Sundance Film Festival 2015

Introduction – Sundance 2015

The Sundance Film Festival 2015 …..It’s a Wrap!  Rick Schmidt, long-time-member of the SECRETS Team,  has been covering Sundance and Telluride for a number of years.  Rick managed to get to 18 films this year……”Brooklyn” was the best!  Also has some impressions on Dolby Atmos, which was in the 2000-seat Eccles Theater.

Wrapping it up…..

I had another great time at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. “Brooklyn” was the best movie that we saw but “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl”, which we couldn’t get to, seems poised to be this year’s “Boyhood”.

Sundance is all about making deals, usually via finished films being seen by producers and distributors. There is another way to go, this year we encountered a query letter for a screenplay taped to the wall above a urinal in the men’s bathroom, and then on the inside of the door of a stall the next day (see the photo in CAVE). Good luck Boone!

That letter was in the bathroom of the biggest theater used in the festival, the 2000-seat Eccles, which utilizes the massive auditorium in the local high school. This year that theater was outfitted with Dolby Atmos. In each of the theaters, before every movie, the festival plays a short music clip along with some graphics and credits. This provided me a great opportunity to compare the sound at the Atmos equipped theater to the others. While, they all have great sound there was a distinct difference at the Eccles. This year the clip ended quietly, stripped down to percussion and a sort of synth equivalent of brushes on a snare drum. In the Eccles, even though I was much further from the front wall speakers, that sound had more texture, depth and delicacy than elsewhere. A bit of grain that was present in other theaters was gone and I realized that the sound trailed off for a longer time than could be discerned elsewhere. All in all the other instruments and sounds in that music piece were well contained (like objects?) and had less smearing than in the other theaters. During films, dialogue was exceptionally clear, removing the obstacle of not-understanding the occasional line or two that can occur at a festival screening. A couple of times the surround effect was used to have off-screen noises appear on the far left or right. It was a bit of a distraction really as the sounds were so convincing, and sounded like they were so far to the right or left, that I didn’t realize they were part of the movie. Perhaps our endless pursuit of surround sound is misguided but so far I’d have to say that Atmos itself is spot on.

Entertainment

I got in to this as the last wait-list person to get a seat. Thought I would be getting in for sure, but a steady stream of ticket holders showed up late. Including one in ski boots.

This film is in Sundance’s collection of avant garde offerings, the ‘Next’ category. Since John C. Reilly and Michael Cera were n the credits I thought there was a slight possibility of a straightforward narrative… wrong!

The title refers to entertainment in the broadest and most cynical sense and through the story of a ‘broken, aging comedian’ making his way to see his daughter, playing a series of bars in the Mojave desert, we see the worst of it.

I need to cut to the chase – this movie is not for everyone. In fact, statistically speaking, it’s for no one. Many people walked out of the screening, many more would have if they were closer to the aisles. But, those who like it will love it.

The comedian is based on the Neill Hamburger character invented by Gregg Turkington who plays that roll in the film. The jokes are as vulgar as can be imagined. The audience in the movie theater (those who stayed) were laughing hysterically while the audiences in the small bars in the movie were completely unmoved unless it was to heckle (which would lead to an even more vulgar diatribe from the comedian). The script was only 47 pages, most of the screen time is long shots of driving or seeing our comedian stare wordlessly from the end of a hallway.

During the Q&A director Rick Alverson stated how hates metaphor in film and even plot, saying that metaphor is annoying misdirection at best and all too often clichés. What he’s interested in is how we watch movies and how we experience them ( colors, forms, music ).

In the Q&A he stated how he feels we are physical animals and these things affect us much more. Ok fine, but even in this film there is semblance of plot and the director himself stated how he needed some of that to keep the viewers involved. It does all (pretty much) fall apart at the end and still myself and this audience were engrossed and well, entertained. And that serves the point he was trying to make – that a movie can be compelling without the usual trappings that we are all used to. But if every movie were like this, no one would go.

Photos Courtesy of Sundance Institute

Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead The Story of the National Lampoon

The story of National Lampoon magazine told through an excellent documentary. This film mines an incredible wealth of visual material from the magazine as well as archival footage and some awesome 70’s music to make a very entertaining trip back to the 70’s and early 80’s.

