Howdy

This last Saturday my roommate, Wendell, bought the DVD version of the film "Ray." We watched it that night after I finished destroying my friend Granville at Madden 2005. I'm sure you've seen plenty of reviews that praise the performance of Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles and they are well deserved. His portrayal of Ray Charles is transcendent. It goes beyond mere mimicry and he embodies the character completely.

Like all biopics it's not a great film but it's worth seeing. Wendell came away from the movie wishing he had seen a documentary instead of a feature film but it is good at what it tries to do. I thought it did the little a things a documentary can't do by giving you a peak into the character of Ray Charles. Of course it's their vision of how Ray may have behaved but it felt authentic to me.

Also Sharon Warren as Ray Charles' mother was radiant. I'd never heard of her before and she is just gorgeous and was a great choice to play his young mother.

Seeing the movie reminded me of an appearance by Jamie Foxx on the old Chris Rock HBO show. I remember Rock asked Foxx the difference between being on television and being on the big screen. Foxx told Rock that he had thought TV pussy was good but had found that movie pussy is a million times better. As I was watching the movie Ray and as I was remembering that interview I also recalled an interview I saw with George Clooney right before he became a big movie star. He told of a time when he was on a plane with Mel Gibson and they struck up a conversation and left the plane together. He said that when they got into the middle of the public people would come up to him and treat him like a buddy since they only saw him on the tube. When the same people saw Mel Gibson they went gaga and treated Mel like a god. I think those two anecdotes demonstrate pretty much the same thing.