Jeez Jon

The 2011 Film You Need To See: Pariah

At first blush, it's easy to tag Dee Rees' new film Pariah as "this year's Precious."  Both films deal with African-American teen girls in New York with difficult mothers played by comediennes.  But while Precious is as sublte as a carpet bombing, Pariah is sublime.  It tells the story of Alike (played with quiet authority by Adepero Oduye), a 17 year old girl in Brooklyn who is slowly coming out as a lesbian... to everyone but her family.  Her best friend Laura (the excellent Pernell Walker) is out as well and way more comfortable in her skin.  Her conservative, church-going mom Audrey is struggling to keep her marriage alive with her workaholic husband while pushing back against her daughter embracing her identity. 

Now, I know this all sounds heavy.  There are a lot of meaty topics being discussed in Pariah, but it all fits the story.  Director Rees balances out all the characters very well while keeping the focus on Alike.  There's a certain generosity to all the characters in Pariah: no one's the villian, no one's the saint.  Even the supporting characters are fully-fleshed out.  While the story easily could have fallen into melodramatic cliches or easy ways out, it goes the most logical route  (There's one scene in particular between Laura and her mother that is just outstanding). 

The acting in Pariah is spot-on; everything feels authentic and lived in.  Adepero Oduye is just wonderful, but the surprise in the film is Kim Wayans as Alike's disapproving mother Audrey.  I've been a fan of Wayans since In Living Color, and her work here is excellent.  You understand exactly where Audrey is coming from the whole way through; you get her very quickly, and that has a lot to do with Wayans' portrayl. 

On the technical level, Pariah is gorgeous.  It won the Cinematography Award at this year's Sundance Festival for a reason.  The opening scene at a nightclub is breathtaking.  The film moves very well, and the music is great.  This is one of those movies that fires on all cylanders, which makes me sad that it's not getting more attention this award season.  Definitely see this movie.  Look, if you don't trust me, trust its 98% rating at Rotten Tomatoes.  Pariah is a great film.

 

At Home Film Festival: Awards Screener Edition

The Screen Actors Guild gives out awards every year.  Every year, they randomly select a small amout of the 100,000 members of the union to be on the Nominating Committee, who is charged with coming up with the nominations for the awards.  Then, after the nominations are announced, then the entire body of the union gets to vote on the awards.  Well, after 11 years in the union, I've been selected to be in the Nominating Committee.  And, as you can imagine, I'm pretty psyched. And I'm also wicked busy.

I've been working on a new Spike show -- Flip Men, Tuesday nights at 10:30pm, check it out! -- which has been taking up a lot of my time.  I'm also taking classes with Steppenwolf, which is awesome and kicking my butt in all the right ways.  That eats up time too. So, in my meager downtime, I've been seeing movies.  The above picture shows the amount of screeners I currently have at home right now.  I'm due to get more in the mail too.  I'm also going to a lot of screenings as well, and those are gobbling up time too. I've become a movie-watching machine lately.

Of what I've seen so far, my three favorites (in alphabetical order) are Albert Nobbs, Beginners, and Bridesmaids.  All three are must-sees for different reasons: Albert Nobbs is a great little film showing a rich world of gender-bending Irish women fighting against poverty, Beginners is an assured film that will make you laugh and cry in equal measure, and Bridesmaids is a hilarious film that has way more going for it than you think.  While I'm not surprised that both Albert Nobbs and Beginners are getting the awards push, the fact that Universal is doing the same for Bridesmaids just makes me smile. It comes across at first like a gross-out goofy comedy, but at the heart of it Bridesmaids is really sweet and sharp movie about how we sell ourselves too short and how we have to be better people.  Its screenplay is one of the most well-constructed pieces of writing I've come across in a long time, and the acting is just amazing.  All around.  Comedy tends to get the short-shrift during awards season, so the fact that Bridesmaids is getting any love this time of year says something. 

Out of all the movies featured in the above picture, I've seen only seven of them.  I also have at least 7 more screenings I have to go to.  I have to watch everything and put my votes in by December 12th.  So, if you e-mail me and I don't get back to you promptly, it's because I'm either working on a TV show, working on my acting, or seeing and evaluating movies.  Send help.

