Chapter 255: Like The Movies

As was surely made obvious in last night’s blog, I did quite a bit of drinking last night. It honestly wasn’t THAT much but it was enough to leave me feeling pretty fucked up when I woke up today. I drank a very large margarita last night, and my body never responds well to tequila. I also had two Long Island iced teas and three mimosas. So, like I said, I woke up feeling a fucking wreck this morning. So much so, in fact, that I didn’t wake up at all this morning – it was 2:30pm before I got out of bed. Actually, that’s not an entirely accurate statement, either. It was 2:30pm when I woke up but I pretty well stayed in bed all day long today. I knew as soon as I woke up that it was that kind of day. So, in order to make use of my time in bed, I decided to make it a movie day. I know what you’re thinking – how in the world is watching movies all day making use of my time? Well, I consider any time spent taking in some form of art to be somewhat productive time. Okay, maybe not productive but time well spent, anyway. So, I watched a LOT of movies since the last blog. Let’s discuss.

First of all, after last night’s blog, I couldn’t fall asleep any time soon, so I decided to pull up a movie on Netflix and keep myself entertained for a bit. I dug around a bit on the Netflix site looking for something that would suit my mood – not too serious but not an actual comedy, either. I came upon this movie I had heard of before but forgotten all about, called “Tennessee.” I didn’t have high expectations for “Tennessee,” mainly because of one of it’s stars – Mariah Carey. Don’t get me wrong, I am a fan of Mariah’s and think that her skill as an actress may have been undermined by the fact that her first major film was a complete disaster known as “Glitter.” Still, I had seen this other movie she was in, called “Wisegals,” which co-starred Mira Sorvino, which I was actually really impressed with. She was also really good in her few scenes in the movie “Precious.” Then, of course, there was “Glitter.” “Glitter” is one of those movies I love to fast-forward through. I have watched it all the way through several times but most times I have bothered to watch it, I have fast-forwarded to the scenes where she sings. Still, I love the idea of “Glitter,” because it seems like they were really trying to do a modern-day version of some of those classic musicals, like “Funny Girl.” I really do believe that this type of movie could really use a resurrection and would be a really great thing to place in a modern setting, (which is one of many reasons I am so excited for Christina Aguilera’s upcoming film debut, “Burlesque,” as it appears to be that same type of story.) Anyway, “Tennessee” is the story of two brothers living in New Mexico after having fled their abusive father in their hometown in Tennessee. Now, several years later, the younger of the two brothers is suffering from leukemia and their last hope of getting him a bone marrow transplant is returning to Tennessee in hopes of finding their father. So, they decide to make the journey from New Mexico to Tennessee but are quickly halted when their car breaks down outside a small diner somewhere in Texas. At this diner, they meet a waitress/aspiring singer, portrayed by Mariah Carey, who is simply unhappy and unfulfilled in her life and marriage there in Texas. So, with a little convincing they get her to continue on the journey with them. It was considerably better than I expected. I actually really liked it. It was a little slow to start and didn’t really get exciting until Mariah’s character showed up but once it got going, it was really good. Plus, Mariah Carey sang a really pretty song in the movie! I don’t know how much I recommend seeing this movie – it is definitely flawed but I enjoyed it. So, you might enjoy it, as well.

When I woke up this afternoon, for one reason or another, I had this really strong desire to watch that old documentary by journalist Nick Broomfield, “Kurt & Courtney.” I had seen this film once years ago but couldn’t really remember much about it, beyond the fact that it painted Courtney Love in a very negative light. So, I decided to watch it again this afternoon. It is definitely a fascinating documentary and I like the fact that it simply presents information to you and lets you make your own decisions about what you think really happened, as opposed to shoving the opinions of the filmmakers on the viewer. The whole premise is that this journalist is trying to figure out what exactly happened surrounding Kurt Cobain’s death and whether or not it was actually a suicide. I have always felt, and still do after viewing this film again today, that it was actually a suicide. I don’t believe that Courtney was involved in Kurt’s death in any direct way. Sure, I think dealing with her was probably a big contributing factor to it, but I don’t believe he was murdered and I don’t believe Courtney was involved in any way. If nothing else, none of the sources who were supporting the idea that Courtney was involved seemed reliable at all. They were all a bunch of strung out white trash who often seemed to be under the influence while appearing in the film. Even Courtney’s father, who has written a couple of books about why he thinks Courtney killed Kurt, really comes across as simply an old man holding a grudge against his own daughter. Still, this film gives you a lot to think about. I definitely recommend seeing this film to anybody who is a big fan of Nirvana or Hole. Otherwise, you probably wouldn’t have a huge amount of interest.

