paying homage

My apologies for being out of the loop this week. It's a couple of different things: I've needed to get to the office relatively early so I haven't time in the morning and I've been trying to be less of a homebody (my natural state) so I have been out at night and too tired to post when I get home.

Anyway, I went to see Down in the Valley last night with J Horror. I'm still trying to figure out what I think about it. I still think Edward Norton is fascinating and brilliant. David Morse was good at being conflicted between his need for control and his sincere love for his children. Rory Culkin and Evan Rachel Wood were also fab. Nevertheless, at the end of the movie, I turned to J and said, "I have no idea what I think." The pace was odd, the way things unfolded in the last third of the film was odd. Odd.

Have you seen it?

The one clear positive? I've decided that David Jacobson, the filmmaker, was paying subtle homage to (or ripping off completely), my favorite movie of all time -- Badlands. Norton's character's last name was Carruthers, as was Martin Sheen's in Badlands. Badlands was set in South Dakota, Norton's character claims to be from South Dakota. There's the whole older man/younger woman/dad doesn't want them to be together storyline that both films share. Both movies have a scene in which the boyfriend packs/has packed the girlfriend's suitcase to take her away that ends in violence. Both male leads (Norton and Sheen) have delusions about being cowboys. Finally, Wood resembles a 1973 era Sissy Spacek (the female lead in Badlands).

Okay, I'm not the first, or the second, or the third, or the fourth, or the fifth, or the sixth, or the seventh, or the eighth (sh*t, this is embarrassing, why am I doing this to myself?) or the ninth, or the tenth that has reached this same conclusion.

There's more. Apparently I have no original thoughts.