Monday, December 07, 2020

Good Morning, World


It's Monday! The worst time for exclamation points! And yet here I am! Sorry about that. I just watched a lot of old Ewan McGregor movies this weekend and I got excited. When I wrote about it being the 10th anniversary of I Love You Phillip Morris last week a flip was switched -- a switch was flipped? -- and I had to have some Ewan inside of me immediately. You know how that goes. I ended up re-watching Velvet Goldmine, Trainspotting, Shallow Grave (which the above gif is from, of course), and finally last night I re-watched the one that got me into this beautiful mess in the first place, Phillip Morris. And I highly recommend every single one of those films -- they all remain smashingly good. What a great way to spend a weekend! I won't rank them since they are all super, but the happiest rediscovery for me was Velvet Goldmine, which I always knew I loved, and never stopped loving, but while watching it I realized that I hadn't seen it in a decade if even, and man that movie fucks! It just fucks one's brains out, you guys. For serious. I did a little live-tweeting of the experience which you can click on and follow below...

6 comments:

Pierce said...

Add The Pillow Book to your list. It's quite sexual and he's naked throughout a lot of it!

Jason Adams said...

I had seen all of these movies before but the crazy thing is -- I have never seen The Pillow Book! I've meant to for ages and I have of course seen the photos of him naked in the film, but I've never actually sat down and watched it. Good idea, Pierce :)

Anonymous said...

It’s strange because I LOVE Todd Haynes and Ewan but I don’t really like Velvet Goldmine all that much. Maybe it’s just because I’m not that music obsessed as Todd apparently is. But I think I should probably rewatch!

Shawny said...

I wanted to love Velvet Goldmine, but the flow of it was difficult to follow. There is a great story in there but it was all just jumbled and muddled. I feel like TH should release a redone version, a directors cut or something.

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad to see other people underwhelmed by VG. I usually only see raves for it but I just did not love it. I can barely remember a single thing about it. I think I may have even seen it twice since the first time was a blur and I can't even remember if I saw it a second time or not. There is just not one moment, image, performance, etc. that embedded itself in my brain, which is weird for a movie.

Jason Adams said...

Shawny -- re-watching it this time, so soon after having just re-watched Citizen Kane (and Mank) made me realize it's basically a re-do of Citizen Kane, which I am sure someone noticed at the time and I'm not busting it open here or anything but it put the entire thing into a structure I could work with. It's not an easy film for sure, it's all about the mutability of identity, but I think it's one that rewards multiple viewings -- I understood it better at my age now then I probably did at 20-whatever.