the groundhog day project

There's a thin line between the romantic pressuring we see in romantic comedy and stalker behavior. Riding that line is the premise of a lot of stories, from shows like Netflix's You , which pushes right over the line in its opening scene and keeps pushing, to simple moments like when Charlie says please after Harriet turns down his proposal in So I Married an Axe Murderer . The romantic comedy way is simple: if at first she says no, keep pushing, invade her space, make her realize she can't live without you by defying her to take out a restraining order. Pressed up against the baseball plot here, the romantic comedy plotline between Jake and Lynn can be taken as an extension of the main idea. Their relationship failed a few years back. The Indians' relationship with Cleveland (at least the way Mrs. Phelps sees it) also failed... well, more than a few years back. The problem is that we can see the Indians' players improving (maybe not why they're improving ...

The Presidio begins a little oddly--like the filmmakers didn't know how to do a cold open. Some obligatory San Francisco skyline shots, the Golden Gate Bridge, a military march past a stage (with Sean Connery up there because we need to be reminded he's in this movie like we didn't see the trailer and choose to see this in the theater... Or maybe we didn't watch this one until it was on home video; I can't remember. I know we saw Big Business in the theater and that was this same weekend. Given that we went to the second-run Academy Theater a lot in the late 80s, maybe we saw it there. But, my point is, until it's on cable much later, no one is turning this movie on and not knowing that Connery is in it. So, the film would be better served pulling a cold open with the dark foggy night, the MP coming upon a robbery and getting shot, the car chase, instead of wasting time on) basically a bunch of pointless establishing shots instead of getting to some action...

I think I forgot that Dean (Kurt Russell) makes art with chainsaws. That's how we are introduced to his character before he heads off to work on the yacht Immaculata . Later, there's some artistic stuff going on with the miniature gold course, but the artwork there comes from Joanna (Goldie Hawn); he handles the technical aspect and the building. Which his work in Joanna's closet at the start of the film sets up his engineering ability fairly well. His "objects de art" kinda gets lost. Looking back at Overboard with a modern lens, the plot is problematic, but the classist leanings outweigh the sexist leanings to create something more positive than the plot implies. Especially in the hands of director Garry Marshall. Still, even in '87, not everyone cared for the film. Michael Wilmington, Los Angeles Times , 18 December 1987: Unfortunately, Joanna eventually turns goody-two-shoes herself. All those layers of snobbery peel off to expose a bouncy, bubbly...

That Ema Hesire just does not want to marry any old guy her mother chooses for here is progressive enough that I think her urge to fly is too much, and unnecessary. But, it makes me realize that the balance of the story is off. We start with Emmy, then we go to Switcher and it is more than 10 minutes into the movie before we see Emmy in the window, and close to half an hour before she comes to life. The movie plays as Jonathan's story but the emotional payoff is Emmy's. I mean, a romantic comedy should have a payoff for both its leads but it feels like Jonathan gets what he wants before Emmy is even in the story. Richards, Felix, B.J., even Roxie--they're obstacles but not significant ones to Jonathan. Ultimately, they endanger Emmy's life (but not really, as I assume she would just be born in some future piece of art and start her cycle again), they don't endanger Jonathan's job. And, thinking about that made me realize something. I never thought of this ...

My impulse for today was to write about the so-called manic pixie dream girl . Madison in Splash is perhaps an early prototype for a such-labeled character. But, then I was looking up pieces about those stereotypical cinematic women who, according the the TV Tropes definition, exist to "come along and open [the] heart [of a "soulful, brooding male hero"] to the great, wondrous adventure of life" and I realized something interesting... And not entirely unbelievable given the patriarchy's ability to self-perpetuate: the term coined by Nathan Rabin at AV Club that implied a weakness in "the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors" turned into a way to put down female characters instead of their creators. As Zoe Kazan, who starred as an all too easily labeled manic pixie dream girl who quite literally sprung from the fevered imagination of a sensitive writer in Ruby Sparks (but that character actually came from Kazan's own imagination, a...

