I’ve been thinking about the experience of attending a movie in a theater, and how it compares to staying in to watch a film. I often feel conflicted, with my current opinion being adjusted based on the most recent experience I’ve had in a theater.
Continue reading “The Movie Experience”I Promise I Like It
For the last two months I’ve been reading Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. I’ve legitimately enjoyed the book whenever I’ve sat down to read it, but there is something about it that doesn’t quite grab my attention. I’ve struggled to sit down for very long stretches and just finish it out, and I can’t put my finger on why.
Continue reading “I Promise I Like It”Review: Free Solo
I decided to go watch Free Solo this afternoon. I had seen a snippet of Alex Honnold’s 60 Minutes special while in high school, and remember being impressed. Then I discovered this documentary about him won an Oscar. Even better, it was being shown in some local theaters.
The short version is this: No film has made me feel less competent and driven, yet I don’t envy necessarily envy Alex’s single-mindedness.
Before I get into that, I want to encourage everybody to see this documentary. It’s stress-inducing, beautiful, and everybody in the film has an incredible passion about them. Alex’s focus on climbing El Capitan, his girlfriend’s passion for him and their life together, as well as the camera crew working with Alex all weave an amazing narrative. It’s fantastic. You can also read the National Geographic article about the climb if you’re interested in the details.
Enjoying the filmography, as well as the feat Alex pulled, are both quite easy. It’s no wonder this documentary was so well-received. Yet Alex himself is the more interesting part of this film. He has the personality one might expect from a child prodigy, a narrow focus on specific goals, and that brings him immense joy. It was something that I admired, but could not entirely grasp. It is always inspiring to see someone so fully living their best life in the way that brings them the most joy. He has something to be dedicated to, and as long as he’s able to keep climbing, there’s no doubt he will.
I faced multiple crossroads at the end of high school and throughout college, and each decision took me a bit further away from the drive and narrow focus Alex has in his life. I think this is why Alex himself affected me far more than the anxiety I felt from watching him free solo. At the end of high school, I was incredibly focused on music. I would practice percussion multiple hours a day, and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Then, I chose not to pursue music in any serious way in college. While I’ve found a bit of that passion again, it’s not as focused or intent as it could be.
Baseball was similar, but that decision came earlier when I chose to do pit orchestra my Junior year of high school instead of playing baseball for the school team. I still played in the summer, but did not play at all in college. The passion is there, but since I didn’t pursue it I just don’t have the foundation laid anymore to keep going with it.
The final, and most immediately important, decision was choosing to go into my current job instead of attending grad school. Retrospectively this was a more natural decision, but it was the final nail in the coffin that held intense focus on a narrow field.
I’ve always idolized people who excel at one particular thing, yet always made myself out to be as well-rounded as possible. Naturally this is a conflict that my brain doesn’t accept quite yet, and so I hit some dissonance when I see someone like Alex who is so incredibly focused on something, and has pursued it successfully for 10 years. A part of me wants that sort of focus on every project that intrigues me, yet I know that’s just too much cognitive load and I need to pick and choose on what I can improve on over certain periods of time. It continued to make me think, which was great.
He has an interesting personality and mentality about him that is reflected incredibly well by both his candid comments in the documentary, and what others near him had to say. It makes sense when you learn the camera crew has been working with him for 10 years. It’s not clear to me how others who’ve seen this film view it; to me, while the climb itself was amazing, it’s difficulty was absurd enough as to make me desensitized to it by the end. I was focused on how Alex can mentally do what he does, day in and day out. It’s quite incredible.
Movie Review: “Glass”
A couple years ago, I watched Split. It was a very engaging movie. I walked away quite thrilled by the psychology of the entire situation. One of the people I saw the movie with mentioned it was a spiritual successor to a movie made about fifteen years prior, Unbreakable. It wasn’t clear there was any connection, other than the main character of Unbreakable having a short cameo at the very end of Split. Beyond this brief mention, the movies largely left my mind and I don’t recall talking with anyone else who saw Split.
Over the past few months, I’ve been frequenting the movie theater. During the twenty minutes of previews, Glass kept coming up. I immediately recognized James McAvoy’s cast of characters in the preview, and really wanted to see it. However, I wanted to perform my due diligence of preparation, so last night I watched Unbreakable. That is another excellent movie, but obviously not the point of this review. Feeling caught up with the story as it stood–Elijah Price in a mental institution, David Dunn moonlighting in the security business with his adult son (played by the same guy who played the kid in Unbreakable), and Kevin’s body inhabited by a split personality still abducting young girls to satiate the Beast–I proceeded to the theater to watch Glass.
