Where we are from

We (with the exception of the pets) are sick here this long weekend. I suppose it's the best way to be, with nowhere to go except under the covers. L is going to make french toast for brunch.

We watched Bug the other night. The thought occurred to me that maybe I should have some sort of disclaimer on my What I've Watched column saying that not everything I watch I can say I truly liked. You probably know by now that I am a tad eclectic. I like everything from foreign, war, TV series, dramas and cartoons. I'm not keen on gore, romances or action. I am a girl.

Bug is complex. Initially I thought it was social commentary on Gulf War syndrome. It got me thinking about a fleeting paranoid thought I had the other day when my employers announced that they would be giving free flu shots to staff. I snorted and said to myself, "Yeah, you're probably injecting us with some sort of mind control drugs furnished by the Federal Government." Then I realized I sounded really paranoid and deluded, like some of the library patrons.

Bug was scary and even if IMDB listed it as horror, it was horror only in the sense that you watch a very broken woman become intoxicated by love. It's hard to watch. She (played wonderfully by Ashley Judd) is ugly from the life she is living. She wants to believe something so badly that she turns away from the few people who care for her. She has glimpses of the sane world, but becomes engulfed by the other.

There are gory scenes of teeth pulling, and violence. I like the film, probably because it made me think but bothered me a bit because of the victimization. Is it really black and white? Will there always have to be winners and losers, victims and those who victimize?

One of the best lines of the movie was when Agnes, played by Ashley Judd, asks Peter (played by Michael Shannon) where he is from. He answers by saying "Beaver." She says, "Well, we're all from beaver, ain't we?"