I was just reading my new issue of Chicago magazine, and I finally realized that there are other people just as crazy as me about movies. Well, crazy in the same way, at least. Chicago* always has the standard back-page-editorial-what-have-you pieces that I never fail to read. This time, Jeff Ruby commented on the Top 40 Chicago Movies feature by writing about how he's one of those people who polices the locations of movies set in Chicago.
I wish the article was online, but it's not there yet, so I'll just have to touch on the main point: Some of us get psyched to see our hometowns on screen, but movies often fail to follow location paths that actually make sense in reality, and that makes us crazy.
This is exactly why I can't enjoy any movie that is set in, or just filmed in, Seattle. While I loved Reaper, anytime they went outdoors, I'd pick out the Vancouver, BC, scenery that they were claiming as some specific Seattle location. Since I moved to Seattle, I haven't been able to watch Say Anything without rolling my eyes at the random cuts between driving down 45th in Wallingford or the Viaduct and locations far from those roads. It's totally incongruous. I recently watched Love Happens, and instead of escaping into a perfectly respectable sappy and predictable romantic comedy, I spent 109 minutes yelling at my TV, saying things like Why are you driving down the tiny road in front of Pike Place Market to get from the airport to downtown?! That's ridiculous! Not only is it totally not on the way, nobody ever drives on that road unless they're a Pike Place vendor!
Ok, I'm not sure what my point is, I guess I'm just glad I'm not the only one. I might be the only one in Seattle, but according to Jeff Ruby, there's a whole Hey that's [insert specific location] subculture in Chicago.
Just one more reason for me to be there. Do people in Seattle even see movies featuring their own city? Or are they too busy shopping in thrift stores and not washing their hair? Where's my Seattle Hey that's cult?
If you exist, come out of the shadows, folks. It's okay; this is a safe space.
*Yes, I subscribe to Chicago magazine. I freakin' LOVE Chicago. Why? Because I just feel like I belong in that town. It's full of no-nonsense, hard-drinking, meat-eating, multi-hyphenated-adjective-described working class heroes. My favorite grandparent grew up there. They still have old school gangsters with names like Legs Manhattan, for godssake! Why doesn't EVERYONE want to live there?
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