There's a party going on, some people I know and like are there. But yeah, it's a bad scene, the party scene, with loud bad music and me standing up, leaning against a wall. I'm not good in bad music situations. Even when the music was good I felt kind of alienated. When the music was good, people were talking, ignoring it, and drinking. I am not a party person. I left to write an essay, but the words weren't coming. My mind just feels blank. I'm fine with that, it's a good feeling, it's just awkward to be around people. I just feel like spacing out.

And now, some movie reviews, all positive, none glowing.

I saw Kill Bill volume 2 today. Didn't hit me like volume 1 did... It's less non-stop violence, with more dramatic moments. Some intense, some emotional. Those moments actually affected me, I must say. It's probably better than volume 1. Volume 1 just got me, as it rarely relented. The action sequences that it had were just as good. But they were farther apart, the movie is longer, a lot of it takes a Leone western pacing. It is very enjoyable, and recommended highly. Volume 1 stood alone better as just an action movie, volume 2 works more as part of a whole. Even though it's quite different. I don't know. Shouldn't really compare it with volume 1. I don't think it will turn out to be my favorite movie of the year, like volume 1 was. Still: pretty fucking great. The fight scenes were aces, a lot of the other scenes were just as good. When I said all of these reviews were positive, but none glowing, I regret that most of all for Kill Bill. It's an expectations thing. I liked a lot of it when I was in the theater. It's just not as non-stop bad-ass as the first, but it's better on the whole, containing more moods.

I watched Citizen Ruth a few nights ago. That was pretty funny. Unsympathetic characters, which I think might be the key to a comedy. Play all the characters for comedy. Don't try to make some of them good and some of them bad. Make them all terrible. Or you can make all the characters likable and relatable. That's not so much for comedies, that works more for dramas. Anyway, Citizen Ruth treats all of it's characters harshly, as a satire should.

Also saw Citizen Kane. Of which I don't know if I have anything to say about it. It's pretty great. I think the humorous elements of it are overlooked, but they're there. I can't imagine someone seeing it not knowing the twist. I also can't imagine seeing it then, when all the film tricks would be new. Mainly it's the twist. If you didn't know the twist, maybe it would hit you really hard. It's still a very good movie. I liked it more than Casablanca, for what that's worth.

Also watched Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train, which I liked a lot. Some of the characters in that one are just awesome. I particularly liked the two men who worked at the hotel. I think I expected it to be longer, hence I expected it to do more. It doesn't do a lot. You know, independent film. It's very gay cowboys eating pudding. But good for it's small scale. I guess the scale is decent enough. Lost In Translation was on too small a scale... Well, that's what I said at the time, but there's actually a lot that's not good about the movie. But one of those was that I don't think a lot of independent films are that ambitious. P.T. Anderson's ambitious, Tarantino's ambitious, Linklater's ambitious in his way, with the philosophy and the constant experiments. Jarmusch just goes for small stuff. Most of his characters are really likable though, which goes a long way. They are genuinely likable, they come by it honestly. Insert another slam of Lost In Translation here.