if you're happy and you know it

my friend f. said he was watching the movie GUMMO by harmony korine. he said that he was enjoying it but he could only watch it for about 20 minutes at a sitting. i saw KIDS when it came out but i had to struggle to get through it. just as i have finally acknowledged i will never like led zeppelin and i guess i just don't get it i have gotten old enough not to sit through movies that will make me feel uncomfortable and icky.

this does not mean i care if other people see them. this does not mean that i think movies that do this are not good movies or that they lack artistic worth. i just cannot sit through them. who makes my short list of people whose movies i will generally try to avoid--harmony korine and todd solondz ( i saw WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE and i will leave it at that. Even though I love Philip Seymour Hoffman I cannot do HAPPINESS.) I also cannot watch movies in which historical or present-day tragedies are presented. My daughter, who is 15, went and saw HOTEL RWANDA and came back home and was crying for the next two hours. She told me I have to see it and that it is one of the best movies that she ever saw. I have read articles about Rwanda. I don't need to see a movie about genocide to know genocide is bad and the US never does a goddamn thing about it unless there is something in it for them (OIL).


One could argue that i missing one of the key roles of art--to bring truth to light. and sometimes truth is going to make you feel like you have been kicked in the guts and you are overtaken by waves of nausea. i don't disagree with this point. in fact I would totally agree. my loss i guess.

i did just watch the new pedro almodovar movie that got released on DVD, BAD EDUCATION. i do love pedro almodovar movies. I especially loved ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER. his movies main characters are usually transvestites, writers, actors, and outsiders of all kinds. One could see his movie are dark and are about dark subjects but i never find that they make me feel icky. maybe this is because his movies are never hopeless. BAD EDUCATION stars Gael Garcia Bernal who is one of my favorite actors. He was Che Guerva in MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, one of the main characters in Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN, and also in AMORES PERROS. he is brilliant (and beautiful). if you haven't seen any almodovar movies I recommend starting w/ BAD EDUCATION or ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER. two of his other earlier movies are also wonderful, TIE ME UP TIE ME DOWN (w/ a young Antonio Banderas) and WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN.