Let’s pause for a second. Earlier, I said these albums were my Summer blockbuster. Right now, imdb.com and everywhere else has the current top films (we now evaluate our best films based on how much money they make, some of them sucker punches, because we go, not based on word of mouth or critics, but based on a trailer, a short, easily manipulated artifact – think of the Star Wars Prequels, good trailers, crappy movies). Presumably, the list includes I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry, a presumably unfunny film which is getting by on hype, marketing, driven mostly be the star power of Adam Sandler (our generation’s Jerry Lewis?), and the trailer. The list will also include Harry Potter 5 - a franchise sequel, and Transformers, a souped-up, Michael Bay nostalgia cash-in, now that the kids from the 80’s finally have some disposable income. I’m not interested in whether these movies were good or bad (according to many, Harry Potter 5 is quite good and Transformers is at least a guilty pleasure – at best the best film of all time, even better than Top Gun), their relative merits as high or low art, the visceral effect they have, whatever. What I am interested in is the machine surrounding these films. While we’re shelling out our 12 bucks plus popcorn and drink (the main profit for theaters), we’re subjected to ads for new films in the theater (posters, trailers) and outside the theater, bus stop placards, overhead billboards, online (Stardust already feels ubiquitous and it’s not even close to the release date) Now, the artifact is not the point, I myself have Summer blockbusters in the form of four albums I was eagerly awaiting. The point is…well, pointlessness, consumption. The merry-go-round of contemporary marketing, its salvation narrative. We place salvific properties on movies, books, music, projecting our desire for transcendence. The release date comes, we consume, but already our eye is on the next big thing, and we have the same conversations surrounding these things. I liked it, I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would. Really? I thought it was good. That actress just isn’t believable for me in that role. I thought it was really well edited. Some college professor writes a book of Jungian interpretation of the author’s work and we feel stupid for not having seen it all along. But mostly, the conversations stay at the level of subjective personal taste and go little further. Why did we like it? What part of us did it speak to? I was just at Blockbuster video, walking past several movies that spoke to me: Little Children, Children of Men, The Golden Child (kidding), what did these stories mean to me? Was it two hours in an air-conditioned place and nothing else? Mindless consumption? Indulgence? Did it stir my passions, change anything about my life, and by extension, the world? Having said all that, I just picked up three friggin movies at Blockbuster. Why? Habit? Temporary reprieve from loneliness? Learned passivity. I’ve decided I’ve got to reflect after each film to make the event a significant one. So, we have something to look forward to.
In no particular order:
1. Factory Girl
2. Prairie Home Companion
3. Zodiac
4. Treasure Island (I lied, I rented four)
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