Watching Neo


One of my hobbies is watching films. And I do watch a lot of them.

Like I said before, it's been an interesting month. The plumber just left. My patio faucet broke with the cold. This was the one that the city-hired crew put in to replace the one they tore up a few months back. My insurance company is going to love me this month.

Anyway, I thought I would cover something completely different.

I'm a movie geek, I have been since the first Star Wars film came out. I was a film & television major in college. Given my hermit tendencies (and because I like the company of certain women more than just a little bit), I limit myself to three Netflix rentals a week.

This last week included Lesbian Sex & Sexuality. Granted, part of it was for the titillation factor, but part of it was my never-ending quest to understand interesting people. It's still amazing to me how much some aspects of the libertarian, Pagan, and GLBT "communities" resemble each other.

Case in point, one of the Amazon reviews was extremely negative. The person had a real problem with the lesbians selected to appear in the mini-series. Her objections boiled down to "Real lesbians don't do that."

I can't tell you how many times I've been told I am not a "real" Pagan, or how many times I've been told that I am not a "real" libertarian. What I've found is looking at the situation of other "communities" helps me understand the stresses and attitudes of libertarians and Pagans. And heathens. And Otherkin. Even though I'm straight, my politics and faith put me firmly outside the mainstream.

And that, oddly enough, brought me to this piece at Witchvox's end of the year round up. Or at least it bent my thinking when I reread it. Because she has a point. Moving into the mainstream means that people are less willing to take chances. This ties into my views on Sojourners, Wonderers, and Pilgrims.

My non-fiction book has turned out much harder than I thought it would be, I'm still writing and rewriting. Although Chapter One hasn't changed. One of the things I've been trying to do to take my mind off of things is write a novel where the character is a Pagan but doesn't throw mystical firebolts around. Oh, and the world is not ending. That one has been tough too.

So what do I do to relax? I read. I read voraciously. I spend time with people I care about. I'm lucky enough to sleep with some very fascinating ladies. And I watch movies. Which was the point of this post, once upon a time.

The last movie I saw in the theater was Where the Wild Things Are. Before that it was Star Trek. And I think you have to go back to last year to find the one before that. Part of me will always enjoy the theater, but there haven't been many movies lately that have been worth the twelve bucks for atmosphere. There's something to be said for your own house with a pause control.

Because I think the movies that someone chooses says a lot about them, I'm going to start listing my rentals. I'll warn you, it's eclectic. I'll watch almost anything, and I don't always modify the list order after I've added to it. I think I am about 250 or so ahead. At three per week, that is an almost two year waiting list.

Five weeks ago, these were my rentals. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy: Disc 3, Two Girls and a Guy, and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy: Disc 2. Two Girls and a Guy was okay, but nothing exceptional. I rented it because I've been on a Robert Downey Jr. kick since Iron Man came out (if you haven't yet, you should see Chaplin). Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and the followup Smiley's People is a chance to see the late Alec Guinness own the screen. It's a little talky for American tastes.

Four weeks ago was The Power of Nightmares: Disc 1, Robots, and Whispers of the Heart. The Power of Nightmares was good but extremely selective. Robots was cute but forgettable. Whispers of the Heart was very good.

Three weeks ago was the other two discs from The Power of Nightmares and 10. 10 was one of those films that I saw as a teenager with a bunch of other boys (we were VERY segregated about things like that), but had never seen as an adult. It hasn't aged well, although it does feature the delectable Bo Derek. I kept wanted to yell at the supposedly adult characters to grow up.

One week ago it was Pretty Baby, Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow, and The Sex Movie. Pretty Baby was a very big deal when I was a kid, Brooke Shields is only a few months younger than I am and she got NAKED IN A FILM! Hey, for a twelve year old, that was a pretty amazing thing. I have to say though as an adult, it's hard to feel anything sexual about this film. Not only am I no longer attracted to twelve year old girls (and haven't been since I noticed thirteen year old girls with breasts), but it is a very sad little film. Next Avengers was comic book standard, nothing really exceptional. The Sex Movie was about four bored people who can't decide what they are or what they want to be. It did redeem itself with one okay quote, "It's just flesh."

This last week was Green Lantern: First Flight and Lesbian Sex & Sexuality. I bumped those to the top of the list because I was rapidly getting burned out on the whole Christmas thing. Green Lantern wasn't anything great, but it was okay entertainment. Lesbian Sex & Sexuality was better for the interviews than anything else. It did give me one great Diana Cage quote, "It's not sex that degrades women. It's sexism." And there was quite a bit of discussion of the "lesbian community," which I am still trying to figure out. I suspect it is as fluid as the "Pagan community."

To me, it's the connections and resonances that are important, not the insights from any one place or person. Try not to read anything into my list, I'm just as likely to watch a classic as a Western, I like comedy romances and thrillers. It's the story and characters that I like, not the genre.

Posted: Sun - December 27, 2009 at 03:02 PM
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Random selections from NeoWayland's library


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