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2021: My Travel Year in Review

by Monte R. December 13, 2021

written by Monte R.

Well, another year of the COVID-19 virus pandemic blues comes to a close. It’s been a pretty depressing couple years, especially without freedom to travel without virus restrictions of some type.

The vaccines have finally helped open up the world again in parts, however, the variants (Delta + Omicrom) keep impeding re-openings, which stutter and stumble. We’re now going into year three of the Covid virus pandemic nightmare but with more hope than before, at least.

On top of all that, the Death Cult Republicans attempted a coup of our US government in January. Vox ran an article on the coup ending democracy recently “The world as we know it is ending. Why are we still at work?” and that’s about the most “American” thing I’ve read lately.

Virus and political horrors aside, I finally was able to travel some this year domestically: New Mexico (post), Las Vegas, Seattle (post), Sarasota (Florida) and San Francisco and even Cancun (which is almost like part of Texas). Heck, now that I think about, I sure did travel a bit this year despite the pandemic problems, which made it all a bit more expensive, unfortunately.

The lingering effects of the pandemic remain evident everywhere I visited – understaffed hotels and restaurants were the biggest problem. Long lines, limited menus, higher prices for pretty much everything, especially food and rental cars. Costs aside, I was just happy to be traveling again!

To recap some of the trips, in April, I took a short trip to Cancun with Jenny to spend a few days at the Excellence Riviera Resort. It’s an adults only resort – the spa at the resort is an incredible highlight I did not expect.

In June, we went to Las Vegas. We stayed at Nomad MGM and the brand new Virgin Hotel which replaced the old Hard Rock Casino, which I used to frequent back in the day with my brothers. I really like the new dark English gothic design of Nomad MGM and the sunny desert vibes of the Virgin Hotel and Casino. The interactive art exhibit, Meow Wolf, was also super awesome.

For my 50th birthday, we took a trip to San Francisco. It had been at least ten years since I last visited, when my aunt passed away. The city was less busy than I expected likely due to the vaccine card requirement to eat/drink anywhere. We stayed the Palace Hotel.

For the second part of the trip, we headed up to wine country. We drove up through Sonoma and Santa Rosa, visiting some nice wineries along the way. We visited the Charles Schultz Museum in Santa Rosa and ended the trip in Bodega Bay, which had an amazing Pacific coast line view.

December 13, 2021 0 comment

Other Stuff

Mank (2020, David Fincher) on Netflix

by Monte R. December 29, 2020

written by Monte R.

I wish I had more time to sit down and review movies given I’ve spent a large part of my life watching movies. I’m only really motivated to do it for special movies amongst all the meaningless junk and B grade filler that is available on streaming and VOD platforms these days.

For me, one newly released movie that stands out is Mank, which is sort of an origin story about the movie Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles.

This movie is in addition to Netflix’s recently financing Welles’ last uncompleted work, The Other Side of the Wind (2018), which was a hot mess for decades before Netflix financed its post-production.

It’s beyond ironic that Orson Welles, who was was unable to find mainstream studio financing for most of his career post Citizen Kane, is now having his works – and movies about his influence – financed posthumously by the biggest mainstream studio disruptor in movie business history.

As an origin story for Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, Mank is a worthy addition to the Welles’ books and movies that have proceeded it. Notably, RKO 281 (1999) with Liev Schrieber as Orson Welles and John Malkovich as Herman Mankiewicz, which I really enjoyed.

While RKO 281 tells the story from Welles’ point-of-view, Mank flips it and we see it through the eyes of Citizen Kane co-screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz (“Mank”) as he races to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane under the direction of boy wunderkind Orson Welles, who only appears in a few brief scenes.

There’s a pretty good historical argument that Welles’ insisted he take “co-writing” credit on the script even though Mankiewicz wrote the first draft of the screenplay, albeit under Welles’ direction.

The “question” posed by Mank is who deserves “credit” for Citizen Kane, which is an interesting question, albeit elusive. One doesn’t need to know to know an answer to enjoy it for what it is – that question aside, Fincher’s black-and-white recreation of that golden Hollywood era and attention to detail and production design is glorious eye candy – the visuals and frame compositions are spectacular. Fincher even adds in “cue marks” (reel markers) to give the movie a real black-and-white film feel.

Everything in this movie is first rate – the casting from Gary Oldman to Amanda Seyfried, score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and DP work Erik Messerschmidt, who adapted many lighting cues from Greg Toland’s work on Citizen Kane.

My only complaint is how much it sidelined Orson Welles from Citizen Kane’s involvement – he’s really put aside here as almost a side character. It kind of works because the movie doesn’t try to claim Herman Mankiewicz made Citizen Kane the movie, rather he wrote the script. I didn’t see it as an attack on Welles’ authorship of Citizen Kane the movie, rather this is to give credence to Mankiewicz’s authorship of the screenplay.