In the end it is mostly a walk down memory lane for those of us who grew up with the magazine but if a youngster has even a mild interest in the subject they would at least be rewarded with a series of good belly laughs as different cartoons and headlines from the famous mag are used to reinforce the conversations.

What you might not know before going in is the connection between National Lampoon and Saturday Night Live. The biggest treat in this movie is watching films of the first SNL cast (John Belushi, Brian Doyle Murray, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase and Harold Ramis performing for television and radio as ‘The National Lampoon Show’, right before they were all snatched away by Lorne Michaels. I would definitely love to see this movie again just for that.

The title of course refers to the first National Lampoon movie ‘Animal House’ and the admonishment from the dean to young Flounder ‘Drunk, fat and stupid is no way to go through life, son’. The ‘Dead’ in the title refers to the tragic loss of the magazine’s co-founder and the writer of ‘Animal House’. The film paints a compelling portrait of this man who shaped so much of our culture.

Photos Courtesy of Sundance Institute

Aloft

In the opening scene of this highly compelling film Nana Kunning (Jennifer Connolly) has brought her two young sons (Ivan and Lance) to a remote location where an enigmatic, spiritual healer is treating, one at a time, a number of people who have made the journey. The younger son, Lance, has an incurable disease and it is for him that this fatherless family has hitchhiked their way to the cold and muddy outpost. It is already clear that Lance receives the lion’s share of attention and mothering. Perhaps as compensation, Ivan is allowed to keep and train a falcon, which has also been brought along on the trip.

In order to receive treatment each person must enter through a tunnel formed by a makeshift structure of branches and twigs. As another child is entering the tunnel, young Ivan’s falcon suddenly flies in as well. Some degree of chaos ensues, the structure is destroyed, and without it the healing cannot continue. Instead, there is some additional wounding. And, there is a discovery of unknown healing ability on the part of Nana. But some things are beyond repair. The majority of the film deals with the state of affairs between Ivan and Nana some twenty years on.

This film proves that spare, atmospheric and thought provoking doesn’t have to be boring. Highly recommended, it will stick with you.

Brooklyn

This is a movie that deserves a wide audience. Smart distributors could make that happen. Maybe a Christmas release would do the trick. The issue with getting people to see it is that it’s not an action film, heavy adult drama or raunchy comedy that Hollywood knows how to promote. Rather it’s a period piece that is executed perfectly. As I write this I see that it was just acquired by Fox Searchlight so there is hope.

The period is the 1950’s and the story is that of a young Irish immigrant Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan). With nothing much happening for her in the village she grew up in, she takes the opportunity to try for a new life in America. What happens after that might be predictable but the acting, directing, editing, sets, costumes, lighting, whatever else goes into a movie, are done so, so perfectly that our audience was completely swept away.

The exact timing of this story is very interesting. The world wars are over but we have yet to experience the beatniks, Elvis Presley or any of the things we associate with the 50’s. This gives the film a timeless quality that really helps the story sink in.

While many in the audience related that this story was their story, or that of their parents. Indeed, the lead actress, Saoirse Ronan, related that she was actually going through the same issues in her personal life as the movie was being filmed. I guess this could have only made her performance better but with or without this movie this actress is rapidly ascending the Hollywood ladder. She’s in two films at this year’s Sundance, the second one being ‘Stockholm Pennsylvania’.

She remarked during the Q&A that the story works so well because we all have to take leaps of faith in our lives, emigration or not.

The master Nick Hornby adapted the book of the same name by Colm Toibin to make the screenplay. I recall him saying at Telluride a few years ago at the debut screening of ‘An Education’ that he would be remembered as the guy that wrote the first movie starring Carey Mulligan. Now we have to add Saoirse Ronan to the list of starlets launched to the top with the aid of Mr. Hornby. The film received a standing ovation, her even more so.

I’ll See You In My Dreams

This is an overly treacly bit set in a posh retirement village. While this film does have something on its mind, and it is refreshing to see some of our beloved old actors playing the leads, most of the script is entirely too simple and predictable and the characters one-dimensional or less. On top of that the look is entirely video. Video of a bland, posh, retirement community. I wouldn’t want to you to stay away entirely but just don’t expect too much.

