"Just Like Heaven" by The Cure was in two of the movies I watched today. I wish it was in all movies but that's probably unrealistic, especially as a lot of movies have already been made.
"Going The Distance" is a pretty standard rom-com flick. But it has a good heart and is very watchable for a Saturday morning. When you want a lazy Saturday morning rom-com all you're really asking for is interesting lead characters, New York City, and a good romantic connection with a few semi-hiccups along the way. That's exactly what this movie does.
"Cyrus" is not as good as "The Puffy Chair" but it still shows the immense talents of the Duplass Brothers. There's some great moments in this film --- I love that these guys love the subtle. Laughs don't have to be big. Observations don't have to be in your face. When they're great, they're unbelievably great, and when they're only very very good, they give you "Cyrus" - which is better than most of what's out there. There's some great moments in this film.
"Jungle Fever" is great. Spike Lee is one of my favorite directors. He really takes subjects by the balls. What I love about this movie is its complexity. When white people make films about race, it's condescending liberal-we're-all-the-same bullshit like "Crash". But Spike Lee is different. This is a film about the diversity within diversity. How the hard part isn't a white guy realising he's attracted to a black girl; the hard part is the white guy following through when all his white friends and family are racist. That's just one example. And what a lot of people don't realize about Spike is that he really looks closely at what it is to be black, at what black culture is and how black people treat each other. It's one thing to be angry about how it's a white world, but what Spike acknowledges time and time again in his films is how the same hierarchical bullshit goes on within the black community. Like it does any community. You can be male, or white, or straight, or whatever -- but it's just not A or B, YES or NO. There's always someone telling you to 'man up!' or "stop being gay" or "stop acting black!" Not enough films delve into this stuff. But Spike does, with race. And it's refreshing. This is still refreshing even though it was made in the nineties. Diversity within diversity. That's something to think about. Even when we're labelled as one thing we're all still so different. Try putting five screenwriters in a room together. It's hell.
"Adventureland" is a movie I love. I just sink right into it. I love every character, every piece of music, every shot, every little moment. That's what a movie does when it sits in your top 10 list. The best films seep into who you are. You're a little bit more interested in an upcoming movie when it features someone who worked on one of your favorites. That's what "Adventureland" has become for me. I feel like I wrote it. Or it was written for me. I relate to all of it even though so much of it has nothing to do with who I am. Movies are fucking magic.
