Well, dear readers, the heat here is insane. There, I’ve said it and I’m glad and I don’t care who the HELL knows it. Let me say it again for the cheap seats – the heat here is insane. I have the air on again – it was eighty-four in here. I’ve had it on and off for the entire day and for the entire day I’ve had it off, not necessarily in that order. I am listening to no music, although I might put on some “heat” songs – Heat Wave, Too Darn Hot, Hot Spell, Hit Me with a Hot Note, The Long, Hot Summer, Slow Hot Wind, In the Heat of the Night, and then top it off with Cool. Have I mentioned that the heat here is insane? Anyway, I did watch a motion picture or two last night – first, something I’d read about that people thought of as a little cult classic, a “horror” film called The Babadook. I wanted to check it out then, but it wasn’t streaming anywhere, and I didn’t even look to see if it was on Blu and Ray (it was and is). But Tubi had it, with endless commercials, of course, and so I watched it. I don’t love horror movies that are filled with “Boo” moments – they just irritate me to no end. That’s why I enjoyed Orphan so much – slow burn, and no “Boo” moments, but very effective and creepy.
And so it was with The Babadook, an Australian movie that never overstays its welcome. The good thing about it is it has more on its mind than your typical horror movie. It’s got a completely annoying kid in it who gets on your nerves from the start, and one wonders how mom, still grieving years later over the loss of her husband in a car accident as he was driving her to deliver the baby, can take hearing this kid’s voice and yelling. I don’t want to say more, other than a book that mom has never seen is brought to her for bedtime reading by the boy. The book is called The Babadook, a pop-up book that’s a horror movie unto itself. I enjoyed the film very much and the leading lady, Essie Davis, gives an absolutely fantastic performance. The film wasn’t a hit, but was really well reviewed and, as these things go, developed a large cult following. It opened here in LA on November 28, 2014 in one low-rent theater on Fairfax (the Silent Movie Theater) and video on demand the same day. The LA Times review was a rave and really “got” the film. Mirroring what I said above, the reviewer wrote, “At one point, as his (the boy’s) screeches fill the car, you may wonder how his mum has managed to go this long without strangling him.” He goes on to say, “And that’s the subtext running through the film – the threat of imaginary monsters and the real ones humans are capable of becoming.” The other paragraph that gets it right is, “While The Babadook is well-crafted enough to satisfy the screaming-teen set, it is not catering to that crowd. Kent (the director, Jennifer Kent, whose first film this was) has given us a grown-up horror tale in the tradition of Rosemary’s Baby, Psycho, and The Exorcist.” I don’t think it lasted out the week at that tiny theater. Of course, it was dwarfed by a Hunger Games movie, Interstellar, The Imitation Game, a couple of big animated things, and more. Those all had full page color ads. Here’s the ad for The Babadook – barely an eighth of a page.
This one’s highly recommended by the likes of me for all the reasons stated above. It and Orphan are certainly my favorite films in that genre of the past thirty years. I also watched The Exorcist III, a really oddball movie, the sole film directed by writer William Peter Blatty, who began writing comic novels and then hit the big time with The Exorcist. The Exorcist III is from his novel, Legion. He didn’t want the Exorcist title anywhere on his film but the idiot company who made it insisted. He warned them that The Exorcist II had been a disaster and that people would stay away for that reason. And they did. Because these idiot companies always think they know best. In fact, they forced Blatty to shoot an exorcism for the ending – there was none in the original cut of the film, but the owner of the company’s secretary insisted that there should be one. And it’s pretty terrible and kind of makes hash of what is a cerebral film – and occasionally very funny film – in fact, for the first ten minutes you’d think you were watching a Neil Simon comedy. There’s a faux director’s cut available, but uses VHS tapes for missing stuff – I’d like to see that. Speaking of a Neil Simon comedy, I watched a bit of Chapter Two, which I’ve never seen. I loved the play, which was perfectly cast with Judd Hirsch, Anita, Gillette, Cliff Gorman, and Ann Wedgeworth. The laughs were huge and it was very moving. How anyone thought James Caan could be right for the Judd Hirsch role (based on Simon himself) is astonishing. And he’s every bit as unfunny as you’d think. He’s actually embarrassing in the role. Marsha Mason is basically playing herself, as the play is about Simon and Mason meeting and falling in love.
Yesterday was not exactly a ME day. I did get eight hours of sleep, getting up around one-thirty, which left me little time to answer e-mails and do stuff before yet another Zoom session for the screenplay. That happened at three and lasted around an hour and fifteen minutes. We went over the remaining notes, and I fought not to do most of them and won. We made a few adjustments as we went. After that, I decided to have The Cheesecake Factory – my spicey chicken and cashews over rice. It’s a bit more caloric but it’s really good. And I’m pretty good at sussing out calories and I think their calorie count is two or three hundred too high. Anyway, it was very good, and I only ate half instead of gorging and being uncomfortable.
Then I sat on my couch like so much fish and began my viewing. I ate the rest of my food between movies. We locked in another fun cameo appearance for the web series, so that’s fun.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, and I will have a damn ME day and that is that. I may go dine out somewhere and eat something very reasonable, and I may make a show order – all songs have been chosen, thankfully and maybe I’ll start writing the commentary, but that will be it. I just want to enjoy the day even though this heat is apparently not abating anytime soon. I’m sure I’ll be watching a movie or two.
Tomorrow is a holiday Monday, so relaxing is the order of the day, Labor Day, a day without labor. Then the week really begins and it is going to be so busy with Kritzerland show stuff, web series stuff, and finalizing this draft of the screenplay, at which point we’ll have a couple of other folks read it. Then we have our first Kritzerland rehearsal on Friday, our second on Sunday, our stumble-through the following Tuesday and then the show on Wednesday and at that point, astonishingly, this month will be half over. Slow the HELL down, that’s what I say.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, have a ME day, eat, maybe do a show order, maybe start writing the commentary, but mostly I will watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, reminding all you dear readers once more that the heat here is insane.