You know what I love? Peppermint tea. I remembered because I just had some. It is heavenly.
So most of my activities this week stem from seeing Inception over the weekend with Carolyn and Steven. Disclaimer up front: It is good. You should see it.
Did it rock my world? Nah.
I know that I'll sound like a film school snob, but Nolan makes a great film regardless of story. He's a great and he's gonna be a legend, but I reserve my right to respect him but not be entertained by him. I have seen the latest five of his seven (written) films, and I honestly only loved one.
Memento? Circumstances like film school built it up for me. When I saw it, I was expecting...something that it wasn't. I was underwhelmed.
Batman Begins. I love Batman, so there we are. I love Cillian Murphy. I love that a Batman movie was made well, for once. Do I love this movie? I bought it cheap on fullscreen, haven't watched it once.
The Prestige. Rocked my world. Bought the script and had my world rocked again. Not everyone feels this way about this movie.
The Dark Knight. If this movie didn't have Batman in the title, it would have nothing for me. I acknowledge the level of skill and professionalism that went into the production of it; I acknowledge its artistic merit. It's a beautiful film. I didn't care for the movie.
Inception.
Oh, Inception. Your merits are multitude. Your casting impeccable. Your artistry, incomprehensible. Your story? I wish this was a movie that I could just watch and not be bothered to follow along. I wish it was meant to be that way. Unfortunately, after trying to grasp every bit of exposition (so neatly laid out and clearly stated), trying to piece it together for hours afterward, I decided that I just didn't care to solve it.
And not in a "this is too intellectual for me" or "I'm so frustrated, I quit" or "I love it's complexity and I can think about it for days on end" sort of way. I just was not motivated to spend any more time looking for answers that weren't ready to present themselves.
Which isn't to say that there aren't answers. It's a film of questions, certainly; a film that's meant to be unraveled and poked and prodded. Some one out there is having a fine time doing just that. If I cared enough, I would be that person. But, sadly, I was not given enough incentive to really put my heart into the story. The story didn't give me...what I want in a story, I guess.
Did I like it? Yeah. Was it cool? Yeah. How great was that one scene--you know what I'm talking about? That was #$@#%% awesome. It had a target and it firmly struck home......I was just standing a little off to one side is all.
Now let's talk Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I will see the movie again just for him.
There went my Wednesday.
I did not at all expect to like 500 Days. My reason for this being its indie nature and Zooey Deschanel, an actress who turned me off entirely with her performance in Syfy's Tin Man.
Extended Parenthetical:
(I've been known to collect actors. Wednesday spent with Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a prime example of this phenomenon. I watched Tin Man solely because it briefly included Callum Keith Rennie, whom some of you may know as Leoben. I stooped to watching The Butterfly Effect for him. It was slightly after my Rennie collection phase that I saw Memento, and you can imagine my surprise when he showed up there, as well. He was also in Blade Trinity, which was an even nicer surprise.)
I've admired Joseph Gordon-Levitt in passing since I saw Brick. Brick is a film that I have complicated feelings for. Perhaps we'll go into that another time. Anyway, the kid can act, and after Inception I remembered that. After Tin Man, I decided that Zooey Deschanel could not, and my dislike of her trumped my like of him, which lead me to skip 500 Days until now.
I loved it! It was quirky and I laughed so much and she didn't offend me with her performance at all! It was a neat little thing. By far my worst complaint was the narrator, who I thought was sort of weak in a not-strong application of the device. Oh well. It was cute.
Mysterious Skin and Lookout...no, let me rephrase. Gordon-Levitt in Mysterious Skin and Lookout was also fantastic, top-notch. Mysterious Skin is a good film that is dark and harsh; Lookout is an average film that tries to pack a punch and delivers a...something less than a punch. But it serves as a great showcase of Gordon-Levitt's palette of character acting, so that's wonderful.
Tomorrow I watch G.I. Joe 'cause he's billed in it. I know, right! The things I do for actors.
Today I watched A Single Man (downer!) and Shutter Island (more successful mindtrip!)
Other than that, I've had a standing date most nights with Sam to watch Digimon. We both load up the episode, pause at the title, and then we press play and IM about it. What great memories. Off to do that now!
-Steph
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