the groundhog day project

In theory, this is the final entry about her . Really, it’s a recap entry, the first since this blog was reborn. By the way, this movie is more sad to me each viewing. The last recap was Day 1000 – one of those what-does-it-all-mean kind of things . I picked up where I left off, lingering on High Fidelity with 1001 1002 1003 and 1004 , then it was Groundhog Day for the second of the month with Day 1005 . The new month got a little stuck on Mike Mills’ films. Beginners 1006 1007 1008 Thumbsucker 1009 1010 1011 20th Century Women 1012 1013 1014 Then it got… weird. With King Arthur, obituaries, and the structure of teams/casts. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword - 1015 Obit. - 1016 The Fifth Element - 1017 Big Hero 6 - 1018 1019 1020 1021 Alien: Covenant - 1022 Big Hero 6 - 1023 King Arthur - 1024 1025 For Your Eyes Only - 1026 Excalibur - 1027 1028 Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Men Tell No Tales - 1029 The Magnificent Seven (re...

There are more notes scribbled from yesterday's viewing of her . Like this line from the movie, in blue: Wha'ts it like to be alive in that room right now? And this below it in pink: Isn't this the longing of any relationship, at any distance? And, I think I'm going to ignore the rest of the scribbles because I'm in that moment as this month nears its end. Appropriately, I just finished watching the third season of 12 Monkeys . Time travel show, in case you don't know. Based on the film . Had a great line--one of the episodes of the show did--about women and what they mean: "The history I've seen is one of great women sung badly by clumsy men." Because, yeah, so much of history is told by men, smudging the details to make the men they want to be important seem more important than they actually are, or were. I mean, sure, we look at the present as having advanced the place of women, like suddenly they're more important. What we don't ...

(A note before this gets perhaps a little philosophical... Was it my sister Brooke who once commented in regards to an early Groundhog Day Project entry that I had a self-help book in me? I've toyed with writing a sort of self-helpy, memoiry book out of that first year of the blog. I even wrote a good chunk of what might have been the first chapter last fall. But, I don't know if I believe it anymore, myself--that there's a self-help book in me. Or maybe I don't want there to be... That wasn't the note. The note is this: I didn't really plan out this month of feminist and/or female-centric films. I immediately had an idea of a few movies I had to include-- Thelma & Louise , 9 to 5 , 10 Things I Hate about You --for a little obviousness and a little variety. And, I wasn't sure what movie should come last, like the coda to the rest. What movie would tie things together before I returned to Groundhog Day again for a day then moved onto some new month I ...

I haven't really talked about why there are three versions of The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby yet. (I'm watching Her one more time tonight, by the way.) It was written as two movies-- Him and Her . Two separate scripts that shared a few scenes (with slightly different variations between those scenes). It was only after The Weinstein Company bought the film(s) that a third, combined version was requested. Editing began with Him . It's the easier film in terms of structure, because, as editor Kristine Boden tells Indiewire , Conor is "more reactive and just want[s] to keep going." Her , on the other hand, has "introspection and gravity." Conor's energy made Him a shorter film. Eleanor, being more contemplative, has the slower burn. Still, Her is only a few minutes longer than Him . And, Them is, as you might expect, longer than either one, taking pieces of each and combining them into one film for both characters. For the separate versions of...

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her has me thinking about versions of self. More accurately, how the self we project and the self that others actually experience are probably never the same thing. Not exactly, and sometimes barely at all. Like the difference for the class clown between the class laughing at you or with you. You hope for the latter, but it's usually the former. It's like that encoding/decoding thing again --you choose how to present yourself and other people get it or they don't. The interesting moments are not when they get you wrong in a negative way--that laughing at you bit--but when they get you wrong in a positive way. Like someone likes you and you don't get why. I feel that sometimes... mostly when I'm not feeling that great about myself so maybe it's an entirely different issue. My self-esteem issues and/or depression rearing its head. (Ten minutes before Stu shows up.) I understand Eleanor a little too well I think. That need...

Her . Damn, no Rom-Com opening. Just, straight to the bridge. This film is going to just go all dark (while, oddly being entirely lighter and more colourful than Him ). This is The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby . Ooh, no Conor at the hospital at all. This version of the movie is like, you know that bullshit of the other film. Put that behind you. We are moving on. A bit more with Eleanor and Katy as they leave the hospital. Eleanor tells Katy she can say anything she wants. I want her to says, "Velociraptor broccoli." Does that mean I'm weird?) Weird question, maybe: Mary says she closed Eleanor's wifi account. I assumed before that she meant the account at the apartment Eleanor and Conor shared, but that doesn't make sense. As far as Mary knows, Conor is still living there. Which means she has to be referring to some past wifi account in this house. Which mattered, what, a couple years ago at the most recent? So, 1) they have no wifi, which makes Mary a...

Well, they may have been robots. I mean, I think they were robots. I mean, I know they were robots. I was at the theater today to see Ex Machina and there's a moment that got me thinking... Well, there were a lot of moments that got me thinking, but there was one in particular I thought was worth sharing here. Nathan (Oscar Isaac) asks Caleb (Domhnall Gleason) why his type is his type ; that is, did he look at all the various types of women, analyze them in detail, measure them, evaluate them and decide on one type , or did his type come from a genetic predilection, or a particular specificity of idealization supported and maintained by his parents, his friends, society in general around him? Actually, most of that phrasing is mine. But, the point is the same. Not to get back into the free will discussion, but I wonder if once a certain complexity is reached, the actuality and the appearance are indistinguishable. That is to say, if his type comes from such a complex combin...

Just one more note about her : though it's set in the near future, there is a certain style about the film, especially in the clothing, that makes it seem more like the 1950s. And, that got me to thinking about the costumes in Groundhog Day . Now, this isn't a film you'd necessarily think about having costumes. But, since the film is set on the same day over and over, I'm sure the costume department may have had several of each of Phil's shirts and ties, and Rita's blouse and vest and maybe even something like Doris' waitress outfit. A lot of the stuff with extras outside, like the Ned Ryerson bit, would have been filmed each version all in one day so costumes for the extras wouldn't have mattered much. Still, notable extras, like the ones I've called Pimp and Pimp's Boyfriend (also Earmuffs and Outdoor Yellow Hat Guy), also show up at Gobbler's Knob in the same outfits, so there was some consistency even with sequences that were not filmed...

So, today I was at the movie theater watching her — —which, since several people have had no idea what movie I’m talking about when I mention it, I’ll describe. Spike Jonze writes and directs. Joaquin Phoenix stars as Theodore Twombly, recently separated with divorce pending, unable to really get on with his life. For a living, he works for Beautiful Handwritten Letters (a dot com I was actually surprised to find didn’t exist) crafting notes, postcards, and letters for other people based on whatever little information they provide. Arguably, he’s more responsible for some relationships than the people involved, with all the work he puts in. The film begins, in fact, with him composing one letter then immediately starting on the response to that very letter. Out one day he buys a new artificially intelligent operating system—OS1—for his computer/phone. His personalized OS—voiced by Scarlett Johansson—names herself Samantha because she likes the sound of it. She calls him at work and d...