What Silver Linings Playbook is Really About

Tiffany confronts Pat at her sister's dinner when she realizes she's in a sea of bullshit. 

Marketed as a romantic comedy, by the rogue director David O. Russell, that should be a clue right there. He's not exactly a by-the-numbers filmmaker. This is definitely his crowning achievement even though I absolutely love I Heart Huckabees. This might be a little difficult for me to explain because I can relate to a lot of it but here we go. 

Set in Philadelphia, a place not exactly known for dealing with mental illness by any other means than a stigma, and coming from LA where everyone is therapy'd out to the point of paralysis, I saw the script as exactly what it was. Two brilliant actors play the two 'romantic leads', who meet at first, hate each other and by the end of the movie they're in love. Common rom com trope yes? But that's not the point of the film. 

Woody Allen might stick his neuroses in every single film he directs, but those are sadly a bit dated when people were still on Judy Garland cocktails and everything was a bit Valley of the Dolls. It was a very black and white time. Either you were nuts, or you were sane, and if you were the former you had all the pills in the world to choose from, which usually made things worse. Perhaps the last film that accurately portrayed mental illness was One Flew Over a Cuckoo's Nest, which is literally set in the insane asylum, ironically where the protagonist (Jack Nicholson) is pretending to be crazy to do time in an asylum rather than prison. There you have the schism between the 'sane' and the 'insane'. Still a bit black and white, but so full of pathos and honesty, that it still holds up today. 

For these two, the best type of therapy is not in a doctor's office. 

Let's examine Silver Linings because its a film full of grey areas, and it's in those that we figure out what the movie is actually about. Pat (Bradley Cooper) is just getting out of the looney bin after 8 months because he assaulted the man screwing his wife. He's now obsessed with being 'sane' and finding a silver lining, and getting his life back together, which in itself are all insane notions considering that a psychotic break usually does not allow you to go back to everything just as it used to be. I had a friend like that. No names, but she thought she saw the light, and because she did her Master's degree in Social Work made it her mediocre mission to chain-smoke a pack a day, rearrange the furniture in her Hollywood apartment literally every single day (we were living together at the time) to keep herself busy so that she wouldn't think about drinking or getting back with her ex-boyfriend. She loved to analyze people and I was definitely one of her guinea pigs. I hated it. I hate being mentally dissected. It's bullshit. 

As I said before, people in LA are therapy'd out, so I was able to even prompt my shrink about what I thought was going on before he could even get it out. That's why I identify with the Jennifer Lawrence's character. Tiffany is a girl with a broken wing (I think that line is actually used verbatim in the film), who's husband just died, but that's not why she's considered crazy. On the surface she's actually probably the smarter of the two. Pat (Cooper) always loves to point out how she misbehaves or behaves in means that are not good 'social skills', and she immediately calls him on his bullshit. 'You say more inappropriate things than appropriate things' is one of her more famous lines. The most important difference between the two of them; both experienced trauma leading to a psychotic break, and Jennifer is the one who moved on, while Bradley Cooper still hasn't, and is completely obsessed with the past. Backstory: Tiffany's husband died; a cop in the line of duty. After which she got fired from her job for 'sleeping with the entire office'. Pat still judges her, because he thinks that he once was crazy and now he's absolutely fine. Tiffany sees this and says 'you think I'm crazier than you'. Perfect. Who is he to judge? 

'You're afraid to be alive! You're a hypocrite!' 

There's a cute exchange when they talk about all the pills that they are on and don't take any longer, but who isn't on some kind of shit these days; does that make us all crazy? Didn't you ever read 'Prozac Nation'?

The plot is in essence irrelevant. It's about two people realizing that they will never be perfect and never find the life that they once had, and the 2 hour run-time of quippy exchanges, completely blowouts, and epic shutdowns illustrates that crazy is a grey area. 

What gets me the most is how much Pat judges everyone (with the exception of Chris Tucker's character). He even gets on his dad (Robert De Niro) about being OCD, like most of us aren't. In Philly, where regularly going to a therapist is still considered taboo, he is very uncomfortable in his current state. Tiffany basically tells him the truth, it's one of the greatest Lear-esque monologues in film history. 'I opened up to you and you judged me, you're afraid to be alive, you're a hypocrite, you're an asshole'. All of these things true. 

