I will admit up front that I am a TV person. I will sit down and watch a dozen episodes of a TV show before consenting to watching a film. It's not that I hate movies. I just usually don't sit down and watch them. Going to the movie theater has become so rare in the past years that it takes a real movie event to drag me out (see: Harry Potter). I always tell myself it's because scheduling is always a nightmare and the tickets are too expensive nowadays PLUS I can always rent the thing when it comes out... But somehow I never do. All those great movies that came out in recent years--yeah, I've never actually watched them.
The worst part is that I have a Netflix account and I didn't skimp out on the disc deal either. Well, I've decided to fix that. I've decided to start crossing off movies on that To Watch Before I Die list. Between renting, borrowing and streaming, I've managed to watch all four of these films in the past three days.
(500) Days of Summer was wonderful, as I expected. Zooey Deschanel's character was unforgivably frustrating, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt was amazing as always. I loved the production and the writing, as well. This movie must be added to my collection. I was surprised by how entertaining I found Breakfast at Tiffany's. I guess I'd never quite understood what kind of movie it was. I know Holly Golightly is Audrey Hepburns's iconic role, but I really liked George Peppard in the movie. When you think about it, both of these movies have quite a lot in common, no?
The next two, Ondine and I Capture the Castle, were late night streams. Ondine was good, if a little confusing at times. I think the term 'indie film' is really just code for 'mumbling on camera' sometimes, so that coupled with the freaking Irish/Scottish/Romanian accents made it a little harder to understand what everyone was saying. It was a good movie, though. I Capture the Castle turned out to be one of those 'How have I not seen this before?' kind of films. I'm a sucker for period pieces and this one was just beautiful. Funny and sad and gorgeous and awkward and hopeful all at the same time.
Hmm, I'm seeing a common thread here: There is a general lack of neatness in all of these movies. How authentic of them. Life is messy, after all.
