Saturday, January 16, 2010

I'm Reed Fish. Or... Well... Not Really...

I know that Monday is usually my movie review day, but I just finished watching a DVD of "I'm Reed Fish" and I wanted to talk to someone about it.

But Christopher is in England, so he's kind of out for chatting about a movie. And since it's almost 9 on Saturday night, there's a good chance that a lot of people are watching football (I used to live in Baltimore, so calling people during a Ravens game is bad), or -- since a lot of people I know are in other timezones -- it's just too late to call.

But, anyway...

"I'm Reed Fish" is a movie within a movie (don't worry -- it's not confusing) (oh... and that's not really a spoiler, although now it won't be as much of a surprise for you as it was for me), and it's about coming of age and coming to terms with your life as it is.

Yeah. It's one of those movies. You know, the movies where the 20-something protagonist is having a life crisis because he doesn't like where his life is going. And we're supposed to feel sorry for him because he's the protagonist, even though he's also screwing up the lives of everyone around him.

And, because I'm kind of tired of all of the angst-filled movies where 20-somethings are having mid-life crises, I really started to hate the movie about a third of the way through it. But I just kept watching. Honestly, I think I may have stuck with it because I really liked the music. Schuyler Fisk (a woman I had never heard of) not only plays a character in the movie, but also performs two songs in it, and I was really taken by her. So I stayed with the movie.

Somewhere along the way, I reconnected with it. I'm not sure why. I think it might have been when there was a caller on Reed's radio show asking for the fire department to be sent out because a peacock was running back and forth on the road. When Reed's response was "The fire department? Why? Is the peacock on fire?" I was back into the movie. There was something so perfectly absurd about the conversation -- which also struck me as straight out of my own psyche -- that I had to pay attention.

Granted, I came to the end still frustrated by the amount of angst this kid was wallowing in, but I also found myself kind of rooting for everyone in the end -- for better or worse.

Overall grade: B-. Although I mostly loved the cast, it tried a little too hard for the movie-in-a-movie bit at times, and... although I think most of you would like it, I don't think you should expect a life-altering experience.

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