View from the Couch

I woke in the middle of the night with tears running down my face, crying out to my mother...."You have no idea what you missed." I was in the middle of one of those extensive cinematic dreams complete with the fabulous scene where the main character (me) finally confronts their obstacles (mother) and either 1) Hollywood ending - everything is perfectly and miraculously resolved. 2) Hero realizes that s/he cannot change the world and moves on to change his/her self. My mother is 90. I'm 48. She isn't going to change. And the only person I can heal in this life is myself. So I guess I have ending number 2 now. But she really has no idea what she missed and it makes me very sad. What makes me even sadder is that she isn't the only one who doesn't realize what they missed by trying to make me the person they needed or wanted and failed to see the person who was standing right there. It hurts. And I'm tired of pretending it doesn't. I don...

I've been very neglectful of my blog. There have been things happening in real life that have kept me from writing. But as I have some time today, spring looks like it might finally be here and I feel like writing again. So some brief reviews of movies I've seen lately. Firstly, the Oscar winning NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (2007, Joel and Ethan Coen ) is just what you expect from the Coen's . Bloody , bawdy, and brilliant. Much has been said about this film already, so I'll simply add that Javier Bardem's Chigurh will live on as one of the most terrifying, sociopaths ever on film. A tragic vision of violence and evil, the adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's book is a wonderful film, beautifully filmed by Roger Deakins , wonderful use of sound and silence. Deakins is having an amazing year - With NO COUNTRY, ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES and IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH . Good films which all deserve a look on a big screen and a rewatch with a remote where you can ...