On advice from Amie, we watched The Changeling last night. Amie recommended it as a very scary movie. It took a while to warm up, but I wholeheartedly agree that it was a scary movie. It was so scary that Carina was too afraid to go to sleep afterwards, and made me stay up with her to watch something funny while she wound down.
I'm glad we watched it. It was scary without being a horror movie. The suspense built naturally, and George C. Scott's performance did a lot to really build the tension. He wasn't scared of what was happening in his house, which continued at a slow pace and really pulled the viewer into the story. There was really only one jump-out-at-you scene, which happened at a time I least expected it. Carina didn't expect it either, because she literally leapt out of her seat, and then tried to hide under a blanket for most of the rest of the movie. The story was interesting and ultimately satisfying, even if the ending was a little disappointing.
There was one long, quiet scene in near total darkness. I was reminded of David Lynch's Lost Highway, which has a scene several minutes in length of complete black with no sound. I've been so accustomed by most mainstream movies to having things jump out of the dark that the absence of such a thing when it is expected really puts me on edge. The long, silent darkness filled me with tension much better than any other device the filmmakers could have tried.
Amie recommended The Changeling to us in response to our recommendation of The Descent. Hopefully Amie will watch it -- I'm sure she'll enjoy it!
I consider today the first official day of fall: I wore a jacket to work for the first time this morning. Even though it's supposed to warm up through the week, I now consider it official Autumn.
Our weekend was a lot of fun. The kids' soccer game that was scheduled for Saturday was rescheduled to Sunday, so we took the opportunity Friday night to stay up (much) later than normal with the kids. Kelly invited us over for lasagna, and Tom shared some of his homebrew. Both were wonderful. The twins were engrossed by The Disney Channel inside, so the adults spent the bulk of the evening outside chatting.
Saturday was spent cleaning the house in preparation for another movie party. We had a slightly smaller crowd this time, so the riffing wasn't quite as side-splittingly funny as last time; but a good time was had nonetheless. We watched the original Ghostbusters, and I don't think Rick Moranis' character of Vince Clortho ever received such scrutiny!
I experienced several moments of synchronicity this weekend. Friday at work, I requested the song Pablo Picasso from Pat Radio, the internet radio station I listen to through most of the work day. I was first introduced to that song by Pete, in the version included on the "Repo Man" soundtrack. On Saturday, Amie was speaking about "Repo Man" for some reason, and couldn't remember the name of the film. She did remember the soundtrack, and mentioned Pablo Picasso. Similarly, Friday evening Tom and I spent quite some time talking about the movie "The Descent", and it came up again for conversation with Amie on Saturday. There was at least one other conversation item between Tom and I on Friday that was repeated on Sunday by someone else which really caught my attention. Blast that I can't remember it now!
Sunday was a lazy, restful day. The soccer game was rescheduled, so we were able to stay home all day. There were plenty of things that needed my attention, but I didn't feel particularly guilty about ignoring them: OSU classes resume on Wednesday this week, and I expect to be working nearly non-stop between now and then. So getting in a little preemptive slacking will hopefully help me keep my sanity in the days ahead.
We had one of our (in)famous movie parties this weekend. The format is simple: invite some friends over; cook up some food on the grill; have plenty of drinks on hand; socialize for an hour or two to get folks comfortable and in a good mood; then start some pre-selected movie. Everyone does their best to make everyone else laugh as hard as possible. It's similar to Mystery Science Theater 3000, except we're on Earth, and don't have robot sidekicks.
We've done this a number of times now, and always have a lot of fun. Notable standouts have been The Shining and Gremlins, and a surprise hit was Murder on Flight 502, which offered an enormous amount of spoofable material. I remember very little of the movie itself, but I remember quite a few of the jokes made that night.
This weekend we picked Jaws. Mike and Lauren, Jeff and Lisa, and Carina's new friends Martina and Michael all joined us. We decided to let the twins stay up with us to watch the movie. This resulted in a decidedly PG rating to many of the jokes we made, but it didn't detract at all from the fun we all had. It turns out that Lisa is quite the Jaws aficionado, and was able to really highlight a lot of wonderful absurdity in the film. It was a direct result of her quoting Roy Scheider's comment about the "bad hat" before he said it that we all began to observe just how bad many of the hats in the film really were.
The twins even got in on the lampooning with us, when they weren't covering their eyes from fear of the shark. No one can remember Tyler's joke, save for the fact that it was pretty good. Tayler stole the show, though, when she made her joke.
Best quote from the evening? When Roy Scheider shoots the tank in Jaws' mouth, as the shark explodes, Mike exclaimed loudly "Great shot kid, that was one in a million!" Jeff and I doubled over with laughter, Star Wars being the last reference either of us would have made.
These movie parties are always something of a mixed bag for Carina. She has a lot of fun, but it's easy for her to feel left out. Jeff and I lived together in college for a year. At that time Jeff was working at Blockbuster video, and would bring home free movie rentals almost every night. I watched a lot of movies that year. It was at this time, too, that I met and became friends with Mike. Movies served as a common bond between the three of us, and we shared a lot of jokes way back then that are still funny -- to us! -- today. Because of our history together, the three of us can be in stitches by only saying a few words: we'll start a joke, the others will remember it, and we'll all start laughing. Or one of us will make a comment about a movie, and the others will make observations about that movie by referencing some other film. This is, understandably, a little annoying to Carina, who sees us speaking in sentence fragments and then falling over with laughter; or who lacks the familiarity with the movies we've seen to understand why we're laughing.
Before this most recent movie party, Carina spoke to me quietly saying "Just break away, at least a few times, from that thing you guys do!" It was hard, sitting on the far end of the couch, watching Mike and Jeff speak in sentence fragments and quotes from movies. I couldn't bite my tongue all night, though, so on more than a few occasions I joined in, leaving Carina wondering what on Earth was so funny.
Carina and I watched This Film Is Not Yet Rated last night. I strongly recommend this movie to everyone: it's easy to watch, and extremely informative.
Watching This Film Is Not Yet Rated makes me want to watch as many NC-17 movies as I can. Honest (and some not-so-honest, as in the case of Team America) depictions of human sexuality almost always earn a film an NC-17 rating, regardless of all other content. Violence, even extreme or graphic violence, usually only earns a PG-13.
As the film made clear, the ratings system is strongly weighted in favor of the major movie studios. The movie studios heavily influence the ratings of their own movies, and they have representatives on the ratings appeals board. Independent films are assigned the dreaded NC-17 rating with far more frequency than any studio-produced movie. One segment in the movie was particularly illuminating: it showed side-by-side scene comparisons of sexual actions deemed too adult in an independent movie, thus earning that movie an NC-17 rating, while showing the same kind of actions being performed in an R or PG-13 movie produced by a major studio. For example, it was NC-17 for But I'm A Cheerleader to show a girl masturbating through her clothes (no nudity at all), but it was R for Kevin Spacey to masturbate (no nudity) in the shower in American Beauty.
It was somewhat infuriating to watch Not Yet Rated, knowing that free expression and artistic endeavors are being squelched by an anonymous, unaccountable collection of people. I don't know that there's any specific action concerned citizens can take, save maybe watching (and paying for) as many independent films as possible.