What's most telling about this movie is that it's not romantic at all, though both main characters have great chemistry and are very attractive. You know they are going to end up together; you just do. The way they get there is a brilliant examination of life in a black and white world of sane and insane, the pitfalls and the highs and lows that it brings. At least Tiffany is self-aware. Pat eventually comes around, and only then can they be together. There is no such thing as normal behavior, and there is actually no such thing as normal. Sorry if that's crushing some of you right now, it's just the truth. And I guess Pat was right in trying to overcome his 'mental illness' by finding that damn silver lining he keeps referring to, while Tiffany was right to hate him for his hypocrisy. 

The actual romantic angle only manifests itself in the last 15 minutes of the film, because it's in the backseat for most of it.

The only rom-com element in this movie is when both Pat and Tiffany realize that (excuse the cliché) they are not perfect or normal, but they are perfect for each other. And the normalcy that they find is not a normal that is permanent or without its haptic disorders, but its theirs and they are better confronting their demons together. This sounds like love conquers all and that mental illness can be overcome by finding someone just as or even more fucked up than you, but it's not. For everything that happens between the two, it is never a co-dependent relationship and (again, excuse the cliché) they are only able to move on when they confront everything that has brought them to the mental state that they are currently living and allowing themselves to admit that they are not in fact normal, and perhaps that's actually the best thing that could happen to them.

Below: A making-of featurette. 

Justin Timberlake: Actor, Singer, Dancer, Comedian, Sex God

My friend once told me right after The Social Network (2010) was released that Justin Timberlake was the greatest post-modern actor at this time, and though I didn’t exactly get what he was talking about and how that was true, I totally do now. But there’s another word I would use to describe him; Renaissance man.

He is like an old-timey singer/dancer under contract to MGM. He’s Gene Kelly with looser pants and killer swagger. We knew him as that slightly annoying girly-sounding, awful white-boy fro 1/5 of pop titans ‘N Sync, and now he’s an institution unto himself.

Lorne Michaels caught on to his comedic talents early on when 'N Sync first appeared in a sketch back in 2003 when they played an offshoot of themselves, and when he decided to ditch the back up singers and fly solo, writing from the depths of his heart about his break up with pop princess Britney Spears in the juggernaut song ‘Cry Me a River’, it was cemented; Timberlake had arrived. 

JT in his signature three piece suit on the cover of GQ

He also knew how to utilize style. Considering how influenced he was by hip hop, it would have been ridiculous if he came on stage in baggy pants, a Hilfiger puff jacket and a sideways cap being all ‘yo yo yo, Timberlake in the house!’, not that that’s how all hip hop artists are, I’m just making a point. He trademarked the three-piece suit and fedora dressing like a 30’s gangster and dancing like Fred Astaire, Michael Jackson, and Michael Kidd had a baby. And if you don’t know who Michael Kidd is well then you suck.

With perhaps the most ill-fitting named album ever ‘Future Sex/Love Sounds’ dominating the charts, Lorne Michaels invites Timberlake back to host his own episodes of SNL and last week he became a card carrying member of the 5-times host club, and he’s only 32 people. He found a stellar bromance with repertory player Andy Samberg and together they created some of the most memorable digital shorts of SNL’s entire history. You know them all so it’s redundant to list them one by one.

Justin Timberlake in one of his funniest sketches on SNL, playing Beyonce's back up dancer for her video 'Single Ladies'.

Then what happens? He tackles the only other industry left for him to dominate; the film industry, and boy does he. Yes of course it’s expected of him to be almost effortless in feather light romantic comedies, like an edgier Rock Hudson, but it was when The Social Network came out that we really got to see what he was made of. And one only has to ask, what’s next for JT? The man who can basically do everything? I say he hosts next year’s Academy Awards, or perhaps even gets nominated. He’s slated to star opposite Ben Affleck and Gemma Arterton in Runner Runner (2013) coming out next year, and after that he’s going to play an alcoholic in The Last Drop (2013), perhaps proving to us all that the effeminate soprano from a 90’s fad boy-band has grown leaps and bounds into a pop-culture institution that we can all appreciate. 

As Sean Parker in The Social Network (2010)

PS His new album (released today) is fucking awesome. I guess that was the whole point of this post. 

 PPS, all of his best footage i posted to my Filth Screen facebook page so it's again redundant to give you any more visual pleasure. You can find them here. Filth Screen on Facebook. 

So I'll just leave you with his video for 'Suit and Tie' complete with his Target commercial. Enjoy! 

I Miss Gogol Bordello!

Eugene Hütz has become somewhat of a sex symbol in his own right and rightfully so.

