Fantasy Island
By ice rivers
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We had a significant cinematic Valentine's day. We went to the opening day of Fantasy Island. Some of you may wonder, what the heck were a couple of nice guys like us doing at a movie like THAT.. Under normal circumstances, I would never consider paying money for a rip off of an old time trash teevee series that I didn't like the only time I watched it.
These were not normal circumstances: a) if there is such a thing as national fantasy day, I would consider Valentine's Day as a top candidate for that distinction and b) the screenwriterof the film is a dear friend and ex-student. I'm gonna support the guy. He's my man.
I texted Chris before we left for Birkdale. He cautioned me to have "low expectations" which I said I would even though I knew I was fibbing. My expectations were going to be high and biased.
Today, the rotten tomato reviews are coming out and the film is getting torn apart. I guess the critics either expected too much or aren't as biased as I am when it comes to this particular film.
When I was a teacher, I prided myself on my ability to catch students doing something "right" rather than busting them for making mistakes. I welcomed their mistakes as learning opportunities and made a point of thanking errorer for the opportunity to help thim/her improve an EARN a higher mark.
A is always the goal.
Perhaps, I brought the same strategy into my viewing of Fantasy Island, so let the buyer beware.
I found the movie to be continually imaginative, requiring a high level of attention from the audience while risking the possibilty of incoherence and bewilderment. I gave it that special attention which most people will not be willing to give especially those who came to see Blumhouse horror, torture, tits and asses. Folks who "could care less" about going deep into the solipsistic imagining of fantasy and time travel.
I care, I like going there. According to my wife, I am easily fascinated.
Watching Fantasy Island reminded me of watching 3 card monte only played with at least four cards (maybe 5) and least two decks (maybe more). Ya kind of think you know where the monte card is but you keep guessing wrong and more cards are added or subtracted until you give up trying to guess which is which amid the suspicion that the whole deal is a scam anyways.
After watching the film, we headed over to our favorite restaurant where we began to try and unravel the multitude of threads within the movie which led me to deeper ground than even suggested within the film as I mansplained, destiny, aptitude, productivity,paradox, time warp and all of the other items that bore everybody to death.
When I noticed Lynn getting that familiar glazed look in her eyes, I brought the discussion down to one of our favorite intellectual distarctions, shoe continuity and women running through jungles wearing high heels, the height of which mysteriously changes during their run.
We always notice that shoe thing even when we disagree about film content or meaning. OBTW, when the male enters his fantasy, the film makers emphasize the moment when he changes into combat boots for his attempt at becoming a hero in his fantasy which may or may not be an interlocking component of two or three other fantasies that are happening at different parts of the island etc.
We finally came to the conclusion that we had many questions about the production, content and meaning of Fantasy Island but this time we had a wild card.
Have you ever watched a film and wished you could ask the writer of the film what they were trying to convey? Well. we had that exact opportunity. When we got home I texted Chris.
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