Screen Stories

This weekend I spent some more time on movies -- Milk, Slumdog Millionaire, and Duane Hopwood. I caught a little of Simon Schama's The Power of Art, but documentaries can be a bit of a chore to watch, especially when they are very very very very long.
Duane Hopwood was as flat as its name. It should have been called "Duane Hollowood." The actors in the movie are what interested me -- John Krasinski, David Schwimmer and Janeane Garofalo, who are all comedians, or so I thought. Not in this movie. Nothing was funny, even though it's labeled as a comedy/drama. It was all hollow and down, down, down, down down. Family life. Duane Hopwood's went down. Two cute little girls. A drinking problem. That's it. That's all you need to know. All three actors usually seem not only funny, but intelligent, and intelligently funny. That's probably why the characters they play in Duane Hopwood aren't very believable. They're not funny and interesting, at all. Janeane Garofalo's character has no character, no personality. David Schwimmer plays the same guy he plays on Friends, except that he is slightly violent and not funny whatsoever. I can't tell if the viewer is supposed to feel sorry for Duane Hopwood, but I can't feel sorry for him. I can't tell if it's supposed to inspire divorced people to be better people, but if that's all there is to the movie, then it's just sad. I won't be sending it back soon enough.
Milk was good, but my movie date must have been feeling pretty insecure about being there, because he spent most of the entire movie paying attention to me, and not the movie. He didn't even mind going to pay for the parking after about 20 minutes into the movie when we realized we had forgotten to add money to the meter. I've never had much luck watching, with a straight man, a movie in which the storyline had a lot to do with gay men. The first time it happened I was watching The Crying Game. My movie date got up because he "got sick" -- at THE part, the part where SHE, the glamorous, beautiful, slender vixen, reveals that she's a HE. I didn't think for a minute that my Milk movie date would be uncomfortable -- and I'm sure he'd insist that he wasn't -- but I know better. I tried to put myself in his shoes, and I couldn't. I couldn't imagine it being a problem. Maybe it's just me. Maybe it's just him.
Slumdog Millionaire was watched exactly 15 minutes after Milk was over. This movie goes into the rare category of movies in my head that I would actually watch more than once. Not too many movies go into this category: Strange Brew, Office Space, The Science of Sleep, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ... I can't think of any more right now. But about Slumdog Millionaire! It had great everything! Great sound effects! Great music! Romance! Comedy! Thought-provoking concepts! Tragedy! Happiness that makes one feel giddy! Fast-paced adventure! Chases! Beautiful scenery! Beautiful actors! Totally transporting me to India! Intelligence! Dancing! No time to feel restless in my seat. My movie date left me alone the whole time, as he was apparently engrossed in it even though he had already seen it.