his, and her(s)...

a sunday in january...the golden globes...the official start of awards madness...so i think of the films i saw this year...those i missed...those i hope to see before they disappear to the small screen...what we like or hate about movies is a subject as wide as the grand canyon...and how does a couple choose what to see when their tastes are often...different...sometimes, it seems the choice is mutual...often, we joke, this one's yours...next one's mine...and so it would seem that it was my choice last week with spike jonze's latest, "her"...i will preface this by saying that i do really like spike's movies...many do not...and i was more than curious by reviews and trailers...i really liked it...the premise...the acting...the direction...you get it...i glanced at mike about twenty minutes into the film...oh, no...there was that look...it was kind of the same look he gave me during "pulp fiction" a million years ago...a movie, which i should tell you, he now watches anytime it pops up...i wondered how many movies of his choice i would have to sit through in exchange...i cringed...and found myself back at the multiplex last night..."the wolf of wall street"...let me give you a brief background on this one...i am a graduate of nyu's tisch school of the arts...before it was even tisch...although i was a television major, it was still in evidence through those old halls (again before the beautiful new digs on broadway were built) that we all were to worship at the shrine of "marty"...martin scorsese...nyu's esteemed graduate...and so i always find myself approaching his films with some indoctrinated adoration...mostly deserving...although not all the time..."wolf"...three hours later i cannot tell if i really liked it...it was certainly not like most scorcese films...or was it?...i did feel a bit nauseated when i, too, laughed with the audience...and this a long island audience...the home of stratton oakmont...would they laugh as loud if the subject was madoff?...then there was all the excess...profanity, drugs, nudity...footage...all understandable given the subject matter...but the movie was too long...and the portrayal of women...ah, there it is...as much as i have admired, and loved, some of "marty's" films...he most definitely has always had difficulty with his female characters...in this one alone why does the audience feel almost more sympathy for jordan belfort than his second wife, naomi?...i thought back to vera fermiga's character in "the departed"...lorraine bracco in "good fellas"...blah, blah...and so, as i wonder about all of this...and ready for the globes tonight...which is the greatest joke in hollywood...how does the foreign press explain "her" in the comedy category...anyway, when i watch, and ponder "wolf" i will need to really wonder...if i sort of liked it...who chooses the next flick???...such the dilemma as we dive deep into january...keep warm...