No, Nowhere, Noah

Cause: a principle, aim, or movement to which one is committed and prepared to defend or advocate.

The justice of our cause must be reflected in the manner in which we rectify the crimes of our past.

Unknown

Committed: pledged or bound to a certain course or policy; dedicated.

Fate is nothing else but the deeds committed in a prior state of existence.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

My pal Jeff knows how to get stuff done. Me, I often doodle. A bit of work here, some over there, seldom will I sit down, do only one thing at a time and finish it. Don’t get me wrong, I do get stuff done, but I’m all over the show. Not Jeff. When he takes on something new, no matter what it is, it’s as if this spell comes over him. He has the focus of twenty bulls all gunning for the same red flag. Nothing unsettles him until his goal or the desired results are achieved.

I admire that. But, there have also been times that Jeff is so focussed on the task at hand, that he has little or no room for anybody else’s input. It makes working with him, especially under pressure, often very awkward.

Too much of a good thing - isn’t a good thing.

After some thought and analysis, perhaps this is the only substantial point one is forced to deduce from the latest ‘Noah’ movie. In it, Director Darren Aronofsky tells the tale of a man who will stop at nothing to fulfil the task set before him, come hell or high water. (Mmmmh) 

Noah was the man God commissioned to build an ark before He was going to wipe out mankind with a huge flood because of all their wickedness. In choosing Noah, He had the perfect ally to see the job through, a man He could trust to stay committed to His cause. But when you observe Aronofsky’s interpretation of Noah and the times leading up before the great flood, you have to gasp at the realities he tries to sketch to his audience.

His Noah (Russell Crowe) comes across like a man possessed, blinded by some twisted idea of what it means to show your spiritual loyalty and devotion. In fact, his reasons for doing what God told him to do seems very much his own and hardly divine.

There are many inconsistencies in Aronofsky’s version of events. Inconsistencies that he tries to cover up with CGI stunts and tricks, he even offers a 3D experience of this absurd historical account of his. But I put it to you; no amount of colourful tailoring to any version can influence a bad story enough to make it seem true. 

Noah starts having these visions or back flashes, as if he is on some psychedelic trip – which mind you, according to Aronofsky, is quite likely how Noah got some of his answers. During a visit, his great grandfather Methuselah (Anthony Hopkins) promptly serves him up a natural mind-bending substance, and off Noah flies, zonked out of his skull. (Got to wonder about this family)

God spoke to Noah. He never had visions, especially not on some ancient form of dope anyway. All of them, both Noah and his sons, already had wives, too. Not according to this movie. It therefore doesn’t come as much of a surprise that God is silent in this film, a silence which at times is deafening.

For those unfamiliar with the story of Noah, it’s easy to simply go read all about it in Genesis 6-9. Basically, the Earth and all its inhabitants were so evil and corrupt that God was sorrowful for creating man, ‘And the Lord was sorry that He made man on the earth and He was grieved in His heart.’ (NKJV)

God had enough and decided to destroy everything and everyone He had made, but Noah found favour. When you watch ‘Noah’, you can’t help but wonder why? For instance: Upon learning of his son’s girlfriend’s pregnancy, (that’s all she is in the movie), he bluntly says that if it’s a boy, the baby can live, if a girl – she has to die.

Besides making history for being the first person ever to suffer from major cabin fever, Noah is also a drug taking fanatic and the ultimate chauvinist to whom female life has little or no value; hardly befitting of a man who was chosen to rectify the crimes of our past.

The simple truth obviously just isn’t entertaining enough, perhaps why the creators of this story try to take it to a completely new level. In between, Aronofsky tries to portray Noah as a man deeply tormented by what he has to do and tries to convince us that his character’s actions stem from human error and fallibility, almost as if he trying to set the tone for his own directional and storytelling imperfections, while trying to find forgiveness and redemption from us.

Ordinarily, creative license inspires, it offers something fresh. In this instance, it hopelessly fails.

‘Noah’ is a soulless journey, by soulless people in a soulless world who by virtue of inference suffer under a soulless God. With so much soullessness in this movie, you can’t help but wonder about the director – you surely don’t have to wonder about the message or the film.

