American Photographer visits University Gallery

Last night at the University Gallery, American photographer, Joel Sternfeld came from the Big Apple to talk about his various collections of photographs and more specifically, his "Oxbow Archive" collection that is currently on display until December 14th.

For a New Yorker, Sternfeld knows a great deal about the Pioneer Valley. During his speech, Sternfeld's knowledge of the area was impressive and when he wanted the involvement of the natives, most didn't have much to chime in with. In "Oxbow Archive," he captures landscapes in East Meadows, Northampton, which is a very pastoral area despite it being near the power plant.

He fell in love with the Valley on a drive from New York to Vermont in September of 1962. He picked a good month to see the Valley, don't you think? Witnessing the Valley , Sternfeld became interested in looking at contemporary landscape. He takes a lot of influences from Thomas Cole, the man who created the photo in this post.

As a part of his achievement of the Guggenheim Fellowship, Sternfeld is notorious for breaking the trend of black and white photographs as art. He said many people were concerned and were questioning him when he began to release photographs in color.

He would get asked, "Why would you work in color?" "Black and white is so natural." But Sternfeld defied his critics and made color photography his thing.

"Working in color was a subversive fate," said Sternfeld.

If you were at the speech, which you probably weren't, you would know how distinguished each of his collections are. His long spanned career has given him the time to travel across the nation to capture near-utopian societies, L.A. culture, New York city scenes, and even the technological advances in Dubai. His "iDubai" collection done less than a year ago, was done through the camera of his iPhone.

Take some time to get to know some of Sternfeld's stuff. He offers many types of photos along the spectrum and there is bound to be one or two things that interests you.

Come on by the gallery underneath the Fine Arts Center to see his work in relation to the other six artists' photos that are on display. Support the arts... you know you should.

Classic Halloween Thrillers

Halloween

This 1978 John Carpenter classic is the granddaddy to the modern horror film. Michael Myers remains one of the scariest and most recognizable movie killers. This film features a young Jamie Lee Curtis as the virginal babysitter Laurie Strode. On Halloween night, Michael Myers escapes from the mental ward and comes after his little sister Laurie while brutally attacking and murdering those in his way. Hot on his trail is Dr. Loomis, who has studied Michael since he was a child. This movie is the first to use the horror movie “rules” that have become commonplace in almost all slasher films today. “Halloween” also contains some of the scariest movie music in history. Many sequels were made, but the only ones that follow the original story line and therefore are worth watching are “Halloween II” and possibly “Halloween: H20”. Interesting trivia fact: Michael Myers’ mask is actually a William Shatner/Captain Kirk mask painted white.

 

Scream

This brilliantly executed Wes Craven film of 1996 re-introduced the slasher film to popular culture. A mysterious killer in a mask stalks young Sidney Prescott, played by Neve Campbell. Lots of blood and guts involved, but plenty of story to back it up. Two sequels followed “Scream”, both of which hold their own against the original. This movie does a great job mixing comedy and horror, and the comic relief is most evident in the character of Randy, played by Jamie Kennedy. “Scream” gave us the list of cliché rules of the scary movie genre. These rules include such things as: You will not survive is you have sex, do drugs, or drink. Only the virgins make it out alive. Don’t ever say you will be right back, you won’t. Do not go investigate a strange noise. Don’t ask, “who’s there?”. And most importantly, anyone could be the killer. Everyone is a suspect. Interesting trivia fact: The character of Billy Loomis is named after “Halloween” character Dr. Sam Loomis and “Psycho” character Sam Loomis.

 

Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock is the master of suspense, and that fact is more than evident in this 1960 thriller, which remains his most famous film. Janet Leigh (mother of Jamie Lee Curtis) steals money from her boss and flees the city. Tired from her drive, she stops at the isolated and empty Bates Motel, run by eccentric Norman Bates, played by Anthony Perkins in his most chilling role. The famous shower scene is iconic, but more details cannot be given away without ruining the ending. Just know this, beware of Mother. Interesting trivia fact: The “blood” used in the shower scene is actually chocolate syrup. It gave it a more realistic look in black and white.

 

 

 

The New Face of Led Zeppelin?

Global warming might not be the only thing forcing us to go Plant-less, currently the rock veterans are plotting the unthinkable. Doing a full blown world tour without their signature voice.

NME and Rollingstone have both recently put out reports that confirm- at least tentatively- these rumors. Apparently the band have been testing out several singers, including Myles Kennedy (seen above). The singer while relatively unknown was the former lead singer of ALTER BRIDGE and has a four octave vocal range.

While hopes were high for a world tour, my guess is this will do little to satisfy fans, and leave a lot feeling left out. Especially with rumors that ZEPPELIN is also planning to write a new album.

Jeremy Milligan Interview

Jeremy Milligan Interview Transcript
PETER RIZZO: When did you first begin to take an interest in music?
JEREMY MILLIGAN: I guess I spend a really short amount of time playing piano when I was eleven or twelve, a passing thing that didn’t stick. I didn’t start playing guitar until I was 13.

PR: What did you listen to when you started playing guitar?
JM: I listened to a lot of what…Queen was really big at the time, right when Wayne’s World came out. A lot of Queen…Motley Crue, Van Halen.

PR: When did you first start listening to jazz music?
JM: Jazz was um…right towards the end of high school. I was 17 or 18. My first jazz record…or cd I don’t know why I call them records, was Medeski, Martin and Wood. “It’s a jungle in here” which I still have and still listen to. When I first got it, it was way over my head. It’s pretty far out sometimes and I wasn’t prepared at all. So it was confusing and I didn’t listen to it much for a while and I rediscovered it a few years later.

PR: You play both guitar and drums, which one do you like better?
JM: Guitar definitely. Played drums for a couple of years in Bathtub Mary, played all of Northampton quite a lot. I played drums because I already knew all the songs and we needed a drummer. I got pretty good at it, but I never took it as seriously as I did guitar. I’m just a lot more comfortable doing that.

PR: So you were in a band call the “Sofa Kings” where’d that name come from?
JM: It’s not a skit it was like a joke. We just kinda decided to get with that. Band names are the worst. I didn’t even bother with this one; I just called it my name. Yeah band names are difficult then you end up with things that don’t really make much sense and aren’t all that flattering.

PR: After college you played on a cruise ship, what was that experience like?
JM: Pretty interesting, some of it was really good. For everything that was good there was something else that was really bad. Really good beach time, got a good tan. But um…it was honestly just incredibly boring. I was on the boat for six months. I had two people in the cabin and the cabin was probably about the size of my bathroom right now. SO it was really small. I’m kind of a tall guy, and when I laid on my bunk my head and feet touched the wall. Pretty small living situation. And there are so many people living there that it’s just not big enough. You definitely don’t have any privacy. I lived in a dorm too and it was much bigger. If you get sick of your dorm, you go for a walk. If you get sick of your cabin, there’s nowhere to go. Eight different bars so you end up doing that all the time.

PR: What a hard life you had
JM: Not good for you, catches up to you.

PR: It says on your website that you play weddings, do you play a lot of weddings
JM: yup did a couple last weekend. I play ceremonies on classical guitar.

PR: What do you prefer a wedding or a concert?
JM: Oh definitely a concert, I’ve been lucky enough to work with cool people for their weddings. If they are hiring me they’re usually not the hyperactive bridezilla that people talk about sometimes. So you in that way I’ve kind of lucked out and got to work with some nice people. It also pays really well. Its pretty good work.



PR: You’ve been in a lot of different bands, is the new project something you can stick with?
JM: As far as I have been in quite a few different bands. First time it’s been exactly what I want to be doing. I wrote the music and wrote exactly what I wanted to hear. It’s much more fulfilling for me, kind of my little project. I’ll definitely be sticking with it for a little while longer, I think it will change, people come and go are available or not available and all these things.

PR: Why did you decide to have no lyrics on this album?
JM: Well you know. I’m sort of an instrumental guy. I do sing a little bit but I don’t think it’s my strong suit. This album came from my history with playing jazz and classical music. So no lyrics were kinda coming from that place. I’ve thought about doing albums with lyrics but it would be such a different thing for me to do. My playing doesn’t really suit my singing all that well so it would be a challenge.

PR: You pull from a lot of different influences, what’s the hardest part of trying to put it all together in the music?
JM: well parts of it were easy. Some of it wasn’t really all that conscious. I wasn’t really trying to take this part of jazz really consciously. Even there is no singing, trying to work a pop sensibility into the music. Not just crazy improvisations. But catchy and listenable. One thing I feel that I could’ve done a little better in a couple songs. What I was going for with this recording. That’s the hardest part.