It was 2007, I was living in the East Village finishing up my miserable BA in Cinema Studies. My good friend Erin was always down to meet me at the local watering hole slash only place we ever met for drinks, the now closed Cooper 35 in Cooper Square  near the Bowery, and one of these nights we were talking music. I mentioned this band called Gogol Bordello which everyone in New York between 19 and 25 seemed to be in fervent love with. After about 5 or 6 whiskey sours, we decided we were going to walk, yes walk to the Lower East Side to this bar we'd always heard of but not yet had the balls to visit called Mehanata. The story was that it was a Bulgarian bar in existence for over 20 years and was basically the hub in which Gogol Bordello was born. 

Gogol Bordello, a band that fused authentic Eastern European gypsy folk songs with American punk rock. It's a good thing.

I made eyes with the door guy and he let us all in for free. We walked into a dim smokey bar playing Easter European fusion punk gypsy music. The air was illuminated with red tinted christmas lights and revealed a few strange New York City types sitting around, speaking Russian to each other with a bottle of Vodka at each table. We made our way to the bar and the bartender insisted that we drink Rakia, a kind of Bulgarian moonshine not even available in the states unless you bought it on the black market which they always did. It was delicious, and we got wasted in a matter of minutes. Then we went downstairs. 

Downstairs was a whole different animal. It felt like a seedy club. There was a DJ booth, and a few crystal balls from 1972. Strobe lights were the only source of light down there, and myself and Erin soon learned that we didn't have to walk all the way through people and up the stairs to the outside to chain smoke; our favorite activity. You could apparently do it on the back stairs whilst a drunk girl leans up against your knee and tells you you're beautiful. 

Eventually it started getting crowded and around 1am Erin and I decided that we needed fresh air to have a cigarette in (oh the fucking irony) and we shimmied our way through dancers and goosestepped our way over drunks until we were at the entrance. We lit up and talked about god knows what for a few minutes. All of a sudden, I see her eyes get extremely wide and her speech getting instantly slow. She seemed to be looking at something directly over my shoulder, and I was horrified at the thought that there might be a really tall ghost breathing just on the back of my neck. After a few seconds of drunken hesitation I turn around only to be shoved slightly into her direction (she was in front of me) and I felt bangles hit the small of my back. Before I had a chance to look and see what was behind me, a pair of large hands steadied me from behind and a soft voice spoke 'scuze me doorling', and I knew exactly who it was. 

Don't get too excited, I don't like Madonna, here's a still from her film Filth and Wisdom (2007) with Eugene Hutz who basically plays himself, and Gogol Bordello appears in the film as his character's band.

It was urban legend that Eugene Hütz, the charismatic, enigmatic and eccentric lead singer of Gogol Bordello still showed up to DJ at the bar that had made him famous, and all of a sudden, there he was, decked out in striped skinny jeans, a spangled gypsy scarf wrapped around his waste and that unmistakable handlebar mustache, bumping into me. I was stunned. It was up to par with a normal person bumping into I dont know...Brad Pitt. He was even more amazing in person. Around 6'3, with the most commanding presence, we immediately followed him in and basked in his presence at the bar, trying to non-chalantly stare at him. Neither of us had the nuts to talk to him, but we did end up dancing our asses off, and were at Mehanata every Saturday hence forth until I moved to to the Upper West Side when I began my Master's at Columbia (humblebrag!) and it was just too far to travel. I listened to them all day and all night for a good year after that experience until they stopped coming out with new music, and I'm just wondering two things, well three things; 1. Why have they not recorded a new album? 2. When can I come back to New York and go straight to Mehanata from JFK? 3. Miss Erin Kenealy, will you still come with me when I go? 

Here are some videos and clips, get into them, they're awesome! 

The first one is a video for their most famous song 'Start Wearing Purple' which was actually filmed right in Mehanata when the band was starting out and had no money, having to shoot at wherever they were welcome. 

Below is a trailer for a film that Zhenya (that's a casual way to refer to someone named Eugene in Russian btdubs) called 'Everything is Illuminated' (2005) and turns out he's a bloody good actor too. 

Below the trailer for 'Filth and Wisdom' (2008), where Hutz basically plays himself. 

The Shirtless Appeal of Adam Levine

So, kind of random, but yesterday my neighbor was blasting Maroon 5 for like a good 3 hours, so it inspired me to write about Adam Levine. Ok here we go, I guess. 

photo by Terry Richardson with whom Levine collaborates frequently for photo shoots...thank crap.

