If you’ve learned anything about me these past months (holy smokes – I’ve been blogging nearly 24 of them!), I am drawn to the odd, quirky, and kooky. I often do not like what others like. I did not like Titanic. I will not see Avatar. I don’t care how freaking fantastic the special effects are, the story just doesn’t interest me, and if I’m going to sit in a theater for 150 minutes, I better be interested. Don’t get me wrong, either. I love a blockbuster: Superman, Spiderman, X-Men, and all the Bourne movies are terrific. The latest Star Trek had this frugal gal and the hubster so jazzed that we forked over big bucks to see it on a gigantic screen. We were not disappointed, either!
But, for the most part, these are the kind of stories that interest me – everyday life with a twist. They are usually a little bit funny, a little bit sad, and very interesting. You know that though. So I guess, I should say, here’s more of the same from me.
A lonely German woman makes a new life for herself after leaving her husband on a trip to Las Vegas. With her tenacity, strong coffee, and kind ways, she befriends Brenda, the curmudgeonly woman who runs the cafe and motel where she is staying, all the while breathing new life to the place, magic, if you will, and into the lives of all around her. This is one of the first movies the hubster and I rented together. The theme song has always stayed with me.
Joe Morton (from Terminator 2: Judgment Day – a James Cameron film I liked) plays an escaped slave from, you guessed it, another planet. Mute and possessing only three toes on each foot, he is otherwise human. He lands, quite appropriately, at Ellis Island, and ends up in Harlem where he befriends the regulars of a bar and is helped to get a job for fixing an arcade game with his magical healing powers. He need only touch an object or person and all is well. His real troubles begin when he is chased by two very cat-like bounty hunters in black (director Jon Sayles and David Strathairn). A great film about race, slavery, and the modern drug problem (through the lens of 1984). This may take the cake in the odd category.
Despite being a brilliant Ivy League graduate, and much to her parents confusion and consternation, Jaye Tyler has chosen to live a rather aimless life in a trailer and work at Wonderfalls, a gift shop adjacent to Niagara. When a deformed wax lion suddenly speaks to her, her life takes a drastic turn. She listens, heeding the instructions, not only of the lion but to an ever increasing number of objects, flamingos, a ceramic cow, a brass monkey, taking her on wacky adventures that change lives, including her own.