PR: What’s your favorite track from the new album?
JM: “settle” one of the first tracks that was finished. Three done right off the bat and settle was kind of interesting because as I was creating it, I hated it. It just wasn’t what I expected or though it was going to go and when it was all done, it was exactly what I wanted. So that’s the happiest one, I’ve been getting a lot of good feedback about that track.

PR: Far out question, if either candidate decided to use your song in for a campaign song what would you say?
JM: I’d be psyched, thrilled. Either one is fine with me. If you can get in touch with them in any way that'd be great too.

Weekend Movie Rental

Another weekend, another movie rental suggestion (just a day late).

"The Visitor" played at Amherst cinema last spring. I got to go to a press screening, but never got to run the review in the paper because we ran out of time. So this is as good of a time as any to recommend this beautiful film.

Let's start it off by saying the movie is a roller-coaster of high and low emotional peaks. It tackles subject matter that is very relevant (illegal immigration) and touches on the connection that human beings can make when they get to know one another. That is what I will say about what the film does...now to explain how it does it.

The movie has a simple plot: depressed professor, Walter Vale, of economics struggles with the death of his wife. He tries to compensate for it in so many ways. But can't. Then he is sent to a conference to speak about a book he co-authored, but in actuality he just put his name on it.

He is sent to New York to talk about the book, and decides to stay in his old apartment that he keeps there. he hasn't been there in months and some people have moved into the place in his absence. Confusion ensues and the movie turns into a tale of friendship, what music can do, and the human spirit.

Walter Vale, is played by long-time character actor Richard Jenkins. his performance is superb. His moves from detached to curious bystander to sympathetic friend. His performance is the core of the film and other characters and actors seem to feed off of him and balance.

Lets hope that Thomas McCarthy, the writer/director, can keep progressing with his next film.

Altman Festival Continues

Sunday at the Altman film festival brought highs, but mostly lows, as visitors to the Academy of Music were forced to endure blunders of an unusual nature: the film quality of many of the Sunday films was poor, resulting in frequent snags and audio issues.

“Thieves Like Us” (1974) began without a hitch. The film is a fairly straight-forward drama about three convicted felons who escape from a Mississippi prison and continue to indulge in a life of crime. Set in the 1930s, the film stars Keith Carradine as the youthful felon, Bowie. Shelley Duvall (this festival could also be called the Shelley Duvall film festival) co-stars as Keechie – his sweet, country bumpkin love interest. “Thieves” seems heavily inspired by “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967), particularly with its ending. The final reel had a few issues. Coke product placement abounds.

After “Thieves,” we strolled over to Pinocchio’s for a slice of pizza. We hurried back for “McCabe and Mrs. Miller,” immediately noting the yellow tinge attached to the picture. A friend of mine griped about this, mostly because “McCabe” is one of his all-time favorite films and the shoot-em-up finale takes place in the snow. “It’s going to be all yellow,” he grumbled. I was more concerned with sound. For three-quarters of the film, all the dialogue between Beatty and Christie was a fuzzy mumble. I strained my ears to hear but to little avail. In short, “McCabe and Mrs. Miller” sucked, if only because I couldn’t understand a word of what was being said between the characters.

From what I did gauge, McCabe (Beatty) comes to the hoedunk town of Presbyterian Church looking to start a whorehouse. He passes through the town on a rainy night, drawing the local yokels to the town saloon for a card game. In addition to being a man of questionable morals, he’s also a heavy gambler. And, as the saloon owner gossips once McCabe is out of earshot – he may be the quickdraw McCabe of legend, who shot down the infamous Bill Roundtree with a derringer. This is neither confirmed nor denied by McCabe, who simply scowls and continues to play the card game.

What’s great about this opening scene is that it completely disregards all western film archetypes. The saloon isn’t ornate; girls in red, green, and blue striped corsets with fishnets or pantaloons aren’t dancing the can-can on a stage nearby. The saloon is a bunch of wood planks, and there are no girls, just dirty pioneer men with dirt all over their faces and missing teeth, swigging back hard liquor. They look like hard-living men. When they find out McCabe is bringing ladies to town, they smack their lips together in hungry expectation.

