Ben Stiller's character: "There were times when I was doing Jack when I actually felt retarded. Like really retarded."
Robert Downey Jr.'s character: "Oh yeah. Damn."
Stiller: "In a weird way, I had to sort of just free myself up to believe that it was okay to be stupid or dumb."
Downey: "To be a moron."
Stiller: "Yeah."
Stiller: "It's what we do, right?"
Downey: "Everybody knows you never do a full retard."
Stiller: "What do you mean?"
Downey: "Check it out. Dustin Hoffman, 'Rain Man,' look retarded, act retarded, not retarded. Count toothpicks to your cards. Autistic, sure. Not retarded. You know Tom Hanks, 'Forrest Gump.' Slow, yes. Retarded, maybe. Braces on his legs. But he charmed the pants off Nixon and won a ping-pong competition. That ain't retarded. You went full retard, man. Never go full retard."Ok, so I mentioned earlier I was reading and have finished Beloved, by Toni Morrison. The book is incredibly written, finely wrought with some of the best crafted sentences and passages I've ever read. I would continue, but no one cares.
The follow-up is this: I just watched the Oprah Winfrey version of the movie with Danny Glover and Thandie Newton. This is Thandie Newton now.
So, I was sorta surprised that she was in this movie. I thought she was just some new, up and coming actress who first arrived in Mission Impossible II, not starring as Beloved alongside Oprah. In any case, I'm a little surprised by this movie. I can't imagine that it makes any sense whatsoever to someone who hasn't read the book, but I'm also just...shockingly startled and annoyed by the fact that Thandie Newton appears to have chosen to go "full retard." It was probably the most unimpressive performance I've ever seen. I could have been in this movie: just let your jaw go slack, crooked, drool, and when you clap your hands make sure your hands don't line up and just clap the heels of your palm together. I was going to try and post a picture of Thandie in Beloved, but it turns out that only a very few pictures of her from that movie are online...but I think if you google image "Thandie Newton Beloved", the "full retard" of her role will probably be fairly apparent.
Ok, I just ate like 4 brownies and two cupcakes. I need to lay down.
3 comments:
I remember my 8th grade English teacher talking about Morrison's The Bluest Eye, saying that occasionally the quality of the writing just made you have to go back over it and marvel at how a person could put together words that way.
By the way, the teacher was a bitch and I hated her.
MPDR
8th grade was Magsig?
Yeah, Toni Morrison is one of those, though it can be a little difficult to follow at times because you can't tell if she's barely hinting on something that you should begin to become peripherally aware of, or if you're just stupid and you don't get what she's saying clearly. (It's usually the former.)
Jeffrey Eugenides is also quite good.
8th grade was Malow. If 8th grade was Magsig, you would have been at Cline for your 5th grade.
MPDR
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