Last night I went to see Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch Drunk Love. We had heard good things about it, and decided to check out the Adam Sandler movie that appeared at cannes. The fact that the same theater was also playing Eight Crazy Night's made the idea seem extra funny.
Well, I can't say that I didn't like the movie. It was certainly interesting, and there were some episodes that were downright amusing.Overall, though, the movie made me tense and uncomfortable....it was soe strange, noisy, and fast mving that I couldn't for one moment forget that I was watching a moive, and just relax. There was an underlying hyperness to the movie. Not just hyperactivity, but hypertension. I found it fascinating, yet I was eagerly awaiting the end. When that finally came, and the closing credits played, accompanied by bright, squirly colors and offsetting music, I had to leave the theater ASAP. I've never left a movie feeling so wound up.
Upon leaving the theater, my friend and I decided to get some sushi for dinner, to calm ourselves down and relax. So we headed to Takara, which had a very pleasant, meditative atmosphere the one time that I ate there. That was not to be the case last night.
Lo and behold, the restaurant was being overwhelmed by a tableful (and I mean full, there had to have been ten of them) of drunk college guys. They were the most obnoxious customers ever. They were loud, they were foul, they were rude....Remember going to a restaurant, and some one has allowed their much-too-young-to-be-there child cry and scream and run around, with out doing anything to stop them? Well, these men were what those little children grow up into. By the time we realized how bad they were, and that they weren't going to be leaving, our food (which was excellent) had arrived. Every other minute it was "Sake-bomb!!!!" followed by "Woooo!" followed by someone falling out a chair. The "quite" times in between were a stream of obscenities, vulgarities, and profanities. I was amazed that they didn't get kicked out, though the staff seemed intimidated by them. I would have thought they'd at least call the cops.
No one was happy about it. We could tell that the staff were having the worst night of their lives, and I entertained a vision of the entire restaurant ganging up om that table and beating the shit out of them. It would make a great movie scene. But, short of calling the cops, there was nothing anyone could do. There were so many of them, and they were so drunk that even saying anything to them would be asking for trouble. Assholes.
Never-the-less, the sushi was great. I think, though, that I will leave Takara as a place to visit during non-busy periods.
