the groundhog day project

Regardless of deeper reasons --the Native American genocide, the holocaust, the moon landing--Kubrick does seem to have deliberately toyed with set layouts and the positioning of doors and windows in order to keep things a little off kilter. The opening credits running upward add to that. With opening music that seems far more sinister and dark than the driving scene it plays over. That there is no hedge maze anywhere near the hotel in the establishing shot yet that maze will be vital to the climax of the film is another. Then there's the so-called "impossible window" in Ullman's office opening to daylight and plants when the lobby we have just tracked from (without any cut) implied another hallway is behind that office. Ullmann mentions Grady's daughters being 8 and 10, yet they are played by twins. (And, anyone who hasn't read the book always assumes they are twins. Ullman's line about their ages is just in passing and we haven't seen the twin sis...

Drifting away from the horror film itself for the moment. Room 237 is on instead of a second day with The Shining because I think it's important to understand why we do this. Why I do this. Why you read this, for that matter. These movies--they're just movies. We don't really need all the subtext to enjoy them. I would never argue that there is no subtext; in fact, I think there is always subtext. For example, maybe it's about the Tang cans or the Golden Rey boxes over the Calumet cans. Picking one detail out of many says more about you (me) than it does about the film. Day 113 , I wrote: Why am I doing this? Because someone needed to. Because every piece of art deserves to be studied and broken down. Every piece of fiction deserves to be dissected until we know not just what it means but what it can mean. Chuck Klosterman, reviewing Room 237 for Grantland , says, "It introduces a new way to experience and consider movies." I'm trying to rememb...

I wanted to write about masculinity and identity--Woody's and Buzz's conflicted relationship as a sort of testosterone-fueled contest, who can more fully fill the role of man . I wanted to tie this back into identity and how Buzz being all alpha male even when he doesn't really know who he is effectively reifies a notion that all is nature... and I wondered if that was reassuring or damaging. Or if I actually do read too much into things sometimes... Meanwhile, I just paused to check the photos on the wall by the stairs in the Davis household. I didn't see any picture of a couple. Nor on the mantle. Andy's mother is inexplicably single... And, that sounds like it's shocking or unusual, but I meant, literally, we are not offered explanation. Anyway, I noted out loud that there's a theory that Andy's father has died (Actually, the theory is about he and Andy's mom going through a divorce but I guess I conflated the two ideas in my head... but don...

In Groundhog Day , two males and one female go from the big city to a tiny hamlet in western Pennsylvania. In The Shining , two males and one female go from living in the big city to a hotel in the mountains of Colorado. In Groundhog Day , the black guy works at the bar. In The Shining , the black guy works in the kitchen. In both films, there's a blizzard, a nice old lady, a bathtub, a bar, and a holiday party. Plus, Phil gets stopped in the hallway by the Chubby Man, who is certainly large enough to contain those twin dead girls. Coincidences? Maybe. Or maybe, just like the crazy folks behind Room 237 think The Shining is Stanley Kubrick's way of admitting that he secretly created the moon landing footage, Groundhog Day was Harold Ramis' way of admitting that he secretly created The Shining . Think about it. Ramis is not known for making adaptations. Nor is he known for making horror films. So, if he were to make one from a beloved Stephen King novel, it would ma...