I was procrastinating tonight, watching a movie I've been wanting to see for awhile (The Informant!), dreading when it would be over and knowing that I would have to get to my project that needs finishing tonight (way to start at 1AM...), and all of a sudden a funny little memory returned to me. When I was a little person, up until I was a teenager and going to movies all of the time, I would take such extreme delight in going to the movies. I mean, I still do, but then I would have no idea when I might be able to return to the theatre and wanted to savor every last second I spent there. Usually, whatever movie I was off to see I was already familiar with via hearing my friends talk about it or seeing commercials for it on TV (which must have been someone else's TV because we didn't have one...), and I would CLING to those pieces of information (children are so optimistic, they so want to love everything that's supposed to be fun). Then, during the movie, when I would feel the third act kick into gear, I would recall the info I knew, the snippets I had seen from commercials in order to figure out what I hadn't seen in the movie yet, and whether or not it had to be over soon. No, I had not heard Cruella DeVille say "Woof Woof, ahahaha!" thus, the movie could not be close to ending. I did not see the bad guys fall down the stairs yet, like in that trailer, so there must be aways to go yet. And of course, when the events would occur that I was looking for, a strange sort of satisfaction and anxiety would grip me-- how wonderful, just as planned, but now what's left?! it's almost at the end! The endings were unbearable. I suppose that's escapism in a nutshell, eh? I suppose that's most of America, isn't it? Even if they're not counting down the scenes, they really are dreading the moment the credits arrive, when they must leave Sandra Bullock or Avatar behind and lead their American lives again. Though I suppose for some people when the lights come up they feel invigorated, as though the fantasy they have just been a part of has given them a sense of hope. I guess that's film too, huh?