[PS.  Since I'm an avid rule follower, all of my screeners are not leaving my apartment building, will not be posted onto the web, and will not be sold by me. I like my union and I'd like to stay in it, thank you very much]

Hollywood Nights

I've been away from this blog for a long time.  A very, very long time.  Apologies for that.  While it's obvious that I've been away because I've been busy, I wish I could say it's because something amazing was going on in my life.  That's not the case.  Nothing horrible, either. I've been working a lot.  In fact, the show I've been working on, Flip Men on Spike, debuted this week to some strong ratings. While that's going, I have other things going on as well.  Here's the list:

• Work: Flip Men
• Acting Class: Steppenwolf West
• Acting Career
• Marriage
• Family
• Friends
• SAG Nom Comm Screenings

My life is pretty busy right now, and I'll work in the blogging as much as possible.  I have to admit that Facebook has eaten up my political links and posts lately but once the 2012 campaign starts next year, I'll be more active here.  Thanks for being patient.  Be back soon.

 

So I Did This Today...

What did you do?

The Master Plan, Part 4: The Website

After my VO demo, the new headshots and the reel, Part 4 of my Master Plan to bring all my acting weaponry online is now here:  My Official Acting website:  jeezjon.com All of my stuff is on there: the demo, the reel, the resume, the headshots, everything.  All that you wanted to see is here.  So, enjoy!

(I'll be back to blogging soon, trust me.)

Network Notes On Speaker Boehner's Debt Crisis Speech

 

OVERALL:

Having done many numerous seasons of Strange Bedfellows: U.S. Federal Edition, we really do enjoy the plot twist of having the Speaker of the House give a rebuttal speech to the President's, even though this isn't the State of the Union.  In previous seasons of the show, we have never done that, even with Speaker Pelosi!  So, this is a great change of events that we think fans of the show would appreciate.

That being said, we do feel that we can bring out more from the speech.  With some edits, bites and cues, we feel that we can maximize Boehner's speech for comedy and drama.

SPECIFICS:

00:06    Please make sure to adjust the color levels during on-line.  It could be the low-res copy we have, but the Speaker's skin tone looks a few shades off of "Oompa-Loompa." Please bring this to the same color-correction lab that does Jersey Shore.

00:14    Keep it dry until here, then start patriotic music under Boehner's story of his small business.

00:38    Put a dramatic sting after "Those days are over!"

00:49    Can we put in a flashback from the State of the Union where the President asked for an increase in the debt ceiling?  Please use the blue filter on this.  Also, I know you said we didn't have Congress saying "Not so fast, Mr. President!" on camera a few times before.  Please double-check to see if this is true; it would give the speech a better impact if we could see the Speaker (or even Majority Leader Cantor) say it on camera.

01:02    Shift to a dark, mysterious music cue after he says "And here's what we got for that spending binge." Right now, it's playing flat and I'm losing interest.

01:10    Please put in a comedic sting on "fodder for late night comedians."  That way, people will know it's supposed to be funny.

01:34 - 01:52    Pull up this section; it's repetitive to what the Speaker was saying in the previous scene. I know we've done a lot of repetitive bites in other seasons, but this is too much even for us.

02:00    Just thinking out loud here, but should we change up our lower thirds?  The chyrons for the past 18 seasons have changed a bit. Maybe something new?  Let's discuss.

02:09    I know the Speaker here explains what the "Cut, Cap and Balance" Act will do, but I'm worried it won't be clear enough for our audience.  Please do a clarity pass on this; maybe a funnier button?

02:14    When the Speaker starts talking about his sincere efforts to communicate with the President, please shift the music to a more heart-felt, sincere tone.  Maybe the composer can do a sound-alike of The Fray's "How To Save A Life"? We do have some money in the budget for that. Please double check.

02:39    We've been staying on the same kind of shot for a long time now; do we have a wide shot of this?  I'd love to know the geography of the room we're in. 

02:54    Can we have the Speaker talk about how the closure of tax loopholes will kill jobs?  Not a huge note.

03:03    Can we see shots of the Speaker's children when he references them?  How can the audience know he has children unless we see them?  Please make sure they have signed releases.

03:11    Do we have another version of the Speaker saying "He wanted a blank check six months ago, and he wants a blank check today"?  He's been more emotional for us before -- remember the 60 Minutes Scene?  -- but here's he's so flat and dull.  Please do a comedy pass.

03:34    The Speaker here is referencing a bill that's going to pass later on in the week.  Do we have that?  If not, there will need to be a significant restructure of this scene. 

04:10    Add cymbal scrape after "The Constitution."

