Sex and the City

Ok, I've been working on this one because I wanted to make sure I did it justice. So I actually saw the movie twice to make sure I didn't miss anything and that my first impressions were correct. They were.

Let me preface this with the admission that I adore Sex and the City. Yes, it often induces eye-rolling with its writing/computer-generated butterfly, but on the whole it is funny and touching and . . . er . . . fabulous. I also happened across the filming of the movie last September, while my parents and sister was in town. They were filming a scene with Sarah Jessica Parker—that I would later find out was cut from the film, but included in all the trailers—outside of Pastis in the Meatpacking District. So it was with no small amount of excitement that Autumn and I went to an 11:30 showing on opening day. (See below for funny observations of the throngs of women we observed at the theater)

So the film . . . SPOILERS FOLLOW

First things first, the plot catches up with our four main ladies four years after the finale where Mr. Big finally told Carrie she was the one, Charlotte got news of the successful adoption of a Chinese daughter, Miranda learned to love and live in Brooklyn and Samantha and Smith had sex.

Not much has changed except Samantha has followed Smith to L.A. to manage his career/have sex. Big and Carrie are happy and moving in together, Steve and Miranda are having marriage trouble and Charlotte and Harry are the picture of pure happiness. As I'm sure you've all heard, if not seen, Big freaks out over the wedding and leaves Carrie pretty much at the altar. What follows is a surprisingly raw look at what happens when an adult gets her heart broken. No changing of her relationship status on Facebook, Carrie is a true grown up. She breaks down and completely disappears from Big's periphery.

There is one a scene that really sums it up. When the girls go on Carrie's honeymoon with her, she manages to escape to the bathroom for some solitude. In the scene, she takes off her overlarge sunglasses, washes her face and just looks at herself in the mirror. What we see is a woman completely destroyed, wearing no make-up, no designers, no armor. Moments like that are when the film is at it's most affecting. When all the fluff is on mute and we just get to see these characters be human. Another one comes right after Big has told Carrie he just left the wedding. The pass each other on the street and Carrie jumps out of the car to hit him with her bouquet (Ridiculous? Cliché? Yes.) Big starts to give her a swan song of he just freaked out for a minute and he's ready now and Charlotte bursts in with an outraged and teary "No!" as she whisks Carrie away from him.

There are other moments like this but really these are just illustrative of a simple fact: My friends would do that for me and I would that for my friends. That is why women love this show, and I'm guessing why most loved the movie, although I'll admit now, that I'm not in that category.

One thing that didn't do it for me was the sheer amount of attention paid to consumerism. The whole Vogue photo shoot was unnecessary, especially considering the voice over that cooed the names of the designers. Yes, the show did it's share of lusting after designer clothes/shoes, but perhaps because it was confined to a mention or two in a half hour of television, it never bothered me much. This was overt and ridiculous.

Otherwise the entire plot felt forced to me. Sure, a comment on what happens after you find love is refreshing for a romantic comedy. If the film had actually explored that notion via Carrie, it may have been more successful. What happens after Carrie finds love? She loses it for the majority of the movie only to forgive it the moment her eyes meet her beloved. I understand the importance of forgiveness and I'm by no means suggesting that she shouldn't have forgiven Big, but come on, how about keeping up the adult veneer of this movie and have an actual conversation about what happened? Speaking of, what did happen? We're expected to believe that Miranda's one throwaway comment was enough to push Big over the edge? Maybe I give him too much credit but he had made Carrie happy for four years since the end of the show. Big had changed at the end of the series. I think he's probably learned what not to do in regards to her. I didn't buy the whole leaving and then "what am i doing? moment" It felt lazy.

As for the rest of the girls, anyone who watched the show shouldn't believe that the character of Steve would cheat on Miranda. After everything she's put him through up to now, he cheats? Without ever trying the counseling thing beforehand, hell talking about it. I thought we were all adults here? But I see why it happened, Carrie and Miranda needed to learn to forgive together. Oh happy day, lets make out on the Brooklyn bridge. (Note, I did tear up at this part. I can be a cynic and a romantic all in one. I'm complex.)

I liked the story of Charlotte having everything she ever wanted and wondering why it happened to her and not her friends. I think the scene where she freaks out about running was really good. Of course she's scared something bad is going to happen! But you can't live life scared of actual life happening Charlotte, so keep on running. Also, didn't anyone else want the baby to be named Shayla? Don't know what I mean? Re-watch season 1.

As for Samantha, she was the most lazily written. I understand the "life revolving around the man" part and that was a good way to start, but turning Smith into an over-tanned, smarmy asshole is something that no one who watched the show should accept. This man shaved his head for her in one of the most romantic gestures I've seen on T.V. He would never act like he does in the movie, no matter how many "pounds" Samantha put on. But one of our couples had to suffer for this film being made, and Samantha made the ultimate sacrifice and went back to being a stereotype of a sex-obsessed character. All her character's growth from the series was unnecessary, I guess.

So I've been pretty negative. But let's reiterate that I've already seen it twice. So with any of my squabbles, did I still enjoy myself? Yes, of course. But I can't help feel that they may have tampered too much with an already fabulous thing. (However, I totally fell for the proposal with the shoe. I am ashamed.)

