Multimedia Disorder: January 2009

I finally had the chance to catch a showing of the Wrestler. I know, I know...late to the game, right? Maybe, but I've had such an emotional investment in Mickey Rourke ever since I became obsessed with him and his best known film (to the hardcore believers) The Pope of Greenwich Village back in 1984. A year prior to that he had co-starred in Rumble Fish as the Motorcycle Boy, which would become another of my all time favorites. I've watched both of these films at least 25-30 times probably (maybe more), but the thing was that every new Mickey Rourke film was like an event to me in the eighties, and I didn't miss an opening day showing until Harley Davidson and The Malboro Man in 1991. I finally did watch it a year or so after it's release on pay per view in a hotel room in Tahoe. Yes, while most people were inflating their hotel bills by watching porn, I paid to watch that trainwreck of a film no less than three times. In my defense, I hadn't slept in at least two days. The memory gets a little hazy in regards to that particualr weekend. Hey, it was the nineties homeboy ( a film we won't get into here, but for the record Homeboy was written by Mickey Rourke). Mickey Rourke meant so much more to me than I can write here (in a blog). There are very few actors, artists, or musicians who have had that kind of effect on me in my life.

So, I'll skip ahead to the Wrestler, and while I truly believe that Sin City was a great film, and Mickey Rourke great in it, I can also see why the Wrestler had to be his comeback film. This is a film about loss, and Mickey Rourke was our next "greatest actor of his generation" who was lost to us for over a decade. In the Wrestler, Mickey Rourke's performance achieves a rawness and realism that is seen very rarely in acting, stage or screen. Sean Penn has reached those levels, and there are others, but Mickey Rourke has an otherworldly quality that is all but impossible to describe. It's the same stuff, energy that Marlon Brando had. Mickey Rourke has that, and he's had it in every film he's ever been in.

The Wrestler is a tragic film, dealing with tragic figures leading tragic lives. When I write that it's a film about loss, I don't just mean one character or one type of loss. This film is relentless in exploring that subject, and it's definitely no holds barred. Marisa Tomei's performance should not be overlooked because she's perfect as Cassidy, who is Randy's love interest, to say the least. While this is not a film review, I should note that the film's director Darren Aronofsky does a stellar job of not over directing this film. He knows when to backup and let his actors do their thing, and with the small exception of one Scorcese-esque scene (Randy 'The Ram' Robinson's first walk to the deli counter) he never tries to force the story utilizing the flashiness we've seen in some of his previous films (Requiem for a Dream or The Fountain).

I watched the Wrestler after putting it off for so long because I knew what it would do to me, and I was right. It's taken me days to mentally deal with that performance, and the film as a whole.

Here's a clip from a very underrated film called The Pledge, which was released back in 2001, and directed by Sean Penn. It's one of the last great Jack Nicholson performances on Film, and it features Mickey Rourke in a short, but powerful performance. At the time this film was shot, Mickey Rourke was living in a $500 a month apartment.

-Jay Unidos

Multimedia Disorder

Friday, January 30, 2009

Live at Gilman, Volume One

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Motorcycle Boy