leo...

...nardo. (I'll admit, the intros and the sign-offs get harder and harder).

I watched a movie last night. I'm not a "movie person" per se. Because I'm not a "movie person" I usually don't watch a lot of "movies." I'm also less inclined to be moved to tears by a movie than I am by a book or music. I also don't usually consider myself at all qualified to rate them as "excellent" or "terrible." Instead, I usually just leave it to a bit of muttered complaint and I move on to whatever else it is I wanted to do.

But anyway.

I watched Revolutionary Road last night and I absolutely hated it. hated, Hated, HATED it. Not because of any particular cinematic quality, the acting was a B-B+, the directing was fine, the plot was uninterestingly interesting. No, I asked to turn it off at several junctures because I simply couldn't stand to watch what was happening in the film. It wasn't because I was sad for the characters, they weren't really worth it in my estimation. I didn't want to watch anymore because the movie made me afraid of things that might happen to me.

The movie details the activities of people who are too afraid to do interesting things with their lives for all of the normal reasons. And it is not a movie of triumph. It is a movie of personal thrills that all build to failure. Thrills that most people pursue when they are afraid to pursue what they've always imagined was the right thing. This movie evoked terror in me that I don't imagine that Drag Me to Hell (which, coincidentally, I also want to see) ever could.

The unshakable dread that I was stricken with after it ended brought me to this realization: it was a really, really good movie. I think that any piece of art that is able to weasel its way into the depths of your brain, scratch around, and emerge with things that you didn't know you loved or found amusing, or knew you were scared of but had never had to stare in the face for two straight hours, is a success. And I'm sure that some other people who've watched this feel the same. I think that the individual components of this post do not warrant internet blather. What I found worth sitting down and writing is that I can't remember an instance where I could not deny the blazing quality of something that I could not stand.

long live the kevolution.