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Scenes I Thought Were Cool
Elliott calls Megan to his office, tells her no comment and then leaves her in his office with the documentation detailing the fake investigation into Mike blatantly obvious on his desk.
Megan is forced into a conversation with the Newspaper's lawyer, and it becomes increasingly clear that he doesn't actually care about the truth, just that they don't get sued. Absence Malice, and all that.
When Mike shows up to the newsroom for the first time, it's clear Megan believes this imagined Mike Gallagher is a villain and when he shows up as an actual human being right in front of her she's thrown for a loop.
When Megan calls Mike later to set him up; he takes her on his boat and she's clearly freaking out having to keep her ridiculously hot suit jacket on because that's where her wire is. First when Mike points out that he noticed her wire and the guy following them (Weird Walker the Photographer, stealing the show in his only appearance in whatever that outfit was), proving that despite his decision to not join the family business, gangster tendencies for paranoia don't die away that easily. Then when she starts to get comfortable around him, Weird Walker and a Police chopper show up, killing the mood in a most effective way.
In fact earlier in the scene she's basically espousing how lucrative crime is, like... literally, to get him to say anything vaguely incriminating.
"That sounds like the janitor" her editor says to her as they write the initial piece about Mike, when they refer to "sources inside the DA's office".
The first scene between Elliott and the local DA, Quinn, is shot in an insanely dynamic manner. Following a restless Elliott all over Quinn's office with an ever natural shifting camera. Possibly foreshadowing for the climax?
Elliott literally saying to his subordinate at one point that "We've looked like idiots for too long [so let's make Mike look like an idiot instead]". They're trying to make a criminal, or at least force him into becoming a mole.
The Actual Gangsters aren't stupid, they're on Mike too; his "Uncle" has him followed, and even meets with him later to reassure him that if the DA's office makes a misstep in his direction they've got his back. They actually do, even, later in the movie.
"Don't expect the truth if you're not willing to tell it" Megan says before planning a sting to get Mike to incriminate himself. Her bias is so obvious that she forgot what the truth was long ago.
"Who puts out the paper, nobody?" Mike asks when Megan's editor claims he doesn't form public opinion.
When Megan publicizes everything about Teresa's abortion, a billion thoughts went through my mind; was Megan insane to take this woman's trust and friendship into her own ruin, and this was way beyond the limits of privacy, but doesn't the news media do this sort of thing still?
When Quinn comes clean about Mike not really being a suspect, Elliott doubles-down like a madman, targetting both of them and helping set Mike's plan in motion.
Megan tells a coworker some of the rules about a piece involving a shark attack, this same coworker comes to her after all is said and done and she realizes that the rules she'd invented were merely there as moral capital for her and her editor. This coworker even mirrors the insane determination that Megan has in this scene and all Megan can think of to say to her is "[your claim] is not true, but it's accurate".
The final confrontation between all the characters in that Attorney General scene I swear that was the coolest scene ever. Like even when it started Harada Hitomi's Overdrive started playing in my head.Best line? "[Mike's doing this] TO GET EVEN WITH [YOU, Elliott] DUMMY", courtesy of Quinn.
This is the first scene Megan chooses not to hurt someone in, by not revealing her source. She can't take back her words, but she can try and not screw somebody else over. Still, I couldn't help but feeling "You turn over a new leaf now?", but in a good way.
Also when all is said and done, Megan starts to put a line, finally, between her editor's thoughts and her own, because she can see that all he cares about is saving the paper's reputation after the scandal.
In fact, earlier on, her Editor says he doesn't miss being a beat journalist because most news is bad news for someone, and those someone's start to pile up quick and as an Editor he gets to not think about them. Maybe that's foreshadowing too.
Mike doesn't read the story that basically discredits Megan and her paper, which is cute.
In the end, Megan realizes that she needs to become a decent journalist again, with like, ethics and stuff, which I thought was a good ending for her. Mike believes she might even be a decent journalist, after she puts together some stuff about his estranged teenage daughter.
General Notes
If that amuses you I was surprised that after the two top contenders were Moonlight and La La Land there still was a war movie and a neowestern nominated (as if they were like "Diversity's cool but do we reaaaaally have to not have those two genres nominated?").
Tangent: I've been considering reading a similar Brit Grit-type novel (Ugly Bus) and now I feel like if you couldn't manage I never will.
That said, many people like it, and my opinion is just one. I would recommend watching it or reading the source material just to see if it works for you.
