the groundhog day project

A thought: I spend so much time in this blog on older movies... It used to be for practical reasons; if I had previously seen the film (and prior to this recent deconstruction, I didn't have to have seen the film numerous times) it made it easier to write about it while the movie was playing. Saved a lot of time that way. More recently, the premise has been films I have seen multiple times, especially when I was young. So, aside from the occasional new film that really offers something to add in the context of this blog, I don't say much about new films. But, I like talking about movies, old and new. I liked doing my YouTube reviews while I was doing them (and I have described before how the frustration with getting views timed badly with me getting better at editing the clips together). And, I'd like to do something like that again. I'd prefer a slightly different format (or maybe a bit of both), discussion with another person, but I never made an effort to find some...

The problem with Arthur is that he is not a realistic drunk. Roger describes it well: You might be tempted to think that "Arthur" would be a bore, because it is about a drunk who is always trying to tell you stories. You would be right if "Arthur" we're a party and you were attending it. But "Arthur" is a movie. And so its drunk, unlike real drunks, is more entertaining, more witty, more human, and more poignant than you are. He embodies, in fact, all the wonderful human qualities that drunks fondly, mistakenly believe the booze brings out in them. Bob Mondello from All Things Considered , compares Arthur the lovable drunk to Shakespeare's Falstaff, or some vaudevillian. But, the movie warns us right away--not just with Arthur's obnoxious behavior while picking up then taking to a fancy restaurant the hooker Gloria (Anne de Salvo)--that Arthur is not a good guy. He may be funny, but, when the other hooker asks Arthur's driver Bitterman ...

I've said many times, we love an asshole. The titular Arthur is an obnoxious blowhard who laughs at his own jokes and the movie begins with him hiring a prostitute. He's already drunk and will remain so through most of the film. He laughs loudly, and even louder at his own jokes. He makes a scene wherever he goes. But, most of it feels harmless enough that we can laugh even when his jokes go on too long. Roger Ebert says in his review , Only someone with a heart of stone could fail to love a drunk like Arthur Bach, who spends his wasted days in a poignant search for someone who will love him, will care for him, will inflame his passions, and soothe his pain, and who, most of all, will laugh at his one-liners. Plus, the relationship between Arthur (Dudley Moore) and Hobson (John Gielgud) is a lovely thing. Arthur is a grown up child and Hobson is like the most patient "parent" there could ever be. Still, Hobson's dry wit and his occasional smack suggests Hobson...

Permit a sidetrack. Not that there's a clear throughline driving me this month. I wanted to revive this thing and I did, and I've mostly just been winging it. One day at a time. Life is good that way. Make plans, sure. But, it's each day that matters. Do the useful things, the productive things, but also find time for the fun things. Save Buster from choking and light a woman's cigarette... Not that I want to get into Groundhog Day references right now. King Arthur is today's film. And, what TV Tropes calls "Cast Calculus" (or more specifically, depending on how this goes, "The Five Man Band" or The Magnificent Seven Samurai"), and The Encyclopedia of Fantasy labels simply as "Seven Samurai." Specifically, because lately I think about way too much in terms of Dungeons and Dragons references (because D&D takes up far too much of my spare time), I noticed as I watched King Arthur last night that Arthur and his Knights p...