Saturday, August 1, 2009

Random Tribute: Rapaport's speech in "Beautiful Girls"



Before we were inundated with x amount of cinematic vehicles for grown-up white men to talk about how hard it is for them to be grown-up white men (hi Judd Apatow, and please see yourself out, Judd Apatow), there was this Beautiful Girls situation that happened during a magical time of wonder and merriment called, say it with me now: THE NINETEEN-NINETIES! These days, of course, I have no interest in seeing dudes on the big screen talking about Life Issues with their boys or painfully analyzing whether the prospective wife is really gonna maintain it as the ride-or-die chick after the wedding--it's kinda boring, I could be doing other things with my time, and this topic is always handled as if ladies don't go through this same experience of wondering whether The One is really The One.
But nobody likes a complain-y lady blogger (myself included) so lemme get back to the sweetness and light and nerdiness that you guys all seek from HeightFiveSeven Enterprises.

OhandbythewaydidImention that the movie is pretty great? (I promise I'm not just saying that 'cause of the special place I have in my '80s-hiphop-nerd heart for Yo! MTV Raps). All the boys in the crew are so goddamn sweet (Max Perlich can do no wrong), they don't care about Louis V luggage or diamond baguettes, they appreciate a blonde-highlight-haired skinny girl who likes sports, plus I bet you they could fix my car or at least tell me why it's making that rattling sound.

PS, as a young lady with a smart mouth and a dude's name, I must give an extra loud shout to Johnny up the street from my parents' house who immediately started calling me "Marty" after the movie came out in '96. I didn't appreciate this until years later.
(Sorry, Johnny! Thank you, Johnny!)



And now, I present to you Mike Rap's best work since working at PopCopy, naming his son after Maseo in De La, and almost getting a hit put out on him by the Mau Maus.

A beautiful girl can make you dizzy, like you been drinking Jack and Coke all morning. She can make you feel high, full of the single greatest commodity known to man - promise. Promise of a better day. Promise of a greater hope. Promise of a new tomorrow. This particular aura can be found in the gait of a beautiful girl. In her smile, in her soul, in the way she makes every rotten little thing about life seem like it's going to be okay. The supermodels, Willy? That's all they are - bottled promise. Scenes from a brand new day. Hope dancing in stiletto heels.
A beautiful girl is all-powerful, and that is as good as love.
That's as good as love.




Scott Rosenberg wrote the lines; he also worked some screenwriting magic for High Fidelity, which you can totally see, right? (white men, wounded psyches...stop me if you've heard this before)



Neil Diamond - "Sweet Caroline"



mp3.



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