magic is awesome. i saw the prestige.

today, i am doing something that i really don't like. i hate it when people see a movie and then either gush about it or revile it in their blog. i even hate it when they critique it thoughtfully. because you know what? everyone has opinions about movies, and they all want to share them with you. but i can't stop thinking about this movie. i mean, that doesn't mean it's the movie of the decade or anything - when i first saw ninja turtles I i coudn't stop thinking about it. i still think about it. but it didn't win any awards. i remember a work friend of my mom's who thought the ninja turtles were awesome took me to see it. he had all the original comic books, but i wasn't allowed to read them because i think they swear once or drink a beer. then he bought me the movie for christmas. i watched it so many times i dreamt it all the way through. i was raphael for three halloweens in a row. when we lived in the apartment on 14th avenue, the treeline outside my window vaguely resembled the outline of a giant rat's head, and i used to think splinter was trying to send me messages. one day, during a storm, i was sure he was trying to tell me he was in trouble, and i begged my mom to put me on a plane to new york so i could help him. "No way," she said. i was mad, but i'm grateful now, just like she said i would be. what business does a seven-year-old have in the sewers of new york city? the point is, we think weird things when we are little. i think that's why i liked this movie so much.

i love to suspend disbelief, to pretend that i believe in magic or candy mountain or zombie takeovers or whatever. i love to be fooled. it's a great feeling, to think things like that could happen, although now it's just for short periods at a time and it can be a disappointment when they're over. that is what this movie was all about. it was terrific. i know a couple people who have said they were disappointed, some people who i consider to be good friends. i hope they don't take offense when i say that i think that they were maybe temporarily out of their senses because it was terrific. it was seamless, which is always so impressive in a movie. there wasn't a moment that wasn't important to the movie as a whole. i believed in a lot of things, some of which tied in to actual history and made me want to learn about things i'm usually not interested in at all. scarlett johanssen was in it but she didn't even matter. it was amazing.

i guess i feel okay about writing about this movie because this post is less about the movie than it is about how most of the time, i really wish magic was real.


this is a picture of nikola tesla. i can't tell you why i put it on here but you should just see the movie. david bowie is in it.