Bossypants: A Chucklesome Read

"She was one of my first female
role models ....
.... following Wikipedia reports that the sitcom
wouldn’t premiere in Australia for another year,
30 Rock became the first TV show
I downloaded..."



I’ve been busy lately – as much as a person without a real/day/paid job can be busy – so after burning out from some sparse and highly coveted film work I’ve decided today would be my Recreational- nay, Lazy Day. Monday is the new Saturday. Or should it be a Sunday? As in, Lazy Monday – which makes my heart smile with Narnia-cupcake goodness. My in-/activity for the day consisted of reading Tina Fey’s newish autobiography Bossypants, which is due back to the library tomorrow. After waking at 11am and making porridge whilst dancing to The Beatles, I crawled back into bed to start and finish Fey’s life-thus-far story. I did get up to use the toilet, eat an apple and jog at sunset (all  separate occasions ) but the better part of the day – literally! (and I mean fact-wise and book-wise! [too much wordplay/grammar to handle!]) – was spent nestled under covers enjoying this light, engaging and chucklesome* read.

Fey: Rose through the ranks of Second City and Saturday Night Live
 before writing Mean Girls and creating award-winning series 30 Rock.

 

Don’t worry, I hear your cautious hands being raised (yes, somehow I can!) so I’ll take a moment to answer your pressing, anxiety-inducing concerns. Yes, this is almost a book review! It’s okay. Since I’m so animated from enjoying it, and it directly concerns TV personalities/shows/pastimes – I feel it’s very suitable to blog about it. And no, I have no further intentions to discuss books here. This is a commentary of film, TV and society – things I can watch. I’m not a “book person". Or so I say. Friends and family have heard me profess that I don’t read any books. By this I mean, I don’t finish any books. It’s a terrible habit I’ve procured over time. I blame my high school’s English curriculum: Grade 9 and 11 were particularly bad years for set reading. I actually start many books but quit them with just chapters to go – no matter if I’m totally enthralled by them; it must be something about the act of reading. I either get sleepy or remember something good that’s on TV. Ten years from now my shrink will use this analogy to highlight several failed marriages, a string of one-night-stands and a deep-seeded problem with commitment. He’ll probably attribute it towards TV remotes. Gee whiz, I look forward to having a shrink(!) but it seems a more sophisticated and educational experience to refer to them as “analysts” like they do in Annie Hall. I hope for a Lorraine Bracco (The Sopranos) / Gabriel Byrne (In Treatment) figure, rather than the Dylan Baker (Happiness), inattentive and perverted type.

A young Fey certainly had a way with the fellas, lesbians and closeted gays

Bossypants is full of embarrassing anecdotes, half-closeted homosexuals, and a number of memorable eccentrics from the time Fey went to kindergarten. Fey recounts memories both distant and recent with her trademark self-deprecating, nerdy and satirical outlook. Every chapter (of the text and it seems that of her life) is full of awkward social interactions and experiences, as well as sweet friendships and good fortune as Fey works her way up the comedy scene. My favourite bits were her descriptions and insights of her TV shows Saturday Night Live & 30 Rock (naturally), as well as her response to fan mail (hecklers) and tips for improv comedy. Rule No.1: always say ‘YES’

Cast of 30 Rock

  and accept your fellow performer’s suggestion. Rule No.2: say ‘YES, AND...’ so as to build on the scene and opportunity for comedy, in addition to affirming your value and contribution to the sketch.  Other rules addressed confidence and there being no such thing as mistakes. I liked this lesson and especially for how Fey has applied these rules throughout her personal and work lives – not just in sketch comedy. I too have found these nuggets helpful in relation to my conversational skills and collaborative efforts, rather than for improv classes I do not take.

I’ve considered being a performer of sorts over the years. I like making people laugh and being very goofy. Though I think I have a different humour to Fey – in that hers is a brand characterised by wit, sarcasm and the best kind of silly. In other words, she’s too good for me, but hey why not have high aspirations and exemplars? She was one of my first female role models – which I am ashamed to concede since I’ve been taught by many good women about many great women at school and I only really discovered Tina Fey when I was 15-going-on-16. Obviously, I have always deeply respected and admired my mother and grandmothers, but for me, Fey was a very successful and relevant figure-woman in my favourite industry.