My favorite lines from the screenplay, notably written by David Fincher’s father, Jack Fincher:

“This is the business where the buyer gets nothing for his money but his memory. What he bought still belongs to the man who sold it. That’s the real magic of the movies and don’t let anybody tell you different.”

“It’s a modern-day version of Quixote … a deluded old noble man that tilts at windmills. How about we make our Quixote a newspaperman? Who else could make a living tilting at windmills?“

I appreciate giving Mankiewicz is given his due here but Citizen Kane isn’t popular just for the screenplay. Welles’ genius in the construction of it into a movie is what has made it legendary. It took that great script from Mank – and the vision of Welles – to realize it into what it is – and only Welles could get such a movie made in the first place, at great personal cost thereafter.

One historical revisionism error I found with both RK0 281 and Mank is the casting of far older men to play Orson Welles, who was only a mere twenty-six (26) years old when he made Citizen Kane. In RK0 281, actor Liev Schriber was thirty-three (33) and here in Mank, actor Tom Burke is thirty-nine (39), both of which are way too old to portray the boy wunderkind. That aspect bothered me as it gives a wrong impression Welles was a fully realized adult, when he was really so much younger and naive.

December 29, 2020 0 comment

Movies Other Stuff

David Fincher’s MANK

by Monte R. November 19, 2020

written by Monte R.

I’m looking forward to seeing David Fincher’s MANK, although RKO 281 (1999) with Liev Schrieber as Welles and John Malkovich as “Mank” will be hard to beat in my mind.

Apparently, the actor cast to play Welles in MANK (Tom Burke) is nearly 40 years old. Liev Schrieber was 32 years old when he played Welles in RKO 281. But Welles was only 26 years old when he made Citizen Kane (1941) – the casting of older actors is part of the incorrect revionism, which is unfortunate. Like, make no mistake about, Welles was a young man when he hit that home run. I think that fact really bothers some people —

Citizen Kane by Welles remains an absolute fascination amongst cineastes for so many reasons. Welles somehow skipped the creative life cycle of most artists, especially filmmakers, and he went supernova right out of the gate, which is why he remains an object of historical review. He also did it at the dawn of the studio system in the 1940s. He was so ahead of his time in acting, radio, theater and cinema.

The NY Times published a good article on David Fincher and MANK today, which is rare as he rarely does interviews. I also think it’s interesting that MANK will premiere on Netflix – not in regular movie theaters. It’s esoteric black-and-white throwback would likely not ever get financed by a regular major movie studio. For all the negatives about streaming, this is one of the positives – Netflix has really stepped up, especially, oddly, with Orson Welles works. A few years ago, Netflix financed the completion of The Other Side of the Wind, which was one of Welles’ unfinished works.

Interestingly, David Fincher, like Welles, also went supernova at young age. As a follower of his career since 1988, Fincher started off in lowly production jobs working at Lucasfilm/ILM, then somehow quickly jumped into making commercials at age 22, then jumped into music videos, despite never having a reel of work or having gone to film school – it’s all very weird. His “Express Yourself” video for Madonna is the one that blew up his career – its creativity was remarkable.

Then he got the opportunities to direct dozens of million dollar major music videos for artists like Billy Idol and Aerosmith – he must have been in the right place at the right time, all I can figure out. In the 1980s, every wannabe filmmaker like me wanted to be like Stephen Spielberg. Now, they all want to be David Fincher.

I own the 1st book proof of Orson Welles’ book “Everybody’s Shakespeare” aka “Twelfth Night” (1934) which features pencil marks in it by 17 year old Orson Welles. I bought it a movie memorabilia auction years ago and I suspect it came from the collection of Peter Bogdanovich or Oja Kodar, Welles’ last wife.

November 19, 2020 0 comment

Movies Music Other Stuff

The MTV Kid

by Monte R. September 10, 2020

written by Monte R.

Along with being a “Kid Spielberg” making backyard movies in the 80s, I was also a big music fan (primarily new wave/English goth rock). MTV had just started up in the early 1980s. Music videos had become the primary form of music promotion – they were everywhere – a band was ‘nothing’ until your video premiered on MTV.

At the same time, unlike the 70s film school era filmmakers like Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese and George Lucas, music videos gave new aspiring filmmakers a new outlet to train their visual style. So many of today’s feature filmmakers (like David Fincher) came out of directing music videos in the early 1980s. Others included filmmakers like Russell Mulcahy, Spike Jonze, Anton Corbijn, Michel Gondry, Jonathan Glazer, Antoine Fuqua, F. Gary Gray, McG – the list is endless. All of them got started doing music videos – it was a better training ground than film school.

I was inspired by what was being done in music videos – the visual creativity paired with music I found to be amazing. The visual possibilities were endless. David Fincher’s videos for Madonna and Billy Idol blew my mind on creative interpretations of music – it was a new art form.

