Okay, that's not entirely true. Or fair. For two reasons: 1) Not all buddy road trip moves are chick flicks, and 2) that is not the blog I'm writing right now. I will write it (the one about how 'chick flick' as a referenced genre needs to be redefined to include those of us 'chicks' who would rather soak in lime than watch yet another normative romantic comedy with deeply troubled stereotypes and predictably bad plot turns, and who choose to enjoy their celluloid porn in the form of men getting sweaty and trying to kill each other with swords, or dusty and deeply angry about something, or, you know, well written assassins being flawed and more flexible than me (damn you, George Clooney!!!). You know, that blog) eventually, but not right now. And probably not until I've seen Cowboys & Aliens. Because you know they made that movie just for me, right? I mean, it's all over the trailer: The silent punchy type with odd jewelry as Daniel Craig and the very interesting Olivia Wilde (too thin, but then again, aren't they all?) and Harrison Ford. AND ALIENS.
*sigh*
This is one of the many reasons why I really enjoy science fiction movies. There are some issues (metal bikini, anyone?) that are not, I repeat, NOT omnipresent (Miss Piggy in Space, folks, come on) and they are mostly buddy movies. With ships and guns and muppets and things, and that is always a good way to fill in the necessary back drop for the standard buddy movie plot.
Humans love buddy road trip stories: Gilgamesh and Enkidu travel around and fight each other and then become besties and then fight other people and then *AACK, No Spoilers* Sorry. Right. Moses and Aaron and all of their friends wander around the desert for a really long time and they got a movie. Jesus and his friends got super famous for being really good friends and also really good storytellers (re-read The Gospels and then tell me I am wrong). Star Wars is a brilliant buddy road trip movie. The Muppet Movie: one of the best movies ever made, again, same thing. Galaxy Quest, Star Trek(s), Lord of the Rings, Erik The Viking, Condorman, RED: all of them, buddy road trip movies. (Side note: RED also happens to be a wonderful movie about a really fucked up first date. But, hey, it's Bruce Willis.)
We make friends and we walk around. It's kind of a thing with humans. We always look for these grand differences between humans and every other life form ever and sometimes, I think that the simple things are the most beautiful and to be encouraged: the ability to be friend; the physical freedom to change geographical location (a thing which ought not be taken for granted as it has not always been, and is still not always a right that is available to every human being).
I tend to compare my very favorite novels with very long walks during which you meet everyone on the road and get to know them really really well. It's a form of buddy road trip story, just fewer buddies. The quest thing tends to get a bit grating after a while, but I love the way that groups build during stories. Blazing Saddles has one of the best making-of-a-friend-groups ever. It's straightforward and believable.
And here's where I get all torqued - I despise buddy movies where I don't believe that there is anything like friendship between the characters, or where I believe the friendship is toxic. I do not want to see that. I do not care about it, and more importantly, at the happy ending, I am not happy. I invent story lines where Shirtless Jason Statham shows up, pissed off and drenched in motor oil and goes all River Tam focused and homicidal on everyone. Sometimes, this is my happy ending. (see why I choose to redefine 'chick flick' to fit into a different paradigm?)
So, I'm in a new town, and I'm finally getting around to making some friends. It's not a short process and not one that I take lightly. As you might have noticed. Tonight, I went with two of my new friends to see the movie Paul.
And I remembered why I love The Movies. I love trailers on the big screen. I love pre-show chatter in the seats. I love movie theater popcorn. I love that I get the kid's size snack thing with an Icee and a bag of M&M's and that's exactly enough. I love the dimming of the lights and the sense that I always get of being four years old and knowing that not long after the lights go dark, the world will be filled with Star Wars and John Williams and that I can relax and escape into such wonder as we humans have in it us to create and to share. The older I get, the more I notice the four year old swinging her feet and losing herself in the screen, and I am beyond content. Especially when I am watching a buddy road trip movie where one of the buddies is not a human. I love that I got to share that with two people who enjoyed it as much as I did. This is making friends.
I will not review the movie here. Except to say that I enjoyed it. I enjoyed watching a movie written by people who really sold it - the friendship, the travel, the adventure, the silliness, the dialogue (oh, the dialogue), and the respect for all of the movies that came before. It is often attempted and rarely accomplished - the well-done homage, the awareness of your cultural foundation, I believe we have a bad habit of calling it post-modern because we are pretentious fucks who think that all we will ever be is what we have now.
The future gave me tonight. And I laughed at it. Lots.
Also, I would like to apologize again to the 6 other people in the theater for the roller-coaster arms + scream. it was undignified. i will probably do it again. it was totally worth it.
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