the most fun I've had in a while at a movie.
5.3 miles, and I went much faster (by 2 minutes) than usual. I don't know why; maybe it's all that time I've taken off.
What can I say: an Elmore Leonard story turned into a screenplay by the always amazing Scott Frank--ignore Malice and Heaven's Prisoners; after all, he always does--that has crime and romance? I am there. With bells on. Well, maybe not bells: those tend to be noisy and I hate having too much ambient noise in a movie theatre.
I like George Clooney--he doesn't have a great acting range, but he has the easy-going, very self-assured suave guy schtick down, which is very, very different from not being able to act. If you've ever seen someone who can't act--or worse, had to work with them--you know what I'm talking about. George is just fine, given what he does.
I haven't seen Jennifer Lopez in anything, but I loved the interview she gave Movieline earlier this year. No, not all the stuff where she disses the talents of Salma Hayek, Cameron Diaz, Gwyneth Paltrow, Winona Ryder, and Madonna. No, I'm referring to:
See, I grew up watching real movie stars--Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe. Glamorous women like those are why I wanted to get into the business. And from the time I first started off as an actress, each day I had an audition, I'd wake up, do my hair and my makeup, look at myself in the mirror and say, 'I have the stardom glow today.' A lot of people go into meetings and auditions all nervous. No! You've got to have WOW! I tell my actress friends this all the time. I walk into auditions going, 'What's going to make me different from all the other girls here?' They're looking for the next star to walk into that room. It's about being alive, open, electric, confident. That's the 'wow.'My older sister and I both started out in musical theater. She has a great voice and she had more of a chance of making it than I did. But she couldn't take the rejection. You have to get up there and say, 'You like me?' And if they say, 'No,' it's like, 'OK. Fuck you! Next? How about you? Do you like me? Or you? Or you? Eventually somebody will say 'Yes' and that's your opportunity to shine, to turn on the star glow.
Women with attitude. I don't know, I just like 'em.
During the multiple movie experience earlier this week we asked Fernando if he'd like to go, so we made arrangements to go to the Twilight show on Friday. The Twilight show at the AMC Theatres is cheaper than a matinee, because it's the least-attended show of the day. Everybody's off getting a very early dinner or shopping or something. So that's when we go. It's more about the lack of people than the lack of cost, I think.
And on to the movie...it's fun! Go! The characters are great--funny but realistic. How often do you see a movie with 6 to 10 truly distinctive characters walking around? (Lessee: Clooney, Lopez, Rhames, Cheadle, Zahn, Brooks, Farina...) The druggie played by Steve Zahn is a total riot; I could feel the audience warming up every time he came on-screen.
This is totally my kind of movie. You've got crime, you've got romance, you've got wonderful dialogue that makes you not care a whit if people talk like this in real life. "Oh, I see. You're cynical," is one of the funniest lines in the movie, because it's perfect for the character and the moment. Okay, it has flashbacks--but they're handled well. This is such a fun movie I would easily go see it again. In fact, I just might in a week or so.
I have got to get me a copy of this script.
One of the interesting things about Out of Sight is the sex scene. For one thing, you don't see anything (and I'm one of those women who's really tired of seeing naked women in movies for no other purpose than to see naked women). For another, the sex is completely integral to the plot. How often do you see that in a movie? The one other example I came up with during the ride home was Lone Star. Darin said, "Yup, the movie would have made no sense without that scene."
Something to shoot for, dramatically.
A reader swears that the connector I showed on June 24 is called a dongle. This reader is wrong: it's actually a run-of-the-mill adapter of some type or another.
But I'm not surprised there are computer-related thingies called dongles. But I wish these computer guys would grow up already. I once tried to explain the concept of the finger command to a non-geek friend of mine and she stared at me like she knew I was making it all up.
Fun with Caller ID: the phone rang and I glanced at the Caller ID box to see who it was. The name was that of Jim from thesis class, so I picked up the phone and said, "Hi Jim!"
Silence.
Then: "How did you do that?"
I think I gave him a heart attack.
Confidential to Ceej: Oh yeah? Well...so's your mother.
Oh wait, Ceej would probably agree with me on that one.
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Send comments and questions to diane@spies.com