Hollywoodland:
review by Elijah J. Brubaker

I grew up watching the George Reeves Superman show, which might be unique for a person my age. I can’t remember which cable network showed superman but I remember being enamored with all the black and white shows I could find. I’d watch the Addams Family, Stooges, Jackie Gleason... I was the only kid at my grade school that knew who Harold Lloyd was.
A few years later I became interested in Hollywood of the fifties and early sixties. I read Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon when I was in junior high. I had theories about the Robert Kennedy assassination and who killed Thomas Ince... This may have explained my lack of friends.

In my reading I found that George Reeves had supposedly killed himself and there was a lot of circumstantial evidence that pointed to a possible murder. I was hooked on that story for a while. I read everything I could find but there wasn’t much to be found in the public library of a small Oregon fishing town.
And thus we begin the film known as Hollywoodland. The movie, originally titled Truth, Justice And The American Way follows Hollywood detective Louis Simo as he tries to uncover the truth behind the death of George Reeves. Simo, played by Adrien Brody is a bottom-feeder, glory hound detective that can’t cut a break. His only paying gig is a paranoid husband that is convinced of his wife’s infidelity. Simo talks his way into the life and checkbook of Reeves’ mother who is convinced her son was murdered.

While the Simo story unfolds we are treated to flashbacks to Reeves’ life and his troubled relationship with a married woman. Reeves, played by Ben Affleck, is a Swaggering dick who can’t get over the fact that he was in Gone with the wind. Toni Mannix, played by Diane lane, is married to an MGM honcho, more thug than suit.
As the movie grinds on for seemingly endless teeth clenching hours it can’t commit to being a single story. There are three compelling stories but all of them refuse to build any tension and they all bang into each other toward the end in a clumsy ham-fisted manner.
The story of Reeves is interesting enough to fill a couple of hours. I can only imagine that the film-makers were tired of seeing yet another alcoholic, tortured, philanderer, actor who goes into a tailspin so they decided to mix it up.
The detective story is interesting enough and Brody Plays a likeable flatfoot but the investigation is a cliche ridden pastiche of scenes from much better movies. Brody’s the tough-guy-who-can’t-get-a-break complete with hot girls blowing smoke in his face and Simo getting cracked in the face and being told to “stay outta mistuh Mannix’s business.”
The third and arguably best storyline involves Simo’s son and the reaction he has to the death of “superman” which plays out in the dwindling relationship between the boy and his father. The father proves himself to be a man with feet of clay as much as the actor who played Superman. Simo’s son is distraught over hearing of “superman’s” suicide. Simo is divorced and can’t be the father figure the boy wants...
I’m often most interested in the overall story of a film or the “arc” as Hollywood types say. I often hang a film’s success on whether or not it works as a compelling story. I have to say Hollywoodland does not hold up as a story but there are many likeable things about the film. The acting is fine, Brody as always pulls out some very interesting tricks and the humor of the movie rests solely on his shoulders. Affleck, who excels when he’s allowed to play two dimensional idiots (dazed and confused, Good will hunting) does well as a studio-system, square jawed, grinning, actor-with-a-capital-A. Diane Lane is also quite good as a jilted older woman trying to retain her youth.
The movie is well crafted from a technical standpoint. It’s well lit and photographed nicely which nowadays seems like praising a clothing designer for having such pretty models in their ads.
About halfway through the film I found myself thinking “what’s with this Goodfellas shit?” It wasn’t until the next day that I found out that director Allen Coulter directed severel episodes of the Sopranos. The film is one of those disjointed directorial debuts where every scene is lovingly crafted but the totality of the movie is a sprawling mess.

If I remember correctly the movie opens sept. ninth

Fifty superheroes

#26 Silver Surfer

Okay, here's the Silver Surfer... Another essentially naked superhero. I had a bunch of surfer related gags to toss out but I just don't have it in me today. sorry.

still no updates, sorry. We're more or less moved into the new place but I've been dealing with some serious intestinal fucked-upedness... I told my girl I had the west nile virus but she didn't believe me.

Sorry for the lack of superheroes lately... I didn't think that posting fifty of the damn things would really be that much work. You know? Just sit down, doodle out some picture of Captain America, then post "what's the deal with Captain america?" But lately things have been getting in the way

First thing... I've started updated my comics more. This means I have to sit at the computer longer which is kind of boring and dumb. It takes about twenty minutes to color my pages (I'm using a pretty simple pallette on both strips) but if I color three pages a day that's an hour right there... After that I don't want to sit and type out something about how stupid underdog is. Never fear though, both of you that are still reading this thing for the lame superhero posts, I'll get back on it in a minute or two.

Next thing. I've been moving, or planning to move for a while now. yesterday we had a big yard sale so I was forced to sit on my porch for nine hours and say over and over again "that? that costs a dollar?" Then we moved a few things into the new place, just a few bookshelves and big stuff. The apartment is on the fourth floor so my back is kind of achey... not that I expect anyone to care how out of shape I am.

Next thing. I'm not going to be paying for internet access anymore. I plan on lugging the laptop to a bar downstairs to get free WiFi and make all my internet time there. We'll see how easy that is... I'm kind of a homebody so if you don't see updates in a while it's cause I decided that internet access wasn't worth leaving the house for.

You know, I planned on posting pictures of superheroes 'cause I didn't want to write about my boring ass life but here it is for everyone to see. HAH!

here's a picture of Jared: