When I sat down to watch BRANDED I was surprised by what I saw.
This films details just how marketing and advertising are used to control what we say, what we think and what we wear and what we eat.
Think about what you are wearing and what you are eating and ask yourself, how did I even know about this stuff?
Think about what you think about the state of the world, where did that come from?
You were marketed to and told what to think.
They have been doing it to us so long there is no one to blame but we can still revolt against it.
How?
Real simple, stop playing the game and realize this is real.
This movie is not just a movie, it's a wake up call to generations who have been asleep for far too long.
If we don't wake up and start paying attention and start ignoring the marketing and looking at what is really happening around us, well we deserve the news you will find at the other end of this link.
We deserve it becasue we stood by and did nothing.
We deserve it becasue we refuse to fight it.
We deserve it becasue we did it to ourselves.
If you want to change it, turn off your computer and go outside and talk to people face to face and work together to change it and change it now, the only thing stopping us, is us.
The only thing stopping me is me.
Watch BRANDED and I bet you feel the same way. My wife does.
When a husband and a wife agree on something, well you know this motherfucker just might be on to something. I know I am becasue I married the right woman who would have told me how crazy these ideas are.
Instead she looked at me and couldn't speak becasue of the horror she felt inside.
That's impact, that's not just an important film, but one made well that delivers so well it left my wife horrified to wake up to the world we live in.
Sounds like a good fucking movie to The Movie Whore.
I have been commenting on this article over at Babeled and it got to me to thinking that I wanted to explain why I refer to myself as The Movie Whore. I am sure no one was wondering which is the number one reason to do it. Again this is my show and my warped brain. So her ewe go down the rabbit whole into the twisted and scary place that is my mind.
Qualifications to be considered a movie whore.
Must have received gonorrhea of the eye from watching movies that are so bad they should be outlawed. Examples: Including but not limited to Zombie Nation, any sequel to Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Transmorphers, Alone in the Dark or any other Uwe Boll movie.
You know what a Troma movie is and you watch them avidly. Examples: Toxic Avenger 1-4 and the cartoon. Tromeo and Juliet, Sgt Kabuki Man NYPD, Terror Firmer, Surf Nazi's Must Die and others.
Must be able to cross genres with your knowledge. Examples: Christopher Reeves was not only Superman but also made a movie with Jane Seymour (Yummy) called Somewhere In Time. You know that Russel Crowe worked with Denzel Washington prior to their latest theatrical outing and you know the name of the movie. Worth 5 cookies.
Know obscure shit. Examples: Christopher Lambert is a master swordsman that is nearly legally blind. Ellen Barkin was once in the Porn industry. Rebecca Demornay has a doctorate in Psychology. The Last Starfighter was the first movie to extensively use CGI and the technology was originally pithed to George Lucas for for the original Star Wars.
You own Xanadu. I do.
You have worked or currently work at a video store because you wanted to. Examples: I have done this twice. I actually worked in a video called Ray's video that had the most complete collection of movies in California and was next door to Ray's Liquor. So yes the original Clerks spoke to me on a very personal level. I can walk into a room and within 5 seconds name the movie on the TV even if I have not seen it. Give me the plot and I can name just about any movie that has come out in the 30 years. 5 cookies to anyone that can stump me. Using IMDB is cheating.
You know the movie this quote was used in. "No matter where you go, there you are." 5 Cookies to anyone that can name it with out looking it up and 5 more for being able to name 5 actors in the movie without having to look it up.
You thought the argument over whether or not destroying the second Death Star was morally wrong was one of the most brilliant things you have ever seen.
You re-watch movies you know are bad just because it has been a while since you have seen it. Examples: Refer to this article I wrote a while back.
You own or would like to own the following movies: Including but not limited to Ice Pirates, Big Trouble in Little China, My Big Fat Independent Movie, Xanadu, Starship Troopers, The entire Kevin Smith Collection, entire Mel Brooks collection, entire Monty Python collection, Any Godzilla movie that does not star Matthew Broderick, Far Out Man, The Last Star Fighter, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and Bogus Journey, and the Evil Dead Trilogy.
Lastly Bruce Campbell is one of your personal heroes.
I hope this clears things up a bit. I had a lot of fun writing this and did it with out having to look anything up. So it is with all confidence that I once again proclaim that I am The Movie Whore.
This role asked a man to stop being what society has always told us what a man is and step up and be a redefine what a real man is.
If you have never seen this film, go watch it right now. There are spoilers galore in this piece becasue the movie is 30 years old.
The film starts when we see a man who has it all. He has a hot wife, kids, the house and the job to pay for it all.
Then the job goes away.
The his wife finds work and it pays really well and now he is going to take care of the house.
This is where the comedy and the tragedy blur lines and take you on a journey that a lot of men have faced over the last few decades and it's something I've faced myself.
How I became The Movie Whore is becasue I was a Mr. Mom.
Society defines men by what they do for a living to provide for their families. For man to have that taken from him after a life time of programming, well, let's just say the movie is funnier than the reality.
We see evidence of this in the film when Mr. Mom goes to the company picnic and is looked down on by the rest of the guys his wife works with, becasue he's Mr. Mom and that isn't very manly. To try and regain some measure of his masculinity which has been blatantly attacked, he way over performs in a little kid like obstacle course race, embarrassing himself and his wife.
Mr Mom's go through a time where they feel emasculated and it comes from all angles.
Stop for moment and think about it. What do think of a when you think of a family man?
Did you think about a man cleaning his house, doing laundry, making dinner, helping with homework, listening to every bodies problems?
I doubt it and as you were reading that last question somewhere in the back of your head it said that this was a wife's job. Even the women had that thought and it's ok, it's been programmed into us all.
I went through a period of this feeling myself.
What was interesting was making friends with the girls. For me this was no big deal like it is in the flick. I always had mostly women friends. I like them more than hanging out with guys where everything is a competition. Funny thing is, this is the same reasoning I have heard from women who have always had more male friends. Women are too competitive with each other.
However I never had all my women friends take me to a male strip club for a night out with the girls. Honestly I don't know what I would do if they did. Mr. Mom handled it like a man. Just went through it and made the best of it and ended up having more fun then he thought he could.
That's just how men are, we'll go along with it at first just to see where it is going. We are very curious that way. Besides we have a hard time telling women no, we hate hurting your feelings but don't know what to do when you give you an honest answer and you get mad at us.
Mr. Mom has hard time with the housework and the kids at first. He's used to dealing with adults who do what he tells them and have a job to do and he doesn't have to know what they are doing at every moment of the day.
Kids on the other hand, these kids give poor old Mr. Mom a run for his money, no they kick his ass at first. A baby eating chili, a grilled cheese made with an iron and it gets worse from there.
I had a good head start for my experience. I did a lot of the cooking and grocery shopping for my mom when I was old enough to drive. I helped her plan the menus and make the list and then she gave me the atm and the car keys. I guess I was a responsible kid.
My mom taught me how to clean the house and I did it every week.
The Air Force made me clean like a mother fucker, and they taught me to iron my own shit, they taught me to be responsible for me.
My second wife let me really see all the work she does. She gave me the back stage pass into what it takes to be mom. She even tried to help me be a better dad. If only she had been a better wife... She knows I say these things and she says similar.
Being a single father with an 18 month old, well my son teaches me everything else I need to know. Him and his sisters, my 3 step daughters whom I love every bit as much as my son. They are 4 incredible kids and they make me a very proud father who just happens to play Mr. Mom for a living.
Mr. Mom also fell into the blunder I found myself in. He ended up a fat lazy slob watching soap operas all day with the house falling down around him. Me, I ended up with a stumble and flash game addiction and then I discovered blogging. Holy Shit was this a bad thing for the rest of the world.
Wait a minute, you mean I can write some shit and throw it out there for the world to read and talk about this shit with people all over the world. SIGN ME THE FUCK UP NOW!
I like to talk to people more than I like to just throw shit out there. I want to hear your opinions. Look at this way, I spent over a decade in customer service call centers in every position but running the center itself. I am used to talking to people all day about their problems for a living. I like it, I love it, I am programmed to it.
When Mr. Mom started to see the world of disarray that had become his life, he did what any real man would do, he took charge and fixed that shit and started with himself. He started with himself and brought everyone with him.
He didn't just get himself better, he got his kids better, he got his wife better, he was getting his girlfriends better. Once he accepted it and owned it like a man, well there was no one that was going to stop that man from taking care of his family, just in a different way.
He didn't do it Mom's way, he did his way, he just had to figure out what that should look like.
I had help before I ever even got here.
