(viewed on 4/26/2011) / this is dedicated to the ones I loooooove:
This 70s gem obviously appealed to me: a big group of old friends from college reunite at for a summer weekend in New Hampshire. Why? I am part of such a group:
And specifically, some of us vacationed at a cabin on the Russian River for a week in August:
(both photos courtesy of Dara Weinberg)
There was a lot more friendship-bracelet-making and a lot less drama at our CA cabin than at the film’s NH one, but that’s not to say there weren’t other similarities. Our friend group is just as incestuous, and our favorite thing to do is talk, mainly about ourselves or our other friends. There was even a newbie at our cabin, forced to play board games with a group of people who have been friends for about a decade. He did way better than the poor guy in the film.
I mentioned Return of the Seacaucus 7 in my Funny Ha Ha post, because it’s a mumblecore film that pre-dates the terminology. I think Return has a bit more plot and character arcs, but not by much. The Big Chill is rumored to be based on this film, though the filmmaker Lawrence Kasdan denies this. It’s pretty much the same premise, except no one’s funeral brings the friends together. But it’s not the wackiest premise to come up with either, so maybe he really hadn’t ever seen Return of the Seacaucus 7. It probably doesn’t bother Larry much, since The Big Chill was not only a better film, it made way more money. Return of the Seacaucus 7 lacked the crucial dancing-while-dishwashing scene necessary for commercial success. (One that we never fail to act out when we’re all together.)
