the groundhog day project

The opening of Falling Down reminds me of two very different things. (And, no, neither one is Fellini's 8 1/2 because, for some reason, that film has slipped through the cracks of my moviewatching experience... Which seems wrong, now that I think about it. I'm sure both Joel Schumacher and Jake Scott had the opening to 8 1/2 in mind, but I just cannot speak to Fellini's film... yet.) The first thing is the music video to REM's "Everybody Hurts" (directed by the parenthetically aforementioned Jake Scott)--which I just had to doublecheck was out around the same time this film was. All those people stuck in traffic, all the different, sometimes vague, ways that they are hurting. Until they separate themselves from the monotony of that unfortunate part of everyday life in Los Angeles (and Chicago when it's funny), Like D-FENS (Michael Douglas) does in Falling Down . The other thing is the "We'll Follow the Sun" episode of Married... Wit...

(There will be profanity.) About 40 minutes into S.F.W. , Cliff Spab is wandering about inside a record store--this film is, of course, from when those still existed--and a video of him held hostage comes on and he watches. It's one of the interesting moments where you can really see what the film is going for, as Spab sees himself from the outside and see what has people so enamored. In that video, Spab says: Fuck you. What's the point of saying anything? You know how it is, man. The same old fucking shit. So, I'm... I'm stuck in this Fun Stop. So fucking what? So, I'm bored as shit. So fucking what? So, I don't know what the fuck's going on. So fucking what? So, I might die in here... So fucking what? So, I haven't had a decent shower and food in way too fucking... So fucking what? How is this different from anything else that's happened in my life? I mean, God, when I was in high school, fucking up big time, everybody was always giving...

Warning: there will be swearing. I've been meaning to get to this film for a while now. Kept trying to fit it into my week-with-a-movie format in phase two of this blog, never found a place for it. It's got nothing to do with werewolves , by the way, so maybe I still haven't found the place for it. Imagine it as a transition into whatever comes next. (Plus the other day, I started a rant about gun control with this film's title, so to speak. The film's actual title: S.F.W. . What it stands for: So Fucking What? Why have I been trying to get to it for a while, you may ask. Because it was cowritten by none other than Danny Rubin, creator of Groundhog Day . (Based on a novel, apparently--a detail I had completely missed until right now during the opening titles.) If you don't know the movie, the setup is that a terrorist group called Split Image took a convenience store hostage (with five hostages originally) and aired the next 36 days live on TV. The film open...

Subtitle: one lingering detail that wasn’t all in voiceover. Just after Phil was “learning how to listen” in Rubin’s original, there’s a scene at a Basketball Court. Phil plays one-on-one with “some TEENAGER.” In the direction, “Phil steals the ball and does a good lay-up. The Teenager calls it a “[p]retty good move for an old guy.” Phil says he practices a lot. (Six months, four to five hours a day, and you’d be an expert.) So, the Teenager says he’s going to practice a lot, too. And, Phil asks him, “Aren’t you supposed to be in classes now?” (Nevermind that in Punxsutawney, they probably get the day off school… despite the frog prince scene as well.) The Teenager responds: “You wanna be my daddy or you wanna play b-ball?” (There’s already some things going on on Groundhog Day regarding parenting and parental roles, but they’re worthy of a separate entry.) Then, it’s the Teenager’s turn to do some exposition, while dribbling: Everybody worrying about my future. I say, “He...