a "perfect day" with jaime

*lou reed intensifies*

Otters,

Your second post of the week is about me doing something I rarely ever do: watch a movie!

I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ve always been a big books and music consumer — movies and television have always seemed to fall by the wayside. For someone who cares so much about pop culture, I know this is a major weakness of mine.

I used to binge all the hot teenager TV shows to try to come off as hip and with it, but these days I am incredibly behind. True Detective? What’s that all about???

And movies? Oh god. Don’t even ask. It’s embarassing.

I could likely tell you who won Best Picture last year, or who the stars of a given blockbuster were, maybe because I watched Jeopardy! every night when I was a kid, but I couldn’t tell you what the movies themselves were about. Like, the only reason I care about Dune: Part Two is because of who I affectionally refer to as Timmy Chammy. You’d think that with him starring, and with his surrounding cast being that stacked (and also smoking hot), I’d bother to watch Dune: Part One. But nooooo! I can’t even bring myself to pay the $9.99 or whatever it is to rent the damn thing.

The good news is I have a friend who is the polar opposite of me when it comes to cinema, so if I ever need to get a handle on film bro drama, I just scroll through their Twitter.

Jaime Rebanal

and I go way back. I first met them when I was in—no joke—eighth grade. We went to the same suburban Catholic prison of a high school, but they gradated right before I became a student. So we’d run into each other sporadically, y’know, whenever they were back in town in between their film school studies at Sheridan College, and I guess we clicked based off the fact that we were both introverted, neurodivergent nerds.

There are passionate people and then there is Jaime. Jaime has watched and reviewed thousands upon thousands of films and they go to TIFF every year as a member of the press and one time they got to cover Tribeca and they are also best pals with Sarah Polley (YES! THE OSCAR WINNER!!!) Those are just the major accomplishments of theirs that I can list off the top of my head. It is really a damn shame that the job market and film industry are currently ignoring their ridiculous talent and work ethic. Truly one of the most underrated minds I know. Please do subscribe to their Substack:

The last time Jaime and I saw each other IRL was just before COVID hit, but we’ve been able to stay close ever since. Early last week they were like hey, do you wanna see this 3-hour Soviet movie at the TIFF Lightbox downtown? And I said sure, because it’s not like I had midterms to study for or anything. (I most certainly did.)

But then another time they mentioned this great movie also being shown at the Lightbox about a toilet cleaner. It was set in Japan and it was really relaxing. What would I rather see, a very dramatic 3-hour Soviet film, or a chill movie about…some toilet dude?

I chose the toilet dude.

Sadly, this film is not called The Toilet Dude. It’s actually called Perfect Days. Maybe the name rings a bell: it’s up for Best International Feature at the Oscars this year. Wim Wenders directed it. He is apparently a big deal, not that I would know anything about him.

Perfect Days follows this dude named Hirayama (played by Koji Yakusho) over the course of 12 days. We see his morning routine, we watch him drive to work listening to tasteful Velvet Underground and Patti Smith cassettes. We observe him over the course of his work day, taking pictures of trees on his lunch break, reading a paperback before heading to bed and doing all over again. Subtle variations to this routine add serious emotional depth.

Hirayama doesn’t say much. It’s Yakusho’s actions and spirit that communicate his character’s feelings. The subtlety of his acting is pretty remarkable. We don’t really get to learn why Hirayama does what he does, or much about his past at all. Wenders leaves that up to us to interpret. But the fact that Hirayama is doing these things, that he gets to live a life fully and completely on his own terms, feels like a statement in itself. A statement way more profound and minimalistic compared to so many big-budget blockbusters trying to answer life’s biggest questions through bucketloads of cash (looking at you, Don’t Look Up)

Oh, and the Lightbox itself rules so hard. I had never visited before but I imagine it makes cinephiles feel like kids in candy stores. Keanu Reeves and Andrea Martin photos hanging on the walls. Maybe I’ll come back here later this year to get my first taste of the TIFF experience…

There’s this library on the third floor called the Film Reference Library. They have all this cool non-circulating stuff: bazillions of resources and references and magazines and tapes that you can just ask to look at and hold in your hands…and I think they literally just loan it to you for free! Ridiculousness!!!

Scholars and totally regular people alike can just swoop in here and conduct research on these borderline historical artifacts. I would say I want to be like just them, but I’m not cool and smart enough for that.

I should be back on Tuesday with a new post. I’m busier next week than I was planning to be, considering I have no schoolwork due until the week after next week. It’ll be fun for you, though, since you’ll get to read all about it. Chat soon?

🦦 — O — 🦦