To make things clear, I am far from a movie aficionado. In particular, I hold no feelings either way toward M. Night Shyamalan. I believe he’s made some great movies, and some not great movies. The idea of a Shyamalan Twist was not on my mind, and I just wanted to enjoy a movie featuring a cast of three characters I found very intriguing. My goal is not to spoil the movie in any major way.
I would say the characters were as expected. Elijah Price continued to be devilishly witty, David was the “reluctant hero”, and Kevin & co. had severe issues, and everyone was treated to another superb display of character acting by James McAvoy. I find no fault in their performances, nor their character’s motivations. Of course, one gets a free pass on motivation when the characters are institutionalized.
The character that bothered me the most was Dr. Staple, the psychologist who took over the treatment of the three main characters. If anything, it was a roller coaster; she started out just bothering me. The actress herself just wasn’t my cup of tea. Then, I started to notice a manic look in her that played well throughout the rest of the movie.
There was little payoff at the very end. It left things open for another movie, but I’m not sure I want it. However, I do value that Shyamalan had the courage of his conviction to finish the movie in a way super hero movies refuse to in most cases.
I think the most praise I can give this movie is that it had me invested in the characters, and believing the unreliable witnesses we had available to us. The movie was set distinctly in our world, and the ambiguous state throughout kept me engaged. I say see the movie, but only if you can be bothered to watch both Unbreakable and Split, and like them both, and want to see an interaction between those two movies. However, I believe they may be better on their own, as spiritual cousins with shared inspirations.
Spongebob is Back
I recently discovered that Spongebob Squarepants is available on Amazon Prime Video. Since I am still a subscriber to said service, I enjoyed a fun weekend night watching the first couple of seasons. I’ve always had such positive nostalgia for the show, in large part due to how quotable it is. Little did I realize that nearly every line in the show is quotable, and how good each episode was in the early seasons. Even today, they have a certain innocent charm to them, yet the jokes still have enough depth to be legitimately funny now.
Continue reading “Spongebob is Back”
Book Review: “Tribe” by Sebastian Junger
In preparation for an upcoming (not soon) episode of Operation: Have a Conversation, I read the book Tribe by Sebastian Junger. Its description tends to focus on how it explores the way American soldiers who come back from war have trouble integrating themselves back into modern society, as being in the military provides a significant unifying bond that is not felt in today’s Western culture.
While I’m not sure what exactly we’ll get into when recording our episode about this book, I’d like to give a couple of thoughts that have lingered with me since I finished reading it earlier today.
First, this book is important. I think it would be good for everyone to read. It frames much of how we look at modern society very differently than I had ever perceived. It discusses how panic attacks and depression are evolutionary traits, and how society has developed in such a way to make these afflictions more prevalent. It thoroughly discusses our misunderstanding and mistreatment of PTSD, particularly among those who participated in violent conflicts.
This book can be very challenging in certain ways. It opens one’s eyes to a certain hypocrisy with which we live our lives, and also points out reasons to be somewhat afraid for the future of America. It gives some specific ideas about where we tend to fail as a culture and society, and gives some implications for how we can all work toward getting better.
It is hard for me to do this book any sort of justice. My thoughts are still unformed and not particularly cohesive. But after reading it, I’m very excited to discuss it with Mikhail and Jack, and hope you’ll take a chance to read it as well.
The book is less than 100 pages, and the audiobook (if that’s your style) is only around 3 hours. Yet there is a lot that happens. I highly recommend it.
Movie Review: BlackKklansman
I saw this movie a little over a week ago, and have been trying to work through how to write a review of it. It is the type of movie that is funny, but speaks to something much broader; as such, I want to make sure the comedic elements do not overshadow the intention of the movie, but also want to commend the way the movie inserts comedy in such a way that goes against modern comedic sensibilities.
Continue reading “Movie Review: BlackKklansman”
Movie Review: "Christopher Robin"
The other day my girlfriend and I went to see the film Christopher Robin, all about the titular character outgrowing his friends in the 100 acre wood, and slowly finding his way back to childhood. After leaving the movie close to tears (my girlfriend did cry multiple times), here was my one line review:
The entire movie was super predictable, but it was so well-done and moving that I didn’t even care.