Update on Dobie Theater parking: If you are going to a SXSW movie at Dobie, you can get your parking ticket validated for up to 5 hours. Which is enough for one movie, but probably not two if you get there early and there’s a long space between the two films. You’d probably have to go out and in again. Still, that’s not a big sacrifice to make for free parking.
I went to Dobie on Monday to see Kissing on the Mouth. I was pleased to see that the screening took place in the Egyptian theater, which is the largest Dobie theater and generally has the best seats. However, it is still a difficult theater if you are short. I had to sit up very straight the whole time and I still had someone’s head in my view in one corner of the screen. This is why I don’t see a lot of movies at Dobie, even though they show great films and the theaters are decorated in a very cool way.
Kissing on the Mouth is a movie about the relationships, sexual and otherwise, between four twentysomething friends: Ellen, her roommate Patrick, her friend Lauren, and her ex-boyfriend Chris. Patrick is working on an audio project about intimate relationships, and at intervals throughout the film, we hear the interviews he is editing over images of the main characters going about daily life.
The movie is unusual because it was made by four filmmakers who took the four lead roles in the movie. After the movie, they explained that they didn’t want actors, they wanted to show something very realistic, so they decided they would portray the characters.
The interesting part of Kissing on the Mouth is its sex scenes. The filmmakers wanted to portray sex realistically, not romantically or pornographically. I have to say it is nice to get to see full frontal male nudity along with the female. Okay, “nice” is probably not the word to use here. I hate the double standard, is what I mean. We see characters masturbating in the shower, trimming hair over the toilet, putting on condoms, and so forth. The movie is very brightly lit and that helps contribute to the feeling that you are watching real people.
My only complaint about the realistic portrayal of sex is that the women are a little too pretty—why is it that all these “independent” and “alternative” films still use thin, conventionally pretty actresses? I cannot actually fuss at Kissing on the Mouth about this because the filmmakers are the actors and it’s not their fault if they’re cute. But I’ve noticed that most of these smaller films, no matter how different they want to be from the mainstream, still stick to the Hollywood standard when it comes to actresses. This has been an official rant. Thank you.
Overall, Kissing on the Mouth had a tendency to drag, for me. Perhaps I see too many traditional narrative films. And I realized yesterday that I have trouble watching films at 4 pm, because that’s a time of day when my body wants to take a nap. I also need to have a snack at that time. Whatever the reason, I found the sequences with the voice-over interviews about relationships to be slow and dull. I felt the movie needed to keep the audience’s interest a little more than it did, via suspense or otherwise. I wasn’t much interested in these characters and what they were doing.
Also, I noticed that both The Puffy Chair and Kissing on the Mouth used a whole lot of extreme close-ups, which I didn’t like very much. I think there are other, better ways that a filmmaker can bring us close to the characters.
As I said earlier, I should have had a snack beforehand, and by the time I left the theater I was feeling hungry and a little cranky. I wasn’t sure if I had time to get something to eat, I had exactly one dollar in my purse so I couldn’t go through a drive-through, and I had to get across town in rush-hour traffic. I was starting to stress out about it all, and this would probably explain why I completely forgot to take my little notebook out of the bathroom in the Dobie after the movie. My cheap spiral notebook that contained all my notes on the SXSW film festival, as well as some notes I’d taken during my UT class this semester.
I didn’t realize that the notebook was missing until I pulled into Fire Bowl Cafe near the Arbor Great Hills theater. I had calmed down by that point, gone to an ATM, realized I had time to get a quick dinner, and devoured an Odwalla bar in my purse while driving down Mopac. I was okay, I would bring my notebook into the restaurant to write up some stuff while I was eating … but … oh, shit. Left in the bathroom of the Dobie Mall. Not the theater, which would have been okay because I could have phoned the theater, but they weren’t letting SXSW attendees into that part of the theater. No, the mall, and I could not imagine it was possible to call anyone at Dobie Mall at 6:30 pm to get the notebook.
I would either have to drive back downtown to Dobie and miss the movie at Arbor, or forget about the notebook entirely. I didn’t really need the notes, right?
I called my boyfriend around this time to see how he was doing and to vent a little, and left a message on his cel phone. By the time he called me back I was so happy to hear a friendly voice, and so worked up about the whole situation, that I was practically in tears. Fortunately for me, he wanted a break from SXSW Interactive and actually drove to the Dobie and found some women to go into the bathroom and hunt down the notebook. Anything that man wants from me this week, he can have.
So I was able to remain at Arbor and see the Swedish movie A Hole in My Heart, although in retrospect, I am not sure I wouldn’t have been better off driving to Dobie. Okay, not really, but it’s tempting to think that way.
I am very glad I saw A Hole in My Heart, but I had to go home and read part of a novel and look at the Web and do anything possible to get the movie out of my head before bedtime, because I knew it would give me horrible nightmares.
I wanted to see A Hole in My Heart because it reminded me of some of the same themes addressed in Dear Pillow. Both movies have a teenage son who disapproves of his father, and in both movies, a porn film is being made. That ends any resemblance between the two.
A Hole in My Heart is not for the squeamish. I had no idea I was going to see two films in a row that had substantial sexual components, but the sex in this movie is very different from Kissing on the Mouth. Very different. Male full frontal nudity again, and some extreme close-ups of women (I’m not prudish … I’m avoiding explicit terminology because I don’t want to be found in a Google search on those terms).
In particular, I am having trouble getting one moment out of my head that caused every woman in that audience to gasp or groan. And this is an audience of fairly jaded film buffs, mind you. But … ai-yi-yi.
Let us say that the two older male characters have a lot of issues with women, and these issues are enacted on the main female character in some pretty appalling ways. There were also some shots of surgery and of internal organs that I shut my eyes during, because I am a big wimp.
Despite the graphic visuals, A Hole in My Heart is intense and oddly compelling. I am not sure I would recommend it, but I am not sorry I saw it.
At the end of most movies at SXSW, the audience applauds vigorously, even if they did not seem to like the film so much. The end of A Hole in My Heart generated a smattering of applause and a very dazed-looking audience stumbled to the exit.
I went home and reviewed and revised my schedule of films for the next few days, because I think I would like a break from relationship movies or anything sexually explicit. I would like to see some documentaries instead, or a nice comedy.