(no subject)

[cybermule]

I heart Huckabees was great.

I laughed, which, believe me, is rare these days :P
I didn't really cry, but I did enjoy seeing Jude Law do so (sorry - he just has that sort of face).
I thought about some things, and saw some other people doing so, both on and off the screen.

All the actors were pretty good, but I guess you might not find it 100% to your taste. It doesn't answer any questions, and it presents philosophical ramblings in a fairly "fluffy and accessible" way. Rather like the Matrix, which most of my serious-minded friends despise, but I actually enjoyed and rather champion.


Q. If one moment of one film can cause one person to change their life for the better, can that film really be described as pointless crap?
A. Only by annoying elitists.


Might start making that a regular feature :)

Comments

[weemadharold.livejournal.com]

I actually rather enjoyed The Matrix. It was obviously a Hollywood film - Keanu Reeves kicks arse, saves the world and gets the girl, essentially - but with an intelligent and interesting plot for a change. Of course the ideas were nothing new - although I've been amazed at the number of people who never considered the whole 'what is reality?' question before seeing the film - and something like eXistenZ covered them far better, but still, The Matrix is a cool film and I have no shame in admitting I've watched it several times. The sequels are a bit shit though.

RE: The philosophical question. I'd probably rephrase it as "If one moment of one film can cause one person to question their life or their way of looking at the world, can that film really be described as pointless crap?" Defining whether a life change is 'for the better' or not is a tricky area, and there are many other pressures which may mean that someone doesn't even change their life at all. All any work of art can do is provoke the questions, it's up to the individual to find the answers and integrate them into a life change.

Or at least that's what I'd say, but then I do talk a lot of crap at times :o)

[cybermule.livejournal.com]

Or at least that's what I'd say, but then I do talk a lot of crap at times :o)

LOL - me too :D I like your rephrasing though.

[unsane1.livejournal.com]

although I've been amazed at the number of people who never considered the whole 'what is reality?' question before seeing the film


Heh, you can add one more person to that category, as that's exactly what happened to me, as far as I can recall.

[weemadharold.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I guess I was just a strange kid. I was about 9 or 10 when I started thinking that if our dreams seem utterly real while we're in them, then perhaps what we perceive to be waking life is merely just a dream. Then a couple of years after that I used to debate the nature of existence with a friend of mine on the school playground. We came to the conclusion that I exist (cogito ergo sum), and that the universe - in some form or another - exists for me to exist within. Slightly flawed logic I know, but we were young. Mind you, we didn't hold on to our 'conclusions' too much, as "I think I think, therefore I might be. You never know" became one of our 'stock phrases' pretty soon afterwards.

All this was at least ten years before I saw The Matrix.

I remember reading a Science Fiction short story when I was 9 or 10 (I no longer remember whether this preceded my first wonderings about life being a dream or not) which featured a laboratory in which there were several brains in jars, wired up to machines which were rather like the old cylinder phonograms (I think this was a pretty old short story), and on these cylinders were etched every detail of the person's life, which the person 'inside' the brain perceived as reality. This story was certainly a big influence on my thoughts.

[cybermule.livejournal.com]

Heh - I was a strange kid too, with similar thoughts. My parents (dad in particular) were big self-styled hippy philosophers, and I guess it rubbed off on me. Never really had any friends though, so ended up thinking it was me that was weird. Does mean I appreciate like-minded minds these days.