Together

You never really realise, when you start out. The years tumble by and people fall to the side, but some stay.

You're in it together.

You have those people at the top and the people at the bottom, and you find yourself somewhere in the mix struggling to get by.

And the geniuses pass straight to the top, as do the ones related to the big shots. Everyone else shuffles through the fields trying projects and finding themselves and losing themselves.

Sometimes it's like everyone is succeeding, other times it's just rejections and failures and let downs.

One by one people go down one lane or the other. Someone lands a big role and another lands a pregnancy and life takes people on their unique journeys.

It's not a race, you realise. The most talented ones often struggle the most. If you have something new or interesting, no-one is going to get it. People on reality TV rise because they're exactly what we already know, no surprises. They soon fall away.

You find yourself surrounded by the most talented people in the world, yet only seven people know their work and collectively you barely earn enough money for lunch.

But it's not a race. It's a journey and one by one you take a step forward. The audience gets bigger.

You surround yourself with talent and passion and you wait to see the day the world gets clued in, and eventually they do. It's not just talent, it's luck, it's life, it's serendipity. You gotta work at it and hang around long enough.

You never know when or why it will click. 'Jaws' wasn't even going to be a good movie; but the shark broke, and Shaw hated Dreyfuss, and A-listers turned down the Brody role, and Spielberg nearly got sacked 50 times. Dreyfuss came out on TV and distanced himself from the film, said he was embarrassed by it.

But "Jaws" came along at the right time, and cinema changed. Thank God they stuck by it. You see it on a smaller scale every year. Someone breaks, they fall into sudden relevancy. It's not about big breaks, it's about destiny. Its about staying in the game.

Your friends start to succeed, and it's the sweetest feeling in the world. All those people who told them to keep it real, to stick to the day job.

You surround yourself with artists who resonate with you. A mixed bag of writers, actors, musicians and directors. You whittle it down to the people who really have an impact on you. Because if they can reach you, they can reach the world. It's all about the personal connection. Eventually, they succeed, they land the deal and find the audience. But as the world sits there, surprised at their success, you are comforted by the knowledge that you knew it would happen all along.

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Being Discovered

The emphasis should be on the work you do. The value you give to others.

If you haven't done the work, why should anyone care?

Opportunity will arise when you show you can continually work to a quality higher than others.

The people who will hire you, cast you, sign you, are the people who know you and your work. They're people who know you.

Sometimes you need to reach out, send a letter, make a phone call, but the priority is the work. The art.

Because you're in this to make art, right? To give someone the feelings films gave you when you were a kid.

Social networking is a great tool, but harass people too soon and they'll hate you forever. Exhaust the Hollywood contact too soon and you'll be seen as an amateur.

Do the work. Be better at it than the others. There are no excuses anymore, no barriers; the technology is in our hands. Stay away from Starbucks for a week and use the money to rent a good camera. Stay off Facebook for a week and use the time to write your dream project.

You'll be discovered when you're amazing. People don't care for talent. Nearly everyone has talent, they just never nurture it, never drive the car far enough. Be so good at what you do that nobody can deny you.

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Key Acting Performances In "50/50"

SETH ROGEN

This is possibly the best work I've seen him do. He always annoys me, but in this, he's perfect -- extremely relatable and exactly like the friend you'd expect to be around in this situation. The 'break-up' scene is his masterpiece -- a brilliant moment of righteous, comedic, brilliance. He totally got this character right -- perfect casting, perfectly performed. 

ANNA KENDRICK

I never liked her before. Couldn't see the fuss when I saw 'Up In The Air'. But here, she nailed it. It didn't feel like she was playing a character -- she just was the character. A nervous newbie therapist, struggling with herself and her unexpected feelings for a patient. Wow, she was so subtle and funny. It was a hard film for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, because he's the one with cancer, and his role was pretty bland and passive -- but it worked, it was what the story needed -- and it made Kendrick shine. 

PHILLIP BAKER-HALL

He's 80 already. Wow. But then again, he has been around forever. You can't train someone to be like him -- he just has it. That thing. The presence. It's partly experience, but mostly; it's just who and what he is. You wanna talk to him, wanna hear his advice, wanna be on his good side. He lights up the scenes in "50/50". How often are there interesting roles for 80 year olds? Nearly never. He makes this small role both funny and profound. A complete joy to watch. A quiet master.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT & ANJELICA HUSTON

Both of these actors have done better work elsewhere. It was hard for Joseph because he was in a pretty helpless position, getting pulled around, put in machines, stuck in beds; that's cancer. That's what it does. 

But there's one scene between them, the Mother and Son, which is really touching. He's asking her how she's doing. It's the most simple of things -- but something he'd been neglecting to do because he was so caught up in his own thing and tired of his Mother trying to take care of him every single second. And she reveals that she's been going to a support group for parents whose kids have cancer. She struggles to get those words out of her mouth, and her vulnerability is so touching. For the entire film he's been pushing her away because she's too controlling, and at the end - we see, she's just like everyone else, struggling and in need of support. 

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Screenwriter Geoff LaTulippe, re: 'Going The Distance'

Geoff wrote the film 'Going The Distance'. Here is his response to my article "The Moment You Connect"

Shit yeah! Really glad you had such a reaction to the movie. Though it it worries me; as one of only 6 people to see and enjoy the movie, your enthusiasm is probably indicative of a dangerous mental ailment. Sucks.

Anyway, the scene in question happened much like you said. We originally had an entirely different (though thematically similar) montage sequence written, but in the midst of shooting, the director (Nanette Burstein) decided she wanted to mix it up a bit and apply techniques from her documentary roots. So she took a handheld and a very small crew out with Justin and Drew in various NYC locales and just kind of let them go. Since they were dating at the time (or had dated until then, can't really remember) they had an awesome rapport and their real personalities mirror the characters' so well that they just fell into conversations that fit perfectly within the film. I agree it's a little jarring for a moment, but it's also one of my favorite sequences in the whole movie because it sort of slam-dunked one of the main things I thought was most important with the story: keeping it real.

Again, super stoked you enjoyed and that it meant something to you. These kind of responses to the movie make my giddy to the point that a little pee comes out.

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The Moment You Connect

November 19th-December 19th 2011 is Rom-Com Season at Kid In The Front Row.

To love a romantic comedy, there has to be a moment when you really connect. And do you connect because it's a great film? Because they used the right lighting? Maybe. But probably not. 

I like the film 'Going The Distance'. Why? I guess because it's about people of my kind of age and mentality, and it has good dialogue and a good level of authenticity. But then, that's true of many films. 

But 'Going The Distance' really hit me, at a very specific moment, twenty-two minutes into the film.

First of all, there was some movie carry-over ("Movie Carry-Over": When you project a quality into a film based on a previous film you've seen [and yes, this is a made up KidInTheFrontRowIsm]). The carry-over is from 'Adventureland'. As any of you who are regulars will know, 'Adventureland' is one of my all time favorite films, and I watch it on a near weekly basis. I just can't get enough of it. 

The carry-over is caused by the song "Just Like Heaven" by The Cure. It's used in 'Adventureland' and it's used in "Going The Distance". I love how it's joyously used in 'Adventureland', and that energy is similar in this film. Also, the second the song hits in, there's a wonderful establishing shot of Manhattan, my favorite place in the world. 

So we have NEW YORK and ADVENTURELAND and JUST LIKE HEAVEN; and I just connect, because they're three things that are extremely personal and wonderful to me. 

The scene that follows is an unusual one, because it's so raw. Most of the film is shot in quite a standard way; but the scene with 'Just Like Heaven' in the background is extremely raw -- the camerawork is handheld and jerky; in fact, one of the shots is so bad it's unbelievable they kept it in. But more unbelievable than that, is how perfectly it worked. 

Drew Barrymore and Justin Long rocked the scene. They were so real; really connecting and just having fun. Drew's big booming laugh is the most honest thing you've ever seen. 

The lighting is really flat, there's something really unprofessional about it; almost as if the director gave a camera to a production assistant and said "go shoot something". I'd love to know how they shot this scene. Because, actually, it's one of my favorite cinema moments. Funny how it goes, y'know? You can have the perfect things technically and have it mean nothing, or shoot something where the camera nearly falls over, and you hit movie magic. 

After that there's a pretty standard montage of time passing and the characters falling in love -- but armed with the song and the wonderful scene that came before; it really resonates. 

That's how romantic comedies get you. They need that moment. The one where you think "YES. I get that. I feel that. That's my life." Without it, all you have is a Jennifer Lopez movie. But when it's done right, when a rom-com is honest; it connects in ways which nothing else in cinema can. This scene captures the very essence of what it is to have a New York moment; to connect with someone and be full of possibilities.

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