Religion, Politics, and Tarantino: Redux

So you remember that handy-dandy guide I made regarding discussing all things Tarantino? I thought of another rule yesterday which I feel bares mentioning:

13. Try to not get too indignant when someone states they've only seen Pulp Fiction once, like a bajillion years ago, and they don't remember too much of it.Your reaction to that statement shouldn't be "You haven't seen that movie a thousand times?!?!?! You don't have it memorized and can recite it in its entirety on command?!?!?! What!?!?! We so totally can not be friends. I heretofore totally deny you're exsistence." A much as you'd like to react thusly, you should keep such thoughts to yourself. It's not your fault there are some poor pitiable people who don't get the genius of Zed being dead. You shouldn't stick your nose up at them. Instead, you should pity them from a distance and wonder what this world is coming to.

I guess I should explain this one a little bit. Yesterday I got my hair cut. It's usually not a big ordeal. I love my hair stylist. Sabrina is excellent and if you're ever in Redwood Shores and you need a sassy cut, I recommend her highly. I go in every 8 weeks with natty ends and frizzy hair, I gab with her for an hour, I come out looking smoking. It rocks. But somehow yesterday turned into a 'situation'. A hair stylist dilema let's say. Not a full blown fiasco, but an event nonetheless. I'll get to that later. Long story short, I didn't get to see Sabrina. I got handed over to another stylist instead. I wasn't exactly happy with it, especially because I could see Sabrina, punky hair, tattoos and all, not ten feet from me, coloring somebody else's hair and she wasn't going to cut my HAIR. Grrr. But I tried to make the best of it. It went o.k. for the most part. Then we started talking about movies and the genius of Black Snake Moan. "Hello Justin Timberlake." (Her sentiments, not mine). Then I made the mistake of trying to explain the whole Jules/Lazerus theory Fighting Nun had and she gave me a blank stare. She'd only seen Pulp Fiction once, like forever and a day ago, and she really doesn't remember it that well! What!?!?! Really!?!?! I mean, it's Pulp Fiction!?!? Pulp. Fiction. Pulp "What does Marcellus Wallace look like?" Fiction!!! How did you only see it once?!?!?! Jesus.

And, o.k., it's not like I couldn't understand only seeing it once, like ten years ago. The first time I tried to watch Pulp Fiction, I didn't understand it. I was an impressionable college freshman at the time and there were just certain things I wasn't ready for, the needle to the heart sequence being one of them. That first time I was like "There's a lot of things I'll do for Eric Stoltz, but sitting through this scene? Not one of them." and I was out. Like walked out of the theater out. It didn't help that Christopher Walken's famous Watch Monologue was the next scene. Couldn't handle it. Couldn't. And about 2 months later, I watched the ending all "I'm not going to dig it... but fine, second chance here we go." And then... "It's the wallet that says Badass ...." And then I was like "Oh, I get it now, heh." My issues with needle to the heart aside, the movie effing rocks!!!

But not everybody sees it my way. Just like not everybody *cough Fighting Nun cough* understands the awesomeness of The Sandlot, which I realized last night that even after not seeing it in like five years I still have memorized. "I take that back boy. You're not in trouble. You're dead where you stand." James Earl Jones killed it. 'Nuff said. Back to the point. I should probably let this one slide. And I think I did a good job of tempering the indignation at her statement, but sadly I didn't have much else to say after that. "So Black Snake Moan, yeah (trail off to silence)...." It's Pulp Fiction!!! I'm not sure where it stands in the pantheon of pivotal cultural moments, but its pretty high up there!! It's significant!!! Watch it again so we might have something else to talk about. Oh, and learn who Stephen Dorff is!!! Yes, I realize that's partly my fault. When asked what he's been in I could only recall like two movies. Where I could usually rattle off like a ton of movies, I was all "Uh.. He was in Blade and stuff." Blade was the best I could come up with. I couldn't think of Backbeat, Cecil B. Demented, nothing. Blade and Alone in the Dark were it. Oh, and I think I mentioned Feardotcom. (Snerk.) Come on brain!!! You're better than that. At least mention the Aerosmith video where Alicia Silverstone bungies from her belly button ring!!! What's wrong with you. Stoopid brain.

So yeah, I guess the rule goes like this: For all the poor bastards who haven't seen Pulp Fiction a bajillion times, rent it and give it at least two good run throughs to try and soak in some of its genius. For the rest of us who bask in Pulp Fiction's genius, let's try and not be too hard on the rest of them.

Movie Review: Black Snake Moan

Yeah, what he said. Look, maybe it's not an eleven per say, but it was pretty damn good. I loved it on a lot of different levels, maybe not on the same levels as Fighting Nun, what with the Hot Christina Ricci sex scenes being the main draw for him, but I still loved it nonetheless.
First of all, it's visually interesting. Say what you want to say about the movie, but Ricci chain writhing on a couch was really cool to look at, for reasons I can't explain. (Consequently Chain Writhing? My new all-girl goth-metal band name). The whole film I thought was visually beautiful and kind of stunning. Also beautiful and stunning? The soundtrack. I mean, I don't know about the actual soundtrack in actual stores, but if it has the song for which the movie was named, I want it. I want eeet bad. The music was hot and perfect. Loved it. Soundtrack in my grubby little hands now!!! Go-Go Gadget Soundtrack. Really.

