Monday, September 24, 2012

Dammit, Jake. (Prophecy Girl Reviews End of Watch!)

Two days ago, I put up an entry about Taylor Swift's attempt to outdo me in the arena of artistically expressing irritation toward the common-sense-challenged man-child known as Jake Gyllenhaal.

"HAHA, THAT TAYLOR," wrote I (well, not literally; I'm dramatizing). "She is saying some of the same things I say, except is less pathetic for it because Jake has acknowledged her existence in public."

I was speaking, of course, of Tay-Tay's Jake-bashing breakup hit, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," and its accompanying scarf-filled video.  I thought the song was hilarious, and the video even more so, both because of the Jake-specific details, and because the song itself comically lent itself to the preset narrative about Jake that I, personally, wrote about online from 2006 to 2007 and then 2010 to early this year.

But Jake, you see, occupies a certain role in my life:  to call him a "weakness" does not do justice to the word "weakness."  He is the crystal meth of my pop culture world.  I took one hit, one time, back in late 2005, and it took me years to kick the habit.  And then I was stupid enough to take another hit in 2010, and I'm still dealing with the aftermath.

Upside?  My tolerance has improved greatly with time.

Downside?  That doesn't mean I'm fully resistant.

An hour into End of Watch...goddammit...he had me rooting for him all over again.  Do you hear that, Jake?  Are you happy?  I was rooting for you.  I was rooting for you because you did a really good job with this movie, and you took a risk in making it - not like the risk you took in making a Viagra-themed love story or a sand-filled Disney video-game flop (which I now look at as part of an experimental phase as you attempted to find yourself, and I forgive you for them because I know you learned from them).  But a risk in going back to being Jake Gyllenhaal.  That guy who makes weird indie (or at least indie-esque) films that are maybe hard to watch but that make people think and bring Big Issues to average movie-goers.  The Jake Gyllenhaal who's not in it for the money, but for the art.  The Jake Gyllenhaal who yes, was probably a total effing dick to Taylor Swift but you're a dick to everyone, and you know what, part of growing up is learning that sometimes guys are dicks.  That music video, which I garnered an unhealthy level of voyeuristic pleasure from, I now see as kind of mean.  Taylor Swift isn't exactly a saint, and Jake, maybe I don't give you enough credit for being a real person in a world where you earn your living by being fake. 

End of Watch was a good movie.  Not the type of movie I would ever see under any other circumstances, but that's maybe the entire lesson of my futile exercise in being a Jake Gyllenhaal fan:  he has always pushed me a little outside my comfort zone.  Sometimes that's meant jetting off to a poetry reading, or going to Los Angeles completely on my own, or pushing my way through the press at a film festival to demand I get what I came for; and sometimes it means watching movies that upset me - that push the boundaries of what I want to believe about humanity and that make me think just a little differently about things in my own life that I take for granted.

So FINE.  There you have it.  I will never watch End of Watch again because the camera-work gave me nausea and the storyline full-on dry heaves.  But I have to give it two thumbs up, because after I watched it, a teensy part of me - a part that is small but whiny and persistent nonetheless - wanted to punch Taylor Swift in her smug face for being so bitchy in that video.

Dammit, Jake.  You came back a little bit with this one.  You may annoy the hell out of me at times, but it's only right to give respect where respect is due, and you got some from me with this one.

23 comments:

  1. I'm so sorry for you, PG :\ I don't know what to say.

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    1. Relapse is a part of recovery and all that...

      Somehow, I will carry on!

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  2. I went through a small I HATE JAKE period.. a quiet one but I did... but you are so right, hes crystal meth... he always was and always will be (to us anyway) I watched him on David Letterman a week or so back, on my big tv-one word- METH!

    My biggest concern with this blog entry is this "I will never watch End of Watch again because the camera-work gave me nausea and the storyline full-on dry heaves" Considering how sick I have been the past few months (pretty sure ive vomitted at least 200 times this year no joke) and how easily I spew and how weak my stomach is (even the MIB ride in Universal kicked me onto the floor for a few hours!) Im really concerned about my physical reaction to this film now!


    p.s. I havnt really looked at those film posters or still much until just now and can I just say fuck he can be a dick but fuck he is still so desirable to look at.

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    1. SERIOUSLY. There was a moment where he was on screen, larger than life, acting his heart out, and it just all slid right back into place. I didn’t even try to resist after that. He looks older now, and not quite so glossy-perfect, but that makes him even MORE attractive to me! It’s like the attractiveness of someone you’ve known (“known”) for a long time, and you now feel a long-standing affection for, and not just a surface-level crush…

      Er, so, yeah, I really did have to turn my head from the screen on several different occasions. I’m *extremely* sensitive to violence, though…but there really were some pretty graphic sequences. I was pretty upset by some of them. The movie also made me cry. :-/ You might want to invest in some tissues before watching, because they could come in handy for multiple uses!!! :)

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  3. I read your Taylor post the other day too and still don't know what to think about it.
    I can understand your being upset about not getting to interview Jake at one point or the other, since I share the same dream, but I hope to never reach the point where he annoys me for simply being him.
    It may be different for me, cause I don't follow him as long as you do and from the beginning he struck me as a rather private person who does a job for the jobs sake and not for the fame.
    I can accept that and, as much I want to speak with him at one point, I'm fine with it never happening either.

