One of three things has happened.
1 – I either just don’t like (or have grown tired of) detached, observational films about cultural curiosities.
2 – I was just too tired when I watched this.
3 – This movie just isn’t all that good.
I’m going with number three.
A newly retired blue collar German sits and drinks beer with his friends until he hears Zydeco music on his radio. So he starts playing Zydeco music instead of Polka on his accordian. H-Whaat? Then he winds up in Texas and walks around observing things in elegantly framed shots.
The end.
And it is shot on video, too.
Has something died within me?
You seen Paranoid Park yet? Thoughts? I apparently can’t get enough of reading various writers’ opinions on this movie.
Brian –
I haven’t and, what’s worse, I’ve passed up a few FREE opportunities to do so in the comfort of a tasty screening room. I suck!
I would like to see it as I am quite fond of the Gerry-Elephant-Last Days shenanigans. That said, I have two friends who both saw it and hated it. Still – I will endeavor to see it in the theaters – G.V. Sant’s stuff deserves the theater treatment. I still have to catch that Romanian abortion movie (3 Months, 2 Weeks or whatever is is called) and the Film Forum is showing Last Year at Marienbad – how in the world could I pass that up?
I am also a fan of the Van Sant shenanigans and while I was slightly disappointed by PP when I saw it a couple days ago, it has remained inside my brain and I’m liking it more and more upon reflection. Unlike Gerry and Elephant, it doesn’t make you feel you’re watching something revolutionary (I skipped Last Days, but from what I hear PP is probably closer to that one than anything else), and its aimless dreaminess can be frustrating – but it’s never boring, somehow, and occasionally is quite beautiful. So there you go, a recommendation from a stranger on the internet – now you really have no excuse not to see it.
Also I thank you for being one of the only people who seems to share my perhaps unreasonbly strong enthusiasm for Be Kind Rewind. Everyone who’s dumping in that movie is, as far as I’m concerned, soulless.