My Recovery from Not-Rebecca-Black's Friday

Black Friday is the third worst day of the year. Tops is Valentines day, second is the day after Halloween, and third is Black Friday. If you're a customer it's a day of pushing through crowds, spending too much money, and realizing at the end of the day you mostly forgot to shop for other people. If you work retail it's a day of dealing with those frustrated and tired customers, being tired yourself, and literally wanting to rip the head off the next person to ask you "is this on sale?" If you stay home that day, well, then, you're a lucky bastard and I'm going to make you pay. No, seriously.


So, after spending about 17 hours in my mall this past Black Friday working at multiple jobs and becoming so tired that I literally hallucinated, I just wanted to unwind. Of course, being me, I turned to Netflix (also because I was too tired and lazy to get up and get a DVD). I'm slowly running out of familiar titles, so I decided to do a Brittany Murphy double feature: The Ramen Girl, followed by Love and Other Disasters. Since these are B. Murphy movies they are clearly romantic comedies, but they're still good. Trust me.

In The Ramen Girl plays Abby, an American who relocates to Tokyo in order to follow her boyfriend. She ends up dealing with her lack of direction and being in an unfamiliar city by training to become a Ramen chef. She meets a new man, struggles with the language barrier, and makes friends she can barely communicate with. It's a simple movie, cute and quirky, but my favorite part is how it gives me the viewer, someone who has no idea what the Japanese culture is about (I've been IN a Japanese dancing festival, still don't have a clue), insight into a small part of the Japanese culture. They do this by showing us Tokyo through Abby's eyes, the eyes of a clueless tourist who happens to find herself in a completely alien city. It's a feel-good movie that definitely lifted my spirits and made me 23.7% less likely to kill someone when I next went to work.

I followed this up with Love and Other Disasters (what happens when a typical B. Murphy movie and a typical British comedy procreate). Murphy plays "Jacks", an assistant at a fashion magazine who loves Breakfast at Tiffany's and playing matchmaker for her friends, but fails in finding love for herself. My favorite part/character in this movie is Jacks's gay roommate who lives his life too much in his head. Let me explain: certain scenes in the movie occur entirely in this character's head. Instead of living his life, he bogs himself down with the "what ifs" of life and lets that stop him from acting. This character rings so true; I know I'm a fault for doing this at times and pretty much everyone can think of a time when it's happened (or will happen, get it? No? Whatever). The rest of the movie is cute and worth watching if you're bored and want to watch a feel-good movie, but this character is so wonderful he makes the movie.

While not the greatest actress around, Brittany Murphy's presence in Hollywood is sad. In her 32 years she starred in some great movies, from her first big screen role in Clueless to The Ramen Girl (and a few after that), as well as a multitude of TV roles. These two movies really show why she was so popular, why so many fans mourned her passing, and why a replacement for her has not been found. She was unique, and will be remembered through film. So watch these movies if you haven't already; you won't get any more of her, so take what's there and keep on the lookout for the next Brittany Murphy. Because we need another quirky, awkward, weird girl in our movies.