For whatever reason, one which I cannot remember, I stopped
going to the movies many years ago.
There was a time when my friends and I would go nearly every
weekend. There’s been a long dry spell
that I’ve recently broken. The
reason? My two favorite
screenwriters/directors both had new films out.
I adore Lawrence Kasdan.
I first discovered him with The Big Chill. What an amazing movie, with a fantastic cast
and wonderful music. The story was great
as well. Then came Silverado, which IMHO
is the best western ever. I also love
witty, funny dialog, and Kasdan does it brilliantly. Being a wise-cracking, smarta$$ myself, I
truly enjoy when I hear witty dialog coming from the mouths of marvelous actors. It didn’t hurt that Kevin Kline and
Kevin Costner (whose scenes were cut from The Big Chill – he was the dead
friend) were in both. Oh, and Jeff
Goldblum was in both as well. Kasdan
also did The Accidental Tourist, a film I think everyone should see. This film, in my estimation, portrays grief
more honestly than anything I have ever seen.
I only recently discovered that Kasdan also wrote Continental Divide, a
film I really liked and the only thing other than Saturday Night Live in which
I enjoyed John Belushi. I didn’t see
Kasdan’s last two films, which both critics and audiences didn’t like.
A few weeks ago Lawrence and Meg Kasdan
were interviewed on NPR about their new film, Darling Companion. It is a small budget, independent film
distributed by Sony. It is only in
limited release. Nearly across the
board, critics hated this film. This
movie was right up my alley, however, so I knew that I had to see it. I am so glad that I did because I loved
it. The film stars Kevin Kline, Diane
Keaton, Dianne Wiest and Richard Jenkins.
It is up my alley because of the ensemble cast of wonderful actors,
written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan and it is about a dog rescued on the
side of a freeway by Diane Keaton and then lost by Kevin Kline in the Rocky
Mountains in Colorado. The story is
about the search for Freeway (the dog) and how family and friends come together during
the search. Anyone who has saved the
life of an animal will understand and enjoy this movie. I don’t like to give away endings, but
knowing how rescue folks think and feel, I must disclose that there is a happy
ending and you will certainly cry tears of joy when Diane’s character and
Freeway are reunited.
While I adore Lawrence Kasdan’s work, I worship the work of
Joss Whedon. The adjectives that come to
mind when describing Joss include but are not limited to: genius, brilliant, amazing, wonderful,
delightful, funny, articulate, daring and legendary. I am not alone in feeling this way. Those of us who are fan-atics are said to
reside in the Whedonverse. Don’t believe
me? Visit the weblog dedicated to all
things Joss & Joss related at http://whedonesque.com/.
I have seen everything that Joss has done,
with one exception. That’s his film
Cabin in the Woods. I don’t do horror,
bloody, gory horror. His works include
the best TV show in.the.history.of.television – BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER.
Nuff said?
No? There was the spinoff Angel,
followed by Firefly, then the unprecedented and truly original internet video
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long-Blog, starring Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion
and Felicia Day. Joss’ first film was
Serenity, the final ending to the prematurely cancelled Firefly TV series. His next venture into television was another
ground-breaking series Dollhouse.
Joss has a number of actors he works with frequently,
including Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Alexis Denisoff, Amy Acker, Felicia Day, Fran Kranz
and Eliza Dushku. Several of them will
be in his upcoming movie, Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, which was
filmed in 12 days at his California home.
He and his actors are like family and if you read interviews with any of
them, they all say if Joss calls they say yes to any project he proposes. Joss’ work is also filled with wisecracking
characters and is peopled with ensemble casts.
He has the ability to take you to the depths of sadness one minute and
have you laughing the next. With Buffy
in particular he was able to show the transformation of his characters to an
amazing degree. And, his work holds up
even years later. People are still
talking and writing about Buffy, which ended its run in 2003. There are college courses on Buffy the
Vampire Slayer.
So now I come to The Avengers, which is well on its way to
becoming the all time biggest grossing film in history. I was an avid comic book reader as a child,
but my childhood was the DC/Dell comic book era of Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman,
et al and The Justice League of America.
By the time Marvel Comics hit the stands, I had outgrown comic
books. I was not an Avengers fan and
have not seen the previous Avenger films like Iron Man, Thor or Captain
America. I knew, however, that since
Joss co-wrote the screenplay and directed the film that I MUST SEE IT. And that’s what I did this morning. I had spoken to two of my co-workers (one
whom I had already converted to the religion of Joss) who had already seen the
film. Both positively adored the movie,
along with the rest of American moviegoers.
OMG, OMG, OMG!
What a fantastic
film. The two and one half hour film was
over before I knew it. The dialog was
trademark Joss and superbly funny and brilliant. Not only the heroes, but the villain Loki – were
sheer perfection. I am not a special
effects junkie. In fact I generally
avoid movies that include more special effects than dialog and/or character development. I want a movie with character interaction and
connection. I want well written
dialog. This movie has all that plus the
special effects. And, besides all that
the superheroes and superheroine are believable. I was laughing, gasping and worried – again experiencing
so many different emotions (ah, Joss you gotta love him) that it was a helluva
rollercoaster ride. I don’t ride
rollercoasters, but I knew that I was safe in Joss’ hands. When the movie was over, I was jazzed. I seriously felt better than I had in years
and actually felt 10 years younger. What
an experience. I cannot wait to see it
again, and maybe even again. Now, one
can only hope that Disney isn’t as unbelievably stupid as I think they are and
they have already contracted Joss to pen and direct Avengers 2 and every other
Avengers movie to come until the world ends.
As always, Joss has left me wanting more, and that’s a very good
thing. He is the one addiction that I
hope never to overcome.
