Please, don't consider this a snub of The Christopher Myers' list. He will get his due, I promise. It does however require a little more research than some of the others, and I need to get my notes together before I dive in. I'm going to watch some TV shows, that's for sure.But for today I will state that Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler is the best movie I have seen in a long time. I know it is hyped, and a couple days ago I posted John Waters' top movies of 2008 and the Wrestler sat at a strong number 7. For me all the hype is warranted, and true, and this movie is amazing. There have been a slew of (supposedly) great movies released in the past month, including the highly acclaimed Slumdog Millionaire. Both were good, but The Wrestler was great, great. They are both sitting very very high on the IMDB top 250 (Slumdog at 34, Wrestler at 47) but in time they will come down a little from that.
The Wrestler follows the story of Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke) in the years of his wrestling career well after his prime. Rourke and Marisa Tomei are both great in the movie, but Rourke especially stands out. The Ram, a world-famous wrestler in the 80's, is now living paycheck to paycheck wrestling on weekends and working behind a deli counter during the week just to pay the rent on the trailor he lives in. I was never a wrestling fan growing up so I was very surprised by how much I liked this movie. It is pretty heartbreaking to follow the dark and lonely life of a guy who was once worshipped as a wrestling king, and see him now barely living off the fame. And on top of that his daughter, the only family he has sort of hates his guts.
The movie depressed me a little, partially because it was sad, and partially maybe because HSV and I went to the movie right after a visit to my (now tied for first with The Windup Space) favorite Baltimore bar, Birds of a Feather. Maybe good scotch makes me overly emotional? Regardless, The Wrestler is a movie not to be missed, wrestling fan or not. Also, I was sure that the song in this trailer was Tom Waits, but alas it is Bruce Springsteen giving us his best Tom Waits impression. Enjoy, and go see this movie:
4 comments:
Let's resolve our differences by having you watch two Friday Night Lights, in addition to all that other stuff. I'll read this post after you've agreed.
i cannot believe you mistook bruce for tom waits. it actually, physically hurts me.
my first goal for your list was to watch a friday night lights and see what it was all about, so consider that settled.
also, jessica did you listen to the song? come ON!
Its settled. This was a good blog post.
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