You know what I'm getting tired of? Movies about New York City. We get it - New York is super. New York is exciting! It's the best fucking backdrop for a romantic romp about two strangers who just bump into each other at one of New Yorks' amazing cultural landmarks and suddenly, hilarity and soul-matey-ness ensues! Baseball! Ice skating! Dog-walking in the park! Underground sex clubs! If a script has it, it's gotta happen in New York!
You know what would be interesting? Watching a love story take place in Detroit, Michigan. A fluffy, pretty, sappy love story. I don't think there is one...the only movies about Detroit I've seen have been ones about poor people or spousal abuse. Wait...I think "Mr. Mom" was set in Detroit, but I would also bet that most of you don't remember what movie I'm talking about (and if you do remember, keep this in mind...the way he gets into "Young & The Restless"? TOTALLY MY DAD. NOT EVEN JOKING.).
So that is my challenge to you, movie makers. I wanna see a movie that doesn't push New York in my face. I want a movie that talks about how much New York sucks, and how nobody ever turns a street corner and bumps into love. I want a movie that will make me feel better about not living there, that will affirm my life choice to live here, in Minneapolis.
I like it when people affirm my life choices.
27 Unicorn Trapper-Keepers:
I think the comments of this thread should be about the films Amber should be watching instead of the crap she must be wasting her time with lately. I hope you agree with my derailment.
I'll start:
Little Miss Sunshine was cute and at times really funny. An underrated film by most but then it won two Oscars. No part of it takes place in New York.
The Science of Sleep was fascinating. A wonderful film. Takes place in France. Should be out on DVD by now.
I've seen Little Miss Sunshine - it was amazing, of course.
The Science of Sleep is in the third spot of my Netflix queue as we speak...I'll let you know what I think.
I have the answer.
Wasn't Untamed Heart about Minneapolis? Or maybe it was just filmed here. Either way that was about 15 years ago.
My movie, scheduled to shoot this summer, will be full of Minneapolis-affirming messages.
And pirates. Who possibly fight ninjas and have heart warming interludes with comely wenches in canoes on Lake Calhoun.
Well, "Juno," the wife's upcoming fillum, is set in Minneapolis, and her subsequent "cinema project" is set in Chicago. So THOSE aren't New York!
(not SHOT here, mind, but SET here at least!)
I'm with you, I hate it -- New York is pretty self-important anyway (see: every episode of SNL, where they reference New York sports and political figures like we should all *know who they are*) and they don't need to film industry validating them even more.
I'm gonna write a film set in Omaha.
Amber:
While I will admit that you are right...your choice of detroit has already been chosen by Eminem for his movie '8 mile.'
There was an article in my sea side town about how everything in american culture takes place in nyc...and how there should be a strong movement in our little state of nh to attract more films.
I say we already had bill murray...I'm okay with that.
I think NYC jumped the shark with Sex in the City. All that shit Carrie talked about how wonderful NYC is made me wanna barf. What's so great about a city that's loud, smelly, and full of self important a-holes? Sorry...you touched a nerve...
I think someone should do a movie set in my hometown of Sioux Falls. It would be the most boring movie ever made, tho.
I think all movies should be set in :
"Ambers Home Town."
Thats right, no matter where she is city credits will always be:
"Ambers Home Town"
There will always be a Mickey D's and a KFC there...did I just write that...sheeeet.
King Shocka Khan
I'm definitely with you there, but be careful what you wish for .. there are plenty of places in the world where no movies should be made, including Macon, Ga., where I unfortunately happen to reside .. actually I think they did make one movie here, a thoroughly twisted version of Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood
Wasn't that Arnold Schwartzenegger and Tom Arnold Christmas movie (I forget the name...) set AND filmed here?
Just saying is all.
(For a life-affirming, romantic MN movie, please note the Grumpy Old Men movies... made by Mark Steven Johnson before he starting ruining super hero films. Any movies that can make jokes about "mounting on the fireplace" and make romantic interludes of digging up earthworms get an automatic vote.)
NYC is a pretty awesome place...so I'm not suprised that so many movies are filmed there...
you know...
cause it's nyc...the most important city in the world.
I also think it is lame to have movie being "set" in MN or someplace else, but filmed in Canada. Cheap bastards! Most movies filmed in MN never truly capture it in my opinion. Why can't we see lovers meeting in the skyway, or singing karaoke at Nye's? Wasn't there a Bukowski movie filmed here recently? It was here and gone before I got a chance to see it, but I guess they really utilized Mpls's industrial/warehouse look.
That was bullshit. I was all jazzed when they originally were scouting locations 'round here for Diablo's movie then yanked the TC rug. Canada is for dark, rainy episodes of the X-Files, not comedies set in Mpls. But it's still for lovers though. Mmm hmm... fo' the lovers.
