Anti-Meth PSA's

(CBS) Academy Award winner Darren Aronofsky is known for directing such critically acclaimed films as"Black Swan" and "The Wrestler." Now he's turned his lens towards helping The Meth Project - a national campaign that spreads awareness about the dangers of methamphetamine use. He's directed four shocking public service announcements depicting terrifying scenes of meth users in bad situations.


If that wasn't frightening enough, there are more HERE.

Aranofsky’s approach to these 30-second spots is similar to that taken in his movies, with their fluid shifting between subjective and objective points-of-view. The tension between the two adds a fascinating dimension to the unfolding drama. In essence, his style confirms the primacy of consciousness:  one’s state of mind inevitably shapes the state of one’s reality.

Almost Jonah

This video was shot near Santa Cruz, where a pod of humpback whales has been surface feeding lately.

Howling at the Moon

Recommended Halloween viewing:  THE WOLFMAN (2010), a masterful version of the werewolf myth rendered in classic Hollywood style by director Joe Johnston.  Ominous, painterly, full of bravura action sequences and subtle, seething passions, the movie is a gorgeous period piece, set in England in 1891. The leads, Benicio Del Toro and Emily Blunt, give pitch-perfect performances with sizzling on-screen chemistry.  Anthony Hopkins is perfectly cast as Benicio's eccentric, willful father, presiding over a fog-laden, decaying country estate. Lush sets and art direction, dark and moody, yet vividly evocative, bring the period and the performances dramatically to life.  Danny Elfman works his usual magic with a brilliant, brooding score, and Shelly Johnson's cinematography is nothing less than breathtaking.

An overlooked masterpiece--miss it at your own peril!

Hysteria

My friend and manager Ken Atchity is in Rome for the premiere of his movie HYSTERIA at the Rome International Film Festival.  Starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Hugh Dancy, Jonathan Price, Rupert Everett,and Felicity Jones, HYSTERIA is a romantic comedy about the invention of the vibrator in Victorian England.  Ken is executive producer.

UPDATE 10/30:  Ken reports film was very well received, with a standing ovation!

Manliness

A passage from Neal Stephenson’s new book:

Neither of these men had much in the way of formal education, since each had decided, during his late teens, to simply go out into the world and begin doing something. And each of them had found his way from there, sometimes with good and sometimes with bad results. Consequently, neither had much in the way of money or prestige. But each had a kind of confidence about him that was not often found in young men who had followed the recommended path through high school to college and postgraduate training. If she had wanted to be cruel or catty about it, Zula might have likened those meticulously groomed boys to overgrown fetuses, waiting endlessly to be born. Which was absolutely fine given that the universities were well stocked with fetal women. But perhaps because of her background in refugee camps and the premature death of her mother, she could not bring herself to be interested in those men. This quality that she had seen in Peter and now saw in Csongor was — and she flinched from the word, but there seemed little point in trying to distance herself from it through layers of self-conscious irony — masculine.

OWS

"Never has a man, a moment, and a movement come together like this."
Ed Driscoll

Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick

Here's a shout out for my friend Joe Schreiber, a prolific and talented thriller and horror author, whose new 'young adult' novel comes out October 25th.  Starred review in Publisher's Weekly and movie rights to Paramount. I'd order it based on the title alone, but if that doesn't do it for you, get a load of this: