once in a while, I am thankful for seemingly random coincidences aligning.

last night, the wings were getting their asses handed to them, I had no real interest in watching the pistons blow out the magic, and the tigers weren’t on (rain delay). as luck would have it, american history x was showing on the fx channel (or is it just “fx”?).

i haven’t watched it in at least 3 or 4 years—tho I do love edward norton (check out keeping the faith if you ever get a chance) and I am intrigued to see what he does in the new incredible hulk flick.

anyhow—as I get older I think that where, when I was younger (say 16-23) I liked/appreciated/gravitated toward things instinctively: t.s.eliot, kurt vonnegut, american history x, johnny cash, etc. and now, being OLD, it is sort of vindicating and refreshing all at once to see that yes, the things I enjoyed at such a young age are actually valid in their quality! [t.s eliot is a great poet, tho now I have a few issues with him—but there us no way in hell my angsty-16-year-old self could have really understood or analyzed “the love song of j. alfred prufrock”. of course I thought of it more like the precursor to pink floyd, and i loved the quotability of the poem...but had no damn idea, really, what i was dealing with, knowing only i liked it.]

there are many seminal “film moments” in the movie, at any rate, some of which show the sort of naivate of the director/edward Norton (who is said to have made some rather drastic changes in re-editing the film himself). but still intrinsically good. my friend tim and i were chatting last week about what makes a good movie, or a good acting performance. truth be told, i don’t care much for many actors or actresses—i think they’re generally shitty and acting like themselves/being themselves constantly, just changing the situation. (actors and actresses i don’t like: nicholas cage [tho lord of war was a great movie, but would have been without him as well]; renee zellweger; gwyneth paltrow; julia roberts; vince vaughn, etc.) (actors and actresses i do like: george clooney; julianne moore; marcia gay harden; ed harris.) anyhow, I think this is one of those performances that can be labeled as GOOD, as in GREAT, and seamless in the way that our lives, looking back, always seem to make sense (of course it had to have happened that way, tho we never saw it coming) and yet show the seams of experience just enough to make it perfectly real; for example, the moment derek (norton) thinks about dr.sweeney’s question “has anything you’ve done made your life any better”; the (ingenious) raising of his eyebrows as derek looks at his brother danny (eddie furlong) seconds after killing two men--which really serves to show us how full of hate (how he is nothing but hate) this man is; the struggle, all the way until the end, to break away from his old life even as he can’t, knowing there is no hope to run away, and that his own life always being in danger (even as he will be doing the right thing) is the penance he will pay.

talk about the American redemption myth.

and being me, or being OLD, i cried about 4 times during the movie. previously, i'd been able to brag that only the movie backdraft and the last ten pages of zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance have ever made me cry.