The good and the bad

I just got back from seeing Silver Linings Playbook, which I found highly enjoyable.  I really like going to a movie in the theater because I enjoy the feeling that I have a shared experience with this strangers.  I mean, after I saw To Kill a Mockingbird in the theater, I had a conversation with a woman in the bathroom about how much we liked the movie and how enjoyable it was to see it on the big screen.  On the flip side there was a conversation that I overheard in the bathroom after seeing Silver Linings Playbook.  The women were complaining that the movie was depressing because the main character both suffered from mental illness and that it was good that Bradley Cooper was in the movie so there would be somebody nice to look at.  And that there were no good movies playing (now, the traditional time when most Oscar bait movies are in the theater like Argo, Lincoln, Les Mis, Zero Dark Thirty etc).  Which made me I realize what I want is to see a movie with a theater full of people like me. Who are completely silent and don't get up to pee in the middle of a movie.

Also, there were about 20 mins of trailers before the movie started.  There is a movie coming out soon that stars Tina Fey and Paul Rudd.  And Lily Tomlin.  A dream come true!

Truth telling

I won't lie, this song has made me cry on more that one occasion.  And the cello part in the live version is beautiful. (Also, it reminds me of the great concert all my family chipped in to send me to a few years ago).

Woman's Picture

I love this piece of music because it sounds like the soundtrack from a woman's picture from the 1940s.  Like a super melodramatic Douglas Sirk picture.  Starring Barbra Stanwyck.

If I am going to make a fake movie, it is going to be a hit

So a few weeks ago, I saw the movie Argo.  And while I enjoyed the movie as a whole, there were a few early signs that indicated that I would like it:

• Ben Affleck used the 1970s title card for Warner Brothers (I love when directors do that.  In an alternate universe where I am director, I would totally make a throwback film noir film and use the RKO title card)
• The presence of Victor Garber
• The presence of Kyle Chandler
• An early scene of shredding files and destroying passport plates.  I'm not sure why I like scenes like that, but I do. 
• All the late 70s/early 80s haircuts and glasses
• The presence of Alan Arkin
• The presence of John Goodman

I really enjoyed Argo, more than I thought I might.  And I find Ben Affleck's directing career much more interesting than most of his acting career.   I liked his first movie, Gone Baby Gone, it was much more competently directed than I expected it to be.  I wasn't sure about an actor directing himself, but he did a really good job.  And he was able to build and maintain tension for an event with a known outcome.