This is the movie that started this whole thing, because I thought this movie would be a hilarious ride down the "dark" side, but that's not what I got. I'm actually kind of glad, because it ended up being a brilliant, exciting film.
This is a movie driven by two extremely strange characters. One of them, the main character, is best described as "the side-character in most stories who is wild and up for anything". Here, by making him the main character, he gains his own motives. Of course, because he's wild and completely directionless, those motives are vagueties hidden behind words like "Monica" and "Mexico".
Jesse, our protagonist, has a two-day fling with LA-based French architecture student in Las Vegas. Down on his luck in his home, he packs up (well, he steals a car) and heads to her home and school in Las Vegas, with nary a plan in sight aside from taking the funds he has and running off to Mexico.
Initially, you can see how this plan would unfold. Maybe he convinces her, maybe he can't, but if they go off to Mexico, this whole affair ends and he can move on. Right?
But then one simple mistake makes that all impossible; he accidentally shoots a traffic police officer who is chasing him down after a simple violation. Still, Jesse sees this as simply as he did before. His actions exhibiting the same wild, excited level of ADD as before.
Jesse takes refuge in self-assuring mantras in the form of Jerry Lee Lewis music and the Silver Surfer. To step into a bit of self-criticism; anybody who pours so much of themselves into singular fictional works and loves them with all fiber of their being is beyond escapism. That's their dogma, their religion. Jerry Lee Lewis music literally drives Jessie into a frenzy, and he can literally overwrite the narrative flow (at one point, the dramatic music swells to a crescendo but Jessie refuses to see what's right in front of him, instead starting to sing a Jerry Lee Lewis song that literally competes with the orchestra of the soundtrack).
The Silver Surfer is somebody who is misunderstood, who Jessie views as himself. At one point, I even thought a major theme to Jessie's personality was a sense of outer nihilism, because he reads a statement by the Silver Surfer about how humanity doesn't appreciate what it has on the Earth, and how he is the only one who understands it.
There's also a discussion that Jessie has later with a young boy about the Silver Surfer. Jesse has just murdered someone, and is on the run. The little boy remarks that "The Silver Surfer is a jerk because he doesn't use his power to leave, to leave". Jesse remarks that he stays because he loves it; the same reason he's staying in LA, because he believes he loves a girl he slept with for two nights and then saw for about one more day.
You have to really hand it to Richard Gere (and be a little annoyed at the 80s audiences that didn't eat this movie up). He is his character; he becomes this completely childlike, unthinking idiot who believes he can get away with anything as long as he runs fast enough. He only has a rudimentary understanding of everything to fall back on, which is what fuels his thieving lifestyle where he refuses to look back.
When this character clashes with Monica, the put-together French Architect student bound for the stars, fireworks burn the warehouse down. But this brief fling between them is not all that brings Monica to him. We are quickly shown that in her everyday life, Monica has to deal with a complete existential crisis; why is she doing all of these things to improve her life and make it amazing? She doesn't know. In fact, she doesn't know what she wants at all.
Then comes the pressures of being a woman before modern times. The only reason she's chosen to represent the top students in her class is because her skeevy professor is after something more. It's strongly implied that she even sleeps with him to secure a meeting with a top architect.
At one point, Jesse gets a clear read of her; he asks her if she's "One of those girls" who plans to sleep her way to the top. She doesn't answer, she does what she knows best; she offers herself to him, acting as if this will mean he will most definitely give her what she wants most, freeedom.
With all this pressure on her, it's no wonder she decides to have a fling with this handsome, charming man. The problem is she fails to realize who he truly is on the inside until it's too late. She even remarks early on how she feels that she can't see what lies behind his face and that scares her. Still, she's excited by the romance and can't let it go.
Then comes the big moment; when she realizes the man she's with is a wanted fugitive. She doesn't leave him, in fact, she's already decided he will be her salvation; she says she loves him, but the truth is that she loves the freedom, the lack of rules he brings into her life. Of course, she has feelings for him, but they aren't enough.
When they get away after the big chase, when most movies would have decided our "heroes" have earned their freedom by escaping from the (admittedly crazy seeming) police, she begins to see things clearly.
It's not until the morning after that it solidifies for her; she tries to get the love she so craves from this man ("What are you doing?" he asks annoyed as she tries to embrace him), a confirmation of her freedom, but he's stuck firmly in reality. Not a "real" sense of responsibility, but the reality of his situation; he's trying to fix up a banged up car and can't even see past this one task. The girl is just one part of his ever-collapsing ideal in this made up version of "Mexico", he's already got her, now he needs to fix up the car. No need to pay attention to her.
