the groundhog day project

I actually watched Major League --today's movie in my childhood deconstruction's confused final weeks--just last year. As a movies-by-minutes podcaster, I participated in a charity trivia contest, and along with UHF , Major League was the topic one of the rounds. The final round was live at a movies-by-minutes get together in Portland, Oregon in August. This year's event has been cancelled because a pandemic makes such events problematic. This year was going to be in Philadelphia. I don't think I've ever been there. Maybe next year. Meanwhile, Rachel Phelps wants to move the Cleveland Indians to Miami, so she has called for some very specific recruits for this year's team, slackers, nobodies, has-beans, weirdos. Jake Taylor is hungover in Mexico when he gets the call. His knees are shot. But, he' supposed to be a catcher. Rick Vaughn is in prison when he gets the call. Eddie Harris has to put, among other things, snot on the ball, to pit...

I gotta watch Sing Street this week for a podcast, and Fran's outburst here in Strictly Ballroom that was yesterday's (and today's) title reminds me of Raphina's line there: "You can never do anything by half." A basic enough message. You want something, you gotta go for it. What you'd expect from a romantic comedy. Or drama... I mean, movies inherently involve some protagonist going after some goal, some dream, some love, some whatever. Messages aren't going to run deep, and sometimes they're obvious, but that doesn't make them lesser. Like, I've written in this blog a few times about About Time and have a currently running podcast about that film and some of the negative reviews about it complain about its central message--to slow down and appreciate the things around you. And, yeah, that's a basic message, but if more of us followed that advice we wouldn't hear that message so much. Like this movie: don't ...

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 ...

It's interesting watching Stand By Me these past few days things I notice that I didn't notice (or couldn't have noticed) before. When I watched this as a kid, I had no idea what card game they were playing in the treehouse. I've since played 31 a bunch of times, but only just a handful of years ago. Some background extras reflected in the glass behind Gordie right after he fires Chris' gun accidentally, walk the same bit of block twice--two different takes, I assume. But, also--and this one has an interesting meaning for me--the music that plays when Gordie goes into his brother Denny's bedroom to get his canteen (pretty sure it's just called "Denny's Theme" but I don't think the score was ever released properly, just the soundtrack with all the old songs) sounds a lot--to my untrained ear at least--like a part of the score for a far more recent film Never Look Away . But, then that connection has me thinking about Never Look Away and al...

1985 is behind me now. Again. In the 80s, I guess it was like any year I made it all the way through was awesome because The Day After and Threads had offered up some wonderful visuals for my overactive imagination and cult-induced apocalypticism. Better to be Phil, stuck in the same day again and again and again, knowing that world didn't fall apart that day, no big war began, no pandemic struck, no aliens invaded. Just small town problems, a natural death or two*, and that's all. (* if you think only the Old Man died in Punxsutawney my friends, I suggest you watch this deleted scene and picture what that truck would have done to that little girl and that puppy if Phil hadn't been there.) Quick sidenote: I'm watching on the blu-Ray and the subtitles not quite matching up with the dialogue (which I've still got locked in my head as well) is really bugging me, but someone's doing laundry, and I don't want to just blast the film to the entire neighb...

Today, I watched Mudbound . Today I watched Columbus . Right now, I'm watching Brigsby Bear for the second time. I avoided doing any teaching work--it's technically finals week, but my classes' final speeches/debates were finished last week. I stayed home, watched some TV, those movies, and had leftover chili for dinner that I made yesterday. It was a mostly relaxing day. There was also talk of the special election in Alabama. I won't get into the details on that. It didn't go how I thought it would go, and that's a good thing. Instead, movies. These three. All of them, ever. Movies. Take Brigsby Bear , for example. It's a really dark concept that twists its way into a surprisingly optimistic, upbeat story. Guy who has been held captive his whole life, who has had one tv show to watch, produced by his abductor father, and out in the real world, all he wants is to have more of that show. Because, the fantasy that was central to the only reality he knows i...