It's Show Time Folks!

How sweet it was to have a week off of school. Alas, it comes to a close tomorrow. Trips to the vet, the city, a wedding, archery and naps have eaten up a week very quickly.

Now down to the nitty gritty as they say.

I will begin this post with a couple of movies I found terribly disappointing.

 

 1- Rachel Getting Married- Terrible. I know this was nominated for awards and seemed to please a lot of people I respect ... but, how can I put this? 

Absolutely brutal and tedious. This is the type of pretension that drives people out of the theatres and into the Blockbusters of the world. Sure we would like our friends to see interesting "independent" cinema instead of movies like Transformers, but how does this help. A group of the most self-involved artists and intellectuals gather for a wedding and to talk and talk and talk....

I understand that writer Jenny Lumet grew up around people like these but this movie made me hate each of them in new and fascinating ways. At risk of sounding pretentious myself I would paraphrase Sartre here "If Hell is other people, it is these people" (that's irony)

2- My Best Friend's Girl- My brother and I enjoy a good "bad" movie to wile away the time with now and then. So when we found we had some down time before his recent wedding we stopped by Alternative Video. The "bad" movie we chose was this one. This was atrocious and devoid of laughs. For those of you out there who know me know I pride myself on my ability (finely honed after hours and hours of practice) to nap. I can nap almost anywhere at any time. This movie was so bad it kept me awake despite my best efforts to doze off in front of this. I can think of no stronger indictment than this. Case closed. Do NOT watch this. Good Luck Chuck was better, and it was brutal. 

Now for the good stuff.

1- Synecdoche New York -  fascinating look at a lonely man (does P.S.H play any other kind?) driven by failures in his own life to create and exam these shortcomings in his art. The film unspools over the course of decades with no real signs of time passing. In this movie time slips by you like it does in reality. One day your standing at the start of your future ready to conquer and challenge the next your finding ear hair and back pain are your constant companions. In that signature Kaufman style the movie doubles back and collapses inward on itself. A fascinating and entertaining journey into the mind of the artist consumed with introspection.

2- I have long held musicals in low esteemI. I have just never "got it". Although I have always had a love for Singin' in the Rain and the Umbrellas of Cherbourg movies like Chicago (Ironic in light of what I'm about to share) and Mama Mia left me cold and bored. 

This week though I agreed to rent a movie from 1979 that absolutely floored me I laughed, I found myself tapping my toes along to the musical numbers, and was completely engrossed in the exuberance and enthusiasm for the act of creation portrayed in the movie. Yes, this like Synecdoche, dealt with an artist's self-absorption

throughout the narrative. The movie was All That Jazz by Bob Fosse. True this movie could be seen as an arrogant paean to oneself as a rascal, but I think that would miss the point. 

A truly black comedy filled with an insider's passion for show business. Fosse never sugar-coats the irresponsible personal behaviour he exhibits, he is a jerk, a poor father, a worse husband and a bit of a narcissist. However this movie was alive and electric from start to finish. This is a must see to believe. 

Another bit of irony for you dear reader, one scene that drove both my wife (Rachel) and myself crazy in Rachel Getting Married was the "Dishwasher" scene. This was based on a real event in the life of Jenny Lumet in which her father director Sidney Lumet and none other than Bob Fosse (writer, director, choreographer of ALL THAT JAZZ). If Fosse had included it in his film I might have loved it, but in Rachel... it was tedious. 

In fact I now consider All that Jazz one of my all time favorites. SEE IT.

Sean.