Good Movies and Cheap Wine

I read an Op-Ed piece in the Times today, which is the best thing I’ve read about New Orleans yet. Rather than linking to their website (the link would go bad after a week) I’ve reprinted it and put it here, if you’d like to read it.

Just found out that Helen Hunt was supposed to get the role of Tully Sorenson in Barfly, but the director wanted a more experienced actress (afraid she’d be overwhelmed by Faye Dunaway and Mickey Rourke), so he went with Alice Krige instead. Which is okay, ‘cause I like Alice Krige, but now I’m kind of interested to see how Helen Hunt would have done in the role.

Also, given that Helen Hunt had been acting since she was a small girl, did Alice Krige really have more experience? I went to IMDb and checked; Krige had done six movies and two TV miniseries before Barfly was produced. Hunt had done eight big-screen movies and something like forty TV movies and shows. More experienced in what sense, exactly?

I mention this out of the blue, of course. Apropos of nothing.

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Still fighting, and losing, the Battle of the Bottle. I’m in a thing now where I don’t drink at all for a day or two, and then go on a binge. That’s not good, really…although most of my drinking lately has consisted of binges, so perhaps it’s good that I’m down to two or three of them a week.

Labor Day was such an occasion, but then, it was Labor Day, and if you read my post from Monday commemorating the only holiday I really like, you probably expected me to do some drinking. Two pitchers and at least four shots (they all started to run together after a bit), plus most of a bottle of wine after the bar closed. That doesn’t sound much like cutting back, does it?

I’m not sure that it could really even be honestly said that I’m fighting a losing battle. Truth be told, I don’t seem to be putting up much of a fight at all. I freely admit that I don’t have a lot of willpower where liquor is concerned, but usually these resetting periods go pretty smoothly, and I’m not sure why it isn’t this time.

Anyway, as Churchill said in exasperation to his commanders at Dunkirk, “Of course if one side fights and the other does not, the war is apt to become somewhat uneven.” I am trying most of the time, but when I give up, I give completely up. I don’t really know what to do about this, except to wait it out and see if this mood goes away, or my drinking resolves itself somehow.

* * * * * * *

So, anyway, yeah, not going that well. I’ve been reading old posts the last couple of days, and I ran across the one where Christy was calling me her “life coach.” Man, that seems like a long time ago.

I had my doubts about the title back then, if you’ll recall. About the only thing I could find to recommend myself was that I was happy, regardless of what was going on in my life. Admittedly, that’s a powerful argument…probably a lot of people with “better” lives than mine wish they could be as happy as I was in April & May.

I don’t suppose I’m necessarily unhappy now, either. I’ve searched myself and can’t really find any sadness. But things come up, things change, and sometimes life gets kind of heavy. That’s where I’m at now. Life gets too heavy, so you just kind of set it aside for a moment. You aren’t so much depressed as worn out and empty.

Which is okay, as far as it goes. But you drink to fill both time and that empty space, and then the drinking makes you further detached from life, which makes you want to drink more. So it builds up. Difficult cycle to break, and right now I haven’t the energy, or even really the desire. There’s just kind of a vague sense that I should put a stop to this and soon, but no vague feeling could be strong enough to motivate me. Deep conviction is needed, and I have none.

So, back to the life coach thing. I can’t swear that it would ever have been an appropriate position for me to fill, but I’m quite sure that I can’t do it now. Christy, to her credit, seems to have reached the same conclusion; I haven’t heard from her in a while.

What it comes down to is that at the moment I’ve got nothing to offer anyone, except maybe sometimes writing something well. And I need to stop writing about this particular subject, because I don’t want this to turn into an AA blog.

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So I’m writing this at the Union. It’s Trivia Night, so it’s busy and I’m rapidly getting full of whiskey. Unfortunately, none of my friends came ‘round tonight except Timmy, and he’s busy shooting pool. But you can’t leave on Trivia Night, ‘cause you paid your $5.00 for the all-you-drink special and you have to stay long enough to drink your money’s worth. So here I sit, writing. On the plus side, I now know that the longest-running TV show about an animal was Lassie, and that the first network kids’ show was Captain Kangaroo.

I have, as I mentioned, been drinking too much recently, but I haven’t just been sitting around doing nothing and getting wasted, and I suppose there’s something to be said for that. No, I’ve been reading and watching lots of movies. You wouldn’t be interested in what I’m reading, ‘cause it’s been research-related, mostly congressional debates from 30 and 40 years ago.

Some of the movies have been awesome, though. Tuesday was an all-day movie fest, ‘cause I didn’t feel like getting up. I had a serious lineup of films…I had intended to have a “blast from the past” night, but actually I sandwiched three new movies between two old favorites. I started the shindig off with a ‘90’s favorite, Party Girl.

