Happy Hobbit Day!

Guess what I'm doing at midnight?! Sorry, that was a pretty obvious question. Of course I'm going to see The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, and of course I'm a giddy mess about it. But I'm also trying to fight off a cold, so my head is rather foggy, and all I've wanted to do for days is sleep. All day at work I was planning on coming home and taking a nap before the midnight madness, but seeing as it's already past 7:00 it's pretty unlikely. I'm far too easily distracted, and if I get warm and comfortable now I might not wake back up (and then I would cry). Instead, I've been listening to past movie soundtracks to get in the mood, occasionally whispering things to my replica of The One Ring and perfecting my Gollum voice (the phlegm really helps).

I've also been thinking about what a big Tolkien nerd I am, and all the wonderful times I've had fully embracing that. Because being a nerd is awesome (just ask Will Wheaton). I first saw LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring on my 18th birthday. Aside from my immediate family, the only person who remembered it was my birthday that day was my best friend Heather. I pretty much spent the whole day in a mini depressive state (the fact that January is a terribly cold and grey month really never helps) and I'm sure I was wrestling with the notion of being a legal adult and what that was supposed to mean to my life. I think I had already made up my mind that I was moving away for school, but I know I was never fully comfortable in my 'home'. So instead of going out and buying porn and cigarettes to celebrate my 18th, I went to the theater and bought into a whole new world. I was hooked.

Cue LOTR poster on my dorm wall, soundtrack memorized note for note, replicas of as many movie props as I could reasonably convince my parents I needed. I'm such a big nerd that I even took a class at college on Tolkien and Lewis (it was an Honors class, and I read soooo much). But this was also the thing that got me hooked on midnight screenings and gave me a love for super crazy fandoms. I remember planning to see Return of the King with some of my cousins who were all going to be coming to a family gathering in KY. There is nothing in that town but a mall and a not-so-fabulous movie theater, but they were having a midnight show, and we were going. Except that they had had a twelve-ish hour drive (compared to my three) and had all decided to pass out (aka sleep. Weaklings). I had been looking forward to this for a really long time, and my dad could see that I was kind of crushed. So he took me. Confession: my dad's also a pretty big nerd, but more on the X-Files government conspiracy I-think-Roswell-has-aliens spectrum. We get out of that theater around 3:30 AM completely jazzed up, crawling out of our skins with Mt Dew overload, and looking for something to eat. And there was NOTHING open. No gas station with munchies, no grocery store, no fast food, no doughnut places, NOTHING. So we go back to the house (where there were people sleeping all over the floor, yay togetherness and cheapness) and try to find something quiet to eat in the kitchen. Well we're not quiet together, we're giggily, especially at that hour, and I don't remember what we found to eat, but I remember being shushed several times and thinking the whole thing was hilarious, and what a great time I had with my dad. The next afternoon I went to the theater again with my cousins to watch it a second time, and that was the first time I saw the same movie twice in less than 24 hours (but not the last). That was a pretty fantastic day.

Captain Phillips: Reporting for Nachos

The EW Fall Movie Preview already came out, early Oscar buzz is floating gently in the air, and leaves are turning spectacular shades of scarlet: my favorite time of year is officially here! This is the time of year when I start going into movie nerd mode. I talk about directors and their previous works like an obsessive sophomore film student. I say really pretentious things like “That performance was so powerfully understated.” (No, really. It’s happened.)  I start to plan my own movie double feature days so that I can see as many film festival darlings as possible in the (very) limited time they stay in theaters. In short: I go a little crazy.

Essential reading. And I want that coat. 

Wednesday I kicked off Movie-binge 2013-14 properly with advance screening passes to see Captain Phillips, starring Tom Hanks. Based on a true story, with Hanks in the lead, it practically screams “Hey, Oscar! Look over here!”  I seem to be very busy lately, and while I did think the film looked good based on the trailer, it probably would have fallen through the cracks in my schedule if it hadn’t been for the free passes.  So, thank you universe!

Pirate photobomb!