My roommate used to make me sit with her in the living room and watch The Voice (2011 - ), and at first I was like 'are you kidding me?' and then I came to the realization that though it was a bastardization of American Idol (2002 - ) it was far superior. Why? Two words: Adam. Levine. Womanizer extraordinaire and tribal tattoo aficionado, with a voice that sounds like he's coming literally all the time. Of course he had his vices, referring to contestants as 'bro', and putting a million deliberate holes in his jeans, and he humblebrags like every Twitter update he makes and he honestly doesn't realize it. Do I give a shit? Not really. 

I think it doesn't matter what your 'type' is, you find Adam Levine unquestionably attractive. It's like is the sun hot? Yes, to every single person on this earth the sun will be hot. He looks like a nice Jewish boy gone haywire on meth. Sometimes he's rockin' a faux-hawk and lime-green kicks. Others, he's buttoned up in a cravat and sweater vest. But no matter what, he has this distinct swagger and wink in his eye as if to say 'I get laid way more than you do'.

Another photo by Terry Richardson. Levine's a bad boy.

Another universal truth is that Adam Levine has more sex than you do. He has more sex than anyone. It's a mathematical certainty. He's giving Gene Simmons a run for his money. Not only is he a rock star covered in tattoos, but he's got this sweet, gentle, heartbroken side to him. It's very primal, sensual, and unmistakeably hot. Also, he sings like a beautiful naked sweaty angel.

You might think I'm partial to Levine-a-mania because 1. He's Jewish 2. He's from the Bay Area, and other similarities, but seriously girls, you have to have ice water running through your veins if your down-belows don't tingle just a little bit whenever he winks at the camera or does his moves-like-jagger sway. My infatuation started much earlier and I think I'm tired of suppressing it. Girls over 25 can find Adam Levine attractive mmmkay? Now get the hell off my back and let me enjoy it!

Now, I have actually been to a Maroon 5 concert. San Jose, 2005. It was their 'Songs About Jane' tour, and we had 4th row seats. There were beads of Levine-sweat hitting me in the eyeball. It was fantastic. He's really a great performer to all you haters out there. He's no Mick, but his stage persona is definitely fathomable. And if you listen to their early songs before they started making teeny-bopper fluff with Gym Class Heroes, it's actually pretty raunchy. What am I saying? Levine has always been quite the sex-maniac. I mean his second album with Maroon 5 was titled 'Hands All Over', and there havn't been that many photo shoots in which he appears with a shirt on.

Levine chillin' on The Voice. He's way too cool for school.

The whole first album 'Songs About Jane' is basically about how much sex Levine is having with his girlfriend and how painful it all turns out to be. Awww shucks. And I know the first couplets that are popping into your fragile mind are 'I tried so hard to feed her appetite, and keep her coming every night', to which ya gotta think, who is this Jane whom Adam can't keep at full tilt boogie? If Adam Levine isn't keeping you coming every night, you might want to check her for a pulse. That bitch is either frigid or totally ungrateful. But she did inspire a really solid record, but now we can all tune in to NBC and watch Levine talk total nonsense to contestants all the live-long day. Or we can just lock all the doors, close all the windows and rock out to 'Moves Like Jagger' in our undies. Don't bullshit, you know you've done it. 

Below some masturbation fodder, I mean, music videos. 

Who's Hotter? Garfield or Fassbender?

You can chuck this up to comparing apples to oranges considering how different the two really are, but I honestly don't care. My mind has been going wild since I went to see Prometheus and they showed a new cut of The Amazing Spiderman trailer in 3D. And yes, I believe that if I really want it, I will end up with on of them one day, the question is who? 

It was inevitable that Fassy and Garfy would eventually be compared to each other considering they are both the starring in two of the biggest 3D films of the year. That's what I'm calling them by the way. Now, let's look at the disparities and see if we can figure things out. 

Garfy is British, mild-mannered, slightly dorky, and Jewish. Fassy is as aryan looking as they come, German-Irish, dominant, and somewhat aggressive. Both are insanely charming and attractive in their own unique ways, and now that they put Garfy in a skin tight rubber suit, I'm starting to loose my mind a little bit. 

From doing gritty independent dramas like Hunger (2008) and Fish Tank (2009), Fassy has blossomed into box office gold with films like X-Men: First Class (2011) and Prometheus (2012) but I don't necessarily think he's the wet dream of all screaming young girls in the theater. Garfy, on the other hand is androgynous and harmless looking enough for teenagers with budding sexualities to have a party in their lady parts. 