How has this become a forgotten movie? Parker Posey is just brilliant in it. I know she hasn’t done a lot of great movies since, but this was really a shining moment for her. Plus, you get to see Liev Schreiber before anyone knew who he was. I’ll admit that the story can be disjointed at times (what does Rene have against Teddy Rogers, anyway?), and seems to miss a few things here and there, but come on! The main character is junked-out for most of the movie. What do you expect?

Everyone reading this should go out right now and rent Party Girl. Getting Empire Records wouldn’t hurt, either. I actually ended the night with this one, something happy to carry me into sleep, a little “Sugar High” to drift off to. Is anyone but me pissed off that Renée Zellweger’s part isn’t in the soundtrack version of that song? Still, that’s a minor complaint, and this is a straight-up brilliant film.

What a great group of characters. There isn’t really much of a story, and what there is doesn’t make much sense (really, if they could make enough to buy the store with a “save the Empire” show, why didn’t they do it years ago?), but you watch this one for the characters.

Liv Tyler’s character is a little bit dull (and who decided that she had to play a virgin in every movie she did in the nineties?), but everyone else is fantastic. I mean, Lucas’ Zen awakening is kind of the axis the movie turns on, but the movie would still be dull if it wasn’t for everyone else being so awesome. I love to watch the arguments and interactions between Gina and Debra (“No visible tattoos,” “No revealing clothing,” “We’re both screwed…at least you’re used to it.”) and Mark flipping out and AJ gluing money to the floor and Warren trying to act tough and Joe trying to keep everything together while resisting the impulse to strangle Lucas. It’s gotta be just about the best group of characters ever to appear on film.

I also caught Mulholland Drive , which I’ve been wanting to see for a long time. Now, I’m into the stranger films, and I can usually follow pretty convoluted plots. For David Lynch in particular I’ve got an affinity; he and I are frequently on the same wavelength. But I gotta say, this one got me. I was okay ‘til they opened the blue box. I could see things coming together, but as soon as she opened that box, I was done.

I could see what happens after as back-story, if it wasn’t for Naomi Watts changing roles. I mean, is that an artistic device of some kind? There must be a better explanation than that. I mean, there are some genuinely beautiful and gripping scenes (the show at the Club Silencio is really magnificent), but when the movie’s over you’re just kind of staring at the screen going, “What?”

If you’ve seen this movie, and you get it, clue me, okay? And if you haven’t seen it, well, I can’t really recommend it. Except if you want to see a topless Naomi Watts making out with another woman (and I know some of you do). But you can get similar things in most David Lynch films.

Four things typical of David Lynch’s work:

1. Large empty rooms with the actors at the far end;
2. Convoluted plots that may or may not make sense with or without the use of hallucinogenics;
3. Music by Angelo Badalamenti; and
4. Quasi-sex scenes that give my mother nightmares.

Well, okay, and he sometimes intentionally directs actors to turn in over-the-top, high-school-play-type performances, like the scene in the airport early in this one. That’s beside the point. The point is, once Betty becomes Diane Selwyn, I’m lost. So lend a brother a hand if you’re able.

I watched Darkness, as well, because I’ve got a bad thing for Anna Paquin (and have had since she was a ten-year-old doing commercials, which I probably shouldn’t admit in public). Anyhow, I liked it. I thought it was well-shot, and although I’ve never been a Lena Olin fan I thought it was well-casted; in fact, I even liked her in it.

The story was a bit trite, though. I mean, aren’t we done with the ritual sacrifice of children yet? And since it was immediately obvious that Iain Glen’s character was the escapee from the original massacre, the ending was a bit predictable as well. And when they tried to add a twist to his death it just seemed kind of stilted. I’ve got no problem with everyone dying at the end (my favorite movie is Night of the Living Dead, after all), but I thought it could have been done better. In other words, I loved everything but the last half-hour. It was still worth seeing.

And I finally got to see Sin City. I’ve heard so much about how violent this film is, but really, I think that was all exaggeration. I mean, it is violent, but I’ve seen far more violent films in my time. And not just “B” horror films and Tromo efforts; many major pictures are bloodier, like the Kill Bill movies. I mean, yeah, it’s gory in bits, like Elijah Wood getting eaten by dogs, but really…

And the thing is, it was a damn good film, and somehow the violence is all people talk about. That’s just silly. The cinematography was absolutely brilliant, and though I might have cast a few parts differently, no one can say that they couldn’t get the stars to come out for this picture. But, you know, you cut Benecio Del Toro to pieces, and that’s all anybody remembers.

And that was Tuesday. Please note, by the way, that I watched five movies and NOT A SINGLE ZOMBIE, so don’t tell me I only watch zombie movies. Anyway, I’m gonna leave you people and get a bit of work done, but I’ll leave you with another trivia question Jimbo asked while I was writing this: What was unusual about the band “Electric Mayhem”? If you don’t know the answer without checking this link, then you obviously completely mis-spent your childhood, and I don’t want you reading my blog anymore. Cheers.