Bluestalking

Darius Goes West

From the website:

Darius Weems, a 15-year-old with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, had never left his hometown of Athens, Georgia. In the summer of 2005, he and a group of young college students traveled across the country in a wheelchair-accessible RV to test accessibility in America. Their ultimate goal was to reach Los Angeles and convince MTV's hit show, "Pimp My Ride," to customize Darius's wheelchair. Along the way, they found joy, brotherhood, and the knowledge that life, even when imperfect, is always worth the ride.

Dariusgoeswest.com

I saw these teenagers on the Today Show this morning, and found this the most inspiring, sweet story I've heard in a really long time. That these kids would do this for their friend, driving him West from Athens, Georgia to the Pacific Ocean, so he could feel the water... That's just the nicest thing on earth, isn't it? Kind of encouraging to think there are young people like this left in the world.

Keep an eye out for the film. It goes on sale in early December. I have no idea if it's showing anywhere, but I'd keep an eye out for that, too.

The Blog

Film: The Piano Teacher

The Piano Teacher/La Pianiste (2001)

I'm a fairly big film buff, but I hardly have any time to watch them anymore. Even when I do get to watch them, I don't have much time to write about them. Okay, I could suspend a little weakly weekly whining, in deference to at least an occasional film chat, but this is so much cheaper than additional therapy sessions.

Mr. BSR and I watched this film a couple or three weeks ago. A French film, it's filled with all that existential angst you've come to expect from all things French. It's also filled with nudity, a bit of violence, and sex also involving violence, to add variety, la spice de vivre.

But what's it really about, you may ask. Well, that's more complex. The main character is a 40ish woman who is an ambitious piano teacher, a woman talented in her own right, and extraordinarily demanding of her students. But she's also a woman with some serious sexual-related issues, her biggest one being she isn't having sex, and she's built that up to such a huge issue it's driving her nearly mad. Between that and her passive-aggressive teaching style, she's really not a person you'd want to invite to a party. The girl's got serious issues, and she takes them out on everyone around her, deserving or not.

It's really all about being single and frustrated, arriving at a time in your life you realize you've really not done as much with your life as you actually could have, that you've let a lot of life slip away. I agree with the review of the film that says the sex and violence in it are not gratuitous. They're really not. They're central to the issues of the main character, and illustrate how thoroughly confused and angry with herself she is. But a little tough to watch? Yeah, there's that.

Definitely not a film for the whole family, or for those with extremely sensitive dispositions. It's one of those films that leaves you wondering, at the end. Wondering as in "What the hell was that?"

Quelle strange.