Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You

Strange that this was written by Dolly Parton, because it's always seemed like such a Whitney Houston song, don't you think? That happens sometimes. Neil Diamond wrote "Midnight Train To Georgia" but it's the version by Gladys Knight & The Pips that resonates.

I think Whitney Houston understood the song better than Dolly Parton did. "Bittersweet memories, that is all I'm taking with me." The whole song plays like a bittersweet memory. It feels like a love song at first until you realise how it's something far more complicated. The woman's jaded, the love is gone. All she can do is love something that isn't there anymore. She's serenading a guy who, it seems, isn't even listening.

"If I, should stay, I would only be in your way." Was there ever a sadder and more truthful opening line in the history of music? Whitney's heart seems to break on the opening word "If", and the way her voice swerves and bends on the word "way", it's as if you hear her heart faltering all inside one word.

We can write songs like this off as cheesy, but there's a reason you always hear it on the radio. Same with "Nothing compares 2 U" by Sinead O'Connor, they ring true. They capture the heart, breaking. Most artists are too scared to spill out their guts, just like people are in life.

Despite the drugs and controversy, people will mourn the loss of Whitney Houston in a big way, and it's largely down to this song. It's the one track of hers that everyone can name.

"We both know I'm not what you need, and I will always love you." Isn't it horrible!? I love you, you don't need me, goodbye. She's that loser who clings on, long after the love died. And we would ridicule her if the song didn't happen to be about every single one of us at one time or another.

RIP WHITNEY HOUSTON

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This Day In My Life Will Forever Be Recorded...

..in a CD I made.

I've done it all my life. Probably since I was about 8. Then, of course, it was tapes. When I got into my teens, I began labelling them by date. When I was 17 or so, I'd make CD's pretty much every day, because music is so powerful at that age.

Now I don't really have the time or patience to make myself a CD that often, but occasionally I do. Today, I had a weird day -- one of those days when you can't be productive and you're just annoying yourself, and every thought in your head is just stupid and annoying and going nowhere.

I didn't know what was going on, or what I was meant to do with myself -- until it hit me suddenly. I want to listen to some music.
So I did. Recorded is an 80 minute track of the songs I listened to.

A good mix tells a story; a far bigger and more personal story than is often achieved in more traditional forms. I guess it's because you get to cheat and use other people's art. Bob Dylan is always going to be a lot more profound than I am.

Not that I meant to be profound. I just listened to music.

But you soon realize, nobody just listens to music. Your tastes, your choices, your decisions; they all come in to it. Maybe not so much when you hit shuffle. But when you sit down for an hour and a half with the sole intention of indulging in music -- the personal nature of it is undeniable.

Do you want to hear it? An 80 minute mp3, which I'll upload somewhere for you to download, if you're interested. Who knows, you might find a new favourite song, or reconnect with a song that you let go of some years back. Chances are, you'll learn something about me too.

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THE KID Versus MARIA: Rating The Acting Performances In Roman Polanski's 'CARNAGE'

I watched "CARNAGE" at 2.30pm. Thirty minutes before that, somewhere else in the country, my friend MARIA started watching it too. We promised to chat about it afterwards -- but instead, I called her up and said "Rate the acting performances from best to worst, and write a bit about them. I'll throw it on the blog." She wrote her views and I wrote mine. Coincidentally, our rankings were the same, and our views were pretty similar too. 

1. CHRISTOPH WALTZ 

MARIA – is just cool, isn’t he? Every role he plays, he inhabits effortlessly. And in ‘Carnage’ his performance as Alan Cowan is just effortless. But perhaps this ease is simply the result of the writing, as his character is the only one who does not go on much of an emotional journey, if at all, throughout the course of the film. He is the constant. He knows who he is, and what he believes, and he’s ok with that. And for that reason, he comes across as the most believable and relatable of the four.

THE KID - Waltz was amazing in this - by far the best performance. May sound weird of me to say this -- but I even felt like he was channelling a bit of Woody Allen in his performance. It was comedic, yet subtle and nuanced -- and, yeah, he seemed like a subdued Woody Allen-esque character. Not sure anyone else will see that in the performance, but I did!

He was, for me, definitely the best actor in it -- he is definitely helped by the character that was written for him, as it's by far the most interesting.

2. JOHN C. REILLY

THE KID - I think it's fair to say the material was skewed in favour of the men -- they got the funnier lines. When the two guys started siding with each other, drinking and smoking, it was hilarious -- probably because it was so realistic.

Reilly is often much better than the material he works with. Here, it fit him just right -- he could be down to Earth and normal one minute, and hilarious the next. He manages to be funny without being funny. What do I mean by that? When you see Sandler or Carrey doing comedy, it jumps out at you. Reilly is just kind of inherently funny. He coaxes the humour off the page without having to do too much.

MARIA - Ok, I may be biased here as I adore John C. Reilly as an actor and his performance in ‘Chicago’ will forever remain in my mind. But watching him turn from this lovable, peace maker into a somewhat unlikeable character was fantastic. The switch that was called for from the script is a hard one to pull off for most actors. He played the subtext so well that he pulled off the sudden switch in the dialogue with ease. The mask was dropped and the REAL Michael Longstreet was revealed. Well done John. Well done. (slow clap).

3. KATE WINSLET

MARIA - I love watching this woman try to pull off an American accent. She does it, don’t get me wrong, but it’s always on the verge of slipping right back into RP and the anticipation keeps me on the edge of my seat. And watching her play drunk… Well, you can tell she’s a Brit. She does it so well you know she’s practised many a time. I found my focus rested mainly on her character, Nancy Cowan, because you knew eventually she was going to crack and when she did it was beautiful and believable.

THE KID - I was bored by her for many parts of the film and, in fact, there were times when I thought she wasn't very good at all -- I could see the acting. I guess she can't be incredible all the time. That being said, towards the end, when she was finally called upon to do something interesting, she excelled. Her drunken behaviour and shouting got the biggest laughs of the movie. When Winslet is great, I don't think there are many in her league. In 'Carnage', she's not great, at least not for all of it.

4. JODIE FOSTER

THE KID - This is probably the worst I've ever seen her. For one, the character was repugnant, but that wasn't even the problem. I just didn't believe what I was seeing whenever Foster did her thing. It wasn't real, I couldn't buy into it. You know who they should have cast? Helen Hunt. She'd have been PERFECT. She'd have pulled off the righteousness and the anger, while still being human. Foster was miscast, and as a result, struggled massively.


MARIA - I was not a fan. BUT…perhaps that’s because I hated her character so much I wanted to throw something at the screen at times. But all in all, I felt like she was trying WAY too hard. I couldn’t relate to or care about her character in the least. That said she did a good job of amping up the drama in a rather simple story. I’m sorry I can’t say more about her performance. Unfortunately that’s acting for you. If the audience doesn’t like your character they’re usually going to go away thinking you didn’t do a great job. But if all you try to do is play lovable characters you’re going to have a boring career and probably won’t ever become a great actor. So well done Jodie on not being afraid to be disliked.

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Peas & Carrots

"I knew it the very first time I touched her. It was like coming home... only to no home I'd ever known... I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car and I knew. It was like... magic."

-Sam Baldwin, 'Sleepless In Seattle'

Isn't it the most beautiful thing ever? Two people going off into the crazy world and always finding their way home. I don't even mean Greenbow, Alabama. I mean, finding their way home.. to each other. Forrest found Jenny in a seedy club singing Bob Dylan songs. Jenny found Forrest in Washington, D.C., during a rally.

Something always led them home.

The promise of films is an enticing one. It gives everything meaning. Our lives are often less poetic. We'd love to travel across the country to meet up with Andy Dufresne, to marvel in how meaningful life is -- but real life is rarely painted as magically.

I still find it strange how 'Forrest Gump' and 'Shawshank Redemption' were made in the same year. Reminds me of that beautiful TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert, when she talks about how old cultures would chant "God" and "Allah" when they saw something magic.

"In Spain, when a performer has done something impossible and magic, (they would shout) "Allah, ole, ole, Allah, magnificent, bravo," incomprehensible, there it is -- a glimpse of God. Which is great, because we need that."

-Elizabeth Gilbert

I think those two movies embody that. And sure, there will be people reading this who hate those films, or think they're overrated, or whatever; and that's fine -- but the fact is, those films were a phenomenon. Every year they try to make the latest films sound like they've changed the world. Remember the hype for 'The King's Speech' last year? Now nobody gives a shit.

'Forrest Gump' and 'Shawshank Redemption' are in people's hearts. They're the reason why people love the cinema. Deep down we like to see our lives as meaning something, as leading in a certain direction, that there's an essence within us that is guiding us along. Did we think this before movies existed? I don't know. Either way; after a few illnesses, deaths, divorces and shattered dreams -- we lose that spark. Forrest and Jenny, Red and Andy, Rick and Ilsa, we look towards them, not because of how they reflect life, but because how they make up for everything it lacks.

What do we do in real life? How do we make it meaningful? The thing about life is that when you think you've met a Fran Kubelik, they often turn out to be an Elle Driver.

Just like when you think your best friend is Elwood P. Dowd and they turn out to be Frank Costello.

Me, I'm a movie guy. Can't help it. I'm not sure there's a magical essence pointing me through life -- but I do think we have the power, as people, to live the lives we want, to make it meaningful.

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Broken Heart

It's so matter of fact. Eddie is saying "It's okay, I have a broken heart, that's all, I'll deal with it."

That's exactly how it is in real life, but art rarely captures the feeling. Ask a screenwriter to write a scene about a broken heart; or ask a singer to sing a song, and you'll get the dramatics, the worst-day-ever scenario.

That's why people love Eddie Vedder, he's a true artist, and he goes a different way. 'Broken Heart' is numb, simple, to the point.

I'm alright.

It's alright.

It's just a broken heart.

When I'm directing actors, I often say something along the lines of "The dialogue already tells the story, so you don't need to add to it." The point being, if the line is "I have a broken heart", you don't need to act broken-hearted, you have the opportunity to go another way. You can say you're broken hearted, but show that you're confused, or distracted, or pretending to be happy. That's why soap operas are boring -- they give you the information and then they dramatise it. They give you the sum, they tell you what it adds up to, and then they give you the 'how to' manual and make you watch it on repeat six times.

The greatest artists go a different way. That's why Billy Wilder was famously known for mixing the sweet with the sour. That's why Robert Downey Jr is at the top of the industry. Watch him in "A Guide To Recognizing Saints" or in "Ally McBeal", he plays it AGAINST the scene. When he's talking to Ally, if they're having a romantic moment, he's troubled. If they're in a fight, he's light-hearted. Isn't that just like life? We're rarely the sum total of the things we're going through. Someone can be heading into surgery feeling wonderful, and someone else can be depressed while sitting in five star luxury.

A broken heart is worst the first time. You're not prepared for it, you thought everything was going to be magical. The second time, your heart breaks and you get ruined again. Any time after that, you're numb, it's just another state of being. Bored, hungry, chirpy, inspired, confused, broken-hearted. It's just like anything else. Be aware enough and you can spot a heart-break coming. You can plan for it six months in advance.

Don't mind me, just let me be,

My eyes so far away,

I don't need no sympathy,

The word gets over played.

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