But what I really wanted was to chase sleep

Time to movie blog! Nostalgically.

That subject line is going to be really horrible in a few minutes.

Anyway, my birthday is in August. For some reason, around June-July it's time to start pestering me about what I want. And like all good children usually what I want is "nothing" aside from my strange obsession with creating glitter muffins--muffins made of glitter. I'm this close to discovering the secret.

This year I'm thinking of asking about a little independent movie called Chasing Sleep. Chasing Sleep is what happens when you wake up only to discover your pregnant wife isn't in your bed, or anywhere for that matter; thanks to such plot elements like unreliable narrator, ghost people (that girl on the floor? She isn't there anymore Jim), oversized babies in bathtubs, and stuff goin' bump in the night slowly driving the protagonist out his mind, you have an atmospheric, dreamy, kind of disturbing story about one sleep deprived professor's journey into madness basically. Other stuff happens too  but you don't care about that.

See, that subject line just got really bad didn't it?

If you've seen films of this type before, it's not really as ~mysterious~ as people will tell you; it's not a bad movie at the same time though, not derivative. Pleasantly uncomfortable to sit through and worth a few rewatches. You know, I blame a little French film called The 400 Blows for getting me into film studies in the first place, but I think Chasing Sleep effectively sealed my love for not only more indie fare (at least...Stateside stuff) but also sparked my obsession with the theme of dreams... good and bad. And sleep. Dreams, to me at least, are fairly mundane at this point since I always seem privy to the weirdest shit from my mind--like just last night I dreamed Nightwing (yes, the comic character) was trying to solicit me to buy him cigarettes but I had to make sure it was okay with my mom.

Oh...kay. There's something sinister about the things your brain tries to tell you, the stories it tries to craft. Why? A few common tropes in literature, art, & film/tv still involve dreams. So I guess they're mundane to all of us at this point! In one way or another. Sleeping is harder to pin. It's a boring action whether you dream or not isn't it? It's just the prelude to all those whacky dream/hallucination sequences. Never mind that it's an integral part to the human experience. Chasing Sleep is but one example of a plot theme--people not getting ENOUGH sleep and things go to hell not too long afterwards. Hell, there was a Law & Order episode where apparently a sleep deprived girl killed another girl. Not so uninteresting anymore.

So I'm filing my request. And maybe Ravenous. Oh gracious, Ravenous.