well, i didn’t make it to all four films. everything was going fine, but when i got out of fun with dick and jane and looked at the clock, it was already 10pm and there was no way i was making it to the alamo draft house in less than 15 minutes. so i only made the first three.
capote was interesting and very well done. i really like philip seymour hoffman, so it was nice to see him get a quality leading role (even if he was an executive producer and thus tied to the film in other ways). i’m not familiar with truman capote as a person or much of this story so i can’t talk about how hoffman did portraying him, but i can say the acting, directing, pace, etc were all excellent. it didn’t leave me dumbfounded or numb or anything, but it did a good job of telling its story.
the squid and the whale reminded me of wes anderson some in the previews, so it was a pretty mild surprise to find out wes was a producer on the film. (which i connect to the use of robert yeoman as the cinematographer, but that’s just a guess.) the term “dark comedy” gets overused these days imo, but that’s certainly where i would put this. realistically dysfunctional people trying to live out life as a marriage falls apart, infused with plenty of sadly and genuinely funny moments. there are really no good or bad people, no two-dimensional major characters merely around for forwarding the plot, just messy screwed-up people with good and bad sides. if you go to the movies for an escape from real life, this probably isn’t for you. unless you have a simple, wonderful life and relationships, and an escape is seeing the ugly messiness of others. the intellectual pretentiousness of the dad was humorous, but painful to watch since it’s kind of a trigger issue for me.
sue joined me for the third film, fun with dick and jane. it was supposed to be a light breather inbetween the other films, but ended up being the closer. the plan was for jack to join me for the fourth, but he had backed out for rest before i realized i wasn’t going to be able to make it. anyway, the movie was enjoyable and funny, although fairly typical popular comedy stuff. i got about what i expected from it: to laugh and see jim carrey act silly and occasionally get to see what was obviously him doing impromptu stuff that was funny enough to leave in the final cut. it wasn’t a stupid, plotless comedy, or a pre-teen-level raunch-fest, but i didn’t really expect that. (that would have been a disappointment.) i hadn’t known this was a remake of a 1977 film until i went to imdb this evening. this one made obvious social commentary on enron and some of the other recent corporate scandals, where most employees lost their shirts while the top guys made off okay or even great. and just in case you didn’t catch it, they blatently tell you at the end. (*sigh*) but don’t watch it for its statement(s) because that’ll leave you fairly unfulfilled — watch it because it’s funny.
all in all, it was an enjoyable way to spend the day and i think i made pretty good choices since i didn’t leave any of the three feeling let down or disappointed or like i’d wasted my time.
since the fourth movie was a bust, i changed plans and sue met me at the house of pies. unfortunately, i ended up talking about tamara, which i usually realize i shouldn’t really do about a minute after i leave and am all by myself. it’s just always emotionally difficult to hear what new way she’s found to either deny any value in me and/or our marriage and relationship, or how she’s trying to act as if it never happened.
i know i shouldn’t really be affected by this any more (or at least i feel like i shouldn’t), but it still hurts that i gave her my life and loved her — and i know for a fact there were good times and love and shared life — and this is how she is about it and me. i try to be a good guy that people can respect and like, and i care about what people think, so it’s very difficult to have someone appear to think so negatively of me. (especially since i invested so much in her emotionally.) but i suppose she needs some way to try and deal with the choices she (and alistair) made, and to deal with the ways she feels i failed her. (and that wording is in no way to imply that i did not actually fail her in some way(s).) i guess it’s my own fault for choosing to put my faith and trust in her and tie my life to hers, but relationships and love and trust and faith are risks and sometimes (hopefully not all the time) you lose. and obviously i lost, in any number of ways. it’s just not supposed to happen when you choose to marry. but i refuse to retroactively go back and try to erase my failings and deny her good attributes. i want to try and see the failure of my marriage as truthfully as possible — to embrace the good and learn from the mistakes — so that (G-d willing) in the future i can make someone the best husband that i can be. i feel like it’s all flawed now because i’m divorced, but i don’t really have any control over that. i pray for G-d’s forgiveness of our failure, and that he will bless my future in this facet of my life.
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failure is not an option. it's a requirement.
So the new year ushers in an era of cinema for you? Perhaps what you need is not celluloid but a vacation from your city, your surroundings, yourself. Not just a road trip to some landmark you have imbued with some fondness for Southern culture, but something far enough away to distract you from these thoughts you find yourself thinking.
Why don’t you and the female who recommended the Dale Watson show go to Spain? Would not such a thing remedy your morose musings?
why is it the comment above comes across like sigmund freud putting his own spin on the subtitles at the beginning of monty python’s search for the holy grail?
“why not try a holiday in spain this year? see the lovely mithraeums! the wonderful cult system. and many interesting furry animals.”
while i’m somewhat curious how one can have a vacation from one’s self, it’s still quite an honor to be visited by someone of such a high standing in the cult of mithras. my very own heliodromus! now if i can only get a pater on here! next i’m going to try and collect all seven!
for the record, i mentioned the dale watson show — she just convinced me i should go. and i’m not sure how going to spain (?) would remedy my morose musings. is dale watson playing there?
I want to go to Spain. Why don’t I ever get fun advice like this in my blog?
I kept thinking that I was reading the script for the commercial for Recall in the movie Total Recall.
Oh! I know why, it just occurred to me … the whole “vacation from yourself” bit – that’s what reminded me of that movie. It seems as though your Courier of the Sun has an affinity for Arnold Schwarzenegger movies…or maybe she/he likes just that one, like me. 🙂
I’m just impressed at how well versed you are in the mystery cults. What a coincidence that I find myself posting on the website of one who had such a great preexisting knowledge of my religion.
that’s because i’m a christian, and christianity is pretty much based on mithraism.
well, either that or i used google.
Terry — I always appreciate your movie reviews, as you usually find something good that I would have never heard about otherwise. It’s unfortunate that my wife is not quite as adventurous in what she likes to watch. So I don’t know if/when I will have the chance to _The Squid and the Whale_. I still haven’t seen _Bad Santa_ yet.
I can’t say I’m disappointed that you missed _Syriana_ since the reviews I’ve seen describe it as thinly veiled leftest anti-Iraq war propaganda. Ugh!
i’ve picked up flm magazine a couple of times (which appears to be produced by landmark theatres) and i’ve found some interesting stuff from it. it’s geared toward independent film. but mostly i just hear about stuff via word of mouth, or from previews before other films i watch, or i browse through the rental stores looking for interesting non-mainstream boxes and read the descriptions. i’m pretty out of the loop compared to most people who are very into film.
i keep thinking i should get on netflix, but i tend to go in spurts where i’ll watch a bunch of stuff for a few weeks or months and then i’ll go for weeks or months where i don’t watch anything. i’m not sure it would be cost-effective for me to do netflix. although i’d probably have a better selection, and i could easily queue up a list of movies i want to see without having to remember them or write them down.
speaking of lists of movies, i’ve got the receipts for probably just about every movie i’ve rented in the last couple of years. maybe i should enter that sometime.