I was home sick today so I went on a movie watching binge.
This was a gorgeous story of an elderly recluse with a dark secret, just looking for redemption. The film is thick with a mystery that runs as deep as the lines in Robert DuVall's face. The slow pace and quiet atmosphere really lends to the creeping feelings of loneliness and shame that our main character cultivate. Incidentally, Bill Murray is wonderful as the somewhat-sketchy funeral home owner with a past. Great movie. Also, super great soundtrack- lot's of old timey jazz and folk.
And speaking of hermits, this dude moved to an isolated spot in Wyoming, in the Wind River mountains, in order to live with a wild herd of mule deer and document their complex relationships and startling emotional depth. Oh, and he did it for almost seven years. The way this man develops what, if not friendship, is at least some sort of primal mammalian connection with
deer is just incredible. I was surprised at how emotional it was, as what started as a science experiment slowly turned into a family- or in this case, a herd. It's just under an hour and up on Netflix, you pretty much don't have a reason to avoid watching it.
I needed a palate cleanser (and wanted to stop using my brain so much to concentrate on GOOD movies) so I flipped on this cheeseball John Candy rom-com and flipped off my thoughts. Candy plays a 38 year old police officer who still lives with his overbearing Irish-American mother. He falls in love with Ally Sheedy, a young woman with social anxiety who works in a funeral home putting the makeup on cadavers. It was funny in a very 90's way, and I have a lot of nostalgia for John Candy, so my childhood love of his movies really helped this along. Plus, Ally Sheedy. Yowza. She could play the hot, awkward type like no other.
So there you have it. Old guys who live alone and funeral home workers. Those were my themes today.