I've Got A Fever, And The Only Prescription Is More Good Movies

Last week, after leaving early from work, I decided to spend my afternoon at the movies. Not a lot interested me, but I had heard strong positive buzz about District 9 , which I was anxious to see. The trailer hadn't won me over, but the marketing for it had allured me quite a bit. I hadn't slept much the previous night (because of a 7:30am shift at the museum), but, thinking the movie was going to be a tense sci-fi story, I thought I would snap out of my drowsiness in no time and be gripped to my seat. As it turns out, I dozed off about ten times throughout the movie, and by the end I was struggling to keep my eyes open and enjoy the narrative.

I left the theater feeling confused and very disappointed. Why had the movie been such a let-down for me? Perhaps it was because I had been drowsy the entire day and wasn't in a particularly energetic mindset - or maybe, given the lack of sleep, I was just plain ol' cranky. Regardless of my bad mood, I felt District 9 was trying way too hard to be topical (what with the whole "apartheid" symbolism and everything), and the protagonist came off as irritating in his actions and behavior, with his character arc being very predictable. Overall, the film's message was laid on a bit too thick for my taste, and it didn't pan out to be the nuanced, thought-provoking film I thought it was.

I got home, plopped on the couch and relaxed for a while - but my moodiness persisted. Why had this movie put me in such a rut? I couldn't figure it out...

A week later - this past Monday - I had an almost identical experience. I barely slept on Sunday night (painful cramp + neighbors hammering on the wall next to my bedroom = bad morning), and so, after doing some work during the first half of the day, I decided to keep myself busy and go see Inglorious Basterds. Surprisingly on this ocassion, I was fully engaged throughout the entire film and enjoyed it very much (despite Tarantino's constant self-indulgence in his long-winded dialogues). So - two similar situations in which "lack of sleep" was at play, and yet, each had different outcomes. With District 9, I went back home angry and disappointed at my choice of movie...yet after Basterds, I felt an inner "high" that cheered me up for various hours.

Big deal, right? So WHAT if I liked one movie over the other? Some movies are good and others are bad...Yet, why does this happen? Why did District 9 provoke such hostility in me - as if I had just been spurned by a girl - and Basterds made me want to whistle as I rode the subway train? Watching movies can be, in and of itself, a full-on sensory experience that can brighten - or bring down - any given time of day. Much in the same way that eating a Spicy Tuna Roll cheers me up, so does watching Jack Nicholson chase down Shelley Duvall through a creepy snowbound hotel. Along these same lines - having to eat olives, to me, is akin to being forced to see an awful Pulp Fiction "rip-off" with two horrible actors as protagonists. Yuck.

We all have our idiosyncratic passions in life. Sports fans camp out in tents outside of stadiums for days (and even weeks) just to get great seats to season games. This fervor is validated when their "interest" manifests itself before them in an emotional and spiritually-enriching way. If the fan's respective team plays spectacularly well, it reinforces the attitudes and reasons for why they follow this particular interest the way they do. However, if they play badly, the very opposite occurs: fans get belligerent and are quickly disheartened by everything they thought they stood for and believed in. Their zeal drifts off (albeit temporarily) and the cycle begins again as they try to regain that inner passion that they once felt.

Same thing happens with me with movies. One mediocre film can quickly ruin my day and vanish any sense of hope and optimism that I had for new, groundbreaking narratives. The feeling of emptiness that I get inside of me can only be gotten rid of by watching a good film that WILL once again reinforce that innate zest in me - the reason why I still keep caring...why I still "pony up" $12.50 every week to see a movie that I could very well download online for free - or could possibly be an atrocious piece of crap.

It's love, is what it is. We may get hurt 9 out of the 10 times we visit the movie theater - and feel heavily disappointed, rejected, cheated (sometimes even "used") - but it's all worth it, just to experience that one instance that comes along every once in a while that makes you a firm believer in your passion all over again.