04:19    Instead of the Speaker talking about how the politicians shouldn't focus on trying to get re-elected, could you have him say something along the lines of "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore?"  That would be great.

04:32ish   I feel like we're on the same shot for a long time here.  Can we vary things up a bit?  Maybe a slow push-in would be good.  Be creative.

04:47    Add sad trombone effect after "running at full capacity".

04:55    Add triumphant music under the portion where he's talking about breaking the grip of debt. Should be an awe-inspiring, a-ha! moment.

05:10    End with a big swell of patriotic music, then use the new graphics of the donkey and elephant in the boxing ring.  

Thank you! Please call to discuss! 

My Head Sounds Like This: Sun Of A Gun

I recently downloaded Oh Land's eponymous album this weekend, and have been listening to it on repeat.  It's like CRACK, people.  Anyway, here's her song "Sun Of A Gun."

 

Great song, fun video. 

 

Ain't That A Kick In The Head

You can check out my story producing prowess on this Sunday's episode of Jerseylicious on the Style Network.  And boy, is the episode a doozy.  There are guys bowling, women at singles mixers, two girls get into a fight where one's knocked unconscious and then she's kicked in the head, nurses getting makeovers...  wait, what's that?  Yes, Olivia and Tracy get into a big... well, let me just show you:

 

The title of the episode is "Jersey-vicious", and as you can see, it's appropriate.  Tune in!

Master Plan: The Acting Reel

First I did the Voiceover Demo, and now the acting reel is ready.  To enjoy:

 

Thanks!

A More Perfect Union

I've been away for far too long.  It's fitting that I'm posting on the 4th of July, on our country's 235th birthday.  Last Saturday, Tom and I were in San Francisco for the first time.  It's a gorgeous city; lots of old buildings, pretty streetcars, great food and lots of hills.  Lots and lots of hills.  We arrived Friday night and were set to go out to the Castro but Tom and I were waiting in our hotel room.  Waiting on the New York State Senate to approve gay marriage.  After a while, we left and headed into the Castro.  And then it happened:  New York State passed gay marriage.  For those of you who don't know, the Castro is the gay district of San Francisco.  And needless to say, it was a party. 

A very big party.

As Tom and I walked hand-in-hand (something we rarely do, out of sheer safety), a stranger ran up to us.

Stranger: Did you hear about New York?

Me: Yeah!  It's amazing.

Stranger: Oh yeah! I'm moving there next week.  Good timing, huh?

Me: Oh yeah.

Stranger: All I gotta do now is find someone to marry!

And he ran off.  The party mode continued all night, which included a karaoke bar, some drinks, and a very happy streetcar driver.  It was a great place to be for us; good timing, indeed.

One thing that stunned me at the time (and still does, to a certain extent) is that the New York State Senate is Republican controlled, and passed a gay marriage bill. Here is the money quote:

With his position still undeclared, Senator Mark J. Grisanti, a Republican from Buffalo who had sought office promising to oppose same-sex marriage, told his colleagues he had agonized for months before concluding he had been wrong.

“I apologize for those who feel offended,” Mr. Grisanti said, adding, “I cannot deny a person, a human being, a taxpayer, a worker, the people of my district and across this state, the State of New York, and those people who make this the great state that it is the same rights that I have with my wife.”

Senator Grisanti made the realization that he cannot fundamentally discriminate against his fellow citizen based on sexual orientation.  The idea that we have laws to go against gay people getting married is a way of expanding government, not limiting government. Expanding rights to LGBT people is a conservative (small c, not Conservative with a Big C) notion. If you let people be themselves and give everyone equal access to rights, schools and the marketplace, this is a conservative notion.  How funny that this basic concept is considered leftist in some circles.  In the most recent Republican presidential debate, 5 out of the 7 candidates were in favor of a federal amendment banning gay marriage.  No matter that the concept of self-determination is an inherently conservative idea. 

One of the many reasons why this country is great is because not only is a place, it's an idea.  We are always striving to form "a more perfect union."  Not Perfect, not Utopia, but a more perfect union.  It's the idea that we as a country aren't done, and we'll never be done.  If you look at how the GOP used gay marriage as a wedge issue in 2004 and now how some Republicans now made gay marriage legal in one of the largest states in the union, we've come a lot way.  And we've got a long way to go.  Democracy in a republic is a messy business.  It happens in fits and starts; two steps forward, one step back.  But, the good thing is, the world only spins forwards.  If we keep on pushing, progress will win out. 

Happy 4th of July.