it's this one in dark purple, and the added kick in the ass is that it looks terrible and matronly on me, so i gave it to christina. it looks cute on her !
after that, we went to dinner at pod, a weirdo stephen starr japanese fusion restaurant by our offices (japanese fused with... rich white people?)
they're pretty expensive and have almost nothing vegetarian but are supposed to be one of the better sushi places in the city? i don't know, i don't like sushi. luckily they have two inexpensive side dishes (mushroom fried rice and baby bok choy) that are both cheap and like, the best thing ever. well, the bok choy is good, but the mushroom fried rice is one of my favorite foods- it's full of tons of different types of mushrooms, isn't greasy at all, and has lots of egg which is my favorite in fried rice. after dinner, we came home and.. both played warcraft.
on saturday, mike came down and took christina and i out to run errands (grocery store, stocking store, clothes store) and in return he was handsomely rewarded with two turkey pot pies (sort of? i used turkey broth for them but i don't know how to cook meat, so i used fake chicken). for some reason he looooooves my (usually vegetarian) pot pie recipe and always wants them as a reward.
after that he had to go home (he was down here taking his daughter and her bf to the mutter museum, and mouse came over because i finally got him to agree to watch band of brothers with me ! i guess i should say "commit to" and not "agree to" because it's more of a matter of him not being that into sitting around watching tv. i think he liked it, and christina definitely did, though we're only 2 episodes in. i watch all of "band of brothers" like 4x a year so i was super nervous to show it to other people, but it's the most amazing thing that has ever been on tv so i shouldn't have worried.
i was feeling kind of lazy yesterday and would've been content to stay in my pajamas all day but mouse, christina, and i met up with nate and anna to see a matinee of shutter island. okay, like... obviously if a movie takes place in a mental hospital, the "twist" is the non-crazy person is actually a patient. everyone can tell from the trailers for this movie that this is going to happen, and everyone is ready for it. unfortunately, the twist was handled so poorly and so hilariously ! like, the movie was an absolute stinker.
i will say that it was shot beautifully and every scene LOOKED good. i didn't... not enjoy watching it. and i think leonardo dicaprio is a good actor ! and i want to bone mark ruffalo til he dies. and there's a great weird cameo by buffalo will from silence of the lambs. it was just way too long, and when they finally "revealed" the twist we'd been waiting for, they handled the twist so ludicrously and so poorly and then explained what was REALLY going on 50 times, then did a flashback to SHOW you what really happened, then EXPLAINED IT AGAIN !
it wasn't just me who was dissatisfied, either- the whole theater was cracking up at the emotional moments (at one point the camera actually zooms out and dicaprio yells, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" !) and a bunch of people walked out. i had fun though, because i love theater experiences where the audience hates the movie (most notably when maura and i went to a sunday morning matinee of twilight and the 5 people in the theater were cracking jokes and making fun of it), and i had a bunch of twizzlers
after the movie we went to lemongrass, my favorite thai restaurant, where i got (as usual) the royal bath. that sounds like someone peed on me for sex purposes, but it's actually just a huge pile of tofu and spinach covered in peanut sauce.
now i'm at work, feeling very sorry for myself because i have to help people stuff tote bags for an event at noon. i hate helping.
p.s. mike b. has a new blog about madballs and madball ripoffs and madball related news. it may have other stuff in it, but i don't think so? madballs for dummies
OK, lest anyone miss the point, this plot device (protagonist is actually delusional patient) has been in use since 1919- almost as long as feature films have existed. To play that card and present it as if I'm supposed to be surprised is almost a personal affront. I would perhaps accept this in b-movie context, but we're talking about a film from one of the greatest directors of all time. What's next, "it was all a dream"?
ReplyDeleteAlso, am I supposed to believe that the faculty, staff and patients of a mental hospital would ever be enlisted in a large scale multi-day role play for the supposed benefit of one patient? A patient with a history of acting out violently on his delusions? In a hurricane?
-Mouse
i think the hurricane may have been part of his delusion? that was also unclear to me- like, what interactions he was imagining and what he wasn't? maybe that's kinda cool but it didn't feel cool at the time.
ReplyDeleteThat's possible. To the film makers' credit, I can't find any real plot holes. It just stretches plausibility too much for me. For the record, I'm not going to say I didn't like the movie at all. It just really didn't work for me when the big reveal at the end turned out to be nothing more than the ol' Caligari.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, now I admit I'm not an expert on abnormal psychology, but I don't think the movie was near being an accurate portrayal of mental illness. Maybe I'm wrong but the angle where he created fictional characters who's names were anagrams of corresponding real people...do mentally ill people really do that? This was especially troubling to me because it is BORROWED FROM AN EPISODE OF THE SIMPSONS!. "My subconscious is a genius!" And The Simpsons had the good sense to make it a double trick ending; the "imaginary" friend turned out to be real, just flaky.
-Mouse
that part (that he had it on a BOARD under a SHEET) and the crumbling gun and the fact that they somehow got a DESK for ben kingsley up those narrow lighthouse stairs made me think that like... maybe that part was part of his delusion? maybe? but it definitely wasn't supposed to be, right?
ReplyDeletei love theater experiences where the audience hates the movie
ReplyDeleteME TOO. (see also: Morgan and I sneaking a flask of whiskey into The Happening and laughing our fucking brains out) I think I am actually going to see this movie 'cause I have a movie theater gift certificate and nothing cool has come out since I got it like four months ago.
that's a good idea- it's VERY nice to look at too ! when we saw the happening everyone would crack up every time they said 'happen' or 'happened' or 'happening'
ReplyDeletehahaha same here! also, after the movie ended the person in front of us stood up and said 'that was TERRIBLE' in the universe's most genuinely mournful voice and i fucking LOST IT.
ReplyDeleteahhahahaha i forgot that the past part of this is that during one of his like crazy person 'dreams' someone said, 'HE CRAZY !!!!!!!' really loud
ReplyDeletealshdlsashaslh god i love that
ReplyDeletei love your movie reviews. to this day i still think about your passion of the christ review !!!!
ReplyDeletewhen i saw vanilla sky everyone in the theatre was like what the hell is this shitshow because nothing was making ANY sense - still one of my fave movie times ever.
Man, I miss Lemongrass. There is so much food I don't eat enough of.
ReplyDeletekatiiiii i know how to fix that problemmmmm
ReplyDeletethis inspired me to add band of brothers to my netflix queue!
ReplyDeleteoooooh you're going to love it !
ReplyDeleteis there a lot of shooting and blood? i'm afraid of those things.
ReplyDeleteyes, it is about WWII
ReplyDelete:( well there's always a chance that things will be like "hope & glory."
ReplyDeletemore pot pie post plx
ReplyDelete-Aeiyn