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    1. I cant speak for Becky but I can imagine any relationship gets hard when you would put so much time and effort into the other person to get *nothing* literally *nothing* back in return. I dont think anyone could do that for too long. Hence Becky and Jake breaking up... and never getting back together.. ever. Ha I love Taylors song its so catchy!

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    2. I totally understand where Becky comes from, and how that song fits into that.

      Regarding: End of Watch ... it took me 2 yrs to watch PoP - not sure how much it'll till EoW *ggg* I am - seemingly - totally thru with that JG Dude. I am just not that interested anymore. He lost me somewhere - but I don't really know where.

      And I hate to say it: But yep, Sammy, that song is kinda catchy.

      Annie Sasha

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    3. Thank you, Sam and Annie Sasha. :)

      Other Sasha, I’ve come under a lot of criticism from people (and I’m not even saying you definitely fall into this category) who have taken my words perhaps more seriously than I originally wrote them. An interview with Jake was a tiny and ultimately insignificant part of my story with him, and not anything that crossed my mind when writing either of these entries.

      It’s not just that I followed Jake for years; it’s that I turned him into a very personal metaphor for growing up. Sharing that metaphor with the public has been something I’m very proud of, but ultimately it does open me up to criticism.

      My standard argument has always been that Jake Gyllenhaal is a movie star. His name and face sell movie tickets. If he was solely in it for the acting, he could have stuck to the stage. If he was solely in it for the movie-making process, he could have stayed behind the camera. But he did neither, so there must be a part of him that’s in it for the celebrity, and when you’re a celebrity, people like me (and you! :)) come with the package. How you react to those who support you, champion you, donate their time to promoting you says a lot about a person, and there is an irrefutable consensus about Jake: he has not stepped up. In fact, he has frequently been cold, dismissive, and even angry toward the attention that he, himself, has worked his entire life to get.

      But you know, no one’s perfect. Jake’s not. I’m certainly not. And the truth is that I have selfishly used Jake to do so many things in my life that I wouldn’t have done otherwise, including writing a book that more clearly states my thoughts and intentions than anything I’ve written before or since. I have a lot of affection for him, and I’m sure I always will. I also have a lot of unpleasant memories regarding him, his family, and even his fans, and that’s now a part of me, too. (See what Sam said!!)

      I’m glad you’ve made peace with your thoughts about him. Most of the time, I think I have, too. But since he *is* a celebrity, he’s going to pop up in my world now and again, and when he does, some weird emotions are drug to the surface.

      And it’s not just me! I think that was the entire point of Taylor’s video: her assessment of him is unbelievably similar to my own. A part of me loves her for that. Another part of me still feels protective enough to think that it’s fine if *I* make fun of him, but I don’t want to see other people do it. But regardless, I always want to see him succeed, because I think he’s very talented and he’s been a very real part of my life for a long time, and that’s all I was trying to say in writing this entry…

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  4. "WeEEEE are never ever ever EVERRR getting back together"

    - Tay Tay

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  5. Pena and Gyllenhaal are pitch-perfect in these roles and together, and it’s a real wonder if these guys are buds in real-life. If they aren’t, they really are the greatest actors in the world because they literally seem like brothers in ways that I have never seen in a film before. Good review Becky.

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    1. Thank you for the comment! And I wholeheartedly agree. I thought their chemistry together was fantastic, and believable in a way that I haven't seen with Jake and any other actor ever (well, alright, maybe with Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain...). Truly, it was easy to believe they weren't acting at all, but just that the camera happened to catch some real camaraderie between these two. Watching them together *made* this movie for me!

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  6. OK, so I'm gonna have to watch this, aren't I? And here I thought that I could skip coming J. Gyllenhaal movies just out of principle. Damn it.

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    1. Haha, welcome to my world! :D I didn't think I was going to see this one either (at least not in the theater), but, er... I'm going say yes, you're going to have to see this. (And when you do, please let me know what you think!!)

