Movie Review: The Journey of Jared Price

It’s always interesting to me to watch the earlier work of an award-winning moviemaker. In this case, the winner in question is Dustin Lance Black, who won an Academy Award for Milk. Black wrote and directed this very low budget movie about a young man who leaves Georgia for (where else?) Los Angeles. It’s an admirable first try but in my opinion does not foreshadow his later work. Part of the problem is the production values. The sound is muffled at times and the dialog can be difficult to understand. The use of hand-held cameras throughout the movie is tiresome at first and then irritating. Another problem is the amateurish acting. Although the young man who plays Jared Price (Corey Spears) is easy on the eyes, a thespian he ain’t. But the basic problem with this movie is much larger than the acting, production values or low budget. The problem is that unlike Harvey Milk who was a fascinating, complex, and compelling human being, Jared Price is a dull and one-dimensional character. Who cares? I sure didn’t.

Two Stars out of Five

Movie Review: Mulligans

Steven Spielburg said, “People have forgotten how to tell a story. Stories don't have a middle or an end any more. They usually have a beginning that never stops beginning.” And that is the essence of this review. This movie has no ending, it just sort of…stops. The premise of the story is an interesting one: Dad falls for son’s best friend. And although I have no interest in golf whatsoever, I find the golf metaphor interesting enough. Writer/actor Charlie David even goes so far as to define a mulligan in the opening credits. “A mulligan, in golf, is when a player gets a second chance to perform a certain move or action.” So where is the mulligan? If there is one in this movie, I missed it. This film does have a lot going for it; it’s sexy, well-acted, funny in part and witty at times. The technical aspects are all good to excellent. The situation is plausible enough, although some aspects of the plot are not. For example, Nathan’s wife Stacy seems to go from zero to card-carrying Human Rights Campaigner in less than 60 seconds. It’s not a bad movie. In fact it’s pretty good. It’s just that the whole movie set up expectations of some sort of epiphany, a wake-up call, a second chance and there is none. A pleasant enough movie but nowhere near the audacious tagline “The Graduate for a new generation.” Where’s Steven Spielburg when you need him?

Keith Olbermann Eviscerates Carrie Prejean


Now can we PLEASE PLEASE lay this to rest? This is the Miss USA pageant. A beauty pageant! There is nothing less important to the state of the nation than a beauty pageant. Except a gossip columnist.

Now at the risk of angering some of my gay brethren Perez Hilton is a GOSSIP COLUMNIST! The only class of people lower than gossip columnists is televangelists.

STOP STOP STOP. Your 15 minutes were up an hour ago.