Cast of Wayne World: Will you do the Fandango?

I started watching Saturday Night Live sketches and shows in grade 9 or 10 after my brothers hired out Mike Myers’ Best-Of-SNL DVD. I was vaguely aware of the series and that Wayne’s World the movie was based on the show’s characters. We watched Wayne’s World a lot as kids; it was crucial in developing our humour and we can still do all the words. It’s also how we were introduced to Queen and learnt all the lyrics to "Bohemian Rhapsody".  Anyway, after the Mike Myers DVD we/I went through all the other Best-Of DVDs. Tina Fey popped up occasionally in sketches and on Weekend Update. I was intrigued by her sense of timing and favouritism amongst SNL fans. With the advent of YouTube in 2006,  I became better acquainted with her comedy and eagerly anticipated her new  series 30 Rock. And here is a very special piece of information: following Wikipedia reports that the sitcom wouldn’t premiere in Australia for another year, 30 Rock became the first TV show I downloaded! ** I liked it quite well, but wasn’t hooked and have lost touch with the show in the later seasons. I’ve since become enamoured of other comediennes Ronni Ancona, Jessica Hynes (nee Stevenson), Olivia Colman, Jo Brand, Miranda Hart, and SNL alumnae Sarah Silverman, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig.

 



Fey: Hilarious headlines on
Weekend Update

Funny women (left to right): Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph and Fey

 

I still like Tina Fey very much and I recommend Bossypants to devotees and those otherwise just the same. Remember, as well as an actress, she’s a writer and her language here is colourful and articulate.  As I mentioned earlier, her climb and time as a comedy writer/performer in Chicago and New York are arguably the best bits. Her upbringing whilst average is still very amusing and contains several quirky stories. It's her recent years (post-Sarah Palin impersonation) that are the least compelling chapters. It might just be a relatable factor for me or their comparison to making a TV show, but reflections on in-laws and motherhood weren't real page-turners. Having said that, they were touching insights and were treated with equal humour and irreverence.  

Overall, Fey's autobiography is well-structured and it feels like genuine effort went into writing it - unlike many auto-/biographies that are released "medium rare" as opposed to "well done" purely to reach the market during the pinnacle of it's subject's popularity. Maybe it was one of these books designed for the Best Sellers: Fey is still young (41 years) with no life-endangering experiences, addictions or scandals to recount; the last few chapters may have been tacked on; and the book is only 275 pages long. But honestly, Fey's writing is so thoroughly and consistently entertaining that if there was any rush or half-heartedness involved, it has been expertly masked by her writing talent. As expected she is a wonderfully charming subject: funny, down-to-earth and a very anxious Bossypants.

8/10 rubber chickens***

*Chucklesome:

(1) characterising something that evokes laughter

(2) of or relating to chuckles

(2) an original word Claire uses to define her times and doings spent chuckling

**Note: I am not a serial serial downloader. Just when I’ve missed an episode or a series or when it’s not airing in Aus. I do like having regular shows to watch on TV, although the number of them have waned over the years.

*** Good Game reference I enjoy but will not steal/use ever again.



Best.Movie.Ever

"...I feel my all-time favourite movie should match my spirit, which is far more positive, excitable and sentimental than Steve Zissou’s misadventures..."





The Life Aquatic:
A Story of Father & Probable Son

For a number of years I’ve maintained The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou is my all-time favourite movie. But in recent months I’ve realised that it just isn’t so anymore.



Make no mistake, I am not off my love of Wes Anderson, which a friend of mine announced to me a little while ago. He’s aboard the PT bandwagon. PT Anderson is another favourite filmmaker of mine. The first time I saw Magnolia it was like I had never actually breathed oxygen. I wasn’t living (and that is a very ridiculous claim). I left the room looking at movies, storytelling and life in a whole new respect. That was after an immediate re-watch the second it finished (yes, six straight hours of PT). It was part of my Phillip Seymour Hoffman month and Magnolia was far and away the highlight of the marathon.





The Magnificent Andersons: Paul Thomas (left) and Wes (right)                                       The Hoffman-athon



Every minute of Magnolia was compelling; it was like it was always building to something – constant panning and slow zooming; secrets and revelations unravelling scene to scene; orchestral music forever on the verge of a crescendo. And then that stunning moment… I’m sorry, P.T., but are all your characters singing an Aimee Mann song across scenes, sets and storylines? Is this really happening? How could he do that? How come no other filmmaker has ever realised this genius device before? Then “the frogs scene”. I was actually smiling and shaking my head in disbelief like a really irritating grandfather quibbling/revelling in modern technology. If you haven’t seen Magnolia, you’re missing out on some really fun and original filmmaking.

   



Magnolia: The Frogs Scene



But I’m way off track – I was reconsidering my all-time favourite movie. I don’t think Magnolia would take my number one spot, but I’m not looking to replace it exactly. I’m just trying to feel okay about my re-evaluation, or betrayal, you might say. You probably wouldn’t say “betrayal” – I doubt Wes would either – I would, because I feel very strongly about films. It’s how I learn about other people, cultures, histories and sides to life from a safe distance. And in turn, considering other possible/fictional worlds and circumstances, it’s how I make sense of my world.



The Crayon Ponyfish

The Life Aquatic had a very significant impact on me – it was 2007, post-graduation, post-schoolies and the friends and family I was closest to all happened to be abroad. I was working a cruddy job and wasn’t sure if I should study film or transfer to television – as was the suggestion of a QUT professor/interviewer. I am probably more a TV than movie person – I think you form greater and more meaningful attachments to a series because you have regular, years-long interaction with them. Anyway, I was stuck a little and didn’t have any of my usual confidants around. Then late one lonesome night, The Life Aquatic came on Channel 7. 

 



Seu Jorge: Portugese
Acoustic Bowie Covers

It was the right deep-sea/deep-soul exploration, providing the right humourous tone, that I needed to help negotiate my - what I believed to be original - existiential crisis. (Not to mention the stellar David Bowie soundtrack.) If a film could move me this much and toward the strangest sense of self-assurance, damn mother-flippin' straight I’m studying film. My love affair with Wes continued and but we've been evolving since in quite different directions, creatively and personally (I presume, Wes!). Indeed, there have been times I’ve considered he might be indulgent or unfeeling or cyclical, but a mere re-watching or analytic study of his films prove him to be a hilarious, introspective storyteller, if not  dedicated artist. The thing is though, I watch Rushmore more regularly and possibly more enjoyably than any other Wes film. And Fantastic Mr Fox is really something else; I felt like a proud mother / gloating one-night-stand when it came out. My point is The Life Aquatic will forever be dear and significant to me, but it’s really not what I’m about. Or something, I dunno. I feel my all-time favourite movie should match my spirit, which is far more positive, excitable and sentimental than Steve Zissou’s misadventures.





Team Zissou: an all-star cast

So, Wes, please know I will continue to watch The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou and continue to feel fuzzy about it and grateful for it. I will continue to recommend it to others as well as defend it against the critics. This is, by no means, a goodbye or even the slightest omen of a farewell. It’s a big hug and perfectly-wrapped box of smooth chai tea leaves to acknowledge a beautiful past together and signify the endless search for my actual all-time favourite movie. I’m not even 21. Like relationships and jobs and housing and family, it’ll never really be settled. I know it’ll change and become unimportant at times.

It is a little trivial, I admit. But as a film graduate and sometime socialite, I’m often asked – and as a matter of fact, it’s a really sweet thing to have in the back of your mind: when you need a little pick-me-up, when you want to share a lovely evening in, when you’re nostalgic for its characters, when you’re delirious from recalling and laughing at its quotes, it’s sweet to know you can pop on this one movie that seems designed for you and enjoy it start to finish, even if it’s the 100^th time you’ve seen it. 



Steve Zissou: The search continues...



Old frienz

Say it with me: PRE-TEN-SHUS

I think I’ll go back and watch Garden State again.

I liked it the first time I saw it but I’ve since concluded it was a contrived film and wanting audiences to glorify Braff’s sensational indie music taste. I actually watched it three times within 24 hours that one time I hired it out so many years ago. (Overnight new releases - gotta get ya money’s worth ay).
 

