Happy Nights Are Here Again
Vamps (2012)
directed by Amy Heckerling
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
I still can't believe that this is the first movie to use that title. If vampirism is really just an atmospheric excuse to talk about mortality, then what fun is a vampire who can't see the charm in living forever? Aren't Alicia Silverstone and Krysten Ritter the perfect pair of undead parables, out on the town each night and winking across their coffins at the boys they both bring home? That's all these ladies do, as if that's all there is to the world.
And why not? Vamps is a silly movie, and the script makes it too easy to see how self-conscious Amy Heckerling must feel about losing her touch. But it reminded me of Midnight in Paris for positive, commendable reasons. The best is Vamps' thoroughly modern admission that no place on earth is as interesting as a big city, which is to say that there's nothing like other people - lots of other people - to make life worthwhile.
If you can buy 65 year-old Richard Lewis as a kind of memento mori for lost youth (he's perfect), and you're old enough to know by now that people change, then you're just like me. You'll smile at the youthful liberal Goody fell in love in the 1960s and be pleased as punch that he remains a liberal today - her heart's desire after all these years. Goody's last act is a true sacrifice: she's still young when she goes, and that's a lot to give up to see someone happy, even the man of Larry David's dreams.
directed by Amy Heckerling
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
I still can't believe that this is the first movie to use that title. If vampirism is really just an atmospheric excuse to talk about mortality, then what fun is a vampire who can't see the charm in living forever? Aren't Alicia Silverstone and Krysten Ritter the perfect pair of undead parables, out on the town each night and winking across their coffins at the boys they both bring home? That's all these ladies do, as if that's all there is to the world.
And why not? Vamps is a silly movie, and the script makes it too easy to see how self-conscious Amy Heckerling must feel about losing her touch. But it reminded me of Midnight in Paris for positive, commendable reasons. The best is Vamps' thoroughly modern admission that no place on earth is as interesting as a big city, which is to say that there's nothing like other people - lots of other people - to make life worthwhile.
If you can buy 65 year-old Richard Lewis as a kind of memento mori for lost youth (he's perfect), and you're old enough to know by now that people change, then you're just like me. You'll smile at the youthful liberal Goody fell in love in the 1960s and be pleased as punch that he remains a liberal today - her heart's desire after all these years. Goody's last act is a true sacrifice: she's still young when she goes, and that's a lot to give up to see someone happy, even the man of Larry David's dreams.
posted by NPK at 2:03 PM
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