these texts are an archive of my life in the San Francisco Bay Area from march 2007 - march 2015. it stands as a record of close to a decade of my life, charting the struggles i faced as an artist, daughter, and lover. messy and chaotic at times, eloquent and poetic at others, these texts are an index i am proud of. it was here in this electric box that i learned how to be honest about my experiences and the person i needed to become. it was here that i first learned the truism that words make the world and how to trust such a beautiful, rife, hard fact.

thank you for meeting me here in such tall grass.


my artist website is here.

Aug 22, 2009

hmmmmm....

i woke up thinking of 'the soloist' and, to be honest (and in retrospect), it's not as great as i'd hoped it would be. maybe i listened too closely to all the hype about how wonderful and moving it was? robert downey jr is amazing in every single movie he's in. every single one. and his scenes in this movie are grand and lovely and sincere. and there's that word: sincere.

jamie foxx's portrayal of schizophrenia were definitely not sincere. it was pretty surface actually. as was the treatment of the homeless in LA. totally flat, surface, uninspired, boooorrrrriiing. which is totally offensive to both the issue of homelessness and mental illness. completely offensive. all it would have taken was one good scene, one powerhouse of a scene - emotional and hard and unapologetic - to situate the audience in a place where we could really understand the massive loss that is involved when a person is schizophrenic. well, that scene never came. there was ample opportunity for it but mr. foxx just didn't do it. maybe it's on the cutting room floor? who knows, but it ain't on the screen. and that's sad. very sad.

this movie has (had) so much potential. i thought it was more than a little offensive that the mentally ill were compared to children, first off. and also that the big dog of all mental illnesses (paranoid schizophrenia) was compared to a bad acid trip. pretty minimizing to say the least.

AND, not to get too ridiculous here, but where the hell was the solo? it's called 'the soloist'. there were no solos. it would start and then a massive swell of orchestral accompaniment would ring in. i wanted to hear what a great talent this man is all by himself and that never really came to be. never, not once.

maybe i need to watch it again.

7 comments:

Radish King said...

I cannot and never will watch this movie. Well maybe I'll rent it and skip through to the RDJ parts because I adore him and he is magnificant in everything but but but. Along with your observations, any movie in which someone fakes playing a stringed instrument simply drives me up a wall and causes me to TALK LOUDLY even in a crowded theater about how many unemployed string players there are out there even in Hollywood for crapsake. It just makes me nuts. You can fake guitar but not cello or violin. CANNOT.
xor

angela simione said...

and he tries (inaffectually) to fake BOTH instruments in the movie.

RDJ is as gorgeous and inspired as he always is. sighhhhhh. and has facial hair in this flick. yum. i'm a sucker for that stuff.

Radish King said...

hhahhaahahahaa



have you seen Fur? It's a crappy misleading movie about Diane Arbus, my GOD, played by Nicole Kidman of all people, but RDJ is incandescent in it. the movie confuses me. I know it sucks but I bought it.

r

angela simione said...

hahahaha! i bought it too! little too much facial hair in that one but he completely shines in that role. shines hard. nicole kidman, on the other hand, completely sucked as arbus... an acting crime beyond measure in my opinion and she butchered arbus' personality and made her seem ridiculous and week. grand offense! inappropriate parody of her work and heart.

i still watch it sometimes though. i have no excuse. my photographer friends have yet to let me off the hook. :)

angela simione said...

p.s. same complaint about gweneth paltrow (yick) in 'sylvia'.

yep, i own that pile of shit too.

Radish King said...

Paltry slaughtered Sylvia. I will never watch it again. It will be interesting to see what Julia Styles does with her though.

Nicole isn't really a bad actress, but she's such an ice queen and Diane was anything but. They are polar opposites in looks and everything else. And they completely glossed over the fact that Diane made Alan's fashion career. I loved the stylized look of the apartment which seemed to grow and shrink within the very obvious Alice in Wonderland sets. But to me I guess it was amazing that Jr. carried that entire movie with his eyes since his face was covered pretty much the entire time.

The Surfer thinks the movie is a travesty and won't let me watch it when he's home. ha! Photographers. What do they know?

xo

Radish King said...

Eyes and voice I should add :)