And City Trees

Ron Livingston is a competent working actor, and handled his role as Jack Berger sprightly enough as a foil against the indomitable Sarah Jessica Parker; he does better in these small episodic character sketches, and I was actually entertained by him in the canceled Defying Gravity, now that Wiki toggles my memory. This series really had a sense of wonder about it, a promise of big ideas. I have no idea why studios cannot handle quality production values like this, which has taken off my train of thought, but not my primary concern. I did indicate, when I started this project, that even shows like Sex and The City would be relevant, but I am still turning that over. I also indicated that I was less inclined to deal with empowerment as an agenda when it sacrifices other aesthetic values to that message, and this remains the case with films like The Music Within, which I viewed, grumbling. Livingston could not really carry the lead, but this is not entirely his fault, as both the script and direction are choppy. Perhaps Pimentel wanted to aim for a pedestrian sensibility, and that's understandable, given what I am doing, but as a narrative trying to shovel it all in, it felt like the television had been on too long, rather than a story that pulled in the viewer.

A biography worth telling? Yes, but not this way. A respectful documentary in independent theatre might have been better. Was his life as tough as mine? You might ask what a quantifying comparison merits, and this is a valid criticism. Was his mother sicker than mine? Perhaps, but he had a fulfilling and nearly independent adulthood, and I have always been one or a few threats away from imprisonment, after my first sixteen years in the American gulag of homes, hospitalization, and then life long poverty. I may, however, try to contact him, if his best buddy was like me, then Pimentel understands spastic behavior. It takes a powerful art to change the world, and the art he did generate wasn't powerful enough.

I intend to tie this in with some of Todorov's critical concepts of symbiotic relationships, but my sensibilities need to pause.