"YOU GOT THE TOUCH!"

I don't know exactly what's wrong with me #i never do# but usually, the more popular something gets or the more it gets hyped, I lose interest real quickly. This happens mostly with movies; I'll hear something about something coming out, hear people just go on and on about how good it is or will be and I'll immediately be like, "Meh." But then, when some years go by and the furor dies, something happens where I become very interested in what I missed. I remember this happening with Harry Potter, most notably. I guess I'm some kind of "culture vulture"; I just want the leftovers after everybody else has had their fill. Well, this has happened again with Boogie Nights.

IT IS SO FUGGING GOOOOOOOOOOD!

Liz saw it, like a year ago, and she was telling me how good it is, and, as much as I trust her, I was still a bit skeptical. I think the only no-go on seeing it was Mark Wahlberg being the lead. I didn't really care for him cuz he's popular, even though I did like him in The Departed. But I was like, "Mark Wahlberg? Boo." It is a little ironic though that I didn't like him, but I pay more attention to Donnie, maybe because he's underrated. And I'm not alone in this, he wasn't P.T. Anderson's first pick #Leonardo DiCaprio was, which is a much bigger BOO.# but he was ultimately impressed and then, so was I.

Same thing happened with Aaron Eckhart and Heath Ledger; wasn't interested in either one of them until The Dark Knight. Though, I was shocked when I found out Ledger died.

I really like this movie, a lot more than I thought I would. It's actually very sweet. Everybody, for the most part, had some kind of childish innocence and optismism and they cared about each other. I geniunely felt for these people and teared up at the end, deeply touched by how much of a family they were. The ending song also helped, which is strange because the first time I heard that song, it was in a commercial for HSN or something. #he's very good at end themes#

I guess that is the power of cinema, how it can twist our emotions and change our perceptions on people, ideas, songs, and the like. That's the power of mass media.

It also made me realize how much I like P. T. Anderson. Punch Drunk Love was the first film I saw by him and I loved it, then it was There Will Be Blood which I LOVE love #Daniel Plainview is my Boo!# then came Boogie Nights and then today I watched Sydney #or Hard Eight# which was VERY good.

He has his dissenters who claim he's ripping off Robert Altman and heavily influenced by Stanley Kubrick, but I don't see that. Sure, he uses some of the same techniques, which anyone can use, but it HOW he uses that makes them his own. Is he original? Perhaps not entirely, but who has honestly done something TOTALLY popping fresh? Not everything Altman or Kubrick did was completely theirs. Film is art and art comes from inspiration. Taking someone's idea and changing it to create your own is not ripping them off, unless it is a direct copy that does not match up to or surpass the original.

On a lighter note, I must have been sleeping on PTA pretty damn hard because I remember him looking a little bookish, a little like Matt Stone, but NOW he looks a whole lot scuffier and a whole lot like Daniel #MY BOO# Plainview.

Compare this:

To this:

Damn, what a difference ten years make!


Also, he's partners with Maya Rudolph and they have a daughter.

They're holding hands! How cute?

SIDENOTE: Is it strange that
I really like to see interracial couples,
especially if it's a black female with
any other kind of guy,
but if it's a black man with
any other kind of girl,
the angry black woman
in me rises,
just a little?
I think it makes sense,
in a way,
but that's a blog
for another day...