Stoned: disappointing, save one detail...

Contrary to what I implied in the previous blog, yesterday wasn't completely awful. Earlier in the day Amanda and I trekked to the Kendall Square Cinema in Cambridge to see Stoned, a movie about the late Brian Jones, the founding member and guitarist for the Rolling Stones who drowned in his pool only weeks after he was fired from the band.

I can't really figure out how I feel about the movie. I don't hate it, but I definitely don't love it either. It was extremely weird and confusing at parts. I quickly got used to seeing random pairs of often faceless breasts and, after being exposed to the image several times, recovered from the initial shock of seeing a flaccid penis on the big screen. Such can be expected of a movie about the Stones, especially Brian Jones, who was known for his lavish and self-destructive lifestyle in which he frequently consumed drugs such as marijuana, LSD, and cocaine.

The movie claims that Brian Jones' builder, Frank Thorogood, was responsible for his death. At the very end, before the credits, it is stated that Frank confessed to the murder on his deathbed. The truth to this has been debated, and has actually since been disavowed by several people that supposedly would know. His stated cause of death was "misadventure," probably highly influenced by his heavy drug usage. I suppose we can never be certain whether it was an accident or not. If they do open a new investigation, which the director hopes his movie will spark (though I find it highly doubtful), I wouldn't expect anything more than the usual dead ends. It will all remain a mystery.

I was also quite disappointed by the choice of music. I was expecting it to be mostly if not all Rolling Stones hits, instead most of the songs I had never heard of before. They were nearly all blues songs, which does make sense because that's exactly what Brian was so passionate about, and he had a huge blues influence on the Stones' music during his time with the band; however, somehow I don't think the song choices really fit with the movie. It could just be my own musical bias, though.

Probably the single best thing I have to say about the movie was the casting for Keith Richards' character. I really couldn't tell you if he resembles a young Keith Richards or not, and frankly, I don't care. You see... this man was gorgeous. I mean gorgeous to the point that I could have just watched him for the entire hour and forty or so minutes. There was a particular scene in which Brian was encouraging his girlfriend, Anita, to sleep with Keith (though, as you can imagine, he put it much more crudely than that), and they both embarrassingly refused (only to ditch Brian later and have two children of their own). I don't understand how Anita could have possibly refused. If I were her, I would have been in the sack with Keith before Brian ever spoke a single word. Okay, I realize that this Keith I'm talking about is only the actor that portrayed him in the movie, and I'm sure the real Keith Richards was never even half as attractive as the actor, but that's beside the point. It's unfortunate that he was only in a few scenes (one of which he was almost completely nude, save for a few unfortunate shadows in certain southerly places); I would have preferred the entire movie to be about him...

Anyway, I need to stop carrying on like a pre-teen celebrity-freak. I have to wake up early tomorrow, around 9:30. Yes, that is early. Give me a break, I'm on vacation. I woke up at 11:30 today. Anyhow I'll have another blog to bore you with quite soon, I'm sure. Otherwise you can nag me as much as you see fit. Ciao!