 

But If I Have Not Love, I Am Nothing

On September 27, 1947, Marvin Aday was born in the town of Dallas, Texas. He was an only child. His father was a police officer and his mother a schoolteacher. While growing up, Marvin and his mom often had to go out and search for his dad.

Orvis Aday, Marvin’s father, was an alcoholic who frequently went on drinking binges for days on end. As a result of the disruption and trauma of having to drive the streets of Dallas to every pub to find his father, young Marvin ended up spending a lot of time staying with his grandmother. 

During his high school career, he received recognition as a talented actor, featuring in various school plays, but it was in the music industry that he would eventually make a real name for himself.

Shortly after his mother died and he received his inheritance, Marvin left for California. When he arrived in Los Angeles, he started a band and during their very first recording he hit a note so high that he blew one of the fuses of the recording monitor.

With powerful vocals that stretched over a three-octave range, he was instantly offered three recording contracts, but he turned all of them down.

In 1992, he collaborated with songwriter Jim Steinman and set about making an album. Together they produced a song that would capture the hearts and the imagination of people on such a tremendous scale that it would reach ‘Certified Platinum Single Status’ in the United States and be the number one hit in 28 other countries. In the UK it went on to become the best selling album of 1993.

Of course, Michael is better known by the moniker, ‘Meat Loaf’ and the acclaimed song was, ‘I’d Do Anything for Love’ (But I Won’t Do That).

The concept of finding love and loving someone in return seems to be imprinted on our DNA, at times. People write poetry about it, books, articles and of course, also movies.

In The Paperboy, Zac Efron plays the role of Jack Jansen, a teenager who recently was expelled from college for acts of vandalism. Jack is the younger of two brothers. His older brother, Ward Jansen (Matthew McConaughey) works as an investigative journalist for the Miami Times. Back in their hometown, Jack’s father is the publisher of the town’s paper and with his new girlfriend also distributes the Miami Times. Jack is the paperboy.

When Ward uncovers a story that might exonerate a man who is currently awaiting execution on death row, he spots an opportunity to make a name for himself; and along with one of his colleagues, an Englishman, Yardley Acheman (David Oyelowo), they decide to head back to Ward’s hometown of Lately, Florida.

Going back home is somewhat of a sensitive issue to Ward, knowing he has to face his dad, a man from whom he is completely alienated. Ward’s father also has a new woman in his life – Ellen, someone both the Jensen brothers dislike very much and refuse to accept. Their mother has been dead for a number of years.

However, the information that he has been supplied with concerning this story is too compelling for him to ignore. Cue Charlotte Bless (Nicole Kidman). Charlotte is a southern gal and a complete tramp who has fallen in love with Hillary Wetter (John Cusack) the man Ward and his associate is trying to get off death row. Since Charlotte and Hillary are also now engaged, they’ve been writing each other non-stop, giving Charlotte a unique opportunity to gather information concerning the injustice her man has been subjected to. 

The person Charlotte has the most profound effect on is the young Jack. He is a young man who is coming of age and he has to do so in the overwhelming Florida heat, something that seems to make his hormones rage within him more vehemently than a swarm of angry bees. Charlotte’s casual attitude to when it comes to her sexuality doesn’t make things easier for him and Jack falls madly in love with her.

As an audience, pretty soon you realise that Hillary is going to manipulate Charlotte’s love for him the moment he gets out of prison. Unfortunately, she’s the only one who doesn’t seem to think so. 

Although the story really centers around Jack and his feelings for Charlotte, a young man who for the first time in his life is truly captivated by a woman, the movie also explores the inner workings of the other characters and the motivation behind their actions.

The Paperboy was met with mixed emotions. At Cannes, it received the longest standing ovation at 16 minutes, while Rotten Tomatoes regards it as a complete flop. It has to be said that all the actors were simply superb in their interpretations of their characters and Director Lee Daniels really pushes the envelope in exposing all of their flaws. 

