Once again Easter has come and gone. Last year I wrote a treatise on its meaning so I guess I'm off the hook for this year. "Good" Friday "celebrates" one of the more depressing events in our planets history - the good guy dies in the end. Because of this, I've always felt the need to watch ridiculously depressing movies to remind myself just how depressing Good Friday really is. Not much logic to it I know, its just something I do. In the past I've watched The Passion of the Christ or Jesus Chainsaw Massacre (as Brian McLaren calls it) as well as a movie called Nine Lives.
This year I changed it up a bit and watched Magnolia. I had seen it 3 times before which is why I chose it. Magnolia is an emotional Everest complete with the difficult breathing. It's directed by the brilliant Paul Thomas Anderson who was like 28 when he made it. It stars Tom Cruise who plays a crazed lunatic intent on controlling people - a role that narrowly won him an Oscar. Based on his latest Scientology videos and unauthorized autobiography, I now know why he lost. All craziness aside, Mr. Cruise was very effective in this role as well was his supporting cast. For 2 and a half hours, the movie follows the lives of broken people, chronicling their dysfuntion and despair in heart breaking fashion. Many times I found myself begging for a life preserver but P.T. shook his head and kept filming. This is where his brilliance lies. Most directors would have thrown the life preserver long before and then entertained you until you reached shore. Not this director. He never throws it. He forces you to feel their pain. In the end he allowed a whisper of redemption but the damage had already been done.
As the words came on Angie said something to the effect of "thanks for a great Easter." I felt pretty bad so all I could think of to say was "we'll watch something super happy on Sunday." And we did. Rory got together with Logan on Gilmore Girls Season 5.
So there you have it. Friday sucked, Sunday was Super Awesome. All in all it was a meaningful Easter.
John
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
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3 comments:
I'm still a believer, John, and tonight was pure magic. It's nice to hear a Calgary announcer say that their team is facing one of the best teams in the NHL for the last 20 games. Yes, I love it!
good to see you again.
dennys sucks.
hope the big mall was good times.
i'm cheering for your oilers. until they make the playoffs.. there should be an 'if' in that sentence somewhere, but i don't know where to put it.
You guys are so weird. I think that is why I like you so much.
I started to blog today, but the pictures didn't go through, so I gave up. I'll try again sometime. Maybe in the summer when I have some time off.
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