FFH Film Series Continues
Pursuant to our resolution to watch each other's favorite movies, we recently re-watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Out of Sight.
Eternal Sunshine was one of my picks, and we got to see it on the big screen, since our local independent theater has a midnight movie thing going on (stay tuned for their screening of Lebowski in December). I still really, really love this movie. The first time I saw it I took my dad, who didn't particularly care for it except the part where the character Mary screws up and calls Alexander Pope "Pope Alexander." Dad referred to the movie as science fiction, and the weird thing is that it hadn't occurred to me until then that it technically is. Yes, the film's concept hinges on a process that allows characters to selectively erase memories, but to my mind it doesn't really belong with science fiction because the point isn't utopia or dystopia, it's the everyday. The Mierzwiak method is just a means to exploring something highly realistic, namely the way two lovers come together and apart, and the ways in which we imagine our own regrets. That's the heart of the movie, and that part isn't exaggerated at all. It should also be noted that this film is the only one in which I've felt able to tolerate either Jim Carrey or Kirsten Dunst, but it's so well done that Dunst is passable and Carrey is truly excellent. And I don't know about you all, but I'm at least half in love with Kate Winslet's Clementine, totally against my will.
I also really like Out of Sight, as long as we turn it off before the last scene. Samuel L. Jackson makes a lovely cameo, but the fact is that the rest of the film makes no sense with the happy ending tacked on. I really miss the nineties when I see all of Jennifer Lopez's suits. I also miss her original ass. This movie is now eight years old if you can believe it, and Mike says Detroit has changed a lot since it was made. He says Downtown has more stuff in it.
Both pictures stay on the list.
Eternal Sunshine was one of my picks, and we got to see it on the big screen, since our local independent theater has a midnight movie thing going on (stay tuned for their screening of Lebowski in December). I still really, really love this movie. The first time I saw it I took my dad, who didn't particularly care for it except the part where the character Mary screws up and calls Alexander Pope "Pope Alexander." Dad referred to the movie as science fiction, and the weird thing is that it hadn't occurred to me until then that it technically is. Yes, the film's concept hinges on a process that allows characters to selectively erase memories, but to my mind it doesn't really belong with science fiction because the point isn't utopia or dystopia, it's the everyday. The Mierzwiak method is just a means to exploring something highly realistic, namely the way two lovers come together and apart, and the ways in which we imagine our own regrets. That's the heart of the movie, and that part isn't exaggerated at all. It should also be noted that this film is the only one in which I've felt able to tolerate either Jim Carrey or Kirsten Dunst, but it's so well done that Dunst is passable and Carrey is truly excellent. And I don't know about you all, but I'm at least half in love with Kate Winslet's Clementine, totally against my will.
I also really like Out of Sight, as long as we turn it off before the last scene. Samuel L. Jackson makes a lovely cameo, but the fact is that the rest of the film makes no sense with the happy ending tacked on. I really miss the nineties when I see all of Jennifer Lopez's suits. I also miss her original ass. This movie is now eight years old if you can believe it, and Mike says Detroit has changed a lot since it was made. He says Downtown has more stuff in it.
Both pictures stay on the list.
Labels: Movies
2 Comment(s):
- Posted by
Reel Fanatic at November 06, 2006 12:59 PM |
Permanent Link to this Comment - Posted by Alice at November 08, 2006 7:02 AM |
Permanent Link to this Comment
Eternal Sunshine remains easily one of my favorite flicks ... Gondry is a first-rate filmmaker .. I'm just pissed that his Science of Sleep somehow isn't playing wide enough to make it out to my little corner of the world!
What do you make of Charlie Kaufman's interest in Alexander Pope? Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the Abelard and Eloise puppets in Being John Malkovich may just be repetitions on a theme, but I don't have much else to say about it.
Out of Sight is on my top-five list.
