Ennui, Cubed and Squared:

[jrittenhouse]

I’m come to the conclusion, especially after reading the MSNBC review, that I would rather have my teeth removed with a buzzsaw than watch REVOLUTIONARY ROAD.   I don’t need anything depressing, and people flailing each other over their own shallow talentlessness and devising stupid schemes to Run Away in the process - oy.  Gevalt, even.

If you

Comments

[catbirdgirl]

o ok. thats what that was. for a moment I had a horrid vision of a new reality show where people tried out different ways of being revolutionary from different eras... the beats vs the hippies vs grunge etc.

[jrittenhouse]

The title comes from a Ye Olde Coloniale housing development in Connecticut that they live in and is supposed to be a play on their situation.

[wordweaverlynn]

It looks to me like a singularly miserable movie about singularly shallow people. My prescription for their angst? "Take two real problems and call me in the morning."

OTOH, Far From Heaven (which I saw with rmjwell) struck me as both beautiful and painful. It's the same group of upper-middle-class suburban white people, but these characters are grappling with something genuinely difficult in the context of their times. (And not that bloody easy now.)

[jrittenhouse]

I agree. I had my own problems with FAR FROM HEAVEN being somewhat over the top in parts, but I thought it deal with the problems of the day and ennui and the whole thing a whole lot better than what I was catching about this one.

[popebuck1]

We started watching a screener copy of the DVD yesterday afternoon, and everyone dozed off within the first half hour. Honest to God.

[jrittenhouse]

After the last half-dozen years, I have overdosed and then some on boring, pseudo-arty movies in which everyone is miserable and an inch from homicide or suicide. Last year was just depressing as hell, Oscar-movie wise (as least for the subject matter).

[popebuck1]

My friend Rob once wrote a short play called "Generic Play Festival" which encapsulated about twenty really cliched dramatic formats. One of them was "Family Drama," and I believe it went something like this:

MOM: Here we are at our family reunion! Aren't we just so upper-middle-class and happy!

SON 1: I'm gay and have AIDS!

SON 2: I'm going broke!

DAUGHTER 1: I'm pregnant!

DAUGHTER 2: I'm married to an asshole everyone hates!

DAUGHTER 3: I've tried to kill myself four times now!

DAD: I'm dying of cancer!

MOM: Wow, I guess in retrospect, my opening comment was more than a little ironic.

{CURTAIN}

[rmjwell]

Okay, how many of this year's Oscar contenders fall into this trap?

[see_tree_me]

As an antidote, rent "Down with Love" with Renee Zelwegger and Ewan MacGregor. :)