Surprisingly long post-- but about interesting stuff! I think. ...To me, at least.

Remember when I said I'm bad at this blog thing? Yeah. Still am. With that said: Happy 2009, Pretentiously-Named Blog of Mine!

Ringing in the New Year was pleasantly low-key. Maura and I sat in our pjs in a sea of blankets on her couch, watching True Blood on HBO (in my opinion, the only acceptable rendering of vampires in the entertainment world, as it is well-made and clever, TWILIGHT I'M GLARING DISDAINFULLY AT YOU) and drinking champagne like we weren't sitting in our pjs. We keep it classy for sure.
My resolution was... well, actually, now that I'm trying to think about it, I can't remember it. I guess that just goes to show how life-impacting it was. I'm sure it was something vague about being more organized or determined or something like that.
Saw a really fascinating movie a few days ago-- Elephant, by Gus Van Sant. It was playing on IFC, and we came into it about half and hour late, which kind of didn't help to prepare me for its drawn-out, labyrinthine way of following the characters doing really mundane stuff and then jumping back in time to show what just happened in another character's life-- sort of patchwork-y, almost Picasso-like. By which I mean, Picasso pieces usually look really weirdly pieced together, but if you think about it it's force-showing you every angle of the subject possible, whether that logically makes sense or is physically possible or not. Did that make sense? Well, it did to me. Elephant follows one day in the life of about 10 high school students; a day in the life that just happens to be a day that ends with a mass shooting, a la Columbine. It's treated in an almost documentary style-- all the characters have their real names, the dialogue is unimportant to creating or moving any plot points or narrative. The kids are real people going about their day at school. The passive observer filming doesn't stop when the shootings start, either-- it's really strange to find such a violent event recorded in such a [refreshingly] un-sensationalized, almost mundane way. And it's even stranger to find myself calling it "mundane".
It was interesting to patch up when things happened for each character. For example, a shy, nerdy-type girl is followed by the camera leaving gym class, changing into her normal clothes in the locker room, then walking down the hallway to to the library-- halfway there, the bell rings, so she starts jogging to get to her job (shelving books) on time. A little earlier in the film, an artsy-type guy is seen working in the school's darkroom for a while, and then leaving. Heading down a hallway, he sees a friend and they stop to talk and take some silly pictures to finish a roll of film. Later, you see this scene play out yet again-- this time, from a different angle. In this version (for lack of a better word) of this particular scene, you can see the girl running behind and past the two boys in the hallway. Now you can place where that hallway is, and where this instance falls in the course of the day for these characters. I'm probably not explaining it well, but then again it's kind of hard to explain if you don't see it yourself.
It's really interesting, and probably slightly morbid of me to find it so very interesting-- when I came home from watching it, I immediately searched for anything and everything I could find about it online. I don't know what it is about it that is making it stick so vividly in my brain-- the fact that I've never really explored / wondered about / been confronted with this subject matter before? the fact that I've never encountered this style of film-making before and it's so different that it can't help but stand out in my mind? the butt-cheek-clenching anxiousness and trepidation I felt during the whole thing? the sucker-punching ending? the awesome use of a sense of matter-of-factness and anti-climax when dealing with such a touchy, emotional topic?
I don't know. But I do know that I want to watch it about 40 more times to find out.

PS: I realize that I do kind of have a morbid fascination with certain serious/"smart" or controversial movies. Maybe that can be a constant thing on this here blog-thang-- reviews and discussions of movies like Elephant, or like Passolini's Salo which I am insanely determined to watch whether it makes me cry or barf or what. I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS. I MUST SEE IT.
PPS: I also realize that the idea of anything being "a constant" on this blog-thang is probably not gonna happen, as I am both lazy and forgetful. Lazgetful. Forgazy. Discuss amongst yourselves.
PPPS: Please enjoy the image of me typing up this attemptedly intellectual discussion on a serious movie while sitting in my lounge-y gear with toilet paper stuffed in my nose.
Don't judge. Something's gotta ebb the tide of my sinus infection juiciness.
...AAAAND, you're welcome.