Sea change.

I keep a list locked away in my brain of movies that was I entirely unfair to and completely wrong about. The first time I watched Being John Malkovich I was sorely disappointed and unamused. After my first viewing of Election, I thought "Eh, it's cute, but nothing special." I could go on. You get the point. There are times (though few and far between) when I'm totally off base and wrong.
I've got a confession to make. I was way off the mark in regards to two of last year's biggest controversies: Passion of the Christ and Brown Bunny.
Now, hear me out.
I rewatched the former this past week and have been reading a lot about the latter and... well... I was wrong in my knee-jerk rejection of the two.
Regarding Mr. Gibson's epic-- I'll always find his motives... mildly dubious. But how can you deny something that beautifully crafted? It's such thunderous, grand filmmaking in the tradition of Murnau and DeMille, that it's just impossible to deny. Call me a sucker, but I got swept up in it.
As for Mr. Gallo... Well, look, lately I've been obsessed with unconventional, tone-poem-y cinema (Gerry, I'm looking your way) and I think I was in the wrong zone during that initial Brown Bunny screening. I still need to watch it again, but I think this time I'll be better prepared for Gallo's bold, stripped-down take on isolation, manhood, guilt, and redemption. Credit Liz Penn's nuanced understanding and passionate love for the film for shaking me up.
So there. I was wrong and I'm owning it. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.