Tommy Trull - Writer and Musician

I’m taking advantage of my first day off (or at least what passes in my life for one of those) in quite a while to update this blog. First big thing : I’m now enrolled in the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Level 2 certification program. Classes start April 13 th . If all goes well, I intend to follow the program all the way through to Master of Wine. I had originally intended to go into the CMS (Court of Master Sommeliers) program, which has more name recognition. WSET, however, places as much emphasis on the academic and business aspects of the wine industry as it does on a comprehensive body of knowledge concerning wine. This greatly appeals to me. Like with cheese and theatre, my other two passions, the history of wine is the history of world civilization. The deeper I get into it, the more fascinating I find it. Second big thing : I’m pretty far into the second draft of a new novel , which is slated to come out in early June. It’s a very loose adaptation of my f...

CAPTAIN MARVEL , AND A RESPONSE TO SOME OF THE DUMBER CRITICISMS   A quick note: this is not a review of Captain Marvel . For the record, I held off reading any reviews until I’d seen the film (which I quite liked.) As I slogged through a litany of mixed to negative pieces on the film, I took note of some recurring comments. NB: I’m leaving aside any issues outside of the film itself. ·            “It’s another standard origin story.”   This one is curious to me. Looking back at Marvel’s Phase One and Phase Two origin movies, they follow this template: a person with no powers but some semblance of an extraordinary personality is given either powers (Captain America, Doctor Strange, The Incredible Hulk) or a suit (Iron Man, Ant-Man), with which they struggle at first and then use to defeat the Big Bad who seeks to conquer the nation or the world. (Thor is a notable exception in that he begins with powers and then loses t...

Jonathan Helpert’s IO tells the story of a young scientist (Margaret Qualley) carrying on her father’s work on a ruined Earth, whose surviving inhabitants have abandoned it for sanctuary on Io, a moon of Jupiter. She maintains a long-distance relationship with her boyfriend (Tom Payne), who is now on Io. One day, a balloon descends from the sky carrying a man named Micah (Anthony Mackie), who is the first human she’s seen in a long while. This film is deliberately slow and meditative, more intent on exploring its themes than in plot. The first act examines the inner and outer states of a single character, and in the second act, two characters. Only in its third act are we given a sense of purpose and mission. Mythology, adaptability, inheritance, obligation, and human connection are the film’s main concerns as it tells the story of how those who look to the past and those who look to the future coexist with one another. As this movie places so much emphasis on the achievement...

Dan Gilroy’s VELVET BUZZSAW is an extraordinary film. It’s a horror film that takes its cues from BASQUIAT, and an intellectual art film that takes its cues from IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS. Working from his own screenplay, Gilroy tells the story of a group of art world movers and shakers who are profoundly and disastrously affected by the discovery of a deceased outsider artist named Ventril Dease. From its stylish opening credits, the film establishes itself as an intensely visual experience. Some of the art openings involve long, winding tracking shots that allow us to be tourists through several let’s-be-nice-and-call-them-sophisticated conversations. Gilroy certainly takes a mocking attitude toward the extremes of high culture. In fact, characters mistake ordinary garbage for installation pieces on more than one occasion. Throughout the film, Robert Eswit’s cinematography dazzles. (One shot in particular, in which Jake Gyllenhaal’s character enters a sunlit factory, deserves an e...