To be honest, I don’t really feel worthy writing about a movie this good. The discussion about stuff, that we’re all crap-collectors in an IKEA-world, is spectacularly accurate. The stuff we own do end up owning us. After Edward Norton’s apartment has been set on fire (by his alter ego), he feels empty. He goes on about his perfect apartment, his coffee table, the coffee table books, the BILLY bookshelf. To me it’s weird that things we buy actually can make you feel complete. Last week I found another beautiful watch at an obscure japanese website that I just had to have. I tell myself that “this is probably the last watch I’ve ever need”. That I will feel complete when I have that watch on my wrist. But I won’t. I’m such a hypocrite.

And of course, Tyler Durden wraps it up elegantly with “This is your life and it’s ending one minute at a time”. “Fuck off with your sofa units and green stripe patterns, I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let… lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may.” That’s really what this is all about. It can be applied to pretty much every aspect of life. We do everything we can for just a little bit of self-achievement in our lives. I mean, my iPhone has more control over my life than I will ever have over my own. It’s dangerous, I trust my phone more than I trust a guy I meet at a bar. That’s not a healthy relationship. Just because I own a cool gadget, follow a pretentious French tweeting genius or that I early reject instead of early adopt doesn’t mean I’m special. “You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You’re the same decaying organic matter as everything else.” We take ourselves too serious, and we value the crap we own too high. This is an impeccably good movie nailing what escapism is all about, but of course Chuck Palahniuk’s book is better. Now, go out and lose a fight, because remember: “You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your fucking khakis. You’re the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.”

THE LIVES OF OTHERS

1984, East Germany.  A Stasi (secret police) officer conducts surveillance on an artist and his lover, finding himself drawn into their lives.  I love the central scene (and inspiration for this film) that pits a man sent to crush subversive elements to the State, finding himself being subverted.  Here, the director, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, explains where that scene came from and the inspiration for his film:

“… the idea for the movie came to him when he was trying to come
up with a movie scenario for a film class. As he listened to a piece
of music, he recalled Maxim Gorky’s anecdote about Lenin listening to
Beethoven’s Appassionata.  Gorky wrote:

‘I know of nothing better than the Appassionata and could listen
to it every day. What astonishing, superhuman music! It always makes
me proud, perhaps naively so, to think that people can work such
miracles!” Wrinkling up his eyes, Lenin smiled rather sadly, adding:
“But I can’t listen to music very often. It affects my nerves. I want
to say sweet, silly things and pat the heads of people who, living in
a filthy hell, can create such beauty. One can’t pat anyone on the
head nowadays, they might bite your hand off. They ought to be beaten
on the head, beaten mercilessly, although ideally we are against doing
any violence to people. Hm — what a hellishly difficult job!’

Donnersmarck told a New York Times reporter: ‘I suddenly had this
image in my mind of a person sitting in a depressing room with
earphones on his head and listening in to what he supposes is the
enemy of the state and the enemy of his ideas, and what he is really
hearing is beautiful music that touches him. I sat down and in a
couple of hours had written the treatment.’”

THEME: Beauty tames/transforms the Beast, Art stronger than Ideology, Redemption

WINGS OF DESIRE

This movie was filmed before the fall of the wall.  A snapshot of Berlin seen through the eyes of immortals.  The story revolves around one angel who falls in love with one of the angels who falls in love with a mortal and wants to experience what it is to be human.  Yes, this movie was remade as City of Angels, starring Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan (pre-botox).  That movie has nothing to do with this film, other than the premise.  I warn you: do not see that movie.  See this one.

The script and cinematography are poetry.  And Peter Falk stars as himself.

THEME: Celebration of Life/Human Experience

GOODBYE, LENIN

Great idea for a story.  1989.  A employee who has given her life for the State, sees her son protesting against the regime and has a heart attack, slipping into a coma.  When she awakes in 1990, the GDR has fallen.  The doctors say that she needs to avoid any excitement or she may suffer further with her health so her son tries to recreate East Germany in her flat.

THEME: Nostalgia, Family, Letting go, Lying to protect the ones we love.

He did his best to remain calm.  He knew he had to get to the mountains.  He didn’t remember why.  He just knew there would be bloodshed and he needed to get somewhere safe.  There would be others like him.  There had to be.  He could wait this out and maybe see his family.  He wouldn’t take the Mark of the Beast – that was certain.  Maybe he’d get his head chopped off, but he had to remember it would only hurt for a second and then he could see them all again.  And Jesus.  He could tell Jesus how sorry he was.  Weird, though.  He never heard trumpets.  He thought for sure that he would hear trumpets.

