elephant

no. 173 Elephant

Every so often, I get an odd delivery from Netflix; a film that I added to my queue so long ago I don't have any idea why I added it or what it's about. The sleeves are very misleading, often don't even feature the prominent names in the credits.

This, my friends, is one of those rare choices that I'm certain I put in my account in 2003 and somehow, in my jockeying titles around, finally floated to the top and made it to my mailbox. No idea what it's about, don't even remember any press or reviews, only that it's Gus Van Sant, so it's go to be decent.

Whatever. I kept looking at the elapsed time, dragging on and on. The mundane of kids through a day at school, to the sound track of two of the most over practices and diced piano pieces kids love and dread at the same time. Bulimia, library geeks, gay affections, photogs. THEN, at 52 min, two boys look at guns online and thunderhead form and gather on screen. We know ominous times are ahead.

I'm sure that when he conceptualized this film with HBO in 2001, it was full of meaning. Not an art piece, but not not an art piece. In 2001, were people still shocked at the concept of kids bringing guns to school? What does it say about me that I was completely unaffected by this statement of violence? Am I completely unphased and numb? Too cynical to the point where nothing surprises me? I took the time to check out one post on imbd - GVS best film ever? Unquestionable masterpiece? I just kept looking at the clock realizing that I needed to get up stairs and turn on the a/c in my bedroom soon so that it's literally not 90deg when I crawl into bed.

I really need to take the time and clean out my queue, save me from wasting another 1:20 when I could have watched the season premiere of Warehouse 13 and Jason Lee in Memphis Beat.