Only when she comes back from a snack run, telling him that she can't go with him anymore, does he even begin to notice her existence again. The plan is falling apart, and he begs her, tells her he'll leave if she says she doesn't love him, and still can't believe it when she does.
She's called the police, and they're coming for him. When faced with them, he reaffirms something she asked him early on; "Grief or nothing?". He answered "Nothing".
I didn't expect this movie to be so insanely tight with it's characterization, and I'm very happy I watched it.
When a blonde prostitute from Las Vegas says she wants to go with Jesse because she's not afraid of anything, he responds with a loud "BOO" and she flinches back as he drives off, cackling like a madman.
To get into Monica's apartment building, Jesse presses half the buttons and claims (in his most offensive Mexican accent) that he's the foreman, which kind of ties in to his obsession with Mexico.
The secretary at the "totally legit" firm that hires Jesse sometimes tells the police he was there, much to the chagrin of her boss. She quietly mouths "WHAT" at him after they leave. Movie secretaries are apparently the best.
Jesse shows up at Monica's school, completely trashing her assignment presentation and the room it's being held in. He then follows her around later, culminating in a scene where he simulates sex with a nude statue that was funnier than it should have been.
At one point, Monica (the French woman) says Americans are "Always thinking about sex". I always thought the opposite was true.
Jesse steals some money and a glowing necklace for Monica and has to leave a restaurant quickly. Monica's response? Going back for her taco.
When Monica is stuck in an elevator with Professor Creepert, she's distracted by the sun and how much Jesse enjoys the hot winds of LA. It was very poignant.
Jesse's big, ridiculous sombrero when he sneaks into Monica's house the second time.
Jesse drives at one point whilst making out with Monica, they do not get into an accident. In fact later Jesse hotwires a car from the drivers seat whilst Monica drives from the passengers seat, they don't get into an accident then either.
Every time Jesse looks at a newspaper, he seems surprised they still know who he is or that he killed a police officer. Monica is also allowed her own newspaper reaction scene at the very end. Her headline is particularly great; "GIRL IN THE PINK DRESS, HOSTAGE OR LOVER?".
The reason for the big chase is that Jesse is dumb enough to meet his criminal friend at a disco, because that's what you do on the run.
Mid-chase, Jesse and Monica run into a robbery and possible assault in progress. I wonder why that doesn't happen more often in works that feature lots of dreary, similar-seeming chase sequences.
After the big chase sequence, Jesse asks Monica if she's scared and she answers with the most flippant "Yeah" of all time.
Not having learned their lesson, the two lovebirds sneak into a cinema and have sex right after the chase, because there's no way they'd get caught there.
Monica only notices how badly she sliced her hand through the chase after all of this stuff happens.
An exasperated Monica asks Jesse what their plans for the future are now, as if she didn't just dash all of hers by going on the run with a fugitive. Jesse can't even form a coherent sentence as an answer, because he can't even really compute the concept of the future.
"The good part is still coming up" Jesse says to Monica, as if either of them believes it post-chase.
The morning after the chase, Monica finds the plastic heart Jesse stole for her broken on the ground. It was very literal symbolism (I mean, Jesse even says "Don't break my heart" when he gives it to her), but it really brought the impact to a scene without dialogue that directly addressed the issue.
"Only a jerk would stay when he could go." the kid says about the Silver Surfer. It's obvious that Jesse could have made it to Mexico if he didn't stay for so long, but it can even be argued that if he didn't waver so much during the final sequence because of Monica, he still could have made it.
General Notes
Or, "Because of course the one movie on this list that is also on the best movies of all time list on Wikipedia is the one I think is pretty much bland and boring".
Warning: If somehow possible, way more spoilers than usual.
Chinatown is the story of Jake Gittes, who gets caught up in the weird and wonderful world of Water politics in California. Well, maybe it's about that, maybe it's about Jake Gittes and how he finds someone to protect in the weird and wonderful world of Water politics? Probably not, it's all very muddled.
The movie didn't really start off well either, but first let's discuss how ridiculously pretty and sleek it all looked. Unlike Breathless, which showed it's age in almost every way (the greens-creens didn't help), this was insanely slick. Some scenes could even pass for a modern-ish stylized movie (that might be the remastering, but who knows).