Fassy does amazingly hot sex scenes, just watch Shame (2011), that's all you have to do. You'll have your porn fix for the year. Garfy, on the other hand, has not yet done a sex scene quite as graphic, but then again no one has, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have the potential. I foresee plenty of weird graphic sweaty nipply sex scenes in his future. All  has to do is ask Cronenberg. 

This leads me to believe that Garfy is actually better at sex than Fassy, he seems like he would be more giving and less into himself during which is a vibe I tend to get while watching Fassy bump and grind with whomever. (Why not me, god?)

Fassy as David the robot, who is engineered to be the resembling the perfect human specimen. Sounds about accurate. 

But here's the thing, Garfy has that nerd appeal thing that is hotter than hot right now. He goes from playing Eduardo Saverin to the king of all nerds, Peter Parker. So he's the kind of guy you want to deflower. Slowly take off those thick-rimmed glasses, frazzle that hair a little bit and throw him on the bed after ripping his expensive American Eagle faded salmon colored polo shirt right off his nubile body. Ok, that's all going into my cheesy romance novel. Back on track, this also means he's the guy you want to bring to mom. I mean try explaining the plot of Shame to her and watch her have a mild cardiac infarction right before your very eyes when it's followed with 'oh and by the way, we're dating'.

Now, who's got the hotter accent? Since both of them are forced to adapt an American accent for many of their roles, it's really hard to tell, but Fassy's is very strange its a hybrid of Irish, British and German, and he talks very fast when he's off-script. The only time I think I've ever seen Garfy speak in his normal voice is when he made a cameo on SNL when Emma Stone was hosting for the second time.  and I'm going to have to give the edge to him on that one. 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Garfy will soon catch up to Fassy in the hot sex-scene category. 

I'm also going to go ahead and give him best eyes, and best mouth. Disagree all you want, but I like supple full lips. I think we all do. And because I like harmless, nice, guys, which I of course don't know for sure if that's what Garfy's like, I'm goingt to have to give my whole vote to Garfy and really start working on that, first thing's first - figure out where he lives, second item on the agenda, night-vision goggles. But that does not mean that when i'm in the mood I'm not going to go to my instant queue and scroll down to Fish Tank and watch it because the sex in that film (only two scenes) is hotter than any porn I've seen of late. 

Got you guys some trailers. Put on 3D glasses now. 

#OCCUPYCOOPER

Everyone has been up in arms over the arbitrary and more-or-less useless title of People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive going to Bradley Cooper this past week.

Bradley Cooper: Sexiest Man Alive

Facebook and Twitter were inundated with #occupygosling rants and raves. And I have to admit that I was on board until I really thought about it. 

Let Bradley Cooper take the title in peace and enjoy it. No one can say that he doesn't deserve it. 

People are treating him like he's some kind of troll gremlin from a bad sci-fi movie. no fair. 

Here is a list of reasons that Bradley Cooper makes me go a little crazy in my lady parts.

1. He's been in drag, did it on SNL.
2. He has literally the bluest eyes in this whole universe. That's why he can't stand in front of a green screen.
3. He likes to stay home and cook rather than go to fancy pretentious restaurants.
4. He thinks the most beautiful woman that ever lived is Julie Christie.
5. He loves his mom.
6. Ryan Gosling is a mormon.
7. Ryan Gosling was born in the 80's, he has plenty of time to win Sexiest Man Alive and will as time goes by.
8. Did you see that scene in The Hangover when the morning after Cooper goes shirtless into a room to see if there is indeed a tiger there. He has the most beautiful back in man-back town.
9. He's funny.
10. His nipples are perkier than Gosling's.

The list goes superfluously on and on, but I don't want to bore you. (I probably already have).

Now, I'm not denying that Ryan Gosling is beautiful piece of Canadian man-meat. He has those innocent doe eyes, prominent brow, chiseled abs and blonde hair of a Michelangelo statue and plays characters that are always in some kind of romantic trauma that eases him nicely into all of our cheese-ball fantasy files. He's a few inches of hair short of being on the cover of Danielle Steel novels, and more power to him. He deserves the title as well, but I think Cooper is a better candidate honestly. I think with Cooper we get to see a lot of the personality that goes along with that pretty face, and corny as it may sound, that's important to our lady parts. With Gosling, I'm never sure there's more there than the characters he portrays, he's a romantic lead, but sometimes we need a clown, and Cooper can be both. 

I say good job People Magazine. You have all the time in the world to give it to Gosling and probably will.