Popcorn

It has been awhile: both since I’ve written (this is nothing new; I’m streaky) and since I’ve been to the movies. Being away from something you love is a strange feeling: like something is far away and no matter what you do you can’t get close to it. As time passes it feels like it’s no big deal but there is always a voice in the back of your head that strongly disagrees. This voice knows better and is probably the one that should be listened to but the distance anaesthetizes the desire and silences the voice, until ignoring it becomes effortless. We become zombies. Not the flesh eating kind (unless you let it go way too far) with expressionless faces who moan constantly and stumble about with arms raised in front of them as if they’ve got solid balls of starch wedged underneath their armpits. I’m talking about the other kind. The kind that wander around in a daze, knowing something is missing but can’t quite figure what it is.

I use the second and third person but the person I’m actually talking about is myself. And I’m only talking about the movies. Can you imagine what the wierdness would feel like if it involved a person? I can imagine it, have imagined it, and it ain’t pretty.

Last Sunday though, Jeremy invited me to see ‘Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037’ at the Film Forum and the voice and I became reacquainted. It wasn’t the film, although this thoroughly entertaining tale following the contruction of a Steinway grand piano at the company’s manufacturing plant in Astoria, Queens was worth the trek. It wasn’t the company, although Jeremy is an absolute gem of a movie companion: great taste, thoughtful opinions, an honest laugh and a genuine desire to see and think about the films he sees. (Leigh is great too. I’d see a movie with her any day.) And it wasn’t The Film Forum with its amazing popcorn, its insane programming, and its Jacques Derrida recommended carrot cake gracing the display case. (It’s true. Check it out.)

It was the popcorn.

The Film Forum has the best cinema popcorn I have ever tasted, which is weird because they don’t use butter. It wasn’t the physical fact of the popcorn that did it. Bars serve popcorn which rarely has an effect beyond curing an drunken case of the munchies. Satisfying? Yes. Therapeutic? Not so much.

Have you ever picked up exercising after a long period without it? There’s usually a moment – for me, about five minutes in – when the body recognizes what’s happening. It remembers the activity and adjusts. The moment may be fleeting. Your body may also remember the period of inactivity and tire quickly. But the body is not just remembering and action. The action brings with it a sensation and the sensation carries deep seeded emotions. It amplifies the hidden voice.

During the film, Jeremy and I shared the popcorn and as I popped piece after puffy piece into my mouth, it came back to me, how much I missed being at the movies. Watching the previews, putting my feet up on the seat in front of me, getting lost in the story. I ate that popcorn. I scarfed. I did some serious eating. Near the middle of the film, the popcorn was gone. But it didn’t matter. By that time I, and my love for the movies, was back.


Mini-Reviews –

No Country for Old Men – The new Cohen Brothers movies is relentlessly bleak. The world of the film is unforgiving and its inhabitants ruthless, psychotic, sociopathic and (is this even necessary?) violent. Tommy Lee Jones is amazing; his chiseled face masks a core of helplessness and, most importantly, he acts as the film’s soul, something I never would have expected of this Republican ex-roomate of Al Gore. I loved him. It is also incredibly frightening. Javier Bardim scared the living crap out of me and is the scariest film character since the spectre of Keyser Söze haunted ‘The Usual Suspects.’

Eastern Promises – Viggo Mortensen speaks with a Russian accent. He plays Nikolai, the driver and best friend of Kirill (well played by Vincent Cassell), the son of a russian mobster, Semyon (the annoyingly level-headed – this is a compliment – Armin Mueller-Stahl). He is smarter than he lets on and is not really who he seems. Naomi Watts speaks with an English accent. She plays a midwife who finds a diary written by a 14- year old girl held captive by one of the main characters. I won’t say which one. The film is a class act all around: well written, acted, directed and shot. David Cronenberg fills his film with power struggles, double crosses, complicated characters and unexpected acts of humanity. It’s an interesting film that never quite comes to life. It rolls along with a cold efficiency that never quite lets you into the secret of its humanity. This is probably intentional. I’m still trying to figure out why. This probably has more to say about me than it does about the film. But isn’t that the point?