Movies and more movies

I saw a few movies over the weekend. When I was at the video store the other night, I realized just how many movies I have missed in the last year. I need to catch up, but it’s slow going.

The one movie I saw in the theater this weekend, Brokeback Mountain, was very good, but I am glad that it didn’t win Best Picture over Crash, which I re-watched on Friday. Crash was just as good on the second viewing. And what I liked most about it was the way it wove different storylines together both through plot and theme. I am inspired to create a play with that technique although for a play it’d have to be on a smaller scale. And I’d need to figure out what I wanted to say. But back to Brokeback. It’s a great movie, certainly worthy of a best picture nom. I haven’t seen Capote yet (it’s high on my list) but I’d say that Phillip Seymour Hoffman has to have given the best performance of his career to have done a better job than Heath Ledger. Ledger created an entirely new person, unlike any other character he’s every portrayed. You know how when you see George Clooney in a movie, you never really forget he’s George Clooney? I completely forgot that was Heath Ledger up there on the screen. He was simply amazing. The most interesting aspect of the movie was not the love story, but rather the reminder of how bad things used to be for gays. Not that things are perfect now, not by a long shot, but the fact was Ennis (Ledger) chose an entirely unsatisfying life, denying who he was because he believed he would be killed. While that still happens forty years later, there are now lots of places in the United States where a gay man or woman can live and feel safe in their community. We have come a long way.

Enough with the Oscar worthy films. I also rented Serenity, which was a movie spin off from the failed television series Firefly. I never watched Firefly so I came into the movie completely unaware of the history of the show. I was afraid I’d get lost and I’m sure there are parts of the movie that would have resonated more if I had watched the TV show, but the fact was I really enjoyed it. I picked up on the characters and their relationships easily and the plot was both interesting and exciting. The only reason that the movie didn’t become a big hit was the lead actor. I don’t know his name, but he’s no movie star. I can see him doing well on a TV show, but that didn’t translate to the big screen. He was decent, don’t get me wrong, but he just doesn’t have the charisma and acting chops to send the movie into orbit. Oh, and I have a question for those who did watch the TV show. The guy who died in the crash near the end of the movie – was he a regular on the TV show? Just wondering if that would have been a shocking moment for fans of the show.

Walk the Line is next on my list of movies to watch. It’s rented and waiting for me at home.