Leonard Cohen provided an amazing three-song soundtrack for the film (that I could hear). After I finish this, I’ll see about downloading them. Anyway, McCabe buys three ladies and brings them to town early, before the construction of his magnificent brothel has been finished. He sets them up in squalid little tents, under such charming advertisements as “2 for 1 Lil.” The men don’t seem to mind, but Mrs. Miller (Christie) does. She approaches McCabe with a business proposition (first she insists on dinner, scarfs down the food on her plate, and speaks a lot with her hands), that he hires her to run the brothel. “But I know how to run this!” he basically insists, to which Mrs. Miller retorts with a bunch of squirm-inducing questions – “what are you gonna do when they get their period? What about when they get old and they get religious, what then?” McCabe just shrinks in his seat. And so their business union is set.

I don’t want to rehash the whole movie, although I probably could. Beatty as McCabe reminded me of Beatty as Clyde Barrow, and I love that at the height of his heartthrob popularity in the late 60s-70s, he dared to take on roles which challenged that. In “Bonnie and Clyde,” his Barrow has a big impotence problem (I guess it was better than being gay, as Clyde reportedly was). Here he’s funding whorehouses. Although he seems assertive, McCabe is actually sort of bumbling. He’s easily dominated by Mrs. Miller, and stumbles into a confrontation with a national railroad company looking to buy out his holdings in town. He holds fast to his pride, insisting they give him more than what they’ve offered. And later he’s got a few choice lines. “I got poetry. I’m not an educated man by any means, but I got poetry in me,” he says. And he tells this recurring joke about an ass that elicited lots of laughter from the audience. I never heard it right and had to have it retold to me later on as I exited the theater (completely ruined it). McCabe also falls hard for Mrs. Miller. Her services can be bought, as he discovers one evening. Henceforth, he shares her bed nightly.

Crossing the railroad company ends up being a fatal mistake. Although the mighty McCabe beats his enemies - even producing the fabled derringer for the final kill – he doesn’t escape the showdown unscathed. He slumps over in the snow, bleeding and dying. Meanwhile, the town church is on fire, and all the residents have flocked to it. Mrs. Miller is not with McCabe, nor is she at the fire. Instead she’s getting wasted in an opium den. She looks out at the distance, a glazed look in her eyes as he lies dying. That’s how it ends - an inglorious ending for two inglorious characters.

-SM

The Mastery of Altman, Take 2

“3 Women” (1977) played after “Brewster.” The film starred Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek. We encountered a few technical difficulties with the projection, making the narrative dicey and difficult to engage in. Even without the snag, “3 Women” was a weak entry. The film lagged in pacing and spent too much time in the dull goings-on of its leads.

Millie (Duvall) and Pinky (Spacek) are co-workers at the same geriatric rehab facility (read: nursing home in denial). Their job is to walk the seniors around a pool and to babysit them while they're in the tub, just to make sure they don't prune too much in the water or die. The opening shot juxtaposes these conflicting images of age. The young ladies in their skimpy suits stand beside the old women, who are all cellulite and flab. Pinky is new and immediately takes a shine to chatty, self-absorbed Millie. She leaps at the opportunity to become her roommate, but there's something off about Pinky. Under real world analysis, she may be autistic or something. "3 Women" never delves that far, only going so close as to establish Pinky's decidedly unhappy childhood in Texas. Her folks show up in the middle of the film seeming very out of touch with the modern world. As a get well present they give her one of those godawful adage plaques I'm sure you've seen hanging in someone's kitchen before, this one extolling the virtues of hard-work and keeping up with one's chores. Her parents seem ripped from American Gothic until we see them having sex in Pinky's bed (then they just seem creepy). The third woman is a pregnant muralist (Janice Rule) who serves no function whatsoever to the narrative until the very end.

The film has a dream-like lethargy about it, which seems to be the point. “Women” dances around a dramatic showdown but never delivers a big pay-off. Liken it to a watered-down version of Bergman’s “Persona.” The ending is competent but doesn’t satisfy, nor is it explained well. I left the Academy of Music after “3 Women” – ostensibly to go home and get some work done. Instead I went to Faces and got a pair of sunglasses. Ms. Meagher and co. stayed until midnight, watching “Nashville” at 7 and “The Player” at 10 p.m.

