visceralgirl

"Barfly" is surprisingly entertaining given its episodic nature and its

characters' pathetic existence which consists basically of drinking,

fighting, drinking, sleeping, drinking, having sex, drinking, writing,

and more drinking. Heck, just watching this movie made me feel drunk.

The reason it works I suspect is that Mickey Rourke's character Henry

likes his life just the way it is. No self doubt. No remorse. No half

hearted vows to quit and get himself together. No trips to AA only to

fall off the wagon. And best of all, no self pity. Rourke's character

amiably goes about his sordid existence and even eschews any attempts to

bring him out of the muck. He does not even seem upset when he is flat

broke and hence unable to procure more booze. He is cheerfully assured

that something always comes up.

Other reasons to like this movie: Rourke - although I kept wishing he

would take just one shower, but I suppose that's the point, isn't it -

and his unusual, almost beatnik line delivery, Dunaway, who plays Wanda,

somebody who was obviously beautiful at one point but has drunk all that

beauty away, the fact that it translates well into the next decade

despite the fact that it was made in the dread eighties.

[POSSIBLE SPOILER]

I also like that the movie does not take itself too seriously. At one

point Rourke answers the door a while after Dunaway's character has

beaten him senseless. We see the door open from the caller's point of

view. Rourke is shown drunk (of course) and dirty and covered in blood,

bottle of scotch in hand. He looks so absurd that I had to laugh.

Nobody I know would ever allow themselves to be seen in such a state. I

feel self conscious answering the door in a bathrobe. Not Henry. He is

a complete mess and he does not care! It's actually funny. The movie

is filled with scenes such as this one.

One last word, a lot of people intensely dislike Mickey Rourke. This

movie will not change their opinion. He is absolutely disgusting to

look at (though not as creepy as his character in "9 1/2 Weeks").

However, if you DO like Rourke then you WILL like this movie. I cannot

imagine anybody else playing this character!

POSSIBLE SPOILERS - BEWARE

I will not bother repeating what others have said so well about this movie. The two things that struck me in particular about this movie were (1) the surprisingly graphic references (for its time) and (2) the amazing similarity of a 39 year old movie to things that went on in my late nineties life. I was surprised that the movie makers were allowed to be as candid as they were back in 1962. For example, Kirstin holding her breasts and telling her husband she can't drink because she is nursing. But the most astonishing scene was when in a drunken stupor she slips into her father's bed and tries to seduce him! Nobody talks much about that scene when discussing this movie. Maybe because it is too painful to fathom, the fact that one could lose that much control on alcohol. Are there any other movies about alcoholism that feature such a scene? I was in a marriage that had basically the same trajectory as the Clay marriage (no kids fortunately) except that alcohol was not the only partner (ahem). Seeing this movie made me see very clearly that alcohol and people never really change, regardless of any advances on behalf of the human race we make on the way. One last thing: I believe this was one of the first movies to make use of one of my favorite cinematic devices, that in which cartoons are playing on a television in the background of a scene in order to convey the insanity of the situation. It is put to good use particularly the second time when Joe finds his wife in a seedy motel room and the picture is completely distorted. "12 Monkeys," "The Twilight Zone," and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" used this trick but, pray tell, are there any early, early movies

I thought "Citizen Ruth" was fine, biting satire and a movie that had to be made at some point in America's history. Like all good movies, it is not really about the subject at hand - in this case, the abortion issue - but about something deeper and more far reaching. "Citizen Ruth" is about people who get so devoted to a cause they think important to humanity that they forget to consider actual human beings.

Of course, the unavoidable problem with a movie such as this is that almost all of the characters are unsympathetic. Regardless of what opinion one has on the abortion issue, both factions behave badly and they do it supposedly on behalf of the most irresponsible, irredeemable, unlikable (but still watchable) glue sniffer around, Ruth. The effect can be a little wearing, especially at the end.

The movie alleviates this problem by including one wonderful character, Harlan, the cynical Gulf War vet. He unceremoniously plunks his prosthetic leg on the kitchen table. He eats shirtless standing over a sink. He sees Ruth as a person, albeit a diminished one, and is willing to give her what she really wants (money) in order to, as he says, level the playing field, even though he knows she will squander it in a matter of days and tells her so. While he is on the prochoice side, he sees the humor in the situation, as evidenced by his wonderful grin and does not seem to lose track of his own humanity. His dialogue is priceless. Where everybody else speaks in rhetoric he cuts to the chase. My favorite retort of his occurs when the sanctimonious Dale, a pro-lifer, spouts out some Biblical condemnation at him and he responds by giving the exact location in the Bible of the quote. Naturally the actor playing the part, M. C. Gainey, deserves much of the credit for creating this appealing character.

The movie has many other merits but Harlan is my own personal favorite

Boy, did I love this show! I always wished they would put it back on television. I never forgot it in the more than 20 years since I watched it as a child. I credit it with teaching me how to read better than any teacher could have done alone and also with instilling in me a love of reading that has never gone away. Morgan Freeman has had a stellar acting career but to me he will always be Easy Reader first and foremost.

My prayers have been answered.

For those of you who have Comcast Digital cable there is a channel called Noggin that shows nothing but children's educational shows. One of them is the Electric Company. Perhaps other cable packages have this channel, I don't know. I am thoroughly enjoying watching the old bits and am anticipating bits which I have yet to see again (like the Silent e song and "It's the plumber. I've come to fix the sink.").

Somebody who posted here wanted to know other lyrics to the LY song:

"You're wearing your squeaky shoes. When sitting there taking a snooze is a tiger, so how do you walk on by? Silently, silently, silent- ly"

"At a pie eating contest you boast, that you can eat the most. How do you down your 50th piece of pie? Eagerly, eagerly, eager- ly"

"You're walking down the street, when you happen to meet a porcupine. How do you shake his hand when he says hi? Carefully, carefully, careful-ly."

I feel sorry that some of my favorite performers on the show did not seem to have as successful acting careers as Morgan Freeman. I hoped that I would see them again