tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13576198.post3412720170302028596..comments2023-09-05T05:20:50.393-04:00Comments on second americano: Four Weddings and a Funeral, 1994Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13576198.post-65546287524747953762007-05-11T16:50:00.000-04:002007-05-11T16:50:00.000-04:00I think of this film every time I teach "Stop All ...I think of this film every time I teach "Stop All the Clocks" to my Intro to Lit class, and <I>every</I> time the students a) assume Auden is a woman, and b) that the speaker is a woman. This used to make me irritated at the heteronormative assumptions of teenagers, but now it mostly makes me feel old. Because who, of those of us who were born before, say, 1980, wouldn't know <I>this</I> poem specifically as a gay poem, precisely because of 4 Weddings?<BR/><BR/>And on another note, yes, MacDowell is horrific. "Is it raining? [PAUSE] I hadn't noticed." I mean, how could she <B>not</B> put a full beat in there? Generally speaking, I think the film goes way downhill after wedding number 2. With a brief digression for funeral.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13576198.post-67709547424805453452007-05-09T20:06:00.000-04:002007-05-09T20:06:00.000-04:00Although I hate to diss Andie MacDowell, growing u...Although I hate to diss Andie MacDowell, growing up as she did in a small SC town very near mine, she always ruined that movie. She's been good in other things (especially Unstrung Heroes), but she and Grant have zero chemistry. It was never really clear why he liked her or vice versa, other than pure comeliness. <BR/><BR/>TG, My So Called Life ALWAYS sucked. In so many things I'm behind the curve, but not here. I never understood why people loved that show. Unwatchable. I still can't see Claire Danes without remembering how repellant she seemed in MSCL, despite (or maybe because of) her physical charms. What never made sense was that she was supposed to be the smart girl with depth, when she came across like a flaky, bourgeois teen nightmare: a prettier Molly Ringwold devoid of personality or character. And she liked Jared Leto, the dumbest but prettiest guy in school? Well, at least that made sense. I guess those characters reminded me too much of people I didn't like back in high school. But if I didn't want to be around them then, I sure didn't need a show about them.tenaciousmcdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16017631367821997948noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13576198.post-48631644502133261192007-05-09T17:39:00.000-04:002007-05-09T17:39:00.000-04:00I was recently revisiting the ur-90's-ness that wa...I was recently revisiting the ur-90's-ness that was <I>My So Called Life</I> and had a somewhat similar experience. It was the episode where Graham and Patty are going for their free dance lesson and it's, you know, a metaphor about "dancing with other people." To paraphrase one of my favorite web-comics, subtlety was its middle name, and also its first and last name in case you didn't get the message. <BR/><BR/>I was thinking, "Wow, this is kind of terrible and poorly written," and then I thought, "But wait, this is the single greatest show ever. It changed my life," but then I reasoned, "Well, maybe my tastes have changed or I've seen/read/experienced this narrative enough times that it seems trite to me now where it didn't the first time." Or there's this theory: I didn't pay attention to the adult narratives the first time around because why would I? They were just filler in between the Angela/Jordan/Brian love triangle and I couldn't identify with them. Maybe they were always bad, but I just wasn't watching them until now.Transient Gadflyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10313323030838183737noreply@blogger.com