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'Don't you know any other adjectives?'
May. 10th, 2004 03:25 amSome surfing shows that (argh) 'Joely' already has his own fanlisting. Of course. There's fanlistings for anything and everything. I'm not going to get myself listed there. Never understood the purpose of fanlistings.
Well, it's none of my business, but I think I would have called the listing 'Nice' instead of (arrgh) 'Joely'. It is his favourite adjective, and it describes him perfectly, and adds a bit of irony, as well. But then, irony may not be the strongest feature of fanlistings, I dunno.
Though, after reading dozens of reviews, I might be prone to calling a potential Joel Barish fanlisting 'Sad Sack', as many reviewers seem to be fond of that term in describing the character. *g*
Anything but (arrrgh) 'Joely', really.
Oh, well, none of my business. And anyway... Joel Barish fandom = good, so I shouldn't make fun of them. All eight of them. (Hah, MSB! Take this! So much for my taste suddenly veering towards that of the masses! *g*)
Seriously. If any of you Joel(y) fans read this, more power to you.
So. I went to London yesterday. (Anything to avoid revising - two days left, and hardly any chance of still passing the first exam, I think.) Met a few TORNados there, many of whom I've known on the forums since around 2000, but had never met. Among other things that we did, we went to the cinema.
You want to know what movie we saw? Well... three guesses. No, my current crush had nothing to do with the choice. They all wanted to see the movie, anyway. I just... accompanied them. Out of the kindness of my heart. It was a chore, I tell you. ;-)
Four times in eight days. I think that's probably a record, even for me, compulsive multiple viewer that I am.
And I'm still not tired of it.
The, ahem, cuteness of Jim Carrey in it is only part of the reason.
It is also a remarkably accurate portrayal of memory and dream - the odd logic of the subconscious. Possibly my favourite scene in that vein is (mild spoiler:) the one where Joel remembers his childhood and it suddenly starts raining in the bedroom. Clementine puts a book on her head like a hat, and Joel takes shelter under a table; the table, on another level of memory, is a roof, and we see Joel-as-a-boy holding a hand out into the rain from under the roof; then Joel-the-adult doing the same from under the table; then the table suddenly is a kitchen table, and Joel is four, playing under it, and Clementine is alone in the rain-soaked bedroom. That seamless shift between different levels of memory is just exactly what memory works like. (end spoiler)
More than anything else, it is a movie that somehow rings true for me, although I certainly don't have the experience with relationships to adequately judge something like that. But, just from my pathetic second-hand experience, it seems to capture quite a bit of truth about relationships - the good, and the bad.
Of course, the movie only feels so true on the emotional level because the actors are great and capture the emotional essence of their roles. And here we get back to the squee: some reviewer somewhere said something along the lines of 'who would have thought Jim Carrey would ever give a haunting performance?' Another reviewer chose the words 'preternaturally touching' for him in this movie. I tend to agree. There's something in Jim Carrey's tall, gangly, slightly slumping, in-need-of-a-haircut, painfully shy Joel that makes me ache for him with an overwhelming tenderness.
I am not talking about the kind of sex appeal here I was talking about a few months ago when I discovered Finder. This is different. I don't want to jump into bed with Joel Barish. I just want to... I dunno. Hug him, perhaps. Especially when he says, 'I loved you on that day.' Or, 'Please let me keep this memory. Just this one.' Pleading, whispering. Also, the dialogue between him and Clementine at Barnes & Nobles, while the spines of the books are inexorably going blank in the background - tenderly, sadly replying to her almost aggressive challenge, 'I remember that speech really well,' with so much regret and love, and then, 'I still thought you were going to save my life. Even after that.' And then the loss expressed by his whole body when he opens his eyes and she's gone. And later, close to the end, the way he says 'I wish... I wish I'd stay.'
Jim Carrey has an enormously expressive face, not just for grimacing stupidly, but also for expressing complex feelings. He has a very strange face, actually - in many shots it almost looks as if every one of his grimaces has already taken its toll - he looks almost prematurely aged sometimes, an impression that is increased by some patently unfriendly lighting and the unshaven look. You can sort of see where the age lines will be in ten years or so.
He also uses his voice really well here - some of the most touching moments for me are scenes where we don't actually see him, but only hear his voice-over to the scenes we see.
Amazing that that movie came out of the same mind that created Being John Malkovich. Being John Malkovich was in some ways brilliant, but it was also a movie that made me cold - very cynical, with little hope of any kind of real warmth between people. Imperfect as the relationship between Joel and Clementine is and bitter as it ends(?), there is still something very real and warm there, a core of real feeling.
One thing is very similar here to Being John Malkovich, though: Charlie Kaufman movies always manage to make their protagonists look about as grungy and unglamorous as possible, no matter their movie star good looks. John Cusack as puppet player Craig Schwartz (or whatever his name was) and Jim Carrey as Joel Barish clearly have the same hairdresser and shop at the same places... Not that I mind. After all, I look like that myself, sorta. I'm happy to finally see someone on screen who also doesn't seem to care!