He went into the ktichen and pulled the bologna and squeeze butter out of the fridge.  He made sandwiches out of the entire loaf of bread that was next to the toaster, on the kitchen counter.  He put the sandwiches back into the bread bag and tied it with the twisty.  He put some apples in a cooler, along with some capri-sun juice pouches, the rest of the fruit roll-ups and the sandwiches.  He got his fishing pole out of the basement and went got his baseball cards from his room.  These would definitely be worth something.  Perhaps he could trade the cards for some guns or something if he needed to.  He grabbed a flashlight and his Pacman sleeping bag.  He put some clothes in a bag and his Bible – to figure out what as gonna happen next.

He would have to drive.  It was too far to walk.  He found a pair of keys in one of the kitchen drawer.  He had had this recurring nightmare for as long as he could remember.  His family would be together in his front yard when he realized they were gonna let him drive the car all by himself.  Excited, He’d get behind the wheel, put the key in the ignition, and drive away.  He turned around and could see his family and friends waving through the back window.  Then a sinking feeling took over.  He suddenly realized that he no longer had control over the car.  He tried to stop it, but it kept on.  He was bound, with the distance ever-widening between him and the people he loved.  It was terrifying.  He realized, in his dream, that he would never see his family again.  At that point he would wake up.

He walked out to the garage, determined to be brave.  There would be others.  We would help each other.  He opened the trunk and put the cooler, fishing pole, sleeping bag, baseball cards, flashlight and spare clothing next to the spare tire and jumper cables.  he opened the front car door, sat behind the steering wheel and started to cry.  The crying turned to sobbing.  The sobbing turned to despair.  If only he had spent more time with his church friends instead of his school friends.  His school friends were cooler, but his church friends were now in heaven.  And they each had their own mansion.  Probably with swimming pools.  Maybe he could help some of his school friends if they made it into the mountains.

That’s when he heard voices.  Familiar voices.  They were getting nearer.  He jumped out of the car and walked defiantly out of the garage.  It was his mother and his sister.

“WHERE WERE YOU?”  He yelled.

“We decided to walk today,” explained his mother, with a lilt.

“YOU NEVER WALK!” He screamed and shook with tears.

In that moment, Chris became all the things he was sorry for a few moments ago, but he was glad for it.

He still had time.

He serenaded the weary travelers with a song, Honky-Tonk Hermaphrodite.

Speaking real thick and slow,

“2am?  I should probably go – gotta work at seven.”

“Where do you work?”

“Correctional facility.  I’m a guard.”

Next, something most of you have probably read is, The Things The Carried, by Tim O’brien.  This collection of fictional short stories about Vietnam carry numerous themes but I think the actual theme of the whole collection is a theme of being a good writer.  About using what O’brien calls, “story truth,” and then distinguishing that from, “happening truth.”  It’s supposedly a fiction but O’brien continually blurs the line of what really happened with what didn’t really happen.  Or, it is about how war is hell, take your pick.

Finally, the theme of Anchorman is acceptance.  In a cruel world, we all just want to be accepted for who we are and for what we like.

In terms of theme, I would have to say that I really enjoy Wes Anderson and the themes he thinks up for movies.  I think that he is great at exploring settings of both “normal” people and “privileged” people and showing that everyone has problems and everyone can find joy even in tough times.  You look at a movie like “Bottle Rocket”, the movie is about 3 friends/ wannabe thieves who clearly are not cut out for a life of crime.  Their first robbery was of one of their own family’s home for christ sake.  It sets the tone for the movie, in which they go on the lamb after robbing a bookstore, and plan to meet up with a one of their former bosses.  He is supposed to be their introduction in to a life of crime and money, when in fact he just ends up robbing them when they inevitably fail.  But when Dignon ends up going to jail, you realize that even though he wasn’t successful at his life of crime, going to jail made him feel like he was.  Indirectly he realized his dream.

And then he can make a movie like The Life Aquatic.  It follows Steve Zissou, who is a washed up Jacques Cousteau type figure.  Who even knew that explorer/documentary filmmakers could become washed up.  He decides to set off on another voyage to kill the Jaguar Shark, a so-called mythical creature that ate his best friend and colleague Esteban.  With his marriage falling apart and the realization that he has a son he didn’t know about, Zissou and his crew go to track down this shark that may not even exist.  Zissou is an arrogant ass most of the time, but shows bravery in the way that he explores.  Through openly robbing his opponents of their equipment to enduring pirate attacks, Zissou’s a-hole of a character eventually looks endearing by the end of the movie.  And yes, there is a jaguar shark.

I appreciate the way his themes gain you a new respect for his characters by the end of the movie.  You see that with all the things that the characters endure or have endured in their past (with flashbacks to attest), you see another side of almost all of his characters.  Quirky humor at it’s best.

Recently (like, summer, before I came here and had no time to read), I read a novel called “A Fraction of the Whole” by an Aussie named Steve Toltz (that is not a mangled Arrested Development reference, that is his name). Novel’s about this guy and his crazy-ass dad, who pulled him out of school to live in a hand-made labyrinth in the brush, tried to give every Australian a million dollars through some harebrained public scheme, and generally had warped views about government and life that he passed on to his son. Basically the son has to find a way out of his dad’s shadow, and figure out if he can be his own man. That’s the theme right there – individuality, self-actualization – but the novel kind of double-backs on its own theme because it becomes readily apparent that the son, who is the narrator, is becoming just like his father despite his best efforts. So, I guess fate would be another theme. Also this book is quite funny despite what I have described.

