On Thursday night I returned to the movie theater for the first time since I can remember. It has been at least a month, maybe two. Nader and I went to see Burn After Reading. It was the first movie the Coen brothers have made since their Academy Award winner for Best Picture: No Country for Old Men.
I would have to say that it was an extremely large disappointment. The Coen brothers have a history of being kind of hit and miss, but this was quite the miss. I can’t remember this large of a dropoff after a Best Picture win since Clint Eastwood went from Unforgiven (one of the greatest Westerns ever) to A Perfect World (flat out one of the worst movies ever made).
Even though Burn After Reading wasn’t particularly funny or interesting and it was rather depressing that Frances McDormand’s character never got her comeuppance for her shallow behavior, the previews before the movie reminded me of why I love this time of year.
Gone from the movie theaters are the loud, obnoxious, boring and mildly retarded Summer blockbusters. Finally the theaters will start to get interesting and provocative movies. It is the best time of the year to drag yourself off your couch or wherever else you plop yourself when you get home, and plop yourself into a theater seat. It is a season to remind you that people are still trying to infuse art into movies. That there are people out there that are trying to express themselves through movies. That there are people out there still taking risks with movies. That there are still people out there trying to say things with movies. That there are people out there still making movies that matter. Sometimes this is easy to forget when every weekend during the summer is a new comic book movie that complete with a collector’s cup from Burger King.
AKA Movies that aren’t filled with shiny things to entertain the stupid people.
The movie that I’m excited to see this week is The Lucky Ones. It is playing at the Varsity, so I will be making a trip there this week to check out this movie.
Check out the trailer:
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I do have to enjoy The Varsity while it is still around. Rumor has it that they are going to try and close it down by the end of the year.
This looks like a great movie but I am afraid it doesn’t have a happy ending…
It doesn’t need one. It just needs an ending that is true to the rest of the movie.
these are vitriolic and divisive comments based upon prejudice against movies that people actually watch. i guess you enjoy taking heart in the the fact that the movies that you watch are shown for one weekend and are sparsely attended. tell the truth, photography 139, you’re pretty psyched for transformers 2. i’ll save you a seat.
You would be happy to know, Mr. Kennerly, that Nader and I were the only people in the theater to watch the movie.
I do enjoy that fact. Call me an elitist, but I enjoy having better taste than the unwashed masses.
Transformer 2. That party isn’t even worthy of rebuttal.