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My "Cinematic" Bragging Rights

If you live in the United States long enough and watch movies a lot, you would certainly be disappointed by the stupidity of the mainstream Hollywood flicks. With their enormous budgets and gigantic marketing machinery, unfortunately, stupid Hollywood flicks dominate the world, not to mention the States. That was why I loved The Charles, a cozy independent movie theatre which shows some fantastic films that falls into one of the following categories: low-budget, independent, foreign and art. I always felt my brain was working again after I saw a movie in The Charles.

If you are a movie junkie in US, you would certainly want to live in one of the following two cities: New York and Los Angeles. Why? Because these are the places they put up some movies and decide whether they will show it nationally. As you can imagine, many good but not so popular movies never made it to the next step. Thanks to technological advance, they would be made into dvds so those who like it could see it eventually. Anyone who lives other than NY and LA is out of luck to catch those kind of movies on screen.

Now that I live in fabulous Montréal, Québec, I finally get the bragging rights of seeing some of "those" movies, in a cozy independent movie theatre, Cinéma du Parc, which is just three blocks away from my apartment.

Today I solemnly exercised my bragging rights and watched the movie "Two Lovers", a great story about the eternal struggle of love and marriage. For those of you who are familiar with Chinese cinema, think "Red Rose White Rose"(《红玫瑰与白玫瑰》).

Joaquin Phoenix was at his best as an emotionally unstable mama's boy who was seeking an escape. Gwyneth Paltrow convincingly portrayed a volatile girl who couldn't control her own life. The story is old but the movie tells it right.

Enjoy the trailer:

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