I don't really care how much the latest superhero film took at the box office, although I'd probably know if you asked me. When I watch a film the main thing I am looking for is a good story. I like it when I look up at the big screen and can see a part of me staring back at me. More than anything, I am still looking for Jimmy Stewart and Jack Lemmon and Billy Wilder in every film I see.
"Just Like Heaven" by The Cure was in two of the movies I watched today. I wish it was in all movies but that's probably unrealistic, especially as a lot of movies have already been made.
"Going The Distance" is a pretty standard rom-com flick. But it has a good heart and is very watchable for a Saturday morning. When you want a lazy Saturday morning rom-com all you're really asking for is interesting lead characters, New York City, and a good romantic connection with a few semi-hiccups along the way. That's exactly what this movie does.
"Cyrus" is not as good as "The Puffy Chair" but it still shows the immense talents of the Duplass Brothers. There's some great moments in this film --- I love that these guys love the subtle. Laughs don't have to be big. Observations don't have to be in your face. When they're great, they're unbelievably great, and when they're only very very good, they give you "Cyrus" - which is better than most of what's out there. There's some great moments in this film.
"Jungle Fever" is great. Spike Lee is one of my favorite directors. He really takes subjects by the balls. What I love about this movie is its complexity. When white people make films about race, it's condescending liberal-we're-all-the-same bullshit like "Crash". But Spike Lee is different. This is a film about the diversity within diversity. How the hard part isn't a white guy realising he's attracted to a black girl; the hard part is the white guy following through when all his white friends and family are racist. That's just one example. And what a lot of people don't realize about Spike is that he really looks closely at what it is to be black, at what black culture is and how black people treat each other. It's one thing to be angry about how it's a white world, but what Spike acknowledges time and time again in his films is how the same hierarchical bullshit goes on within the black community. Like it does any community. You can be male, or white, or straight, or whatever -- but it's just not A or B, YES or NO. There's always someone telling you to 'man up!' or "stop being gay" or "stop acting black!" Not enough films delve into this stuff. But Spike does, with race. And it's refreshing. This is still refreshing even though it was made in the nineties. Diversity within diversity. That's something to think about. Even when we're labelled as one thing we're all still so different. Try putting five screenwriters in a room together. It's hell.
"Adventureland" is a movie I love. I just sink right into it. I love every character, every piece of music, every shot, every little moment. That's what a movie does when it sits in your top 10 list. The best films seep into who you are. You're a little bit more interested in an upcoming movie when it features someone who worked on one of your favorites. That's what "Adventureland" has become for me. I feel like I wrote it. Or it was written for me. I relate to all of it even though so much of it has nothing to do with who I am. Movies are fucking magic.
Enough of the positive malarkey. Let's get down to the negative.
1. Cinema Staff During A Screening..
..who come in halfway through a movie and sit in front of you and start texting their friends. Not good.
2. Eat Pray Love
Fuckawful film which is like one big advert for white privilege. A rich, married, white American woman decides to do some 'soul-searching' after realising she doesn't love her husband anymore. She pisses off to a bunch of different countries where people are seemingly waiting around ready to be stereotypical of their nationalities.. i.e food loving Italians and Eastern spiritual gurus. Julia Roberts prances around the world picking up bits of wisdom that make her dull yet perfect American lifestyle more meaningful and profound (to her). Never has a film been so condescending, misled and, in many ways, offensive. Absolutely soulless.
3. The 'How can you not have seen...?' shitheads.
You know the ones I mean. The guys who love their piece of Romanian zombie bullshit from 1976 and try to make out you're a lesser person because you haven't seen it. "Oh come on, how can you not have seen it?" Like I give a shit.
4. Actors Who Leave Your Script On The Train.
Unbelievable. The actress gets to the audition and asks for another copy. "I'm sorry I left your script on the train," she says. That's great! Nothing I love more than giving away my passion project to a stranger on a train.
5. People who believe their own hype.
Because hype dies. One minute the newspaper says you're the next big star -or- you get a lead role in a TV show, the next minute you're tending bar. That's the reality. But there's nothing worse than someone who's only just put down the empty glasses who won't return calls or won't be polite because they think they've 'surpassed it.' These people suffer when the hype dies, because everyone remembers. It happens all the time. Don't believe your hype. It's meaningless.
If a friend, family member, colleague, or cute member of the opposite sex (or same sex, dependent on your orientation, or mood that day) and asks you to go and see the film "HALL PASS" --- please use the following sentence:
"The Kid In The Front Row has given me a Hall Pass for HALL PASS, which means I don't have to go."
Immediately after this sentence, turn towards the nearest exit and walk, fast. It'll be okay.
Some people you just love. They represent everything you value. You want a bit of what they've got, even just 5% of that magic.
Jack was something special. Everyone knew it. When we look up at the screen now - we rarely see what he gave us. And that's very sad.
My favorite fact about Jack: Before making it as an actor, he worked as a restaurant quality checker, but was fired because he kept rating everybody "excellent."
