this is not a movie worthy of discussion in a serious, intelligent forum such as this, so i’ll just say that a) we went to see it because there was absolutely nothing in south miami to see except munich, and simon wouldn’t see munich (don’t ask) and b) it is really not that funny for a christmas comedy. but i want to point out that rachel macadams, who was in the totally kick-ass and superbly paced red eye, is great. her comic talent belies her good-girl looks. i also want to register that i’m sick and tired of mothers dying of (breast) cancer. i do realize that fathers’ dying wouldn’t get the same tear-jerking effect (why don’t people love their fathers as much as they do their mothers?), but LET WOMEN LIVE, for goodnessakes! anyway, i spent most of the movie trying to figure out the birth order of the stone siblings and i can honestly say that i think i’ve got it down.
I’m asking:
Why won’t Simon see
A. Brokeback Mountain
B. Munich
Does it have anything to do with his renunciation of continental philosophy?
i think this “simon” is a construct. when gio doesn’t want to see a film for deep, dark reasons of her own she pins it on “simon”. she probably speaks those posts aloud as well, as she’s typing them, in the simon voice from session 9.
I think rather she has a face painted on her hand (pace Senor Wences) that she calls Simon and which tells her what movies to see, as well as what to do to the neighbors. At least that’s what I assume–because I have one,too, called Sophie. She’s my girlfriend.
Red rum! Red rum!
that’s a finger–I’m thinking more along the lines of a talking fist. oh, and I forgot to mention–a wig on top of the leftmost knuckle of the right hand. ees alright? ees alright!
Okay, I haven’t seen Stone, and I may not. If I want to see a mother die, I’ll watch Bambi, or Psycho.
I believe I have seen Simon, though it was from a distance, and I can’t vouch that it wasn’t Gio doing some pretty fine puppetry.
I believe I had a short fling with Sophie as well, one night after too much Cointreau. Shhh. Don’t tell Michael.
I watched, and for the most part enjoyed, Happy Endings. It was a bit looser, less well-constructed than–and at times too reminiscent of–the filmmaker Don Roos’ earlier and wonderful The Opposite of Sex, but there were some great details and three performances to crow about: Lisa Kudrow, Steve Coogan, and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Basic plot(s): people and their fucked-up desires and love lives, screwing one another over, trying to make peace with themselves and so on. Kudrow long ago gave up a child for adoption, and now some strange stranger is blackmailing her into making a documentary (! yes, it’s odd, and often funny); Gyllenhaal is sleeping with a sad-sack son and even sadder-sack father; Coogan is convinced that his partner’s lesbian friends ‘stole’ said partner’s sperm, and does farcical backflips trying to get the information. It’s often bitingly funny–some great, withering dialogue, some fantastic uncomfortable scenes. And it’s truly affecting, at times. But it doesn’t have Martin Donovan or Christina Ricci, so if you haven’t seen Opposite, go looking for that first.
Yes, I remember Sophie telling me she had a bad dream involving Mike—now I discover it’s true. We’re both in counseling.
in Family Stone one of the siblings is this deaf guy with a black boyfriend. even though all the siblings are supposed to have something or other that makes them stand out, these two really stand out, being a) gay and/or b) deaf and/or black. the thing with the deaf boy, apart from the fact that he is, in my modest opinion, a hottie, is that he’s constantly smiling. cheeriest guy you’ve ever seen. i’m serious. he doesn’t stop smiling one single second. no, wait, i’m lying. he becomes Very Sad when the Sarah Jessica Parker character says something homophobic at the dinner table, at which point the father pretty much tells her to leave. mother consoles deaf boy by telling him he’s amazing, and deaf boy resumes relentless smiling.
the other thing about the deaf guy is that he hardly ever says anything. everyone signs like crazy because they are an All Accepting and Truly Loving Family and they wouldn’t cut him off from the conversation. the only one who never signs is… him! cuz he never says anything. why doesn’t the deaf son ever say anything? i have no idea.
on a different note, i remember a movie in which a fist had a personality of its own. have you guys seen mike leigh’s Career Girls? i’m kinda fond of it, in spite of the fact that i never understand a word anyone says in mike leigh’s films, because the wonderful katrin cartlidge, who is the one with the talking fist, died very prematurely a couple of years ago.
see also Hands of Orlac with Peter Lorre and the dreadful remake with Michael Caine The Hand.
michael, where the heck are you? drop me a line!
Gio – big fans of Mike Leigh here.
See discussion of some earlier films, and peripherally Career
Girls here
thanks, mauer!
I foolishly rented this, thinking maybe some dregs of interesting detail or acting might cut across Kris’ and my respective tastes, leaving us both reasonably satisfied. But I ended up wishing it had starred a fist, talking or not.
And I wish that fist had punched all the rest of the family on Christmas morning. Including cancer mom and gay deaf smiling son.
Or better yet I wish the film had starred a fist-sized rock, and the film consisted simply of footage of said f.-s. rock being thrown against the overpaid noggins of its stars [The Family Stoned], before being bashed into the head of the writer-director’s agent, causing a terrible case of amnesia and thereby ending said w.-d.’s career.
I guess I didn’t hate Luke Wilson or Rachel McAdams. So the movie had that going for it.
Ah . . . Christmas in May at the Deffenreynolds home.