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Sometimes in your life, you remember a person for their life and sometimes you remember them for the stories about their life. There may be a little gap between the facts of their life, and there may be a yawning chasm, so you have to look at the person and the situation, and figure out if there's a big difference, and if it matters.

That's what is going on in Big Fish, the latest from the creator of the first Batman movie, Edward Scissorshands, Sleepy Hollow and the Planet of the Apes (2001).

Ed Bloom (Albert Finney as the mature Ed) is a tall-tale yarn spinner who has a favorite story about the big one that he caught, and then threw back. He's gotten through life quite well with a wink and a tale and a lot of hard work, and he's loved every minute of it. I agree with him, life's too short to not enjoy, and if it needs a bit of embellishment to get the joy out, then go with it.

Will (Billy Crudup) is his son, who feels that his dad is forever hiding behind the tale of the fish, and wants to get behind the story and get to know the real man who is his father. Will's a wire service journalist in Paris, and luckily he's married to a French woman Josephine (Marion Cotillard), who loves a story and a sentimental person full of love. On his own, Will would be too pragmatic for his own good, and would stay angry with him as he lay dying. Josephine melts the ice of resentment between father and son, and Will gives his father the love that the man has always sought from him.

There is lots of sentiment played out in the story, and fantasies of allegory are all around, as the reality of the relationships is defined by the relationships in dad's world. Along with the allegory, we get sentiment. Altogether, it's a heady story, and seems to sweep me along in waves of loving emotion. Ed Bloom is a man who loved with all his heart, but didn't say `I love you' easily. Instead, he made up a story that included a person in allegory, that was his way of paying homage.

In the end, everyone pays homage to him back, as he returns to his story, now to become the central figure for the first time. Along the way, he reveals that his big fish story was allegory for people close to home, and that he let things happen in a very complex way, with his simple love of people.

©2004, David C.P. Leland, All rights reserved. The right of David C.P. Leland to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Ok, so maybe I ain't the kind of guy you'd expect to be reviewing a movie? Why not, I'm a guy who's seen a movie or two, from the inside as well as the cinema. I've even taken a couple of cinema classes, you know? So why not? I spend some days working on movie sets, being an extra, writing on my Handspring when I'm not acting, eating or talking. Or watching the movie get made, seeing the behind-the-scenes stuff get done.

These guys who did this movie, couldn't be more normal. Which means weird, like you and me, not making much of a big fuss over it. Just getting on with their lives, doin' the best they can. Normal stuff, you know? But told straight out, like no holds barred, tellin' it like it is, warts and all. Cleveland, that's it, just like Cleveland really is, a city without any glory, but it's real, and it makes it through every day, so it's there when you wake up in the morning, just the same old Cleveland.

Maybe the fact that it's about the reality of Harvey Pekar's life will turn some people off, but this movie is a stunning and vibrant piece of filmmaking. It has `immortal' written all over it, more than any version of `Death of a Salesman' ever could, my apologies to Henry Miller and Dustin Hoffman both, but this one is the unvarnished truth and reality. I don't want to beat this into the ground, but it's probably the Cleveland thing, about living close to a reality that doesn't need dressing up for the Clevelanders to feel like it's presentable. Paul Giamatti has not just portrayed Harvey, he's come to inhabit his being so that the whole of Harvey's existence seems to breathe through Paul's acting. It was fantastic to see them on the set together, and revealed how close to the bone this movie really is.

Actually, it's really about Cleveland, and about Harvey, so if those things get you down, that's not anybody's problem. Like Harvey's wife Joyce (played beautifully by Hope Davis) said, `all American cities depress me in the same way', and the gritty reality of American Splendor is universal, or at least `all American'. By examining the local reality extremely closely, we see the universal people, situations and truths, and that's the real beauty of this movie.

