Video stores were a place where you could gather nothing about a movie except the artwork and maybe what it said on the back. Fuck Netflix man, there was something so much more engaging when this was a tactile medium.
The cool thing about video stores, and especially being in them as a kid, was seeing the covers of movies that you noticed for whatever reason, and have stuck with you for years. As a completionist, I should logically see all of these, eventually...right? Here is a short list of the titles I remember, sticking only to those that I still haven't seen:
Howard Stern in Private Parts. The Craft. An American Werewolf in Paris
I'll get back to that later. MITGOGAE here is one of those. I remember this having cool art and Kevin Spacey, two things I was into apparently. I never saw it, I always wanted to. I didn't know it was based on a true story, didn't know it was over 2 hours, didn't know it was directed by Clint Eastwood. Now I know those things, and now I can say, I guess, probably not really worth seeing.
MITG is a murder mystery of sorts, where John Cusack is a reporter doing a piece on Kevin Spacey as a antique collector in Louisiana, and an hour or so into the movie we learn that the same antique dealer he interviewed, later in the night shot his gay prostitute lover. This then takes us to the court room to witness the case. That's the movie guys, and it's built around the strangeness of the crime and the characters involved.
There's essentially nothing wrong with that, and it's a case of truth being stranger than fiction here of course. The characters are all full of weird antics and the absurdity of some of the things is up to the max here. It feels extremely realistic, but does it help the movie? And does it feel like it adds to the story? And do any of them matter, or their interactions matter?
I mean, again, kudos to all involved, and the acting is top notch from 99% of the cast, but I just don't really know why the character of Chablis is in this movie. Or the voodoo lady. Or a lot of others. It's clearly a case of these people were there in reality, so put them in the movie, but really? Do ya need to?
It's overly long and it's not that funny or interesting, and it may be my least favorite Clint Eastwood directed movie I've seen. It's not like bad, it's just really not for me. Cool VHS box cover art aside.
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