It was all in the midst of Scrubs being one of my favourite comedies on TV and I thought the movie was great. But the third time I watched Garden State, I listened to the director/cast commentary and felt so uneasy hearing Zach Braff flirt with Natalie Portman for 90 straight minutes. NatPort was friendly and chatty but hardly reciprocated his obvious infatuation. He was just trying too hard. Then moments of tenderness and subtlety on-screen became insufferable as their creator similtaneously fawned over his leading lady off-screen. From the wake-up-one-morning beginning to the unusually oomphless hair* to the screw-it-let's-be-happy ending, Braff's directorial debut now reeked of pretension. Every awkward pause, every whispered line, every sparsely furnished room made me wretch. I mean, not even Wes Anderson's frame is that symmetrical.  Afterward I started to respect him less. Then I started enjoying Scrubs less and less. I’m not saying I found it less funny but I felt like I knew what Zach Braff was really like underneath and it reminded me of one too many fellows that made me queasy. I got over it (well mostly) because obviously, I don’t know him at all and he is still a wonderfully funny and charismatic actor. Scrubs means a lot to a lot of people and it certainly had an impression on me. I loved staying up late to watch/simultaneously tape them. I remember taping Scrubs + Arrested Development + Curb Your Enthusiasm + The Office late on school nights. I made so many tapes of pure sitcom awesomeness, but I’ve since bought a number of them on DVD.



Awesome sitcoms: (left to right) The Office [US], Scrubs & Arrested Development

I had very few friends who watched these shows at the time; it was a bit sad that I could only joke about it with my brothers and I had a reputation in school for laughing out loud just thinking about these sitcoms – no one knew what I was on; I'd feel (as) silly explaining it. I haven’t stopped laughing to myself or by myself either. Dad says he can hear me at odd hours of the night several rooms away having a good ol’ chuckle. Be it Doctor Who, Mork and Mindy or whatever. Nothing makes me laugh more than Arrested though and the jokes never wear.

My high school / sitcom tape days were also the days when I really loved David Letterman. Since then I’ve seen him go through a number of scandals and I don’t see him the same way anymore, and he

Dave's Best Look: brown framed glasses and grey suit

probably knows it. I don’t mean me in particular, but he’s submitted to this new view audiences have of him. We’ve both grown jaded with age. It’s like he’s a friend I went to school with whose since gone through a bitchy/slutty period and now has this sad maturity from being knocked up, raising a child and all the accompanying gossip, and we have this awkward encounter when we see each other at the grocery store**. It’s really only out-of-the-blue-awkward; s/he’s too tired to care about social appearances these days. When we part ways, s/he clutches my shoulder quite tenderly and sincerely and adds, “Hey, take care of yourself”. Surreal and heart-warming, no? Geena Davis would play the part of my high school chum / David Letterman in a midday movie.

Anyhow, people are imperfect and people can change. It doesn’t mean they’re any less sensitive or likeable. That’s why I feel guilty about my summation of Zach Braff and Garden State so I’m going to re-watch it and judge the movie for what it is and maybe it’ll recapture the admiration I first felt for it as a teenager. It’s not uncommon to dislike movies you once enjoyed as a child. I’m curious to see how Curly Sue, George of the Jungle and The Swan Princess have withstood the test of time and my maturity. I know cartoons will usually appeal to wide demographics but Jim Belushi/Brendan Fraser movies are another thing entirely. It should be an interesting / nauseating / eye-gouging experience.

Second chances: NatPort & Braff

*It means he's serious.

** Note it's not a supermarket. Grocery stores are where people encounter each other in movies.

- - - - - - -
Garden State re-viewed August 2011:
- A well-written film.
- Best performance: Natalie Portman.
- Some moments/scenes make me aware I'm watching a movie. I don't usually like to realise this. I guess a symmetrical mise-en-scene sticks out more in the beginning of the film because I'm yet to be absorbed by the characters and the plot. A number of times I think he's piecing together a lot of "I've always wanted to do this in a movie" ideas. But overall, very entertaining ideas, eccentric characters, and a lot of "sweet job man" directorial touches that I have to commend Braff for.
- Good movie.
- I still hate the "have a listen to the Shins while I smile over and over" scene. It's gratuitously cute.