To Smith Or Not To Smith?

"Anybody who knows me knows I would never read a comic book. And I certainly would never read anything written by Kevin Smith." - Tim Burton

I know it seems that I've been blogging about not just film, but Tim Burton specifically a lot lately. Well it's because lately, more than ever I finally feel focused on a goal, like all of my artistic journey to this point was coming to the moment where I really figured it out. What I was put on this earth to do. I was inspired by my friend Kristin's blog about her monthly brunch with her group of girls she's had forever. I don't have that. I have clusters of friends, and I have individually specific best friends, and we have mutual friends, but I'm not that person. Who has that group of four. I know plenty of people that do, but as I mentioned in my blog earlier. my friends who filled that role were movie characters.

I feel like that's why I connect to Burton as much as I do. At least that's some of it. In so much of his work there are protagonists who are the odd kid out, the quirky, dark, eccentric one that no one understands. That was me. And each of these characters when they realize they aren't like everyone else retreats into some form of art. I said OK you think I'm not cool, great, I like cameras, I'm gonna go work for rock stars. And that's what I did. But I always found my true escape in movies.

There's another director who speaks to the lonely kid, though a different kind of lonely kid. Kevin Smith speaks to the kids I went to computer camp with (yes, I went, and worked there too, what of it?). He's great in his own way. I love his movies. I like that he says he made a movie with a rubber poop monster and in that movie he used dick and fart jokes to spread the word of God. What I don't like is his attitude toward Tim Burton. The above quote is from Page Six of the NY Post a few years back during the whole Superman Lives debacle. For those of you who don't know about it, once upon a time there was to be a movie called Superman Lives and Kevin Smith was one of the people that Warner Bros brought in to write the script, Burton was to be the director. Didn't quite pan out. And when Kevin Smith saw Planet of the Apes (yeah not my favorite Burton moment) he made a comment to a gossip columnist about the scene where the chimps turn the Lincoln Memorial into their own thing. Saying that it was in a comic book series starring Jay and Silent Bob that he'd written. And though Smith says he was just kidding, I don't think he was. Burton apparently took offense and that was the quote that ran with the story.

I doubt he doesn't read comic books. It was probably a heated moment where he was just angry at what he was being accused of. But in an Evening With Kevin Smith, when asked about the incident Kevin Smith is arrogant and smug. He took shots at Tim Burton's appearance and persona that were uncalled for and unrelated to the topic at hand. I just felt like it was unnecessary, and though I love him. I just can't hang with that. This is one of those aforementioned topics where I refuse to budge. Because while I like them both as directors, I see Burton as the true visionary and Kevin Smith as the one who speaks to the pocket protector crowd.

They both have their place in pop culture, because the reality for them is that for better or worse they're part of it, but the question we must all face is this: To Smith Or Not To Smith?

Thank you.

Oh yeah, that's current me for you parent types that miss my face.