bubblegum pink boxes with blue ribbon
on why we love talking about movies
Who would’ve thought a conversation between 3 adult men with a love for movies and the enthusiasm to assign highly specific awards, like the “Luke Wilson could be Harrison Ford” award, would entertain me for 2 hours. Their podcast, The Rewatchables, made me wonder: what is it that makes us love talking about movies?
{ Setting the scene - where I listened to the Rewatchables podcast on The Grand Budapest Hotel } The drive back to Toronto from the cottage is about 3 hours on a prime summer weekend. When the sun is out, so are Torontonians. Think the Hamptons Jitney from the episode of Sex in the City where weathered New Yorkers set off to the Hamptons to try and relax the best they know how. I’d imagine with a cigarette in one hand, a 3 week old magazine in the other and an itch to do something because its not in them to sit still. Party, date, find a restaurant, write a book. Torontonians flock to lakes and camp sites and beaches because they need a taste of nature to prove the summer has actually started. We know how to recharge.
The Rewatchables podcast, even just as a concept, proves how much people love talking about movies. The guys yap about their personal rewatchable favourites for 1-2 hours. Sharing what they’re excited to show their kids…Fantastic Mr.Fox at 4 years old and The Grand Budapest Hotel at 13; how the casting made the movie, and how without that one actor who was only on screen for a total of 2 minutes it wouldn’t be as interesting, funny, or clever; lines that they will happily wait 1 hour to hear; scenes that make them wish “Hey! Why can’t I have that? Why can’t I have funicular travel?”
Production is the unseen part of movies that people who care dive into with tenacity. Directors can’t live without their trusted Producers. They bring the magic into the real world because there is no magic without budget. Now thats a sentence my business school would be proud of. Phone calls, location scouting, ringing in favours. I realized my interest in the background work when the Rewatchables gang mentioned that Wes Anderson’s right hand producer, who’s name I don’t remember, made the highly specific world possible with a tight budget. From movie stars to sets. Without this podcast and their delight in the details, I honestly wouldn’t have given it a second thought.
Now I understand the details that make the Grand Budapest Hotel so rewatchable for me. The hotel lobby desk stationary. The bubble gum pink bakery boxes with blue ribbon. The red walls of the elevator. The fundamentally unmaintainable mustaches. The outbursts and one-liners and monologues that paint a character. Everything is just so, and it all matters when world building.
angel cake’s recent article “hey so, nobody talks like that” goes into why the Materialists movie irked her, among other peeves she’s felt this july. I haven’t seen it yet, but I understand that New York is a focal point. Dialogue, sets, plot, colour, overall creative direction all meant to reflect the city for audiences from Alaska to Australia to feel the magic of the most famous city in the world. To her it was so far from how people actually talk that she left flushed with irritation. This coming from a New Yorker on a movie thats supposed to prop up New York and its glittering, distinct inhabitants. angel has every right to challenge this movie.
Its obvious to me when dialogue hits the mark. I can feel when a character has personality. When they have a voice. We all pursue this in real life, too. To express who we are and what we think in a way thats uniquely us. Maybe thats the writer in me who wants to connect the dots between every conversation and observation, and write things in my own distinct voice so if someone finds my journals in 30 years they can hear who I am. Clearly. I also want to pitch business things with confidence and build a reputation on reliability and un-burdened creativity. That doesn’t happen without an authentically me voice. Who trusts a robot?
Either way, hearing angel cake’s take on Materialists told me more about her than she might have intended. It felt intimate. I wondered why that was for a second and then moved on. But, my 2 hour drive with the Rewatchables still lingered with it in the back of my mind.
Theres a special day in May when I can feel summer coming. The sun gives my winter skin a little burn and half the male population is wearing shorts and my local barista friend asks “are you switching to iced?”. This fell on day 2 of celebrating Emma’s 25th birthday. Emma declared that evening “Cat, I CAN’T believe you’ve never seen Parent Trap. Lets watch it. Its completely campy and nostalgic, a summer movie through and through. You will love it.” 2 of us curled up on my two-seater turquoise couch, 2 of us sprawled on the carpet, and we were sucked into the old days when every day revolved around the lake and picking our chicest sweatsuit for that evening’s campfire.
By the end my cheeks were stained with tears, eyes bloodshot and puffy, and lips in a Florence Pugh frown thats somewhere between heartache and bliss. I could feel a dehydration headache coming. “I told you!” Emma said between cackles.
Emma knows me. angel cake knows New York. The Rewatchables know Wes Anderson’s zany world. Movies give us the chance to show what we know, which in turn shows what we love and what we care about.
I feel known when a friend recommends a movie because they know I’ll fall right into it. I feel special when they have to watch it by my side to see my reaction. I want to hear strangers and friends share hot takes on cities I haven’t walked yet, moments I haven’t felt yet, why a scene is totally bogus or life altering to them…making me consider my own opinion. Its wonderful to be so taken with a movie that you need to talk about it and dive into the ideas that you can’t get out of your head. I want to be immersed into a gorgeous and funny and clever and comforting and real world outside my own.
Theres always a string that connects a movie I love, or want to see, back to my real life. My real wants. Something I just have to ask someone about, or have to see for myself, or have to experience one day.
So, next time you’re sitting down with the big screen, pay attention to what you pay attention to! You might notice that you care about the perfectly placed stationary on the hotel lobby desk. You might even realize the movie wouldn’t be the same to you without it.
Breaking the 4th wall after the main course because this is supposed to reflect my journal and these are valid notes that add context to why I do anything that I do! If you want to know me a bit more this part is for you.
ON JUST DOING THINGS - I’m pushing myself to share something every week of July. I want to get into the habit of making what I care about exist before worrying about making it perfect. The pages of my journal are safe and removed, but I want to see what could happen if I share with you. Nothing flashy, just observations and conversations that stick!
ON BACKING STUFF UP - I thought I lost this whole entry to the dark depths of my fatal flaw: never backing things up. By this point I should have some kind of system, its not 2010 and I’m not at the do-or-die moment in a movie about a journalist. But somehow, I know I’ll never do it. I will always gravitate towards writing on paper and thats permanent as long as I date and title the entries correctly. I wonder how many unhinged, lusty, groundbreaking, golden articles were lost to the depths in the tumbr & personal blog era? A shame.
THANK YOU FOR READING! CHAT SOON MY AMAZING FRIEND.
CAT