My Benjamin Button Fast - week 5 (done)

It's Benjamin Button Eve.

I'm glad that Sunday was devoted to babysitting my niece who's nearly three. So energetic and cute. My sister told me that Baby Gurl loved Hairspray (the musical), so I brought it. As expected, Baby Gurl loved the movie and had to dance along with it. Next to the Muppets dancing, uncoordinated toddler dancing is the funniest sight to behold.

As for Benjamin Button, I'm expecting my Amazon copy tomorrow and since I procured a $3.00 off coupon via the recent People's Most Beautiful issue, I will likely buy another copy for lending out.

I'm trying not to listen to the soundtrack in order to honor the promise I made to myself. And frankly, going to bed seems to be the only solution to avoiding the temptation.

I can't wait until tomorrow.

My Benjamin Button fast - week 4 (done)

Nine more days, give or take, before Benjamin Button hits the stores. I pre-ordered my DVD on Amazon.com -- fingers crossed that it will arrive on time or a little early.

This week, I planned to rent flicks which featured both Brad Pitt and selected Benjamin Button cast members. I already own Babel, which featured Cate Blanchett and Ellie Fanning as his wife and daughter, respectively; kinda weird that Cate and Ellie were Benjamin's Daisy at different ages. I also have Burn After Reading, co-starring Tilda Swinton. More than anything, BAR proves Pitt and Swinton's versatility; the idea of dim bulb Chad going up against icicle through the eye Katie is all kinds of wrong. The Benjamin/Elizabeth romance, on the other hand, was touching and deliciously naughty.

Legends of the Fall and Snatch were possible rentals. In Legends, Julia Ormond was Susanna, the object of the Ludlow men's affection; in BB, she was Caroline, Benjamin's daughter. And in Snatch, Jason Flemyng was Darren, one of barefisted boxer Mickey's buds -- he rocked one helluva mullet in that flick; in BB, he was Benjamin's absent father, Thomas. Fight Club and Se7en, showcasing David Fincher's direction, were possibilities, but I just rented FC and could really get sucked into it again and Se7en is very difficult to watch. Although the death didn't happen onscreen, Fincher did a too good of a job drawing a mind picture of how that poor prostitute went out.

5 7 6 seems out of the question because of time constraints. BB may arrive early; I just got another MST3K box set; and I have babysitting duties next weekend. An energetic 2 year old who apparently likes musicals like Hairspray. I thought about renting a High School Musical, but I don't want to pull that little girl into a cult that could get expensive for her mother down the line. More than likely, I'll bring my Hairspray DVD, but I'm hoping that lil girl will run herself silly around the house. She's a good little girl, but her energy is just insane.

CBS Sunday Morning nearly derailed me. The show featured a segment about photographer Walker Evans' personal postcard collection. I literally heard Alexandre Desplat's Postcards in my head; that piece of music was in my favorite scene of the whole movie. But I will continue to not listen to the soundtrack. I want to stay intellectually pure until I have the DVD in hand.

I know that I sound like a Trekkie or an overzealous freak fan, but I've been indecisive when it comes to selecting a favorite film. Benjamin Button snuck up on me and is not letting go.

May 5th can't come too quickly.

My Benjamin Button fast - week 3 (done)

A lesson learned: you can't blog and do 5 7 6 at the same time, or rather, I can't do 5 7 6 the way I wanted to; nevertheless, I was satisfied with my choices.

This Sunday reminded me of the Sunday when I started this fast. I had to drive back to my hometown to babysit my toddler-aged niece. I needed music for the road trip and since the Benjamin Button soundtrack was out of the question, I chose soundtracks from The Wiz (movie) and Gigi. Little did I know that those selections would make my mind travel back to Benjamin Button.

The Wiz, like Benjamin Button, was subjected to unfair comparisons by so-called critics. While The Wiz is considered a cult classic now, its brilliance was overshadowed by critiques fixated on what the movie wasn't instead of what the movie was. For me, The Wiz illustrated the history of Black Americans and some of the quandries that many of us have to endure and truimph over. Being told to or being bullied into suppressing one's intelligence (Scarecrow); being consumed with the fear of outliving one's usefulness and having to face that realization through the eyes of a loved one (Tin Man); being so overwhelmed by circumstances beyond your control that you are rendered paralyzed with fear (Lion); and balancing the need to nurture and protect with the desire and subsequent fear associated with venturing outside of your comfort zone (Dorothy). There's also the need to avoid false prophets (The Wiz); going into bankruptcy due to vanity (Emerald City sequence); seeing oneself through the eyes of an opportunistic leech who can only see their bottom line (Evilene and her sweatshop workers). Of course, there are those who would just repeat "But where's Garland, Bolger, Lahr, and Haley?".

As for Gigi... the age difference between Gaston and Gigi was pretty ticklish, like Benjamin and Daisy for the majority of BB. Mind you, Gigi could be construed as decidedly seedier since young girl Gigi was being prepped by her grandmother and great aunt to be Gaston's courtesan; but MGM had a knack of painting a pretty picture over something unseemly, as demonstrated by the numerous ways they tortured Judy Garland in order to bring corn-fed Dorothy Gale to life.

At any rate, I look forward to what else will leech out in the coming weeks.

