Mark asked me the following question yesterday, so I thought I'd answer it here...

Q. Can you tell me why you so like the movie Fight Club?

I think it has a lot to do with the theme of loss of identity that seems so current in our culture. There's this sense that there has to be more that holds us together than what we own, our taste in furniture, or the daily grind.

The story has so many layers that I've found myself watching it (too?) many times and seeing new things. The idea of an antihero, whose dual personalities are both his salvation and his downfall, is far more convincing than any character Tom Cruise has ever played.

The Last Kiss
The Last Kiss is a phase 2 coming of age movie. Phase 1 would be the "I'm coming up to eighteen years old and 'finding myself'." Phase 2 is the 29 year old, married, or almost married crisis of "is my life now one long episode of predictability?"

It could have been terrible (and I'd read elsewhere that it was), but it wasn't. Somehow, about three quarters of the way through, it switches from angsty nihilism to something altogether more hopeful. It becomes a tale of wisdom and long-suffering, of imperfect people living out love, instead of just speaking about it, and of young learning from old. (****)