, a grip, a cameraman, or worked in the film industry in any capacity whatsoever. However, when I was living in Johannesburg I did produce a play that I had written. I was pretty overwhelmed by the plethora of tasks it took to actually bring the play to the stage, and by the end of the process I had cast off ten pounds of muscle that had served me so well in Mozambique (more on that some other time), my director and I were barely speaking to each other, and I swore up and down that I never wanted to do anything like it ever again.

Making movies can be a stressful and traumatic process. In a town that lives by the motto “You’re only as good as your last film,” the reputations of everyone involved are in jeopardy each and every time a movie is made; millions upon millions of studio dollars are on the line. Some of the largest fish in the Hollywood pond have mastered the art of “failing up,” but for most others, to have your name attached to a catastrophe of a film can ruin your career and your financial future.

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Popularity: 14% [?]

Most people are familiar with the concept of the alpha male. Aggressive and dominating, he exists in our society as a result of our evolution as primates, when relatively small social groups were typically led by the healthiest specimen. However, alpha males are leaders by virtue of more than just physical superiority. They tend to be at least moderately intelligent, they socialize well, and they see themselves as providers — not just for themselves, but for their mates and the members of their social group. A true alpha is capable of being an excellent host, a persuasive salesman, a successful coach, a masterful storyteller, and a confident and charismatic leader.

The beta male, who is subservient to the alpha, tends to get far less attention; he is generally more relaxed and less achievement-oriented. The ideal beta is, above all else, loyal, and he makes an excellent soldier. Although there’s a substantial amount of understated competition between beta males to establish their position within a social hierarchy, and though many daydream about obtaining the top spot, few are prepared for the genuine demands and responsibilities that the position of alpha male requires. An alpha who isn’t up to the task, or a beta male who has somehow ascended to the alpha position, is appropriately referred to as a “failed alpha.”

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Popularity: 16% [?]

I don’t think Michael Mann is particularly interested in popular music.

It’s practically impossible to think of Phil Collins’ classic song “In the Air Tonight” without thinking of the iconic scene in the Miami Vice pilot when the song plays as Crockett and Tubbs are driving towards a fateful meeting with a narcotics kingpin. Throughout the series, popular music from artists like Peter Gabriel, Dire Straits, and Depeche Mode played an important role in the establishment of the show’s distinctive, pastel-driven style. And although Michael Mann helped create the show and served as its executive producer during the better part of its run from 1984 to 1989, it’s not apparent that he was intimately involved in the musical selection. When he remade Miami Vice as a film in 2006, Mann eschewed the opportunity to use period music and instead relied on more modern artists like Goldfrapp, Mogwai, and Moby.

The Film: Heat

The Song: “God Moving Over the Face of the Waters” (download)

The Artist: Moby

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Popularity: 13% [?]