ben, the beautiful and thoughtful half, knew that i wanted to barricade myself in the den with some movies last weekend -- to get an extra-good jump on bub. from his company's free DVD library, he brought home a copy of cursed, which ranks as one of my new favorite japanese horror movies of all time -- better than any of the tomie movies which tend to be hit and miss. cursed is PERFECT. it has that perfect balance of really funny moments and really REALLY put-down-the-knitting scary moments. and with japanese horror, there's none of this "jump cut and two-frames of scary thing and that's the big revealing horror-part" -- in cursed you see PLENTY of the scary thing, and it just keeps coming. we were LOVING it!
then, last sunday night, i guess it was, i chose the new release the wickeds. please. everyone. stay away from this stupid, stupid film. it has ron jeremy in it. that almost made it funny. but it was so ghastly bad that we couldn't bring ourselves to turn it off -- because that would have been ADMITTING that we had turned it ON. and we just couldn't admit that. my shame is trillionfold.
by tuesday we were on to a jackpot score of the nomi song. redemption! but. alas. there was just NO way that bub was gonna be ready for friday night. no way at all. bub, being timeless, didn't care so much himself. and, i have to say, this is a comforting lesson in the relativity of time. i started knitting bub to get me through the INTERMINABLE wait until the release of LAND OF THE DEAD. how can i complain that it came too soon?
i can certainly complain that it didn't last long enough. it's over! i've seen it! all that waiting! i loved EVERY SECOND. as always, romero is the master of racially mixed casting, with subtle surprises and interpretations everywhere; the terrifying, sentient black zombie who was the first to feel for his people; the giant first-a-bad-guy-then-a-good-guy samoan; the ruthless yet loveable john leguizamo.
however well romero mixes it up racially, he is a man of the people. when the "wealthy" were about to be introduced -- living in impenetrable splendor and isolation -- i said to ben, here come the jewish people. because jews, of course, have no street cred.
seconds later, we were introduced to the mastermind behind the luxury living accommodations -- "mr. kaufmann".
who lived in the zombie-free ivory tower called "fiddler's green".
which was wall-to-wall lucite and silk plants and decorative fiber optics.
the light touch of george a. romero. well, i mean, in casting dennis hopper as a jew.
anyway, it was great, the zombies RULED, and romero's vision is as interesting and thoughtful as ever. what i love most about this body of work is that romero has never -- not since night of the living dead in 1968, and not now -- had the best of ANYTHING when it comes to making his films. not actors, not cinematography, not budget, nothing. but he can tell the story he came to tell, god damn it. and he has never run away from that story's sometimes halting progress: two steps forward from one movie to the next when it came to effects, but one step back, perhaps, on script. or actors. it has been a ragged progression. he didn't sit around waiting to polish everything 'til you couldn't tell one film from the next. i admire that.
as the master says: stay scared! be awake, alive, telling your own stories and knitting your dreams, right down to the last second! even if all you've got is red heart acrylic, the cockroach of yarns. crank up the AC, bring your own raisinettes (because the riverview octoplex doesn't even CARRY raisinettes) and that's how we'll get through the summer.