Rob and I went to see Blow last night.
We were very impressed with the overall movie going experience. We got there ten minutes before the movie started and we had time to get snacks and good seats. The theatre was less than half full and the seats were actually laid out so that even a short person like me didn't have to worry about a tall person sitting in front of them and blocking their view. The crowd was a good one, almost no one came in after the feature started and everyone obeyed movie theatre etiquette. It was such a change from the last time I went to a theatre, which was in Chicago, where even on a matinee we were packed in like sardines, folks came in as far as half an hour after the movie started and some psycho knocked over our drinks then tried to start a fight with me when *I* didn't apologize for having *my* drink spilled.
Yup, this is definitely better.
Blow was good. I really liked it. It was more of a character story and less of an action flick, but I dug that. While I can enjoy a good action flick with the best of them, there's something very delightful about finding a very engrossing, in depth story.
It was highly believable. Anyone that has done drugs or been in close contact with that particular world, will notice just how intensely realistic it was. It wasn't the sort of thirty second sound byte story, it was deeply personal but still had the cynical humor one becomes accustomed to in those sort of circles.
Every last detail was covered. During the scenes where he's dealing marijuana I found myself wishing I had a joint. During the scenes where he's dealing cocaine, it flashed me back to the few times I've done the drug, and made me feel like I was hanging out again with the coke heads I used to be friends with. They showed Depp as a young kid, on his own for the first time in LA to a repeat offender in prison at fifty. At no point did this look cheesy or contrived. When he came to LA, I felt both amused and embarrassed for him, trying to get into the drug trade while looking like a suburban boy from Massachusetts. When he was entrenched in the drug trade he looked slick and just seedy enough to be intriguing. When he was forty, in a cheap jacket with a beer gut, he looked slimy and gave me the creeps, because I was sure I'd seen that burn out on the streets of a major city before, and I had always walked faster when I saw him behind me. It was amazing. And it wasn't just Depp's character. His wife actually *did* look strung out on coke, and far too skinny, yet still trying to feign glamour in hair and makeup. This is a sight I have seen far too many times when one goes from casual user to serious problem.
It was a little over two hours long, but I didn't notice. I most definitely would "give it a thumbs up".
This morning I woke up, groggy as usual from more bizarre dreams, and checked voice mail. I got a call back for an interview for a customer service job. Oh good, no Target for me.
It seems all the exercise I have been doing has paid off. I really have been able to notice the difference. I'm glad. I'm also pleasantly surprised. I thought that it would take me longer than it has, but apparently not.
It would seem things are on the upswing.
Now I just need to get my Michigan ID.