Being Mr. Mom didn't make him less of a man, it revealed the real man that had been hidden for far too long.
I like to think I am on that track myself. I try like hell and when I look into the eyes of my wife and my kids and my friends, I know they see a real man. Now I got a house clean and laundry to do and school paperwork to finish up and wife to have lunch with on her lunch break.
Have fun kids and go watch MR. MOM right now and then go call that man you know who is doing the job and see how he's doing. I bet he is bored as shit and waiting for the phone to ring. I know I am.
I have been in this conversation on LinkedIn about the next thing when Hollywood fails.
Here it is.
You, indie film maker, yes you. I am talking to you directly. Don't question, just listen up I have some important shit to say.
If you want to change the industry to one that allows you to make a movie and make a living doing it, you have to change the way you do things.
You need to be willing to work with others and not be so wrapped up in your vision and realize if it don't get made at all, your vision is worth exactly shit.
You need to work with other small indie filmmakers to make the film happen.
Ask Last Rockstar Productions who all helped with Catharsis.
You need to learn to share more.
Give everyone points, even the guy turning the screwdriver in the corner for one day. Give him half a point.
Keep 50.1% to the prodco and divvy up the rest. I think you might be surprised who would want to own half of a % of your pic if they are working on it. You don't like the numbers, find numbers that do work for you.
Find other prodcos and build your own studio facility. Brand the facility. Create a web channel filled with your content that people can subscribe to. Charge them for it. Offer them the ability to do a direct download for any format and buy a hard copy if they want for an additional fee.
Use a pressing service that will press your DVD or Blu Ray cheap based on orders.
As theater houses close, buy them or lease them or soemthing to give you a venue for theatrical showing.
As the network of these small studios build, ship your film across the internet and let them press a DVD for the theater. Share the box office. Let the showing house get 5% of box office take. Put some of the take of the Box Office to the studio. Put a % that keeps things running back the studio for every dollar made.
Don't advertise.
Use social media. Use Eventful's demand feature to find out where to ship your film.
Facebook and twitter posts will help get your fan base going and excited and let them share it and advertise for you.
If you have any celebrity power they better be talking this shit up on their social media outlets.
You want start up costs, well look around.
Do you know anyone that has this thing or that set up or that building to use. Use your heads and use common sense. I can't do it all for you. I can just give you the road map and answer your questions if you have any.
I am a dreamer and I know I am not the only one. Come and join me and become us and let you and I and the rest of us make a better way of getting dreams made and seen by the world.
In the immortal words of Jerry Maguire (like I could get through anything without quoting something.)
Help me help you.
So let's start the discussion and the idea sharing and finding out who can do what and who is doing what and let's get you all working together to take our rights to our dreams back and make a future where the dreamers of tomorrow will have a way to bring those dreams to life.
Let me put it this way, I added it to Flickchart and it went straight to number 15.
How do I even begin to gush like a schoolgirl over this film?
My panties were wet the entire time.
I have seen very few examples of a filmmaker reaching down within himself and showing more courage and more focus in delivering not just a message but a character and a story that made that message make sense.
I almost shut the movie off very close to the beginning. There is a scene that is not just merely brutal, but holy fuck shit brutal. Look at it this way, I laugh through most of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, I thought parts of KALIFORNIA were funny as hell and it's parts you shouldn't find funny. My point is this, I am a sick fuck, I admit it I have something wrong with my wiring for some of the things I find entertaining in film. However this scene even made me go "What the holy fuck is going on here?!"
I am glad I kept going and I am glad Bobcat Goldthwait has the biggest brass balls I have seen on a film maker since IN BRUGES.
From there the film got better and better.
If you are expecting a shit ton of action, this is not your film. If you want a character driven story with some fucked up yet very fucking cool action scenes, then pull up a comfy place to sit and enjoy the ride.
This is a complete film.
Example
One of the things my wife and I talked about and she noticed it first, was the way the camera was used to capture and draw out emotion in a scene. Cinematography can help you tell your story. Bradley Stonesifer did an incredible job of using the camera to bring depth to the story.
Joel Murray is fucking awesome. He made this character real in a way that you feel as you go through the film. You can't help but identify with him and admire him. He is the part of you that kicks you in the ass every time you let it slide because well everybody else is doing it.
He is so honest in his portrayal of a man who feel like so many of us do.
