It's like you're a Rules Girl with movies.

No date on Saturday night for YOU!!

I just have a very sensitive "Oh come on" -o-meter, which is calibrated in inverse proportion to how seriously the narrative takes itself. Ronin, e.g., is a quick, efficient picture that postulates exactly zero traffic cops in all of Paris, to say nothing of the self-surgery; but it is also the sort of picture that never bothers to explain why it has been set in motion. Because it doesn't actually haev that close a relationship to reality, I do not feel compelled to point out the points at which it diverges from reality.

Whereas, sale of supermodels to rural Chinese prisons? Unless Brad Pitt is dressed up as Binky the Clown during the climactic rescue sequence, I feel the need to call foul.

I can see why it wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but I absolutely adored the storytelling, and the performances and camerawork just made me swoon.

I was enjoying it well enough until things went completely haywire, and when it ended, I couldn't figure out what had been real and what hadn't, but more importantly, I didn't feel like bothering to figure it out.

I just have a very sensitive "Oh come on" -o-meter, which is calibrated in inverse proportion to how seriously the narrative takes itself.

That seems fair since you do allow for movies and shows which consciously include some silly space in their narrative, like Alias.

Oh yeah! Alias is the original plate-spinning zowie enterprise. The bullshit meter also reserves safe space for psychological experiments like The Prisoner and parody like In Like Flint.

Actually, I was just writing about this elsewhere, I don't actually believe there is a fulcrum point for the tension between seriousness and frivolity in the spy genre, so the best one can hope for is a little bit of both in each movie.

See, I didn't think there was anything to figure out. I know that's how the movie was marketed, which is why I'm whitefonting, but I thought it was clear from the beginning that we were moving back and forth between reality and her headspace. The visual distinctions between the two were subtle, but I never found them confusing. I honestly don't think I would have assumed it was supposed to be a mystery if I hadn't read the back of the DVD case. (Which is why the only part I really disliked was the coda, with the waving. I found it completely unnecessary, and anvilly where the rest of the film had been so elegant.)

I would advise people planning to see it to sit way back.

God, yes. Did I post that here? I was in the third row in the 3 pm showing yesterday, and had to watch the big actiony climactic car chase with my eyes closed, I was so nauseated.

Sigh. The finale of Frequency did that to me too, and that wasn't even a car chase.

I love Nutty's Rules for Film. Even when I don't always agree with her conclusions, I appreciate the thinkiness that goes into them.

I had a partial migraine, and Bourne definitely didn't help. I think it must have to do with how car-sickness-prone you naturally are.

I think I would have liked the movie more if it weren't for the fact that I felt terrible for the last 20 minutes and a full hour afterward.

Sigh.

Right. I have no carsickness gene, so although I couldn't always see those sequences, because they happened faster than my eyes could focus, they didn't make me sick.

What was it about Frequency that was nauseating? I don't remember the climax having a lot of herky-jerky in it, but then, I wouldn't notice it, I suppose.

I think it was the editing. I don't really remember, although I liked the movie in general.

Dennis Quaid. Yum.