Today I will return to Northampton, boyfriend en tote, to experience day 2 of the festival. “Thieves Like Us” (1974) begins at 4:30, followed at 7 p.m. by “McCabe & Mrs. Miller” (1971) and “The Long Goodbye” (1973) at 9:30 p.m. “McCabe” is the one I’m really excited for. The film stars Warren Beatty and Julie Christie. It’s set in the old west. Beatty plays a profiteer looking to launch a cheapo brothel in town. Christie’s the town newcomer who becomes madam. I’ve heard great things about it over the years, but never got around to seeing it. I recommend you all check it out!

-SM

The Mastery of Altman, Take 1

The Altman film festival commenced Friday at the Academy of Music in Northampton. While this intrepid Collegian critic was forced to miss Friday night’s opening due to work conflicts, news from those who did attend was very positive. MASH (1970) was shown, followed by a live performance from The Feelies.

Bright and early Saturday, Mogie Meagher and I (along with two Fitchburg College stowaways) braved the morning wilderness to catch a matinee showing of “Brewster McCloud.” The film did not disappoint. The credits roll (and then roll again – it’s a delightful touch) over the Houston Astrodome. There, in a fallout shelter, lives young Brewster. He wants to fly and is trying to build a pair of wings. He has some kind of mother-nestling relationship with Sally Kellerman, who trails him throughout the movie in a form-fitting trench coat, helping and protecting him along on his quest. She strips down later in the film (don’t ask me why) and exposes these wing-scars on her back, leading Mogie to speculate, “Maybe she’s a fallen angel?” This is never explained, but her ascent at the end of the film toward a bright light helps shore up the theory. Other notable things about “Brewster” – the film marks the big debut of Shelley Duvall. She looks like Twiggy and she plays Brewster’s love interest. Mike Murphy, whom you may recognize from Woody Allen’s “Manhattan” (I did, at least), co-stars as detective Mike Shaft. He’s called in because, although Brewster seems sweet and harmless, people who mess with him seem to end up… well, dead. Shaft comes in, and, so the radio playing off the mise-en-scene declares, he’s got the loveliest blue eyes anyone has ever seen. Later on one eye goes brown, as if to symbolize his fall from prestige. He’s the first to notice that all the victims have bird poo on them. On that note, he sets off trying to track down our oddball protagonist.

I’m not totally familiar with Altman’s body of work, but from what I gather “Brewster” comes at a high point in his career, and is recognized as one of his greatest films. I hesitate to use the term “masterful,” but “Brewster” does seem like the exercise of a highly skilled director. The film is comical at some points (note the madcap Lecturer who narrates the film) and scathing at others (a bird shits on a paper with a Spiro Agnew headline). One issue I take with Altman is his tendency to use about a dozen or so characters in a film. Everyone’s got something going on and nothing seems to cater overtly to any overarching theme or narrative. Generally it's not until the end of the film that all this milieu ties together, if it does at all. It's what he's famous for, but his films can suffer continuity issues as a result. In “Brewster" there are plenty of fringe characters. They all happen to be headed in the same direction.

DVD Pick of the Week

This weekend in Northampton there is a festival dedicated to Robert Altman. So this weekend for my DVD I figured I'd pick a movie that feels like an Altman film, but was a first for one of the new-era of American directors.

P.T. Anderson's first film "Boogie Night's" was a breathe of fresh air in Hollywood when it came out. It was also a major role for Mark Wahlberg.

The movie is about the porn industry to say the least. Burt Reynolds is classy as the head honcho, and has the porn star look down pat. Along with the rest of the ensemble cast (Phillip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, Heather Graham, Julianne Moore, John C. Reilly, and Don Cheadle).

The movie moves well, and the camera-work is strong with some of the best tracking shots in film history. the movie moves more as a character study than a simple narrative. Intertwining characters bring the ensemble together.

A strong first film from a director who has now brought all that talent to the forefront of American film with "There Will be Blood." And "Boogie Nights" was where it all started.

Interview: Matt Senreich Co-Creator of "Robot Chicken"

Peter Rizzo: So let me start this off, you did a lot of work with comic books, how has that affected the show?
Matt Senreich: Speaks for the “geek culture” that we like to tap into. I grew up a geek and worked at marvel comics, influenced me to the point where now I’m playing with toys for a living.

PR: In Season 3, there is an actual figure of you depicted in one of the episodes, I was wondering what you did with that figure?
MS: Actually its popping up in season 4 and is currently being animated, so other people are touching me inappropriately right now.

