Blue Velvet

Movie: Blue Velvet
When: May 15, 2016 at 5:15 pm
Who With: JL
Movie Count: 31

Reaction: Holy Smokes! This is a crazy intense movie and I'm not sure I'm old enough to see it. Part of The Roxy's Essential Cinema Series, Blue Velvet was shown for a full week in honor of its 30th anniversary.

In between the squeaky clean opening and closing in Lumberton, a town similar to Missoula, the creepiest interactions and dialogue occur. Ears, singing, young love, and warped relationships. David Lynch knows what he's doing in combining a teen story line with the creepiest creepy adult thriller. It's "American Beauty" on creep steroids. If you haven't seen it, you gotta, but I can't imagine watching it ever again.

Recommendation: Let’s Go! | Let it come to you  | Let it pass
Next Up: The Man Who Knew Infinity

The Room

Movie: The Room
When: 9 pm, Saturday, May 14th
Who With: JL
Movie Count: 30!
Snacks: Beers

Reaction: I first saw this movie when friends trucked it over from Seattle circa 2010. The four of us watched it in the privacy of our Equinox apartment and I was blown away by how bad this movie really was. Maybe you've heard that it doesn't have a plot or dialogue that makes any sense or that it reveals so much about film making by making the invisible things boldly visible. I was excited to go through the experience again with a theater full of people laughing and quoting along. But, in a twist that would have confounded Tommy Wiseau, graduation weekend took any potential viewers and it was just me and JL in the theater. We should have recruited people!

Somehow, with the benefit of time, this movie got hilariously worse. I can't have anything to say that hasn't already been said. And if you haven't seen it you just can't know. Although, visiting the movie's website may give you a hint at what's in store. I really wish the website address was "TheRoomTheMovie" but "TheRoomMovie" will have to do. If you have seen The Room, I would recommend listening to Julie Klausner's 2014 interview with Juliette Danielle ["You're tearing me apart, Lisa!"] or episode 23 of How Did This Get Made?.

There is something stupidly fitting that now you have to differentiate between when you're talking about "Room" or "The Room." Here's hoping the person you're talking to has seen both!

Recommendation: Let’s [ALL] Go! | Let it come to you  | Let it pass
Next Up: Blue Velvet

Everybody Wants Some!!

Movie: Everybody Wants Some!!
When: 7:45 pm, Friday, May 6, 2016
Who With: JL
Movie Count: 29
Snacks: Popcorn

Reaction: We're back! This was the first movie we'd seen in a while. Well, looking back, there were only 12 days in between hitting up the Roxy. Not too shabby any other year but worthy of a welfare check nowadays.

The tone of Everybody Wants Some!! was the perfect remedy for working hella hard cleaning and moving out of our condo and into the new house (!). This movie follows a 1980s college baseball team and the few days leading up to the first practice. Honestly, it's pretty dumb but fun and just what we needed. It takes you back to a day when dudes were bro-ier, ladies were barely human, and movies knew no other way of being movies. There is a thin layer of struggling with identity but mostly its beer, boobs, and baseball. Maybe surprisingly shallow from Linkletter but he seems to capture the era well and brings something that was probably true for him to it. If you're up for relaxing your standards, or you're mid-move, or you yourself are a white guy feeling slightly threatened in these times, it may be the perfect movie.

Recommendation: Let’s Go! | Let it come to you  | Let it pass
Next Up: The Room

April in Review

MOVIES
Favorite: Songs My Brother Taught Me
Least Favorite: Requiem for the American Dream
Funniest: Hello, My Name is Doris
Important Stuff: The Maltese Falcon
Missed Connections: Silence of the Lambs, Eraserhead, Racing Extinction, Kramer vs. Kramer, Footloose Sing-Along, He Named Me Malala, Galaxy Quest.

STATS
April Movies: Only 4 outside the IWFF
Would-a-Cost: $156 with the  IWFF All Screenings Pass
Total Movies YTD: 28 [not counting the million wildlife films]
Would-a-Cost YTD: $596
Cosmic Dual Membership: $450 - We did it ya'll! We broke even on the membership we didn't even pay for. It was hard work and I'm proud of our commitment. It's funny to get here in April which was not our best performing month due to the house selling/buying project. Now the pressure's off and with summer coming on strong and a house we love being at, we'll see how our movie pace holds up.

OUTSIDE THE ROXY
Trapped at the WIlma on April 25th - Want to get mad? See this documentary about access to reproductive care.
Animal Reunions, Nature PBS
Broad City, Comedy Central on Hulu Start here if you haven't been yet.
The Path, Hulu - If episodes weren't doled out once a week we would already be finished with this show.
The Turner House by Angela Flournoy - Got it from the library only to have a holder rip it out of my hands before I was done. Don't you know I need to read a novel set in an upcoming travel destination?
New York Mag - free with expiring United miles

2nd Half of April

Before we review April, let me flush out the end of the month when posts weren't happening.