Blythe Danner plays Carol Peterson, an extremely cute, aging widow. Except for her beloved golden retriever and a group of female friends, she’s been on her own for 20 years. Enter Sam Elliott as Bill, the extremely cute aging widower.

Since this is Secrets of Hometheater and High Fidelity, here’s a clue to describe the sort of flat production of this movie. In one scene Carol is entertaining Lloyd (Martin Starr), a younger man who has fallen into her life. While they are having drinks (there is lots of “Let’s have a drink” in this movie) he discovers her turntable – what looks to be the garden variety Technics table is portrayed as some sort of special hi-fi. Ugh.

Amongst the group of friends, June Squibb plays June Squibb. Rhea Perlman plays Rhea Perlman. No one is playing against type here. This movie aims straight down the middle but laudably does attempt to hit the mark regarding a problem we all face. If you manage to make it to a ripe old age, many people you know and call your friends will not.

True Story

In December of 2001, Christian Longo murdered his wife and three children (aged 2-4) and then attempted to get away with it. He dumped their bodies at two different points on the Oregon coast and then fled to Mexico where he adopted the identity of New York Times reporter Michael Finkel.

At the time Longo did not know Finkel personally but there seemed to be some sort of cosmic connection between these two. Finkel had lost his job at the Times for partially fabricating a story about cocoa plantation workers on the Ivory Coast. In the film and in Finkel’s book by the same title, the sin is made out to be the result of a combination of the general difficulty of getting a story like this when it has to do with people that don’t speak your language, and are afraid to talk, but might tell you something, if you have some American currency, combined with the desire to do some good for the workers and child workers involved in that industry.

Nonetheless the Times and his own conscience made a hard judgment and Mr. Finkel was suddenly looking at the end of what would have been an illustrious career. Unbeknownst to him, Longo, at that point one of the FBI’s most wanted criminals, had adopted Finkel’s identity while on the lamb in Mexico. Finkel eventually visits Longo in prison and the beginnings of a relationship and a book are sown.

The casting in this movie is a triumph. During the Q&A the director (Rupert Goold) talked about a nearness/remoteness polarity that is part of the actor’s toolbox. In this case, James Franco, who plays Longo, embodies the remote personality, not only in this movie but also in how he is perceived by the public – with his multitude of projects wherein he seems to be playing with the notion of what it even means to be a movie star. Jonah Hill (playing Finkel) on the other hand, is the epitome of openness and accessibility. It’s nice to see both of these guys in lead roles.

This movie has taught thriller-like production which over-hypes an interesting but not really a thriller type of story. There are some unexplained connections and parallels between these two men and the film deals with that as well, a little. Ultimately though, the filmmakers had no way to tell that story. It would mean talking to Longo and for a multitude of reasons, no one has much desire to do that. Even if you did, you would likely get something you wanted, but not true.

People Places Things

This movie benefits from the wonderful presence of Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Concords) and a sensitive, thoughtful script. Clement plays Will Henry, a graphic novelist and teacher of the same subject. Will is undergoing a separation from his wife Charlie (Stephanie Allynne,” In A World”). The separation is initiated by an awkward discovery of his wife’s affair with a monologist (poking fun at New York’s often indulgent art scene). To make the relationship drama really interesting it helps to have kids, in this case a couple of over-the-top cute twins, played by Gia and Aundrea Gadsby. At first Will turns his attention to his art, spending nights alone, creating a book of drawings that feature a brick wall. Eventually he gets some help finding new love from one of his students, Kat (Jessica Williams of The Daily Show).

As the couple comes to terms with how to share their kids and how to move on, the phrase “I’m confused” is uttered on multiple occasions. During the Q&A director James C. Strouse (New York, I Love You) said that his inspiration was the confusion that we all feel as we try to make our way. Every scene is lighthearted comedy but also dealing with real life situations we all face. The Buddha-like Jemaine Clement is what makes the movie work, facing these situations with simultaneous resolve to do the right thing, acceptance of what others do and say, and humor. The way we all do when we are at our best.

During the Q&A several in the audience expressed extreme gratitude for such a heartfelt movie and especially one that depicts parenthood so realistically. I hope everyone gets to see this one. Likely it will only play in art houses. If you have teenage kids who are interested in comics and graphic novels, strap them to a chair and make them watch it with you.

