Thursday, October 08, 2015

Your Best Bet

I was really enjoying this movie GIRLFRIENDS on TCM just now, and you know how they have those little capsule descriptions of whatever you're watching and whenever you hit the "info" button on your remote control they appear? So I hit the "info" button to find out more about the movie and the capsule description informed me that this movie was about "a chubby photographer." I was taken aback! First of all, this is the month that TCM is featuring films by women directors, of which GIRLFRIENDS is one. Second of all, the supposed "chubbiness" of the protagonist is not even part of the movie. It's not an issue or a subject of discussion, save for one passing comment near the end that MIGHT be construed that way. If the movie were about a guy, I don't believe a comment on his body type would have been part of the capsule description. I don't know who writes these things, somebody at TCM or somebody at the satellite company, but somebody should be ashamed. And now I have three more things to say about GIRLFRIENDS. 1. Eli Wallach uses an imaginary lighter to light an imaginary cigarette in it. That's a scene I could have used in my cigarette lighter book! But it's too late. I guess that's going to happen all the time now. But I immediately thought of two sections where it would have come in handy. 2. If you want to see Christopher Guest and Bob Balaban in the nude, this movie is probably your best bet! 3. Everybody wore turtlenecks. I think I counted six turtlenecks.