Romantic comedies are pretty up there as far as landmark achievements of our generations. Right alongside teriyaki sauce and crocodile tears.
An even more improved version of them is the subtle mix of a guy flick and a romantic comedy. Think Wedding Crashers and/or Mean Girls and maybe the Ugly Truth?. Either of them include the same predictable series of corny stories and predictable twists along with sufficient guy humor to function. Toss in a couple of drinking scenes and a well backed montage and two very enjoyable hours are to be had.
Assuming you even watch the movie.
But the inherent problem with them is the happy ending. Escapism works only to a point. We stop believing the cheap stucco facade sold by the mass media (listen to me sound like an angry zealot).
I just spent the afternoon talking to a man, a former pistolero, who believes in everything from spiritual entities (evil ones of course, the kind that feed on our life energy) to U.F.O.s. He capped his whole story - one that included a treasure hunt into which he fell into some sort of trance as he was possessed by the treasure's owner - by claiming that it was a dangerous to believe in everything.
That it was just as hard for a mind to be open to the possibility of believing as it was for a mind to remain open to the possibility of not believing. Interesting.
He then talked about blue people. And we discussed what I thought was simply the height of computer science with perfect geometries and a basic story line with the usual values present in the softer side of human nature. He talked of the orient and philosophies that I'd once read about in bits and pieces of Lieh Tzu. It made sense, right down to the symbolism in their tattoos.
These screen writers and authors are getting too good.
So I believe, if only for 120 minutes, the lies carefully disguised as an alternate truth. Kavalier and Clay certainly channeled this sort of thought and energy into a superhero before this. But Autumn and Summer proved to me that these realities often come closer to depicting our own reality than is comfortable.
My name is Tom. And 500 now means something to me.
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