After calling heterosexual romantic comedies cheap yesterday , today I'm watching one that I remember fondly-- Two of a Kind . My final film for 1983 in my deconstruction of my childhood experience with film. A reminder: I'm not going back to every film I saw, or the big movies I saw, but specifically the films that I watched and rewatched time and time again as a kid. Two early thoughts rewatching this film after many years: 1. We're getting a POV shot from God flying through the clouds. That might be quite meaningful later. 2. Charlie (Charles Durning) swiping Earl's (Scatman Crothers) golf ball and nothing coming of it is pretty funny. Then we're with Zack (John Travolta), because God wants proof that a regular person can be good or he's going to flood the Earth again. Zack owes some guys some money, he's an inventor (and, interestingly, a bunch of his machines in his apartment seem to be working just fine, so I guess he's a good one), Stuart (Richa...

Watching Sing Street again, mostly because I really need a break. From politics. From the world. I want to spend more time out and about with my kids or with friends. I have an inkling to try dating. Or something. (Details I don't feel like putting out into the world in a blog entry... For a change.) Also, I love this movie. It's structure so simply, like a romantic comedy built on a musical foundation, Once  but with teenagers, and set smack dab in the middle of the 1980s (though it gets the timing of some of its historical references off a bit), and it's sweet and simple and entertaining. It has it bittersweet moments and it has its happy bits, too. And, like Once , it makes a good case for the idea of how varied people can come into your life, have some significant, life-changing effect, then maybe they just go away, disappear, and you're stuck by yourself for a time, or with new people, other people, other influences and life-changing effects, and the tiniest cha...

...it is time to get into the serious political ranting.           Kidding. I just don't have it in me right now. Some semi-philosophical, self-helps bullshit, though--that I've got. Maybe. It's summer in full swing in Southern California, and it's too hot to do much of anything. Power outages in, well, I'm not sure how much of an area is covered. Fortunately, not here in Glendale. As for movies. I saw The Big Sick in the theater today, and rather than turn on V for Vendetta , which is waiting in the wings for a second blogged viewing, I've got Sing Street on right now. One of my favorite movies of last year. A nice Irish ode to 80s music. And teenage romance. The Big Sick , on the other hand, starts like any romantic comedy, then takes an interesting turn when the female lead spends most of the film in a coma. It's a cute variation on a romantic comedy. But, I don't really want to talk about either. I feel like just sitting here and enjoying ...

Some of the great moments in 10 Things I Hate about You are the more subtle things. Not Kat's overt antisocial behavior or her feminism but Bianca's disinterest in most of what Joey does, even as she's sort of stuck around him when he's near. As my daughter put it today, Bianca cannot be herself around Joey. But--and this is me. again--there are those moments that she's bothered by her own interest. Like when she calls his headshot "pensive" and he says he was going for "thoughtful." In that moment, she's more like her sister, smarter than the girl whose opening line is that shallow bit about liking her Skechers and loving her Prada backpack. Or when he's doing his underwear and swimsuit poses and she's got no more clue than we do what the difference is. Of course, one of the subtle moments that isn't as good is Bianca's and Joey's reaction to her accidentally shooting Mr. Chapin with a bow and arrow. The subtle non-react...

The nerd and the cheerleader--a classic 80s setup. So many love stories cross class (and clique) divides; it's a variation on the Cinderella plot, of course. One party gets prettied up to be with the other. In Can't Buy Me Love , Ronald (Patrick Dempsey) pays for the makeover, and a month of pretend with Cindy (Amanda Peterson). Roger Ebert makes a point in his quite negative review about how these two are "materialistic twits" or at least make teenagers look like as much. But, as I bring up his review to see what he has to say, this exchange happens (as Ronald washes Cindy's car and she sits and watches): CINDY You know, when I offered you a ride home, it wasn't to get you to wash my car. RONALD I don't mind. Actually, I kind of like it. CINDY You're a hard worker. Work's not really my thing. RONALD Cheerleading's hard work. You do it well. CINDY I guess. But, what I mean is that I don't do much else... except for shop and hangout. ...

New month, gonna drift into a theme, start with a little romantic comedy, see where it takes me. John Cusack, again (after Say Anything and Better Off Dead ). Along with Kate Beckinsale this time. The movie is Serendipity and it starts with an extended meet-cute first date, except Sara (Beckinsale) believes in fate and thinks if they're meant to be together, the universe will make it happen. Ultimately, she gets him to write his name and number on a $5 bill then spends it and writes her own name and number in a copy of Love in the Time of Cholera and promises to sell it to a used bookstore the next morning--the idea is, if either of them find that number, they will find one another. But, then the film jumps ahead in time--Jonathan's (Cusack) engagement party. Now, aside from the Love in the Time of Cholera reference (though I haven't read the book-- I know , what's wrong with me?--I understand there's something in there about a return to long lost love after ...

