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August 30, 2006
“That Rug Really Tied the Room Together”
“I've seen The Exorcist about a hundred and sixty-seven times, and it keeps getting funnier every single time I see it.”
-Betelgeuse in Beetlejuice
This is one of my favorite film quotes partly, I think, because it’s somewhat self-referential. I haven’t seen Beetlejuice one hundred and sixty-seven times, but I’ve seen it at least ten or fifteen, and it does keep getting funnier every time I see it. Truly funny movies are like that. A lot of movies make me go “ha-ha,” but the movies I fall in love with are the ones I can watch over and over still laugh with abandon and delight. Movies like this? For me, Better Off Dead, So I Married an Axe Murderer, Anchorman, Shaun of the Dead.
Two of my favorite funny films, though, are Napoleon Dynamite and The Big Lebowski, which were playing in an inspired double feature at the Dryden last week.
It’s hard to explain Napoleon Dynamite to someone who hasn’t seen it or doesn’t get it. This last time I watched it, I realized that part of the reason I find it so funny is because I connect with this character. Like Napoleon, I spend a frightening amount of time feeling socially inept and like I’m just watching these surreal things happening all around me. Of course, the sets and costumes and whole vibe of the film also remind me of growing up in Kendall (or Hamlin, as the case may be). Even though the film is so odd, it feels true to me, like my life.
The film also features a White Stripes song. And corn dogs.
It’s much easier to explain why The Big Lebowski is funny because, at least in part, it’s all that cursing and peeing and knocking people unconscious. This is probably the third time I’ve seen this film, and, as is so often the case with the Coens, I was struck by how intricate and wonderful the dialog is, like a symphony. The first time you watch it, you hear it as whole and get a sense of what’s going on, but it’s only in repeat viewings that you start to take things apart and hear more of what’s being said by individual characters and what’s going on in the background. This is enhanced by the soundtrack, which is both fun to listen to and almost always adds to or comments on what’s going on. It seems to me that hardly anything in this film is accidental.
Speaking of which, I think it’s time to listen to my Creedence tapes or write book reviews, maybe both....
Posted by adrienne at August 30, 2006 10:52 AM
Comments
I'm just crazy about Napolean Dynamite & have little patience with those who tell me they didn't see the end credits. A few weeks ago one of the woman at this sad workplace made everyone else watch because she thought it was one of the worse movies she'd ever seen. All but one of them agreed with her...is it any wonder I stay holed up in my little cave of a cubicle/office? The Big Lebowski is on my Netflix queue...I can't believe a Coen brothers film got past me. The daughter who recommended Napolean Dynamite just told me they have spaghetti and meatballs on a stick at the state fair, can anyone verify that?
Posted by: Steph at August 30, 2006 12:55 PM
I *LOVE* So I Married an Axe Murderer! Mike Myers is on my list.
Posted by: Kelly K at August 30, 2006 01:05 PM
I like soup on a stick
Posted by: chuck at August 30, 2006 04:14 PM
Nice marmot.
Posted by: Jen at August 30, 2006 05:06 PM
a stocky coarse-furred burrowing rodent with a short bushy tail found throughout the northern hemisphere?
Posted by: chuck at August 31, 2006 08:49 AM
I am the walrus.
Posted by: tonderdo at September 1, 2006 11:19 AM
Mind if I do a J ?
Posted by: el duderino at March 12, 2008 03:39 PM