mad hot weekend
so, this weekend, helen and i went to see mad hot ballroom, and let me tell you, it was such a fantastic movie. it was cute, it was funny, it was inspirational - it just fucking rocked. it's not playing in that many theaters so you'll probably have to wait until it comes out on DVD but it's worth the wait.
then, after mad hot ballroom, we snuck into the midnight showing of napoleon dynamite. now, helen feels the same way about napoleon dynamite as i do: i didn't like the movie at all, and was honestly surprised. so many people whose opinions i respect loved it, and i thought it was a total shitbag. so, we decided to sneak into the theater and watch it again, just to make sure we hadn't missed something the first time around. nope, we didn't. it still freaking sucked. i mean, there is absolutely nothing under the surface of that movie. like, some parts are mildly entertaining, but we don't learn anything about the characters' motivations, and very few of them have any redeeming characteristics at all. yeah, what a piece of crap.
then, my brother sent me season 2 of chappelle's show for my birthday! that was a totally kick-ass present, yo. my roomie david and i were watching it tonight and we almost fell off the couch laughing. i mean, the charlie murphy/prince episode is just unbelievable.
on a related note, david and i have upgraded to the 5-at-a-time plan on netflix, and it's a little overwhelming. i mean, wonderful, but sort of overwhelming. it's exhausting to watch this many movies, and i feel compelled to watch them as quickly as possible to make sure i'm getting my money's worth, you know? over the weekend: the sea inside, frida, and hard eight. tomorrow: harold and maude. next weekend: the life aquatic, in the bedroom, life of brian. WHEW.
also, i put in my application today with the ACLU as a legislative assistant, so keep your fingers crossed for me. i'll be applying for 7 or 8 more jobs over the next couple of weeks. my current psycho boss has just really come unglued and it's time for me to make like a bread truck and haul buns.
posted by stefanie @ 10:00 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Whether or not you like the story of Napoleon Dynamite (I personally thought the film was somewhat entertaining), you GOTTA LOVE the dance scene. I'm sorry but that was boss!
Thank you so much for doing what I could never do: watching Napoleon Dynamite again, purely in the interest of confirming the shittiness of the movie.
For me the most frustrating thing about the movie was not that it was bad. There are five bad movies that come out every week. My problem with it was that that EVERYONE seemed to fall under its spell. I can't remember a film that I've been so unentertained by that so many of my FRIENDS and, like you said, people I respect(ed) actually liked. It would be okay if Napoleon Dynamite just failed, as it should have, but the fact that it lived on, and further, not just monetarily, but as a cult phenomenon, made me hate it more than I should have because I was constantly having to tell people why I didn't like it (okay, I didn't HAVE to, but I feel some kind of responsibility when someone starts quoting parts at a party).
Like you said the film is just superficial, you don't get to know the characters, and if you're not entertained by laughing at someone who is developmentally disabled, there is very little offered for you. I probably wouldn't have as much of a problem with this if it was marketed for what it was: a low-brow, superficial comedy. Instead it uses so many of the trappings and conventions of "indie" movies, I'm sure some people thought, "Well, it sort of LOOKS like Welcome to the Dollhouse or a Wes Anderson movie, maybe it will be good." Or maybe it made people who consider themselves artsy enough to not lend their approval to a film like Dodgeball the stylistic comfort to do what they really want to: laugh at social outcasts with no trace of empathy.
I really dislike this movie so much that I want to make sweeping statements like that, but I can't, because so many of my close friends like it. And why? And why do I care so much? And why doesn't anyone else?
Anyway, thank you for seeing the movie again as confirmation.
napolean dynamite was certainly a shitfest. the most disappointing movie i'd seen in a while. it was just so contrived and felt like it was just trying as hard as it could to become a cult movie. some of the lines are funny and i have even used them from time to time because of their near ubiquity, but i still feel like anyone who thinks they enjoyed this movie was completely duped by the writers and producers and fell for the trap.
two other shitfests that managed to trick everyone: memento and lord of the rings.
sweet jesus, shawn and hook, am i glad to hear that i am not the only person i know who didn't fall under that movie's spell. whew.
but hook, i won't lie, i really liked memento. granted, i haven't seen it in a few years, but i thought it was very creative and enjoyed it quite a lot. also, it continued to be good even after the first viewing, which is sort of rare with movies that have a gimmick like that one does. now that i'm stalking you on netflix, i'll start provoking more movie discussions.
Nappy D is the shit and all the haters are just jealous because they saw it after some one else saw it first and recommended it to them. The Big Lebowski's superficial as fuck. So's Wes Anderson's entire filmography. And Quentin Tarantino's and George Fucking Lucas's for that matter. You want to see a shitfest that was cynically contrived with superficial characters that tries too hard to be an indie cult fave? Watch Zach Braff's "Garden State".
elliot! napoleon dynamite is awesome, but RUSHMORE is superficial? come on. max fischer had depth. we saw him at moments of indecision, we saw him do things he wasn't proud of, we were given at least a little insight into his motivations. he was more than just his zany-ness. napoleon dynamite was a caricature - totally flat. i mean, sure, it was sort of funny. but indie masterpiece? hell no.
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