And I thought working at the NBC ticketbox had reached it's fullest potential for sucktitude. Think again. Today was another, shall we say, difficult day at the office, thanks to yet another endless parade of impatient customers, rude tourists, and an episode where I was chewed out for the day's receipts not quite adding up with the amount of money in the register. Yeah, it sucked.
But hey, all was not lost. At least I had a FREE MOVIE to look forward to at Universal, and not just any free movie, but Broken Flowers - the latest from Bill Murray.
So after a quick stop at Bob's Big Boy for dinner, some fellow pages and I convened at the Universal Studios' lot, flashed our trusty NBC-Uni badges, and took advantage of one of the key perks of our job - free movie screenings (and trust me, on a day like today I really needed to be reminded that my job had such perks ...). Anyways, I am a fan of the Universal screening rooms because they are actually pretty spacious and have extremely comfortable seats, and, usually, you avoid the loud, obnoxious crowds of most regular theaters and can skip that extra 20 minutes of previews and commercials. Yet, inexplicably, some moronic woman brought her crying infant to see today's screening. Dayum, where is the love? Keep your baby out of the freakin' movies!!!
But anyways, on to the movie ...
BROKEN FLOWERS REVIEW:
Wow, that one really made ya think.
Overall, I have to say I really enjoyed Broken Flowers. It was a slow movie, that is for sure. But although it took me a while to really get into it, after about half an hour I was totally absorbed into the spellbinding flow of Jim Jarmusch's reflective look at a former Don Juan's journey through the fragmented pieces of his own history. The movie follows a simple premise - Bill Murray plays Don Johnston ("with a T") - an aging ladies' man who discovers that he may have a 20-year old son, and visits a number of his former lady-friends in order to solve this mystery - a puzzle which he may or may not actually have any real interest in solving.
Performance-wise, Bill Murray was fantastic in this film, though he is so naturalistic that he almost makes you wonder how much of his role is acting and how much is simply an extension of the now-familiar, dour and world-weary persona he's developed and honed in recent movies like Lost in Translation, Rushmore, and The Life Aquatic. What you get here from Murray is covering pretty familiar territory, but it's still an engrossing, nuanced performance that is worthy of lots of praise. Likewise, the female leads in the movie seem to mimic Murray's naturalism. Formerly glamorous stars like Sharon Stone and Jessica Lange are deglamorized here, and surprisingly fit right into the movie's stark, sad world where the "reality" of wrinkles, aging, and other blemishes usually hidden by the camera are instead fully revealed and exposed.
Basically, this is one of those movies, like a Lost in Translation or About Schmidt, that is really more of a meditation on various themes - on characters, on small details and nuance, on life - that it does not necessarily follow a traditional story structure or present a real sense of character development, let alone closure to the main character's journey. And that can at times be frustrating, but mostly it's just very refreshing - Jarmusch leaves plenty of room for interpretation, and he provides plenty of small scenes, patterns, and images that really resonate during and after you see this film. While the pacing was often almost excruciatingly slow, you have to admire the artful manner in which Broken Flowers is shot. Seeing this movie's unique style definitely piqued my interest in seeing other Jarmusch films, as this was the first one I've yet gotten a chance to check out.
Anyways, I definitely recommend this film for a HUGE change of pace from most of this summer's rapid-fire blockbusters. This movie is slow, deliberate, and sparse, and can be hit and miss with some of its dialogue and character moments. But it's also brilliantly shot and acted, funny, and one of the most thought-provoking movies that I've seen in a while.
My grade: A -
OTHER RANDOM STUFF:
- Dude, watch STELLA on Comedy Central. Tonight's episode was pretty freakin' hilarious. So yeah, screw the overhyped Chapelle's Show - tune in to this crazy and unique show from three former members of The State.
- RIP to Peter Jennings. My family was always an NBC News family, but I do think it's sad that the era of the trusted and respected and objective newscaster seems to be almost over, and the era of the smartass pundit seems have supplanted it.
- Finally officially began writing a spec script for The Office. Let's hope it doesn't take me as long to finish as it did to start.
- Why are people from New York and New Jersey always the ones to come into NBC and complain about how they have traveled 5 billion miles from their homes to come here so shouldn't they be entitled to blah blah blah?
- Saw Tommy Lee rehearse for Leno yesterday. The bad news: his band pretty much sucks - it ain't no Motley Crue, that's for sure. The good news: his new reality show on NBC, Tommy Lee Goes To College (chap plug!) actually looks pretty darn funny. Hell, it may be the best thing NBC has going right now.
- Some movies I've never seen that I really need to at some point in the near future:
- Brazil
- Lost Highway
- Rear Window
- Vertigo
- House of Flying Daggers
- Enter the Dragon
- Ed Wood
- Dazed and Confused
- Full Metal Jacket
- Ghost in the Shell
Alright, back at ya later with some more blogtastic goodness. Word.
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