frontman

For NYE I am going stag to my friend's place - a D.P. pal and his wife, an exec at Warner's who's also a good friend - for what should be a good time. They always throw a really nice shindig and I'm looking forward to catching up with them; we haven't hung out in too long.

If you feel better and decide you wanna do something and don't have other plans, let me know - you would be more than welcome. It'll be a lot of fun, cool people who are yes, in the business, but not OF the business 24/7 - and therefore, not irritating.

I do hope you get well soon. Cheers, bro.

Enjoy your winter wonderland, bro. I'll be spending my holiday at my pal's place in Marina Del Ray drinking champagne and laughing myself silly, I hope. My host -and every other guest besides me pretty much - is a professional standup comedian and / or comedy writer, and once those guys get liquored up it gets pretty savage, but in a good way.

Re: women, it's funny. When I make ZERO effort to put out any vibe and am my most relaxed, they swarm - again, in a good way. Based on some advances I tendered at parties last week alone, 2006 should be interesting in even more ways now - even without all these movies to make!

(My favorite line from King King? Jack Black's slimy creative telling a girl "You can trust me, I'm a movie producer!" Gotta use that, stat.)

Lemme know when you're back and we'll grab our own Fathers nosh and pints. Cheers!

Aw. That's sweet. Lucky girl (I'm assuming it's a girl. lol)

You're never too old to crush on someone. If you're happy, what's the harm? (Esp. just coming out of a relationship...)

Thank you so much for your thoughtful, well-reasoned, and honest personal assessment of the film. Yes, I did - and always will - want the absolute, unvarnished version of feedback. I can take it, and it only helps to know what people REALLY think - whether they love it or hate it, or somewhere in between.

We could talk about it sometime but in brief, I'll just say that - again, for better or worse, depending on your perspective - pretty much everything you cited that, in places, made it a less (for lack of better terminology) comfortable or familiar viewing experience here and there was done completely intentionally. The camera operation at times wasn't 100% as I wished - which was the only serious casualty of the pace and budget of the production - but the CUs and ECUs were absolutely intended to force the eye and the viewer to have certain reactions, so your experience was along the lines of what I hoped for.

As for the ending: you're sort of on the wrong track about what happened, actually! It wasn't a passionate crime at all. Jessica and Jimmy were in cahoots the ENTIRE time, conspiring - in cold blood - against Dutch. This is foreshadowed and setup extensively from the beginning - the black and white shots to indicate Jessica's hidden camera, the subtle color shifts, image degradations and sound changes that accompany certain knowing looks between the two, the intentional misdirection re: who is in the bed with Jimmy in the beginning, the line about "I've always been in love with Jessica" while he's holding those panties that we learn belong to someone else, and most importantly: the denouement of the nightclub redux that allows you to finally hear what was being said. Remember Jimmy and Jessica's last lines? Jimmy: "I have been (in a romantic relationship)" met with Jessica's "I know you have, sweetie, and you WILL be again. I'm CONFIDENT of this fact." Why is she so confident, and why do they share yet another look as she says that? Because they are in one together at that very moment in time.

And oh, SHE is, of course, truly behind it all, manipulating Jimmy to do her will while letting him think that he's in charge. It's a triple reversal. Nice, huh?

Okay, so I guess I said everything here after all! Heh heh. Hey, thanks again for your thoughts. I do appreciate it, bro.

Aw. I was there on Saturday as well. Dealer's room this year was way smaller. Too bad I didn't see you. I might have let you buy me a drink.