When Ambition Pays Off
In the wake of Quentin Tarantino calling off his “final” film, The Movie Critic, I (and everyone else who loves Tarantino) can’t help but think about how his ambition to make a great “final” film might be the thing that keeps him from making that film at all. I think too about the ambition of Tracy Flick in Election, a high school overachiever who becomes many things she doesn’t want to be due to her goal of being student body President. Ambition is great, don’t hear me wrong, but what if it isn’t a factor in success but in failure instead? We all know ambition horror stories, another one isn’t going to scare us any more than we already are. But what about an ambitious project by a great filmmaker that actually pays off? I am speaking of Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, a film which unfolds over 12 years, both in the story and in real life.
Mason Evans Jr., played by Ellar Coltrane for all 12 years of its production, is the focal point of the story, a story about his boyhood, following him from 6 years old until he leaves for college at 18. Set in Texas (no surprise here), Mason seeks to make sense of his world and the world at-large. His mother (played by Patricia Arquette) is trying to make a life of her own while keeping her kids alive. His sister (played by Linklater’s daughter, Lorelei) is both a pest and a caretaker for him (as most big sisters are). His father (played by the inevitable Ethan Hawke…did I mention this is a Linklater film?) is a free thinker, pulling McCain-Palin signs out of yards one day and in a shirt and tie at a baptist church the next). Mason’s home is always broken, starting with his mother and father’s divorce and traversing the several failed marriages of his moms. He meets friends along the way, some siblings and some not, falls in love, gets his heartbroken, tries new things, gets into trouble, and struggles with existential questions throughout it all. In simple terms, he does what most of us do growing up.
As the Boyhood narrative plays out, capturing both my heart and imagination, I can’t help but think of what it took to pull off a project such as this. This was a 12-year project condensed into a 165-minute film. In one sense, we think about our own projects and deadlines, thinking to ourselves that a 12-year due date sounds awfully nice. On the other hand, keeping actors and actresses happy and involved for over a decade might be enough for one to can such a project before it even starts. Like I said, this is no doubt Linklater’s most ambitious film (and maybe the most ambitious film in Hollywood this century), but that didn’t stop him from attempting to pull it off. And pull it off he did, as the film still remains one of a handful to reach and maintain a metacritic score on iMDB of “100”.
We all have ambitious goals, in fact, most of our new years resolutions each year fall into such a category. If I want to read the Bible in a year, I need to read around 2-3 chapters each day, or 5.5 books per month. If I want to run 1,200 miles in a year, I need to run 100 miles a month which is a daily average of over 3 miles. As Mason grows up before our own eyes (and Linklater’s especially), we become witnesses of a person who is constantly changing but doesn’t forget who he is and the role he is playing. We must take the same thing into our own ambitions, realizing big goals are accomplished over time and consistency. Boyhood isn’t released until 2014 (celebrating 10 years this year) meaning that in 2008 it was still a work in progress. And in 2010. And 2012. When a goal is accomplished, the time spent achieving it seems marginal, however long it actually took. But, that’s the point. What was once an ambitious goal, is now an every day reality, and a key piece to accomplishing that next ambitious feat.
A Doomed Spotify Wrapped?
Is there anything worse than opening your Spotify Wrapped in December and seeing “White Noise | 12 Hours” as you number one song played? It is preventable though, which is why I always travel with a $20 white noise machine (for babies) from Amazon. My Wrapped won’t be dominated by sleep aid songs this year, but I am concerned over which song(s) from my “Running is a Movie” playlist will find their way into the top 5.
I created this playlist after a running influencer named Nico Felich shared that he likes listening to movie scores while running because it feels like he is in a movie. An avid Hans Zimmer and John Williams fan myself had to see what all the excitement was about. In hindsight, I owe over 400 miles to this playlist so far, and have had more and more time to grapple with why movie scores are so moving (pun somewhat intended). From scenes of the Batman chasing the Joker, to Rocky sprinting through the streets of Philadelphia, those scenes are given life via the composition associated with them. Mute the TV next time you watch an intense scene in your favorite movie and see how critical it is to telling the story.
For me, it is somewhat of a full circle moment: music is what got me into movies in the first place. I remember seeing a late showing of Interstellar in high school with my friends. I had never experienced anything like that before. The scene of Cooper, docking the ship after Mann jeopardizes the mission, saying “ it’s not possible, its necessary” will forever be a favorite movie of mine. If someone asked me “why do you love movies so much?”, my answer would point to that moment, at that theater, during that scene. When “No Time for Caution” gets shuffled in during one of my runs, I can’t help but be brought back to that memory, which has the inevitable effect of me escaping the current intensity of the run.
Will my Spotify Wrapped be dominated by these songs from my favorite movie moments? Probably. But that ultimately says something about what makes music so great. Music can take us back to our most joyful and even hardest moments. It has the ability to make time fly, and the ability to slow us down and be present in a moment. And in this case, it has the ability to transform something so amazingly visual into a full-body experience.
In short: I owe alot to Hans Zimmer and can’t wait to see him in concert in September.
Nashville Half-Marathon
I, and many other will toe the line for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in Nashville tomorrow morning. After running my first race on a trail that felt like a Scooby-Doo back drop, running through Downtown Nashville will be a breath of fresh of air. It is supposed to be hot, even in the morning tomorrow but my race day fueling plan should help to counter that:
Wake-up @ 4am
Bagel/Peanut Butter/Banana/Honey + Coffee
Full Bottle of 2 servings G1M
Water while waiting for race to start
3 Gels: 1st @ 7:05am, 2nd @ mile 4, 3rd @ mile 8.5
Nathan Soft Flask (2 scoops of G1M/scoop of Electrolytes)
Water/Electrolytes on course both to cooldown/replenish
Lord willing there will be pizza or something at Nissan Stadium where we finish. My bib number is #2605 if you want to track me, but I would recommend sleeping in over that. Cheers to another 100+ mile month!