Z for Zachariah

Director Craig Zobel was at Sundance three years ago with his film “Compliance” (highly recommended). That movie was a very independent affair. Someone took notice because he’s back with a mainstream movie with near-A listers. There’s Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street), Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) and Chris Pine (Capt. Kirk in “Star Trek Into Darkness”).

That is the entire cast because the premise here is that civilization has been wiped out by some sort of nuclear disaster. As if a story of the Earth being made uninhabitable were not already dark, the story turns darker as the remainder consists of two men and only one woman. Ann (Margot Robbie, is the lucky inhabitant of a small farm that has somehow survived thanks to its position in a valley. Loomis (Ejiofor), formally a government scientist, finds her and the valley and they begin to make a life together. Caleb (Pine) comes along and, well, see the movie.

This really is one to see. Based on the book of the same title by Robert C. O’Brien. Zobel has a firm hand as a director, there are no missteps; every scene is convincing and has a message. Filming locations were Virginia and New Zealand and the shots of the nature that remains in this world are beautiful. A question during the Q&A was “Why are there so many post-apocalyptic movies these days?” Zobel didn’t have an answer for that but this movie really is about human relations, to each other and to our available resources.

Mistress America

The second movie co-written by Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig and then staring Gerwig (the first was “Frances Ha”). In this film, Baumbach, always a student of film, has combined the influences of 1940’s Hollywood (quick, witty dialogue) and John Hughes (especially the music) and other 80’s movies where yuppies are taken out of their environment such as “Lost in America”, “After Hours” or “Something Wild”.

In this case the yuppie is a former boyfriend of Greta’s character, Brooke. Brooke, who is perpetually struggling to make something of herself, is befriended by Tracy (Lola Kirke) when Tracy’s mother and Brooke’s father are set to be married. Tracy is 18 and just starting college at NYU while Brooke, in her early 30’s is an inspiration. Her just-do-it attitude and self-assuredness are just the sort of healing elixir needed by the young Tracy. The soon-to-be stepsisters help each other on their mutual next-steps, one of which is to make the trek to Connecticut to appeal to the yuppie, former boyfriend, for cash to invest in Brooke’s idea for a restaurant. We spend a long time in the house in Connecticut as several story lines play out and come together in what could be a stage play.

The snappy dialogue style in this movie is not at all what we are used to. I suppose it was the norm in earlier Hollywood films precisely because the immediate predecessors were stage plays. If you let that be ok, understanding that it was done on purpose, you’ll be in a good place to appreciate the pacing and comedy here.

Don Verdean

The latest from Utah’s own favorite director, Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho LIbre). The sometimes unscientific field of Biblical archeology is the ripe area for comedy mined in this film.

Sam Rockwell plays the title character. An ‘archeologist’ who’s sole motivation is to aid in the saving of souls by bringing to the US examples of biblical artifacts such as Lot’s wife (recall that she turned into a pillar of salt when she turned to look back at the town of Sodom in the book of Genesis). Verdean finds these artifacts with the help of some otherwise unemployed Israelis led by Boaz (Jemaine Clement). Clement’s inherently funny New Zealander accent remains funny translated into an Israeli accent. Not unexpectedly, he tends to steal the show when he’s on screen.

There’s no need to go on about this movie. It’s funny, playing at just above the SNL skit level (Will Forte plays a rival priest to the one that Verdean typically deals with). Good if you’re looking for a laugh but it won’t generate the sort of personal connection that most people feel to Napoleon Dynamite.

Film Photo Courtesy of Sundance Institute, Festival Photos By Ray Keller

99 Homes

This one played in Telluride but we couldn’t get to it. It’s due out in theaters in May or June and I hope everyone gets to see it. It’s coming to theaters in May or June.

“99 Homes” depicts the real-life situation of the foreclosure crisis. Director Ramin Bahrani went to Florida to research what was happening. What he saw was, middle class families living in hotels and large scale corruption. But when he saw real estate agents carrying guns he figured out that he was making a thriller. He’s still in contact with real estate agents there and they report that this phenomenon hasn’t stopped. He’s expecting another wave, this time caused by bulk buying of homes by large companies. This sort of bulk buying is a driver for much of the plot in the movie.

