Waitress

The Spectrum Theatre is a little art house theatre a few blocks from our apartment. It is one of the best spots in Albany and certainly one of my favorite things about living here. The crowd is always ecclectic, the place is always packed and the parking lot is always full. There is a little coffee shop right next door that serves horribly bitter coffee and has a perfect atmosphere. Next door to that is a little art shop that sells great local and not-so-local artwork at super reasonable prices. The kind of prices that the working poor like Dave and I can afford. This block is in a scary part of town which makes it all that much better. Dave and I spend an excessive amount of time checking out the art, sharing a cup, and watching movies.

Tonight Dave was feeling in the mood to stay in and I was feeling in the mood to go out with my good lady-friend Karen. So we did little shopping and then headed over to Spectrum to see a movie that I have been interested in, called Waitress. I had heard about it online and read that it had been really well received at Sundance. Keri Russell stars as a waitress in a miserable marriage. Jeremy Sisto plays her dead beat husband.

Jeremy Sisto was spot on and though I hated him intensely he also gave the character this underlying sadness. So he was this intolerable tyrant but was also just so human. He was heartbreaking as well as infuriating. Keri Russell too was so amazing as the dispirited, luckless wife who was just getting kicked around by life.

I won't go any further into it as I don't want to ruin it for anyone who may want to see it. I just hope that everyone wants to go see it! It was really funny and moving and sort of gut wrenching. Truly this movie has been placed in my top ten.

The really sad part about this film is the story behind the writer/director Adrienne Shelly. Her apartment building was being renovated and she went down to a construction worker to complain. The argument got pretty heated and she slapped him. He punched her in the face and knocked her out. Because he was an illegal immigrant he was scared of being deported. He took her to her apartment and staged a suicide and hung her in her shower. She was murdered prior to her movie being released. She made an amazing movie and it's so tragic that her talent was cut short. It seems to always be the case that the most talented people seem to die far too soon. ie: John Lennon, Nick Drake, Elliott Smith...

Anyway, this ended up being a rather depressing blog. My point was just to convince you to see the movie... Hopefully I did that and didn't bum you out too much. ;)