When All Else Fails...

...retreat into your imagination.  I do it all the time.  It allows you to wonder and envision yourself in places and situations that your normal, boring (depending on what you do for a living) everyday reality would never place you in.


One would think it a bit crazy to have an active and vivid imagination, but I say otherwise.  My active and vivid imagination is what led me to this blog.  Well it really started with me wanting to find a way to make more money without having to find a "real" part-time job or take away any of the already limited time I have with my family.


I got the crazy notion that maybe I could write stories, thoughts, ideas, poems, whatever, and people who I'll probably never meet in my lifetime would care enough to read, and heck, I might even be able to make some money to boot...


Well, needless to say, the money has yet to surface, but I never expected to actually be as into this idea as I am.  I find myself thinking about stuff to write in my head, and BOOM, now I have a place to put it....all of this thanks to the FANTABULOUS world inside my mind.


In this lovely place known as my imagination, I can be anything I want to be.  I can think up stories and ideas, create new environments for myself and sometimes they just find their way out here.


So thanks for reading and I look forward to many more journeys into my imagination.  I hope you enjoy the ride with me.

Film Critique 102

BLACK SNAKE MOAN

By: ActressAtHeart

Okay, so what do you do when you are a fifty- something year old black man living in rural, I mean really rural, like time has forgotten all about you rural, Tennessee, and step out of your house and discover the body of a twenty-something year old white woman (who’s not dead, just beaten up pretty bad), in a half shirt and underwear on your property?

Well, you take her into your home and chain her, yeah, literally chain her to your radiator. When she wakes up after you’ve nursed her back to health, she has the nerve to try and leave, but uh oh, she can’t because she’s chained to your radiator. Now, you’ve got a lot o’ splainin’ to do maahn.  And therein lies the initial plot of Craig Brewer’s latest film, Black Snake Moan starring Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci, and Justin Timberlake.

For his third film, Brewer has again chosen Tennessee as the backdrop. Its primary characters are a motley crew of battered, bitter, and broken souls who ultimately find comfort in the unusual twist of fate that draws them together. But let me not get ahead of myself.  Battered, and bitter, and broken, oh my! Battered, and bitter, and broken, oh my! Yep that’s it in a nutshell.

You have Lazarus, played by Samuel L. Jackson, who is a former juke joint packing, blues singing, God fearing middle-aged man whose wife has previously aborted the child he couldn’t wait to have without his consent. And who later leaves him for his younger brother. Uhh, can we say bitter?

Then we have Rae, played by Christina Ricci, (yup, Wednesday Addams has really grown up). Rae is a twenty-something year old nymphomaniac who was sexually abused by her father for the majority of her childhood, then abandoned by her mother, and finally, beaten to the brink of death upon Lazarus’ discovery of her. Ummm, definitely battered.

Finally, there’s Ronnie, played by Justin Timberlake, who suffers from a serious

anxiety disorder which causes him to be prematurely discharged from the military. As a result, Ronnie returns home and says goodbye to his hope of whisking Rae away to their dream, fairy tale of a life together. Alas, he’s the broken one.

Now, for the finding comfort part... When Lazarus is told that Rae is known as the “town slut” who has to “have it”, he sees an opportunity to “cure her of her wickedness,” thus the chain to keep her from further allowing men to abuse her. While the two themselves are never intimate, their relationship blossoms into one of a father/daughter type in which each one is giving the other peace and a sense of self-worth and value.

Enter Ronnie, fresh from the war, seeing his beloved Rae close to a, well, we’ll say “N” word. Given her past, he assumes they have been and are now intimate. But when he discovers the true nature of their relationship, he too finds himself comforted by their connection and befriends the old man.

Ultimately, thanks to the strange set of circumstances bonding them together, all are able to go on and work to be the best “them” they can be, battered, bitter, broken et al. 

When it’s all over, you’ll love this movie or you’ll hate it, there’s no in between. I loved it, and it is a definite go see for any movie lover who doesn’t mind creative filmmaking and unique story telling.

Vintage with a Twist of Spice

Hello and welcome to my blog, which incidentally is something I have fought long and hard to avoid, primarily because I have always had an innate fear of being "exposed" on the web, the Internet, the World Wide Web -- that great technological endlessness of whatever, but alas, I have fallen.


What you will find here are the musings of 1) An Actress at Heart, 2) An Actress at Heart who also happens to write, 3) an Actress at Heart who also happens to write and loves her family and her dog, and finally, 4) an Actress at Heart who also happens to write and loves her family and her dog with a great fondness of everything vintage, rainbow-y and happy, with an aversion to all things technological (but tolerated, well, because its just how things are done now aren't they?).


It is my hope that as I grow and explore my latest trek into creative expression, you'll find something that touches you, makes you think, or simply just makes you smile!


So welcome to my thoughts and views From the Balcony....

Film Critique 101

Definitely Keep Your Day Job Forrest…

By: ActressAtHeart

As I cautiously enter a new realm of writing, Film Critique 101, I have to begin with the following reviewer disclaimer… wait, can I have a disclaimer, umm, yeah, I guess I can because it’s my columnJ.

