This afternoon I pulled myself by my toesy-woesies and headed up the street a stretch to the Star Theater Complex on 12 mile road. I felt a little cheated that Ariel had managed to see Garden State before me — and started to wonder if I was suffering from a serious defiency in hipness. I also thought it would be a fine opportunity to enliven my creative juices which seem to be struggling to churn out even a brief 250 word essay. Well, I discovered two things in the process.
First – I am definitely suffering from a hipness defiency. Tonight was the first that I had heard about this new flick from David O. Russel, I ♥ Huckabees, an existential comedy. I know I’m a lil late on the scene because there’s nearly 2000 pages that have referenced the film already. This, of course, shouldn’t be seen as a bad thing. Indeed, just the opposite, as there is now a relatively small pile of sites to sort through in the context of the Internet. In relativity terms — this is a good handful of sites, the majority of which, if not for curiousity — I would never have happened upon. Two in particular are more likely to draw me back – 3 legged armadillo and justinsomnia (justin is a student in the Library Information Science program at UNC Chapel Hill).
It’s a path I have taken several times to weed through the undergrowth that lines this digital forest. It’s tough to find the healthy trees and sometimes it can be easy to mistake a weed for a flower. I like this organic internet. You see a pretty stone on the forest floor, pry it from it’s bed and watch as hundreds of tiny creatures flee into the soggy earth below. Then you shrink yourself down and follow after them – at each turn finding a new jigsaw of caverns to travel along. Sometimes it’s tough to find a way out.
Second — it has not helped with the creative process at all. I’m not quite sure what that movie did to me today. The storyline certainly did not proceed as I had expected. It did leave me with a comfortable dryness as I left the theater. I felt unstitched. Removed from everything around me and void of any internal conversation. Apparently it was too much for some of the older patrons, who after having talked loud enough for me to hear them six rows back, were shocked to find a sex scene in an R-rated film. They just up and left, and had no qualms about other people noticing.
I’m gonna wanna see this one again. Not because I was so overwhelmed at its yummy goodness, but rather because I am a little dismayed at how smooth I coasted through it. I’m also surprised that I didn’t walk outta that theater today with a mini-crush on Natalie Portman. Usually with movies of this type I wind up falling for the female lead just a tad. Perhaps I’m still harboring bitterness over Queen Amidala, or perhaps it’s just the fact that her character played a role that had that one character trait capable of disgusting me. That move where someone says something and almost immediately apologizes with, “I’m sorry, I’m so stupid. Why’d I say that? I can’t believe I said that. You must think I’m so weird. I’m sorry.” They then sheepishly hang their head or look into the other direction until they have managed to coax an unwitting compliment out of you when you respond with, “Oh, don’t say that. You’re not stupid. I don’t think you’re stupid,” etc. Then again, it may be that I was so turned off by the preview of Natalie’s next movie, Closer (trailer), which seemed to me to come awfully close to tearing her character straight from Kate Winslett’s in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. (script)(Looking back I see that I’ve said similar things about these two movies. Similar – not same. I’ll have to try to think more precisely about my description because these were two similar films that left me with two distinct feelings on leaving them.) Ultimately, I’d like to go back when the theater’s a lil less crowded, and I can merge into the screen.
So here I am, detached. I woke up this morning with the aim of hammering out a personal statement. I managed to churn out a few sentences before I panicked and tried to find a way out. I guess it’s alright. I need something to do tomorrow anyways. I’m just gonna pound these keys with reckless abandon — go at it the old stream of consciousness way and see what comes out pre-edit.
at least you just had old people in your theatre — i had teenagers HAVING SEX in my theatre. only a few seats down! when myfriend got up and went to tell security, they pulled up their pants and ran.
I hope they remembered their popcorn.
kevin~ i’ve had a similiar unstitched feeling, a sort of overly-prolonged suspension of disbelief that you can’t shake outside the theatre (except with coffee and a good omelette). you’d think it was a sign of a really good film, but it’s not, always.
i should also tell you that this post pointed out to me that i did greviously botch my “permalink” script after blogger’s last upgrade (thanks!). fixed now, but your thoughtful link currently goes armadillo-nowhere.
I just looked over that link again -oh the shame -
I’d doubled up on the url, perhaps as an aftereffect of said coffee. Now my minions are flee to flock in your direction. Go minions! Be kindly neighbors unto the armadillo!
i was more impressed by the trailer for garden state than the movie. of course it could have been the postal service playing in the background. i have no expectations for huckabees.
movie i am dying to go see again: napoleon dynamite. best movie i’ve seen since eternal sunshine.
and actually, i was a student in information science at UNC.
And thus the corrections go on…
Yes – I have to say that as time goes on I am finding it more difficult to convince myself that there was anything of substance in that movie at all. Of course – that goes along with what I said I felt, or didn’t feel — which was a sort of drifting through the whole process and having it all sweep past me.
As for Napolean Dynamite — Ariel just saw it and said she really enjoyed it — and Brittney went and panned it. If you read the first comment on Brittney’s entry — I feel pretty much the same way Brian did — only without the total cancelling of the possibility of seeing it. I’ve heard too many mixed reviews to see it in the theater, however — and will probably just bide my time until it makes it to DVD.
Nice of both of you to stop by, and in such sequential order.