Change Your Image
gwbellinger
Reviews
The Executive (2020)
THE EXECUTIVE: WHERE THE JOURNEY BEGINS
The film, The Executive, is a poignant and Lomanesque prequel to the often brooding and noir touched film Wingman. This film should be viewed before Wingman as it sets the journey of Wolfe on its spiraling way.
Touched with light comedic and poignant scenes it nevertheless brushes lightly with the human experiences of friendship, love and aloneness.
Franco and Wolfe play wonderfully off each other in what are the finest acting moments in both films. There are hints in their dialogues and physical mannerisms of a bewilderment to their existence and place: Godot-like clowns set amongst the glitz of a modern and facile world.
Unlike many film series The Executive succeeds in firmly anchoring the films; creating a movie experience that reaches beyond their singular identities.
Wingman (2020)
WINGMAN: MUSINGS ON ART,REALITY AND TRUTH
For the fans of Wingmen, the series, be prepared for a descent into a cauldron of darkness where our Wingman- Wolfe- struggles to emerge from a disastrous film production into a radiant new future.
Wolfe, the scheming, dissembling, skirt-chasing producer- yet somehow a likable character- of the series- has escaped to Havana to avoid creditors and other barbarians at the gate; believing this is his last chance to create his film. Arriving he finds the project in chaos and woefully incomplete. With a saddening realization of the cascading end to his film our man in Havana journeys into the heart of the old city searching for his muse- the enigmatic Rick. Wolfe (the actor) skillfully plays through his body and facial language a weighted soul doggedly intent upon the reclamation of his film (and his soul?).
Clearly paying homage to Wells' The Other Side Of The Wind, Wingman manipulates time and plays with multiple perspectives of narration. This draws the viewer to question the characters' actions and motives as experienced by themselves (the characters), the actors and the viewer. "What is happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear."
A multi-dimensional reality emerges as Wolfe wanders Leo Bloom-like through the fetid neighborhoods of Havana. Fleeting images of Rick appear in various scenes throughout Wolfes' journey. Rick is sometimes solid and substantial; sometimes a fleeting dreamlike image. But ,often in profile, Rick is a menacing shape- a foretelling symbol of darkness. Wolfe, often questioned and doubted about the reality of Rick steadfastly holds to the truth of what he perceives- the truth of Rick- really Rick as a creative force- Mitch's muse.
This archetype for creativity is illuminated as Wolfe sees Rick eerily posed and almost identical beside Hemingway's bust in the Floridita bar. Rick is later revealed as a manipulator of certain realities.
Is Wolfe the artist struggling to create his film or is Rick the creator ruthlessly manipulating plot and characters to create a truth? Art is a lie that makes us realize a truth. (Picasso) Well here it is on film.
And what truth is found in Wingman? Is Wolfes' journey through a decaying tropical city to find Rick(this film in feeling so reminds the writer of Jean Cocteau"s post WW2 film Orphee) a long days journey into the creative act; is it a story of greed, fear and loathing in the film business; is it a social comment on an oppressive Cuba's opening itself to North American greed and Rabelaisian excess. Or is it the destructive act of the artist who tears apart, again and again, his reality so to shape a moment for all of us to savor and wonder at.
WingMen (2016)
NOT YOUR USUAL BRO SHOW
This is a quirky sometimes surreal journey thru the male psyche. The characters display their hopes, yearnings, fears around exquisite women who seem so unobtainable. Yet these oftentimes bumbling man/boys somehow succeed despite their foibles. The show is an intriguing mix of hilarity and pathos mixed with a touch of 1930's- like screwball comedy. Beautifully shot and spiced with gorgeous bodies. Give it a go!