Sunday, January 6, 2008

finally...they made a movie about me

Yesterday I received the movie Puccini for Beginners from Netflix. I had been avoiding this movie like the plague because it seemed like it was going to be something ridiculous-all about music I could care less about, with a straight couple falling in love and doing it to opera in the end (BORING!). Then I opened the description and it is actually about a commitment-phobic lesbian who goes through a break-up ends up falling for a guy one night and girl the next and trying to deal with the chaos this can bring up in ones life. Of course the girl and the guy she falls for end up being ex-lovers and it brings to the forefront how small of a place Manhattan really is.

This movie is delightfully funny and brings poignant issues to the forefront of the world, such as what is man, woman, masculinity, femininity, can you be a lesbian and date a man, does the label lesbian (or any other) even matter when it comes to love? And what about marriage and the, "Are we going anywhere" factor-and I don' mean where do you want to eat dinner-although I often find that question complicated enough as it is. And at one point she delivers an amazing speech about marriage being just a patriarchal assumption of the straight people and that of course gay people want to get married because they can't (and although I do not believe in anyone's concept of marriage) I think that she has a point. If someone was telling you you couldn't do something based on who you are (or who you choose to spend time with) you might be more inclined to fight to want to do it too. And that in some way this process of fighting for it is in some way transformative. Don't know if I buy it-but I see her point.

Plus I think I am Alegra-we dress alike, think a like, speak sort of similarly, are self-obsessed and think quite highly of ourselves. And like Bette from the L Word I tend to think my things are more important than anyone else's-I know right-just the kind of thing you want people reading about you to know. But i'm working on it-it's a process and we can only become better right...well lets hope!

enjoy the trailer-fun times!

--

No comments: