Entries tagged as ‘Movies’
So I’m walking toward the movie theater. It’s Saturday afternoon and my first free one in weeks. I’m alone (which is often best for movies because a pal always screws up my objective nature…or subjective nature as it goes,) and THAT GUY is standing there. You know the guy. The one with the binder that says FREE MOVIE SCREENING! I stare. I can’t help it. A free movie. That’s just up my alley. I don’t know why I get sucked in every single time. Yes I do. Because I love them…movies. And I’ll watch dreck just to be watching something.
But, back from the tangent, the guy is giving out passes for an animated movie. I love animated movies. Hey Toy Story is in my all-time top 20. Come on! Woody banging on Buzz’s buttons as it says “Buzz, Buzz, Buzz Lightyear to the rescue” we all laughed…I know you did. So I notice the flyer says 3D. 3D?! What? Why? Life is 3D buddy and in case you didn’t notice, we don’t seem to want to watch real life in the theater. We (I mean THEY here) want blue people for crying out loud!
And I’ve been seeing the tech posts recently begin hyping the 3D TV. I absolutely refuse to wear dorky glasses in my own living room to watch a film. If I wanted 3D, I’d watch a play! I know… not the same, but you get the idea. Look, I admit it. Avatar’s 3D was at least not incredibly intrusive most of the time, but it only made three, maybe five shots better or more impactful. So why all the fuss? I’m not sure Rosebud would have been all that much of shock in 3D. Jabba the Hut maybe. And, well the guys would have loved to see that bikini on Princess Leah in 3D, but I don’t want blood flying at me in 3D…even if Jackie Earle Haley is slinging it.
For the future….I’ll take better actors over 3D in a heartbeat. And you know what, I’ll cave for the free movie this time, but after that…well I’ll cave for the next free movie, but I’m not getting on the 3D boat. Not that Titanic…until it’s free Oakleys for everyone!
Categories: Movies
Tagged: 3D, Avatar, Movies, Princess Leah
So this is the season of awards. Normally I’m bouncing on my seat for this part of the year…to see if I can figure out who will win or lose. Globes, Oscars and more, usually fill my mind. But not this year. This year is different. I’m not even watching the movies that have been nominated.
Why is this year not like the others? I blame the economy. Not because I can’t afford to see the nominated films. It wouldn’t matter if I couldn’t, I still would if that were my desire. No, I blame the economy for making me decide what makes me like a film before I go to the theater.
I don’t want to see Leonardo DiCaprio be pretty. Or Brad Pitt. They’re everywhere being pretty already. I don’t want to see India be the darkness and hope that it is everyday. I don’t want to watch some dog be…well… a dog. What I want is to be outside of the world I already live. I know marriages break and people age (or don’t). I know that poverty and horror abounds. That’s why it’s time for Seth McFarlane to make a movie-Right Now!
This is complely weird coming from me. I don’t even watch his shows that much. What I don know is that Mr MacF has a way to ripping us out of our obsessions and see our absurdity quite clearly. I need that right know. We need that. We need to get over our paranoia of falling stock prices, rising gas prices and prices in general and return to laughing. At ourselves over and over again.
Give it to me Seth!
Categories: Movies
Tagged: Movies, reject award shows, Seth MacFarlane
The Driver saw a film recently called The Visitor. It is written and directed by Thomas McCarthy. When a writer/director is a good actor, one of two things happens. One, that person gets a chance to become a dictator and creates/destroys the pictures made. Two, that person adjusts the equation and makes brilliant pictures. Thomas McCarthy is the latter. In this case, he uses his knowledge of acting to write and direct a smooth piece in which he does not act.
The Visitor follows an ordinary professor, living life alone, as he happens upon an immigrant couple living in his rarely visited New York apartment. His encounter and subsequent connections with the couple (a Syrian musician and a jewelry maker from Senegal) bring a spotlight on his true separation from the world around him. As he begins to seek life again through the vibrancy of music, the rules of the world around him jeopardize his new friendship and then introduce the possibility of an even larger life.
This film is smart with rich non-American characters that we don’t find in American films. I happened upon this film not knowing the writer/director also made another Driver favorite called The Station Agent.
What I like about The Visitor is that I feel like I’m a fly on the wall of the lives of the characters. I could just as easily end up in these situations (they’re never out of the realistic realm of possibility,) and would feel the same conflicts. It’s much more vivid when I’m watching it play on screen than I’m sure I would feel if it were my own life. In the end, I feel resolution, but not an end. I like that. It leaves me wanting to write more of the story. Or at least wait for Thomas McCarthy to dream up something else. Whatever writing juice he’s drinking….the Driver wants some too, please.
Categories: Movies
Tagged: independent movies, Movies, The Station Agent, The Visitor, Thomas McCarthy
