Is Love a drug?

And why did I capitalise it?

Saw Love and Other Drugs yesterday. It begins as: boy finds his ideal job as a rep for a drug company, then meets a girl who rejects him, then she accepts him (but only for sex), then she makes him leave her when her Parkinson’s symptoms worsen. I won’t say how it ends but there’s was some formula involved.

My friend thought it was definitely a ‘chick flick’, though with the amount of time Annie H spends out of her clothes I think straight boys will be well and truly rewarded.
I’m unsure about this movie. There’s a Hollywood smarminess to it, that’s probably reinforced by Jake G’s expression and large eyebrows. At other times it’s excruciatingly authentic (except with the use of an actor to play Jakey G’s brother who looks nothing like him in any way, shape or form in this universe or any parallel universe)

Having said that, there were two moments that had the biggest impact on me. One is when Annie H’s character, Maggie, attends a convention and listens to others with Parkinson’s describe their condition. These people weren’t actors and brought some funny, pathos-filled realism to the scene. The other scene worth mentioning is Jake G’s pseudo-panic attack when he tries to confess something to Annie H – original!

So, is love a drug? Does it need to be addictive to qualify? I think I need to see Love Story with Ryan O’Neal and Ali McGraw again. Maybe that film will answer my title question…

Easy, ay?

Easy A is the latest Hollywood teen sex romp, but with a twist – there’s no sex, just lots of talking and pretending. It’s a play on the Nathaniel Hawthorne novel, The Scarlet Letter, which the main character, Olive Penderghast is studying at high school. And due to her fabrication of how she spends one weekend (including a nice Brady Bunch reference to George Glass) her life begins to mirror the book in no time at all.
It’s a filmic homage to Hawthorne as well as my ever-lovin’ favourite, John Hughes. And funny as all get out! Mind you I’m easily amused so you may want to read another half-arsed blog before making any judgements. Choice quote: [Brandon to Olive] “So, what's with your new look? It's very whore couture”
I loved this film! It is so smart and sassy. I was listening to a podcast with Bert V. Royal, the writer and I understand how he could voice such a wonderfully sarcastic creature such as Olive. He addressed the issue I often have with (the good) teen films where characters with 7 years of neurological growth still to go can be so engaging and sound so intelligent. The reason is because they do actually exist.
Anyway, if you like smart arse kids and grew up with the films of John Hughes then you’ve must see this film.

Bret Easton Ellis: then and now

I was rather disturbed when I felt myself relating to the protagonist of Bret’s latest book, Imperial Bedrooms. I got what he meant when his character Clay would be in the ‘zone’. But that was early in the piece before he got really scary and freaky. I think he’s supposed to be this really laid back, laconic author with a wife and kids in real life, but in fiction he lets his inner psychopath well and truly loose. I bought Less Than Zero, at the LaTrobe Uni bookshop in Feb 1988, and thought I was so cool reading this great new book, in my first year of Uni, by this promising new author. Who knew that the sequel would be closer to Easton’s other book that goes around in a plastic mac. Or was that the point? All that self-centred nihilism has to end up somewhere, hurting someone.

East side girl watches West Side Story

I saw West Side Story last night at The Regent. It was an accurate and succinct rendition of the Romeo and Juliet-styled musical. For my money, the music and dancing were the draw cards. Leonard Bernstein’s music is catchy and memorable – I was still humming “Somewhere” over my hot chocolate après le show. The highlight was the performance by Alinta Chidzey as Anita. She was dynamite and the audience reaction showed that they agreed with me on this point. The parts of Maria and Tony were good too, even when Julie Goodwin sang Josh Piterman under the table – man that girl has a powerful voice!

Thought car-pooling to the city would be reasonable. We hadn’t bothered to factor in the rest of this town venturing in to the CBD for a multitude of other forms of entertainment (mostly sport). That paled in comparison with our attempt to leave. A car park with only one entrance and the entirety of the mostly middle-aged audience wanting to leave said car park en masse proved ridiculous. The anxiety of crawling along like a stoned snail in a car with an almost empty petrol tank, mixed with discovering "Crisis in Criticism" by Maurice Berger, in the back seat, made those 45 minutes pass quicker than one would think.