| recent comments mjp said: I'm, uh, working on it. Right now. ~ Fly me to the moon, then blow that shit up! shane said: michael phillips,you are a fuckin madman,post yer next story... ~ Fly me to the moon, then blow that shit up! mjp said: Yes, that is a potential problem for people in 10,001. I often worry about... ~ Doctor, it hurts when I move my arm like this... damian said: indeed. ~ Doctor, it hurts when I move my arm like this... Scott h Florance said: The Christians believe Jesus Christ tis immortal and he lives forever. It is... ~ Doctor, it hurts when I move my arm like this... mjp said: Isn't there a NASCAR or gun or fishing or tabakky-chewing site you can go... ~ I can see for miles, but it's kind of blurry up ahead Andrew Olin Jones said: Hillbilly said you might turn off the smog but I don't want you to do that... ~ I can see for miles, but it's kind of blurry up ahead mjp said: My childhood box? I don't think anyone wants to open that... ~ Fly me to the moon, then blow that shit up!   previous ramblings • I can see for miles, but it's kind of blurry up ahead 2.18.08 • Simple is as simple does 1.31.08 • I feel the earthworms under my feet 1.22.08 • New boots and panties 1.19.08 • I haven't given up, I've just stopped trying 12.25.07 • I don't pray. Kneeling bags my nylons. 12.20.07 • So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night 9.19.07 • Grab the closet case by the horns 8.11.07 • Blogged down in the forum of my youth 5.23.07 • Hotter than July 5.16.07 • 26 Miles Across the Deep Blue Sea 5.11.07 • A rose by any other name, still doesn't smell so good 4.6.07 • Children of a lesser dog from hell 2.22.07 • Squid lights 1.9.07 • Cats and dogs 12.19.06 • Mission accomplished! 11.22.06 • Various tidbits of marginal interest to anyone 11.9.06 • Buddy, can you spare a town? 10.16.06 • A garbage can is somewhat precise. 10.6.06 • Another cantankerous rant - surprise! 9.25.06 • Hey, where you been? 9.1.06 • Geeeeeeee mail, @smog.net 7.27.06 • Oh good lord, it's a kid's show 7.22.06 • Sleeping dogs 6.28.06 • Dumb and dumber 6.21.06 • HDTV for $150! 5.16.06 • Thank you for calling the White House. My name is Krishna, how may I be providing you excellent service today? 4.28.06 • Decades and bits of centuries 4.24.06 • Secret Society 3.22.06 • Sometimes I don't speak right, but yet I know what I'm talking about 3.20.06 • This is the modern world 3.15.06 • Shakespeare never did this 2.18.06 • Who is Lonnie Tolliver, and why should you care? 1.27.06 • Scuttlebutt and innuendo 1.16.06 • Beware the fury of a patient man 1.6.06 • I feel 100 pounds lighter already... 12.30.05 • Dude! Your wiki is showing... 12.20.05 • Yeti spotted, film at 11! 12.19.05 • "God is a concept by which we measure our pain." 12.9.05 • Doctor, it hurts when I move my arm like this... 12.8.05 • Hey, what's with the torn up clothes, and didn't you have a shag haircut last week? 12.5.05 • Shameless self-promotion or a desperate cry for love? You decide. 11.18.05 • Further proof that drinking will kill you 11.6.05 • Big Apple dreamin' on a wooden floor 11.1.05 • Happy birthday to smog. Now where's my cake? 10.16.05 • I got nothing 10.4.05 • free within my own doom 9.25.05 • A Rambling Essay on Politics and the Bleeding Life Written While Drinking a Six-Pack (Tall) 9.12.05 • (There's Gonna Be A) Showdown 8.31.05 • Well, could I have her spam instead of the baked beans then? 8.28.05 • What has four wheels and flies? 8.21.05 • Don't think twice, it's all right 8.13.05 • My ass is getting cold sitting on this glacier... 8.11.05 • Capital radio 8.11.05 • nobody's fault 7.23.05 • secret santa 7.3.05 • everything we touch turns to rust 6.21.05 • on the edge of seventeen 6.13.05 • life at 300 baud 6.9.05 • 12 steps away from the screen, running 6.5.05 • shake a leg 6.5.05 • san pedro anarchy press, Inc. 5.22.05 • Z is for zealot 5.20.05 • Lenny Bruce was right 5.16.05 • bad meat in the can 5.12.05 • it's in the water 5.12.05 • you tell me 5.10.05 • what matters most is how well you're lit 5.5.05 • just keep pulling the handle, it'll all be over soon 5.3.05 • rust never sleeps 4.24.05 • randomness, chaos and deliverance 4.21.05 • baby was a black sheep, baby was a whore 4.20.05 • Kill my boss? Do I dare live out the American dream? 