Director: Michel Gondry
Writer(s): Charlie Kaufman

Cast:
Jim Carrey – Joel Barish
Kate Winslet – Clementine Kruczynski
Gerry Robert Byrne – Train Conductor
Elijah Wood – Patrick
Thomas Jay Ryan - Frank
Mark Ruffalo -Stan

Jim Carrey in the Title Role

Preamble:
Charlie Kaufman, author of ‘Adaptation’ and ‘Being John Malkovich’, seems to have an obsession with portraying the internal struggles first and foremost, but Eternal Sunshine stands as a triumph in the areas where the other two films failed. Here, the plots don’t meander and the resolution is complete, not rushed.

Plot Points:

The story of what happens when people who have fallen out of love, try to use technology to forget they ever met their exes. Joel and Clementine decide to erase their failed relationship from their respective memories.

The Meat:

Like Kaufman’s other films, ‘Eternal Sunshine is set largely inside the mind of one of its characters’, in this case Joel. The surreal nature of his mind’s is played out with hilarious use of special effects to make him a small player in his own recollections, which go all the way back to childhood. In the real world, the intertwined relationships of the men and women conducting the operation go on, and we gradually learn the corporal background of the relationship at the center of the film. The scenes of their early awkwardness are honest and natural and reveal some similarities between the two that don’t seem to be there at first. Clementine appears to be less nervous than Joel for example, but in reality she simply disguises it with aggression. We also find them both to be severely dysfunctional in certain social settings, a perfect fit if for no other reason than the fact that their shortcomings complement each other’s so well. Naturally the large problems they have on their own are revealed in pettiness towards each other, but until then it doesn’t matter.

The revelation of the film’s second act–as we watch not only the problems that caused the end of the relationship but the attempt to preserve some of what turned out to be not-so-bad memories– is a truth that motivates the title and the third act. No matter how much we may wish to erase some things from the past, you can’t throw out the baby with the bath water, and the mistakes and trials are just the price of admission, not a sum of the whole experience if seen with objectivity. On the brink of losing that experience in totality, the characters realize it, running from the procedure inside of Joel’s mind in a last effort to hold onto even the smallest samples of their time together.

This decision-making process in the conclusion is appropriate and resonates the truth at the center of the film: the brain has little value in matters of the heart. The eternal sunshine of a spotless mind is the ultimate commentary on ignorance – not knowing and thus not missing what you’ve never ventured to have. As a punch line punctuation, all but the last five minutes are presented as proof that they shouldn’t do what they do in the last 5 minutes.
One of the best movies of the decade.

Movie – 10/10

DVD – 9/10

First of all, the full color screen and dimensions of the Apple ipad announced yesterday are indeed great for comic books. The screen size is very close in inches to the height of a comic book in print. No issue there, and the portrait mode is huge because reading comic pages on a landscape mode screen is fairly counterintuitive. The problem however comes when the drawbacks of the device are focused on, revealing it to be (for now) a fairly limited method of distribution.

For one, the device is not Flash enabled, continuing Apple’s trend of working around Flash as much as possible (it runs horribly on Mac computers). This eliminates several existing online displays for comics, including Marvel’s. No way to say if this was similar to the proprietary efforts put behind the .mp4 format on itunes, but the effect is the same; forcing people to go through your storefront to get your products. This brings up the second problem, and it’s one that has already been represented in the comics industry by Diamond distributions. Their stranglehold on the comic book distribution industry is monopolistic, pure and simple. There is nobody who even holds a future threat in terms of distribution for print comics. If the ipad takes off as a reader, Apple is in a position to take a similar place in the e-reader market for digital comic books.

On its own that may sound a bit “slippery slope-ish”, but consider another comic book overlord of the past: the Comics Code Authority. The CCA was the bane of creative freedom for comic book professionals censoring content and regulating imagination to the point of pidgeon-holding the direction of certain companies for decades. Before thinking that the situation has nothing to do with Apple, consider the similarity of these two stories.