What I really want to get into though is how brilliantly he delivered some of the most brilliant dialog I have ever heard. When Frank gets into the why I am going around killing people, pay attention.
Bobcat found a way to channel the frustrations of every father I know when he looks at his little girl and then looks out at the world. My daughter is 14 and my son is 8 and Bobcat just channeled me into this film.
This is an important film. I will rarely ever say that a film is important, most aren't. Most are distractions from the real world, this film is reminder that the real world has become a distraction and its time to wake up and take it back.
I dare you to watch this film and not have it make you feel guilty, even just a little bit. Even I had my moments in this film where I said, hey wait a minute don't kill me and instead of getting pissed at Bobcat, I though about it and the man is right. I would say dude, but it takes a man to make a film like this and stand behind it and show it to the world that needs to see it but will most likely hate it.
Instead of dogging on Bobcat, I admire his courage and integrity. He could of made it softer, he could looked at the backlash that might come from it and let that fear drive his film. Instead he made the film he wanted to make and I am damn glad he did and I command you to go watch it as soon as you can. The Move Whore has spoken.
Let's start with the Air Wolfe itself. It's supposed to be some super advanced helicopter right?
We use drones these days. See what I am saying. This thing would have to be some sort of space ship looking thing complete with cloaking device and other goodies to keep the us gadget geeks tuning in for what would be and always is weak dick writing with a predictable plot and generic dialog.
Oh yeah this supposed to be why it would be a good movie. I guess it wouldn't.
Hero is a business driven fantasy based on the history that was artfully presented by The Emperor and the Assassin.
Watch each film.
Watch each for the sake of the art of story telling.
One story gives you a small piece of what life of a man destined for greatness he had no choice in and he let that drive his every action and thought. A story that also shows another man who is never wanted to kill again but took this one last job for love. One last job that he knew would kill him.
Hero glosses of a narrative and characters that are deep and complex. Sure, it's pretty and who doesn't love Jet Li?
I think the guys acting talent is extremely underrated and under used by Hollywood and brilliantly captured by Hong Kong.
However when you get into the characters and see the depth of the story of each character, I just don't understand why anyone would ever say that Hero did the story justice and should be considered good story telling. The Emperor and the assassin however dove deep into the story of each character that ended up giving China its first Emperor.
It is a fitting film to go along side with The Last Emperor, imagine that one as a kung fu movie.
I rarely dream. Rarely. I usually find that my daydreams suffice. I have a vivid imagination and can hallucinate at will. It is a useful trick when editing a script, it allows me to step inside the film and it's making before we even settle on the script.
It is very much like opening a doorway in the mind that allows you to walk into any reality you choose to experience. Not many people can do it, but it is what allows me to be so effective at what I do. I am a psychic and this is part of my psychic gift and how I use it to be apart of the art I can not create myself.
I have started dozens of writing projects and this blog thing is the only thing that I ever finish. I lose the story and can't find it again.
When I have your script in front of me, it's magical. I work like a man driven by some unknown force. The creativity of you bleeds though and with my psychic gifts I am able to flush out what is wrong by watching the movie and watching it be made while I am reading and making notes based on what I see in my visualizations. I find your story and help take it to it's fullest artistic potential.
I wipe off the muck so the light can shine through. I find your connect and find ways to bring it out and make it easier to be felt through the film . Not just understood but felt.
The magic of the movies is ability of the human mind to suspend disbelief long enough to accept the images before them as real. The magic of film is taking that concept and not just infecting their minds, but their hearts as well. Gaining an emotional investment from the audience is the difference between art and just another fucking movie.
If this is what you are dedicated to, let me help you and we will figure out a payment system that works for you. I am flexible, if you got big money to play with, I will make you even more, but you have to remember which one of us is the artist and which one of us is the business guy and which one of us is the psychic, when all else fails listen to the psychic, trust me, this is what I do.
When I have trouble finding my center, I usually find myself worshiping at the altar of Kevin Smith.
Why?
He does personal well and has no problem baring himself through his films, in fact it his hobby and they paid him a few times for it. Genius.
Anyway back to the good stuff now that I have removed my tongue from Kevin's asshole.
CLERKS is personal for him. Anyone that has ever been a clerk anywhere can relate to this movie on a personal level and will spend the rest of the night telling their friends stories after the first time they see this flick.