4.16.05 • roses are red, violets are blue, i thought my hell had ended, but the devil is a crafty bastard with a sick sense of humor and a mean streak a mile wide 4.14.05 • rock the cash bar 4.12.05 • many rivers to cross 4.10.05 • imitation is the sincerest form of unoriginality 4.8.05 • if you are the big tree, we are the small axe! 4.8.05 • give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine 4.4.05 • and who the hell figured QWERTY was a good idea? 4.4.05 • your pope was nothing compared to this guy! 4.3.05 • you've got a TV...i've got a TV...we've all got TV's... 3.29.05 • hitler painted roses 3.26.05 • counselor 3.25.05 • she's still here, damn it! 3.21.05 • patience is a virtue, but resignation is for suckers. 3.13.05 • should have taken mom up on those violin lessons... 3.9.05 • last night a dj saved my life! yeah, maaaaan! 3.9.05 • if i had a hammer... 3.8.05 • caveman re-invents the wheel! film at 11. 3.7.05 • he's mad as hell, and he's not going to take it anymore! 3.4.05 • this is a public service announcement - with guitar! 3.2.05 • battlefield girth 2.28.05 • never give a media giant an even break 2.25.05 • 10 Things I've done that you haven't 2.24.05 • come back, bastard! 2.23.05 • hey, just because he likes Judy Garland records and the Tony awards doesn't necessarily mean anything... 2.23.05 • "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." 2.21.05 • I couldn't say it if it wasn't true 2.17.05 • The demons begged Jesus, "If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs." 2.11.05 • how to lose 10 pounds in five minutes! 2.6.05 • earth to smog, earth to smog 2.5.05 • my own private chernobyl... 2.2.05 • Estoy solo, pero siento que tu estas conmigo. 1.26.05 • confessions of an obsessive freak of nature 1.5.05 • death wants more death 12.30.04 • every mikkle make a muckle (ask a Jamaican what it means) 12.17.04 • things that don't suck 12.15.04 • what's it all about, mjp? 11.11.04 • old dog, new tricks 9.2.04 • if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all 8.15.04 • Frida Kahlo, Charles Bukowski and Joel-Peter Witkin have left the building 2.13.03 • R.I.P. smog.net 5.19.04 • almost cut my hair...it happened just the other day 4.23.04 • and we're back! 4.22.04 • one cocoa full a basket 2.14.04 • let's get ready to rumble 1.24.04 • brace yourself for a shitstorm 1.6.04 • it's my party, i'll o.d. if i want to 12.6.03 • pimp-a-licious 11.27.03 • on a clear day you can see the 18th century 11.9.03 • men are from mars, women are from vegas 10.14.03 • hit and run walker 10.6.03 • It's all cow, after all 10.2.03 • Johnny Cash is dead, Tower records is bankrupt, gawd save the fucking Queen. 9.13.03 • any history of mental illness? 9.10.03 • boggle: to hesitate as if in fear or doubt. 9.6.03 • pass the aspirin 8.27.03 • this is what i get for leaving the house 7.21.03 • safety in numbers 7.13.03 • god damn 7.11.03 • a million and one stupid things... 6.6.03 • praise Jeebus! 5.23.03 • Kennedy to John Lydon; "Oh, lighten up!" 5.20.03 • they say the French are cowards and assholes... 5.2.03 • I couldn't possibly be *that* fat! 4.19.03 • what's so funny 'bout peace love and understanding? 3.22.03 • this skunk's for you 3.12.03 • Monday's coming like a jail on wheels 2.24.03 • linux, linus, lomax, duck! 2.20.03 • FREE MICHAEL JACKSON! 2.18.03 • the weather in Los Angeles is cloudy 2.13.03 ©1995-2008 mjp | what matters most is how well you're lit Thursday, May 5th 2005, 1:59pm Erik Skjeveland from Norway sends this review of the just released film based on Bukowski's novel Factotum, starring Matt Dillon as Chinaski, Lili Taylor as Jan, and Marisa Tomei... -------------  Saw it last Saturday night. I'm - surprisingly - not disappointed. I could sum it up thus: It's not perfect but neither is the book.Many scenes from the book are missing. Two songs set to Buk-poems are in the movie, both from What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk Through the Fire: 1. "no title" (song called "I wish to weep") 2. "wind the clock" (song called "Slow day") These songs impressed me enough to justify the film alone. They made me have a new look at the poems from What Matters Most.... The last song is the theme song you can hear in the trailer. It works! Never thought of Bukowski as singable before. Also "everywhere, everywhere" from What Matters Most... is recited in the film, and parts of "a poem is a city" from The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses over the Hills.  The two poems set to music could be called the theme of the movie. They're both of the philosophical type Bukowski often wrote. The movie is slowww - just like Bukowski's slurred voice. Many will not like this. Definitely not Hollywood pace. Its just like the theme song: everything just stays the same. It would be good to watch with a hangover...Director Bent Hamer is good at making atmosphere, the film isn't purely character driven. He has toned down the irony/wild humor aspect (Barfly) and the shock/anger/sex/artist-rebel myth (Tales of ordinary madness) and focuses on the big picture always in the back of Bukowski's mind: disgust with mankind and society, and at the same time the will to keep on walking through the fire, despite it all. I always thought Bukowski's disgust with us/mankind was linked to his expectations. It's a bit like childhood and children: when they're babies we grownups must seem like almighty gods to them. When you're a little kid the world is a beautiful mystery. Bukowski could never let go of those expectations...guess his father "beat" them into him.  The film stays with you after you've seen it, and you forget the weaknesses. That's my experience. That's more than I can say for the other movies I've seen. In many ways this movie is more like one of Bukowski's book of poems. Some poems/scenes you like and others you browse quickly through. This is more like an adaptation of poems...the plot is thin.About Dillon being too handsome: in an interview he said that he early on knew he could not "do Bukowski" because he would need too much makeup. ;-) He concentrates on a doing his version of the Chinaski character, trying to forget Bukowski. He does OK. I especially like the blend of vulnerability and strength that comes through. For example: the hangover scene were he breaks up with Jan. Not bad at all... Clean and modern? [i had previously remarked in an email to Erik that the trailer looked too clean and modern. - mjp] No, not clean, but it is set in modern day USA. All the sites for Chinaski's rooms and jobs are from real sites in Minneapolis..."everything just stays the same". Also, the slow pace is fitting for the 1940's. on Thursday, May 5th 2005 at 7:08pm, kirsten said: is this going to be released in the us? i looked and it doesn't seem to be out yet. on Friday, May 6th 2005 at 12:42am, mjp said: no release date for the US yet. it's only playing in Norway as far as i know...i believe the filmmaker is Norwegian, so there you go. if it is released in the US, look for the studio to change the title to something like barenaked bar, or drinking with the enemy. because, you know, no one knows what the fuck factotum means, and you don't want to sprain people's asses making them reach for a dictionary. on Saturday, May 7th 2005 at 10:34am, Testimonium Paupertatis said: Seems both, quite interesting and pretty strange to me. Ok it?s the trouble getting literature on screen but Dillon as Chinaski? Though I?ve never seen "Barfly" I wondered about M. Rourke or even considering Sean Penn and with those you might see or interpret some vague connection to the material. But Dillon? I can?t imagine. Maybe as some sort of young Kerouac or someting and maybe one should see the movie. I fear the future. What may come next, say Orlando Bloom starring "Ham on Rye"? Or the one who did Frodo, what was his name? And beside: I remember watching Benjamin Bratt as Pinero and truly hope that it`s not in this sick the-o-so-romantic-self-destroying-poet-tone. on Tuesday, May 10th 2005 at 3:03pm, chosha said: Sean Penn might have been interesting, but I'll give Dillon the benefit of the doubt until I see it. I wonder if it'll reach Australia... on Tuesday, May 24th 2005 at 7:50am, Erik Skjeveland said: News from Cannes: It seems several US distributors are bidding for the rights to Factotum, so looks like you'll get to see it over there. The film got extremely good reviews - several of them can be found on the net. Here's one I just read: FACTOTUM Starring Matt Dillon, Lili Taylor. Written by Bent Hamer, Jim Stark. Directed by Bent Hamer. A world premiere in the Director?s Fortnight, Factotum may be the first Charles Bukowski adaptation that Bukowski wouldn?t have hated. The film follows the writer?s booze-addled alter ego Henry Chinaski (Matt Dillon) through a series of jobs, bars and women. Norwegian director Bent Hamer (last here with Kitchen Stories) and longtime Jarmusch collaborator Jim Stark adapted Factotum from the original novel and several other Bukowski short stories. The movie?s deadpan tone is perfectly suited to the humour in the material and also keeps Bukowski?s own sentimental streak in check. Likewise, Dillon?s low-key, quietly intelligent but still extremely messy Chinaski has little in common with Mickey Rourke?s boneheaded boor in Barfly. Yet the best performance belongs to the too-long-AWOL Lili Taylor as Jan, the one broad who may be even more messed up than Chinaski is. (Eye Weekley) on Tuesday, May 31st 2005 at 1:07am, jeff mores said: does anyone know where i can find out information about this film? does the director have a site or anything? please let me know. i have to get my hands on a copy of this movie, but have no idea how. thanks on Tuesday, May 31st 2005 at 8:21am, melissa sue said: in other absurd news... this month's VOGUE has an interview with salma hyak (however you spell that...) in which she discusses her new role as Camilla. on Monday, June 6th 2005 at 8:19am, Erik Skjeveland said: And the Factotum distribution rights go to........ http://www.picturehousefilms.com/ or read a recent B+ here: http://emanuellevy.com/article.php?action=13&articleID=245 on Monday, June 6th 2005 at 9:38am, mjp said: i have yet to read a bad review of Factotum... on Saturday, August 13th 2005 at 4:35pm, melissa sue said: last night took in Bukowski at Belleview, which for all its obvious faults, i enjoyed tremendously. While some might complain about the horrible constantly-freezing-up footage, i found it great because i had the oppertunity to quickly sketch those frozen screens, while still listening to the audio. i'd never heard his voice before. netflix rocks my socks. i'm on the waiting list for factotum right now. on Monday, September 19th 2005 at 5:59pm, phil yahbootes said: The cut I've seen was 1 hr 29. I was disappointed. There are too many great scenes from the book missing. I quite liked Matt Dillon?s performance as Henry. He's obviously studied Bukowski?s movement and speech to some degree - indeed I have read that he studied Shroeder's ?The Bukowski Tapes? constantly during filming. I think he has also studied Mickey Rourke in ?Barfly?. I remember in one interview Bukowski said that Rourke's Chinaski was too dirty and dishevelled and that if he?d (Bukowski) looked like that in the 40s he?d never have been able to rent a room. Well, Dillon tries to carry off a clean bum look and does ok. You can compare the look to photos of Bukowski from the 50s and 60s. Slimmer and darker haired than in later years. Of course Rourke had the good fortune to meet and mingle with Bukowski when filming Barfly and has told how he modelled his speech and movement on the writer. One area where Factotum looses out to Barfly is in the narration or over dubbing of Bukowski?s poetry. Dillon fails to carry the poetry completely. I feel at least that Rourke put some of his Chinaski character into his readings. Dillon really should have been given some of the early home recordings to digest to get the meter right. Another disappointment for me was Marissa Tomei. I love this actress dearly, but her depiction of Laura seemed to rely too much on imitating Faye Dunaway?s Wanda from Barly. Maybe this is unfair as most of Marissa?s scenes are the parts of Factotum that were so recycled into Barfly, but that?s my first impression. By the time this movie has reached Tomei?s scenes it was starting to feel like an overly arty reworking of Barfly. Lili Taylor as Jan was passable, but I feel that her character was not given much soul by this script, which is very sad considering how much depth has been poured into the Jan/Jane character in Bukowski?s writings. On the whole this is true of all the characters in the film ? they just don?t get enough humanity. I strongly feel that someone coming to this movie with no experience of the novel or of Bukowski?s writing generally would be so completely bored. For the Bukowski fan, its good to see his work fleshed out into celluloid again, but sadly this one falls short once more. For my money Barfly still rules, if only because Bukowski was so much a part of its conception. This film perhaps does better than Tales of Ordinary Madness, but not as well as Crazy Love. One last comment ? the Trailer for the film features footage not seen in the finished movie. If anything, I recommend you watch the trailer and leave it at that. It?s snappier, funnier, warmer and features an amphibious car [http://www.amphicars.com/] not seen in the movie. on Tuesday, September 20th 2005 at 9:35pm, carol es said: sometimes i just don't understand why anyone makes a movie out of a perfectly good book. it happens all the time and it's just plain dumb. on Wednesday, September 21st 2005 at 12:27am, Hillbilly Jones said: "The World According to Garp" and "Dances With Wolves" hit the nail on the head. "I was just thinking that of all the trails in this life, there is one that matters most. It is the trail of a true human being. I think you are on this trail, and it is good to see." ~Kicking Bird Maybe those are exceptions, but the fact is: If they think they can make money on a movie they will make the movie. That's what it's about anyway. It's a b-b-b-business. Money is love to some people, especially when they really really really need a great blow job; but that's another story. I'd still like to slow dance with Stands With A Fist. She was quite the grunter, at least for Dunbar she was. What a babe! By the way, my cousin Leman Numan Jones might be commenting from time to time from the SAME IP ADDRESS! AAGGGGHHHHHH!!!! Don't slap him around like you did my lovely and lushious wife with the bodacious ta-ta's when she put in her 2-cents worth and you thought, incorrectly, that we was me. Be nice to him, OK? He just got his first set of loafers but he hasn't figured out how to keep them from flying off his feet when jumping from the dock to the boat. He's only 35, you know. on Wednesday, September 21st 2005 at 12:23pm, melissa sue said: www.askthedustthemovie.com *shudder* that, and i couldn't be more annoyed at the fact that elijah's fancy-pants dance in "Everything is Illuminated" is not showing in my town. on Wednesday, September 21st 2005 at 2:08pm, mjp said: askthedustthemovie.com --- Yeah, well, that will suck. Even a well made film falls way short of any book. Especially where writers like Bukowski and Fante, who write with a constant undercurrent of off-kilter humor are concerned. Not much of that makes it through to the screenplays. And when Confederacy of Dunces finally makes it to the screen (it's been in the works for years) that will be a dark day as well. A movie would have to be 8 hours long to really capture a good book (anyone ever seen the 6 hour version of Bertolucci's 1900? Wow! Wow...). smog.blog powered by buddy V2.0 |