My friend Ian and I shared favorite movies with each other a few nights back. I showed him WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT, and he showed me REAL GENIUS.
I love this film. It was funny, sweet, There is a totally charming girl geek in the mix who is just adorable, good triumphs in the end without using violence, and it was about smart people who are rewarded for being smart.
It has an odd structure that somehow works. For about the first fifteen minutes of the movie you think it’s about the young kid, Mitch. Then Chris Knight joins the story, and runs away with it. Talking about it with Ian, he made the very insightful comment that it’s actually a buddy movie, but not in the traditional sense of a buddy movie.
Yes, they fight a “bad guy” together, but it’s actually about them teaching each other skills the other lacks. Chris teaches Mitch how to relax, how to be a kid, while Mitch teaches Chris how to be a responsible grownup. In an interesting twist it is the 15 year old who forms the far more mature relationship as opposed to Chris with his beauty school pick ups.
I had shown Ian ROGER RABBIT because he’s been doing a study of the noir genre, and this movie is a perfect love letter to the noir film and books. It also looks _amazing_ on my new LED television.
Sorry for the rambling nature of this post. I’m about to run out the door, but I wanted to get this up before the day got away from me.