All the acting was superb, with quirks all over the place, and unvarnished conflicts that seemed to be three dimensional, reaching right out of the screen and into the auditorium during the screening. Funny that it's not a documentary, because they certainly had the people and the places. But it worked great as a docu-drama, and Harvey seemed to enjoy it too, so there you go, don't you? Can't go far wrong when the subject is an on-screen collaborator like Harvey. You couldn't go far wrong by going to see this in the cinema. I'll bet you will line up with me to buy the DVD when it's out, because this is better than Spinal Tap and Wayne's World rolled together.

©2004, David C.P. Leland, All rights reserved. The right of David C.P. Leland to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

There's nothing like a little murder to spice up a story, especially when it might otherwise be a tired tale of decadence and the downward spiral. Since the setup for the murder is in the advertisements, the only tension in the action is wondering when the murder will take place, and how the perpetrator will come out of it.

The perpetrator is played by with alacrity by that former "Home Alone" star, Macauley Culkin, in the role of party promoter Michael Alig. The fact that Alig had a bit of a fixation on then-child-star Culkin, back in the early 90s, adds a bizarre twist to the background of the story. Filmmaker Fenton Bailey has been quoted as saying that Culkin was the only choice for the role, which would not have been made without him. In fact, this $5Million feature has all the gloss and polish of any big budget film, and has every reason to deserve to be a hit. This is the real-life Rocky Horror, with Alig in the Frank- N-Furter role, writ large and backed by reality.

I'd been to the Limelight during that period, and it was a complete zoo of decadent excess. This was the highest expression of club-kid party culture I've ever seen in a fixed-venue situation, and set the tone for the warehouse raves in New York and across the country. In fact, my entree to the Limelight was through Keoki, who was a friend of a friend from S.F., though I was not able to meet up with the Super DJ during my all- night tour, on his list at every door, of New York's clubland and rave spots. I'd met him before, but was hoping for a rendezvous on his turf. Anyhow, the Limelight was "all that" and more, with the heaviest scene I'd seen at a club, anywhere, before or since.

Macauley has been reputed to have struggled a bit with substances, so it was scary seeing him thrown over the abyss into the pit that was the rave scene. I couldn't help feel fear for him, as his Alig stuck his straw right into the baggies, not even bothering with the nicety of cutting lines of speedballs out on a mirror. How easily it is for life to imitate art, and for a still-young actor to fall off the wagon when put into this kind of role. I think it might have been a good thing that this was shot on his home turf of NYC, so he was able to go home every night, rather than hanging out at some Hollywood lodging, vulnerable without his family structure around him.

Caulkin's portrayal of Alig was strong and scary. When he got confrontational with Wilson Cruz's "Angel", he stood up and made a poker-faced repetition of his demand for more drugs, shoving the demand for payment down Angel's throat in the process. The same poker-faced approach worked on Dylan McDermott's "Peter Gatien" in an early scene, and then Mac's face lit up like a child's when "Gatien" informed "Alig" that he had two more events at the Limelight during which to recooup the cost of damages. It was Alig's crucial inroad, and he worked it for all it was worth. The arrogance with which Caulkin portrayed Alig in that phase was part of what cemented the movie for me.

I never met Alig, but I saw alot of people like him in action. Mac was totally believable as him, from the grasping busboy pleading for advice off Seth Green's "James St.James" to the stoned-out arrogance of a kid ordering 300 hamburgers "to go" for his parade of raving followers. His joy at getting more money, more drugs, and getting the party started, were all so giddy and childlike and true-to-form for the rave scene, this was a believable portrayal all the way down the line.

I believed "Cristina" so much that I was blown out at the fact that she was played by Marilyn Manson. It was such a situation of "playing against type" for Manson, that I expect good things from him on film in the future. I wasn't expecting that to work at all, but I'm glad it did.

This piece may never be a top grosser, probably due to it's subject matter, and the lack of moralizing about the ending. But all that aside, I expect it to have long lasting cult status. It's a quality piece all the way through, and it will stand the test of time. I hope it gives a boost to the careers of everyone involved. ©David C.P. Leland, 2004. All rights reserved. The originator of this work asserts the right to be identified as the author of this work.