My Benjamin Button Fast - week 2 (done): 5 7 6 weekend

Week 2 is done and surprisingly, it's getting a lot easier dealing with the Benjamin Button drought. Sure, some scenes still crop up in my head, especially when I'm doing my boring-assed job, but removing the BB tracks from my MP3 player has squelched some of the mind-wandering. Substituting some other music tracks on my player and just craving some variety, in terms of movie-watching, I took advantage of my local video store's everyday special: the 5 7 6.

5 general release movies for
7 days for
6 bucks

This locally-owned video store is huge and there is no doubt that if my first choices aren't available, I will always find something interesting. The following were my initial choices:

Meet Me In St. Louis - because of tracks from the That's Entertainment box set. I was reminded of Garland's charm that I had to rent my favorite Judy Garland film. If the video store didn't have it, Harvey Girls or Summer Stock would've been my alternatives.

Fight Club - because it's a Fincher flick and a perfect illustration that a Fincher audience has to watch his films very carefully to get more out of it.

Sons of the Desert - because I'm still feeling good about I Love You, Man. Mind you, the character dynamics in Sons of the Desert is decidedly darker than I Love You, Man, but it serves as a nice contrast. Plus, Mae Busch thoroughly rocks as Ollie's wife.

Jeff Dunham - because his purple puppet is so freaky-looking

Mystery Science Theater 3000 - because it's always a good default choice. Teenaged Strangler or Time Chasers would be the ones for this go-'round.

Well, getting two out of five choices seemed unusual, but I got them on a Friday, so it's not that surprising that someone else scored my first choices. However, the alternatives really hit the spot. The following are the movies I wound up with:

Meet Me in St. Louis - gotta say, I really liked how the DVD was packaged. I haven't watched the bonus features DVD, but was thorough pleased with the feature presentation. Plus, it was a nice reminder of Garland's talents, along with Margerat O'Brien's hilarious performance as Tootie.

Fight Club - I couldn't get the deluxe edition, but the basic DVD suited it's purpose. It's still amazing to me how I continue to find clues that I have missed over the last 10 years. For example, I noticed that, possibly, Jack projected some of Marla's physical attributes onto Tyler (spiky hair, vintage clothing, the smoking, the sunglasses, the weird fur coat, etc.). I also noticed that my initial contention that Jack gave Marla the same card that Tyler gave him was wrong; but I do think that the card given to Marla had the same drawing on the label of some of Tyler's soaps. And the business card (with Tyler's name on it) had a picture of two male angels facing each other. The angel on the left seemed to be talking to the more passive angel on the right. Throughout the movie, I began noticing Tyler and Jack's position within the frame; whomever was on left was in charge, unless the person on the left was in the background. It's still a fantastic film to watch.

Keeping Up Appearances - the comedy combination of Patricia Routledge and Clive Swift serves as a somewhat suitable substitute for Laurel and Hardy and Hardy and Busch. While Hyacinth Bucket isn't abusive like Busch, she does give her husband the blues. Hyacinth's Hardy-esque pompous and oblivious air and Richard's Laurel-like unwavering loyalty, along with well-executed slapstick comedy, promises many laughs. Discs 5 & 6 feature the Buckets going yachting, golfing, shopping for country cottages, and numerous other misadventures.

Hud - a classic flick I've never seen before. It starred Paul Newman as Hud, a very selfish bastard so determined to steamroll over his father for the family cattle ranch. Loved Melvin Douglas as Homer, Hud's father. Although I was firmly on the side of Homer, I couldn't help having my head turned by Newman's Hud. I can't stand that type of man in real life, but I could fry pancakes on my lady parts after watching that movie. Woof!!!

Some Like It Hot - Garland's vulnerability lead me to Monroe's. I really loved Marilyn in this flick. And Jack Lemmon just rocked the $h!t of the Jerry/Daphne role. I really miss Jack Lemmon.

I have no idea if I will do the 5 7 6 thing next weekend, but it is likely that something else will crop up while I try not to think about May 5th.

My Benjamin Button Fast - week 1 (done)

Last weekend, I decided to stop listening to my Benjamin Button soundtrack both at home and at work, in preparation for the May 5th DVD release. It's been a week since I've been Benjamin Button-free and quite frankly, it's tough.

Despite the campaign attempting to paint Benjamin Button as a Forrest Gump redux, I found this film to be among the more compelling fare offered by an American filmmaker in the last 20 years. Sure, film reviewers glossed over the fact that the film cover the span of a man's life and marvelled at the special effects executed in this film, but their critiques seemed short-sighted on so many levels. I read that reviewers were disappointed that the movie wasn't more emotional; my question to them is whether they can discern between emotional and manipulative. Another issue is the lack of active viewing on the part of these reviewers; I questioned whether they really watched the film, since I haven't read anything close to the conclusion that I arrived at; more than anything, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is an intricate puzzle involving Benjamin's origin and how the people who created him and subsequently abandoned him (whether by choice or by death) impacted his opportunities in life and the choices he had to make, more than the people who actually loved and raised him.

It was the fastest moving 2 hr 46 min film I ever watched -- so much so that I watched it numerous times in the theater. And when merely watching it wasn't enough, I bought the soundtrack, which made the replaying of the film in my mind more vivid. The monotonous paper-pushing I do during the day went by much faster, but I had to stop listening to the soundtrack because memories of the film was too close to the surface and I was afraid that I would ruin things for myself.

Home entertainment is a beautiful thing; maybe if the more vocal critics would watch this film, beyond the studio-subsidized screenings, without a snark-seeking agenda, then they could probably see that a character archetype that was historically used as a pawn received a redemption, of sorts, that was long overdue.