Then there's the brilliant music, outside of the scene in which Jake and Evelyn have sex, the music is pretty much brilliant and I will maybe even look into getting the soundtrack somehow.
Now, back to muddled; this movie was muddled and that's no joke. From exactly what we were supposed to be focused on with the themes, to which plot is even solved by the end (I'm preeeeetty sure it's none), to the timeline, to why exactly it's called "Chinatown" aside from the badly shoehorned in references to Chinatown and the final scene that could have been set literally anywhere but is set in Chinatown (also the only scene set in Chinatown at all by the way).
Basically, Gittes used to be a cop with his friend Lou in Chinatown. Chinatown was known for it's crime and they were basically told to look away. Gittes quits to become a Private Investigator and Lou remains a cop.
Gittes is then tricked into creating the perfect storm for Californian water-board chair Hollis Mulwray by Noah Cross, who he later finds out is the father of Hollis Mulwray's wife, Evelyn. Not the Evelyn that tells him to look into his affair (played, rather obviously, by a prostitute who for her role, knows way, way too much) but the real one, who is that close to suing him after exposing Hollis' affair.
Hollis' affair by the way is with Evelyn's sister-slash-daughter and Evelyn allows this affair because she also has affairs because she is all about the being a strong modern woman. But like, did I mention the part where Noah Cross forcibly has sex with his daughter Evelyn and gets her pregnant? And how Hollis, the man who supposedly "saved" her, is all about having an affair with his own stepdaughter who is also his sister-in-law? Yeah?
The entire story really starts to fall apart once you examine it, because the way it's presented in the movie is through lots and lots of twists in the last fourty or so minutes. This might be what contributed to the first hour or so feeling like a massive drag, but the truth is from plot twist to plot twist it's still a massive slog of just sort of watching people do thing slowly and deliberately.
And herein lies the problem; the characters don't make any sense with the lot they've been given, but the twists can't exist unless they're given to the existing characters. Evelyn, for the first 2/3rds, comes off as a real 70s girl. Not an exterior 70s girl, a real one, she's never shown as being two faced, and even when they try to foreshadow it by having her become nervous when she talks about her father, her father seems pretty terrible anyways so it doesn't work. Then, she still doesn't really 180, it's more like she... 60 degrees it into horrid backstory territory, but continues to behave the exact same way?
That's what turns the complexity they were going for into muddled.
Then, there's Noah Cross himself. The Big Bad who is literally given the role of JRPG final boss. No, not the guy you fight as being presented as the big bad, the guy who comes after him who is a mishmash of cool-looking designs that mostly exists because it's a tradition of the genre. Way too late for it to matter anymore, Noah Cross admits to killing Hollis, and of course Gittes has nobody there to back him up. Gittes is trying, in the most convoluted way possible, to help Evelyn and her daughter Caroline, but of course he tells Noah exactly where they are. Obviously, this doesn't end well and it's clearly all his fault, but as the characters say at the end; "It's Chinatown".
Did the cops who shoot Evelyn come from Chinatown? Definitely not. Was Evelyn living in Chinatown? Nope, Gittes told her to go there. Did the cops know that Evelyn was in Chinatown? Nope, but Gittes sure made them suspicious when he gave them the slip and then told his guys to meet them exactly where Evelyn was, ensuring that the cops would follow the next best thing. Trying to present the story as one where "Chinatown" or even the corruption somehow killed Evelyn is ridiculous. Gittes may not have killed her, but like... reckless endangerment is a thing.
Oh yeah, did I mention that Noah Cross killed Hollis Mulwray because he wanted to get land rights from farmers by screwing them over with a semi-fake drought or something and Hollis found out? Also that he's buying those land rights by using a shell set-up as an old folks home? Yeah, that's also happening, it's also super-irrelevant.
Before I stop, because I don't want to just go on in circles about how much I was annoyed and confused at this movie, I should mention the time distortion plotting. Like, a whole third of the movie happens in one day, which was practically impossible considering the assumed travel distances between the city and the country.
Finally, sexual assault is a big deal, and I get that this was made in the 70s but the fact that Evelyn finally tells Gittes about her ordeal with her father after he slaps her a bunch and shoves her around is not okay. It's even more not okay that the next woman we see at all is the wife of Gittes' client who was cheating on him, and she has a huge black eye, and he cares like 0%.
In fact, this whole movie is weird with violence. I expected a lot of violence from Breathless, but that movie actually managed to keep it to when it was necessary. In comparison, Gittes starts to feel like he is ready and willing to get into a fight with anybody (even a random banker who insults him at one point) and so is a lot of the cast, which really contrasts with their nice suits and the whole slick atmosphere.
