mutual appreciation

A while back I said to M, "I saw a movie last night that I wouldn't recommend." She said, "Finally!" I love most movies; I want to love them all! (I have a hard time rating movies I've seen on the Netflix website, they seem to get 5 stars or 1. There aren't a lot of 3-star movies in our account.) Sometimes things that are going on in my life affect my reception of a movie, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse -- probably less so now than when I was younger -- but I try my best to keep Life out of my movie experience. That's what movies are for!

Really good movies and really bad movies I guess can transcend whatever is happening in life, but I strive to meet movies where they are, take them for what they intend to be. S and I saw The Dark Knight at the IMAX the other night, which was totally appropriate. It was fun to experience the special effects in such a big way, and it was fun watching the actors. It was exactly what I (and I think what S) expected it to be. It only got 2 stars in The Chronicle, but I think the reviewer must've been expecting more.

S, A and I saw Brideshead Revisited not too long again, which was fine (again, completely what I expected). S and A loved it, but it's more their type of movie. Ben Whishaw was a revelation; I was enthralled whenever he was on screen, and started getting bored when he wasn't -- and not just because he was playing a homosexual. Not just. I put his earlier movie, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, on our Netflix queue.

The movie I saw awhile back that I wouldn't recommend to M was Rhinoceros Eyes. I wanted to see it for Michael Pitt, whom I'd just seen in The Dreamers (directed by Bertolucci; I loved it, S -- who didn't watch it with me but had already seen it -- thought it was just okay). But back to Rhinoceros Eyes. I don't think I would even say Rhinoceros Eyes was okay; it had a lot of problems story-wise, as well as with some of the acting. The woman who played Jenny in "All My Children" when I was in high school (or thereabouts), and then was in "NYPD Blue" was in Rhinoceros Eyes, and I don't think she was very good in it, on top of not thinking the character was very well developed or written.

Tonight, S and I watched Mutual Appreciation, our fourth film from the Netflix queue. We both loved it. The director/writer previously directed and wrote Funny Ha Ha, which S said he plans to put on the queue (which, at our current plan and considering the number of films already on the queue, means we'll probably get it in about 18 months from now!).

It would take a lot to make me believe that Mutual Appreciation was written by anybody. At least not before the filming. At most, a skeleton script was provided which the actors compromised from. That's what I think. I mean this as a compliment to the accomplishment! The dialogue and the situations were so real and organic, it felt very ci·né·ma vé·ri·té. The director looked vaguely familiar, but there weren't any well-known actors in it, yet the acting was wonderful and very even across the cast.

There was a bit of a Woody Allen essence to the movie (the main character's name was "Alan"; I wonder if that was intentional. Hm...), though it was a modern-day 20something kind of Woody Allen. Alan was a singer looking for a band; he sang a couple with just a drummer, and S and I both really liked the songs. He was a good performer; it made me think of the Kinks for some reason.

Mutual Appreciation seemed a little long (it was about an hour-50), but that could've been the pot wearing off. This pot gets me so high then makes me so sleepy (but creative). The only way to keep up with it is to smoke more, but I've had a minor migraine for the past 24 hours and a crick in my neck for the past 3 days, so I'm trying not to over do it...

Oh, and today, S and I had to go the mall (to the Apple store), and as we got to the mall entrance, a car pulled up to let a Food Court employee off in his red Chik-Fil-A shirt. The extra-big bumper sticker on the back of the car read:

I REMBER 9-11
DO YOU?

Now, that's All-American!

{The Chronicle gave Mutual Appreciation 3.5 out of 4 stars.}