Back to waiting tables...

[serai]

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Watched August last night. Uh...yeah. Seems Josh has been wilding on camera for a while now. Mm, mm, mm. Yummy, yummy man.

I'm getting a little jumpy at the way sex scenes are just THROWN at you these days, though. There doesn't seem to be a lot of buildup anymore. Two characters are having a conversation and then BAM, they're rutting like crazed animals. It's a bit...abrupt. I'm not exactly complaining - the slam of erotic energy I got when the film cut from a sexy look to full-on FUCKING!!! was certainly enjoyable. I'm just glad nobody else was in the room, because I made a pretty bizarre sound when that happened, LOL.

The film itself was surprisingly good. It's one of those Some Guy indie films, like Thumbsucker. Some Guy (or Some Gal) films don't really have plots so much as they have spans. Here's a guy, here's where he works, here are the people he knows. He goes places, he talks to people, things happen, and then it's over, but you haven't necessarily gone any great distance. They don't have plotting in the classic film sense, and they depend on the characters' ability to engage the audience, so the actors are really important.

This one is about a Zuckerberg type who runs a start-up, and right from the get-go I was rooting for him to get a massive bitchslap. Wow, he is a shit. And Josh played it beautifully, all smug manipulation and manic narcissism, spouting off that terminally annoying techie nonsense as if it actually meant something. Gods, the self-stroking horseshit was astounding. I wonder how hard Josh had to work to learn those lines, because there is absolutely NOTHING to hang your understanding on unless you actually do that kind of work. He might as well have been speaking in numbers: "Nine fifty seven eight hundred thousand? ZERO FOURTY NINE AZIMUTH MILLION SQUARE ROOT SKEWEY, ASSHOLE!!!" It really did sound like that - just mouthfuls of hot air, but he rattled it off like every word had import. That's something I really admire in good actors - their ability to inject real meaning into things they might not understand at all. I guess those "recite the alphabet as if you were breaking up with your girlfriend" theater games really do pay off.


SPOILERS


Well, he gets his comeuppance, alright, and in a really humiliating scene, fucking DAVID BOWIE is the one to bring him crashing down. Oh, I almost felt sorry for the callous, selfish little prick...almost. It was so cruel, but it was necessary. Josh's work in that scene was impressive, I gotta say. I love scenes where the actor is going through some extreme upheaval but can't show it. That's some seriously challenging shit. Here Josh's face was a study in occulted terror - his entire world is ending, but he has to pretend he's on top of it. It's not just losing his job and his company. It's his entire future filling up with dead ends and unreturned calls and eye-rolling snark, and you can see it all right there in his eyes. Eyes, jaw, neck, posture - but especially the eyes. Just great work.

Yeah, this is one I'd definitely recommend if you're looking for things he's been in. It's a tour-de-force, too - he's in every single scene. The movie is completely about him, and yet it never really enters him. I mean, it's not terribly hard to figure this guy out, but he never gets explained. Know what I mean? I don't know if the filmmakers actually want to you to sympathize with him or not; it's really hard to say. But I enjoyed it, and I think you will, too.

P.S. The character's name is Tom Sterling. I find that incredibly funny, myself. It's a name seemingly crafted to put across every bit of his egocentrism and superficial charm.

Comments

[mews1945.livejournal.com]

Yes, I remember that now. He really was a prick, and I wanted him to crash and burn. I wish they'd given us a little of his backstory. I wanted to understand why he was such a manipulative sonofabitch, but there wasn't anything there. He was like an empty room with a glossy finish and no furnishings. I need to see it again, just to watch his performance more closely.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that emptiness appears to have been deliberate. The film is clearly critical of start-up culture, with its childishness and its completely oblivious attitude towards real life, as well as the way it encouraged callousness, egocentrism and greed. Most of the time Tom seems in control, confident and miles too cool for you, but there's a wonderful moment at the end of that sex scene, where everything - all the turmoil, fear, and pain he's feeling - appear on his face. And of course, it's a moment where nobody can see him or what he's feeling. He can only indulge in it for a second, at a time when his body is drained and none of his protective coloring is in evidence. Again, a lovely bit of work there.

Shit, this guy really has gotten so much better over the years. It's so fucking great to see it.

[aliensouldream.livejournal.com]

His character seemed to be hell-bent on self-sabotage in every area of his life but his eventual annihilation was crushing. I thought that the film used the scenario as an allegory rather than a satisfying drama, which was limiting, but he played the hell out of it and was truly touching, especially at his bewilderment as it all came crashing down.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Ah, you're much more generous than I, LOL. Me, I was enjoying a big ol' slice of schadenfreude pie at his crashing fall. Josh did so well at crafting a character that walks that line between being a real person and being a target for the audience's scorn. The most prominent aspect of his character was simply the fact that he'd never grown up. He was clearly an adolescent who'd had no reason to transition to being an adult, and handled everything the way a fourteen-year-old would - as if it's all about him. I'd call the film an object lesson rather than an allegory - Tom seems to exist as a way for the filmmakers to say See? See what happens when you refuse to grow up? When you treat everyone around you as interchangeable parts to get what you want? His humanity was confined to those tiny little moments when he can't keep the mask up and it slips just enough to see something real, like that moment at the end of the sex scene, after he comes. That was a great little glimpse into his turmoil, and it helped in indicating that yeah, he really does understand that his world is falling apart. But he's incapable of letting anyone see what he's feeling, because That Would Not Be Cool. Again, an adolescent. What the film left me with more than anything was curiosity about what would happen to this guy next. Did he learn anything, or would he go on to con his way into another job where he'd just alienate everyone again? And I attribute that curiosity to Josh's handling of his interior. He made him just human enough to be interesting, but not human enough to really care deeply about him. In the end, he's just plain shallow - if he's anything else, he doesn't want anyone to know it, so how can anyone care?