To be honest, I shared the skepticism voiced by many of you. Five movies in one day? Madness! But the AMC Best Picture Showcase turned out to be a lot of fun.
There were about 120 people there, and almost everyone stayed for the duration. These are the people who clap at the end of the film. You know the ones.
Despite numerous warnings that “No Outside Food or Beverage Will Be Permitted,” pretty much everyone brought tons of snacks and giant tumblers of coffee. Being meek and obedient, I believed the warnings and only smuggled in a few sticks of string cheese and a bottle of water. D’oh! Next year I will know better.
The first film of the day was Up, and I absolutely loved it. Pixar has gotten very, very good at telling stories and developing characters without using any words. Great score, too. Then we had a 20 minute break, just enough time to dart across the parking lot to the coffee place for a latte.
The second picture was A Serious Man, the Coen Brothers’ entry. I was in the minority, loving this one. I almost always respond well to Coen Bros joints, and I loved the world the film portrayed. Soooo funny, gorgeous late-60s set design (I wanted every stick of furniture, every groovy ashtray — and I don’t even smoke) and a protagonist experiencing a slow, slow burrrrrn. And an infuriating ending!! Love those. Really. A Serious Man and Up both get two thumbs up from me.
After a bathroom break and a quick walk around the sprawling multiplex, I hurried over to Bed Bath + Beyond to buy a pillow. My rolled-up shawl was perfect for lumbar support but my tush was falling asleep.
Movie number three was The Hurt Locker. I can’t say that I loved it. I do get that it was well directed. I know just enough about filmmaking to recognize when certain techniques are applied in effective ways. But it didn’t affect me emotionally and intellectually the way many films do.
And I know this is a petty complaint, but you know how sometimes you’re engrossed in a movie or book and then suddenly you notice an inaccuracy that snaps you out of that universe just long enough to cloud your whole experience of it? Happens all the time, when you live in Los Angeles. Shows and flicks often get the geography (and the travel time) egregiously wrong. Anyway, in the scene where the guy is at home with his girlfriend and they are fixing dinner, he’s fishing button mushrooms out of a sink filled with water. You should never, ever submerge mushrooms. They will get all waterlogged and gross. Maybe it is too much to expect a cocky bomb-deactivating cowboy to know this, but it really bugged me.
The right way to clean mushrooms is to wipe them with a damp towel. MAYBE you put them in a colander and run them under the faucet for an instant. But you mustn’t let them soak. I’ve complained about this to several friends and most of them expressed ignorance of Correct Mushroom Cleaning Technique, which I find astonishing. I thought everyone knew how to clean mushrooms. One acquaintance who is “in the know” nodded sagely, murmuring something about “their delicate little gills.” She doesn’t know it but she catapulted to New Best Friend status as a result. Congratulations, she who shall remain nameless!
End of rant. (Just don’t be serving me slimy mushrooms, please.)
After The Hurt Locker we had a one hour break. Rain was coming down in bucketfuls but I braved the flooded parking lot to obtain a nice meal from a nearby restaurant. I ended up spending more money on refreshments than on the films ($30 price tag for all five movies). I am still embarrassed that I did not realize that the “No Outside Food” rule was an empty threat. I think I could have rolled in a fully stocked cooler chest and nobody would have blinked.
An Education was next on the agenda. Enjoyable, and great performances from the entire cast, but I guessed the twist and didn’t quite buy some of the characters’ actions. Evidently this movie is based on a true story so I should cut it some slack, but I cannot believe that Jenny’s parents would let her swan about with that man, no matter how charming. And was he charming! Most of all, I coveted his car.
The rain had stopped by the time I went outside for the fourth and final break in the action. The lines for Alice In Wonderland were CRAZY-long! It was kind of fun being able to wander in and out of Theater 12 all day, while each new batch of people in the Alice line eyed my bright red Showcase lanyard. When I returned to my seat I found that the people who’d been sitting next to me all day had left, so I was able to put up all the armrests and lie down to watch the last film of the marathon.
The pitch meeting for District 9 surely would have included the succinct description, “It’s apartheid, but with aliens.” I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected I would. Nifty special effects, kickass weapons and a totally sappy ending.
And then it was time to pack up my home away from home and hit the road, with a chorus of “See you next year!” among row-mates. I’ll definitely be there.
