I’m going to try to keep this short, mostly because my brain has been a jumble of dial-up internet noises and elevator music for the past week, but also because I didn’t watch anything that good these past two weeks.
I’m continuing my peripheral-viewing of The Simpsons. I’ve made it to Season 28 (yes, you’ve read that right. Season 28. I think they’ve reached 30-31 seasons by now? The math checks out, considering they premiered December 1989, which is a fact I unfortunately know off of the top of my head). It’s been interesting. I’ll be finishing up the show this coming week- my birthday week!- so in my next post I’ll talk about the show more in depth.
The first film of this session was a weird B-horror movie aptly titled Clown (2014). It’s about – you guess it- a killer clown- but at least this one was creative in how the clown got to murder. A caring dad (which already sounds fictional, so this movie had lost me about five minutes in) dresses up as a clown for his young sons birthday party using a clown suit he found in the closet of a house he’s the realtor for, only to discover after the party is over that he can’t remove the suit. This leads him to discovering that the suit is demonically cursed by an ancient nordic mountain spirit (a “kloun” or something, I don’t really remember how they pronounced it but it was an off-shoot of clown so just think of some way to mispronounce clown and go with that) who feasted on five children every winter. So this dad has to eat five children in order to be able to remove the suit. The acting wasn’t the best, but honestly points for originality. I could’ve done without them trying to claim that this ancient mountain devil-thing was where modern clowns came from though.
The next film I watched was actually a short I found on Disney+ called Out (2020). It’s about a guy who’s gay but in the closet to his parents. So, of course because it’s Disney and this is how they treat every minority apparently, he is magically transformed into an animal for most of the film. In this case, he trades places with his dog. It’s really cute, and I guess Disney is “trying” but I’d love more normal representation and less pandering that gets tucked away on its paywall-blocked platform. I’m a sucker though, so of course I still cried at the happy ending. I’m literally so easy to please. The bar is on the floor. In fact, it’s buried about a foot below the foundation that stabilizes the floor.
I rounded out this fortnight with a premiere viewing of Hamilton (2020), because of course I did. My family and I literally have nothing in common except for musical theater, so we were literally counting down the days until this was released for viewing. And yes, I am well aware that this show romanticizes and glorifies slave holders and yes I know the historical context of the show is riddled with inaccuracies but the theater nerd inside me still enjoys it despite all of this (without ignoring this, mind you). It’s fast paced, upbeat, and has helped me win at trivia games on multiple occasions.
It’s also quite possibly the first- and only- thing my dad and I have been able to bond over, and I really appreciate it for that alone. So I’m going to enjoy my dad and I harmonizing to Jonathan Groff’s King George III, and cherish the fact that, at 21 years old, I finally have fond memories of me and my dad together.
Unofficial Ratings
Clown
The most unrealistic part of this movie was the fact that it had not one, but TWO loving, caring, responsible dad’s in the main cast
OUT
I really need more information about that bookending supernatural dog/cat duo- all they did was cause drama, force a man who was clearly not ready to come out of the closet and then jump into a rainbow with Cher singing in the background and leave?? I need answers!
Hamilton
Another reason I’m happy Hamilton exists (whether I want to be or not) is that my cat has major car-ride anxiety but playing the Hamilton soundtrack is literally the only thing that calms him down. And no, I am not, in the slightest, joking about this
Film Student Watchlist 