I saw Requiem for the American Dream on my own on April 12. It had been on my list to go to a movie alone and this one made sense because Jordan wasn't interested in it. Too bad it was terrible. The beginning of the movie opens with text explaining these interviews with Noam Chomsky occurred over a few years and they were his FINAL interviews. Okay, weird. I guess we've closed the door to him doing any promotion for the film. Also, there's not much that you haven't heard before here. Sometimes that can be good, a refresher on what you know but got lazy about thinking on, like most food docs. But we live capitalism run amuck and concentrated wealth everyday and Noam wasn't bringing out anything beyond the blow your college mind conversation. There were three directors on this films. I'm not sure there's anything in this world that benefits from three directors.

Then we went to a bunch of International Wildlife Film Festival docs with the All Access Pass our Roxy membership awarded us. Fun to live it up with our lanyards and visit interesting environments full of creatures. Here's our list from the fest: Giraffe - Up high and personal [fine and very into puns but strange animation "humor"] | Life Force 2: The Arib Namib [a look into desert creatures] | The Great Auk [animated story for kids with terrible moments of sound, on purpose I think] | The Daughters of the Forest [environmental science based high school for girls in Paraguay - not perfect but maybe my favorite of the fest] | and a bunch of others but I'm boring myself. Here's the schedule if you want to guess at other ones we saw. The main thing we realized during the festival is that it's hard to beat a Nature episode on PBS. These all seemed to be lacking a certain something [information] or having too much something else [human ego].

On April 15, we saw Songs My Brother Taught Me. This movie, set on the Pine Ridge Reservation, is so good. You should see it if you can. Beautiful storytelling and real characters.

Then I missed my first feature playing at the Roxy. Racing Extinction was a holdover from the IWFF and I wasn't feeling it enough to squeeze it into the stressful days of moving. Then April came to a close.

AYATM: The Maltese Falcon

Movie: The Maltese Falcon
When: 7 p.m., Sunday, April 10
Who With: JL
Movie Count: 26
Snacks: popcorn and beer? The Masala spice isn't around anymore. Might have to make another seasoning donation.

Reaction: What the what is with this movie poster? Is that top guy supposed to be Bogie? Fine. Another classic in The Roxy's Essential Cinema series. This one beats The Big Sleep and has some kooky violence that made my day, including a lady kicking a guy in the head when they're both standing, jacket stunts your older brother might pull, and plenty of gun-taking misdirection.

Gotta get that falcon! JL introduced me to the term "MacGuffin," used to describe the quest or object that a movie centers around but isn't flushed out for the audience. Familiar concept but I love the word!

Honestly, there's a lot going on in this movie, comings and goings, alliances and deceits, but never more reciprocated administrative assistant appreciation. A two-way street full of "darling" this, "precious" that, "sweetheart" the other. Bogie knows how to manage his staff of one.

Recommendation: Let’s Go! | Let it come to you  | Let it pass | It's a classic, so you have to
Next Up: Requiem for the American Dream

Hello, My Name is Doris

Movie: Hello, My Name is Doris
When: 7:15 pm, Friday, April 9
Who With: JL
Movie Count: 25
Snacks: I'm guessing we split a bowl of popcorn

Reaction: This is a joyful movie that gets into some of the harder stuff of life when it should but doesn't leave you there. Sally Field is pretty magical as Doris - an awkward older lady who is somewhat emotionally stunted, naive, and relatable.

Director and co-writer Michael Showalter does almost too good of a job looking at young people through a Baby Boomer/Gen X resentment-filled lens. He picks fun at their crafting, tech, music, and lingo while also relying on these ideas to move the story along. The bit that made my brain talk to itself was when rather than establish a dummy social network, the movie oddly relied on THE social network, Facebook, but makes up an alternative interface for it. Why?

Stephen Root is one of those people who makes me laugh by just appearing on screen. Even in this more serious role, his humor seeps out. Part of me wants to think this is a bizarro side story within the Office Space universe, in which Milton's issues have been addressed and now it's time to deal with sister Doris's. All in all, it's a fun sweet movie that I'm glad I hadn't seen the trailer to prior. Semi-spoilers all the way through! Whoa, I just learned that this movie is rated R. That is ridiculous - it's pretty tame.

If you're wondering, "Why the long break between posts, Christine?" well, it's because I had a conference in Phoenix. I was able to sneak into "Chongqing Hot Pot," which I don't think I liked - too violent but the food looked great. I'll let this Variety article explain. It was in a great theatre though, the Valley Art, It's part of the Harkins chain and a 2001 renovation kept the charm and still feels recent 15 years later. They have a great gimmick: if you buy and wear their $25 t-shirt, you get free popcorn for the year. Since returning to Missoula on April 6th and the Roxy on April 9th, I've seen four membership movies and will be getting around to posting-o-plenty.

Recommendation: Let’s Go! | Let it come to you  | Let it pass
Next Up: The Maltese Falcon