Notebook: "Mon 9 Oct 2000"

“girlfight” = Raging Cow

Most good independent films are like long short stories. I’m no indie film buff, but I’m surprised how quickly these films vanish.

“Meet the Parents” opened number one at the box office this weekend; so did “Scary Movie” a few months ago. Jon Abrahams has lead roles in both. “Meet the Parents” is a comedy starring Robert De Niro; his comedies aren’t funny. I laughed at “Scary Movie.” I’ll skip “Meet the Parents,” although I was Jon’s temporary step-parent.

Seven years is temporary.

“girlfight” is a portrait of the boxer as a young girl. She falls in love with another boxer named Adrian (an allusion to “Rocky”), but then humiliates him in the ring. The interesting emotion was anger. The language was raw for Ben.

Ben and I also saw “Ed Wood.” Because Tim Burton, the film’s director, also made “Batman” and “Beetlejuice,” I thought Ben would like it. But the hero is a cross-dressing horror-movie director; other characters, e.g. Bela Lugosi played by Martin Landau, are drug addicts; or aspiring transsexuals, e.g. Bill Murray playing someone from the real Ed Woods entourage.

What am I doing? Am I trying to use film to educate my son? Ben is now ten. I lost Jon, born in 1978, in 1988.