Rachel Getting Married. Amazing-ness.

So the Oscars are tonight, and my favorite part was always the red carpet and seeing all the dresses. I'm a girl, what can I say?

This year people pretty much know the winners, and I must say, I do want Slumdog Millionaire to win best picture cause 1. it was great and 2. it was the underdog, and that's always a good story. The only other contender I've seen was Milk, which supposedly is the only one really in competition, they say, with Slumdog Millionaire. And I really didn't think Milk was that amazing. Great, important story, yes, but best picture? No way. So I really hope Slumdog Millionaire wins cause it really was a moving film and it was beautifully/amazingly made.

But to the point and in reference to the title of this post. I haven't seen many films or performances that are up for awards this year, which is not unusual for me. I'm more of a classic film and indie person really. I saw Slumdog in New York City before it came out wide release, and I also saw Rachel Getting Married in New York.

I had wanted to see that movie when I heard it was coming out, but it didn't look like I was going to get the chance as it was in small theaters for a while and I thought it would leave theaters quite soon. So I was cool waiting and seeing it on DVD or something.

But then I found out some of my friends from England were having an impromptu reunion in NYC, so I had to go. They were having dinner with someones parents, so they would call me at night to go out and stay over. I was super excited since I hadn't seen these people in almost 2 years, and they were from all over - Australia, Maine, etc. Pretty random. So I was going to have dinner with another friend in the city, but that feel through. So I had hours to kill before meeting them. What to do? Well, it's NYC and there is EVERYTHING and ANYTHING to do - that's why I love the city so much! So I found a theater by Lincoln Center that was showing Rachel Getting Married - actually, that's the only movie that was showing! I had a gift card so I could go for free. Why not? And in NYC, it's totally not unusual to go to the movies alone. I do it sometimes and sometimes feel weird when I am closer to home, but I know I wouldn't see anyone I knew, so I was totally fine seeing it. It was a big theater and it was quite crowded for a Saturday afternoon.

The movie itself was amazing, and Anne Hathaway was terrific in it (well, everyone was!), and I really want her to win the Oscar tonight, but I think that's a long shot because Kate Winslet apparently has it in the bag. So...whatever. But back to the movie.

I love character-driven stories that seem so real, and this was definitely one of them! First of all, the screenplay was incredibly realistic - just in terms of dialogue and such. There was one rather long scene where characters toasted for Rachel's (Anne Hathaway's sister) wedding, and just the toasts - with the attempts at witticism, awkward pauses, and borderline inappropriate embarrassing stories - seemed just like any wedding. It sounds so simple and probably cliche, but I really have never heard more realistic dialogue in a movie in my life. It sounds like it should be so easy, but for some reason, when you see things like that on the screen they never quite seem real. That's a combo of great writing and great acting to pull that off, and I love when that happens, because I feel like I am in the scene with the characters. It feels like real life right up on the screen. I forgot I was watching actors in a movie. And that's a rare feeling - I don't think I've ever felt like that before, so I loved that! Some movies are meant for escapism, and some are supposed to hit closer to home, and this was the latter.

The movie was shot with a hand-held camera, making it shaky, which worked perfectly, because the plot had to do with Kym (Anne Hathaway) getting out of drug rehab to attend her sister's wedding. The whole rehab plot line and fitting back in with family/tense family dynamics also felt so incredibly real. Again, I love stories that just sock it to you - laying out real life right in front of you, bare and everything. Nothing glossed over. That's what this was, complete with the feelings of awkwardness that can accompany films like this when scenes and characters get totally into you and it seems almost uncomfortable because you feel like you are there. And it feels so real you think you're going through it too. In film making I think that is such a huge accomplishment, and this film hit it on the head.

So I'm trying to write a screenplay (and trust me, it's a lot more put together than these incoherent ramblings!), and I am also trying to make mine realistic, hopefully to the point that this movie got to, where it can be borderline uncomfortable and awkward to watch. That's when I feel I would be making a difference, especially when I am trying to tackle difficult subjects, like this movie did (except instead of drugs, rehab, and family, I have assault, eating disorders, and love. Always a good combo).

I walked out of this movie and felt so different. It was dark in the city at about 6pm, and I still had time to kill. People were talking about the movie on the way out - it seemed everyone liked it. And I just felt changed somehow. The movie was so real it was really mind-blowing. I felt like I just experienced something amazing and different - again, like I was going through the emotions and situations the characters were going through. And then for that just to suddenly stop with the end of the movie and to go out into the big city, it was such a shock to the system. Such a weird feeling, not sure if I can thoroughly explain it.

I put my iPod on and listened to a 'chill' play list. I was meeting my friends way downtown and I was at 66th and Broadway. I love walking through NYC. First of all, it's great exercises, and I just love walking around the city, especially at night. I walked down to the East Village, so a good 50 blocks, and I must have passed hundreds of people on the street. There are so many people in the city, and I love just wondering about everyone who passes me. What's their story? What do they do? What are there problems? Everyone has a story, and it's fascinating to think how many different and crazy stories you pass on the city streets. I passed like 50 stories probably in 5 minutes. That's so insane to think about!

And I was in the thinking mood after seeing that movie. The combo of the city at night, which always inspires me, as I just said, because of all the wondering and all the different people just breezing by you - though you don't know them you realize they have their own stories, problems, ups and downs, etc. - and my music, which, at one point, was playing John Mayer's "Say, " which always makes me think, sometimes in a bad way, and the movie itself just got my creative mind going. All of a sudden, thoughts flew into my head for my screenplay. Mostly dialogue and some new situations to throw the characters in. My story is based in New York, so being there I think just added to my thoughts, because I would pass by things and be like 'Let's put that in the screenplay! Let's just throw this and that in' because I am seeing it play out right in front of me, right in the setting I am writing about. That's how I know at least some of it will be real!

But I rarely get thoughts running through my head about my screenplay - and so many crazy new ideas - unless I am hung-over or drunk (weird, I know, but that's when I get most of my ideas!) But, as I said before, I know it was the combo of being in the city I was writing about, being surrounded by all these strangers, the movie I just saw that inspired me so much, and my music which just totally put me in a creative/inspiring/all-encompassing mindset. I felt so inspired by the city I was wandering through. It's so big and small at the same time. I was walking by myself in a city of millions, listening to my music, so I was in my own little world. But at the same time, there were so many people around me - all strangers - all in their own little worlds too, but we were all together operating under - and in - the same world, or city, in a way. That's what we shared together.

I don't know. Something about that dynamic does something for me. I felt so alive after seeing that film and going out into the great city of New York. Though I was completely alone with my music and thoughts, I have rarely felt more alive. It was an incredible feeling to have, and even more incredible that I was having it while walking alone. That's how much of an affect that city must have on me! To feel that way when you are one person in a city of millions, surrounded by so many, to have that feeling alone is so mind-blowing. And I absolutely loved it!

So, again, long and weird and winding and off-topic story short, Rachel Getting Married was one of the best and most realistic films I have ever seen. If you want to write, see it. It blew my mind to pieces. And see it in NYC. Cause that atmosphere after it just added to the feeling I got from the movie.

Amazingness.