For me though, the most personal character, Holden McNeil/Banky Edwards hands down. I was those guys. You could ask my first wife and I bet first she would tell you she hopes I am dead and then she would say yes I was the two of them blended into one dude. I'm like to cover all the bases and choose when to behave well and when to behave badly and I love the latter.
What happens when that guy is staring at his 39th birth day in around 6 weeks, well...
...that guy is married. If he was too look for a character to identify with he would write one. He is working on it, one problem, the character keeps changing and evolving. That is what it means to be a husband and a father. Add in obsessed no budget film producer and general self proclaimed expert and things can get a little weird.
A good husband is not always a good father and a good father is not always a good husband. A good film producer is rarely good at the other two at the same time. However if you are doing it right you manage to be pretty good at juggling, specially if you have a daughter.
You let yourself become whatever character they need that day, hour, minute, whatever they need when they need it and when you can muster it. We spend most of our time away from you trying to find ways to be your hero and have it be real and not some bullshit charade.
I understand why a lot of guys drink and have ways to get the fuck out of the house from time to time. It is a tough job and it goes completely unnoticed if you are doing it right and it is all they bitch about when you fuck it up. Any man who tells you his family is not his greatest treasure, well that dude has no family or no soul.
I will take the single dude over the soulless dude any day.
I guess the character I personally identify with the most, Tony Stark. I got the skills and the tools and why should I hide it and why does it piss everyone off when I flaunt it. Oh did I mention the narcissist part of me that never went away. I am a salesman these days in my getting paid life so it goes with that character. I hide very little from family, but what I do try to hide is the times their hero falls and needs to be picked back up. This group, they do a damn good job, it's why I work so hard to be their hero.
Now that we are here at the end, if I was to really be honest and get personal and bare my dirty little secrets, I would say these days I would identify much closer to the THE MOVIE HERO with Jeremy Sisto then any other.
All hail the movie gods, I hope they find this shit entertaining.
Til the next time I get bored and have the time to kill,
...is the best way to start your journey towards making a good film.
ALMOST FAMOUS was semi autobiographical and according to my wife one of the top movies I watch repeatedly. She knows me well.
The story grabs you becasue it is so personal. Ask any story teller, I don;t care if they call themselves a bar tender, a cab driver, a comedian, a film maker, a musician, a mother, a father, a brother, a sister or anybody else because I don,t want to keep typing, what makes the best stories?
I bet they say the personal ones, the stories that can sometimes be the hardest to tell or the hardest to hear. Sometimes those personal stories are quite embarrassing. Sometimes they can be quite dark. Personal stories are what make us human, we are each nothing more than a collection of personal stories and who we choose to share them with says more about us than it does them.
Think about it for a while and I bet you agree. If not, oh well, it's my show.
I like to talk about the art of story telling through the medium of film as much as I can get away with. It is like talking to an astrophysicist, they want to tell you everything they know about it.
That's all any of us is, a person looking to tell you everything we know.
Look at me here trying to tell you everything I know about film.
How about this, how about today, you just accept I know my shit and you ask me some shit you want to know about as it applies to telling stories and doing it artfully in the medium of film?
Saturday and Sunday were the days for catching old movies in syndication. Living in a smaller town and not a big city, the channel options are limited.
Back in the day it was all about KBHK 44 out of San Francisco. When I was a kid, at 10:00 am was the start of Chiller Diller theater and classic monster movies such as Godzilla (All of them), Dracula Vs Billy the Kid, The Mummy and many others. After that, who knows. I did spend many a Saturday watching films such as, Saturn 3, Soylent Green, Logan's Run, Planet of the Apes (all of them) and others. I was 8 the first time I saw Soylent Green, quite the concept for an 8 year old mind to absorb, same with a lot of the high concept stuff I used to watch as a kid.
It is probably why even now I will watch something that makes you think, just so I can relax. During the week at school I was grabbing books on martial arts history and even read Bruce Lee's book in the 4th grade. It was reading the book that drove me to watch any and every martial arts movie I could get my hands on.
I remember the Ninja movies that hit the states and all of a sudden on Saturday, my monsters were replaced with kung fu and I loved it. I find bad kung fu movies to be some of the more entertaining flicks for brain melting and playing my favorite game. I love to play MST3K, hell I was playing it before I had heard of it. Go ahead and look it up, I'll wait.
Are you back yet?
Good, let's continue.
