Wednesday, July 15, 2009

why i LOVE movies

Jme and I went to go see "500 Days of Summer" last night. I was lucky enough to get a Marquee card for my birthday and having one has many bonuses--one of which is a **free** two ticket pass to premiers. We were almost late, by our own fantastic doing, but luckily (for Jme especially, cause I freak out at being late to movies) we made it just in time to sit in the kinkyourneck 3rd row of the theater.

The movie is delightful. It's honest. It's funny. It's heartbreaking. It has a kick ass soundtrack that will certainly be purchased ASAP. Bottom line is, it's one of those movies that makes you feel in love with life again. It opens up your senses to the idiosyncrasies of being human, of being in love, of relationships working and not working.

During the film I felt moved by one of the scenes and I turned, beaming at Jme. She replied, "I know you. I know what you're doing. But I'm not Zoey DeChanel. I'm not Summer. I'm Jamie."

And she's right. She's not Zoey. OR the character Zoey plays in the film. But when I woke up and thought about it, that's not what made me spin inside. What made me spin inside is this:

Movies, as fiction as they are, hold up a momentary mirror for us. They reflect our beauty and our grotesque. Just like in books, we search for connection with the characters, with the situations, with the themes.

Watching that movie last night I was moved and it wasn't because I was seeing Jme in Zoey/Summer or Zoey/Summer in Jme, but because I was seeing the life, the falling in love, the superpowers relationships have on human beings and I was connecting to it. Understanding and embracing it because it felt so honest to me. And honesty moves me.

Honesty in film, in music, in art is a drug for me. It makes my heart race, it makes my blood pump with more power, it gives me goose bumps. It opens me up to living again in a way that I may not have been open prior.

500 Days of Summer reminded me of how truly fantastic movies are and how truly fantastic it is to dig someone.

And as Jme pointed out, regardless of whether it works out or not, the experience is bloody great. You spin, whether it's upward or downward, it is spinning nonetheless. And movement is so much better than stagnancy.

2 comments:

  1. Meow. Great post.

    Spin. Spin. Spin. Someone wrote that as a lyric once...who was it.

    Feeling is great. Even if you have to feel down to get back up.

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  2. Ha! That is a mighty familiar lyric.

    Hmm...I wonder what it's from ;)

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