Notes on the movie-going crowd.
•I didn't witness this exchange but the way it was told to me coupled with the fact that I did sit next to these girls still makes it valid.

Autumn and I arrived semi-early to get in line so we didn't have to sit in the front row. There was a line formed already so we took a seat. I went to the bathroom and missed this exchange. There was a group of three or four girls behind us who apparently didn't really like one of the girls they were with. Autumn heard them complain about her when she left to get a drink. I don't blame them because she seemed obnoxious when I saw her and she was wearing a weird Sgt. Pepper band jacket completely unironically. So Autumn was eavesdropping and heard them talking about the fact that every girl there was really dressed up. Dresses, heels, nails done, the works. (Autumn and I noted this too, as we were in jeans, T-shirts and flip flops). Keep in mind, we were waiting for the 11:30 p.m. show.

Sgt. Pepper: Why is everyone so dressed up?
Friend #1: They probably are going out after the movie or they went to dinner before.
Sgt. Pepper: (Disgusted tone) What? There is no way they went to dinner before. No New Yorker goes to dinner before 10:30 p.m.
Friend #1: Uh, I go to dinner at like 8:00 sometimes.
Sgt. Pepper: Ew
Friend #2: Yeah, sometimes I go to dinner at like 6:30.
Sgt. Pepper: Ew.

First of all, "Ew" is not a proper response to anything, let alone a claim that purports you are really cool and don't eat until 10:30. Anyway, the way Autumn said "Ew" in the retelling made me laugh for days.

•I've been to a lot of movies on opening nights. People always get there early, wait/sit in a long line, usually on the floor, and wait for the theater doors to open. Then they usually stay in said line and enter the theater in a civilized way.

Not here. Here, grown women start entering the theater in a civilized way and then decide "oh no, that bitch did not cut in front of me!" And then kick off their heels, disregard all manner of social decorum and run into the theater. We were in awe and scared for our lives.

•Last note: When we got our seats, which were just fine and we didn't even run or push anyone over, we heard a huge pop come from somewhere near us. "Did someone shoot someone?" Autumn logically asked. Then the guy next to me said, in a way-too-excited tone "No, we brought champagne!"

-Fin-

The Swell Season—Radio City Music Hall

Clearly if you've read this blog, you know that I adore the movie Once. So I naturally jumped at the chance to see the movie's stars perform with their band, The Swell Season, at Radio City Music Hall. Alison, who spent $12 on a martini glass that had a pair of rocketette's legs as a stem, and I had pretty swell (tee hee) seats. However, we were late and missed the opener, which was The Interference who happen to join them in the movie and sing the song "Gold." Not to worry, they came back and joined Glen Hansard for that song later in the show. Obviously the concert was fabulous and in the interest of not droning on and on, I'll try and be concise.

Highlights:
The first song was "Say it to Me Now," and Hansard sang it acoustic with no mic. I'm sure the people at the very top in the back couldn't hear him but it's their fault for not having seats as good as ours. When he belts the first line of the chorus, I get goosebumps and my attraction to him grows and grows.

After the first song, when Marketa joined Hansard on stage they seemed quite overwhelmed by their venue. At one point Hansard says the first time they played in New York, they were thrilled to have sold out Pianos, which is a tiny bar/music venue on the Lower East Side that I've been to and loved, so having sold out Radio City was very surreal to them both. Cue cheers!

At one point during the first few songs, Hansard stopped to apologize for his language, blaming it on the fact that his Irish decent makes Irish folk want to fuck up the English language at every opportunity, hence all the cursing. Awesome.

Clearly, I teared up at several points during the show. Most notably during "When Your Mind's Made Up," "Leave" and Oscar winner "Falling Slowly." Also, Hansard kept turning back the piano and giving Marketa loving looks. They are so damn cute, it's almost to the point of being ridiculous.

Hansard did a cover of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks and it was fucking insane. People literally lost their minds at this point.

Marketa brought her sister up on stage to sing a song with her. While it was an incredibly cute gesture, the song they chose to sing was very strange. It was called "Gently Johnny" and it was from the movie Wicker Man. Just . . . weird.

A choice favorite quote referring to the chance they took with the music from Once:
"A couple years ago, we decided to kick our ball as hard as we could, and see how far it would go," Hansard said. "We were hoping it would reach the end of the garden, but we watched it go … across the street, over the next town, into a place we’d never even heard of before. And the great thing about (nights like this) is that it sort of quiets the 1% of you that wishes you could have your ball back."

During one song that included a violin solo, the violinist took the song into an unexpected but amazing place by launching into "Pure Imagination" from the original Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. Hansard, who looked caught off guard but pleased, rolled with it and sang a bit of the Gene Wilder classic.

They did not one, not two but three encores because they didn't want the night to end and the crowd loved them all. They ended the night with another Van Morrison cover of "Into the Mystic."

Verdict: One of the best nights I've spent in New York. Also, I clearly can't be concise about things that I love so much.

Edit: Alison would like the mention of her glass purchase to reflect the fact that the $12 bought her the glass, which was filled with a strong strawberry daiquiri. She did not spend $12 on the glass alone.