Oh, and Jenny, you're right. They shot Factotum around St Paul a few years ago. I think it was in theaters for about 5 minutes.
I wonder if Hollywood has ever thought about using San Francisco. They have a cool bridge, some hills, one zig-zag road, and wine country to the north. Sounds like a great setting for a romantic comedy!! How about a single, hard-working, bitter mother from North Beach and a free-spirited but wayward baker from the Mission falling in love? She reels him in. He sets her free. "Love By the Bay"? It's a working title...
"It touched my heart and my funnybone!" raved Ted on An Amber-Colored Life. "Sandra Bullock gave the performance of her life."
You all are a testament to the coolness of MN but it doesn't matter. The beautiful people don't do MN and they never will.
Boston gets more than its fair share of movies:
The Departed
Mystic river
Betty Bops Benny Bonzo (X-rated)
King Shocka Khan
Texas JFK
The thing that annoys me most, in the category of NYC-centric self-importance, is people referring to it as "The City," as if there is only one real city in the entire world.. New Yorkers will talk about stuff they did, that one time back in "The City."
These people can kiss The Ass.
First of all, New York is AWESOME!! And there is so much more to New York then just New York City.
But.... They did film a movie in Minneapolis in 1970, Airport! Of course they had to make belive it was Lincoln airport in Chicago.
Beside, all the really real sweet sticky love storys happen in Rapid City.
I've never been to the twin cities...so I can't know for sure if it even exists...
but I've been to nyc...
it checks out.
>>> That was bullshit. I was all jazzed when they originally were scouting locations 'round here for Diablo's movie then yanked the TC rug. <<<
Yeah, we were too. Minneapolis is pretty expensive to film in, comparatively, and if your budget is loooow, well....
Redick,
Are the Twin-Cities a reference to:
San Francisco and Oakland?
If so I didn't know that.
King Shocka Khan
We'd probably get more movies here again if the state would put some funding back into "snowbates," the rebates that were offered for money spent filming in MN. When they cut those, the film industry mysteriously lost interest in us. Imagine that.
That and possible attack by snowsharks.
Jeremy: TOM SELLECK?! In a movie I haven't seen before?! I love Tom Selleck. I wish Magnum P.I. was on DVD (and if it is, someone let me know, asap...hey, I just made a rhymer). The best bar in the cities also has a huge poster of him in the women's bathroom. Which pretty much tells you one reason why it's the best bar in the cities.
Hedy, you're right, and even though it had Christian Slater (love of my life back in the middle school day), it was about a guy with a monkey's heart. A MONKEY'S HEART.
Yes, Rich, but will it be a RomCom?
You know, Jonny, I was thisclose to choosing Omaha or Nebraska in the places I wanted to see more romantic movies set in. Nebraska as a whole is pretty boring, but Omaha is underrated, drastically.
Redirt: Did I or did I not say that the only movies made in Detroit were about poor people or spousal abuse? I was thinking of 8 Mile when I wrote that, buddy. I don't know if you caught on, but they were poor.
Aliecat, I agree about the Sex & The City. I remember an episode in the last season when Miranda was finally coming to terms with living in Brooklyn, and wondered out loud why she always thought Manhattan was so great...and Carrie pulled a bitch face and sneered, "Because it is." God, she was such a ho-bag in the last season...
Hippo, I agree. I know there are people out there who are dying to see Coming Of Age stories set in Halstead, Bay City, Red Wing, Chicago, Okoboji, Cable, Bruce, Rice Lake, Spooner, and Minneapolis. Think of the scenery! Think of the layers of complex beauty and character those places could bring!
Dan, you're right (and my college roommate was an extra in that movie with Arnold S, and Grumpy Old Men did the majority of their shooting in Red Wing and Frontenac...so it's near and dear to my heart), but I was kind of talking more of RomCom's...like Serendipity type movies, (even tho' that movie sucked). I just get annoyed when there seems to be a slew of movies that seem to scream "The only place where you can bump into someone on the street and have a riveting and cutesy love story is HERE! In NEW YORK! RIGHT HERE!" Most just because it seems like it's all been done before...because it has.
Reel Fanatic...I have been to Macon, Georgia, and I don't remember thinking, "They should make a movie here." So I agree.
I agree, Jennysayqua (love your screenname, by the way)...we do have some pretty fantastic places to film...not only the new architecture like the Guthrie or Walker, but the historic points in St. Paul would be pretty fantastic, too.
Feb, and I think that's what pisses me off the most...the attitude that no other city could be as great as New York. And it has a lot to offer, but goddamn...Manifest Destiny happened for a reason.
Spro, I didn't know that Airplane! was filmed here...that's kind of fantastic...I likey that flick.
Dan - you get a second comment reply because you're hilarious.
Amber, you are in luck on the Magnum DVDs. Aw yeah.
Post a Comment