Musings from the sofa

Image via WikipediaFaced with six weeks of summer vacation, unlimited movie rentals and a strong inclination to avoid doing anything resembling schoolwork, I've thrown myself wholeheartedly into a movie-watching blitz. My Netflix queue is a mile long, and my criteria for inclusion are lax--the film only has to be something that: a) has been highly recommended by friends, colleagues, the Academy, or the American Public, and b) I haven't seen yet, or don't remember having seen.

My memory for films I've seen is pretty shoddy, so that second requirement is fairly inclusive. To improve my recall (after all, what good is an education if you can't remember most of what you've seen or read? This is something I ask myself often), I thought I'd try blogging as I watch movies. I'm thinking of doing that on Nick's site, Wax Artistic, but it's down today, so I'll start here.

A lot of the movies on my list are Latin American, so I think watching and reviewing them counts as preparing for my trip to Argentina. However...today's entries are all U.S. films. Yesterday I finally saw Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid from start to finish, and it was great. It was recommended to me by Nick, but I also recall that my dad, when pressed, will say it's his favorite film. I finally get why so many women of our parents' generation think Robert Redford is hot--even with the mustache, he's definitely cute. The dialogue is witty, the plot is quick-moving, the actors are good-looking, and yes! Half the movie even takes place in Bolivia! Bolivia is right next to Argentina! I'm practically doing research. ¡Vivan los Bandidos Yanquis!

Next I watched Crash, the Paul Haggis movie that won Best Picture in 2005. This made my list because one of my professors (who shall remain nameless, though I want to add that she has made many successful recommendations to me in the past) said it was the best U.S. film she'd ever seen. Well, nameless professor, you should see some more films. (Might I recommend Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?)

I'm going to take a controversial stance here, but I have to say that Crash was far from the best movie I've ever seen. Reeeally far. In fact, I hated it. I felt like I was watching an extended episode of 24, or perhaps an episode of The Real World in which not just one house member but all seven are hyper-sensitive about race, and confrontational to boot. The characters of Crash respond childishly and violently to circumstances which are already hard to believe. Rather than revealing anything significant about racial identity, the film reduces race to a point of contention between people who look different from one another, a gauntlet to be thrown down at the slightest provocation (or even when there is none). Much of the plot is propelled by confrontations that emerge purely because the participants are of different racial backgrounds (thus we see arguments that essentially go like this: What--you're Korean, I'm Puerto Rican? Let's start yelling at each other!)

The tension of the film is evidently meant to be resolved when, in an action seemingly out-of-character for a black man who had no qualms about leaving an Asian man for dead after hitting him with a stolen SUV, the car thief opts NOT to sell a van full of starving (Asian) women and children into slavery. Instead he releases them into the downtown streets of L.A. and hands one of them $40 to buy "chop suey." Problem solved, roll credits.

Next on the list, Our Man in Havana, a British spy spoof filmed shortly after Fidel's coup in 1959.