Movies are back, People!
I went to the movies. I guess that’s what I mean. I wore a mask and sat with others and enjoyed the communal experience of seeing a movie. I was at an art theater so the screen wasn’t that big but it was still going to the movies.
I saw ‘Pig.’
I rarely feel compelled to go to a movie but I felt like I had to see that movie. I don’t know why exactly. I know it seemed like Nic Cage would be back in good form and the story seemed odd. It was about a man trying to get his truffle pig back after it had been kidnapped. Like, what?
I just had to see it. It seemed like it could be moving or ridiculous.
‘Pig’ is not unlike the new Matt Damon movie, ‘Stillwater.’ The main character is tragically flawed but on a heroic quest. I saw the film in preparation for my talk with Matt on the show today. Again, with this film, I did not know what it was about but it seemed it was about a man trying to save his daughter who is in jail in another country. I naturally thought it was another possible franchise film for Damon not unlike the tedious Neeson ‘Taken’ films. It was so not that. Though it would be hilarious if the sad, shallow character from ‘Stillwater’ did a few follow up movies.
These two films are about men in pain. Deep pain. Both have made messes of their lives. Both are unable to get out from under their grief and shame for very long but they are both trying to live righteous lives. Cage’s character, in the woods, simply, authentically. Damon’s character, in pursuit of justice for his jailed daughter. Both attempts at the hero’s journey in these movies are fraught and the outcomes are challenging. (No spoilers.) The humanity of the two men is painfully revealed and grounded in a familiar darkness. The darkness of the pain of making aggressive, dubious choices with one’s life and the repercussions of that.
In ‘Stillwater’ the story plays out as a story happening in reality. In ‘Pig’ it plays out in a slightly tweaked reality frame that tends towards allegory and myth. I was left with the common experience of facing down a moral conundrum and how one moves on from that with ‘Stillwater.’ With ‘Pig,’ I was shattered and thrown back into the untethered space of my own grief. These are beautiful explorations of the antihero. One in the real world trying to self-correct his past and the other in the mythical world of pursuing ones passion at any cost and the striving for an authentic life. There are prices to be paid in both.
Good films.
As I said, I talk to Matt Damon today. I talk to guitarist Lindsey Buckingham on Thursday.
Enjoy!
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
Love,
Maron