Celebrity
I rented Ocean's 12 this evening and it got me thinking about celebrity. Which sbject is something of a fascination for me, though I am often taken aback when it turns out I don't know who famous people are, ever since I read Cintra Wilson's book Massive Swelling. The movie is nothing but celebrities as far a the eye can see. And the set was, according to the gossip (or "buzz" if you will, and you probably shouldn't) a storied land of comradery and joking and partying led by George Clooney (who is nephew of Rosemary) and Brad Pitt. So it's giant pot of celebrity a brewin' and a stewin'.
The thing is, I liked it. It wasn't The Godfather or anything, but not everything needs to be a masterpiece. I was suprised because this movie was the sequel of a remake staring only stars who by all accounts just partied between takes, I expected the bloated carcass of a three-day-dead mule left in the sun of Southern California marinated in great gravy boats of egotism and Julia Roberts's ginormous mouth. I tend to hate big Hollywood-ness.
The problem--or so it seems to me--with the sort of Entertainment Tonight, E! Channel stuff is the complete lack of actual fun. Looking at the skeletal vissage of another starved actress (not starving: starved) trundle down the red carpet...just y'know really working it...to take part in a masturbatory awards ceremonies, watching them fuck the room-temperature corpse of their own status...well it makes me sad, sad for America. It's not fun. Ashley Simpson is not having fun...she is working at looking like she's fun. Ben Affleck is not having fun, he's jealously guarding an image like it's the propriatary creation of Boeing and the rest of the world is Airbus. But Clooney and the rest, in this movie at least, looked like it was fun. I like Arrested Development because it's a pun on at least three levels, but also because they look like they're having fun. When Jennifer Lopez does her goddamn NBA commericals (she LOVES this game y'all!) you can see the dark ichor that serves at a facsimile of a soul behind her dead eyes and it is screaming "5, 6, 7, 8, now turn you fat cow, turn!" I work at what I do, I have fun to balance the bad parts of working at something. Worshiping people for making work out of fun, for being so fun they've become demigods saturated in their own effortful effortlessness...well that's like, I don't know, it's just dumb as shit. Rant over.
The thing is, I liked it. It wasn't The Godfather or anything, but not everything needs to be a masterpiece. I was suprised because this movie was the sequel of a remake staring only stars who by all accounts just partied between takes, I expected the bloated carcass of a three-day-dead mule left in the sun of Southern California marinated in great gravy boats of egotism and Julia Roberts's ginormous mouth. I tend to hate big Hollywood-ness.
The problem--or so it seems to me--with the sort of Entertainment Tonight, E! Channel stuff is the complete lack of actual fun. Looking at the skeletal vissage of another starved actress (not starving: starved) trundle down the red carpet...just y'know really working it...to take part in a masturbatory awards ceremonies, watching them fuck the room-temperature corpse of their own status...well it makes me sad, sad for America. It's not fun. Ashley Simpson is not having fun...she is working at looking like she's fun. Ben Affleck is not having fun, he's jealously guarding an image like it's the propriatary creation of Boeing and the rest of the world is Airbus. But Clooney and the rest, in this movie at least, looked like it was fun. I like Arrested Development because it's a pun on at least three levels, but also because they look like they're having fun. When Jennifer Lopez does her goddamn NBA commericals (she LOVES this game y'all!) you can see the dark ichor that serves at a facsimile of a soul behind her dead eyes and it is screaming "5, 6, 7, 8, now turn you fat cow, turn!" I work at what I do, I have fun to balance the bad parts of working at something. Worshiping people for making work out of fun, for being so fun they've become demigods saturated in their own effortful effortlessness...well that's like, I don't know, it's just dumb as shit. Rant over.
posted by justin | 7:55 PM
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