First, the CCA defines for creators what is considered to be acceptable content for their books:

Later that year, the Comics Code Authority was formed, and it became nearly impossible to get a non-Code comic distributed — which effectively put an end to horror as a comic book genre. In fact, the word “horror” was forbidden to be used on a comic book cover, as were “terror” and “weird

Link

Second, Apple tells Trent Reznor, aka Nine Inch Nails, that his music app’s update is inappropriate to be sold in their store based on its musical content:

On discovering that Apple has refused to approve NIN’s latest iPhone app update, he tweeted: “Apple rejects the NIN iPhone update because it contains objectionable content. The objectionable content referenced is ‘The Downward Spiral.’” (”The Downward Spiral” is a 1994 album that laces a touch of earthy nihilism into a musical screwdriver of heavy psychological meltdown.)

Link

Attention is called to this minor similarity – not to paint Apple as some monolithic entity that has rejected music and app ventures in a pseudo-censorship role, but, to be honest about the potential for a lot more of something they’ve already done. In this case it’s even more troubling because Apple could end up being a combination of the CCA AND Diamond if this goes well enough for them. Who’s to say what should constitute acceptable content in the apps? And is a device so lacking in features really the one we want to take this risk with?

Personally I’ll be doing versions of my upcoming work for the ipad, and I hope it works well without interference on the creative level. I also hope that the same ratings restrictions on apps in the itunes store don’t end up compartmentalizing the digital comic buying public. And it will be a welcome alternative to the amazon kindle, which features a horrible profit sharing percentage and a far inferior screen. I also can’t be the only comics fan who tries and fails to read comics in bed or on the couch without bending pages. We’ll see in a few months.

Where to start with all the observations of the Chargers’ collective choke job?

-Throughout the season, it was remarked on that the Chargers had one of the worst per carry averages in the NFL, but people explained that it would be okay since the Chargers throw the ball well. Since when does that work in the playoffs? Even teams like the Super Bowl winning Rams had to rely on Marshall Faulk to win the big games.

-A large part of that low per carry average is due to the pathetic running of Ladanian Tomlinson. Constantly falling down even before contact, he broke less tackles this year than any starting running back I’ve seen in years. Formerly great, no doubt, but it’s time to put pride aside and retire. Schottenheimer’s coaching style simply dos not allow long careers, and he’s no different.

-Norv Turner – despite idiots on sports sites who wanted to give him credit for a nice regular season in a horrible division – is still meant to be a coordinator, not a head coach. There is no amount of experience that will change this. Going for the onside kick meant that the second most successful result (stopping the Jets on three downs) still would result in you having to go the full length of the field and rely on Nate Kaeding to not choke again. In addition, the play calling for the hurry up offense run by the Chargers made almost no sense, at least in terms of there only being one play called at a time. How are you not calling 2 plays every time you break huddle in that situation? The penalties and miscues can also be attributed to him, as his teams have never shown discipline.

-Shawne Merriman solidified his status as the most overrated “big name” defender in the league. He was being single blocked all game – at times by tight ends – and still had no impact on either run or pass. Without him contributing San Diego’s hardest hitter was Jammer, who is of course a Cornerback. Meanwhile every Jets defender was lighting people up.

-There is a complete lack of fear of all opponents coming to San Diego. When the Patriots won a few years ago, New England players celebrated by mocking Merriman’s “lights out” dance. Today, Shonn Greene celebrated a 53-yard run by mocking Tomlinson’s ball flip. None of them are punished, and none of them fear anything except maybe a few “those guys are meanies” comments in the post game locker room. Eric Weddle won a fundamentals award for his sure tackling this year, and was promptly run over by Greene on that same game clinching score. The team is soft. Period.

-When Antonio Cromartie was still a nickel back a few years ago people wondered why. Now that he’s spent two years getting beat regularly and almost had a key special teams turnover today, let’s give the definitive answer. Cromartie is athletic, but he’s not very strong and his spatial awareness is terrible. As a result he’s great in nickel situations where he can rove, avoid having to press Recievers, and keep plays in front of him. If you ask him to walk (stay with a man) and chew bubble gum (find the ball) at the same time he simply can’t.

The Nate Kaeding criticisms are obvious, he choked, but if anything that makes him more of a Charger than ever.