Saturday, September 23, 2006
Cut my hair. Breakfast at home with Patrick: oatmeal for me, grape nuts for Patrick. House chores. Shopped online for a new printer. Prep work for Corinna's website. Lunch at home with Patrick: grilled cheese sandwiches, soup. Bought a new printer. Afternoon meal at a Chinese restaurant with Patrick. His fortune: You will reap the rewards of your hard work. Mine: A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance. Picked up a DVD at the rental store. Grocery shopping at Safeway with Patrick. Nap for me. Patrick worked on decks for Lodestar. Dinner at home with Patrick: chive-cow burgers with mushrooms and cheddar, fries. Watched Donnie Darko (2001): The Director's Cut on DVD with Patrick. Wow, what an amazing film, particularly for first-time writer-director Richard Kelly who appears to have made this film around the age of 25 or 26, and then I was stunned again to learn that the film was shot in only 28 days. (How?! And I think it speaks volumes for the actors that they captured such fine acting performances throughout in such a short time.) Patrick and I had heard long ago strong recommendations, particularly from Patrick's friend and former student Jason B, but at the time when I had read a description of the film somewhere I remember feeling reluctant and doubtful that I would like it. This film is a pleasure to watch if you're tired of the too-common, tired, and often-predictable plots that Hollywood churns out. At many moments throughout this film, I could actively discern a calm restraint in the storytelling—that there's no need to fully explain every last bit of information, that the camera doesn't have to have both faces of people talking in the scene for the entire scene, that facial expressions and subtle body language sometimes work far more efficiently than dialogue. It has elements of mystery, suspense, satire, surrealism, science fiction, political commentary, comedy, psychothriller, and drama, but it fits into none of these categories definitively. If you see movies only to escape and not to think, don't see this film—you'll probably hate it. Weight training: hammer curl, concentration curl, wrist curl, reverse wrist curl. Bed late.