50/50 (Levine, 2011) - I love going to the movies on Friday afternoon. I gives you an excuse to leave work a little early, and it feels wonderfully indulgent. I sometimes go with BF or a friend, but I don’t mind going by myself either. Maybe it’s just that I like the idea of myself as a person who goes to the movies alone (there’s something glamorous and independent about it), but it’s also nice to just be able to digest a movie all by yourself, losing yourself in the world on screen.
The world of 50/50 is ours. That’s not too strange for an autobiographical script, but I mean by that that it’s a world where Lance Armstrong lives, DEXTER exists, and Patrick Swayze recently died. I don’t mind the pop culture references, but there is always a slight problem with pointing out the similarities between the on-screen world and ours: if you’re so culturally literate, how do you not notice that your mother is f’ing Anjelica Huston?
I kid. It didn’t really bother me more than a sec - and Huston is amazing here, adding one more role to her list of impressive matriarchs (Etheline Tenenbaum, the mom from DARJEELING LIMITED, Morticia Adams etc.) It certainly didn’t distance me so much from the movie that it didn’t affect me: frequent lumps in my throat gave way to actual tears toward the end, never mind that the autobiographical nature of the film already sort of “spoils” the ending. It strikes the right balance between comedy and drama, and it avoids most of the traps of the genre. I did think the first girlfriend was treated rather harshly - but from the perspective of Gordon Levitt’s character, that’s sort of understandable. And I loved the moment where a until-then rather bland blonde just walks away when Seth Rogen’s Kyle refers to that girlfriend as a cunt.
