Weekly Cinemeh

Hello, and welcome back to Weekly Cinemeh. I'm sorry that we took a couple weeks off for the holiday's, but we are back now and ready to start the new year off well~. This week we decided to celebrate the new year by watching movies that represent renewal and new beginnings. We had some great movies this week, so without further ado: To the list!

1: Fight Club
Fight Club is about a man who hates his dull life. After meeting a charismatic man on a flight and having his apartment blown up, he help opens a fight club, which starts him on a path to self discovery. Fight Club is one of those movies that everyone should watch in their teens and then again in their twenties. It is one of those films that expresses doubts that a lot of people have around those ages, and it will resonate well, for different reasons depending on their age. The movie itself, is witty, irreverent, well shot, and the cast is fantastic. The issue I have with the movie is that for a movie about how consumerism is dangerous, and how value should be found from within, it has a ton of product placement. It is one of my favorite movies, and you should watch it.

Eshi: C'mon, you've seen Fight Club. It's the heart-warming story of a young man conquering his demons and finding love via a prolonged abusive bisexual relationship with a figment of his fevered madness. You know, the classic. Its also chock full of new beginnings to ring in your new year. Jack begins as a broken, white collar drone, then begins anew as first a pseudo-enlightened punch monster, then as a plucky hero, then again as a gunshot victim with a gentle soul. Marla almost dies and is reborn as a relatively well adjusted fuck object/soulmate. Hell, even bitch-tits Bob starts an exciting new career as fertilizer. I love Fight Club, it was a wonderful awakening to my pubescent sex drive and a great opportunity to feel superior when the jocks at my school decided having seen it made them classical philosophers. It gets a lot of flack for being pretentious or glorifying violence or fucking whatever, but frankly, like all fiction, you take away what you want, not what the creator wanted, so people should just chill the fuck out. Watch it, or watch it again.

2: Office Space
Office Space is about how working in a corporate environment is awful. The main character is a man working on updating software to prevent Y2K. He is incredibly distraught, and after seeing a hypnotherapist about it, decides to stop placing value in work, and focus elsewhere. This is another movie about how modern life has some faults, and anyone who has worked in an office will empathize with the main character, though I doubt many people will choose to deal with the problem the way he does. Office space is funny, has a great soundtrack, and resonates still today, 17 years after its release. I really like Ron Livingston as the main character, he captures the exasperation and desperation really well, and he is very funny. Jennifer Aniston also does well as the voice of reason, and the scene in which she quits her job is fantastic. This is a good movie, watch it.

Eshi: There really isn't much else to say about Office Space. It's a complete cathartic experience with a not-completely-terrible relationship subplot. Diedrich Bader and Ron Livingston both need more work and Gary Cole is always really good at being completely fucking loathsome.

3: Cabin in The Woods
We have talked about this movie on here before on the blog, but never in a Weekly Cinemeh. This movie is fantastic because it takes the standard "cabin in the woods" premise of horror movies and turns it on its head. I don't want to talk about the plot of this movie to much because it would spoil some of the plot points, but, I will say this: its a great horror movie for fans of horror movies. I have weird feelings about Joss Whedon. He has done some great work, but he also goes for cheap shots a lot. Here, he avoids the cheap emotional manipulation and tells a fantastic story. CitW is funny, and it pokes fun at the genre while still keeping the spirit of horror at the same time. Its a love letter to horror and it is fantastic. The actors are good, its funny, and it is a great movie all around. It inspires a  renewal of love for the genre, and should be watched. You will enjoy it.

Eshi: CitW is all the reasons I hate Joss Whedon. Its characters are rich, the plot is delightfully balanced between cliche and innovation, and the dialog is wonderfully written. So now I know what he's capable of, and how fucking lazy he is elsewhere. The casting is spot-on and on at least one occasion the best bong I've ever seen is used to save the day. Fuck Joss Whedon, watch this movie.