The Writer's Poke

Maybe the oddest relationship to think about in this movie is the friendship between Peter (Tobey Maguire) and Harry Osburn (James Franco). What exactly makes them friends?  I guess I'm wondering this because they come from two different social classes, and they haven't exactly known each other for that long. Peter isn't the most popular kid in school, and yet here he is hanging around a rich kid who probably would have his pick of friends -- both because of his background, but also because of his looks.  Peter and Harry end up being roommates, which is convenient for the movie's plot, but how much does an apartment in New York run, and is Peter actually paying half the rent?  In terms of "friend values," why does Harry think it's okay to date Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst)? He must know it's not okay, as he keeps dating Mary Jane a secret from Peter. Only when he knows Peter knows does he offer the cop out: "Well, you weren't making a move." ...

I recently watched A Chorus Line (1985), and maybe I put off watching All That Jazz because I thought it might be the same sort of story. Not at all. Yes, Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider) is a Broadway director, and there is a little bit about that and his work with dancers and putting on a show. But there's a lot more about him and his race toward death. Much of the movie is the "delusions" he experiences. I'm not sure "delusions" is the right word. Maybe what we get is Joe experiencing his life flashing before him, plus the "bonus content" that his brain creates while he's lying in his hospital bed. Not sure how to explain it. Suffice it to say, Joe smokes too much, womanizes too much, works too much. His daily routine is to shower, take his meds, put eye drops in his eyes, and yell "It's Showtime!" into the bathroom mirror. Except for the womanizing, he doesn't come off as a bad guy, really. He has a daughter and seems to be a goo...

Maybe I'm the only one, but I'm currently watching Natalie Wood films, and so I re-watched this one not for James Dean, but for Natalie.  The timeline bothers me. This is a lot to happen in a 24-hour period. If Jim's family just moved to this new location, how does the house already look like they've lived there forever? If this is Jim's (James Dean) first day at school, has he already given Plato (Sal Mineo) his address? For that matter, how exactly did the bad boys know that Jim and Plato and Judy (Natalie Wood) were at the old, abandoned mansion? Anyway, I'd like the timeline to expand a little. Let's see the relationship between Jim and Plato grow. Let's give Judy a chance to move from the "bad kids" to Jim's side. And so on.  Let's unpack the stuff that's implied. I know it's a 1950s movie, but I need some help understanding what's really going on with Judy and her father. I read that it's an "Elektra complex,...

Jules (Oskar Werner) and Jim (Henri Serre) have a special friendship. Maybe it's because they're both writers. Maybe special friendships simply happen for no real reason. They just connect and they're inseparable. Eventually, a couple of things will separate them: A woman and a war.  At first, the woman doesn't separate them. Catherine (Jeanne Moreau) simply joins them. The film might be called Catherine, to be honest, because she is a force, and in some ways, she is the focus of the movie. The movie could also just as easily be called Jules and Catherine and Jim. It's interesting that they leave her name out of the title.  World War I pits Jules and Jim on separate sides. Jules actually happens to like serving on the Russian front, because there he knows he won't accidently kill Jim.  Jules and Catherine marry and have a daughter. Catherine, however, is not the marrying type. She lives her life as an experiment. Maybe she was curious to see what being a wife an...

Just to pick on something first: That ending. I'm not sure the movie has one, really.  At the beginning of the movie, we see the alien spaceship crash into Earth. We're then given the idea that it may have been buried in the ice for 100,000 years. Whatever the Thing is, it was able to wait for its moment.  When the alien makes it over to the American station, how did it know that the American station was there? That's one question. It took out the Norwegian station, but was it not happy being in its current form? Did it want to look human? If so, why? We'll never get to know, because this movie, just like the early Alien and Predator movies, never gives us any look into what the Thing is thinking. All we know is that it's advanced. It knows how to travel in space, and it knows how to mimic any lifeform it comes into contact with.  And it can stay frozen.  Humans cannot. Macready (Kurt Russell) has a plan, and that plan is to blow up the American station. How does th...

This is a pretty entertaining movie, but I'm not sure if it wants to be taken seriously, or if it's a satire on the "free love" culture of the 1960s. I viewed it more as a satire, but with a good message. Bob (Robert Culp) is a documentary film director. He and his wife, Carol (Natalie Wood), spend a weekend at a place in the woods called the Institute. As the camera swoops in from above, we see naked people lodging, yoga posing, and bathing outside on the deck. They're all naked. What kind of "new age" place is this? Bob and Carol spend their time inside, however, with a small group taking a 24-hour crash course designed to get them connected to their feelings. One of the group exercises is simple to stare and other members and "get to know each other" by looking. The idea being, we often don't take the time to stop and look at one another. We're too busy looking and thinking about ourselves. I mention this exercise because something s...