(Note: this starts negative but gets better.) Is it any surprise that so many of us are damaged? John Zerzan (2002), Running on Emptiness : Lovely new indicators of how it is panning out include increasing self-mutilation among the young and murder of children by their own parents[, unarmed suspects, especially black youths, murdered by the police, young men manipulated around a draft by patriotism to travel to the other side of the world to kill people that are different than us, self-medication, increased prescribed-medication... and I’ll let Zerzan continue]. Somehow a society that is steadily more impersonal, cynical, de-skilled, boring, artificial, depressing, suicide-prompting, used up, drug-ridden, ugly, anxiety-causing and futureless brings a questioning as to why it has come to this/what’s it all about. (p. 161) Jack laments to Pinocchio, “You ever get the feeling sometimes, you’re being punished for your sins?” In my most cynical, pessimistic (and least practical) mome...

Clearly, Toy Story is built around the whole "buddy picture" sort of structure, but that's close enough to the romance genre, specifically romantic comedy, that I figured it's time to share this: For the record, I did not draw that. It was drawn by a deviantart user who seems to be named May Pong, lives in Brunei. And, if seeing Buzz and Woody kissing like that bothers you, you really shouldn't read the rather brilliantly titled "And Beyond" by Kass , a fanfic in which Woody realizes he has fallen in love with Buzz and Buzz overhears him breaking up with Bo Peep and one thing leads to another until eventually, Buzz plays with Woody's pull string and Woody pushes Buzz's buttons. Seriously though, I think there's more to it than some playful imagining or adolescent fantasy. (And, I'm not suggesting that Toy Story is feeding into homosexual references like, say, Planes, Trains & Automobiles , even though Woody is clearly jealous b...

Planes, Trains & Automobiles is a romantic comedy. I mean, structurally. Tripping over the trunk, accidentally stealing the cab, ending up next to each other on the flight—this is the meet-cute for Neal and Del. In Hinnant’s (2006) terms, this would be the courtship model that begins with “an atmosphere of bitter animosity. It involves the initial antagonism of an improbable pair of lovers who will only slowly come to appreciate in one another the sterling moral characteristics prized in the courtship novel” (p. 297). Now, for Neal and Del, it’s a little more one-sided than that. Del is the friendly one in this pair, Neal the standoffish one. Del just asked Neal, “You want to take a shower?” Neal misunderstood and thought Del wanted them to shower together. Or did he misunderstand? Seriously, just imagine Steve Martin’s Neal as a woman, like the Sally to Del’s Harry. They share a bed their first night together. And, Neal has to sleep in the wet spot. Dowd and Pallotta (200...

Groundhog Day is not a romantic comedy. And, it’s not just me who thinks so. Dowd and Pallotta (2000)—you know, my go to academic quality romantic comedy source—specifically excluded it from their coding. They explain: Our principle genre-relevant rule is that romance must be central to the story depicted in the film and not a secondary aspect... If the film is a mixed-genre effort—and adventure story, for example, in which two of the characters become romantically attached, such as was the case with Romancing the Stone [—I must interrupt this extended quotation to say that I love the movie Romancing the Stone and actually have it on the potential list of movies to watch for this blog at some point. Perhaps an adventure month, do a little Romancing the Stone , some Raiders of the Lost Ark and some... ah, there’s the rub. There aren’t a lot of adventure movies anymore. Maybe High Road to China , although I barely remember that from when I was a kid and maybe it doesn’t qualify....

Some stray observations: On the HOTEL sign outside Vivian’s building, only the H and O are lit up. This seems both too on-the-nose and over-the-top. Kit’s and Vivian’s motto is “We say who, we say when, we say how much.” Later when Vivian is mad at Edward, she forgets that last part. She says, “I say who. I say when.” And then, she repeats, “I say who.” Despite the opening line of the film, that it is “all about money,” it’s no longer about money. She doesn’t even take the money, though she does demand it, when she leaves then. And, ultimately, after she has been paid and is back home, she gives some—not sure how much—of the money to Kit. I’ve written about the major differences between $3,000 and Pretty Woman before, but not a lot of the details. For example, this was Lawton’s second produced screenplay. It reads, especially early on, like someone’s first time writing a screenplay; there’s bit too much exposition setting the scene. Looking at the script again right now, I thou...