So not seeing any real path for me locally in the ‘movie business’ which was non-existent in Ohio at the time, I decided to take a stab at doing music videos. Unfortunately, in the late 1980s, I lived in what was then called ‘Cowlumbus’ Ohio – not exactly the epicenter of the music business either.

Getting opportunities to direct music videos for bands and get paid for it was a pipe dream of mine, albeit one I pursued for a long time before giving up in failure, even though I thought I was pretty good at it.

I got my hustle on and just sought out local Columbus, Ohio bands that would let me (a sixteen-year old kid) direct a video for them – albeit I would always have to offer to do it for ‘free’ and pay for any expenses myself. I was just happy to do it. Most videos I made cost about $500 that I saved up working at the local movie theater. All were shot on video (I used higher end video cameras with better resolution than my Sony 8mm). I rolled all of my savings from my job into my music video work thinking it could lead to a career.

The very first video I did was for a local band The Bellows “There Was a Time” – they were like a straight up rock/pop band.

I then followed it with a video for a local goth band, The Wake, and their song “Locomotive Age,” which turned out pretty good. The Wake, strangely enough, grew in stature over the years and is considered one of the pioneering American goth rock bands. Anyhoo —

I directed several others. With no grand design, I ended up with several videos in different genres of music, which I thought would be good calling card to actually get commissioned by a label to direct music videos – and like get paid for it – and start my career.

Unfortunately, this was all before email and the internet. My ability to even market myself was limited to random phone calls and mailing my VHS reel to music video production companies in Los Angeles and NYC in hopes of being ‘discovered’ – I doubt anybody even looked at my VHS reels. Without being in NYC or Los Angeles, I was just a nobody kid from nowhere making cold calls.

I did win several awards for my video work, even on my limited budgets. By the late 1980s, music videos were becoming the ‘vanguard’ of filmmaking and the styles were changing rapidly every couple years, so having like a real ‘budget’ and doing constant work was an important part of it.

There is only so much I could do with $500 bucks, too. I was competing artistically with budgets for music videos on MTV which, at the time, were being made from $50k to $1M dollars. Self-financing music videos from local bands for $500 was not a long term plan – I had to get like a real commission from a record label or else give up. But there was no absolutely nothing happening in Columbus, Ohio.

While spending one summer in Los Angeles on an internship in 1991, I happened upon an up-and-coming band I admired, Human Drama. I convinced the lead singer to let me do a video and spent every dime I had saved shooting it on 16mm film, which I thought turned out to be my best video – which, in a twist of fate, got me accepted into NYU Film School. Johnny Indovina, the lead singer/songwriter of Human Drama, told me it was the ‘best’ video of his songs, which made me feel pretty good.

Random side note – one year earlier in 1990, Johnny Indovina had discovered director Tarsem Singh (The Cell, The Fall) while Singh was still in college, and chose him to direct Human Drama’s first video for their debut RCA album “Feel,” against the wishes of label execs. Johnny and Tarsem moved forward for their “Death of An Angel” video concept until RCA nixed the video budget entirely at the last minute. Tarsem was then immediately hired to direct R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion” video, into which Tarsem incorporated aspects of scenes Johnny Indovina and he had discussed for “Death of An Angel.” The “Losing My Religion” video went on to win critical acclaim, including video of the year at the MTV awards.

Like Johnny Indovina, I was always so close but so far away, never getting the right doors to open. I knew I had great creative instincts but I could just never get that first paid opportunity despite beating on doors. I gave up soon thereafter, perhaps wrongly, I’ll never know. I just couldn’t do it anymore without a real budget commission. I was tired of being broke, making cold calls and begging for favors to get my videos produced.

I never directed another video until nearly ten (10) years later, when an off chance come up to do one for a band my brother, Taylor, was working with – Gene Loves Jezebel. My brother gave me a real budget ($10k) and I shot it on 35mm for their song “Welcome to LA”. I got a real producer Bettina Lee to help me, who was working at a major music video production company, The Oil Factory. I had so much fun directing that video.

The video for “Welcome to LA” turned out well and everybody liked it but, by that time, my older videos from ten years prior had aged and visually weren’t up with the era. Having only one modern spec video on my reel just wasn’t enough. I simply couldn’t figure out how anybody got a career started intentionally directing music videos, which I later concluded was mostly randomized luck (or else you were rich and could self-finance your own demo reel).

Having worked in so many areas of the entertainment business, I’ve concluded there is no ‘grand design’ as to why some “make it” and succeed and others with great talent and perseverance fail to even get going. So much of it depends on being in the right place at the right time aka “luck” – just the way it is.

Later in life, I befriended a very successful music video/commercial director who, despite never having directed any music videos, nor attended film school, got his first opportunity to direct large budget music video almost by accident (aka “luck”) which then started his entire career. I wanted to punch him in the face!

September 10, 2020 0 comment

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