In Tucson we can see all the movies we want to see for a dollar. They’re no longer in their “first run,” but it’s not like people here are running around analyzing the latest thing… unless that thing is the latest U of A game!
The Crossroads 6 Cinema, a few minutes away from our house, shows movies after they’ve been out for awhile, including indie or foreign films if they’ve done well at the (one) local art house, for a dollar. We began going to lots of movies when we first moved here in ‘07 (we’re members of The Loft, the art cinema), but we’ve noticed the attendance has really picked up at that dollar house…
So the other night we went to see “Funny People” for a buck and I came home thinking about language again. Not that I didn’t enjoy the oily-ish portrayals presented by Adam Sandler, et. al., but did anyone complain about “the language” employed in the film? Of course not. Am I complaining about it? No. What I’m pointing out is the way “such language” can be viewed as “funny” when it’s depicted within a conventional narrative (there’s nothing new about the rich-successful-jerk-who-experiences-a-life-threatening-scare-and-tries-to-change) story, yet identical language is deemed “offensive” when those same words work to expose or question the underlying assumptions that we carry with us in this world about the “way” things are supposed to “be,” and for whom.
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