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  7. What I loved about being a Jake fan, was the different genres of films that I never would have watched if he hadn't been in them. And even now, as a not so much Jake fan I still want to see his performance in this, even though I don't normally like action films...so I guess that makes me a Jake fan still...it's so bloody confusing...and I never expended nearly as much energy into him as you Becky!!! Yep- Meth!! ;)

    As a side note. I holidayed in California last fortnight, and whereas 5 years ago I'd have been planning my time in LA as a stalking opportunity (probably via ISJ!), instead I fleetingly thought 'Oooh, that looks a bit like Jake Gyllenhaal' when a bearded, scruffy type in a baseball cap, hipster glasses and khaki trousers walked past in the Farmers Market...he's just not THAT special really is he!?! Ten a penny in LA, it's just in our naive youth he had us fooled for a while!

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    1. Haha, well, I can definitely identify with that because I have a couple of friends in New York right now and they saw Jake’s play last night! I won’t say I’m not jealous, but five or six years ago, I would have been searching for plane tickets the second I heard they were going. Actually, who am I kidding? I would have been there and seen it already! And I STILL would have been itching to go see it (again)! Oh, well… Our youthful enthusiasm was fun while it lasted… :D

      (Btw, *totally* jealous of your California vacation!!)

      I’m totally with you on loving the diversity that being a Jake fan brings to the movie-going experience! I’d love to hear your thoughts when/if you see this. This is such a perfect example of something I *never* would have seen, but he really was great in it. I guess I’ll just have to continue classifying myself as a “recovering addict.” :)

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    2. I went to see End of Watch on opening weekend and I thought it was great movie! I too have a severe adverse reaction to all things violent and I did have to look away from the screen more than once. In my opinion, the filming style in itself didn’t make me all that nauseas and I have a pretty weak stomach!  It wasn’t like watching the Blair Witch Project. LOL! After seeing EoW, I will admit: I regained some of my old fuzzy feelings for Jake that I guess were buried deep in the back of my heart. I must have inadvertently stowed them away in hopes that he would win me over again, and he did with EoW. I have always thought he was an amazing actor and this movie definitely proved that true.

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  8. p.s. that box was supposed to be a :)

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    1. What was it about this movie?! It was so NOT a movie I would normally see or enjoy, but he totally won me over with it...to the extent that when I noticed that it's currently playing at the reduced-admission theater here in town, I seriously considered seeing it again this weekend...

      But then I remembered the violence, so, er...maybe I'll just wait until it comes out on DVD and then I can fast-forward through the worst parts. :)

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  9. yeah i remember feeling deeply disturbed and even afraid for at least a week after i saw it. it definitely made me never want to move to LA! so i will just have to stalk Jake in NYC! :D

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  10. OKay, a few things:

    1) I don't fully agree with the "he must also be in it for the fame". I don't know anything about being famous, but I do know something about being patted on the head for something you've done. And when you've done that and got all those pets, you want more so you'll try to find the biggest crowd available. I once wrote a story and people liked it. Eventually, I sent it off to a Japanese girl who had a website and she translated it and put it on her website. Fantastic! I've been wanting more ever since, but have no taste for being recognized and stopped on the street.
    Anyway, I suppose what I'm trying to say is, you might be absolutely right, you might be absolutely wrong. Thing is that saying "he must be in it for the fame" seems a little presumptious to me. Or maybe I'm just a hypocritical stupid idealist who wants Jake to be a saint.

    2) I forgot the other thing I wanted to say.

    A question back: What is worse?
    1) Being totally addicted to one celeb and being completely faithfull or
    C) Being totally addicted to fandom, but not one celeb in particular?

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    1. I completely respect your opinion regarding fame. I hope you also respect my snobbery in thinking I'm an expert on the subject! :) Obviously (as you know, having read the book), I don't have a personal relationship with Jake, and even if I did, you can never truly know every aspect of motivation that goes into a person's career choice. My opinion is just that - an opinion - and you could be entirely right that I'm barking up the wrong tree with him. I will definitely grant you that he comes off in interviews as something of a people-pleaser (more so, say, than he does in personal meetings), so there easily could be an aspect of him responding positively to approval. But on that same note, I could see that aspect of him being used as an argument for fame itself, because fame might be seen as it's own form of people-pleasing.

      That was kind of circular logic and I may have just confused myself. But maybe it's two sides of the same coin. (?)

      On the second point, I would have to say that being addicted to fandom would be worse from my perspective! This is really the first time in my life that I haven't been totally committed to a fandom since I was around sixteen years old, and as much as I loved and embraced the feeling of being "part of a group," I now relish in the freedom of not having to keep looking for the next thing (or person) to absorb my attention.

      I think it's easier to break the habit when it's just one celeb. But that's just me! Your thoughts??

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    2. How do you figure that?

      I'm not going to respond here and now, but tomorrow on my own blog, if you don't mind.

      There are more things on fandom I'd like to say.

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    3. You’re absolutely right, you can never know every aspect of motivation that goes into a person’s (career) choice. I suppose I wasn’t necessarily critisizing your opinion, rather the way you put it. I’m sure there was a “must” in your argument. I’m allergic to “must”.

      To the second point I'm going to dedicate a blog.

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