Dave J

Elected to lead, not to read or... The Devil Buys Prada

I certainly don't mean to overrun any of the fine handful of blogs that have been posted in the last 24 hours, so I encourage everyone to check them out. Especially if you're looking for more good thoughts on... let's call it, "life," and not whatever I'm doing.

So, on with the show.

This past week has been an interesting one for a few of WT's NYC members. Monica and I went to a preview screening of Pixar's new film Ratatouille on Saturday (more on that later), and during the film her wallet managed to get stolen out of the purse under the seat. Perhaps we should have been more cautious, but you know, when something doesn't happen in four years of residency, you start to let down your guard. After taking the wallet and its treasures within, they proceeded to go immediately to the Prada store a few blocks away, where they spent $2000 on her debit card to buy four items. Now first of all, Prada doesn't have security cameras, if you can believe that, even though their store must be worth several hundred thousand dollars in inventory. Also, the manager swears they checked ID on the transaction, even though the thieves were two black women, which would have contrasted sharply with Monica's actual picture. Oh well. Jason got his backpack/wallet stolen as well, which I'll let him describe if he wants to. It turns out having no wallet/ID/Metrocard/anything is a real pain in the ass. Thanks Prada!

At the very least, however, we got to see Ratatouille. This is one of those movies I will gladly shill for because there is a lot on the line financial-wise, in that Pixar is no doubt being counted on to show some return on their massive purchase price paid for by Disney. So if you want to see less Hoodwinked , Happily N'Ever After, Shrek 400 et al, and more intelligence, vote with your money. It's my second favorite film of the year so far, which is no small feat for a "family film." But really I think that says more about our concept of the family film than it does reality, because although commercialized, poorly made dreck has made the thought of many PG films poison for anyone not burdened by choosing some mindless babysitter-on-film for the squealing entries from their gene-cess-pool, that doesn't mean the possibilities are non existent for sharp writing and "mature" themes, even without their common calling cards (rat nudity, swearing, and so forth). For example: Ratatouille has the greatest seduction scene I've seen in years. It's also one of the most emotionally rewarding films I've seen from mainstream Hollywood in at least a decade. Seems incongruous, no? It's the truth. So buy yr tickets ASAP and enjoy Peter O'Toole in what I can only imagine will be one of his last film roles, giving a tremendous speech about the nature of food criticism that closely mirrors my own concept of film criticism. Godard would be so proud.

This and Knocked Up coming out in one summer is very rare indeed (and the Simpsons Movie is still a month out!); it seems like comedies are the genre people most desire but also the genre that delivers least often. For every true gut-buster there are at least 20 shitty derivatives that nobody remembers after six months, let alone six years. From all reviews so far, it looks like Evan Almighty will be in the latter camp--even with its budget being the highest ever, to which the Onion AV Club had the great quip that the film pays roughly $50 million a laugh--while some of my favorite comedies are shoestring marvels. Mutual Appreciation? $50,000. You could literally make 3,440 Mutual Appreciations for the cost of one Evan Almighty. That better blow your fucking mind.