Friday, August 26, 2011
A LOT OF FUN
Today's film was the short but very full documentary
The doc-makers sat their cameras down on one parking lot across the street from UVA and simply watched the action.
First, the attendants are mostly your grad school geeks who find fun and friendship in one place. Most hold court.
Then there are the customers. Mostly we are served up assholes, entitled, privileged who try to get out of a 40 cent parking fee. Humanity at its worst. The attendants, of course, are heroes and aside from hilarious mockery, often go after the barbarians, kicking fenders and tearing off mirrors.
There is the poetry of the parking gate which gets smashed at least once a day. An informal competition between the guys (all guys) for wittiest motto painted on the gate. The hilarity of the notes and graffiti posted on the cardboard which insulates the extremely small shack. Mostly religious tracts altered with paste ons.
There is so much.
The owner who benevolently reigns over the place and acts as guru and confidant of the young men who pass through his employ.
The mood here is "slacker" but the reality is that many of these guys are revealed, at the end, as having some pretty important jobs today. There are two codas. The "where are they now part in which they sum up as talking heads over their current employ. One is still working there at a ripe age. Then another attendant produced video which sums it all up in a hilarious melange.
This is one of the few films that I will put right at the end of my queue so I can see it again at number 260 or whatever it is. Maybe a year.
Jesus what a great little gem.
I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.
