Duplicity

So I’m assuming the entire readership of this site has gone and watched the craziest movie of 2010 already, right? Otherwise, you should stop reading, because I’m going to ruin it for you right here…

Marmaduke does indeed end up getting together with Mazie at the end.

It’s a brilliant story, I’m sorry, I just couldn’t keep quiet about it. Now that it’s out of my system, we go onto the links!

– Here is an enormously entertaining video of singer/songwriter/object of my high school obsession Jewel, in which she disguises herself to go undercover and sing her own songs at a karaoke bar. I have to admit, “Karen” is kind of hot too…although really just because she sings as well as Jewel (because she is Jewel)…which is really pretty much the only reason I am attracted to Jewel as well.

Next, LeBron should follow suit by putting on a disguise and trying out for Cleveland’s summer league team. Man, that is sneaky.

– On the other hand, probably not a great idea to join a table tennis tournament if you are collecting disability for cerebral palsy. Not very sneaky at all. Although…it makes no mention about how good he actually was. What if he just sucked, because he really did have it? What, just because I have cerebral palsy I cannot participate in table tennis tournaments? Bullshit!

(BONUS: Here is probably the weirdest and most cryptically short news article you will read…this week.)

– Now that Inception has come and gone, I am nominating this trailer for God of War as the next one on the docket. I don’t know if this is a parody of hipster indie films or a parody of parodies of hipster indie films…like have we seen enough of these parodies already, and their formula has been so well defined at this point that they have gone off and formed their own genre already? I don’t even know anymore, there’s too many levels to this idea for my brain to wrap around. I know the incestuous plot description is a play on Wes Anderson, but this trailer is clearly a lazy rip off of Garden State…I don’t know why everyone’s saying this is a Wes Anderson parody. It’s nothing like it.

…or is it? I don’t know anymore, I think I’ve overdosed.

– Now that we have finally all seen the movie, I have collected some additional reading to round out your Inception experience. Obviously, this will be full of nothing but spoilers, so if you haven’t watched Inception yet, I would highly suggest you go out to your nearest local cinema, where you can beg forgiveness from the Movie Gods and for them to spare you from their wrath, for they are most receptive to your prayers at such shrines. Or if there is a convenient showtime for you, you can also just go and watch the movie there as well. Here is a rather interesting interview with Dileep Rao, where he speaks to some of the plot ambiguities throughout the movie.

I am personally of the belief that the movie should just be taken at face value, and that any additional theories as to how there was inception happening within the inception, or if the whole thing was a dream, or anything along those lines are really just theoretical exercises for our own, considerable, amusement. Did those things actually happen in the “official” canon of the movie’s plot? I don’t know…the ideas seem possible, but they also seem to be a bit of a reach, almost like explaining extra things and adding complexity to the movie just for the sake of doing it. Rao notes those extra theories as trying to justify ideas with negative evidence, in essence, trying to prove something by asking that the burden of proof be to disprove it. Like, in a completely distorted and exaggerated example, trying to assert that Albert Einstein was secretly a child molester by asking “How do you know for sure that he WASN’T a child molester?”

The coolest thing about the movie to me, was while people all over are (still) arguing about what actually happens at the end…it’s an entirely refreshing notion to consider that it doesn’t even matter. But it’s a good read regardless if you still have outstanding questions about the movie or not. Really, any excuse to discuss and revisit this movie is a welcome one, and it is a continuing testament to the depth and complexity of the script that it can even elicit so much discussion in the first place.

That, or the movie was just really fucking confusing, which is a definite possibility as well.

– Finally, regarding dreams…here is mine, once again revitalized. God bless you, Capcom. Keep trying. Keep trying until you succeed. And the more spectacular failures along the way, the better. Although…to be honest, I would have probably rathered this to be announced at Comic-Con 2010. So many people there that share my enthusiasm for sequel plans too…warms my heart.

Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?