Okay, I have to admit that as an actress at heart, when I see a film in which the lead actors completely submerge themselves in a performance, I get all “goosebumply.” So, needless to say my opinion in my inaugural film review of the Fox Searchlight Production of “The Last King of Scotland” may be just a tad bit biased….

That said, let me begin with a myth that I found during my research about Idi Amin, the Ugandan President about whom the film is based.  The myth states that in his effort to see what it would take to be “President for Life” (a title that he later proclaimed himself to be during his reign), he sought the advice of an Ugandan witchdoctor who told him that in order to accomplish this task, he had to eat the heart of someone he loved dearly.  It is then said that Amin ate the heart of his own son. Now the reality of the situation was that Amin’s son had actually and mysteriously disappeared around this same time….

One might think the aforementioned scenario can’t be anything but a myth, but after seeing the film and taking an in depth look at the man himself, and realizing that he was responsible for the deaths of over 300,000 Ugandans during his presidential term (1971-1979), I am left with the thought that Amin eating his own son’s heart may not be far from the truth.

Based on my research and the fact that thousands of Ugandan men, women, and children were brutally, horrifically, and in many cases, inhumanely slaughtered on Amin’s orders, I can’t help but wonder if one would think of him as a psychopath obsessed with power or a tragic sufferer of bi-polar disorder before it was all the rave it is today.  According to the film, I am inclined to say that the man himself was both.

Set amidst the beautiful backdrop of Uganda, “The Last King of Scotland” is both a wonderful demonstration of the life of a man of power and a chilling look at a man clearly suffering with dual realities.  No, not a battle between his own reality and the world’s reality, but a three-way battle of his own reality, his own reality, and the world’s reality.  I mean he totally believed that he was justified in his actions no matter how inhumane and senseless.  He believed he was fighting for a better Uganda.

Brought amazingly back to life by a true gentle giant of a man – that’s my reality, I mean, I’m such a fan J – Forrest Whitaker, Amin is both a charismatic charmer and a frightening, perfectly paranoid president.  Fun and personable one minute, terrifically terrifying the next.  He is both a hero to his people, and a hypocrite among men.  While he touted Ugandan power – i.e. Black Power to his people and ultimately the world -- he himself practiced many customs held dear to Scottish Europeans -- from entertaining guests in a kilt playing a bagpipe, to naming two of his, ah, African sons Campbell and McKenzie – I know kinda wacky, right J?

Anyway, from the first few seconds of his back (yeah, his back, as in we haven’t even seen his face yet, back) Whitaker exhibits the power of a man obsessed.  A man who truly believes he is just in his actions, and a true voice of his people, or in his words, “I am you and you are me.” 

In the same shot, there are two splashes of white in a sea of black.  One of those splashes of white is Scottish doctor Nicolas Galligan, truthfully played (although the character was fictional) by new comer James McAvoy.  Galligan is the man who is inadvertently wooed into medical servitude by, let’s see, I’ll call him Amin number 1, the charismatic and funny charmer.  To Galligan, this Amin is the image of a leader convicted to bringing Uganda back to power and a possible friend.  This is the Amin that treats him like his own son catering to his every need and offerer of his dream job of Amin’s personal doctor in which Galligan quickly accepts.  It is ultimately, however, Amin number 2, the perfectly paranoid torturous tyrant of terror Galligan later learns to both fear and despise.

The events surrounding this delicate balance of friendship and fear, and power and manipulation are the setting in which Whitaker and McAvoy find a creative chemistry that lulls the viewer into this seemingly perfect relationship.  They are two men, Amin and his Dr. Galligan who at the onset, build their bond based on trust and a mutual respect for one another’s opinions and honesty of conversation.  It is this same trust and honesty that lead Galligan, through a series of events, to see Amin as the monster he is.

Whitaker’s uncanny ability to become two completely different people with just a look or a slight laugh in the same scene within seconds (oh my gosh, here come the goosebumps…) and McAvoy’s amazing ability to walk the thin line of showing both friendship and fear, all at the same time, work extraordinarily well in a film that takes the audience on a journey into the life and mind of a, as described in the media, madman….

The film has not only enabled Forrest to win both the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards for Best Actor in a Motion Picture, but it has also enabled him to receive a nomination for Best Actor in the Crème de la Crème of awards shows, the Golden Ticket, or in this case, the golden bald man, Oscar.  Yes, the Academy Awards (he better win, or I’ll be stark raving mad).  Now why James didn’t receive any award nominations, is beyond me, but then again who am I? That’s probably an article for another time, “Why the Actors I Believe Should be Nominated for Awards Aren’t: A Mystery Among Us,” hmmm….

Oooops, slipped off on a tangent.  Anyway, if you’ve found yourself disappointed and desperately longing for a trip to the box office that is both mesmerizing and memorable – if not for Forrest’s performance alone – then “The Last King of Scotland” is well worth the money.  For me, it was, like I said, I got all “goosebumply.”  If you are looking to be simply entertained and don’t mind exceptionally rich actors ackin’ – my term for actors just delivering lines and not having an understanding of the true essence of their character – then it’s not. It’s just that simple.

One thing however, is certain.  “The Last King of Scotland” is a treasure amidst the current mediocrity of filmmaking that is the Hollywood of Today.