There’s no need for me to go into any more of the plot. I’m sure you have an idea. Here’s a story relayed during the Q&A that is not in the movie. As part of his research Bahrani attended a foreclosure court, known as ‘Rocket Dockets’ because judges routinely decide in the favor of the bank within minutes. At the one he attended, busily taking notes on a legal pad, there was a string of decisions in favor of the homeowners. Apparently the judge thought that Bahrani was a reporter and was afraid of looking bad. You have to wonder how these people sleep at night.

Bahrani also relayed that he toned down the eviction scenes from what he saw in reality in order to make them believable. He gave the example of the eviction of a man with full blown dementia, not at all understanding what was happening to him.

This movie stars Andrew Garfield (the Social Network, Amazing Spider Man), Laura Dern and Michael Shannon (“Boardwalk Empire”) who is completely awesome as the corrupt real estate agent Rick Carver (a-hole’s in movies are always named ‘Rick’). The two are great together and Bahrani credits their different approaches to acting with creating a tension that carries into the film.

Things are perhaps a little rushed in the final scene but that’s ok, the point is made and the story is very well told.

Director Ramin Bahrani dedicated the film to the late Roger Ebert. Ebert was credited with saving the director from obscurity with his enthusiastic reviews of his early movies and the two became friends. Bahrani said that the things that Ebert wrote challenged him to be a better film maker.

Film Photo Courtesy of Sundance Institute, Festival Photos By Ray Keller

Cloro

‘Cloro’ is Italian for chlorine. I’m wishing now that I had asked the director if the origin of the title had any specific association with the story. The obvious association is there as this Italian film has to do with a synchronized swimmer (yes Italians have synchronized swim teams). In this case, the young swimmer (Jenny) must leave her fellow athletes and home town of Ostia (near Rome) after her mother dies and her father suffers a nervous breakdown. The family moves to a remote village in the snowy Alps. As her father becomes more and more incapacitated Jenny is forced to take care of her brother on her own, and take a job as a hotel maid. All along she continues to practice swimming any way she can.

As is the norm in foreign films, the director stated that his goal was to show a journey. In this case, through adolescence, a maturing.

During the Q&A a woman in the audience wanted to raise a stink about the rape scene. The director and the rest of the audience said “What rape scene?” There is a sex scene between the character Jenny (17, in the movie) and an older man. But, the age of consent in Italy is 14. Don’t know how to resolve this except to say that it’s an Italian movie. The actress, Sara Serraiocco, is 24.

Film Photo Courtesy of Sundance Institute, Festival Photos By Ray Keller

Chorus

An intense film about loss shot in beautiful black and white. The loss in this case is one of the worst that we know. A couple, Irene (Fanny Mallette) and Christophe (Sébastien Ricard) lost their young son, he disappeared, some 10 years before we meet them. They are living apart, Irene has found ways to fill her time. Music, especially singing in a Chorus, help to fill the void. Christophe has relocated to Mexico where he is still haunted by dreams and images of his missing son. When police find the remains of their son, based on a tip by a pedophile, the couple is reunited.

François Delisle is the Writer/Director/Producer. This enables him to create a luxuriously long time for scouting locations and preparing for shooting. He takes his time in the movie itself as well. This one could be much shorter with lots of rather pointless scenes cut. Still, the movie succeeds. Wordless storytelling is the goal and last quarter of the film is awesome at that, perhaps leaving out a little too much (but we can still fill it in and figure it out).

During the Q&A Delise said that he wanted to tell a story of loss – not the loss itself but the feeling and what it does to people. So, we don’t see the event, we see the couple ten years later.

There was an excellent quote from him in the press materials for the film: “I don’t want to make films for entertainment because I see that as a kind of offensive nihilism, a way of giving up in the face of our destiny and the challenges posed by our humanity.”

Film Photo Courtesy of Sundance Institute, Festival Photos By Ray Keller

Advantageous

I was attracted to this movie simply on the basis that it is Sci Fi. I forgot that there are two kinds of Sci Fi. There’s the kind that, like any other movie, tells a story through a series of events. Often exciting or violent-explosion type of events but not necessarily. In the best case the trying circumstances force the characters to come up with something they didn’t know they had or maybe even grow as human beings.The other kind is told through talking heads that go on in a hushed tone about something that we should feel angst about. If the character does transform or grow in some way we only find out because they tell us so. Advantageous is the latter kind.

