Go Moan

Nothing like having your favorite regular Tuesday night hypnotized by idiot box viewing of some fabulous Court TV docudrama interrupted by the news that someone has managed to hack your wife's PayPal account to the tune of almost $900 to buy himself a new laptop and have it shipped all the way to Indonesia.  Smart guy this thejarnold, who left behind enough personal information that he probably won't be too hard to track down.  In fact, I found his information on eBay in less than five minutes, including his praise of the guy who sold him "his" computer.  Unfortunately, the $900 which was pulled out of our bank account won't be restored until the wheels of justice have finished rolling over this guy's head, meaning that the wee one will have to go without the brand-name organic smushed bananas for up to ten business days.   

Couple all of that with a raging headache that came on yesterday morning rendering me pretty much bedridden most of the day.  So far, so good this a.m., but being without access to the Anna Nicole trial of the century part one will be difficult.  Anybody caught any of the judge's act?  Pure and beautiful chaos, like the guy is scripting his own made-for-TV movie right there in the courtroom.  He's got a Robert Blake doing Baretta voice and I'm not sure his elevator hits all the floors, if you know what I mean.  Probably the best judge one could ask for in this case, at least from a spectator's POV. 

While watching this circus sideshow, I kept seeing the trailer for the new Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow) movie Black Snake Moan.  You know a movie has a lot of potential when seeing the previews makes you rather uncomfortable and this one has that dirt-under-the-fingernails feel written all over it.  Anyway, Brewer is interviewed in Filter and gives you a good idea of what he's going for in his movies:

You mentioned how this movie fits in the canon that you read and watch. What literary tradition is that?

I’m really trying to be a filmmaker telling Southern stories. So when I look at the stories of Flannery O’Connor or Faulkner or John Fergus Ryan, or especially Tennessee Williams, I feel that Black Snake Moan is at home with those particular narratives, because there is an element of camp, an element of exploitation. It’s funny...Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, played by Marlon Brando, gets drunk, gets mad at his pregnant wife, starts punching her, all his friends pull him off of her, all her friends take her upstairs, and Tennessee Williams decides that the best way to sober up Marlon Brando’s character is to put him under a shower and he gets in a fight where his shirt gets ripped. So now, when we see this monster who just beat up on his pregnant wife, calling up the stairs, “Stella! Stella, Stella!” he’s got this muscular, sweaty, rippling, exposed, sexy back and we as an audience think it’s just as sexy as his wife coming down the stairs, unable to be away from him and running her fingers down his back. There’s a touch of exploitation in that. There’s a touch of camp. There’s extremity in that, that people go to movies and plays to be a part of. They want their lives filled with crazy passion, with outrageous situations.

At least he seems to be invoking the right folks.  Unfortunately Justin Timberlake and "the girl with the amazing growing forehead" have roles in the film so it's not a free pass to make it to my rather limited movie-going queue.

Hopefully, tomorrow will see a little less pain in the head and the wee one's organic turnip green fund will be restored.  Otherwise, you will be hearing a chorus of crying from down Raleigh way.

Comments

[Olympia]

I saw the trailer for Black Snake Moan and promptly turned to my friend to say, "I don't get it. Is it supposed to be funny or scary?"