Grubulub: dirvish’s Blog

The majority of movies are not intended to be period pieces. They take place in “present time.” There is one technology that dates almost every movie that predates it, killing any illusion that the movie occurs presently: the cell phone. There are now many movies that you have to accept that they took place before cell phones (BCP) were invented or their plots make little sense. Last night I watched a movie that was made during the transition between BCP and current cell phone ubiquitousness. The Long Kiss Goodnight was made in 1996 when low-rent private detectives like Samuel L. Jackson’s character didn’t have cell phones, but upper class house wives like Geena Davis’ character did. Jackson’s character resorted to using a pay phone (do those still exist?) to make contact with his partner. Since there was no explanation of Jackson’s character being a luddite, or some such character development, the film was instantly dated. I can’t think of another technology that so quickly had such an effect on movies’ time periods.

BTW, if you missed The Long Kiss Goodnight the first time around don’t bother to watch it now. The few really good lines Samuel L. Jackson has don’t make up for all the terrible ones Geena Davis is left with.