Movie Mayhem

Sorry, I can't think of a more interesting title today.

Part I: The Phantom

We watched the 2005 version of The Phantom of the Opera on TV recently. While most of the issues from our viewing have already been discussed, I wanted to talk about it some here as well. Is wonderful that the man in the mask decides to do the right thing (sort of) when someone shows him pity for one of the very few times in his life, but the guy is a sociopath and there's really no getting around that. He extorts money, stalks, kidnaps and murders. Among his lesser offenses are that he takes credit for the accomplishments of others. He is a teacher, but Christine is the one actually singing. However, if you listen to some of the lyrics, it's clear he doesn't believe she's really all that great except for his teachings (He refers to her success as "my triumph" and in another place claims "it's me they hear."). Of course, the most heinous of his crimes is that he was teaching and encouraging someone to sing opera. I can get past some of this. I can get past that it was a musical and that they sang random lines that weren't part of a song and probably should have just been spoken. I can get past the fact that I often felt like I was watching a really long Meatloaf video. The thing that really bothered me is that we were supposed to overlook the horrible things he did because he could sing. Wait, he's a good singer, so we give him a free pass for murdering someone? I thought we agreed only to do that with former football players and TV stars.

Part II: Kalamazoo?

We went to see a movie recently (well, a couple of weeks ago anyway) that was written by people from Kalamazoo and was filmed here in town. The movie, Kalamazoo (IMDB, Official Site), may not have been the greatest movie I've ever seen, but it was pretty enjoyable. It dealt with three women who come back into town for their 10 year reunion and have to deal with all of the issues around that. Sure, I'd probably choose Grosse Pointe Blank if I wanted a high school reunion movie based in Michigan, but this had things GPB didn't. Sweetwater's Donut Mill. Harding's Markets. Food Dance Cafe (which happens to be probably my favorite place to eat in town). Blossom. No, really. Blossom. Ok fine, Mayim Bialik. It was lighthearted and fun, while stressing the importance of self-acceptance...and highlighting the inability of some people to move beyond high school hierarchies. It was nice to see places you are familiar with on the big screen and really nice to get to support aspiring film makers from the area.

Until later...