What's Playing at My House

Friends with Money

First, sorry that I have not posted lately. I guess only those of you with me in your feed readers are still coming back, it's been so long. I have watched a few movies recently -- not many, but a few -- but none that I wanted to comment on one way or the other until I had Friends with Money come up in my Netflix queue.

I expected to like this movie [yes, I sometimes watch movies that I don't expect to like. I'm weird.] and I did, but... well, the one thing about it I have to tell you is a spoiler. So just stop here if you don't like to know the end.

Joan Cusack is one of my favorite actors, and she's excellent here. As is Frances McDormand, who's not-so-quietly clinging to reality while she struggles with her life. And Simon McBurney, the husband who is clearly gay [well, clearly to everyone but him and McDormand, who plays his wife]...so funny. Great commentary on modern urban life.

I found the relationships between the friends to be very believable. Women really do talk about each other like that. We're just trying to help. Or make ourselves feel better about ourselves, because we're not as bad off/fat/crazy/codependent as you are. But we would never, ever say that to your face. We certainly don't want to hurt your feelings. It's not like you can help it.

So, here's my problem. At the end, Jennifer Aniston finally meets a man she likes, played by Bob Stephenson. To all appearances, he's just as poor and quirky as she is, but she is not embarrassed to share him with her much wealthier friends.  And unlike every other man she's ever met, he's not out to take advantage of her. Then we learn, that even though he lives like a starving, slobby college student, he's rich. Really rich, like no need to work rich.

Now that I've put that down here, I'm having trouble describing my problem with it. Maybe it's this. There's a part of me that says, no matter who you are, we all have to justify our existence here. Rich, poor, stuck in the middle, life is what you make it and when you add up the score at the end of the game, everyone ought to have something to show for their time here. While in some ways, Aniston's character is among the happiest in the movie, she's certainly the most aimless. She flails around for direction half-heartedly, mostly content with her lot. And Stephenson -- his goal in life seems to be finding a better frozen dinner. Great, you've got all this money, what the heck are you doing with your life?

Yes, that is what bothers me. I disagree with the life choices of two of the central characters.

But a pretty good movie, nonetheless.

Groundhog Day 2: AKA Ladder 49

I rented Ladder 49 with the fondest hopes. I love Joaquin Phoenix [my man was robbed when Phillip Seymour Hoffman took Best Actor in 2006]. I can take Travolta in the right role [nothing will ever, ever beat Saturday Night Fever]. I like firefighter movies. Apparently, you don't get Backdraft every time.

This movie starts out OK. Dude gets trapped in a burning building after rescuing terrified civilian. Then we start with this flashback motif, seeing how Phoenix came to be a firefighter and learned the trade as a rookie on the force. How he met his wife. Had kids. Etc., etc., etc.

Etc., etc., etc.

At 70 minutes, I was ready for the movie to wrap up. I'd had my fun, gotten the adrenaline rush, ready to be done.

This movie lasts 115 minutes.

It's the first movie in a long time I just cut off [somewhere around the 90-minute mark]. It just got to be so repetitive. I have a friend at work who'd seen the whole thing. From what she told me, I'm glad I stopped when I did. It certainly wasn't worth any more of my time.

Tip on movie watching

I'm not sure how many times I will have to re-learn this one particular tip over the course of my life. Apparently, I'm not quite done with it yet.

Never watch one movie when you're in the mood for another movie. Never, ever think this will work. It just won't.

The other night, I finally psyched myself up to watch The Aviator. Now, everybody and their dog loves this movie. It was popular. It won awards. But I have this thing about Leo DiCaprio. And not a positive thing. And so for months, I've tried but failed to convince myself that I should watch the movie. Finally, I just put it on my Netflix list and figured I'd deal with it when it arrived. It showed up, and I finally decided to watch it. I was even excited. I mean, Cate Blanchett would be incredible in small-town dinner theater. And I loved Katherine Hepburn [whom Blanchett portrays in The Aviator]. So, I opened the Netflix envelope, slipped it out of the sleeve....and it was cracked in half. Must have happened somewhere in the mail, because it had just been sitting atop my TV since it arrived here.

Still in the mood to watch a movie, I foolishly popped in The Lost City. Which I had previously been really excited about. I just love, love Antonio Banderas. I don't necessarily think he's an award-winning actor, but he seems like the coolest guy, like you'd like to hang out and have a beer with. Or, heh, why not mojitos in honor of The Lost City? At any rate, I generally like whatever he does.

I hated that movie.

The worst part was, I could tell I would normally like it. A little political intrigue, family drama, decent historical fiction. I didn't get halfway through the movie, people. Not halfway. I wasn't paying attention, and neither was I even doing anything interesting. I just couldn't get into it, since what I wanted to watch was The Aviator.

Netflix, ever customer-service-oriented, had the new disc of The Aviator here today. It better live up to my expectations!

Blood Diamond: Couldn't Do It

I have really been anxious to watch Blood Diamond, the critically acclaimed picture about the trade in conflict diamonds*. So I was delighted when it arrived yesterday. About 30 minutes into the film, what I feared had happened: I couldn't watch it.

Right around the time I had my daughter, nearly 8 years ago now, I suddenly lost the ability to watch very scary shows and in particular, TV shows and movies that put children in danger. While I don't have nearly as intense a reaction as I had several years ago, I am still put off by lots of films and shows. And though I really wanted to see this movie, I just couldn't do it.

So, let me recommend it to you -- what I did see was great -- but say, if you can't stand gore and violence, and children in danger, please don't waste your money.

* Diamonds mined by children or adults in slavery, and/or those used to finance war and violence. It can be difficult for a consumer to ascertain the history of an individual stone. Estimates vary of how many diamonds come from shadowy origins, with diamond promoters asserting just 1% and human rights activists saying as many as 20% could come from negative backgrounds.