My Process

I am not a person that walks out of a movie and is eager to give it a letter grade, a number of stars, or any sort of thumb gesture. I am a guy who likes to talk and stew and talk and stew for a while before I evolve an opinion. It usually lasts about a month, sometimes longer sometimes shorter, but usually a month. I have had time to live with the material, I perhaps have given it another viewing. You are sure as shit I will talk about it, with anyone who will listen. Sometimes its to bounce my opinion off them and listen to their take, and if they didnt see the movie I practice explaining the movie and why I enjoyed or didnt and what I thought to see if I can make sense of myself.

I would be the worlds least punctual movie critic. My turnout would be once a month.

So to show you this process I have picked three movies: one I am fresh from viewing the first time, the next I have just set out to cool and it smells ready, and one that has aged a little in the cellars of my brain.

The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeois:

I will be honest I saw this once before, but I dont count it because I was always interrupted from the movie by various odd occurences. Just like our characters, who cannot seem to sit down and enjoy a meal, in this very dry yet quite madcap movie.

I didnt know what to think of it at first because I just had so many people hype it. So when I borrowed a second time, I made sure that http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrpGhEVyrk0 before I sat down to watch it.

I wasnt as mixed up on everything as I was before, partly because I knew what to expect. But what I didnt anticipate how wierd and dense it was. It was one of those things that if it were a snake it would bite you. Like for instance when the ladies sit down to have lunch together they are interupted by a young handsome officer who asks to sit with them. I believe his opening line was something like "I had the oddest dream last night, would you ladies like to hear it." This line of course works (just like in real life. Man oh man I cannot tell how many girls fall for that one), and he explains how he as a child woke up to his mother's ghost telling him to kill his father. His father apparently murdered her and he must take revenge.

And the ladies take this stride, like he just got down telling a very interesting anecdote and didnt confess his guilty concious to them in a crowded cafe. This is just one of many little bits that somehow latch onto you and make themselves big chunks in your head.

I like this movie, although I still think it needs more viewing and thought, the material deserves it.

Suburbi@

I also saw this once before, and that viewing was great. So great that I wanted to go back and give it another go. But that next day, it was pulled off the Cinemax In Demand list and I couldnt find it anywhere since. That is until I found it at MCC.

I immediately checked it out and brought it home. I made a bowl of ice cream and parked myself in a chair and viewed it head to tail. And all I got to say is wow.

It has been over a month (and my overdue library fee can attest) and I still love this movie.

One of its best qualities is the tight rope that bogosian has his actors walk. The dialogue is cringeworthy if not delivered in a flawless manner, and I give the cast and Linklater credit for really hammering home the material.

There is a scene where the character Sooze (Amie Carrey) does a performance art piece in front of a store window to group of friends. She basically dances around and says "fuck you" to just about anyone you can think of, especially all the men which she ends with in an explosive and over the top scream. This somehow works for me and I dont know why. I buy into her frustration as opposed to being turned off by her bitching. I know in my heart that this is Amie Carrey's doing and that she was born to play this role. Just like Giovanni Ribisi is perfectly cast as Sooze's boyfriend and the so called center of the group, Jeff. He lives in his parents garage in a pop up tent, doesnt work, and seems to act miserable as an occupation. He is totally at a loss at what he should be doing at this moment in his life and he is overwhelmed by everyone else's sense of direction. Mr Ribisi somehow is able to occupy his character with such a deft touch that all his bitching and ranting feels meaningful, even though we all know that he is just one of thousands if not millions of teen's who feel, have felt, or will eusurpe him in feeling this way.

This story revolves around the arrival of a former classmate, who has made it big as a rockstar. But I will stop there and let you watch it and find out for yourself.

My opinion is that it is a great ensemble movie that has engaging characters whose only real problems are the ones that we all know they will grow out of. But the ultimate fear for me is are they ready for the larger problems ahead.

Lost in Translation

Here is a golden oldie, 2003. Well not old, but aged well enough. I dusted my copy of this off and threw a while back and found myself wandering around doing other things about thirty minutes in. This is a slow movie, and I mean slow. Thats not a bad thing, but when you have had the subject matter pounded over your head for a long time...

My first viewing of this was in theaters when it came out. I was with my sister who I think saw it before with Melissa who I believe saw it before her. She was gushing with emotion all throughout the screening. This is not a hard thing to do with my sister, she will gush with emotion if you mildly poke her in the arm. But this movie was like a dam burst open flooding of 24 year old girl quarter life crisis. Set in fucking Toyko!

For me, I enjoyed it. I liked the peaceful meditations it seemed to take, and the long uninterupted shots of its characters. I think another reason was I felt like it somehow gave me insight into some intangible female feelings. I cant explain it, but watching that movie with girls, two in particular, I felt like I was finally seeing things from their end. I will stop there because obviously I am skating off topic, but I will leave it at this: girls love this movie.

Nowadays it doesnt engage me like it used to. What felt profound and true now feels phony misguided and self indulgent.

Its the Garden State syndrome: when you first see it you are suckered in by great visuals, cool music, and charasmatic people. Upon leaving it you think "wow, that movie really hit it right on the head for me. These characters are full of life and complexity and I feel for them. I can watch this movie a hundred times and discover new things about it and perhaps the world around me everytime. Then you watch it again, kind of laugh at the jokes, jam out to tunes and leave it going huh, I guess it wasnt that good. Then your friend who is a girl throws it on in her dorm room insisting that it is amazing to her friend that is a girl that you have had your eye on all night but she is dating that fucking douche who is playing basketball outside really loudly with a bunch of inner city black guys and he is a rich art school fuck twat. And its then you realize that this movie is chalk full of trite bologni, the "everyone is just so sad inside and everyone else is fooling themselves" rhetoric. It was like Catcher in the Rye all over again, but this time it was the Scrubs guy channeling Alan Alda. Interpret that as you will

Anyway, LIT is a movie that will always be crystalized in time; it will be my "I loved this when I was 19" movie. There are plenty of great bits, most with Bill Murray interacting with the general public. Maybe when I hit 24 I should whip this out and see if it has an inpact then. Or perhaps I already rode that wave and I will be ready for nautical maps and smoking jacket.