Many movies today have such short and limited runs that most of us never hear about them, especially if they are released in the shadow of some summer or holiday blockbuster flick.\u00a0 That’s sad, because so many of those ‘little’ movies are really fabulous — they are unconventional, thoughtful, creative, and often showcase some incredible acting.
\nI’ve learned that one of the best ways to discover obscure movies that I’ll enjoy is by noting the trailers packaged with a similar movie.\u00a0 Romantic comedies tend to carry previews for other sweet comedies, intelligent movies for other smart films, etc.\u00a0 So when I fall in love with a film, I write down the other titles previewed on that same DVD, then put them in my Blockbuster queue.
\nOne such film arrived last week, and on Saturday evening Cheryl and I sat down to enjoy a movie we’d never heard of:\u00a0 Beyond the Sea.\u00a0 It’s a biopic about Bobby Darin, a singer\/actor who was popular in the late 50’s and 60’s.\u00a0 Kevin Spacey (a very talented guy!) clearly has a fixation on Bobby Darin — he wrote the script, directed the movie, and starred in it, (along with Kate Bosworth who makes a stunning Sandra Dee!)<\/p>\n
Kevin is a decade older than Bobby Darin ever was, but in this cleverly written, part-fantasy, part-musical, part-drama, part-theatre-within-a-movie, that element matters not — Kevin plays the role as both actor and narrator.\u00a0 IMO, it’s a very clever device that he pulls off beautifully.
\nAnyway, here’s the set up for what I thought was the best line in the movie:
\nBobby rises to stardom, then disappears for awhile.\u00a0 He’s totally disenchanted with the world following the 1968 assassination of Bobby Kennedy, whom he adored, so he goes into seclusion to figure out life.\u00a0 He emerges to make a comeback.\u00a0 He’d always been successful as a clean-shaven, suit-wearing, upbeat nightclub singer.\u00a0 He comes back to the stage as a mustached, balding hippie who sings anti-war ballads.\u00a0 He flops.
\nIn the dramatic sequence that follows (as he grows progressively weaker, his heart failing as a result of rheumatic fever as a child),\u00a0 he laments that audiences won’t listen to his new music.\u00a0 His wife says, “Bobby, people hear what they see.<\/strong>”\u00a0 That’s it! he exclaims.\u00a0 and so he sets up a new act.
\nClean-shaven, with a full head of hair and a suit, he appears on stage singing “We don’t want no war” and it’s a sensation.
\nPeople hear what they see.\u00a0 When he showed up as someone else and sang something unexpected, people were turned off.\u00a0 When he showed up LOOKING like what people expected, they heard him in an entirely different way.\u00a0 They were able to “hear” the unfamiliar thru the lens of what they already knew.
\nOn multiple levels, this concept so appeals to me.\u00a0 This explains how to shift our own behavior, how to change a relationship, even how to implement change in the workplace.\u00a0 When we put something new out there in the guise of something old, we allow our brains to absorb the “different” thru the lens of familiarity.\u00a0 Change feels less disruptive when we can still anchor to something we’ve seen before.
\nSo if you’ve been living in a mood of sadness, anxiety, or fear, for instance, the most comfortable route to happiness might be THROUGH — rather than away from — that other emotion!
\nTill next time…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"