Popular

Jeff and I are finally settled in our new home in Montgomery. Jeff will be working at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival this year. ASF is one of the top regional theaters in the nation and is the only theater in this country who is allowed to fly the flag of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Pretty cool, huh?

One of the great things about our move is that we had a friendship ready made when we got here. Jeff's friend, Bert, and his wife Sarah live about twenty minutes away. We love them, though, really, when you first look at us, you would realize very quickly we have almost nothing in common. Bert is, to put it mildly, a good ole boy. He was born and raised in southern Alabama and has the accent to prove it. When Jeff was in high school, he and Bert spent many afternoons in Bert's hometown of Grady riding four wheelers, driving cars too fast on small dirt roads, and generally getting into trouble. Think "Jackass" minus the cameras. It's not hard to see where Bert and I might part ways.

Now, despite our major differences, we have great fun together. We love to hang out, if only to hear what stupid thing Bert has done recently and watch Sarah roll her eyes as she tells about the his most recent video game purchase. And finally, we hit upon something that all four of us love: MOVIES. Bert and Sarah love going to the movie theater and Jeff and I have more DVDs than is really necessary. Finally, I thought, common ground!

Okay, you've probably already guessed that Bert and I are not going to love the same movies. And it's true. I could watch "Bringing Up Baby" once a week and think I had died and gone to heaven. Bert's probably never heard of Cary Grant or Katherine Hepburn. Bert really loved "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry". I am not sure I can adequately describe here my feelings about Rob Schneider without reaching for some very nasty words.

And I'll be honest, I never expected Bert to like "The Fountain". If you haven't seen this movie, it's a very "artistic" movie, meaning that it's more about the way the movie is made, the ideas and characters, than about the entertainment value. It's a beautifully shot movie. If all you did was watch the movie with no sound on and just focused on the lighting he uses to tell the story, you could still tell what was going on. But, the story line is non-linear and the actors play more than one part in different time periods. It's no popcorn summer blockbuster--definitely not something everyone will love.

I did enjoy the movie. But Bert hated it. He didn't understand it, he found it boring, and so it has no value and no meaning for him. This certainly doesn't mean that the movie was bad. It has artistic merit. It is a story of life and death and actually, has the Christian theme of life coming from death, especially sacrificial death. And like I said, it was beautifully shot, well acted, and enjoyable for people who love art films, quirky independent films, etc. I really enjoyed it, though I appreciated it more on an artistic level rather than saying it was "entertaining".

It was somewhere in the middle of "Rush Hour 3", as I sat next to Bert crunching on popcorn, watching Chris Tucker utter some of the most awkward pieces of dialogue ever delivered, that I though "There has to be something in the middle." OK, I'll happily admit, I enjoyed "Rush Hour 3" for the most part. Yes, the dialogue was terrible. Yes, the plot was almost indiscernible and mostly superfluous. But, I laughed out loud at some moments, enjoyed the adrenaline rush of stupid, unbelievable action sequences, and relished in the pure joy of Jackie Chan and Tucker singing in 1940s era costumes. But nothing about it was artistic. No part of it pushed to a higher level of artistry or had any significant meaning.

My friend Drew was the first "artist" I knew who unabashedly enjoyed what was popular. Yes, Drew, I know you read this blog and I credit you with helping me enjoy popular entertainment. Which is a good thing, because my husband loves mindless action flicks. But I think there has to be some middle place where entertainment and artistry can meet. Take "Transformers" for instance. OK, so the mechanic girlfriend was mostly eye candy for the 14-25 year old male crowd, but this was a very well done popular entertainment movie. It had plenty of cheap thrills, it had comedic moments, and ultimately, it had a theme of good vs. evil, loyalty, all those things you want your kids to learn. You can see this in the comic books movies like Spiderman, X-Men, or my personal favorite, V for Vendetta, which so poetically explored political ideologies with kick-ass action.

But the movie I most fervently feel fits this criteria is "Stranger Than Fiction." This movie was quirky enough to be a small independent film, with all the budget and acting chops of a blockbuster. But especially, the script and story were just wonderful. I cared about the characters (a must in my enjoyment of a movie), I got caught up in the story, I laughed, I cried, I was entertained. But the story, the cinematography, the dialogue, and the acting made it more than just a popcorn flick. But you know what? Bert really liked this movie. People who don't always like movies liked this movie. People who are too snobbish to watch "popular" movies liked this movie.

I hope to write stories like that one. Something that can reach people from different walks of life, different points of view, and different movie preferences and bring them together in a well-done, smart, enjoyable movie.