PR: That’s a good living.
MS: Its one of the benefits of having a show.

PR: In the first episode of season 3, you joke about the possibility of being canceled, is there any real life inspiration behind this?
MS: Its sort of become a running joke that at the beginning of every season that we’re going to be canceled but then we get renewed. So we’ll probably keep doing that until we do get canceled.

PR: When do you think that will be?
MS: Well I’m just hoping not for now so they can pay my bills for longer.

PR: I had a lot of questions about the actual animation process. It must take a really long time to animate these scenes how do you decide which ideas are funny enough to be on the show
MS: Um…for us its one of those things were it’ll be a few of us in a writer’s room, and we’ll think of as many ideas as we can for a day. We’ll sit around a table myself, Seth and our two head writers Tom and Chuck. It has to be a 3-1 vote to get into the show. Four very differing viewpoints of what’s funny. And when we try to justify why we don’t like a skit, but at the end of the day it’s people with a different sense of humor. And we hope that our sense of humor is the same as everyone else’s out there. We’re sketch comedy so we can go from a very dark comedic sketch to something that is just slapstick. We like the idea of just jumping around a lot because then if you didn’t like this one skit, maybe you’ll like the next.

PR: So at the end of this process once you’ve assembled all your clips, how do these then get processed into episodes, do you try to go for any themes or…
MS: Little complicated, its one of those things where we think about it in our minds how it will play out, we put every sketch idea onto an index card and it’ll probably be for four or five episodes at a time. About 15 cards an episode when it starts, okay how many original hand sculpts will have to get made, how many toys will have to get made cuz we cant have too many in one episode. We have to have just around roughly the same amount which are very complicated sketches, Based on all that we’ll try to match things up and try to get it where we feel we need it to be.

PR: Favorite guest to have on the show?
MS: It varies, a lot of them and they’ve all given me such great stories. The first one that always comes to mind is Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLouise, I grew up loving Cannonball Run it was one of my favorite movies and to watch the two of them interact with each other, to watch Burt Reynolds actually slap Dom DeLouise when he screwed up his lines, and to learn that was real and see it person. It was great you could tell that these guys have been friends for a really long time. That was surreal. George Lucas, especially because I didn’t realize he had such a wicked sense of humor, hes a very sarcastic person that you just don’t expect because he comes across as shy in interviews. So when he comes out with that quick wit it catches you and I really enjoyed that.

PR: How did you come up with a title for the show?
MS: We didn’t actually have a title for the show it was just a bunch of animated shorts for the web called, Sweet J presents in 2000. We did it for so many months we used it as our pitch but when we pitched it we needed a new title, they didn’t like that. So we submitted like 60 titles and they all got rejected. Then we submitted Robot Chicken, which is a local Chinese restaurant over here, just a funny title they loved. Then we realized we screwed ourselves because now we’d have to come up with a reason for the show name.

PR: Is that where the title sequence comes from?
MS: Yeah we needed a way to explain why the show was called “Robot Chicken” so we did that skit and it was kind of a “clockwork orange” parody.

PR: Where do you see Robot Chicken in 10 years? Do you see it having the longevity of the Simpsons and these other shows?
MS: You know its one of those things as I said that we’re just gonna keep working on it as long as we can, and we’re not bored, right now we’re just having a lot of fun doing. In a perfect world, maybe it turns into like an SNL that is around for a really long time, with different people coming in, but for right now we gotta enjoy it.

Weekend at Home With Movies!

This is going to be the second piece to the weekly column I will be writing for Friday's paper about the upcoming movies. This blog post will however be a DVD recommendation for the weekend, maybe 2 if it's a rainy one, that people should check out.

This week I will begin with a Norwegian film that I rented a few weeks ago, "Reprise." The movie is about two friends whoa re aspiring writers. One with all the talent, and one with the ambition. They both attempt to get published, one does, and the other doesn't. Then the talented writer (published one as well) has a nervous breakdown sue to the pressure. The other friend struggles with improving his skill and creating an original novel.

The movie moves along at a great pace. Just slow enough that when the ending comes it feels as though the movie moved in real-life time, not movie time. The characters develop and their friends develop. The movie certainly has a French feel to it with the editing, narration, and cinematography.

A great rental for anyone that will bring out the aspiring writer in all of us.