As far as films, let’s talk about one of my all-time favorites and a cinematic classic – Happy Gilmore. For those who haven’t seen it, in short: a terrible hockey player discovers that his terrible hockey form actually works great in golf, so he plays even though he hates it (sorta like Andre Agassi) so he can make money to save his grandmother’s house. He gets the girl too. The themes at play here are the strong bond of family and the roundabout ways we sometimes discover our greatest talents, then how we use them. Also this movie is quite funny despite what I have described.

Holly Golightly (played by Audrey Hepburn) is a young girl living in NYC. She is a socialite, obsessed with climbing the ladder, and knowing all the right people. She is also looking for love, but not just from anyone. She is only interested in rich, older men (generally over 40…where she is roughly 17 in the book I think). Her neighbor, whom we know as “Fred” (not actually his name but Holly names him that because he looks like her brother, Fred) is an aspiring writer whose friendship with Holly escalates into something much more. Except, even when it is implied that Holly also feels romantic towards “Fred,” she refrains because she feels “caged” by love when it is real. This idea is a continual theme throughout the book. Capote often emphasizes Holly’s fear of becoming caged or tied down by relationships with people, even if it is her family. So I guess the theme, easily put is: Caring about someone cages you and limits your freedom to do as you please.

Sort of depressing, but a really fantastic movie and so far a great book too!

Abby sits up and piers out of the window that is partially covered with get well cards and drawings that Abby has made during her time in the hospital. The nurse turns the television on for Abby and places the remote within her reach.
The nurse tells Abby that she will come back after breakfast and help her get ready for the day. She leaves out the room overwhelmed with sadness, for today is another day that Abby’s parents won’t come to visit her. They can’t deal with the reality that their daughter is terminally ill. All the nurses at Santa Clara Kaiser Permanente Medical Center go above and beyond to create a pleasant atmosphere for Abby so that she never feels scared or alone.

I just want to go back to school and see my friends Jessica and Lindsey. We’ve been best friends since the second grade but I haven’t seen them in soooo long. I used to bug Mommy every day if I could go back to Mrs. Towle’s class yet, but she stopped saying “soon” so I stopped asking when. Now she just hugs me really, really tight when I talk about going back to school. I’m not sure why but I like Mommy’s hugs so I don’t ask. I can’t sleep because I miss my friends from school, but I have friends here too. My favorite is Jeremy because he gives me candy from the vending machine downstairs whenever he walks by my room at night and Mommy’s asleep. I wish he could stay just once so we could play with my dolls. I like brushing their long hair and braiding it, just like what Mommy does to my wig.

I just want everyone to leave me alone. This is the third time I’ve ended up in this stupid ER over stupid shit. Just because I hurt myself doesn’t mean I want to kill myself. I can’t sleep when there’s people watching over me. It’s cold as hell in this place and all I want is to be left alone. I wish everyone would just understand that. Great. Now they called that dumb security guy to watch over me. I hate him. They all think I wanna kill myself, but they’ve got it all wrong. I wish they were all dead.

I just want a real meal with people to talk to. When you’re a 53-year old woman who never married and never had kids, home-cooked meals and dinner parties aren’t your forte. I’m a nurse. My job is to look after people’s health and well-being yet my nightly dinner that I eat by myself comes out of a vending machine. Oh, there’s that night watchman again, also eating alone near the soda machine. I wonder what his name is. There’s something about being at work at 4:00AM that makes people reserved and unsociable. Working the graveyard shift is depressing enough already, can’t we all at least have a meal together? Don’t get me wrong, I love my job and my patients. I just hate my coworkers.

I just want justice for my death. Look at my once-beautiful face, now a bloody mess. At least I’m covered up in that body bag. Being dead means you can’t feel the temperature, but I wonder if it’s cold in the morgue. The coroner looks way too comfortable. I wonder what he’s talking to the security guy about. Yep, that’s my name on the tag on my toe–Christina Lloyd. “Cause of death: blunt-force trauma to the head.” I never did get a good look at the guy who left me for dead out two miles in a field off Highway 101, but thank God that someone found my body. I hope they find the fucker that did this to me. My family deserves to know.

I just want to be a great dad. They always say men never know what it’s like to be a dad until they actually see their kid, and now I know exactly why they say that. I’m so excited I just hugged the roaming security guard who probably thought I was insane for running and jumping down the halls at 6:30 in the morning. I don’t care. I must be the luckiest guy in the world to have such a beautiful wife, and now, a perfectly healthy boy. He’s my son and I’m going to be the best dad ever. Welcome to the world, Jeremy.