Two-Lane Blacktop

According to the book, I'm supposed to watch Two-Lane Blacktop because...well, the book is way over there and as much as the film felt like putting effort into entertaining me...

There's much promise in the film. About the same time as Easy Rider, but less arrogance, muscle cars and the promise of a road race without a cast of has-beens and wanna-bees, the word "balls" or a gag reel at the end. On top of this, the joy of meeting a young Warren Oats.

You don't know Warren Oats? Yes you do! You've seen Stripes! Big Toe, Sgt. Hulka - that's Warren Oates. But not in Two-Lane Blacktop. He's sketchy-very-thin guy with a fast car that wants to race cross-country for pink slips. Watch it just to have your jaw drop and go, "that's Sgt. Hulka?" Really, the things our generation doesn't know...

So you know there's a race. Did I mention the hitchhiker, Bird? Yeah, she's cute and she has sex with our two intrepid young men who are theoretically the heroes of our little piece (played by James Taylor and Dennis Wilson). Sound boring? Don't worry, it really is that anti-climatic. Anti-climatci is the theme with everything in the movie - the sex, friendship, money, racing, and life.

This film is discussed in by the women in Tarantino's Death Proof - his half of Grindhouse. I found that dialogue disingenuous in the same way that Two-Lane became disingenuous. In Death Proof, you know Taratino is writing his dream girls - a little sexy, a little daring, very tough, extremely badass and a volume of pop culture knowledge that only he could match.

In Two-Lane Blacktop, you know that these guys are aiming for cult status right away. The more the film tries for disaffected youth without direction except the road, the harder it gets to be invested. There are those that swear by this, but I left the film just feeling as if everything was trying so hard not to try so hard. If you're trying that hard not to try so hard, you want me to care - but I'm not supposed to care! Unless I want to be uber-cool, and then I care. See - this is crazy Jane-type behavior and I just want off this thing!

My apologies. That last sentence was at least 12.6 zillion times more exciting than anything you'll see in Two-Lane Blacktop. Of course, I now know Sgt. Hulka before he became a big toe, so it wasn't a total loss.

Where I Stand (January 1st-ist Edition)...

So at the end of the year, over 416 movies watched - when I started this little project, one of my first standings posts referenced 283 movies watched. At the very least, this is 133 movies watched from the list.

At this rate, I'll be done in 2013! Ha!

Either way, I've gotten to see films I've always meant to see and I've gotten to see films I would have never heard of if it hadn't been for this little book. I fell hard for directors I should have always known and rekindled a love for watching films that had started to wane in the name of the need to shove the 100-million dollar guaranteed movie in our face no matter the cost to the story. While I haven't been thrilled with every single film on the list I've watched, there hasn't really been one I've wanted to deny the existence of like a certain Crystal Skull piece of crap that trashed my childhood this summer...

Anyway, onto last month. While we did watch a lot of movies, but we took a break from the list. Only 9 were actually from the list, so were back to a single list of favorites:

Cabaret: It's your typical girl-meets-bisexual-boy love triangle set against the backdrop of Hitler's rise to power in Germany, but it's a musical! (Really, it's iconic and I hadn't seen it, what am I supposed to say?) What's a shame is that "Money, Money" isn't the best musical number and yet it's the only one that gets any play when they show clips.

Moonsoon Wedding: Great westernized Bollywood. Just the right balance of comedy, drama and love without going too far in any one direction. Did I mention the fabulous music? When you're actually rooting for nice things to happen to the slimy wedding planner, you know it's good.

Heavenly Creatures: First, it's proof that Peter Jackson is a really good director without the aid of overblown special effects and a built-in geek fan-boy base. Secondly, as will all true-life murder stories, it's a good learning experience on what NOT to do if one wants to get away with murder. In this case, when checking off "things to do" one should think to burn the diary you've been keeping detailing your desire to kill your mother in cold blood before actually carrying out the crime. Now, I did mention OVERBLOWN special effects since the girls do have an amazing fantasy world they've created in clay that comes to life throughout the film - proof that Jackson once knew the meaning of the word "restraint" when it came to interspersing special effects with storytelling.