It was a rare weekend where not only did I get to see a single movie at the theatre, but I saw TWO! Yeah, it was a pretty great weekend. The fact that one of them was really cool, and the other one was fun for entirely different reasons was pretty special as well.
Friday night Ryan and I went and saw Cloverfield at the Silver City. We got there about 15 minutes before the show, and had to sit in the front row…which kind of sucked for this movie.
The film is entirely shot on digital camera, and tells the “man on the street” tale of a small group of people caught in the middle of a massive monster rampaging through New York. It’s a film that is largely informed by our post 9-11 worldview, and I think it is probably just as influenced by the amazing documentary 9/11 as by Godzilla flicks.
The movie is incredibly short, less than 90 minutes long, and the first 20 or so minutes are just set-up stuff at a party. Normally I’d say that stuff was useless, but it’s effective in getting the viewer used to the camera technique and the lack of framing techniques. As much as “The Blair Witch Project” was told in a similar style, the fact that the filmmakers in Blair Witch were filmmakers means that shots are framed differently, and the movie is still largely dealt with as an a to b to c to d type story. Cloverfield is shot by the “characters” so very few of the shots are framed or well lit, it’s kind of jumbled, and very chaotic. They do some clever things with news footage to give you a little bit of a global view, but about 98% of the story is based on a very limited view of what is going on.
Saturday I took Kaylin to see “The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything” at the Rainbow Galleria. The movie was pretty standard kiddie fare with subtle religious overtones (the king at the end is a pretty blatant God analogue), but Kaylin really enjoyed it. She still hasn’t liked a movie as much as the B Movie. The only real problem with it is that it started at 1:20, which is knee deep into prime nap time, so she was pretty tigred when we got out. We made it to the street before she was asleep, and she didn’t wake up until 6:30, which means I didn’t get her back to sleep until 9:30 on Saturday.
Char was out of town, so it was Kaylin and I at Auntie Kari and Uncle Ryan’s for breakfast, and then off to Storybook Gardens for a freezing cold walk through the park, then some Starbucks, and back home for quiet / nap time (which turned into “ridiculously animated non-nap time”). We had a really good time together, and I think Char should go away more often so that the kid and I can bond.
Tonight as Kaylin was getting ready for bed she said to me. “Kaylin dot see-ay” then she giggled. Then she said. “Kaylin dot com. Kaylin dot see-ay.” and giggled. I don’t know where she got that idea, but she apparently has her own URL.