Terry Teachout (followed from Mr. Strauss's blog) mentions:
My septuagenarian mother and I watched Lost in Translation yesterday afternoon. Somewhat to my surprise, she liked it, though she initially found Sofia Coppola’s elliptical style of storytelling a bit hard to follow. (Gen-X moviegoers suckled on MTV take jump cuts for granted, but most people born before 1950 or so are accustomed to films in which the plot elements are laid out fairly straightforwardly.) In addition, it hit me after about 10 minutes that she didn’t know what jet lag was, meaning that she couldn’t understand why Bill Murray didn’t just lie down and take a nap. Once I explained his problem, she was fine.It's interesting how different generations perceive reality. In the church, my generation has grown up with more-or-less modern institutions (church, university, family) but exposed to postmodernism so much by MTV and pop culture. My Intro to Worldview prof pointed out that, when discussing some question with his kids, his daughter immediately went online and found the answer in seconds, something he wouldn't have thought to do. I can't imagine not having the Internet there; coming home, it's enough of a shock to have dialup and not instant, twenty-four hour Internet access. I have my laptop next to my bed and the first thing I usually do after hitting my alarm is to check the news and read my daily comics.
I liked The Ring (again, I automatically thought of Internet Movie Database when referring to a movie). It wasn't particularly scary, but it was enjoyable. I had little difficulty understanding the plot. Yeah, it was disjointed, but especially watching it again it's quite simple.
Watched it with my mom once. She hated it, and I think mostly the reason is that she didn't like the chopped-up, twisting editing.
(Mom: if you ever get around to reading this, what did you think, am I getting it wrong here?)
Posted by Tim at February 18, 2004 02:50 AM | TrackBack