Joanna wanted to see Capote, so we did. I’ve read In Code Blood, so there wasn’t a whole lot new for me there. It seems like the man must have been far more interesting than the movie bothered to portray. The plot was weak at best– Hoffman’s portrayal, while clearly technically difficult, seems to be the only thing the movie has going for it. C.

She also wanted to see Boys Don’t Cry. I suppose that I have a somewhat odd view of movies, in that I’m really not interested in being pummelled with a constant reminder of how horrible our world is. I’m relatively aware of its awfulness, and chose not to stew in it. C-

Joanna had seen Reality Bites and suggested that I’d enjoy it. I did, though it continually reminded me of Kicking and Screaming, a much better rendition of a similar tone, albeit with less kick. B+

We also just watched the director’s cut of Donnie Darko. We’d already seen the original once, which allowed us to taste the movie a bit more slowly and appreciate what I think its creators intended. Many people seem off-put by the plot, which I hardly found confusing, in spite of the fact that I’m easily confused by confusing plots. Generally confusing plots are not so due to their complexity, but rather their lack of continuity and sanity brought on by someone wishing to create a film which looks cool, and as a result, fails to do anything else. My only complaint is that Donnie makes a choice in the end, that much is clear, but it’s unclear exactly how he affected his choice. The director’s cut is a 20-minute slightly longer, better filled-out version– but don’t expect more “explanations”, although I hear many of those can be found in the DVD commentaries, which we didn’t watch. A.

I’m somewhat amused that I’ve rated 268 movies on Netflix. I’m sure this only represents a portion of the total number of movies I’ve actually seen– it makes me wonder how many I *have* seen. And how that number compares with the general population. 268 seems like an enormous number– if you asked me to write down 268 movie titles from memory, I don’t think I could do so. Yet I’ve actually seen far more than that.