Movie Diary

1) Grey Gardens (2009): This might actually be Drew Barrymore's best performance. The acting in general is really pretty top notch, and tons of people (Jessica Lange included) won Emmys and stuff, which they deserved. But for all that, what does it add up to? It's interesting to learn more about the Beales (I always want to do that), but is it a better film than the Maysles brothers' documentary? How could it be? It's just a very careful recreation. The end, too, is a bit sappy, and the film doesn't show quite enough of the two Edies making one another miserable. It's too gentle. Again, it's good, but what would be the point of watching this rather than the real thing? Squeamishness?

2) Fatal Attraction: Despite its ubiquity in pop culture, I'd never actually seen this Adrian Lyne thriller, so I managed to cross it off my list this past week. The question, really, is why Michael Douglas's character is attracted to Glenn Close's in the first place, and I suppose that's why he's punished. It's relatively effective as a movie, with its all-white sets and its implicit denigration of Manhattan as a dangerous place, not for families. And it kind of has a lot in common with Cape Fear, which Jared recently watched the original of. In terms of fight or flight, both films end up coming down to fight. It's clearly a human anxiety that the only way you're going to be able to get rid of some problems is to kill the person causing them, or maybe it's a secret human desire and these movies are a kind of wish fulfillment.