— पांच हजार तीन सौ सत्तावन —
I went to see a movie right after work with Tracy that we both kind of hated. It was called
Infinity Pool and I gave it a solid C; Tracy expressed
faux outrage on Facebook because she had insisted it should be given an F:
A “C”?? How dare you, she wrote in the comments.
Direct Tracy quote: I was so bored I checked my phone during the orgy scene. She really did say that to me last night after the movie.
The thing is, the movie has really good acting. Alexander Skarsgård is very good in it. I would never give a movie with good acting in it an F. And even the script has some compelling ideas, if not fully fleshed out. Hence the C-minus I gave the writing.
Tracy seems to traffic in absolutes and extremes with her opinion on movies, though. She seems to think it's a contradiction that I didn't like
The Whale but liked such films as
Requiem for a Dream or
Nymphomaniac. Her opinion is that those movies trivialize people with addiction issues the same way that
The Whale trivializes fat people. I disagree wholeheartedly though, and think those other, older movies are far more nuanced in their portrayals.
She challenged me on this over dinner before the movie. More accurately, I called it a "watch-you-eat," as I had not budgeted for eating out, and had plenty of food at home. I agreed to leave work early at 4:00 to give her enough time to eat before the movie, so long as she picked me up at work and drove me to Pacific Place. And, she did. And then she chose Johnny Rockets for her dinner, knowing it should be fairly quick.
I kind of struggled to answer her challenge. But, in the end I think I did okay. I honestly don't think
Requiem for a Dream or
Nymphomaniac can be fairly compared to
The Whale at all. Besides, as I noted to her, it's not like people with sex addiction are blocked out of some plethora of roles about sex addicts. But people in fat suits for roles about fat people are increasingly just icky, and movies should be hiring fat actors who have been systemically boxed out of fat character roles. These are just different conversations and I really think Tracy is stretching to make these comparisons, her relevant personal history (to fatness and addiction specifically, not nymphomania) notwithstanding.
It was fun to hang out with her otherwise, and she gave me a ride home afterward as usual, which was nice. Also, we didn't spend a huge amount of time chatting in her car like usual, since we had spent an hour visiting before the movie. I kept my face mask on the whole time I sat and watched her eat. She wears a mask indoors when not eating too, and even commented looking around the mall that it seemed like more people than usual were wearing masks. It didn't really look all that different to me, but whatever.
— पांच हजार तीन सौ सत्तावन —
— पांच हजार तीन सौ सत्तावन —
Shobhit was at a Braeburn Condos committee meeting, sort of an open house for resident questions about a huge expense coming up for the building regarding the need to replace all the windows, when I got home. I could see him from the "canyon" between our two buildings, though the window to the West building into the Community Kitchen. Even from that distance I could see he'd gotten a haircut. Just like in 2020, he thinks I should also get a haircut earlier than my usual one in April, so I'll have a fresh cut in time for the trip to Australia. I don't agree that it's really necessary, and it'll cost me upwards of $60, or at least $50, an expense I have not budgeted. He thinks I should just take it out of the travel expenses. We'll see. It feels like a wholly unnecessary expense to me, but I may wind up doing it anyway.
I spent about an hour writing my review, during which Shobhit came home. He had been chatting with another one of our neighbors, and even invited her in to see the view we have, now largely blocked by another large residential building a block away. I had to break away from them so I could get back to my review.
Once I was done, we watched two episodes of season three of
Never Have I Ever on Netflix. Then I was basically done for the day.
— पांच हजार तीन सौ सत्तावन —
[posted 12:31 pm]
