Cinema, Literature, Theater, Music, Art.

What to say about a man who comes to the US at twelve, wins a Pulitzer, ends up on the cover of Time, comes out as gay, and then announces he's been an illegal alien for 20 years? Whatever you may think of him you can't call him a bore. Vargas's manic energy seems to be fueled by a deep seated anger at the life he's been handed, which paradoxically gave him everything and more. His passion for a new immigration policy is clearly fueled by personal matters (like seeing his dad about 7 times in his life, and being away from his mom for 20 years). Vargas is a man on a mission. He's a reluctant leader but leads - and people follow a man who knows where he's going. We follow Vargas as he criss crosses the US, speaking up on immigration rights, finally ending up in Washington where he gets his 5 minutes in front of Senator Patrick Leahy (and Co., including the execrable Ted Cruz). Documented marries the personal and the political in a way many films wan...

A drop is a term used to connote a location designated by - usually - the mob as a place where illicit money is temporarily held until it can be picked up by the powers that be. Betting money, drug money, money of all kinds, it appears. In this case, the drop happens to be the bar run by Gandolfini and Hardy, cousins with a somewhat murky past and a even murkier future. The Drop is based on a short story by Boston-based Dennis LeHane who also penned the screenplay, now set in Brooklyn, (as the film's poster alludes to) because the film's producers felt there were too many Boston-based crime movies (and I suppose that's a good thing).  The film is a fairly straight ahead crime-based character study - mostly of Hardy and Gandolfini. It's not quite The Friends of Eddie Coyle or Mean Streets or On The Waterfront, but it shares ingredients from each of these films.  There's no doubt Hardy, Gandolfini, and Rapace can act. Hardy, in particular, disappears into this r...

Excited to share some secrets of independent film financing and production.  http://www.mightyvisual.com/FILM_FINANCING_AND_PRODUCTION.html

Let's begin with the posters. True to space opera form, heroes (and heroines, and animals) in crisis/action poses. Robots, spaceships, good vs. evil. Standard stuff. Moving to shot comparison, the inevitable, obvious one, referencing Raiders, clearly done less as plagiarism and much more as homage. Moving back to Star Wars, Han Solo and Star Lord are mercenaries. Both are - at first - in it for the money. Indiana Jones has a higher calling/purpose - which will end with him never knowing what's inside the box/ark - just like we don't learn (until the very end) the meaning of Kane's "Rosebud" (some claim it's not about the sled but about Marion's sex). The parallels between Raider's closing shot and Citizen Kane's closing shot have been well established. Here are the two closing shots, just in case. Which brings us back to Han and Star. Heroic. Ready. Gunslingers. In another era, say fifty eight years ago, J...