Lost in Translation so perfectly captured a certain mood: the intensity of a temporary friendship, the perfection of those few stolen days, the certainty of loss, all wrapped up in both the wonder and the overwhelmingness of being adrift in a foreign country. It felt like it was made for me.

Eternal Sunshine hit me just as hard, for different reasons, and I can't be any more rational about than I can be rational about Lost in Translation. On the other hand, I liked Garden State a lot, but it never grabbed me the way the other two did, partly because I thought Natalie Portman's character was way more annoying than charming.

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What did you think of Before Sunset, Tep? Because I thought it was one of the most perfect movies I'd ever seen -- it was just so pure, nothing but two people walking and talking for 80 minutes in real time.

LiT is a movie that hit me so hard I can hardly bear to hear people say anything bad about it. ESotSM wasn't quite that bad, but I love it all the same.

(I liked Garden State very much, but I have such affection for its existance as Zach Braff's first "real" movie that any reaction I may have had for it on its own terms is lost.)

I've been listening to the commentary on the Scrubs DVDs, and it's so weird to hear the writers/producers talking about how the reason they cast Zach is because they wanted a total nobody who would be in over his head trying to carry a television show. But he was such a superstar in college -- one of those people you just know is going to be a huge success, because he's That Good -- that thinking of casting him because of his anonymity isn't something my brain will properly process.

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ETA: Corwood gets to blurb my book if it ever comes out, being as pulp with miles of brains is my artistic heart's desire.

(Bogey) Anytime, sweetheart. (/Bogey)

It got into some things that really scare me, as it turns out, but they weren't thinking of folks like me when they made it, obviously.

I think that horror was pretty much front-and-center in the movie. It's interesting how both Eternal Sunshine and Gondry's prior movie Human Nature have horrific mad science front and central to the plot, but neither really dwells on this.

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What did you think of Before Sunset, Tep? Because I thought it was one of the most perfect movies I'd ever seen -- it was just so pure, nothing but two people walking and talking for 80 minutes in real time.

I actually haven't seen it (or Before Sunrise, either, actually).

LiT is a movie that hit me so hard I can hardly bear to hear people say anything bad about it.

Heh. Me, too.

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Although I think LiT has a serious strong vie for my Top Movie Ever position, I actually don't mind at all when people don't like it. I completely see where they are coming from. I think because the reasons I love it are so personal (which is why they're so strong), I can easily see somebody who isn't me not having anywhere close to the same experience with it. Which is okay.

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I mean, even Shakespeare's fairly pulpy in the context of his time.

Absolutely. One of the many things I love about Shakespeare. Or the equally pulpy and melodramatic Dickens. It is no impediment to great art! We like it juicy.

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I actually haven't seen it (or Before Sunrise, either, actually).

Watch 'em in order. I loved the hell out of Before Sunrise when it came out (I was their age then, too), but found them sort of annoying on rewatch. And Before Sunset was so incredible in that context, as if we all grew up and things are messier now, but the little beautiful moments are that much more precious. Yowza.

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You oughta be careful promising stuff to blondes, Corwood. If Uncle Raymond taught us anything, that mostly doesn't end well. But, by that logic, I should hate myself all the...never mind. "You're very cute, you know."

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Sometimes all we can do is follow things through until we end up gutshot, y'know.

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Calli -- I saw the second half of Tape a while back while channel-surfing, and that's about when it starts getting fucked-up. It's just about impossible to talk about without giving things away, though. Stuff does happen.

Just to confuse P-C further...

Corwood--

the final massacre at Agua Verde, where Pike finally does the right thing for the right reason and dies for his convictions.

See, this I totally disagree with. It does seem to be a popular interpretation, but I don't get it. I mean, ra-ra loyalty and all that, but they don't decide to slaughter the entire town out of loyalty to Angel. It's just what they do, because they're a bunch of bastards. I don't see it so much as Pike being noble and doing The Right Thing. It is important for him, personally, because he's always abandoning people, but it's just as much ennui. They've got nowhere to go and nothing to do. Time's up. If they hadn't killed Angel, I don't think it would have changed a thing.

(Oh, and P-C, I haven't seen any of the Godfather movies, either. I have some affection for Coppola, and I believe they're good, but I think I'd be bored by them. Not my kind of story. It happens.)

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