Saturday, July 23, 2005

A film I find it hard to talk about

Finally finished My Own Private Idaho, I started watching it with my friend Chris a couple months ago and I think I was sorta waiting to finish it with him, but that didn't happen. Tonight, though, I finished it.

Portland...

When I was in middle school, I want to say seventh grade, they were filming Drugstore Cowboy and it interfered with my bus route. I never caught My Own Private Idaho being filmed, but it created quite the stir when it was released. I was in high school, it didn't do much for me. Now, not only do I get it, but having lived away from Portland for a couple of months now, it's a magnified nostalgia, as it's early ninties Portland, the era to which I began high school. And, as is the case with - I'm sure - many people who live in towns that have been filmed only marginally, it fucks with me. Which is magnified by how many people from Portland on both sides of the camera that I know who were involved with the film. Watching the credits, it's like... Jesus. "I lived with x!" "I used to drink with y!" "z still owns me money!"

And now, it's easy to see how great and influential the film is, jeez Louise, could Wong Kar Wai have made Happy Together without this? But again, this film has become a part of me, because it is a part of my past. I'm happy this film exists, and I'm happy it's a good movie.