#jon ortiz

[imjustheretoseetheprivateblogs]

I like to think of this as a reversal of the traditional King Kong setup; Kong takes on numerous man made flying machines only this time, they're on his turf, so he has the home field advantage.

[bigwheelblading]

The Rollerblade 10K Challenge at Far Rockaway Beach in New York City. Rollerblade's Myles Cotter-Sparrow drove the Rollerblade van down to Far Rockaway Beach in New York City this past weekend for the…

[bigwheelblading]

oneblademag.com: Go! Sports x Car Free NYC – Making Bladers in Manhattan One Magazine's Justin Eisenger was recently in NYC during Care Free NYC. This is an event were a few blocks of Broadway were blocked off to traffic and open to pedestrians, skaters, cyclists and anything non-motorized.

[moviesign-blog-blog]

Jack Goes Boating (2010): Philip Seymour Hoffman Directs

In the early days of cinema, canned theater was a derisive term for theatrical stage productions adopted for the screen. Film was trying desperately to establish itself as a respectable art form and to do so it had to extricate itself from the shadow of its well-to-do elder brother, the theater (capital T). Adaptations of stage versions of Shakespeare were not taken kindly by the burgeoning filmmaking community. They were the theater trying to impart some of its prestige on the movies, saying, here, have some respectability, cinema. Movies were working-class entertainment, low brow, a second-class form of art. Film had to set itself apart by making movies that told stories with the powers unique to the cinema, with the lens, with the editing room. Anything that said theater on it or put the primacy of the actor or the word over visual representation was most unwelcome.

The movies are in a very different place right now: it's almost fair to say that the modern cinema has become as cinema as cinema is going to get. Consider an average shot length in mega-profitable Hollywood blockbusting summer movies hovering somewhere around the 2s of seconds, consider that with CGI and budgets as big as a small country's GDP the movie's can go anywhere, show anything, completely divorced from theater's crutch (boon?) of having to be evocative within the material limitations of the stage. Modern movies (the ones that sell millions and cost about the same) are all about the spectacle. That's why they get seen by so many people and played on theaters across the globe. The odd film out is the subtle flick, the slow-burner, the film hinging on verbosity and the complex relationships between its players.

Where I'm going with all of this is not to call Phillip Seymour Hoffman's directorial debut Jack Goes Boating (2010) canned theater. It's not exactly that, though by all rights it's an often literal translation from the stage. Originally produced in 2007 by the LAByrinth Theatre Company in New York City, the film stars the same actors (with the exception of exceptional new-comer Amy Ryan), has the same script-writer and shoots mostly the same scenes. Hoffman stars as the titular Jack, a shy and emotionally wounded limousine driver whose struggle to summon the courage to pursue Connie (Amy Ryan) is mirrored by her wrestling with deep social and psychological scars of her own. Taking place in the dead of winter with the promise of going boating in the spring, the movie follows their courtship as both characters struggle with self-improvement and the slow re-opening of their emotional lives to let the other person in. It's a relentlessly charming tango amidst the viciousness of a city cold in the winter and neighbor's bitter in their hearts.

One of the real advantages to Jack Goes Boating being a very direct translation from the stage to the screen is the actors have very obviously spent a lot of time in their characters' skin. Laudably, Amy Ryan, the newcomer, manages to fit right in to the experienced cast. Daphne Rubin-Vega and Jon Ortiz are frighteningly accurate at capturing a long-time couple cracking along the seams. The script and the director spell out nothing explicitly about the wounds and damages all the characters carry. But it's all there. You can guess at the history of Hoffman's character from his white guy dreads 'positive vibes' reggae, that he can't swim and mumbles when he speaks. There's a genuine warmth and friendliness between these cast members, who work together on their acting technique and put on productions together at the LAB in NYC.

The soundtrack for the movie is exceptional and persistent, almost like you're listening with an earbud on one side to the iPod of one of the character's on screen. Though it's theatrical to the core of its screenplay, there's a genuine thoughtfulness on how they decided to translate onto the screen. Scenes shot in swimming pools and around the kitchen are gorgeously shot and as Hoffman's character has a habit of closing his eyes to visualize an action before producing it, the movie produces vivid asides so we can see what the character sees as the idealized action he is seeking to attain.

Jack Goes Boating is streaming right now on Netflix Instant Stream and with Philip Seymour Hoffman appearing in damn near anything with a decent cast (including the upcoming Ides of March) it's worth seeing what the multi-talented actor can do behind the camera.