The Ugly Truth
Summer's Moon
The Accidental Husband
Rethink Afghanistan
Polanski Unauthorized
ink
I recently quit smoking cigarettes (Nov. 1st - this is the longest I've gone without in the last 5 years! It's an adventure...) which has made me quite aware of how much I enjoy movies about excess. Some recent ones I've partaken of:
In Bed With a Stiff Drink
The Thin Man: this classic has the most absurd amount of drinking I've ever seen. It's also great fun, with some of the best of the snappy dialogue the 30's are known for. My favorite drinking scene is Nick and Norah at home, at night, in their separate beds. Norah asks Nick, "Are you awake?" Nick: "Yes." Norah:"Good, I need to talk."Nick offers Norah a drink to help her get back to sleep and when she refuses he pours himself one from the bar at the foot of his bed. Sensational!Crazy Love (1987): is an adaptation/conglomeration of Charles Bukowski stories, this one from Belgium.
The movie is split into 3 parts, the first one about the introduction to girls/sex, the 2nd about the struggles Bukowski had with facial boils (the recreation of this is really quite fascinating/horrifying. Acne that horrible engenders instant sympathy, but it's also so incredibly painful to look at. Apparently the actor, Josse de Pauw, went for a walk in public with the boils still on, and was scarred by the reaction of the public.) & his introduction to his "deep & gorgeous thirst", and then the 3rd section takes a bizarre turn (spoiler) into necrophilia. I can't recall any Bukowski story about lust for corpses. Did I just miss that one? The movie is not great, but it's interesting.
Huff: A fun show, with terrible, terrible treacly music. Don't get turned off by the pilot; it gets better. Hank Azaria plays a psychiatrist who is sick of listening to people, Lara Flynn Boyle shows up occasionally as a lunatic in a modified sexy sailor suit, Blythe Danner (Gwenyth Paltrow's mom, just as beautiful and a better actress) is Hank's acerbic mom. But the best character is the lawyer played by Oliver Platt, a man who goes in for just about any excessive excesses he can lay his hands on. The show ran for 2 seasons but they've only ever released the 1st on dvd or vhs. Is there somewhere I can lodge a protest?Here's to giving up some of our vices, so that we can appreciate the deep and gorgeous ones we keep all the more.
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3 comments:
I have the most pathetically lame vice: diet caffeinated soda. My doctors fuss at me about it because it hurts my already thin and brittle skeleton, but COME ON. If diet coke and mountain dew are the worst things I'm doing to myself, I think I'm being pretty damn good.
I also compulsively collect clothes, but that's not so bad because I get it all from thrift stores.
Yeah, diet soda is definitely one of my vices, too. Especially when I need that caffeine boost at the video store. I kinda hate supporting the Coke company but I haven't stopped yet, cause you're right, there are certainly worse things to do...
Also clothes: are great, as long as you have the closet space.
fun fact about Azaria and Platt. they went to the same college i did and i guess were totally buds then, starred in plays together, and were the bees knees of their class. my favorite professor had them both! ah getting famous together, how awesome.
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