So, yeah, really disappointing.
Scenes I Thought Were Cool
At one point, Gittes sets watches under car tyres so that when a car crushesthe watch, they'll know exactly when it left. I have no idea if this would work in real life, but it was cool.
A seedy guy takes pictures of the guy paddling his boat, as cover for taking pictures of Hollis and Catherine of course. He even says the guy will "Love them".
Gittes impersonates the deputy at the California Board of Water to get into a crime scene with a simple business card. Thank business cards for not having pictures of the owner and thank police officers for not knowing what people look like.
The sequence in which Gittes almost drowns as they drain water from the resevoirs is really well choreographed.
Some gangsters working for Cross who want Gittes to stop snooping around slash up his nose. I wonder why detective heroes don't get maimed more often.
Gittes suggests the Subchief (now chief after Hollis dies) give him the name of the big shots and maybe he'll keep his name out of it so he can keep his new, shiny position.
Gittes kicks one farm worker in his sensitive area and he literally howls like a donkey. Best overacting ever.
Gittes asks if they let Jewish people into the old folk's home that's being used as cover for the land buyouts, they don't, and he's "good" with that.
The fight scene at the old folk's home is brilliantly choreographed.
When Gittes realizes that there's saltwater in the pond at the Mulwray's pond, meaning that's where Hollis was killed.
And then there were the Iffy Mystery Scenes
Gittes just goes into a guy's office one time and starts snooping around and the secretary doesn't even come check on him or call security, how safe.
Literally nobody in the police knows that they've been draining water from the city's resevoirs, or maybe they're all under Cross' thumb, can't be sure.
Evelyn tells Gittes that the lady Hollis was having an affair with was his sister, but I would think that it would be obvious to anybody who saw the newspaper article that was run immediately after the affair came out that was the case. Of course, he doesn't push her then and waits to beat it out of her. He also doesn't go to the police.
How does Fake Evelyn Mulwray know so much? Like, seriously that's not normal.
Noah Cross just left the evidence that could get him arrested (his glasses in the pond where he drowned Hollis) at the crime scene? For like, days?
Evelyn runs away to Mexico to have Catherine, and then she just trusts her father's business partner to convince her to come back? Not only that, but she decides to marry him?
Scenes That Were Not Cool
The aforementioned scene where Gittes beats Evelyn up.
Gittes has a wonderful racist story about Chinese people's sex lives, I'm not going to repeat it.
The cop that barely talks is really, really annoying.
Noah Cross killing Mulwray, especially after Evelyn was set up so perfectly before her very very strange backstory.
Did I mention Evelyn giving her daughter to Mulwray to have an affair with? And then Mulwray actually having an affair with his both stepdaughter and sister-in-law?
A woman is so scared of a man that she pulls a gun out. The police wonderfully enough stand still long enough for her to get away and then shoot her in the head. Brilliant work guys.
General Notes
Music was a lot better too, and the musical sequences themselves were really nice and exhilarating to watch.
I thought The Space Between was the gayest thing in Descendants 2 but it turns out it's not. I swear everything is a conspiracy to keep me reading YA.
Also, this happened (warning: there's swearing).
Not to forget the wonderfully not-even-unobvious double whammy of lessons; men are always the best police officers and allowing a woman to head up a detective case will lead to her being wrong about a rich man who might be a creepert but actually only wants the best for Norway, but her also her own death (so the male MC can have something to be all personal about side from his former girlfriend and her son are kidnapped by the killer).
Also, movies think Norway sounds exactly like Britain (there is a woman whose accent is so obviously British that at that point I just couldn't) and that they all listen to exactly one song ever (it is also everybody's ringtone).
By the way MC's name was Harry Hole because apparently they have pure minds in Norway (he's the star of a whole series of super-popular books).
Speaking of Christmas slashers. (Context)
I loved it, the music was great*, Trevor Tordjman (previously James on Canadian dance dramedy The Next Step) was genius in his role, though the ham did get weird in some places. Meg Donelly really stepped into the spotlight from her role on American Housewife, and I was impressed with her character. The Zombies looked ah-danged-mazing and everything was cool and fashionable as should be in a Disney Channel "please become a big IP" movie.
And Mickeey Nyugen, previously of Make it Pop!, was in it, and I really like him as an actor too.
