nopenope

i finally watched woman under the influence tonight. i think it was because i saw a blurb on a website (which i frequent too much) saying that peter falk died. also: because i'm a huge cassavetes fan and i've been meaning to watch w.u.i. for a long time now.

i don't know if i liked it as much as the first cassavetes film i saw: minnie and moskowitz. but i don't think the two should be compared.

i liked it because like all cassavetes films it was emotionally turbulent and seemingly raw.

it amazes me from the one time i glanced at a cassavetes script that he's able to get something (either from the actors themselves or from his visceral directing style) that bleeds so honest and poetic and unfolds so dream-like. watching his movies: it's a feeling akin to automatic writing or stream-of-consciousness writing, whichever sounds less pretentious.

i like gena rowlands in the movie. sure, her performance as a lunatic housewife was a little over-the-top and hammy but it worked. you could tell she had fun with the part.

i also enjoyed peter falk. though: i was distracted the whole time by his glass eye, which, if he moved his head a certain way and remained staring in the other, made him appear cross-eyed. not that it takes away from his skills as an actor. i just had trouble overlooking it in spots.

we also played a show tonight which went horribly. everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. andrew broke a string, decided to tune during the middle of a song. matt unplugged himself. i unplugged myself. and vince went into a part too early. andy also came up on stage (while andrew was changing his string) and told a racist joke. he got booed off.

some good did come of it, though: we met a guy who knows people who book shows at other, more popular scene-type venues. he said that he liked our sound and that we should be playing in front of two or three hundred people. the whole thing sounded kind of fishy to me. but we'll see what happens.