Down by Eternal Sunshine

[trochee]

This week I saw two great movies courtesy of imtboo (have I mentioned I like her rather a lot?).

Last night we saw the second of them: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; last week we saw the first: Down By Law.

Sunshine was everything that Groundhog Day should have been (and I might add that Kate Winslet and Kirsten Dunst are both better actors than Andie MacDowell), along with a twist of Memento and maybe a little tiny bit of Existenz (for the Dick-ian questions of memory and reality) or Brazil, for the stalkerish brain-plumber/technicians played by Mark Ruffalo and Elijah Wood.

Down by Law, on the other hand, was essentially a Marx Brothers' jailbreak flick as assembled by Jim Jarmusch, only set in gritty New Orleans underworld. Tom Waits plays Groucho [mustachioed hyperverbal smartass]; Roberto Benigni is Chico [Italian malaprop-spouting physical goof], which leaves John Lurie to play a modified combo of the silent naive child that is Harpo and the overshadowed romantic "lead" that is Zeppo.

Okay, it's not really a Marx Brothers movie. But it's not a crazy way to look at it: Jarmusch says he filmed in black and white -- and allowed open shooting, with the camera quite still -- as a reference to Buster Keaton, and yet it has a film noir feel through the whole movie. The "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream" scene alone has yet to be topped in prison movies. Hilarious and terrifying at the same time.

Comments

[boobirdsfly.livejournal.com]

Movie season indeed. Down by Law was number 7 viewing for me and Sunshine was number 3. I gotta say Sunshine is ahead of Adaptation for me even though Meryl Streep is unbelievable . But Carrey as a serious ( ok goofy sometimes still ) is just so intense. And Winslet is awesome as a somewhat neurotic chick with low self estime. I used to change my hair color every 6 months too ... i know what i'm talking about. And ... I used to turn the sound off on the tv and make up the words out loud . They do that in the drive-in. Sunshine reminds me of Amelie in the treating of little things. In the truth of the moments. Like sex is often funny and people who love each other are often silly with one another. That's truth. Ok , i'll stop my Ebert moment. I go there easily...

[bwb-archive.livejournal.com]

Hm. You may be tapped for my oft-talked about rebirth of movie night :)

[boobirdsfly.livejournal.com]

Hm. I think I have been enquiring...