I got some more freelance work last night. Unfortunately, it's a little more involved than last time, and this is from the people who it's tough to get to pay me. (They will, of course, send over the money promptly if they want me to do another writing assignment for them.) I'll be writing that stuff today.
Yesterday, I went skating with a couple friends and then met another friend for outdoor dinner with her parents, who are in town. I'm not improving much at the skating, but my legs are getting stronger. It's fun and relaxing and the bike ride over is nice.
I've been listening to Got To Get Theroux This, a memoir by Louis Theroux. I hadn't heard of him before I started listening to the Adam Buxton podcast, and now I'm learning a lot about his life. It's interesting to read how things went down for another person, especially a wealthy arty person from the UK. The moves he was able to make because of advantages like dual passports (British and US, as his dad is American), a private British school education plus Oxford, and money not seeming to be an obstacle are staggering. It's nearly like learning that he did, in fact, get his letter to Hogwarts. (What a disgusting name for a school, I'm just realizing. Hog warts?) He was able to get his start through internships and low-paying magazine jobs in New York. Would I be able to swing that? Even after working for over a decade and having a bit of savings? I don't think so. It is that thing where everyone has to figure out their own way in, of course. Louis just took a path that I wouldn't be able to find much less follow.
Mlog time.
**SPOILERS**
IT’S ALIVE
1974
Directed by: Larry Cohen
Written by: Larry Cohen
Watched: 3/20/21
Frank and Lenore are expecting their second child. It’s been 11 years since their first son, Chris, was born and Lenore had been taking birth control pills in the meantime. When the baby is born, it kills everyone in the birthing room except for its mother. Then it escapes. The media finds out what has happened and releases the names of the couple. Frank loses his PR job and wants revenge, essentially, on his monster child. The child ends up back at its parents’ house and doesn’t kill its parents or brother. It seems to know that they’re his family. The police corner the child in the Los Angeles sewers, and Frank tries to rescue it instead of kill it. The cops shoot it to pieces anyway. On the ride back to the house, they learn that another child like it has been born in Seattle.
There really isn’t a ton happening in this movie. The reveal that another child has been born indicates that it’s the birth control pills that Lenore has been taking that have caused the mutation. I think the best part was how quickly society turned on Frank and Lenore and their monstrous baby. Because as difficult as having a child with health issues is, I think it might be the social stigma that’s most galling. The ostracization that comes with being different or “defective” is sad and chilling. Of course, Frank is the main character in this movie even though the conflict and horror experienced by Lenore is much more complex and extreme. Men only thinking men’s experiences are interesting or important is what’s happening there. It’s like the time I went to a Christmas Eve church service, and the pastor bent over backwards to bring Joseph to the front of the story. Bro, he’s not in the text much for a reason.
It’s also interesting that, like in the 1954 giant-ant movie Them! which also end in a shootout in the LA sewers, the movie ends abruptly after the monster has been eliminated. Nowadays, audiences require more resolution, I think. There has to be another interpersonal conflict going on which gets wrapped up at the end. Anymore, it’s never just about killing the monster.
Rating: ★★
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