“And so it begins. Another year, another lot of movies to watch. I read earlier today that the New York Times reviewed over 800 movies in 2012. I wrote up 105. Not bad. I kept up with over 10% of what they did with just me doing the work, and bankrolling it all myself. Can I apply for corporate funding or somesuch now? I’d settle for someone making my site all pretty cause I got no skillz there.
Don’t you love it when two opposites perfectly converge? Take for example, my besty and I. While we certaily have plenty of common ground in the center of our tastes, our extremes are polar opposite. When it comes to movies, I want something dark and action packed. He wants something sweet and sappy. Me, being a huge fan of Judd Apatow, I absolutely adore Seth Rogen. Him, being the stereotypical one man pride parade, worships Barbra Streisand. Wait, we really live in a world where those two ends of the spectrum meet? Whoa. That’s what happened in The Guilt Trip, where Rogen and Streisand play a son and mother on a cross country road trip.
Yeah I promised him we’d see it together, which we did yesterday. At first the outing was supposed to be about that convergence of our worlds, but it turned into something completely different. Yes I chuckled at every bit of dryly humorous dialogue that came from Rogen’s mouth. And yes, he praised Babs every time she did, well anything. But ultimately, this trip to the movies was all about our hilarious relationship with our mothers.
My mom, I absolutely love her, and she’s a wonderful mother. I just can’t stand her too much. You know how it is. I totally expect my future children (esp my future daughter) to say the exact same thing about me. In the way that all mothers do, so many little things I put up with over the years just get on my nerves. I know she means well with everything that she does, we’re just completely different. I live 2000 miles away from her, and we only see each other once or twice a year. This works for us (well, for me at least). My besty has a similar relationship with his mom. As we saw there watching this movie, for every little thing that Ms Streisand’s character did on screen, at least one of us would claim it as something our own mom was guilty of. Everything. And neither of us is even Jewish. We gasped and giggled at the first few similarities. Then we held each other’s hands tightly waiting for the moment to pass. Then we nearly hanged ourselves with my ridiculously long scarf. Then we were laughing hysterically. The fact that my mom called me mid-movie only made it all the better. And it wasn’t all limited to the mom. We each had moments where we caught the son doing something we’ve done or would do. Although, my favorite interaction, was on noticing a frog shirt Barbra was wearing. Besty turns to me: “”My Mom would totally wear that””. Me: “”Mine would buy that for me””. *facepalm*
This was such the movie I needed right after a long visit back home. As much as I adore Seth, I hardly noticed him. This was absolutely the Barbra Streisand show, and she ran it beautifully. I’d read that she originally turned the film down because she thought it was too much like her Meet the Fockers character, but her IRL son convinced her to take the role. Besides the comedic moments and those that hit a lil too close to home, she had some truly touching and emotional scenes as well. I’m starting to understand the BFF’s obsession with her. A lot of the story was predictable. Some was overly sappy. Although one detail that started off as creepy turned out to be rather poignant by the end. Ultimately this was about the parent/child relationship and on that aspect, it totally nailed it.
In a final summation of the whole experience, I called my mom back once I got home. I told her about the movie and listed off some of the things that reminded me of her. “”Oh and she had one of those purse hooks so that her purse wouldn’t touch the floor”” “”Oh yeah. I usually carry wipes so I can clean mine off if it does””. Aaaaand scene.
The Guilt Trip – \m/ \m/ \m/ \n