Saturday, October 23, 2010

You eat that watermelon, Juliette...

Just eat it!


I'm totally not crazy about watermelons myself. I don't like anything where I have to spit out seeds. You?

This entirely random post has been brought to you by a recent screening of What's Eating Gilbert Grape? (1993) in which just about everyone is excellent even though people only talk about it today in terms of Leonardo DiCaprio's first entirely deserved Oscar nomination. I meant to watch just one scene from it the other day and ended up sitting through the whole thing. Addictive, I tell ya. There's so many choice scenes but one moment I fell hard for all over again is when Johnny Depp's enormously obese mother (played by Darlene Cates), embarrassed to meet her son's new girl (Juliette), introducers herself with a shameful "I wasn't always like this." Juliette merely repeats her phrase "I wasn't always like this" and then a barely visible shrug. It's this unlikely mix of total empathy, unsentimental observation (we're always changing), and 'whatever -- nice to meet'cha' nonchalance. I love Juliette.

Pssst. Interview with Juliette Lewis is coming early next week... I'm behind in transcribing.