The Death of River Phoenix

River Phoenix's death was a completely fucked up ordeal. He and Red Hot Chili Peppers' John Frusciante had basically been speedballing for 3 days straight with no sleep before they headed into Johnny Depp's club, The Viper Room. His brother Joaquin his sister Rain, and his girlfriend Samantha Mathis were there with him. Chili Peppers' Flea came in later. Cocaine got passed around and it wasn't long before River was on the floor and 9-1-1 got called.

Poor Joaquin held his brother in his arms while he died seizing in the ambulance. Mathis was unconsolable in the hospital. I think that's why she only made one film over the next year.

Depp found out through a phone call, uttered "Oh my God" and hung up. Then like the next morning, the very next morning, The Chili Peppers, Depp, the club management, and basically anyone else involved had skipped town.

Poor Keanu Reeves, his best friend, had to hear it second hand on the news.

There's also a conspiracy that DiCaprio was seen in the club at the time of River's OD, and that Depp had arranged for Leo to slip River some bad drugs so that he could take his role in The Basketball Diaries. But really kids just OD all the time.

R.I.P. Roger Ebert (1942 - 1913)

At The Movies With Siskel & Ebert, and later Ebert & Roeper, fanned my fire for the medium of cinema as a youth. Later his solo writings did the same. His output of quality literate film reviews is stunning in its number. I imagine he was able to do this because he was so passionate about film that the words simply flowed like butter. The man was a humorous and brilliant critic, well versed in film and a cadre of other subjects. And he was a person generous of heart. Without any restraint or falsehood, I can say the man was a real american treasure. God bless Roger Ebert.

"Roger Ebert dies at 70 after battle with cancer" - Chicago Sun-Times

"NOOOOO"

‎"People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians" - George Lucas 1988

Spike Lee and the Double-Dolly Shot

Watching "Inside Man", I recalled Spike Lee's use of what I would say is his signature shot: the double-dolly shot. You see when filming, the camera is sometimes placed on what is known as a dolly. Essentially a miniaturized train car on miniaturized train tracks. The movement of the camera is then smooth and fluid as the platform coasts along the tracks. This shot has been utilized since the early days of film, when cameras were large and bulky and heavy and required such a mechanism to achieve any movement at all. Well, in his shot, Lee places the camera on a dolly, and the actor on a second dolly. Thus when the dollies move the actor appears to be seamlessly floating through the scenery.

Lee usually seems to incorporate this shot to signify an inevitability on the part of the character involved. For example in Malcolm X, when Malcolm is walking to the theater where he is gunned down, the shot gives the feel that his destiny is approaching.

In Inside Man, Detective Frazier's rage compels him to the door of the bank in probably the quickest double-dolly shot Lee has ever used.

And in The 25th Hour, Anna Paquin's character floats through a club as if on air.

Lee uses this shot in most of his films, in my opinion to ultimate effect. Not as a gimmick but as a tool of the narrative. The actors are more or less motionless in the double dolly, as opposed to the reverse-POV camera shots (think "Requiem For a Dream") which capture even the tiniest of movements. With the double dolly an almost out of body experience is projected onto the character. Keep an eye out for it.