Broken Flowers

Really liked this film I saw as part of the LA Film Festival. The new Jarmusch film with Bill Murray, Sharon Stone, Joan Allen, Jeffery Wright, Chloe Sevigny, and these two great young actresses - Pell James and Alexis Dziena. I enjoyed the film, a story about Murray going around trying to find the woman who wrote a mysterious letter to him about a potential 20 year old son he may have. Murray's performance was the most boring, he's doing the same version of himself he started with Wes Anderson's films and continued with in Lost in Translation, only he went even further with his American Male Malaise. The highlights were in a series of other performances, specifically by Jeffrey Wright, who as far as my film school friends I can could tell, was doing an impersonation of Vacham for the whole movie.

The movie is a travel film, Murray goes around to visit his old girlfriends to find clues to see whether they may have sent him the letter. It started off great, then went a bit downhill, but was a good movie overall.

On another note, as I have been writing on the economics of going to the movies. The film cost $10 as part of the festival - all right, doable, right. But then we discover upon getting there that we need to pay $6 additional to park. Outrageous. Apparently, they added the cost just for the film festival. Huh? So it costs $16 to see a movie, plus whatever concessions (I got popcorn). So I spent $20 to see a film. It's a good movie and all, but very, very small. Why would most people spend $20 to see a $5 million dollar film? $20 is the price for a ride, not a movie, so Hollywood tries to make it's money on films like Star Wars and Batman. And they are pricing out indy movies because why would an audience pay so much to see a regular-like film. It's very fucked up. I feel no guilt whatsoever for sneaking into double features, or bringing in food anymore. I feel like there should be all out rebellion against the outrageous prices of movies that are destroying one of the most beloved American institutions.