It's not that I don't get what critics hate about this movie. I do. At some points it is easy to see that Jackson and Ricci are playing charicitures and not full characters. And just as suddenly, the movie changes course and it shows me something else I wasn't expecting. And yeah, Justin Timberlake was an odd choice as love interest. There were certain moments where I could tell the director went "O.k., give me anxious and nervous" and Timberlake answered back with an expression that said "constipated" or the director went "O.k., give me angry as hell" and Timberlake came back with full fledged bitch face. But yet I give him a pass because the movie just worked some how, either in spite of him or because of him I'm not so sure.

And it's not that I don't get the demoralization argument either. It's hard to let some of Rae's actions slide in the film. I get that, but for a film to truly demoralize women, it would have to demoralize all of them and S. Epatha Merkerson played Angela with such texture and grace even with such a small role like that that I don't see the demoralization at all.

Two interesting side notes that I feel is worth mentioning. First; am I the only one who thinks that "Rae" would be the easiest Goodwill attained Halloween costume ever? A trip to the salvation army for a bad confederate flag shirt and some cut-offs, followed by a trip to the hardware store for some chain, make sure you've got the white panties on underneath. Done. Easiest costume ever!!! It doesn't even require a bra!!!

Secondly, Shortly before we went to see the movie, Fighting Nun came up with this theory that Samuel L. Jackson's character is actually what happened to Jules when he went on the path of the straight and narrow. I laughed it off all, "Ha Ha, Jules plays the blues and ties white women up to his radiator Ha Ha." But after seeing the movie, I can't help but make those comparison. There's that moment where he's looking down at the bible reading and then he looks up at Ricci and I thought to myself "I'm trying Ringo. I'm trying real hard to be the Shepherd." and then later in the movie, Fighting Nun leaned over all "It's the blues guitar that says "Bad ass MotherF****er" and I had trouble containing my giggles. We haven't had that much fun with tangential movie related humor since that time we saw LoTR: RoTK in theaters. You know that scene when Sam is on the Mountain and looks at Frodo and is all "I can't carry the burden for you, but I can carry you," That is the exact scene where Fighting Nun leaned over and whispered "Rudy, Rudy, Rudy." I realize that's a really pivotal scene, but I get the giggles every time. Every Damn Time because Fighting Nun made that joke.

So yeah. Black Snake Moan. I loved it. And I'd see it again. In theatres. Which I might do anyway because Driver's License wants to go see it, and Fighting Nun has absolutely no qualms about slapping down the 10 bucks per ticket to see it again. I told you his Ricci obsession was far reaching.

Fighting Nun's Informal Movie Review: Blake Snake Moan

Bloody Munchkin: On a scale of 1 to 10, what would you give the movie?
Fighting Nun: 11, because Hot!

Black Snake Moan

So the other day I'm skimming over last month's issue of Spin in which they review Black Snake Moan, which based on the movie poster alone, I really want to see. So the movie critic gives it one star. A little discouraging sure but I wanted to find out why the movie got such a low rating. In the review, he describes a rather racy scene in which Christina Ricci gets it on with "a large black drug dealer, who plows her hard." My reaction to that statement was, 'I'm sure Fighting Nun would give the movie at least four stars.' And then "[Samuel L. Jackson's character] locks her to his radiator, and the camera licks its lips at the sight of a half-naked woman in chains." And then my reaction became "I'm amazed Fighting Nun hasn't run out and bought tickets right now."

The other night was the first night we got to see the trailer. Fighting Nun's eyes became as big as saucers, and, if I'm not mistaken, I heard some heavy panting going on. Apparently we're going out on opening day. Do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars, get thee to the nearest movie theatre. I have no choice in this matter.

Fighting Nun seems to have a cinematic obsession with Christina Ricci, which as far as cinematic obsessions go, not a bad one. I've had far worse. This means that not only did I have to sit through Prozac Nation for the sole fact that Ricci showed her breasts, but most recently I had to sit through The Gathering, which not really on my top ten of Ricci movies, I have to say. Don't get me wrong. I like Ricci alot, both as an actress and as a celebrity. She's chosen some interesting indie roles followed by some interestingly bankable mainstream movies. In other words, a Ricci movie is usually worth it just for the Ricci.

But this movie actually looks like it has things to recommend it, other than Ricci for Ricci's sake. Although Samuel L. Jackson's movies can be hit or miss (We shall not speak of the motherf***ing snakes on the motherf***ing plane), he is almost always good in them. He shows up and does the work and makes it enjoyable. And as far as I'm concerned, the rest of his career could involve one steaming pile after the other and he'd still get a pass from me just because of "Look at the big brain on Brad." He's good people is what I'm saying. I haven't scene Hustle and Flow, so I can't speak to whether or not this director is any good, but damned if I won't give this one a try. I mean, did you look at the movie poster? Really look at it? Sweet Jesus. If it wasn't enough for me, it definitely was enough for Fighting Nun. See at the movies on Friday, apparently. (Psst. Fighting Nun, I put of the poster just for you. Thought you'd enjoy it. Try not to salivate on your keyboard too much. You're welcome. Love, The Bloody Munchkin.)