I'm starting to think that I'm the pre-teen cinema version of those people who always seem to know what actors are in what movies and how many awards they have (luckily nobody cares about Teen Choice Awards).
*BAMM, which was written by five entire people, has the best lyrics of all time. Including "You're in Zombieland, I'm in Zombieland, We're in Zombieland" and the weirdest pronunciation of scary (scuhraaaay) in lieu of actual rhyming that they were so proud of it's in both versions of the song.
I found it quite effective,
and better than anything Disney has done except TronI've also found that watching non-modern things awakens my inherent SJW trigger-warrior-ness more nowadays than it used to.
I do think Disney makes good movies, maybe? I wouldn't know, I only watch Disney Channel movies (and A Wrinkle in Time when that comes out I guess).
In fact, I think that aside from A Wrinkle in Time the only actual movie I plan to watch this year is Love, Simon and I already think I might not watch the latter.
Otherwise I'm looking forward to Shopkins Wild because of the Petkins which are cute and because the Shopkins movies are about the worst best friends ever. I'd be looking forward to more stuff but it seems Mattel's in-house studio was burned by Netflix (so like no Monster High or Barbie movies are planned for any time soon) and they have to figure out whatever that's about before more stuff happens.
When I watched the Descendants 3 trailer because of course that's happening it was #6 in Trending on YT so that is two entire Trending videos I've watched this year.
Though escalating the villains by having 1 be about Mal's mom and 2 be about Uma and then 3 being about Mal's dad feels annoying for what is essentially a girl power franchise.
For the longest time I've been forgetting to mention that in Descendants 2 Mal transforms into a dragon (and Uma becomes half-Seamonster but that's not as relevant) and this is not seen as a bad thing at all and that was kind of cool.
I won't talk much about The Shawshank Redemption as already much has been said. My general impression was, it's a bit like Paulo Coelho/self-help coach stuff, but a fine movie. The protagonist should have not caught that idiot ball and gone to the warden talking of Elmo Blatch though.
The two I'd like to describe are Polish productions. The first one is Day of the Wacko. It's one of those films about losers who can't ever get a break from things that aggravate them. Ever been woken up by the sounds of a lawnmower? How about a neighbour playing Chopin at full volume early in the morning (because otherwise he can't hear him under the shower)? These sorts of things pile up on the guy. One of the better moments is when he receives a salary and angrily rants about how he should have been a thug with a big stick, at least others would treat him with some elementary respect (and by the way, he's got better flow than more than few rappers). It's a comedy, but essentially, I was under an impression that if this film was about an American, the final scene would involve a clock tower. (Falling Down also comes to mind.) Had he been in his twenties, he would be the quintessential /r9k/ poster, and truth be told it's a cult movie on our own /r9k/ equivalent. The guys over there love to post quotes.
The other is The Last Family (Ostatnia Rodzina), a biographical film about the painter Zdzisław Beksiński and his family. You would expect the film about the guy known for such characteristic art would involve at least some of this imagery, but no - the filmmakers resigned from this (apparently they had an idea for a horror, which means the change is definitely for the better, since the last decent Polish horror was filmed before the War in Yiddish) once they figured out what kind of family this was. Turns out the paintings are the least interesting part. "Family life isn't always sunshine and rainbows." A friendly if slightly creepy fellow who loves to play around with a camera (fragments of his recordings are spliced in throughout the film), a brooding manic-depressive music lover and cinemaphile, and a woman struggling to balance out the two weirdos, but they are all reliant on each other. Still, as one review puts it, every visionary has to do the laundry once in a while, every vampire has to drop in for a Sunday dinner at mamma's. Gotta say it made me feel weird.
I think one of the reasons the medium of film fails me is that I almost never remember direct quotes.
I have actually been wondering if there was a movie that portrayed a larger than life person with those least-glamorous or dramatic parts of their lives. Good to know there's some stuff like that out there.
I think it's particularly bad once a movie gets "going". In the first parts, you might gets some "oh okay real life" bits but then once it moves into the real meangiful parts you never see anybody do something basic again unless it involves lots of dramatic tension. I guess it helps even out the flow, but it tends to be very exhausting.
I was going to play some Chopin yesterday.
I can't say I forgot. I kept thinking about it all day long.
But I never did it since I wasn't sure what to play.
The moment never really presented itself.
I kinda feel bad. I missed celebrating his birthday.
Also I really missed watching movies on TV when you can switch the audio to family friendly. I probably missed 30% of the dialogue, especially in the beginning.