I’ll be honest, I was only vaguely aware of the real life event that inspired this movie. This is entirely my fault, but I rarely watch the news… it usually either depresses me or makes me so angry at the stupidity and hate in the world that I end up yelling “What the hell is wrong with people?!” over and over to my cats. And they never give any useful insight. So for people like me: SPOILER ALERT.

 

First cats on my blog... why did this take so long?!

Captain Phillips saves his crew, and some pirates die. The film did do an excellent job of creating tension, and I don’t think I’ve felt this claustrophobic in a theatre since Titanic. (Lesson here: never go on a boat. Ever.) Hanks is fantastic at playing the extraordinary everyman, and he is very good in this part. At this stage in his career though, it is impossible to disassociate him with his iconic roles. This is in no way meant as an insult, and if anything it’s a testament to his ability to make us care so deeply and for so long about his creations. However, this can create some unintentionally funny moments. Shots of a boat alone in a vast empty sea just make you want to scream “WILSON!!”  So you just end up quietly giggling to yourself, and you know it’s completely inappropriate, but that just makes you laugh harder. Or maybe that was just me…. It probably was. I’m disturbed.

My favorite part of the evening had nothing to do with the move. The bestie came with me, and because adults can eat whatever they want for dinner, we decided to get the biggest tub of popcorn ever. And a coke (of course). As we’re walking up the hallway to the theater, we see all these official looking guys in suits standing around a table, and think “Aw, are they giving us free snacks?!” It looked vaguely brown, and low to the table, so we’re thinking … “Is it nachos? Hot dogs? I hope it’s nachos, because yeah, I’d eat that. With the popcorn. Oh yeah, this is gonna be good.”  But as we get up to the table they do a security check and tell us we can’t bring our phones in, but they can hold them for us. In brown paper bags with a number written on them, like a little techie coat check. And in that moment I think we were both really disappointed that there were no nachos.

This is what happens when you Google 'sad nacho'. 

(Or were there? What’s a phone that isn’t yours? Nacho phone! ….. yeah, it’s midnight, and I know that’s a horrible joke. But this is my blog, and I’m going with it.)

The Spectacular Advance Screening

Last night I had the opportunity to attend an advance screening of The Spectacular Now at the Southside Works Cinema (thanks Pittsburgh Film Office!). I love movies, and I love free things, so this was pretty exciting.  I'd heard a lot of good things about the film, and was particularly excited to see Shailene Woodley's performance, since she can apparently do no wrong. I thought she was incredible in The Descendants, and I'm really looking forward to her role as Hazel in the upcoming The Fault In Our Stars. Now I'm going to get up on my 'Pittsburgh is awesome' box, because they start filming for Fault here on Monday, which means exciting movie biz people are here, which led to a fun surprise last night.... Screenwriter Shenanigans!  Seriously, Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, who also wrote (500) Days of Summer together, were already in town and knew nothing about this advance screening until someone tweeted them, asking if they were coming.  They not only came, but they did a wonderful Q&A after the film that really made the whole thing click.  Critics have been throwing around John Hughes comparisons when talking about this film, but if you go in thinking you're about to see Ferris Bueller--be warned. It's much more Breakfast Club. I think this praise (which it is) comes more from the honesty of the characters. They defy stereotypes, Shailene's Aimee balking when asked by charming Sutter (Miles Teller) what her "Thing" is... she likes to think that people are more than just one thing. Every character here (with the possible exception of Sutter's alcoholic father) refuse to fit into the neatly labeled character boxes we've come to expect when watching films set in high school. What it most reminded me of was probably The Perks of Being a Wallflower, simply for its refusal to pass judgment on the characters, regardless of their actions. Like their (500) Days of Summer, Neustadter and Weber end on a hopeful, rather than happy, note. I don't enjoy summarizing plots, because I feel that it takes away a person’s ability to give in to the experience if they know what's coming, but I will say that this was a beautiful piece with excellently rich characters you come to quickly care about. The movie is in limited release now (aka not playing here yet, because we’re still not a big enough city, grr) but when it opens wide on August 28 I recommend you check it out.