Bye Bye, Birthday

So ends another era. Oh, it's not significant in the grand or even minor scheme of things, but it was indeed a personal time for me, a tradition I kept for 28 straight years.

What I refer to is that every birthday, I would go to the cinema and (hopefully) enjoy a celebratory movie of choice. Sometimes this would be so important to me that I would pick a movie months in advance so we were living in the era of announced release dates for major films as though they were national holidays. Such is the modern day world of movies.

This ritual of mine, almost OCD in nature, began with special Christmas movie, something to cap off the end of a long holiday, the best of these being THE GODFATHER PART II and THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING in successive years. That practice began to be more difficult to maintain over time since I usually attended with a friend and, considering it was bloody damn Xmas, I began losing movie companions. Going to a movie by myself that night seemed to be a lonely and kinda creepy experience. Not that I had any qualms about flying solo any other time, my go-to modus operandi (my rationale was that I knew I wasn't going to talk during the movie). But Christmas night...I passed. I thought I'd feel like an outcast elf. 

Years passed and I finally decided to make it a birthday thang, beginning in 1993 with a perfect choice for me -Joe Dante's MATINEE, a sensational tribute to the films of William Castle set smack dab in the middle of the Cuban missile crisis. And yes, I went alone. 

This became like a special gift I could give to myself, something to give myself a break, pat on the back and reward myself for making it though another year. It allowed me to head into the next 363 days on a more or less positive note. Thus, this annual celebration of me was off and running.

Over time, my failing memory has caused me to momentarily (I hope) forget several films I've seen over the years, an unfortunately side effect of the passing of time. But I remember most of them and my track record for excellent film choices was pretty stinkin' good if I do say so myself (and I can because I have this blog) They are:

The aforementioned MATINEE, FROM DUSK TO DAWN, THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY (one right after the other), LA LA LAND, AVATAR, THE SHAPE OF WATER, PAN'S LABRYRINTH (all hail Guillermo!), BIRDMAN, STAN AND OLLIE, THE ARTIST, DJANGO UNCHAINED and NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. A couple of times, I'd up the ante with two movies on consecutive days as with NEBRASKA/THE WOLF OF WALL STREET and BLACK SWAN/TRUE GRIT.

Not a bad list, but there were a few clunkers like Peter Jackson's remake of KING KONG and THE FORCE AWAKENS, but they weren't crappy enough to ruin my day, just my taste buds. (See previous blogs; KONG-FOUNDED and THE FORCE WAKES UP AGAIN)

In 2020, I caught Sam Mendes' 1917, the last time I've set foot in a movie theater. While it wasn't the best of the bunch by any means, not even anywhere near my top ten, I was grateful to be able to have seen it on one the biggest screens in the area, a fine presentation that I certainly appreciated.

This year, it all came to an end. On January 29 (my birthday in case you want to get a head start on next year with the gift-giving), our illustrious governor Kate Brown of Oregon lifted the restrictions on movie theaters, allowing them to re-open with a ridiculous caveat. The theater capacity could be no more than 6 people. Well, isn't that just ducky. It would be unless you were a theater owner. Now it wouldn't matter to me really since I don't mind an empty auditorium all to myself. But in support of movie theaters in general, I say thee nay. Besides I ain't that comfortable eating in a restaurant, let alone sitting in the dark with a bunch of strangers. Not yet anyway, no matter how much I miss it.

So this year I still saw a new movie,  a very good thriller called THE LITTLE THINGS directed by John Lee Hancock and starring Denzel Washington, released simultaneously in theaters (somewhere) and HBO MAX. Another new normal that they assure is only temporary, but try getting that genie back in the bottle even at gunpoint.

The movie theater, as we once knew it, is fading away, another casualty of this life and time and another one to place in the loss column. 

Happy birthday to me.

What a "Burn"

So sue me.

I enjoyed the new Joel and Ethan Coen film BURN AFTER READING more than NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN.

I don't think it's a better film. Not by a long shot. In fact, in the Coen brothers film canon, it sits probably between O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? and THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE. But the truth of the matter is I laughed my fool head off at this goofy, wonderfully convoluted comedy, their funniest since the now legendary THE BIG LEBOWSKI. While it took a little while to ramp up, this tale of supposed espionage in a self-important world gave me the horselaugh more than a few times. The story fell together like the Dance of the Seven Veils and underneath is a beautifully convoluted mess. The caricatured characters, from Frances McDormand's lovelorn sad sack to John Malkovich's pompous mid-management intelligence officer hit every right note, though the film is outright stolen by Brad Pitt as one of the Coen Bros.' best American idiots (see also: O BROTHER and RAISING ARIZONA), a dim bulb satisfied with his own low wattage.

I had a lot of problems with NO COUNTRY, particularly with the final third of the film. I, like many others, felt cheated by the outcome of one of the main characters. It made me very so ambivalent after the first viewing that I reserved my opinion until the second time through. I have to stand by my initial assessment: I felt that the Coens have given me a wild ride, then dropped me off in the middle of nowhere, causing me to find my own way back.

In BURN, there is an entire series of events that is talked about and not shown. I didn't feel gypped by this at all. The telling of that tale by fine actors like David Rasche and J.K. Simmons, one of the best character actors around, was sublime. And I found out WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED.

P.S. I caught BURN AFTER READING at the newly remodeled Roseway Theater, a classic old cinema in Northeast Portland and found hope in the world of single-screen venues. Here's another addition to the list of why I love it up here.