I'm up cleaning, now that it's 11:00 at night. I went to bed at 6 this evening. I was just done. Now I'm awake and am puttering around, policing and running the cat around with the laser pointer. I did try to watch a movie when I got home, but it was awful. Anna Farris in Smiley Face. It's about a girl who is stoned and struggling through her day. What the hell would possess me to order this? Well, at some point I read an article called something like "The Best Movies You've Never Seen." I put a whole mess of them in my queue and so far it seems like there is a good reason why no one has seen them. What Blockbuster really needs is a little space next to the movie's title where you could remind yourself why you chose that movie. You know, something like "Oscar winner" or "Blah Blah recommended it." Or, if you're like me, it could say "See EW review you ripped out of the magazine and have stored in your movie folder. Two others: Chico and Rita and Jiro Dreams of Sushi. Did I already write about Jiro? What a neat documentary. The review said you don't even have to like sushi, and I think that's true. I think I did write about that one, but you should watch it.
I really wanted to like Chico and Rita, but I did not. It was an animated film about the Cuban influence on music in the 40's and incorporated real life musicians, which was neat, but this is supposed to be a love story and really just seemed like another example of some asshole who's too slow to recognize something good and the woman who puts up with a bunch of shit because she loves him. I may be viewing everything through this lens these days, because Arbitrage also pissed me off. Asshole commits fraud, adultery, and essentially murder and spends all his energy trying to run other people into the ground in a futile effort to save himself. And of course, I feel bad for him. There is something wrong with me.
But last night, I watched Apollo 13. It came from the queue. What a neat movie. I watched the bonus feature about the film and got to see the real people involved and real footage. I found out that Gary Sinese is awesome. His role was my favorite and he talked about being invited to read for anything and wanted to play this guy. Ken Mattingly was supposed to be on the crew, but got grounded 3 days before the mission because he could have potentially gotten the measles. Sinese does a great job portraying his disappointment, but an even better job coming to the crew's rescue by helping to work out the reentry procedures with a limited amount of power in the simulator from the ground. This was a neat lesson in how sometimes things happen that make no sense and frustrate the bejeezus out of you only to turn out to have a very important reason indeed. Mattingly was able to try out all different kinds of sequences and fail many times in the simulator before finding a solution- which he would not have been able to do from the ship. He was the right person for the job, he just needed to be on the ground to do it. It's crazy to think about how many things went wrong and how easily those astronauts could have died- not from an instant explosion, but drifting away into space. Good frickin god. Another role I loved was the guy charged with making a carbon dioxide filter with what extra stuff the crew had available. Imagine the pressure on him. NASA really is incredible.
Anyway, it's time for popcorn and a magazine. Tomorrow is a busy day.
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