Wednesday, February 14, 2007

The Puffy Chair


I'm making this quick because it's Valentine's Day and mine will be home any minute. I'm not sure how this movie ended up on my queue, but that's not strange. I often sit with Premiere or Time Out New York or Highlights open in my lap and just add movies blindly. What's strange is that it ended up at my house at all. I obsessively groom my queue, until the surprises have floated back above position 50 where they will ever bob. So, I popped it in with No Expectations. (I will return to this theme in the future.) I was mesmerized.

This is a small, emotionally true movie. It's small in the sense that its' locus of action and cast is very tight. A quick little road trip, 3 folks in a van. The truth stems from its being "written" and played in the same way that "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and Christopher Guests' movies are: the creator produces a story outline and then the cast improvises the details to get themselves from points A to B to C. I don't think this method of arriving at the final product is the only way to fly, but it provides a wealth of real, intimate moments between the characters that would be very hard to script and just toss off.

This movie is a great exploration of what's meaningful between people and what keeps couples together. 5 stars.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought for a second that this was going to be about "The Comfy Chair" from Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition sketch! Then I read it again. You'd think chairs would be a more common cinematic topic, since we spend most of our waking lives in them, but NO...

: )

Will Meekin said...

A quick, dirty list of movies featuring chairs:

The Green Mile
Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.
Born on the Fourth of July
The Waterdance

Hmm, as far as chairs go, I'm stuck with electric and wheel. Got any more?