I didn't feel like having my picture taken with those sub-humans.

So the bonus to being out sick for a day is getting to catch up on movie-watching. I've been watching TV shows lately, due to packing and whatnot. So yesterday I got home, curled up and watched Running On Empty, which I'd never seen and really knew nothing about, except that it was River Phoenix's sole Oscar nomination (for Best Supporting Actor, which he lost to Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda. Phoenix was great in the film, but nothing tops Otto.)

Ok, first of all, there should have been some sort of warning that Running On Empty features River Phoenix with longish hair, wearing glasses, and playing the piano. I mean, a girl needs warning. I'm not even sure I can remember what the movie was about.



Ok, I guess I do. His parents were wanted by the FBI for blowing up a napalm lab during Vietnam, mostly due to a janitor (who wasn't supposed to be there) being blinded and paralyzed by the explosion. So every two years or so, the whole family packs up, moves, and changes their names. But now he's almost 18, falls in love with Martha Plimpton (whom I've always really enjoyed), and one of his teachers gets him to audition for Juilliard (who, of course, totally want him). It veers off into drama! here and there, but it makes it work.

I actually really enjoyed the whole thing and wouldn't mind seeing it again in the future.

Then I popped in a Bogart film I'd never seen, All Through the Night. Now, I realize it's silly to say it's dated, since it's from 1941, but sometimes films are more dated than others, regardless of when they came out. You know, in that painful kind of way. Really, the whole thing was fine, very enjoyable. I'm not so sure I'd need to see it again, but it was entertaining. Beating up Nazis (especially with Peter Lorre co-starring) is always a good time.



I also know I very badly want to answer the phone, "Yeah, what is it, Obnoxious?" But only if I could be Humphrey Bogart when I did it.