It's Official: I'm Old Fashioned

Saturday, December 12, 2009

I can't deny it any longer.

For years, despite a fondness for music, movies, fashion, and pop culture from past decades, I have always resisted labeling myself as old-fashioned. "OF" to me always meant stodgy, stuck in my ways, and generally feeling like the woman of a certain age in the photo above. However, I've come to slowly realize during the past few years that I really like very little about current pop culture. It started with music - ever since discovering the Beatles at the age of 19, I pretty much said bye bye to anyone who launched a music career after 1992 (with the exception of Michael Buble and...Cake. And some of the Black Eyed Peas and Amy Winehouse.)

Last night I realized that in addition to most modern music, I have no use anymore for modern Hollywood. The final straw for me was the piece of garbage I subjected myself to last night: "Away We Go", the indie flick starring Jon Krasinski from "The Office" fame and one of the chicks on SNL, playing a young couple, Burt and..well, whatever her name was supposed to be. I think maybe Dora. Here's what the first two minutes of the film showed (warning, this might make you cringe): Burt is under the covers, giving Dora oral sex (and apparently not very well, as she's not into it at all.) Then he tells her that her vajayjay tastes differently, that he read about this phenomenon, and that it actually tastes "fruity."

GAH!!! Ewww, double ewww! I should point out that I am not a prude. Sex in a movie definitely has its place, but at what point will the envelope have been pushed enough? To me this scene and its accompanying dialogue belonged in a porno flick, not a mainstream movie. My apologies to anyone who loved this movie, but I guess I just didn't find any enjoyment in it. To me it was so depressing and full of such whacko secondary characters that I'm not sure why anyone would want to willingly procreate after seeing this film. The profanity was also over the top (Krasinski yells out stuff on a crowded train you wouldn't want your grandmother or kids to hear.) Seriously, Hollywood, is this the best you can do? And the critics RAVED about this? The only reason I didn't press stop on the DVD player is because like a train wreck, all I could do was keep watching, although the whole time I was wishing I was watching "If A Man Answers" starring Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee instead.

A few weeks before, I had rented "Spring Cleaning" which was about a maid who takes a job cleaning up houses where people have died. It was so gruesome and gut churning to me, that I did turn it off not more than halfway through.

I just don't like today's movies that much. I think there's only been three movies made in the past few years that had a lasting impact on me for a few days. One was Clint Eastwood's "Grand Torino", and the other two were Meryl Streep's "Julie & Julia" and "Mamma Mia" - two chick flicks, to be sure...but they were fun to watch. And that's all I ask for once in a while - something fun to watch!

Hollywood has run out of ideas - hence the unimaginative remakes and movies about lowlifes. Give me movies that make me laugh and feel good, or make me think in a positive or productive way.

Tonight, seriously, I think I'm going to dust off "Fried Green Tomatoes" to wash last night's muck from my eyes and ears. I don't care anymore - I'm old fashioned, everybody! And proud of it.

5 comments:

  1. I'm so with you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I totally agree with you. Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting on my blog. I really appreciate it. Hope you're having a great weekend. Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's scary to think of yourself that way, isn't it?
    But until today's culture can offer something that interests me - I'm going to wave the 'old-fashioned' flag too.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree. The problem I run into is that what looks like a good movie from the previews and is rated PG13 is filthy!! Really, we have had to take several modern movies out of the dvd player for this reason alone. Nudity, sex, cussing, and for a PG 13 movie?? I am proud to be old fashioned.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The Beatles started me down that path, too. There was never any turning back. There was so much interesting stuff to discover from the past, and so much more of it, than anything going on at the current moment.

    There are other symptoms, too. Public courtesy, chivalry. I know more about the culture of my Grandparents and Parents generations than even most of them do. But sometimes it all seems to come down to the music. How can I tell?

    I have thousands of albums, and every woman i've ever been involved with either a)thinks I don't have any good music at all, or b)listen to a lot of weird stuff. Now come on, how is it even possible to have that much 'bad' music?

    All of my 30-something peers seem to be allergic to black and white films, as well as having to read dialogue at the bottom of a foreign film screen. There's finally some hope for my sister, as she finally became intrigued by Gone With The Wind. Though on a technicality, I don't know if that means she's reformed as it's in color! lol

    ReplyDelete

Powered by Blogger.