There is without a doubt a very raw element in the delivery of all the performances, a realness that is quite haunting at times. All of the cast involved can pride themselves for some very brave decisions.

Through it all, Daniels manages to sketch a vivid picture of the lengths people will go to for the sake of love; something most people would readily agree that, ‘I’d do anything for love’ often ending up heartbroken and bitter because they failed to understand, ‘But I won’t do that’.

When To Risk It All Or Lose It All?

Ever been confronted with challenging situations when life seemed at its hardest? It’s as if the forces of destiny all of a sudden decided to conspire against you and conceive a diabolical plot that will suit your life and your particular situation to a T.

Ever felt that way? I know I have. I have friends who have testified to feeling and experiencing the same thing, too.

I remember Rocco, a mate of mine, going through a particularly tough time one year. Financially he was really struggling. He was sort of between jobs, well actually he was busy studying, part-time. In-between, he used to work half days at an auto-electrician’s workshop, four days of the week and in the evening he delivered pizzas; with his scooter. Rocco didn’t have a car.  

As it turns out, between working at the auto-shop and delivering pizzas, Rocco got to know, let’s just say, some unsavoury characters and before you know it he was making deliveries to people who wanted more than just your regular pepperoni-pizza.

By that, I mean any recreational substance conceivable to your mind (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, watch Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, you’ll have an idea).

From being a simple pizza delivery guy, all of a sudden, he was an enormously prolific conveyor of stimulants. He had his clientele, he had his connections, he had the merchandise and he had his scooter, which by the way, was the perfect vehicle for running his own narcotics courier service. Everything just seemed to click, enabling him to make the most of this ‘opportunity’ during his time of need. Until of course, Rocco was caught.

Suddenly, fate took a turn for the worse. He was lucky to end up receiving only a suspended jail sentence (some of his connections were good for more than just purchasing illegal substances), but the whole ordeal did exactly what it had to – it gave him a proper wake-up call. Rocco retired from the dope-pedalling business and upped the focus on his part-time studies substantially.

When I asked him one day what in the world he was thinking, he told me, ‘I was thinking there’s no way I’m ever going to be able to pay for my studies and support myself with what I was earning from pizzas. The money I made for delivering drugs to these people was easy, it was cash-in-hand – lots of it, too and I was too desperate to care.’  

I have to admit, I’ve never been THAT desperate, but Richie Furst has.

In ‘Runner Runner’, Justin Timberlake plays his character. Richie is a guy who had to leave his life as a stockbroker on Wall Street behind after the company he worked for went down as a result of the stock market crash.

With few options left, he’s forced to resume his graduate studies at Princeton and finish his masters degree in finance. Unfortunately, due to his previous high-paying career, the board at Princeton refuses him any financial assistance and he has to make a plan.

Richie starts a small enterprise on the side where he introduces fellow students to online gambling and then takes a percentage for each new player he brings to the table.

Everything is going perfect until one of the students maxes out his father’s credit card limit during a poker match and word gets round to the Dean at Princeton of Richie’s virtual casino business.

Try as he might, the Dean won’t hear him out when he tries to explain that what he is doing is nothing more than marketing for these gambling sites and that he has no alternative way of financing his degree. He is told in no uncertain terms that either he stops what he is busy doing or ‘You won’t have a degree to finance here anymore’.

Being a phenomenal poker player himself, in a final bid to make as much money as possible, he decides to gamble all his savings, but ends up losing it. When he suspects foul play by the owners of the gambling site he played on, he decides to fly down to Costa Rica to go and confront the owner. 

But getting close to Ivan Block (Ben Affleck) doesn’t just happen.  He’s too much of a mogul. Coming up against a man who has a made a living out of satisfying people’s senses also catches Richie off-guard and it doesn’t take much convincing from Ivan to lure him over into his fast paced world of money, women and power.

Soon, the FBI is involved and yet again Richie is forced to gamble everything he has or risk losing it all.

Justin Timberlake gives a believable performance to his character, so does Affleck. The story itself seems to be fast tracked at stages and makes the film lose credibility. It’s entertaining to watch nonetheless.