Everything Dave Chen Is Occupied With: Archive

From a forthcoming episode of The Tobolowsky...

Feb 10th

1 note

“Well, one day you’re there, and then all of a sudden, there’s less...”

– Peggy Olsen

Feb 9th

2 notes

“This never happened. It will shock you how much it never happened.”

– Don Draper

Feb 8th

1 note

Feb 8th

Feb 7th

Feb 4th

“You go through these rational set of pros and cons. And that kind of...”

– Lionel Shriver, the author of We Need to Talk About Kevin, on the decision to have children

Feb 3rd

1 note

Feb 2nd

2 notes

Jan 29th

Tasha Robinson and I Discuss the Meaning of...

David Chen: have you seen CERTIFIED COPY?
Tasha Robinson: Oh yes. Talked about it extensively on our video podcast back in the day. Adam Kempenaar of Filmspotting says I'm the reason he saw it, and it was in his top 5 for the year.
David Chen: WELL THEN
Tasha Robinson: Also, Dave: War Horse? Really? War Horse?
Tasha Robinson: I mean: WAR HORSE?
Tasha Robinson: (I'm just saying.)
David Chen: Look, at least in WAR HORSE, you knew what was happening.
David Chen: At least WAR HORSE ISN'T SOME KIND OF WHACKED OUT SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE.
David Chen: (like CERTIFIED COPY is)
Tasha Robinson: It is true, at no point did I think any of the horses were just making up their experience as a complicated philosophical exploration of the nature of reality.
Tasha Robinson: They were all just like "Oh shit, bombs! Run!"
David Chen: ROFL
David Chen: Well then.
David Chen: I REST MY CASE.
David Chen: Alright 
David Chen: I need to talk with someone about this film
David Chen: What is your interpretation on the film?
Tasha Robinson: That's a really broad question that I'm not sure how to answer.
Tasha Robinson: I mean, my take is that either they are an old married couple  or they aren't — I lean toward aren't — but you aren't meant to know.
Tasha Robinson: And that the point of the story is to explore whether it's true that a well-made copy is just as valid as the real thing.
Tasha Robinson: You're meant to wonder which aspect of their relationship is the fake, the copy — the pretense that they don't know each other at the beginning, or the one they fall into, where they do.
Tasha Robinson: The film is packed with images and shadows of the central couple, seen in reflections in mirrors and glass surfaces, and depicted at various points of their lives — young newlyweds, old couple — to further enhance the idea that there are many fake copies of their relationship.
Tasha Robinson: But I feel like it's a puzzle that's meant to be enjoyed as a puzzle, not to be solved.
Tasha Robinson: That's pretty much my take.
David Chen: Pretty solid take. What do you mean by the "fake copies"?
Tasha Robinson: Yeah, that's a redundant phrase.
Tasha Robinson: Shadows might be a better term. More images that aren't really them but could be them at different points of their lives or thelr relationships.
David Chen: Right
Tasha Robinson: It's just a motif that runs throughout the film, I think because the film isn't just about duality — theyr
Tasha Robinson: —they aren't just one of two things, strangers or old lovers. They're on a continuum of possible realities.
Tasha Robinson: Which may speak to your whacked-out science-fiction claim.
Tasha Robinson: What did you think of it?
David Chen: http://www.davechen.net/2012/01/wonder-of-certified-copy.html
David Chen: I thought the MUBI piece was pretty interesting
David Chen: I'm a pretty literal minded person
David Chen: and that interpretation allows me to deal with this movie in a way that makes sense to me
David Chen: basically
David Chen: he argues that what we're seeing in the film is not some kind of literal depiction of a marriage or an encounter between strangers
David Chen: rather the film shifts between time and reailty in a completely imperceptible way
David Chen: ultimately though he does come down on the side of "they're married"
David Chen: which I don't think makes much sense in light of that itnerpretation
David Chen: but he does make the point that interpreting it as a "Strangers playing at being married" tale makes it "Before Sunset" with a gimmick
David Chen: and that robs the film of its power. It is, as you said, an exploration of what reality is, what truth is.
David Chen: So to answer your original question: There is no spoon.
Tasha Robinson: I think it IS Before Sunset with a gimmick, but that doesn't make it bad.
Tasha Robinson: I mean, you can say "Before Sunset is just a couple people talking." That doesn't make it a worse film.
David Chen: no as in, 
David Chen: some people think 
David Chen: that it's literally a pair of strangers playing some kind of game
David Chen: and he does not agree with that interpretation.
David Chen: but I think I come down on the side of: There is no answer because the film is not a depiction of a linear series of events that resemble the reality we all know.
David Chen: It shifts between a reality where they don't know each other to a reality where they are married, seamlessly.
Tasha Robinson: That's an excellent way of putting it.
David Chen: It is "science fiction" in that way.
David Chen: But it does this to illustrate its point.
David Chen: and its point are what you've already stated: is a "copy" of a relationship just as good as the real thing?
David Chen: (pretty freaking on the nose, that book of his)
Tasha Robinson: Well, I don't think the book is a coincidence.
David Chen: IT's clearly not
David Chen: it's the opposite of a coincidence
David Chen: it's an explicit way for the director/writer to make their point
Tasha Robinson: I think she actively sets out to prove his theory wrong.
Tasha Robinson: Yeah, but I think it also drives the narrative as an object.
Tasha Robinson: I think she finds his theory annoying and sets out to disprove it by creating a copy of a relationship, thinking he'll flinch away from it and disprove himself.
Tasha Robinson: And he gamely goes along, so she makes it more and more uncomfortable, and about his flaws and faults.
Tasha Robinson: But he maintains the pretense, and she gets drawn into the reality she's created.
Tasha Robinson: Until by the end it seems like the copy she's created is more real than where they started.
Tasha Robinson: Essentially proving his point.
Tasha Robinson: I do see the film as a negotiation between two real people who remain the same throughout.
Tasha Robinson: I don't believe they're traveling through different universes or anything.
Tasha Robinson: I think they're exploring a philosophical point and finding out that the world is more malleable than they might have previously thought.