Bullets Over Broadway

From the outset, I really did not want to enjoy Bullets Over Broadway.  First, it has John Cusack.  I have never been, and probably never will be, a John Cusack fan.  I have enjoyed some movies he's been in, e.g., Sixteen Candles, but my enjoyment was only incidental to his appearance.  I dislike Cusack's biggest movies, Better Off Dead (weird animation scenes didn't do it for me), Say Anything (just didn't resonate), and High Fidelity (slightly okay but retreads a lot of worn out Cusack themes).  One Crazy Summer and The Sure Thing are moderately okay... but just that.  Lastly, his renowned Cub fandom wins him no favors from me.

So, I expected the worst when you combine John Cusack with early 90's Woody Allen set in the 20s.  Indeed, the first third or so of the movie lived up to my worst expectations.  Scenes were forced, the period setting rung false, and Cusack was intolerable.  However, the plot takes pleasant if entirely foreseeable turn, Allen's writing and direction picks up the pace, and the overarching theme becomes clear.

So, if I had to make a hierarchy of films I've seen with John Cusack in them, it would probably go something like this:

1) Sixteen Candles

2) Bullets Over Broadway

3) Eight Men Out

4) High Fidelity 

5) The Sure Thing

6) One Crazy Summer

7) Say Anything 

8) Better Off Dead

Let me exempt Being John Malkovich, a movie that I saw and remember enjoying but cannot remember well enough to really classify.

In the final analysis, I guess, to me, Cusack is the inverse Winona Ryder.  I really shouldn't like Winona Ryder or most of her movies, but I do.  I should like John Cusack, but I don't.  However, that's an entirely different article.

A Dangerously Close Brush with Middle America

From my hotel room I can see multiple 100-yard tall gas and Denny's signs [so as to see them from the highway].  Yes, semi-rural Kentucky has depressingly few charms.  I am oddly unnerved by the near ubiquitous white-ness here, though I did afford myself of the opportunity to eat frog legs at a Chinese restaurant.  Fun.  I often wonder who buys Nickelback albums or who makes up Bush's approval rating.  I may have found the answer.  Think True Stores, or that one country scene from Vacation but less endearing.

Now, I don't mean to slur fat ladies at Wal-Mart.  It is a certain lifestyle [the rural sprawl lifestyle, that is, of which fat, female and Wal-Mart-patronizing is merely a subset], and that's fine.  However, I've realized that, akin to Woody Allen's character in Manhattan, I can't function if I'm not within a twenty-mile radius of a reliable source of prosciutto  [for instance].  Grape Rd at ND felt similar in that it is a desiccated hull of the human experience; chain restaurants interspersed with a Chili's, Barnes & Noble, and Target.  [None of these ever so slightly less soul-sucking institutions, however, did I notice in Hardin County.]

So, I'm not trying to be hateful, and from a day to day living standpoint, I get along with sprawl ok - I'm from Northern Virginia and I like it.  If these places have to exist, I need some balance in the form of  the awesome south Indian place next to the K-Mart or pseudo-intellectual chatter down the hall from my dorm room.  In short, I'm thankful to be able to think about things, learn about stuff, and eat weird food.  Like, um, kinda-sorta Chinese frog legs.