Well, it's none of my business, but I think I would have called the listing 'Nice' instead of (arrgh) 'Joely'. It is his favourite adjective, and it describes him perfectly, and adds a bit of irony, as well. But then, irony may not be the strongest feature of fanlistings, I dunno.
Though, after reading dozens of reviews, I might be prone to calling a potential Joel Barish fanlisting 'Sad Sack', as many reviewers seem to be fond of that term in describing the character. *g*
Anything but (arrrgh) 'Joely', really.
Oh, well, none of my business. And anyway... Joel Barish fandom = good, so I shouldn't make fun of them. All eight of them. (Hah, MSB! Take this! So much for my taste suddenly veering towards that of the masses! *g*)
Seriously. If any of you Joel(y) fans read this, more power to you.
So. I went to London yesterday. (Anything to avoid revising - two days left, and hardly any chance of still passing the first exam, I think.) Met a few TORNados there, many of whom I've known on the forums since around 2000, but had never met. Among other things that we did, we went to the cinema.
You want to know what movie we saw? Well... three guesses. No, my current crush had nothing to do with the choice. They all wanted to see the movie, anyway. I just... accompanied them. Out of the kindness of my heart. It was a chore, I tell you. ;-)
Four times in eight days. I think that's probably a record, even for me, compulsive multiple viewer that I am.
And I'm still not tired of it.
The, ahem, cuteness of Jim Carrey in it is only part of the reason.
It is also a remarkably accurate portrayal of memory and dream - the odd logic of the subconscious. Possibly my favourite scene in that vein is (mild spoiler:) the one where Joel remembers his childhood and it suddenly starts raining in the bedroom. Clementine puts a book on her head like a hat, and Joel takes shelter under a table; the table, on another level of memory, is a roof, and we see Joel-as-a-boy holding a hand out into the rain from under the roof; then Joel-the-adult doing the same from under the table; then the table suddenly is a kitchen table, and Joel is four, playing under it, and Clementine is alone in the rain-soaked bedroom. That seamless shift between different levels of memory is just exactly what memory works like. (end spoiler)
More than anything else, it is a movie that somehow rings true for me, although I certainly don't have the experience with relationships to adequately judge something like that. But, just from my pathetic second-hand experience, it seems to capture quite a bit of truth about relationships - the good, and the bad.
Of course, the movie only feels so true on the emotional level because the actors are great and capture the emotional essence of their roles. And here we get back to the squee: some reviewer somewhere said something along the lines of 'who would have thought Jim Carrey would ever give a haunting performance?' Another reviewer chose the words 'preternaturally touching' for him in this movie. I tend to agree. There's something in Jim Carrey's tall, gangly, slightly slumping, in-need-of-a-haircut, painfully shy Joel that makes me ache for him with an overwhelming tenderness.
I am not talking about the kind of sex appeal here I was talking about a few months ago when I discovered Finder. This is different. I don't want to jump into bed with Joel Barish. I just want to... I dunno. Hug him, perhaps. Especially when he says, 'I loved you on that day.' Or, 'Please let me keep this memory. Just this one.' Pleading, whispering. Also, the dialogue between him and Clementine at Barnes & Nobles, while the spines of the books are inexorably going blank in the background - tenderly, sadly replying to her almost aggressive challenge, 'I remember that speech really well,' with so much regret and love, and then, 'I still thought you were going to save my life. Even after that.' And then the loss expressed by his whole body when he opens his eyes and she's gone. And later, close to the end, the way he says 'I wish... I wish I'd stay.'
Jim Carrey has an enormously expressive face, not just for grimacing stupidly, but also for expressing complex feelings. He has a very strange face, actually - in many shots it almost looks as if every one of his grimaces has already taken its toll - he looks almost prematurely aged sometimes, an impression that is increased by some patently unfriendly lighting and the unshaven look. You can sort of see where the age lines will be in ten years or so.
He also uses his voice really well here - some of the most touching moments for me are scenes where we don't actually see him, but only hear his voice-over to the scenes we see.
Amazing that that movie came out of the same mind that created Being John Malkovich. Being John Malkovich was in some ways brilliant, but it was also a movie that made me cold - very cynical, with little hope of any kind of real warmth between people. Imperfect as the relationship between Joel and Clementine is and bitter as it ends(?), there is still something very real and warm there, a core of real feeling.
One thing is very similar here to Being John Malkovich, though: Charlie Kaufman movies always manage to make their protagonists look about as grungy and unglamorous as possible, no matter their movie star good looks. John Cusack as puppet player Craig Schwartz (or whatever his name was) and Jim Carrey as Joel Barish clearly have the same hairdresser and shop at the same places... Not that I mind. After all, I look like that myself, sorta. I'm happy to finally see someone on screen who also doesn't seem to care!