Next up, I watched one of the best indie films I have seen in a long time, aside from “Timer,” which is still the best thing I have seen in ages, called “Good Dick.” This, much like “Timer,” really goes to show you that there are original concepts out there still. I don’t understand why Hollywood doesn’t embrace this type of film more often. “Good Dick” was written, directed and produced by, and stars, Marianna Palka. It was also co-produced and co-stars the gorgeous and talented son of the late John Ritter, Jason Ritter. Jason Ritter is one of my favorite actors, which was the initial lure to this film, (although the title definitely caught my eye, as well.) “Good Dick” is the story of a young woman who is essentially a hermit, only venturing out of her apartment to visit her local video store to rent softcore porn. One of the employees at the video store, Jason Ritter, becomes slightly infatuated with her and slowly weaves his way into her home and her life, and they begin a very offbeat, tumultuous relationship in which they don’t ever have sex. The thing that fascinated me the most about this film is the fact that it explores a little-known phenomena called Sexual Anorexia. I read a book about this a while back, where people deny themselves sexual pleasure, or sexual involvement with others, (as is the case with this film, because the character masturbates but refuses to interact sexually with a partner.) This is most often spurred by some form of sexual assault, abuse, incest or molestation. This is clearly not something that I have suffered from myself but I find the topic fascinating and was very pleased to see a film about the topic. Aside from that, though, it is a very fun, offbeat and fascinating story. I highly recommend everybody check this one out. It was brilliantly put together and it is extremely impressive that it was pretty well all orchestrated by one random girl who’d never actually worked in the film industry before. VERY good stuff, indeed.

After “Good Dick,” I decided to watch a film that I just happened to stumble up on Netflix and really liked the concept of and the cast, which included Kathleen Robertson and, another of my favorite actors, Mark Ruffalo. This movie was called “XX/XY,” and it is the story of three college students who have a very strange sort of poly-amorous relationship in college, which quickly falls apart, as these things have a tendency to do. I only say it is sort of poly-amorous because it was never something that was clearly defined as all three people actually being in a relationship with each other, although that is really what it was, and that is what really winds up being the catalyst for the whole thing ending. The main focus of the film is 10 years after the fact when these three people all happen to reunite. They have all moved on into their own separate lives and relationships but suddenly being back with these people kind of puts them back into that place, and drama ensues as old feelings start coming back up in the midst of completely new and separate lives. I really loved this movie for the fact that it really takes a look at what the past really means to the present, and how sometimes the two shouldn’t really mix. This is what I took from it, anyway. It was definitely a great movie, though, and one I definitely recommend checking out.

The last film I watched today was probably my least favorite of the bunch, although it was definitely interesting. This was a movie called “Sex & Breakfast,” starring Macaulay Culkin, Eliza Dushku, Kuno Becker and Alexis Dziena as a pair of couples experiencing a bit of sexual dysfunction. It isn’t that anybody can’t get it up or anything like that but after years of being together these couples just aren’t finding the spark like they used to. So, upon recommendations from their separate friends, and parents in one case, the two couples decide to attend a seminar from a doctor who has stopped practicing and started providing a service where they pair up couples, etc., for group sex experiences in order to revitalize their individual sex lives. These two couples don’t happen to know each other or anything, and both have many apprehensions about going through with the whole thing. Inevitably, though, they do wind up going through with it and find themselves paired up with each other’s partners. Unfortunately, though, not every relationship can survive this type of thing. That is really the story that this film tells and I found it really fascinating to watch these couples go through the torment involved in experiencing that lack of sexual spark and having the whole relationship ruined, or near ruined, by trying to find ways to bring that back. It may be my least favorite of the group of films I watched today but it was still a pretty good one and I do recommend checking it out. On a slightly more critical note, though, it did feel like there was a lot of stuff included in the film that was wholly unnecessary and then when we got to the really interesting stuff they just kind of shot right through it. I mean, it still got it’s point across but it could definitely have made better use of it’s time.

So, yeah… I watched movies today. Tomorrow, (or, right now actually,) is my actual birthday and the plans are… well, not much. I have to go to my piano lesson tomorrow afternoon, which should be fun, and then tomorrow evening we are having my sister, her girlfriend and their family over to watch the premiere of the new RuPaul series and hang out. It should be fun. I am really glad I don’t have to go back to work for two more days, although it sucks that I won’t be able to request any more time off, at least not paid time off, for the rest of the year. Oh well, though… Those are the breaks. It is after 2am, though, and I’d really like to get to bed earlier than I did last night. Goodnight.