lalumiere

"Going Native" means "to adopt the lifestyle or outlook of local inhabitants of a place or country, especially when dwelling in a colonial region; to become less refined under the influence of a less cultured, more primitive, or simpler social environment."

If a person who is in a foreign country goes native, they begin to live and/or dress like the people who live there.

"Going Native" is my favorite Tales From the Darkside ever.

I think those humans who don't like the episode have never known what it is to feel like an alien and a complete outsider to his or her own species, to try to fit in while not even being sure that it is even a desirable thing to do... to feel the intense need to constantly observe to learn and try to mimic one's fellow human beings in order to be accepted and to belong... while holding oneself apart to maintain that self, to keep one's own being sacrosanct and inviolate and the pain which comes with either choice..

Kim Greist as the character Claire demonstrates this so well, making us, the audience, see and feel all the things she is going through, all the things she thinks and feels and keeps a running critique of what she thinks and feels about all this, dialoguing with herself as she records and documents the images of everything around her and keeps track of them in order to make her report on the human race...

I love the story so much that even after not seeing it for long periods of time, I can go back and watch and recite the dialogue along with the characters.

I find it to be intense, moving and meaningful theater.

It may be difficult for a lot of people to watch because it pulls no punches and lays out a lot of bare unvarnished truth about humans, which may be hard to hear and absorb...

But I love it.

I totally loved the first Magic Mike movie because it was fun and exciting and had that true-to-life sense about it, BUT this one: Magic Mike XXL (2015) just "blows" so to speak.

The story line was weak and scattered and the ostensibly erotic dancing while agile and acrobatic was rather gross and coarse, the kind of stuff that makes a girl feel itchy and uncomfortable -- this girl anyway.

And I don't believe this is a spoiler but what's with this business of all women being queens and all men being kings? Kinda stupid to begin with and overworked in this flick.

Also I love Channing Tatum, and have enjoyed every movie I've ever seen him in, but the best scene in this one -- and this may be a spoiler, I guess -- though nothing could spoil this movie more than it spoiled itself -- the best scene in it was with Joe Manganiello at a convenience store.

On the way to the theater, I had been telling my husband that what I liked about the first Magic Mike movie was that it was the joyous and fun side of sex and exotic dancing, very, sexy but not overly dirty or pornographic, so I was excited and looking forward to this one, and then we watched it and it was... well, it was a grueling hour and 55 minutes sitting through it...

If there was someone I could ask for my money back, I'd do it.

I gave it a 2 instead of a 1 for Joe Manganiello's performance and because I love Channing Tatum.

Magic Mike XXL not recommended at all. Sorry.

Today I am watching "Treasure: In Search of the Golden Horse (1984)," again, for the first time in many, many years, and would like some way to let Sheldon Renan know how much I loved and still love his movie.

To me, it is one of the most beautiful and meaningful films ever produced.

The story is so bright and alive; the cinematography is gorgeous (worthy of a Boorman film) and it has every element a film should have: it is exotic and mysterious, inspiring, romantic (in an unusually chaste and gentle way) and it is utterly heart-and-mind-filling. The music and sounds are also perfect and help envelop and carry the beautiful images.

And I feel that what I got from this film is worth many times the value of the prize people were seeking when they watched this film for clues to a buried treasure.

It so captured my mind and imagination, that it brought on a host of the most vivid lucid dreams anyone can imagine.

Because of the film I had what I'd call an accidental vision quest, as it was not something I was seeking, but just happened due to story presented in the film, it was an amazingly meaningful and I want to say precious experience, more valuable to me than gold.

The thing about the film is it encouraged the viewers to use their minds, to study a bit and research in order to find the treasure, and doing that awakens the mind to so many things, opens it up to the whole world and some wonderful things are able to come in.

And when they do, the treasure is already received.

It's like finding the Holy Grail. Those who have found it, have that glowing treasure in their minds and know that they do not have to have the physical Grail in their hands, because they already have it to hold in their hearts and minds.

In this way -- and I am not being hyperbolic but quite happily serious - - the Golden Horse was very much like the Holy Grail.

Now, true, I would have loved to have found the physical Golden Horse and the "loot" that went with it. Yes, it might have improved my life and circumstances, BUT in the end only one person or group could find it, and yet that is okay with me because I feel that I got something that goes beyond mortal riches by seeing this movie.

As I'm watching it today it brings tears to my eyes and makes my heart well up with the flood of thoughts and feelings I experienced when watching it for the very first time back in 1984.

So Thank You, Sheldon Renan, my life would not have been as rich as it is, had it not been for your fantastic movie.

The film is wonderfully sensate, alive and filled with exotic beauty and deep passions.

The colors, textures and sound have a dimensionality that draws the viewer right into the scene, the place the time... when it rains, the viewer can feel the rain, when the hero, Guy is being drowned in a dream, the viewer senses the suffocation...

The chemistry between Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver, as young lovers in exciting times, is breath-taking!

But Linda Hunt is the biggest gem in the movie, playing a little man named Billy Kwan. She is incredibly credible in this role. Few female actresses can believably pull-off playing a male character, but Hunt did it so well that, at first, the viewer feels a familiarity with the person playing Billy without realizing he is being played by a woman. When I realized it, I was totally amazed. Hunt is a great actress well-deserving of the Oscar she won for the portrayal.

The film is evocative and enthralling. And so alive, so utterly alive!

_The Year of Living Dangerously_ has and is everything a film should be.

There seems to be a question of how a similar movie would play if a male were to give a female oral sex on-screen...

Well, there is a little movie called _Hot Spot_, with Don Johnson, a movie which I loved, directed by Dennis Hopper (another "badboy" in the same vein as Gallo, older, perhaps, but very similar), btw... in which Johnson's character "Harry" gives oral pleasure to Virginia Madsden's character "Dolly."

When describing that movie, I like to tell people, that after that little scene there wasn't a dry seat in the house! In fact, I get a bit stirred up thinking about it even now...

As to _The Brown Bunny_ I can only hope that it comes to one of the two "art houses" in this very conservative neck of the woods where I live.

I've seen the trailers and fallen in love with the song "Milk and Honey" (heard in one of the trailers) ...all over again. And I definitely want to see this film in its entirety.

And with regard to the oral... well... as Zippy the Microcephallic always says: "A little head never hurt anybody!"