Amazingly this second kind of Sci Fi does have an audience. It is a minority to be sure but it was on evidence in the Q&A where the sparse array of people that remained asked detailed and passionate questions. My best guess is that these people learned to read at too young an age.

The story being described by the characters in this movie is that in the near future, society has become more and more divided between rich and poor. A procedure is developed to transfer a person’s consciousness into another body. The new bodies are grown from scratch and the person’s original body will die in the process. The transfer is not perfect however and is of course nearly impossible to handle for the person’s family and loved ones. In spite of the dangers, Gwen (Jacqueline Kim) chooses to undergo the procedure in order to be able to provide for her daughter.

The origins of this movie are interesting, there was a short (more appropriate to the subject) and with this the director was able to procure funds from the San Francisco Film Society. Mostly the funds were used on CGI and drawings of the future city. The drawings especially were distracting as they mostly looked like anime, they did not fit the colors or tone of the live action.

For a much better experience with a similar premise, please see the 2009 movie “Cold Souls”

Film Photo Courtesy of Sundance Institute, Festival Photos By Ray Keller

Best of Enemies

I was doubtful about this movie during the ticket buying phase. A documentary about debates between Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley sounded like the definition of ‘Talking Head’ boredom. I’m a fool. We were very lucky to be able to waitlist our way in, getting our usual good seats in the Library theater so that Secret’s festival photographer Ray Keller could get some excellent pics of the directors during the Q&A.

Anyone old enough to remember seeing these two go at it during ABC’s coverage of the Republican and Democratic conventions of 1968 would know that these debates were not boring or ordinary in any way. Indeed there was not much ordinary anything to be had in 1968. In retrospect we can see how this confrontation was the seminal event for the type of ‘debate’ and ‘news’ that television offers today.

The film makes excellent use of the archival footage, first by painting careful portraits of each of these iconic figures. The skill of the directors Morgan Neville (Twenty Feet From Stardom) and Robert Gordon is on display early on as they are able to ‘tell’ jokes and flesh out these characters even with how the film is edited. Then the film goes on to present highlights from each of the debates, starting at the Republican convention where Buckley is shocked to be facing an opponent who has clearly done his homework and ending at the Democratic convention with the two very nearly coming to blows. (In fact in an article in the New Republic, Buckley’s son theorized that if not for a broken collar bone suffered by his father in the days before, it might have).

The film is beautiful to look at and the sound was excellent. If the DVD or Bluray comes with some decent extras I’d be likely to buy it, Morgan and Neville said that there was a lot of great footage that they couldn’t use.

The fact that the debates went down the way they did and had the impact they had was actually an (un)happy accident. It was a desperate ratings play by ABC news who had become the butt of jokes (‘How to end the Vietnam war? Put it on ABC and it will be cancelled in 7 weeks’). A short segment of the film drives home the ABC woes by showing news coverage of the collapse of the makeshift roof on ABC’s temporary newsroom at the Chicago convention. Violent and chaotic as 1968 was, it was still a more innocent time than now. We see also in the film the lifelong shame that William F. Buckley carried for threatening violence (even though Vidal was clearly aiming to make just such a thing happen).

The question of relevance, especially for younger people, came up in the audience Q&A and I’d have to say ‘not much, unfortunately’. While the extent of media-sewage pumped at us every day should by all means be stopped, and this film amongst others used to help us understand how we got here, that’s not going to happen.

Interview with the directors.

Stock photo courtesy of the Sundance Institute. The rest by Ray Keller.

The Visit

Worst film I saw this year by far. The blurb from Sundance said that this movie was some sort of unique combination of documentary and drama about man’s first contact with aliens. It’s not. It’s a completely ordinary documentary, done badly. Like any documentary these days there is an attempt to avoid being a pure talking-head experience by having footage of something related. I guess this is what was supposed to represent the drama. Much of the footage is pretty to look at with slow motion shots of water splashing or inside European museums. This goes on while experts from various governments talk about how difficult it would be if aliens were to arrive. Really? Wow. Don’t waste your time on this.

Film Photo Courtesy of Sundance Institute, Festival Photos By Ray Keller.