Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Slipstream, baby

Stumbled across a very cool movie last night.

It was Joe Tuesday Movie Night. I always look for something a little off center because I am alone on Tuesdays and Carol does not enjoy twisted movies as much as I do.

I have been doing the Redbox thing because the movies are more current and I have more control, but I had to jet out of the house early yesterday morning, I was pressed for time and I wasn't able to reserve a movie.

Trolled through Starz and came across Slipstream. This is a 2007 movie written and directed by, and starring Anthony Hopkins. I figured how the hell can you go wrong if it is Anthony Hopkins' baby?

I was right.

By the way, my sense of time is so warped now that I don't even know which millennium I live in. Time truly does speed up as you age and your body and brain slow down. I saw 2007 and thought "This is a fairly current movie."

2007 was 9 goddamn years ago. What the hell is going on here?

After getting in to the movie I was amused by the brief listing in Starz - "starring Anthony Hopkins and Jeffrey Tambor." (Google Tambor - you will recognize him immediately.)

But it also starred Christian Slater, John Turturro, and S.Epatha Merkerson (Law & Order, baby - how can you forget a name like S.Epatha?).

This movie was so goddamn good it blew my skull wide open, resulting in my brain splattering all over my goddamn pizza.

(Movie memory: "My father made him an offer he couldn't refuse. Luca Brasi held a gun to his head, and my father assured him that either his brains, or his signature would be on the contract.)

But I digress.

Here is the website description of the movie: "Aging screenwriter Felix Bonhoeffer has lived his life in two states of existence: in reality and his own interior world. While working on a murder mystery script, and unaware that his brain is on the verge of implosion, Felix is baffled when his characters start to appear in his life, and vica versa."

The movie was all that and more. Moving back and forth, weaving in and out, bouncing from reality in and out of Felix's brain, I was riveted by the story, by the insanity and by the characters.

In particular, Slater and Tambor play a couple of really evil guys, and Turturro is completely insane.

Hopkins used a lot of jump cutting (cool industry term, eh?) and flashbacks and time perversion to keep me off balance, which he did marvelously well.

When I troll HBO or Starz for twisted movies I am let down as often as I strike gold. But I was truly rewarded last night.

Slipstream fascinated and entertained me, challenged me and surprised me.

For a guy who is eternally bored, that was a supreme treat.

If you would like to actually feel alive for an hour and a half, go find this movie.

It will reshape your mentality.


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