POWIP Piece of Work In Progress – Former Abode of Dan Collins

Saturday Rule 5: Chase Masterson

One of the nice things about having Netflix on the Roku is that you run into movies that you've never heard of, such as "Yesterday Was a Lie." It's an ambitious dreamscape psychodrama film noir. Not a complete success, but neither a failure. It's full of allusions to Jungian archetypes, left-brain/right-brain dichotomy, linear versus non-linear time, Planck's Constant and yadda yadda. All of that would be irritatingly new agey and pseudo-scientific if it were pushed too far, but stands in instead for the intellect of a seeker who represses her emotions (the hard, chiaroscuro edge of the noir).

Dialogue here is okay. There are some awkward bits where the author/director seems to think he's really in synch with the clever, mordant patter of film noir at its best, and falls short. Cinematically, he does a good job of recreating the production values of the noir.

There are two attractive actresses at the center of all this. The one who plays a kind of Jungian anima-helper to the main character is Chase Masterson, of whom I was unaware, until I watched the movie.

Now, you probably know that blonde isn't really my thing, although I've elsewhere expressed my admiration for tiny Kristin Chenoweth (and her colleague on Pushing Daisies, Anna Friel). One thing Chenoweth and Masterson have in common: they can sing.

Lovely, in color or black and white. In fact, Ms. Masterson (birth name, Christianne Carafano, which is fine by me) was born in '63, which makes her a less ridiculous object of my admiration than if she were younger, I like to think. In a few of the scenes, because of the severe light, her skull seems almost pressing through her skin. I know that that will be a turn-off to a lot of youth-worshipping guys, and the sort of thing that most major actresses would nix, but for what it's worth, I find that has a sexiness of its own. YMMV.

The shots at IMDB reveal that Ms. Masterson isn't exactly waif-like, though perhaps they don't quite live up to the chubby chasing standard that Stacy holds me to. There's a little bit of Jenny McCarthy, recently mentioned here by Kill Truck, there, but mixed with Elizabeth Montgomery, which isn't a bad combo. There are pictures there, too, that make no effort to hide the horizontal wrinkles in the forehead. Rule of thumb, guys: the depth of horizontal lines to vertical (above the nose) on a woman of a certain age is a pretty good indication, along with crow's feet (good), of her character.

Reading further at IMDB, one finds out other things. She was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, so possibly an Air Force brat. Also:

She has recently performed in USO tours for the Navy and the Marine Corps. Masterson has been actively involved in numerous charities worldwide, including Caring for Babies With AIDS, Homeboy Industries, Iris Ministries, and Youth With a Mission, and founded the G.E.N.I.U.S. charity umbrella organization which is supported by her licensed fan club. She donated proceeds from a 2008 American flag photo shoot to the organization Operation Call Home, supplying phone cards to U.S. troops.

So, there's that.

Here's looking at you, kid.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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