As I was growing older what was coming on during the weekends was changing as well. We started getting syndicated TV shows such as, Small Wonder, My Secret Identity, Out of this World, She's the Sheriff and others and gone were my movies. I watched so many movies as a kid becasue well, there was nothing else to watch. This is when HBO became my best friend.
When the guide would come in the mail I would sit and plan out my movie watching for the month. I knew what I wanted to watch and when it was going to be on and how many times. I loved the days when it seemed that I wanted to see everything they were running that day. Those were magic days for a kid of 12. These weekends got filled with films such as Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Grease, Xanadu, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (I don,t care if I missed one or added one.), Cannonball Run and others.
Then came USA and TBS. We had Up All Night with Rhonda Shear and the worst horror movies most people would never sit through and every single one of us got sick and fucking tired of watching Beastmaster on the weekends. Didn't that dude do V? Actually if you want to see a brilliant piece of work from Marc Singer, watch IF YOU COULD SEE WHAT I HEAR. I am not exaggerating, his performance is incredible. Go watch it now.
I actually watched Sorority Babes at the Slimbowlarama because I was 14 and I thought I might see a nipple. At 14 that is a reason to do anything, anything. At 38, well depends on who is home.
I say I waste my life on film, but really for me it the only place a lonely kid who didn't have anyone to talk to could find a few friends and it is where I keep finding them even to this day. Movies are my best friends always have been. Do you expect anything less from The Movie Whore, I mean really?
This one has a personal touch for me. I lived this movie is a twisted kind of way. I worked in at Ray's Video next door to Ray's Liquor in Chico, Ca. I didn't have a girlfriend bring me lasagna, but I had a stalker come in so she could talk to me more than once. No one died in the bathroom, but I damn near killed somebody after one too many "I am looking for that movie with that guy in it..." You know it was the same but totally different. Actually one of my favorite moments was when the sorority girls would come to the counter asking for porn and I would say as loud as I could without actually yelling "We don't carry porn here, try..."
It was hard to do with a straight face. I got a bit of a Randal streak and that job, one of my all time favorites. I liked going to work. I am not sure I have ever since.
Who has never made a generalization about broads that went horribly wrong?
You also have to love the illustration of how double standards work. He's a slut for having sex and she's a slut for not but giving the one gratification all men desire.
I mean this is important shit here.
"The guy ain't here yet."
I can't tell you how many times I wanted to have that conversation with a customer.
"How many times did that girl cheat on you?"
"8 1/2"
Just the mere idea of using this concept in a film is one that I only see in this film. The story that explains the half is fantastic.
We did not carry porn so I never got to make the poan order in front of a parent, however...
One year on Christmas Day I was single, my parents live in town, I volunteered to work so others could go hang with family. I put on LETHAL WEAPON, hey it takes place at Christmas. Anyway this woman walks up and cpomplains about her kids being able to see the film and my repsonse was something like this.
"Oh, I am sorry, I am working here on Christmas away from my family so you and yours can come rent some movies."
Blank stare, open jaw, didn't say another word about it.
Same day.
"Hey how you doing?"
"Good and you?"
"Well it's Christmas and I'm working"
"um...uh...uh...I'm sorry."
I am a prick, I love to fuck with people. Randal Graves sums that spirit up nicely and always helps me keep in touch with that part of me.
Then we meet Olaf the metal head Russian.
"What's the name of his band?"
"Fuck You Yankee Blue Jeans"
"That doesn't sound very metal."
I love this part of the movie, gives me a giggle every time. When Olaf sings Berzerker, oh it's fun alright.
"That's beautiful man."
The next scene has what I deem to be the greatest philosophical debate film has ever seen. The debate of whether or not the destruction of the second death star was moral or not, complete with a practical experience example to settle the debate, Tarantino wishes he wrote this scene. Best dialog ever. Watch it and if you disagree, 1 you're wrong, 2 see 1, 3 I am The Move Whore that's who.
The point I want to get to here is this. The reason this film is so watchable, no matter how many times I watch, is the personal connections I can make to my own life.
If you can't connect to the story, how can you be entertained by it?
Why does my connection with CLERKS work?
The same reason my connection with my wife works, it's personal and it's deep and a part of who I am as much as I am a part of myself.
If you ever want to understand your connection to a film, try understanding yourself and your connections to others and I think you just may be surprised.
